Cumulative PM-based History Quiz II

[Richard Cribb]

I just sent Plotinus a PM asking him to step in for me, since I don't really have the time to make a good quiz right now, nor the possibility to follow submitters up properly.
If I ever win one of those again, I will make up for it then.

 

[Plotinus]

Unfortunately I must pass too! I have very intermittent internet access at the moment and am horribly busy trying to set myself up at a new university so I can't take on the quiz. I'd say that Adler should do the next one, since he can hardly be accused of monopolising it when two other people have passed it on! Sorry about that.

 

[Adler17]

Okay, I´ll do it. Tomorrow I will come with a new quiz.

Adler

 

[Adler17]

Okay here it is:

1. Why does a trumpeter in Cracow trumpets every hour from a church and abruptly stops? (2 pts.)

2. What town was the mother town of Rome? (1 pt.)

3. I was a friend of Alexander the Great and later Satrap of Lykia. I was officer in his army and later the admiral of his fleet. Who am I? (1 pt.)

4. I was a Roman admiral and scientist. I died while I being my fleet to help to rescue people because of a certain catastrophy. Who am I? (1 pt.)

5. I was a cab driver in Berlin. I protested against the concurrence of motorized taxis by driving to Paris, where a certain American arrived the day I arrived and who is much more famous today. Who am I? Bonus: Who is this US guy? (2 pts. + 1 pt.)

6. What was the first British merchant marine ship to be sunk by enemy fire after ww2? (1 pt.)

7. What was the "Whiskey on the rocks" incident? (1 pt.)

8. In ancient Rome: What was a doris? (1 pt.)

9. What was the Operation Highjump? (2 pts.)

10. What is the translation of the word Kamikaze? (1 pt.)

11. According to Napoleon what had each French soldier in his tornister? (1 pt.)

12. Why is the battle of Tanga important for Africans? (2 pts.)

17 pts in total to achieve. I am a bit in a hurry, so a few are a bit easy.

Adler

 

[Adler17]

Leaderboard:

sydhe: 5.5 pts.
Greekguy: 2 pts.

Adler

 

[Adler17]

I forgot to set a deadline:
Wednesday, August 10th, 2005 in the morning (CEST).

Adler

 

[Adler17]

Only 2 persons who PM me. So I will delay the ending. New deadline:
Tomorrow morning CEST.

Adler

 

[Ciceronian]

A few points which you need to clarify:

2. Do you mean whose colony Rome was, as in "Tyre was the mother town of Carthage"?

11. I know what a "tornister" is, being German, but it's not actually an English word.

 

[Adler17]

Okay, Ciceronian is right concerning the clarification. Tornister meant kitbag. IIRC I once saw this word in an English text a long time ago. However a kitbag is meant.
Come on. 24 hours to go and not so difficulty (at least partly ).

Adler

 

[Adler17]

New leaderboard:
oryctolagus: 7 pts.
sydhe: 5.5 pts.
Greekguy: 2 pts.

Nothing is decided yet. 17 pts in total to get. YOU have still the chance.

Adler

 

[Adler17]

Okay, it is decided: Since nobody tried it since yesterday, oryctolagus has won with 7 pts. Congrats and your turn.

Adler

 

[Adler17]

Nad here are the answers:
1. "It's connected with a legend about a man who was on sentry duty in the St. Mary's church's tower. He spotted an arriving Tatar (Mongol) army and began to play the trumpet to warn the defenders. During this he was shot dead by an arrow and the tune was stopped. That's why the tune (called "Hejnał Mariacki") is played as if it was unfinished. You can hear it "live" every day at 12 o'clock on the Polish Radio's Channel 1." This solution by Oryctolagus is nothing to add except the year, 1241.

2. Alba Longa.

3. Nearchos.

4. Plinius the elder.

5. The Iron Gustav Hartmann, a German cab driver with one HP, born 1859. He got his name because the weather could so bad he was driving his cab. Later he got concurrence by mototrized taxis. To show cabs were still able and to enhence the amicality with France, what was not very big in that time, he drove from Berlin to Paris in 169 days, where he nearly was forgotten when he arrived because Lindbergh just landed. When he wanted to return he was finally recognized and celebrated. However he could not stop the victory of the motorized taxis. He died in 1938. There are some
memorials in Berlin.

6. Antlantic Conveyor, which was sunk by Argentine forces in the Falkland war.

7. In 1981 Sweden´s territorial waters were violated by foreign submarines of still unknown origin. The Soviets said these boats were not theirs but at least one was: A Whiskey class sub was one morning spotted on a sandbank at Karlskrona the Swedish war harbour. The boat was slipped on that bank when the tide turned and the boat was not able to move. The Swedish protested strong and formally but the Soviets said the boat was in distress. Although it is highly doubtable that the boat was in distress in the night before now it was. But to calm down the situation and knowing the painful situation for the Soviet navy Sweden´s prime minister Olof Palme ordered to give the boat free. That was the Whiskey on the Rocks incident.

