The Most Important 'U' People Trivia Quiz

Answer: The building of the Berlin Wall

Walter Ulbricht became leader of the German Democratic Republic (better known as East Germany) in 1950. He is most well-known for his June 1961 remark that implied no wall would be built dividing Berlin, and his swift about-face several months later. Seen as the key figure in East Germany associated with cold-war politics, he was eventually ousted by Erich Honecker in 1971 and died two years later.

Answer: Yoshijiro Umezu

Yoshijiro Umezu rose steadily in the Japanese army from the time he graduated from the Japanese military academy (1903) until his acquisition of the rank of army chief of staff in 1944. He served in both the Russo-Japanese War (as a soldier) and World War I (as an observer), and attained the key position of commander of the Guangdong Army in Manchuria (and Ambassador to Manchukuo) in 1939.

It was Umezu who very reluctantly signed the Japanese surrender papers aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in 1945. Following World War II he was rated as a Class A war criminal, but received a life sentence in prison rather than being executed.

He died in 1949 of cancer while in prison.

Answer: Muhammad

Umar (c. 581 - November, 644) was the second caliph of Islam, after Abu Bakr (who ascended to the position of caliph upon Muhammad's death). It was under Umar that the Islamic empire spread into what is now Iraq and Iran and most of north Africa. He was also responsible for the codification of Islamic law before his assassination death in 644 A.D., just 10 years after his ascension as caliph.

Answer: U Thant

U (which translates as 'Mr.') Thant served in the Burmese government from the late 1940s until the late 1950s and was Burma's representative to the United Nations from 1953 until 1961. In that year, he became Secretary-General of the world body following the death of Hammarskjöld. During his early years as Secretary-General he had success dealing with conflicts and crises, for example the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and the establishment of a cease fire between India and Pakistan in 1965, but during his second term he faced great difficulties in dealing with the conflicts in Vietnam and the Middle East. Nonetheless, his scholarly legacy remains, and his commitment to world peace was an inspiration to people throughout the world.

Answer: Mathematics

Al-Uqlidisi's most significant works were 'Kitab al-fusul fi al-hisab al-Hindi' and 'Kitab al-hajari fi al-hisab'. In these works, he promoted the use of what we now know as the Arabic numerals (though they were originally from India and are also referred to as the 'Hindu place-value system'). Al-Uqlidisi is also the first known mathematician to utilize the decimal point system in a written work. Prior to the introduction of the decimal system, sexagesimal notation was used in the Middle East.

Answer: Urban II

Urban II, who was born Otho of Lagery, became pope in 1088 and held that office until his death in 1099. After a request for assistance from the Byzantine emperor Alexius I, Urban II called a council at Clermont in November of 1095 to discuss the need to 'take back' the holy lands from the Muslims (which seemed to take precedence over aiding the Greeks!) In concluding his speech at Clermont, Urban II was said to have shouted 'Deus volt!' (meaning 'God wills it!')

Answer: Thirty Years' War

Urban VIII's involvement in the war was not so much intended to solve the existing problems among the various European kingdoms, but rather to increase the temporal power of the papacy. Indeed, during the reign of Urban VIII, the territory and influence of the Papal States expanded. Urban VIII, who was born Maffeo Barberini, was a great patron of the arts, employing such artists as Claude Lorraine Nicolas Poussin and Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

While he was open-minded about art, Urban's mind was less open to scientific progress.

He was responsible for stifling Galileo, and forced the great Pisan scientist to recant following the publication of Galileo's greatest book 'Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World System' in 1632.

Answer: Ukiyo-e

'Ukiyo-e' means 'The Floating World', and indeed in the works of Utamaro the world does seem to hover, as in a dream. He lived and worked around the same time as the two other great Japanese artists of the 18th-19th century period, Hiroshige and Hokusai, all practicing the art of ukiyo-e. Utamaro's work was a key influence on the European Impressionists who would come along a half century later, thus helping to usher in a new era in Western painting.

Answer: Urey

Harold Urey (1893-1981) played an important role in the Manhattan Project with his key discovery leading to the easy production of deuterium (hydrogen molecules with a proton and a neutron in their nuclei). Urey's later career work was concentrated in the field of paleometeorology and the origins of the Earth and moon. It was Urey's work that led to the gas cloud theory for the origin of the solar system. Urey's key written works were his 1930 book 'Atoms, Molecules and Quanta' and his 1952 book 'The Planets'.

Answer: Austria-Hungary

Ulam was born in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary (now Lviv, Ukraine) in 1909, and emigrated to the United States in 1938. He soon came to be involved in the Manhattan Project, and it was his innovations on the early work of Edward Teller that led to the 'radiation implosion' method of detonation for nuclear bombs. Ulam also developed nuclear pulse propulsion and created the Monty Carlo Method for the analysis of complex integrals during his later career. He lived until 1984, passing away in New Mexico, where he spent the last 40 years of his life.