145 history trivia questions to conquer world history (2026)

History trivia is more than a memory test. Each question is a window into the people, turning points and strange facts that shaped our world. This set gathers 145 history trivia questions with answers, grouped into rounds so you can dip into US history, world history, the hard stuff, modern events or a quick true-or-false round with the family.

Play solo, or host it live and let a room compete. Every answer sits with its question, and we have re-checked the tricky ones.

Round 1: 25 US history trivia questions

1. Which US president never lived in the White House? Answer: George Washington (it was completed in 1800, after his presidency).
2. Which was the first state to ratify the US Constitution? Answer: Delaware (7 December 1787).
3. Who was the first woman to serve as a US Supreme Court Justice? Answer: Sandra Day O'Connor (1981).
4. Which president was never elected as president or vice-president? Answer: Gerald Ford.
5. In which year did Alaska and Hawaii become US states? Answer: 1959.
6. Who was the longest-serving US president? Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt (four terms, 1933-1945).
7. Which was the last state to join the Confederacy? Answer: Tennessee.
8. What was the first capital of the United States under the Constitution? Answer: New York City.
9. Who was the first US president to appear on television? Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt (at the 1939 World's Fair).
10. Which territory was purchased from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million? Answer: Alaska.
11. Who wrote the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner”? Answer: Francis Scott Key.
12. Which was the first American colony to legalise slavery? Answer: Massachusetts (1641).
13. Which president established the Peace Corps? Answer: John F. Kennedy (1961).
14. In which year did American women gain the right to vote nationwide? Answer: 1920 (the 19th Amendment).
15. Who was the only US president to resign from office? Answer: Richard Nixon (1974).
16. Which was the first US state or territory to grant women the vote? Answer: Wyoming (1869, as a territory).
17. What was the first national monument in the United States? Answer: Devils Tower, Wyoming (1906).
18. Who was the first US president born in a hospital? Answer: Jimmy Carter.
19. Which president signed the Emancipation Proclamation? Answer: Abraham Lincoln (1863).
20. In which year was the Declaration of Independence adopted? Answer: 1776.
21. Who was the first US president to be impeached? Answer: Andrew Johnson.
22. Which was the first state to secede from the Union? Answer: South Carolina (December 1860).
23. Who was the youngest person to become US president? Answer: Theodore Roosevelt (42).
24. Which president was assassinated in Dallas in 1963? Answer: John F. Kennedy.
25. How many US presidents are carved on Mount Rushmore? Answer: four.

Round 2: 25 world history trivia questions

1. In which city was Julius Caesar born? Answer: Rome.
2. Who painted “The Death of Socrates”? Answer: Jacques-Louis David.
3. What is the name for the period of European cultural rebirth after the Middle Ages? Answer: the Renaissance.
4. Who led the Bolsheviks and founded the Soviet state? Answer: Vladimir Lenin.
5. Who is known as the founder of scientific socialism? Answer: Karl Marx.
6. Which continent did the Black Death hit hardest? Answer: Europe.
7. Who discovered the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis? Answer: Alexandre Yersin.
8. Which Axis power in World War II was in Asia? Answer: Japan.
9. Name three of the main Allied powers in World War II. Answer: Britain, France, the Soviet Union, China and the USA.
10. In which years did World War II start and end? Answer: 1939 to 1945.
11. Who led the Soviet Union after Lenin? Answer: Joseph Stalin.
12. In which years is the Cold War usually dated? Answer: 1947 to 1991.
13. Who became US president after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated? Answer: Andrew Johnson.
14. Which three countries made up French Indochina? Answer: Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
15. Which Cuban leader held power for almost 50 years? Answer: Fidel Castro.
16. Which Chinese dynasty is often called a golden age? Answer: the Tang dynasty.
17. Which king helped Thailand stay independent during European colonisation? Answer: King Chulalongkorn (Rama V).
18. Who was the most powerful woman in Byzantine history? Answer: Empress Theodora.
19. In which ocean did the Titanic sink? Answer: the Atlantic.
20. In which year did the Berlin Wall fall? Answer: 1989.
21. Who delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech? Answer: Martin Luther King Jr.
22. What were China's “Four Great Inventions”? Answer: papermaking, the compass, gunpowder and printing.
23. What does “Magna Carta” mean? Answer: the Great Charter.
24. Who was the first ruler of the Mongol Empire? Answer: Genghis Khan.
25. Which country was the first to grant women the vote, in 1893? Answer: New Zealand.

