History50 randomly selected History questions for quizmasters. New random selection made weekly. Next update: Monday 8th June 2026 (Please note: Questions are taken from our database of previous quizzes. Some questions and answers may be outdated.) |
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| 1. | In what U.S. State was the Battle of Bunker Hill fought in 1775? |
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Massachusetts (Charlestown) | |
| 2. | In 1969, what U.S. politician drove his car off a bridge at Chappaquidick, resulting in the death of a young colleague, Mary Jo Kopechne? |
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Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy | |
| 3. | Who became the first Roman Emperor in 27 BC? |
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Augustus (also known as Octavian) | |
| 4. | What was the name of the ship used by Roald Amundsen in his South Pole expedition from 1910 to 1912? |
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Fram | |
| 5. | The RMS Titanic is probably the most famous passenger liner of all time. What does RMS stand for? |
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Royal Mail Ship | |
| 6. | Who assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr. on 4th April 1968? |
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James Earl Ray | |
| 7. | Beginning in June 1941, what 'B' was the codename used for the German invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II? |
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Barbarossa | |
| 8. | Raised by a wolf, what were the names of the mythical twin founders of Rome? |
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Romulus and Remus | |
| 9. | In modern American history, by what names were Parker and Barrow better known? |
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Bonnie and Clyde (Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow) | |
| 10. | The Gunpowder Plot was a failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in what century? |
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17th (1605) | |
| 11. | In 1988, Benazir Bhutto became the first ever woman elected to lead a Muslim majority nation. Of what country was she Prime Minister? |
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Pakistan | |
| 12. | How old was Anne Frank when she died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945? |
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15 | |
| 13. | At what law school did Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham meet in 1971? |
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Yale | |
| 14. | "The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." is part of what speech, by what orator? |
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Gettysburg Address - Abraham Lincoln (19th November 1863) | |
| 15. | What nationality is Professor Ernő Rubik, inventor of the Rubik's Cube in 1974? |
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Hungarian | |
| 16. | What U.S. President was the target of two failed assassination attempts in California within 17 days of each other? |
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Gerald Ford (5th & 22nd September, 1975 - Lynette Fromme and Sara Jane Moore) | |
| 17. | What Roman Goddess shares her name with a Normandy Landing beach? |
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Juno (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword) | |
| 18. | On what group of islands was Captain James Cook killed in 1779? |
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Hawaii (Sandwich Islands) | |
| 19. | During the 19th century War of the Pacific, what country gained vast coastal regions to its north, making Bolivia a landlocked country ever since? |
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Chile | |
| 20. | Who was Emperor of Japan during World War II? |
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Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa) | |
| 21. | Who resigned as Vice President of the United States in October 1973? |
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Spiro Agnew | |
| 22. | Who was the last German emperor (Kaiser) and king of Prussia from 15th June 1888 until his abdication on 9th November 1918? |
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Wilhelm II (William II) | |
| 23. | Emperor Nero is infamously said to have done what "...while Rome burned"? |
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Fiddled | |
| 24. | Amongst the world's worst man-made disasters, in 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground off the coast of what U.S. state? |
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Alaska (Prince William Sound) | |
| 25. | In what year did the Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft make the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon? |
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1966 | |
| 26. | The Mannerheim Line was a defensive structure built after World War I to defend what country? |
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Finland (from the Soviet Union) | |
| 27. | Now demolished and cleaned up, what was the name of the neighbourhood in Niagara Falls, New York where 22,000 barrels of toxic waste had been dumped in the 1940s and 50s, leading to a major health disaster in the late 1970s? |
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Love Canal | |
| 28. | What was the name of the research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons? |
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Manhattan Project | |
| 29. | In what century was Antarctica discovered? |
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19th (first confirmed sighting in 1820, first documented landing in 1821) | |
| 30. | What Norwegian became the first Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1946? |
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Trygve Lie | |
| 31. | What battle took place between 1st July and 18th November 1916, during which more than 1,000,000 men were wounded or killed? |
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Battle of the Somme | |
| 32. | The shortest war in history; how long did the Anglo-Zanzibar war of 1896 last? A. 38 minutes B. 38 hours C. 38 days |
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A. 38 minutes (09:02–09:40 EAT, 27th August 1896 - 500 killed or wounded) | |
| 33. | Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922, who was nicknamed the "Welsh Wizard"? |
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David Lloyd George | |
| 34. | For what did Chesley B. Sullenberger make headline news on 15th January 2009? |
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Captain of the passenger jet that ditched in the Hudson River (US Airways Flight 1549) | |
| 35. | On 12th June 1979, what did the Gossamer Albatross successfully cross to win a Kremer prize for human-powered flight? |
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English Channel | |
| 36. | What name is given to the political movement that supported the restoration of the senior line of the House of Stuart to the British throne between 1688 and 1807? |
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Jacobites | |
| 37. | Making world headlines in November 1974, by what name was Richard John Bingham better known? |
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Lord Lucan | |
| 38. | Part of the Hundred Years' War, in what century was the Battle of Agincourt? |
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15th (25th October 1415) | |
| 39. | What festive item is British baker and confectioner Tom Smith credited with inventing in 1847? |
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Christmas cracker | |
| 40. | What famous speech begins, "Four score and seven years ago ..."? |
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Gettysburg Address (Abraham Lincoln - 1863) | |
| 41. | During World War II, what was the name of Japan's equivalent to Germany's Lord Haw-Haw? |
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Tokyo Rose | |
| 42. | 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) | |
| 43. | Which U.S. president was in office during the Wall Street Crash of 1929? |
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Herbert Hoover | |
| 44. | Who made the first non-stop transatlantic flight in June 1919? |
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Alcock and Brown (Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown) | |
| 45. | What Empire was defeated by the Greeks in the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC? |
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Persian Empire | |
| 46. | What 1862 U.S. Civil War battle was the bloodiest single day of fighting in American history? |
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Antietam / Sharpsburg (22,717 dead, wounded, or missing) | |
| 47. | What two countries were the primary belligerents in the First Indochina War between 1946 and 1954? |
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France and Vietnam | |
| 48. | What famous historical figure was born Temüjin in or around 1162? |
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Genghis Khan | |
| 49. | A worldwide news story, what happened at the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Christmas Eve 1929? |
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Fire | |
| 50. | What name is given to the group of 750,000 year old human fossils first discovered during excavations at Zhoukoudian near Beijing in 1923? |
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Peking Man (Homo erectus pekinensis) | |
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