November Trivia
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100 free November trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
41 free November trivia questions with answers. November is the month of turkey, poppies, bonfires and moustaches. It opens with All Saints' Day and the Day of the Dead, runs through Bonfire Night, Veterans Day and Election Day, and finishes with Thanksgiving, Black Friday and St Andrew's Day. This quiz covers all of it, plus the birthstone, the birth flower and why a month called 'nine' sits eleventh in the year. It also digs into the things that happened to happen in November: the fall of the Berlin Wall, Tutankhamun's tomb, the Gettysburg Address, Laika's launch, the first hot-air balloon flight, and the premieres of Sesame Street, Steamboat Willie and The Mousetrap. Questions range from easy ones you can use at a family dinner or a seniors' activity hour to a few that will stump a pub quiz team. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, mostly the relevant Wikipedia article, and the citation is attached to each question.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01November's name comes from the Latin word for which number?
Nine
Nine: November comes from Latin novem, 'nine', because it was the ninth month of the early Roman calendar, which began in March; it kept the name after January and February were placed at the start of the year.
Q 02Which gemstone is November's traditional birthstone?
Topaz
Topaz is November's birthstone, and most blue topaz sold today began as colourless topaz turned blue by irradiation and heating.
Q 03What is the birth flower of November?
Chrysanthemum
The chrysanthemum flowers in autumn, just as many summer blooms fade, which is why this late-season flower is linked with November.
Q 04A person born on November 10 falls under which Western zodiac sign?
Scorpio
Scorpio covers birthdays up to about November 21, yet the Sun lines up with the real constellation Scorpius for only about a week each year.
Q 05US Thanksgiving is celebrated on which day of November?
The fourth Thursday
The fourth Thursday became law in 1941, after Franklin Roosevelt moved the holiday a week earlier in 1939 to lengthen the Christmas shopping season.
Q 06Which president did editor Sarah Josepha Hale finally persuade to proclaim an annual national Thanksgiving?
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln acted on Hale's 1863 letter at once, after several earlier presidents had ignored the petitions she began sending in 1846.
Q 07Which Wampanoag leader came with about 90 men to the Pilgrims' 1621 harvest celebration at Plymouth?
Massasoit
Massasoit and his men were feasted for three days, Edward Winslow wrote, and they went out and killed five deer for the colony's governor and captain.
Q 08Which cartoon star was among the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade's first balloons, in 1927?
Felix the Cat
Felix the Cat's 1927 balloon was propped up with sticks, and in the early years balloons were set free after the parade, with rewards for anyone who returned them.
Q 09Who traditionally arrives at the very end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade?
Santa Claus
Santa Claus rides the final float; his arrival at Macy's Herald Square store is treated as the start of the Christmas season, a tradition dating to the first parade in 1924.
Q 10In which month does Canada celebrate its Thanksgiving?
October
October: Canada's first annual Thanksgiving, in 1879, was held on 6 November, and only in 1957 was it fixed on the second Monday in October.
Q 11Black Friday's shopping-day name is traced to police in which US city describing the traffic chaos?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia police used the name for the day's jammed streets; earlier, 'Black Friday' had meant a Friday when financial markets crashed, as in 1869.
Q 12Which US holiday is observed every year on November 11?
Veterans Day
Veterans Day falls on November 11 because First World War fighting ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.
Q 13Before 1954, the US federal holiday on November 11 was known by what name?
Armistice Day
Armistice Day: on that day in 1921, an unidentified American serviceman from the First World War was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Q 21Which Christian feast falls on November 1, with Halloween as its eve?
All Saints' Day
All Saints' Day was also called All Hallows, so the evening before became All Hallows' Eve, later shortened to Halloween.
Q 22The Berlin Wall opened on 9 November 1989 after an East German official fumbled an announcement at what kind of event?
A press conference
A press conference: asked when new travel rules took effect, Günter Schabowski stammered 'immediately, without delay', and the Wall opened that night.
Q 23On which day of the week are US federal elections held?
Tuesday
Tuesday: Congress chose it in 1845 so farmers could travel to the county seat without breaking the Sunday sabbath or missing Wednesday market day.
Q 14The red poppy worn in November for Remembrance Day was inspired by which First World War poem?
In Flanders Fields
'In Flanders Fields' was begun by Canadian army doctor John McCrae after he led the burial service for his friend Alexis Helmer, killed at Ypres.
Q 15Guy Fawkes was arrested guarding explosives beneath which building?
The House of Lords
The House of Lords: Fawkes was found in the undercroft beneath the Lords chamber early on 5 November 1605 with 36 barrels of gunpowder, meant to kill James I at the state opening of Parliament.
Q 16Which English town's bonfire societies stage a famous 5 November night of torchlit processions?
Lewes
Lewes: its bonfire societies carry burning crosses in memory of the Protestants burned at the stake in the town under Mary I.
Q 17The Movember moustache-growing charity campaign began in which country?
Australia
Australia: Movember began there and has grown into a global men's health movement.
Q 18What are the home altars that families build for Mexico's Day of the Dead called?
Ofrendas
Ofrendas display photos and belongings of the dead with their favourite food and drink, left to give the spirits what they need on their journey.
Q 19Which flower, called cempasúchil in Mexico, is believed to guide the spirits home for the Day of the Dead?
Marigold
Marigold petals, bright and strongly scented, are laid in paths to lead the spirits from the cemetery to their family homes.
Q 20Mexico City's Day of the Dead parade, first held in 2016, was inspired by the opening of which film?
Spectre
Spectre opened with James Bond chasing a villain through a Day of the Dead parade that didn't exist, so Mexico City staged a real one the following year.
Q 24Which state was the first to secede from the Union after the November 1860 election?
South Carolina
South Carolina declared itself 'a separate and independent State' in December 1860 and briefly stood alone before helping found the Confederacy.
Q 25The Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863, was about how long?
About 270 words
About 270 words: it lasted about two minutes, and Edward Everett, who had spoken for two hours, wrote that it came nearer the day's central idea.
Q 26On 4 November 1922, excavators in Egypt's Valley of the Kings found the first step to whose tomb?
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun: asked by Lord Carnarvon if he could see anything, Howard Carter is remembered as saying 'wonderful things', though his journal says 'Yes, it is wonderful'.
Q 27Which children's television show premiered on public television on November 10, 1969?
Sesame Street
Sesame Street grew from a 1966 dinner party at which Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett discussed using television to prepare young children for school.
Q 28Mickey Mouse's official 'birthday' is November 18, marking the 1928 premiere of which cartoon?
Steamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie opened at New York's Colony Theatre on 18 November 1928, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon released with a synchronised soundtrack; Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho had been made earlier but were released later with sound.
Q 29Which landmark science book, published 24 November 1859, sold out its 1,250-copy first printing before release?
On the Origin of Species
On the Origin of Species came out after Alfred Russel Wallace's 1858 letter outlining the same theory pushed Darwin to publish instead of finishing a far bigger book.
Q 30Where did Soviet scientists find Laika, launched in November 1957?
Moscow's streets
Moscow's streets: Laika was a stray, and officials said she died painlessly after about a week, but in 2002 it emerged she overheated within hours.