The gory end

1. This infamous leader was attacked on May 27, 1942, and died within a week of his injuries. His death set off a wave of reprisals in the villages of Lidice and Ležáky, where every man was killed and almost every woman deported to and killed in concentration camps. Name him.

2. Which world leader was found and killed on October 20, 2011, while trying to hide in a drainage pipe after being attacked by aircraft on his way to the Jarref valley?

3. One account has it that it was Trebonius who was to meet and delay him. The other has Brutus Albinus. But it’s clear that on March 15, 44 BC, one of these two Romans was sent specifically to delay a certain person. Who and why?

4. In June 2001, this person was declared the monarch of his country while he was in coma, and already identified as the person responsible for the reigning monarch’s death. He died three days later, and his uncle was made king. Name him and the country.

5. Robin Raphel is a former US senior diplomat who was the subject of a federal counterintelligence investigation in 2014 and accused of being another country’s asset. Her clearance was revoked and she was placed on leave before the US government decided not to file charges. How did her first husband die?

6. Which much-loved world leader was walking home from a cinema with his wife in February 1986 when he was shot from close range by unknown assailants? The case remains unsolved.

7. Who was assassinated by a group of officers in a circuit house on May 30, 1981, when he was trying to help resolve an intra-party political dispute?

8. The circumstances of whose death in December 1916 are primarily known through the account of one of the assassins, Prince Felix Yusupov?

9. Who was assassinated on his boat Shadow V in August 1979, while on holiday in the west of Ireland?

10. This historical leader was murdered in 336 BC at Aegae, by one of his bodyguards, Pausanias of Orestis, while entering a theatre. Name him, or his even more famous son.

Answers

1. Reinhard Heydrich of the German SS. The plan was called Operation Anthropoid

2. Muammar Gaddafi of Libya

3. Mark Antony; he had an inkling of the plot to assassinate Julius Caesar and was rushing to warn him

4. King Dipendra of Nepal. Dipendra is believed to have killed 11 members of the Nepal royal family before trying to shoot himself dead on June 1, 2001

5. Arnold Lewis Raphel was the ambassador to Pakistan, who was on the flight with Pakistani leader Zia-ul-Haq when it was blown up in August 1988

6. Prime Minister Olof Palme of Sweden

7. Ziaur Rahman, the dictator of Bangladesh

8. Rasputin

9. Lord Mountbatten. The IRA claimed responsibility

10. Philip II of Macedon, who was succeeded by his son Alexander III ( Alexander the Great), who was only 20 at the time

Joy Bhattacharjya is a quizmaster; Twitter: @joybhattacharj

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