Patriotic Trivia
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8correct to beat the crowd
This patriotic trivia quiz has 129 free questions with answers and covers the symbols and songs of the United States rather than just the Fourth of July. You will meet the flag (why 13 stripes, when the 50th star arrived, whether Betsy Ross really sewed the first one), a full Flag Day round on how June 14 became a holiday and the teacher who campaigned for it, the national anthem and the poem behind it, the Pledge of Allegiance and its 1954 rewrite, the Great Seal's eagle and its arrows, Uncle Sam, the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, and the songs America sings on holidays, from 'God Bless America' to 'Yankee Doodle'. It works for a Flag Day, Memorial Day or Veterans Day gathering, a classroom civics warm-up, a Fourth of July party round, or a citizenship-test practice session. Roughly a third of the questions are easy enough for kids; the rest climb toward the details only history buffs know. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and primary sources such as the US Code and the Smithsonian, and each explanation adds one detail worth repeating.
30 of 129 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many stripes are on the flag of the United States?
13
They stand for the thirteen British colonies that won independence; the stars stand for the states.
Q 02The 50-star US flag was adopted in 1960 after which state joined the Union?
Hawaii
Hawaii became the 50th state on August 21, 1959; the resulting 50-star flag became official in 1960 and has since flown longer than any earlier design.
Q 03Which president ordered the 50-star flag on August 21, 1959?
Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10834 on August 21, 1959, fixing the 50-star design in nine staggered rows of six and five; it became official the following year.
Q 04In 1795 the flag briefly grew to 15 stars and stripes for Kentucky and which other new state?
Vermont
Vermont (1791) and Kentucky (1792) were the first states after the original thirteen; the 1795 flag added a star and a stripe for each, and that 15-stripe flag flew over Fort McHenry.
Q 05Which 19th-century sea captain coined the nickname 'Old Glory' for a flag his mother gave him in 1824?
William Driver
William Driver, a Salem, Massachusetts shipmaster, first called the flag 'Old Glory' in 1831; he hid it from Confederates and flew it over the Tennessee capitol when Union troops took Nashville in 1862.
Q 06Who spread the story that Betsy Ross sewed the first Stars and Stripes from George Washington's sketch?
Her descendants
Her descendants spread the tale: grandson William Canby first told it to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1870, nearly a century after the fact, and no contemporary record supports it.
Q 07Under the Flag Code, must a flag that touches the ground be destroyed?
No, that is a myth
No, that is a myth: the Flag Code says the flag should not touch the ground, but a soiled flag may be cleaned; only a flag too worn to display should be retired, preferably by burning.
Q 08The US Flag Code became public law in which year?
1942
The Flag Code became Public Law 77-623 on June 22, 1942, codifying guidelines from the 1923 National Flag Conference; it discourages using the flag in advertising or on cushions and handkerchiefs.
Q 09Which president designated June 14 as Flag Day by proclamation in 1916?
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson issued the proclamation on May 30, 1916, establishing June 14 as Flag Day nationwide; Congress did not make the observance official by statute until 1949.
Q 10Which state was the first to make Flag Day a state holiday, in 1937?
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania was the first state to make June 14, Flag Day, a legal state holiday, doing so in 1937, two decades after the 1916 presidential proclamation.
Q 11The words of the national anthem were originally a poem with what title?
Defence of Fort M'Henry
Key's poem was first printed in Baltimore as 'Defence of Fort M'Henry'; music publisher Thomas Carr soon issued words and tune together under the title 'The Star-Spangled Banner'.
Q 12Francis Scott Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry during which war?
The War of 1812
The War of 1812: British warships bombarded Fort McHenry for about 25 hours on September 13-14, 1814, and Key, held on a truce ship in the harbor, saw the flag at dawn.
Q 13The tune of the national anthem was borrowed from a song written for a gentlemen's club in which city?
London
Q 21The straight-arm 'Bellamy' gesture for the Pledge was dropped in World War II because it resembled what?
