Do you consider yourself a history buff? Or perhaps you’re just an average joe trying to learn more about history in a way that’s more fun than reading a boring textbook.
Well, in either case, you are in luck! This post features our favorite history questions and answers that will satisfy your curiosity and perhaps teach you something new.
From the fall of the Roman Empire to the American Revolution, there is a lot to learn. So, without further ado, let’s jump into it!
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125 History Trivia Questions and Answers
General History Trivia Questions
Who invented the light bulb?
Answer: Thomas Edison.
During the seventh, century, fireworks were invented by which country?
Answer: China.
What are the two main languages spoken in South America?
Answer: Spanish and Portuguese.
What man has been Time magazine’s Person of the Year twice since the new millennium, once in 2008 and again in 2012?
Answer: Barack Obama.
From what country did jazz originate?
Answer: The USA.
Which physicist published four breakthrough scientific papers in 1905, including his particle theory of light and his theory of relativity?
Answer: Albert Einstein.
Who was the first Western explorer to reach China?
Answer: Marco Polo.
How long does a U.S. president’s term in office last, in years?
Answer: 4 years.
A famous Christmas truce was a series of widespread but unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front during which war?
Answer: World War I.
What object is placed on the attorneys’ desks each day the court is in session, bowing to a long-held tradition–a bible, a wing, or a white quill pen?
Answer: A white quill pen.
What does the meaning of the word “zodiac” in Ancient Greek?
Answer: Circle of animals.
Who was the ancient Goddess of Love?
Answer: Venus.
Which of the Seven Wonders Of The Ancient World is still in existence?
Answer: Pyramids of Giza.
What is the Greek god of light called?
Answer: Apollo.
Who invented the cotton gin in 1793?
Answer: Eli Whitney.
Where did the Olympic games originate?
Answer: Greece.
In what year did WWII start and end?
Answer: Started in 1939, and ended in 1945.
In what country was the famous artist Leonardo da Vinci born?
Answer: Italy.
Sailors of the past suffered from scurvy due to a lack of what?
Answer: Vitamin C.
_____ is the goddess of love, sex, and beauty.
Answer: Aphrodite.
_____ is the goddess of reason, wisdom, and war.
Answer: Athena.
_____, an agricultural goddess, was the mother to Persephone, who was abducted by the underworld god Hades to be his bride.
Answer: Demeter.
_____ is best known as the Greek sea god, but he was also the god of horses and of earthquakes.
Answer: Poseidon.
Where did Amelia Earhart crash her plane on July 2, 1937?
Answer: The Lockheed aircraft carrying American aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan is reported missing near Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean.
World History Trivia Questions
Which former temple on the Athenian Acropolis in Greece serves as an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, democracy, and Western civilization?
Answer: The Parthenon.
What country did Mexico gain its independence from in the 1800s?
Answer: Spain.
Which city in the world was the first to be attacked by an atomic bomb?
Answer: Hiroshima.
What ancient civilization built the Machu Picchu complex in Peru?
Answer: The Incas.
What was the name of the last Queen of France?
Answer: Marie Antoinette.
The modern-day city of Istanbul was known by what name in the 13th century?
Answer: Constantinople.
Which British ruler is the king in The King’s Speech, which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2011?
Answer: George VI.
What European city became the first to allow LGBTQ people to marry legally when it permitted four same-sex couples to wed in its City Hall in 2001?
Answer: Amsterdam.
Which European principality is the home to Prince Albert Grimaldi and his wife, Princess Charlene, who gave birth to twins in 2014?
Answer: Monaco.
Which leader, whose given name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio, has ruled over the smallest country in the world since 2013?
Answer: Pope Francis, of Vatican City.
What president of Russia abruptly resigned in 2000, naming Vladimir Putin as his replacement?
Answer: Boris Yeltsin.
The fall of what city’s wall, allowing free travel from east to west for the first time since 1961, celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2019?
Answer: Berlin.
What Greek physician is considered the “father of modern medicine?”
Answer: Hippocrates.
What Austrian’s assassination kicked off World War I?
Answer: Franz Ferdinand.
During WWII, what was the name of the machine used to create German and Japanese codes?
Answer: Enigma.
Which German physicist, who become involved in politics after the fall of the Berlin Wall, was elected the first female chancellor in 2005?
Answer: Angela Merkel.
Who was the prime minister of Britain during WWII?
Answer: Winston Churchill.
At its peak, what empire conquered more of the world than anyone else in history — was it the Roman, British, Spanish, or Chinese?
