History Around the World 9 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Osborne House

Osborne House, the former royal residence in East Cowes on the Isle of Wight, was built as a summer home and rural retreat for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in the mid 1800s. Prince Albert himself designed the building. Aged 81, Queen Victoria died here on January 22, 1901 having spent a record 63 years 7 months on the throne.

Answer: French

Born in Paris in 1839, poet and essayist Sully Prudhomme became the first Nobel Laureate in Literature in 1901. The first Spanish winner was José Echegaray, who shared the 1904 award with France's Frédéric Mistral. The first female winner was Sweden's Selma Lagerlöf in 1909. In first non-European winner was Rabindranath Tagore from India in 1913.

Answer: 13th

French knights were actually allocated the 'red cross on white' as their banner during the First Crusade, but English knights maintained that it was their standard and France's King Philip II accepted the English claim in 1188. Almost a century later, in 1277, the St George's Cross was adopted as the official flag of England and Wales, although the 'Three Lions' remained as the coat of arms and the flag of the monarch.

Answer: Algeria

The land now occupied by Algeria was originally known as the Kingdom of Numidia, and its people were Numidians. For almost seven centuries, it was part of the Western Roman Empire. Then came the Byzantines and, in their turn, the Arabs, the Spanish, the Ottomans and the French.

The Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria (now called the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria) was established as an independent nation in 1962.

Answer: The Netherlands

Since the reigns of two of these Dutch monarchs were curtailed by abdication, instead of stretching on until death, it is all the more remarkable that only three monarchs reigned throughout the 20th century, all of them women. Wilhelmina became Queen at just 10 years old on the death of her father, William III, in November 1890.

She reigned for more than 57 years, through both World Wars, before abdicating in 1948. At 39 years of age, Juliana took over from her mother and reigned until her abdication on her 71st birthday in 1980. Beatrix became Queen in 1980 at the age of 42, and completed her 30th year on the throne in 2010.

Answer: Herbert Walker

George Herbert Walker Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts in 1924. After serving two terms as Vice-President to Ronald Reagan, he was elected as the 41st President in November 1988. He was the first of the 41 US Presidents to have been given three forenames. Remarkably, 17 of those 41 had no middle name at all, including Harry S Truman (since the 'S' didn't stand for anything).

Answer: Philip V

The first monarch of the Kingdom of Spain, Charles I in 1516, was a member of the House of Habsburg. So, too, were all of the 16th Century monarchs, Philip II, Philip III, Philip IV and Charles II. When Charles II died in 1700, the throne passed to his sister's grandson, Philip V, the first monarch from the House of Bourbon. Three hundred years later, despite one or two interruptions along the way, the House of Bourbon still sits on the Spanish throne in the form of King Juan Carlos I.

Answer: France

Maximilien de Béthune, Duc de Sully, became the first Prime Minister of France in 1589. Slightly over four centuries later, in 1991, Edith Cresson became the first female holder of the office, although her reign lasted little more than 10 months. Of the alternatives, all three were still waiting to elect their first female Prime Minister in 2010.

Answer: Portugal

The Republic of Cape Verde gained independence from Portugal in 1975. They celebrate that independence one day after the USA, on July 5. Located in the Atlantic Ocean some 350 miles off the coast of Senegal, the 10-island archipelago covers some 1,557 sq miles (slightly less than half the size of Cyprus).

Answer: Banker

Sir John Major was British Prime Minister for six and a half years from 1990-1997, bookended between the two longest-serving British Premiers of the 20th century, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. Unlike most British prime ministers, Major did not go to university. Indeed, he left school at the age of 16 in 1959 with just 3 O-levels (and acquired three more later via correspondence courses). The British media's portrayal of him as 'The Grey Man' perhaps gives a clue to his former profession as a banker.