Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

A capital with more than one name

Jakarta has been renamed more than once. Under Dutch colonial rule it was known as Batavia, a name it carried for roughly three centuries. After independence, the city returned to its earlier name, Jakarta, and today it is one of the largest urban areas in the world.

The discovery that turned a disease into a treatment

Insulin was first isolated in 1921 by a team of researchers in Canada, a breakthrough that transformed diabetes from a fatal condition into a manageable one. The following year, the first patient received insulin injections, and the discovery was later recognised with a Nobel Prize. It remains one of the most consequential medical advances of the twentieth century.

The end of a global conflict

World War II ended in 1945, after six years of fighting that touched nearly every continent. Victory in Europe came in May, while the war in the Pacific concluded in September. The conflict reshaped borders, economies and international institutions in ways that still shape the world today.

The novelist behind the barricades

Victor Hugo was a French novelist, poet and playwright, and a leading figure of the Romantic movement. Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris are his best-known works, and both have had long afterlives on stage and screen. The musical adaptation of Les Misérables is one of the most performed shows in the world, keeping Hugo's characters in front of audiences well over a century after his death.