50 free November trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 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 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01November's name comes from the Latin word for which number?
Nine
It was the ninth month of the old Roman calendar and kept its name even after January and February were added to the front of the year. It has 30 days.
Q 02Which gemstone is November's traditional birthstone, said to symbolise friendship?
Topaz
Citrine is the month's alternative stone. November's birth flower is the chrysanthemum.
Q 03What is the birth flower of November?
Chrysanthemum
The month straddles two zodiac signs, Scorpio until November 21 and Sagittarius from November 22. South of the equator November is the seasonal twin of May.
Q 04A person born on November 10 falls under which Western zodiac sign?
Scorpio
Scorpio runs to November 21 and Sagittarius takes over on November 22, carrying on to December 21.
Q 05US Thanksgiving is celebrated on which day of November?
The fourth Thursday
Franklin Roosevelt broke with the last-Thursday tradition in 1939 to lengthen the shopping season, and Congress settled on the fourth Thursday in 1941. Some years the two are the same day; some years they are not.
Q 06Which president began regularly proclaiming a national Thanksgiving, mid-Civil War?
Abraham Lincoln
He was prompted by years of editorials from magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, who is also credited with writing 'Mary Had a Little Lamb'.
Q 07The Pilgrims' 1621 harvest celebration at Plymouth, often called the first Thanksgiving, lasted how long?
Three days
The Wampanoag brought food of their own to the feast. There is no record that turkey was served; venison and wildfowl are the foods actually documented.
Q 08The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York has been held since which year?
1924
The first parade featured live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo; the giant balloons arrived in 1927. It was suspended from 1942 to 1944 because rubber and helium were needed for the war.
Q 09Who always arrives at the very end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade?
Santa Claus
His arrival is treated as the official start of the Christmas season. The parade calls itself the world's largest.
Q 10Canada also celebrates Thanksgiving, but in which month?
October
It falls on the second Monday of October, six weeks before the American holiday, reflecting Canada's earlier harvest.
Q 11Black Friday got its name from police in which US city describing the traffic chaos?
Philadelphia
Retailers tried and failed to rebrand it 'Big Friday' in 1961. The 'in the black' profit explanation came later, in the 1980s. Cyber Monday was coined by the National Retail Federation in 2005.
Q 12Which US holiday is observed every year on November 11?
Veterans Day
It marks the moment the First World War armistice took effect, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Memorial Day, in May, honours those who died in service.
Q 13Before 1954, the US federal holiday on November 11 was known by what name?
Armistice Day
Q 21Which Christian feast falls on November 1, with Halloween as its eve?
All Saints' Day
Halloween is a contraction of All Hallows' Eve. All Souls' Day, for the faithful departed, follows on November 2.
Q 22The Berlin Wall was opened on the night of which date in 1989?
9 November
East German spokesman Günter Schabowski, asked when new travel rules began, fumbled 'immediately, without delay', and crowds surged to the checkpoints.
Q 23US Election Day is the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Between which dates can it fall?
2nd and 8th
Tuesday let farmers travel after Sunday church and be home for Wednesday market. November 1 was avoided because it was All Saints' Day and the day merchants did their books.
Congress swapped 'Armistice' for 'Veterans' in June 1954 so the day would honour those who served in every war, not just the First World War. Britain and the Commonwealth still call it Remembrance Day.
Q 14The red poppy worn in November for Remembrance Day was inspired by which First World War poem?
In Flanders Fields
Canadian doctor John McCrae wrote it on 3 May 1915, the day after watching a friend die. The first British Poppy Day was held on 11 November 1921.
Q 15Guy Fawkes was arrested guarding explosives beneath which building?
The House of Lords
The 1605 Gunpowder Plot aimed to blow up King James I at the opening of Parliament. An Act passed in January 1606 ordered an annual day of thanksgiving, which is why the bonfires have burned ever since.
Q 16Which English town's bonfire societies stage the country's most extravagant 5 November celebrations?
Lewes
Its bonfire tradition dates back to 1679. Effigies known as 'guys', originally of Fawkes himself, are burned on the fires.
Q 17Movember began in 2004 when 30 men in which country grew a 'mo' for 30 days?
Australia
The 30 founders were in Melbourne, and 'mo' is local slang for a moustache. The campaign raises money for prostate cancer, testicular cancer and men's mental health, and went international in 2007.
Q 18Mexico's Day of the Dead is traditionally celebrated on which two dates?
November 1 and 2
Families build ofrendas with the favourite foods of the departed and scatter orange marigolds thought to guide souls home. UNESCO listed the tradition as intangible heritage in 2008.
Q 19Which orange flower, cempasúchil in Mexico, is thought to draw souls of the dead to Day of the Dead altars?
Marigold
Pan de muerto, a sweet roll decorated with bone-shaped pastry, is another staple of the ofrenda.
Q 20Mexico City's huge Day of the Dead parade only began in 2016, after being invented for the opening of which film?
Spectre
No such parade existed when the James Bond film was shot. Interest was so great that the city staged a real one in late 2016, drawing 250,000 people.
Q 24Which year's presidential election produced the first Republican president and triggered Southern secession?
1860
Seven states that had voted for John Breckinridge left the Union before the winner was even inaugurated in March 1861.
Q 25The Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863, was how long?
About 270 words
It took less than two minutes. The main speaker, Edward Everett, had just talked for two hours and 13,607 words, and later wrote to the president that he wished he had come as close to the day's central idea in two hours as the president had in two minutes.
Q 26On 4 November 1922 Howard Carter's team uncovered the first step leading down to whose tomb?
Tutankhamun
Carter peered into the antechamber on November 26 and famously reported seeing 'wonderful things'. The dig was bankrolled by the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, and the tomb is catalogued as KV62.
Q 27Which children's television show premiered on public television on November 10, 1969?
Sesame Street
Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett created it, with Jim Henson's Muppets as its stars. It has aired on PBS ever since.
Q 28Mickey Mouse's official 'birthday' is November 18, marking the 1928 premiere of which cartoon?
Steamboat Willie
It opened at the Colony Theater in New York and was one of the first cartoons with a fully post-produced synchronised soundtrack. Minnie debuted in it too.
Q 29Which landmark science book, published 24 November 1859, sold out its 1,250-copy first printing before release?
On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin's publisher John Murray priced it at fifteen shillings. Every copy had been claimed at Murray's autumn sale two days earlier.
Q 30Laika, the first animal to orbit Earth, was launched aboard Sputnik 2 on 3 November of which year?
1957
She was a stray picked off the streets of Moscow. She died of overheating within hours, a fact the Soviet Union concealed for decades.