The British Invasion in History Quiz

Answer: Lord Byron

George Gordon Byron was born in 1788. He was one of the most important Romantic poets, writing works like "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", in which he opposes Lord Elgin's removal of part of the Parthenon Sculptures. He was also the father of Ada Lovelace, whose work on Charles Babbage's analytic machine is said to be the first document concerning computer science. Due to the circumstances of Byron's death, he is considered a national hero in Greece.

Answer: Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Churchill also bears the distinction of being the first man to be ever made an honorary citizen of the United States. Apart from being a politician, he was also a journalist, historian and writer (under the name Winston S. CHurchill). He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.

Answer: Florence Nightingale

For her services during the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale was awarded a jewel by Queen Victoria herself. The moniker "The Lady With the Lamp" was inspired by an article in "The Times" and further enforced by the American poet Henry W. Longfellow in his poem "Santa Filomena".

Answer: Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I is also referred to as "The Virgin Queen" and that moniker of hers was the source for the name of the State of Virginia in the US.
Elizabeth I was a Protestant, in contrast with her Catholic sister. The Pope declared her illegitimate in 1570 and several conspiracies threatened her life until her death, 33 years later.
In foreign affairs, it was during her reign that England surpassed Spain as a world power. The defeat of the Spanish Armada by an English fleet under Elizabeth's trusted mariner, Sir Francis Drake, signaled this.

Answer: J.R.R. Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein in 1892, but when he was very young his family relocated to England. He began writing the first fragments of what would later evolve into his legendarium (which was a term applied by Tolkien himself to the majority of his work) whilst recuperating from his World War I injuries.

His most famous works are "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" while there are several posthumous publications, edited by his son, Christopher, with the most notable of them being "The Silmarillion". Tolkien's contribution to English literature is widely acknowledged and he consistently ranks among the greatest British authors.

Answer: Jack the Ripper

The official name of the case is "The Whitechapel Murders" and within police files the killer is referred to as "the Whitechapel Murderer" and "Leather Apron". The name "Jack the Ripper" comes from a letter which the killer supposedly wrote, although its authenticity has been disputed.

The case remains unsolved despite a huge effort from the part of the police back in 1888 and other attempts since the end of the twentieth century. Over one hundred theories have been proposed for the killer's identity and numerous works of fiction have been written.

In 2006, BBC History Magazine declared the murderer to be the worst Briton of all time.

Answer: Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his Sherlock Holmes stories, but he himself believed that his other works, mainly his historical novels, were of far bigger importance. Apart from the Holmes stories, Doyle wrote "The Lost World" and other stories featuring Professor Challenger.

In real life, the author is responsible for popularizing the mystery of the "Mary Celeste", a ship that was found in 1872 near the Azores in good condition but with her whole crew and lifeboat missing.

Answer: Alfred Hitchcock

The film I am talking about is "The Birds", which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock is notorious for the "twist" endings in many of his films, as well as his countless cameo appearances. The vast majority of his films revolve around murder and how it is related with psychology. The "Daily Telegraph" called him, in 2007, the greatest film-maker to emerge from the British Isles.

Answer: The Beatles

The four members of the Beatles were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. So great was the enthusiasm they caused, that the word "Beatlemania" was coined to express the enthusiasm for them, particularly among young ladies. However, the relationships between them became strained as time went by and they broke up in 1970. Ten years after that, John Lennon was murdered by a crazed fan, Mark David Chapman, outside his New York apartment buidlng.

Another band member, George Harrison, died in 2001 from lung cancer, which he believed was caused by years and years of smoking.

Answer: Thomas Hobbes

In his treatise, "Leviathan", Hobbes supports the social contract theory, arguing that man, in the state of nature, tends to clash with others. Thus, discord and chaos are prevented only by a strong state led by a powerful sovereign. That sovereign, Hobbes states, needs to have control over civil, military, judicial and ecclesiastical matters. Hobbes' approach to the social contract theory inspired other philosophers, such as John Locke or the French philosophers of the Enlightenment.