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60 free July trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
54 free July trivia questions with answers. These July fun facts and trivia questions cover the whole month, not just the Fourth. They start with the calendar itself: why the month is named for Julius Caesar, what it was called before, the ruby and the water lily, Cancer and Leo, why Earth is farthest from the Sun in the middle of northern summer, and where the dog days got their name. Then come the holidays around the world (Canada Day and Quebec's Moving Day, Bastille Day, the Twelfth, Mandela Day, Pioneer Day, Tanabata, Tynwald Day, Reek Sunday, Finland's Sleepy Head Day) and the July moments in history: Gettysburg and the Somme, the Trinity test, the Moon landing, Disneyland's opening, Live Aid, sliced bread, the first IVF baby, the bikini, and the birthdays of Tesla, Hemingway, Kahlo, Rembrandt and J. K. Rowling. Use it for a summer party round, a July birthday quiz, a classroom warm-up or a pub quiz's month-themed section. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and primary sources, and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
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Q 01July was renamed in 44 BC in honour of which Roman?
Julius Caesar
It had been Quintilis, the fifth month of a calendar that began in March; the Senate renamed it for the month of his birth.
Q 02Before it was renamed, July was called Quintilis, Latin for what?
Fifth
The Roman year originally started in March, so the numbering fits; September to December still carry their old out-of-place numbers.
Q 03How many days does July have?
31
July and August are the only back-to-back months with 31 days, a quirk often blamed, wrongly, on Augustus wanting to match Caesar.
Q 04What is July's birthstone?
Ruby
Ruby and sapphire are the same mineral, corundum; only the red variety gets to be called ruby.
Q 05Which of these is one of July's two birth flowers?
Water lily
The other is the larkspur, a name shared by delphiniums, every one of which is poisonous to people and livestock.
Q 06Someone born on July 25 falls under which zodiac sign?
Leo
Cancer runs until July 22 and Leo takes over on the 23rd.
Q 07In the Southern Hemisphere, July is the seasonal equivalent of which Northern Hemisphere month?
January
It is on average the coldest month across much of the south and the warmest across most of the north.
Q 08Counter-intuitively for northern summer, Earth reaches which point of its orbit in early July?
Aphelion, its farthest from the Sun
Seasons come from the tilt of the axis, not distance; perihelion falls in early January.
Q 09The 'dog days' of summer, said to begin in early July, are named after the rising of which star?
Sirius
The Greeks blamed the Dog Star for heat, drought, lethargy and mad dogs; the Old Farmer's Almanac starts the dog days on July 3.
Q 10Which meteor shower, linked to comet Swift-Tuttle, becomes visible from mid-July?
Perseids
It peaks in August and is named for the constellation Perseus, from which the meteors seem to stream.
Q 11US Independence Day marks the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4 of which year?
1776
Congress had actually voted for independence two days earlier, on July 2, by passing the Lee Resolution.
Q 12Which two former presidents both died on July 4, 1826, the Declaration's 50th anniversary?
Jefferson and Adams
They were the only two signers of the Declaration to become president; James Monroe later died on July 4 too, in 1831.
Q 13The Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest is held every July 4 in which New York neighbourhood?
Coney Island
The story that it started in 1916 was invented by a publicist in the 1970s, as he admitted in 2010.
Q 21The July 5 celebration once held by Black New Yorkers marked what?
The end of slavery in New York State
The state's gradual abolition took full effect on July 4, 1827, but fear of violence led people to celebrate the day after.
Q 22Japan's Tanabata festival marks the yearly meeting of lovers represented by which two stars?
Vega and Altair
People write wishes on strips of paper called tanzaku and hang them on bamboo.
Q 23Japan's Marine Day, a July holiday, was created to honour what?
The 1876 voyage of the Meiji Emperor
Q 14Canada Day, July 1, marks the confederation of 1867. What was the holiday called until 1982?
Dominion Day
The name changed the same year the constitution was patriated, cutting the last legal ties to Britain's parliament.
Q 15In Quebec, July 1 is also traditionally what?
Moving Day, when leases turn over
The custom dates to New France, when landlords were banned from evicting tenant farmers before the snow melted.
Q 16How many prisoners were held in the Bastille when it was stormed on July 14, 1789?
Seven
Four forgers, two men judged insane and one aristocrat were freed; the governor was killed after surrendering.
Q 17Belgium's National Day, July 21, marks the 1831 investiture of whom?
Leopold I, first King of the Belgians
The Belgian Revolution had pushed the Dutch out the year before.
Q 18The Twelfth of July Orange Order parades celebrate William of Orange's 1690 victory at which river?
The Boyne
The battle was actually fought on July 1 by the old calendar; the date shifted when the Gregorian calendar was adopted.
Q 19Nelson Mandela International Day is celebrated on July 18 because of what?
He was born that day
Its slogan asks people to give 67 minutes to service, one for each year Mandela spent fighting for social justice.
Q 20Who led the Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, commemorated on Utah's Pioneer Day?
Brigham Young
Parades, rodeos and fireworks make it a second Fourth of July for the state.
The emperor sailed home aboard the Meiji Maru, an iron steamship built in Scotland; the day moved to the third Monday in 2003.
Q 24On Finland's National Sleepy Head Day, what happens to the last person asleep in the house?
They are thrown into a lake
The custom draws on the legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, and the town of Naantali dunks a celebrity every year.
Q 25On Tynwald Day, July 5, the parliament of which island meets outdoors on an artificial hill?
Isle of Man
The open-air Midsummer Court at St John's dates back to the 10th century.
Q 26Which mountain do Irish pilgrims climb, some barefoot, on Reek Sunday?
Croagh Patrick
Saint Patrick is said to have fasted on the summit for forty days; Mass is held in a small chapel at the top.
Q 27World Population Day, July 11, was inspired by which milestone reached on that date in 1987?
Five billion people on Earth
The UN Development Programme created the observance in 1989.
Q 28July is National Ice Cream Month in the US, proclaimed in 1984 by which president?
Ronald Reagan
National Ice Cream Day is the third Sunday of the month; the resolution passed both houses of Congress first.
Q 29What happened at Bikini Atoll four days before the bikini was unveiled in Paris on July 5, 1946?
A nuclear bomb test
Designer Louis Réard, an automotive engineer by trade, hoped his creation would be just as explosive.
Q 30The Trinity test, the first nuclear detonation, took place on July 16, 1945, in which US state?
New Mexico
The site was the Jornada del Muerto desert; the plutonium 'gadget' was the same design dropped on Nagasaki three weeks later.