True or False: History

Explication : TRUE! Hamida Djandoubi was the last person guillotined in France on September 10, 1977. The death penalty was abolished in 1981.

Explication : FALSE! Ancient Greeks, notably Eratosthenes, had calculated Earth's circumference as early as the 3rd century BC.

Explication : TRUE! The last mammoths survived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic until about 1700 BC, while the pyramids date from 2500 BC.

Explication : FALSE! The Revolution had already begun, notably with the Tennis Court Oath on June 20, 1789. The storming of the Bastille was symbolic but not the beginning.

Explication : TRUE! It lasted from 1337 to 1453, which is 116 years. The name "Hundred Years" is a historical approximation.

Explication : TRUE! Teaching at Oxford began as early as 1096. The Aztec Empire wasn't founded until 1428, more than 300 years later.

Explication : FALSE! Magellan died in the Philippines in 1521. It was his second-in-command, Juan Sebastián Elcano, who completed the voyage around the world.

Explication : TRUE! The Titanic only had 20 lifeboats that could hold 1,178 people, while it carried over 2,200 passengers and crew.

Explication : FALSE! The term "cesarean" comes from the Latin "caedere" (to cut). At the time, the operation was fatal for the mother, yet Caesar's mother lived long after his birth.

Explication : TRUE! Nintendo was established in Kyoto in 1889 to make traditional Japanese playing cards (hanafuda). Video games wouldn't come until 80 years later.

Explication : FALSE! Roman legionaries wore caligae, sturdy military boots with nails, designed for long marches.

Explication : FALSE! This phrase was falsely attributed to her. It appears in Rousseau's "Confessions", written when Marie-Antoinette was only 9 years old.

Explication : TRUE! The first fax (pantelegraph) was invented by Alexander Bain in 1843. Bell's telephone dates from 1876, 33 years later!

Explication : FALSE! Charlemagne learned to read late in life but never mastered writing. Einhard recounts that he kept tablets under his pillow to practice.

Explication : TRUE! Built for the 1889 World's Fair, it was to be demolished in 1909. It was saved thanks to its usefulness as a radio antenna.

Explication : FALSE! Gladiators were expensive athletes to train. Most fights ended in surrender. Fights to the death were the exception, not the rule.