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History by Letter - S

Can you name these historical people, places, and things beginning with the letter S?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 9, 2019
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First submittedJuly 31, 2014
Times taken63,484
Average score65.0%
Rating4.39
4:00
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Hint
Answer
Elizabethan playwright sometimes
called "The Bard"
William Shakespeare
The medieval Japan equivalent
to European knights
Samurai
Guild of cathedral builders
Stonemasons
Most important political body of
the Roman Republic
Senate
Term for a person who campaigned
for women's right to vote
Suffragist
History's most famous violin maker
Antonio Stradivari
Canal completed in 1869
Suez
City where Mozart was born
Salzburg
First human-made satellite
Sputnik 1
City founded by Brigham Young
Salt Lake City
Hint
Answer
Cold War superpower
Soviet Union
Art movement of Salvador Dalí
Surrealism
Dynasty of China from 960–1279
Song
Indian language in which Hindu
scriptures were written
Sanskrit
Militant rival of ancient Athens
Sparta
Plato's teacher
Socrates
Country that rejected apartheid
in 1994
South Africa
King Edward VIII abdicated
to marry her
Wallis Simpson
Title of the Ottoman ruler
Sultan
All-knowing secret police
of East Germany
Stasi
+11
Level 69
Aug 1, 2014
First "human" made satellite?

Quizmaster -- do you know something we don't?

