97 Fun Facts About History Trivia for Kids

Who was the first president of the United States?

George Washington: he chose to retire after two terms rather than seek a third, setting the precedent of a two-term presidency.

Which ancient Greek city is often called the birthplace of democracy?

Athens: its citizens could vote to banish a too-powerful politician for ten years by writing his name on pieces of broken pottery.

Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?

Neil Armstrong: seeing the computer steer Eagle toward a boulder-strewn area, he took over the controls and flew past it to land.

Which brothers flew the first powered airplane in 1903?

The Wright brothers: they ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, and years of building bikes there gave them the mechanical skills to build a plane.

In a medieval castle, what was the deep ditch, often filled with water, dug around the walls called?

A moat: it kept siege towers and battering rams away from the walls, and when filled with water it made tunnelling underneath very hard.

In which city did Rosa Parks refuse to give up her bus seat in 1955?

Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, on 1 December 1955. Her arrest sparked the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott against segregated seating.

Which of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the only one still standing?

The Great Pyramid: it once wore a smooth white limestone casing, but most of those stones were stripped away, reportedly to build Cairo.

Whose treasure-filled tomb did Howard Carter uncover in Egypt in 1922?

Tutankhamun: his tomb stayed nearly intact because debris and workers' huts from a later pharaoh's tomb buried its entrance, hiding it from robbers.

Who painted the Mona Lisa?

Leonardo da Vinci: the portrait was little known to the public until it was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, a theft that helped make it world-famous.

The ship Titanic sank in 1912 after hitting what?

An iceberg: the ship carried lifeboats for only about half the people aboard, one reason about 1,500 people died.

Which ship carried the Pilgrims from England to America in 1620?

The Mayflower: it reached Cape Cod, far north of the land the Pilgrims had permission to settle, so before going ashore the men signed the Mayflower Compact to govern themselves.

Who built Europe's first movable-type printing press?

Johannes Gutenberg: soon after his famous Bible was printed, his investor Johann Fust called in the loans and took over the workshop.

Which Roman town vanished under ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted?

Pompeii: the ash that buried the town also preserved it, leaving streets and houses almost as they had been nearly 2,000 years before.

What was the secret network Harriet Tubman used to lead people to freedom?

The Underground Railroad: after escaping slavery herself, Harriet Tubman went back about 13 times to lead family and friends to freedom.

Who was the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean?

Amelia Earhart: when she first crossed the Atlantic in 1928, she went only as a passenger while two men flew the plane.

The ancient Olympic Games were held at Olympia in honor of which Greek god?

Zeus: during his festival a sacred truce was announced so that athletes and pilgrims could travel to Olympia in safety.

Which giant amphitheatre in ancient Rome hosted gladiator fights?

The Colosseum: sailors from the Roman navy were brought in to work its huge canvas awning, which shaded the crowds.

Which US president led the country through the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation?

Abraham Lincoln: the proclamation declared enslaved people free only in the rebelling states, leaving slavery untouched in border states loyal to the Union.

Who gave the famous 'I Have a Dream' speech in 1963?

Martin Luther King Jr.: singer Mahalia Jackson called out to tell them about the dream, and whether or not he heard her, he soon left his prepared text.

Who was awarded the first US patent for the telephone in 1876?

Alexander Graham Bell: days after getting the patent, he made the first call, reportedly telling his assistant in another room, 'Mr. Watson, come here.'

The Great Fire of London began in what kind of shop?

A bakery: it belonged to King Charles II's own baker, and the flames went on to destroy more than 13,000 buildings.

Which famous queen was the last active pharaoh of the Ptolemaic Kingdom?

Cleopatra ruled from 51 to 30 BC, the last of a Ptolemaic line that was Greek rather than Egyptian in origin.

Which European city was split into East and West by a wall during the Cold War?

Berlin: the wall opened in 1989 after a spokesman, not fully briefed on new travel rules, said they took effect 'immediately', and crowds rushed the checkpoints.

Which English king sealed Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215?

John: rebel barons forced him to agree to it, but the Pope soon annulled the charter and England fell into civil war.

Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, was launched in 1957 by which country?

Soviet Union: the surprise launch shocked Americans, who feared they had fallen behind, and it set off the Space Race.

Which Native American people joined the Pilgrims' three-day feast at Plymouth in 1621?