8. A doris was a prostitute in Rome, but of a certain type: Very beautyful and wearing nothing. Further comments I do not make .

9. Operation Highjump was an operation to occupy the last part of Germany after ww2 not already occupied: A part of Antarctica known as Neuschwabenland and claimed by Germany. Due to rumors of secret German bases a small fleet of 13 warships including a carrier and over 5.000 allied soldiers, searched this area, officially to train men and test material, was sent to Antarctica. If the US wanted to claim areas for themself they did not do so. The US didn´t find much more than cold feet and some pinguines but also the South American states were worried because of their claims. However it was the biggest US expedition on the 6th continent.

10. Divine wind.

11. A marshal´s Buton.

12. At Tanga Africans fought for the first time as nearly equals with white against other white and won against such "Übermenschen". This was very important for the black population.

Adler

 

[Oryctolagus]

Here is my quiz. I tried to be as non-eurocentric as my limited knowledge allowed .

1. This country has a long history since ancient times. It was once powerful but then several neighboring powers occupied its territory. It was one of the first Christian states. Today it is a small country, compared to its historical territory. One of its national symbols is out if its borders. Which country is it?
2. What is it?

3. What is the origin of the Rastafari movement's name?
4. What is it, again?

5. She was the author of one of the first novels. One part of her name was given to her after one of the characters of this novel. Who was it?
6. France owned large parts of North America. What territory remained under this country's rule to this day?The islands in the Caribbean Sea do not count.
7. He was a 16th century writer and philosopher (among others). The title of his famous work gave name to a literary genre. What was his name?
8. Who was the first non-European literary Nobel Prize winner?
9. I want to ask you for a "historical" animal - it became extinct only 27 years after its discovery because of human activity, of course. It was a sea mammal feeding on plants. How was it called and in what circumstances was it discovered? (2 pts)
10. A certain man was captured by pirates. They wanted a ransom for him. When it was payed, the man was released but soon he returned with a large fleet and defeated the pirates, who were executed, as he promised to them when he was in captivity.
Who is this story about?

There are 11 points to get. I will wait for the answers till Wednesday morning and then we will see .

 

[Oryctolagus]

There were 3 submissions so far. Here are the scores:
sydhe 6 pts
superisis 3 pts
greekguy 2 pts

One day left.

EDIT: greekguy improved his score a bit.

 

[Oryctolagus]

The time to reveal the answers has come.

1. Armenia.
2. It is a sample of the rongorongo script from Easter Island, carved in wood.
3. This movement was named after Ras Tafari Makonnen, who "became" Haile Selassie after he ascended the Ethiopian throne.
4. It is the aerial view of Borobudur, a Buddhist stupa built between 750 and 850 AD in central Java (Indonesia).
5. Murasaki Shikibu, a poet, novelist and lady in waiting on the Japanese court, who lived at the turn of the 10th and 11th century. She was the author of "The Tale of Genji". One of the of this novel's character's name is Murasaki, which became also athe nickname of the author (authoress?).
6. Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a group of small islands near Newfoundland.
7. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533 - 1592), a French Renaissance writer. His famous work was entitled "Les Essais" (which can be translated as 'The Attempts') and after it a literary (or journalistic?) genre was named.
8. Rabindranath Tagore.
9. Steller's Sea Cow was discovered in 1741 when the Russian expedition led by Vitus Bering arrived at Commander Islands. They were shipwrecked and they had to stay there until they buil a new ship. Bering and many of his crew members died there. Georg Steller, a German naturalist and doctor of the expedition, described in his notes these big sirenian mammals. By 1768 Steller's Sea Cow became extinct because it was an easy prey for sailors and sealers.
10. Gaius Julius Caesar. It happened in 75 BC on his way to Rodos.

Here are the scores:
sydhe 6,5 pts
superisis 3 pts
greekguy 2 pts
Slip79 1 pt

 

[sydhe]

1) Who was the individual first winner of the Nobel Peace Prize not to come from the US or Europe?

2) Who is the author of the following letter?

After much consideration I have made the decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize which has fallen to me. I do not happen to share the view put forward to me by the representatives of the Secret State Police that in doing so I exclude myself from German society. The Nobel Peace Prize is not a sign of an internal political struggle, but of understanding between peoples. As a recipient of the prize, I will do my best to encourage this understanding and as a German I will always bear in mind Germany's justifiable interests in Europe.


3) One 20th century president was leader of his country for about five days, which is the entire life of his country.
Who was he?
What was his country?
What happened to his country? (One point each.)

4) A city fell after an epic nine-year siege and the victor received the news on his deathbed and didn't get to see it. What was the city? Who was the victor? (One point each.)

5) This man is particularly known for one discovery, is very important in the history of Vietnam, where many streets are named after him and his tomb is a shrine. Who is he?

6) During the middle ages, a lot of Japanese emperors abdicated their thrones. Why?

