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70 free Louisville trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
68 free Louisville trivia questions with answers. Louisville, Kentucky is far more than the first Saturday in May. This quiz walks the whole city: the 1778 landing that started it, the canal dug around the Falls of the Ohio, the flood of 1937, the West Main Street block where the bourbon trade lived, and the museums, parks and neighborhoods that make it a place people actually visit. You'll also find the sports and food that put the city on the map: the family woodshop that hand-carved a bat for a slumping star, the boy whose stolen bicycle produced a heavyweight champion, the hotel sandwich covered in Mornay sauce, and the University of Louisville's championships and medical firsts. Famous natives from a Supreme Court justice to a chart-topping rapper round it out. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia, official sites and primary sources before publishing, and each question carries its citation. Difficulty runs from easy warm-ups to a handful of questions only a lifelong Louisvillian would get, so it works equally well for a trivia night, a classroom, or a solo test of your hometown pride.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Louisville was named in honor of which French king?
Louis XVI
The name thanked France for backing the American Revolution while the settlement was still a frontier outpost.
Q 02Which Revolutionary War officer is credited as the founder of Louisville in 1778?
George Rogers Clark
He led the settlers to a spot on the Ohio River rapids while campaigning against British posts in the Illinois country.
Q 03Where did the settlers who founded Louisville first land in 1778?
Corn Island
The Virginia General Assembly approved a town charter two years later, and by 1828 the town had 7,000 residents and became an incorporated city.
Q 04In what year did Louisville and Jefferson County merge into a single consolidated government?
2003
The merged city-county still contains dozens of smaller incorporated cities, which is why 'balance' population figures are reported separately.
Q 05What was the population of Louisville's consolidated city-county area at the 2020 census?
782,969
Excluding the other incorporated cities inside the merged county, the 'balance' population was 633,045.
Q 06Which Louisville pair received a hero's homecoming at Locust Grove in November 1806?
Lewis and Clark
Locust Grove is the only surviving residence west of the Appalachians to have sheltered the two explorers.
Q 07The Louisville and Portland Canal, opened in 1830, was dug to bypass what obstacle?
The Falls of the Ohio
The rapids were the only barrier to navigation between Pittsburgh and New Orleans, which is why a city grew up beside them in the first place.
Q 08After extensive modernization in 1962, the Louisville and Portland Canal was renamed what?
McAlpine Locks and Dam
It began life in 1830 as a private company before the federal government took it over.
Q 09The Great Flood of 1937 sent the Ohio River at Louisville to a record crest of how many feet?
57.15
The water submerged 60 to 70 percent of the city, knocked out power for four days and forced the evacuation of well over 100,000 residents.
Q 10In the 1917 case Buchanan v. Warley, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down what Louisville law?
A residential segregation ordinance
The same year, the city was chosen as the site of a large Army training camp as the U.S. entered World War I.
Q 11In 1905, Louisville established the first free public library in the U.S. that was what?
Staffed by and serving African Americans exclusively
Its head, Thomas Fountain Blue, went on to create the first library training program for African Americans in the country.
Q 12On March 27, 1890, Louisville's downtown was nearly destroyed by what?
A tornado
Modern estimates rate it an F4; between 74 and 120 people died and about 200 were injured.
Q 13Which U.S. president is buried in a national cemetery on Brownsboro Road in Louisville?
Zachary Taylor
Q 21Which Louisville company manufactures the Louisville Slugger bat?
Hillerich & Bradsby
The bats are still made in the downtown factory, though the brand itself now operates under Wilson Sporting Goods.
Q 22How tall is the giant baseball bat that leans against the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory downtown?
120 feet
It weighs 68,000 pounds; the museum itself opened in July 1996 with a gala of Hall of Famers.
Q 23What souvenir does every visitor receive at the end of the Louisville Slugger factory tour?
A miniature bat
The museum sits on the downtown stretch locals call Museum Row.
He grew up near the city and lies there beside his wife, Margaret Mackall Smith Taylor.
Q 14Churchill Downs takes its name from what?
The family that leased the land for the track
The Louisville Jockey Club and Driving Park Association was formed in 1875 to run the new track.
Q 15Which horse won the very first Kentucky Derby in 1875?
Aristides
About ten thousand spectators watched that first race at what was then called the Louisville Jockey Club track.
Q 16Which event, with a day-long air show and huge fireworks display, opens the Kentucky Derby Festival?
Thunder Over Louisville
The festival was first held from 1935 to 1937 and revived in 1956; its miniMarathon has run since 1974.
Q 17The Belle of Louisville steamboat was originally launched in 1914 under what name?
Idlewild
Built in Pittsburgh for the West Memphis Packet Company, it is now the oldest river steamboat still in operation.
Q 18What does the winning boat receive in the Great Steamboat Race held the Wednesday before the Derby?
A pair of gilded deer antlers
The prize is mounted above the forecastle of the winner, and bragging rights are the only other reward.
Q 19For which slumping Louisville Eclipse star was the first Louisville Slugger bat hand-crafted in 1884?
Pete Browning
He got three hits with the new bat the first day he used it, and the family woodworking shop found a new line of business.
Q 20Which player's 1905 Louisville Slugger deal is likely the first athlete endorsement of sports equipment?
Honus Wagner
The Louisville Slugger name had already been registered with the U.S. Patent Office in 1894.
Q 24What everyday misfortune first steered 12-year-old Cassius Clay toward boxing in Louisville?
His bicycle was stolen
Police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin met the fuming boy and suggested he learn to box before hunting the thief.
Q 25The Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville's West Main District opened in 2005 at what cost?
$80 million
The six-story, 96,750-square-foot museum is built around his six core principles.
Q 26Which of these is one of the six core principles the Muhammad Ali Center is built around?
Spirituality
The full list is confidence, conviction, dedication, giving, respect and the sixth one here.
Q 27Louisville's airport code is SDF, a holdover from what former name?
Standiford Field
The airport was renamed for Muhammad Ali in 2019, but the code never changed.
Q 28Louisville's airport is among the busiest US cargo airports because it hosts which company's worldwide hub?
UPS
In 2023 only Anchorage and Memphis handled more cargo; the hub is known as Worldport.
Q 29Which 296-acre Louisville burial ground and arboretum holds both Colonel Sanders and the city's founder?
Cave Hill
It was chartered in 1848 and is Louisville's largest burial ground; the Colonel was buried there in his white suit and black string tie.
Q 30A Hot Brown, Louisville's signature open-faced sandwich, is smothered in which sauce?
Mornay
Fred K. Schmidt created it in 1926 as an alternative to ham-and-egg late-night dinners, and it soon became the choice of 95% of the hotel's diners.