The Wampanoag: their leader Massasoit arrived with about 90 men, and they went out and killed five deer for the feast.

Which Roman leader was assassinated by a group of senators on the Ides of March in 44 BC?

Julius Caesar: he had just been named dictator for life, and senators led by Brutus and Cassius feared he would make himself king.

Marco Polo, who travelled the Silk Road and met Kublai Khan, came from which Italian city?

Venice: back home he was captured in a war with Genoa, and in prison he told his travel stories to a cellmate who wrote them down.

Which teenage French heroine led soldiers to lift the siege of Orléans in 1429?

Joan of Arc: she was later captured and burned at the stake, yet centuries afterwards the Church declared her a saint.

In 1773, American colonists dumped chests of what into Boston Harbor in protest?

Tea: some of the protesters disguised themselves as Mohawk warriors before dumping the chests into the harbor.

Ferdinand Magellan's expedition of 1519 to 1522 was the first to do what?

Sail around the world: Magellan himself was killed in the Philippines, so Juan Sebastián Elcano brought the last ship home to Spain.

Anne Frank became famous around the world for writing what while hiding in a secret annex in Amsterdam?

A diary: Anne had hoped to publish a book about her time in hiding, and after the war her father Otto made that wish come true.

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison before becoming the first Black president of which country?

South Africa: he later shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with F. W. de Klerk, the president who had released him from prison.

Which modern capital stands on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec island capital?

Mexico City: the Spanish razed the Aztecs' Great Temple and built the centre of their new colonial city right on top of Tenochtitlan.

The Rosetta Stone helped experts finally read which ancient writing?

Hieroglyphs: the stone carries one decree in hieroglyphs, Demotic and Greek, and comparing the versions let scholars finally decipher the hieroglyphs.

The Vikings, famous for their fast longships, came from which part of the world?

Scandinavia: the Viking Age in England began in 793, when raiders from the sea attacked the island monastery of Lindisfarne.

When ancient Egyptians made a mummy, they wrapped the dried body in many layers of what?

Linen: embalmers tucked small magical amulets between the layers of linen to protect the dead person.

After serving as a page, what did a medieval boy training for knighthood become at about 14?

A squire: he looked after his knight's horses and armour and even carried the knight's spare lances and shield in war.

Samurai were sword-carrying warriors who served lords in which country long ago?

Japan: only full samurai were allowed to carry two swords, a privilege taken away when Japan modernised in the late 1800s.

Which American inventor is famous for the light bulb and the phonograph?

Thomas Edison: other inventors had made electric bulbs before him, but he developed a long-lasting, affordable one.

In Greek legend, soldiers hid inside a giant wooden horse to sneak into which city?

Troy: the Trojans took the horse into their city without knowing soldiers were hidden inside, and 'Trojan horse' now also names sneaky computer malware.

Machu Picchu, a stone city high in the mountains of Peru, was built by which people?

The Inca: people living nearby knew of Machu Picchu, but few outsiders had heard of it until an American explorer brought it to international attention in 1911.

The cracked Liberty Bell is in which city?

Philadelphia: it began as the bell of the State House, and abolitionists campaigning against slavery later made it a symbol of liberty.

Who became the first person to travel into space, in 1961?

Yuri Gagarin: Vostok 1 was steered by automatic controls rather than by Gagarin himself.

Which nurse, 'The Lady with the Lamp', cared for wounded soldiers in the Crimean War?

Florence Nightingale: after the war she used new kinds of charts to show that most soldiers who died had been killed by preventable disease, not battle.

Which Frenchman invented a system of raised dots that lets blind people read by touch?

Louis Braille: at just 15 he adapted a military 'night writing' code of raised dots, meant for reading messages in the dark, into his alphabet.

Which Norwegian explorer led the first team to reach the South Pole, in December 1911?

Roald Amundsen: his team beat Robert Scott's British party by about five weeks, and Scott and his men died on the journey back.

Which Scottish scientist discovered penicillin in 1928 after mould grew in a lab dish?

Alexander Fleming: he later shared the Nobel Prize with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, who showed that penicillin could cure infections.

Which scientist is said to have been inspired to think about gravity by a falling apple?

Isaac Newton: when plague closed Cambridge University, he went back to his family's farm, where he is said to have seen an apple fall.

