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History Trivia Questions
From ancient empires to the twentieth century. Play the history trivia game, then use the full question and answer list below for your own quiz night.
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History trivia is where most quiz nights are won or lost. Dates are unforgiving, and the questions that look easiest — the year the Second World War ended, the empire that built Machu Picchu — are the ones people rush and get wrong under pressure.
This set covers world history: ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, the medieval and early modern periods, the age of exploration, and the revolutions and wars of the last three centuries. It is weighted towards the events that come up again and again rather than obscure corners of the record, and every question carries a short note so the answer teaches something rather than just scoring a point. American history has its own set elsewhere on the site, so this one keeps its focus wider.
Ancient world: history trivia questions
The Great Pyramid of Giza was built in which country?
Answer: Egypt EasyIt was raised as a tomb for the pharaoh Khufu.
Which Roman city was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79?
Answer: Pompeii EasyFalling ash sealed its streets and buildings for centuries.Why?
The Great Wall was built to defend which country?
Answer: China EasyIt is a chain of walls raised and rebuilt across many dynasties.
Julius Caesar was a leader of which ancient civilisation?
Answer: Rome EasyHe was assassinated by fellow senators in 44 BC.
The ancient Olympic Games were held in which country?
Answer: Greece EasyThey ran at Olympia from roughly 776 BC for over a thousand years.
Who was the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt?
Answer: Cleopatra VII MediumShe was the final ruler of the Greek-descended Ptolemaic dynasty.Why?
By legend, Rome was founded by which pair of brothers?
Answer: Romulus and Remus MediumThe story says a she-wolf raised the abandoned twins.
The Rosetta Stone was the key to deciphering which writing system?
Answer: Egyptian hieroglyphs HardChampollion cracked it by working from the stone's Greek text.
Which Chinese dynasty produced the Terracotta Army?
Answer: The Qin HardThe buried figures guard the tomb of the first emperor, Qin Shi Huang.Why?
Which city did Rome destroy at the end of the Third Punic War?
Answer: Carthage HardRome razed the North African rival in 146 BC.Why?
The Parthenon in Athens was built by which ancient people?
Answer: The Greeks EasyIt was completed in the fifth century BC as a temple to the goddess Athena.
Alexander the Great was king of which ancient kingdom?
Answer: Macedon EasyHe conquered the Persian Empire and reached India before dying at Babylon aged 32.
Whose tomb, packed with gold treasures, was discovered in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in 1922?
Answer: Tutankhamun EasyHoward Carter found it almost intact, which is why the boy king is so famous today.
In Greek legend, the Trojan War was fought over which city?
Answer: Troy EasyIts ruins are usually identified with a site at Hisarlik in north-west Turkey.
Who was the first emperor of Rome?
Answer: Augustus MediumBorn Octavian, he took the title in 27 BC after defeating Antony and Cleopatra.
Hannibal, who crossed the Alps with war elephants, fought for which city?
Answer: Carthage MediumHe invaded Italy in 218 BC during the Second Punic War.
Cyrus the Great founded which empire in the sixth century BC?
Answer: The Persian Empire MediumHis Achaemenid state stretched from the Aegean to the Indus.
The Code of Hammurabi, one of the oldest written law codes, came from which civilisation?
Answer: Babylon HardIt was carved on a stone stele around 1750 BC and is now in the Louvre.
Which Greek city-state defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War?
Answer: Sparta HardThe war ended in 404 BC with the destruction of the Athenian fleet.
Which Mauryan emperor of India embraced Buddhism after the bloody Kalinga war?
Answer: Ashoka HardHis edicts, carved on pillars and rocks, are among the earliest Indian inscriptions.
Medieval and early modern: history trivia questions
Christopher Columbus sailed west in 1492 under the flag of which country?
Answer: Spain EasyHe was Genoese, but Ferdinand and Isabella paid for the voyage.
The Black Death that swept Europe in the 1340s was mainly which disease?
Answer: Plague EasyIt killed a large share of Europe's population within a few years.
Which empire was ruled from Constantinople after 330 AD?
Answer: The Byzantine Empire MediumConstantine renamed the older Greek city of Byzantium after himself.Why?