Answer: The British Empire is the largest empire in history. At its height, it controlled 13.71 million square miles on every continent.
In which country did Benazir Bhutto serve two terms as prime minister before she was assassinated in 2007–Pakistan, Iran, or Turkey?
Answer: Pakistan.
World War I began in which year?
Answer: 1914.
Who invited 12,000 people to attend an open-air pop concert in her gardens on June 3, 2002, to celebrate her Golden Jubilee?
Answer: Queen Elizabeth II.
The ancient Egyptians used to sleep on pillows made of what — stones, gold, hay, or diamonds?
Answer: Stones.
The disease that ravaged and killed a third of Europe’s population in the 14th century is known as what?
Answer: The Black Plague or Bubonic Plague.
What city was Poland’s capital in the fourteenth century?
Answer: Krakow.
Adolf Hitler was born in which country?
Answer: Austria.
Which peasant girl led the French army at Orléans during the Hundred Years’ War?
Answer: Joan of Arc.
Which German city and capital of Bavaria was the home of the original Oktoberfest?
Answer: Munich.
Which famous monument did Shah Jahān build to immortalize his wife?
Answer: Taj Mahal.
The Magna Carta was published by the King of which country?
Answer: England.
Which member of the royal family left the British Army in 2015 after 10 years of service, including two tours in Afghanistan?
Answer: Prince Harry.
The Terracotta Army is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang. What was his significance in history?
Answer: He was the first emperor of China.
Which country’s King Juan Carlos ended his 39-year reign in 2014 and handed the crown to his son, Filipe?
Answer: Spain (he wanted to make way for “younger people with new energies”).
What does “kamikaze” mean in the war sense?
Answer: It was a suicide bombing tactic used by the Empire of Japan during World War II, in which a pilot would deliberately crash an explosives-laden plane into an enemy warship.
Who discovered the Rosetta Stone near Alexandria, Egypt, in 1799?
Answer: Bouchard.
When was the wreck of the Titanic discovered? 1991, 1985, 1941, or 1920?
Answer: 1985.
In what country did the Battle of Waterloo take place?
Answer: Belgium.
Tsai Ing-wen was the first female president of which country?
Answer: Taiwan.
In what country are the ruins of the ancient city of Troy located?
Answer: Turkey.
What is the name of the imperial palace complex at the heart of Beijing, China?
Answer: Forbidden City.
What major Tuscan city is located northwest of Rome on the Arno River and is the birthplace of the Renaissance?
Answer: Florence, Italy.
Who founded the first film production company in France, which created more than 400 films from 1896 to 1913 — was it Pierre Étaix, August Lumiere, or Georges Méliès?
Answer: Georges Méliès.
Which famous 225-ton gift was given on Christmas Day in 1886?
Answer: The Statue of Liberty (from France to the USA).
World War II started after the invasion of which capital city?
Answer: Warsaw (Poland).
Which Nordic country was first to give women the right to vote, in 1906?
Answer: Finland.
What is the largest democratic country in the world?
Answer: India.
Which world-changing invention was patented on Valentine’s Day, 1876?
Answer: Telephone.
What British ruler’s long reign did Queen Elizabeth II surpass in September 2015?
Answer: Queen Victoria (she ruled for 63 years until her death in 1901).
Which civilization from the 15th and early 16th centuries considered cacao beans more valuable than gold?
Answer: The Aztecs. They believed cacao beans were a gift from the gods and used them as a currency that was more precious than gold.
In the Middle Ages, wealthy women used a combination of water and what fruit as blush?
Answer: Strawberries.
In what modern-day country was Karl Marx, the communist philosopher, born?
Answer: Germany.
Who was the wartime nurse known as the “Lady with the Lamp”?
Answer: Florence Nightingale.
The people of which country were the earliest participants in the Age of Discovery (also known as the Age of Exploration)?
Answer: The Portuguese.
What French Emperor was notorious for both his height and his temper as he came into power after the French Revolution?
Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte.
The USSR and the United States faced a global stalemate during what infamous conflict?
Answer: Cold War.
After World War II concluded, what organization was created to prevent such conflict from ever breaking out again?
Answer: United Nations.
US History Trivia Questions
Who walked on the moon along with Neil Armstrong?
Answer: Buzz Aldrin.
Can you name the first 4 presidents of the United States of America?
Answer: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.
What is the month and day when the US gained its independence?
Answer: July 4.
Whose face is on the penny?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln.
Whose face is on a $20 bill?
Answer: Andrew Jackson.
