It's more than a three-day weekend in the United States; it's an event that honors the Americans who gave their lives in military service. Today's show looks at its roots. Other topics include headlines from Taiwan and Haiti, a new hurricane forecast, a uniquely colored pineapple, and the history of middle names.

This Friday's news quiz covers topics featured throughout the week on The World from A to Z:

1. Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash while returning from an event at his nation’s northwest border, was the president of what Middle Eastern country?

2. May 20th marked the date of independence for what island nation, which was liberated from Spain in the Spanish-American War and then controlled by the U.S. until 1902?

3. A beverage company in Japan recently introduced what kind of device, which aims to use electrical charges to simulate the taste of salt in foods with reduced sodium?

4. What is the name (or abbreviation) of the European court where a prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants for leaders of Israel and Hamas – though they all deny charges of war crimes?

5. Conservationists in Colombia are working with coffee farmers to help them live alongside what kind of bears, which are native to South America and considered a vulnerable species?

6. What is the two-word term for “the backbone of the U.S. economy,” accounting for about 70 percent of the country’s economic growth?

7. Who was the only U.S. president to have been granted a patent, though his invention of a boat-lifting device was never actually built?

8. In what U.S. state was the city of Greenfield struck by an EF3 tornado this week, part of a deadly and destructive outbreak of severe weather in the region?

9. What was the original name of Memorial Day, a holiday whose roots are in a tradition that dates back to the U.S. Civil War?

10. Kenyan forces, with financial backing from the United States, have begun to arrive in what troubled island nation whose government is struggling against widespread gang control?