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MEN AND WOMEN WHO SHAPED HISTORY -- I
By : M.R.Sethi

Questions

1. Born a slave in Virginia, he was the first black man or Negro to dine at the White House. Can you name him?

2. This German Nazi leader joined the Nazis in 1921 and became Hitler's deputy in 1933. After the war, he was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Nuremberg Trials. Who was he?

3. Before the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the town of Sriperumbudur was famous as the birth place of an 11th century reformer. Who was he?

4. Aurangzeb was the last of the great Mughal emperors of India. What does his name mean?

5. The Urdu poet Akhtar Hussain Rizvi has made a name for himself as a lyricist in Hindi films also. What name is he known by?

6. Napoleon is the idol of many soldiers and generals. But do you know who was Napoleon's idol?

7. This Queen of France, the wife of Louis XVI, led a life of pleasure and careless extravagance. She was executed during the French Revolution. Who was she?

8. This British Queen was called the Grandmother of Europe because some of her nine children were married into various royal houses of continental Europe. Can you name her?

9. The British royal family adopted the dynastic title Windsor in 1917. What was the family called before that?

10. Which Portuguese explorer discovered the Philippines and was later killed by the natives?

Answers


1. Booker T. Washington (1856-1915). After his emancipation from slavery, he struggled to educate himseslf, then taught at a school for black children. In 1881 he founded Tuskegee Institute at Alabama for the training of blacks as teachers, farmers and tradesmen.

2. Rudolf Hess (1894-1987). He took part in the abortive Munich putsch in 1923. He flew to Scotland alone in 1941, in a attempt to make peace with the British. Imprisoned for the rest of the war, he was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Nuremberg trials of 1945.

3. Ramanuja, also known as Ramanujacharya (1017-1137). Founder of the Vaisnava sect, and commentator on the Upanishads, he is said to have founded 700 monasteries. He taught a monistic philosophy based on a belief in the incarnation of Vishnu.

4. The Ornament of the Throne. The Mughal empire which reached its greatest size during the reign of Aurangzeb (1618-1707), steadily declined after him and came to an end after Bahadurshah Zafar.

5. Kaifi Azmi. His daughter Shabana Azami has also carved a niche for herself in the Hindi art cinema.

6. Marcus Aurelius (121-180), Roman emperor and philosopher. An able and energetic ruler, he kept fighting wars for most of his reign. He promulgated many laws favouring the poor, but was not tolerant of the Christians.

7. Marie Antoinette (1755-93). Daughter of Francis I and Maria Theresa of Austria. In 1770 she married the French dauphin, later Louis XVI. During the French Revolution, she was seized at Varennes and was guillotined in 1793.

8. Queen Victoria. Her eldest child married the German Crown Prince and became the mother of the last Germanm Kaiser, william II.

9. Queen Victoria's descendants in the male line originally belonged to the German House of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. During World War I, however, this connection proved embarassing. In a proclamation of 1917 George V decreed that the royal family would take the surname of Windsor.

10. Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521), Portuguese explorer In March 1521 he reached the Philippines, where he was killed by the natives. He established a new route between Europe and Asia.



 

  
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

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