Finals

Seek under Porus

Two written roundsOne clockwise and One anti-clockwise roundsInfinite Pounce on all questions under

controlled conditionsThe modus operandi will be explained by the

QM

Rules of Engagement

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” – George Santayana

The Write Wing

Six Questions10 points eachAdditional 1o points for getting all 6 right

1. By what nick-name was this contraption known among German soldiers during World War 2?

2. What is being depicted?

3. Who?

4. What event/Who?

5. It was the flagship of Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She and her sister ship, were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, displacing 72,800 tons at full load . Id this ship which was named after an ancient Japanese province

6. What 1980 event is being shown here?

Answers to follow..

1. By what nick-name was this contraption known among German soldiers?

These were Katyusha rocket launchers and because of the resemblance they had to church organ pipes and the sound the made while on flight, these were known as Stalin’s Organs.

2. What is being depicted?

Gavrilo Princip shooting Arch Duke Francis Ferdinand

3. Who?

Christine Keeler

4. Depiction of which “Gallant gentleman” ?

Capt. Lawrence Oates

5. It was the flagship of Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. She and her sister ship, were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, displacing 72,800 tonnes at full load and armed with nine 46 cm (18.1 inch) main guns. Id this ship which was named after an ancient Japanese province

Yamato

6. What 1980 event is being shown here?

The 1980 London Iranian Embassy siege

CLOCKWISE ROUND

In the year 680, a nomadic people of Hunnish and Iranian descent who called themselves a name meaning “mixed” were led by their Khan Asparuch to the borders of Byzantium Empire and imposed crushing defeat on the forces of Emperor Constantine IV. They took over all the Byzantine lands north of Balkan mountain range. The year 681 is now celebrated as the founding of a present nation state. Which country?

The answer is….

Bulgaria

The Sarmatians emerged in the 7th century BC in a region of the steppe in Eastern Europe. They were nomads who used to fight on horseback and used heavy weaponry. In the 3rd century BC, they spilled over the Don to attack the Scythians on the Pontic steppe to the north of the Black Sea. The Sarmatians were to dominate these territories over the next five centuries. In the 2nd century of our era, the Sarmatians came under attack from a group of people who ended up adopting the Sarmatian taste for heavy, ornate forms and for metalwork encrusted with colored enamel and semi-precious stones. And it is through this ethnic group that Europe came to know the Sarmatian decorative style and hence our current name for this style is a misnomer. What?

The answer is….

Gothic

This Greek settlement was established around 720 BC in Southern Italy. Wonderful stories were told about it's Greek citizen's refinement, so as to explain their eventual destruction. They are said to have banned cockerels because they disturbed their sleep; they invented chamber pots and took them along to their drinking-parties; they taught cavalry horses to dance to the tune of flutes and is believed to have invented the Turkish bath. A word meaning a lover of luxury has been derived from this place. Where/What word?

Sybarite from Sybaris

The North African elephant was a possible subspecies of the African bush elephant, or possibly a separate elephant species, that existed in North Africa until becoming extinct in Ancient Roman times. It is also possible that it was more docile than the African bush elephant, which is generally untamable, allowing them to be tamed by a method now lost to history. What proof does history provide for the existence of these beasts?

The answer is….

The answer is….

These were the elephants used by Hannibal to cross Alps. However Hannibal’s personal elephant called the Surus belonged to a much larger now extinct species called Syrian Elephant.

An example of weird Nazi science, the Heck cattle originated in the 1920s and 1930s in an attempt to breed back domestic cattle to their ancestral form. The idea was to regenerate Bos primigenius, the ancestor of domestic cattle. These wild cattle inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa and they survived in Europe until the last recorded animal, a female, died in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland in 1627.The project was supported by Hermann Göring, who kept Heck cattle .A reconstruction of the ancestral cattle also fitted into the Nazi propaganda drive to symbolize the originality and purity of the Aryan nation. What animal?

The answer is….

