The 80s
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199 free The 80s trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
102 free the 80s trivia questions with answers. The 1980s gave us MTV, the Macintosh, Michael Jackson's Thriller, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. From neon leg warmers to Nintendo, this decade transformed music, movies, technology, and world politics. The set runs from easy eighties pop culture to proper 80s history trivia on the politics and news events of the decade. Think you know the 80s? Prove it with 199 questions spanning every corner of this unforgettable decade.
30 of 199 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01MTV opened in 1981 with images of which event?
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 moon landing footage, restyled with MTV's logo, opened the channel and aired at the top of every hour; it lives on as the VMAs' Moonman trophy.
Q 02Which Michael Jackson album is the best-selling album of all time worldwide?
Thriller
Thriller's title-track video got made only after Jackson's label refused to fund it: MTV and Showtime helped pay by buying a making-of documentary.
Q 03Which song opened MTV when it launched in 1981?
Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles
Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles was co-written by Bruce Woolley, who left during recording and cut his own version with his band, the Camera Club.
Q 04In 'Back to the Future,' what speed must the DeLorean reach to travel through time?
88 mph
88 mph was more than a real car's speedometer could show, since a 1979 US law capped speedometers at 85 mph, so the Back to the Future crew built a custom one.
Q 05Who directed the 1982 film 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'?
Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg based E.T. on an imaginary alien friend he dreamed up as a boy to fill the void after his parents divorced.
Q 06Which actor starred as the Ghostbusters' Peter Venkman?
Bill Murray
Bill Murray took a Ghostbusters part Dan Aykroyd had written with John Belushi in mind; Belushi died of an overdose in 1982 while Aykroyd was still writing.
Q 07What portable music device did Sony introduce in 1979 that defined 80s culture?
Walkman
Walkman started because Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka, tired of lugging a bulky cassette recorder on business trips, asked for a small playback-only stereo player.
Q 08Which toy robot did Nintendo sell with the NES to win over wary US stores?
R.O.B.
R.O.B. helped Nintendo pitch the NES as a sophisticated toy rather than a video game console, since US retailers had lost faith in games after the 1983 crash.
Q 09Before entering politics, the US president who served for most of the 1980s twice led which organisation?
Screen Actors Guild
Screen Actors Guild leader Ronald Reagan, who held the job twice, also secretly informed the FBI about suspected Communists in Hollywood.
Q 10Which country's botched 1989 announcement opened the Berlin Wall?
East Germany
East Germany's unofficial spokesman Günter Schabowski, unaware the new travel rules were embargoed, told reporters they applied 'immediately', and crowds headed for the border that night.
Q 11Which pop star was known as the 'Material Girl'?
Madonna
Madonna's 'Material Girl' video restaged Marilyn Monroe's 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend' number from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, pink gown and all.
Q 12Which country's nuclear plant first detected the 1986 Chernobyl fallout, forcing Moscow to admit the disaster?
Sweden
Sweden's Forsmark plant found radiation on a worker's shoes on April 28, 1986, and when Sweden pressed for answers, Moscow admitted the Chernobyl accident.
Q 13'Don't Stop Believin'' was an 80s hit for which band?
Journey
Journey's 'Don't Stop Believin'' won a new generation of fans after it closed The Sopranos' 2007 finale and Glee covered it in 2009.
Q 21Which 1985 supergroup recorded the charity single 'We Are the World'?
USA for Africa
USA for Africa recorded 'We Are the World' after the 1985 American Music Awards, but Prince, who was expected to join, skipped the session and gave the album a song instead.
Q 22Which 1980s haircut got its popular name from a 1994 Beastie Boys song?
Mullet
Mullet stumped the Oxford English Dictionary: people remember the name from the 80s, but it found no printed use before the Beastie Boys' song and appealed for one.
Q 23Which 1984 Eddie Murphy film briefly overtook Ghostbusters as the highest-grossing comedy ever?
Beverly Hills Cop
Beverly Hills Cop was nearly a Sylvester Stallone movie: he signed on and rewrote it as an action film before the part went to Eddie Murphy.
Q 14What Apple product was famously introduced with a '1984' Super Bowl commercial?
Macintosh
Macintosh's '1984' ad nearly didn't air: Apple ordered its Super Bowl airtime sold off, but agency Chiat/Day resold only part of it, so the spot ran anyway.
Q 15Which 80s sitcom featured the Huxtable family?
The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show was turned down by ABC before NBC picked it up, and it became TV's No. 1 show.
Q 16What was the name of the Space Shuttle that tragically exploded in January 1986?
Challenger
Challenger launched after Morton Thiokol engineers warned the night before that record cold could keep the booster O-rings from sealing; managers overruled them.
Q 17Which 1984 Prince album, also the soundtrack to his film of the same name, included 'When Doves Cry' and 'Let's Go Crazy'?
Purple Rain
Purple Rain's 'Darling Nikki' so alarmed Tipper Gore, after she heard her daughter's copy, that she pushed record labels to put warning stickers on albums.
Q 18Which 80s toy craze had children 'adopt' dolls that came with birth certificates?
Cabbage Patch Kids
Cabbage Patch Kids began as Xavier Roberts's own version of Kentucky artist Martha Nelson Thomas's handmade Doll Babies; she sued him, and they settled out of court.
Q 19Which movie first featured Arnold Schwarzenegger's line 'I'll be back'?
The Terminator
The Terminator's studio wanted Schwarzenegger as the hero and O.J. Simpson as the killer cyborg, until James Cameron met him and cast him as the Terminator.
Q 20Unsold cartridges of Atari's notorious 1982 E.T. game were buried in a landfill in which US state?
New Mexico
New Mexico's Alamogordo landfill took Atari's buried cartridges in 1983; licensing talks had dragged on so long that E.T.'s designer got only about five weeks to build the game.
Q 24Which encouraging shout from Jane Fonda's workout videos became a common 80s saying?
'Feel the burn!'
'Feel the burn!' came from Jane Fonda's Workout, a 1982 tape she first turned down because she didn't know a single person who owned a VCR.
Q 25Which iconic 80s movie featured a group of kids searching for pirate treasure?
The Goonies
The Goonies' pirate ship was a full-size set that director Richard Donner kept hidden from the young cast, so their first look on camera was real.
Q 26Which symbol did Americans display for the US hostages held in Iran from 1979 to 1981?
Yellow ribbons
Yellow ribbons caught on after Penne Laingen, whose diplomat husband Bruce was a hostage, tied one around the oak tree outside her Maryland home.
Q 27Which band's 1987 debut album included 'Sweet Child O' Mine'?
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose based 'Sweet Child O' Mine' on girlfriend Erin Everly; they wed in 1990, and the marriage was annulled within a year.
Q 28In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Elliott lures the alien with a trail of which candy?
Reese's Pieces
Reese's Pieces got the E.T. part only after Mars turned down the chance to use M&M's in the film.
Q 29Which 1980s TV show featured a talking car named KITT?
Knight Rider
Knight Rider's KITT was voiced by William Daniels, who recorded his lines in a studio apart from the cast and asked not to be credited.
Q 30Before Ideal Toy renamed it after its Hungarian inventor in 1980, the Rubik's Cube was sold under what name?
Magic Cube
Magic Cube was the puzzle's Hungarian name, and even Ernő Rubik needed weeks to solve his own creation after scrambling it for the first time.