Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

Why Manila sits further south than you might think

Manila, the capital of the Philippines, lies at roughly 14.6 degrees north latitude. That places it considerably south of both Tashkent in Uzbekistan and Tbilisi in Georgia. Tashkent sits around 41 degrees north, while Tbilisi is close to 41.7 degrees north. Because all three cities are in Asia, their relative positions can be easy to misjudge without a mental map.

The year Kubrick's space epic reached cinemas

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered in 1968, a year before the Apollo 11 Moon landing. The film was developed alongside Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote the companion novel. Its groundbreaking visual effects and deliberate pacing divided critics at first, but it has since become one of the most influential science fiction films ever made.

Chekhov's three sisters and their longing for Moscow

In Anton Chekhov's play Three Sisters, the siblings are Olga, Masha, and Irina. The drama follows the sisters in a provincial Russian town as they dream of returning to Moscow, a city they idealise but never manage to reach. Written in 1900 and first performed in 1901, the play is a landmark of modern theatre, blending everyday conversation with deep emotional undercurrents.

The short but remarkable life of Concorde

The Concorde supersonic passenger jet operated from 1969, when it first flew, until 2003, when commercial services ended. It was a joint project between British and French manufacturers and could cross the Atlantic in under three and a half hours. Rising maintenance costs, a fatal crash in 2000, and a downturn in air travel after 2001 all contributed to its retirement.