History50 randomly selected History questions for quizmasters. New random selection made weekly. Next update: Monday 17th August 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 Some questions and answers may be outdated.)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 Mau Mau uprising took place between 1952 and 1960 in what country? |
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Kenya (then British Kenya) | |
| 2. | What two countries were the primary belligerents in the First Indochina War between 1946 and 1954? |
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France and Vietnam | |
| 3. | Retired American Navy officer Robert Ballard was head of an expedition that discovered what in September 1985? |
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The wreck of RMS Titanic | |
| 4. | What devastated much of Pompeii on 5th February AD 62? |
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Earthquake (restoration was still under way when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79) | |
| 5. | Which anti-nausea drug, later found to have devastating side effects, was launched in 1957 to help pregnant women with the effects of morning sickness? |
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Thalidomide | |
| 6. | What nationality is Professor Ernő Rubik, inventor of the Rubik's Cube in 1974? |
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Hungarian | |
| 7. | George I ascended the British throne in 1714 as the first monarch of the House of what? |
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Hanover | |
| 8. | After the fall of the Soviet Union, who was elected 1st President of the Russian Federation in 1991? |
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Boris Yeltsin (Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin - Бори́с Никола́евич Е́льцин) | |
| 9. | Dr Christian Barnard was a South African surgeon who performed the world's first successful human-to-human transplant of what organ in 1967? |
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Heart | |
| 10. | In 1966, what American psychologist popularised the catchphrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out"? |
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Timothy Leary | |
| 11. | Frequently depicted on ancient Roman coins, documents, monuments, and military standards, what four-letter abbreviation represented a Latin phrase meaning "The Roman Senate and People"? |
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SPQR (Senātus Populusque Rōmānus) | |
| 12. | A false flag operation known as the Gleiwitz incident marked the eve of what major 20th century conflict? |
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World War II (On 31st August 1939, Nazi forces dressed in Polish uniforms attacked a radio station in Germany. The German invasion of Poland began the next day.) | |
| 13. | Who was most famously accused and convicted in the Rivonia Trial of 1963-64? |
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Nelson Mandela | |
| 14. | How many full years did Nelson Mandela spend in prison? |
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27 (5th August 1962 - 11th February 1990) | |
| 15. | Who was captain of the Bounty when Fletcher Christian led the mutiny against him in April 1789? |
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William Bligh (Mutiny on the Bounty) | |
| 16. | Who stepped down as Queen of the Netherlands in 1980? |
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Juliana | |
| 17. | What battle of 1746 in Scotland ended the Jacobite rising? |
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Battle of Culloden | |
| 18. | Pope for just 33 days in 1978, by what papal name was Albino Luciani known? |
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Pope John Paul I | |
| 19. | Described as "Europe's last dictator", Alexander Lukashenko has been President of what country since July 1994? |
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Belarus | |
| 20. | In what decade did Jack the Ripper commit his "canonical five" murders? |
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The 1880s (between 31st August and 9th November 1888) | |
| 21. | Part of the Hundred Years' War, in what century was the Battle of Agincourt? |
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15th (25th October 1415) | |
| 22. | Which part of India, a group of islands, were occupied by the Japanese during World War II? |
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Andaman Islands (Andaman and Nicobar Islands) | |
| 23. | Who was captain of the Golden Hind between 1577 and 1580? |
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Sir Francis Drake | |
| 24. | What disputed territory declared independence from Serbia in February 2008? |
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Kosovo | |
| 25. | Who assassinated Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C. in 1865? |
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John Wilkes Booth | |
| 26. | What British coin ceased to be legal tender from 1st January 1961? |
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Farthing / ¼d | |
| 27. | Since 1818, the House of Bernadotte has served as the royal family of what country? |
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Sweden (also Norway prior to its independence in 1905) | |
| 28. | Who was the first serving U.S. president to appear on black & white television? |
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Franklin D. Roosevelt (30th April 1939 at the opening ceremony for the World's Fair in New York City) | |
| 29. | What was the name of the balsa raft on which Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl sailed from Peru to Polynesia in 1947? |
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Kon-Tiki (also the name of the expedition, and the book and film about it) | |
| 30. | "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) | |
| 31. | 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) | |
| 32. | The exotic dancer and courtesan convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I; what nationality was Mata Hari? |
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Dutch (Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod) | |
| 33. | 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 | |
| 34. | In what century was the Colosseum in Rome built? |
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1st (completed in 80 AD) | |
| 35. | Who died at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, England on 22nd January 1901? |
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Queen Victoria | |
| 36. | Mother Teresa was famed for her work in what Indian city? |
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Calcutta / Kolkata | |
| 37. | In what year was the Twenty-first Amendment ratified, officially ending prohibition in the United States? |
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1933 (5th December) | |
| 38. | At around 6 million, 17% of its population, what country suffered the highest percent of population deaths during World War II? |
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Poland | |
| 39. | In pre-war Nazi Germany, what city was given the title "City of Party Rallies"? |
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Nuremberg (Nürnberg) | |
| 40. | The Ostmark was the currency of what former country? |
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East Germany (German Democratic Republic) | |
| 41. | In what Northern Ireland city did "Bloody Sunday" take place on 30th January 1972? |
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Derry / Londonderry (County Londonderry) | |
| 42. | Who is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated? |
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Spencer Perceval (1812) | |
| 43. | The former Soviet "Committee for State Security" was better known as what? |
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KGB (Комитет государственной безопасности, Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti) | |
| 44. | What was the name of the IBM supercomputer that beat Garry Kasparov in February 1996, the first machine to win a chess game against a reigning world champion? |
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Deep Blue (Kasparov won the match 4–2. An updated version of Deep Blue defeated Kasparov 3½–2½ in 1997) | |
| 45. | Who was U.S. President when John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth? |
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John F. Kennedy (20th February 1962) | |
| 46. | The largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history, around 9,400, what was the name of the German military transport ship sunk on 30th January 1945 by a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea? |
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MV Wilhelm Gustloff | |
| 47. | What is the name of the street in which the Great Fire of London began at Thomas Farriner's bakery in September 1666? |
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Pudding Lane | |
| 48. | Who became Ireland's first female president in December 1990? |
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Mary Robinson | |
| 49. | From 1975 to 1977 under Gerald Ford, who is the youngest person to have served as U.S. Secretary of Defense? |
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Donald Rumsfeld (also the second-oldest from 2001 to 2006 under George W. Bush) | |
| 50. | Never caught, nor identified, and claiming to have killed 37, what nickname was given to the serial killer who operated in northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s? |
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Zodiac | |
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