When's the Party? Trivia Quiz

Considered the Pleasure Palace of Emperor Nero, Domus Aurea, or the 'Golden House', was constructed on the Oppian Hill in the heart of Ancient Rome, only a short distance from where the Colosseum would be built a couple years later. Both of these came after the fire that wiped out much of Rome's ancient buildings; these were built in their place.

During the time of the Golden House, however, Nero through luxurious and hedonistic parties, created a new and excessive space in Rome that would be contained in massive buildings, festooned with all manner of artwork created in his image. When Nero committed suicide in 68 AD, the Domus Aurea was virtually dismantled and the Trajan Baths were built in its place.

An event taking place in 1393 AD, the Bal des Ardents wasn't known as the Ball of the Burning Men until after the proceedings. Devised as a way to placate an unstable King Charles VI during a particularly rough period of his reign in France, the event was meant to be celebratory, but it devolved into chaos when the king's brother, Louis I, Duke of Orléans, entered the hall with a lit torch, accidentally setting fire to the dancers' highly-flammable wood savage costumes. The problem was exacerbated by several factors-- notably that the costumes were sewn onto the wearers and that the dancers were chained together for the performance. Four of the six dancers died.

King Charles VI would continue his descent into madness over the next decades of his reign, being nicknamed 'Charles the Mad'.

Taking place on December 16, 1773, the Boston Tea Party was, in hindsight, one of the events that jumpstarted what would become the American Revolution. On this winter day, the Sons of Liberty protested the English by dumping the tea, being delivered by the East India Company, into the harbour.

The event, and the protests to follow, directly led to the Battles of Lexington and Concord two years later. Today, it remains one of the major symbolic events of protest in U.S. history and one of Boston's claims to historical fame.

One of the many political parties of the United States' past, the U.S. Federalist Party only survived for a few decades spanning 1789 to 1828 before being completely dissolved. Noted for their support of Great Britain (despite rising in the years following American Independence), followers of the Federalist opposed the War of 1812...and frankly any war the U.S. had remote stake in (including those in Europe). This said, their views on finance and banking created the foundations of American economy.

At one time, the Federalists were led by Alexander Hamilton who, at the time, was the first Secretary of the United States Treasury. Hamilton led the party to defeat (at the hands of the Democratic-Republican Party and Thomas Jefferson); they would stop putting up presidential candidates in the 1910s. Hamilton died in 1804 in a duel against Aaron Burr.

In 1846, eighty-seven men and women headed westward on the Oregon Trail, leaving Springfield, Illinois, bound for California and the promise of freedom to practice their Catholic faith in the new American West. When they took the Hastings Cutoff, however, in an attempt to cut through the Sierra Nevada, what followed was a tragic and grisly winter for the emigrants.

Over the course of the four months, while half survived the ordeal, the other half of the wagon train perished. The rescue party, finding most of the remains of the group at Truckee Lake (just north of Lake Tahoe), determined that those who remained there succumbed to cannibalism.

Originally created as the Costume Institute Benefit, the Met Gala launched in 1948 as the brainchild of Eleanor Lambert who was, then, the founder of New York Fashion Week when it launched only five years earlier. Instrumental in helping establish New York City as a fashion capital, the Met Gala, held annually at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has become a go-to for diverse and unique fashions, costuming, and celebrity elbow-rubbing.

Notably, the Met Gala institutes themes for its annual event that designers and guests are meant to interpret abstractly in devising their haute couture fits. Such themes, in the past, have included 'Punk: Chaos to Couture', 'Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology', and 'Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion'. Themes are accompanied by exhibits, placed on display, at the museum for guests.

Held on November 28, 1966, the Black and White Ball took place at New York City's Plaza Hotel and was intended as the event for high society. Organized by author Truman Capote, the party was lavish, created as a high-cost, highly-elegant masquerade event themed around the colour theme and attended by the rich and famous of the era (including the Reagans, Arthur Miller, Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow, Johnny Carson, Gloria Vanderbilt, Andy Warhol, and many others).

Capote's party, which determined who was 'in' and 'out' of the elite, was unmatched in its day. Capote would fail to write any future novels, and thus he never hosted something that reached the peak of the Black and White Ball before his passing in 1984, even though he intended to.

Held across four days in August of 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was envisioned as a massive concert event on a farm in New York state and what it became was a symbol of the 1960s counterculture movement, being a defining moment in rock and roll history that affected and distilled social and political feelings of the era. Attended by an estimated half million visitors over the long weekend, it hosted acts including the Grateful Dead, CCR, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, CSNY, and Jimi Hendrix.

Organizers attempted, more than once, to hold anniversary editions of the event. In 1994, heavy rain marred a twenty-fifth anniversary event. In 1999, another Woodstock on the same site resulted in riots. A fiftieth anniversary, anticipated to be held in 2019, was cancelled after a multitude of logistical issues. Festival creator Michael Lang passed away in 2022.

Created by French socialite Marie-Hélène de Rothschild, the Surrealist Ball was held at the lavish Chateau de Ferrières in Ferrières-en-Brie, east of Paris, in 1972. Prompted with invitations reading "black tie, long dresses & surrealist heads" (written backwards, so you'd need to use a mirror to decipher them), guests had outfits designed by Salvador Dalí (amongst others). They were led to their dinner tables by wait staff dressed as cats; food was served on fur-covered plates; the halls were labyrinthine.

Naturally, not all is known about what went on at the ball, and it's led outsiders to speculate as to whether or not it was all the ritual of an elitist cult.

Released as a single on August 4, 2009, "Party in the USA" was the debut track of Miley Cyrus' post-Disney Channel career and the pop number that pushed her to significant, early radio airplay. A part of her "The Time of Our Lives" EP, it would precede a career of ups and downs characterized by Cyrus' tendency to experiment in various tones, styles, and attitudes-- something typical in the work of her pop contemporaries (like Lady Gaga, for instance).

The single was picked up several times in the years after its release, notably for political means. Because of its carefree and upbeat lyrics, it's been a celebratory track for U.S. presidential campaigns, for instance. Cyrus would continue her career with genre-defining hits in the decades to follow, becoming a female icon for a generation of pop music lovers.