By tradition first held in 776 BC, the ancient Olympic Games honored which Greek god?Answer: Zeus. Source: Wikipedia: Ancient Olympic Games
By what name is Octavian, the first emperor of Rome, better known?Answer: Augustus. Source: Wikipedia: Augustus
The eruption of which volcano in AD 79 buried the Roman town of Pompeii under ash and pumice?Answer: Mount Vesuvius. Source: Wikipedia: Pompeii
Julius Caesar was stabbed to death on the Ides of March in 44 BC. Which date is that?Answer: March 15. Source: Wikipedia: Assassination of Julius Caesar
The marathon race is named after a battle of 490 BC. Which empire did the Athenians beat there?Answer: The Persian Empire. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Marathon
The picture-sign writing carved on Egyptian temples and tombs is known by what name?Answer: Hieroglyphs. Source: Wikipedia: Egyptian hieroglyphs
The Romans began a stone wall in AD 122 that ran from the River Tyne to the Solway coast. In which modern country is it?Answer: England. Source: Wikipedia: Hadrian's Wall
What did the Romans build, often on long rows of arches, to bring fresh water into their cities?Answer: Aqueducts. Source: Wikipedia: Roman aqueduct
What were the armed fighters who battled in Roman arenas to entertain the crowd called?Answer: Gladiators. Source: Wikipedia: Gladiator
What were the pyramids of ancient Egypt built as?Answer: Tombs for pharaohs. Source: Wikipedia: Egyptian pyramids
When Egyptian embalmers made a mummy, which organ did they usually leave in the body?Answer: The heart. Source: Wikipedia: Mummy
Which Athenian philosopher was sentenced to death in 399 BC and drank hemlock?Answer: Socrates. Source: Wikipedia: Socrates
Which general from Carthage marched war elephants over the Alps to attack Rome?Answer: Hannibal. Source: Wikipedia: Hannibal
Which goddess, the patron of Athens, was the Parthenon built to honor?Answer: Athena. Source: Wikipedia: Parthenon
Which Greek city-state is called the birthplace of democracy?Answer: Athens. Source: Wikipedia: Athenian democracy
Which Greek city-state took boys from their families at seven to train them as soldiers?Answer: Sparta. Source: Wikipedia: Agoge
Which Macedonian king built an empire that reached from Greece to India and died at 32?Answer: Alexander the Great. Source: Wikipedia: Alexander the Great
Which queen, the last active ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, allied herself with Julius Caesar and then Mark Antony?Answer: Cleopatra. Source: Wikipedia: Cleopatra
Which twins of Roman legend were fed by a she-wolf as babies, before one of them founded Rome?Answer: Romulus and Remus. Source: Wikipedia: Romulus and Remus
Whose nearly intact tomb did the archaeologist Howard Carter uncover in the Valley of the Kings in 1922?Answer: Tutankhamun. Source: Wikipedia: Tutankhamun
The Middle Ages 22
According to English legend, which outlaw lived in Sherwood Forest and robbed the rich to give to the poor?Answer: Robin Hood. Source: Wikipedia: Robin Hood
The Bayeux Tapestry tells the story of which event?Answer: The Norman Conquest of England. Source: Wikipedia: Bayeux Tapestry
The best-known stretches of the Great Wall of China were built under which dynasty, which ruled from 1368 to 1644?Answer: The Ming dynasty. Source: Wikipedia: Great Wall of China
The Crusades to the Holy Land were fought above all for control of which city?Answer: Jerusalem. Source: Wikipedia: Crusades
England fought the Hundred Years' War against which kingdom?Answer: France. Source: Wikipedia: Hundred Years' War
In medieval Europe, what was a serf?Answer: A peasant bound to work a lord's land. Source: Wikipedia: Serfdom
In the Middle Ages, what was a knight's shield-bearer and attendant called?Answer: A squire. Source: Wikipedia: Squire
In which country did the samurai serve as a warrior class?Answer: Japan. Source: Wikipedia: Samurai
In which year did William of Normandy win the Battle of Hastings?Answer: 1066. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Hastings
Magna Carta was sealed at Runnymede in 1215 by which English king?Answer: King John. Source: Wikipedia: Magna Carta
Notre-Dame de Paris, begun in 1163, is a famous example of which style of medieval building?Answer: Gothic. Source: Wikipedia: Notre-Dame de Paris