The Nazi salute
Americans now place a hand over the heart instead.
Q 22Which magazine first published the Pledge of Allegiance in September 1892?
The Youth's Companion
The Youth's Companion, a Boston family magazine, printed Francis Bellamy's pledge in its September 8, 1892 issue as part of its campaign to put a flag in every schoolhouse.
Q 23What does the Latin motto 'E pluribus unum' on the Great Seal mean?
Out of many, one
'E pluribus unum' means 'Out of many, one', the union of separate states into a single nation; Pierre Eugene du Simitiere proposed it for the seal in 1776.
John Stafford Smith wrote 'The Anacreontic Song' in the 1770s for the Anacreontic Society, a London gentlemen's club of amateur musicians that met at the Crown and Anchor tavern.
Q 14How many stanzas does the full poem behind the US national anthem have?
Four
Almost nobody sings past the first, but all four officially make up the anthem.
Q 15Which president signed the 1931 law making 'The Star-Spangled Banner' the official national anthem?
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover signed the act on March 3, 1931; until then 'Hail, Columbia' and 'My Country, 'Tis of Thee' had served as unofficial anthems.
Q 16In which year's World Series was the anthem famously played during Game One's seventh-inning stretch?
1918
Game One of the 1918 World Series between the Red Sox and Cubs, played at Comiskey Park during World War I, had the anthem at the seventh-inning stretch; pregame playing only became routine in World War II.
Q 17Which singer performed the wrong lyrics to the anthem before Super Bowl XLV in 2011?
Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera, singing at Super Bowl XLV in February 2011, replaced the 'O'er the ramparts we watched' line with a mangled repeat of the second line, 'What so proudly we hailed.'
Q 18Which museum has housed the huge Fort McHenry flag that inspired the anthem since 1964?
National Museum of American History
The National Museum of American History has displayed the 30-by-42-foot garrison flag since the building opened in 1964; Mary Pickersgill and her household sewed it in Baltimore in 1813.
Q 19The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of what?
Columbus's arrival in the Americas
It marked the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the Americas; Francis Bellamy's pledge was recited by millions of schoolchildren at Columbus Day ceremonies on October 21, 1892, the date set by President Harrison's proclamation.
Q 20The words 'under God' were added to the Pledge of Allegiance in which year?
1954
President Eisenhower signed the change into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954, after a Cold War campaign backed by the Knights of Columbus.
Q 24On the Great Seal, the bird holds an olive branch and a bundle of how many arrows?
13
Together they mean the country wants peace but is always ready for war.
Q 25Which secretary of the Continental Congress largely designed the Great Seal, first used in 1782?
Charles Thomson
Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress, combined earlier committee ideas with William Barton's drawings into the final design Congress adopted on June 20, 1782.
Q 26'In God We Trust' became the official national motto in which year?
1956
Congress adopted 'In God We Trust' as the national motto on July 30, 1956, with Eisenhower's signature; 'E pluribus unum' had served unofficially since 1782.
Q 27'In God We Trust' first appeared on US money in 1864 on which coin?
The two-cent piece
The two-cent piece, a bronze coin first struck in 1864, carried the motto on a ribbon above its shield; Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase had pushed for it after wartime petitions.
Q 28Which animal officially became the national bird of the United States by an act of Congress in 2024?
Bald eagle
The bald eagle has appeared on the Great Seal since 1782 but only became the official national bird when President Biden signed the designation into law on December 24, 2024.
Q 29Franklin's supposed preference for the turkey over the eagle comes from a 1784 letter to whom?
His daughter Sarah Bache
Franklin's January 1784 letter to his daughter Sarah Bache called the eagle 'a bird of bad moral character' and the turkey 'a much more respectable bird'; he never proposed the turkey publicly.
Q 30Which animal became the national mammal of the United States in 2016?
American bison
The American bison became the national mammal when President Obama signed the National Bison Legacy Act on May 9, 2016; 'buffalo' remains a common American name for the same animal.