World History trivia quiz

The Game Room
401

Here are some more…

  1. This Indian prime minister gave his name to a fashionable jacket.
  2. This wily political survivor is best known as a long-serving Soviet foreign minister, but last served as president of the USSR.
  3. What was the nickname of British Gen. George Gordon, slain at Khartoum?
  4. Who headed the army which slew him?
  5. What inverted nickname did Great Britain’s then-prime minister earn from Gordon’s death?
402
  1. Jawaharlal Nehru
403
  1. Andrei Gromyko
  2. “Chinese Gordon”
404
  1. Which film(s) have received the most awards?

It wasn’t GWTW

405

  1. Ben-Hur

  2. The Mahdi

406

Now that The Game Room has been opened, I am going to move this thread.

407

Well, here are a couple questions to christen the forum. Hope everyone can find it.

  1. Why was the Japanese WWII fighter plane referred to as the “Zero”?

  2. This WWI General insisted on a five-course afternoon dinner followed by a nap even as his country was falling apart.

408
  1. IIRC the plane was more fully the four zero model, because it began service in the year 1940. But because there was another aircraft already known as the four, the Zero became known by the second number.
409

Correct, and Antonius Block is correct as to Gromyko and “Chinese” Gordon, as is silenus as to the Mahdi.

Gromyko’s political adroitness was legendary. A late Soviet-era joke has it that Mikhail Gorbachev is deposed, the monarchy is restored and a new Tsar takes power in Moscow. Gorbachev calls the Kremlin, is put through to the Tsar, and asks to be allowed to keep his dacha and a little bit of land to grow vegetables for his family. The Tsar puts his hand over the receiver and thoughtfully says, “I don’t know… what do you think, Gromyko?”

410

Anchors aweigh!

  1. This British ocean liner sank under somewhat mysterious circumstances in Hong Kong harbor about 40 years ago.
  2. This French ocean liner caught fire at a New York City pier during World War II, raising concerns about sabotage.
  3. This white elephant of a ship, underpowered and too big for its time, flopped as a passenger ship but was eventually used to lay the first trans-Atlantic cable.
  4. Churchill sailed aboard this battleship to meet FDR off the Canadian coast in 1941.
  5. This was the Japanese battleship Yamato’s sister ship.
411
  1. Queen Elizabeth I
  2. S.S. Normadie
  3. Great Western, at the time she was built, the largest ship in the world. Also, has a reputation for being monstrously unlucky, and persistent rumors of a riveter and his boy built into the hull followed her her whole service life.
  4. HMS Prince of Wales
  5. Musashi
  6. When the S.S. Normadie was salvaged, she was also renamed for US service. What was her name for US service?
412
  1. The loss of this ship in the Baltic has lead to a Scandinavian conspiracy theory industry almost as vibrant as the Loose Change people.
413

I’m really going to have to start taking off points for spelling. :stuck_out_tongue: It was the Queen Elizabeth and the Normandie, yes. However, Great Western is close, but incorrect. HMS Prince of Wales and IJNS Musashi are correct.

414

The embarrassing thing for me is that my poor spelling is consistent. I misspelled Normandie’s name the same way both times I used it. :o

415

Yes. Three way tie with 11 gongs each.

416
  1. Estonia
417

Correct

418
  1. Great Northern
419

Yes, but I thought that 1940 was a centennial year in the Japanese Calendar.

420

Well, that’s two points of the compass… but again wrong. :wink:

Who most notably said it? Bonus points for context.

  1. “Everyone likes flattery, and when dealing with royalty, one must lay it on with a trowel.”
  2. “Publish and be damned!”
  3. “I will back the masses against the classes every time.”
  4. “Who is this man who is neither one thing nor the other?”
  5. “Something must be done for these people.”