Someone once said: ‘We can’t predict the future if we don’t care about that past.’ So whether you’re passioned about US history, Canada, Australia, UK or any other country, browse around and try to answer correctly as many as many history trivia questions as possible.
136 History Trivia Questions with Answers
1. Who was the first Republican president?
Abraham Lincoln – under his leadership, slavery was banned in the US in 1865.
2. Of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, only the Great Pyramid of Giza still exists; which of the other Seven Wonders disappeared most recently?
Lighthouse of Alexandria – it was toppled by earthquakes in the early 14th century and its ruined stones were carried off by the late 15th century.
3. What is the world’s oldest currency still in use?
The British pound (£) – 1 200 years old.
4. What Mediterranean island gained its independence from Britain in 1960?
Cyprus
5. Which country gained independence from Denmark in the year 1944?
Iceland
6. Before 1752, which month was the first of the year?
March. The Julian Calendar was replaced by the Gregorian Calendar.
7. Which animal is featured on California’s state flag?
The grizzly bear. And there hasn’t been a grizzly in California since 1922.
8. By 1799, George Washington was production 11,000 gallons of which alcoholic beverage?
Whiskey. The two story rebuilt distillery still runs today.
9. Besides kamikaze pilots, how did the Japanese try to bomb America?
Bombs attached to helium baloons.
10. What area of London did Jack the Ripper’s murders occur in?
Whitechapel
11.What famous priest ministered to the Molokai lepers from 1873 until his death?
Father Damien
12. What was the date for D-Day?
June 6, 1944
13. What was the last Chinese dynasty?
Manchu
14. What was the predecessor to the United Nations?
League of Nations
15. How many witches were burned at the stake during the Salem witch trials?
None – twenty were executed, but most were hung, and none were burned.
16. Who was the first person to reach the South Pole in 1911?
Roald Amundsen
17. What transportation route re-opened in 1975 after an eight-year closure?
Suez Canal
18. What was discovered at Qumran in 1947?
Dead Sea Scrolls
19. What was the first ship to reach the Titanic after it sank?
Carpathia
20. Opened in 1852, what infamous prison was off the coast of French Guiana?
Devil’s Island
21. What war did Joan of Arc’s inspirational leadership help end?
The Hundred Years War
22. What year did the first manned space flight occur?
1961
23. The New Testament was originally written in what language?
Greek
24. What did Russian Valentina Tereshkova become the first woman to do in 1963?
Travel in space
25. In what war did jet fighter planes first battle each other?
Korean War
26. According to legend, what historical figure died of a nosebleed on his wedding night?
Attila the Hun
27. The island of Krakatoa was almost entirely destroyed by a volcanic eruption in what year?
1883
28. Who wrote the words that are engraved on the Statue of Libery?
Emma Lazarus – the words were written in 1883 to raise money for the statue’s pedestal.
29. What city became the U.S. federal capital in 1789?
New York
30. Who was the first American astronaut who wasn’t in the military when they went into space?
Neil Amstrong – he had been a Navy fighter pilot but was a civilian when he joined NASA.
31. What political cartoonist popularized the use of the elephant and donkeys as symbols of the two main U.S. political parties?
Thomas Nast
32. What was the first U.S. state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860?
South Carolina
33. The Statue of Liberty originally also served what functional role?
Lighthouse
34. In honor of whose death in 1931 were all non-essential lights in the U.S. turned off for one minute?
Thomas Edison
35. What American statesman wrote the collection of essays ‘Fart Proudly’?
Benjamin Franklin
36. Who was the first person to enter space (100 km above the Earth) twice?
Joseph A. Walker – X-15 rocket aircraft in 1963
37. How many states joined the Confederate States of America?
11
38. In the 16th century, King James IV of Scotland paid people to practice what on them?
Dentristry – he was an amateur dentist and very interested in medicine; he established the Royal College of Surgeons in Scotland two centuries before it was established in England.
