Jan. 15, 2026

Encyclopedias

Encyclopedias
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From the British Museum to Wikipedia: celebrating museums, encyclopedias, and how we share knowledge.

You may also like ODD ONE OUT. a new podcast with Mark Ellison!  Mark gives you 4 words, you decide which word does not belong.  Three rounds daily, quick and fun,

Portions of today's trivia podcast were made with the help of AI.

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Calaruga shark media. Hi. I'm Mark Ellison and today's theme

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is from the British Museum to Wikipedia, celebrating museums, encyclopedias

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and how we share knowledge? Question one. In eighteen oh two,

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a dark granodiorite slab bearing the same decree in hieroglyphics,

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demotic and ancient Greek went on display at the British Museum,

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giving scholars the key to unlocking ancient Egyptian writing. What

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is the name of this famous artifact? Question two? Born

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amid the Scottish Enlightenment, the first edition of the Encyclopedia

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Britannica seventeen sixty eight seventeen seventy one was compiled by

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printer William Smelly and issued in three volumes. In Which

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city was this pioneering reference work first published? Question three?

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Known as the Free Encyclopedia that Anyone Can Edit, Wikipedia

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went live at the start of the twenty first century,

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transforming how people create and share knowledge online. On what

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date did Wikipedia launch? Question four? An American network of

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museums and research centers was funded by the bequest of

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a British scientist who never set foot in the United States,

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leaving his estate to establish an institution for the increase

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and diffusion of knowledge? Who was this benefactor? Question five?

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Commissioned in the eighteenth century, is the largest collection of

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Chinese literature and learning ever assembled. The Siku Kwanschu Complete

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Library of the Four Treasuries was compiled under which Qing

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dynasty Emperor will be right back with these answers after

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this break, welcome back. Question one. What British museum artifact

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helped decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs? Answer the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta

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Stone enabled Jean Francois Champollion to announce the decipherment of

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hieroglyphs in eighteen twenty two. Its tri lingual inscription made

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it possible to compare scripts and decode a language long

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loss to history. Question two. In what city was the

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first Encyclopedia Britannica published? Answer? Edinburgh? The inaugural Britannica appeared

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in Edinburgh, reflecting the city's dynamic intellectual culture. Later editions

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and the company's base shifted, with operations eventually centered in

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London and then Chicago. Question three on what date did

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Wikipedia launch? Answer? January fifteenth, two thousand and one. Launched

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by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. Wikipedia quickly grew from

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a small English language site into a global, multi lingual project.

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Its open collapse. Aaborative model relies on citations, volunteer editors,

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and freely licensed content. Question four Who endowed the Smithsonian

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without ever visiting the US? Answered? James Smithson. James Smithson's

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bequest led to the creation of the Smithsonian Institution in

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eighteen forty six. His gift laid the foundation for a

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complex that now includes museums, galleries, the National Zoo, and

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far reaching research programs. Question five, under which emperor was

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the Sicku Quanshue compiled answer the Chianlong Emperor compiled from

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seventeen seventy two to seventeen eighty two. The Siku Quantchu

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organized knowledge into classics, Jing History, Sure Masters, z and collections.

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G It preserved countless works, though some were censored across

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several Imperial manuscript sets. That concludes today's five daily Trivia questions.

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I'm Mark Ellison, and today's questions were crafted with the

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help of AI technology. See you tomorrow.