In 1860, riders of the Pony Express raced across the American West on horseback carrying what?

Mail: the Pony Express lasted only about 18 months, until the first telegraph line across the country made it unnecessary.

The Great Sphinx of Giza has a human head and the body of which animal?

A lion: the Sphinx's missing nose is often blamed on Napoleon's soldiers firing cannons, but that story is a myth.

Mount Rushmore, with four presidents' faces carved in granite, is in which state?

South Dakota: sculptor Gutzon Borglum died in 1941 before the carving was finished, so his son took over the work.

In Roman legend, which animal nursed the twin babies Romulus and Remus?

A wolf: in the legend she suckled the abandoned twins until a shepherd named Faustulus found them and raised them.

The teddy bear is named after which US president?

Theodore Roosevelt: on a 1902 hunt he refused to shoot a bear that had been tied to a tree, and a newspaper cartoon of the scene inspired the toy.

Which Tudor king famously had six wives?

Henry VIII: when the Pope refused to end his first marriage, he broke with Rome and made himself head of the Church of England.

Which American founding father is famous for flying a kite in a storm to study lightning?

Benjamin Franklin: with his son William's help, he reportedly tied a metal key to the wet kite string to catch an electric charge from the storm.

Laika, the first animal ever sent into orbit around Earth, was what kind of animal?

A dog: she was never expected to survive the flight, and she died within hours as her cabin overheated.

Who founded the Mongol Empire in 1206 after uniting the tribes of the steppe?

Genghis Khan: his burial was kept so secret that historians still cannot say for certain where his grave lies.

Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?

Marie Curie shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for work on radioactivity, then won the 1911 Chemistry prize alone; she named polonium after her native Poland.

Where do the giant stone figures called moai stand?

Easter Island: its people moved hundreds of the statues from the quarry to stone platforms, and exactly how they did it is still unknown.

Which canal lets ships sail between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans without going around South America?

The Panama Canal: France started digging it in the 1880s but gave up, and the United States finished the job in 1914.

The 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor hit a US naval base in which present-day state?

Hawaii: the day after the surprise attack, Congress declared war, and the United States, neutral until then, entered World War II.

Which general was the supreme commander of the Allied forces on D-Day?

Dwight D. Eisenhower: to fool the Germans, the Allies faked a whole army supposedly led by George Patton, aimed at Calais instead of the real beaches.

Sacagawea, a Shoshone teenager, helped which expedition travel west to the Pacific?

Lewis and Clark: a young mother travelling with her baby son helped show the peoples they met that the expedition came in peace.

What nickname was given to the prospectors who flooded into California during the Gold Rush?

Forty-niners: named for 1849, the peak year of arrivals; when news of gold spread, so many people left San Francisco for the mines that it nearly emptied.

The Taj Mahal, a white marble tomb built by Emperor Shah Jahan, is in which country?

India: Shah Jahan built it as a tomb for his beloved wife, but in 1658 his own son overthrew him.

Which general led the siege of the Alamo in 1836?

Santa Anna: his victory backfired, as 'Remember the Alamo!' became the battle cry that rallied Texans to fight against him.

Which Boston silversmith made a famous midnight ride in 1775 to warn that troops were coming?

Paul Revere: a British patrol caught him before he reached Concord, while fellow riders William Dawes and Samuel Prescott escaped.

Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, was in which colony?

Virginia: the colony nearly failed in its first years, until settlers began growing tobacco, which became Virginia's first profitable export.

In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color line playing for which team?

Jackie Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers on 15 April 1947 as the first Black player in the modern major leagues. His number 42 was retired across all of Major League Baseball in 1997.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris was built as the centrepiece of what kind of event in 1889?

A world's fair: the tower was meant to be temporary, but it proved so useful for radio signals that it was spared from being torn down.

Which playwright's acting company built the Globe Theatre in London in 1599?

William Shakespeare: when the lease on their old playhouse, The Theatre, ran out, the company took it apart and used its timbers to build the Globe.

The Black Death of the 1300s most likely spread across the sea on fleas living on what?

Rats: fleas on rats aboard trading ships most likely spread it, though some scientists think human lice also played a part; it killed at least 30 percent of Europe's people.

Which artist painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel between 1508 and 1512?

Michelangelo: he saw himself as a sculptor, and he got the ceiling job only after Pope Julius II put his planned giant tomb on hold.

