History50 randomly selected History questions for quizmasters. New random selection made weekly. Next update: Monday 23rd December 2024 (Please note: Questions are taken from our database of previous quizzes. Some questions and answers may be outdated.) |
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| 1. | The Hundred Days Offensive is used to describe the final period of what war? |
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First World War (18th July to 11th November 1918) | |
| 2. | Triggering the Clean Air Act four years later, in what year did the Great Smog of London occur? |
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1952 | |
| 3. | The most shallow of the Great Lakes, what was the site of a September 1813 U.S. naval victory during the War of 1812? |
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Lake Erie (Battle of Lake Erie) | |
| 4. | In which European city did 19th century serial killers Burke and Hare operate? |
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Edinburgh (West Port murders - 1828) | |
| 5. | Who, in November 1871, is alleged to have uttered the words "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" |
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Henry Morton Stanley | |
| 6. | Born in 1852, by what name was Martha Jane Canary better known? |
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Calamity Jane | |
| 7. | The book and film Black Hawk Down chronicle a 1993 battle between U.S. forces and militia in what African city? |
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Mogadishu | |
| 8. | In what decade did Alcock and Brown achieve the first non-stop transatlantic flight? |
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The 1910s (Jun 14th - Jun 15th 1919) | |
| 9. | Who was President of the Confederate States of America for its entire history from 1861 to 1865? |
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Jefferson Davis | |
| 10. | In which year did Isaac Newton watch an apple fall from a tree, inspiring his famous theory of gravity? |
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1666 | |
| 11. | What war took place in Europe between October 1853 and February 1856? |
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Crimean War | |
| 12. | In pre-war Nazi Germany, what city was given the title "City of Party Rallies"? |
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Nuremberg (Nürnberg) | |
| 13. | Born in 1769, what British statesman was nicknamed "Old Nosey"? |
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Duke of Wellington (Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington) | |
| 14. | Who was U.S. President at the start of the Korean War? |
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Harry S. Truman | |
| 15. | What was the name of the unsuccessful British spacecraft which crashed on Mars in 2003? |
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Beagle 2 | |
| 16. | Beginning with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, what name is given to the period of European history that lasted from the 5th until the 15th centuries? |
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The Middle Ages | |
| 17. | Complete the name of this Ancient Wonder of the World: The Lighthouse of ________. |
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Alexandria (Egypt) | |
| 18. | Nicknamed "Star Wars" and proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan in March 1983, what did the initials of its official title, SDI, stand for? |
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Strategic Defense Initiative | |
| 19. | In what U.S. State was King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama IX, born? |
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Massachusetts (Mount Auburn Hospital, Cambridge) | |
| 20. | What independent country was formed in 1971 in the midst of ongoing conflicts between India and Pakistan? |
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Bangladesh | |
| 21. | 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 | |
| 22. | The daughter of a Pakistani Prime Minister, her husband became President shortly after her assassination in 2007. Name her. |
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Benazir Bhutto | |
| 23. | What English-speaking country celebrated its bicentenary in 1988? |
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Australia | |
| 24. | How old was Adolf Hitler when he committed suicide on 30th April 1945? |
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56 | |
| 25. | Who put forward the first basic principle of relativity in 1652? |
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Galileo Galilei | |
| 26. | Which two countries have been in dispute since the end of World War II over sovereignty of the South Kuril Islands? |
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Japan and Russia | |
| 27. | Who resigned as French President in April 1969? |
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Charles de Gaulle | |
| 28. | What battle in 1571 marked the end of Ottoman naval supremacy in the Mediterranean? |
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Battle of Lepanto | |
| 29. | First shown in French theatres, what film company invented the newsreel in 1908? |
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Pathé | |
| 30. | What was the name of the Royal Navy ship on which Charles Darwin travelled during his famous expedition between 1831 and 1836? |
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HMS Beagle | |
| 31. | Māori for "woman", what was the name of the roll-on/roll-off ferry that sank near Wellington Harbour during a storm on 10th April 1968, killing 53 people? |
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Wahine | |
| 32. | What U.S. president was the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? |
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Theodore Roosevelt (1906 - for his work in helping broker the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905) | |
| 33. | Which was opened first, the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal? |
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Suez Canal (1869 - Panama Canal 1914) | |
| 34. | While conducting an autopsy in April 1955, what did pathologist Thomas Stoltz Harvey famously steal? |
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Albert Einstein's brain | |
| 35. | Which British king died on 6th February 1952? |
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George VI | |
| 36. | What is the common western name for the Chinese rebellion that took place from 1899 to 1901 against foreign influence during the final years of the Manchu rule? |
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Boxer Rebellion (Boxer Uprising / Yihetuan Movement) | |
| 37. | What Canadian city was fought for in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in September 1759? |
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Quebec (Great Britain beat France and occupied Quebec) | |
| 38. | Who became the first sitting member of the U.S. Congress to fly in space when he flew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery as a Payload Specialist in 1985? |
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Jake Garn | |
| 39. | Who is credited as the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence? |
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Thomas Jefferson | |
| 40. | Who was dictator of Spain between 1936 and 1975? |
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General Franco (Generalísimo Francisco Franco) | |
| 41. | Leading up to and during World War II, what name was given to the German defence line opposite France's Maginot Line? |
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Siegfried Line (named Westwall by the Germans) | |
| 42. | Who was Adolf Hitler's deputy until May 1941 when he flew solo to Scotland in a failed attempt to negotiate peace? |
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Rudolf Hess | |
| 43. | The Dardanelles Campaign took place during which war? |
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First World War (World War I / Great War) | |
| 44. | What 19th century American family produced both typewriters and firearms? |
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Remington (E. Remington and Sons) | |
| 45. | In what country did the Boxer Rebellion (or Boxer Uprising) take place between 1899 and 1901? |
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China | |
| 46. | Who rode a horse called Copenhagen at a famous battle in 1815? |
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Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington - Battle of Waterloo) | |
| 47. | 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) | |
| 48. | What company demonstrated the first ever elevator at the 1853 New York World's Fair? |
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Otis | |
| 49. | What mode of transport was invented by Baron Karl von Drais in Germany in 1817? |
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Bicycle (Drais' own terminology was "Laufmaschine", German for "running machine". Also called the Dandy horse.) | |
| 50. | Whose portrait was used on these British WWI recruiting posters? |
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Lord Kitchener (Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, Secretary of State for War) | |
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