History50 randomly selected History questions for quizmasters. New random selection made weekly. Next update: Monday 24th 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 Some questions and answers may be outdated.)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. | Formally known as the Treaty on European Union, what was signed on 7th February 1992 by members of the European Community? |
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Maastricht Treaty | |
| 2. | Who, most famously, was watching a play called Our American Cousin on 14th April 1865? |
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Abraham Lincoln (Assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.) | |
| 3. | With a collective total of over 18 years in office, who is Australia's longest ever serving Prime Minister? |
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Robert Menzies (26 Apr 1939 – 26 Aug 1941 and 19 Dec 1949 - 26 Jan 1966) | |
| 4. | 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 | |
| 5. | Who was was the last Emperor of Russia, ruling from 1st November 1894 until his forced abdication on 15th March 1917? |
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Nicholas II | |
| 6. | Who succeeded Leonid Brezhnev as Soviet premier in 1982? |
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Yuri Andropov | |
| 7. | Who was Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe throughout the Second World War? |
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Hermann Göring | |
| 8. | In what decade was Mahatma Gandhi assassinated? |
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The 1940s (30th January 1948) | |
| 9. | Who was Governor of California from 1967 to 1975? |
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Ronald Reagan | |
| 10. | What city held its first Oktoberfest in 1811? |
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Munich / München | |
| 11. | In September 1513, who became the first European to lead an expedition to have seen or reached the Pacific from the New World? |
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Vasco Núñez de Balboa | |
| 12. | What English king was known as William the Conqueror? |
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William I | |
| 13. | What war began on 12th April 1861? |
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American Civil War (Battle of Fort Sumter) | |
| 14. | Who became King of England on 25th December 1066? |
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William I / William the Conqueror / William the Bastard | |
| 15. | In what century did the Middle Ages begin? |
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5th (most commonly regarded as 476 AD, the fall of the Western Roman Empire) | |
| 16. | What did the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution establish in 1920? |
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Prohibition (prohibition of alcoholic beverages) | |
| 17. | What Roman Goddess shares her name with a Normandy Landing beach? |
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Juno (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword) | |
| 18. | Live on TV on 8th April 1983, who created the illusion that the Statue of Liberty had disappeared? |
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David Copperfield (with Jim Steinmeyer and Don Wayne) | |
| 19. | Fought between 1756-63, what was the last major war before the French Revolution to involve all the great powers of Europe? |
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Seven Years' War | |
| 20. | What town in New Mexico, USA became famous in 1947 for the recovery of unknown materials and has since become synonymous with extra-terrestrial conspiracies? |
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Roswell | |
| 21. | On what Greek island was the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, born on 10th June 1921? |
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Corfu (Κέρκυρα) | |
| 22. | In what modern day country was Adolf Hitler born? |
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Austria (Ranshofen (later known as Braunau am Inn), Austria–Hungary) | |
| 23. | During which battle, on the 25th October 1854, did the Charge of the Light Brigade take place? |
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Battle of Balaclava (Crimean War) | |
| 24. | What was the first name of the founder of the frozen foods brand Birds Eye? |
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Clarence (Clarence Frank Birdseye II) | |
| 25. | What is now called Tasmania was discovered by Abel Tasman in 1642. What nationality was he? |
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Dutch (originally named Van Diemen's Land) | |
| 26. | Which World War II battle between December 1944 and January 1945 was a German offensive on the Western Front in Belgium, France and Luxembourg? |
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Battle of the Bulge (German: Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein "Operation Watch on the Rhine") | |
| 27. | In which year did Singapore gain independence from the United Kingdom and merge with the newly formed Malaysia? |
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1963 | |
| 28. | Born in Leicester, England on 5th August 1862, by what name is Joseph Merrick better known? |
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The Elephant Man | |
| 29. | In what country did Karl Marx spend the last 34 years of his life? |
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England | |
| 30. | Complete this famous quote: Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, .....
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"This was their finest hour." (Winston Churchill - 18th June 1940) | |
| 31. | What famous 5th century A.D conqueror was known as "The Scourge of God"? |
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Attila the Hun | |
| 32. | Who was Germany's Reichsminister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda between 1933 and 1945? |
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Joseph Goebbels (German: Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda) | |
| 33. | In what year was NATO founded? |
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1949 (4th April - North Atlantic Treaty Organization) | |
| 34. | Known as the "mother" of social work, name this pioneer American activist and reformer who helped sway a movement for women's suffrage at the turn of the 20th century. |
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Jane Addams | |
| 35. | Who invented the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system? |
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John Logie Baird | |
| 36. | The Brooklyn-class light cruiser USS Phoenix famously survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor completely unscathed in 1941. What was it called when it rose to fame once again in 1982? |
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ARA General Belgrano (sunk by a British nuclear-powered submarine off the Falkland Islands) | |
| 37. | What was established in Western Europe in 1478 and not disbanded until 1834? |
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Spanish Inquisition (Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition) | |
| 38. | Launched in 1958, what automotive failure was named after Henry Ford's only child? |
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Edsel (Edsel B. Ford) | |
| 39. | What war effectively ended with the signing of an armistice on 27th July 1953? |
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Korean War | |
| 40. | On 17th December 1967, the Prime Minister of Australia disappeared while swimming in the sea near Portsea, Victoria. His body was never recovered. Name him. |
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Harold Holt | |
| 41. | In which year did the Wright Brothers make the first ever sustained, controlled, powered, heavier-than-air, manned flight? |
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1903 (17th December) | |
| 42. | World War II started and ended in what month? |
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September (Invasion of Poland 1st September 1939 – Surrender of Japan 2nd September 1945) | |
| 43. | His assassination in Sarajevo triggered the outbreak of World War I; what nationality was Archduke Franz Ferdinand? |
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Austrian (born in Graz, Austrian Empire) | |
| 44. | What U.S. President was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. on 14th July 1913? |
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Gerald Ford | |
| 45. | What country declared independence from the Netherlands on 4th October 1830? |
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Belgium | |
| 46. | In March 1992, Mike Tyson was sentenced to six years in prison along with four years of probation for the 1991 rape of what 18-year-old model? |
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Desiree Washington | |
| 47. | Who was the second man in outer space? |
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Alan Shepard (5th May 1961) | |
| 48. | What worldwide movement began life in 1863 as the "International Committee for Relief to the Wounded"? |
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Red Cross / Red Crescent | |
| 49. | From the throne of what country did Queen Juliana abdicate in April 1980? |
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Netherlands | |
| 50. | A series of widespread but unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front, in what year was the famous Christmas truce of World War I? |
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1914 | |
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