Hannibal of Carthage crossed the Alps in 218 BC with which surprising animals?

Elephants: he used them to terrify the Roman army, and in battle they panicked the Roman cavalry.

Napoleon was finally defeated in June 1815 at which battle?

Waterloo, fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, was Napoleon's last engagement; he gave up his throne four days later.

Which Paris fortress-prison did revolutionary crowds storm on 14 July 1789?

The Bastille: it held only a handful of prisoners and officials already planned to close it, but crowds stormed it for its gunpowder and as a symbol of royal tyranny.

In 1610, Galileo used his telescope to spot four moons circling which planet?

Jupiter: moons circling another planet broke the old idea that everything in the heavens revolves around Earth.

The Terracotta Army was buried to guard the tomb of which ruler, China's first emperor?

Qin Shi Huang: his clay army lay hidden underground for more than 2,000 years, until farmers came across it in 1974.

Which Greek philosopher tutored the young Alexander the Great?

Aristotle: Alexander's father, Philip II, is said to have paid for the lessons by rebuilding Aristotle's home town, which Philip himself had destroyed.

Which Spartan king led the famous 300 at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC?

Leonidas: when the Persians found a mountain path around the pass, he sent most of the Greek army away and stayed behind to hold them off.

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew solo nonstop from New York to Paris in which plane?

Spirit of St. Louis: a big fuel tank sat in front of the cockpit, so Lindbergh had no front window and could see ahead only with a periscope or by turning to look out a side window.

In 1869 a golden spike finished the first transcontinental railroad in which territory?

Utah: railroad boss Leland Stanford swung at the golden spike and missed, but the telegraph still flashed the word 'done' across the nation.

Edward Jenner created the world's first vaccine in 1796 to protect against which disease?

Edward Jenner inoculated eight-year-old James Phipps with cowpox in May 1796 and then showed he was protected against smallpox; the word 'vaccine' comes from vacca, Latin for cow.

The 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that led to World War I happened where?

Sarajevo: the young nationalist Gavrilo Princip shot the archduke and his wife Sophie, and a month later Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.

In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi led a 240-mile march to the sea to protest a British tax on what?

Salt: the march and the protests that followed led to the arrest of about 60,000 people, including Gandhi himself.

Who were the first two climbers confirmed to reach the top of Mount Everest, in 1953?

Hillary and Tenzing: Hillary later spent much of his life helping Sherpa communities in Nepal, building schools and hospitals.

Who beat King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and was crowned on Christmas Day?

William, Duke of Normandy: King Harold's army had to rush south to meet him only weeks after beating a Norwegian invasion at Stamford Bridge.

Cuneiform, the earliest known writing system, was invented by which people?

The Sumerians: they first used writing mostly for keeping accounts, such as records of goods and supplies.

Ötzi the Iceman, found frozen in the Alps by hikers in 1991, lived about how long ago?

Roughly 5,000 years ago: an arrowhead later found in his shoulder suggests that he was killed by another person.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were first found in 1946–47 by Bedouin shepherds in what?

Desert caves: in 1954, four of the first scrolls found were put up for sale in an advert in The Wall Street Journal.

Around 105 CE, Chinese court official Cai Lun improved how which everyday material was made?

Paper: tradition credits Cai Lun with inventing it, but older finds show he improved a material that already existed.

Which Norse explorer is thought to have reached North America around the year 1000?

His father, Erik the Red, had founded the first Norse settlement in Greenland, where Leif grew up before sailing west to a land the sagas call Vinland.

Mansa Musa, who made a gold-laden pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, ruled which African empire?

Mali: on his pilgrimage Mansa Musa is said to have handed out so much gold in Cairo that its value there dropped.

What did the Aztecs use as money to buy food and other goods?

Cacao beans: they could buy small things like tamales, and the same beans went into the Aztecs' prized chocolate drinks.

Which ancient Greek thinker is said to have shouted 'Eureka!' after an idea came to him in his bath?

Archimedes: in the best-known version, a king asked him to test whether a crown was pure gold, and his rising bathwater showed him how.

Angkor Wat, a vast ancient temple complex, is in which country?

Cambodia: it was built as a Hindu temple to the god Vishnu, but later Buddhist monks took it over and it became a Buddhist temple.