The Vikings came from which part of Europe?Answer: Scandinavia. Source: Wikipedia: Vikings
What is the broad, deep ditch that surrounds a castle called?Answer: A moat. Source: Wikipedia: Moat
What was the medieval contest called in which two riders charged at each other with lances?Answer: Jousting. Source: Wikipedia: Jousting
What were the long, narrow Viking ships, driven by oars and a sail, called?Answer: Longships. Source: Wikipedia: Longship
Which Italian city, built on islands in a lagoon, was a rich trading republic through the Middle Ages?Answer: Venice. Source: Wikipedia: Republic of Venice
Which king of England was known as the Lionheart?Answer: Richard I. Source: Wikipedia: Richard I of England
Which leader, born Temüjin, founded the Mongol Empire in 1206?Answer: Genghis Khan. Source: Wikipedia: Genghis Khan
Which merchant from Venice traveled to China in the 13th century and told the story in a famous book?Answer: Marco Polo. Source: Wikipedia: Marco Polo
Which peasant girl helped to lift the siege of Orléans in 1429 and was later made a saint?Answer: Joan of Arc. Source: Wikipedia: Joan of Arc
Which plague pandemic of 1346 to 1353 is known by a name with a color in it?Answer: The Black Death. Source: Wikipedia: Black Death
Which word names the code of conduct that a medieval knight was supposed to live by?Answer: Chivalry. Source: Wikipedia: Chivalry
Explorers and voyages 20
Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic in the service of which country?Answer: Spain. Source: Wikipedia: Christopher Columbus
The first Norse settlement in Greenland was founded by Erik the Red. Which of his children is believed to be the first European who set foot in North America?Answer: Leif Erikson. Source: Wikipedia: Leif Erikson
The name America comes from the first name of which Italian explorer?Answer: Amerigo Vespucci. Source: Wikipedia: Amerigo Vespucci
On 29 May 1953 two men stood on the summit of Mount Everest, the first confirmed ascent. Who were they?Answer: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Source: Wikipedia: 1953 British Mount Everest expedition
Prince Henry the Navigator, patron of the early voyages down the coast of West Africa, was a prince of which country?Answer: Portugal. Source: Wikipedia: Prince Henry the Navigator
The Scottish missionary David Livingstone became famous for exploring which continent?Answer: Africa. Source: Wikipedia: David Livingstone
Vasco da Gama found the first sea route from Europe to which land, landing there in May 1498?Answer: India. Source: Wikipedia: Vasco da Gama
What is the sea route through the Arctic, north of Canada, that sailors hunted for over centuries?Answer: The Northwest Passage. Source: Wikipedia: Roald Amundsen
What name is given to the network of trade routes that joined China to the lands of the west until the mid-15th century?Answer: The Silk Road. Source: Wikipedia: Silk Road
Which British captain sailed the Endeavour to Tahiti, New Zealand and the east coast of Australia between 1768 and 1771?Answer: James Cook. Source: Wikipedia: HMS Endeavour
Which continent was the last to be found, with its ice shelves probably first seen in 1820?Answer: Antarctica. Source: Wikipedia: Antarctica
Which English captain sailed around the world between 1577 and 1580 in the Golden Hind?Answer: Francis Drake. Source: Wikipedia: Golden Hind
Which explorer's ship, the Endurance, was crushed by Antarctic ice in 1915?Answer: Ernest Shackleton. Source: Wikipedia: Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
Which Norwegian explorer led the first party to the South Pole, reached on 14 December 1911?Answer: Roald Amundsen. Source: Wikipedia: Roald Amundsen
Which ocean did Magellan name for the calm water he met there in 1520?Answer: The Pacific. Source: Wikipedia: Pacific Ocean
Which pilot, who flew the Atlantic alone in 1932, had first crossed it by air as a passenger in 1928?Answer: Amelia Earhart. Source: Wikipedia: Amelia Earhart
Which Portuguese explorer led the Spanish expedition of 1519 to 1522 that made the first voyage around the world?Answer: Ferdinand Magellan. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
