I'm sorry you had to learn something new, but now you're aware of the most famous feud in American history and the most famous duel in American history. Those two facts may be useful to know on, say, a trivia website.
When I was in sixth grade I somehow got ahold of a copy of "1066 And All That," which gave me a sort of cockeyed education in British history. I don't recall ever thinking "I'm not supposed to know this."
I'm not sure either Hamilton or Burr constitute massive figures of world history. I would say significant figures of early US history would be a more apt description. If Washington and Jefferson had duelled, I might be inclined to agree.
Hamilton is a huge figure in perhaps the most transformative series of events in modern western history, I'll concede your point on burr I suppose though.
No they're not. Hamilton's achievements are only significant from a US internal perspective. Burr, not even that. They have only started to become a little more widely known recently due to the success of the musical. But they relevance is still restricted to the US.
Sorry but not famous at all... That is a one sided perspective. Because they are a common name for you, you can't assume it is for the rest of the world aswell.
Edit : and being well-known and having played an important role are different things. You could say everything the western society does has an impact on the rest of the world, but does not mean that every single person from western society is relevant/known in others parts of the world.
Usually only direct involvement ensures that persons are known. Even though a person indirectly might have set events in motion that eventually make an impact on certain countries.
The Scottish Masons thing was the only one I didn't get. The two vs. questions were hard for me (non-US person as well), but I figured them out with hints of the previous/following questions.
Yeah, it's kind of like saying that people who graduate high school with honours are a group -- "High School Honours Acquirers." The Scottish Rite is appendant to being a Mason; while you can technically refer to it as a group (or grouping) of people, it's weird to refer to it as such. It's more accurate to refer to it as a degree.
I had no idea on all three, but did find the US ones easier to guess. Not because they mean anything to me. But two people going against eachother could only be captured in a few words, fight, courtcase, (boxing)match etc. Where as the scottish one could be anything and I only got it by trying letter combos which sort of made up words.
I'm just confused as to how Pinball qualifies as a major historical event deserving of its own question... Especially since removing it wouldn't disrupt the chain at all.
It's relating to the Great Pinball Riots of 1712 where half a million people in France lost their lives after one person claimed that the reigning champion kept nudging the machine
It was only stopped when Tommy, the Pinball Wizard rode in on his white horse, his staff blazing with the light of pinball machines past, and spoke to the masses in a booming voice..."hey...knock it off." And it was so......
Pendantic historian here ;) I think you might have you're historic events mixed up. The pinball machine (as we know it) wasnt around untill 1911. It's predecessor around 1712 was bagatelle, and indeed there were riots around that time. But there were more like barfights.
Lots of bars(pubs) were trashed (allegdly due to someone cheating lifting up the table to make the ball go into the desired hole..) And people were thrown around (as happens in barfights) one of which actually died, he was thrown on the till and broke his back, hence the word tilt. (the outcome of a table being lifted and how people went beserk). But other etymologists suggests it comes from "tilled", which meant lifted in old-english. Which is still recognisable in the agricultural term (where the soil is lifted ) and in other germanic languages; tillen still means lift in dutch
But it includes canada now, and it doesnt state that the entire continent of america is involved. So I wouldnt call it incorrect, though not a tight fitting description.
Think of a fruitpie, but it hasnt got banana in it, it is still a fruit pie ;) And calling it an apple-pie while there were other fruits in it, (in comparable amounts, not like 1%) would be more wrong.
What gets old are the people who feel the need to tell everyone how much time they had left when they got all of them, and why their age or lack of relative culture makes it significantly more impressive.
I don;t mind people telling their time. If that is what makes them happy. I do hate the immature comments that follow. And they are most likely made by adults. Not that my view of adults was that terrific, but reading the comments on this site certainly hasnt helped that view..
I wanted to say, amazingly hardly any swearing or inapproprate sexual comments. But I forgot that the worst gets deleted.
