Who Was in Charge When....? (1) Quiz

Answer: Louis XVI

The United States Declaration of Independence was a proclamation from the Continental Congress adopted on July 4, 1776. The document proclaimed that the 13 American colonies (at war with Britain at the time) considered themselves independent and no longer part of the British Empire.
Born in the Palace of Versailles in 1754, Louis Capet became King Louis XVI of France and Navarre on the death of his grandfather, Louis XV, in May 1774. (His father, who had been the Dauphin, had died in 1765.) Known as "Louis XVI the Restorer of French Liberty", he was executed by guillotine at the age of 38 in Place de la Révolution (now Place de la Concorde) in Paris in January 1793, during the French Revolution. He had been arrested in August the previous year and was officially deposed in September when the National Assembly declared France a Republic and abolished the monarchy. His wife, Marie Antoinette, was executed in the same place and manner some nine months later.
You might like to know that George III was King of England when the U.S. Declaration of Independence was signed. Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II was King of Prussia, and Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi (Pius VI) was Pope.

Answer: Pius XII

There is a strong case for concluding that the outcome of World War II was effectively decided on December 7, 1941. On that day, the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a surprise air attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The result was that America entered the war on the side of the Allies, leading ultimately to the defeat of Germany in Europe and of Japan in the Pacific region.
Born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli in Rome in 1876, Pius XII became the 260th Pope on March 2 1939, following the death of Pius XI. He reigned for almost 20 years, until his death at the age of 82 in October 1958.
Of the alternatives, John XXIII (1958-63) and Paul VI (1963-78) followed Pius XII whilst Benedict XV (1914-22) was Pope throughout World War I.

Answer: Lord Palmerston

Born in 1809 in the small town of Hodgenville in central Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th U.S. President on March 4, 1861. Just weeks later, the Battle of Fort Sumter (on April 12-14) caused the official declaration of a civil war that had been on the cards since the secession by South Carolina on Christmas Eve the previous year. The war continued throughout Lincoln's Presidency -- Lee surrendered the Army of North Virginia on April 9 1865, after the Battle of Appomattox Court House and five days later, on April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at the Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. The President died the next morning, some nine hours later, without regaining consciousness. The war officially ended by declaration less than a month later, on May 9, although all hostilities did not cease until June 22.
Henry John Temple was born in Westminster, London in 1784. Educated at Harrow, it was whilst studying politics and economics at the University of Edinburgh that his father died in 1802 and he became the 3rd Viscount Palmerston some months before his 18th birthday. He concluded his studies at St. John's College, Cambridge, gaining a first-class honours degree in 1806. Secretary of War from 1809-28, Palmerston then served a total of 14 years between 1830 and 1851 as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs under three different Prime Ministers. Palmerston became Home Secretary in 1852 but, following the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854, the Earl of Aberdeen was forced to resign and Palmerston began his first stint as Prime Minister in January 1855. He was forced to spend a 16-month spell as Leader of the Opposition, during which time he founded the liberal Party. Elected as Prime Minister again in June 1859, his second administration was dominated by events across the Atlantic. Palmerston died in office at the age of 80 in October 1865, having spent 9 years 141 days in the top job, placing him tenth on the all-time list (by length of tenure) just behind Tony Blair.
Of the alternatives, Sir Robert Peel was twice PM between 1834 and 1846, the 1st Duke of Wellington was PM from 1828-30 and again briefly as caretaker for a month in 1834, and William Gladstone began the first of his four terms as PM in 1868.

Answer: John

Genghis Khan was born sometime around 1162 in the Khentii Mountains near to the sacred mountain of Burkhan Khaldunin in what is now northern Mongolia. He tried for many years to unify the numerous disparate tries of the region, and by the Spring of 1206 he successfully joined the Merkits, Naimans, Mongols, Khereids, Tatars, Uyghurs as well as numerous smaller tribes (henceforth known collectively as the Mongols) under his rule. By the time of his death little more than two decades later in August 1227, the Mongol Empire ruled most of Central Asia and China. His descendants subsequently expanded that empire to encompass all of modern-day China and Korea and Central Asia as well as much of what is now Russia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. At its height, at around 1279, the Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous empire the world has ever seen, covering some 12.75 million square miles or 22.3% of the world's land area. More than 25% of the world's 430 million people lived within the empire. Only the (non-contiguous) British Empire of the early 1920s covered more land (about 13 million square miles) and only the Qing dynasty of the mid-18th Century has since included a large percentage of the world's population.
Born in Beaumont Palace in Oxfordshire in 1166 to King Henry II and
Eleanor of Aquitaine, John was the youngest of the five sons who survived infanthood. His elder brother ascended to the throne as Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) when their father died in 1189. When Richard died childless nearly a decade later, John found himself the only surviving brother and he became king at the age of 32 in May 1199. Losing the Battle of Bouvines in 1214 cost John the Duchy of Normandy, lost to King Philip II of France, and he was henceforth known as John Lackland. A revolt by the Barons in 1215 led to John signing the "Magna Carta" in June 15, further limiting the powers of the monarchy. He died at the age of 49 at Newark Castle in Lincolnshire in October 1216 and his remains were buried in Worcester Cathedral. John was succeeded by the eldest of his five children, Henry III (Henry of Winchester), who was still two weeks short of his tenth birthday when he became king. Henry's reign of more than 55 years would remain the longest until that of King George III (1760-1820) more than 500 years later.

