202 History Trivia Questions (and Answers)
How well do you understand the sequence of events that occurred billions of years ago worldwide?
Do you believe that history is a subject that is both boring and difficult to remember? Don’t be concerned, my friend!
There is always a way to learn anything uninteresting by turning it into an interesting quiz.
Having fun while participating in these history trivia questions will not only help you improve your abilities, but also give you a better understanding of the history of the world.
Keep reading to find out more.
World History Trivia Questions
No matter how much you despise studying history, there is important historical information that everyone should be aware of. Let’s find out world history quiz.
1. When is the first World war started?
Answer: 1910.
2. Which is the oldest civilization in the world?
Answer: Mesopotamia.
3. Who is called Napoleon of Iran?
Answer: Nader Shah.
4. Which is the last dynasty in China?
Answer: Qing dynasty.
5. Who is also known as the founder of scientific socialism?
Answer: Karl Marx.
6. Where did the Black Death bring the most serve impact?
Answer: Europe.
7. Who discovered Yersinia pestis?
Answer: Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin .
8. Where was the last place that Alexandre Yersin stayed before he died?
Answer: Vietnam.
9. Which country in Asia is a member of the Axis in World War II?
Answer: Japan.
10. Which country are member of the Allies in World War II?
Answer: Britain, France, Russia, China, and the USA.
11. Where is the first Summer Olympics held?
Answer: Athens, Greece 1896.
12. Which is the oldest dynasty still ruling?
Answer: Japan.
13. Aztec civilization originated from which country?
Answer: Mexico.
14. Who was among the famous Roman poets?
Answer: Virgil.
15. Who was the first American to win a Nobel Peace?
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt.
16. Who explored New World?
Answer: Christopher Columbus.
17. Which are the earliest ancestors of Native Americans?
Answer: Paleo- Indian.
18. Where is Babylon remain located?
Answer: Iraq.
19. Where is the home country of Joan of Arc?
Answer: France.
20. When Joan of Arc was beatified in the famous Notre Dame cathedral in Paris?
Answer: 1909.
21. Who was the first man to walk on the moon?
Answer: Neil Armstrong, 1969.
22. During which event, Korea was separated into 2 nations?
Answer: World War II.
23. What is another name for the Great Pyramid in Egypt?
Answer: Giza, Khufu.
24. Which is considered the first human technology?
Answer: Fire.
25. Who is the first president of the United State?
Answer: Washington.
26. In which year was John F. Kennedy assassinated?
Answer: 1963.
27. Which U.S president had a home called The Hermitage?
Answer: Andrew Jackson.
28. Whose period was known as the Golden Age of Rome?
Answer: Augustus Caesar.
29. Who is the inventor of electric light?
Answer: Thomas Edison.
30. Cuzco, Machu Pichu is a famous place located in which country?
Answer: Peru.
31. Julius Caesar is born in which city?
Answer: Rome.
32. The Death of Socrates was painted by whom?
Answer: Jacques Louis David.
33. What part of history called a fervent period of European cultural, artistic, political, and economic “rebirth” following the Middle Ages?
Answer: The Renaissance.
34. Who is the founder of the Communist Party?
Answer: Lenin.
35. Which of the following city has the highest historical monuments?
Answer: Delhi.
36. When Cold War happened?
Answer: 1947-1948.
37. Who was named after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated?
Answer: Andrew Johnson.
38. Which country belongs to the Indochina peninsula during French colonization?
Answer: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia.
39. Who is the famous leader of Cuba had 49 years in power?
Answer: Fidel Castro.
40. Which dynasty was considered The Golden Age in Chinese history?
Answer: Tang dynasty.
41. Which King of Thailand contributed to making Thailand survive during Europe colonial?
Answer: King Chulalongkorn.
42. When did The Holocaust, one of the most terrible events in history happen?
Answer: During World War II.
43. When did World War II start and end?
Answer: Started in 1939 and ended in 1945.
44. After Lenin, who was officially the leader of the Soviet Union?
Answer: Joseph Stalin.
45. What is the first name of NATO before its current name?
Answer: North Atlantic Treaty.
American History Trivia Questions
Here are some US history trivia questions for your next quiz night, patriotic festival, or any occasion where you want to know more about the country.
1. Where was the Anasazi tribe located in North America?
Answer: Southwest United States.
2. In what year did the Wounded Knee Massacre occur?
Answer: 1890.
3. In what year was the fifteenth amendment ratified?
Answer: 1870.
4. Women gained the right to open a credit card in their own name in 1974 with which Act?
Answer: Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974.
5. What is the name of the plantation on which George Washington lived?
Answer: Mount Vernon.
6. About how many slaves were freed at the conclusion of the Civil War?
Answer: 3.9 million.
