What is a group of crows called?
A murder — most of these collective nouns were invented as a game.
History
Wars and empires, monarchs and revolutions — the events and figures that pressed their shape upon the centuries.
99 questions · tap a question to reveal the answer
Why is the day slowly getting longer?
The Moon is braking the Earth — Tidal friction from the Moon - roughly 1.8 milliseconds a century.
Which famous nurse was called the Lady with the Lamp?
Florence Nightingale — in the Crimean War.
Which ancient civilization built Machu Picchu?
The Inca — high in the Peruvian Andes.
Who was the first President of the United States?
George Washington — from 1789.
Which empire built the Colosseum?
The Roman Empire
Who discovered penicillin?
Alexander Fleming — in 1928.
Which king had a round table?
King Arthur — in legend.
Who was the Egyptian queen who allied with Julius Caesar?
Cleopatra — VII.
Which battle in 1066 changed English history?
Hastings — The Battle of Hastings — the Norman conquest.
Which English king had six wives?
Henry VIII
In which decade did World War I begin?
1910s — it began in 1914.
What happened to Warsaw's old town in the war?
Deliberately destroyed, then rebuilt from paintings — Razed on Hitler's orders, then reconstructed using 18th-century cityscapes.
Who was the ancient Greek philosopher who taught Alexander the Great?
Aristotle
Which battle ended Napoleon's rule in 1815?
Waterloo — in present-day Belgium.
What is the national animal of Scotland?
The unicorn — since medieval times.
Which explorer led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe?
Ferdinand Magellan — Magellan — his crew finished it in 1522.
Who wrote the Odyssey?
Homer — in ancient Greece.
Which pharaoh's tomb was found nearly intact in 1922?
Tutankhamun — found by Howard Carter.
Which US president appears on the one-dollar bill?
George Washington — Washington — Franklin was never president.
Which ancient wonder was a giant statue on Rhodes?
The Colossus — of Rhodes.
Which queen ruled Britain for 63 years in the 1800s?
Victoria — Queen Victoria, 1837 to 1901.
What year did the French Revolution begin?
1789 — with the storming of the Bastille.
Who was the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?
Margaret Thatcher — from 1979.
Which ancient wonder stood at Alexandria?
The Lighthouse — The Pharos lighthouse, over 100 metres tall.
Which battle is considered Napoleon's greatest victory?
Austerlitz — in 1805.
What is the largest species of penguin?
Emperor penguin — up to 1.2 metres.
Which explorer first reached the South Pole?
Roald Amundsen — Amundsen, in December 1911.
Which treaty ended World War I with Germany?
Versailles — The Treaty of Versailles, 1919.
What is the world's oldest surviving parliament?
The Althing — Iceland's Althing, founded 930 AD.
Which Roman road led from Rome to the south of Italy?
The Appian Way — begun 312 BC.
Which language did Cleopatra's dynasty speak at court?
Greek — she was Macedonian, and reportedly the first of her line to learn Egyptian.
Which author wrote War and Peace?
Leo Tolstoy — Tolstoy, published 1869.
Which battle stopped Italy colonising Ethiopia in 1896?
Adwa — the first defeat of a European power by an African state in a set battle.
How far did Harold's army march between its two 1066 battles?
About 400 km, in under two weeks — York to Sussex on foot, straight from one battle into another.
Who was the first Roman emperor?
Augustus — Caesar was never emperor.
Which empire was ruled from Constantinople for a thousand years?
The Byzantine Empire — until 1453.
Who was the commander of the Confederate Army in the American Civil War?
Robert E. Lee — Lee — Grant led the Union.
Which French king was called the Sun King?
Louis XIV — who reigned 72 years.
Which pass did Hannibal cross with elephants?
The Alps — in 218 BC.
Which philosopher drank hemlock after his trial in Athens?
Socrates — in 399 BC.
Which 19th-century novel features Captain Nemo and the Nautilus?
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas — Jules Verne's classic.
