1. Vatican City, although you're far more likely to hear Italian spoken. 2. Canada. 3. Ukraine. 4. Easy: You can travel from Finland to North Korea passing through only Russia.
5. Zero degrees latitude is more commonly known as the equator. Zero degrees longitude is known as the Prime Meridian, which traditionally separates east from west. Unlike the equator, the Prime Meridian is entirely arbitrary. It could have been any line connecting the poles. That being the case British geographers decided it would pass right under the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England specifically, under the observatory's main telescope. Incidentally, when representatives of 25 nations met in 1884 to formally agree upon this, the French abstained. They wanted it to run through Paris, and for 30 years French maps showed it that way.
6. Curtain Rod Capital of the World: Sturgis, Michigan. Hog Butcher to the World: Chicago. Jackalope Capital of the World: Douglas, Wyoming. Television Capital of the World: Tijuana, Mexico. Root cellar capital of the world: Elliston, Newfoundland. Appalachian Square Dance Capital of the World: Lebanon, Tennessee. Barbed Wire Capital of the World: La Crosse, Kansas. Fire hydrant Capital of the World: Albertville, Alabama. Toilet Paper Capital of the World: Green Bay, Wisconsin. 7. Vatican City and San Marino whose official name is the Most Serene Republic of San Marino. 8. North of Alaska; it's part of the Arctic Ocean. 9. No, it's 9. The top 5, in order, are the Sudan, Algeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya and Chad. 10. Australia claims about 42% of the continent. 11. Luxembourg, with a 2005 gross domestic product per person of $69,800. The U.S. is third, with $41,399. The question lists the top 5 in order. 12. Lake Victoria, Africa's largest. 13. At least 30 of the world's 193 sovereign nations fly the old red, white and blue including Russia, Cuba and North Korea. 14. East Timor, which gained independence from Indonesia in 2002.
15. Trick question! You'd be in the state of Rhode Island. The island itself, also known as Aquidneck Island, is only a small portion of the state, most of which is on the mainland. Incidentally, Rhode Island has the dual distinctions of having the smallest territory and longest official name of any U.S. state: Its official name is the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
16. Athens, but just barely. 17. Chile. Cape Horn was named not for its shape but for the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands. 18. Taiwan. 19. Madagascar. There are also a few on the nearby island of Comoros, probably introduced by humans. 20. Santorini. 21. Singapore.
22. Probably. It's only a few hundred yards. A bridge now connects Kyle of Lochalsh on the mainland to Kyleakin on the isle of Skye, one of the Inner Hebrides.
23. Thailand.
24. The Danube, also known as the Donau. The countries are Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia and Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and the Ukraine. The capitals are Vienna, Budapest, Bratislava and Belgrade.
25. It's close, and depends how they're measured. Various sources put the Nile at 3,400 to 4,180 miles long, the Amazon at 3,900 to 3,999. Most geographers give the title to the Nile. In terms of volume, though, the Amazon wins, no contest.
26. Bangkok.
27. Kailas (also spelled Kailash) in Tibet. The rivers are the Indus which flows north through Pakistan to the Arabian Sea; the Sutlej which flows west to irrigate India's Punjab region; the Karnali which flows south to join the Ganges; and the Tsangpo which flows east, disappears into a Himalayan gorge and emerges on the other side as the Brahmaputra which flows through Bangladesh (with a name change or two) into the Indian Ocean. Kailas has never been climbed because it is sacred to Hindus, Buddhists, Bons and Jains.
28. The Yangtse, the world's 3rd-longest river at about 3,950 miles, is entirely within China.
29. Seattle. "Alki" was a native word meaning "by and by." Presumably the first European settlers believed their city would grow into a new Gotham, by and by. "Duwamps" was a local Indian tribe. The much more mellifluous "Seattle" is the anglicized name of a local chief, Noah Sealth.
30. Capt. James Cook.
31. George Vancouver. As a teenager he sailed on Cook's second and third voyages, and later commanded a ship that explored and charted the Pacific Northwest. His lieutenant on that voyage was Peter Puget, for whom Puget Sound is named.
32. Des Moines. 33. Wales.
34. Many but far from all etymologists believe these were the origins of "Asia" and "Europe."
35. Their names are all palindromes. For geographic palindromists (admittedly a small group) the ultimate destination was in Northern California: the Yreka Bakery. Sadly, it closed in the 1970s.
36. Pakistan. It was coined in 1933, 14 years before the country came into existence, by Cambridge student Choudhary Rahmat Ali, who added the suffix "stan," meaning "land of," and threw in an extra "i" to make it easier to pronounce.
37. Venezuela means "Little Venice." An early European explorer took note of the houses local Indians had built on stilts above a lake and thought it resembled Venice.
38. Tirana, the capital of Albania, was originally named Tehran, after the capital of Iran, by Turkish general Sulayman Pasha in 1614 to commemorate a Turkish military victory in Persia. It later changed the spelling. (Some reputable sources, it should be noted, cast doubt on this story.)
39. Kenya took its name from its highest point, Mount Kenya.
40. Rarotonga is east of Tonga. The common translation is a mistake. "Raro" means "down" and "tonga" actually means "south." So Rarotonga actually means "down south." Down south from where, exactly, is unclear.
41. Despite the 1969 movie title, "Krakatoa, East of Java," it's actually west. The volcano to the east of Java is Tambora, on the island of Sumbawa.
42. The International Date Line runs between Big Diomede Island and Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait, which are less than 2 miles apart. On Fridays you can stand on Little Diomede in Alaska and see what it's like on Saturday on Big Diomede in Russia and vice versa. The Date Line also runs through Antarctica. If you were living at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Research Station you could hop from today to tomorrow to yesterday.
43. The International Date Line was moved Jan 1, 1995. After gaining full independence from Britain in 1979, Kiribati, which comprises 33 atolls scattered over 2 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean, was the only nation on Earth bisected by the Date Line. Official business could only be conducted on the four days of the week offices were open on both sides of the line. So the incoming president, Teburoro Tito, made good on a campaign promise to move the line. Check a map: The Date Line, which otherwise stays close to the 180th parallel, makes a thousand-mile jog to the east around Kiribati. This didn't sit well with other South Pacific island nations, who realized this would allow Kiribati to claim to be the first to see the new millennium.
44. Most of it is in Asia, but a tiny slice lies west of the Ural River, which, according to most geographers, puts it in Europe.
45. Tajikistan. 46. True. 47. True.
48. True. Every major Soviet or Russian space launch from Sputnik on has been at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Russians continue to use it; their lease runs through 2050.
49. False. Roman Vassilenko, press attache for the embassy of Kazakhstan in the U.S., claimed this in an interview with the New Yorker, but most sources give the year for Kazakh women's suffrage as 1924.
50. True. In the New Yorker interview press attaché Vassilenko described it like this: "A group of young guys race to get a bride. She races away from them and they have to catch her while she fends them off with a whip." The New Yorker writer added a clarification: "This sport doesn't result in actual matrimony just a kiss." Other sources translate Kuuz Kuu as "Catch the Girl" and describe the game similarly but without implying marriage.