ANSWERS

1. Nero

The story of Nero fiddling is a myth: the fiddle had not been invented, and the historian Tacitus says Nero was in Antium when the fire started and hurried back to organise relief. Rumours did say he sang about the fall of Troy while the city burned.

2. Papal infallibility

3. The Spanish Civil War

The uprising began in Spanish Morocco on 17 July and spread to mainland Spain on 18 July. Both dates are given as the start of the war.

4. Nadia Comăneci. The scoreboard showed "1.00", because it could not display 10.00.

5. "The Dark Knight". The actor was Heath Ledger.

6. The secret ballot (the Ballot Act)

7. The Second Battle of the Marne

8. William Makepeace Thackeray

9. W.G. Grace

10. Nelson Mandela International Day (Mandela Day)

11. Richard Branson, Virgin

12. John Glenn

13. Gilbert White, of Selborne ("The Natural History of Selborne")

14. Robert Hooke, "Micrographia"

15. Dennis Lillee. The bat was made of aluminium.

16. Winchester. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral.

17. Caravaggio

18. Petrarch

19. Nico

20. At the US Naval Academy in Annapolis

Jones's body was found in a forgotten Paris cemetery in 1905, preserved in alcohol in a lead coffin. It was taken to Annapolis and placed in a crypt there in 1913.