The Quiztorical

A history quiz by

Harish Krishna V

Some stuff to remember• None of the answers in the quiz are proper

nouns or technical terms.• Many of the answers involve multi-word

explanations. • Below each answer, in the notes pane, are

some references and further reading.• None of the questions are longer than 1 slide.

Some have an image in the next slide, though. There is no buffer slide between questions and answers.

• Warning: This quiz has some material which may be unsuitable for young people:

• Sexual content: minimal• Violence and gore: a lot. Most of them are rather

disturbing.• Alcohol, tobacco and drug usage: present• Frightening or intense stuff: quite a bit• Animal cruelty: a bit

• The viewer’s discretion is advised.

Warning

• The Northern ‘U’ clan and the Southern ‘Y’ clan have been at loggerheads for over 800 years now. The main battlefield for the two groups seems to be the Varadaraja Swamy Temple in Kanchipuram (more specifically, something in it).

• The matter often came up in courts – during the British Raj and in Apex Courts during the 1960s. The matter even went to the Supreme Court which delivered its decision in 1978.

• What was the main bone of contention?• What was the Supreme Court’s verdict?

Question 1

• The sign on the temple elephant’s forehead.

• The Vadakalai had the U while the Thenkalai used the Y-shaped namam.

• The Supreme Court asked the two groups to alternate the use of the sign. This didn’t bring much cheer or resentment since the elephant had died in 1965, 13 years before the verdict.

Answer 1

The temple now has 2 elephants

• The Assignat was a currency introduced during the French Revolutionary wars after the confiscation of church property. Apart from the value, revolutionary ideas and images of the friends and enemies of the revolution were usually printed on them.

• Why did the postmaster at Varennes, a man named Jean-Baptiste Drouet, stop a bunch of bourgeois-looking people heading Austria-wards after relooking at an Assignat?

Question 2

• The group comprised the King, his family and loyal advisers. King Louis XVI and his people were trying to escape to Austria from were Marie Antoinette hailed.

• The king was recognised by his face that appeared on the Assignat.

Answer

• The Turk (next slide) or the Automaton Chess Player was one of the finest feats of artificial intelligence during its time. Unveiled in 1770 by its maker, Wolfgang von Kempelen, the Turk went on to defeat some of the greatest chess players of the 18th century.

• Napoleon Bonaparte, the great software-tester, purposefully made a few illegal moves to see how the Turk would react. It got angry and knocked over all the pieces on the board.

• Where did the Turk get its intelligence?Hint: It did not use Alpha-Beta pruning.

Question 3

Question 3

• From the chess grandmasters sitting and operating it from inside.

Answer

• There was a war of succession in the Incan empire at Cusco after the death of the first king Manco Cápac.

• The eldest son of the king, Sinchi Roca, dressed himself in an ornate robe made of gold and wore a lot of golden ornaments.

• This greatly increased the respect and the fear the people had in him, thereby making his path to kingship very smooth.

• How did the attire affect his chances?

Question 4

• The people thought that he was the Sun God.• Not only that, he spread rumours that he

emerged from a cave. This was significant since the Incans believed that the Sun God, their tribe and all great men come from a hole in the ground.

Answer

• Port Arthur (now one of Australia’s most visited World Heritage Sites) was, during the 18th and 19th centuries, an inescapable prison reserved for the hardest British criminals.

• The only one perhaps to have tried escaping from the prison was this convict called George “Billy” Hunt who tried (in vain) to escape using a disguise.

• What did he disguise as?

Question 5

• A kangaroo.

• The half-starved guards apparently tried to hunt him down to supplement their meagre rations.

Answer

• This is from the traditional accounts of the Children’s Crusade. Jesus apparently appeared in the dreams of a young boy and asked him to convert Muslims to Christianity. Through a series of miracles, the boy gained a large following of thousands of children.

• He led the army to the Mediterranean Sea, hoping that the sea would part. It didn’t. A couple of merchants offered a ride to the holy land, but the boats ended up sailing to Tunisia.

• What happened then? Question 6

• The children were sold as slaves by the merchants.

• There are other accounts though, one that involves a gale and another involving a lot of death due to starvation.