7. Who was the first president to be impeached?
Answer: President Andrew Johnson in 1868.
8. What country gifted the United States with the Statue of Liberty?
Answer: France.
9. Who was the first African American senator?
Answer: Hiram Rhodes Revels took his oath of office in 1870.
10. About how many Europeans immigrated to America from 1865 to 1918?
Answer: About 27.5 million.
11. What was the first United States national monument?
Answer: Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.
12. What city was the first capital of the United States?
Answer: New York City.
13. What was the last state to be admitted into the union?
Answer: Hawaii.
14. Who was the first US president to have his voice recorded?
Answer: Benjamin Harrison.
15. Who is the only president buried in Washington, D.C.?
Answer: Woodrow Wilson.
16. Which US state is named after a French king?
Answer: Louisiana.
17. What president survived four plane crashes during WWII?
Answer: George H.W. Bush.
18. Which president established the Secret Service?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln.
19. On a clear day, how many states can you see from the top of the Empire State Building?
Answer: Five – New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania.
20. What NASA space flight was the last manned mission to the Moon?
Answer: Apollo 17.
21. Frances Perkins, the first female cabinet member, served as the Secretary of Labor and played a key role in drafting what important piece of legislation?
Answer: The New Deal.
22. Who became the first woman in the history of the United States to become the Speaker of the House?
Answer: Nancy Pelosi.
23. In 1920, which woman became the first African American singer to record a blues song that went on to sell one million copies in a year?
Answer: Mamie Smith.
24. Which of the following is not one of the principle Founding Fathers?
Answer: John Jay.
25. On what day did the American Revolution begin?
Answer: -45545.
26. Who declared that the 13 colonies were no longer a part of the British Empire?
Answer: The Continental Congress.
27. Which of the following was not one of the original 13 American Colonies?
Answer: Vermont.
28. When did the Fourth of July become a federal holiday?
Answer: 1870.
29. In which year was Independence Day declared a paid holiday for federal employees?
Answer: 1938.
30. What is the national symbol of freedom of the United States?
Answer: The Statue of Liberty.
31. What was the first woman to hold federal executive office in the United States?
Answer: Kamala Harris.
32. Who did Pocahontas marry?
Answer: John Rolfe, a tobacco planter.
33. What was the name of the first (permanent English) American colony?
Answer: Jamestown, after King James I.
34. What year was the Jamestown settlement established?
Answer: In 1607.
35. When was the last time the Liberty Bell rang?
Answer: In 1846 it rang for George
36. How do historians refer to the time period in the 1730s and 1740s when colonists began embracing secular rationalism over religion?
Answer: The Great Awakening.
37. What five countries formed colonies that would later become part of the United States territory?
Answer: England, France, the Netherlands, Russia and Spain.
38. What tribe was Pocahontas from?
Answer: The Powhatan tribal nation.
39. What year began the worst economic recession since the Great Depression?
Answer: 2008.
40. What year did the U.S. Supreme Court allow same-sex marriage?
Answer: 2015.
41. How long ago do historians estimate the first settlers arrived on what is now American soil?
Answer: More than 12,000 years ago.
42. How did Indigenous tribes get here?
Answer: Scholars believe they walked over a land bridge between Asia and Alaska.
43. How many people were killed in the Salem Witch Trials?
Answer: Twenty people were executed for suspicion of witchcraft (usually by hanging, not burning at the stake), and five more died in jail.
44. What was the bloodiest single-day battle of American history?
Answer: The Battle of Antietam, during the Civil War.
45. Why did the Pilgrims come to America?
Answer: To start their own religious community after becoming dissatisfied with the Protestant Church in England.
46. What was the name of the Pilgrims’ ship?
Answer: The Mayflower.
European History Trivia Questions
The earliest early European modern humans occur in the fossil record approximately 48,000 years ago, during the Paleolithic Era. Here are some interesting Europe history trivia questions.
1. Who succeeded Henry I as king of England in 1135?
Answer: Stephan.
2. Which treaty after World War I established the League of Nations?
Answer: Versailles.
3. Who was appointed successor to Hitler in 1939 but expelled from the Nazi party six years later?
Answer: Hermann Goering.
4. What was ceded to Britain in 1713 as part of the settlement of the War of Spanish Succession?
Answer: Gibraltar.
5. Which people did Alaric lead in the capture of Rome in 410?
Answer: Visigoths.
6. What was the name of the conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted 20 years?
Answer: The Troubles.
7. Which royal house consisted of Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI?
Answer: House of Lancaster.
8. In which Indian city did British troops open fire without warning on a crowd of 10,000 in 1919?
Answer: Amritsar.
9. In which war was the Battle of Ramillies?
Answer: War of Spanish Succession.
10. Which sultan of Egypt, who precipitated the third Crusade, subsequently made peace with Richard I?
Answer: Saladin.
