Blast and Blazes Trivia Quiz

Answer: Roman Empire

Fire broke out in the city of Rome in July 64 and burned for six days, leaving only four of its 14 districts undamaged. Given that the event occurred so long ago, it is unsurprising that no definitive evidence regarding its cause has survived to the modern day. Different historical sources provide contradictory accounts, although many lay the blame either directly or indirectly at the door of Emperor Nero. Perhaps that explains the somewhat odd legend stating that Nero "fiddled while Rome burned" - odd since the fiddle didn't exist at that time (although Nero was known for playing the lyre) and Nero was supposedly away in Antium when the fire started.

The picture clue shows a modern fiddle, or violin.

The Byzantine Empire emerged from the eastern portions of the Roman Empire in the 5th century; its capital was the city now known as Istanbul. The British Empire developed from the 16th century onwards, while the Mongol Empire covered a large chunk of Asia in the 12th and 13th centuries.

Answer: The Globe

There is much academic speculation regarding 'Henry VIII', but general consensus appears to conclude that it was a collaborative work between William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, probably dating from around the time of its fated performance at the first Globe Theatre on 23 June 1613. The story goes that a cannon, fired for dramatic effect during the performance, managed to ignite the thatched roof and the whole building then burned to the ground. However, just a year after the disaster the second Globe Theatre had been built on the same site - albeit with a much more sensible tiled roof. The second version lasted for about 30 years, until it was closed down in 1642 by the Puritans.

The theatre was heavily associated with William Shakespeare, being owned by his playing company, the 'The King's Men'. A modern day reconstruction, often referred to as 'Shakespeare's Globe', was built in the 1990s based on surviving knowledge of the designs of both its predecessors. It opened in 1997 with a performance of Shakespeare's 'Henry V'.

No theatres known as 'The World', 'The Earth' or 'The Ocean' existed in Shakespearean London.

Answer: Pudding Lane

The Great Fire of London started in Thomas Farriner's bakery on Pudding Lane, a street that can still be found today close to the Monument (that commemorates the fire) and London Bridge. However, the street wasn't named after a nice pastry from the unfortunate bakery or even the Christmas Pudding shown in the picture clue - the 'puddings' in question were actually the offal and entrails of butchered animals!

The fire destroyed vast swathes of the City of London, including the old St Paul's Cathedral - the direct predecessor of the famous domed building created by Sir Christopher Wren during the post-fire redevelopment. The term 'City of London' refers only to a very small part of the modern city known as London - it covers about three square kilometres (one square mile) of what is now the heart of London's business and financial district - and represents the historic limits of London during the Roman and medieval periods.

Bread Street is located close to St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London and gives its name to one of the city's wards. Beer Lane was a former street of the City of London and Pepys Street is named after Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist who recorded a personal account of the Great Fire.

Answer: Bacon's Rebellion

Bacon's Rebellion was named after its leader, Nathaniel Bacon, and had no connection whatsoever to the pork meat product shown in the picture clue. Bacon led a group of Virginia settlers in an armed uprising against the colonial governor, Sir William Berkeley, ostensibly over the governor's failure to protect the people from attacks by Native Americans. The reality may have been more complicated as Bacon was Berkeley's nephew (by marriage) and the two were apparently engaged in a power struggle over control of the colony. After initial successes, which included the razing of Jamestown, Bacon died of dysentery and the rebellion subsequently collapsed. Despite managing to regain power, Berkeley was soon stripped of his position and sent back to England.

The Boston Tea Party of 1773 was a key event in the build up to the American War of Independence; Fries's Rebellion took place in Pennsylvania in 1799-1800 and was a dispute over taxation; and the Green Corn Rebellion was an uprising in Oklahoma in 1917.

Answer: Montréal

Montréal is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec, which, back in 1734, was part of the French colony imaginatively named New France. The fire that took place in that year was one of several that occurred in the early 18th century, mainly due to poor fire prevention measures and a large amount of densely packed wooden buildings. The point that makes the event stand out in history is the treatment of the slave accused of starting the blaze. Angélique's conviction was based on the flimsy evidence of a young child and the weight of heavily-biased public opinion, but the resulting sentence included having her hand cut off and being burnt alive at the stake. In the end (after a failed appeal) she was given the 'lighter' sentence of 'just' torture and hanging.

Old Montréal, the scene of these events, makes up only a small portion of the modern city - whose skyline is shown in the picture clue. It corresponds to the modern day borough of Ville-Marie that bears the old name for the settlement.

Québec City is the capital of Québec, while the cities of Trois-Rivières and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu are also located in the province.