Who wrote the Ninety-five Theses that sparked the Reformation?
Answer: Martin Luther MediumHis main objection was to the sale of indulgences.Why?
Which ancient civilisation built Machu Picchu?
Answer: The Inca MediumThe Andean site sits high above the Urubamba valley in Peru.Why?
The Hundred Years' War was fought between England and which country?
Answer: France MediumDespite the name, the fighting stretched well past a hundred years.
The Spanish Armada sailed against which country in 1588?
Answer: England MediumFireships and Atlantic storms wrecked much of the fleet.
The Magna Carta was sealed by which English king?
Answer: King John HardSealed at Runnymede in 1215 under pressure from rebel barons.
Which battle in 1066 led to Norman rule in England?
Answer: The Battle of Hastings HardWilliam of Normandy defeated Harold II near the Sussex coast.Why?
The Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople in which year?
Answer: 1453 HardMehmed II's cannon breached the city's ancient land walls.
Which 1494 treaty divided newly explored lands between Spain and Portugal?
Answer: The Treaty of Tordesillas HardIts line down the Atlantic left Brazil on the Portuguese side.Why?
The Thirty Years' War was ended by which settlement?
Answer: The Peace of Westphalia HardSigned in 1648, it reshaped ideas of state sovereignty in Europe.
The Renaissance began in which country?
Answer: Italy EasyFlorence, Venice and Rome led the revival of classical art and learning from the fourteenth century.
Knights, castles and the feudal system belong to which period of European history?
Answer: The Middle Ages EasyThe period runs roughly from the fall of Rome in the fifth century to the fifteenth century.
The Vikings originally came from which region?
Answer: Scandinavia EasyFrom the late eighth century they raided, traded and settled from Newfoundland to the Black Sea.
The Aztec Empire was centred in what is now which country?
Answer: Mexico EasyIts capital, Tenochtitlan, stood where Mexico City is today.
Which explorer led the first expedition to sail around the world, though he died before it finished?
Answer: Ferdinand Magellan MediumHe was killed in the Philippines in 1521; one ship under Elcano completed the voyage.
Which Portuguese navigator reached India by sea around Africa in 1498?
Answer: Vasco da Gama MediumHis route broke the overland monopoly on the spice trade.
The Crusades were launched mainly to take control of which city?
Answer: Jerusalem MediumThe First Crusade captured it in 1099, and it changed hands several times afterwards.
Which ruler was crowned emperor by the Pope in Rome on Christmas Day 800?
Answer: Charlemagne MediumHis Frankish empire covered much of western Europe and is seen as the start of the Holy Roman Empire.
Which Byzantine emperor codified Roman law and built the Hagia Sophia?
Answer: Justinian I HardHis sixth-century reign briefly recovered Italy and North Africa for the empire.
Mansa Musa, famed for his wealth, ruled which West African empire?
Answer: The Mali Empire HardHis pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 spread so much gold that prices fell in Cairo.
The Defenestration of Prague in 1618 helped start which war?
Answer: The Thirty Years' War HardProtestant nobles threw two imperial governors out of a castle window; they survived the fall.
Empires and revolutions: history trivia questions
Which French emperor was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo?
Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte EasyThe 1815 defeat ended his brief return to power.Why?
Which country was ruled by tsars until 1917?
Answer: Russia EasyNicholas II was the last to hold the title.Why?
The French Revolution began in which year?
Answer: 1789 MediumThe storming of the Bastille came that July.
The Mongol Empire was founded by which leader?
Answer: Genghis Khan MediumHis grandson Kublai later ruled China as the Yuan emperor.
Which South American country is named after its liberator?
Answer: Bolivia MediumSimon Bolivar led independence campaigns across the northern Andes.Why?
Suleiman the Magnificent ruled which empire?
Answer: The Ottoman Empire HardHis sixteenth-century reign is treated as the empire's high point.
The Battle of Waterloo was fought in what is now which country?
Answer: Belgium HardThe battlefield lies a short way south of Brussels.
The October Revolution of 1917 brought which party to power in Russia?
Answer: The Bolsheviks HardLenin led it; the old calendar is why a November event is called October.
