Interested in history trivia questions? Who isn’t?
How well do you know the world’s history chronology and events from billions of years ago?
Do you think history is a dull and difficult topic to remember? Don’t worry my friend!
There is always a way to study a boring subject through enjoyable quizzes.
Let’s look over 200+ history trivia questions to learn about how the world has evolved and intriguing events and individuals in history.
Enjoying this historical experience will not only serve to polish your skills, but it will also help you understand about the history of the globe.
Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
World History Trivia Questions
Regardless of how much you dislike learning about history, there is vital and common knowledge about history that everyone should be aware of. Let’s find out with the following world history quiz.
1. Which is the oldest civilization in the world?
Answer: Mesopotamia.
2. In which World War was Pearl Harbor attacked?
Answer: World War II.
3. What are the Wright brothers famous for?
Answer: Inventing the airplane.
4. Who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?
Answer: Michelangelo.
5. On what Japanese city was the first atomic bomb dropped?
Answer: Hiroshima.
6. Who is the Greek God of the Underworld?
Answer: Hades.
7. Who is the Greek Goddess of Wisdom and War?
Answer: Athena.
8. Who was the writer of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?
Answer: Lewis Caroll.
9. Who wrote the play, Hamlet?
Answer: William Shakespeare.
10. Who was the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize?
Answer: Wangari Muta Maathai.
11. In what year did the UK’s lease on Hong Kong expire?
Answer: 1997.
12. Which was the first country to use paper money?
Answer: China.
13. When is the first World war started?
Answer: 1910.
14. Who is the founder of the Nobel Prize?
Answer: Alfred Nobel.
15. Who was the captain of the vessel Titanic at the time of its sinking?
Answer: Edward Smith.
16. Name the ship that James Cook commanded when he discovered Australia?
Answer: HMS Endeavor.
17. Where did the ancient Olympic Games originate?
Answer: Greece.
18. When did the French Revolution take place?
Answer: The French Revolution began in 1789 and lasted until 1794.
19. Who is called Napoleon of Iran?
Answer: Nader Shah.
20. When was Mahatma Gandhi killed?
Answer: January 30, 1948.
21. Which country was split into two zones by the Yalta agreement?
Answer: Germany.
22. Who led the Vikings to Greenland for settlement?
Answer: Erik the Red.
23. What is the name of the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan?
Answer: Little Boy.
24. What is Thomas Edison’s most famous invention?
Answer: Incandescent light bulb.
25. Which famous person was the teddy bear named after?
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt.
26. Who was the first man to step on the moon?
Answer: Neil Armstrong.
27. Who is the Roman God of fire and blacksmiths?
Answer: Vulcan.
28. In which year was John F. Kennedy assassinated?
Answer: 1963
29. Where is the first Summer Olympics held?
Answer: Athens, Greece 1896.
30. Which is the last dynasty in China?
Answer: Qing dynasty
31. Who explored New World?
Answer: Christopher Columbus.
32. Which U.S president had a home called The Hermitage?
Answer: Andrew Jackson
33. Which is the oldest dynasty still ruling?
Answer: Japan.
34. Who is the first president of the United State?
Answer: Washington.
35. Whose period was known as the Golden Age of Rome?
Answer: Augustus Caesar.
36. Who was the first man to walk on the moon?
Answer: Neil Armstrong, 1969.
37. Which is considered the first human technology?
Answer: Fire.
38. Which of the following city has the highest historical monuments?
Answer: Delhi.
39. What is another name for the Great Pyramid in Egypt?
Answer: Giza, Khufu.
40. Where is Babylon remain located?
Answer: Iraq
41. During which event, Korea was separated into 2 nations?
Answer: World War II.
42. Which country in Asia is a member of the Axis in World War II?
Answer: Japan.
43. Who is the famous leader of Cuba had 49 years in power?
Answer: Fidel Castro.
44. Where was the last place that Alexandre Yersin stayed before he died?
Answer: Vietnam.
45. After Lenin, who was officially the leader of the Soviet Union?
Answer: Joseph Stalin.
American History Trivia Questions
Here are some US history trivia questions for your next quiz night, patriotic celebration, or any other event where you want to learn more about the country.
1. Who was the first American president?
Answer: George Washington.
2. Which US president served the shortest term of about two months because of dying from a cold?
Answer: William Henry Harrison.
3. Where was the Anasazi tribe located in North America?
Answer: Southwest United States.
