Origin Stories: Founders and Firsts

Preview · 20 questions

• 01·Who invented the cloud chamber, an apparatus for visualizing the paths of ionizing radiation?
• 02·Who was the founder of the Safavid dynasty, which established Twelver Shia Islam as the official religion of Persia?
• 03·Which architect and designer founded the influential Bauhaus school in Weimar, Germany?
• 04·Who was a primary co-founder of the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)?
• 05·Who founded Kodokan Judo, formalizing the modern Japanese martial art from various schools of jujutsu?
• 06·Who was a key founder of the Royal Geographical Society in London in 1830?
• 07·Who first synthesized nitroglycerin, the highly unstable explosive compound that became the key ingredient in dynamite?
• 08·Who founded the Mauryan Empire in 322 BCE, the first dynasty to unify most of the Indian subcontinent?
• 09·Which playwright is considered the founder of the Comédie-Française, France's oldest active state theatre company?
• 10·Who created the constructed international auxiliary language known as Esperanto?
• 11·Who designed and built the first practical reflecting telescope, now known as the Newtonian telescope?
• 12·Who founded the Slow Food movement in Italy in the 1980s as a response to the rise of fast food?
• 13·Who was the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, a major Islamic state in West Africa during the 19th century?
• 14·Which film critic and theorist was a co-founder of the influential French film journal Cahiers du Cinéma?
• 15·Who invented the modern pentathlon for the Olympic Games, modeling it on the skills of a 19th-century cavalry soldier?
• 16·Who, as Governor-General of the Dutch East India Company, founded the city of Batavia on the ruins of Jayakarta in 1619?
• 17·Who is credited with inventing the process of vulcanization, which makes rubber more durable?
• 18·Who founded the Achaemenid Empire, also known as the first Persian Empire?
• 19·Which Indian ophthalmologist founded the Aravind Eye Care System, a model for high-volume, low-cost eye surgery?
• 20·Which critic and author coined the term 'Theater of the Absurd' to categorize certain post-war European playwrights?