Answer

• It is believed that if there are less than 6 of these in the Tower of London, “the Crown would fall and Britain with it”.

• One legend attributes it to the complaints raised by John Flamsteed. Flamsteed requested that the creatures be removed but Charles II refused to get rid of them altogether. He however ordered for their wings to be clipped.

• What was the position occupied by John Flamsteed? About which creatures is this about?

Question 7

• John Flamsteed was the Royal Astronomer. • His work was often stolen by Edmond Halley

who gave it to Newton who promptly published it, much to the dismay of Flamsteed.

• Even now, there are ravens in the tower of London.

• It is believed that ravens sat still during the execution of Anne Boleyn (1535) and pecked the eyes from the severed head of Lady Jane Grey (1554).

Answer

• The Aztecs were known for their brilliant methods of farming. Among the several methods they used, was this one.

• Aztec farmers used to draw a mark on the chest of slave.

• This slave was then placed in the middle of the garden or the field and arrows were shot at him.

• Why did they shoot arrows at the slave?• Why was a mark made on his chest?

Question 8

• The bleeding slave was used as a sprinkler to irrigate the field or garden. Human blood was found to be a good fertilizer.

• The mark was to indicate where not to shoot the arrows. If the arrow injured the heart, it was found that slaves bled too profusely and could not spread their blood evenly over a large area.

Answer

• Sawai Madho Singh, the Rajput king is remembered for having had about 110 wives and as many children.

• Among his other pastimes, as suggested by the various memorabilia found in the City Palace museum in Jaipur, was boating.

• Though he seemed to prefer solitude while on land, he took 6 or 7 people along with him, (apart from his usual set of guards) when he went boating in the lakes of Jaipur or Udaipur.

• Why did he take them along?Question 9

• To balance his weight on the boat.• Sawai Madho Singh was known to be rather

fat. His robes were about 4 feet wide.

Answer

• A certain person known as Agent Moses was responsible for rescuing over 300 slaves and helping them get to Canada (where slavery was outlawed) during the 19th century.

• ‘Moses’ often used strange but effective techniques (like distraction-using-chicken). Most of the rescue operations were during winter when nights were long and dark. Slaves were often rescued on Saturday since newspapers wouldn’t print runaways until Monday.

• What was the main reason for ‘Moses’ not being caught?

Question 10

• Everyone thought Agent Moses was a man; when it was all along a woman named Harriet Tubman. She went on to do great things after this as well.

Answer

• Serving as a legionary in the Roman times was not an enviable job. Soldiers had to hike for over 30 km a day and had to pay for their food.

• To make things worse, more than one Roman emperor introduced conscription.

• Probably having taken a cue from the Mahabharata, what did men usually do to avoid serving in the army?

Question 11

Edit: I was joking about the inspiration coming from the Mahabharatha

• Men cut off their thumbs.

• The thumb was very important for sword fighting and hence men without thumbs were as good as useless.

• Since a lot of men started doing this, recruiters began to kill anyone with no thumbs.

Answer

• George IV had to wait for about 60 years to become the King (Some people even suggest that he was happy to hear the news of the death of his father, George III).

• He was also often made fun of because of his stoutness and excessive flab.

• What nickname, a play on the title given to the heir-apparent, did he get? This nickname made fun of him for both the above reasons.

Question 12

• Prince of Whales.

• The king-in-waiting is often addressed as the Prince of Wales.

• The Princess of Wales is not the queen-in-waiting but the wife of the Prince of Wales.

• No female has been granted the title yet, but if someone is, it is likely that she would still be called the Prince of Wales (just as Queen Elizabeth is the "Duke of Lancaster").

Answer

• The Veerasiromandapam is one of the mandapams in the Srisailam temple. Built by Anavema Reddy, an important Reddyappa ruler, in the 14th century, this mandapam was the place where a group of five brothers (all of them royal) decided to attain Shiva.

• These people were Veera Shaivites who worshipped this [next slide] five-faced form of Shiva.

• What did they do to become one with Shiva, something that is a matter pride for the Reddy community even now?

Question 13

Question 13

• The five brothers cut off their legs, hands, ears, tongues and heads!

