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History General Knowledge #13

Can you answer these random history questions?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: May 24, 2024
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First submittedMay 24, 2024
Times taken17,544
Average score65.0%
Rating4.52
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Question
Answer
What paper-like writing material was used by the ancient Egyptians?
Papyrus
What was the first animal to be domesticated by humans, at least 15,000 years ago?
Dogs
Who went on 18 different hunger strikes in his life, the first in 1913 and the last in 1948?
Mohandas Gandhi
What field of study traces its roots back to Hippocrates and Galen?
Medicine
Who did Nikita Khrushchev denounce in his "Secret Speech" of 1956?
Joseph Stalin
What city was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453?
Constantinople
What series of conflicts pitted the House of Lancaster against the House of York?
Wars of the Roses
Who was punished by Pope Urban VIII for insisting that the Earth revolves around the sun?
Galileo Galilei
Which European country colonized the country today known as the
Democratic Republic of the Congo?
Belgium
What imperial dynasty gave its name to the ethnic group which makes up more
than 90% of the population of China?
Han
What was the capital of the former kingdom of Bohemia?
Prague
What plant was first introduced to Italy in the 1500s where it was given the name
"pomo d'oro", meaning "golden apple"?
Tomato
What invention marked the end of prehistory and the beginning of history?
Writing
What body of water was named by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521?
Pacific Ocean
What country did the famous conjoined twins Cheng and Eng come from?
Thailand (Siam)
What was abolished by the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865?
Slavery
What was used as currency in the Maldives until the 20th century?
Cowrie shells
What division of the Soviet government did Vladimir Putin join in 1975?
KGB
What city is built over the place where Lake Texcoco once stood?
Mexico City
What Communist group ruled Cambodia in the late 1970s – killing about
25% of the population?
Khmer Rouge
30 Comments
+2
Level 65
May 24, 2024
Can you make more of these pls :)
+3
Level 70
May 24, 2024
I feel like cowrie(s) should be accepted.
+1
Level ∞
May 24, 2024
Okay
+9
Level 78
May 24, 2024
I feel like Red Khmer should be accepted.
+1
Level 60
Jun 4, 2024
I'd support that
+8
Level 76
May 25, 2024
I spent ages typing variations of the Strait of Magellan :(
+3
Level 82
May 25, 2024
Magellan didn't name it after himself. He called it the Strait of All Saints.
+2
Level 60
Jun 4, 2024
Same here, because I thought it said "...was named after..."

After reading the clue again I finally found the right answer.

+5
Level 82
May 25, 2024
as a historian, the pre-history question is new to me. it's all history. no one invention marks the beginning of history. the field of study question is highly debatable too. it's a bit like claiming democracy was invented in greece when many tribal societies had been practising it for thousands of years.
+9
Level 90
May 26, 2024
You have a point, but there is a difference. Understanding a paleolithic ivory flute does not require writing - it’s obvious what it’s for. What are not obvious however, are the reasons behind the object’s creation and use. Who made it? Who played it? When was it used - was music ceremonial, spiritual or was it a leisure activity, a part of everyday life? What musical notes and melodies did they play? It is only with the advent of writing that future generations would have any real understanding of ancient motivations.

Pre-historic literally means before writing.

In fact, this is the very reason Galen and Hippocrates are credited as the “first” practitioners of medicine. While people undoubtedly practised medicine long before this, they were among the first to write it down. You have countered your own objection!

+5
Level 51
May 30, 2024
I'm worried that as historian you don't know that history is the study of written documentation as left by humans throughout time. Within the discipline of history, anything that predates the invention of the written word is prehistory. That's one of the things you learn very early on when studying history and any historian should know this as a matter of course. Or are you using the word 'historian' rather loosely?
+7
Level 65
May 30, 2024
I teach world history in college, and the first slide on day 1 covers the difference between history and prehistoric times. Then we begin with Mesopotamia and the invention of writing. It's standard stuff.
+1
Level 71
Oct 28, 2024
We were taught the difference between history and pre-history on our first history class in primary school.
+2
Level 69
May 31, 2024
as a historian it is quite unbelievable you don't know the difference between the two - from an archaeologist
+5
Level 58
May 25, 2024
Italy: hmm we've found this new fruit

Italy: it's quite tasty and red

Italy: it's very squishy as well

Italy:

Italy: GOLDEN APPLE

+6
Level 73
May 26, 2024
According to Mr Google “the first varieties of (answer) arriving in Europe and spreading from Spain to Italy and North Africa were yellow.”
+5
Level 78
May 30, 2024
And while I can't speak for 1500s Italian, in Middle English and as late as the 17th century, "apple" was used to refer to any kind of fruit that wasn't a berry. you see it pop up in other places, like pineapple (which actually used to refer to pine cones, and only later got applied to the tropical fruit), how pomegranate comes from the Medieval Latin for "apple with many seeds," or how the French for "potato" is pomme de terre (apple of the earth).
+1
Level 46
May 26, 2024
I got the last one wrong because i spelled it Khymer. Really?
+1
Level 75
May 30, 2024
Me too, tried kmher, khmer and red kmher and red khmer.

Reconsider to accept some of these?

+1
Level 72
May 29, 2024
I feel like calling the Khmer rouge communist is a bit disingenuous when we know Pol Pot was planted by the Americans to make communism look bad, his actions are more like far right reactionary fascism.
+6
Level 78
May 30, 2024
Yeah, an American plant. Stalin was from Georgia, too. Atlanta, Georgia!
+2
Level 66
May 30, 2024
I missed out on the prehistory/history boundary question because I couldn't figure out the wording of the answer. I realise now that that was a bit stupid, but maybe accept “script” as a type-in?
+4
Level 78
May 30, 2024
Guessing the Maldivian currency out of the wild blue is probably my best random guess on the site in years.
+1
Level 77
May 30, 2024
i feel like remembering that they used 'shells' deserves credit?
+2
Level 78
May 30, 2024
Just "shells" worked for me.
+1
Level 69
May 30, 2024
19/20, just missed shells, I was thinking it might be that but didn't try it
+3
Level 66
Jun 2, 2024
If the answer is dogs instead of wolves, then the Ottomans conquered Istanbul not Constantinople.
+1
Level 71
Oct 28, 2024
Istanbul is at least an accepted answer here, unlike wolves. :)
+1
Level 28
Jul 19, 2024
You can put this in your series with the twelve others ;)!
+1
Level 68
Aug 15, 2024
Should Tenochtitlan work for Mexico City/Lake Texcoco?