Name That Decade Trivia
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This name that decade trivia quiz has 79 free questions with answers, and every one asks the same thing: you are given an event, an invention or a debut, and you have to say which decade it belongs to. That makes it a different game from ordinary decades trivia, where the year is handed to you in the question. Here the year is the answer. The events run from the 1880s to the 2010s and mix history with pop culture: the Wright brothers and the Titanic, the first Winter Olympics and the first talkie, Monopoly and the Golden Gate Bridge, the Slinky, the bikini and the LP, Barbie and Sputnik, Apollo 11 and Woodstock, Pong and the Walkman, MTV and Chernobyl, the Web and Dolly the sheep, the iPod and the iPhone, Instagram and Fortnite. Some are easy, some are famously misremembered (the Rubik's Cube and the Walkman are both older than most people think), and a few, like the first cash machine and the first Post-it, are for the real experts. It works well as a party round because everyone can have a guess. Every answer was checked against the Wikipedia article for that event, and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 79 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which decade did the Wright brothers make the first sustained, controlled powered flight?
1900s
The 1900s: on December 17, 1903, Orville Wright flew the Flyer for 12 seconds over 120 feet at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Q 02In which decade did the Ford Model T go into production?
1900s
The 1900s: the first production Model T was built at Ford's Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit in September 1908.
Q 03In which decade did the Titanic sink on her maiden voyage?
1910s
The 1910s: Titanic struck an iceberg late on April 14, 1912 and sank about two hours and forty minutes later, early on April 15.
Q 04In which decade was the Panama Canal formally opened to shipping?
1910s
The 1910s: the Panama Canal formally opened on August 15, 1914, when the cargo ship SS Ancon made the official first transit.
Q 05In which decade were the first Winter Olympic Games held, at Chamonix?
1920s
The 1920s: the Chamonix games were held in January and February 1924 as an 'International Winter Sports Week' and were recognized as the first Winter Olympics afterward.
Q 06In which decade did The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length 'talkie', reach cinemas?
1920s
The 1920s: The Jazz Singer premiered in New York on October 6, 1927, with Al Jolson's songs and a few lines of dialogue recorded on Vitaphone discs.
Q 07In which decade did Mickey Mouse make his official debut in Steamboat Willie?
1920s
The 1920s: Steamboat Willie, with synchronized sound, premiered at New York's Colony Theatre on November 18, 1928.
Q 08In which decade did Parker Brothers first publish Monopoly?
1930s
The 1930s: Parker Brothers began selling Monopoly in 1935 after buying it from Charles Darrow, whose patent was granted on December 31 that year.
Q 09In which decade did the Golden Gate Bridge open to the public?
1930s
The 1930s: the Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrians on May 27, 1937, with a 4,200-foot main span that was then the longest in the world.
Q 10In which decade did the airship Hindenburg burst into flames in New Jersey?
1930s
The 1930s: the Hindenburg caught fire while mooring at Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937, killing 36 people.
Q 11In which decade did Superman first appear, in Action Comics #1?
1930s
The 1930s: Superman debuted in Action Comics #1, cover-dated June 1938, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
Q 12In which decade was the Empire State Building constructed?
1930s
The 1930s: construction began in March 1930 and the Empire State Building opened on May 1, 1931, little more than a year later.
Q 13In which decade was the Slinky first demonstrated to shoppers, at Gimbels in Philadelphia?
1940s
The 1940s: Richard James demonstrated the Slinky at Gimbels in Philadelphia in November 1945 and sold all 400 units in about 90 minutes.
Q 21In which decade was Diners Club, the first independent payment card company, formed?
1950s
The 1950s: Frank McNamara and Ralph Schneider founded Diners Club in New York in 1950; its first cards were cardboard and accepted at local restaurants.
Q 22In which decade did Hasbro first distribute Mr. Potato Head, the first toy advertised on television?
1950s
The 1950s: Hasbro began selling Mr. Potato Head in 1952, and its April 30 TV commercial that year was the first aimed directly at children.
Q 23In which decade did Apollo 11 land the first humans on the Moon?
1960s
The 1960s: Apollo 11's lunar module Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969, and Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface hours later.
Q 14In which decade did Raytheon sell the first commercial microwave oven, the Radarange?
1940s
The 1940s: Raytheon's first Radarange went on sale in 1947, a water-cooled unit nearly six feet tall that weighed around 750 pounds.
Q 15In which decade did French designer Louis Réard introduce the modern bikini?
1940s
The 1940s: Louis Réard unveiled the bikini at a Paris swimming pool on July 5, 1946, four days after the Bikini Atoll nuclear test.
Q 16In which decade did Columbia Records introduce the 33 1/3 rpm LP record?
1940s
The 1940s: Columbia unveiled the 12-inch 33 1/3 rpm vinyl LP at New York's Waldorf-Astoria in June 1948.
Q 17In which decade did Mattel introduce the Barbie doll?
1950s
The 1950s: Barbie debuted at the American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959, modeled on the German Bild Lilli doll.
Q 18In which decade did the plastic hula hoop become a craze?
1950s
The 1950s: plastic Hula Hoops went on sale in 1958, and 25 million were sold in less than four months.
Q 19In which decade did the Soviet Union launch Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite?
1950s
The 1950s: Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957 and circled the Earth about every 96 minutes, transmitting for three weeks.
Q 20In which decade did Disneyland open in Anaheim, California?
1950s
The 1950s: Disneyland opened in Anaheim on July 17, 1955, the only Disney park completed under Walt Disney's own supervision.
Q 24In which decade did East Germany begin building the Berlin Wall?
1960s
The 1960s: East German troops sealed the border and began building the Berlin Wall in the early hours of August 13, 1961.
Q 25In which decade was the Woodstock festival held on Max Yasgur's dairy farm?
1960s
The 1960s: Woodstock ran from August 15 to 18, 1969 in Bethel, New York, drawing an estimated 400,000 people for 'three days of peace and music'.
Q 26In which decade did the original Star Trek series premiere on NBC?
1960s
The 1960s: Star Trek premiered on NBC on September 8, 1966 with the episode 'The Man Trap' and ran for three seasons.
Q 27In which decade did Ford launch the Mustang, creating the 'pony car' segment?
1960s
The 1960s: the Mustang went on sale on April 17, 1964, the day it was unveiled at the New York World's Fair, and sold over 400,000 in its first year.
Q 28In which decade did Barclays open its first cash machine, at its branch in Enfield, London?
1960s
The 1960s: the Enfield machine, generally considered the world's first ATM, opened on June 27, 1967, and actor Reg Varney made the first withdrawal.
Q 29In which decade did Atari release Pong in arcades?
1970s
The 1970s: Atari's Pong was first tested at Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, California in 1972, built by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise.
Q 30In which decade did Ernő Rubik invent the puzzle cube that bears his name?
1970s
The 1970s: Ernő Rubik built the first cube in Budapest in 1974 and patented it in Hungary as the Magic Cube.