4. What sport’s hall of fame enshrined Abraham Lincoln for having a stellar record of just one loss?
Answer: Wrestling.
5. Name the highest mountain in the US?
Answer: Mount Denali.
6. How many stars does the American Flag have?
Answer: 50.
7. Who was captain of the Titanic when it sank on April 15, 1912?
Answer: Edward Smith.
8. Who preceded Ronald Raegan’s presidency in the United States of America?
Answer: Jimmy Carter.
9. Which are the earliest ancestors of Native Americans?
Answer: Paleo- Indian.
10. How many Stripes does the United States of America’ flag have?
Answer: 13.
11. How many Americans were killed in World War II?
Answer: The United States lost 1.3 million lives.
12. What state was the last state to overturn laws against interracial marriage in the year 2000?
Answer: Alabama.
13. What is the name of the theater where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth?
Answer: Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.
14. Which United States of America Armed Force did John Fitzgerald Kennedy serve in?
Answer: Navy.
15. What country gifted the United States with the Statue of Liberty?
Answer: France.
16. What year did the United States enter World War I?
Answer: 1917.
17. Who was the first United States president to appear on television?
Answer: Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
18. What state seceded from Virginia in 1863?
Answer: West Virginia.
19. What state’s electoral votes ultimately decided the 2000 presidential election?
Answer: Florida.
20. Who refused to give up her bus seat, sparking national civil rights protests?
Answer: Rosa Parks.
21. What was the first United States national monument?
Answer: Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.
22. What was the name of the hurricane that devastated New Orleans in 2005?
Answer: Hurricane Katrina.
23. What was the date of the Black Tuesday stock market crash?
Answer: October 24, 1929.
24. What year did Apple Computer introduce the first iPod?
Answer: 2001.
25. What was the first state to legalize marijuana for medicinal use?
Answer: California, in 1996.
26. When did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor?
Answer: Dec. 7, 1941.
27. Who was the first Black president?
Answer: Barack Obama.
28. What’s the call sign of the president’s helicopter?
Answer: Marine One.
29. Where is Mount Rushmore located?
Answer: The Black Hills from South Dakota.
30. Which state has the densest population in the US?
Answer: New Jersey.
31. Which is the largest state in America?
Answer: Alaska.
32. Which is the second-largest city in the United States?
Answer: Los Angeles.
33. Which state forgot to ratify itself as an official state?
Answer: Ohio.
34. Which is the smallest state in America?
Answer: Rhode Island.
35. What year did the U.S. Supreme Court allow same-sex marriage?
Answer: 2015.
36. Which two countries does the US share national borders with?
Answer: Canada and Mexico.
37. Which city is home to the most billionaires in the world?
Answer: New York City.
38. Which river flows through seven states in the country?
Answer: Missouri River.
39. What is special about Badwater Basin?
Answer: It is the lowest point in the North American continent.
40. Which state is the least populated in the country?
Answer: Wyoming.
European History Trivia Questions
During the Paleolithic Era, around 48,000 years ago, the first early European modern humans appear in the fossil record. Isn’t that exciting to know? Here are some fascinating Europe history trivia questions.
1. What year was the European Union founded?
Answer: 1993.
2. When was the city of Rome, Italy founded?
Answer: 753 BCE.
3. What is the birthplace of Napoleon?
Answer: Corsica.
4. Where and when was the first cardboard box made for industrial use?
Answer: England, 1817.
5. When did the Berlin Wall fall down?
Answer: 1994.
6. What year saw the nationalization of British Railways?
Answer: 1948.
7. Which is the longest river in Europe?
Answer: The Volga River.
8. What city was destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius?
Answer: Pompeii.
9. During the Wars of the Roses (1455 – 1487) which Englishman was dubbed the Kingmaker?
Answer: Richard Neville.
10. Who succeeded Henry I as king of England in 1135?
Answer: Stephan.
11. In what year did the Berlin Wall fall?
Answer: 1989.
12. Which people did Alaric lead in the capture of Rome in 410?
Answer: Visigoths.
13. Who succeeded the Roman emperor, Trajan?
Answer: Hadrian.
14. Who was known as the Iron Chancellor?
Answer: Otto von Bismarck.
15. Which country was Josef Stalin born in?
Answer: Georgia.
16. Which treaty after World War I established the League of Nations?
Answer: Versailles.
