This list comprises a selection of 100 history trivia questions and their corresponding answers, all of which are themed around the subject of history. The questions span various historical periods, civilizations, and events – from ancient empires and medieval conflicts, to more modern events such as world wars, political movements, and significant personalities.
These questions have been carefully curated to challenge even those with a strong knowledge of history, offering a mix of both well-known and obscure historical facts. Each question offers an opportunity to delve into different corners of our collective past, providing a wide range of historical understanding.
By going through these questions and answers, you will be able to test your historical knowledge, learn new facts, and perhaps gain a greater appreciation for the vast and complex tapestry of human history.
If you’d like more history themed trivia like this, check out:
1. Who was the Roman Emperor at the time of Jesus’s birth? Reveal Answer Augustus Caesar
2. What famous 5th-century A.D. conqueror was known as “The Scourge of God”? Reveal Answer Attila the Hun
3. Who wrote the Communist Manifesto along with Karl Marx? Reveal Answer Friedrich Engels
4. Which famous leader died at the Battle of Hastings in 1066? Reveal Answer King Harold II
5. Who was the last Aztec Emperor? Reveal Answer Cuauhtémoc
6. What is the Magna Carta? Reveal Answer The Magna Carta was a charter of rights agreed to by King John of England in 1215.
7. Who was the first Tudor monarch? Reveal Answer Henry VII
8. What were the series of wars fought by the states of Florence, Venice, and the Papal States against the Duke of Milan called? Reveal Answer The Italian Wars
9. Which Japanese shogun founded the Tokugawa shogunate? Reveal Answer Tokugawa Ieyasu
10. What was the main subject of the 95 Theses text? Reveal Answer Criticisms of the Church and the Pope, particularly the sale of indulgences.
11. Which wives of Henry VIII were beheaded? Reveal Answer Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard
12. Who was known as the Sun King? Reveal Answer Louis XIV of France
13. What was the War of the Spanish Succession? Reveal Answer A European conflict of the early 18th century, triggered by the death of the childless Charles II of Spain.
14. Which Tsar of Russia modernized the Russian army in the 18th century? Reveal Answer Peter the Great
15. Who was the last Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire? Reveal Answer Francis II
16. Who was the British monarch during the American Revolution? Reveal Answer King George III
17. What were the series of revolutions in the late 18th century that ended the Bourbon monarchy in France? Reveal Answer The French Revolution
18. What is the name of Napoleon Bonaparte’s first wife? Reveal Answer Josephine
19. Who was the American general who served as the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War? Reveal Answer George Washington
20. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? Reveal Answer Thomas Jefferson
21. Who was the first president of the United States? Reveal Answer George Washington
22. What was the Battle of Waterloo? Reveal Answer The final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, which led to his exile to St. Helena.
23. In what year did the U.S. Civil War begin? Reveal Answer 1861
24. Who was the President of the Confederate States during the U.S. Civil War? Reveal Answer Jefferson Davis
25. Who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln? Reveal Answer John Wilkes Booth
26. What country first implemented concentration camps during the Second Boer War? Reveal Answer The British Empire
27. Which U.S. President is known for the ‘Square Deal’? Reveal Answer Theodore Roosevelt
28. Who was the leader of Germany during WWI? Reveal Answer Kaiser Wilhelm II
29. Which treaty ended WWI? Reveal Answer The Treaty of Versailles
30. Who was the Tsar of Russia at the beginning of the Russian Revolution? Reveal Answer Tsar Nicholas II
31. Who were the leaders of the Soviet Union during WWII? Reveal Answer Joseph Stalin
32. Who was the British Prime Minister at the start of WWII? Reveal Answer Neville Chamberlain, although he was replaced by Winston Churchill during the war.
33. Which American General led the Allied forces in the Pacific during WWII? Reveal Answer General Douglas MacArthur
34. Who was the Emperor of Japan during WWII? Reveal Answer General Douglas MacArthur
35. What was the name of the operation in which Allied forces landed in Normandy on D-Day? Reveal Answer Operation Overlord
36. What event sparked the Korean War? Reveal Answer The invasion of South Korea by North Korea
37. Who was the President of the United States when it entered the Vietnam War? Reveal Answer Lyndon B. Johnson
38. Who was the Egyptian president during the Yom Kippur War? Reveal Answer Anwar Sadat
39. Who was the South African president who ended Apartheid? Reveal Answer F.W. de Klerk
40. Which country had a violent revolution in 1910 which lasted for a decade? Reveal Answer Mexico
41. Who was the Shah of Iran before the Iranian Revolution in 1979? Reveal Answer Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
42. What year did the Soviet Union collapse? Reveal Answer 1991
43. Who was the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)? Reveal Answer Konrad Adenauer
44. Who was the first democratically elected President of Russia? Reveal Answer Boris Yeltsin
45. Who was the Prime Minister of India at the time of Indian Independence in 1947? Reveal Answer Jawaharlal Nehru
46. Who was the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom? Reveal Answer Margaret Thatcher
47. Who was the leader of the Nationalist forces during the Chinese Civil War? Reveal Answer Chiang Kai-shek
48. Who succeeded Mao Zedong as the leader of the People’s Republic of China? Reveal Answer Hua Guofeng
49. Who was the last Emperor of China? Reveal Answer Puyi
50. Who was the leader of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War? Reveal Answer Ho Chi Minh
51. Who led the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution in 1917? Reveal Answer Vladimir Lenin
52. Which Soviet leader implemented the policy of Perestroika? Reveal Answer Mikhail Gorbachev
53. What event started the Great Depression? Reveal Answer The Stock Market Crash of 1929
54. Who was the longest reigning British monarch? Reveal Answer Queen Elizabeth II
55. Who was the longest reigning French monarch? Reveal Answer Louis XIV
56. What was the Black Death? Reveal Answer A pandemic that ravaged Europe during the 14th century, killing a significant portion of the population.