Aurochs, along with direwolves find mention in GRRM’s Game of Throne series

This Roman philosopher was forced to commit suicide for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero. Tacitus give a romanticized account of his suicide, he followed tradition by severing several veins in order to bleed to death. His age and diet were blamed for slow loss of blood after dictating his last words to a scribe, and with a circle of friends attending him in his home, he immersed himself in a warm bath, which was expected to speed blood flow and ease his pain. It is also believed that he had been converted to the Christian faith by Saint Paul, and early humanists regarded his fatal bath as a kind of disguised baptism. His death was depicted in many painting including a Peter Paul Rubens painting shown in next slide. Who?

The answer is….

Seneca the younger

By 670 BC there was a famous change in Greek military tactics until then the fighting force was mainly composed of aristocrats who comprised the cavalry. This tactic is attributed to Phiedon of Argos and involved infantry men with large shields about three feet across. These massive shields could protect a warrior's left side from his chin down to his knees. In a massed line the overlapping shields of each warrior's neighbor covered his right side and this freed his right hand to use a spear or a short sword. The prevailing Greek cavalry could not charge down this heavy armored line of infantry as long as the ranks stood firm. Thus, noble horsemen became peripheral and champions and their individual duals diminished. They were common citizens who were mustered whenever necessary and were named after their shields. Their emergence was a necessary precondition of Greek Tyranny who acted as a bridge between oligarchy and democracy. Who?

The answer is….

The Hoplites who were named after their shields Hoplons

During the second phase of the Peloponnesian War, Athens, the Superpower of those times invaded a small volcanic island in the Aegean Sea. Before starting the siege the Athenians decided to negotiate with the islanders. This conflict was recorded in Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. The arguments show how the islanders were put in quite the predicament: to save themselves and surrender or have their nation completely destroyed for the sake of independence. Snippets of the argument:“The islanders argue that they are a neutral city and not an enemy, so Athens has no need to crush them. The Athenians counter that, if they accept the islanders' neutrality and independence, they would look weak”The arguments and counter arguments go on and in the end, Athens invades the island and massacres its inhabitants. It is said the decline of Athens began with this atrocity and eventually Athens was defeated by Sparta and her allies. Identify this tiny island which quizzers know for another reason.

The answer is….

Melian Dialogue/ Milos Venus De Milo is from here

In the early days of the Civil War, General-in-Chief Winfield Scott's proposed strategy for the war against the South had two prominent features: first, all ports in the seceding states were to be rigorously blockaded; second, a strong force of perhaps 80,000 men should use _________ as a highway to thrust completely through the Confederacy. A spearhead consisting of a relatively small force, a should advance rapidly, capturing the Confederate positions along the route in sequence. They would be followed by a more traditional army, marching behind them to secure the victories. The culminating battle would be for the forts below New Orleans; when they fell, the route would be in Federal hands, and the rebellion would be cut in two. Because the blockade would be rather passive, it was widely derided by the vociferous faction who wanted a more vigorous prosecution of the war, and who likened it to an animal suffocating its victim. What was the name of this plan and also identify the "route".

The answer is….

Anaconda plan and the Mississippi River

In a book released in 1969 A.J.P. Taylor argued that prior to World War One the continental powers hoped to develop a deterrent that would lead to other powers seeing the risk of war as too dangerous. One way was to develop better arms and indulge in arms race. The other interesting deterrent was related to the mobilization of the forces. The technological advancements of the time presented a unique opportunity to the Commanders and they spent considerable time working on a particular aspect of mobilization. It is said that it forced invasion (of Belgium from Germany) as an unavoidable physical and logistical consequence of German mobilization. Taylor argued that the mobilization that was meant to serve as a threat and deterrent to war instead relentlessly caused a world war by forcing invasion. What is this aspect of mobilization which according Taylor was one of the major Casus Belli for the WW1?

The answer is….

Railway Time-tables

It is a hand tool used in many situations where a mechanical advantage is required to cut or pull an object. They are first-class levers, but differ from pliers in that the concentration of force is either to a point, or to an edge perpendicular to the length of the tool and it allows the tool to be brought close to a surface, as is often required when working with nails. They are primarily used for removing objects out of a material that they have been previously applied to.

The answer is….

