Historical Figures Trivia
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This historical figures trivia quiz has 100 free questions with answers and runs from Hammurabi's Babylon to Nelson Mandela's presidency, one famous person at a time. Fifty questions cover the rulers (Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, Genghis Khan, Suleiman, Catherine the Great, Queen Victoria, Louis XIV), the thinkers and scientists (Socrates, Archimedes, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Marie Curie, Ada Lovelace, Nikola Tesla), the explorers (Magellan, Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta), the fighters and reformers (Joan of Arc, Boudica, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Gandhi, Rosa Parks) and a few whose legends outgrew them, from Vlad the Impaler to Rasputin. Easy questions ask where Napoleon was born and who found Tutankhamun's tomb; the hard ones want Genghis Khan's birth name, how far Ibn Battuta travelled, which Nobel Prize Churchill won and what Bismarck built to undercut the socialists. Made for history buffs and quiz nights, and useful as a classroom warm-up. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's biographies of each figure, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Cleopatra was the last active ruler of which dynasty, founded by a general of Alexander the Great?
Ptolemaic
Cleopatra VII was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, founded by Ptolemy I Soter after Alexander's death; she was reportedly the first of her Macedonian-Greek line to learn Egyptian.
Q 02Which river did Julius Caesar cross with a single legion in January 49 BC, starting a civil war?
Rubicon
Caesar crossed the Rubicon, the stream marking Italy's northern boundary, with the Thirteenth Legion in January 49 BC, reportedly saying 'alea iacta est' — the die is cast.
Q 03Which philosopher tutored the young Alexander the Great until he was 16?
Aristotle
Aristotle tutored Alexander at Mieza from about 343 BC, when the prince was 13, until Alexander began acting as regent for his father Philip II around age 16.
Q 04What was Genghis Khan's birth name?
Temüjin
Genghis Khan was born Temüjin, reportedly named after a Tatar chieftain his father Yesügei had just captured; he took the title Genghis Khan at a kurultai in 1206.
Q 05How old was Joan of Arc when she was burned at the stake in 1431?
About nineteen
Joan of Arc was about nineteen: born around 1412 in Domrémy, she was burned at Rouen on 30 May 1431, and was canonised in 1920.
Q 06Under which Florentine painter and sculptor was Leonardo da Vinci trained?
Andrea del Verrocchio
Leonardo trained in the Florentine workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio from about 1466; he is credited with painting an angel in Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ.
Q 07On which island was Napoleon Bonaparte born?
Corsica
Napoleon was born at Ajaccio on Corsica on 15 August 1769, a year after the island came under French rule; he left for school on the mainland in 1779.
Q 08How many men did Napoleon take with him when he escaped exile on Elba and marched on Paris?
Around a thousand
Napoleon sailed from Elba on 26 February 1815 with around a thousand men, landed at Golfe-Juan, and entered Paris on 20 March as the troops sent against him joined him.
Q 09Queen Victoria married Prince Albert in 1840. What was their family relationship?
First cousins
After Albert died in 1861 she withdrew into mourning for years, though her reign ran to 63 years and 216 days.
Q 10In which state was Abraham Lincoln born, in a one-room log cabin?
Kentucky
Lincoln was born on 12 February 1809 in a one-room log cabin at Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky, the second child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln.
Q 11Gandhi moved to which country in 1893 to represent a merchant in a lawsuit, staying for 21 years?
South Africa
Gandhi went to South Africa in 1893 to assist in a lawsuit for the merchant Dada Abdulla and stayed until 1914, founding the Natal Indian Congress in 1894.
Q 12How long was the 1930 Salt March that Gandhi led to the sea at Dandi?
About 400 km
The Salt March covered about 400 km — some 385 km by most counts — from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi in 24 days, 12 March to 6 April 1930, to defy the British salt tax.
Q 13Winston Churchill won a Nobel Prize in 1953. In which category?
Literature
He also painted seriously, exhibiting in Paris under a pseudonym.
Q 21Elizabeth I of England was the only surviving child of Henry VIII and which wife?