The Industrial Revolution began in which country?
Answer: Britain EasySteam power, coal and cotton mills transformed its economy from the late eighteenth century.
The Meiji Restoration of 1868 began the rapid modernisation of which country?
Answer: Japan MediumPower was returned to the emperor and the old shogunate abolished.
Which Mughal emperor built the Taj Mahal?
Answer: Shah Jahan MediumHe raised it as a tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631.
Haiti won independence in 1804 after a revolution against which colonial power?
Answer: France MediumIt was the only successful slave revolt to create an independent state.
Florence Nightingale nursed wounded soldiers during which war?
Answer: The Crimean War MediumBritain and France fought Russia there between 1853 and 1856.
Which 1815 gathering redrew the map of Europe after Napoleon's defeat?
Answer: The Congress of Vienna HardMetternich, Talleyrand and Castlereagh restored monarchies and set borders that held for decades.
Which 1905 naval battle saw Japan destroy most of a Russian fleet?
Answer: Tsushima HardIt was the first modern defeat of a European power by an Asian one and helped end the Russo-Japanese War.
The Taiping Rebellion, one of the bloodiest wars of the nineteenth century, took place in which country?
Answer: China HardIt lasted from 1850 to 1864 and cost tens of millions of lives.
The Treaty of Nanking in 1842 ended which war?
Answer: The First Opium War HardBritain gained Hong Kong and forced open several Chinese ports to trade.
The world wars: history trivia questions
In which year did the Second World War end?
Answer: 1945 EasyGermany surrendered in May 1945 and Japan followed that September.Why?
The Second World War began in 1939 when Germany invaded which country?
Answer: Poland EasyBritain and France declared war two days after the invasion.
Which treaty formally ended the First World War with Germany?
Answer: The Treaty of Versailles HardSigned in 1919; separate treaties dealt with the other Central Powers.Why?
Who led Nazi Germany during the Second World War?
Answer: Adolf Hitler EasyHe took power in 1933 and died in Berlin in the last days of the war in Europe.
In which year did the First World War begin?
Answer: 1914 EasyAustria-Hungary declared war on Serbia that July and the alliances pulled in the rest of Europe within weeks.
Who was Britain's prime minister for most of the Second World War?
Answer: Winston Churchill EasyHe took office in May 1940 and lost the general election two months after the war in Europe ended.
In August 1945 atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and which other Japanese city?
Answer: Nagasaki EasyKyoto had been on the target list but was removed, and Nagasaki was bombed three days after Hiroshima.
The D-Day landings of June 1944 took place on the coast of which country?
Answer: France EasyAllied troops landed on five Normandy beaches to open the western front.
The Battle of Stalingrad was fought in which country?
Answer: The Soviet Union MediumThe German Sixth Army surrendered there in February 1943, a turning point on the Eastern Front.
Which 1916 battle on the Western Front ran from July to November with over a million casualties?
Answer: The Somme MediumThe British Army suffered around 57,000 casualties on its first day alone.
Who led the Soviet Union throughout the Second World War?
Answer: Joseph Stalin MediumHe ruled from the late 1920s until his death in 1953.
Which 1942 battle in Egypt turned the North African campaign in the Allies' favour?
Answer: El Alamein HardMontgomery's Eighth Army drove Rommel's forces back from the approach to the Suez Canal.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914 in which city?
Answer: Sarajevo HardGavrilo Princip shot him and his wife on 28 June, setting off the crisis that led to war.
The Gallipoli campaign of 1915 was fought against which empire?
Answer: The Ottoman Empire HardAustralian and New Zealand troops' landing there is commemorated as Anzac Day.
Which February 1945 conference brought Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin together to plan post-war Europe?
Answer: Yalta HardIt agreed the division of Germany into zones of occupation.
Which 1938 agreement handed the Sudetenland to Germany?
Answer: The Munich Agreement HardChamberlain returned to Britain claiming it meant 'peace for our time'.
Twentieth century: history trivia questions
Which wall divided a European city until 1989?
Answer: The Berlin Wall EasyIt stood for 28 years, sealing East Berlin off from the West.Why?
Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?
Answer: Neil Armstrong EasyHe stepped off the Apollo 11 lander in July 1969.Why?
