Random US History Quiz
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50 free Random US History trivia questions with answers. Random US History trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is U.S. History trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
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Q 01Which document, adopted July 4, 1776, announced the thirteen colonies' separation from Britain?
The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was approved on July 4, 1776, but Congress had voted for independence itself two days earlier, and most delegates did not sign until August.
Q 02Which president was elected unanimously by the Electoral College?
George Washington
George Washington won every elector's vote in both of his elections; James Monroe later came closest, when a single elector voted for John Quincy Adams instead.
Q 03Which French leader sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States in 1803?
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte gave up on an American empire after yellow fever wrecked his army in Saint-Domingue; US envoys sent to buy New Orleans were offered the whole territory for $15 million.
Q 04Which amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery in the United States?
13th
The 13th Amendment, ratified in December 1865, abolished slavery throughout the United States except as punishment for a crime, an exception that underpins prison labour.
Q 05What was the name of the first permanent English settlement in North America, established in 1607?
Jamestown
Jamestown, founded by the Virginia Company in May 1607, nearly failed: in the 'Starving Time' winter of 1609-10 most of the colonists died, and survivors were reduced to eating shoe leather.
Q 06Which US-British conflict, sparked partly by impressment of American sailors, ended with the Treaty of Ghent?
The War of 1812
The War of 1812 ended on paper with the Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve 1814, but news travelled slowly: the Battle of New Orleans was fought about two weeks later.
Q 07On which date did Japan attack the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, bringing America into World War II?
December 7, 1941
Japan launched a surprise military strike on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. President Roosevelt called it 'a date which will live in infamy,' and Congress declared war on Japan the following day.
Q 08At which Washington, D.C. venue was the president shot on April 14, 1865, one month into his second term?
Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre was staging the comedy Our American Cousin; John Wilkes Booth, an actor who had often performed there and knew the play, timed his shot to a line that drew a big laugh.
Q 09In the Boston Tea Party of 1773, colonists dumped more than 340 chests of tea belonging to which company?
The East India Company
The East India Company was sitting on a huge surplus of tea, and Parliament's Tea Act let it sell direct to the colonies; the protesters saw a monopoly and a tax, and dumped the lot.
Q 10The 1863 Emancipation Proclamation declared enslaved people free in which places?
States still in rebellion
States still in rebellion: the proclamation left slavery untouched in the loyal border states and in parts of the South already under Union control, so freedom spread only as Union armies advanced.
Q 11Which Native American woman, travelling with her infant son, served as an interpreter for the Lewis and Clark Expedition?
Sacagawea
Sacagawea joined the expedition as a teenager and carried her newborn on her back; Jefferson had sent the party west to explore the land just bought from France.
Q 12What territory did the United States gain under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
The Mexican Cession
The Mexican Cession handed over more than 525,000 square miles, including California, where gold had been found at Sutter's Mill just nine days before the treaty was signed.
Q 13Which amendment gave women the right to vote in the United States?
19th
Q 21Which 1820 law admitted Maine as a free state alongside a new slave state and barred slavery north of a set line?
The Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise kept free and slave states level: the Senate made Maine's admission conditional on Missouri's entry as a slave state, and slavery was barred from the rest of the Louisiana lands north of 36°30'.
Q 22Which president signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, leading to the Trail of Tears?
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, but the Cherokee were not forced west until 1838-39, after he had left office, and thousands died in the camps and on the march.
Q 23On 'Black Tuesday', October 29, 1929, what collapsed, in a panic often seen as starting the Great Depression?
The 19th Amendment cleared its last hurdle on August 18, 1920, when Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify, after two attempts to shelve it in the state House failed on 48-48 ties.
Q 14What was the significance of the Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison?
It established judicial review
It established judicial review when Chief Justice John Marshall's court struck down section 13 of the Judiciary Act, the first time it invalidated an act of Congress.
Q 15Which 1823 policy warned European powers against further colonization in the Western Hemisphere?
The Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was largely the work of Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, who argued against a joint statement with Britain so that America would speak alone.
Q 16Where did the ceremonial Golden Spike complete the first Transcontinental Railroad in 1869?
Promontory Summit, Utah
The ceremony at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869, brought Union Pacific No. 119 and Central Pacific's Jupiter face to face; the golden spike is held at Stanford University.
Q 17Which event is considered the turning point of the Civil War, fought in Pennsylvania in July 1863?
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg, with about 50,000 casualties in three days, was the war's bloodiest; it ended Lee's second invasion of the North and sent his army back to Virginia in retreat.
Q 18What did the Homestead Act of 1862 offer to settlers?
Up to 160 acres of public land
The Homestead Act gave up to 160 acres of public land, for a small fee and five years' residence, to any adult who had never borne arms against the United States, a clause written in the middle of the Civil War.
Q 19Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his 1963 'I Have a Dream' speech from the steps of which Washington landmark?
The Lincoln Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial: King began from a prepared text, then, as he later recalled, dropped it mid-speech for the 'dream' theme he had used many times before.
Q 20Which U.S. president secured the Canal Zone and began construction of the Panama Canal in 1904?
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt sent US warships to back Panama's revolt against Colombia in November 1903, and a canal treaty with the new republic followed within weeks; the canal opened in 1914.
The New York stock market
The New York stock market: Black Tuesday followed 'Black Monday', when the Dow fell nearly 13 percent; it lost almost 12 percent more that day and nearly half its value by mid-November.
Q 24The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, linked Lake Erie with which waterway at Albany?
The Hudson
The Hudson: by linking it to Lake Erie the canal cut shipping costs by about 90 percent and turned New York City into the country's leading seaport.
Q 25Which 1857 Supreme Court decision ruled that people of African descent could not be U.S. citizens?
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott v. Sandford, a 7-2 ruling written by Chief Justice Roger Taney, also held that Congress could not ban slavery in the territories; Scott was freed privately weeks later and died the next year.
Q 26Which 1890 law, named for an Ohio senator, prohibits anticompetitive agreements and monopolies?
The Sherman Antitrust Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, sponsored by Ohio senator John Sherman, bans contracts in restraint of trade and monopolisation; it was used to break up Standard Oil in 1911.
Q 27Which June 17, 1775 engagement near Boston cost the victorious British about 1,000 casualties?
Battle of Bunker Hill
The Battle of Bunker Hill, fought mostly on Breed's Hill, cost the British about 1,050 killed and wounded against roughly 450 American casualties, showing colonial militia could stand against regulars.
Q 28Which FDR program of the 1930s aimed at relief, recovery and reform during the Great Depression?
The New Deal
The New Deal took its name from FDR's speech accepting the 1932 nomination: 'I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.'
Q 29What diplomatic scandal of 1797-1798 involved French agents demanding bribes from American envoys?
The XYZ Affair
In the XYZ Affair, Talleyrand's agents demanded bribes and a loan before talks could begin; the outrage at home fed into the undeclared Quasi-War with France of 1798-1800.
Q 30Which Chicago labor protest on May 4, 1886, ended with a bomb explosion?
The Haymarket Affair
The Haymarket Affair began when a bomb was thrown at police breaking up a labor rally; the thrower was never identified, yet eight anarchists were convicted and four of them hanged.