Download IMPORTANT HISTORICAL DATES AND EVENTS

IMPORTANT HISTORICAL DATES AND EVENTS
QUIZZES 1 & 2
1066
Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings occurred on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French
army of Duke William II of Normandy and the English army under King Harold II.
It was a decisive Norman Victory, with King Harold killed in the battle and the
victor, William becoming the first Norman ruler as King William I (William the
Conqueror).
1215
Sealing of the Magna
Carta
The Great Charter of the Liberties of England (Magna Carta) was sealed by King
John at Runnymede in 1215 and became part of the historical process that lead to
the rule of constitutional law throughout the English speaking world.
1605
Gunpowder Plot
A plot to blow up the House of Lords and kill King James I of England and V of
Scotland on 5th November 1605 was discovered. The failed plot is commemorated
annually as Guy Fawkes (Bonfire) Night.
Charles Stuart (Charles I) was beheaded on 30th January 1649, the only reigning
King of England to have been executed.
From 1642, Charles fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the
English Civil War. After his defeat in 1645, he surrendered to a Scottish force that
eventually handed him over to the English Parliament. By the end of 1648 Oliver
Cromwell's New Model Army had consolidated its control over England and
Charles was tried, convicted, and executed for high treason in January 1649.
1649
The monarchy was abolished and a republic called the Commonwealth of England
was declared. In 1660, the monarchy was restored to Charles's son, Charles II.
Execution of Charles I
The great fire started at a bakery in Pudding Lane on 2nd September 1666. The fire
gutted the medieval City of London.
Over the course of the 3 days during which the fire burned, it consumed 13,200
houses, 87 parish churches, St. Paul's Cathedral and most of the buildings of the
City authorities. It is estimated to have destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the City's
80,000 inhabitants.
1666
Great Fire of London
1687
Theory of Universal
Gravitation and the
three laws of motion
In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton published his Principia, demonstrating his theories of
universal gravitation and the three laws of motion
1796
Smallpox vaccine
discoved
Edward Jenner developed and publicised the process of vaccination against
smallpox, which would ultimately lead to the eradication of the disease.
WORLD KNOWLEDGE
QUIZZES 1 & 2
CURRENT POLITICAL LEADERS OF SOME OF THE WORLD’S NATIONS
USA
Barak Obama
President
China
Xi Jinping
President
Russia
Vladimir Putin
President
India
Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister
France
François Hollande
President
United Kingdom
David Cameron
Prime Minister
Germany
Angela Merkel
Chancellor
Japan
Shinzō Abe
Prime Minister
POLITICAL SYSTEMS
Democracy
Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens participate equally either directly or through elected
representatives (politicians) in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. All citizens once they are adults (in
this country it is at the age of 18 years old) to vote in each election for the person/political party they would like to
represent them and run the country. Examples of democracies are United Kingdom, America and India.
Communism
Communism is a radical revolutionary socialist movement which aims to create a classless social order as well as a
social, political and economic ideology that aims to establish absolute equality for all. Examples of communist states
are China, North Korea and Cuba.
Fascism
Fascism is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism that came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe.
Fascists sought to unify their nation through a totalitarian state. Hostile to democracy, socialism and communism,
fascist movements shared certain common features including a devotion to a strong leader. Fascism views political
violence and war as a means to achieve a stronger nation and asserts that stronger nations have the right to take over
weaker nations. Examples of Fascist countries were Germany during Hitler’s rule and Italy under Benito Mussolini.
Some countries today have elements of Fascist rule, such as Syria.
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is defined as a form of government in which a country is ruled by one person (a Dictator), or a small
group of people. In this form of government the power rests entirely on the person or group of people, and can be
obtained by force. Dictator(s) are not voted for by their people and many countries run by dictators take away much
of its peoples' freedom. Exampled of countries with dictators are Iran, Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia.
SCIENCE
QUIZZES 1 & 2
The Universe
The Sun
The Sun is an immense sphere of plasma; intensely hot, electrically charged gas, mostly hydrogen and helium. With a
diameter of 1,391,000 kilometres, it dwarfs other members of our solar system. More than one million earths could fit
into it.
As it formed from the gas and grit of the solar nebulae, the sun sucked in virtually all matter for billions of miles,
ending up with more than 98.8% of the solar system’s mass.
Nuclear fusion in its core powers the sun. The enormous heat and pressure generated within the sun’s centre, fusing
hydrogen into helium and releasing electromagnetic energy, can take hundreds of thousands of years to move from
the core, where the temperature reaches 15 million degrees celcius, to the sun’s visible surface which is 5600 degrees
Celcius.
Magnetic fields twisting in its body pull streamers of gas far into space (solar flares). The flare ejects clouds of
electrons, ions, and atoms through the corona of the sun into space. These clouds typically reach Earth a day or two
after the event.