• They had somebody assemble the parts onto one body.

Answer

• Lions were known to have lived in Europe a long time ago. Some early-Greek works mention the sighting of lions.

• The European lion is believed to have become extinct about 2000 years ago. This is also the time when Asian Elephants disappeared from West Asia and populations of Barbary lions (now extinct) and Atlas bears in North Africa fell sharply.

• What is believed to be the main reason for their extinction?

Question 14

• They were captured by the Romans to be used in fights at the coliseums and amphitheatres.

• Gladiators proved their mettle by fighting these animals. Over 5000 animals were killed on the Colosseum’s opening day.

• The Roman audiences cheered these brutal slaughters enthusiastically as a rule, but when 20 elephants were pitted against heavily armed warriors, the screaming of these gentle animals as they were wounded caused the crowd to boo the emperor for his cruelty.

Answer

• Joseph Goebbels, one of Hitler’s closest associates was also the Reich Minister of Propaganda.

• He worked to bring culture and the Nazi philosophy to the masses – promoting the sale of cheap radios, staging art exhibitions in small towns and establishing mobile cinemas to bring the movies to every village.

• The magazines, posters and flicks he promoted were often pretty raunchy, even by today’s standards.

• Why?

Question 15

• He believed that this would inspire people to produce more deutschblütig offspring.

• The Government also decorated mothers who had given birth to many kids with the Cross of Honour of the German Mother.

• Goebbels himself was the father of 6 children.

Answer

• On the evening of October 25th 1917, Bolshevik Red Guards moved on government positions around the city of Petrograd. They then invaded the Winter Palace, where several government ministers were resident.

• After the Russian Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government and stormed the Winter Palace, their revolution was halted for a few days.

• Why?

Question 16

• Most of the Bolsheviks had got ridiculously drunk in the Winter Palace after finding the wine stores.

Answer

• The author of Manimekalai (one of the 5 great Tamil epics) was a Buddhist poet named Sithalai Sattanar. ‘Sattanar’ was an honourific address of his actual name - Sattan.

• Sithalai means “(one who has a) suppurated head”. This was a reference to the occasional ooze visible on his forehead.

• What was the reason for this?

Question 17

• Sattanar used to injure himself on his head with an iron chalice whenever critics found mistakes in his work. These wounds would very often see the formation of pus.

Answer

• Genghis Khan was renowned for his great military tactics and policies. One of his methods was to mercilessly torture and behead their own soldiers dressed in the garb of the enemy just before the enemy soldiers to frighten them.

• The soldiers selected to be beheaded were protocol-offenders often branded as ‘traitors’ who ‘demotivated the army’ and ‘wasted time’.

• What was their crime?Question 18

• They mourned the loss of a soldier or gave him a proper burial.

• Anyone who witnessed Genghis Khan’s own funeral was killed.

Answer

• Young Chinese girls were almost always seen wearing some sort of silk shoes (next slide).

• These would be removed, washed and be worn again, every two days to prevent infection.

• Little girls would often cry and scream when they were being operated to make them more ‘beautiful’.

• But why were their toes crushed and feet broken?

Question 19

Question 19

• The Chinese believed that feet were extensions of the leg and not as stands for the body. Hence, they weren't allowed to grow beyond 6 cm. Girls with smaller feet were considered more beautiful. Bound feet were also a cause for arousal among men.

• Foot binding was outlawed only in the 20th century.

Answer

• Having been spotted by British planes, the captain of the German submarine U-1206 on April 14th 1945, Karl-Adolf Schlitt, had it submerge deep into the water.

• But one of his crew found that pushing the wrong valve of a certain equipment could be dangerous. The act caused all the ‘stuff’ the equipment had to leak into the batteries, which released Chlorine gas.

• This left the captain no choice but to resurface after which the British promptly captured them.

• Which equipment was handled improperly?

Question 20

• The toilet. • The U-boat archive has a statement of the

captain in which he says “I was in the engine room, when, at the front of the boat, there was a water leak.”

• “Meanwhile the batteries were covered with sea water. Chlorine gas started to fill the boat.”

• “We were then incapable of diving or moving. At this point, British planes and patrols discovered us. I let the boat sink.”