The celebrated maneuver - the pincer movement is named after this instrument. Here red envelopes the blue force. It was used in many battles including the Battle of Marathon and Battle of Cannae

This rationale of establishing this order has been often quoted as "It is with such baubles that men are led." The order was the first modern order of merit. The orders of the monarchy were often limited to Roman Catholics and all knights had to be noblemen. The military decorations were the perks of the officers. This new order was however, was open to men of all ranks and professions. Only merit or bravery counted. It is noteworthy that all previous orders were crosses or shared a clear Christian background, whereas it is a secular institution. The jewel of this order has five arms. What order?

The answer is….

French Legion of Honor

The Arab historian al-Maqrīzī, writing in the 15th century, attributes it to Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr, a Sufi Muslim. In AD 1378, upon finding the local peasants making offerings in the hope of increasing their harvest, Sa'im al-Dahr was so outraged that he ended up vandalizing it and was promptly hanged .There are various stories involving a magic carpet, cannonballs of Napoleon's soldiers, British troops, the Mamluks, and others. What?

The answer is….

How the Sphinx’s nose lost his nose.

This battles was an engagement between the Russian Empire and the German Empire in the first days of World War I. It was fought by the Russian Second Army against the German Eighth Army between 26 August and 30 August 1914.The battle resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army. Although the battle actually took place close to Allenstein (Olsztyn), General Erich Ludendorff's aide, Colonel Max Hoffmann, suggested naming it after a place some 30km to the west, in the interest of Pan-German ideology, to counter the defeat of the Teutonic Knights in 1410 by the Poles, Lithuanians and Tatars. Which Battle?

The answer is….

The battle of Tannenburg

This is perhaps one of the strangest objects to come out of the Cultural Revolution in China. In August 1968 Chairman Mao met a delegation from a neighboring country and was gifted something, which he then redistributed to various teams in Beijing. Rather than consume them, they were preserved. And since the actual artifact could not be preserved indefinitely, wax replicas were made. It also showed up on pins along with Chairman Mao, on propaganda posters, and on signs to name a few. What gift did Mao get?

The answer is….

Mangoes

According to Herodotus this Greek God left Greece and went on a tour and famously came to India. He then conquered India, founded cities, introduced cities and taught Indians agriculture and wine making. Alexander during his conquest came across a city called Nysa where the city folk pleaded Alexander to spare them in the name of the Greek God. It is also believed that the God named mountain near the city , Meru or the Thigh- because legend has it that he grew in the thigh of Zeus. Who was this Greek God?

The answer is….

Dionysious

The three French men pictured here (with another unknown man in uniform) were alleged to have been ordered to say the “Shahada” and convert to Islam temporarily. A highly controversial Fatwa was issued to legitimize this action. All this was necessitated by the actions of the man pictured in the next slide.

Explain.

Answer…

Grand Mosque seizure of 1979.A group of Islamists under the command

of Juhayman al-Otaibi seized the holy shrine of Mecca. The French GIGN commandos were called in to end the seige. Since, only Muslims are allowed inside the mosque, they had to be converted first.

Rulers of a particular royal family used to offer prayers to this tree located within a temple dedicated to Lord Krishna. The tree is closely associated with a famous ruler of the dynasty and his rise to power. By what popular name is it known?

Answer…

Ammachi plavu (“mother jackfruit tree”).The rulers of Travancore used to pay their

respects to this tree which shielded Marthanda Varma from his enemies, while he was fighting for his survival.

K F Rustamji, was a police officer who served as the chief security officer of Nehru. In 1965, he was asked to set up the Border Security Force (BSF) in India. In 1978 he visited the jails in Bihar and wrote two articles in the Indian Express about the conditions of the undertrials languishing in the jails for long periods without a trial. These articles formed the basis for the first ____ in India. Fill up.

Answer…

The first PIL (Public Interest Litigation) in India, namely “Hussainara Khatoon vs State of Bihar” was filed based on the two articles.

What is happening in this picture?

Answer…

The surrender of Hiroo Onada, a Japanese soldier from WWII, who continued his guerilla fight in the jungles of Philippines till 1974. Onada never believed that the war had ended and surrendered only after his former commander came back to relieve him of his responsibilities.