Which Portuguese sailor became the first European to round the southern tip of Africa, in 1488?Answer: Bartolomeu Dias. Source: Wikipedia: Bartolomeu Dias
Which Spanish conquistador led the expedition that brought down the Aztec Empire?Answer: Hernán Cortés. Source: Wikipedia: Hernán Cortés
Which was the largest of the three ships on the first voyage of Columbus in 1492?Answer: The Santa María. Source: Wikipedia: Santa María (ship)
Inventions and discoveries 22
Around 1760, hand work began to give way to machines in which country, the first home of the Industrial Revolution?Answer: Great Britain. Source: Wikipedia: Industrial Revolution
Before paper, the ancient Egyptians wrote on sheets made from which plant?Answer: Papyrus. Source: Wikipedia: History of paper
Gunpowder is counted as among the Four Great Inventions of which country?Answer: China. Source: Wikipedia: Gunpowder; Wikipedia: Four Great Inventions
The process of heating milk to stop germs from spoiling it is named after which French scientist?Answer: Louis Pasteur. Source: Wikipedia: Louis Pasteur
The watt, the unit of power, is named after which Scottish engineer of the steam age?Answer: James Watt. Source: Wikipedia: James Watt
What did the Frenchman Louis Braille invent?Answer: A reading and writing system for blind people. Source: Wikipedia: Louis Braille
What did the Montgolfier brothers send into the sky over France in 1783, with a person on board?Answer: A hot air balloon. Source: Wikipedia: Montgolfier brothers
What was the name of the Stephenson steam locomotive that won the Rainhill Trials in 1829?Answer: Rocket. Source: Wikipedia: Stephenson's Rocket
Which brothers made the first controlled, sustained flight in an engine-powered airplane, in December 1903?Answer: The Wright brothers. Source: Wikipedia: Wright brothers
Which code for sending messages by telegraph dates from 1837 and carries the name of an American painter?Answer: Morse code. Source: Wikipedia: Samuel Morse
Which English doctor created the world's first vaccine, against smallpox, after a test in 1796?Answer: Edward Jenner. Source: Wikipedia: Edward Jenner
Which English scientist set out his laws of motion and of universal gravitation in a book published in 1687?Answer: Isaac Newton. Source: Wikipedia: Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Which French brothers held a paid public film show in Paris in December 1895, often called the birth of cinema?Answer: The Lumière brothers. Source: Wikipedia: Auguste and Louis Lumière
Which German craftsman invented the movable-type printing press in the 15th century?Answer: Johannes Gutenberg. Source: Wikipedia: Johannes Gutenberg
Which German engineer built the Patent-Motorwagen, widely regarded as the first practical automobile?Answer: Carl Benz. Source: Wikipedia: Benz Patent-Motorwagen
Which instrument, used by sailors of Song dynasty China in the 11th century, points to magnetic north?Answer: The compass. Source: Wikipedia: Compass
Which inventor of the telephone refused to keep one in his own study?Answer: Alexander Graham Bell. Source: Wikipedia: Alexander Graham Bell
Which Italian astronomer built an improved telescope and saw the four largest moons of Jupiter?Answer: Galileo Galilei. Source: Wikipedia: Galileo Galilei
Which Italian is mostly credited with inventing radio?Answer: Guglielmo Marconi. Source: Wikipedia: Guglielmo Marconi
Which scientist won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911?Answer: Marie Curie. Source: Wikipedia: Marie Curie
Which Scottish scientist discovered penicillin in 1928?Answer: Alexander Fleming. Source: Wikipedia: Alexander Fleming
Which Swedish chemist invented dynamite and left his fortune to found a set of famous prizes?Answer: Alfred Nobel. Source: Wikipedia: Alfred Nobel
The two world wars 22
Anne Frank kept her diary while her family hid in a secret annex in which city?Answer: Amsterdam. Source: Wikipedia: Anne Frank
The Battle of Britain in 1940 was the first major military campaign to be fought entirely by what?Answer: Air forces. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Britain
By what name is 6 June 1944 known, the day Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy?Answer: D-Day. Source: Wikipedia: Normandy landings
