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History by Letter - C

Can you name these historical people, places, and things beginning with the letter C?
Quiz by Geoguy
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Last updated: October 28, 2023
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First submittedMay 19, 2014
Times taken141,750
Average score77.3%
Rating4.74
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Hint
Answer
He met his end on the
Ides of March
Julius Caesar
He was looking for India but
found America instead
Christopher
Columbus
Capital of the Byzantine Empire
Constantinople
The last pharaoh, and a rare
female one
Cleopatra
African city established as a
Dutch supply station
Cape Town
Country devastated by Pol Pot
Cambodia
British PM, 1940–1945
Winston Churchill
Drug used by Sigmund Freud and
Sherlock Holmes
Cocaine
Medieval Christian attempts to
capture the Holy Land
The Crusades
Rome's largest amphitheatre
Colosseum
"ism" promoted by Karl Marx
Communism
Hint
Answer
"Great Sage" of Chinese philosophy
Confucius
French theologian for whom a branch
of Christianity is named
John Calvin
"War" between the USA and the USSR
Cold War
Astronomer who posited that the
Earth revolves around the sun
Nicolaus
Copernicus
Great king of the Franks from 768–814
Charlemagne
Group whose priests were called druids
Celts
British explorer who died in Hawaii
James Cook
Ancient rival of Rome located in
modern-day Tunisia
Carthage
Eli Whitney's invention
Cotton Gin
Polish-French discoverer of Polonium
Marie Curie
Site of a 1986 nuclear disaster
Chernobyl
80 Comments
+14
Level 55
May 19, 2014
Great quiz! Churchill was also Prime Minister from 1951 to 1955, though that term was obviously a little less memorable.
+2
Level 68
May 20, 2014
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!
+6
Level 87
May 24, 2014
The Celts were a civilization, not a "group"...
+21
Level 86
Jun 18, 2014
Aren't they by definition a group though?
+1
Level 48
Jun 1, 2014
100%! I love these!
+1
Level 87
Jun 12, 2014
fairly easy as I got 100% with 2:21 to go.
+3
Level 81
Jun 18, 2014
We literally learned about all these people/events in my world history class this year. What do you know, school actually coming in handy for once :D
+1
Level 33
Jun 18, 2014
I would change the format of the question to "Medieval Christians attempt to capture the Holy Land'

Change the letter s from attempts to Christian

+10
Level 93
Jun 18, 2014
But as there were three crusades, attempts in the plural is a better clue.
+7
Level 74
Jun 21, 2014
The total number of crusades is arguable. Some say six, some say seven, others are adamant there were nine, and some say 30 or more if you include the lesser ones.
+1
Level 81
Jun 28, 2014
Does that include Campus Crusade?
+6
Level 43
Jun 18, 2014
But what they're looking for is definitions, not sentences. If you asked, "What are the Crusades?", the answer wouldn't be "Medieval Christians attempt to capture the Holy Land," because that doesn't make sense grammatically. It also makes it seem like it's about the Christians when it's actually about the attempts. (Crusades = attempts (events, occurrences), not Crusades = Christians.)
+4
Level 18
Jun 18, 2014
somehow i read it as polish-french emporer of polonium, confused the hell out of me.

also i wanted carl to fit for charlemagne, due to him being named carl in my native language.

great quiz!

+1
Level 51
Jun 19, 2014
Good quiz, but other countries apart from the US were involved in the Cold War with USSR e.g. UK, France, West Germany etc etc
+5
Level 74
Jun 21, 2014
That's right, although the US and Soviet Union emerged as superpowers. Perhaps a better clue would include Western Bloc versus Eastern Bloc nations, or NATO vs. the Warsaw Pact nations. (That just reminded me of a great book, _The Spy Who Came in from the Cold_.)
+1
Level 55
Apr 10, 2024
it was mainly the soviets and americans
+3
Level 9
Sep 23, 2014
Typed in crusade and crusaders but couldn't manage to put an 's' on the end....
+1
Level 67
Jun 14, 2015
Columbus never landed in America... He landed in the Caribbean which is why it's now called the West Indies.
+21
Level 83
Sep 8, 2015
The Caribbean is in America. Unless you take America to mean the United States of America. America as a political boundary I think tends to incorporate North and Latin America.
+3
Level 53
Jul 9, 2021
Dear brandybuck96, you are right! America is not only USA but Canada, Caribbean Sea, Central and South America as well!!! (we understand that USA citizens always refers themselves as americans but the exact meaning of the name "America" includes Caribbean Sea and all territories that I mentioned above).
+4
Level 76
Oct 28, 2023
America IS only the USA in English. We call North/South America + the Caribbean (i.e. the new world) the AmericaS in English. When it's not plural, everybody but the biggest smartarse from the UK, to Canada, to Australia, to Ireland will immediately think of the US when they hear "America". Just because "America" = "the new world" in Spanish, French and maybe a few other languages, doesn't mean that the same thing applies to English.
+8
Level 83
Oct 29, 2023
To be honest I think in English the word has two definitions. It's not incorrect to use it for the USA, but it's not incorrect to use it for the America(s) either. The idea that the Spanish usage is the only correct one is a bit silly, though, when the language in question is not Spanish.
+4
Level 36
Nov 26, 2017
Another misnomer brought about by ignorance. Columbus destroyed everything he touched; If not by outright looting and murder, then by the diseases he brought with him. No wonder the people of the Caribbean do not celebrate him.
+6
Level 62
May 6, 2018
Have you ever heard of the Columbus Lighthouse in Santo Domingo? It cost nearly $70M to build. I think most would agree that by today's standards Columbus was a ruthless bastard, but you can't say he isn't celebrated on the Caribbean.
+8
Level 59
Sep 11, 2021
A) As was said already, the Caribbean is part of the Americas.

