Q&A

A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts

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What is the world's oldest continuous democracy?

The word "democracy" is the English form of an originally ancient Greek coinage, a compound of demos (meaning people or masses) and kratos (power). The oldest democracy, literally speaking, was that of the fifth-century BC Athenians in ancient Greece.

However, claims are made that weaker forms and types of something vaguely democratic, at least in terms of public discussion, were around earlier than that in ancient India, for instance. But if we understand democracy to be power in the form of majority decision-making by an empowered electorate, then classical Athens wins the prize for being first - although of course the Athenian electorate was made up only of free and legitimate adult men.

But democracy was only practised at Athens for a couple of hundred years or so. So which of today's democracies countries or states that would feature on anyone's democracy index - is the oldest continuous democracy in existence?

The United States with its constitution of 1787 would possibly claim the title. But, despite Lincoln's "government of the people, by the people, for the people" (Gettysburg, 1863), we have to remember that the US constitution was slave-based and of course also excluded half the free adult population - no women were allowed to vote. Full adult suffrage democracies had to wait until the late 19th or early 20th century: New Zealand in 1893 was probably the first.

Did a Great Dane really receive a medal in the Second World War for putting out an incendiary bomb?

Yes: her name was Juliana, and all 10 stone of her belonged to William and Sophie Britton, who owned a boot repair shop at Brentry in Bristol.