History trivia questions and answers
30 history trivia questions with the answers and a fact for each: ancient empires and modern leaders, monarchs, revolutions, the world wars, the Cold War and the space race. Read them as a quiz for yourself, use them for a pub quiz round, or press the button and play a History round live with everyone answering on their own phone.
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The 30 history quiz questions
- 1Modern
In which decade did (some) women first get the vote in the UK?
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C1910s
1918, for women over 30 who met a property test. Equal terms came in 1928.
- 2
Which Norwegian explorer led the first expedition to reach the South Pole, in December 1911?
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DRoald Amundsen
Britain's Robert Scott arrived five weeks later to find a Norwegian flag already flying. Scott and his companions died on the way back.
- 3
Who was the first person to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic, in 1927?
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BCharles Lindbergh
The flight from New York to Paris took 33 and a half hours in the Spirit of St. Louis. He had no radio and no parachute, but he did pack five sandwiches.
- 4Philosophy
The Analects record the teachings of which Chinese philosopher?
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CConfucius
His family tree, running to more than 80 generations, is recognised as the longest recorded in the world.
- 5Revolutions
Which Eastern Bloc leader was executed by firing squad on Christmas Day 1989?
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DCeaușescu
Days earlier he had been booed mid-speech from a balcony in Bucharest — the moment his regime began to crumble.
- 6Monarchs
Which French king, known as the Sun King, reigned for 72 years?
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BLouis XIV
He became king at four and outlived both his son and his grandson, so the crown passed to his five-year-old great-grandson.
- 7
Which explorer reached the Americas in 1492 while sailing for Spain?
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BChristopher Columbus
He was aiming for Asia and died still believing he'd found its eastern edge. His three ships were the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María.
- 8Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egyptian families reportedly shaved off their eyebrows to mourn the death of which pet?
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BA cat
Diodorus Siculus records a Roman visitor being lynched by an Alexandrian mob after he accidentally killed a cat.
- 9Medieval
The Magna Carta was sealed in which year?
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B1215
King John agreed to it at Runnymede — under considerable duress.
- 10Ancient
Which of the Seven Wonders stood at Alexandria?
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BThe Lighthouse
Toppled by earthquakes — some stones ended up in a fort that still stands there.
- 11
The Colossus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, stood on which Greek island?
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CRhodes
The bronze statue of the sun god Helios stood for only about 54 years before an earthquake toppled it in 226 BC.
- 12
Which ship carried the Pilgrims from England to America in 1620?
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BMayflower
The 66-day crossing ended at Cape Cod, and the first Thanksgiving followed the harvest of 1621.
- 13WWI
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which sparked WWI, took place in which city?
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CSarajevo
The assassin, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, was too young for the death penalty and died of TB in prison in 1918.
- 14Dynasties
Which royal dynasty was famous for its distinctive jutting lower jaw?
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BHabsburg
Charles II of Spain's jaw was so pronounced he reportedly struggled to chew, and his death in 1700 ended the Spanish Habsburg line.
- 15
Ancient Rome was famously built on how many hills?
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CSeven
One of them, the Palatine, is where the word 'palace' comes from.
- 16Empires
Genghis Khan ruled which empire?
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BMongol
At its peak, the largest contiguous land empire in history.
- 17Philosophy
Socrates was executed in 399 BC by being made to drink…?
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AHemlock
Socrates never wrote a word; almost everything we know of him comes from his pupils Plato and Xenophon.
- 18Cold War
Gorbachev's 1980s reform policy of 'perestroika' translates as…?
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CRestructuring
Its sister policy, glasnost, meant 'openness'; together they helped bring the Soviet Union to an end in 1991.
- 19Post-war
West Germany's rapid post-war recovery is known by which German name?
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AWirtschaftswunder
The 'economic miracle' was helped along by Marshall Plan money and the 1948 currency reform that introduced the Deutsche Mark.
- 20Scots
Robert the Bruce's famous 1314 victory over the English came at which battle?
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BBannockburn
As the battle opened, Bruce reputedly split the helmet and head of a charging English knight, Henry de Bohun, with one axe blow.
- 21Leaders
Which US President served the longest, at just over 12 years?
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DFranklin Roosevelt
Elected four times, FDR prompted the 22nd Amendment, which has limited presidents to two terms since 1951.
- 22
The Cold War was a decades-long rivalry between the United States and which other country?
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CThe Soviet Union
It ran from the late 1940s until the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, without the two sides ever fighting each other directly.
- 23Space race
The space race kicked off when the USSR launched what in 1957?
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BSputnik
A beach-ball-sized satellite that beeped for three weeks.
- 24
Who led the Bolsheviks to power in the Russian Revolution of 1917?
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AVladimir Lenin
His embalmed body has been on public display in a mausoleum on Moscow's Red Square since shortly after his death in 1924.
- 25Revolutions
By the Western calendar, the Bolsheviks' 'October Revolution' of 1917 fell in which month?
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CNovember
Russia still used the Julian calendar, 13 days behind the West; the Soviets switched to the Gregorian one in 1918.
- 26
In which year did the Wall Street Crash happen, setting off the Great Depression?
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A1929
Shares had been sliding for weeks. 'Black Thursday' on 24 October was followed by 'Black Tuesday' five days later, the worst single day of the crash.
- 27
Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself emperor of which country in 1804?
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DFrance
He famously took the crown from the Pope's hands at the ceremony and placed it on his own head.
- 28
Which ancient Greek city-state was famed for its harsh military training?
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ASparta
Spartan boys began military training at seven, and 300 Spartans famously held the pass at Thermopylae in 480 BC.
- 29
Nelson Mandela became the first Black president of which country in 1994?
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ASouth Africa
He'd spent 27 years in prison, 18 of them on Robben Island, and shared the Nobel Peace Prize the year before his election.
- 30
In which year did the United States declare its independence?
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B1776
The Declaration was adopted on 4 July, but most delegates didn't sign it until 2 August. Two of its authors, Jefferson and Adams, both died on 4 July 1826.
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History quiz FAQ
Can I use these history trivia questions for my own quiz night?
That is what the page is for. Read them out at a pub quiz, paste them into a work quiz or a family quiz night, and keep the answers hidden until the table has committed. If you would rather not keep score by hand, the button on this page runs a History round on everyone's phones.
Are the answers on the page?
Yes. Every question has a "Show the answer" toggle with the right option and a one-line fact, so you can quiz yourself first or read straight through with the answers open.
How do I play a History quiz round live?
Press "Play a History round". It opens the host page with the History category already picked. The room shows a join code, everyone else opens huddlequiz.com/join on their phone and types it, and ten questions later there is a winner on the board. No accounts and nothing to install.
Will the live game ask the same questions?
Some of them. The game draws at random from a bigger History pool, of which this page is a sample, so a live round mixes questions you have read here with ones you have not.
How hard are they?
Mixed. They are written for adults and teenagers at pub-quiz level, so a table of four should get most of them between them and argue about the rest.