These 4th of July trivia questions stay on the one day: what Congress voted on July 2 and July 4, 1776, who signed, how the flag changed, the bell and the songs, and how the Fourth has been kept since.
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Five rounds for Independence Day
The Declaration and July 1776 asks which colony abstained and who the fifth committee member was. The flag counts rows of stars. Bells, songs and other symbols has the Liberty Bell's odd spelling and a macaroni. How the Fourth has been kept goes from 1779 to the Rebild Hills of Denmark. July 4 on the calendar collects things that happened on the date.
A sheet for the cookout
Finish a set of ten. The end card has Print question sheet, a mixed sheet of 20. Open More options for Print answer key, or to pick one Topic first.
Tips
July 4 on the calendar suits guests who know little American history: a canal, a book of poems, a spacecraft and a rowing trip.
Questions and answers
Was the Declaration of Independence signed on July 4?
Congress approved the Declaration on July 4, 1776, but the signing took place primarily on August 2, 1776, at the Pennsylvania State House. Congress had passed the resolution for independence itself on July 2.
Which presidents died on the Fourth of July?
Three. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration, and James Monroe died on July 4, 1831. Calvin Coolidge is the only president born on the day, in 1872.
How many stripes on the flag are red?
Seven. The flag has thirteen horizontal stripes, alternating red and white and starting with red, so seven are red and six are white. The fifty stars sit in nine offset rows, rows of six alternating with rows of five.
Why do we celebrate the 4th of July?
July 4 is the day in 1776 on which the Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. Massachusetts made it a state celebration in 1781, and Congress made it a paid federal holiday in 1938.
The 26th known copy of the Dunlap broadside, the first printing of the Declaration, was found in the files of which country's national archives?Answer: The United Kingdom. Source: Wikipedia: Physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration names three unalienable rights. Two are life and liberty. What is the third?Answer: The pursuit of happiness. Source: Wikipedia: United States Declaration of Independence
The first printed copies of the Declaration of Independence are named for the Philadelphia printer who made them. Who was he?Answer: John Dunlap. Source: Wikipedia: Physical history of the United States Declaration of Independence
How many grievances against King George III does the Declaration of Independence list?Answer: 27. Source: Wikipedia: Grievances of the United States Declaration of Independence
Independence Hall in Philadelphia was completed in 1753. What was it called at first?Answer: The Pennsylvania State House. Source: Wikipedia: Independence Hall
Jefferson, Adams, Franklin and Roger Sherman sat on the committee that drafted the Declaration. Who was its fifth member?Answer: Robert Livingston. Source: Wikipedia: Committee of Five
On which date did the signing of the Declaration of Independence mainly take place?Answer: August 2. Source: Wikipedia: Signing of the United States Declaration of Independence
On which date in 1776 did the Continental Congress vote for independence, two days before it approved the Declaration?Answer: July 2. Source: Wikipedia: Lee Resolution
To which place was the signed Declaration of Independence sent during World War II?Answer: Fort Knox. Source: U.S. National Archives: The Declaration of Independence: A History
When Congress voted on the resolution for independence on July 2, 1776, the delegates of which colony abstained?Answer: New York. Source: Wikipedia: Lee Resolution
Which two signers of the Declaration, the only two who later served as president, both died on July 4, 1826?Answer: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Source: Wikipedia: Independence Day (United States)
Which Virginia delegate proposed the resolution for independence in June 1776?Answer: Richard Henry Lee. Source: Wikipedia: Lee Resolution
Who is the only president of the United States to have been born on Independence Day?Answer: Calvin Coolidge. Source: Wikipedia: Independence Day (United States)
Who was probably the engrosser, the penman, of the Declaration of Independence that the delegates signed?Answer: Timothy Matlack. Source: U.S. National Archives: The Declaration of Independence: A History
Who was the only active clergyman, and the only college president, to sign the Declaration of Independence?Answer: John Witherspoon. Source: Wikipedia: John Witherspoon
Who was the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence, at age 26?Answer: Edward Rutledge. Source: Wikipedia: Signing of the United States Declaration of Independence
Who wrote to his wife Abigail that the second day of July 1776 would be the most memorable epoch in the history of America?Answer: John Adams. Source: Wikipedia: Independence Day (United States)
The flag 8
The Flag Act of 1818 named one day of the year for changing the number of stars on the flag. Which day?Answer: July 4. Source: Wikipedia: Flag Acts
The flag has thirteen stripes. How many of them are red?Answer: Seven. Source: Wikipedia: Flag of the United States
How many United States flag assemblies were planted on the Moon?Answer: Six. Source: Wikipedia: Lunar Flag Assembly
On the flag of fifty stars, the stars are set in how many offset rows?Answer: Nine. Source: Wikipedia: Flag of the United States
The story that Betsy Ross sewed the first flag was publicly presented in 1870. By whom?Answer: Her grandson, William Canby. Source: Wikipedia: Betsy Ross flag
What stood in the corner of the Grand Union Flag of 1775 and 1776, where the stars are now?Answer: The British Union flag. Source: Wikipedia: Continental Union Flag
Which president issued a proclamation in 1916 that set June 14 as Flag Day?Answer: Woodrow Wilson. Source: Wikipedia: Flag Day (United States)
Which signer of the Declaration designed two early versions of American flags, one for the United States and one for its navy?Answer: Francis Hopkinson. Source: Wikipedia: Francis Hopkinson
Bells, songs and other symbols 13
