Q 01/05

The 13 stripes on the flag of the United States stand for what?

A) The thirteen original colonies

B) The thirteen signers of the Declaration

C) The first thirteen presidents

D) Thirteen battles of the Revolution

Answer · why

A) The thirteen original colonies

The thirteen original colonies gave the flag its stripes; a 1794 law raised the count to 15 after two more states joined, but Congress went back to 13...

Q 02/05

The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from the people of which country?

A) Britain

B) France

C) Spain

D) Italy

Answer · why

B) France

France's people paid for the statue itself, but Americans had to fund the pedestal; Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper appeal drew more than 100,000 donors, ...

Q 03/05

Which ruler sold Louisiana to America in 1803?

A) King George III

B) Tsar Alexander I

C) King Charles IV

D) Napoleon Bonaparte

Answer · why

D) Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte offered the whole territory for $15 million when American envoys had been sent to buy little more than the port of New Orleans, a d...

Q 04/05

Who was the first president to live in the White House?

A) James Monroe

B) Thomas Jefferson

C) John Adams

D) James Madison

Answer · why

C) John Adams

John Adams moved into the still unfinished White House on 1 November 1800; George Washington had chosen the site but left office before it was ready a...

Q 05/05

Francis Scott Key wrote the national anthem in 1814 after the British bombarded which Baltimore fort?

A) Fort Sumter

B) Fort Ticonderoga

C) Fort McHenry

D) Fort Knox

Answer · why

C) Fort McHenry

Fort McHenry held out through some 25 hours of shelling on 13-14 September 1814; Key watched from a truce ship, kept offshore by the enemy fleet after...