57. Who discovered the New World for the Europeans? Reveal Answer Christopher Columbus
58. Who was the first European to reach India by sea? Reveal Answer Vasco da Gama
59. What event caused the start of the Crusades? Reveal Answer The capture of Jerusalem by the Seljuk Turks
60. Which Roman Emperor converted the Roman Empire to Christianity? Reveal Answer Constantine the Great
61. Who founded the Ottoman Empire? Reveal Answer Osman I
62. Who was the last Queen of France before the French Revolution? Reveal Answer Marie Antoinette
63. Who was the only U.S. President to serve more than two terms? Reveal Answer Franklin D. Roosevelt
64. Who was the British Prime Minister during the Falklands War? Reveal Answer Margaret Thatcher
65. Which Egyptian Pharaoh is known for the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza? Reveal Answer Pharaoh Khufu
66. Who was the first Emperor of China? Reveal Answer Qin Shi Huang
67. What was the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War? Reveal Answer The Battle of Yorktown
68. Who was the last monarch of the House of Stuart? Reveal Answer Queen Anne
69. What was the purpose of the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885? Reveal Answer To regulate European colonization and trade in Africa.
70. What war was sparked by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand? Reveal Answer World War I
71. Which Pope called for the First Crusade? Reveal Answer Pope Urban II
72. Who was the first female Nobel laureate? Reveal Answer Marie Curie
73. Which British king signed the Magna Carta? Reveal Answer King John
74. Who was the Queen of England during the Spanish Armada? Reveal Answer Queen Elizabeth I
75. Which nation won the Battle of Waterloo? Reveal Answer The United Kingdom, along with their Prussian allies.
76. Who was the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean? Reveal Answer Amelia Earhart
77. Which ancient Greek historian is often called the “Father of History”? Reveal Answer Herodotus
78. Who discovered the Rosetta Stone? Reveal Answer Pierre-François Bouchard
79. Who was the United States Secretary of State who developed the Marshall Plan? Reveal Answer George Marshall
80. Who was the King of England during the English Civil War? Reveal Answer Charles I
81. Which Persian King was defeated by Alexander the Great? Reveal Answer Darius III
82. Which English king was defeated at the Battle of Hastings? Reveal Answer Harold II
83. Who was the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire? Reveal Answer Romulus Augustus
84. What battle marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars? Reveal Answer The Battle of Waterloo
85. Who was the famous British statesman and Prime Minister who led Britain through World War II? Reveal Answer Winston Churchill
86. Which U.S. President issued the Emancipation Proclamation? Reveal Answer Abraham Lincoln
87. Which French statesman led the Free French Forces during World War II? Reveal Answer Charles de Gaulle
88. Which famous scientist was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during the development of the atomic bomb? Reveal Answer J. Robert Oppenheimer
89. What was the Bay of Pigs invasion? Reveal Answer An unsuccessful invasion of Cuba in 1961, financed and directed by the U.S.
90. What was the name of the peace treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese War? Reveal Answer The Treaty of Portsmouth
91. What was the name of the movement in India that sought independence from British rule? Reveal Answer The Indian Independence Movement
92. Who was the president of South Africa when Nelson Mandela was released from prison? Reveal Answer F.W. de Klerk
93. Who was the leader of the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis? Reveal Answer Nikita Khrushchev
94. Which American civil rights activist delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech? Reveal Answer Martin Luther King Jr.
95. Who was the first Prime Minister of Israel? Reveal Answer David Ben-Gurion
96. Who was the first President of the French Fifth Republic? Reveal Answer Charles de Gaulle
97. Which Roman Emperor was in power during the Great Fire of Rome? Reveal Answer Nero
98. Who was the ruler of England during the defeat of the Spanish Armada? Reveal Answer Queen Elizabeth I
99. Who was the U.S. President during the Louisiana Purchase? Reveal Answer Thomas Jefferson
100. Which world leader coined the phrase “Iron Curtain”? Reveal Answer Winston Churchill
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