Veterans Day Quiz
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This Veterans Day trivia quiz has 147 free questions with answers and covers the holiday from the 1918 armistice to today: why it falls on November 11, how Armistice Day became Veterans Day, what separates it from Memorial Day and Armed Forces Day, the story of the poppy and "In Flanders Fields", the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and its guards, and how other countries mark Remembrance Day. The questions start easy, so it works as Veterans Day trivia for seniors at a community centre or care home, for a classroom or a family table, and then climbs to genuinely hard veterans trivia about the armistice negotiations and Arlington's traditions for the history buffs in the room. Every answer comes with a short explanation. Every question has been checked against a primary source, and each shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 147 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Like Veterans Day, which of these US federal holidays is fixed to a calendar date rather than a weekday?
Independence Day
Independence Day stays on July 4 for the same reason Veterans Day stays on November 11: the date itself is what is being marked. The other three are all set by the day of the week.
Q 02Which U.S. president signed the legislation that changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day?
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the 1954 act that struck out 'Armistice' and wrote in 'Veterans'; later that year he issued the first Veterans Day Proclamation and set up a national committee to plan the observance.
Q 03While Veterans Day honors all who wore the uniform, Memorial Day is reserved for which group?
Those who died in service
Those who died in service are Memorial Day's focus: it began as Decoration Day in 1868, when Union veterans called for flowers on the graves of the Civil War dead. Veterans Day thanks the living as well.
Q 04At what time of day did the World War I armistice take effect on November 11, 1918?
11:00 a.m.
11:00 a.m. came six hours after the signing, the grace period the terms allowed for the fighting to stop; it made the ceasefire fall at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
Q 05Where was the World War I armistice signed on November 11, 1918?
Compiègne, France
Compiègne, France: German delegates were driven across the front line to a railway carriage on a siding in the nearby forest, where they signed before dawn three days later.
Q 06In what year did November 11 officially become a U.S. federal holiday?
1938
An act of Congress passed on May 13, 1938 made November 11 a legal federal holiday; the day's renaming to Veterans Day came later.
Q 07The hilltop mansion at the heart of Arlington National Cemetery was once home to which Civil War general?
Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee's wife inherited the estate; after the Union army seized it, the quartermaster general had soldiers buried close to the house in 1864, hoping to make it unlivable if the Lees ever came back.
Q 08How many steps does a Tomb Guard walk before turning at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?
21
A Tomb Guard takes 21 steps, faces the Tomb for 21 seconds, turns, waits another 21 seconds and walks back; the number echoes the 21-gun salute, the highest military honor.
Q 09Before the round-the-clock watch began in 1937, soldiers guarded the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier only when?
In daylight
In daylight: soldiers from Fort Myer were posted in 1926 to stop visitors climbing or stepping on the Tomb, which a few had even used as a picnic spot. The watch has not lapsed since 1937.
Q 10Which U.S. Army unit is responsible for guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?
3rd Infantry Regiment
The 3rd Infantry Regiment, 'The Old Guard', took over the watch in April 1948, when it was reactivated as the Army's official ceremonial unit; its soldiers also escort Arlington's funerals.
Q 11Which First World War field marshal helped found the British Legion, whose 1921 appeal first sold remembrance poppies in Britain?
Douglas Haig
Douglas Haig, who had commanded Britain's armies on the Western Front, gave his last years to ex-servicemen, helping to set up the Legion and raising money for it until his death in 1928.
Q 12Who wrote the famous poem "In Flanders Fields" that inspired the remembrance poppy?
John McCrae
John McCrae, an army doctor, is said to have written it the day after burying his friend Alexis Helmer in May 1915; by legend he threw the draft away and fellow soldiers rescued it.
Q 13America's Unknown Soldier lay in state in which Washington building before the 1921 burial at Arlington?
Q 21Which Alabama city, home of organizer Raymond Weeks, staged a celebration for all veterans on Armistice Day 1947?
Birmingham
Birmingham held a parade on November 11, 1947, after Weeks took his plan for a day honoring every veteran to Washington; he ran the celebration each year until his death in 1985.
