When Did it End? Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1603

The storied reign of the Tudors began in 1487 with Henry Tudor's (subsequently crowned Henry VII) victory over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. His son, Henry VIII, ascended to the throne upon the elder Henry's death in 1509.

Henry VIII is perhaps the most infamous of the Tudors, noted for his many marriages as well as his breaking from the Church of Rome to establish the Church of England with himself as the head. Following Henry's death in 1547, the crown fell to his only legitimate son, Edward VI, who was only 10 years old at the time. Edward died without issue in 1552, shortly before which he'd named his cousin Lady Jane Grey his successor. Supporters of Edward's elder sister, Mary, quickly rose up in rebellion and unseated Jane, who was executed for treason in 1554, having never been officially crowned. Mary Tudor subsequently claimed the throne as Mary I, and despite her best efforts to produce an heir, she died childless in 1558.

The crown then passed to Mary's younger sister Elizabeth I, who, having witnessed several women before her (namely her mother, Anne Boleyn) who were treated as pawns of their husbands, staunchly refused to marry and subsequently died without issue (and, it is widely believed, a virgin) in 1603 after a long and fruitful reign. Upon Elizabeth's death, her nearest relative, James VI, King of Scotland, was deemed the heir with the strongest claim. James belonged to the House of Stuart, and upon his crowning as James I of England, the Tudor reign came to an end.

Answer: 1918

World War I (or the Great War, as it was then known) began on July 28, 1914, when Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary's heir, by a Bosnian Serb. This event triggered a chain reaction that subsequently involved allies on both sides of the conflict in Europe, Asia, and eventually the United States.

The war officially came to a close on November 11, 1918 with the armistice signed between Germany and the Allied powers. November 11 was subsequently celebrated in the United States as Armistice Day to honor those who had given their lives in the war.

In 1945, World War II veteran Raymond Weeks wrote a letter to then-Chief of Staff of the US Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower proposing that the day be designated to honor veterans of all wars. Eisenhower supported the idea, and upon being elected to the US Presidency, he officially declared November 11 as Veterans Day, a federal holiday, in 1954.

Answer: New Hampshire

The Old Man of the Mountain was a series of cliff ledges in New Hampshire's White Mountains which, when viewed from the north, resembled a profile of a human face. It's estimated that the ledges formed by the freezing and thawing of water in the bedrock some 12,000 years ago. The earliest documented records describing the monument date back to 1805. In the centuries since, the Old Man became a beloved state symbol and tourist attraction, and is featured on New Hampshire state route signs, license plates, and Statehood Quarter.

Beginning in the 1920s, the Old Man was starting to show his age, and the state legislature approved repairs using cement, plastic coatings, steel rods, turnbuckles, and even a concrete gutter to divert the flow of water around the Old Man to prevent (or at least forestall) erosion. Nevertheless, after having watched over New Hampshire for over 14,000 years, the Old Man succumbed to Mother Nature and stealthily slipped away in the early morning hours of May 3, 2003.

After the collapse, visitors to the site can visualize what the Old Man looked like via the use of viewfinders and a platform with "Steel Profilers" that recreate the image when viewed from the correct angle.

Answer: 1991

Beginning in 1948, apartheid was one of the darkest eras in African history. Races were segregated, citizens required to carry cards identifying their race, and despite being the minority race in the population, white citizens were designated as having a higher status than Indian and Black South Africans. Among the many laws established with this legislation was one that prohibited interracial marriage. Comedian and Daily Show host Trevor Noah discusses this subject in his 2016 book "Born a Crime" - his father was of Swiss-German ancestry, whereas his mother was Xhosa, a native African people. Under these circumstances, Noah's parents' marriage, and by extension, his birth, was a crime according to apartheid law.

Answer: 1917

Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Nicholas made the ill-fated decision to enter Russia into World War I, against the strong recommendations of his advisors. Russia was grossly unprepared for war, and the ensuing fallout resulted in massive casualties, a depleted treasury, and a fatal blow to the morale of the Russian people.

