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60 free Massachusetts trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
47 free Massachusetts trivia questions with answers. Massachusetts packed an outsized share of American history into a small state: the Pilgrims, the Salem witch trials, the Tea Party and Bunker Hill, the first public school and the first subway. This quiz covers all of that plus the modern Bay State — Fenway's Green Monster, eighteen Celtics banners, the Boston Marathon, Cape Cod and the islands, Harvard and MIT, and the surprising number of everyday things invented here, from basketball and volleyball to the chocolate chip cookie and the smiley face. The easy questions ask what the capital is and where the Pilgrims landed. The hard ones want the height of Mount Greylock, the town where Dunkin' started, the number of chests dumped in the harbour and which sport was first called mintonette. It suits a Patriots' Day gathering, a classroom or a New England pub quiz. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the state, its cities and its landmarks, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
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Q 01The state's official name uses which word instead of 'State'?
Commonwealth
Massachusetts is officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a term its 1780 constitution adopted for its republican connotation; Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Virginia are the other three commonwealths.
Q 02What is Massachusetts' nickname, from the large bays that shape its coast?
The Bay State
Massachusetts is the Bay State, a nickname taken from Massachusetts Bay and the Massachusetts Bay Colony chartered in 1629; Rhode Island, not Massachusetts, is the Ocean State.
Q 03The state's name comes from an Indigenous people whose name is often translated as what?
Near the great hill
The Massachusett people's name is usually rendered 'near the great hill', a reference to the Great Blue Hill on the Milton-Canton line south of Boston.
Q 04How many passengers did the Pilgrims' ship carry across the Atlantic in 1620?
102
The Mayflower carried 102 passengers, plus roughly 30 crew, when it sailed from Plymouth, England in September 1620; the Speedwell proved unseaworthy and was left behind.
Q 05Which Wampanoag chief signed a treaty with Plymouth Colony that helped ensure its survival?
Massasoit
Massasoit, the Wampanoag sachem, made a peace treaty with Plymouth in March 1621 that held for more than 50 years; Squanto acted as interpreter.
Q 06Boston was founded in 1630 on which peninsula?
Shawmut
The Puritans also called it Tremontaine, for its three hills, which is where Tremont Street gets its name.
Q 07In the Salem witch trials of 1692, how many people were executed by hanging?
Nineteen
Nineteen people were hanged at Proctor's Ledge in Salem between June and September 1692; Giles Corey died separately, pressed under stones for refusing to enter a plea.
Q 08The last convicted Salem 'witch', Elizabeth Johnson Jr., was formally exonerated in what year?
2022
Elizabeth Johnson Jr. was formally exonerated in 2022, 329 years after her conviction, through a state-budget provision pushed by a North Andover middle-school civics class.
Q 09On what date did the Boston Tea Party take place?
December 16, 1773
On December 16, 1773, Sons of Liberty boarded three ships at Griffin's Wharf and dumped their tea into Boston Harbor in protest at the Tea Act Parliament had passed that May.
Q 10Roughly how many chests of tea were thrown into Boston Harbor?
Around 340
Around 340 chests, 342 by the usual count, of East India Company tea, roughly 92,000 pounds, were emptied from the Dartmouth, Eleanor and Beaver in about three hours.
Q 11Which 1775 battles fought in Massachusetts began the Revolutionary War?
Lexington and Concord
The battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 opened the war when British troops marching from Boston to seize militia stores met colonial minutemen.
Q 12Massachusetts became which number state to ratify the US Constitution, in February 1788?
Sixth
Massachusetts ratified on February 6, 1788 as the sixth state, by a narrow 187-168 vote that came with recommended amendments, a tactic later states copied.
Q 13What is the 1786-87 uprising that tried to seize the Connecticut Valley federal armory called?
Shays' Rebellion
Q 21In January 1919, a wave of what killed 21 people in Boston's North End?
Molasses
The Great Molasses Flood of January 15, 1919 sent a wave of molasses through the North End at about 35 mph after a 50-foot tank holding 2.3 million gallons burst.
Q 22Boston's Back Bay neighbourhood was created how?
By filling in tidal marshland
Gravel came by rail from Needham Heights and from levelling Boston's original three hills.
Q 23What was the nickname of Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project, completed in 2007?
The Big Dig
The Big Dig, finished in 2007 at roughly $15 billion, buried the elevated Central Artery in a tunnel; the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway now runs along its old route.
It was led by Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays and influenced the Constitutional Convention.
Q 14Which state was part of Massachusetts until it separated in 1820?
Maine
Maine was the District of Maine within Massachusetts until 1820, when it entered the Union as the 23rd state under the Missouri Compromise.
Q 15Which Black Massachusetts regiment of the Civil War was depicted in the 1989 film Glory?
The 54th Infantry
The 54th Massachusetts Infantry, one of the first Black regiments raised in the North, led the July 1863 assault on Fort Wagner that forms the climax of Glory.
Q 16In 2004 Massachusetts became the first US state to do what?
Legalize same-sex marriage
The change followed the Supreme Judicial Court's Goodridge decision.
Q 17Which two US presidents named Adams were born in Massachusetts?
John and John Quincy
John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams were both born in Braintree, now Quincy; their birthplaces stand side by side in Adams National Historical Park.
Q 18What is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States?
Harvard
It was named in 1639 for John Harvard, a Puritan clergyman who left it his library and £780.
Q 19Boston Latin, founded in 1635, holds what national distinction?
Oldest public school
Boston Latin School, opened on April 23, 1635, is the oldest public school in the United States; the Mather School of 1639 is the oldest public elementary school.
Q 20Boston's Tremont Street line, opened in 1897, was the first what in the nation?
Subway
The Tremont Street Subway, opened September 1, 1897, was the first subway in the United States, built to pull streetcars off the congested street above.
Q 24Which sport was invented in western Massachusetts in 1891 by James Naismith?
Basketball
Naismith invented basketball in December 1891 at the YMCA training school in Springfield, nailing a peach basket to a gym balcony to keep a class busy in winter.
Q 25Volleyball was invented in 1895 in which Massachusetts city?
Holyoke
William G. Morgan, director of the Holyoke YMCA, devised the game in 1895 as a gentler indoor game for older members and first called it 'mintonette'.
Q 26After their 2024 title, how many NBA championships had the Boston Celtics won?
18
The 2024 championship was the Celtics' 18th, then a league record and one more than the Lakers; eight of the titles came in a row from 1959 to 1966.
Q 27Which Celtics player-coach became the first African American head coach in a major US sport?
Bill Russell
Bill Russell took over from Red Auerbach as player-coach in 1966, the first African American head coach in a major US league, and won titles in 1968 and 1969.
Q 28What is the name of the famous left-field wall at Fenway Park?
The Green Monster
The Green Monster is Fenway Park's 37-foot left-field wall, painted green in 1947 and topped with seats since 2003; Duffy's Cliff was the earlier slope in front of it.
Q 29The lone red seat in Fenway's right-field bleachers marks what?
The longest home run ever hit there
Ted Williams hit it in 1946.
Q 30New England's NFL team was founded in 1959 under what name?
Boston Patriots
The Boston Patriots were an AFL charter franchise, awarded to Billy Sullivan in November 1959; they became the New England Patriots on moving to Foxborough in 1971.