Answer: Franklin D Roosevelt

Born Lhamo Dondrub on July 6, 1935 in the village of Taktser in the western Chinese province of Qinghai, he took the religious name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso but is known worldwide simply as the Dalai Lama. The title essentially designates the holder as the "guru" (or teacher/mentor) or the 'Gelug' (or Yellow Hat) Tibetan Buddhism school. The line stretches back to Gendun Drup, who lived between 1391 and 1474 and is considered the first of Tibet's Dalai Lamas.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born in 1882 in the town of Hyde Park in Duchess County, New York, today best-known as the location of The Culinary Institute of America. A former New York State Senator and an Assistant Secretary of the Navy, he was elected as Governor of New York in 1929. Following his 4-year stint in Albany, Roosevelt moved into the White House in March 1933. It was the first of four consecutive terms, which is virtually guaranteed to remain as a record since the passage of the 22nd Amendment in 1951 limited the President to just two terms. As late as mid-February 1945, Roosevelt was still flying around the post-War world: the Yalta Conference with Churchill and Stalin in Crimea finished on February 12. In the following two days, aboard a ship in the Red Sea, he met first with King Farouk I of Egypt and Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, then with King Abdulaziz, the founder of Saudi Arabia. He returned to the U.S. to address Congress on March 1 and he died at the age of 63 on April 12, 1945 in Warm Springs GA.

Answer: Franz Joseph I

In 1606, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon became the first European both to sight the cost of Australia, at Cape York Peninsular, and to make landfall, at the nearby the Pennefather River. Captain Cook arrived in 1770 to map the east coast, naming New South Wales and claiming it for Britain.

The British fleet arrived in 1788, setting up a colony and establishing what would become the city of Sydney. Until 1841, even New Zealand was part of the New South Wales colony, but during the second half of the 19th Century that colony divided to create into the states with which we are more familiar today.

After more than a decade of planning, the original six states, NSW, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia federated on January 1, 1901 to form the Commonwealth of Australia as a dominion of the British Empire. Franz Joseph was born in Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna in 1830, the oldest son of Archduke Franz Karl of Austria and Princess Sophie of Bavaria.

In December 1948, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria and King Ferdinand V of Hungary abdicated due to mental illness. Ferdinand's brother chose to renounce his claims to the throne, leaving his nephew, the 18-year old Franz Joseph, to take the crowns. Franz Joseph I ruled the best part of 68 years, until his death in November 1916, thus becoming by far the longest-reigning monarch in either country's history. Franz Joseph I was succeeded by his great-nephew, Charles I of Austria and Charles IV of Hungary, but the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed at the end of World War I, just less than two years later.

Answer: Titus

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius is well documented for historians by the writer Pliny the Younger who, with his uncle (who died at the time), was an eye-witness to the fireworks. The volcano threw a deadly plume of gas, stones and ash more than 20 miles high, and ejecting molten rock at a rate of one-and-a-half million tons a second.

It is estimated that the eruption released thermal energy equivalent to 100,000 of the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II. Estimates of the exact date of the eruption ranged from August 24 to late October in the year 79 A.D. Born Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus in Rome in December 39 A.D. during the tumultuous reign of Caligula, Titus was born into the powerful Flavian family.

His father, Vespasian, was a commander during the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 A.D. Just 16 years later, he became the fourth Roman Emperor in what is now known as "The Year of the Four Emperors", 69 A.D., apparently after his troops had murdered the third one, Vitellius. Vespasian reigned for a decade and was succeeded by his son, Titus, in June 79 A.D.

Although his reign would last little more than two years, it was a momentous time -- not only did he have to deal with the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, but a year later there was the Great Fire of Rome. Despite such disasters going on around him, he is still remembered for completing the construction of The Colosseum (begun eight years earlier under his father). Titus died of a fever in September 81 A.D. and was succeeded by his younger brother, Domitilla. The honorific "arch of Titus" erected in 82 A.D. still stands today on the 'Via Sacra', the main street of ancient Rome, leading from the top of Capitolone Hill through The Forum to the Colosseum. The arch, which commemorates Titus's victories during the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., is the model on which numerous later triumphal arches (such the Arc de Triomphe in Paris) are based.