The Sun dominates the solar system not only through its gravitational influence, which extends up to 200,000
astronomical units away, but also through its solar wind of charged particles, which reach beyond 100 astronomical
units (far past Pluto).
An astronomical unit (AU) is 149,597, 871 kilometres, or roughly the same distance between Earth and the Sun.
The Planets
The planets where shaped by the nearby sun and ended up rocky, small and dense, with at least one, Earth, orbiting
at just the right distance to hold on to watery oceans and host the chemical of life.
The planets can be divided up into two groups of four.
Closest to the sun are the four inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. The inner planets are compact and
rocky with just three moons between them. They are called terrestrial planets because they are more or less earth-like.
All of them have secondary atmospheres (produced after their formation) and at least three of them planets may once
have had oceans; Venus, whose seas may have been boiled off by the greenhouse effect; Mars, whose once liquid
oceans might now be frozen under its surface and Earth, the Blue Planet, orbiting at just the right distance from the
sun to maintain liquid water on its surface.
Far from the sun, beyond the asteroid belt, orbit the four gas giants - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. These four
outer planets are huge and vaporous, possessing rings and more than 160 natural satellites between them.
Mercury
Mercury is just 4878 kms in diameter, making it the smallest of the planets. Due to Mercury’s off-centre orbit of the
sun, bringing it as close as 46 million kms to the sun at its closest point and as far as 69.82 million kms from the sun at
its furthest point, the planet see great extremes in temperature, going from highs of 427 degrees celcius to lows of -173
degrees celcius. Mercury has no natural satellites.
Venus
In size, Venus is a near match to Earth, at 12,103 kms in diameter, only 653 kms smaller than earth. Its mass is only
slightly less than that of Earth and its density and surface gravity are also close to our own planet. However, Venus
is, in fact, a smoggy furnace beneath a crushing acidic atmosphere with an average surface temperature of 462 degrees
Celcius, making it the hottest planet in the solar system. It has no natural satellites. Venus is the brightest object in
the sky from Earth other than the sun and moon and is often referred to as the Morning or Evening star.
Earth
Earth is the largest of the four terrestrial planets, at 12,756 kms in diameter. Earth is not completely spherical but
slightly wider at the centre because of its rotation. Earth is denser than other rocky planets and has a higher surface
gravity. It is the only planet with liquid water on its surface. Its surface is varied and dynamic, consisting of crustal
plates slowly shifting under a stable, shallow, moist atmosphere. Protecting Earth from radiation is the
magnetosphere, a magnetic field thousands of miles long. Earth’s only moon circles the planet at a distance of 384,400
kms away.
Mars
Known as the red planet, Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and the outermost of the rocky planets, orbiting at an
average distance of 227.9 million kms from the sun. It is roughly half the size of Earth and is now a dry, barren planet
with a surface marked by large canyon systems and huge extinct volcanos, its most famous being Olympus Mons, the
largest volcano in the solar system. Vast dust storms whip around the planet and clouds and falling snow have been
seen by spacecraft sent to explore its surface. Like Earth, Mars has seasons and ice caps and evidence suggests that
liquid water flowed across the Martian surface billions of years ago. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, both
very small moons with the largest, Phobos, being only 27 kms long and 22 kms wide.
Jupiter
Within the solar system, Jupiter is second only to the Sun is size and mass. The gas giant, at 142,984 kms in diameter,
and could hold 1300 Earths. It is almost two and a half times the combined mass of the other 7 planets put together.
Jupiter takes almost 12 years to circle the Sun but rotates once every 9.9 hours, so fast that it is more egg shaped than
sphere. Composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, like the sun, it has no real surface but a deep and windy
atmosphere over a liquid hydrogen ocean. Jupiter is not just a planet, but a planet-moon system with 63 natural
satellites, one of which, Ganymede, is the largest moon in the solar system. Jupiter’s atmosphere is affected by
colossal, oval shaped storms whipped up by the planets internal heat and very fast rotation. The largest of these
storms is the Great Red Spot which is about twice the size of Earth and has been raging for more than 350 years.
Saturn
Saturn, seen as one of the most beautiful planets with its rings, made from billions of ice particles sculpted into
multiple bands by the gravity of some of Saturn’s moons. It has 61 natural satellites, the largest of which is Titan, the
only satellite in the solar system to possess a thick atmosphere and, apparently, liquid lakes (of methane and ethane)
on its surface, possible havens for life. Saturn is 1.4 billion kms from the sun and is the second largest planet in the
solar system after Jupiter. It consists almost entirely of the lightest elements, hydrogen and helium and as a result is
the least dense planet in the solar system.