B) If you ment that he NEVER landed on the continent, that is also wrong. While it is true he only landed on various islands during his first voyage, he also mapped a large portion of the continental coast of South and Central America later in his life.

+8
Level 70
Aug 13, 2015
Aristarchus of Samos (b. 310 BC) suggested that the Earth and Planets travelled around the sun and calculated the relative sizes and distances of the Earth, Moon and Sun and stated that the Universe was of infinite size. Copernicus knew of Aristarchus and his work and mentioned him in his notes when writing his book "Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres' ...... but all mention of Aristarchus was removed by the Publishers.
+3
Level 52
Oct 23, 2019
This guy here... I got Copernicus, but it is so outdated this concept. People new that long before he "rediscovered"
+4
Level 41
Sep 29, 2021
Same goes for several BC-era Hindu philosophers who've disappeared from the history books somehow...
+1
Level 73
Nov 27, 2015
Thanks for making this. Very fun.
+1
Level 74
Mar 4, 2016
+1. Nice mix.
+1
Level 67
Sep 14, 2016
"Medieval Christian attempts to capture the holy land" Is a little weird choice of words. I thought the answer was a person, since christian is in singular form... maybe "Medieval christians" would be better?
+7
Level 60
Oct 3, 2016
Christian is an adjective there. If it was a noun it'd likely be possessive.
+1
Level 75
Nov 25, 2018
If it's an adjective then it needs no capital letter at the start.
+9
Level 78
Oct 28, 2023
Yes it does, because it's the adjectival form of a proper noun. You capitalize the adjective when you talk about a Chinese invention, a British city, an Egyptian river, etc.
+1
Level 72
Apr 8, 2024
"Attempts by medieval Christians", perhaps.
+2
Level 52
Apr 9, 2017
Please accept crusade and confucianism. At least for us non native English speakers it is sometimes hard to write exactly right.
+5
Level 70
Jun 6, 2017
I wish I could write in another language as well as you do in English.
+5
Level 60
Mar 10, 2019
Almost 100%, but sadly, I didn't know anything about Whitney's inventions except the beautiful rendition of 'I Will Always Love You'
+4
Level 74
Nov 24, 2019
Since Dolly Parton wrote it I'd say she's more the "inventor". :) Both of them sang beautiful versions of it.
+6
Level 44
Nov 23, 2019
Never knew Calvin was actually a French who emigrated to Switzerland. I always thought he was Swiss.
+1
Level 76
Sep 30, 2021
ditto
+1
Level 67
Nov 23, 2019
Knew both Cretaceous and Copernicus, bit couldn't figure out how to spell them :-(
+1
Level 36
Dec 7, 2019
^ Same here.
+1
Level 69
Nov 25, 2019
Surprised that cotton gin could be so low. Or maybe it's my us-centrism showing
+4
Level 29
Apr 27, 2021
It is.
+1
Level 80
Apr 10, 2020
I read 'Invention of Eli Whitney' as 'Inventor of Eli Whitney', so I kept trying to think of names of famous authors (not that I knew the correct answer anyway).
+1
Level 80
Apr 10, 2020
I very much knew Confucius but didn't know what 'Great Sage' meant, so I didn't get it.
+1
Level 57
Dec 3, 2020
I mean, with "Chinese Philosopher" some bells should be going off
+5
Level 69
Dec 4, 2020
I use the Great Sage to stuff the Amazing Turkey.
+2
Level 80
Apr 10, 2020
I always thought cotton gin was some sort of alcoholic gin!
+1
Level 88
Oct 31, 2023
100% daily fiber recommendation (based on a 2000 calorie diet).
+1
Level 49
May 22, 2020
Only missed Celt
+2
Level 48
Aug 16, 2020
Racked my brain for the British PM and finally came up with... Neville Chamberlain! No. Churchill.
+1
Level 53
Oct 23, 2020
23/24, because I couldn't spell "Cretaceous."
+1
Level 52
Jan 3, 2021
Really fun quiz, I enjoyed trying it out.
+4
Level 38
Apr 9, 2021
technically, columbus wasnt looking for india, he was looking for the indies, which are now known as indonesia
+1
Level 66
Sep 29, 2021
Cleopatra was a queen not a pharaoh
+4
Level 65
Sep 29, 2021
The Ptolemaic Dynasty assumed Egyptian customs and did indeed style themselves Pharaohs.
+3
Level 68
Sep 29, 2021
Accept "crusade" please (given other singular words are accepted for plurals elsewhere in the quiz such as Celt)
+1
Level 46
Jan 19, 2022
I think you need to be more specific on the communism one, “ism” isn’t enough to figure it out, something like democracy, aristocracy, communism, monarchy, socialism, fascism, it is called an ideology
+1
Level 51
Apr 14, 2022
How does Cretaceous have such a low percentage of correct answers?
+2
Level 38
Jun 29, 2022
it would accept just "crusade"..
+3
Level 58
Aug 31, 2022
Great quiz. Perhaps to make it an even number of questions & to make it more symmetrical & visually pleasing add one more? Perhaps something about Cicero, being beheaded by Mark Anthony?
+6
Level 70
Oct 28, 2023
It is Marie Skłodowska-Curie. So does not really fit. Maybe change to ask about second part of her surname? Or at least add first part to the answer, please.
+5
Level ∞
Oct 28, 2023
Nationalism is poison.
+4
Level 87
Apr 8, 2024
Is feminism poison too? It's her that wanted to be called by her actual surname. But, to be fair, Polish is a very difficult language and that name is arguably impossible to pronounce correctly for a French speaker ;).