11. In which naval battle did Rome decisively defeat the forces of Antony and Cleopatra?
Answer: Battle of Actium.
12. Which new policy in 1958 was an attempt to achieve “true communism” in China?
Answer: The Great Leap Forward.
13. Who succeeded the Roman emperor, Trajan?
Answer: Hadrian.
14. In which country is the castle that gives the Habsburg dynasty its name?
Answer: Switzerland.
15. Who was the admiral of the French fleet defeated by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar?
Answer: Pierre de Villeneuve.
16. Who was the queen of the British king, Charles I?
Answer: Henrietta (Maria).
17. Whom did Charles V confront at the Diet of Worms in 1521?
Answer: Marin Luther.
18. What was the name of the Libyan king deposed by Colonel Kaddafi in 1969?
Answer: King Idris.
19. Who were the victors of the Battle of Austerlitz?
Answer: The French under Napoleon.
20. What was the first considerable engagement in the American Revolution?
Answer: Bunker Hill.
21. What year saw the nationalization of British Railways?
Answer: 1948.
22. Who are the only two English sovereigns from whom Prince Charles is not descended?
Answer: Charles II and James II.
23. Who was the first emperor of Rome?
Answer: Augustus Octovian.
24. Who was crowned Roman Emperor of the West in 800?
Answer: Charlemagne.
25. Who founded St Petersburg?
Answer: Peter I.
26. When was the French Revolution (year)?
Answer: 1789.
27. Who was defeated in the battle of Waterloo?
Answer: Napoleon.
28. Which country did Hitler invade in september 1939?
Answer: Poland.
29. Which Treaty founded the European Economic Community?
Answer: Treaty of Rome.
30. Which year was the Euro adopted?
Answer: 2002.
31. When was WWI armistice (full date)?
Answer: 11th of November 1918.
Ancient History Trivia Questions
The period from the beginning of written and recorded human history to late antiquity is referred to as ancient history. Here’s an ancient history quiz for you.
1. Queen Nefertiti ruled alongside which pharaoh?
Answer: Pharaoh Akhenaten.
2. The Colosseum started to be built under while which Roman emperor was in power?
Answer: Vespasian.
3. Which fabric was invented in Ancient China?
Answer: Silk.
4. Which two city-states fought in the Peloponnesian War?
Answer: Athens and Sparta.
5. What Roman Emperor was once captured by pirates and held for a 12,000 gold-piece ransom?
Answer: Julius Caesar.
6. What were the two most important city states in ancient Greece?
Answer: Athens and Sparta.
7. On what island did ancient Greek civilization originate?
Answer: Crete.
8. What fortification was built by the Romans around 122 A.D. across the width of Great Britain to separate Romans from the people to the north?
Answer: Hadrian’s Wall.
9. What famous structure was built during the Old Kingdom in Egypt?
Answer: The Sphinx.
10. Which country is famous for its amazing (and very old) terracotta army?
Answer: China.
11. Who is considered the founder of the Xia Dynasty in ancient China?
Answer: Yu the Great.
12. The Mayans were a powerful civilization in the area that is now_____.
Answer: Guatemala.
13. How many of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still exist?
Answer: One.
14 Which one of the Seven Wonders of the world still exists?
Answer: The Great Pyramid of Giza.
15. In 1922, excited explorers found the tomb of which famous ancient ruler?
Answer: Tutankhamen.
16. Cleopatra VII was a legendary ruler of which area?
Answer: Egypt.
17. The construction of Stonehenge was begun around 2400 BC. How much do some of the stones weigh?
Answer: Around 40 tons.
18. The Mayans were the only ancient society in the area of Latin America that accomplished which feat?
Answer: Writing.
19. Ancient Rome began growing in the area that is now ____?
Answer: Italy.
20. Which Greek goddess was the Parthenon dedicated to?
Answer: Athena.
21. The Great Pyramid was built as a tomb for which pharaoh?
Answer: Khufu.
22. Who established the Xia Dynasty in China?
Answer: Yu the Great.
23. How many rules are written in the Code of Hammurabi?
Answer: 282.
24. What dynasty was Cleopatra part of?
Answer: The Ptolemaic dynasty.
25. What are the seven wonders of the ancient world?
Answer: The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
26. Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced the concept of demokratia in 507 BC. What does demokratia translate to?
Answer: Democracy.
27. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD and devastated which two Roman cities?
Answer: Pompeii and Herculaneum.
28. Modern-day Istanbul, Turkey, used to be called what when it was the capital of the Byzantine Empire?
Answer: Constantinople.
29. What is the world’s oldest recorded civilization?
Answer: Mesopotamia.
30. Who is the king of the Olympian gods in Greek mythology?
Answer: Zeus.