Which queen of France was executed in 1793?
Marie Antoinette
Which treaty of 1648 ended the Thirty Years' War?
The Peace of Westphalia — Westphalia — the birth of modern states.
Which khan founded the Mongol Empire?
Genghis Khan — proclaimed in 1206.
Which dynasty preceded the Ming in China?
The Yuan — the Mongol dynasty.
Who discovered X-rays in 1895?
Wilhelm Rontgen — Rontgen — the first Nobel in Physics.
Which Byzantine emperor codified Roman law in the 6th century?
Justinian I — Justinian — the Corpus Juris Civilis.
Which English king signed the Magna Carta in 1215?
King John — at Runnymede.
Which African empire's ruler Mansa Musa was history's richest man?
The Mali Empire — Mali — his hajj crashed gold prices.
Which pharaoh moved Egypt's worship to the sun disc Aten?
Akhenaten — the Amarna revolution.
Which Indian emperor spread Buddhism after the Kalinga war?
Ashoka — the Great, around 260 BC.
Which people built Great Zimbabwe?
The Shona — from the 11th century.
What did Marie Curie build for the First World War?
Mobile X-ray units — She designed them, drove one, and trained 150 women to operate them.
Which battle of 1942-43 turned the Eastern Front against Germany?
Stalingrad — an entire army surrendered.
Which kingdom did Sargon of Akkad rule, history's first empire?
Akkadia — The Akkadian Empire, around 2300 BC.
Which Roman emperor built the great wall across northern Britain?
Hadrian — from 122 AD.
Who wrote the 11th-century Tale of Genji, often called the first novel?
Murasaki Shikibu — a Heian court lady.
Which African kingdom's rock-hewn churches stand at Lalibela?
Ethiopia — carved in the 12th century.
Which English queen never married, earning the name Virgin Queen?
Elizabeth I
Which Portuguese explorer first rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488?
Bartolomeu Dias — Dias — he called it the Cape of Storms.
Which Japanese poet perfected the haiku form?
Matsuo Basho — Basho, in the 17th century.
Which king of Lydia was proverbially rich?
Croesus — 'rich as Croesus'.
Which Chinese dynasty invented gunpowder?
The Tang — in the 9th century.
Which emperor built the Pantheon's surviving form in Rome?
Hadrian — around 126 AD.
Which Frankish king was crowned Emperor on Christmas Day 800?
Charlemagne — by Pope Leo III.
Which enzyme in tears and saliva attacks bacterial walls?
Lysozyme — discovered by Fleming.
Which Roman general crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC?
Julius Caesar — Caesar — 'the die is cast'.
Which battle of 1071 opened Anatolia to the Seljuk Turks?
Manzikert — the Byzantine emperor was captured.
The Battle of Manzikert or Malazgirt was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Empire on 26 August 1071 near Manzikert, Iberia. The decisive defeat of the Byzantine army and the capture of the emperor Romanos IV Diogenes played an important role in undermining Byzantine authority in Anatolia and Armenia, and allowed for the…
Wikipedia · Battle of ManzikertWhich kingdom's Queen Nzinga resisted Portuguese colonization?
Ndongo and Matamba — Ndongo-Matamba, in modern Angola.
Nzinga or Njinga Ana de Sousa Mbande was a southwest African paramount ruler who ruled as queen of the Ambundu Kingdoms of Ndongo (1624–1663) and Matamba (1631–1663), located in present-day northern Angola. Born into the ruling family of Ndongo, her grandfather Ngola Kilombo Kia Kasenda was the king of Ndongo, succeeded by her father.
Wikipedia · Nzinga of Ndongo and MatambaWhich king's death at Flodden in 1513 devastated Scotland?
James IV — the last monarch in these isles to die in battle.
James IV was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauchieburn, following a rebellion in which the younger James was the figurehead of the rebels. James IV is generally regarded as the most…
Wikipedia · James IVWhich Mughal emperor wrote the memoir Baburnama?
