Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

A summit that quietly reshaped the Cold War

The Reykjavik meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in October 1986 was never meant to produce a treaty. The two leaders arrived with sweeping proposals on nuclear arms and came startlingly close to agreeing on abolishing entire categories of missiles, only to see the talks collapse over the Strategic Defense Initiative. Even so, the groundwork laid in Iceland fed directly into the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed the following year.

Why landlocked nations are more common than you think

Hungary sits in the middle of Central Europe with no coastline at all, a position it shares with dozens of other countries worldwide. Landlocked states often depend heavily on neighbours for trade routes and port access, which shapes their economies and foreign policy far more than most people realise. Some, like Switzerland, have turned that geography into a strength through finance and diplomacy.

The day the Bastille fell

On 14 July 1789, a Parisian crowd stormed the Bastille, a royal fortress and prison that had come to symbolise arbitrary royal power. Although only a handful of prisoners were held there at the time, the event became the flashpoint of the French Revolution. Today it is commemorated as France's national holiday, celebrated with parades and fireworks every year.

Pizzicato: plucking, not bowing

The term pizzicato comes from the Italian word for "pinched" and instructs a string player to pluck the strings with the fingers instead of drawing the bow. It appears across violin, viola, cello and double bass repertoire, from delicate ballet accompaniment to dramatic orchestral effects. Composers such as Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky used it to create textures no other section of the orchestra could match.