31. When was Julius Caesar assassinated?
Answer: Ides of March (March 15, 44 BC).
32. The Maya Empire was centered in what is now which country?
Answer: Guatemala.
33. Which ancient figure is often considered the founder of Western philosophy?
Answer: Socrates.
34. When did Alexander the Great conquer Egypt?
Answer: 332 BC.
35. What was the name of the ancient trade route that connected the East with the West?
Answer: The Silk Road.
36. How old was King Tutankhamun when he died?
Answer: 19.
37. Where is the Pyramid of the Sun located?
Answer: Teotihuacán, Mexico.
38. Which famous battle is widely considered a turning point in the wars between Persia and Greece?
Answer: The Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.
39. The Byzantine Empire was a continuation of which powerful ancient empire?
Answer: The Roman Empire.
Modern History Trivia Questions
It’s time to put your present history knowledge to the test. This modern history quiz focuses on current events and the most relevant news from across the globe.
1. Which famous wall came down in 1989?
Answer: The Berlin Wall.
2. Which American writer died in November 2013?
Answer: Peter W. Kaplan.
3. Which city was attacked by ISIS in November 2015?
Answer: Paris.
4. In 2010, an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was caused by the rupturing of which company’s oil rig?
Answer: BP.
5. Nicolas Sarkozy married which model in 2008?
Answer: Carla Bruni.
6. Adolf Hitler was the leader of which of these countries?
Answer: Germany.
7. What year did the Internet become available to the public?
Answer: 1993.
8. What was the global recession that lasted from 2007 to 2009 called?
Answer: The Great Recession.
9. Which U.S. city hosted the Summer Olympics in 1996?
Answer: Atlanta.
10. The U.S. rover Curiosity landed on which planet in August 2012?
Answer: Mars.
11. In 2010, how many Chilean miners were trapped underground for a record 69 days?
Answer: 33.
12. Which American politician died in February 2013?
Answer: Ed Koch.
13. Which US President was responsible for the Watergate scandal?
Answer: Richard Nixon.
14. October 2011 was selected by the UN as the symbolic date when the world’s population reached how many?
Answer: 7 billion.
15. Which country was hit by a meteor in February 2013?
Answer: Russia.
16. In what year did the Challenger explode?
Answer: 1986.
17. Which British prince had a baby in 2013?
Answer: Prince William.
18. The film ‘Avatar’ is one of the highest grossing films of the 21st century, who directed it?
Answer: James Cameron
19. The volcano that caused widespread disruption to air traffic in spring 2010 is in which country?
Answer: Iceland.
20. Who became the youngest person to win a Nobel Peace Prize at age 17 in 2014?
Answer: Malala Yousafzai.
21. What year did the Berlin Wall fall?
Answer: 1989.
22. What was the name of the Category 5 hurricane that hit New Orleans and its surrounding areas in 2005?
Answer: Hurricane Katrina.
23. Which two royal family members were divorced in 1996?
Answer: Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
24. What year was Facebook created?
Answer: 2004.
25. What year was the first iPhone released?
Answer: 2007.
26. What was the acronym commonly used for the 2000 software problem that many thought would cause computers to become inoperable?
Answer: Y2K.
27. Which country hosted the 2016 Olympics?
Answer: Brazil.
28. The U.S. hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1994. Which country won the game?
Answer: Brazil.
29. Which planet was downgraded to a dwarf planet in 2006?
Answer: Pluto.
30. What year did Google launch?
Answer: 1998.
31. Who won the 2008 U.S. Presidential election?
Answer: Barack Obama.
32. Which two countries signed the Good Friday Agreement in 1997?
Answer: Britain and Ireland.
33. In 1996, a sheep became the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell. What was the name of that sheep?
Answer: Dolly.
34. Brexit refers to which country leaving the European Union?
Answer: The United Kingdom.
35. Who became the most decorated gymnast in history during the 2010s?
Answer: Simone Biles.
36. What is the name of the whistleblower who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013?
Answer: Edward Snowden.
37. What year was the Paris Agreement signed?
Answer: 2015.
38. What U.S. government department was created in the wake of the September 11 attacks?
Answer: The Department of Homeland Security.
38. What year was Nelson Mandela freed from prison?
Answer: 1990.
39. Who was the first woman to be elected Vice President of the United States in 2020?
Answer: Kamala Harris.
Final Thoughts
We hope you enjoyed this history quiz with answers.
History trivia is both challenging and intriguing. But you’ve got it, my friend! You must keep this in mind!
Yes, you must recall who did what and when, but you must also analyze how those events shaped our world.
That being said, sit back, put on your thinking cap, and see how many of these historical trivia questions from various categories you can properly answer.
Please leave a comment if you like our quiz. We would appreciate your feedback.
