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100 free On This Day in History trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
50 free On This Day in History trivia questions with answers. Explore the most significant events that shaped our world with our engaging On This Day in History trivia quiz. From groundbreaking discoveries to pivotal moments, challenge yourself to recall the dates and details of history's most important occurrences. See how much you really know about the events that changed everything.
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Q 01The first crewed mission to land on the Moon achieved this historic feat in which decade?
1960s
Armstrong and Aldrin touched down in the Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969, while Michael Collins stayed in lunar orbit aboard Columbia.
Q 02In what year did a pilot first officially break the sound barrier, flying faster than the speed of sound?
1947
Chuck Yeager achieved this milestone on October 14, 1947, in the Bell X-1 aircraft, marking a significant advancement in aviation history.
Q 03Senators led by Brutus and Cassius assassinated the Roman dictator Julius Caesar on the Ides of March of which year?
44 BC
44 BC was the year; the senators feared his power, his domination of the state, and the possibility that he might make himself king.
Q 04Which Washington state volcano, until then the state's fifth-highest peak, erupted catastrophically on May 18, 1980?
Mount St. Helens
Mount St. Helens had been Washington's fifth-highest peak before the eruption, one of the most significant volcanic events in US history.
Q 05In what year did Pearl Harbor pull the United States into World War II?
1941
The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service struck the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Q 06The RMS Titanic struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York and sank in which year?
1912
1912, in the early hours of 15 April; of the roughly 2,208 people aboard, about 1,500 died, one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship.
Q 07What year did Martin Luther King Jr. give his 'I Have a Dream' speech?
1963
More than 250,000 people heard it from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28 of that year.
Q 08Nelson Mandela was released from prison, after 27 years, in what year?
1990
Mandela was released on February 11, 1990, a pivotal moment in the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa.
Q 09The Berlin Wall fell on November 9 of which year, with German reunification following less than a year later?
1989
1989 was the year; the fall of the Berlin Wall became the symbolic end of the Cold War.
Q 10What date was D-Day, when Allied troops landed in Normandy in World War II?
June 6, 1944
The landings on June 6, 1944, opened Operation Overlord and began the liberation of German-occupied Western Europe.
Q 11World War II officially began with Germany's invasion of which country on September 1, 1939?
Poland
The invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939, is widely considered the start of World War II.
Q 12The Red Army liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27 of which year?
1945
The 1st Ukrainian Front reached the camp that day; the date has been International Holocaust Remembrance Day since 2005.
Q 13The first atomic bomb used in warfare was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on what date?
August 6, 1945
August 6, 1945: the B-29 Enola Gay dropped 'Little Boy', a uranium gun-type bomb, on Hiroshima that morning; Truman's statement announced the new weapon sixteen hours later.
Q 21Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French at Notre-Dame on December 2 of which year?
1804
1804: Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French at Notre-Dame de Paris on December 2, 1804, in a ceremony attended by Pope Pius VII.
Q 22The euro arrived for non-cash transactions on January 1 of what year?
1999
1999: the euro launched as a non-cash accounting currency on January 1, 1999, replacing the European Currency Unit at par; notes and coins followed on January 1, 2002.
Q 23The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, a trigger for World War I, occurred in what city?
Sarajevo
Sarajevo: Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student, shot Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in the Bosnian capital on June 28, 1914.
Q 14Black Tuesday, the most devastating stock market crash in U.S. history, occurred in what year?
1929
Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, marked a sharp downturn in the stock market and contributed to the start of the Great Depression.
Q 15On what date did the Continental Congress adopt the Declaration of Independence?
July 4, 1776
July 4, 1776: Congress adopted the Declaration's final text that day in the Pennsylvania State House, later Independence Hall; most delegates signed the engrossed copy on August 2.
Q 16The United States bought the Louisiana Territory from France in what year?
1803
1803: the purchase treaty, dated April 30, 1803, transferred about 828,000 square miles from Napoleon's France to the United States for roughly $15 million.
Q 17Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. President, was assassinated in what year?
1865
1865: John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865, and he died the next morning, five days after Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
Q 18The September 11 attacks, a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks, occurred in which year?
2001
The tragic events of September 11, 2001, targeted the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
Q 19The United States officially marks V-J Day on which date, when Japan's formal surrender was signed aboard the USS Missouri?
September 2
September 2 is when the surrender documents were signed in Tokyo Bay; the UK instead marks August 15, when the surrender was first announced.
Q 20On which date did V-E Day, marking the Allies' acceptance of Nazi Germany's surrender, occur?
May 8, 1945
May 8, 1945: the Allies celebrated V-E Day after Germany's surrender signed at Reims on May 7 took effect; a second signing at Karlshorst, Berlin, late on May 8 led the USSR to mark May 9.
Q 24Bastille Day, France's national day, commemorates the 1789 storming of the Bastille prison on which date?
July 14
July 14 also marks the Fête de la Fédération of 1790, a festival celebrating the unity of the French people one year after the storming.
Q 25Explorer Christopher Columbus first arrived in the Americas on October 12 of which year?
1492
Columbus's expedition made landfall in the Americas on October 12, 1492, marking a significant moment in European exploration.
Q 26The first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest was achieved in which year?
1953
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953.
Q 27In what year was Solidarity, the Polish trade union, founded?
1980
Solidarity (Solidarność) was founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, led by Lech Wałęsa.
Q 28In what year did British soldiers shoot unarmed civilians in Derry on 'Bloody Sunday'?
1972
Also known as the Bogside Massacre, it happened on January 30, 1972, during a protest march.
Q 29Google was incorporated in California on September 4 of which year?
1998
1998: Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporated Google in California on September 4, 1998, working from Susan Wojcicki's garage in Menlo Park; the company celebrates its birthday on September 27.
Q 30In which year was Earth Day first celebrated?
1970
The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970, mobilizing millions of Americans for environmental activism.