By a popular legend, the name Uncle Sam came from Samuel Wilson of Troy, New York, who supplied rations to soldiers in the War of 1812. What was his trade?Answer: Meatpacker. Source: Wikipedia: Uncle Sam
How many stanzas has 'The Star-Spangled Banner'?Answer: Four. Source: Wikipedia: The Star-Spangled Banner
In 'Yankee Doodle', the feather in the cap is called macaroni. In the slang of the 1770s, what was a macaroni?Answer: A fop. Source: Wikipedia: Yankee Doodle
In the inscription on the Liberty Bell, the name of which place is spelled in an unusual way?Answer: Pennsylvania. Source: Wikipedia: Liberty Bell
John Trumbull's painting of the presentation of the Declaration appears on the back of which bill?Answer: The two-dollar bill. Source: Wikipedia: United States two-dollar bill
The Liberty Bell was ordered from a firm of bell founders in which city?Answer: London. Source: Wikipedia: Liberty Bell
The Liberty Tree, a famous elm of the years before the American Revolution, stood in which city?Answer: Boston. Source: Wikipedia: Liberty Tree
Novus ordo seclorum is a motto on the back of the Great Seal. What does it mean?Answer: A new order of the ages. Source: Wikipedia: Great Seal of the United States
The poem that became 'The Star-Spangled Banner' was first printed under which title?Answer: Defence of Fort M'Henry. Source: Wikipedia: The Star-Spangled Banner
Which building appears on the back of the hundred-dollar bill?Answer: Independence Hall. Source: Wikipedia: United States one-hundred-dollar bill
Which female figure, also known as Lady or Miss, is a national personification of the United States?Answer: Columbia. Source: Wikipedia: Columbia (personification)
Which societies gave the Liberty Bell its name, in the 1830s?Answer: Abolitionist societies. Source: Wikipedia: Liberty Bell
'Yankee Doodle' is the official state song of which state?Answer: Connecticut. Source: Wikipedia: Yankee Doodle
How the Fourth has been kept 10
At noon on Independence Day, capable military bases fire one gun for each state. What is the salute called?Answer: A salute to the union. Source: Wikipedia: Independence Day (United States)
The first official world's fair held in the United States marked the centennial of the Declaration in 1876. In which city was it held?Answer: Philadelphia. Source: Wikipedia: Centennial Exposition
In 1779, July 4 fell on a Sunday. On which day was the holiday celebrated?Answer: Monday, July 5. Source: Wikipedia: Independence Day (United States)
In 1979 a resolution in Congress named which Nebraska town America's Official Fourth of July City, Small Town USA?Answer: Seward. Source: Wikipedia: Seward, Nebraska
In which European country has a July 4 festival been held in the Rebild Hills since 1912?Answer: Denmark. Source: Wikipedia: Independence Day (United States)
Independence Day became a paid federal holiday in which year?Answer: 1938. Source: Wikipedia: Independence Day (United States)
John Trumbull's painting Declaration of Independence was placed in 1826 in which room?Answer: The Rotunda of the United States Capitol. Source: Wikipedia: Declaration of Independence (painting)
What is the word for a 250th anniversary, which the United States marked on July 4, 2026?Answer: Semiquincentennial. Source: Wikipedia: United States Semiquincentennial
Which orchestral piece by Tchaikovsky, written about Russia in 1812, became a staple of Fourth of July fireworks concerts?Answer: The 1812 Overture. Source: Wikipedia: 1812 Overture
Which was the first state to make July 4 an official state celebration, in 1781?Answer: Massachusetts. Source: Wikipedia: Independence Day (United States)
July 4 on the calendar 11
Early in July, close to the Fourth, the Earth reaches which point of its orbit?Answer: Its farthest point from the Sun. Source: Wikipedia: Apsis
The hymn 'America', also known as 'My Country, 'Tis of Thee', was first sung in public on July 4, 1831, in which city?Answer: Boston. Source: Wikipedia: My Country, 'Tis of Thee
In a year that is not a leap year, how many days remain after July 4?Answer: 180. Source: Wikipedia: July 4
The month of July is named after Julius Caesar. What did the Romans call it before?Answer: Quintilis. Source: Wikipedia: July
Which Alabama school, now a university, was founded as a normal school for Black teachers on July 4, 1881?Answer: The Tuskegee Institute. Source: Wikipedia: Tuskegee University
Which book of poems did Walt Whitman first publish on July 4, 1855?Answer: Leaves of Grass. Source: Wikipedia: Leaves of Grass
Which book was conceived on July 4, 1862, during a rowing trip up the river Isis with three young sisters?Answer: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Source: Wikipedia: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Which spacecraft landed on Mars on July 4, 1997?Answer: Mars Pathfinder. Source: Wikipedia: Mars Pathfinder
Which writer began his stay at Walden Pond on July 4, 1845?Answer: Henry David Thoreau. Source: Wikipedia: Walden
The word frankfurter points to Frankfurt. To which city does the word wiener point?Answer: Vienna. Source: Wikipedia: Hot dog
Work began on which New York waterway on July 4, 1817?Answer: The Erie Canal. Source: Wikipedia: Erie Canal
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Every question, wrong choice and explanation is our own wording. Each answer agrees with a sentence on the page named and linked beside the question, read on 2026-10-02: an English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license) or, for two questions, the United States National Archives' history of the Declaration (https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-history, a work of the federal government). Every extra claim in an explanation was read the same day on that page. Sums, such as the seven red stripes among thirteen, were also worked as arithmetic. Left out on purpose: sales, spending and attendance figures and every other number that changes by year, living people, sports, shops and brands, and drinks. Facts that the site's American history, Americana, summer, state and tie-breaker packs already ask (who wrote the Declaration, the big signature, how many signed, the year of the first federal holiday, the anthem's author and its year in law) were dropped, so no question here repeats one of theirs word for word as they stood on 2026-10-02. Levels are our estimate for a mixed table; each round is stored easiest first. Licence: own work