1900-1980 Must Know People

Question 1

Woodrow Wilson

Answer 1

President of the US during WWI- Drafted a peace plan for the end of the war known as Fourteen Points

Question 2

Mustapha Kemal

Answer 2

(Ataturk in Turkey) led the Turkish nationalist movement in the Ottoman Empire, leading to its collapse in 1922. First president of Turkey

Question 3

Vladimir Lenin

Answer 3

Leader of Bolsheviks during 1917 October revolution in Russia that helped establish the USSR. Signed peace treaty with Germans that took Russia out of WWI and proposed a system of state capitalism in 1921

Question 4

Joseph Stalin

Answer 4

Leader of the USSR during WWII and early years of the Cold War. Created a command economy in the Soviet Union with five year plans, kept power via purges/deportations of political opponents

Question 5

Adolph Hitler

Answer 5

Facist leader of Germany at the center of WWII in Europe, and the Holocaust (you know who he is)

Question 6

Sun Yat-Sen

Answer 6

Co-founder of Guomindang in China. Participated in 1911 revolution against Qing dynasty, served as president of Provisional PRC

Question 7

Mao Zedong

Answer 7

Leader of Chinese Communist party during the Chinese Civil War and founding father of the PRC. Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution

Question 8

Deng Xiaopeng

Answer 8

Reformist leader of the communist party of China who led Chinese economic reform that opened up the country to foreign investment, the global market, and limited private competition

Question 9

Ho Chi Minh

Answer 9

Communist revolutionary who led the Viet Minh independence movement against the French in the 1950s and later led the north Vietnamese into the Vietnam War

Question 10

Mohandas Ghandi

Answer 10

Led India to independence from Great Britain using non-violent civil disobedience

Question 11

Gamal Abdel Nasser

Answer 11

Colonel who helped overthrow Egyptian monarchy, became second president. Neutral Egypt in cold war, attempted to nationalize Suez Canal company, strained relations with West

Question 12

Fidel Castro

Answer 12

Overthrew the Bautista gov’t in Cuba, set up communist gov’t. Allied Cuba with USSR, led to Cuban Missile Crisis.

Question 13

Ayatollah Khomeini

Answer 13

Iranian religious leader and politician who participated in 1979 Iranian revolution. Became country’s supreme leader

Question 14

Jomo Kenyatta

Answer 14

Founding father of Kenya- set up country as capitalist state and allied with Western Bloc during Cold War

Question 15

Kwame Nkrumah

Answer 15

Oversaw Ghana’s independence from British Colonial rule and was an advocate of Pan-Africanism

Question 16

Patrice Lumumba

Answer 16

Independence leader in Belgian Congo, prime minister of newly independent Republic of Congo. Deposed, assassinated for leftist leanings in gov’t

Question 17

Kim Il-Sung

Answer 17

Leader of Communist DPRK during Korean War. Designated as Eternal President.

Question 18

Chiang Kai-shek

Answer 18

Chinese nationalist Party leader during Civil War with communists. Forced to flee to Taiwan in 1949

Question 19

Nikita Kruschev

Answer 19

Soviet leader. Destalinization of Soviet Union, progress of USSR space program, liberal reforms in domestic policy

Question 20

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Answer 20

Leader of the All-India Muslims league, worked with Ghandi to establish independent India. Became founder of Muslim state of Pakistan

Question 21

Anwar Sadat

Answer 21

President of Egypt who re-instituted multiparty system, participated in Camp David Accords (Israel peace treaty)

Question 22

Winston Churchill

Answer 22

British politician who became PM of GB during WWII and coined term Iron Curtain at beginning of Cold War

Question 23

Albert Einstein

Answer 23

German scientist who immigrated to US. Theory of Relativity.

Question 24

Thomas Edison

Answer 24

Inventor credited with photograph, motion picture camera, and lightbulb

Question 25

Franklin Roosevelt

Answer 25

President of the US during Great Depression and WWII. Created New Deal to help out citizens during GD

Question 26

Hideki Tojo

Answer 26

Japanese politician who served as PM during WWII, responsible for Pearl Harbor. Put on trial for war crimes after war (PoW camps)

Question 27

Golda Meir

Answer 27

Israeli politician who became country’s first female PM. Worked towards peace in Middle East

Question 28

Benito Mussolini

Answer 28

National Fascist party in Italy. During WWII allied with Nazi Germany