50 Fun Facts About US Citizenship Test

Which Founding Father, the oldest delegate at the Constitutional Convention, was the first US Postmaster General?

Benjamin Franklin also invented the lightning rod and bifocal glasses. The Continental Congress named him postmaster general in 1775.

Under a 1947 law, who becomes US President if both the President and Vice President can no longer serve?

The Speaker of the House was moved ahead of the Senate's president pro tempore, reversing the order set in 1792. Harry Truman wanted an elected official next in line.

Which women's rights leader was arrested for voting in the 1872 presidential election and refused to pay her fine?

Susan B. Anthony told the judge she would never pay a dollar of the $100 fine, and she never did. In 1979 she became the first female citizen shown on US coinage.

Which territory did the United States buy from France in 1803, nearly doubling the size of the country?

Louisiana cost $15 million, which averages out to less than three cents an acre. American envoys had only been ready to buy New Orleans and its surroundings.

Which American Indian nation's language did US Marine code talkers use for secret radio messages in World War II?

Navajo code talkers served in all six Marine divisions, and their code was never broken. Lacking a word for submarine, they called it an iron fish.

On the flag of the United States, what do the 13 red and white stripes represent?

The original colonies get the stripes, while the 50 stars stand for the states. An early flag of 1775 kept the British Union Jack in its corner.

Which body of 538 members, meeting in their own states every fourth December, formally chooses the US President?

The Electoral College needs a majority of 270 votes to pick a winner. If no candidate gets there, the House of Representatives decides instead.

Which general commanded the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day before winning the US presidency in 1952?

Dwight Eisenhower went on to serve as the first supreme commander of NATO before entering the presidential race as a Republican.

The Declaration of Independence names life, liberty and which third unalienable right?

Pursuit of happiness may echo the philosopher John Locke, whose own list of rights was life, liberty and estate.

Which date, known as Tax Day, is normally the deadline for sending in federal income tax forms?

April 15 has only been the deadline since 1955. Under the income tax law of 1913, forms were due on March 1.

Which Founding Father, the first Secretary of the Treasury, was killed in an 1804 duel with Aaron Burr?

Alexander Hamilton was shot at Weehawken, New Jersey, and died the next day. Burr was the sitting Vice President at the time.

Which 1863 speech by Abraham Lincoln begins with the words "Four score and seven years ago"?

The Gettysburg Address took Lincoln about two minutes to deliver. The featured orator before him, Edward Everett, had talked for two hours.

Which song, with lyrics by Francis Scott Key about a British attack on Fort McHenry, is the US national anthem?

The Star-Spangled Banner only became the official anthem in 1931. Its tune came from a song written for a gentlemen's club in London.

What name is given to the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, ratified together in 1791?

The Bill of Rights began as twelve amendments that Congress sent to the states in 1789. Only ten of them were ratified at the time.

Which US holiday, observed on the last Monday in May, honors those who died in military service?

Memorial Day was first observed nationally in 1868 under the name Decoration Day. It stayed on May 30 until Congress moved it to a Monday.

Which Virginian, later the third US President, was the main author of the Declaration of Independence?

Thomas Jefferson was 33, one of the youngest delegates, when he wrote the draft mostly alone over a few weeks in June.

On which date was the Declaration of Independence adopted, two days after Congress voted to break from Britain?

July 4, 1776 is the day the final wording was approved. John Adams predicted that July 2, the day of the vote itself, would become the great American holiday.

Which power lets the US President refuse to sign a bill passed by Congress and send it back?

The veto is not always the last word: Congress can override it with a two-thirds vote in both chambers.

Which civil rights leader won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for nonviolent resistance to racial inequality?

Martin Luther King Jr. was then the youngest person to win the prize. A year earlier, about a quarter of a million people had heard him say "I have a dream."

Which general, known as the Father of His Country, presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787?

George Washington was chosen to preside without a single vote against him. He went on to win two presidential elections unanimously as well.

What do new US citizens recite at a naturalization ceremony, renouncing all loyalty to foreign states?

The Oath of Allegiance also has new citizens promise to bear arms for the United States when the law requires it. Anyone holding a foreign noble title must give that up too.

Which system, in which each branch of the US government can limit the others, stops one from growing too powerful?

Checks and balances cut every way: the President can block a bill from Congress, Congress can overrule him, and the courts can check them both.

Which 1863 order by Abraham Lincoln declared enslaved people in the rebelling Southern states to be free?

The Emancipation Proclamation covered more than 3.5 million people, but it left out the slaveholding border states that had stayed in the Union.

Every US state has two senators, but what decides how many seats a state gets in the House of Representatives?

Its population is counted in a census every ten years, and the 435 House seats are then shared out again among the states.

In which month do Americans vote for President, always on the Tuesday after the first Monday?

