A Slice in Time: 1990s World History Quiz

Answer: Rum

The New Zealand Navy was the last of the former fleets of Her Majesty to stop the "rum tot." Canada ended it in 1972.

Answer: The USSR

Michail Gorbachev officially resigned as President of the USSR on December 25, 1991 and the office became extinct. Powers were handed over to Boris Yeltsin, as President of Russia. On December 26 the the USSR's ruling government body, the Supreme Soviet, dissolved itself. This date is often seen as the true end of the nation formerly known as the United Soviet Socialist Republic, which became official on December 31.

Magdalene College, in the University of Cambridge, began admitting women in 1988, the last Cambridge college to do so. The end of white rule in South Africa began with gradual reforms in the late 1980s and is said to have ended in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela as president.

Answer: Freddie Mercury

Mercury, the lead singer of Queen, died of AIDS in 1991. Arthur Ashe and Elisabeth Glaser (wife of "Starsky and Hutch" star Paul Michael Glaser) contracted AIDS through blood transfusions. Glaser and the infant daughter she was nursing at the time of the transfusion later succumbed to the disease. Showman Peter Allen, second husband of Liza Minnelli, was also a victim of HIV.

Answer: Monica Seles

Seles was ranked the top women's player in the world at the time of the attack by the mentally ill fan of her rival, Graf. She didn't compete professionally for more than two years after the incident.

Answer: "The Scream"

Munch painted several versions of "The Scream." Marcel DuChamp painted "Nude"; Andrew Wyeth is the artist responsible for "Christina's World"; "Guernica" is by Pablo Picasso.

Answer: Sarin

The name of the cult roughly translates into "supreme truth of the universe." Founded in the 1980s, the group's membership peaked at an estimated 40,000 people worldwide just prior to the subway attacks and then fell off precipitously. Later re-named Aleph, the Japanese government estimated its membership at less than 2,000 people.

Answer: IBM Deep Blue computer

The following year Deep Blue defeated Kasparov in match play. Kasparov cried foul because the computer's programmers were able to review hundreds of his matches prior to the event, but he wasn't allowed to see the computer's play history. Bobby Fischer was the world chess champion from 1973-75. Jiang Qing was the wife of China's Chairman Mao and leader of the Gang of Four.

Answer: A private island in Althorp Park, her family's ancestral estate

The Princess' brother, Earl Spencer, created the island retreat as a means of allowing the public to view her grave from a distance yet provide a private sanctuary for her children and other family to visit her grave.

Answer: Viagra

Viagra was originally developed for angina and high blood pressure. It wasn't particularly good at treating either condition but the patients in the clinical trials were found to routinely have erections. Voila!

Answer: Johannes Gutenberg

Prior to Gutenberg's (also referenced as "Johann" Gutenberg) movable type printing press only the wealthy could afford books as they were all hand-written. With mass book reproduction possible ideas about religion, politics and other subjects were now available to the middle classes and beyond, which also resulted in a marked increase in literacy. "Time Magazine" chose Gutenberg's printing press as the most important invention of the second millenium.