2nd Millennium AD: One Question per Century Quiz

Answer: Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey was built on the site of a Benedictine abbey dedicated to St Peter's by Edward the Confessor (canonized in 1161) the last king of the House of Wessex, who intended the church to be used for royal burials. The original Westminster Abbey was the first church in England to be built in the Romanesque style; its only surviving depiction is found in the Bayeux Tapestry. Completed around 1060, the church was consecrated a few years later, about a week before Edward's death on 5 January 1066. Adjacent to the Palace of Westminster (also built by Edward the Confessor as a royal residence), the Abbey became the site of the coronation of Norman kings after the conquest.

The current Gothic church - which, together with the Palace of Westminster and Saint Margaret's Church, was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 - was built in the 13th century by Henry III as a shrine to Edward the Confessor, though it was not completed until 1745 with the construction of the two western towers. Westminster Abbey has been the site of royal coronations since William the Conqueror was crowned there on 25 December 1066; many royal weddings and funerals have also been held there.

The 11th century saw the construction of many iconic religious buildings throughout Europe and Asia - though none of those listed as wrong answers. Notre-Dame de Paris was built in the years 1163-1345. The earliest version of St Peter's Basilica dates from the 4th century AD (c. 333-c. 360), while Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was built in 532-537.

Answer: Eleanor of Aquitaine

Born in Poitiers around 1122, Eleanor (Aliénor in French) was the oldest of three children of William X, Duke of Aquitaine. In 1137, when she was around 13 years of age, her father died, leaving her Duchess of Aquitaine, and heiress to a considerable fortune. Three months after her father's death, on 25 July, the young duchess was married to the 17th-year-old Louis, heir apparent to Louis VI of France, who by this marriage aimed to bring the Duchy of Aquitaine under French control. However, it was agreed that the Duchy would remain independent until the couple's eldest son became king of France. Louis VI died a few days after the wedding, and his son ascended the throne.

Though Louis VII was besotted with his wife, and went to great lengths to make her happy, the intelligent and sophisticated Eleanor - famous for her beauty, as well as her education and patronage of poetry - was unpopular in Paris, and was especially disliked by the clergy. When, in 1147 Louis departed for the Second Crusade, Eleanor went with him to the Holy Land. However, the crusade was unsuccessful, and the marriage - not helped by rumours about Eleanor's alleged affair with her uncle, Raymond of Poitiers - soured to the point that, shortly after the royal pair's return from the expedition, an annulment was sought. Eleanor and Louis's marriage produced two daughters, Marie and Alix.

In 1152, the annulment was granted on the grounds of consanguinity, and eight weeks later Eleanor married Henry II, Duke of Normandy - who would become Henry II of England two years later. Their tempestuous marriage produced eight children, including two kings of England, Richard I and John. Eleanor survived both her husbands, and died at the ripe old age (for that time) of 82, in 1204. She is buried next to Henry and Richard in the Abbey of Fontevrault, in central France.

Matilda of Flanders (wife to William I the Conqueror) lived in the 11th century, Margaret of Anjou (wife to Henry VI) in the 15th century, and Catherine of Aragon (the first of Henry VIII's six wives) in the 16th century.

Answer: Mongols

In 1274, the Yuan dynasty of China (which was the direct successor of the Mongol Empire) led by Kublai Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, launched an invasion of the Japanese archipelago from the Korean kingdom of Goryeo, which had become a vassal state of the Mongols a few years earlier. The Mongol fleet first invaded the island of Tsushima, located between the Korean peninsula and the Japanese island of Kyushu. From there, the Yuan forces landed in Hakata Bay on Kyushu on 19 November; there they engaged in battle with the Japanese, then returned to the ships before nightfall. When morning came, most of the Yuan ships had disappeared - according to a chronicle, blown back by a powerful storm that caused the loss of over 200 ships and 13,500 soldiers and sailors out of an estimated 30,000.

Seven years later, Kublai Khan made a second attempt with a much larger fleet - a combined force of over 140,000 soldiers and sailors, and over 4,000 ships (though these figures have often been disputed in recent times). Between late May and June 1281, the Yuan fleet attacked Tsushima and Hakata Bay: while the former fell quickly, the latter resisted, engaging the Yuan forces in a protracted battle. On 15 August, a great typhoon - which became known as "kamikaze" ("divine wind"), as it was perceived as a gift from the gods - struck the Yuan fleet anchored in the bay, causing widespread destruction. At least half of the Yuan forces are believed to have died in the disaster: those who survived were killed or taken prisoner by the Japanese. Needless to say, the Yuan - whose naval power never recovered - did not attempt to invade Japan again.