ReportersWritten Round

5 questions 10 points eachBonus of 10 for getting all answers correct

1.Who, reporting what news? “If the exhibition of the most brilliant valor, of the excess of courage, and of a daring which would have reflected luster on the best days of chivalry can afford full consolation for the disaster of today, we can have no reason to regret the melancholy loss which we sustained in a contest with a savage and barbarian enemy. I shall proceed to describe, to the best of my power, what occurred under my own eyes, and to state the facts which I have heard from men whose veracity is unimpeachable, reserving to myself the right of private judgment in making public and in suppressing the details of what occurred on this memorable day...……………..They swept proudly past, glittering in the morning sun in all the pride and splendor of war. We could hardly believe the evidence of our senses. Surely that handful of men were not going to charge an army in position? Alas! It was but too true -- their desperate valor knew no bounds, and far indeed was it removed from its so-called better part -- discretion.”

2.He claimed in his 1983 book “The Price of Power”

that former Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai had been paid $20,000 a year by the CIA during the Johnson and Nixon administration. Desai called the allegation "a scandalous and malicious lie" and filed a $50 million libel suit against him. By the time the case went to trial Desai, by then 93, was too ill to attend. CIA director Richard Helms and Henry Kissinger testified under oath that at no time did Desai act in any capacity for the CIA, paid or otherwise. Since ____ did not have to take the stand or reveal the name of his alleged source, the Judge ruled in favor of _____.

Name this reporter, more famous for a 1969 expose.

3.In 1902, the journalist ____ did an interview with

Henry H Rogers, one of the directors of the Standard Oil Corporation. This formed the basis for her negative exposé of the business practices of industrialist John D. Rockefeller and the massive Standard Oil organization. Her investigative journalism series first appeared in a 1903 issue of McClure's Magazine that ushered in the era of muckraking journalism. Her work greatly influenced the 1911 breaking up of Standard Oil under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Name the journalist.

4.“The most ancient town of the Basques and the centre of their

cultural tradition, was completely destroyed yesterday afternoon by insurgent air raiders. The bombardment of this open town far behind the lines occupied precisely three hours and a quarter, during which a powerful fleet of aeroplanes consisting of three German types, Junkers and Heinkel bombers, did not cease unloading on the town bombs weighing from 1,000 lbs. downwards and, it is calculated, more than 3,000 two-pounder aluminium incendiary projectiles. The fighters, meanwhile, plunged low from above the centre of the town to machine-gun those of the civilian population who had taken refuge in the fields.”…

This report was done by a Times reporter, who had rushed to Geurnica a few hours after it was bombed and interviewed the survivors. A reprinting of this report in a French Communist daily was read by Picasso, leading to his famous artwork.

Name the reporter.

5She spent four years

interviewing organizers and victims of the Rwandan genocide. She had campaigned for international intervention long before the big powers woke up to the massacres. Later she testified several times before an International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Name this lady, who’s 1999 book was described by the Economist and the New York Times as the definitive account of the Rwandan genocide.

Answers

1.Who, reporting what news?“If the exhibition of the most brilliant valor, of the excess of courage, and of a daring which would have reflected luster on the best days of chivalry can afford full consolation for the disaster of today, we can have no reason to regret the melancholy loss which we sustained in a contest with a savage and barbarian enemy.I shall proceed to describe, to the best of my power, what occurred under my own eyes, and to state the facts which I have heard from men whose veracity is unimpeachible, reserving to myself the right of private judgement in making public and in surpressing the details of what occurred on this memorable day...……………..They swept proudly past, glittering in the morning sun in all the pride and splendor of war. We could hardly believe the evidence of our senses. Surely that handful of men were not going to charge an army in position? Alas! It was but too true -- their desperate valor knew no bounds, and far indeed was it removed from its so-called better part -- discretion.”

William Howard Russell, reporting the Charge of the Light Brigade.

2.He claimed in his 1983 book “The Price of Power”

that former Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai had been paid $20,000 a year by the CIA during the Johnson and Nixon administration. Desai called the allegation "a scandalous and malicious lie" and filed a $50 million libel suit against him. By the time the case went to trial Desai, by then 93, was too ill to attend. CIA director Richard Helms and Henry Kissinger testified under oath that at no time did Desai act in any capacity for the CIA, paid or otherwise. Since ____ did not have to take the stand or reveal the name of his alleged source, the Judge ruled in favor of _____.

