Page 96 - All About History - Issue 18-14

HISTORY ANSWERS

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Many outlaws and lawmen gained fame for What country
their gunfighting prowess in the Old West
has been
invaded the
most?
THOMAS‘TOM’HORN,JR
American, 1860-1903
Vicks Jenkins, Cardiff
It is almost impossible to answer this
Born in Scotland question with a single definite answer,
Brief Country, Missouri, on but there are several strong contenders
his family’s 600-acre
Bio (243-hectare) farm, for this dubious honour. Poland’s location
Horn was the fifth between eastern and western Europe has
of12children.Helefthomeat caused it to be invaded many times, and it
16 and began to work for the was not uncommon for one set of invaders
US Cavalry in the American
Southwest. His talents made to be immediately replaced by another.
him a respected detective, but Hitler led an infamous invasion of Poland
in reality Horn was a deadly in 1939 which kick-started World War II,
murderer, responsible for the but throughout its history it has been
deaths of countless victims.
invaded by the Mongol Army, the Teutonic
Knights and Russia, among many others.
Another notable contender is the Palestine
region, especially Jerusalem, which has
changed hands countless times. Jerusalem,
which is ironically known as the ‘city of
peace’, has been a centre of conflict for
millennia. From all the way back in 1350
BCE the city has been the subject of over
a 100 conflicts and the struggle for control
continues even to this day.
Who was the Wild West’s

deadliest gunslinger?

Marie Merchant, London to be a detective of the Pinkerton business proposition, and I think I
It is difficult to judge ‘deadliest’ by Detective Agency. He was known have a corner on the market.” This
the number of people killed, as the for being calm under pressure but ‘business’ quickly took up speed
numbers of gunslingers such as as having a volatile temper. When and Horn is thought to have killed
Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp have he was linked to the killings of 17 at least 20 cattle rustlers over
been skewed by legend. However, people, his career as a detective several years, and some historians
one of the most terrifying figures was terminated to avoid negative even put this figure at 50. Horn
of the Wild West was Tom Horn. press. Horn is then believed to eventually met his end when he
After his skills as a tracker and have begun working as a killer for was hanged for the murder of
scout of the US Cavalry were hire, claiming that, “killing men a 14-year-old boy, a crime he is German soldiers re-enacting the
recognised, Horn was promoted is my speciality. I look at it is a believed to have been innocent of. removal of the Polish border crossing
on 1 September 1939

Thisdayinhistory 16 October

690 1793 1813 1846
Wu Zetian becomes ruler Marie Antoinette executed TheBattleofLeipzig O Anaesthesiaisdemonstrated
The Chinese empress Wu Zetian Eight months after her TheSixthCoalitionofRussia, Boston dentist William Thomas
becomes ruler of the Chinese husband’s execution, Marie Prussia, Austria and Sweden GreenMortongivesthefirstpublic
Empire after ascending to the Antoinette meets her death by attack Napoleon Bonaparte’s demonstration of anaesthesia. The
throne. She names her dynasty guillotine. The French queen forces in Saxony. The painless surgery involved a surgeon
the Zhou Dynasty and becomes was found guilty of treason by Coalitiongoesontowinand removingatumourfromtheneck
the first female Chinese emperor a revolutionary tribunal at the Napoleon experiences his first of a patient, impressing medical
in over 4,000 years. height of the French Revolution. decisive defeat in battle. practitioners the world over.

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