The state flower of Massachusetts shares its name with which British ship that arrived on its shores in 1620?
Answer: Mayflower.
Native Americans experienced oppression in the 1830s which culminated in the Trail of Tears. What was this event?
Answer: The forced migration of Native Americans to what we now call Oklahoma.
In a 2012 referendum, which US territory voted for the first time to become the 51st star on the US flag?
Answer: Puerto Rico.
Which of these U.S. presidents was also an actor — Woodrow Wilson, John Adams, Ronald Reagan, or George Bush?
Answer: Ronald Reagan.
The United States observes Flag Day on which date–June 14, July 1, or July 4?
Answer: June 14 — the holiday honors the 1777 adoption of the Stars and Stripes as the official US flag.
Where was John F. Kennedy assassinated in?
Answer: Dallas, Texas.
American involvement in the Korean War took place in which decade?
Answer: 1950s (American involvement in the Korean war lasted from 1950-1953).
How many stripes are on the American flag?
Answer: 13. The stripes represent the thirteen British colonies that declared independence from Great Britain.
The first American president to live in the White House was–Abraham Lincoln, John Adams, George Washington, or Thomas Jefferson?
Answer: John Adams.
Which US president delivered the Gettysburg Address?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln.
The group of men that drafted the Declaration of Independence and also built a new system of government under the Constitution are now known as what?
Answer: The Founding Fathers.
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in what movement during what decade?
Answer: The civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.
Which investment bank’s collapse on September 15, 2008 brought Wall Street to its knees, because Uncle Sam said no to a bailout?
Answer: Lehman Brothers.
Six activists belonging to which organization boarded a Russian oil ship in 2015 to protest drilling above the Arctic Circle?
Answer: Greenpeace.
The Statue of Liberty was a gift from which country?
Answer: France.
George W. Bush was governor of which state before becoming the President?
Answer: Texas.
Which war was fought between 1861 and 1865?
Answer: The American Civil War.
Which president led during the American Civil War?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln was president from 1861 to 1865, during the American Civil War. He led the Union armies against the southern Confederacy.
Which founding father is known for his large signature on the United States Declaration of Independence?
Answer: John Hancock.
What’s the second Amendment in the Bill of Rights?
Answer: The right to bear arms.
Which act was signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide a national old-age pension system?
Answer: Social Security Act.
Which US president said: “…Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”?
Answer: John F. Kennedy.
What was the political scandal that rocked Richard M. Nixon’s presidency?
Answer: Watergate.
What president signed the act creating the National Parks Service in 1916?
Answer: Woodrow Wilson.
Who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln?
Answer: John Wilkes Booth.
How many US Supreme Court justices are there?
Answer: 9.
What’s the third Amendment in the Bill of Rights related to?
Answer: The housing of soldiers.
During WWII, the bombing of which U.S. naval base prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to declare war on Japan?
Answer: Pearl Harbor.
On which coin did the US Mint begin featuring National Parks in 2010?
Answer: Quarter.
What 1930s outlaw couple was on the run for two years before being shot in Louisiana?
Answer: Bonnie and Clyde.
Who was the civil rights activist who refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in 1955?
Answer: Rosa Parks.
Which American Civil War general later became president of the United States?
Answer: Ulysses S. Grant.
During WWII, what was the code name for the Battle of Normandy?
Answer: Operation Overlord.
Which U.S. president was the first to appear on television?
Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Who was named president after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated?
Answer: Andrew Johnson.
What American president is associated with the Teddy Bear?
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt.
Which American president earned the nickname the “Comeback Kid” in 1992?
Answer: Bill Clinton.
What was the first continuously published newspaper in the American colonies?
Answer: Boston News-Letter.
Which leader was overthrown by the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003?
Answer: Saddam Hussein.
Best Trivia Games of 2024
Can’t get enough of the trivia goodness? Neither can we. If you’re looking for trivia games to play with friends/family, here are our favorite trivia board games on the market this year!
Ultimate Pub Trivia
1,100 questions covering 6 different categories
Host your own pub-style trivia nights
4 or more players | Ages 12 and up
Anomia Party Edition
A very popular card game for families, teens and adults!
Fast-paced friendly competition and laugh-til-you cry kind of fun
3-6 players | Ages 10+
…I should have known that! Trivia Game
110 cards with 400+ questions
Instead of points for answering questions right, points are subtracted for every wrong answer
Players 2+ | Ages 14+
And that about wraps up this week’s trivia quiz. We hope you had fun with our history trivia questions and answers!
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