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49 free Dwight D. Eisenhower trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Dwight D. Eisenhower trivia quiz follows Ike from a Texas birth and a Kansas boyhood through West Point, where he tried to tackle Jim Thorpe, the tank school he ran in the First World War, the years under MacArthur in the Philippines and the wartime rise that made him Supreme Allied Commander for D-Day and a five-star General of the Army. The presidential half covers Columbia University and NATO, the 1952 landslide over Adlai Stevenson, the Korean armistice, the interstate highways, Atoms for Peace, the 101st Airborne at Little Rock, Sputnik and NASA, Alaska and Hawaii, the U-2 crisis and the farewell warning about the military–industrial complex. There is room too for the black golf balls, the bridge games, the oil paintings, the Gettysburg farm and the funeral train back to Abilene. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our US presidents and World War II quizzes next.
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Q 01Which number president of the United States was Dwight D. Eisenhower?
34th
He served two terms from 1953 to 1961, between Truman and Kennedy.
Q 02In which state was Eisenhower born?
Texas
The family moved to Abilene, Kansas, when he was two, and he always considered that his hometown.
Q 03What were Eisenhower's first two names, in order, at birth?
David Dwight
The order of his first two names was later reversed.
Q 04How many sons did Eisenhower's parents Ida and David have?
Seven
All the boys were nicknamed Ike; Dwight was "Little Ike" and his brother Edgar "Big Ike".
Q 05Which Kansas town did Eisenhower consider his hometown?
Abilene
He is buried there in the chapel on the grounds of his presidential center.
Q 06Which legendary athlete did Eisenhower try to tackle while playing halfback for West Point in 1912?
Jim Thorpe
He later called not making the West Point baseball team one of the greatest disappointments of his life.
Q 07What nickname did Eisenhower's West Point cohort of 1915 earn?
The class the stars fell on
Fifty-nine of its members eventually became general officers.
Q 08During World War I, what did Eisenhower do instead of being sent to Europe?
Trained tank crews
He was later threatened with court-martial for publishing radical ideas about fast, offensive tank warfare with George Patton.
Q 09Which 1919 Army expedition, in which Eisenhower took part, later shaped his belief in better highways?
The Transcontinental Motor Convoy
Seeing the German autobahn during World War II confirmed the lesson.
Q 10Which general did Eisenhower call 'the ablest man I ever knew' after serving under him in Panama?
Fox Conner
Conner had him study Clausewitz and recommended him for the Command and General Staff College.
Q 11Under which general did Eisenhower serve as assistant military adviser in the Philippines from 1935?
Douglas MacArthur
Their philosophical disagreements grew into an antipathy that lasted the rest of their lives.
Q 12Eisenhower earned the nickname "Bridge Wizard of Manila" playing cards with which Philippine president?
Manuel Quezon
He kept playing bridge even in the stressful weeks before D-Day.
Q 13What was the code name of the November 1942 Allied campaign in North Africa that Eisenhower commanded?
Operation Torch
It was planned in underground headquarters inside the Rock of Gibraltar.
Q 21What was Eisenhower's simple 1952 campaign slogan?
I Like Ike
The strategy was nicknamed K1C2, attacking Truman on Korea, Communism and corruption.
Q 22Whom did Eisenhower defeat in both the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections?
Adlai Stevenson II
The 1952 margin was 442 electoral votes to 89, the first Republican win in 20 years.
Q 23Who was Eisenhower's vice president for both terms?
Richard Nixon
He was chosen partly to appease the Republican Old Guard and to add youth and an anti-communist reputation to the ticket.
Q 14Whom did Roosevelt pass over in 1943 when he chose Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe?
George Marshall
Eisenhower then threatened to resign unless Churchill gave him exclusive command of the strategic air forces for Overlord.
Q 15On what date did the D-Day landings in Normandy take place?
June 6, 1944
Many expected victory in Europe by the end of that summer, but Germany held out for almost a year.
Q 16To what five-star rank was Eisenhower promoted on December 20, 1944?
General of the Army
It is the equivalent of Field Marshal in most European armies, and Interstate signs still bear the five-star insignia.
Q 17Which Ivy League university did Eisenhower serve as president from 1948?
Columbia
He took up oil painting there after watching an artist paint Mamie's portrait.
Q 18What was the title of Eisenhower's 1948 war memoir?
Crusade in Europe
It appeared the same year he became president of Columbia University.
Q 19Of which alliance was Eisenhower the first supreme commander, from 1951 to 1952?
NATO
He thought the American and Canadian commitments would end after about ten years as it became a truly European alliance.
Q 20Which senator's presidential prospects did Eisenhower enter the 1952 race partly to block?
Robert A. Taft
Taft opposed NATO and wanted to undo the New Deal.
Q 24Which war ended in an armistice in July 1953, months into Eisenhower's first term?
The Korean War
He had considered using nuclear weapons to end it and may have threatened China to speed the deal.
Q 25To which body did Eisenhower deliver his "Atoms for Peace" speech in December 1953?
The United Nations General Assembly
He argued for using nuclear fission for electricity and medicine rather than an arms race.
Q 26Which 1956 law authorised the Interstate System?
The Federal Aid Highway Act
Eisenhower justified it as essential to Cold War security; the network is officially named after him.
Q 27Which division did Eisenhower send to Little Rock in 1957 to protect nine Black students at Central High?
The 101st Airborne
It was the first time since Reconstruction that federal troops had been used in the South to enforce the Constitution.
Q 28Which Arkansas governor's defiance prompted the Little Rock intervention?
Orval Faubus
Eisenhower placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control to override him.
Q 29Which Soviet achievement in 1957 prompted Eisenhower to create NASA?
The launch of Sputnik
He also set up ARPA and pushed the National Defense Education Act, yet later called a $40 billion moon race "nuts".
Q 30Whom did Eisenhower appoint Chief Justice of the United States in 1953?
Earl Warren
The Warren Court went on to deliver Brown v. Board of Education the following year.