Name this reporter, more famous for a 1969 expose.

Seymour Hersh, who broke the news of the My Lai massacre.

3.In 1902, the journalist ____ did an interview with

Henry H Rogers, one of the directors of the Standard Oil Corporation. This formed the basis for her negative exposé of the business practices of industrialist John D. Rockefeller and the massive Standard Oil organization. Her investigative journalism series first appeared in a 1903 issue of McClure's Magazine that ushered in the era of muckraking journalism. Her work greatly influenced the 1911 breaking up of Standard Oil under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Name the journalist.

Ida Tarbell.

4.“The most ancient town of the Basques and the centre of their

cultural tradition, was completely destroyed yesterday afternoon by insurgent air raiders. The bombardment of this open town far behind the lines occupied precisely three hours and a quarter, during which a powerful fleet of aeroplanes consisting of three German types, Junkers and Heinkel bombers, did not cease unloading on the town bombs weighing from 1,000 lbs. downwards and, it is calculated, more than 3,000 two-pounder aluminium incendiary projectiles. The fighters, meanwhile, plunged low from above the centre of the town to machine-gun those of the civilian population who had taken refuge in the fields.”…

This report was done by a Times reporter, who had rushed to Geurnica a few hours after it was bombed and interviewed the survivors. A reprinting of this report in a French Communist daily was read by Picasso, leading to his famous artwork.

Name the reporter.

George Steer.

5She spent four years

interviewing organizers and victims of the Rwandan genocide. She had campaigned for international intervention long before the big powers woke up to the massacres. Later she testified several times before an International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Name this lady, who’s 1999 book was described by the Economist and the New York Times as the definitive account of the Rwandan genocide.

Alison Des Forges.

Counter-Clockwise

The locations shown in the map (see next slide) are designated as KV1, KV2 etc. in the order in which they were discovered. This nomenclature was developed in 1821 by John Gardiner Wilkinson. What does “KV” stand for?

Answer…

King’s Valley.These are the tombs in the Valley of the

Kings.Tutankhamun’s tomb is KV62.

3In 1859, at the age of 18, he made his passage to the

United States in search of a new life. Upon arriving in New Orleans, he absconded from his boat. According to his own declarations, he became friendly with a wealthy trader named _______, by accident: he saw _____ sitting on a chair outside his store and asked him if he had any job opening for a person such as himself. However, he did so in the British style, "Do you want a boy, sir?" As it happened, the childless man had indeed been wishing he had a boy of his own, and the inquiry led not only to a job, but to a close relationship. The youth ended up taking the older man's name. Who was the young boy?

Answer…

John Rowlands adopted the name of Henry Hope Stanley and became Henry Morton Stanley.

4.The “Tower of Blood” was a fort which witnessed the

execution of the last survivors of this elite corps. It is believed that the ruler deliberately incited them to mutiny, by announcing that he was forming a new army with modern training methods. The old unit had become corrupt over the years and was in decline. When news of their replacement plan reached them, they marched on the ruler’s palace. But the common people took up arms at the call of the ruler and helped to peg back the revolting troops. Artillery fire was used to destroy them and the survivors were arrested. Which group was eliminated in this 1826 event known as the “Auspicious Incident”?

Answer…

Janissaries.These were predominantly non-Turkish

troops. Sultan Mahmud II replaced them with Turkish troops.

5The "Battle of the Gradient" was not just a

dispute based on aesthetics. It was also a question of the equality of the executive and administrative sections of Government. Ultimately, the decision went in favor of equality, leading the defeated party to claim that this had been his “Bakerloo”.

The dispute also meant that the two friends fell out for life.

Put funda.

Answer…

Edwin Lutyens had been responsible for designing the Viceroy’s residence (the future Rashtrapathi Bhavan), while Herbert Baker was responsible for designing the North and South Blocks, which housed the Secratariat.

Lutyens wanted the Viceroy’s residence to be at a higher elevation than the other two buildings, but lost out to Baker. The result was that only the top of the dome of Viceroy's House is visible from far away.