Answer: Raymond Poincaré

The trigger for World War I was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on June 28, 1914. The diplomatic crisis began with an ultimatum from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Serbia. Within weeks, all of the European powers had lined up on one side or the other, and thus began one of the deadliest wars of all time.
Born in 1860 in Bar-le-Duc in the Meuse department of northeastern France, Raymond Poincaré became Minister for Education in 1893. After a spell as Minister of Finance, he spent a year from January 1912-1913 in the dual role of Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs. A few weeks later, on February 18, 1913, he succeeded Armand Fallières to become the 10th President of the French Republic. Poincaré remained in office throughout the war, serving a full term of seven years. He later served a further two terms as Prime Minister during the 1920s. He died aged 74 in 1934.
The alternatives all served a full 7-year term as President. Armand Fallières (1906-13) preceded Poincaré, and he in turn was preceded by Émile Loubet (1899-1906). Albert Lebrun (1932-1940) was French President at the time of the outbreak of World War II.

Answer: Charles I

The Inca civilization developed in the Peruvian highlands in the early part of the 13th Century. By the 1450s they controlled an empire comparable to those seen in Eurasian history, encompassing Peru along with large parts of what are today Ecuador, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. The king of the Incas, the 'Sapa Inca', was considered to be the 'son of the Sun'. Huayna Capac held that position for more than 30 years, from 1493 until his death, probably from smallpox, in 1524. Infectious deceases such as smallpox spread quickly throughout the Americas following the Spanish arrival on the continent, decimating many tribes. The disease began to affect the Incas even before the arrival of Spanish troops, who arrived in their lands in 1526. Following the death of Huayna Capac, the Empire was divided as his two sons fought a civil war. The younger brother, Atahualpa, emerged as the victor, executing his brother in order to claim his position as 'Sapa Inca'. Although the Incas held significant numerical advantages, battles between the Spanish and the Incas were not evenly matched -- in one major battle, 80,000 Incans armed with axes and stones were easily routed by less than 6,000 armed and armored Spanish horsemen. Atahualpa was captured and imprisoned in November 1532. He was executed, strangled with a garotte, on July 26, 1533. Although plenty of pretenders to the throne emerged following Atahualpa's death, none was ever considered a 'Sapa Inca'. The Incas continued fighting for the best part of 40 years (their last stronghold was conquered in 1572), but the execution of the last 'Sapa Inca' was the end of any real resistance and effectively the end of the Inca Empire.
Charles was born in 1500 in Ghent in Flanders (modern-day Belgium), the son of King Philip I of Castile and Queen Joanna the Mad. When Philip died in 1506, Joanna was deemed mentally ill and confined to a nunnery for the rest of her life, which allowed her father, King Ferdinand II of Aragon to take over the Castile crown as regent. Ferdinand's death in 1516 then united the factions behind the Habsburg banner and thus the 15-year old Charles/Carlos I became the first King of Spain. In 1519, he added Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany and King of Italy to his titles. Nicknamed "Charles the Emperor", he ruled for 40 years before abdicating in January 1556 (shortly before his death in 1558). He was succeeded as King of Spain by his son Philip II.

Answer: Queen Christina

Born in 1599 in the market town of Huntington in Cambridgeshire in central England, Oliver Cromwell first became a Member of Parliament in 1628. He fought on the side of the Roundheads in the English Civil War and in 1649 he was one of the signatories of the death warrant for King Charles I.

In the years that followed, he led successful military campaigns against both the Irish and the Scots. In April 1653 he dismissed Parliament by force before being invited by his fellow leaders to rule as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, a role he began in December 1653.

He lasted less than five years, dying of natural causes in September 1658 and succeeded by his son, Richard Cromwell. Oliver Cromwell was buried in Westminster Cathedral, but when the Royalists regained power two years later they had his body dug up and beheaded -- I guess they didn't bear a grudge then! Born in Stockholm in 1626, Christina was the only child of King Gustav II Adolph and his wife Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg.

When her father died at the Battle of Lutzen, Christina was only six years old so she ascended to the throne as heiress presumptive. She began ruling for herself as Queen Regnant on her eighteenth birthday in 1644. Although she would live into her 60s, Christina's reign as Queen would last only another ten years. Considered one of the most educated women of the 17th century, she became interested in religion and philosophy. At the age of 28, after numerous scandals over her decision not to marry, Christina announced that she intended to convert to Catholicism and that she would therefore renounce her throne. The abdication ceremony took place at Uppsala Castle on June 5, 1654, with Christina's cousin Charles V Gustav, the grandson of King Charles IX on his mother's side, taking over. Within weeks, she left Sweden disguised as a man. She traveled through Denmark and Holland before eventually arriving in Rome. She died in April 1689 and was buried not just in Saint Peter's Basilica but within the the 'Grotte Vaticane' (the papal vaults), one of only three women ever so honoured.