Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

A currency named after a shape

Japan's yen is one of the most traded currencies in the world, but its name is surprisingly literal. "Yen" comes from the Japanese word for "round object", a reference to the shape of the coins that replaced earlier oval gold and silver pieces. The yen was formally adopted in 1871 as part of the Meiji government's push to modernise the country's money system.

The rings that represent the whole world

The five interlocking rings of the Olympic symbol were designed by Pierre de Coubertin and first presented in 1913. The colours - blue, yellow, black, green and red - were chosen because at least one of them appears in the flag of every nation competing at the time. The rings themselves stand for the five inhabited continents, bound together by the spirit of the Games.

A locomotive that changed travel forever

George Stephenson is often called the "Father of Railways", and his 1814 locomotive was built for hauling coal at a colliery in northern England. What made his design stand out was not just power but practicality: he refined the mechanics so the engine could run reliably on rails. That work laid the groundwork for the first public steam railways a decade later.

An island nation with a difficult past

Haiti occupies the western third of Hispaniola, the island it shares with the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. It became the world's first independent black republic in 1804 after a successful slave revolt against French colonial rule. That revolution, led by figures such as Toussaint Louverture, sent shockwaves through the Atlantic world.

Cicero: more than a name in a history book

Cicero was a Roman lawyer, political theorist and philosopher who lived during the turbulent final decades of the Roman Republic. He was famous for his speeches in the courts and the Senate, and his writings on duty, friendship and the ideal state are still read today. His letters also give historians a rare, personal view of Roman politics in the first century BC.