This meeting was long considered to be one of the older man's great missteps. A transcript of the meeting, which has only now been released, shows that the older man was actually trying to drive some sense into the head of the younger one. ID both men

The answer is

Jean-Paul Sartre with RAF leader Andreas Baader

Even though is now mainly remembered for his work concerning India, he also made some significant contributions to the imperial cause in the African continent. It was he who, on behalf of the proprietors of the Daily Telegraph in conjunction with the New York Herald, arranged the journey of H.M. Stanley to Africa to discover the course of the Congo River, and Stanley named after him a mountain to the north-east of Albert Edward Nyanza. He must also be credited with the first idea of a great trunk line traversing the entire African continent, for in 1874 he first employed the phrase "Cape to Cairo railway" subsequently popularized by Cecil Rhodes. Who?

The answer is….

Edwin Arnold who wrote The Light of Asia

It is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists. It performs an optical superimposition of the subject being viewed upon the surface upon which the artist is drawing. The artist sees both scene and drawing surface simultaneously, this allows the artist to duplicate key points of the scene on the drawing surface, thus aiding in the accurate rendering of perspective. It was patented in 1807 by William Hyde Wollaston. There seems to be evidence that it was actually nothing but a reinvention of a device clearly described 200 years earlier by Johannes Kepler in his Dioptrice (1611). Identify this instrument which was named to recall a much older drawing aid.

The answer is….

The answer is….

Camera Lucida

It was a very fast sailing ship of the 19th century that had three or more masts and a square rig. They were generally narrow for their length, could carry limited bulk freight, small by later 19th century standards, and had a large total sail area. They sailed all over the world, primarily on the trade routes between the United Kingdom and its colonies in the east. The term for these ships most likely derives from a verb which in former times meant, among other things, to run or fly swiftly. The fastest of these ships could travel three quarters around the globe in 100 odd days. What were these ships called and what were their primary cargo?

The answer is….

The answer is….

Clipper and Tea (probably Opium as well)

The Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA), the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), from 1948 to 1960. The conflict also saw the re-introduction of SAS after it was disbanded after the World War 2.The Malayan Emergency was the colonial government's term for the conflict. The MNLA termed it the Anti-British National Liberation War. Why did the British want to call it an emergency?

The answer is..

The rubber plantations and tin mining industries had pushed for the use of the term "emergency" since their losses would not have been covered by Lloyd's insurers if it had been termed a "war"

It was created by a commission under the direction of the politician Charles Gilbert Romme. The commission had consulted astronomers, naval geographers and mathematicians including Lagrange. It also sought the help of a poet and a gardener. The new system was designed in part to remove all religious and royalist influences and was part of a larger attempt at decimalization in France. In Britain, a contemporary wit mocked the thing by calling names like: Wheezy, Sneezy and Freezy; Slippy, Drippy and Nippy; Showery, Flowery and Bowery; Wheaty, Heaty and Sweety. Id.

The answer is..

The French Republican calendar which had new names for months based on nature, principally having to do with the prevailing weather in and around Paris. It was used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805, and for 18 days by the Paris Commune in 1871.

In 1971 X was called to Islamabad to head the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG). Among the perks was a twin-engine Beechcraft, an airplane supplied by the Pentagon. On the eve of 1971 war Pakistanis evacuated their planes from airfields close to the Indian border and moved them to airfields near the Iranian border but X wasn't informed. Y, was an Indian Navy lieutenant on deputation with the Indian Air Force when the war broke out. In an article Y wrote in 2007, he presents an account of his encounter with X. In the first wave of retaliatory strikes on Pakistan Y had drawn a two-aircraft mission against the PAF base of Chaklala, located south east of Islamabad and destroyed X's plane. X was outraged and told Washington that this “deliberate affront to the American nation and recommended immediate countermeasures” but Nixon chose to ignore it. In his autobiography, X later said that it was the “Indian way of giving Uncle Sam the finger”. Id X and Y

The answer is….

Chuck Yeager and Admiral Arun Prakash

"The Cold War ended with me". These were the words of Zhuang Zedong, a favorite of Mao's wife Jian Qing. He was named minister of sports and became a member of the Chinese Communist Party's powerful Central Committee. His fortunes changed in 1976, when Mao died and his widow fell from favor, along with other members of the notorious Gang of Four, which had been responsible for much of China's turmoil during the Cultural Revolution. Japanese newspapers reported that he was forced to denounce Jiang and her cohorts before 10,000 athletes and sports officials in a Beijing stadium. He was incarcerated for four years and exiled to the northern Chinese province of Shanxi until 1984, when he was allowed to return to Beijing. What was his claim to fame?