Amid riots and rebellions and under pressure of the newly-formed Provisional Government, the tsar had little choice but to abdicate. Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and their five children - Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei - were subsequently exiled and brutally assassinated by Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1918. In 1979, the bodies of Nicholas, Alexandra, and three of their daughters were discovered. Missing were the remains of Alexei and one of his sisters, either Maria or Anastasia. Popular opinion theorized that the missing duchess was Anastasia, and that she had somehow survived the mass execution. As a result, several people subsequently came forward claiming to be Anastasia, although DNA testing was not yet advanced enough to prove or disprove their assertions.

Ultimately, the remains of Alexei and his remaining sister (it is still unclear whether this was Anastasia or Maria) were discovered in 2007, their identities confirmed by DNA comparison with the known Romanov family members, confirming that Anastasia had indeed perished with her parents and siblings nearly a century earlier.

On August 14, 2000, the entire Romanov family were officially recognized as martyred saints by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Answer: It was the only Amendment to repeal another Amendment.

The Eighteenth Amendment was fueled by the temperance movement, which posited that a ban on alcohol would ameliorate poverty and other societal issues. The ratification of the amendment had the opposite of the desired effect, however, as the distribution of alcohol became the purview of the Mafia. This afforded mob bosses the opportunity to bribe law enforcement officials to overlook their illicit activities, which extended to gambling and prostitution.

As the United States suffered the effects of the Great Depression, public opinion was increasingly swayed against Prohibition, citing the loss of jobs and revenue for the government. In 1932, Democratic presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt called for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment; his victory in the election later that year resulted in the Twenty-First Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth. The Prohibition Era ran from 1920 to 1933.

Answer: November 9

Following the end of World War II, the Potsdam Agreement divided Germany into four occupation zones to be divided among the Allied Powers - US, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union - in order to demilitarize and reconstruct postwar Germany. While the Western nations agreed to combine their territories to create one unified entity that would become known as the Federal Republic of Germany, the Soviets sought to establish a communist regime in their territory, founded as the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

The postwar standard of living improved rapidly in the West, but residents of the Soviet zone faced poverty and oppression and soon began leaving in droves. In response, the GDR closed its borders and commenced construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961. Over time, conditions in the Eastern Bloc deteriorated and the mass exodus continued. Amidst mounting pressure, the recently-elected leader of East Germany, Egon Krenz, made the decision to have the wall dismantled. While the actual demolition process took a number of years, the borders were officially opened on November 9, 1989, symbolically marking it as the day the Berlin Wall fell.

Answer: California

California Proposition 215 was passed in 1996, allowing for the use of marijuana to treat the symptoms of several medical conditions including AIDS, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and multiple sclerosis (MS).

Answer: The executioner

The ill-fated Queen's final quote was, "Monsieur, je vous demande pardon, je ne l'ai pas fait exprès," which translates to English as, "I beg your pardon, Sir. I did not mean to do it." The ill-fated queen was apologizing for having accidentally stepped on the executioner's foot.

Despite a lot of unwise decisions and misdeeds in the minds of the French people, she was the very picture of a well-mannered lady to the end.

Answer: An uncontrolled fire in one of the boiler rooms

The weather on Titanic's final evening at sea was unusually calm, so there was no sign of waves breaking against the infamous iceberg. Several other ships in the area sent warnings of ice to Titanic's crew, all of which fell on deaf ears. Binoculars provided for the lookouts in the crow's nest were inaccessible due to being kept in a locker with a key held by a crew member who'd forgotten to return it upon his transfer to another ship, thereby giving the lookouts very limited visibility.

Some theories hold that, due to its construction, if Titanic had hit the iceberg, it would have survived its crossing to New York, albeit very crippled.

This theory has been hotly contested among scientists and historians to this day.