Q 01/05

Which Soviet satellite, launched in October 1957, started the Space Race?

A) Sputnik 1

B) Molniya 1

C) Vostok 1

D) Explorer 1

Answer · why

A) Sputnik 1

Sputnik 1: the first US attempt to answer it, a Vanguard rocket in December 1957, rose only a few feet, fell back and exploded, and the press dubbed i...

Q 02/05

Which war lasted from June 1950 until an armistice in July 1953?

A) Vietnam War

B) Korean War

C) First Indochina War

D) Algerian War

Answer · why

B) Korean War

Korean War: armistice talks dragged on for two years, largely because many captured Chinese and North Korean soldiers refused to be sent home.

Q 03/05

Whose nationalisation of the Suez Canal in 1956 triggered an invasion by Britain, France and Israel?

A) Anwar el-Sadat

B) King Farouk

C) Gamal Abdel Nasser

D) Hosni Mubarak

Answer · why

C) Gamal Abdel Nasser

Gamal Abdel Nasser: the invaders hoped to topple him, but pressure from the US and the Soviet Union forced them to withdraw, and he stayed in power.

Q 04/05

Who overthrew Fulgencio Batista in Cuba in 1959?

A) Rafael Trujillo

B) Juan Perón

C) Augusto Pinochet

D) Fidel Castro

Answer · why

D) Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro: Batista's government jailed him after a failed 1953 attack on an army barracks, then freed him in an amnesty two years later.

Q 05/05

The Montgomery bus boycott of 1955–56 was sparked by the arrest of which activist?

A) Rosa Parks

B) Claudette Colvin

C) Coretta Scott King

D) Ella Baker

Answer · why

A) Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks: she was fired from her job as a department store seamstress after her arrest, and she received death threats.