The answer is….

He was three time World Table Tennis Champion and during 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Japan, he broke ice with an American player Glenn Cowan and kick-started Ping-Pong diplomacy

In 1798 Napoleon was put in command of the Army of England. The previous year General Hoche with 14,000 troops and sixteen ships of the line had made an abortive descent upon Ireland, which had been disrupted by storms. After an inspection in January 1798 of the 120,000 troops mustered between Etaples and Walcheren for an invasion attempt, Napoleon abandoned the idea, it being 'too chancy to risk la belle France on the throw of a dice'. Instead he placed in front of the Directoire an alternative plan of action. What was it?

The answer is….

Napoleon’s alternative plan was to invade Egypt and from there launch an attack on British possessions in India.

It is a Palladian edifice in St Petersburg and was commissioned by the Society for Education of Noble Maidens and constructed in 1806-08 to house an educational institution. In 1917, the building was chosen by Vladimir Lenin as Bolshevik headquarters during the October Revolution. It was Lenin's residence for several months, until the national government was moved to the Moscow Kremlin. After that, it became the headquarters of the local Communist Party apparat, effectively the city hall. This was the site of Sergei Kirov's assassination in 1934. After 1991, it was used as the seat of the city mayor (governor after 1996) and city administration. Vladimir Putin worked there from 1991 to 1997 in the administration of Anatoly Sobchak. The name derives from the location, in the early days of St. Petersburg the place at the edge of the city where pitch was processed for use in shipbuilding and maintenance. As a result the locale was called - the place of pitch, in Russian. Id.

The answer is….

Smolny Institute

Al-Ghazali or Algazel to the Western medieval world, was a Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic of Persian descent. He has sometimes been referred to by historians as the single most influential Muslim after the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was given the unique title of Hujjat al-Islam, meaning 'The Proof of Islam', a title given to no other scholar or personality in Islamic history, further displaying his status within the religion. He also brought the orthodox Islam of his time in close contact with Sufism. What was the most important consequence of his landmark 11th century work Tahāfut al-Falāsifa wherein Ibn Sina and others were denounced?

The answer is….

He successfully refuted the Islamic Neoplatonism of Avicenna and other philosophers which was based on Hellenistic philosophy. His success may be considered as the death knell of Islamic Science.

This method of torture was formerly used to punish a defendant who refused to plead would be subjected to having heavier and heavier stones placed upon his or her chest until a plea was entered, or as the weight of the stones on the chest became too great for the condemned to breathe, fatal suffocation would occur. This only such victim in American history was one Giles Corey who was executed on September 19, 1692. In which work of literature will we come across this episode? And what is this method of torture called?

The answer is….

Arthur Miller’s Crucible and the punishment is called Peine forte et dure or “The pressing of stones”

It is a region and cultural area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries. This term was first used by the German ethnologist Paul Kirchhoff, who noted that similarities existed among the various pre-Columbian cultures within the region. This region is recognized as a near-prototypical cultural area and the term is now fully integrated in the standard terminology of pre-Columbian anthropological studies. What term?

The answer is….

Meso America

A World Restored is a book by Henry Kissinger published in 1954. The book began life as the doctoral dissertation of Henry Kissinger - later US Secretary of State in the 1970s - at Harvard University in 1954. The book is about a conference of European ambassadors which was held from September 1814 to June 1815. The objective of the conference was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. This was the first of a series of international meetings which attempted to forge a peaceful balance of power in Europe. It prevented another widespread European war for nearly a hundred years (1815–1914). And served as a model for later organizations such as the League of Nations and United Nations. What meeting and who chaired it?

The answer is….