Babur — founder of the dynasty.
Babur was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother, respectively. He was also given the posthumous name of Firdaws Makani.
Wikipedia · BaburWhich caliph's Cordoba library allegedly held 400,000 volumes?
Al-Hakam II — in the 10th century.
Al-Hakam II, also known as Abū al-ʿĀṣ al-Mustanṣir bi-Llāh al-Hakam b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, was the Caliph of Córdoba. He was the second Umayyad Caliph of Córdoba in Al-Andalus, and son of Abd-al-Rahman III and Murjan. He ruled from 961 to 976.
Wikipedia · Al-Hakam IIWhich Aztec emperor met Cortes in 1519?
Moctezuma II
Moctezuma Xocoyotzin, retroactively referred to in European sources as Moctezuma II, and often called Montezuma, was the ninth emperor of the Aztec Empire, reigning from 1502 or 1503 to 1520. Through his marriage with Queen Tlapalizquixochtzin of Ecatepec, one of his two wives, he was also the king consort of the altepetl.
Wikipedia · Moctezuma IIWhich Greek engineer built a steam-turbine toy, the aeolipile?
Hero of Alexandria — Hero, in the 1st century AD.
Hero of Alexandria was a Greek mathematician and engineer who was active in Alexandria during the Roman era. He has been described as the greatest experimentalist of antiquity and a representative of the Hellenistic scientific tradition.
Wikipedia · Hero of AlexandriaWhich pandemic of 541 AD weakened Byzantium?
The Plague of Justinian — Justinian's plague — the first recorded bubonic wave.
The plague of Justinian or Justinianic plague was an epidemic of plague that afflicted the entire Mediterranean Basin, Europe, and the Near East, especially the Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine Empire. The plague is named for the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I who, according to his court historian Procopius, contracted the disease and…
Wikipedia · Plague of JustinianWhich African script, invented in the 1800s, writes the Vai language?
The Vai syllabary — of Liberia.
The Vai syllabary is a syllabic writing system devised for the Vai language by Momolu Duwalu Bukele of Jondu, in what is now Grand Cape Mount County, Liberia. Bukele is regarded within the Vai community, as well as by most scholars, as the syllabary's inventor and chief promoter when it was first documented in the 1830s. It is one of the…
Wikipedia · Vai syllabaryWhich Song dynasty polymath described the magnetic compass for navigation?
Shen Kuo — in 1088.
Shen Kuo or Shen Gua, courtesy name Cunzhong (存中) and pseudonym Mengqi Weng (夢溪翁), was a Chinese polymath, scientist, and statesman of the Northern Song dynasty. Shen was a master in many fields of study including mathematics, optics, and horology. In his career as a civil servant, he became a finance minister, governmental state…
Wikipedia · Shen KuoWhich Viking-founded Russian dynasty ruled until 1598?
The Rurikids — The Rurik dynasty, from 862.
The Rurik dynasty, also known as the Rurikid or Riurikid dynasty, as well as simply Rurikids or Riurikids, was a noble lineage founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who, according to tradition, established himself at Novgorod in the year 862. The Rurikids were the ruling dynasty of Kievan Rus' and its principalities following its disintegration.
Wikipedia · RurikidsWhich Hellenistic queen's Berenice's Hair became a constellation?
Berenice II of Egypt — Berenice II — Coma Berenices.
Berenice II Euergetis was queen regnant of Cyrenaica from 258 to 246 BCE and queen of Ptolemaic Egypt from 246 to 222 BCE as the wife of Ptolemy III. She is sometimes considered co-regent of her Ptolemaic husband.
Wikipedia · Berenice IIWhich ancient document records kings reigning for tens of thousands of years?
The Sumerian King List — 's mythic early reigns.
The Sumerian King List or Chronicle of the One Monarchy is an ancient literary composition written in Sumerian that was likely created and redacted to legitimize the claims to power of various city-states and kingdoms in southern Mesopotamia during the late third and early second millennium BC. It does so by repetitively listing Sumerian…
Wikipedia · Sumerian King ListWhich French mathematician died in a duel at twenty?