39. Who was married to Adolf Hitler for one day?
Eva Braun
40. What was the first ever lighthouse?
Pharos of Alexandria – 280 BC
41. Who made the first phone call to the Moon?
Richard Nixon
42. What battle was fought at Senlac Hill?
Battle of Hastings
43. In 1917, Janatte Rankin become the first woman in the U.S. to do what?
Elected to the U.S. Congress
44. What is the oldest college in the U.S. ?
Harvard – 1636
45. Who was the last English king to die on the battlefield?
Richard III
46. What is the most powerful Earthbound explosion ever witnessed by humans?
Mount Tambora volcanic eruption in 1815 in Indonesia – the explosion was equivalent to 800 megatons of TNT, 14 times larger than the largest man-made explosion.
47. What was the name of Robert E. Lee’s horse?
Traveller
48. What disease is believed to have killed more people than any other throughout history?
Malaria – over 1 million people still die from malaria anually.
49. What year did the Titanic sink?
1912
50. On December 1, 1917, who opened Boys Town, a farm village for wayward boys, near Omaha, Nebraska?
Father Edward Flanagan
51. Who assassinated John Lennon?
Mark David Chapman
52. Where did Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet in 1945?
Yalta
53. Who was known as the father of the atomic bomb?
Robert Oppenheimer
54. Sputnik 2 was launched into space in 1957; what was the name of the dog that was on the board?
Laika
55. At the battle of Actium, who defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra?
Octavian or Emperor Augustus
56. What country’s troops sustained the greatest number of deaths in WWII?
Soviet Union
57. In the 15th century, what was the war between the houses of Lancaster and York?
War of the Roses
58. What is the most visited paid monument in the world?
Eiffel Tower
59. The Ladies’ Mercury in 1963 was the world’s first what?
Periodical designed and published for women
60. What religion was Adolf Hitler?
Roman Catholic
61. What is the real name of the serial killer known as Son of Sam?
David Berkowitz
62. When was apartheid introduced in South Africa?
1948
63. What was the family name of the French brothers who were pioneers in hot air balooning and conducted the first untethered flights?
Montgolfier
64. What year did the U.S. celebrate its sesquicentennial?
1926 -150-year anniversary
65. Who did Adolf Hitler dictate Mein Kampf to while in prison?
Rudolf Hess
66. Who was the first Christian emperor of Rome?
Constantine the Great – emperor from 306 to 337
67. Who first suggested the idea of daylight saving time in an essay he wrote in 1784?
Benjamin Franklin
68. What was the name given to textile workers who opposed modernization during the 19th century?
Luddites
69. What was the real name of the Boston Strangler?
Albert DeSalvo
70. Who is known as the father of modern economics?
Adam Smith
71. How long was Nelson Mandela in prison?
27 years
72. Who was King of Mycenae and commander of the Greek forces in the Trojan War?
Agamemnon
73. What did Albert Einstein call “the hardest thing in the world to understand”?
Income taxes
74. Who was the first American born child of English settlers?
Virginia Dare
75. Who is known as the father of medicine?
Hippocrates
76. Introduced in 1888, the first vending machine in the U.S. dispensed what item?
Gum
77. Fylfot is a heraldic name for what symbol?
Swastika
78. The U.S. icon Uncle Sam is based on Samuel Wilson who did what during the War of 1812?
Meat packer – He supplied barrels of beef to the army stamped with “U.S.” for United States, but soldiers started referring to it as Uncle Sam’s.
