The Question Is: When? Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1491-1547

Well, even if I could have doubts about his life span, I swear I know his six wives' names by heart, expecially thanks to a couple of tv movies and Rick Wakeman's monster album.

Answer: 1162-1227

What else do I know about him? He was Temüjin by birthname; he was the 'Father of the Mongol Nation', he built one of the most powerful empires in history, he rode, fought and pillaged a lot.

Answer: 1475-1564

Michelangelo Buonarroti - the Pietà, David, the Sistine Chapel. I'm Italian, so it's easy for me to I know a lot about him. Except, of course, when did he lived.

Answer: 1595-1617

With Disney and the charming Q'Orianka Kilcher in the 2005 film "The New World", Pocahontas has no secrets, even for us Europeans! In the movies they still have halberds and metal armor, so it can't be XIX century!

Answer: 354-430

He's a Doctor of the Church. A friar or something. So why is he there, when the Romans were still around? I could imagine him sending letters to his pal and co-doctor Saint Thomas Aquinas, but the two are separated by 8 centuries, more or less (1225-1274 actually are the start and finish of Thomas' earthy trip).

Answer: 1254-1324

Another Italian, another easy one for me. I know he went to China with his father and uncle; the Emperor liked him, made him ambassador around Asia, the he came back, fought against Genua, was jailed and dictated his memoirs to a fellow prisoner. But when? More than 150 year before Colombus: amazing.

Answer: 1756-1791

This is easy because I saw Milos Forman's "Amadeus" and I remember they wore curly wigs, so it's 1700!

Answer: 1547-1616

Miguel Cervantes Saavedra: he wrote "Don Quixote", lost an arm at Lepanto and was kept as a slave by the Turks: I really ought to know when he lived. It's funny: I believe 1616 is also the year of Shakespeare's death.

Answer: 1872-1928

Who's this Amudsen? A Norwegian explorer, he led the first successful Antarctic expedition to the South Pole between 1910 and 1912. He disappeared in June 1928 while taking part in a rescue mission.

Answer: 1530-1584

So did you know that Ivan reigned during the Renaissance? I didn't. He was the Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich, called Grozny, that doesn't mean Terrible in a pejorative sense, but Awesome, Inspiring Fear. Considering his mental instability and some episodes like the beating of his pregnant daughter-in-law and her subsequent miscarriage and the killing of his son, old Ivan seems something worse than Awesome.
That's the end: I'm a bit less ignorant that before.