Q 01/05

Which Paris fortress-prison, stormed by a crowd on 14 July 1789, held only seven inmates at the time?

A) Conciergerie

B) Bastille

C) Temple

D) Vincennes

Answer · why

B) Bastille

The Bastille's seven inmates included four forgers and a man who had tried to kill Louis XV, and the contractor who demolished it carved its bricks in...

Q 02/05

Which execution device, proposed to the National Assembly by a physician in 1789, was last used in France in 1977?

A) Guillotine

B) Garrotte

C) Gallows

D) Firing squad

Answer · why

A) Guillotine

The guillotine first fell on a highwayman in April 1792 and stayed France's standard method of execution until the death penalty was abolished in 1981...

Q 03/05

On which remote South Atlantic island did Napoleon die in 1821 during his second exile?

A) Corsica

B) Ascension

C) Saint Helena

D) Mauritius

Answer · why

C) Saint Helena

Saint Helena held one prisoner behind a garrison of about 2,000 British troops and a patrolling squadron of warships; he died there aged 51 of stomach...

Q 04/05

In which country did French soldiers rebuilding a coastal fort dig up the Rosetta Stone in 1799?

A) Syria

B) Libya

C) Sudan

D) Egypt

Answer · why

D) Egypt

In Egypt the French kept their find for only two years: the 1801 surrender of Alexandria handed the stone to Britain, and it has been on show at the B...

Q 05/05

Which territory did Napoleon sell to the United States in 1803 for about fifteen million dollars?

A) Louisiana

B) Florida

C) Texas

D) Alaska

Answer · why

A) Louisiana

The Louisiana sale covered 828,000 square miles at roughly eighteen dollars a square mile, nearly doubling the United States and later supplying all o...