Round 3: 30 true-or-false history questions

1. Otto von Bismarck was known as the man of “blood and iron”. Answer: true.
2. Germany produced the first regularly printed newspaper. Answer: true.
3. Egypt is described as the “gift of the Nile”. Answer: true.
4. The Romans used an eight-day market week. Answer: true.
5. Mao Zedong's sayings were collected in the “Little Red Book”. Answer: true.
6. The War of 1812 effectively ended in 1815. Answer: true.
7. The first Super Bowl was played in 1967. Answer: true.
8. Television was first demonstrated in the 1920s. Answer: true (1972 is far too late).
9. In Greek myth, Zeus took the form of a swan to approach Leda. Answer: true.
10. The “Mona Lisa” was painted by Leonardo da Vinci. Answer: true.
11. Herodotus is called the “father of history”. Answer: true.
12. The Minotaur lived at the centre of the Labyrinth. Answer: true.
13. Alexander the Great was king of ancient Rome. Answer: false, he was king of Macedon in ancient Greece.
14. Plato and Aristotle were Greek philosophers. Answer: true.
15. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only ancient wonder still largely standing. Answer: true.
16. The exact site of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon has never been confirmed. Answer: true.
17. The Egyptian word “pharaoh” means “great house”. Answer: true.
18. The ancient Egyptians are famous for mummifying their dead. Answer: true.
19. Alexander the Great became king of Macedon at 18. Answer: false, he was 20.
20. The main goal of Zionism was to establish a Jewish homeland. Answer: true.
21. Thomas Edison was American. Answer: true (not German).
22. The Parthenon was built in honour of the goddess Athena. Answer: true.
23. The Shang dynasty marks China's first recorded history. Answer: true.
24. In the Inca empire, Coricancha was also called the Temple of Gold. Answer: true.
25. Zeus is the king of the Olympian gods. Answer: true.
26. An early Roman news sheet, the “Acta Diurna”, appeared around 59 BC. Answer: true.
27. Napoleon Bonaparte was the first Emperor of the French. Answer: true.
28. England has the world's oldest parliament. Answer: false, Iceland's Althing is older.
29. The Emperor Caligula reportedly wanted to make his horse a consul. Answer: true.
30. Cleopatra was the last active ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt. Answer: true.

Round 4: 30 hard history trivia questions

1. In which country did Albert Einstein live before moving to the United States? Answer: Germany.
2. Who was the world's first woman head of government? Answer: Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka (1960).
3. Which grandson of Genghis Khan founded China's Yuan dynasty? Answer: Kublai Khan.
4. Who was the first woman in space? Answer: Valentina Tereshkova (1963).
5. Which Roman general and statesman had a relationship with Cleopatra? Answer: Julius Caesar (later Mark Antony too).
6. Who was one of the most famous students of Socrates? Answer: Plato.
7. Which Chinese philosopher emphasised the “Five Relationships”? Answer: Confucius.
8. In which year did the Boxer Rebellion take place in China? Answer: 1900.
9. In which ancient city is the monument Al-Khazneh carved? Answer: Petra.
10. Which English king supposedly offered “my kingdom for a horse”? Answer: Richard III.
11. Until 1959, whose winter residence was the Potala Palace? Answer: the Dalai Lama.
12. What was the cause of the Black Death? Answer: the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
13. Which aircraft dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima? Answer: a B-29 Superfortress (the Enola Gay).
14. Who is known as the “father of medicine”? Answer: Hippocrates.
15. Which regime devastated Cambodia between 1975 and 1979? Answer: the Khmer Rouge.
16. Which Southeast Asian country was never colonised by a European power? Answer: Thailand.
17. Who was the patron god of Troy? Answer: Apollo.
18. Where was Julius Caesar assassinated? Answer: at the Theatre of Pompey in Rome.
19. Roughly how many Celtic languages are still spoken today? Answer: six.
20. What did the Romans call Scotland? Answer: Caledonia.
21. Which Ukrainian nuclear plant suffered a disaster in April 1986? Answer: Chernobyl.
22. Which Roman emperor began building the Colosseum? Answer: Vespasian.
23. The Opium Wars were fought between which two countries? Answer: Britain and China.
24. Which military formation is associated with the ancient Greeks and Alexander the Great? Answer: the phalanx.
25. Which two countries fought the Hundred Years' War? Answer: England and France.
26. When did Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro reach Peru? Answer: 1532.
27. Which lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, stood in the harbour of Alexandria? Answer: the Pharos of Alexandria.
28. Which empire built the Inca capital of Cusco? Answer: the Inca empire.
29. Who was crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor in 800 AD? Answer: Charlemagne.
30. Which wall, built by a Roman emperor, marked the northern edge of Roman Britain? Answer: Hadrian's Wall.

