History50 randomly selected History questions for quizmasters. New random selection made weekly. Next update: Monday 29th 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 Some questions and answers may be outdated.)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. | Until his death in 323 BC, who was King of Macedonia, Pharaoh of Egypt, King of Persia, and Lord of Asia? |
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Alexander the Great | |
| 2. | Who was Mayor of Berlin when the Berlin Wall was built and later became Chancellor of West Germany? |
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Willy Brandt | |
| 3. | How many of Henry VIII's wives were called Catherine? |
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3 (Catherine of Aragon, Catherine Howard, Catherine Parr) | |
| 4. | Who did Mikhail Gorbachev succeed as leader of the Soviet Union in 1985? |
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Konstantin Chernenko | |
| 5. | What did journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward reveal to the world in 1972? |
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Watergate Scandal | |
| 6. | Marshal Josip Broz led the Communist partisans to victory against occupation forces in Yugoslavia during the Second World War. By what title and name was he later better known? |
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President Tito | |
| 7. | In January 2011, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced to quit as President of what country? |
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Tunisia | |
| 8. | In what year did construction of the Berlin Wall begin? |
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1961 (13th August) | |
| 9. | Poisoned, shot, and dumped in a river; what was Rasputin's first name? |
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Grigori | |
| 10. | A sheep born in Scotland on 5th July 1996; what name was given to the first ever mammal to be cloned from an adult cell? |
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Dolly (Her DNA came from a mammary gland cell, hence she was named after Dolly Parton) | |
| 11. | Who became the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932? |
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Amelia Earhart | |
| 12. | Who was named U.S. president after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln? |
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Andrew Johnson | |
| 13. | What name was given to the secret oath-based organisation of English textile workers in the 19th century, where a radical faction destroyed textile machinery as a form of protest? |
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Luddites | |
| 14. | What Swedish chemist patented dynamite in 1867? |
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Alfred Nobel | |
| 15. | Following the Pleistocene around 11,700 years ago, what 'H' describes the current geological epoch? |
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Holocene | |
| 16. | The 105-day "Winter War" began on 30th November 1939 when the Soviet Union attacked what country? |
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Finland | |
| 17. | What two countries were formed by the "Velvet Divorce" of 1993? |
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Czech Republic & Slovakia | |
| 18. | The Beagle conflict was a border dispute that brought what two South American countries to the brink of war in 1978? |
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Chile and Argentina (named after the Beagle Channel) | |
| 19. | Who was Reichsführer-SS of Nazi Germany between 1929 and 1945? |
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Heinrich Himmler | |
| 20. | What is the name of the territorial police force in the U.K. formed on 1st April 1968 with the amalgamation of Buckinghamshire Constabulary, Oxfordshire Constabulary, Berkshire Constabulary, Reading Borough Police and Oxford City Police? |
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Thames Valley | |
| 21. | How many propellers (screws) did the RMS Titanic have? |
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Three | |
| 22. | An American labor union official and enforcer for Jimmy Hoffa and Russell Bufalino, born in 1920, by what nickname was Frank Sheeran best known? |
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The Irishman | |
| 23. | Known as "Gentleman Jim", who was killed in a plane crash on 31st July 1964? |
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Jim Reeves | |
| 24. | 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) | |
| 25. | Since the Second World War, who is the only U.S. President NOT to be Time magazine's 'Person of the Year'? |
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Gerald Ford | |
| 26. | 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 | |
| 27. | In what U.S. State was the Battle of Bunker Hill fought in 1775? |
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Massachusetts (Charlestown) | |
| 28. | What name was given to the diluted rum rationed to sailors between the 17th and 19th century? |
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Grog | |
| 29. | In which year did the Asian Financial Crisis hit Thailand, seeing the baht halving in value overnight? |
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1997 | |
| 30. | To which of his six wives was England's King Henry VIII married for the longest time? |
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Catherine of Aragon (almost 24 years) | |
| 31. | Who defected from the UK to the Soviet Union with Donald Maclean in 1951? |
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Guy Burgess | |
| 32. | What nickname was given to English serial killer Peter Sutcliffe? |
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Yorkshire Ripper | |
| 33. | What was the first war to see jet aircraft from both sides fight one other in air-to-air combat? |
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Korean War | |
| 34. | During which war did Florence Nightingale receive high recognition for her work? |
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Crimean War | |
| 35. | In what century did the Spanish Inquisition begin? |
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15th (1st November 1478) | |
| 36. | Still in use today, what addition to road safety was patented by Percy Shaw in 1934? |
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Cat's eye / Road stud | |
| 37. | Who shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald? |
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Jack Ruby | |
| 38. | By what nickname was former First Lady of the United States Claudia Alta Johnson more commonly known? |
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Lady Bird | |
| 39. | What two countries fought the War of 1812? |
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United States & United Kingdom | |
| 40. | What aviation first was performed by Ellen Church in 1930? |
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First female flight attendant / air hostess | |
| 41. | What happened to Jorge Mario Bergoglio on 13th March 2013? |
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He became Pope Francis | |
| 42. | At what northern parallel did escalating border conflicts mark the beginning of the Korean War in 1950? |
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38th | |
| 43. | Unbeaten to this day, what was the name of the steam locomotive that set the world speed record of 126 mph on 3rd July 1938? |
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Mallard (LNER Class A4 4468) | |
| 44. | Four U.S. Presidents have been assassinated. Abraham Lincoln was the first and John F. Kennedy the last. Name the other two. |
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James A. Garfield, William McKinley | |
| 45. | What battle of 1746 ended the Jacobite revolution? |
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Culloden | |
| 46. | Who was British Prime Minister from October 1963 to October 1964? |
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Alec Douglas-Home | |
| 47. | Name the Romanian head of state executed by firing squad along with his wife on 25th December 1989. |
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Nicolae Ceaușescu | |
| 48. | What nationality was 19th century jeweller Gustav Fabergé? |
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Russian (Peter Carl Fabergé, his son, is famous for the Fabergé eggs) | |
| 49. | Why did 13 Wild Boars make world headlines in June 2018? |
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Thai cave rescue (Wild Boars is the name of the Junior football team) | |
| 50. | In what century was the last execution in the Tower of London? |
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20th (Josef Jakobs, German spy, shot by a military firing squad, 15th August 1941) | |
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