Q 01/05

Which Dutch exotic dancer was shot by a French firing squad in 1917 as a convicted German spy?

A) Josephine Baker

B) Mata Hari

C) Isadora Duncan

D) Lola Montez

Answer · why

B) Mata Hari

Mata Hari, by one eyewitness account, refused a blindfold before twelve French soldiers shot her at Vincennes. Later biographers argue the French Army...

Q 02/05

Which Japanese word first named the typhoons that wrecked Mongol invasion fleets in 1274 and 1281?

A) Banzai

B) Bushido

C) Kamikaze

D) Hara-kiri

Answer · why

C) Kamikaze

Kamikaze means divine wind, a name given to the storms that scattered Kublai Khan's ships. Japan revived the word in 1944 for suicide pilots who flew ...

Q 03/05

Which aid movement grew from Henry Dunant's horror at the wounded abandoned at Solferino in 1859?

A) Red Cross

B) Salvation Army

C) St John Ambulance

D) Save the Children

Answer · why

A) Red Cross

The Red Cross began with a five-man committee that Dunant joined in Geneva in February 1863. His campaign earned him a share of the first Nobel Peace ...

Q 04/05

Which English king, the last to die in battle, was killed fighting Henry Tudor at Bosworth in 1485?

A) Richard II

B) Harold Godwinson

C) Richard III

D) Edward IV

Answer · why

C) Richard III

Richard III lay in a lost grave for more than 500 years until archaeologists found his skeleton beneath a Leicester car park in 2012. DNA from his sis...

Q 05/05

Which war between English and French kings began in 1337 over the French throne?

A) Thirty Years' War

B) Seven Years' War

C) Nine Years' War

D) Hundred Years' War

Answer · why

D) Hundred Years' War

The Hundred Years' War actually ran for 116 years, broken up by long truces. It was triggered when Edward III of England claimed the crown of France.