History and People in History: 1 Quiz

Answer: Sergeant in the US Army Military Police.

Albert DeSalvo left the US Army in 1956 with an honourable discharge. He murdered 13 women between 1962 and 1964. Following his capture he received a life sentence. He was fatally stabbed in 1973 while in his cell.

Answer: Major Charles Sweeney in "Bock's Car"

Major Charles Sweeney was 25 years old when he dropped the bomb on Nagasaki on 9 August, 1945. The bomb was named Fat Man and claimed the lives of over 36,000 people.

Col. Paul Tibbets flew the "Enola Gay" that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Lt. Robert M. Gray flew "Whiskey Pete" to Tokyo in the famous "Doolittle Raids" of 1942.

The "Memphis Belle" flew over the skies of Europe during World War II in bombing missions against Germany.

Answer: 2,000 head of cattle, 4,000 horses and 500,000 chickens had to be given to France as replacements for those killed during the war.

The weirdest clause in the Treaty of Versailles was a clause in Part VIII, Section II, Article 246 of the Treaty that read, "Within the same period Germany will hand over to His Britannic Majesty's Government the skull of the Sultan Mkwawa which was removed from the Protectorate of German East Africa and taken to Germany".

The Sultan was the leader of the Wahhehe tribe in Tanganyika. Tanganyika was once part of the colony of German East Africa.

Following a defeated uprising, the Sultan was killed and his skull was shipped off to Germany as a souvenir.

The British made the demands in the Treaty of Versailles. The skull was never located.

Answer: Fleas.

The Queen hated fleas with such a passion that she would use a miniature crossbow and arrows to kill them. She had the special cannon made for her to also kill fleas. It can now be seen on display at the Stockholm Arsenal.

Answer: Helen found out that the land contained valuable mineral deposits and made a fortune.

The falling out came to pass when Helen left her husband and "shacked up" with a doctor in Chicago.
P.T. Barnum was not amused that she had disgraced the family name and altered the will.
He gave Helen the property in the will as he believed, at the time, that it was completely worthless. As it turned out, it wasn't, and the mineral deposits created so much money for Helen that she ended up being wealthier than the other heirs.

Answer: True

He competed in the pentathlon in Stockholm in 1912.

Answer: They all were injured or killed by their own scientific experiments.

The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800.
Galilei (1564-1642) - Italian Astronomer.
Curie (1867-1934) - Polish born French chemist.
Bunsen (1811-1899 - German chemist.
Brewster (1781-1868) - Scottish physicist.

Galilei had irreversible damage to his eyes from looking at the sun.
Curie died of radiation sickness from her experiments with radioactive material.
Bunsen (that developed the Bunsen burner) lost an eye from a cyanide explosion and nearly died on two occasions from arsenic poisoning.
Brewster (the inventor of the kaleidoscope) nearly lost his sight after one of his experiments with chemical turned pear shaped and literally blew up in his face.

Answer: He invented paper and the paper making process.

Egyptians used papyrus to write on prior to paper being invented.

After paper was invented many years passed, and in 1448, Johannes Gutenberg, invented the printing press.

Answer: True

During the war General Pettigrew was in the process of marching his worn out troops through Pennsylvania when he came across a copy of the "Gettysburg Compiler" newspaper. His troops were a bit worse for wear at this point in time, and some were even marching barefoot.

After spotting an advert for a shoe store he decided to detour his troops and liberate the shoes for his men. General Pettigrew's Confederate troops were spotted by the enemy (Union soldiers) and intercepted at Gettysburg. The rest is history really.

Answer: Mein Kampf

Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April, 1889.
'Mein Kampf' (or 'My Struggle', in English) was written while he was serving a sentence in Landsberg prison. The book was was dictated by Hitler to Rudolf Hess.

Answer: The author was 8 years old when it was written.

Allen Welsh Dulles was the Director of the CIA from 1953 until 1961. The Bay of Pigs fiasco forced his retirement (he resigned).
This book can be found at the Library of Congress in the rare book division.

