July Trivia
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110 free July trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
54 free July trivia questions with answers. These July fun facts and trivia questions cover the whole month, not just the Fourth. They start with the calendar itself: why the month is named for Julius Caesar, what it was called before, the ruby and the water lily, Cancer and Leo, why Earth is farthest from the Sun in the middle of northern summer, and where the dog days got their name. Then come the holidays around the world (Canada Day and Quebec's Moving Day, Bastille Day, the Twelfth, Mandela Day, Pioneer Day, Tanabata, Tynwald Day, Reek Sunday, Finland's Sleepy Head Day) and the July moments in history: Gettysburg and the Somme, the Trinity test, the Moon landing, Disneyland's opening, Live Aid, sliced bread, the first IVF baby, the bikini, and the birthdays of Tesla, Hemingway, Kahlo, Rembrandt and J. K. Rowling. Use it for a summer party round, a July birthday quiz, a classroom warm-up or a pub quiz's month-themed section. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and primary sources, and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 110 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01July was renamed in 44 BC in honour of which Roman?
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar: Quintilis was the month of his birth, which is why it was the month renamed in his honour.
Q 02Before it was renamed, July was called Quintilis, Latin for what?
Fifth
Fifth: the early Roman year began in March, so the month we now call July was counted fifth.
Q 03Which tennis Grand Slam finishes in July?
Wimbledon
Wimbledon: its matches must end by 11 p.m., a curfew the local council imposed when it granted planning permission for the Centre Court roof.
Q 04What is July's birthstone?
Ruby
Ruby: yet the 'Black Prince's Ruby' set in the Imperial State Crown is really a spinel, a red gem long confused with ruby.
Q 05Which territory returned to Chinese rule at midnight on July 1, 1997?
Hong Kong
Hong Kong: the 1898 agreement granting its New Territories for 99 years ran out, and China pledged to keep the city's capitalist system under 'one country, two systems'.
Q 06Someone born on July 25 falls under which zodiac sign?
Leo
Leo: yet the zodiac was laid out by Babylonian astronomers, and the Sun's position against the constellations has shifted since, so the signs no longer match the stars.
Q 07In the Southern Hemisphere, July is the seasonal equivalent of which Northern Hemisphere month?
January
January: with July in midwinter, Australians hold 'Christmas in July' events to enjoy a Christmas with a winter feel.
Q 08What is the name for Earth's farthest point from the Sun, which it reaches in early July?
Aphelion
Aphelion: northern summer arrives while Earth is at its farthest, because the seasons come from the tilt of its axis, not its distance from the Sun.
Q 09The 'dog days' of summer, said to begin in early July, are named after the rising of which star?
Sirius
Sirius: its return to the dawn sky came during the hottest weeks of summer, so the Greeks and Romans blamed the Dog Star for the heat.
Q 10Which meteor shower, linked to comet Swift-Tuttle, becomes visible from mid-July?
Perseids
Perseids: in 1993 NASA delayed a space shuttle launch because of concerns about this meteor shower.
Q 11Which king did the July 4, 1776, Declaration accuse of 'repeated injuries and usurpations'?
George III
George III: in August 1775 he had already proclaimed the colonies to be in 'open and avowed rebellion'.
Q 12Which two Founding Fathers both died on July 4, 1826, the Declaration's 50th anniversary?
Jefferson and Adams
Jefferson and Adams: once political rivals, they had rebuilt their friendship through years of letters in retirement.
Q 13The Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest is held every July 4 in which New York neighbourhood?
Coney Island
Coney Island: organisers barred star eater Joey Chestnut from the 2024 contest after he signed an endorsement deal with plant-based rival Impossible Foods.
Q 21What did Black New Yorkers once celebrate on July 5?
The end of slavery in the state
The end of slavery in the state: it took full effect on July 4, 1827, and a parade the next day became a yearly custom that a Black convention later voted to discourage.
Q 22Japan's Tanabata festival marks the yearly meeting of lovers represented by which two stars?
Vega and Altair
Vega and Altair: in the legend, the Milky Way keeps the two lovers apart, and they may meet only on the seventh day of the seventh month.
Q 23On July 28, 1914, a month after the Sarajevo assassination, Austria-Hungary declared war on which country?
Serbia
Q 14Until 1982, what was Canada Day, the July 1 holiday, officially called?
Dominion Day
Dominion Day: several bills to rename it failed in the decades after the Second World War, before a private member's bill passed the Commons quickly in 1982.
Q 15In Quebec, July 1 is also traditionally what?
Moving Day, when leases turn over
Moving Day, when leases turn over: Quebec fixed it on July 1 in 1973 so children would not have to switch schools in the middle of the year.
Q 16When Parisians stormed the Bastille, which held only seven prisoners, what were they mainly after?
Gunpowder
Gunpowder: royal authorities had moved 250 barrels of it into the fortress only days before, so the crowd went there to demand it.
Q 17Belgium's National Day, July 21, marks the day in 1831 when which new king swore his oath?
Leopold I
Leopold I: yet the holiday was first held on September 27, marking the Dutch retreat from Brussels, and moved to July 21 only in 1890.
Q 18The Twelfth of July Orange Order parades celebrate William of Orange's 1690 victory at which river?
The Boyne
The Boyne: beaten there, James II fled to France and never returned, even though the war in Ireland went on for another year.
Q 19In July 1947, which town's army air field announced it had recovered a 'flying disc'?
Roswell
Roswell: the military soon withdrew the 'flying disc' claim and said the debris came from a weather balloon, a switch that fed decades of cover-up theories.
Q 20Who led the Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, commemorated on Utah's Pioneer Day?
Brigham Young
Brigham Young: on first seeing the valley he is said to have declared 'This is the right place', words now honoured by a monument at the canyon mouth.
Serbia: Russia, Serbia's powerful backer, had already begun preparing to mobilise its army, so the conflict quickly grew into the First World War.
Q 24What happens to the last person asleep on Finland's National Sleepy Head Day?
They are thrown into a lake
They are thrown into a lake, or the sea: in the town of Naantali, a celebrity is chosen every year to be thrown into the sea.
Q 25On Tynwald Day, July 5, the parliament of which island meets outdoors on an artificial hill?
Isle of Man
Isle of Man: every new law must be proclaimed from Tynwald Hill within 18 months of passing, or it ceases to have effect.
Q 26Which mountain do Irish pilgrims climb, some barefoot, on Reek Sunday?
Croagh Patrick
Croagh Patrick: pilgrims climb it in honour of Saint Patrick, who is said to have fasted and prayed on the summit.
Q 27World Population Day, July 11, was inspired by which 1987 milestone?
Five billion people on Earth
Five billion people on Earth: just 12 years later, the UN hailed a baby born in Sarajevo as the symbolic six-billionth.
Q 28July became National Ice Cream Month in the US in the 1980s, proclaimed by which president?
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan: Congress asked him to, and his 1984 proclamation called on Americans to observe the month 'with appropriate ceremonies and activities'.
Q 29What happened at Bikini Atoll four days before the bikini was unveiled in Paris on July 5, 1946?
A nuclear bomb test
A nuclear bomb test: Réard named his two-piece after the atoll and hired Paris showgirl Micheline Bernardini to model it.
Q 30The Trinity test, the first nuclear detonation, took place on July 16, 1945, in which US state?
New Mexico
New Mexico: the test's name, Trinity, is said to have come from Oppenheimer's love of the poetry of John Donne.