Answer

• Queen Dido was one of the greatest and cleverest rulers of Carthage.

• She arrived in modern-day Tunisia with a lot of treasure which she offered to exchange part of the money with land she could encompass with the skin of an ox.

• She chose a figure that produces the maximum area given a boundary line (she wanted the coast) and a perimeter for the remaining sides.

• Which shape?Question 21

• A semicircle

Answer

• King Henry VIII (the guy who had 6 wives – divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived) was not pleased when he found out that most of the young lads serving in the army were getting brutally injured.

• He went on to ban the cause for these injuries, though he himself was the first owner of something involved with it. The cause for the injuries was banned earlier too but for causing too much noise.

• What?Question 22

• Football.

• King Henry VIII is considered to be the first owner of football boots.

Answer

Two parts.

a) The court of many of Egypt’s pharaohs had a few slaves with honey smeared all over them.Why?

b) Why were 300 slaves killed and buried in a pyramid along with Ramses II?

Question 23

a) To attract the flies and bees; so that they don’t irritate the pharaoh.

b) To serve him in his afterlife.

Answer

• The Stagg Field was a stadium at the University of Chicago which laid neglected since 1939 after the University discontinued its football program.

• “A crude pile of black bricks and wooden timbers” was used to enclose something under the West Stand on 2 December 1942.

• Why is this place a National Historic Landmark in the USA?

Question 24

• It was the site of the first (self sustaining) Nuclear Reaction.

• Under the supervision of Enrico Fermi, the Chicago Pile – 1 was the world's first nuclear reactor.

Answer

• One of Russia’s strategies during World War II was the anti-tank dog. Dogs were taught to carry explosives to tanks, armored vehicles and other military targets.

• They were intensely trained by the Soviet army during the 1930s and were used against the Germans during the early ‘40s.

• But they were a huge failure.• Why?

Question 25

• The tanks the dogs were trained to run under were Russian. So they ended up running under the Russian tanks and blowing them up instead.

Answer

• The Ethiopian Church calls him Saint Pontius Pilate. Christians claim that he ordered and implemented the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

• The Christian Bible describes him as a pitiable character who vacillates back and forth about the fate of Jesus and finally turns to the mob for direction.

• He calls upon his cup-bearer who brings him a chalice filled with water.

• What did he do next? This act of his inspired a phrase.

Question 26

• He washed his hands off the whole affair.• This meant that it was not he who was

responsible for the crucifixion, but the Jewish mob that called for it.

Answer

• After Sirhan Sirhan fired the shots that went to kill Robert F. Kennedy, he started running away from the Ambassador hotel.

• But a certain Rosie Grier, who was bodyguard for Kennedy’s pregnant wife, quickly caught him. Grier pounced on him, jammed his finger behind the trigger of the gun and tackled him. Sirhan was quickly disarmed and left with a broken wrist.

• What was Rosie Grier before he became a bodyguard?

Question 27

• A football player.• Not just any football player, but an American

Football sensation (Super Bowl Champion, 2 time pro-bowler, member of the Ram’s “Fearsome Foursome,” and 5 time All Pro defensive tackle).

Answer

• Peter III of Russia was considered ‘immature’ by several in his country, including his wife and future queen, Catherine (the great).

• One day, he found that the heads of two of his army commanders had been chewed off. When the perpetrator was caught, he ordered a military tribunal convened to court martial the criminal. He himself designed the gallows that were used to hang the criminal. The criminal was left hanging in public for 3 days, as an example.

• Who was the criminal?Question 28

• A rat.

• In his mid 20’s, Peter III still played with wooden toy soldiers.

• He only lasted 6 months on the throne though, during which he instituted several reforms to improve and modernize Russia.

Answer

• Two parts.• A) US G.I.s who were programmed to see

enemies as subhuman, used to collect something as souvenirs of war. Different parts were used for different things; things like necklaces and teeth. But they were mostly seen as trophies.

• Thankfully, much of USA was outraged after a report in Life and FDR himself refused a letter opener made from one of the collectibles.

• What did the US army men collect?Question 29

• B) After a successful operation of capturing USS Finback, the Japanese Army officers hosted a party for the Japanese Navy officers. Sadly, they ran out of meat.