Anyways, I know that there are not many questions about women, but never forget that Pierre Curie had a Nobel Prize too (and probably would have shared the one for Polonium too had he still be living).

Finally, her daughter Irene had a Nobel Prize too, with her husband Frédéric Joliot, a rare case of a man using her woman's surname for a change, as they were both called "Joliot-Curie".

+1
Level 53
Sep 15, 2024
On the contrary, naming her just Curie is pure French cultural colonialism of Europe. Her name was Maria Skłodowska, could be Skłodowska-Curie, never just Curie.
+5
Level 80
Oct 28, 2023
Sorry, what? Not following the link from 'please include full name' to 'nationalism is poison.'
+2
Level 82
Oct 28, 2023
It’s because Polish people are extremely particular about pointing out that Marie Curie was Polish. Generally, when this comment is posted, it’s just to point out that fact so that everyone is reminded that she was not French. As if what country a historical figure was born in really matters much.
+7
Level 80
Oct 28, 2023
She was Polish. And French. It seems to be a touchy spot especially regarding Curie, but I don't see how the context of a person's birth is irrelevant. The only justifiable reason for excluding her full name seems to me that she is almost universally known just as Marie Curie, not because 'nationalism is poison.'
+5
Level 82
Oct 29, 2023
Yeah, I guess I don’t really disagree with you there, but the fact that people argue about who gets to “claim” her is a bit ridiculous. She was a person, not an object that belongs to some country. I hope that if I ever move to another country and do something worth remembering that people don’t argue about who gets to claim me. I’d just want my work to be appreciated for what it did for the world as a whole.
+6
Level 79
Oct 29, 2023
I would say that Poland and France can both claim her (and I'm neither Polish nor French, so I have no nationalistic stake in this), but I would suggest including the name Skłodowska in the "official answer," since she never stopped using that name in her personal or professional life.
+3
Level 86
Oct 30, 2023
Shouldn't it be "recapture" the Holy Land?
+2
Level 70
Oct 30, 2023
Just missed Calvin
+4
Level 73
Oct 30, 2023
But now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople! Been a long time gone, Constantinople
+4
Level 69
Oct 31, 2023
Please accept Cistanbul and Cbyzantium as possible answers!
+1
Level 87
Nov 4, 2023
Caesarion was the last Pharaoh, not Cleopatra.

Still starts with C though.

+1
Level 72
Mar 19, 2024
could you even out the colomns? I missed some because it looked like I had scrolled down far enough already
+1
Level 55
Oct 23, 2024
The cotton gin question was very funny. Also, the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.
+1
Level 37
Nov 16, 2024
sklodowska-curie