During the Christmas truce of 1914, British and German soldiers left their trenches and are recorded as playing which game?Answer: Soccer. Source: Wikipedia: Christmas truce
The First World War ended in November 1918. In which year had it begun?Answer: 1914. Source: Wikipedia: World War I
From the beaches of which French port were more than 338,000 Allied soldiers rescued in 1940?Answer: Dunkirk. Source: Wikipedia: Dunkirk evacuation
Germany, Italy and which other country signed the Tripartite Pact in Berlin in September 1940?Answer: Japan. Source: Wikipedia: Axis powers
Japan's surprise attack on which naval base, on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into the Second World War?Answer: Pearl Harbor. Source: Wikipedia: Attack on Pearl Harbor
On the Western Front of the First World War, the armies dug in and faced each other from long lines of what?Answer: Trenches. Source: Wikipedia: Trench warfare
On which date in 1918 did an armistice end the fighting of the First World War?Answer: 11 November. Source: Wikipedia: Armistice of 11 November 1918
On which Japanese city was the first atomic bomb dropped, on 6 August 1945?Answer: Hiroshima. Source: Wikipedia: Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The Second World War in Europe began on 1 September 1939, when Germany invaded which country?Answer: Poland. Source: Wikipedia: Invasion of Poland
The shooting of which archduke in Sarajevo in June 1914 helped to set off the First World War?Answer: Franz Ferdinand. Source: Wikipedia: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
What do the letters in V-E Day, 8 May 1945, stand for?Answer: Victory in Europe. Source: Wikipedia: Victory in Europe Day
What name was given to the German bombing campaign against British cities that ran from September 1940 to May 1941?Answer: The Blitz. Source: Wikipedia: The Blitz
Which dictator, known as Il Duce, led Italy from 1922 until 1943?Answer: Benito Mussolini. Source: Wikipedia: Benito Mussolini
Which new weapon did the British army use for the first time during the Battle of the Somme, in September 1916?Answer: The tank. Source: Wikipedia: Tanks in World War I
Which peace treaty between Germany and the Allies was signed in a French palace on 28 June 1919?Answer: The Treaty of Versailles. Source: Wikipedia: Treaty of Versailles
Which Soviet leader ruled his country through the whole of the Second World War?Answer: Joseph Stalin. Source: Wikipedia: Joseph Stalin
Which world organization was founded in 1945, at the end of the Second World War, to keep international peace?Answer: The United Nations. Source: Wikipedia: United Nations
Who was the German emperor, or Kaiser, during the First World War?Answer: Wilhelm II. Source: Wikipedia: Wilhelm II
Who was the United Kingdom's Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945?Answer: Winston Churchill. Source: Wikipedia: Winston Churchill
The twentieth century 23
The Channel Tunnel, opened in 1994, runs under the sea between England and which country?Answer: France. Source: Wikipedia: Channel Tunnel
The crowning of which British monarch, in 1953, was the first coronation to be fully televised?Answer: Elizabeth II. Source: Wikipedia: Coronation of Elizabeth II
The deadly flu pandemic that began in 1918 is often named after which country?Answer: Spain. Source: Wikipedia: Spanish flu
Emmeline Pankhurst organized the British suffragettes, who campaigned for what?Answer: Votes for women. Source: Wikipedia: Emmeline Pankhurst
In which present-day country is Chernobyl, where a nuclear reactor exploded in April 1986?Answer: Ukraine. Source: Wikipedia: Chernobyl disaster
In which year did Apollo 11 land the first people on the Moon?Answer: 1969. Source: Wikipedia: Apollo 11
In which year was the Berlin Wall opened, so that East Germans could cross freely to the West?Answer: 1989. Source: Wikipedia: Berlin Wall
The Wall Street crash of October 1929 marked the start of which worldwide slump?Answer: The Great Depression. Source: Wikipedia: Wall Street crash of 1929
What kind of aircraft was the Hindenburg, which caught fire over New Jersey in May 1937?Answer: An airship. Source: Wikipedia: Hindenburg disaster
