60s and 70s
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50 free 60s and 70s trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The 1960s and 1970s packed more change into twenty years than most centuries manage. Television went from black and white to color, astronauts left footprints on the Moon, a president resigned, and the songs on the radio went from surf harmonies to disco. This quiz mixes both decades the way memory does: the bands and singers, the sitcoms and blockbusters, the news stories everyone remembers hearing, the champions and upsets, the space race, and the toys, gadgets and crazes that filled living rooms. It is written for anyone who lived through those years or simply loves the era, and it suits reunions, milestone birthdays, senior centers, classrooms and family game nights. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play it straight through on screen or print the questions for a group.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which variety-show host introduced the Beatles to 73 million American viewers in February 1964?
Ed Sullivan
Ed Sullivan had watched fans greet the band at London's Heathrow Airport in late 1963. Their first appearance on his show set a U.S. television audience record.
Q 02Which Apollo 11 lunar module pilot followed Neil Armstrong onto the Moon's surface in July 1969?
Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin, a Presbyterian elder, privately took communion on the Moon. The bread and wine became the first food and drink ever consumed there.
Q 03Which Washington Post reporter teamed up with Carl Bernstein to break the Watergate story?
Bob Woodward
Bob Woodward often met his secret FBI informant at 2 a.m. on the bottom level of an underground garage. The informant's identity stayed hidden until 2005.
Q 04Which actor won an Oscar for The Godfather, then sent Sacheen Littlefeather to refuse it?
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando stayed away from the 1973 ceremony in protest at the film industry's treatment of American Indians. Only George C. Scott had turned down the Best Actor award before him.
Q 05Which powdered drink mix saw its sales take off after NASA sent it into orbit with John Glenn?
Tang
Tang was never a NASA invention: General Foods had formulated it in 1957 and put it on sale in 1959. Sales were poor until the 1962 Mercury flight.
Q 06Which 1975 novelty gift came in a cardboard carrier with ventilation holes and straw bedding?
Pet Rock
Pet Rock made advertising executive Gary Dahl a millionaire. He sold nearly 1.5 million of the stones at just under $4 each after dreaming up the idea in a bar.
Q 07Which 1966 party game took off after Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor played it on The Tonight Show?
Twister
Twister had rivals accusing Milton Bradley of selling sex in a box. It was the first popular American game to use human bodies as playing pieces.
Q 08Which chestnut colt won the 1973 Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths to complete the Triple Crown?
Secretariat
Secretariat was the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years. His winning margin broke a Belmont record that Count Fleet had held since 1943.
Q 09Which Alfred Hitchcock thriller shocked audiences by killing its leading lady in a motel shower?
Psycho
Psycho also worried the censors by showing a toilet being flushed. Flushing toilets had gone unseen in mainstream American film and television until then.
Q 10At which Memphis mansion did Elvis Presley die in August 1977, aged 42?
Graceland
Graceland was named after Grace Toof, the daughter of an earlier owner of the land. Presley bought the house in 1957 for $102,500.
Q 11Which vice president took the oath of office aboard Air Force One after John F. Kennedy was shot?
Lyndon Johnson
Lyndon Johnson was sworn in by federal judge Sarah T. Hughes, the first woman to administer the presidential oath. Twenty-seven people squeezed into the plane's stateroom to watch.
Q 12From the steps of which landmark did Martin Luther King Jr. address the 1963 March on Washington?
Lincoln Memorial
At the Lincoln Memorial, King left his prepared text near the end and improvised the passage about his dream. More than 250,000 civil rights supporters heard it.
Q 13Which 1969 music festival, held on Max Yasgur's dairy farm, turned into a free concert?
Woodstock
Q 21Which barrier did East Germany start building in August 1961 to stop its citizens fleeing west?
Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall was never its official name: East German authorities called it the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart. It began as barbed wire strung on a day remembered as Barbed Wire Sunday.
Q 22Which actor originated the half-Vulcan science officer Spock on television's Star Trek in 1966?
