Scientific Revolution
1600CE-1800CE
1600CE-1800CE
Which famous English playwright and poet wrote plays like Hamlet and Macbeth around the turn of the 17th century (dying in 1616)?
William Shakespeare
Which U.S. President signed the Emancipation Proclamation during the American Civil War?
Abraham Lincoln
What famous passenger ocean liner struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912?
The Titanic
In 1962, the world came close to nuclear war when the US and USSR faced off over Soviet missiles placed in which island nation?
Cuba
Which animated film released by Disney in 1994 features the characters Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa?
The Lion King
In what year did the American Declaration of Independence get formally adopted by the Continental Congress?
1776
In what year did the United States purchase the territory of Alaska from Russia?
1867
Which US President implemented a series of programs and public work projects known as the New Deal during the Great Depression?
Franklin D. Roosevelt
What physical barrier divided a major German city from 1961 to 1989, becoming a global symbol of the Cold War?
The Berlin Wall
What was the name of the U.S.-led military operation launched in January 1991 to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi forces?
Operation Desert Storm
Which English scientist published Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687, laying out the laws of motion and universal gravitation?
Sir Isaac Newton
Which event in 1883 caused the loudest sound ever recorded in human history?
The eruption of the volcano Krakatoa
What was the name of the secret US government research project during World War II that developed the first nuclear weapons?
The Manhattan Project
Who was the first man in space.
Yuri Gagarin
Which country officially ceased to exist on January 1, 1993, when it peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia (a split often called the "Velvet Divorce")?
Czechoslovakia
Which famous French monarch, known as the "Sun King," reigned for 72 years from 1643 to 1715 and built the Palace of Versailles?
Louis XIV (14th)
Which German engineer received the patent for the first practical, gasoline-powered automobile in 1885?
Carl Benz
In 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen led the first expedition to successfully reach which geographic location?
The South Pole
What was the name of the 1975 agreement signed by 35 nations to improve relations between the Communist bloc and the West, which inadvertently catalyzed human rights movements in Eastern Europe?
The Helsinki Accords
In what year did the European Union officially launch the Euro as an electronic currency for accounting and financial operations before physical coins and banknotes entered circulation in 2002?
1999
Which 17th-century Japanese shogun closed Japan to most foreign trade and relations in the 1630s, starting a policy of isolation known as sakoku that lasted over two centuries?
Tokugawa Iemitsu (the third Tokugawa shogun, who enforced the final isolation edicts)
Who was the first person confirmed to have sighted the continent of Antarctica in 1820?
Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen (often credited alongside Mikhail Lazarev and Edward Bransfield)
Which artistic movement, co-founded by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque around 1907, broke objects down into geometric shapes?
Cubism
Who served as the Prime Minister of Iran until 1953, when he was overthrown in a coup orchestrated by British and American intelligence agencies?
Mohammad Mosaddegh
In what year did the International Space Station (ISS) welcome its very first permanent resident crew (Expedition 1, consisting of Commander William Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko, and Sergei Krikalev)?
2000