Ya Wanna Date? #1 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Poland

The dates are those of the four partitions of Poland and its various recreations. In 1772 Russia snatched a part of Livonia, Austria a chunk of Galicia and Prussia the core of the subsequent West Prussia. In 1793 Russia gained an enormous area of Belorussia and Ruthenia, while Prussia grabbed Gdansk (Danzig) and a large area around Poznan. In 1795 the country was finally carved up between the three powers who started the partition in 1772, with the largest slice, including most of what later became Lithuania, going to Russia, while Warsaw and the surrounding area became "New Prussia". Napoleon created the Duchy of Warsaw largely from Prussian and Austrian territory in 1807; it lasted until 1813. A smaller Kingdom of Poland was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 with the Tsar as King, but it was integrated with Russia following a national uprising in 1830-31.

In 1918 Pilsudski became Chief of State ("Naczelnik Panstwa") of a provisionally independent Poland, confirmed by the Treaty of Versailles the following year. In 1939 Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia divided up Poland between themselves on the outbreak of World War II, while in 1945 the country was again recreated and shifted a couple of hundred miles west of its 1939 location.

Answer: They're important dates in Iberian maritime exploration

The Portuguese sailor Diogo (yes, Diogo, not Diego) de Silves discovered the Azores in 1427 and claimed them for his country. In 1434 the Portuguese Gil Eanes rounded Cape Bojador on the Atlantic coast of Morocco in North Africa. This feat is more impressive than it sounds, because ship captains before him were too timid to lose sight of land, which meant that they inevitably ran into storms at the Cape and couldn't proceed any further down the west coast of Africa. Gil Eanes sailed far out into the Atlantic before returning to the coastline below Cape Bajados.

From then on, Portuguese sailors could continue down the coastline until, in 1488, the Portuguese Bartholemew Diaz first rounded the Cape of Good Hope, opening up the Indian Ocean trading system to European penetration - which, apparently, wasn't anything like as successful as we're commonly led to believe. In 1492, of course, the Genoan Columbus, under Spanish patronage, was the first European after the Vikings to make landfall in the Americas. The Portuguese Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to cirumnavigate the world, in 1522 (OK, so he was killed along the way, but his ships carried on).

However, watch this space. There's an effort underway to recreate one of Chinese Admiral Zheng He's junks and sail it around the world, which the Chinese purportedly did by 1421-23 at the latest, anticipating the European "discovery" of Australia and New Zealand by centuries and of the Americas by decades, as well as Magellan's circumnavigation by a hundred years. Given that Chinese technology of the time was streets ahead of European, and that their junks dwarfed the tiny European caravels (they were three times the size of Nelson's flagship the "Victory", itself one of the largest warships of its day), it's more than conceivable that they did. Zheng He's expedition was massive - hundreds of junks and 28,000 men. Unfortunately, their massive effort was cut by the next Chinese emperor in 1430. However, the Indian Ocean trading system between China, India and the Islamic world remained vibrant for centuries and largely resisted European penetration by force until the late nineteenth century.

Answer: They're dates in which massive revolutions took place in one or more European countries

1789 was the beginning of the French Revolution; 1830 saw revolutions across Europe as well as an effort to recreate an independent Poland; even more massive revolutions rocked Europe in 1848; and the Russian revolution occurred during World War I.

Answer: 51BC

The odd one out is the sole Roman military victory of the four. In 51AD, Julius Caesar successfully besieged the Gaulish Celtic leader Vercingetorix in his fortress of Alesia.

In 216BC the Romans suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of Hannibal at Cannae in Italy, a battle which provided the stimulus for General Schlieffen's plan to invade France at the beginning of the twentieth century (and which failed in 1914) and, so I hear, Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf's attack on Iraq in 1991. In 9AD a Roman force of three legions, six cohorts and three squadrons of cavalry under the command of Publius Quinctilius Varus was annihilated by German tribes in a three-day ambush in the Teutoburger Forest, prompting Caesar Augustus' famous outburst "Varus, Varus, give me back my legions!". This put paid to any substantial Roman expansion over the Rhine. In 378AD the Romans were heavily defeated at the battle of Adrianople, near modern Istanbul, by the Goths, who then proceeded to settle in the Empire.

Answer: They're dates on which the US state of Virginia ratified the Constitution, seceded from the Union, and was readmitted

Virginia was the first state admitted to the Union after the requisite nine states ratified the Constitution. 10 days after Virginia seceded, its 48 western counties seceded from the state to rejoin the Union and were admitted as the 35th state of the Union, West Virginia, on June 20th 1863, during the American Civil War.

Answer: All are dates of battles which represent "firsts" in military history

The battle of Meggido in 1468BC was the first battle recorded in any detail. It was between the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III and a Caananite league which included the King of Megiddo. According to the Egyptian account (which you can find at http://www.hillsdale.edu/academics/history/War/Classical/Egypt/1469-Megiddo-Egypt.htm), the Egyptians won. (You could therefore argue that this battle is also the first to illustrate the common saying "history is written by the victor".) It is from this battle that the word "Armageddon" is derived.

The Battle of Cerignola in 1503, between the Spaniards and the French, is widely considered to be the first battle won by gunpowder small arms (the Spanish won).

The Battle of Fleurus on June 26th 1794 was the first in which aerial reconnaissance played a great part in the victory. The French troops successfully used a captive balloon filled with hydrogen to reconnoitre the enemy positions, which they could see up to 18 miles away from a height which secured them against small arms fire; quite apart from those advantages, the balloon demoralised the Austrians, who thought it showed that the devil was on the side of the godless revolutionaries. Napoleon, military conservative that he was, disbanded the balloon corps.

The last date is that of the battle of Flers-Courcelette, during the Somme offensive in World War I. The battle was the first in which tanks were employed, by the British. They were mechanically unreliable and far too small in number; nevertheless, their unexpected appearance demoralised the Germans and enabled local penetrations of up to 1.5 miles - pretty good for the trench warfare era on the Western Front. The battle was called off on 22nd September.

Answer: They're key dates in the history of recorded sound

In 1877 Edison made the first recording, which was of the human voice; in 1889 the first jukebox, a coin-operated cylinder phonograph, opened in the Palais Royal Saloon in San Francisco; in 1898 Valdemar Poulsen patented the first magnetic recorder, using steel wire; "Don Juan", the first full-length film with sound for the musical scenes, was released in 1926; in 1936 the first tape recording was made, of a live concert conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham; and in 1948 Columbia introduced vinyl records playing at 33 1/3 rpm, with microgrooves capable of containing 23 minutes a side.

Answer: Chinese dynasties were founded

They are, respectively, the dates of the commencement of the Shang, Zhou, early Han, Yuan (who were the Mongols), Ming and Qing (or Manchu) dynasties.

Answer: Acts of Union were passed which created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The Acts of Union between England and Wales, passed from 1536 to 1543, came about as a result of Henry VIII's concern about the power of the Marcher Lords who controlled the eastern part of Wales. Under Queen Anne, the Scottish parliament was dissolved in April 1707, formalising the union of the two crowns which dated back to Elizabeth I's successor James I, who was already James VI of Scotland, while under George III the Irish parliament voted itself out of existence in 1801 in favour of union with Great Britain. George reneged on the promised quid pro quo, Catholic emancipation, which didn't come until 1829.

Answer: Former British colonies became or declared themselves independent

Nigeria became independent in 1960, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) announced the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 1965, Fiji and Tonga became independent in 1970, Papua New Guinea in 1975, Zimbabwe in 1980, and South West Africa (as Namibia) in 1990.