I disagree that Hamilton-Burr had less influence in the world than
Washington-Jefferson. While Jefferson was indeed a world renown figure, what exactly did Washington do to deserve such notoriety?
On the other hand, Hamilton was responsible for, among other things, the establishment of our Treasury, and without the U.S. Treasury, we would not be able to waste our money in foreign aid to countries which despise us.
Hamilton is an important historical figure worth knowing about, very influential in American politics and its Constitution and the shape of the many liberal democracies that came to emulate those. He's an important political and economic theorist who influenced both America and the world (and the former, to many Europeans' surprise and chagrin, is part of the latter). No need to assume your ignorance extends to everyone.
Washington is an extremely influential figure, too, though.
On the other hand, Aaron Burr didn't really do much and is only famous for his duel with Hamilton.
I think it is american that think that they are not part of the world, or a world by itself. The rest of the world sees everyone as equal parts of the world but america sees itself as above it.
Ofcourse there are exceptions on both sides. But it is definitely not the other way around.
Once again a case of "this guy didn't show up in my country's history school books, so he can't be important (especially if he's American)". You probably wouldn't know much about Qian Qichen, Lavrentiy Beria, Joseph Fouché or Hans-Dietrich Genscher either. Doesn't mean that these people weren't actually important to some extent during their times. Sometimes you need to take a closer look and expand your horizon.
And it's not true at all that the rest of the world sees everyone as equal parts. China for one has a history of calling itself the middle kingdom, or central state. It is interesting that many of us European users like to point out US-centric questions only to suggest alternatives whose fame is just as confined to Europe or their own respective European countries. As an Anglophile it saddens me to say that especially Brits do that quite often.
Let's not forget Hamilton's most important contribution to history - he became the first US politician to be blackmailed for having an affair - a legacy that is still with us today. (Not to mention the minor things of establishing trade with Britain, creating the US banking industry, and writing much of The Federalist Papers and Jay's Treaty with Britain.)
Washington was instrumental in establishing the tradition of peaceful transition to a new democratically elected ruler, which, for that time, was pretty significant.
I once had a Chinese teacher who asked us, "If Mao had stepped down after winning the Chinese Civil War, would we talk about him the way we talk about Washington?" The answer we came up with was "probably not," but it was an interesting thought experiment.
Burr's most lasting contribution to history is probably his founding of the Manhattan Company, which was supposed to provide drinkable water to the city but instead decided it would be more profitable to be a bank. Through a series of mergers, they eventually became what is now Chase. The Chase logo is supposedly stylized water pipes, reflecting the company's original, neglected mission.
As is often the case, most influencial and most known do not always go hand in hand. We owe some great things to people we have never heard about and some other people are known for basicly nothing. (for simply having had a title)
Perhaps a good modern day example is the kardashian, they are world famous, but not because they have done such great things. While there have been others that have done great things (or more in line, have an amazing singing talent for instance) which we have never heard.
So these are two different debates. What a certain person has accomplished and whether or not he is know in (other parts of) the world.
Burr was an interesting person. Most popular accounts of Burr (including the musical "Hamilton") end with his duel with Hamilton. What many people don't know is that he later tried to commit insurrection against the US government and establish his own country in the newly acquired Louisiana Territory. Needless to say, the plot didn't go very far, and, after being tried for treason, Burr was forced to live in exile in Europe for a long while (although he came back to America before he died).
That story aside, I do think that Burr made a pretty big (if unintended) contribution to US history in the form of the 12th Amendment, which basically established the concept of the Presidential/Vice Presidential ticket. And I guess the Chase bank thing is big too--I didn't know about that! There's really no way he can be compared to Washington, Hamilton, or Jefferson in terms of contributions to America though.
In Australia, 'Grog' is slang for any alcoholic drink. This is in a country where the only time a government was ever overthrown by the military, was the so-called Rum Rebellion of 1808. If you want to stay in power, never cut off your army's supply of cheap booze.