What name is given to the long rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union that followed the Second World War?Answer: The Cold War. Source: Wikipedia: Cold War
What was Sputnik 1, which the Soviet Union launched in October 1957?Answer: The first artificial satellite. Source: Wikipedia: Sputnik 1
Which canal, opened in 1914, lets ships pass between the Atlantic and the Pacific?Answer: The Panama Canal. Source: Wikipedia: Panama Canal
Which huge country broke up into 15 independent states in 1991?Answer: The Soviet Union. Source: Wikipedia: Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Which ocean liner sank on her first voyage in April 1912 after striking an iceberg?Answer: Titanic. Source: Wikipedia: Titanic
Which queen died in 1901 after reigning over Britain for more than 63 years?Answer: Victoria. Source: Wikipedia: Queen Victoria
Which territory did the United Kingdom hand over to China at midnight on 1 July 1997?Answer: Hong Kong. Source: Wikipedia: Handover of Hong Kong
Which two countries worked together to build Concorde, the airliner that flew faster than sound?Answer: Britain and France. Source: Wikipedia: Concorde
Who became the first black president of South Africa in 1994?Answer: Nelson Mandela. Source: Wikipedia: Nelson Mandela
Who became the first person to travel into space, on 12 April 1961?Answer: Yuri Gagarin. Source: Wikipedia: Yuri Gagarin
Who led the Bolsheviks in the Russian revolution of October 1917?Answer: Vladimir Lenin. Source: Wikipedia: October Revolution
Who led the nonviolent campaign to free India from British rule?Answer: Mahatma Gandhi. Source: Wikipedia: Mahatma Gandhi
Who proclaimed the People's Republic of China in Beijing on October 1, 1949?Answer: Mao Zedong. Source: Wikipedia: Proclamation of the People's Republic of China
Who was the last emperor, or tsar, of Russia?Answer: Nicholas II. Source: Wikipedia: Nicholas II
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates facts from the page named and linked beside it, in our own sentences; names, dates and short lists follow that page. Each answer was checked on 2026-09-19 against the page named and linked beside the question: the text of the English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org) was fetched that day, and the sentence that states the fact was read before the question was kept. Every extra claim in an explanation was checked the same way. Where historians disagree, the question asks for the traditional account and says so: the first Olympic Games of 776 BC, the legend of the runner from Marathon, the founding of Rome by Romulus, and 476 as the date for the fall of Rome in the West. Left out on purpose: death tolls, anything still changing, and living people. Levels are our estimate: the easy set holds the names, places and dates most players have met at school or on a quiz show. The medium set for the same six rounds is a separate file. Each question also carries the date its page was last read (checkedOn). Licence: own work
Medium: all 69 questions with answers
Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome 10
In 49 BC Julius Caesar led his army across which small river, an act that began a civil war?Answer: The Rubicon. Source: Wikipedia: Crossing the Rubicon
The oldest Wonder of the Ancient World is a pyramid at Giza. Which pharaoh was it built for?Answer: Khufu. Source: Wikipedia: Great Pyramid of Giza
The Rosetta Stone let scholars crack hieroglyphs because its decree was repeated in a language they could already read. Which one?Answer: Ancient Greek. Source: Wikipedia: Rosetta Stone
Which city, in what is now Tunisia, did Rome fight in the three Punic Wars?Answer: Carthage. Source: Wikipedia: Punic Wars
Which gladiator led a slave revolt against Rome that began in 73 BC?Answer: Spartacus. Source: Wikipedia: Spartacus
Which Greek thinker taught Alexander the Great until the prince was 16?Answer: Aristotle. Source: Wikipedia: Alexander the Great; Wikipedia: Aristotle
Which king of Sparta led the Greek stand at Thermopylae in 480 BC?Answer: Leonidas. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Thermopylae
Which Roman emperor made the city later called Constantinople his capital in AD 330?Answer: Constantine the Great. Source: Wikipedia: Constantinople