• That is when somebody ordered a subordinate to get some kimo, which he did.

• Now, the Navy guys wanted to show off and had somebody bring something. Due to the lack of refrigeration, they didn’t have to spend time killing. This was also added to the other goodies on the table.

• What were they eating that night?

Question 29

• A) The skulls of Japanese soldiers (teeth were used for necklaces and stuff).

• B) Live American soldiers. (Live because they couldn’t get the refrigeration). Kimo refers to flesh from the liver. This was from a buried US soldier.

Answer

• Though there were several other instances of similar things in the past, a lot of credit has to be given to camouflager Jasper Maskelyne and Victor Jones for actually using them fruitfully.

• They had the Royal Engineers make at least two of these per day. They were foldable and portable. Jeeps were often surmounted by these to make them look more formidable.

• But their most important goal was to deceive German eyes in the sky.

• What were these things, typically made of cardboard, or rubber? Question 30

• Dummy tanks and planes.• These were only meant to confuse the Nazis

and lead them to believe that the British had more tanks and planes than they really did.

• They were successfully able to hide and downplay the importance of the location of their real tanks in order to make it seem that the invasion would occur at the Pas-de-Calais rather than at Normandy.

Answer

• Many of the early stages of the Battle of Waterloo were fought along the banks of Kaveri (present-day district of Trichy).

• During the wars, there was a scramble to occupy places like Srirangam, Samayapuram and Lalgudi.

• What did these places have, that Robert Clive and Joseph Dupleix wanted so badly?

Question 31

• Temples. • Temples were almost perfect as forts.• Most temples had multiple outer walls (lot of

prakarams). Temple Gopurams were ideal watch towers. Temples also functioned as granaries at that time and could feed an entire army for days. Not only that, locals were very fond of the temple and would protect the temple at all costs. And for the French, temples had precious gems which were meant to be stolen.

Answer

• These shoes were called Poulaine because they came from Poland. They became very popular among the noblemen of Medieval England.

• What modification was done to them because these were quite hard to walk in?

Question 32

• They were curled inwards and sometimes fastened by a chain.

Answer

• One of the most popular footballers of his time, Fatty Foulke was the inspiration for many chants and one-liners including "Who ate all the pies“ and "Call me anything you want, but don't call me late for dinner“.

• He landed up delaying a certain Bradford vs Accrington Stanley match in February 1907 once at the beginning and once during the middle of the game.

• The first one was because of the unavailability of jerseys his size.

• What about the second delay?Question 33

• He snapped the crossbar.

• One theory goes that to draw even more attention to his size, Bradford placed two small boys behind his goal in an effort to distract the opposition even more. The boys would sometimes run and return the ball when it went out of play, and quite by accident, ball boys came into being.

Answer

• Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 failed miserably; for several reasons: faulty logistics, poor discipline, disease, and not the least, the weather.

• A major reason was how soldiers in the French army unknowingly killed each other. One way was how due to bad roads and poor vegetation, soldiers at the front used up most of what resources they could find, leaving little for those at the rear.

• Those at the rear of the army also caused the death of nearly a quarter of the French soldiers in the battlefield. How?

Question 34

• The soldiers in the front stood in the line of fire of those at the back.

Answer

• Many of the greatest rulers did not want to be disturbed in their eternal sleep.

• Gilgamesh, Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan had their close associates promise to do something so that the location of their graves would be unknown and inaccessible.

• Adi Shankara did the same when his mother complained of having to walk a lot to have a bath in the Poorna river. Balarama is also said to have done something similar.

• What did the rulers want to be done with their graves?

Question 35

• Have a river diverted over it.

• People believe that Genghis Khan is buried somewhere near the Onon river in Mogolia, where he was born.

• Several archeologists and historians have given up their entire lives trying to find the fabled tomb of Genghis Khan.

Answer

• The Cambridge University created some utterly extraneous chairs having little or nothing to do with the curriculum, like the Adams Professorship of Arabic in 1666.

• While Arabic had not been included in the university curriculum and would not be for over a century and a half, Cambridge felt it might as well create an Arabic position anyway rather than turn down the money.

