History50 randomly selected History questions for quizmasters. New random selection made weekly. Next update: Monday 23rd February 2026 (Please note: Questions are taken from our database of previous quizzes. Some questions and answers may be outdated.) |
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| 1. | What was the surname of the General whose death in November 1975 saw the return of the monarchy in Spain? |
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Franco (Francisco Franco) | |
| 2. | What was Winston S. Churchill's middle name? |
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Spencer | |
| 3. | Murdered with the rest of her family in 1918, aged 17, who was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II? |
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Anastasia (Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia) | |
| 4. | Suleiman the Magnificent was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of what empire? |
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Ottoman (1520-1566) | |
| 5. | Which founder of modern Turkey delivered a 36 hour long speech over 6 days in 1927? |
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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk | |
| 6. | John Logie Baird demonstrated the world's first live working television system on 26th January 1926, but what American inventor designed and built the world's first working all-electronic television system in 1928? |
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Philo Farnsworth | |
| 7. | An expansion of the United States via a $15 million acquisition of land from France, in what year was the Louisiana Purchase established? |
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1803 | |
| 8. | Who was the first Briton to be awarded Time magazine Man of the Year? |
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Winston Churchill (1940 and 1949) | |
| 9. | Who was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 along with Nelson Mandela? |
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F. W. de Klerk | |
| 10. | In what German city did the Nazi war crime trials begin in November 1945? |
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Nuremberg (German: Nürnberg) | |
| 11. | In what year did construction of the Berlin Wall begin? |
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1961 (13th August) | |
| 12. | The Scottish poet Robert Burns lived and died during which century? |
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18th (1759-1796) | |
| 13. | Named after the dry lake it was found in, and dated to around 40,000 years old, _____ Man was discovered in New South Wales, Australia in 1974 by geomorphologist Jim Bowler. (fill in the blank) |
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Mungo | |
| 14. | The 1939 signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is often cited as humanity's darkest hour. What two nations signed it? |
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Germany and the Soviet Union (Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) | |
| 15. | A mechanised device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres such as wool or cotton, name either one of the two men credited for the development of the spinning frame in 1767? |
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Sir Richard Arkwright / John Kay | |
| 16. | Who was John Hinckley trying to impress when he shot Ronald Reagan on 30th March 1981? |
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Jodie Foster (He became obsessed with her after watching the 1976 film Taxi Driver) | |
| 17. | The Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 saw Britain defeat the combined naval forces of Spain and France. Off the coast of what country is Cape Trafalgar? |
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Spain (near Cádiz, south-west Spain) | |
| 18. | What British monarch died in 1603 aged 69? |
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Elizabeth I | |
| 19. | Which German monk wrote The Ninety-Five Theses in 1517? |
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Martin Luther | |
| 20. | Now known as the Countess of Wessex, who did Britain's Prince Edward marry in June 1999? |
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Sophie Rhys-Jones | |
| 21. | En route to Stockholm, what was the name of the ferry which sank in the Baltic Sea in September 1994 with the loss of 852 people? |
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MS Estonia | |
| 22. | In what Northern Ireland city did "Bloody Sunday" take place on 30th January 1972? |
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Derry / Londonderry (County Londonderry) | |
| 23. | In the UK, who succeeded David Steel as leader of the Liberal Democrats in 1988? |
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Paddy Ashdown | |
| 24. | 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 | |
| 25. | 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 | |
| 26. | Until 1870, what company owned "Rupert's Land", almost half of modern day Canada? |
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Hudson's Bay Company | |
| 27. | Two months after the Soviet Union invaded Poland; on 30th November 1939, the three month long Winter War began when they invaded which other country? |
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Finland | |
| 28. | What war was ended by the Treaty of Ghent in 1814? |
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War of 1812 (between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) | |
| 29. | In 1785, Blanchard and Jeffries became the first to cross the English channel in what type of craft? |
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Balloon | |
| 30. | At what law school did Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham meet in 1971? |
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Yale | |
| 31. | In English history, the Elizabethan era began in what century? |
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16th (1558–1603) | |
| 32. | Operation Typhoon (German: Unternehmen Taifun) was the German strategic offensive in what World War II battle? |
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Battle of Moscow | |
| 33. | Who was captain of the Golden Hind between 1577 and 1580? |
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Sir Francis Drake | |
| 34. | Known as El Libertador, or the Liberator, what nationality was Simón Bolívar? |
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Venezuelan | |
| 35. | Which US General escaped to Australia from the Philippines in March 1942, vowing "I shall return"? |
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Douglas MacArthur | |
| 36. | The purge in summer 1934 in which Hitler had members of his own party murdered by the SS was called "The Night of the ..." what? |
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Long Knives (Operation Hummingbird / Nacht der langen Messer) | |
| 37. | Who took office on 19th December 1783 as the youngest ever British Prime Minister, aged 24 years, 205 days? |
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William Pitt the Younger | |
| 38. | What was the name of the South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant in December 1967? |
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Christiaan Barnard (Cape Town, South Africa) | |
| 39. | One of the deadliest and most destructive volcanic events in recorded history, what volcano in South East Asia erupted in August 1883? |
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Krakatoa | |
| 40. | 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 | |
| 41. | From the 13th century until the 16th-century Spanish conquest, what city was the capital of the Inca Empire? |
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Cusco / Cuzco (Peru) | |
| 42. | In 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for America in the Mayflower and which other ship that was forced to turn back? |
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Speedwell | |
| 43. | From which empire did Bulgaria gain full independence in 1908? |
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Ottoman Empire | |
| 44. | In what decade did the Korean War take place? |
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The 1950s (25th June 1950 – 27th July 1953) | |
| 45. | 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) | |
| 46. | Who was Prime Minister of Australia from June 2010 to June 2013? |
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Julia Gillard | |
| 47. | What manufacturer produced Knuckleheads, Panheads, and Shovelheads between 1936 and 1984? |
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Harley-Davidson (motorcycle engines) | |
| 48. | 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) | |
| 49. | The name of what General from the American Revolutionary War became a byword in the United States for treason or betrayal? |
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Benedict Arnold | |
| 50. | In which year did the student massacre take place at Bangkok's Thammasat University? |
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1976 | |
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