History Challenge & Journal

[dozer]

Thought to be the earliest academic institution ?

[Siani]

Thought to be the earliest academic institution ?

Yes, in the western world anyway (I think)

The date of its founding is uncertain, but believed by most accounts to have been 1088. The university received a charter from Frederick I Barbarossa in 1158, but in the 19th century, a committee of historians led by Giosuè Carducci traced the founding of the University back to 1088, which would make it the oldest continuously-operating university in the world.

I watched a programme on TV the other night, it is an amazing place.
Amongst other things of course, the Anatomical theatre is wonderful! It amazes me to think how clever people were back in those days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical ... higinnasio

[dozer]

I see that it is the alma mater of all universities

[Siani]

I see that it is the alma mater of all universities

Alma Mater Studiorum (nourishing mother of studies) is the motto.

Also some pretty famous people went there
Among the best-known people who have attended the University of Bologna are:
Popes Innocent IX, Alexander VI and Gregory XV
Italian political leader Pierluigi Bersani
art critic Mazen Asfour
businessman Lorenzo Sassoli de Bianchi
engineer Aldo Costa
managers Giovanni Consorte and Stefano Domenicali
mathematician Carlo Severini
Nobel prize medal.svg Guglielmo Marconi

Faculty and staff[edit]
11th century Irnerius

12th century Gratian
Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem
Bulgarus
Martinus Gosia
William of Tyre

13th century Rambertino Buvalelli
Paul, Dominican martyr
Bettisia Gozzadini
William of Saliceto
Sylvester Gozzolini
Guido Guinizelli
Benvenutus Scotivoli

14th century Dante Alighieri
Manuel Chrysoloras
Francesco Petrarca (aka Petrarch)
Coluccio Salutati

15th century Leon Battista Alberti
Nicolaus Copernicus
Albrecht Dürer
Yuriy Drohobych (aka Georgius de Drohobycz)
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

16th century Girolamo Cardano
Giovanni Della Casa
Ignazio Danti
Girolamo Maggi
Giovanni Antonio Magini
Virgilio Malvezzi
Paracelsus
Ulisse Aldrovandi
Camillo Baldi

17th century Giovanni Cassini
Marcello Malpighi
Pietro Mengoli

18th century Laura Bassi
Maria Gaetana Agnesi
Luigi Galvani
Carlo Goldoni

19th century Giosuè Carducci
Giacomo Ciamician
Camillo Golgi
Giovanni Pascoli
Pellegrino Rossi
Augusto Righi

20th century Guglielmo Marconi
Umberto Eco
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Romano Prodi

21st century Pier Cesare Bori
Hamida Barmaki
Özalp Babaoğlu

[dozer]

Name this ship and the two incidents it was involved in that had a major impact in WW1

[dozer]

^
Information received gave the British the ability to ambush German units on several occasions during the war, including the Battle of Jutland

[STEVE G]

I think it was the German cruiser captured by the Russians in the Baltic who passed on code books to the British but I forget the name of the ship.

[dozer]

I think it was the German cruiser captured by the Russians in the Baltic who passed on code books to the British but I forget the name of the ship.

You have got that part right.

Now only for the name and the other significant event in the life of the ship.

[STEVE G]

It's the SMS Magdeburg which also fired the first shots against Russia.

[dozer]

Correct....

In the Baltic, Magdeburg fired the first shots of the war against the Russians on 2 August, when she shelled the port of Libau. She participated in a series of bombardments of Russian positions until late August. On the 26th, she participated in a sweep of the entrance to the Gulf of Finland; while steaming off the Estonian coast, she ran aground off the island of Odensholm and could not be freed. A pair of Russian cruisers appeared and seized the ship. Fifteen crew members were killed in the brief engagement. They recovered three intact German code books, one of which they passed to the British. The ability to decrypt German wireless signals provided the British with the ability to ambush German units on several occasions during the war, including the Battle of Jutland. The Russians partially scrapped Magdeburg while she remained grounded before completely destroying the wreck.

[Jimbob]

What weapon used effectively in India and improved at Woolwich Arsenal caused great destruction during sieges in the first half of the 19th century?

[dtaai-maai]

The mortar?

[Jimbob]

Noooo, not a mortar but a very topical weapon at the moment

[STEVE G]

Congreve rockets? They were large explosive versions of firework rockets.

[Jimbob]

Nice one Steve G.
A Weapon of mass destruction still used today e.g. Gaza.
In 1807 The British navy fired 14,000 in Copenhagen with devastating effect. also in the 1812 war with USA.
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

The Arsenal was the 'skunk works' of its day.