Curated playlist
Christian states
- TuvaluA deacon caught in a storm drifted for eight weeks and brought Christianity to Tuvalu.
- MaltaMalta was once handed to a religious order for the rent of one falcon. Emperor Charles V made the deal in 1530.
- SamoaSamoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa, once deleted a whole day from its calendar. Friday, the 30th of December 2011, never happened there. At the end of that month the island country moved its clocks from UTC-11 to UTC+13. The…
- Dominican RepublicThe Dominican Republic holds both the tallest mountain peak in the Caribbean and its lowest point. Pico Duarte rises 3098 metres above sea level, and snow has been seen on its summit on rare occasions. Lake Enriquillo, a salt lake, lies 45…
- GreenlandThe United States secretly tried to build nuclear missile sites inside Greenland's ice cap.
- Georgia (country)In 2005, Georgia fired its entire traffic police force of around 30,000 officers.
- FinlandIn Finland's far north, the sun does not set for 73 days in summer. In winter it does not rise for 51 days.
- Vatican CityOn the 11th of February 1929, two men signed a treaty at the Lateran Palace and created Vatican City.
- ArgentinaArgentina's name was never Spanish, and it means made of silver in Italian. It first appeared on a Venetian map in 1536.
- DenmarkIn 1658, Swedish armies crossed frozen straits and later besieged Copenhagen for two years.
- Faroe IslandsThe Faroe Islands voted for independence in 1946 by just 161 votes. Denmark annulled the result days later.
- MoldaviaIn 1859, Moldavia and Wallachia united by electing the same man prince.
- EnglandEngland's break with Rome in 1534 was more political than religious. Henry VIII wanted to settle his divorce dispute.
- ArmeniaArmenia is a landlocked country in the Armenian highlands of West Asia, and its best-loved mountain stands outside its borders. Mount Ararat rises 5,137 meters, or 16,854 feet, making it the highest mountain in the region. It now lies in…
- GreeceIn 508 BC, Cleisthenes set up the world's first democratic government in Athens.
- IcelandWhen the Laki volcano erupted in 1783, the famine that followed killed roughly a quarter of Iceland's population.
- LiechtensteinIn March 2007, a Swiss infantry unit of 170 men lost its way during a training exercise and accidentally crossed into Liechtenstein. The soldiers had marched 1.5 kilometres into foreign territory before they realised their mistake and…
- AndorraAndorra is a landlocked country in the eastern Pyrenees, wedged between France to the north and Spain to the south, and its two heads of state are a Catholic bishop and a foreign president. One is the Bishop of Urgell, who serves in…