Uranus
One of the two ice giants, Uranus is the third largest planet in the Solar System and lies twice as far from the sun as
Saturn (2.9 billion kms). Neptune is pale blue in colour, which comes from the methane in its atmosphere. It is
featureless with a sparse ring system and 27 moons. As a result of what is thought to have been a collision with a
planet-sized body not long after it formed, Uranus’s spin axis is tipped over by 98%, giving it the appearance of
moving along on its orbital path on its side, with its moon encircling it from top to bottom. Its spin is retrograde –
meaning it rotates in the opposite direction to that of most other planets.
Neptune
The second of the two ice giants, Neptune is the coldest planet in the Solar System. Neptune is 4.5 billion kms from
the Sun and takes 163.7 Earth years to orbit the Sun, so has only completed one circuit since its discovery in 1846.
Neptune has a core of rock and metal, surrounded by a liquid layer of water, ammonia and methane. Above this is a
hydrogen dominated atmosphere affect by huge wind speeds of up to 2000 kms per hour – the highest wind speed
found on any planet. It has 13 moons, the largest of which is Triton.
BIGGEST, SMALLEST, FASTEST, LONGEST .....
QUIZZES 1 & 2
Tallest man made structure
Tallest mountain
The tallest man made structure in the world is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai,
United Arab Emirates, which is 829.8 metres tall, has 163 floors and 67
elevators.
The highest mountain in the world is Mount Everest, whose summit is
8,848 metres above sea level. Mount Everest is part of the Himalayas in
Asia.
The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean in the world.
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends
from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia
and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.
Largest ocean
At 165.25 million square kilometres in area, the ocean covers about 46% of
the Earth's water surface and about one-third of its total surface area,
making it larger than all of the Earth's land area combined.
Largest country
The biggest country in the world in area is Russia, which is more than 17
million kilometres squared in size.
Largest volcano
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It is a gas giant with mass
one-thousandth of that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of
all the other planets in the Solar System combined. It has a diameter of
142,984 kilometres.
The largest volcano on earth was recently discovered off the coast of
Japan submerged under the Pacific Ocean. Discovered in September
2013, Tamu Massif is estimated to be larger than the whole of the British
Isles although not the tallest volcano in the world.
Tallest volcano
Until recently, the largest but now just the tallest volcano on Earth is
Mauna Loa in Hawaii, which measures 30,000 metres from the base to the
top, although much of the volcano is submerged beneath the sea.
Fastest man
Usain Bolt from Jamaica is the fastest man on earth with his 100 metre
record currently standing at 9.58 seconds
Largest planet in our solar system
Fastest land animal
Most spoken language
The cheetah is the fastest animal on land and can run as fast as 95 to
105kms per hour.
The language spoken by more people than any other in the world is
Chinese (Mandarin). More than 1 billion people speak Mandarin,
compared to the second most spoken language, which is English, at 500
million people.
FLAGS, COUNTRIES, CAPITALS, CONTINENTS,
POPULATION and CURRENCY
QUIZZES 1 & 2
Afghanistan
Argentina
Austria
CAPITAL: Kabul
CAPITAL: Buenos Aires
CAPITAL: Vienna
Continent: ASIA
Population: 29.1 million
Currency: Afghani
Continent: SOUTH AMERICA
Population: 40.7 million
Currency: Argentine Peso
Continent: EUROPE
Population: 8.5 million
Currency: Euro
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
CAPITAL: Brussels
CAPITAL: Brasilia
CAPITAL: Sofia
Continent: EUROPE
Population: 10.7 million
Currency: Euro
Continent: SOUTH AMERICA
Population: 195 million
Currency: Real
Continent: EUROPE
Population: 7.5 million
Currency: Lev
Canada
CAPITAL: Ottawa
Continent: NORTH AMERICA
Population: 33.9 million
Currency: Canadian Dollar
Chile
CAPITAL: Santiago
Continent: SOUTH AMERICA
Population: 17.1 million
Currency: Chilean Peso
China
CAPITAL: Beijing
Continent: ASIA
Population: 1.35 billion
Currency: Renminbi (also known as
Yuan)
Colombia
Cuba
Czech Republic
CAPITAL: Bogota
CAPITAL: Havana
CAPITAL: Prague
Continent: SOUTH AMERICA
Population: 46.3 million
Currency: Columbian Peso
Continent: NORTH AMERICA
Population: 11.2 million
Currency: Cuban Peso
Continent: EUROPE
Population: 10.4 million
Currency: Czech koruna
Denmark
Egypt
Finland
CAPITAL: Copenhagen
CAPITAL: Cairo
CAPITAL: Helsinki
Continent: EUROPE
Population: 5.5 million
Currency: Danish Krone
Continent: AFRICA
Population: 84.5 million
Currency: Egyptian Pound
Continent: EUROPE
Population: 5.3 million
Currency: Euro