The death of Ivan IV, The Terrible, left the throne without an heir. In the next 15 years (or so) something like thirty persons were on the throne, and deposed, executed, or died.
Dmitri was one of the Tsars from this period. Marfa was his wife. Dmitri was a Muscovite noble, and to cement his hold on the throne lead a campaign against the Cossacks. This campaign did not go well. Eventually, a Cossack returned to Moscow, claiming to be Dmitri, and Marfa greeted him as her long-lost husband. So, the first false Dmitri ruled for a couple of months, then in an effort to cement his hold on the throne, lead a campaign against the Poles. This campaign did not go well. Eventually a Pole returned to Moscow, claiming to be Dmitri, and Marfa greeted him as her long-lost husband. So the second false Dmitri ruled for a few months before the boyars of Moscow decided that while they might have been willing to live with a Cossack on the throne, there was no way that they’d accept a Pole. The second false Dmitri was defenestrated from a high window, into a courtyard full of starved dogs. The body was pulled away from the dogs, dragged through the streets of Moscow, to an artillery park outside the city, where a cannon was carefully aligned with Warsaw, the body was loaded into the cannon, and fired back to Warsaw.
I don’t know just what happened to Marfa. Given the way that politics were played during the Time of Troubles, I doubt it was pleasant.
AFAIK historians count Dmitri, the First False Dmitri, and the Second False Dmitri as just one regime during the Time of Troubles.
The two answers I would have accepted were The Second False Dmitri, or Rasputin. 5 time champ, you may be right about the centennial year.
Both correct. Gladstone said it during his famous Midlothian campaign for Parliament, and it became his credo. As to question 274, the future Edward VIII said it while still Prince of Wales, IIRC, and was criticized by some for making a political comment. (Pretty innocuous, though, given the ravages of the Great Depression in Wales).
This paleontological fraud was named for the location of the quarry where it was found.
What was the name of the fraudulent pongid jaw that had been carefully filed to indicate side-to-side chewing?
P.T. Barnum wanted to exhibit this famous fraud, but the owners denied him the opportunity. So he had his own copy of the fraud made up, and it drew more visitors than the original fraud.
This relict brought back from the Crusades was such a convincing fraud it was accepted as probably accurate for hundreds of years.
What Austrailian species was first assumed to be a manufactured chimera when preserved specimens began to return to England?
Yes, yes, and yes. Though there’s another potential answer for 280, that would be just as valid, I’m going to ask that people keep guessing for the other fraud named for the location of the quarry where it was found.
I don’t know that I’d call the Turin Shroud a hoax exactly - I know it’s been proven that it isn’t old enough to be real, but did its discoverers declare that it was the real deal?
AIUI, the story is that the person who brought it back had been told it was the shroud Jesus had been laid to rest within. So, someone made it, and someone presented the origin as being other than what it was. I don’t mean to imply the person who brought it back was a participant in the fraud, just that somewhere along the line, some people involved in making and marketing it had to have been perpetuating a fraud.