The Congress of Vienna and Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich

Outside his academic historical writing, he wrote a regular column for the New Statesman as a jazz critic under the pseudonym Francis Newton, taken from the name of Billie Holiday's communist trumpet player, Frankie Newton. He is also famously said that "next to sex there was nothing so physically intense as “participation in a mass demonstration at a time of great public exaltation”. Identify this diehard communist and Marxist-historian who wrote a series of books on two periods of history, the long 19th century which begins with the French Revolution that established a republic in Europe and ends with the start of World War I and the short 20th Century begins with the beginning of World War I, and ends with the fall of the Soviet Union.

The answer is….

Eric Hobsbawm

This Czech nobleman and Austrian general had a long distinguished career which lasted more that 70 years. He is known for the victories at the Battles of Custoza (July 24–25, 1848) and Novara (March 23, 1849) during the First Italian War of Independence. After his triumph in Italy, he was made Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia from 1848 to 1857 the only non royal to be awarded such a post. He proved to be a benevolent ruler, Italian leaders were allowed to live in his kingdom, while Italy's other reactionary governments drove all their liberals into exile. Already in 1849, at the end of the siege of Venice, he had allowed the local patriot leaders to quietly slip away, and avoid public martyrdom. Who is this general who was known affectionately as Vater amongst his troops?

The answer is….

Joseph Radetzky von Radetz. Johann Strauss was commissioned to write the famous march for a celebration of Radetsky's victory at the Battle of Custoza.

This is the End….QMs: praveen.vr@gmail.com,kmanjith@yahoo.com

Extras

On August 16, 1858 the first message send was, "Glory to God in the highest; on earth, peace and good will toward men." Queen Victoria then sent a message of congratulation to President James Buchanan and expressed a hope that it would prove "an additional link between the nations whose friendship is founded on their common interest and reciprocal esteem." The President responded that, "it is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle". He also added that under the blessing of Heaven it will prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship between the kindred nations, and an instrument destined by Divine Providence to diffuse religion, civilization, liberty, and law throughout the world." These messages engendered an outburst of enthusiasm. The next morning a grand salute of 100 guns resounded in New York City, the streets were decorated with flags, the bells of the churches were rung, and at night the city was illuminated. It was also a theme for innumerable sermons and a prodigious quantity of doggerel. What?

The answer is….

Trans-Atlantic Cable

It has been called "the weapon most associated with British imperial conquest" and was first used by Britain's colonial forces in the 1893-1894 First Matabele War in Rhodesia. During the Battle of the Shangani, 700 soldiers fought off 3,000 warriors with just four Maxim guns. It played an important role in the swift European colonization of Africa in the late 19th century. The extreme lethality was employed to devastating effect against obsolete charging tactics, when native opponents could be lured into pitched battles in open terrain. However, its destructive power in colonial warfare has often been overegged by popular myth. Modern historical accounts suggest that, while it was effective in pitched-battle situations such as the Matabele war or the 1898 Battle of Omdurman, its significance owed much to the psychological impact the weapon had.

Identify this first self-powered machine gun, invented by an American-born British inventor.

Maxim Gun

“Mother cow is in many ways better than the mother who gave us birth. Our mother gives us milk for a couple of years and then expects us to serve her when we grow up. Mother cow expects from us nothing but grass and grain. Our mother often falls ill and expects service from us. Mother cow rarely falls ill. Here is an unbroken record of service which does not end with her death. Our mother, when she dies, means expenses of burial or cremation. Mother cow is as useful dead as when she is alive. We can make use of every part of her body-her flesh, her bones, her intestines, her horns and her skin. Well, I say this not to disparage the mother who gives us birth, but in order to show you the substantial reasons for my worshipping the cow.” Who’s wonderful justification for cow worship?

M K Gandhi

The picture shows a piece of pottery (or stone), usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In archaeology, ostraca may contain scratched-in words or other forms of writing which may give clues as to the time when the piece was in use. In Athens, the voting public would write or scratch the name of a person in the shard of pottery. What English word is derived from the Greek work for these shards?

The answer is….

Ostracism from Ostracon

He was in all probability a weaver from Antsey Leicester and according to one story he was told by his father, a framework-knitter, to "square his needles". He apparently was in a bad mood and took a hammer and "beat them into a heap". The news of this incident spread and whenever knitting frames were sabotaged it was attributed to him. Who was this ?

The answer is

Ned Ludd after who the Luddite movement is named.