History50 randomly selected History questions for quizmasters. New random selection made weekly. Next update: Monday 7th April 2025 (Please note: Questions are taken from our database of previous quizzes. Some questions and answers may be outdated.) |
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| 1. | On what holiday was Abraham Lincoln assassinated? |
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Good Friday (14th April 1865) | |
| 2. | Who was the last Tudor monarch of England? |
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Elizabeth I | |
| 3. | What Scottish king was killed at the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513? |
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James IV | |
| 4. | In which year did Isaac Newton watch an apple fall from a tree, inspiring his famous theory of gravity? |
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1666 | |
| 5. | What was the name of the U.S. Air Force officer who in October 1947 became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight? |
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Chuck Yeager | |
| 6. | In a war lasting just two days in October 1961, India defeated what European country to end 451 years of overseas provincial governance in Goa? |
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Portugal | |
| 7. | The Gunpowder Plot was a failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in what century? |
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17th (1605) | |
| 8. | 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 | |
| 9. | In English folklore, who rode a horse called Black Bess? |
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Dick Turpin | |
| 10. | In what year was NATO founded? |
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1949 (4th April - North Atlantic Treaty Organization) | |
| 11. | In what decade was the first mammal, a rhesus macaque named Albert II, launched into space by the USA? |
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The 1940s (14th June 1949) | |
| 12. | What name was given to the two NASA space probes sent to Mars in the 1970s? |
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Viking | |
| 13. | Name either one of the two people who set out from Oakland, California on a circumnavigational flight on 1st June 1937. |
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Amelia Earhart & Fred Noonan | |
| 14. | Formed in 1933, how was the Geheime Staatspolizei better known? |
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Gestapo | |
| 15. | Who was the first post-war Chancellor of Germany (West Germany) from 1949 to 1963? |
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Konrad Adenauer | |
| 16. | Who invented the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system? |
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John Logie Baird | |
| 17. | The 1969 Stonewall riots in New York coincided with the funeral of what icon? |
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Judy Garland | |
| 18. | In what year did Princess Anne marry Captain Mark Phillips? |
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1973 | |
| 19. | 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) | |
| 20. | The youngest and oldest men to be elected President of the United States took office on the same day twenty years apart. Who were they? |
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John F. Kennedy & Ronald Reagan (1961 & 1981. Theodore Roosevelt was younger than Kennedy, but sworn in (rather than elected) after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901) | |
| 21. | Name the German battleship, sister of the Bismark, sunk in the Bay of Håkøybotn, Norway in November 1944. |
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Tirpitz | |
| 22. | Sealed under oath by King John, in what year was the Magna Carta published? |
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1215 | |
| 23. | The subject of an Academy Award winning 2010 film, which British King had a stutter? |
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George VI (The King's Speech) | |
| 24. | What war was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia between 1853 and 1856? |
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Crimean War (October 1853 – February 1856) | |
| 25. | By what name was Margaretha Geertruida Zelle better known during World War I? |
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Mata Hari | |
| 26. | A bilateral agreement first signed by the USA and the USSR on 31st July 1991 and entered into force on 5th December 1994, what does START stand for? |
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Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty | |
| 27. | What was the name of the Norse explorer thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental North America, around 500 years before Christopher Columbus? |
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Leif Erikson (Leif the Lucky) | |
| 28. | What style of writing was developed by Isaac Pitman in 1837? |
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Shorthand | |
| 29. | In what modern-day country was the Battle of the Plains of Abraham fought in 1759? |
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Canada (British victory in Quebec, New France) | |
| 30. | From 1901 to 1903, who served as the first Prime Minister of Australia? |
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Edmund Barton | |
| 31. | What is the name of the city park in Dallas, Texas that was the location of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, on 22nd November 1963? |
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Dealey Plaza | |
| 32. | Complete this famous quote from June 1963: ... and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ...
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"Ich bin ein Berliner!" (John F. Kennedy) | |
| 33. | Who succeeded his stepfather, Augustus, to become the second Emperor of Rome in 14 AD? |
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Tiberius (Tiberius Caesar Augustus) | |
| 34. | With West Germany and Belgium also involved, between what two countries were the "Cod Wars" primarily fought in the 1950s and 1970s? |
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United Kingdom and Iceland | |
| 35. | 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 | |
| 36. | Walter Mondale was Vice President of the United States under which President? |
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Jimmy Carter (1977 - 1981) | |
| 37. | Who was sworn in as US President in 1977? |
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Jimmy Carter | |
| 38. | In what decade was Tibet incorporated into the People's Republic of China? |
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The 1950s (October 1951) | |
| 39. | What war took place in Europe between October 1853 and February 1856? |
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Crimean War | |
| 40. | In 1840, 18-year-old Edward Oxford became the first of seven people to try, and fail, to assassinate who? |
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Queen Victoria | |
| 41. | What battle in July 1863 involved the largest number of casualties of the entire American Civil War? |
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Battle of Gettysburg | |
| 42. | Who became the first pilot to officially travel faster than sound, in October 1947? |
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Chuck Yeager | |
| 43. | What nationality is Sharbat Gula, famously photographed by Steve McCurry for National Geographic in December 1984? |
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Afghan (Afghan Girl) | |
| 44. | Who was the second man in outer space? |
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Alan Shepard (5th May 1961) | |
| 45. | Who was President of the United States from 1953 until 1961? |
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Dwight D. Eisenhower | |
| 46. | Who was the Command Module Pilot on the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon? |
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Michael Collins | |
| 47. | Name the two active battleships sunk and permanently lost during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7th December 1941? |
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Arizona and Oklahoma (6 other battleships were damaged or sunk, but later repaired and returned to service) | |
| 48. | Born in 384 BC, who was a pupil of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great? |
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Aristotle | |
| 49. | List the following three wars in order starting with the earliest: American War of Independence, Boer War, Crimean War |
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American War of Independence, Crimean War, Boer War (1775-1783, 1853-1856, 1899-1902) | |
| 50. | Between 1841 and 1853, what country was divided into the provinces of New Ulster and New Munster? |
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New Zealand | |
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