Marching Orders Trivia Quiz

Answer: Nebraska

The Nebraska Territory was created by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and covered a much wider area than modern day Nebraska. The territory was gradually whittled down until the remaining section became the US state of Nebraska following a vote of Congress in 1867. The area was originally home to various indigenous peoples including the Omaha and the Sioux and didn't gain a large settler population until after the passing of the Homestead Act of 1862 - which granted free land to settlers who wanted to farm the area.

As well as a change of name, the order to turn Nebraska Territory into the state of Nebraska also produced a change of capital city. The capital was moved from the largest city, Omaha, to the (then) village of Lancaster, which was swiftly renamed Lincoln in honour of Abraham Lincoln.

Iowa, Kansas and South Dakota are three states of the American mid-west that border Nebraska. Iowa joined in December 1846, Kansas in January 1861 and South Dakota in November 1889; this makes them the 29th, 34th and 40th states respectively.

Answer: Pius XII

Pope Pius XII reigned from 1939 until his death from heart failure in 1958. He was elected a mere six months before the outbreak of the Second World War - an event which dominated his reign. The Vatican remained a neutral state throughout the war but Pius's actions and decisions during that time have since become points of controversy and debate. Pius XII made many statements denouncing war and racism and it is known that the Vatican provided significant help to Jewish families and acted as an intermediary to provide information about prisoners of war and refugees. However, he has also been criticised (both during and after his reign) for not speaking out strongly enough against the Nazis and their policies, such as the Holocaust.

The incorrect options were all 20th century popes. Pope Benedict XV held office during the First World War, while Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI were Pius's direct successors.

Answer: Wales

The Statute of Rhuddlan, named after Rhuddlan Castle in North Wales, set out the means by which King Edward I of England intended to rule over newly conquered Wales. It divided the country up into new counties (Anglesey, Caernarfonshire, Flintshire and Merionethshire) to be overseen by officials loyal to the English king and imposed various English laws.

Edward I conquered southern Wales in 1277 and followed that success up by taking the remainder of the country between 1282 and 1283. He was responsible for building numerous castles and strongholds (including Harlech, Beaumaris and Caernarfon castles) in order to maintain English control of the area. A number of new towns were also founded during this time and populated mainly by English settlers.

Edward I was also known as the 'Hammer of the Scots' and engaged in many battles with that country during the late 13th century. English kings did not make claims on the French throne until around the mid-14th century and Ireland did not come under effective English control until Tudor times.

Answer: Chicago

The city of Chicago can trace its origins to the first settlement in the area by a non-native (Jean Baptiste Point du Sable) in the 1780s and the construction of Fort Dearborn in the early 19th century. The town itself was begun in 1833 and due to its speedy growth it received incorporated city status just four years later. The date of its incorporation now features prominently on the city's seal.

The Great Chicago Fire broke out in 1871, supposedly due to the clumsiness of Mrs O'Leary's cow, and destroyed a large portion of the city. The St Valentine's Day Massacre involved the murder of members of 'Bugs' Moran's gang and formed part of a lengthy gangland battle for control of organised crime in the city. The 'L' is a railway system, first opened in 1892, which takes its nickname from the fact that many sections of it are elevated above street level.

The incorrect options are all US cities, but aren't known for the events and facts named in the question. However, in particular, Atlanta and San Francisco have both suffered from devastating fires, notably those following an earthquake in San Francisco in 1906 and the Great Atlanta Fire of 1917.

Answer: Burma

The First Anglo-Burmese War broke out on March 5th 1824 following Burmese attacks on areas claimed by the British East India Company - which controlled vast areas of India and maintained its own army. Two years of war ended in a British victory that gained the British Empire large amounts of territory previously controlled by Burma, but at the cost of the lives of over 15,000 British and Indian soldiers and at least that many Burmese people. The Second Anglo-Burmese War was fought from 1852 to 1853 and again ended in a British victory and further territorial losses for Burma. The Third Anglo-Burmese War (1885-1886) resulted in a final defeat for Burma, the loss of its independence and its integration into the British Empire.