• The incumbents of this chair, realizing they had no explicit duties, knew a free lunch when they saw it, and had tons of fun just sitting on their thumbs.

• Why did Sir Thomas Adams, after whom the Professorship is named, give money for this?

Question 36

• To propagate the Christian faith "to them who now sit in darkness“

• Things were getting on so famously that in the early eighteenth century, they created a second chair of Arabic studies.

• Westfall explains of the second chair, "from the beginning, its stipend was used to alleviate whatever distress might affect the holder of the Adams chair."

Answer

• This was perhaps the largest department under Moghul rule, the most favourite of the king and one that required a lot of security.

• There were certain restrictions due to which only a few people could apply for the job of providing security to this important department.

• Some of these people even went on to be nobles, like Kafur Hazardinari and Khurau Shah.

• What did a lot of men do, seeing a potential job here (with many dying in the process)?

Question 37

• Castrated themselves.• The seraglio could not have male guards and

women were forbidden to carry arms (among other restrictions) and hence eunuchs were the natural choice.

• More than two-thirds of the men died in the process though.

Answer

• Most 19th century US citizens worked as farmers and lived in all sorts of places due to which it would take most of them at least a day to arrive at central locations. They preferred to spend Sundays at Church and Wednesday was market day. And hence the best two-day window came between these two days.

• Also, they didn’t want to be bothered during spring and summer because it was planting season, while late summer and fall was harvest time and they couldn’t travel during winter.

• What was decided as the best time, keeping in mind all of these?

Question 38

• The election date (in USA)• Americans, even today, vote on a Tuesday in November

Answer

• Jahangir was an opiate and almost always drunk and hence most of the ruling was done by Nur Jahan.

• She even got Jahangir to sanction the building of a beautiful mausoleum (next slide) over the tomb of I'timād-ud-Daulah, her father, a man whom Jahangir had once exiled.

• This walls of this mausoleum in Agra are encrusted with cornelian, jasper, lapis lazuli, onyx and topaz formed into images trees and bottles.

• What name did it get because of its appearance?

Question 39

Question 39

• The Jewel Box.

• Also accepted is Baby Taj (or a variant of that) since this served as the draft for the Taj Mahal.

Answer

• Bill Richmond was a slave in America who made a name because of his fighting skills.

• He arrived in Britain sometime in the late eighteenth century to fight future world champion in boxing, Tom Cribb, a man who was much heavier than Bill.

• Bill did something during that fight, something that the British audience was new to, something that went on to revolutionise the sport.

• The technique he used is today known as “bob and weave” and is often seen in bouts even today.

• What did he do?

Question 40

• He ducked. He also moved around a lot and basically avoided getting hit.

• The British are said to have initially found it ungentlemanly to avoid getting hit.

Answer

• When a certain Maharaja Jai Singh, a Rajput ruler, was not respected in a Rolls Royce showroom in England when he dressed like a common man, he came back dressed as a king and bought all six cars the showroom had and brought them to India.

• Still feeling humiliated, he modified the cars and put them to use in such a way that after a while, the company apologised and sent him a few more cars as gifts.

• What did he do that made Rolls Royce lose out on a lot of business globally? (this could be an urban legend)

Question 41

• He used them to clean and transport the city’s waste.

• Rolls Royce owners worldwide were teased for having the same car that was used for the movement of garbage, thereby leading to reduced sales of the company.

• The king was always slightly cranky – he is said to have used elderly women as tiger-bait.

Answer

• Sometime around 500 BC, when the Greeks were fighting the invading Persians, a young man was sent out from Athens to Sparta to ask the Spartans for help.

• The man, who went by the name Pheidippides, covered the distance between Athens and Sparta, nearly 250 kilometers in about a day and a half.

• On his way back, he is said to have met Pan who asked him why the Athenians paid him no attention. He told this to the Athenians who believed him.

• Just after his return to the battlefield, he was ordered to take another message.

• What was it? What did this journey inspire?

Question 42

• Nikomen or “We are the winners”.• He ran about 42 km, from Marathon to Athens.• He inspired the modern day marathon (and the

246km Spartathlon).

Answer and the end