Round 5: 25 modern history trivia questions

1. Who won the Nobel Peace Prize at just 17? Answer: Malala Yousafzai.
2. Which country voted to leave the European Union in the “Brexit” referendum? Answer: the United Kingdom.
3. In which month and year did the UK formally leave the EU? Answer: January 2020.
4. In which country were the first COVID-19 cases reported? Answer: China.
5. Which country gifted the Statue of Liberty to the United States? Answer: France.
6. Who founded Disney Studios with his brother Roy? Answer: Walt Disney.
7. Who founded Universal Studios in 1912? Answer: Carl Laemmle.
8. Who wrote the Harry Potter novels? Answer: J.K. Rowling.
9. In which year did the World Wide Web become publicly available? Answer: 1991.
10. Who is the 46th US president? Answer: Joe Biden.
11. Who leaked classified NSA documents in 2013? Answer: Edward Snowden.
12. In which year was Nelson Mandela released from prison? Answer: 1990.
13. Who became the first woman elected US vice-president, in 2020? Answer: Kamala Harris.
14. Which fashion house did Karl Lagerfeld lead from 1983 until his death? Answer: Chanel.
15. Who became the first British Asian Prime Minister? Answer: Rishi Sunak.
16. Which UK Prime Minister served just 45 days? Answer: Liz Truss.
17. Who has led China as president since 2013? Answer: Xi Jinping.
18. Who has been President of Cameroon since 1982, one of the world's longest-serving leaders? Answer: Paul Biya.
19. Who was the first wife of King Charles III? Answer: Diana, Princess of Wales.
20. Which British monarch reigned from 1952 until 2022? Answer: Elizabeth II.
21. In which year did Singapore become fully independent? Answer: 1965.
22. In which year did the Soviet Union collapse? Answer: 1991.
23. In which century were the first electric cars built? Answer: the 19th century.
24. In which year was Facebook founded? Answer: 2004.
25. Which social movement did Martin Luther King Jr. help lead in the US? Answer: the civil rights movement.

Round 6: 10 easy true-or-false questions for kids

1. Dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. Answer: true.
2. Football (soccer) is the world's most popular spectator sport. Answer: true.
3. The first modern Commonwealth Games were held in 1930. Answer: true (not 1920).
4. The first Wimbledon tennis tournament was held in 1877. Answer: true.
5. Steven Spielberg directed “Jaws”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “E.T.” Answer: true.
6. “Pharaoh” was the title given to the rulers of ancient Egypt. Answer: true.
7. The legendary Trojan War was fought at Troy. Answer: true.
8. Christopher Columbus reached the Americas in 1492. Answer: true.
9. Galileo Galilei used a telescope to study the night sky. Answer: true.
10. Napoleon Bonaparte was the second emperor of France. Answer: false, he was the first.

Host a live history quiz

A history quiz is best shared. Instead of reading answers off a page, host a round live and let students, colleagues or friends compete from their phones while the leaderboard updates.

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Frequently asked questions

Why does history matter?

It helps us understand the past, make sense of the present, build critical thinking, appreciate different cultures and take part in public life. A quiz is a low-pressure way to spark that curiosity.

How do I make a history quiz interesting?

Mix difficulty and eras, add true-or-false rounds for pace, and include a few surprising facts. Hosting it live, with scoring and a join code, keeps everyone engaged.

What age can start learning history?

Children can start early with simple, story-led questions. The easy true-or-false round here is a good place to begin.