1970s
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204 free 1970s trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free 1970s trivia questions with answers. This 70's trivia quiz is built to be played, not to stump: fifty easy 70s trivia questions and answers about the decade of disco, Watergate, Star Wars, the Bicentennial, bell-bottoms, Pong and the first Earth Day. Most questions sit at the easy end, with a handful of medium ones near the finish so the room still has something to argue about. It works for a family night where grandparents lived through the decade and the kids know it from movies, for a retro-themed party, or as a gentle opening round of trivia from the 70s for a pub quiz. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn why the era looked, sounded and smelled the way it did. Every question is checked against a primary source and shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 204 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which group wrote and performed the biggest hits on the 1977 Saturday Night Fever soundtrack?
Bee Gees
Bee Gees songs for the film were written in a matter of days after manager Robert Stigwood phoned asking for music, before the brothers knew the plot; the album then topped the US chart for 24 weeks.
Q 02Who directed The French Connection in 1971 and the horror hit The Exorcist two years later?
William Friedkin
William Friedkin won the Best Director Oscar for The French Connection, whose hero Popeye Doyle was modelled on real New York detective Eddie Egan; Egan himself has a small part in the film.
Q 03Which newspaper employed Watergate reporters Woodward and Bernstein?
Washington Post
The Washington Post pair relied on a secret informant known as Deep Throat, whose identity stayed hidden until 2005, when former senior FBI official Mark Felt revealed it was him.
Q 04What message to extraterrestrials did the 1977 Voyager probes carry?
Golden record
A golden record on each probe carries greetings in 55 languages plus music and natural sounds, chosen by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan; diagrams on its cover show how to play it.
Q 05Which hit toy did a Hungarian architecture professor invent in 1974?
Rubik's Cube
Rubik's Cube was first called the 'Magic Cube'; after a toy agent pitched it to Ideal Toy, the American firm renamed it after its inventor for a worldwide launch in 1980.
Q 06Who directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), which won five Oscars including Best Picture?
Miloš Forman
Miloš Forman shot the film inside the real Oregon State Hospital in Salem; Kirk Douglas had played the lead on Broadway in 1963, and the story reached the screen only when his son Michael produced it.
Q 07Which Apollo mission was crippled by an oxygen tank explosion on its way to the Moon in 1970?
Apollo 13
Apollo 13's three astronauts survived by moving into their lunar module, Aquarius, and using it as a lifeboat while they looped around the Moon and headed home to a safe splashdown.
Q 08Which Apple co-founder single-handedly designed the Apple I computer in 1976?
Steve Wozniak
Steve Wozniak first showed the Apple I at the Homebrew Computer Club and meant to give its design away to fellow hobbyists; selling it, and founding a company to do so, was Jobs's idea.
Q 09Which John Travolta film was the highest-grossing movie of 1978 in the United States?
Grease
Grease topped the 1978 box office and became the highest-grossing movie musical to that point; Olivia Newton-John, 28 and unsure she could pass for a teenager, had insisted on a screen test first.
Q 10Which wave of British strikes in 1978–79 helped bring down James Callaghan's Labour government?
The Winter of Discontent
The Winter of Discontent took its name from the opening line of Shakespeare's Richard III; as rubbish piled up in the streets, Callaghan lost a confidence vote and then the election to Margaret Thatcher.
Q 11Which 1977 Fleetwood Mac album features 'Go Your Own Way' and 'Dreams'?
Rumours
Rumours was recorded while both of the band's couples were breaking up, and its writers aimed songs at one another; it went on to win Album of the Year at the 1978 Grammys.
Q 12Who directed the acclaimed 1972 crime drama 'The Godfather,' based on Mario Puzo's novel?
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola was not Paramount's first choice: Sergio Leone turned the job down, and Coppola later said he felt he could be fired at any point during the shoot.
Q 13Which US president resigned on 9 August 1974, the only one ever to do so, amid the Watergate scandal?
Richard Nixon
Q 21Which 1975 Queen album includes 'Bohemian Rhapsody'?
A Night at the Opera
A Night at the Opera took its title from a Marx Brothers film the band watched while recording; executives thought six-minute 'Bohemian Rhapsody' too long for radio until DJ Kenny Everett kept playing it.
Q 22Which film was the biggest box-office hit of 1977?