Which war did Athens and Sparta fight from 431 to 404 BC?Answer: The Peloponnesian War. Source: Wikipedia: Peloponnesian War
The year AD 476 is the traditional date for which event?Answer: When the Western Roman Empire fell. Source: Wikipedia: Fall of the Western Roman Empire
The Middle Ages 11
The Aztec capital Tenochtitlan stood on an island in a lake. Which modern city covers the site?Answer: Mexico City. Source: Wikipedia: Tenochtitlan
What was the Domesday Book, completed in 1086?Answer: A survey of land and holdings across England. Source: Wikipedia: Domesday Book
Which Archbishop of Canterbury, who had quarreled with Henry II over the rights of the Church, was murdered in his cathedral in 1170?Answer: Thomas Becket. Source: Wikipedia: Thomas Becket
Which empire captured Constantinople in 1453?Answer: The Ottoman Empire. Source: Wikipedia: Fall of Constantinople
Which English king won the Battle of Agincourt in 1415?Answer: Henry V. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Agincourt
Which grandson of Genghis Khan founded the Yuan dynasty of China?Answer: Kublai Khan. Source: Wikipedia: Kublai Khan
Which king of the Franks was crowned emperor in Rome on Christmas Day in the year 800?Answer: Charlemagne. Source: Wikipedia: Charlemagne
Which poet from Florence wrote the Divine Comedy?Answer: Dante Alighieri. Source: Wikipedia: Dante Alighieri
Which sultan took Jerusalem back from the Crusaders in 1187?Answer: Saladin. Source: Wikipedia: Saladin
Which West African empire did Mansa Musa rule when he set out for Mecca in 1324 with a vast supply of gold?Answer: The Mali Empire. Source: Wikipedia: Mansa Musa
Who led the Peasants' Revolt in England in 1381?Answer: Wat Tyler. Source: Wikipedia: Peasants' Revolt
Explorers and voyages 11
In 1947 Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Pacific from Peru to Polynesia on the Kon-Tiki. What kind of craft was it?Answer: A raft of balsa logs. Source: Wikipedia: Kon-Tiki expedition
John Cabot, who reached the coast of North America in 1497, sailed for which king?Answer: Henry VII of England. Source: Wikipedia: John Cabot
Magellan's fleet set out to reach the Moluccas by sailing west. By what name were those islands better known in Europe?Answer: The Spice Islands. Source: Wikipedia: Ferdinand Magellan
The Scottish explorer Mungo Park is remembered for his journeys along which African river?Answer: The Niger. Source: Wikipedia: Mungo Park (explorer)
The strait between Asia and North America is named after which Danish-born officer of the Russian Navy?Answer: Vitus Bering. Source: Wikipedia: Vitus Bering
Which British naval officer got to the South Pole on 17 January 1912, under five weeks behind Amundsen?Answer: Robert Falcon Scott. Source: Wikipedia: Robert Falcon Scott
Which Chinese admiral commanded seven treasure voyages across the Indian Ocean between 1405 and 1433?Answer: Zheng He. Source: Wikipedia: Zheng He
Which Dutch sailor became the first European who reached New Zealand, in 1642?Answer: Abel Tasman. Source: Wikipedia: Abel Tasman
Which Royal Navy officer led the first voyage close inshore around the whole of mainland Australia?Answer: Matthew Flinders. Source: Wikipedia: Matthew Flinders
Which Spanish conquistador conquered the Inca Empire?Answer: Francisco Pizarro. Source: Wikipedia: Francisco Pizarro
Who was the first European who saw the Pacific Ocean from the Americas, in 1513?Answer: Vasco Núñez de Balboa. Source: Wikipedia: Vasco Núñez de Balboa
Inventions and discoveries 11
The Italian scientist Alessandro Volta published his experiments with which invention in 1799?Answer: The first electric battery. Source: Wikipedia: Voltaic pile
James Watt's engine improved on an engine built in 1712 by which English inventor?Answer: Thomas Newcomen. Source: Wikipedia: Thomas Newcomen; Wikipedia: James Watt
Louis Daguerre made his invention, the daguerreotype, public in 1839. It was an early form of what?Answer: Photography. Source: Wikipedia: Louis Daguerre
Which astronomer published a book in 1543 that put the Sun, not Earth, at the center of the universe?Answer: Nicolaus Copernicus. Source: Wikipedia: Nicolaus Copernicus