+22
Level 92
Aug 4, 2014
Probably referring to the moon, which would be a natural satellite.
+12
Level 60
Sep 3, 2017
Any physical mass orbiting a larger physical mass is a satellite.
+22
Level 75
Sep 3, 2017
He was trying to fend off comments about those other naturally-occuring satellites. It almost worked.
+1
Level 65
Dec 21, 2020
He is probably referring to satellites made using humans :)
+4
Level 41
Sep 10, 2014
A very nice quiz! However, would you please accept Staatssicherheit as an alternative answer for Stasi? I agree that most people (myself included) will automatically think of the usual abbreviation, but it is a little sad to see that the actual name is not accepted.
+1
Level 37
Aug 23, 2017
Wouldn't it then be Staatssicherheits Dienst? - And, good luck getting Americans to commit that to memory when we're so busy debating Willem vs. William!!!!
+14
Level 71
Sep 3, 2017
I also think that the answer 'Sanskrit' should accept संस्कृतम् as that is what it is in Sanskrit. it is a little sad to see that the actual name is not accepted.
+2
Level 76
Sep 3, 2017
Malbaby FTW!
+1
Level 59
Aug 22, 2020
This is an English quiz.
+1
Level 59
Aug 31, 2022
@yeetdeet Whoosh
+1
Level 78
Jul 3, 2020
It makes little sense to accept answers that have no reasonable chance to be tried by either native or non-native speakers.
+7
Level 75
Oct 14, 2014
I thought of the Soviet Union but immediately dismissed it as it is the USSR not the SU, so I moved on
+2
Level 71
Oct 15, 2014
same, then I tried Spain
+2
Level 69
Jun 26, 2016
Oh thank god I wasn't the only one!
+1
Level 86
Oct 14, 2014
Could "Stone carver" be accepted?
+1
Level 82
Oct 14, 2014
Only missed one. Spelled Stasi with a Z.
+1
Level ∞
Nov 11, 2016
That will work now
+1
Level 71
Aug 31, 2022
Why not Stassi?
+4
Level 76
Sep 3, 2017
As Ztasi?
+2
Level 37
Jul 25, 2018
No, as in Stazi. Though "Stasi" is the "correct" abbreviation, Stazi brings "Nazi" to mind, thus making it easier to relate the two, I believe.
+1
Level 33
Oct 14, 2014
Dang. Typed Sing instead of Song. :(
+6
Level 83
Oct 29, 2015
When Sing didn't work I just tried all the other vowels...
+1
Level 59
Sep 3, 2017
+1 :-)
+2
Level 76
Sep 3, 2017
When sing didn't work I tried all the other vowels but somehow forgot "o" - d'oh!
+1
Level 67
Feb 9, 2020
Yea I tried sing, sung and sang.. nothing else :/
+1
Level 89
Jul 3, 2020
What about seng?
+2
Level 67
Sep 4, 2017
I first tried "Sung," which is the way the Chinese is romanized in the Wade-Giles (but not Pinyin) system. It deserves to be listed as an alternate entry.
+1
Level 68
Jul 3, 2020
When you try sing, sang, and sung and give up...
+6
Level 68
Oct 14, 2014
I'm feeling blonde... I was so confused about the "former superpower". I was thinking of things like x-ray vision, flying, etc. That it was something like the USSR never even crossed my mind. =P
+1
Level 49
Jun 25, 2016
YES!
+1
Level 82
Apr 10, 2017
For half a second it crossed my mind as well at first :)
+1
Level 67
Jan 19, 2016
Can you accept Soviet Russia?
+2
Level 56
Jul 27, 2022
wtf?
+1
Level 76
Sep 3, 2017
With all due respect, that quiz really pissed me off on account of the spelling. A little more leeway would have been nice. Liked the content, though.
+6
Level 56
Sep 3, 2017
In these cases, it would make sense to add the particular answer you are not satisfied with. And besides, what is there to misspell?
+1
Level 67
Aug 31, 2022
I tried "Stassi" and that didn't work.
+1
Level 59
Aug 31, 2022
Then try a different spelling, surely? You can try again and again on the same question. It's not as if the time on this quiz is so restricted that you can't afford to spend more than a few seconds on each question.
+1
Level 72
Sep 3, 2017
I put shogunate for Samurai and Susan B. Anthony for Suffragist. :(
+1
Level 55
Sep 3, 2017
Should be accepted "socrate", without the final S. At least for french speakers ;)
+1
Level 59
Sep 4, 2017
And can you also accept sokrates for any speaker that doesn't use the c. Or, as this quiz is in English, you have English spellings. The spoon feeding people demand on this website is laughable.
+2
Level 37
Nov 11, 2018
90minutes: I'm surprised that the quiz doesn't complete the last letter for you, as it is so fond of doing for "Riyadh" and others.
+4
Level ∞
Sep 17, 2019
Note: as of 2019, we now require the final H on Riyadh and Pittsburgh.
+8
Level 70
Nov 25, 2018
And please accept "lkdjfkadlgdhiahnranvelhvdsnvds" for people who can't type or know how to spell. As well as without the terminal S for the French.
+1
Level 59
Aug 22, 2020
Please remember that no one will remember that, lest people that can’t spell.
+1
Level 24
Dec 14, 2021
If u can’t spell, u would not b able to spell any of the words in your sentence correctly ;)
+1
Level 72
Aug 31, 2022
Für alle Deutschen, die am diesem englischen Quiz teilnehmen, können Sie Ihr Beschwerden bitte auf Deutsch schreiben?
+1
Level 71
Feb 8, 2018
Yesterday when I was answering quizzes, Sparta appeared twice as an answer. Today it has also appeared twice, so far. The Quizmaster must really like Sparta.
+1
Level 59
Jun 17, 2019
Stasi should be written StaSi
+3
Level 63
Jan 22, 2020
Never seen it written like that anywhere. Ever.
+1
Level 67
Feb 9, 2020
You have never seen the correct spelling??? That is truely very odd.., especially since it is the only correct spelling, it is not like stazi is an alternative acceptable spelling. StaSi comes from Staatssicherheit meaning state security. Maybe you have the Italian stazione in your mind? For station?
+2
Level 78
Jul 3, 2020
German Wikipedia, the official website of the Stasi Records Agency, and the Federal Agency for Civic Education all refer to it as Stasi, not StaSi. And I have never seen it spelled as StaSi either.
+2
Level 79
Jul 31, 2020
truly*
+3
Level 67
Jul 3, 2020
On the "Musician by Letter" quizzes, the names are alphabetized by first name, so Wallis Simpson would be under W. I happened to know the answer to the question about her, but if I were guessing, I would have thought it was someone whose first name starts with S, because that is the convention elsewhere on this site. Should probably just pick one method and run with it on every quiz.
+1
Level 55
Jun 14, 2022
Well those quizzes are made by a different quiz maker and are actually about the musicians *initials* - likely why they are alphabetical.
+1
Level 60
Jul 3, 2020
I am utterly disappointed that "Senatus Romanus" is not accepted. Come on Quizmaster, I thought you were cultured enough to include that.
+1
Level 57
Dec 3, 2020
Unfortunately, you are on the English section of JetPunk, not Latin ;)
+1
Level 79
Jul 31, 2020
HOW DID I FORGET SUEZ CANAL I KNEW THIS CANAL THAT WAS THE ONLY ONE I FORGOT.
+2
Level 57
Sep 2, 2022
I kept trying to spell Stradivari with a "t," as in Strativari, Stratavari, etc... none of them worked so I gave up. Didn't even think of using a "d." D for darn!
+1
Level 88
Oct 3, 2022
I've made that same mistake multiple times in the past while doing crossword puzzles. I managed to recall the correct letter here, though!
+1
Level 68
Dec 21, 2023
Got 17/20 this time! (Please also accept “Staatssicherheit”, which is the long version of “Stasi”.)