Q 01/05

What is the capital city of California?

A) Los Angeles

B) San Francisco

C) San Diego

D) Sacramento

Answer · why

D) Sacramento

Sacramento took over in 1854 after lawmakers had already moved the government from San Jose to Vallejo to Benicia in California's first years.

Q 02/05

Which city is the capital of Texas?

A) Austin

B) Houston

C) Dallas

D) San Antonio

Answer · why

A) Austin

Austin: in 1842 President Sam Houston tried to move the archives away, but boarding-house keeper Angelina Eberly fired a cannon and townspeople took t...

Q 03/05

Which city is the capital of Florida?

A) Miami

B) Orlando

C) Jacksonville

D) Tallahassee

Answer · why

D) Tallahassee

Tallahassee was picked as a halfway point because travel between Florida's two old capitals, St. Augustine and Pensacola, was so slow.

Q 04/05

New York City is the biggest city in New York, but which city is the state capital?

A) Albany

B) Buffalo

C) Rochester

D) Syracuse

Answer · why

A) Albany

Albany began as the Dutch trading post Fort Orange, and the English renamed it in 1664 after the Duke of Albany, the future James II.

Q 05/05

Which is the largest US state by area?

A) Texas

B) California

C) Montana

D) Alaska

Answer · why

D) Alaska

Alaska was bought from Russia in 1867, and skeptics mocked the deal as 'Seward's Folly' until a gold rush in the 1890s showed its worth.