During World War II, the term "kamikaze" was used for the suicide attacks by Japanese pilots against Allied ships. In more recent times, the word has been applied to suicide bombings by various terrorist groups.

Answer: He is claimed to have been the wealthiest person in history

Although Mansa Musa I's date of birth is unknown, he was probably in his early twenties when he ascended to the throne of the Mali Empire - replacing his cousin Muhammad bin Qu, the eight mansa, who did not return from his expedition across the Atlantic Ocean. His rule, which lasted until his death around 1337, expanded and strengthened the Mali Empire, which came to include large portions of the modern-day African countries of Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania, and The Gambia.

Musa I's early years as a ruler were spent engaging in military conflict with neighbouring nations - very likely meant to acquire a large number of slaves for his "haji" (pilgrimage to Mecca), which took place in 1324-1325. He left Mali with an entourage of thousands of people and animals, carrying huge amounts of gold and other valuables that the king donated to the poor along the way to Mecca; he is also said to have built a mosque every Friday during the journey, which spanned 2,700 miles (4,345 km). Musa displayed his wealth and generosity during his stay in Cairo, where he made a keen impression (and also caused the value of gold to depreciate for 12 years). His legendary wealth - which earned him the reputation of "wealthiest man in history" - came mostly from the gold and salt deposits found in the Empire's territory, as well as the ivory and slave trade. Under Musa's rule, the Mali Empire reached the zenith of his power: in particular, the city of Timbuktu became a byword for fabulous wealth and Islamic scholarship.

In the Mandé language of West Africa, "mansa" means "king" or "emperor", while Musa is the Arabic form of Moses.

Answer: cookbook

Born in 1421, Bartolomeo Sacchi - known as Platina after the Latin name of his hometown, Piadena (near Cremona, in Lombardy) - became a writer thanks to the patronage of the influential House of Gonzaga. Around 1462, he moved to Rome with his patron, Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, where he eventually was granted the prestigious post of Prefect of the Vatican Library by Pope Sixtus VI, a staunch supporter of humanism.

Though he was the author of a large number of published works (all written in Latin), such as a book about the lives of the Popes, Platina's fame rests mainly on his "De honesta voluptate ac valetudine" ("On Honest Pleasure and Health"). Probably written in 1465, this cookbook was printed in Rome almost a decade later, and then frequently reprinted during the 16th century - also translated in Italian, German and French. These translations made the book - originally meant for cooks who worked in the houses of the rich and powerful - appealing to members of the middle class who were interested in learning more about the art of cooking. Platina's book was so successful that it started a trend, with a number of other cookbooks being printed in the late 15th and early 16th century.

Consisting of ten books, "De honesta voluptate ac valetudine" mostly contains recipes by fellow humanist and culinary expert Martino da Como, which recorded the transition between medieval and Renaissance cuisine. The wide selection of recipes is complemented by anecdotes, tips, and comments on the impact of each recipe on bodily health - a surprisingly modern approach to cooking.

Answer: China

In the early hours of 24 January 1556, an earthquake of 8.2-8-3 magnitude struck Huaxian, in northwestern China's Shaanxi province. Of the 830,000 people who were reported dead - the highest toll in recorded history so far - over 100,000 died as a direct consequence of the earthquake, most of them buried by the collapse of their house caves ("yaodong"), carved out of loess (sedimented silt). The remaining casualties died as a result of ensuing plagues or famines, or simply migrated away from the area and were counted as dead. The Wei River Valley, the epicenter of the disaster, lies within an active rift zone, and is thus prone to large earthquakes and landslides.

As destructive as it was, the Shaanxi earthquake was not China's top natural disaster by death toll: this dubious honour goes to the Yangtze-Huai floods of July 1931. With an estimated death toll of 4 million people, these floods are widely considered as the world's worst natural disaster in recorded history. While the Great Chinese Famine of 1958-1962 is believed to have been responsible for millions of deaths (as many as 55 million according to some estimated), this tragedy is considered a man-made rather than a natural disaster.

Though the Shaanxi earthquake is often cited as the deadliest in recorded history, the much more recent Tangshan earthquake of 28 July 1976, which occurred in the northern province of Hebei, may have had a comparable death toll.

