Question: Which 1942 WWII Asian battle was termed as "Britain's greatest defeat" by Churchill?
Answer: Battle of Singapore

Question: What groups of secret revolutionary societies founded in early 19th-century Italy get their name from the Italian for 'charcoal burners'?
Answer: Carbonari

Question: To whom was Daniel Parke Custis married to during the period of 1750-57?
Answer: Martha, who later became the wife of George Washington

Question: What medieval Islamic dynasty was founded in 1250 in Egypt and Syria by slave soldiers who deposed the Ayyubids?
Answer: Mamluk dynasty

Question: A check for $7.2 million was issued on August 1, 1868 and was made payable to Edouard de Stoeckl, a Russian Minister. What was being bought?
Answer: Alaska

Question: Referring to the Soviet Union's domination of a certain country, what term is given to the influence of a powerful nation on the policies of a smaller neighbor?
Answer: Finlandization

Question: What 1943 WWII battle between Germany and the Soviet Union remains to this day the largest series of armored clashes ever?
Answer: Battle of Kursk

Question: During World War I, which Belgian city that was the centre of intense battles was nicknamed 'wipers'?
Answer: Ypres

Question: Who is the Scottish outlaw of the 18th century who is sometimes called as the Scottish Robin Hood? (hint: also the name of a Manhattan like cocktail)
Answer: Rob Roy

Question: What term refers to the stage of the journey that saw the forcible passage of Africans to the New World as part of the Atlantic slave trade?
Answer: Middle Passage

Question: What is the name of the fictional woman who is depicted as the national emblem of the French Republic?
Answer: Marianne

Question: As numerous countries gained their independence in that year, which year in the second half of the 20th century is known as the 'Year of Africa'?
Answer: 1960

Question: Which African leader is the only person in history to have addressed both the League of Nations and the UN?
Answer: Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (1892-1975)

Question: What namesake archive that purportedly contains notes concerning KGB operations of the Soviet Union became public in 1992 and launched parliamentary inquiries in the UK, India and Italy?
Answer: Mitrokhin Archive

Question: What foreign policy theory promoted by the US government during the Cold War speculated that if one land in a region came under the influence of communism, the surrounding countries would follow?
Answer: Domino theory

Question: What 'fruity' term for a small and unstable country dependent on agriculture was first used by O. Henry in reference to Honduras?
Answer: Banana republic

Question: Because foreigners were forbidden to serve in the French Army after the 1830 July Revolution, what was created by Louis Philippe, the King of France in 1831?
Answer: French Foreign Legion

Question: Mimar Sinan (1489-1588) is considered the greatest architect of the classical period and was responsible for the Suleiman mosque in Istanbul and many other magnificent constructions. Which political entity benefited from his genius?
Answer: Ottomon empire

Question: In ancient Greece, the bematists who accompanied Alexander the Great on his campaigns were trained to measure what?
Answer: Distances (by counting their steps)

Question: If you have to associate one person with the 'Kuomintang Party' between 1929 and 1948, who would it be?
Answer: Chiang Kai-shek

Question: Meaning 'Apple orchard' in Spanish, what is the collective name of the ten concentration camps in California where thousands of Japanese Americans were imprisoned during WWII?
Answer: Manzanar

Question: Ephialtes of Trachis was the traitor who showed the Persian forces a trail around the allied Greek position at the pass of Thermopylae, which helped them win the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. He was portrayed as a severely deformed man in which blood-soaked 2007 movie?
Answer: 300

Question: What are 'Potemkin villages' which were purportedly erected at the direction of Russian minister Grigori Potemkin to impress Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787?
Answer: Fake settlements

Question: What was the name of the notorious biological research unit of the Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and WWII?
Answer: Unit 731

Question: On 31 October 1984, the English actor Peter Ustinov was waiting to interview which Asian leader when that person was assassinated?
Answer: Indira Gandhi

Question: Waitangi Day held each year on February 6 is the national day of New Zealand as a treaty instrumental in the country's history was signed at that place in 1840. The name 'Waitangi' means 'weeping waters' in which language?
Answer: Māori

Question: What conflict is commonly divided into the following four phases? 1. Edwardian (1337-1360) 2. Caroline (1369-1389) 3. Lancastrian (1415-1429) 4. Era of Joan of Arc (1412-1431)
Answer: Hundred Years' War (1337-1453)

Question: Kåre Kristiansen, a member of the Nobel Committee resigned in 1994 in protest at the awarding of the Peace Prize to which person, calling the awardee a terrorist?
Answer: Yasser Arafat

Question: Who was executed by hanging at Ramla prison in 1962 and remains the only person to have been executed by an Israeli civilian court?
Answer: Adolf Eichmann

Question: Who is the former UN Secretary General from Austria who attained notoriety for allegedly falsifying the nature of his service to Nazi Germany?
Answer: Kurl Waldheim

Question: Who is the American intelligence officer who is fondly remembered as the father of today's CIA and served as the inspiration for the role of Bill Sullivan played by Rober DeNiro in the 2006 film The Good Shepard?
Answer: William Joseph Donovan (1883-1959)

Question: What two countries fought the six-day 'Football War' or the '100-hours War' in 1969?
Answer: El Salvador and Honduras

Question: What sporty term popularized by Rudyard Kipling in Kim was used to describe the rivalry between the British Empire and the Russian Empire in their quest for supremacy in Central Asia in the 19th century?
Answer: """Great game"""

Question: Literally called 'The Righteous and Harmonious Society Movement', what is the more popular western name for the Chinese rebellion took place from 1899 to 1901 against foreign influence during the final years of the Manchu rule?
Answer: Boxer Rebellion

Question: What generic term for all African American soldiers was originally applied to the members of the U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment by the native Apache Indians?
Answer: Buffalo soldiers

Question: The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was destroyed on July 21, 356 BC in an act of arson. Historian Plutarch remarked that the goddess was preoccupied with the birth of whom that occurred on the same day to save her temple?
Answer: Alexander the Great

Question: What is the name of the Polish trade union founded in September 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard that was originally led by Lech Wałęsa?
Answer: Solidarity

Question: In 1954, which country suggested that it should join NATO to preserve peace in Europe but this proposal was rejected as the other countries felt that it would weaken the alliance?
Answer: Soviet Union

Question: The usage of the what derogatory phrase referring to the Ottoman Empire is attributed to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia?
Answer: """Sick man of Europe"""

Question: What was the famous one-word reply of General McAuliffe of the US to a German demand for surrender during the Battle of the Bulge in WWII?
Answer: """Nuts!"""

Question: In 1948, which Latin American country became the first in the world to constitutionally abolish its army?
Answer: Costa Rica

Question: According to legend, which king was inspired by a spider during the winter of 1305-06 in his fight against the English?
Answer: Robert I, King of Scots usually known as Robert the Bruce