The 20 quiz questions
Question 1 : The Roman Colosseum could hold more than 50,000 spectators.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! The Colosseum could hold between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators depending on estimates. It was the largest amphitheater ever built.
Question 2 : Cleopatra lived closer in time to the first iPhone than to the construction of the Giza pyramids.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! The pyramids were built around 2500 BC. Cleopatra lived from 69 to 30 BC, about 2450 years after the pyramids. The iPhone came out in 2007, about 2060 years after Cleopatra.
Question 3 : Napoleon Bonaparte was short compared to the average height of his era.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! Napoleon was about 1.69 m (5'7"), which was average for French men of his time. The legend of his short stature comes from confusion between French and English inches.
Question 4 : Vikings wore horned helmets in battle.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! No archaeological evidence confirms this image. Horned helmets are a 19th-century romantic invention. Real Viking helmets were simple and rounded.
Question 5 : The guillotine was used in France until 1977.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! Hamida Djandoubi was the last person guillotined in France on September 10, 1977. The death penalty was abolished in 1981.
Question 6 : Christopher Columbus discovered that the Earth was round.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! Ancient Greeks, notably Eratosthenes, had calculated Earth's circumference as early as the 3rd century BC.
Question 7 : The last woolly mammoth lived after the Giza pyramids were built.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! The last mammoths survived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic until about 1700 BC, while the pyramids date from 2500 BC.
Question 8 : The French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: 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.
Question 9 : Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! Teaching at Oxford began as early as 1096. The Aztec Empire wasn't founded until 1428, more than 300 years later.
Question 10 : The Hundred Years' War lasted 116 years.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! It lasted from 1337 to 1453, which is 116 years. The name "Hundred Years" is a historical approximation.
Question 11 : Ferdinand Magellan was the first man to circumnavigate the globe.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! Magellan died in the Philippines in 1521. It was his second-in-command, Juan Sebastián Elcano, who completed the voyage around the world.
Question 12 : The Titanic had enough lifeboats for only a third of its passengers.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! The Titanic only had 20 lifeboats that could hold 1,178 people, while it carried over 2,200 passengers and crew.
Question 13 : Julius Caesar was born by cesarean section, which is where the operation gets its name.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: 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.
Question 14 : Nintendo was founded in 1889, long before video games were invented.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! Nintendo was established in Kyoto in 1889 to make traditional Japanese playing cards (hanafuda). Video games wouldn't come until 80 years later.
Question 15 : Marie-Antoinette actually said "Let them eat cake".
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! This phrase was falsely attributed to her. It appears in Rousseau's "Confessions", written when Marie-Antoinette was only 9 years old.
Question 16 : All Roman soldiers wore sandals.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! Roman legionaries wore caligae, sturdy military boots with nails, designed for long marches.
Question 17 : The fax machine was invented before the telephone.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: TRUE! The first fax (pantelegraph) was invented by Alexander Bain in 1843. Bell's telephone dates from 1876, 33 years later!
Question 18 : Charlemagne could read and write fluently.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! Charlemagne learned to read late in life but never mastered writing. Einhard recounts that he kept tablets under his pillow to practice.
Question 19 : The Eiffel Tower was supposed to be dismantled after 20 years.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: 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.
Question 20 : Roman gladiators always fought to the death.
Possible answers:
- True
- False
Explanation: FALSE! Gladiators were expensive athletes to train. Most fights ended in surrender. Fights to the death were the exception, not the rule.
