History50 randomly selected History questions for quizmasters. New random selection made weekly. Next update: Monday 21st September 2026 (Please note: Questions are taken from our database of previous quizzes. Some questions and answers may be outdated.) |
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| 1. | Who led the Norman invaders to victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066? |
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William the Conqueror (William of Normandy / William I) | |
| 2. | Who seized power from King Idris in a coup d'état on 1st September 1969? |
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Colonel Gaddafi (Muammar Gaddafi - Libya) | |
| 3. | Troops from what country were responsible for the Mỹ Lai Massacre in 1968? |
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United States (around 400 unarmed Vietnamese citizens killed) | |
| 4. | Lasting 6 years, 8 months, 4 weeks and 1 day between 1756 and 1763, what name is given to the war in which Great Britain gained territories in North America from France and Spain? |
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Seven Years' War | |
| 5. | Who was British Prime Minister at the time of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation? |
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Winston Churchill (June 1953. PM May 1940 to July 1945 & October 1951 to April 1955) | |
| 6. | What city was the capital of the Byzantine Empire (330–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922)? |
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Constantinople | |
| 7. | Which Queen of Scots was known as the Maid of Norway and died in 1290 aged seven without having ever set foot in Scotland? |
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Margaret | |
| 8. | In what country was the world's tallest artificial structure until it collapsed during renovation on 8th August 1991? |
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Poland (Warsaw Radio Mast) | |
| 9. | Credited with shooting down 1,294 enemy aircraft, what is the name of this British First World War biplane? |
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Sopwith Camel | |
| 10. | In what year did U.S. President Richard Nixon resign from office? |
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1974 | |
| 11. | Who was East Germany's Head of State between 1976 and the country's dissolution in 1989? |
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Erich Honecker | |
| 12. | From what city did American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 take off from on 11th September 2001? |
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Boston, Massachusetts (Logan International Airport) | |
| 13. | On 15th June 1921, who became the first African-American woman and first Native American to hold a pilot license? |
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Bessie Coleman | |
| 14. | Dying on 4th April 1841 after just 32 days in office, who was the United States' shortest-serving president? |
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William Henry Harrison | |
| 15. | In which year did Winston Churchill replace Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom? |
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1940 | |
| 16. | Jimmu was the first Emperor of what country? |
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Japan (660–585 BC) | |
| 17. | In 1966, what American psychologist popularised the catchphrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out"? |
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Timothy Leary | |
| 18. | By what nickname was former First Lady of the United States Claudia Alta Johnson more commonly known? |
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Lady Bird | |
| 19. | Who made history 4 miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on 17th December 1903? |
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Wright Brothers (The first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft) | |
| 20. | What name was given to the anti-Catholic riots in London, in 1780? |
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Gordon Riots | |
| 21. | In 1488, what Portuguese explorer led the first European expedition around the Cape of Good Hope, opening a sea route to Asia via the Atlantic and Indian oceans? |
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Bartolomeu Dias | |
| 22. | What were the surnames of the two body snatchers who killed 16 people in Edinburgh in 1868 and sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures? |
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Burke and Hare | |
| 23. | Known as the Angel of Death, what was the name of the infamous German SS officer and physician based at the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz? |
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Josef Mengele | |
| 24. | The Wall Street Crash of October 29, 1929 is known as Black what? |
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Tuesday | |
| 25. | Complete this famous quote: Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, .....
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"This was their finest hour." (Winston Churchill - 18th June 1940) | |
| 26. | By what name was the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo known between 1971 and 1997? |
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Zaire (previously Belgian Congo and Republic of the Congo) | |
| 27. | Named after the region over which it exploded, what is the name of the meteor that entered Earth's atmosphere over the southern Ural region in Russia on 15th February 2013? |
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Chelyabinsk meteor | |
| 28. | In 1949, what city became capital of the Federal Republic of Germany? |
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Bonn (West Germany - East Germany was the German Democratic Republic) | |
| 29. | Who was U.S. President from March 1929 to March 1933? |
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Herbert Hoover | |
| 30. | Which historical first did Tenzing Norgay achieve in 1953? |
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Reached the summit of Mount Everest (with Edmund Hillary) | |
| 31. | The 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia commanded which famous fleet? |
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Spanish Armada | |
| 32. | What British archaeologist, military officer, diplomat, and writer died in 1935 after a motorbike accident near his home, Clouds Hill, in Dorset, England? |
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T. E. Lawrence | |
| 33. | Who, briefly, became President of Germany upon the death of Adolf Hitler on 30th April 1945? |
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Admiral Dönitz (Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz) | |
| 34. | Produced in England, Italy, and Australia from 1961 to 1965, what is the make and model of this sports car? |
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Triumph TR4 | |
| 35. | In the 1950s, EOKA was a nationalist guerilla organisation that fought a campaign for the end of British rule in what country? |
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Cyprus (Εθνική Οργάνωσις Κυπρίων Αγωνιστών - National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters) | |
| 36. | Which day of the week was deemed "Black" in the October 1987 stock market crash? |
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Black Monday | |
| 37. | Who was captain of the Golden Hind between 1577 and 1580? |
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Sir Francis Drake | |
| 38. | Chronologically, what came after the Bronze Age? |
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Iron Age (followed by the Middle Ages) | |
| 39. | The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are most commonly believed to have been irrigated by pumps from which river? |
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Euphrates | |
| 40. | Big Nose Kate was a Hungarian-born prostitute and common-law wife of what Old West gunfighter? |
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Doc Holliday | |
| 41. | What was the currency of the Netherlands before being replaced by the euro in 2002? |
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Dutch guilder (Dutch: gulden) | |
| 42. | What Democrat did Ronald Reagan defeat to become U.S. President elect in 1980? |
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Jimmy Carter | |
| 43. | Acadia was a 17th and early 18th century North American colonisation by what European country? |
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France (French: Acadie - up until the British conquest of 1713) | |
| 44. | In the U.S., who were the first ever nominees to take part in a live TV presidential debate? |
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John F. Kennedy & Richard M. Nixon (1960) | |
| 45. | How did the dog Laika become famous in 1957? |
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The first animal to orbit the Earth | |
| 46. | What English-language name was given to the warships used by Vikings? |
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Longships | |
| 47. | To whom did Sitting Bull give the nickname "Watanya Cicilla", or "Little Sure Shot"? |
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Annie Oakley | |
| 48. | Nicknamed the Milwaukee Cannibal, what American serial killer and sex offender killed and dismembered seventeen males between 1978 and 1991? |
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Jeffrey Dahmer | |
| 49. | Complete the name of this Wonder of the Ancient World: The Temple of ______ at Ephesus. |
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Artemis | |
| 50. | The Entente Cordiale was a series of agreements signed on 8th April 1904 between what two countries? |
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U.K. and France | |
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