On This Day: VI Trivia Quiz

Answer: Birth Control Centre

The Mothers' Centre in North London had been opened by Dr Marie Stopes, the author of the much publicised book 'Married Love'. The idea was to help reduce the high levels of child birth that had occured after the Great War among the poor. Stopes was a well known womens' rights campaigner and suffered large amounts of resistance from church leaders and doctors who insisted that by making contraceptives freely available to poor women, immorality would increase.

She was also a Social Darwinist - hence her particular fear of a high birth-rate among the working classes.

Answer: David

The statue was unveiled in Florence as a symbol of independence from powerful neighbours. Michelangelo who was 29 and from the local area was commissioned to produce the statue which symbolised the 'under dog' David, going into battle to face the awesome Goliath, with just a sling shot slung over his shoulder.

The statue was originally to have adorned the facade of the Cathedral of Florence, which had commissioned it, but Michelangelo and the grand council of the new Florentine republic decided to place it instead at the main entrance to the Palazzio Vecchio, the seat of the city's government, where its message is clear.

Answer: Amritsar

A trainload of Muslim refugees fleeing to Pakistan was massacred by the Sikhs in Amritsar, with at least 1,200 defenceless people shot or hacked to death. This was the worst single incident in the communal violence that had swept the sub contintent since the partitioning of India on August 15th 1947. Millions of refugees caught on the wrong side of the Hindu-Muslim divide were fleeing to safety, some estimates put the number as high as 15 million. Nobody knows how many died as sectarian hatred spilled over, creating a vicious cycle of retaliation.

Answer: Los Angeles

The quake lasted 20 seconds striking at 7.40am, the height of the rush hour. Traffic snarled up on the roads which were closed due structural damage. The worst hit area was downtown Whittier, where some 50 businesses and 100 homes suffered extensive damage. The quake was felt 200 miles (321km) away in Las Vegas.

Answer: Baboon

Surgeons at the Loma Linda University Medical Center in California replaced the malformed heart of 'Baby Fae' with that of a healthy heart of a young baboon. The questionable therapeutic value of the operation, the first of its kind, had provoked a chorus of protests from those concerned to establish ethical basis for the conduct of transplants.

Answer: 169 ft

The figure of Nelson was made to measure at 17ft (5.5m) and was the work of E.H. Bailey. It was hauled up the column in two pieces and placed on a capital cast in bronze from guns taken from the Royal George. The cost of the whole column was £50,000 nearly half of which was contributed by Parliament, the balance by public subscription.

The weekend before the statue was viewed by over 100,000 people, not all of them admirers, one critic compared it to a ship figurehead, and claimed that it displayed "a daring disregard of personal resemblance".

Answer: Five

The 40 year old ex-Beatle was murdered in New York whilst he approached his apartment with wife Yoko Ono. Lennon was rushed to hospital but did not recover. Police said that killer Chapman, 25, had shadowed Lennon since arriving from Hawaii three days before. Earlier in the day he asked Lennon for his autograph, and Lennon obliged. Chapman was calm after the shooting and offered no explanation at the time.

Answer: Sigmund Freud

The wrangle which brought the resignation of Jung saw the organisation secure the future of the Freudian movement in a cast that was acceptable to its founder Sigmund Freud. The Viennese doctor had circulated to all members of the Association his "history of the psychoanalytical movement", his personal view of the dissent that had damaged the movement in recent years.

The paper made plain that the ideas of Jung did not match those of the Freudian theory. Perhaps the most contentious issue between the two men had been the definition of the term "libido", which for Freud signified sexual energy and for Jung also encompassed a general mental energy.

The departures of Jung, Adler and Stekel left the Association in the hands of men dedicated to Freud's ideas.

Answer: Babe Ruth

The most famous baseball player of the era, and arguably any era, died in New York. Baltimore born Ruth (real name George Herman Ruth) will be chiefly remembered for his ability as a batsman. He broke the major league home-run record in three consecutive seasons (1919-21) and again in 1927 with a staggering score of 60.

Answer: Another Brick in the Wall

The brutally suppressed nationwide riots of 1976 were started by black school children rejecting the racist government's education system, which spent six times as much educating white children as a black child. The young protesters of 1980 chanted the Pink Floyd lines:
"We don't need no education, we don't want no thought control." Banning the song was not likely to stop them singing it, nor change their views.