17. In which war was the Battle of Ramillies?
Answer: War of Spanish Succession.
18. Whom did Charles V confront at the Diet of Worms in 1521?
Answer: Marin Luther.
19. What did the abbreviation RMS stand for in the RMS Titanic in 1912?
Answer: Royal Mail Ship.
20. What event led to the fall of the Russian monarchy and rise of Leninism?
Answer: The Russian Revolution.
21. In which country is the castle that gives the Habsburg dynasty its name?
Answer: Switzerland.
22. Which country had an Orange Revolution between 2004 and 2005?
Answer: Ukraine.
23. Which new policy in 1958 was an attempt to achieve “true communism” in China?
Answer: The Great Leap Forward.
24. Who was the first Chancellor of a united Germany in 1871?
Answer: Otto Von Bismark.
25. In which naval battle did Rome decisively defeat the forces of Antony and Cleopatra?
Answer: Battle of Actium.
26. Who was the admiral of the French fleet defeated by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar?
Answer: Pierre de Villeneuve.
27. What prison did revolutionaries taking part in the French Revolution storm in 1789?
Answer: The Bastille.
28. What was the name of the constitutional republic that governed Germany post WW1, from 1919-1933?
Answer: Weimar Republic.
29. Which treaty put an end to World War I?
Answer: Treaty of Versailles.
30. What is the largest country in Europe by area?
Answer: Russia.
31. Which continent did Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson first set foot on?
Answer: North America.
32. When did the French Revolution begin?
Answer: May 5, 1789.
33. Which is the largest island in Europe?
Answer: Great Britain.
34. Who was the first American to win a Noble Peace Prize?
Answer: Theodore Roosevelt.
35. Which king was assassinated during the French Revolution?
Answer: King Louis XVI.
36. How many countries are on the European continent?
Answer: 44.
37. What is the most densely populated country in Europe?
Answer: Monaco.
38. What is the highest mountain in Europe?
Answer: Mount Elbrus.
39. How many countries are part of the European Economic Community?
Answer: 27.
Ancient History Trivia Questions
Ancient history encompasses the era from the beginning of written and recorded human history until late antiquity. Here is an ancient history quiz for you.
1. What is the world’s oldest recorded civilization?
Answer: Mesopotamia.
2. Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD and devastated which two Roman cities?
Answer: Pompeii and Herculaneum.
3. In which country are the ancient pyramids located?
Answer: Egypt.
4. How many rules are written in the Code of Hammurabi?
Answer: 282.
5. Who was the first Emperor of Rome?
Answer: Augustus.
6. Who is the king of the Olympian gods in Greek mythology?
Answer: Zeus.
7. Modern-day Istanbul, Turkey, used to be called what when it was the capital of the Byzantine Empire?
Answer: Constantinople.
8. When did Alexander the Great conquer Egypt?
Answer: 332 BC.
9. Which two city-states fought in the Peloponnesian War?
Answer: Athens and Sparta.
10. Which great warrior conquered Egypt in 332 BC?
Answer: Alexander the Great.
11. How old was King Tutankhamun when he died?
Answer: 19.
12. What dynasty was Cleopatra part of?
Answer: The Ptolemaic dynasty.
13. Which Greek goddess was the Parthenon dedicated to?
Answer: Athena.
14. When was Julius Caesar assassinated?
Answer: Ides of March (March 15, 44 BC).
15. The Colosseum started to be built under while which Roman emperor was in power?
Answer: Vespasian.
16. How many of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still exist?
Answer: 1.
17. What was the name of the ancient trade route that connected the East with the West?
Answer: The Silk Road.
18. The Great Pyramid was built as a tomb for which pharaoh?
Answer: Khufu.
19. Which fabric was invented in Ancient China?
Answer: Silk.
20. The Maya Empire was centered in what is now which country?
Answer: Guatemala.
21. What was the first capital of ancient Egypt?
Answer: Memphis.
22. Who is considered the founder of the Xia Dynasty in ancient China?
Answer: Yu the Great.
23. Which ancient figure is often considered the founder of Western philosophy?
Answer: Socrates.
24. Where is the Pyramid of the Sun located?
Answer: Teotihuacán, Mexico.
25. What famous structure was built during the Old Kingdom in Egypt?
Answer: The Sphinx.
26. The Byzantine Empire was a continuation of which powerful ancient empire?
Answer: The Roman Empire.
