What Do You Know About 1814? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Norway

For most of the early part of the 19th century, the Kingdom of Sweden had been fighting alongside the United Kingdom against Napoleon's French forces and their allies, the Kingdom of Denmark and Norway. The various parties met in the city of Kiel, the capital of what was then the Duchy of Holstein, the northernmost territory of the Holy Roman Empire. (In 1866, most of the Duchy of Holstein joined with the southern part of the Duchy of Schleswig to become Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost of the sixteen states in modern Germany.)

The 1814 treaty saw the North Sea archipelago of Heligoland (today part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein) pass from Denmark to Britain. Denmark, meanwhile, gained the Baltic Coast territory of western Pomerania from Sweden. In return, Denmark ceded to Sweden most of Norway. Denmark did, however, retain possession of the former Norwegian overseas territories of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, the latter two of which are still Danish possessions.

Answer: Lord George Byron

Still regarded today as one of Britain's greatest ever poets, George Gordon Byron was born in London in January 1788. The most flamboyant and adventurous of the Romantic poets, it should hardly be a surprise that Byron thought his life worthy of an autobiographical work by the time he reached the age of 26. "The Corsair", published just a week after Byron had reached that milestone, tells the thinly-disguised, heroic story of a dashing corsair named Conrad. Byron is best-remembered today for the narrative poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", completed in 1818, and the satirical "Don Juan", which was still unfinished when he died of a fever in Greece at the age of just 36.

The story of "The Corsair", though, has been told numerous times since in various forms. Giuseppe Verdi's three-act opera 1848 "Il Corsaro", French composer Adolphe Adam's 1856 ballet "Le Corsaire" and the 1845 Hector Berlioz overture of the same name were all based on Byron's poem.

Answer: Andrew Jackson

The Creek War was effectively a conflict between two factions of the Creek Indian tribe. On one side were the Red Sticks (or Upper Creek), who were against further American expansion into their territory in Georgia and Alabama and had thus sided with the British and the Spanish in the War of 1812. Opposing them were the U.S. army commanded by General Andrew Jackson along with members of the Cherokee and Lower Creek Indian tribes.
The two forces met near a bend in the Tallapoosa River some twelve miles east of what is now Alexander City in central Alabama. Some 2,000 U.S. soldiers and 600 Indians opposed barely 1,000 Red Sticks with the inevitable consequences. More than 80% of the Red Sticks were killed whilst the U.S. forces lost less than 5% of their men. This effectively ended the resistance of the Upper Creek and they eventually signed the Treaty of Fort Jackson a few months later, on August 9, 1814.
This treaty gave the United States part of southern Georgia and half of central Alabama: a total of 36,000 square miles (an area the size of Hungary) of land that had belonged to the Creek Nation. Included in this territory was land that had belonged to the Lower Creek and land claimed by the Cherokee Nation, both of which had fought alongside the U.S. army.
Jackson was promoted to Major General and, in January 1815 led U.S. forces to victory in the final conflict of the War of 1812, The Battle of New Orleans. In November 1828, he was elected as the 7th President of the United States. Taking over from John Quincy Adams, Jackson served his full eight years in office, from March 1829 until March 1837. He was succeeded by his second Vice-President, Martin van Buren.

Answer: Treaty of Fontainebleau

The Treaty of Fontainebleau was signed by Russia, Prussia and the Austrian Empire on April 11 and ratified by Napoleon two days later.
Whilst Napoleon and his second wife, Marie Louise of Austria, retained their titles, they were stripped of all power and their successors were prohibited from gaining power in France in the future -- "not worth the paper it was written on", do I hear you say?
Of the alternatives, the Treaty of Chaumont was a cease-fire offered to Napoleon earlier in the year but rejected. The Treaties of Reichenbach were a series of agreements made in 1813 between Asutria, Prussia, Russia and Britain to strengthen their coalition against Napoleon. The Treaty of Schönbrunn in 1809 enabled France to impose harsh terms on the defeated Austrians at the end of the Fifth Coalition.

Answer: Sir Walter Scott

Born in Edinburgh in 1771, Walter Scott had published some poetry in the early years of the century, but "Waverley" was his maiden novel. So popular was it, that later his novels were advertised as "by the author of Waverley". His later works include "Ivanhoe", "Rob Roy" and "The Lady of the Lake". Scott's portrait was painted by both Sir Edwin Landseer and Sir Henry Raeburn, and the 200-foot tall Scott Monument, designed by George Meikle Kemp and completed in 1844, dominates the South side of Edinburgh's Princes Street to this day.