Burma regained its independence in 1948 and from 1962 to 2011 was under strict military rule. In 1989 the nation was renamed Myanmar.

Siam is the former name of Thailand, a country which never came under European sovereignty. Ceylon is the former name of Sri Lanka, which gained independence from Britain in 1948. Malaya was a term for the collection of British territories on the Malay Peninsula which are now part of Malaysia, although areas such as Singapore were also covered by the term.

Answer: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were tried alongside another spy, Morton Sobell, for passing US secrets about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. The trial lasted just 23 days, ending with convictions for all three defendants, but a death sentence for just two of them - the Rosenbergs. Sobell was instead sentenced to 30 years in prison. The Rosenbergs were executed just over two years later at Sing Sing prison in the state of New York.

Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Anthony Blunt and Kim Philby were the four known members of the Soviet spy-ring known as the Cambridge Five. Klaus Fuchs, a German-born British physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, confessed to being a Soviet spy in 1950 and he also identified Harry Gold's involvement. Gold's testimony then led officials to arrest of David Greenglass; Greenglass then promptly testified against his sister, Ethel Rosenberg.

Answer: Constantine the Great

Constantine the Great (otherwise known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine) was the first Christian Roman emperor. He was jointly responsible for the 313 AD Edict of Milan, that promoted tolerance towards Christians across the Roman Empire, and called the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, which established the date for Easter each year. However, prior to this he was a pagan - which may help to explain why he decreed that the Roman Empire should use a day named for a sun god as its day of rest.

Antoninus Pius was Roman Emperor during the second century AD, famed for invading Scotland and building the Antonine Wall. Diocletian reigned from 284 to 305 AD before becoming the first Roman Emperor to choose to abdicate from the position. Jovian was emperor for just eight months in 331 AD.

Answer: Sweden

Denmark-Norway emerged from the remnants of the Kalmar Union in 1524. Denmark generally held control of the joint nation until 1814 when Norway passed into Swedish control following the Napoleonic wars.

In 1658 the Dano-Swedish War ended in victory for Sweden and disaster for Denmark-Norway. Under the terms of the Treaty of Roskilde, Denmark-Norway was forced to hand over more than half its territory, including four Danish and two Norwegian provinces. In addition the Danes had to pay for the costs of Sweden's occupying army and provide troops to support Swedish causes.

The Dano-Swedish War formed part of the wider Second Northern War. The incorrect options are all modern day names for other nations that fought in that conflict.

Answer: Joséphine de Beauharnais

The first Empress of the French was born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, but gained the name Joséphine de Beauharnais following her marriage to the Vicomte de Beauharnais - a French aristocrat executed during the Reign of Terror. Her son Eugène de Beauharnais was adopted by Napoleon, while her daughter, Hortense, married Napoleon's brother Louis and was the mother of Napoleon III.

Napoleon and Joséphine had no children together and he eventually divorced her in 1810 so that he could remarry in order to gain an heir. However, despite their somewhat stormy marriage and its acrimonious ending, Napoleon's last words were reputed to be "France, armée, tête d'armée, Joséphine".

Marie Louise of Austria was Napoleon's second wife and the mother of his son, Napoleon II. Maria Walewska and Eléonore Denuelle de La Plaigne were both mistresses of Napoleon.

Answer: Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland in 1847, where he carried out his first experiments with sound and speech before emigrating with his family to Canada in 1870. A few years later he opened a school for deaf students in Boston, Massachusetts and became a professor at Boston University. He became a naturalised US citizen in 1915.

The 'Watson' in question was Thomas A. Watson, an electrical designer who had been hired by Bell to assist him in developing a working model of his telephone idea. Although ultimately successful in proving the concept, Bell's call issuing 'marching' orders to Watson wasn't exactly long-distance - Watson was only sat in a neighbouring room!

Thomas Sanders and Gardiner Hubbard were two of Bell's financial patrons (Hubbard also became Bell's father-in-law). Elisha Gray was a rival inventor who also filed for a patent regarding the telephone, as a result there was significant controversy over the question of which of the men had independently developed the device.