27. Queen Nefertiti ruled alongside which pharaoh?
Answer: Pharaoh Akhenaten.
28. What were the two most important city states in ancient Greece?
Answer: Athens and Sparta.
29. Cleopatra VII was a legendary ruler of which area?
Answer: Egypt.
30. Which age followed the Bronze Age?
Answer: Iron age.
31. Who are the ancient people who invented the Seismograph?
Answer: The Chinese.
32. Which one of the Seven Wonders of the world still exists?
Answer: The Great Pyramid of Giza.
33. Where would you find the world-famous Colosseum?
Answer: Rome.
34. When did the first documented Olympic Games take place?
Answer: 776 B.C.
Modern History Trivia Questions
It’s time to put your knowledge of current history to the test. This modern history quiz is about current events and documenting the most important news from across the world.
1. Which country started with the Covid-19 Pandemic?
Answer: China.
2. Which country did a Brexit plan?
Answer: The United Kingdom.
3. When did the Internet become popular?
Answer: 1993.
4. What year was the first iPhone released?
Answer: 2007.
5. Who was awarded Peace Noble Prize when she was 17 years old?
Answer: Malala Yousafzai.
6. What year did the Berlin Wall fall?
Answer: 1989.
7. Which country hosted the 2016 Olympics?
Answer: Brazil.
8. How many U.S presidents are depicted on Mount Rushmore?
Answer: 4.
9. Who is the 46th American president?
Answer: Joseph R. Biden.
10. What year did Google launch?
Answer: 1998.
11. When did Brexit happen?
Answer: January 2020
12. Who founded Disney Studios?
Answer: Walt Disney.
13. The U.S. rover Curiosity landed on which planet in August 2012?
Answer: Mars.
14. What year was Nelson Mandela freed from prison?
Answer: 1990.
15. Who is the world’s longest-serving leader so far?
Answer: Paul Piya, Cameroon.
16. Where State of Liberty come from?
Answer: France.
17. Who founded Universal Studios in 1912?
Answer: Carl Laemmle.
18. Who became the youngest person to win a Nobel Peace Prize at age 17 in 2014?
Answer: Malala Yousafzai.
19. Which fashion brand did Karl Lagerfeld work for as creative director from 1983 until his death?
Answer: Channel.
20. Who is the author of Harry Potter?
Answer: J. K. Rowling.
21. Who is the first wife of King Charles III?
Answer: Diana, Princes of Wales.
22. The U.S. hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1994. Which country won the game?
Answer: Brazil.
23. Who had the shortest prime minister tenure in UK history, lasting 45 days?
Answer: Liz Truss.
24. Which two countries signed the Good Friday Agreement in 1997?
Answer: Britain and Ireland.
25. Which two royal family members were divorced in 1996?
Answer: Prince Charles and Princess Diana.
26. Who won the 2008 U.S. Presidential election?
Answer: Barack Obama.
27. What year was Facebook created?
Answer: 2004.
28. Which planet was downgraded to a dwarf planet in 2006?
Answer: Pluto.
29. What year did the Internet become available to the public?
Answer: 1993.
30. Which U.S. city hosted the Summer Olympics in 1996?
Answer: Atlanta.
31. In what year did New Mexico become a state?
Answer: 1912.
32. Brexit refers to which country leaving the European Union?
Answer: The United Kingdom.
33. Who was the first woman to be elected Vice President of the United States in 2020?
Answer: Kamala Harris.
34. What year was the Paris Agreement signed?
Answer: 2015.
35. Who became the most decorated gymnast in history during the 2010s?
Answer: Simone Biles.
36. How much did a single US Postage Stamp cost in 1995?
Answer: 32 cents.
37. What was the global recession that lasted from 2007 to 2009 called?
Answer: The Great Recession.
38. Which popular fast food chain restaurant was first opened in 1955?
Answer: McDonald’s.
39. What U.S. government department was created in the wake of the September 11 attacks?
Answer: The Department of Homeland Security.
Final Thoughts
We hope you found this history quiz with answers useful.
History trivia is both difficult and fascinating. But you have got this my friend!
You must remember!
Yes, you must remember who did what and when they did it, but you must also consider how those events formed the world as we know it.
That being said, it’s time to sit back, put on your thinking cap, and see how many of these historical trivia questions from four distinct categories you can answer correctly.
If you liked our quiz, don’t forget to drop a comment. We would love to have your feedback.
