The Most Important 'L' People Trivia Quiz

Answer: Joseph Lister

Joseph Lister's ideas on making surgery a much cleaner experience helped save millions of lives since his ideas became public in the 1860s. Interestingly, Lister was not the first to develop these ideas. Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweiss made very similar discoveries 20 years prior. Unfortunately, Semmelweiss' ideas on asepsis were largely ignored, despite his having written extensively on the topic.

Answer: Wittenberg

Martin Luther received his Doctor of Divinity degree from Wittenberg in 1512, and subsequently became a professor there. Earlier he had been ordained a Catholic friar, and had paid a visit to Rome in 1510. There he saw first hand the corruption of the church hierarchy, and several years later started the Reformation by nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg. His chief complaint was the sale of indulgences, but he complained of other corrupt practices as well.

Answer: Old Master

Daoism is an intriguing religion, replete with philosophical concepts that are very challenging for the mind to grasp. Daoists are urged to seek a relationship with the natural world, and the chief ideal of the philosophical system is that of 'wuwei', which translates as 'do nothing'. If you're interested in some heavy reading, try the 'Dao De Jing', a work for which Lao Zi has been assigned authorship.

Answer: Brother Alexander

In 1887, when Lenin was only 17 years of age, his brother Alexander took part in an assassination attempt on the current Czar, Alexander III. The plot failed and his brother was hanged. Lenin eventually found himself imprisoned in the Siberian Gulag for three years, during which time he developed his political philosophy. Eventually he was to lead the communist movement in Russia, and he helped popularize the ideas of Karl Marx throughout the world.

Answer: He discovered the elements hydrogen and oxygen

Antoine Lavoisier is certainly one of the greats of chemistry. Aside from his identification that water is comprised of hydrogen and oxygen (where were discovered by Henry Cavendish and Joseph Priestly/Karl Scheele respectively), he was the first scientist to seriously challenge the now-defunct theory that combustion requires a mythical substance called phlogiston. Lavoisier correctly determined that it was oxygen (a name which he bestowed upon the element), and not phlogiston, that was the essential element in the process of combustion. Sadly, he was a victim of the French Revolution.

Answer: False

The compound microscope was invented nearly a century before Leeuwenhoek began his investigations into the microcosmic world, by the Dutch lens-maker brothers Hans and Zacharias Janssen. Leeuwenhoek developed his simple microscope around 1675, though he was not a professional lens-maker. Through sheer scientific curiosity, Leeuwenhoek made several wonderful discoveries, including the first human identification of bacteria, protozoa and spermatozoa. Fortunately, Leeuwenhoek kept careful records of his observations, and his influence on future scientists is immeasurable.

Answer: Critique of Pure Reason

John Locke's ideas have become nearly all pervasive in modern political society. He helped popularize the idea that people should be allowed to freely exercise their religion, and for separation of church and state. Locke also established many of the ideas that the American founding fathers placed in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. Rejecting the notion of the divine right of kings, his work was also very influential in the toppling of the French monarchy during the late 18th century.

He was a firm believer in the modern ideals of democracy...a man well before his time.

Answer: Liu Bang

Liu Bang, who took the reign name Gaozu, was emperor of China from 202 to 195 B.C. He founded the great Han Empire, an imperial dynasty that would last more than 400 years. His liberalization of the strict legalist philosophy followed by the previous emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di, helped pave the way for the eventual establishment of Confucianism as the official state ideology.

Answer: Gottfried Leibniz

Leibniz, a German philosopher and mathematician, was not only responsible for co-founding calculus, but also for developing a calculating machine, and for advancing the field of symbolic logic. On top of this, he was a key influence on Enlightenment thinkers with his philosophical ideas, though Voltaire hated him greatly! Leibniz also made contributions in geology and history during his fruitful life.

Answer: Whig

Lincoln was a member of the Whig party when he became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1847. With the Whig Party dissipating, Lincoln became a member of the newly formed Republican Party in 1854, partially basing this choice on the fact that the party had a strong anti-slavery faction.

His actions as president helped preserve the union, and assisted in the abolition of slavery. Note: This was a difficult quiz to produce because of the sheer volume of great figures whose names begin with the letter 'L'. Sadly omitted were such figures as Jean Lamarck (biologist), Joseph Lagrange (physicist), Etienne Lenoir (inventor of the first practical combustion engine), Karl Landsteiner (pathologist), Louis XIV, and Carolus Linnaeus (botanist). Any of these individuals might likely have made the top ten lists had their names started with different letters! Thank you for playing, I look forward to your feedback/opinions. Oh yes, and if you enjoyed this quiz, please play my other alphabetical quizzes much like it.