Anne Boleyn
Elizabeth was the daughter of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife, born at Greenwich on 7 September 1533; Anne was executed in May 1536, when Elizabeth was two.
Q 22In which year was Newton's Principia first published?
1687
Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica was first published in 1687, seen through the press and paid for by Edmond Halley, who had urged Newton to write it.
Q 23Galileo was tried by the Inquisition and found 'vehemently suspect of' what?
Heresy
In June 1633 the Inquisition found Galileo 'vehemently suspect of heresy' for defending Copernican heliocentrism in his Dialogue; he abjured and spent his remaining years under house arrest.
Q 14Albert Einstein's 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded chiefly for his work on what?
The photoelectric effect
Einstein's 1921 prize cited 'especially his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect' — his 1905 explanation of light as quanta — rather than relativity, which the committee then regarded as unproven.
Q 15Marie Curie won Nobel Prizes in which two different sciences?
Physics and Chemistry
Marie Curie won Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry: the 1903 Physics prize, shared with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for work on radioactivity, and the 1911 Chemistry prize for discovering polonium and radium.
Q 16How many years did Nelson Mandela spend in prison before his release?
27
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison, from his arrest in August 1962 until his release on 11 February 1990, most of it on Robben Island.
Q 17Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, was born a princess in which kingdom?
Prussia
Catherine was born in 1729 at Stettin in the Kingdom of Prussia (now Szczecin, Poland) as Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; her father commanded the city's Prussian garrison.
Q 18The sayings of Confucius were compiled after his death in which collection?
The Analects
The Analects (Lunyu) gathers Confucius's sayings and conversations, compiled by his disciples and their followers over generations after his death in 479 BCE; it became one of the Four Books.
Q 19Hammurabi, famous for his law code, was king of which city?
Babylon
Hammurabi was the sixth king of Babylon's First (Amorite) Dynasty, reigning about 1792–1750 BC; his law code survives on a diorite stele now in the Louvre.
Q 20Which pope crowned Charlemagne emperor in Rome in the year 800?
Leo III
Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor at St Peter's in Rome on Christmas Day 800, a year after Charlemagne had restored Leo to his see following an attack by Roman nobles.
Q 24Which navigator brought Magellan's fleet home to Spain in 1522, completing the first circumnavigation?
Juan Sebastián Elcano
Juan Sebastián Elcano took command after Magellan's death and brought the Victoria, the fleet's last ship, into Sanlúcar de Barrameda on 6 September 1522 with just 18 survivors.
Q 25During which war did Florence Nightingale earn the nickname 'The Lady with the Lamp'?
Crimean War
During the Crimean War (1853–56) Nightingale ran the Barrack Hospital at Scutari, near Constantinople; a Times report of her night rounds gave her the name 'The Lady with the Lamp'.
Q 26Roughly how many enslaved people did Harriet Tubman personally guide to freedom over about 13 missions?
70
Tubman personally led about 70 enslaved people to freedom over roughly 13 missions between 1850 and 1860; the often-quoted figure of 300 comes from an inflated 19th-century biography.
Q 27Ada Lovelace, often called the first computer programmer, was the daughter of which poet?
Lord Byron
Ada Lovelace was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, born in December 1815; her parents separated weeks later and Byron left England for good in 1816.
Q 28Nikola Tesla is best known for his contributions to which kind of electricity supply system?
Alternating current
Tesla championed alternating current: his 1888 induction-motor and polyphase patents, licensed by Westinghouse, underpinned the AC systems that won the 'war of the currents' against Edison's direct current.
Q 29Amelia Earhart vanished over the Pacific in 1937 trying to be the first woman to do what?
Fly around the world
Earhart was attempting to fly around the world along an equatorial route; she and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared on 2 July 1937 near Howland Island, about 22,000 miles into the 29,000-mile trip.
Q 30Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in 1955 in which city?
Montgomery
Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, on 1 December 1955; the Montgomery bus boycott that followed lasted 381 days until the city's buses were desegregated in December 1956.