Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
9 questions No timer
91 free Unsolved Mysteries trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
10 free unsolved mysteries trivia questions with answers. Think you know about the world's greatest unsolved mysteries? Test your knowledge with our engaging 91-question trivia quiz covering famous disappearances, unexplained phenomena, and historical enigmas. From the Bermuda Triangle to the Voynich Manuscript, discover how much you really know about these captivating unsolved cases.
30 of 91 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which network launched 'Unsolved Mysteries' as a weekly series on October 5, 1988?
NBC
NBC launched Unsolved Mysteries as a weekly series on October 5, 1988, after seven specials had aired on the network since January 1987.
Q 02Which trench-coated host narrated Unsolved Mysteries for eleven seasons across NBC and CBS?
Robert Stack
Robert Stack, an Oscar nominee and TV's Eliot Ness in The Untouchables, delivered the trench-coated narration for four specials plus eleven seasons across NBC and CBS.
Q 03What element does the Netflix revival of 'Unsolved Mysteries' notably drop from previous iterations?
A host or narrator
Co-creator John Cosgrove promised a 'pure documentary style' with no presenter, though an image of the longtime host still appears in every title sequence.
Q 04Which actor hosted the very first 'Unsolved Mysteries' special in 1987 before Robert Stack took over?
Raymond Burr
Best known as Perry Mason and Ironside, Burr fronted only the pilot; Karl Malden took the next two specials before Stack settled in as the permanent host.
Q 05Who were the creators of the American mystery documentary television series 'Unsolved Mysteries'?
John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer
'Unsolved Mysteries' was created by John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer, who also served as executive producers for various iterations of the show.
Q 06Approximately how many cases featured on 'Unsolved Mysteries' have been solved following their broadcast?
Over 260
Over 260: the producers credit viewer tips phoned in after broadcasts with solving more than 260 of the cases profiled, reuniting over 100 families and helping exonerate seven wrongly convicted people.
Q 07After CBS cancelled it in 1999, which cable channel picked up Unsolved Mysteries?
Lifetime
Lifetime picked up the series in 2001, mixing repackaged segments with new cases until the cable run ended in September 2002.
Q 08Which actor took over as host of 'Unsolved Mysteries' during its revival on Spike TV from 2008 to 2010?
Dennis Farina
Dennis Farina, the Crime Story and Law & Order actor and a former Chicago police officer, hosted the Spike TV run from 2008 to 2010, mostly repackaging segments from earlier seasons.
Q 09In what year did the Netflix reboot of 'Unsolved Mysteries' first premiere?
2020
2020: the Netflix reboot premiered on July 1, 2020, co-produced with 21 Laps, the production company behind Stranger Things.
Q 10Besides cold cases, what kind of segments on Unsolved Mysteries led NBC News to demand a 'not a news broadcast' disclaimer?
Paranormal occurrences
Paranormal occurrences, specifically the UFO and ghost segments, led NBC News to demand a disclaimer before each episode stating it was 'not a news broadcast'.
Q 11How much ransom did hijacker D. B. Cooper demand in 1971 before parachuting from a Boeing 727?
$200,000
$200,000: Cooper demanded $200,000 in cash plus four parachutes, then jumped from the Boeing 727 over southwest Washington; he had bought his ticket as Dan Cooper, and a press error produced 'D. B.'
Q 12How many of the Zodiac Killer's four cryptograms had been decrypted by the end of 2020?
Two
Two: the 408-symbol cipher was solved by a schoolteacher couple in 1969 and the 340-symbol cipher by a team of amateur codebreakers in December 2020.
Q 13The vellum of the undeciphered Voynich manuscript has been carbon-dated to which period?
The early 15th century
Q 21Derek Abbott's 2022 DNA claim identified the Somerton Man as Carl Webb, a man of what profession?
Electrical engineer
Electrical engineer: Abbott and genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick used DNA from hairs embedded in the man's plaster bust to identify Carl Webb, a Melbourne-born electrical engineer and instrument maker.
Q 22How many keepers vanished from the Flannan Isles Lighthouse in December 1900?
Three
Three: James Ducat, Thomas Marshall and Donald MacArthur were gone when the relief ship Hesperus arrived on December 26, 1900; one set of oilskins was left behind, suggesting a keeper had rushed out.