More on "grog": it got its name because it was made a staple drink for British seamen in the 1740s by Admiral Edward Vernon, who had acquired the nickname "Old Grog" or "Old Grogram" because he wore a coat made of grogram or grosgrain. A factoid I somehow learned along the way even though I have never served in the Royal Navy.
If "tilt" can be included in a history quiz, then you can arbitrarily assign any word to a history quiz.
I can see the difficulty with needing a four-letter word that starts and ends with "T." It looks like you painted yourself into a corner on that one.
Maybe do the history of the first TEXT message sent, and make that an answer. Or if you're going to use "tilt," maybe there's history of when that was first installed on the machines. But leaving it as is really makes that one an outlier.
(Maybe they were specifially on Us history quizes? I might have only take a few of those, much more of the general ones)
The term 'Massive figure' will always be open to debate I suppose. I'll choose my words more carefully in future.
Edit : and being well-known and having played an important role are different things. You could say everything the western society does has an impact on the rest of the world, but does not mean that every single person from western society is relevant/known in others parts of the world.
Usually only direct involvement ensures that persons are known. Even though a person indirectly might have set events in motion that eventually make an impact on certain countries.
And the gun question was presumably also aimed at americans. From a UK perspective we'd probably think that the answer to:-
Person that invented a type of gun that kills people a lot quicker "C _ _ T" had a very different answer. It didn't work, though.
Lots of bars(pubs) were trashed (allegdly due to someone cheating lifting up the table to make the ball go into the desired hole..) And people were thrown around (as happens in barfights) one of which actually died, he was thrown on the till and broke his back, hence the word tilt. (the outcome of a table being lifted and how people went beserk). But other etymologists suggests it comes from "tilled", which meant lifted in old-english. Which is still recognisable in the agricultural term (where the soil is lifted ) and in other germanic languages; tillen still means lift in dutch
Pendantic: adj. being excessively concerned with minor details relating to decorative neckware?
Think of a fruitpie, but it hasnt got banana in it, it is still a fruit pie ;) And calling it an apple-pie while there were other fruits in it, (in comparable amounts, not like 1%) would be more wrong.
I wanted to say, amazingly hardly any swearing or inapproprate sexual comments. But I forgot that the worst gets deleted.
Washington-Jefferson. While Jefferson was indeed a world renown figure, what exactly did Washington do to deserve such notoriety?
On the other hand, Hamilton was responsible for, among other things, the establishment of our Treasury, and without the U.S. Treasury, we would not be able to waste our money in foreign aid to countries which despise us.
Washington is an extremely influential figure, too, though.
On the other hand, Aaron Burr didn't really do much and is only famous for his duel with Hamilton.
Ofcourse there are exceptions on both sides. But it is definitely not the other way around.
I once had a Chinese teacher who asked us, "If Mao had stepped down after winning the Chinese Civil War, would we talk about him the way we talk about Washington?" The answer we came up with was "probably not," but it was an interesting thought experiment.
Perhaps a good modern day example is the kardashian, they are world famous, but not because they have done such great things. While there have been others that have done great things (or more in line, have an amazing singing talent for instance) which we have never heard.
So these are two different debates. What a certain person has accomplished and whether or not he is know in (other parts of) the world.
That story aside, I do think that Burr made a pretty big (if unintended) contribution to US history in the form of the 12th Amendment, which basically established the concept of the Presidential/Vice Presidential ticket. And I guess the Chase bank thing is big too--I didn't know about that! There's really no way he can be compared to Washington, Hamilton, or Jefferson in terms of contributions to America though.
I can see the difficulty with needing a four-letter word that starts and ends with "T." It looks like you painted yourself into a corner on that one.
Maybe do the history of the first TEXT message sent, and make that an answer. Or if you're going to use "tilt," maybe there's history of when that was first installed on the machines. But leaving it as is really makes that one an outlier.