Curated playlist
OECD members
- JapanJapan sealed itself off from the outside world for more than two centuries.
- 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.
- AustraliaAustralia's name began as a guess about a continent nobody had found. Mapmakers imagined Terra Australis Incognita.
- ItalyItaly contains two other countries inside its borders. Vatican City and San Marino are surrounded by Italian land.
- FinlandIn Finland's far north, the sun does not set for 73 days in summer. In winter it does not rise for 51 days.
- PortugalPortugal's borders with Spain have barely moved since 1297. They are among the oldest frontiers in the world.
- CanadaCanada's name began as a word for a village. In 1535, locals used it to point Jacques Cartier to Stadacona.
- 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.
- New ZealandNew Zealand was the last large habitable land on Earth to be settled by humans.
- GermanyGermany's Swabian Jura cave held the oldest musical instruments ever found.
- ChileThe Inca Empire's conquest stopped at a river in what is now central Chile. The Mapuche held the line at the Maule.
- 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.
- ColombiaColombia is named after Christopher Columbus. The name was first meant for the entire New World.
- GreeceIn 508 BC, Cleisthenes set up the world's first democratic government in Athens.
- PolandPoland vanished from the map for 123 years. Its neighbors partitioned it out of existence, yet it rebuilt.
- South KoreaSouth Korea is technically still at war with North Korea. No peace treaty ever ended the war that began in 1950.
- MexicoMexico domesticated maize, the tomato and beans, three plants that feed much of the world.
- 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.
- SwitzerlandSwitzerland's 1847 civil war lasted less than a month and killed fewer than 100 people. Most deaths were friendly fire.
- 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.
- 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…