Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

The bear cub that started in a London newspaper

A.A. Milne introduced Piglet alongside Winnie-the-Pooh in the 1920s, but the bear himself had an unusual origin. Milne's son Christopher Robin owned a teddy bear, and the family often visited the London Zoo, where a Canadian black bear named Winnipeg was a popular attraction. The name "Winnie" stuck, and the fictional bear borrowed it, while "Pooh" was reportedly a nickname for a swan the family knew. Piglet, small and anxious, became one of the most recognisable sidekicks in children's literature.

A presidency defined before the job even had a shape

George Washington took the oath of office in 1789 in New York City, then the temporary capital. He had already presided over the Constitutional Convention, and his reluctance to take power was part of what made him trusted with it. He served two terms and voluntarily stepped down, setting a precedent that lasted until Franklin D. Roosevelt's era.

The tango's two homes

Tango grew out of the working-class districts of Buenos Aires in the late nineteenth century, shaped by immigrant communities and African musical influences. It travelled to Europe in the early twentieth century, where Paris fell hard for it. Argentina and Uruguay both claim a share of its heritage, and UNESCO recognised the tradition on their joint nomination in 2009.

Roman numerals: a system built for counting, not arithmetic

LXXV breaks down as L (50) plus XX (20) plus V (5), giving 75. Roman numerals work by addition and subtraction rather than place value, which makes them fine for recording numbers but awkward for multiplication or division. That is one reason they were gradually replaced by the Arabic system in European trade and mathematics.

The Andes and the countries that share them

Peru sits along the Andes, which run down the western edge of South America through several countries. The range includes some of the highest peaks outside Asia, and its altitude shapes agriculture, climate and settlement patterns across the region.