Answer: They all had poor academic achievements.

Winston Churchill's father considered Winston to be incapable of earning a living in England. He started off as a poor student at Harrow Boarding School but slowly improved.

Albert Einstein was thought to be retarded by his parents. His mathematic teachers told him to drop out of school as he "would not amount to anything"!

Henry Ford had a minimal grasp of reading and writing.

Charles Darwin was so bad at school academically that is father told him that he was a disgrace to the family.

Pablo Picasso was hampered by his refusal to do anything except for paint. He even quit art school.

Gamel Nasser (Egyptian President) had a very poor schooling history but succeeded in making it out of high school.

Answer: Scientology creator, L. Ron Hubbard

L. Ron Hubbard used the names of: Winchester Remington Colt, Eldron, Frederick Englehardt, Michael Keith, and Tom Esterbrook. He also wrote science fiction and adventure novels.

David Koresh made his mark in history when he was involved in a siege with ATF (US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) and FBI agents at Waco, Texas, in 1993. Koresh and over 75 other people (adults and children) died as a result, when the Branch Davidian ranch was burnt down. The siege lasted for 51 days.

Answer: True

Florence was born in 1820 and was a nurse during the Crimean War (1853-1856). After returning to England she became obsessed with the fact she thought she had heart disease and that it was terminal. She told friends that she could "snap" at any second. She lived to the ripe old age of 90, and died in 1910. Ironically, she was right, her heart gave way.

Answer: His parents were French, but Louis was born in Italy after they immigrated.

Louis Pasteur was born in France.

He was permanently paralysed on his left side after 1868 from a stroke, and that is when he commenced the majority of his immunology research.

It is mandatory in France to be buried in a cemetery. Louis has the rare privilege of being buried where he is now. The other exception of this is the Panthéon in Paris less than 300 "Great Men" are buried.

Answer: Marquis de Sade

Victor-Marie Hugo was a French poet, novelist, and human rights activist.

Louis Braille was blind from the age of 3.

Marie Curie was the first woman to be buried in the Pantheon.

Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat and writer. His books touched on subjects like necrophilia (sex with corpses), rape and bestiality.

Answer: Nitrous oxide (laughing gas).

Davy spent months testing his discovery. The quote describes his thoughts on what it did to his mental state.

LSD was discovered by Albert Hoffman, a Swiss chemist, in 1938.

Laudanum (tincture of opium) was perfected about 1670 by Thomas Sydenham.

Heroin was created in 1898 by Heinrich Dreser. It was intended to replace morphine as a painkiller. Dreser also discovered aspirin.

Answer: They all died while playing cards.

Keaton had a seizure in 1966 while playing poker.

Al Jolson suffered a heart attack while playing gin rummy.

James "Wild Bill" Hickok died on 2 August, 1876. He was playing poker in a saloon when Jack McCall shot him through the back of the head. McCall was not too happy about the fact that "Wild Bill" had defeated him at poker earlier in the day.

What cards was "Wild Bill" holding at the time? It was two pairs, aces and eights. That hand is now referred to as "the dead man's hand".

Answer: A cosmic phenomenon.

The full quote was: "I came in with Halley's comet in 1835. It's coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. The Almighty has said no doubt, 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.' "

Mark Twain was born two weeks after Halley's Comet made its appearance in 1835.
Twain passed away on April 21, 1910, the day after the comet came closest to earth.

Answer: Spring Heeled Jack.

This was definitely a trick question! Jack the Ripper stepped into the spotlight in 1888.

Spring Heeled Jack came to everybody's attention in 1837.

He was described as being tall with glowing red eyes, claws and capable of making great leaps into the air. One witness, Jane Scales, stated that he was wearing some kind of helmet and a tight white costume. She even said that he vomited blue and white flames.

Spring Heeled Jack originally terrorised London and then later was spotted all over England. Despite setting numerous traps, the authorities could not catch him. To this day nobody knows who he is!

Google his name if you want to know more, the story is quite interesting.