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50 free Calvin Coolidge trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Calvin Coolidge is the only president born on the Fourth of July, the only one sworn in by his own father, and the one who supposedly answered a dinner-party bet with "You lose" — a story he personally denied. The Vermont lawyer rose through every rung of Massachusetts politics, became a national figure overnight by breaking the 1919 Boston police strike, and was nominated for vice president by a convention that ignored its own bosses. When Warren Harding died in 1923, Coolidge took the oath by kerosene lamp in a farmhouse with no telephone and went back to bed. These 50 questions cover the whole arc: Amherst and Northampton, Grace Goodhue and her raccoon Rebecca, the death of Calvin Jr. from a tennis blister, Andrew Mellon's tax cuts, the McNary-Haugen vetoes, the Indian Citizenship Act, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the first presidential radio address, the trip to Havana and the twelve-word statement that ended his career. Easy questions stick to the nickname and the dates; the expert tier asks about convention delegates, Supreme Court picks and the man who said Coolidge was "weaned on a pickle". Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
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Q 01Calvin Coolidge was which number president of the United States?
30th
He served from 1923 to 1929, between Warren Harding and Herbert Hoover.
Q 02What nickname did Coolidge's taciturn manner earn him?
Silent Cal
He was said to be "silent in five languages", though he was a skilled public speaker.
Q 03Coolidge is the only US president born on which holiday?
Independence Day
He was born July 4, 1872, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont.
Q 04In which state was Coolidge born?
Vermont
He built his political career in Massachusetts but was born and buried in Plymouth Notch, Vermont.
Q 05Where did Coolidge study, graduating cum laude?
Amherst College
He later named fellow Amherst alumnus Harlan F. Stone to the Supreme Court.
Q 06In which Massachusetts city did Coolidge practise law and serve as mayor?
Northampton
He insisted on renting rather than buying a home there, and retired to "The Beeches" in the same town.
Q 07Where did Grace Goodhue teach when she met Coolidge?
A school for the deaf
Grace taught at Northampton's Clarke School for the Deaf and stayed on its board until her death in 1957.
Q 08What was Coolidge's only defeat at the ballot box?
Northampton school board
Told neighbours voted against him because he had no children in the schools, the newlywed replied, "Might give me time!"
Q 09Which 1919 event made Governor Coolidge a national figure?
The Boston police strike
His reply to Samuel Gompers — "There is no right to strike against the public safety" — was reprinted nationwide.
Q 10Which labour leader received Coolidge's "no right to strike against the public safety" reply?
Samuel Gompers
Gompers, head of the AFL, had wired that the disorder was the police commissioner's fault.
Q 11Which 1912 labour dispute did state senator Coolidge help arbitrate?
Bread and Roses
After two tense months the American Woolen Company in Lawrence accepted the committee's settlement.
Q 12Under which president did Coolidge serve as vice president?
Warren G. Harding
Harding made him the first vice president to attend cabinet meetings.
Q 13Who did the 1920 convention bosses want as vice president before delegates chose Coolidge instead?
Irvine Lenroot
An Oregon delegate who had read Have Faith in Massachusetts proposed Coolidge after the bosses left the hall.
Q 21Which 1924 law signed by Coolidge made all Native Americans born in the US citizens?
The Indian Citizenship Act
About two-thirds were already citizens through marriage, military service or land allotments.
Q 22Which federal agency was established by the Immigration Act of 1924?
The Border Patrol
Coolidge signed it but objected in writing to its specific exclusion of Japanese immigrants.
Q 23Which Treasury Secretary's "scientific taxation" drove Coolidge's tax cuts?
Andrew Mellon
Mellon was regarded by some, including John Nance Garner, as more powerful than Coolidge himself.
Q 14Who was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee Harding and Coolidge defeated in 1920?
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Cox headed the Democratic ticket; the Republicans won over 60% of the popular vote.
Q 15Who administered Coolidge's first presidential oath of office in August 1923?
His father
John Coolidge Sr., a notary and justice of the peace, swore him in by kerosene lamp at 2:47 a.m.
Q 16In which city did President Harding die, making Coolidge president?
San Francisco
Harding suffered a heart attack on a western speaking tour; word reached Coolidge by messenger in Vermont.
Q 17Why was Coolidge quietly sworn in a second time at the Willard Hotel?
Doubts a state official could give a federal oath
Justice Adolph Hoehling's second swearing-in stayed secret until Harry Daugherty revealed it in 1932.
Q 18Which Harding-era scandal did Coolidge inherit on taking office?
Teapot Dome
He let Senate investigations run their course and forced out Attorney General Harry Daugherty for not cooperating.
Q 19Coolidge's December 1923 address to Congress was the first presidential speech to be what?
Broadcast on radio
He said he was lucky to arrive with radio because he had "a good radio voice".
Q 20What did Coolidge's son Calvin Jr. die from in 1924?
Sepsis from a blister
The 16-year-old played tennis without socks, got a blister that turned septic, and died within about a week.
Q 24Who served as Coolidge's Secretary of Commerce and later succeeded him as president?
Herbert Hoover
Coolidge grumbled that "for six years that man has given me unsolicited advice — all of it bad."
Q 25Who was Coolidge's vice president during his full term from 1925?
Charles G. Dawes
Lowden was nominated first and declined; Dawes and Coolidge later clashed over farm policy.
Q 26Which farm relief bill did Coolidge veto in both 1927 and 1928?
McNary-Haugen
"Farmers never have made much money," he said. "I do not believe we can do much about it."
Q 27Which 1927 disaster is Coolidge criticised for not visiting?
The Great Mississippi Flood
He thought a visit would look like grandstanding and put Hoover in charge of a relief commission instead.
Q 28Which 1928 treaty, signed in Coolidge's term, pledged its signatories to renounce war?
The Kellogg-Briand Pact
Named for Secretary of State Frank Kellogg and French minister Aristide Briand, it underpins post-1945 international law.
Q 29Coolidge's only foreign trip as president was to a conference in which city?
Havana
He was the last sitting president to visit Cuba until Barack Obama in 2016.
Q 30Whom did Coolidge appoint to the Supreme Court in 1925?
Harlan F. Stone
Stone had been his attorney general; FDR later promoted him to chief justice.