He is also commemorated on the front of all bank of Scotland currency.

Answer: Samuel Colt

Samuel Colt took out a patent for a 'revolving-breech loading, folding trigger firearm" in 1836. Although he never claimed to have invented the revolver, his manufacturing methods were 'state-of-the-art' in Industrial Revolution terms. During the American Civil War, Colt made his fortune by selling sidearms to both the North and the South.
Colt died of gout at the age of just 47. He was one of the world's richest men and left an estate worth more than $350 million in today's terms.
Of the alternatives, Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born in Charlestown MA in 1791; Daniel Baird Wesson was born in Worcester MA in 1825; and Henry Deringer was born in Easton PA in 1786.

Answer: Matthew Flinders

Born in the Lincolnshire village of Donington in 1774, Matthew Flinders joined the Royal Navy at the age of 15 and eventually made three voyages to the Southern Ocean between 1791 and 1810.
On his second voyage, in 1798, Lieutenant Flinders commanded the colonial sloop "Norfolk". Discovering the passage between Australia and the island then called Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), Flinders named this Bass Strait after his friend, the ship's surgeon, George Bass. The largest island in the strait would later be named Flinders Island after him.
In 1801, Flinders (now promoted to Commander) set off again aboard the "Investigator". On this voyage he surveyed the south coast of what was then called New Holland (later renamed Australia thanks to him). After completing a full circumnavigation of the continent, Flinders arrived in Sydney in 1803 with a ship that was condemned as un-seaworthy. Shipwreck, rescue and imprisoned by the French on Mauritius extended Flinders' final journey to almost nine and a half years and he was in poor health when he finally returned to London in 1810.
He spent the next three years writing "A Voyage to Terra Australis", which included a full account of his trip as well as maps along with descriptions and plates of Australian flora. His epic work was published on July 18, 1814 and the following day Flinders died. It is believed that he is buried beneath what is now Platform 15 at London's Euston Station.

Answer: Jean-François Millet

Jean-François Millet was born in the commune of Gréville-Hague on the coast near Cherbourg in northwestern France in 1814. Amongst his best-known works are "The Gleaners" and The Angelus", both on display at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, "The Sheepfold", which can be seen at the Glasgow City Art Galley in Scotland, and "Hunting Birds at Night", which is part of the collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Millet strongly influenced the work Van Gogh, Dali, Monet and Seurat. Mark Twain even wrote a play about Millet's life, the 1898 "Is He Dead?"
Of the alternatives, Manet was born in Paris in 1832; Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet in Ornans near the Swiss border in 1819; and Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix in the Île-de-France in 1798.

Answer: Flood of beer

The London Beer Flood began at the premises of Meux and Company Brewery in Tottenham Court Road, when a vat containing 135,000 gallons of beer ruptured. A domino effect caused the other vats in the room to break open and before long a flood of more than 323,000 gallons was thundering down the street. Two neighboring houses and a pub were knocked over, trapping an employee at the pub under the rubble.

The surrounding neighborhood, consisting mostly of poor tenements where families lived in basement rooms, was soon flooded (under beer?).

A mother and daughter taking tea together were killed, and people attending a wake had to swim for their lives. The Dominion Theatre now stands on the site of the old brewery, which was demolished in 1922. The event is still marked annually at "The Holborn Whippet", a local tavern which brews a special vat of porter to commemorate the event.

Answer: Adolphe Sax

Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax was born in 1814 in the Walloon city of Dinant near the French border in southwestern Belgium. An accomplished player of both the flute and the clarinet by the time he was 15, he patented the design of a new instrument, the saxophone, in June 1846. Sax died in Paris in 1894 aged 79.
The jazz world would not have been the same without Charlie Parker's trademark bebop style on the alto sax, the likes of Coleman Hawkins, Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz on tenor sax, Harry Carney on the baritone sax, and the great John Coltrane on either tenor or soprano sax.
Many of the most famous classical works also include one or more saxophone, notably Ravel's "Boléro", Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet", Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", Bartok's "The Wooden Prince" and Bernstein's "West Side Story".
Of the alternatives, Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco, born in Italy in 1655, is generally credited with inventing the piano; Arthur Quentin de Gromard, born in France in 1821, invented the cecillium, a cross between the cello and the harmonium; and Laurens Hammond, born in Evanston IL in 1895, invented the Hammond Organ.