1. To stifle any complaints about a lack of American Civil War questions, who is this man?
Ambrose Burnside
2. What is a hanse, as in Hanseatic League?
A guild or group of merchants.
3. This Jan Luyken sketch is of what historical event?
The first Defenestration of Prague.
The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) was touched off by an incident called "The Defenestration of Prague". The Bohemian nobility was in more or less open revolt against the Holy Roman Emperor, and, at a meeting of the Bohemian Estates at the Hrdcany Castle in Prague on May 23. 1618, the assembled Bohemian nobles took the two Imperial governors present at the meeting, Wilhelm Graf Slavata and Jaroslav Borzita Graf von Martinicz, and threw them out of a window of the castle and into a ditch. luceafarul informed me "a secretary with the name Fabricius followed them. He was later to become a nobleman and took the name von Hohenfall(!) All three survived, but Martinic was killed by a Swedish soldier during the looting of Prague at the very end of the war."
4. What historical event is portrayed in this painting?
The fireboat attack at Calais, July 28, 1588, during the Spanish Armada campaign.
5. Who is this man?
Sir Hiram Maxim, inventor of the first modern machine gun.
6. (2 points) Who is this man and what is the name of this sketch?
Leonardo da Vinci, Sketch in Red
7. What type of swords are these?
Sai swords (Japanese). As Doc Tsiolkovski pointed out to me, they could also be Hakendolch, literally Hook-Dagger
8. What is the popular name for this style of locomotive?
Krokodil or Crocodile
9. What was so glorious about the Glorious First of June (1794)?
In 1793, the French grain harvest had been particularly poor, so the French government bought large amounts of wheat in the United States and assembled a convoy of over 100 ships to bring the wheat across the Atlantic. The convoy left Chesapeake Bay at the end of April 1794, and at the same time the French Atlantic Fleet under the command of Rear Admiral Jean Villeret-Joyeuse left Brest to rendezvous with the convoy in mid-Atlantic.
On May 27th, two days before the rendezvous was to happen, the French Fleet sighted, and was sighted by, the British Channel Fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Howe. Villeret-Joyeuse, knowing the convoy was to the south-west of him, headed first north-west and then north in hopes of leading the British away from the convoy. Howe followed Villeret-Joyeuse, and for four days there was minor skirmishing between the two fleets. On the 1st of June, the wind shifted, and the British were able to bring the French to a general engagement. As it happened, both fleets had 25 battleships, and at the end of the battle, the British, without losing any of their ships, captured six French ships and sank a seventh. After the battle, both sides withdrew, licked their wounds, and returned to their respective home ports.
The convoy (remember the convoy?) continued across the Atlantic without seeing a single enemy ship and arrived in France, thereby averting famine.
What happened to the two admirals is instructive. Howe was made a Knight of the Garter (Britain's highest order of knighthood). A month later he was relieved of command "for reasons of health" and never actively employed by the Royal Navy again.
Villeret-Joyeuse returned to France expecting the worst. This was June 1794, the Reign of Terror was at its height. People were literally getting it in the neck for quite flimsy reasons. So what did Robespierre and the boys in the Committee of Public Safety do to Villeret-Joyeuse? They promoted him to Vice Admiral. He later became Governor-General of Martinique (a job which in a few years made him a very wealthy man).
In his seminal book, The Influence of Seapower Upon the French Revolution and Empire, Alfred Thayer Mahan devotes a chapter to the spring campaign of 1794. Mahan heaps praise upon Howe as an innovative tactician, and then castigates him for forgetting his mission. Howe's job was not to defeat the French Atlantic Fleet, but rather to intercept the convoy and prevent it from reaching France. Villeret-Joyeuse remembered that his mission was to protect the convoy, and, even though it cost him almost one-third of his ships, was successful. Villeret-Joyeuse suffered a tactical defeat, but won a strategic victory. The reverse is true of Howe. This was obvious to the two governments involved.
The battle was unusual in that it took place over 400 miles from the nearest land. Most naval battles are named after a piece of nearby real estate, but since there wasn't any land handy, the battle was given two different names. The British called it "The Glorious First of June." The French, knowing what was important, called it "The Battle of the Atlantic Convoy."
10. What are these?
Asparagus tongs, the proper utensil used to eat asparagus.
Extra credit: What do you call a boomerang that doesnt work?
A stick.
. I'll also probably be going on a very long trip within the next week, and possibly some smaller ones within the next few days too (We are very spontaneous at times 
). I'd rather not risk being away when my own quiz ends, so I'll let YNCS do this one. Hey, maybe this way, I might still be able to participate in the quiz and just check my score when(if) I get back.
. Stung by the W.A.S.P. Quiz Mafia again! 