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy based the Vulcan salute on a Jewish priestly blessing. He had peeked at it being performed as a child, when his grandfather took him to an Orthodox synagogue.
Q 23Which failed 1961 landing by CIA-funded exiles was meant to topple Fidel Castro?
Bay of Pigs
Woodstock actually took place in Bethel, New York, dozens of miles from the town it was named after. The fences and ticket booths were never finished, so the crowd of over 460,000 got in free.
Q 14Which actor supplied the voice of Darth Vader in 1977's Star Wars but asked to go uncredited?
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones dubbed the lines in post-production. George Lucas had judged the West Country accent of David Prowse, the man inside the costume, unsuitable for the villain.
Q 15Which 1975 Steven Spielberg thriller, set in beachside Amity, created the summer blockbuster?
Jaws
Jaws owes its suspense to a breakdown. The mechanical sharks, nicknamed Bruce by the crew, malfunctioned so often that Spielberg mostly hinted at the creature instead of showing it.
Q 16Which 1960s sitcom followed seven castaways shipwrecked on the charter boat SS Minnow?
Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island named its doomed boat after Newton Minow, the FCC chairman whose landmark 1961 speech had lambasted television producers for their formula comedies.
Q 17Which heavyweight champion was stripped of his title in 1967 for refusing the Vietnam War draft?
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali was found guilty of draft evasion but stayed out of prison while he appealed. The Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1971.
Q 18Which South Vietnamese capital fell to communist forces in April 1975, ending the Vietnam War?
Saigon
Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City by the victors, after the North Vietnamese president who had died in 1969. Many residents went on using the old name anyway.
Q 19Which record label, started by Berry Gordy with an $800 family loan, made stars of the Supremes?
Motown
Motown was founded in 1959 as Tamla Records. Its Detroit studio, known as Hitsville U.S.A., stayed open 22 hours a day while artists recorded between tours.
Q 20Which Atlanta Braves slugger passed Babe Ruth's career home run record in April 1974?
Hank Aaron
Hank Aaron chased the record through death threats and hate mail from people who did not want Ruth's mark to fall. He finished his career with 755 home runs.
Bay of Pigs invaders were defeated within three days by Castro's armed forces. The brigade of Cuban exiles had been trained for the mission in Guatemala.
Q 24Which Soviet cosmonaut became the first person in outer space aboard Vostok 1 in April 1961?
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin circled Earth once in a flight that lasted just 108 minutes. It was the only spaceflight he ever made.
Q 25Which fictional North Carolina town did Sheriff Andy Taylor police on The Andy Griffith Show?
Mayberry
Mayberry is said to be based on Mount Airy, North Carolina, the hometown of its star. Residents of the real town call it by both names.
Q 26Which New York Jets quarterback guaranteed an upset of the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III?
Joe Namath
Joe Namath made the promise at the Miami Touchdown Club three days before the game. His Jets, 18-point underdogs from the upstart AFL, then won 16–7.
Q 27Which singer turned Otis Redding's 1965 song Respect into her signature hit two years later?
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin rearranged and rephrased the song for her breakout hit. Spelling out the title letter by letter was her sister Carolyn's idea, the recording engineer recalled.
Q 28Which folk singer drew boos at 1965's Newport Folk Festival by playing with an electric band?
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan played three songs with the band that night, his first concert with electric instruments. Critics and fans later came to regard his electric period as producing some of his best music.
Q 29Which Greenwich Village bar did police raid in June 1969, touching off several nights of riots?
Stonewall Inn
Stonewall Inn patrons fought back in the early morning of June 28. A year later, marches on the anniversary in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago became the first Gay Pride marches in US history.
Q 30Which 1963 Kenner toy got its heat from a pair of ordinary light bulbs?
Easy-Bake Oven
Easy-Bake Oven buyers snapped up 500,000 units in its first year. Children slid small pans of cake mix inside, and the finished cake was pushed out through a slot at the other end.