Q 23How did the thieves who stole 13 works from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 get inside?
The early 15th century: radiocarbon dating at the University of Arizona in 2009 placed the vellum between 1404 and 1438, and its first confirmed owner was the 17th-century Prague alchemist Georg Baresch.
Q 14The Mary Celeste was found deserted but seaworthy off the Azores in 1872 by which Canadian ship?
Dei Gratia
Dei Gratia, a Nova Scotia brigantine under Captain David Morehouse, sighted the drifting Mary Celeste in December 1872; her lifeboat was gone but the alcohol cargo and the crew's belongings were untouched.
Q 15Who governed the 'Lost Colony' of Roanoke when it was settled in 1587?
John White
Ralph Lane had led an earlier military outpost on the island in 1585-86; the second colony vanished while White was away seeking supplies.
Q 16How many Soviet ski hikers died in the 1959 Dyatlov Pass incident in the Ural Mountains?
Nine
Nine: all nine hikers died after cutting their way out of the tent in February 1959 and fleeing into the cold; six succumbed to hypothermia and three to severe injuries.
Q 17Which university's Big Ear radio telescope picked up the 1977 'Wow!' signal?
Ohio State
Ohio State: its Big Ear radio telescope recorded the signal on August 15, 1977, and astronomer Jerry Ehman circled the reading '6EQUJ5' on the printout, writing 'Wow!' beside it.
Q 18From which constellation did the Wow! signal appear to come?
Sagittarius
Sagittarius: the signal came from a patch of sky near the Chi Sagittarii star group and lasted the full 72 seconds that Big Ear could observe any one point.
Q 19Jimmy Hoffa, who vanished in 1975, had led which US labour union from 1957 to 1971?
The Teamsters
He was declared dead in 1982; the union grew to over 2.3 million members at its peak.
Q 20The 'Somerton Man' case takes its other name from the Persian phrase 'tamám shud', torn from which book?
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: the scrap reading 'tamám shud', meaning 'it is finished', was found in a hidden fob pocket in the trousers of the man discovered dead on Somerton Beach, Adelaide, in December 1948.
Posing as police officers
Posing as police officers: two men in uniform talked their way in on March 18, 1990, handcuffed the two guards in the basement, and spent 81 minutes removing 13 works.
Q 24What reward did the Gardner Museum set in 2017 for the return of its stolen art?
$10 million
$10 million: in 2017 the museum doubled its standing reward to $10 million for information leading to the recovery of all 13 works, which include Vermeer's The Concert and Rembrandt's only seascape.
Q 25Jim Sanborn's cipher sculpture Kryptos stands at which US agency's headquarters?
The CIA
The CIA: Jim Sanborn's Kryptos, dedicated in 1990 in a courtyard at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, carries four encrypted passages on its copper plates, three of them cracked by 1999.
Q 26The Beale ciphers supposedly locate a treasure buried around 1820 in Bedford County, in which US state?
Virginia
Virginia: the 1885 pamphlet places the treasure near Bufords in Bedford County, Virginia; only the second of the three ciphertexts, keyed to the Declaration of Independence, has ever been decoded.
Q 27Oak Island and its 'Money Pit' lie off which Canadian province?
Nova Scotia
Treasure hunters have dug there since the late 18th century, and accounts of the pit have been in print since 1857.
Q 28Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished in March 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to where?
Beijing
Beijing: the Boeing 777 left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 people aboard; military radar tracked it turning west across the Malay Peninsula after it vanished from civilian screens.
Q 29In 1980 a small portion of D. B. Cooper's ransom money, $5,800, turned up along the banks of which river?
The Columbia
The Columbia: in February 1980 eight-year-old Brian Ingram dug up three decaying bundles of the $20 bills at Tena Bar, a Columbia River beach just north of Vancouver, Washington.
Q 30The name 'Jack the Ripper' originated in which missive sent to the press in 1888?
The 'Dear Boss' letter
The 'Dear Boss' letter, received by the Central News Agency on September 27, 1888, was signed 'Jack the Ripper', the first known use of the name; the 'From Hell' letter went to George Lusk with half a kidney.