November suited a nation of farmers: the harvest was finished, but the worst winter weather had not yet arrived to make travel hard.

Which power does the US Constitution give to the federal government but forbid to the individual states?

Printing money belongs to the federal government alone: the Constitution says no state may coin money or issue its own bills of credit.

Which group of department heads, not explicitly set up by the US Constitution, advises the President?

The Cabinet has no collective powers of its own and never needs to take a vote. Each member answers directly to the President.

What is the process called when the House of Representatives brings formal charges against a US President?

Impeachment takes only a simple majority in the House. The Senate then holds the trial, where a conviction needs two-thirds of the members present.

Which future fourth President is called the Father of the Constitution for his role in drafting it?

James Madison arrived with the Virginia Plan, an outline for a new government that became the basis for the Convention's debates.

In which city was the US Constitution written in 1787, in the same hall where independence had been declared?

Philadelphia's Pennsylvania State House hosted the Convention from May to September 1787. The building is now known as Independence Hall.

Which US President led the country through World War I and then championed the League of Nations?

Woodrow Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize as founder of the League, yet the United States itself never joined it.

During the Cold War rivalry with the Soviet Union, what was the main concern of the United States?

Communism was to be held back under a policy called containment, declared in 1947 as the Truman Doctrine.

Which country, alongside Germany and Japan, did the United States fight as an Axis power in World War II?

Italy gave the alliance its name: in 1936 Benito Mussolini declared that Europe would rotate on a Rome–Berlin axis.

Where does the Statue of Liberty stand, on an island once known as Bedloe's Island?

New York Harbor appealed to the sculptor Bartholdi because every ship arriving in the city had to sail past the island.

Which Latin motto on the Great Seal of the United States means "Out of many, one"?

E pluribus unum has appeared on US coins since 1795, but in 1956 Congress made "In God We Trust" the official national motto.

Which amendment to the US Constitution, adopted in 1920, guaranteed women the right to vote?

The 19th Amendment enfranchised 26 million women in time for that year's presidential election. A version of it had first been put to Congress in 1878.

Which river, nicknamed the Big Muddy, joins the Mississippi as one of the two longest in the United States?

The Missouri got its nickname from the enormous loads of silt it carries, some of the largest of any river in North America.

Which US President led the country through both the Great Depression and most of World War II?

Roosevelt is the only President to have served more than two terms. An amendment ratified in 1951 now rules that out.

Which responsibility is only for US citizens, just as voting in a federal election is?

Serving on a jury is reserved for citizens, as are voting in federal elections and running for federal office. Everyone living in the country has to pay taxes and follow its laws.

Which series of 85 essays, published under the pen name Publius, urged Americans to ratify the US Constitution?

The Federalist Papers had three authors hiding behind one Roman name. A statistical study of the text in 1964 helped confirm who had written which essay.

Which 1787 deal ended a standoff between large and small states over how each would be represented in Congress?

The Great Compromise scraped through on a 5–4 vote of the states after six weeks of turmoil at the Constitutional Convention.

Which power, never spelled out in the US Constitution, lets federal courts strike down laws that conflict with it?

Judicial review was famously declared by the Supreme Court in the 1803 Marbury case, although federal and state courts had already been using it for years.

Which amendment, adopted in 1868, overruled the Dred Scott ruling that African Americans could not be citizens?

The 14th Amendment made citizens of all persons born or naturalized in the United States. Its first section is among the most litigated parts of the Constitution.

Which barrier to voting, still used by five states in 1964, was outlawed in federal elections by the 24th Amendment?

A poll tax had to be paid before a ballot could be cast, and its purpose was to keep African Americans and poor whites from voting.

Which state became the first to ratify the US Constitution when its convention voted on December 7, 1787?

Delaware has traded on that vote ever since, taking The First State as its nickname.

Which landlocked state touches Canada only along a short border at the top of its narrow panhandle?

Idaho's only foreign neighbor is the Canadian province of British Columbia, which it meets along a small stretch in the far north.

Which first national charter, later replaced by the US Constitution, gave Congress no power to collect taxes?

The Articles of Confederation let Congress only request funds from the states, and any change to them needed the approval of all thirteen legislatures.

Which US territory, whose residents have been US citizens since 1917, became a commonwealth in 1952?

Puerto Rico's residents still cannot vote in presidential elections, although they can take part in the party primaries.

Which official traditionally swears in a new President of the United States on Inauguration Day?

The Chief Justice does it by custom, not law: the Constitution names nobody for the job, and a federal judge swore in Lyndon Johnson aboard Air Force One.

Which principle on the US civics test holds that leaders and government are bound by the same limits as everyone?

Rule of law is often boiled down to one line: no one is above the law. English barons pressed the same idea on their monarch with Magna Carta in 1215.