The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage in which year?
Answer: 1912 EasyIt struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic while sailing to New York.
Which leader led a nonviolent campaign against British rule in India?
Answer: Mahatma Gandhi MediumHis 1930 salt march openly defied the colonial salt monopoly.Why?
Apartheid was the official system of racial segregation in which country?
Answer: South Africa MediumIt was dismantled through negotiations in the early 1990s.
Who became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?
Answer: Margaret Thatcher MediumShe entered Downing Street in 1979.Why?
In which decade did the Soviet Union break up?
Answer: The 1990s EasyIt formally dissolved in December 1991, leaving fifteen independent states.
The Cold War was mainly a rivalry between the United States and which other power?
Answer: The Soviet Union EasyIt ran from the late 1940s until the Soviet collapse in 1991 without the two ever fighting directly.
Who was the first human to travel into space?
Answer: Yuri Gagarin EasyHis single orbit of the Earth in April 1961 lasted about 108 minutes.
Who proclaimed the People's Republic of China in 1949?
Answer: Mao Zedong MediumHe announced it from Tiananmen Gate after the Communists won the civil war.
Which Egyptian leader nationalised the Suez Canal in 1956, triggering a crisis?
Answer: Gamal Abdel Nasser MediumBritain, France and Israel invaded but withdrew under pressure from the United States.
Which country's independence in 1957 under Kwame Nkrumah began the wave of decolonisation in sub-Saharan Africa?
Answer: Ghana MediumIt had been the British colony of the Gold Coast.
The Cuban Missile Crisis took place in which year?
Answer: 1962 HardThirteen days in October brought the superpowers closer to nuclear war than at any other time.
People and inventions: history trivia questions
Whose letters gave the American continents their name?
Answer: Amerigo Vespucci MediumA German mapmaker labelled the new land after his first name.
Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?
Answer: Marie Curie HardShe later won a second Nobel, in a different science.Why?
Europe's first printing press using movable metal type is credited to whom?
Answer: Johannes Gutenberg HardHis Bible was printed at Mainz around 1455.
Which invention is Alexander Graham Bell credited with patenting in 1876?
Answer: The telephone EasyHis first call is said to have summoned his assistant with the words 'Mr Watson, come here'.
Who painted the Mona Lisa?
Answer: Leonardo da Vinci EasyHe worked on it for years and it was still with him when he died in France in 1519.
Who developed the theory of general relativity?
Answer: Albert Einstein EasyHe published it in 1915, a decade after his special theory.
Who is credited with inventing the World Wide Web?
Answer: Tim Berners-Lee MediumHe proposed it at CERN in 1989 and released the first web browser in 1990.
Who wrote The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels in 1848?
Answer: Karl Marx MediumIt appeared in the same year revolutions swept across Europe.
Whose ship Endurance was crushed by Antarctic ice in 1915?
Answer: Ernest Shackleton HardHe brought every one of his crew home alive after an open-boat voyage to South Georgia.
Who discovered penicillin in 1928?
Answer: Alexander Fleming HardHe noticed mould killing bacteria on a neglected culture plate in his London laboratory.
Who published the first widely recognised periodic table of the elements in 1869?
Answer: Dmitri Mendeleev HardHe left gaps for elements not yet discovered and correctly predicted their properties.
