History50 randomly selected History questions for quizmasters. New random selection made weekly. Next update: Monday 16th February 2026 (Please note: Questions are taken from our database of previous quizzes. Some questions and answers may be outdated.) |
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| 1. | The War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718–1720) saw Great Britain, France, the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic defeat what country? |
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Spain | |
| 2. | Who was executed by hanging in York, England for horse theft on 7th April 1739? |
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Dick Turpin (together with John Stead, for the same offence) | |
| 3. | What first did Russian Valentina Tereshkova achieve on 16th June 1963? |
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First woman in space (Vostok 6) | |
| 4. | What made the Treetops Hotel in Kenya famous in February 1952? |
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Princess Elizabeth was staying there when she acceded to the throne | |
| 5. | What was the code name of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima from the B-29 bomber Enola Gay on 6th August 1945? |
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Little Boy | |
| 6. | Name the three ships of the English Virginia Company that set sail from London for the New World in December 1606. |
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Discovery, Godspeed, Susan Constant | |
| 7. | What was the name of the leading ship in Captain Arthur Phillip's First Fleet that arrived at Botany Bay to colonise Australia on 18th January 1788? |
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HMS Supply | |
| 8. | Born in England on 25th July 1978, what is the name of the first human to have been born after conception by in vitro fertilisation, or IVF, commonly known as the first "test tube baby"? |
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Louise Brown | |
| 9. | How many U.S. presidents have been assassinated while in office? |
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4 (Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy) | |
| 10. | Codenamed Operation Just Cause, what country was invaded by the United States in December 1989? |
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Panama | |
| 11. | What was the name of the supertanker that ran aground off the coast of Cornwall in 1967, causing the worst oil spill in British history? |
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SS Torrey Canyon | |
| 12. | Which former U.S. First Lady was born Anne Frances Robbins in 1921? |
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Nancy Reagan | |
| 13. | Name the German battleship, sister of the Bismark, sunk in the Bay of Håkøybotn, Norway in November 1944. |
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Tirpitz | |
| 14. | What was the name of the Greenpeace ship sunk in Auckland harbour, New Zealand, on 10th July 1985? |
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Rainbow Warrior | |
| 15. | What nationality was philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras? |
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Greek | |
| 16. | On 7th December 1787, what became the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States? |
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Delaware | |
| 17. | At the start of World War II in 1939, in what month did Germany invade Poland? |
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September (1st September 1939, 4:45 am) | |
| 18. | Drug lord Joaquín Guzmán escaped from a prison in Mexico through a mile-long tunnel in 2015, but was recaptured six months later and sentenced to life in prison in the United States. By what nickname is he best known? |
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"El Chapo" | |
| 19. | What English-language name was given to the warships used by Vikings? |
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Longships | |
| 20. | Between 51 BC and 30 BC, who was the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt? |
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Cleopatra (Cleopatra VII Philopator) | |
| 21. | What was the name of the Wing Commander in charge of the "Dambusters" raid in May 1943? |
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Guy Gibson (Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson) | |
| 22. | Who is reputed to have coined the phrase, "An army marches on its stomach"? |
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Napoléon Bonaparte | |
| 23. | In what U.S. state did Abraham Lincoln deliver his famous "Gettysburg Address" in 1863? |
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Pennsylvania | |
| 24. | In what country was Albert Einstein born? |
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Germany (Ulm, 14th March 1879) | |
| 25. | In what century did the Middle Ages begin? |
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5th (most commonly regarded as 476 AD, the fall of the Western Roman Empire) | |
| 26. | What 10-letter German word meaning "lightning war" entered the English language during World War II? |
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Blitzkrieg | |
| 27. | Jimmu was the first Emperor of what country? |
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Japan (660–585 BC) | |
| 28. | What scientist was charged with heresy in 1633 by the Roman Catholic Church for his view that the earth orbits the sun? |
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Galileo Galilei | |
| 29. | Who was the first British monarch to adopt Buckingham Palace as their official London residence? |
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Queen Victoria | |
| 30. | In what city was Anne Frank when she wrote her famous wartime diary? |
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Amsterdam (Netherlands) | |
| 31. | In what year did Bill Gates and Paul Allen found a small company called Microsoft? |
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1975 (4th April) | |
| 32. | Hibernia is the Classical Latin name for what island? |
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Ireland | |
| 33. | What was the name of Captain James Cook's ship on which he became the first to cross the Antarctic Circle in 1773? |
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HMS Resolution | |
| 34. | In 1900, Theodore Roosevelt famously wrote "Speak softly and carry a big..." what? |
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Stick | |
| 35. | Since 1933, three U.S. Presidents have lost their second-term elections. George H. W. Bush is one. Name the other two. |
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Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter | |
| 36. | In 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for America in the Mayflower and which other ship that was forced to turn back? |
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Speedwell | |
| 37. | A formal break of communion between what are now the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox churches in 1085 is commonly known as the Great what? |
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Schism | |
| 38. | In what century did the Hundred Years' War between England and France begin? |
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14th (1337 to 1453 - 116 years) | |
| 39. | What worldwide movement began life in 1863 as the "International Committee for Relief to the Wounded"? |
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Red Cross / Red Crescent | |
| 40. | What name was given to the long series of military interventions by the United States in Central America and the Caribbean between 1898 and 1934? |
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The Banana Wars | |
| 41. | On 21st June 1963, by what name did Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini become known? |
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Pope Paul VI | |
| 42. | Formed in 1933, how was the Geheime Staatspolizei better known? |
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Gestapo | |
| 43. | What was the name of the flagship on which Sir Francis Drake became the second ever, after Ferdinand Magellan, to circumnavigate the world? |
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Pelican / Golden Hind (renamed by Drake mid-voyage in 1578) | |
| 44. | What name was given to the two NASA space probes sent to Mars in the 1970s? |
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Viking | |
| 45. | What was the name of the battle in June 1876 won by Native Americans inspired by Sitting Bull and led by Crazy Horse? |
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Battle of the Little Bighorn (Custer's Last Stand) | |
| 46. | What ancient city was home to the Hanging Gardens? |
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Babylon | |
| 47. | Who was the first Briton to be awarded Time magazine Man of the Year? |
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Winston Churchill (1940 and 1949) | |
| 48. | What nationality was early modern scientist Galileo Galilei? |
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Italian | |
| 49. | What secret society was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee on Christmas Eve 1865? |
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Ku Klux Klan | |
| 50. | What was the nationality of the first non-Italian Pope since 1523? |
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Polish (Karol Józef Wojtyła, Pope John Paul II 1978-2005) | |
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