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Curated playlist

Countries in Europe

  • United KingdomThe United Kingdom is one country made of four nations. Four capitals share the work.
  • LatviaLatvia was occupied three times in a single war. The Baltic country later sang its way back to freedom.
  • MaltaMalta was once handed to a religious order for the rent of one falcon. Emperor Charles V made the deal in 1530.
  • CyprusIn March 2008, a wall that had cut across Ledra Street in the heart of Nicosia was demolished. The wall had stood for decades, and it had come to symbolise a division of the island that lasted 32 years. On the 3rd of April 2008, Ledra…
  • ItalyItaly contains two other countries inside its borders. Vatican City and San Marino are surrounded by Italian land.
  • MoldovaMoldova is barely larger than Belgium but has the world's largest wine cellar. Mileștii Mici holds the record.
  • KazakhstanKazakhstan was the last Soviet republic to declare independence. It did so on the 16th of December 1991.
  • 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.
  • PortugalPortugal's borders with Spain have barely moved since 1297. They are among the oldest frontiers in the world.
  • SpainSpain's name may once have meant land of rabbits. Roman coins under Hadrian show a woman with a rabbit at her feet.
  • FranceFrance may be named after a tax privilege. One suggestion says only Franks were exempt from taxes.
  • LithuaniaLithuania was once the largest country in Europe. Its grand duchy reached roughly 650,000 square kilometres.
  • DenmarkIn 1658, Swedish armies crossed frozen straits and later besieged Copenhagen for two years.
  • SwedenSweden's southern tip is closer to Rome than to its own Arctic north.
  • AzerbaijanAzerbaijan's name once belonged only to a region of northwestern Iran. Before 1918, no country used it.
  • GermanyGermany's Swabian Jura cave held the oldest musical instruments ever found.
  • EstoniaEstonia became the first country to allow nationwide binding Internet voting, in 2005.
  • NorwayEvery December, Norway gives the United Kingdom a Christmas tree. It thanks Britain for Second World War help.
  • BelgiumBelgium once went 589 days without a formal government, a world record at the time.
  • 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…
  • North MacedoniaNorth Macedonia, a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, received that name on the 12th of February 2019. On that day its government announced that constitutional amendments had taken effect, and it informed the United Nations and its…
  • GreeceIn 508 BC, Cleisthenes set up the world's first democratic government in Athens.
  • ScotlandScotland's parliament was dissolved in 1707 and reborn in 1999. Its legal system ran without one for three centuries.
  • PolandPoland vanished from the map for 123 years. Its neighbors partitioned it out of existence, yet it rebuilt.
  • RussiaRussia spans eleven time zones, more than any other country. Its borders touch fourteen nations.
  • TurkeyAlmost everyone in Turkey lives with some risk of earthquakes. Two major fault lines border the Anatolian plate.
  • IcelandWhen the Laki volcano erupted in 1783, the famine that followed killed roughly a quarter of Iceland's population.
  • NetherlandsIn the Netherlands, 26% of the country sits below sea level. Dikes, polders and pumping stations keep that land dry.
  • RomaniaA cave in Romania holds the oldest known Homo sapiens remains in Europe.
  • BelarusBelarus lost a quarter of its people in World War II. Its population did not return to its prewar level until 1971.
  • UkraineUkraine once gave up the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal. It sent all the weapons to Russia by 1996.
  • CroatiaIn AD 305, a Roman emperor named Diocletian retired to a palace in Split, Croatia.
  • Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic holds the oldest ceramic figurine ever found, dated to 29,000 to 25,000 BC.
  • SloveniaSlovenia declared independence in 1991, and two days later the Yugoslav army moved in. The Ten-Day War ended in a truce.
  • AustriaAustria's 1938 vote on independence never happened. German troops crossed the border the day before it.
  • 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…
  • Republic of IrelandThe Republic of Ireland covers 26 of the 32 counties on the island of Ireland, and about 5.4 million people live there. Dublin, with over 1.5 million residents, is both its capital and its largest city. Only one land border exists, and it…

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