Which 1845 Richard Wagner opera centers on a song contest at the Wartburg?

An 1830s painting by Karl Briullov depicts the last day of which city before a volcano destroyed it? An 1831 book said that if you pass under one of these, you must spit through it or spit three times afterward; what is… An 1833 meteor shower is why which state's license plates once said "Stars Fell on"? An 1837 fire destroyed the Winter Palace in which city, though the Hermitage's treasures were saved? Hector Berlioz's 1846 work "The Damnation of ___," based on Goethe, is about which man? An 1846 treaty set Washington's northern boundary at the 49th parallel, but Britain kept which island? An 1847 play, "The String of Pearls, or The Fiend of Fleet Street," inspired which Broadway hit? An 1852 survey in British India found that "Peak XV" was the tallest mountain in the world; what is it now called?