1.
Who was the first Englishman to sail through the Straits of Magellan?
Correct Answer
A. Francis Drake
Explanation
In 1570 and 1571, Drake made two profitable trading voyages to the West Indies. In 1572, he commanded two vessels in a marauding expedition against Spanish ports in the Caribbean. He saw the Pacific Ocean and captured the port of Nombre de Dios on the Isthmus of Panama. He returned to England with a cargo of Spanish treasure and a reputation as a brilliant privateer. In 1577, Drake was secretly commissioned by Elizabeth I to set off on an expedition against the Spanish colonies on the American Pacific coast. He sailed with five ships, but by the time he reached the Pacific Ocean in October 1578 only one was left, Drake's flagship the Pelican, renamed the Golden Hind. To reach the Pacific, Drake became the first Englishman to navigate the Straits of Magellan. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/drake_francis.shtml
2.
What is the tallest mountain in the world?
Correct Answer
D. Mauna Kea
Explanation
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/funfacts/worldstallestmountain.html
Well, if you want to get technical about it, the answer is NO.
Mount Everest stands 29,028 feet tall. From top to bottom, it's taller than any other mountain--whose bottom is the surface of the earth.
Here's the catch: If you add what's underneath, then Mount Everest isn't the tallest mountain. The winner then is Mauna Kea, a huge, very tall volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii (called Hawaii). Mauna Kea stretches 13,796 above water and 19,680 underwater, for a total of 33,476!
So if you say that it's the whole mountain that counts, then Mauna Kea is the tallest.
3.
What is the current distress message used by ships at sea?
Correct Answer
B. G.M.D.S.S. (Global Marine Distress and Safety System)
Explanation
Since the invention of radio at the end of the 19th century, ships at sea have relied on Morse code, invented by Samuel Morse and first used in 1844, for distress and safety telecommunications. The need for ship and coast radio stations to have and use radiotelegraph equipment, and to listen to a common radio frequency for Morse encoded distress calls, was recognized after the sinking of the liner RMS Titanic in the North Atlantic in 1912. The U.S. Congress enacted legislation soon after, requiring U.S. ships to use Morse code radiotelegraph equipment for distress calls. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), now a United Nations agency, followed suit for ships of all nations. Morse encoded distress calling has saved thousands of lives since its inception almost a century ago, but its use requires skilled radio operators spending many hours listening to the radio distress frequency. Its range on the medium frequency (MF) distress band (500 kHz) is limited, and the amount of traffic Morse signals can carry is also limited.
Not all ship-to-shore radio communications were short range. Some radio stations provided long-range radiotelephony services, such as radio telegrams and radio telex calls, on the HF bands (3-30 MHz) enabling worldwide communications with ships. For example, Portishead Radio, which was the world's busiest radiotelephony station, provided HF long-range services.[1] In 1974, it had 154 radio operators who handled over 20 million words per year.[2] Such large radiotelephony stations employed large numbers of people and were expensive to operate. By the end of the 1980s, satellite services had started to take an increasingly large share of the market for ship-to-shore communications.
For these reasons, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a United Nations agency specializing in safety of shipping and preventing ships from polluting the seas, began looking at ways of improving maritime distress and safety communications. In 1979, a group of experts drafted the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, which called for development of a global search and rescue plan. This group also passed a resolution calling for development by IMO of a Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) to provide the communication support needed to implement the search and rescue plan. This new system, which the world's maritime nations are implementing, is based upon a combination of satellite and terrestrial radio services, and has changed international distress communications from being primarily ship-to-ship based to ship-to-shore (Rescue Coordination Center) based. It spelled the end of Morse code communications for all but a few users, such as amateur radio operators. The GMDSS provides for automatic distress alerting and locating in cases where a radio operator doesn't have time to send an SOS or MAYDAY call, and, for the first time, requires ships to receive broadcasts of maritime safety information which could prevent a distress from happening in the first place. In 1988, IMO amended the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention, requiring ships subject to it fit GMDSS equipment. Such ships were required to carry NAVTEX and satellite EPIRBs by 1 August 1993, and had to fit all other GMDSS equipment by 1 February 1999. US ships were allowed to fit GMDSS in lieu of Morse telegraphy equipment by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
4.
What form of the death penalty accounts for the greatest number of deaths in the USA?
Correct Answer
A. Hanging
Explanation
http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=004087#V
5.
Who introduced the concentration camp?
Correct Answer
B. The Spanish
Explanation
Spain. In their struggle to retain Cuba in 1895, the Spanish came up with the idea of "concentrating" civilians into one place to make them easier to control
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Which_country_invented_the_concentration_camp#ixzz1XC06Onqb
6.
What is the name of this image of a Jack Russell dog listening to a gramophone?
Correct Answer
D. "Dog looking and listening to a pHonograpH"
Explanation
His Master's Voice -- typically referred to by its abbreviation HMV -- is one of the oldest record labels in the world, and HMV's famous "Nipper" trademark is probably the most famous of all label logos. HMV was one of the four main subsidiary labels operated by EMI in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and other countries from the 1930s to the 1970s, alongside the Columbia, Parlophone and Regal Zonophone labels.
The HMV name originated with EMI's ancestor, The Gramophone Company, which was founded in the UK in 1898. The renowned trademark that gave the label its name is the famous picture of the Jack Russell terrier "Nipper" listening to a gramophone recording of his dead master. The original image was created by English artist Francis Barraud, A.R.A. According to contemporary publicity material, the dog in the picture, Nipper, had originally belonged to Barraud's brother Mark. When Mark Barraud died, Francis inherited Nipper, along with a cylinder phonograph and a number of recordings of Mark's voice. Barraud noted the peculiar interest that the dog took in the recorded voice of his late master and decided to create a painting from it, since sentimental or comical scenes of domestic animals were very popular in the Victorian period.
In early 1899, Barraud applied for copyright of the original painting, using the descriptive working title "Dog looking at and listening to a Phonograph". He was unable to sell the work to any cylinder phonograph company, but later that year The Gramophone Company purchased it, on the condition that Barraud would paint over the cylinder machine and repaint one of the company's disc machines. On the original painting, the overpainted image of the cylinder player can apparently be discerned under the newer paint if viewed in the right light. The image was first used on the company's publicity material in 1900, and numerous additional copies were subsequently commissioned from the artist for various corporate purposes. In all it is thought that Barraud painted around 26 copies of the original image.
http://www.milesago.com/industry/hmv.htm
7.
Where was the first atom bomb let off?
Correct Answer
C. New Mexico
Explanation
The events that took place in a remote area of New Mexico during the predawn hours of July 16, 1945 forever changed the world. In the early morning darkness the incredible destructive powers of the atom were first unleashed and what had been merely theoretical became reality
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/atomictest.htm