Answer: Whale oil merchant and candle manufacturer

New York City suffered three 'great' fires during the 18th and 19th centuries. The first, in 1776, occurred during the occupation of the city by British forces during the American War of Independence, while the second occurred in 1835 in the area around Wall Street. The third 'great' fire of 1845 rather ironically originated in the premises of a candle manufacturer and whale oil merchant. At that time, whale oil was a major source of fuel for lamps as well as being used to manufacture soap and margarine.

The fire destroyed around 345 buildings - mostly of older wooden construction - and killed 30 people. Better building practices instituted after the previous blazes were credited with having prevented the fire from becoming more widespread.

Although New York City would have had blacksmiths and ironworks in the mid-19th century, the other incorrect options could not have been found. Electricity didn't become commercially viable until the latter part of the century and kerosene was not used for lighting purposes until the 1850s.

Answer: General William T. Sherman

General William T. Sherman was one of the commanding officers of the Union Army during the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865. After the war ended he went on to hold the post of Commanding General of the United States Army for 14 years. However, his 'scorched earth' policy of destroying anything of importance in captured territory is often criticised historically for its severity and ruthlessness.

Following the fall of Atlanta to Sherman's forces in September 1864 after a lengthy siege, Sherman ordered the destruction of the city's infrastructure. The city's civilian citizens were evacuated and then much of the city (with a special exception for churches and hospitals) was set on fire and destroyed. The burning of Atlanta was featured in the 1939 Oscar-winning film 'Gone with the Wind'.

George McClellan was an early commander of the Army of the Potomac; Ulysses S. Grant was the Commanding General of the United States Army from 1864 to 1869, when he resigned to take up the post of US President; and Robert E. Lee was a general in the Confederate Army. The picture clue may look like an anachronism in a question about the American Civil War (given that tanks hadn't been invented at the time) but this particular tank is a M4 Sherman - named after William T. Sherman.

Answer: Independence Day

The blaze in 1866 started near the city docks on 4 July - Independence Day in the United States. What should have been a happy and joyful day, particularly given that it was the first Independence Day celebration following the end of the American Civil War, actually turned out to be a day of disaster and sorrow. A large portion of the city was destroyed, 10,000 people were made homeless and two people lost their lives.

The motto 'Resurgam' appears on the city flag alongside the city's official seal, an image which depicts a phoenix rising from the ashes. The legacy of the destruction wrought by the blaze is the wide range of Victorian architecture that can still be seen in the city in the 21st century.

The picture clue shows the Liberty Bell - an iconic image of American independence.

Answer: SS Mont-Blanc

The SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship, was leaving Halifax harbour to join up with a trans-Atlantic convoy when it collided with a Norwegian ship, the SS Imo. An uncontrollable fire broke out and the crew were forced to abandon the ship, knowing that the nature of the cargo (which included large amounts of TNT and guncotton) meant that a massive explosion was inevitable. About 20 minutes after the initial collision, a massive blast destroyed the ship and most of the surrounding area of the city. A nearby Mi'kmaq First Nations settlement was also completely obliterated by the resulting tsunami. Overall, it was estimated that around 2,000 people were killed in the disaster.

The sheer power of the blast is illustrated by a series of monuments located at sites around Halifax where bits of the SS Mont-Blanc landed after the explosion. A cannon was found over three miles to the north and part of the anchor landed two miles to the south.

The incorrect options are all vessels involved in shipping disasters associated with the First World War. HMY (His Majesty's Yacht) Iolaire sank off Stornoway, Scotland in January 1919 with the loss of around 200 returning servicemen; RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland in May 1915 with the loss of over 1,000 lives; and the USS Californian was a cargo ship that sank after hitting a mine in the Bay of Biscay in June 1918. The picture clue shows Mont Blanc, the highest peak of the Alps mountain range.

Answer: The Reichstag building

The Reichstag building in Berlin (shown in the picture clue) was built to house the German parliament (or Diet) in 1894, but was severely damaged by fire in an arson attack on 27 February 1933. The destruction of such an important building gave a convenient excuse for the newly appointed German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, to get President Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree that suspended civil liberties. This decree is widely recognised as one of the key steps by which Hitler and the Nazi Party turned Germany from a democracy to a fascist dictatorship.

Although several men were put on trial for the crime, van der Lubbe was the only one convicted and he was executed less than a year later. Questions surrounding van der Lubbe's guilt and motives for the attack remain points of considerable academic debate. Nevertheless, the German government granted van der Lubbe a posthumous pardon in 2007. The building itself was restored and returned to use as the home of the German parliament in 1999.

The Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen is the seat of the Danish parliament; the Storting building is home to the Norwegian parliament (or 'Storting'); and the Binnenhof is the Dutch parliament building in The Hague - the oldest parliamentary building in the world that is still in use.