Chronology Matters!
Napoleon crowned Emperor of the French, Storming of the Bastille, Imprisonment and death of Toussant L'Ouverture.
What is (1) Bastille, (2) Napoleon, (3) Toussant L'Ouverture?
Not the sister city of Tampa Bay, but the imperial capital of Russia, meant to rival or surpass the great cities of western and central Europe.
What is St. Petersburg?
Famous for his numerous self-portraits and his spectacular "Night Watch," this Old Master gives viewers of his work a window onto seventeenth-century Amsterdam.
Who is Rembrandt (van Rijn)?
This Italian astronomer, an early proponent of the Scientific Method, gazed out "Across the Universe," and concluded that it was indeed heliocentric, but Pope Urban VIII still said, "Nothin's gonna change my world."
Who is Galileo?
This highly intoxicating drug – sometimes consumed via poppy tea – sparked two major wars and, arguably, the decline of a major empire.
What is opium?
John Smith arrives in Virginia, Matthew Perry arrives in Japan, Christopher Columbus arrives in the Bahamas?
What is (1) Columbus, then (2) Smith, then (3) Perry?
During the period of sakoku, the Dutch were the only Westerners permitted to trade in Japan – and even they were restricted to an artificial island off the coast of this city.
What is Nagasaki?
This Italian political philosopher first conceptualized fascism, before "Il Duce" put his ideas into practice.
Who is Giovanni Gentile?
"Don't Let Me Down," this Soviet revolutionary leader may have told Stalin before he died in 1924, provoking a violent struggle for political power "Back in the USSR."
Who is Vladimir Lenin?
The Dude regularly enjoyed an extra creamy White Russian. But, sadly, this learned and Cosmopolitan "Great" empress never got the chance, as apparently no one thought to put vodka, Kahlúa, and cream on the rocks until decades after the Bolshevik Revolution. That's a bummer, man.
Who is Catherine the Great?
Ming Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, Qing Dynasty
What is (1) Yuan, (2) Ming, (3) Qing?
This settlement in what is today North Carolina preceded the establishment Jamestown – but it seemingly vanished...nearly without a trace...*cue eerie music*
What is Roanoke?
This Sephardic Jewish philosopher was expelled from the synagogue for criticizing traditional claims regarding the authorship and historicity of the Torah.
Who is (Benedict/Baruch de) Spinoza?
Surely John and Paul had this absolute monarch at least partly in mind when they wrote "Sun King."
Who is Louis XIV?
This Corsica-born military commander and emperor was indeed a Very Special guy. Perhaps that's why a V.S.O.P. cognac bears his name?
Who is Napoleon?
Luther's 95 Theses, the Fall of Constantinople, the Black Death
What is (1) the Black Death, (2) Fall of Constantinople, (3) 95 Theses?
One of Zheng He's voyages, as vividly reported by Ma Huan, included time spent in Champa – now part of this present-day country. In the interim, it was for a time part of French Indochina.
What is Vietnam?
In addition to her career as a playwright, this French author penned the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen.
Who is Olympe de Gouge?
"I'm Only Sleeping," skeptical critics might have countered after reading this Viennese psychoanalyst's 1899 book On the Interpretation of Dreams.
Who is Sigmund Freud?
After returning to their native Scotland from commercial (mis)adventures in China and India, these same-named businessmen likely enjoyed a single-match Scotch (or three).
Who is/are George Smith(s)?
Births of Petrarch, Erasmus, Goethe
What is (1) Petrarch, (2) Erasmus, (3) Goethe?
Spanish conquistadors hit the jackpot with a mountain of silver in this site, located in present-day Bolivia.
What is Potosí?
This revered Ukrainian bard spent much of his life outside his beloved homeland, dying in St. Petersburg in 1861.
Who is Taras Shevchenko (or Kobzar)?
Reflecting on the alienation of the proletariat from the means of production and the fruits of their labour, these two German lads wrote: "A spectre is haunting Europe / but I don't care too much for money / Money can't buy me love!"
(Or something like that, anyway. Close enough.)
Who are Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels?
Caricaturing the grotesque effects of urban overcrowding, dire poverty, and rampant inebriation, Hogarth depicted London's St. Giles slum as _____ Lane.
What is Gin?