Star Wars
Star Wars opened on 25 May 1977 in only a few dozen cinemas, yet it went on to become the highest-grossing film released up to then; the 'Episode IV – A New Hope' subtitle was added later.
Q 23Which style of trousers, a 1970s fashion craze, had long been part of sailors' uniforms?
Bell-bottoms
Richard Nixon quit after the 'smoking gun' tape showed he had tried to block the FBI's investigation of the break-in; his successor Gerald Ford pardoned him weeks later.
Q 14Which soul singer released the album What's Going On on Motown's Tamla label in 1971?
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye refused to record anything else until Motown released the title track, which label boss Berry Gordy had resisted; Rolling Stone named the album the greatest of all time in 2020.
Q 15Which 1978 Taito arcade shooter is credited with starting arcades' golden age?
Space Invaders
Space Invaders was designed by Taito engineer Tomohiro Nishikado, who made its targets monsters from space because shooting human figures was ruled out; its success pulled video games into the mainstream.
Q 16At which university did National Guardsmen shoot dead four students during a May 1970 antiwar protest?
Kent State
Kent State's shootings in Ohio set off a nationwide student strike that temporarily shut hundreds of campuses, and within weeks Neil Young's protest song 'Ohio' was on the radio.
Q 17Which band's 1976 album Hotel California was its first with Joe Walsh?
Eagles
Eagles guitarist Don Felder wrote the title track's music as a demo in a rented Malibu beach house; the finished song went on to win the Grammy for Record of the Year.
Q 18Which military sitcom of 1972 ran eleven seasons about a three-year war?
M*A*S*H
M*A*S*H outlasted the Korean War it depicted by eight years; its creators wanted no laugh track at all, and the network compromised by dropping it from operating-room scenes.
Q 19The famous boxing match known as 'The Rumble in the Jungle' featured Muhammad Ali against which opponent?
George Foreman
Ali beat George Foreman by eighth-round knockout in Kinshasa, Zaire, on 30 October 1974, using his rope-a-dope tactic to exhaust the heavily favoured champion.
Q 20Who served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981?
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter began the 1976 race so obscure that a home-state headline asked 'Jimmy Who Is Running For What!?'; he beat Gerald Ford, then lost to Ronald Reagan four years later.
Bell-bottoms began as sailors' working trousers; in the 1960s young people bought cheap navy pairs at military surplus stores, and by the 1970s the flared style had gone mainstream.
Q 24What is the 1973 shock called in which OAPEC's embargo during the Yom Kippur War quadrupled a key commodity's price?
The oil crisis
The oil crisis lasted until the embargo was lifted in March 1974, and it pushed the United States to impose a national 55 mph speed limit to conserve gasoline.
Q 25Which Swedish pop group had 1970s hits 'Dancing Queen' and 'Waterloo'?
ABBA
ABBA won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden with 'Waterloo', the victory that launched the group abroad; 'Dancing Queen' later became its only number one in the United States.
Q 26What groundbreaking computer, often considered the first personal computer, was introduced in 1975?
Altair 8800
The Altair 8800 was a mail-order kit from a small firm called MITS; within weeks of appearing on the cover of Popular Electronics it was inundated with orders, kick-starting the home computer industry.
Q 27Which Queens-set American sitcom explored social and political issues through Archie Bunker?
All in the Family
All in the Family so worried CBS that its first episode in 1971 was preceded by a disclaimer, saying the show sought to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices and concerns.
Q 28Which glam rock musician released 'Ziggy Stardust' and 'Aladdin Sane' in the early 1970s?
David Bowie
David Bowie toured as the otherworldly rock star Ziggy Stardust for 18 months, then stunned fans at London's Hammersmith Odeon in July 1973 by announcing from the stage that it was the band's last show.
Q 29Which 1975 Steven Spielberg film is regarded as the prototypical summer blockbuster?
Jaws
Jaws opened on more than 400 screens at once, backed by a blitz of TV advertising; its mechanical sharks kept breaking down at sea, so Spielberg mostly kept the creature out of sight.
Q 30Which famous discotheque in New York City became synonymous with 1970s nightlife and celebrity culture?
Studio 54
Studio 54 opened in April 1977 in a former CBS television studio; owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager threw a farewell party in February 1980 before going to prison for tax evasion.