Q 22Roughly how many living military veterans did the United States have in 2023?
About 16 million
About 16 million veterans were counted in the Census Bureau's 2023 survey, some 6% of adults; in 1980 the share was about 18%, and it has shrunk ever since the draft ended in 1973.
Q 23Why do Tomb Guards walking the mat wear no rank insignia?
So as not to outrank the Unknowns
The U.S. Capitol
The U.S. Capitol's Rotunda received the casket on November 9, 1921; tens of thousands of mourners filed past the next day, before a horse-drawn caisson carried it across the Potomac to Arlington.
Q 14In the 1970s Veterans Day was briefly moved off November 11 under which federal law?
Uniform Monday Holiday Act
The Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 shifted several holidays to Mondays to give federal workers three-day weekends; many states simply kept Veterans Day on November 11 until Congress gave way.
Q 15For most of the 1970s, Veterans Day was moved off November 11 to a date in which month?
October
October hosted Veterans Day from 1971 to 1977; many states kept November 11 anyway, and Congress gave way, restoring the original date from 1978.
Q 16Which president proclaimed the first Armistice Day on November 11, 1919?
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson's message spoke of 'solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service'; the first observance was planned around parades, public meetings and a brief pause in business.
Q 17Which military branch celebrates its birthday on November 10, just one day before Veterans Day?
U.S. Marine Corps
The U.S. Marine Corps dates its birth to November 10, 1775, when Congress raised the Continental Marines; at each birthday ball, pieces of cake are presented to the oldest and the youngest Marine present.
Q 18Which ceremony opens the national Veterans Day observance each November 11?
A wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns
A wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns starts it, and the observance then moves inside the Memorial Amphitheater for a parade of colors and remarks from dignitaries.
Q 19The first Unknown Soldier interred at Arlington's Tomb died in which conflict?
World War I
The 1921 Unknown was a World War I soldier, chosen by Sergeant Edward Younger from four identical caskets at Châlons-sur-Marne, France, on October 24, 1921.
Q 20Which monarch's abdication was announced on 9 November 1918, two days before the armistice was signed?
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Kaiser Wilhelm II had not yet agreed when his chancellor, Max von Baden, announced the abdication to calm a revolution in the capital; he went into exile in the Netherlands and died there in 1941.
So as not to outrank the Unknowns: nobody can say what rank the men in the crypts held, so the sentinel pacing in front of them shows none at all.
Q 24Where in the United States is the National WWI Museum and Memorial located?
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri, raised more than $2.5 million for a war memorial in under two weeks in 1919; its Liberty Memorial was dedicated in 1926 and named the national World War I museum by Congress in 2004.
Q 25In which magazine was "In Flanders Fields" first published in 1915?
Punch
"In Flanders Fields" was first published on December 8, 1915, in the British magazine Punch after being rejected by The Spectator.
Q 26Which country observes November 11 as National Independence Day rather than a veterans' commemoration?
Poland
November 11, 1918 was the day Poland regained sovereignty after 123 years of partition by Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia.
Q 27What ceremony takes place daily at the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium, to honor fallen soldiers?
The Last Post
The Last Post was first sounded under the gate in 1928 and has closed every day since May 1929, except under German occupation, when the ceremony moved to a cemetery in England; it returned the evening Ypres was freed in 1944.
Q 28In 2023, roughly what share of the U.S. adult civilian population were veterans?
About 6%
Veterans made up about 6% of the U.S. adult civilian population in 2023; fewer than 1% of them had served in World War II, and about 1.7 million were women.
Q 29Which president presided over the interment of the first Unknown Soldier at Arlington in 1921?
Warren G. Harding
President Warren G. Harding presided over the interment on November 11, 1921; at the same ceremony Admiral of the Fleet Lord Beatty presented Britain's Victoria Cross on behalf of King George V.
Q 30On which shoulder does a Tomb sentinel carry the rifle while walking the mat?
The shoulder away from the Tomb
The sentinel always carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the Tomb, placing the guard between the Tomb and any threat; the weapon changes shoulders at each turn.