Answer key
- 1945
- Egypt
- The Berlin Wall
- Neil Armstrong
- 1912
- Pompeii
- China
- Napoleon Bonaparte
- Spain
- Rome
- Greece
- Plague
- Russia
- Poland
- The Byzantine Empire
- Martin Luther
- 1789
- The Inca
- Cleopatra VII
- Amerigo Vespucci
- France
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Genghis Khan
- Bolivia
- Romulus and Remus
- South Africa
- England
- Margaret Thatcher
- King John
- The Battle of Hastings
- Marie Curie
- 1453
- The Treaty of Versailles
- Egyptian hieroglyphs
- The Treaty of Tordesillas
- The Peace of Westphalia
- The Ottoman Empire
- Johannes Gutenberg
- The Qin
- Belgium
- Carthage
- The Bolsheviks
- The Greeks
- Adolf Hitler
- 1914
- The telephone
- Italy
- Leonardo da Vinci
- The Middle Ages
- The 1990s
- Winston Churchill
- Nagasaki
- Macedon
- The Soviet Union
- Albert Einstein
- Scandinavia
- Britain
- Tutankhamun
- Mexico
- France
- Yuri Gagarin
- Troy
- Ferdinand Magellan
- Vasco da Gama
- The Soviet Union
- The Somme
- Joseph Stalin
- Japan
- Mao Zedong
- Augustus
- Carthage
- Jerusalem
- Charlemagne
- Shah Jahan
- Tim Berners-Lee
- Gamal Abdel Nasser
- The Persian Empire
- Ghana
- Karl Marx
- France
- The Crimean War
- The Congress of Vienna
- Tsushima
- Babylon
- Sparta
- El Alamein
- Sarajevo
- The Ottoman Empire
- Yalta
- The Munich Agreement
- Ernest Shackleton
- Alexander Fleming
- Dmitri Mendeleev
- Justinian I
- China
- The First Opium War
- The Mali Empire
- 1962
- Ashoka
- The Thirty Years' War
How to play
- Pick a mode: multiple choice, true or false, a 60-second sprint, or the daily quiz.
- Answer with a tap, or press 1 to 4 on a keyboard. The right answer appears straight away with a line explaining it.
- Finish the round to see your score, copy the result grid, and step up a difficulty.
- Hosting a night? The full history list and a separate answer key are printed below, and the print layout drops the game and keeps the paper.
Tiebreaker questions
Closest guess wins. Read one out when two tables finish level.
In which year was the Berlin Wall built?
Answer: 1961 year Construction began overnight on 13 August 1961 and the wall stood until 1989.
In which year was the Battle of Agincourt fought?
Answer: 1415 year Henry V's outnumbered English army defeated the French on 25 October, St Crispin's Day.
In which year did the Soviet Union launch Sputnik, the first artificial satellite?
Answer: 1957 year It went up on 4 October 1957 and started the space race.
Common mistakes in history trivia
- Cleopatra was Egyptian.
She was Greek by descent, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty founded by one of Alexander the Great's generals.
- The Vikings wore horned helmets.
No horned Viking helmet has ever been found; the image comes from nineteenth-century opera costumes and romantic paintings.
- The Second World War started with Pearl Harbor.
The war in Europe began in September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland; Pearl Harbor in December 1941 brought the United States in.
- Napoleon was unusually short.
He was about 1.68 metres, average for a Frenchman of his time; the myth comes from confusing French and English inches and British cartoons.
- Medieval people thought the Earth was flat.
Educated Europeans had accepted a spherical Earth since antiquity; Columbus's argument with his critics was about the size of the globe, not its shape.
- The Great Wall of China was built all at once.
It is a series of walls raised and rebuilt over two thousand years; most of what tourists see dates from the Ming dynasty.
Running this round at a quiz night
Build a history round from at least three themes so it does not become a war-dates test: one ancient, one medieval, one twentieth-century and one people-and-inventions question make a good spine. The disputes that come up are predictable. 'Who invented the light bulb' and 'who discovered America' have no single settled answer, so avoid them or word the question around a specific event, such as a patent year. For wars, say 'began' or 'ended' explicitly, since 1939 and 1941 are both right for different countries. For tiebreakers ask for a year with one settled answer, such as when the Berlin Wall went up, and take the closest guess.
Frequently asked questions
Are the dates in these history questions verified?
Yes. Every date is checked against a standard reference before the question goes on the page. Where an event is commonly misdated, the note under the answer gives the detail that explains why.
Can I print this history question and answer list?
Yes. The full list sits below the game with the correct answer marked on each question. You can print the page straight from your browser or copy the questions into your own quiz sheet.
Is this set only European history?
No. It covers Egypt, Greece, China, the Mongol empire, the Inca, India, South Africa and South America alongside European events. American history is kept in its own separate set so neither round repeats the other.
Not in a quiz mood?
The question games are a different kind of round: no right answers, just prompts you read out and argue about. Would You RatherNever Have I EverTruth or DareThis or That