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U.S. History Trivia Questions for Kids and Families
Thirty American history trivia questions with answers, going from easy to hard, from Jamestown to the transcontinental railroad. A great fit for classrooms and the Fourth of July.
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Easy U.S. history trivia questions for kids
1.On what date was the Declaration of Independence approved?
July 4, 1776. That is why Americans celebrate Independence Day on the Fourth of July.
2.Which president's face is on the U.S. one-dollar bill?
George Washington. Abraham Lincoln is on the five-dollar bill.
3.In 1775, Paul Revere rode at night to warn colonists that what was coming?
British troops. Other riders, including William Dawes, carried the warning that night too.
4.Who was the 16th President of the United States?
Abraham Lincoln. He gave the Gettysburg Address in 1863.
5.Francis Scott Key wrote the words of which song, now the national anthem of the United States?
The Star-Spangled Banner. The giant flag that flew over Fort McHenry and inspired Key is on display at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
6.Benjamin Franklin flew what during a thunderstorm to show that lightning is electricity?
A kite. He tried it in June 1752 and went on to perfect his lightning rod.
7.At the Boston Tea Party in 1773, colonists protesting a tax dumped what into Boston Harbor?
Tea. About 340 chests holding some 90,000 pounds of tea went into the water.
8.What do the 13 stripes on the U.S. flag stand for?
The 13 original colonies. The white stars on the blue field stand for the states, one star for each.
9.The Golden Gate Bridge stands at the entrance to the bay of which California city?
San Francisco. It was built in the 1930s, during the hard times of the Great Depression.
10.In 1848, what did James Marshall find at a sawmill in California that set off a famous rush of newcomers?
Gold. The find drew one of the biggest mass movements of people in the history of the Americas.
11.What is the name of the President's home and office in Washington, D.C.?
The White House. President John Adams and his wife, Abigail, were the first to live there, moving in before it was even finished.
12.Which American folk hero, whose real name was John Chapman, planted apple tree nurseries on the frontier?
Johnny Appleseed. He was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, in 1774.
Medium U.S. history trivia questions
13.What was the first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in Virginia in 1607?
Jamestown. The settlers named it after their king, James I of England.
14.Who wrote most of the Declaration of Independence?
Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was 33 years old when he wrote it.
15.Which founding document begins with the words 'We the People'?
The U.S. Constitution. It was signed in Philadelphia in 1787.
16.Which mail service used riders on fast horses to carry letters across the American West in 1860 and 1861?
The Pony Express. It could carry a letter from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, about 1,800 miles, in around 10 days.
17.What was completed at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869?
The first transcontinental railroad. A ceremonial golden spike marked the joining of the two lines.
18.Which park, set aside in 1872, was the first national park in the world?
Yellowstone National Park. President Ulysses S. Grant signed the law that created it.
19.Which island in New York Harbor opened in 1892 as America's busiest immigration station?
Ellis Island. More than 12 million immigrants were processed there.
20.In 1609, which explorer sailed the ship Half Moon up a New York river that now bears his name?
Henry Hudson. His crew sailed about 150 miles upriver, to near today's Albany.
21.Founded in 1636, which school was the first college in the American colonies?
Harvard. John Harvard didn't found it, but he left it half his estate and over 400 books.
22.In 1803, the United States doubled in size by buying a huge territory from France. What was this deal called?
The Louisiana Purchase. The price was $15 million, which worked out to roughly 4 cents an acre.
Hard U.S. history trivia questions for adults
23.Which ancient Native American city in what is now Illinois had about 120 earthen mounds?
Cahokia. Around the year 1250, it was bigger than London.
24.In which Colorado national park did Ancestral Pueblo people build homes like Cliff Palace into canyon walls?
Mesa Verde National Park. Ancestral Pueblo people built thriving communities there for more than 700 years.
25.Which Cherokee man created a writing system for the Cherokee language and showed it to the Cherokee Council in 1821?
Sequoyah. His young daughter, Ahyokah, helped him prove to the council that it worked.
26.What is the name of the bronze statue that stands on top of the U.S. Capitol dome?
The Statue of Freedom. Designed by Thomas Crawford, she stands 19 feet 6 inches (about 6 meters) tall.
27.Which French-born engineer drew up the first plan for the new city of Washington, D.C.?
Pierre Charles L'Enfant. He put the Capitol on Jenkins' Hill, calling it 'a pedestal waiting for a monument.'
28.Who took over much of the day-to-day work of building the Brooklyn Bridge after her engineer husband fell ill?
Emily Warren Roebling. Before the bridge opened in 1883, she was the first to cross it by carriage.
29.Founded by the Spanish in 1565, which Florida city is the oldest European-founded city in the continental U.S. lived in ever since?
St. Augustine. Its founder, Pedro Menendez de Aviles, became Florida's first governor.
30.Katharine Lee Bates wrote 'America the Beautiful' after a trip to the top of which Colorado mountain?
Pikes Peak. She made the trip in 1893, and her poem was first published in 1895.
Ways to use these U.S. history questions
Read a few of these aloud as a social-studies warm-up, or let students choose a level and quiz a partner before a unit on early America. On a family road trip, save the matching questions for the stops along the way: the Golden Gate Bridge, Yellowstone, Mesa Verde, Jamestown or the U.S. Capitol. They also make a good Fourth of July picnic game while everyone waits for the fireworks, or a dinner-table challenge after a visit to a national park, a history museum or a state capitol. Younger kids can take the easy ones about kites and teddy bears while grown-ups try Cahokia, Sequoyah and the Statue of Freedom.
Play U.S. History trivia together
Room Trivia has a whole U.S. History category with different questions: four answers to pick from, points for speed, and a scoreboard. Put it on a TV or laptop and everyone answers on their own phone. Free, with no app and no account.