Answer: forbidden food

Observed by many Christian churches, Lent - the period of approximately 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday - is a time dedicated to penance and personal sacrifice, which involve fasting and abstinence from daily pleasures. While in modern times observance of Lent is voluntary, and for many people limited to abstaining from meat on Fridays, in the past Lenten restrictions applied to most of the population for the whole 40-day period, and were often enforced harshly. The most notable of these regulations concerned the prohibition of meat, and often other foods of animal origin (such as dairy and eggs) - while fish and shellfish were generally permitted.

In 1671, during the reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King, a law was passed that allowed the police to search private homes, even those of ambassadors) for forbidden food items. Any that were found during these searches were donated to hospitals, since the sick were exempted from all Lenten dietary laws. In fact, hospitals authorities were the only people permitted to run shops licensed to sell meat during Lent - of which there were only five in the whole city of Paris.

So strict were these regulations that various attempts at circumventing them were made by stating that some warm-blooded animals were not meat but fish because of their aquatic habits: this was the case of some sea birds, such as puffins, and beavers in New France (present-day Canada).

Answer: Los Angeles

Located in Southern California, the sprawling city now known as Los Angeles was founded with the much longer name of "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de la Porciúncula" ("The Town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of the Portiuncula"). Ten years earlier, in 1771, the first Christian mission in the area - named Mission San Gabriel Arcángel - had been established by Franciscan friar Junípero Serra.

The founders of the town, known as "Los pobladores del pueblo de Los Ángeles" ("the townspeople of Los Angeles") were a group consisting of 11 families - 11 women, 11 men, and 22 children of various ethnic and social extraction - as well as four soldiers. The mixed racial composition of this group (which included American Indians and black Africans) was typical of California settlers. The site of the new town had been chosen by Father Juan Crespí, a Franciscan missionary and explorer. The settlement remained a small ranch town until the end of Spanish rule in 1821, but grew steadily in the following decades until it reached a population of over 100,000 in the early years of the 20th century. The original buildings of the pueblo have been preserved as a historical monument, whose centre is the old plaza.

Mexico City was built on the ruins of Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec Empire, in 1521; Chicago was also established in the 1780s, and Toronto in 1750.

Answer: Romania

According to various sources, the Chinese were already familiar with the process of refining oil as early as the 1st century AD. However, even though petroleum was widely used for a variety of purposes for over 2,000 years, the modern oil industry began in the mid-19th century, when the process for distilling kerosene from petroleum was devised.

One of the places where oil was known to be present in abundant supply since antiquity was Romania, which in 1856 became the first country in the world to build an industrial oil refinery in Ploieşti, a city in south-central Romania, located about 56 km (35 mi) north of the capital Bucharest. Built by the Mehedinteanu brothers on the outskirts of the city, the refinery (officially known as "gas factory") was inaugurated in 1857 - the same year in which Romania's oil production was officially registered in international statistics. The refinery provided the kerosene for Bucharest's street illumination, also introduced in 1857 - making the Romanian capital the world's first city to be illuminated by kerosene lamps.

Known at the time as the "Capital of Black Gold", Ploieşti is still home to a thriving oil processing industry, whose refineries are linked by pipelines to Bucharest and the ports of Constanţa (on the Black Sea) and Giurgiu (on the Danube). The city is also home to the Oil and Gas University, founded in 1948, as well as museums dedicated to oil and natural gas.

The Count referenced in the question is Dracula, a literary character that was inspired by a real-life ruler of Wallachia, the historic region where Ploieşti is located.

Answer: Port Authority Bus Terminal

The world's busiest bus terminal, handling about 8,000 buses and over 200,000 passengers on an average weekday, the Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT) is located in Manhattan, at 625 Eight Avenue between 40th Street and 42nd Street, close to the Lincoln Tunnel and Times Square. Both commuter buses and long-distance intercity buses (such as those operated by Greyhound) depart from and arrive at the terminal, which also offers extensive parking space and other facilities.

The PABT was built to consolidate the various private bus terminals scattered through Midtown Manhattan. The main reason for the terminal's construction was the increased traffic congestion due to buses driving through the area after the opening of the Lincoln Tunnel in 1937. Approved in 1941, the plans for the bus terminal were held up by WWII, but ground was finally broken in 1949, and the structure opened on 15 December 1950. The terminal was expanded and renovated several times: in 2007, the South Wing (the original 1950 structure) underwent an expensive seismic retrofit to reinforce it against earthquakes.

South Ferry opened in 1836, Penn Station in 1910, and Idlewild Airport (renamed John F. Kennedy in 1963) in 1948.