Which English farmer built a seed drill pulled by a horse, in 1701, that sowed seed in neat rows?Answer: Jethro Tull. Source: Wikipedia: Jethro Tull (agriculturist)
Which English mathematician designed the difference engine and the analytical engine in the 19th century?Answer: Charles Babbage. Source: Wikipedia: Charles Babbage
Which Greek thinker from Syracuse gave his name to the law of buoyancy and to a screw pump?Answer: Archimedes. Source: Wikipedia: Archimedes
Which machine, invented by James Hargreaves in Lancashire in the 1760s, let one worker spin eight or more threads at once?Answer: The spinning jenny. Source: Wikipedia: Spinning jenny
Which Scottish inventor showed the first mechanical television system in the world in January 1926?Answer: John Logie Baird. Source: Wikipedia: John Logie Baird
Which Victorian engineer built the main line of the Great Western Railway from London to Bristol?Answer: Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Source: Wikipedia: Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Who discovered X-rays and became the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1901?Answer: Wilhelm Röntgen. Source: Wikipedia: Wilhelm Röntgen
The two world wars 12
At which English country house did codebreakers read the German Enigma messages?Answer: Bletchley Park. Source: Wikipedia: Bletchley Park
At which resort in Crimea did Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet in February 1945?Answer: Yalta. Source: Wikipedia: Yalta Conference
Australia and New Zealand remember a landing on 25 April 1915 in which campaign?Answer: Gallipoli. Source: Wikipedia: Gallipoli campaign
By what nickname was the German fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen known?Answer: The Red Baron. Source: Wikipedia: Manfred von Richthofen
In which German city were the leaders of Nazi Germany put on trial by the Allies after the war?Answer: Nuremberg. Source: Wikipedia: Nuremberg trials
Operation Barbarossa, launched on 22 June 1941, was the German invasion of which country?Answer: The Soviet Union. Source: Wikipedia: Operation Barbarossa
What does the German word Blitzkrieg mean?Answer: Lightning war. Source: Wikipedia: Blitzkrieg
Which battle on the Volga ended on 2 February 1943 with the surrender of the German 6th Army?Answer: Stalingrad. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Stalingrad
Which battle, fought from February to December 1916, was the First World War's longest?Answer: Verdun. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Verdun
Which British general won the Second Battle of El Alamein, in Egypt, in 1942?Answer: Bernard Montgomery. Source: Wikipedia: Second Battle of El Alamein
Which of these fought on the side of the Central Powers in the First World War?Answer: The Ottoman Empire. Source: Wikipedia: World War I
Which war poem inspired the custom of wearing a red poppy to remember the dead?Answer: In Flanders Fields. Source: Wikipedia: Remembrance poppy
The twentieth century 14
Along which line of latitude was Korea divided into two zones in 1945?Answer: The 38th parallel. Source: Wikipedia: Korean War
The European Union was founded by a treaty of 1992 that is named after which Dutch city?Answer: Maastricht. Source: Wikipedia: Maastricht Treaty
In which city did the Easter Rising of 1916 take place?Answer: Dublin. Source: Wikipedia: Easter Rising
In which country did the reforms known as the Prague Spring take place in 1968?Answer: Czechoslovakia. Source: Wikipedia: Prague Spring
In which Polish port city was the trade union Solidarity founded in August 1980?Answer: Gdańsk. Source: Wikipedia: Solidarity (Polish trade union)
Puyi, who came to the throne at the age of two in 1908, was the last emperor of which country?Answer: China. Source: Wikipedia: Puyi
The revolution of 1979 overthrew the Shah of which country?Answer: Iran. Source: Wikipedia: Iranian Revolution
What did Gandhi make at Dandi in 1930, at the end of a 24-day protest march to the coast?Answer: Salt. Source: Wikipedia: Salt March
Which country came into being beside independent India when British India was partitioned in 1947?Answer: Pakistan. Source: Wikipedia: Partition of India
Which country invaded the Falkland Islands in April 1982?Answer: Argentina. Source: Wikipedia: Falklands War
