U.S. History
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219 free U.S. History trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
174 free U.S. history trivia questions with answers. How well do you know American history? From the founding of Jamestown to the space race and beyond, this quiz covers the full sweep of U.S. history. Challenge yourself with 219 questions on presidents, landmark events, social movements, and surprising facts that shaped the nation.
30 of 219 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 1773 Boston protest saw colonists, some disguised as Mohawk warriors, destroy East India Company cargo?
The Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party sent the tea into the harbor; Parliament answered with the Boston Port Act, shutting the port until the East India Company was repaid.
Q 02The 1846 Oregon Treaty set the US–British boundary along which parallel?
The 49th parallel
The 49th parallel: the 1846 Oregon Treaty extended to the Pacific the line already used east of the Rockies since 1818, though expansionists had demanded everything up to 54°40′.
Q 03What was the main purpose of the Lewis and Clark Expedition?
To explore land newly bought from France
To explore land newly bought from France; the president also hoped for an all-water trade route to the Pacific, but the explorers found none.
Q 04Which amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery?
The 13th
The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States, except as punishment for a crime.
Q 05Who shot the president at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on 14 April 1865?
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth, a well-known stage actor, fled on horseback into Southern Maryland; twelve days later Union soldiers cornered him in a Virginia barn, where one shot him dead.
Q 06What was the name of the ship that brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth in 1620?
The Mayflower
The Mayflower was meant to cross with the Speedwell, but the Speedwell leaked so badly that both ships turned back, and the Mayflower sailed alone with 102 passengers.
Q 07Which battle is considered the turning point of the Civil War?
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 was the war's bloodiest, and the defeat ended the Confederacy's second invasion of the North.
Q 08Which 1836 siege ended with the deaths of Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie?
The Alamo
The Alamo fell on March 6, 1836; weeks later, Texians crying 'Remember the Alamo!' routed Santa Anna's army at San Jacinto.
Q 09Which disease did William Gorgas defeat so the Panama Canal could be built?
Yellow fever
Yellow fever had helped sink France's 1880s canal attempt; Gorgas's crews fumigated homes and cleared standing water where mosquitoes bred.
Q 10Which July 1861 clash near Manassas, Virginia, was the first major battle of the Civil War?
Bull Run
At Bull Run, Thomas Jackson earned the nickname 'Stonewall', and spectators who had driven out from the capital to watch were caught in the Union retreat.
Q 11Which Soviet satellite's 1957 launch spurred the creation of NASA?
Sputnik
Sputnik's launch rocket could also carry nuclear warheads, so Americans feared the Soviets could now strike U.S. shores.
Q 12Which gospel singer urged Martin Luther King Jr. to 'tell them about the dream' at the March on Washington?
Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson called out mid-speech, and King set aside his prepared text for the 'I have a dream' passage, which wasn't in the written speech.
Q 13Where did General Cornwallis surrender his army to Washington in October 1781?
Yorktown
Yorktown: Washington denied the British the customary honors of war, repaying them for refusing those honors to the Americans who surrendered at Charleston in 1780.
Q 21For how many days were 52 Americans held hostage in Iran after the 1979 embassy takeover?
444
The 52 were held 444 days; an April 1980 rescue attempt ended with eight U.S. servicemen dead after a helicopter hit a transport plane in the desert.
Q 22What was the Underground Railroad?
A secret network of escape routes for enslaved people
A secret network of escape routes for enslaved people: its guides were called 'conductors' and its hiding places 'stations', borrowing railroad slang.
Q 23Who commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia from 1862 until its surrender in 1865?
Robert E. Lee
Q 14At which 1876 battle were Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and five companies of the 7th Cavalry wiped out?
Little Bighorn
Little Bighorn is the Battle of the Greasy Grass to the Lakota; Custer's widow, Libbie, spent decades writing best-sellers that kept his heroic legend alive.
Q 15Which Native American woman interpreted for the Lewis and Clark Expedition?
Sacagawea
Sacagawea carried her infant son on the journey, and Clark wrote that a woman with a party of men was a token of peace.
Q 16What was a leading cause of the War of 1812 with Britain?
British impressment of American sailors
British impressment of American sailors was a chief U.S. grievance, yet the 1814 Treaty of Ghent that ended the war never mentioned it.
Q 17Who was President of the United States in October 1962?
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy had vowed at Rice University that September that America would go to the Moon 'not because they are easy, but because they are hard'.
Q 18What term names the early-1950s campaign of anti-communist accusations led by a Wisconsin senator?
McCarthyism
McCarthyism faded after the 1954 televised hearings where lawyer Joseph Welch asked McCarthy, 'Have you no sense of decency?'; the Senate censured him that December.
Q 19Which state was admitted to the Union as the 50th state?
Hawaii
Hawaii became the 50th state in August 1959, and President Eisenhower ordered a 50-star flag that became official on July 4, 1960.
Q 20Which 1803 Supreme Court case established the principle of judicial review?
Marbury v. Madison
Marbury v. Madison: Chief Justice John Marshall ruled Marbury was owed his commission, yet struck down the law that let the Court order its delivery.
Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in April 1865, only months after being named general-in-chief of all Confederate forces.
Q 24What was the Homestead Act of 1862?
A law granting free land to settlers willing to farm it
A law granting free land to settlers willing to farm it: Southern Democrats had blocked such bills, and it passed only after secession removed them from Congress.
Q 25Which president, the first ever impeached, was in office when the U.S. bought Alaska from Russia?
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson's administration paid $7.2 million, and Russia sold partly because it feared Britain could seize the hard-to-defend colony in a future war.
Q 26The 1925 Scopes 'Monkey' trial over the teaching of evolution took place in which state?
Tennessee
Dayton, Tennessee: local boosters staged the case to put the small town on the map, and it drew Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan to opposite sides of the courtroom.
Q 27Which November 1863 speech dedicated a national cemetery for Union soldiers?
The Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address lasted only about two minutes and followed a two-hour oration by Edward Everett, the day's featured speaker.
Q 28What kind of economic activity dominated the antebellum South?
Plantation agriculture
Plantation agriculture: Southern leaders bet that Britain's need for their cotton would force it to back the Confederacy, but Britain had stockpiles and other suppliers.
Q 29Who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean?
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart aimed for Paris from Newfoundland in 1932, but strong winds, icy conditions and mechanical trouble forced her down in a Northern Ireland pasture.
Q 30Which 1930s domestic program was launched to pull the U.S. out of the Great Depression?
The New Deal
The New Deal took its name from the 1932 nomination acceptance speech: 'I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.'