7) Here are two different scripts for the same language. What language is it?

8) This is part of what used to be one of the great centers of learning in the world. Where is it located?

9) What are ongghot?

10) These are all connected to one person. Who is he?
F=-kx; E = kx^2/2

Deadline August 24 at noon.

 

[sydhe]

Greekguy is leading with 1 point.

 

[sydhe]

I'm not getting many replies on this, so here are a fewhints:

2) was called by The People's Almanac the most courageous choice in the history of the Nobel Prizes.

3) was a European country.

4) was a crucial event in the creation of one of the world's great empires.

5) made his most famous contribution in the field of medicine, in northeastern Asia.

6) the abdications were not forced and many of the emperors and empresses lived a long time afterward.

10) The first formula is named after him.

 

[sydhe]

I'm not going to post the answers until tonight, so here's a chance for a quick victory. The co-leaders each have one point, both getting #8.

Maybe I should have used this flea for #10 for a tie-breaker. I could have used it for #5 as well.

 

[sydhe]

I should probably have posted this in the Researchable PM Histroy Quiz, since some of the questions required some research. Anyway:

1) Who was the individual first winner of the Nobel Peace Prize not to come from the US or Europe?

Carlos Saavedra Lamas, Foreign Secretary of Argentina in 1936, principally for his role in mediating the end of the Chaco War.

2) Who is the author of the following letter?

After much consideration I have made the decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize which has fallen to me. I do not happen to share the view put forward to me by the representatives of the Secret State Police that in doing so I exclude myself from German society. The Nobel Peace Prize is not a sign of an internal political struggle, but of understanding between peoples. As a recipient of the prize, I will do my best to encourage this understanding and as a German I will always bear in mind Germany's justifiable interests in Europe.

Carl von Ossietzky, a German pacifist journalist who won the 1935 prize in 1936 for writing articles about the Weimar Republic training paramilitary groups and warplane crews and later claiming the Nazis were planning war. For these he was imprisoned, and, in 1933, was sent to a concentration camp. Ossietzky wrote the letter from a prison hospital. Naturally, the Nazis refused to let him leave the country. He died in 1938 from tuberculosis and mistreatment as a prisoner. Brave man and brave choice.

3) One 20th century president was leader of his country for about five days, which is the entire life of his country.Who was he? What was his country? What happened to his country? (One point each.)

During the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, the tip of the tail, Carpatho-Ukraine, (aka as Subcarpathian Ruthenia or Czechoslovak Ruthenia) declared its independence on March 15, with Avhustyn Voloshyn as president. The golden age of Carpatho-Ukrainian independence lasted only a few days because Hungary invaded and annexed it in accordance with an agreement with Hitler. After World War II, it became part of the Ukrainian SSR and is still part of Ukraine.

4) A city fell after an epic nine-year siege and the victor received the news on his deathbed and never got to see it. What was the city? Who was the victor? (One point each.)

The city of Bursa (aka Brusa and Prusa) in Asia Minor, conquered in 1326 by Osman I, who had been besieging it since 1317 with a few respites. It was the first major victory of the Ottomans and served as their capital until the 1360s. I think Osman and Orkhan, who led a lot of the fighting, may be buried there.

5) This man is particularly known for one discovery, is very important in the history of Vietnam, where many streets are named after him and his tomb is a shrine. Who is he?

The Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin, discoverer of the bacillus that causes bubonic plague, named Yersinia pestis in his honor. He also confirmed its existence in rats, thus indicating how it is spread, and attempted to produce a vaccine. He settled in Vietnam, where he founded clinics and the medical school in Hanoi and worked at bringing cinchona trees to Vietnam to produce quinine and also bring rubber trees to improve the Vietnamese economy. In Vietnam, he was called Ông Năm, or Mr. Nam. He died in 1943 in Nha Trang and is buried in Suoi Dau.

6) During the middle ages, a lot of Japanese emperors abdicated their thrones. Why?

Propriety restricted the freedom of Japanese emperors. For example, they could not own private property. So Japanese emperors would abdicate the throne while retaining power, a practice called cloistered rule since they supposedly "retired to a monastery," actually giving them more power and freedom of action.

7) Here are two different scripts for the same language. What language is it?

Khmer

8) This is part of what used to be one of the great centers of learning in the world. Where is it located?

It's part of the University of Sankore in Timbuktu

9) What are ongghot?

Ongghot are spirit dolls from Mongolian shamanism.

10) Here are some pictures. Who is the person they have in common?

Robert Hooke. The first formula is Hooke’s law for elastic force; the second expresses elastic energy. The statue is “Raving Mania” from the entrance of the 1679 version of Bedlam, and the pillar is the Monument to the Great Fire of London. Hooke was the architect of both structures and collaborated with Christopher Wren in the rebuilding of London. The flea represents Hooke’s Micrographia, from which the famous second flea illustration comes.

Ciceronian got 3 points; nobody else got more than 1.