Which general ruled Spain as dictator from 1939 until he died in 1975?Answer: Francisco Franco. Source: Wikipedia: Francisco Franco
Who founded the Republic of Turkey and was its first president, from 1923?Answer: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Source: Wikipedia: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Who gave up the British throne in December 1936 and became the Duke of Windsor?Answer: Edward VIII. Source: Wikipedia: Abdication of Edward VIII
Who led the Soviet Union last, from 1985 to 1991?Answer: Mikhail Gorbachev. Source: Wikipedia: Mikhail Gorbachev
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates facts from the page named and linked beside it, in our own sentences; names, dates and short lists follow that page. Each answer was checked on 2026-09-19 against the page named and linked beside the question: the text of the English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org) was fetched that day, and the sentence that states the fact was read before the question was kept. Every extra claim in an explanation was checked the same way. Where historians disagree, the question asks for the traditional account and says so: the first Olympic Games of 776 BC, the legend of the runner from Marathon, the founding of Rome by Romulus, and 476 as the date for the fall of Rome in the West. Left out on purpose: death tolls, anything still changing, and living people. Levels are our estimate: the medium set asks for a second fact about the same people and events, one step past the easy set, which is a separate file. Each question also carries the date its page was last read (checkedOn). Licence: own work
How it works
Who was stabbed on the Ides of March, and which liner struck an iceberg in April 1912? These 129 easy history trivia questions run in six rounds, from ancient Egypt to the Berlin Wall. A tap shows the right answer.
Read the full guide
Start on Easy, move up to Medium
The page opens on Easy: names, places and dates from school, such as who sealed Magna Carta and where Anne Frank hid. If the table sweeps the board, switch Level to Medium for 69 more on the same rounds. Medium asks for the second fact: not who reached the South Pole first, but who arrived five weeks later.
Host one round, or print it
Set Start from to a round, from Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome to The twentieth century, and questions stay inside it. Host a round shows each question large, keeps the answer back until you press Show the answer, and tallies two to six teams. On paper, Print lists the set you played and a tick on With answer key adds the reasons.
Open a family quiz with Inventions and discoveries: children know the Wright brothers and the hot air balloon, and grandparents know penicillin.
Read the reason aloud after a right answer too. The tank got its name because the first prototype looked like a steel water tank.
Alone before quiz night? Scored round draws 20 questions and marks them together at the end.
Questions and answers
Are these history questions and answers easy enough for a family quiz?
The Easy set is. It asks which volcano buried Pompeii, which king was called the Lionheart and in which year the Berlin Wall opened. Every question has four choices, and the card gives the reason after each answer.
What does the Medium level add?
69 questions on the same six rounds, one step further in: the king who won at Agincourt, the country house where Enigma was read, the Dutch city that gave the European Union its founding treaty. Levels are our estimate, and the page stops at Medium.
Which periods does the quiz cover?
World history: ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages, explorers and voyages, inventions and discoveries, the two world wars, and the twentieth century as far as the Hong Kong handover of 1997. For the United States alone, use the American history pack.
How were the answers checked?
In Wikipedia, and only there: on September 19, 2026 the sentence behind each answer and each fact in its reason was read in the articles named under the question. Legend is labeled as legend: the runner from Marathon, the she-wolf that fed Romulus and Remus.