Evariste Galois — Galois, in 1832 - his group theory outlived him by a century.
Évariste Galois was a French mathematician and political activist. While still in his teens, he was able to determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a polynomial to be solvable by radicals, thereby solving a problem that had been open for 350 years. His work laid the foundations for Galois theory and group theory, two major…
Wikipedia · Évariste GaloisWhich Numidian king's defection helped Rome win Zama?
Masinissa — his cavalry turned the battle.
Masinissa, also spelled Massinissa, Massena and Massan, was an ancient Numidian king best known for leading a federation of Massylii Berber tribes during the Second Punic War, ultimately uniting them into a kingdom that became a major regional power in North Africa. Much of what is known about Masinissa comes from Livy's History of Rome,…
Wikipedia · MasinissaWhich Japanese battle of 1600 founded the Tokugawa peace?
Sekigahara — the realm decided in a day.
The Battle of Sekigahara was an important battle in Japan which occurred on October 21, 1600 in what is now Gifu Prefecture, Japan, at the end of the Sengoku period.
Wikipedia · Battle of SekigaharaWhich queen of Palmyra defied Rome in the 3rd century?
Zenobia — she conquered Egypt before falling.
Septimia Zenobia was a third-century queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria. Many legends surround her ancestry; she was probably not a commoner. She married Odaenathus, who became king of the city of Palmyra in 260, elevating it to supreme power in the Near East by defeating the Sasanian Empire of Persia and stabilizing the Roman East.…
Wikipedia · ZenobiaWhich Chinese dynasty built the majority of the Great Wall as it stands today?
The Ming dynasty — mostly built between the 14th and 17th centuries.
The Ming dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, founded after the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. It is remembered for restoring native rule, for much of the Great Wall as it stands today, and for building the Forbidden City in Beijing.
Which queen of ancient Egypt is known for having herself depicted as a male pharaoh?
Hatshepsut — who ruled for about two decades.
Hatshepsut was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, ruling first as regent, then as queen regnant from c. 1479 BC until c. 1458 BC and the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II. She was Egypt's second confirmed woman who ruled in her own right, the first being Sobekneferu/Neferusobek in the Twelfth Dynasty.
Wikipedia · HatshepsutWhich Byzantine incendiary weapon's formula was lost and has never been reproduced?
Greek fire — it burned on water and the recipe died with the empire.
Which 1877 observation of Mars produced a century of belief in artificial canals?
Schiaparelli's canali — Italian for channels, mistranslated as canals.
Which West African empire's ruler crashed Egypt's gold price on a single pilgrimage?
Mali under Mansa Musa — in 1324.
Which 12th-century abbess wrote medicine, music and her own invented language?
Hildegard of Bingen — the Lingua Ignota was hers.
Which architect's Sagrada Familia was still unfinished a century after his death?
Gaudi — he died in 1926, run down by a tram.
Which 1900 mathematical address set an agenda that occupied the next century?
Hilbert's problems — 23 of them, in Paris.
Which Islamic scholar's 14th-century Muqaddimah founded the study of social cohesion?
Ibn Khaldun — asabiyyah, group feeling, rising and decaying.
Which queen ruled Ethiopia's Zagwe successor state and had churches cut down into rock?
Lalibela's dynasty — The Zagwe under Lalibela — carved downward from the surface.
Which nineteenth-century French photographic process produced a single unrepeatable image?
The daguerreotype — a mirror with a memory, and no negative.
Which Greek mathematician calculated the Earth's circumference using two shadows?
Eratosthenes — Alexandria and Syene, around 240 BC.
Which Korean king commissioned an alphabet designed so that letter shapes show how sounds are made?
Sejong the Great — Hangul, 1443.
Which Caribbean revolution defeated Napoleon's army and founded the first Black republic?
The Haitian Revolution — and France charged it for the loss.