79. The saying “Don’t give up the ship!” comes from the last words of Captain James Lawrence in what war?
War of 1812
80. What is widely considered “The Gun that Won the West”?
Winchester Model 1873 rifle
81. What explorer visited Australia and New Zealand and surveyed the Pacific coast of North America?
Captain George Vancouver
82. What did the Romans call the tenth part of a legion?
Cohort – 300 to 600 men
83. What is the oldest alcoholic beverage to gain widespread popularity?
Mead – about 2000 BC from fermenting honey
84. Why was the Eiffel Tower built?
Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution
85. What year did U.S. prohibition come to an end?
1933
86. What explorer’s last words were “I have not told half of what I saw”?
Marco Polo
87. What year was NASA founded?
1958
88. The famous battle took place July 1 to July 3, 1863?
Gettysburg
89. What was the profession of serial killer Ted Bundy?
Attorney
90. What nationality was the first person in space who wasn’t American or Russian?
Czech – Vladimir Remek in 1978
91. What was the name of Alexander the Great’s horse?
Bucephalus
92. Who was Abraham Lincoln’s first choice to lead the Union army?
Robert E. Lee
93. What was Lech Whalesa’s job before he founded Solidarity?
Electrician
94. Where was the first U.S. federal penitentiary?
Leavenworth, Kansas
95. British Kind Edward VIII abdicated his throne to marry who?
Wallis Simpson
96. Who discovered the source of the Nile River?
John Hanning Speke
97. What Roman killed himself after his defeat at Actium?
Mark Anthony
98. How many years were there between the first female in space and the first American female in space?
20 years – a Soviet woman was the first in 1963
99. What year was the first U.S. minimum wage instituted?
1938 – 25 cents per hour
100. What year did India gain independence from British colonial rule?
1947
101. What book was given to all officers in the Confederate army during the U.S. Civil War?
Les Miserables – Robert E. Lee belived the book symbolized their cause.
102. What civilization first domesticated guinea pigs and used them for food, sacrifices, and household pets?
Incas
103. Through what town did Lady Godiva ride naked?
Coventry, England
104. Who was outlaw Harry Longabaugh better known as?
Sundance Kid
105. What country did Abel Tasman discovered in 1642?
New Zealand
106. Good King Wenceslas was king of what country?
Bohemia – current Czech Republic
107. The spire on the Empire State building was meant to be used for what?
Airship dock
108. What year did the Berlin wall fall?
1989
109. Who was the first African American in space?
Guion Bluford
110. Who was the first man to set foot on all the continents other than Antarctica?
Captain James Cook
111. During the War of 1812, British troops invaded and burned what U.S. landmark?
White House
112. What year was the first telephone call made?
1876
113. What year did the Volkswagen Beetle make its first appearance?
1938
114. Alexander the Great was king of what country?
Macedonia
115. What year did Ferdinand Magellan complete the first circumnavigation of the world?
1522
116. In what country were Arabic numerals first used?
India
117. Who made the first solo round the world flight?
Wiley Post – 1933
118. What U.S. founding father was carried to the Constitutional Convention in a sedan chair carried by prisoners?
Benjamin Franklin
119. Who succeeded Adolf Hitler in 1945 as leader of Germany?
Admiral Karl Donitz
120. John F Kennedy defeated which Republican challenger in the 1960 US presidential election?
Richard Nixon
121. Boudicca was the queen of which Celtic tribe?
Iceni
122. Pu Yi was the last emperor of which country?
China
123. In which year was Nelson Mandela released from prison?
1990
124. In 1983, the USA invaded which tiny Caribbean island after a military coup?
Grenada
125. Which Pope died in 1978, just 33 days after his election to the position?
Pope John Paul I
126. Tanks were used in battle for the first time in which conflict?
World War I
127. In early 20th-century America, what was banned by the Volstead Act?
Alcohol
128. In which decade was the Nobel Prize awarded for the first time?
1900s
129. Han, Ming and Qing were ruling dynasties in which country?
China
130. In which century did the first postage stamp came into use?
19th
131. Which Italian fascist leader was known as ‘Il Duce’?
Mussolini
132. In which year did the Falklands War take place?
1982
133. Which country was known by the Romans as Hibernia?
Ireland
134. In which year did the September 11 attacks on the East coast of America take place?
2001
135. J Edgar Hoover was the founder and long-time head of which American organization?
The FBI
136. Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated which political figure?
John F Kennedy
