Madrid Pub Quiz · Free History Questions

Charles II hid in an oak tree in Boscobel Wood to hide from the Roundheads after the Battle of Worcester in 1651 (Commemorated as Royal Oak Day, Restoration Day, or Oak Apple Day)

Who was the last king of the UK to have a beard?

George V (1910–1936)

Which wars ended when Henry Ⅶ defeated Richard Ⅲ in battle?

The Wars of the Roses

What is the actress Nell Gwynne's connection with the Monarchy?

She was Charles II's mistress (1668–1685)

What was Richard I of England's nickname?

Richard the Lionheart or Cœur de Lion

What relation was Edward VIII, who abdicated, to his successor George VI?

They were brothers

Which English king was born in 1027 and died at the age of sixty after falling from his horse?

William I (William the Conqueror)

Who was Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, also know as?

Bonnie Prince Charlie (1720–1788)

Which king signed the Magna Carta?

King John of England in 1215

Which crown was used in the last seven British coronations, including King Charles Ⅲ?

St. Edward’s Crown

Who was the first monarch to use Buckingham Palace as an official residence?

Queen Victoria

Who was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England?

Harold II (Godwinson) 1022–1066

Who was known as 'The Sailor King'?

William IV, also known as 'Silly Billy'

The Roundheads or Parliamentarians were the supporters of Parliament during the English Civil War. What were the Royalist known as?

Cavaliers

Who was the last King of Ireland?

George VI until Ireland became a republic in 1948

Which was the largest battle by number of combatants in the American Revolutionary War (American War of Independence)?

The Great Siege of Gibraltar. The “Grand Assault” alone involved 60,000 men, 49 ships of the line, and 10 floating batteries against the 5,000 defenders.

Which American President saw active service in both World War Ⅰ and World War Ⅱ?

Eisenhower

In which Spanish city was Isabel La Católica crowned Queen of Castille?

Segovia

With thanks to Bren Murphy of The Irish Rover, Madrid for correcting the answer

What was Operation Sea Lion in the Second World War?

The planned invasion of Britain

With thanks to Alan Boxall for fine tuning the answer to this question

What was Mahatma Gandhi’s first name?

Mohandas (Karamchand Gandhi)

With thanks to Jim Welsh for spotting a duplicate question

In 1554 a Portuguese ship sighted a beautiful island in East Asia and in an imaginative mood named it ‘Ilha Formosa’, Beautiful Island. What is its current name?

Taiwan

With thanks to Jim Welsh for correcting a typo

Who was Indira Gandhi’s father?

Jawaharlal Nehru

Who was King of Great Britain during the American War of Independence?

George Ⅲ.

With thanks to Lesley Melvin for correcting this question

What was the roman word for Spain?

Hispania

When Spaniards first arrived in the Canary Islands they found a native population (which for the usual colonial reasons no longer exists). What were they called? (Collectively, not each one of them.)

Guanches

Who said Africa starts at the Pyrenees?

Napoleon I

Why was the capital of Spain moved to Madrid?

It’s in the centre of the country.

Who was the Irish missionary who sailed west across the Atlantic before the Vikings or Columbus?

Saint Brendan

Who banned Christmas in England from 1647 to 1660 and in Boston from 1659 to 1681?

Puritans

Who was British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire between 1799 and 1803 and took advantage of his position to collect artwork, in particular from the Parthenon in Athens?

Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine

What was the name of the Roman festivities spanning from December 17th to December 23rd and elements of which were incorporated into Christmas?

Saturnalia

The youngest and oldest men to be elected President of the United States took office on the same day twenty years apart. Who were they?

John F. Kennedy in 1961 and Ronald Reagan and 1981 (Theo Roosevelt was the youngest president when he took office after McKinley’s assasination but wasn’t elected president until he was 46 years old).

With thanks to Tony Newman for fine tuning the answer to this question

Which twentieth century war is known in one country as the ‘Great Patriotic War’?

The Second World War in Russia

What was adopted in the United States on June 14th 1777, and is celebrated every year on that day?

The flag of the United States. 14th June is Flag Day.

What’s the former name of Bangladesh?

East Pakistan

Which is the only country in Southeast Asia never colonised by a European power?

Thailand

Who was the first US president born in the twentieth century?

John F. Kennedy

In which war did the Battle of Hamburger Hill take place?

The Vietnam War (May 10-20, 1969)

Who was the first person pictured on a postage stamp?

Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

What in the twentieth century was known as ‘The Emergency’ in Ireland?

The Second World War

Which Irishman became the sixth President of Israel in 1983?

Chaim Herzog (1918–1997; in office 1983–1993).

What was the Roman name for Ireland?

Hibernia

Who was the first person to be granted Honorary Citizenship of the United States?

Sir Winston Churchill in 1963

What is the most popular name for a pope?

John (there have been 23)

How many different flags has the United States had in the 20th Century?

Five (with 45, 46. 48, 49, and 50 stars adopted in 1896, 1908, 1912. 1959 and 1960)

Which country has been ruled by the Chakri dynasty since 1782?

Thailand

Atahualpa was the last emperor of which empire?

The Inca Empire

What was the name of the plan for the defence of Gibraltar during WWⅡ that was devised by a Naval Intelligence office who subsequently wrote spy stories whilst living in a house of the same name?

Operation Goldeneye

Who was the first president of the Republic of Texas?

Sam Houston

Bulgaria achieved independence in 1908 from which country?

The Ottoman Empire

What was the name of the anti-colonial group that led a revolt of the Kikuyu people in Kenya in the 1950s?

Mau Mau

Who returned as president of Uganda after the fall of Idi Amin?

Milton Obote

What happened to the Archbishop of Kraków in 1978?

He became Pope John Paul II

Who was offered but declined the presidency of the State of Israel in 1952?

Albert Einstein

Who was the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated, in the year 1812?

Spencer Perceval, KC (1 November 1762 – 11 May 1812)

Into which royal family/dynasty was the unfortunate Marie Antoinette born?

Habsburg

Who was the first president of the United States whose father was also president of the United States?

John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), 6th President of the USA, son of John Adams (1735-1826), 2nd President of the USA

Who said ‘I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse’?

Emperor Charles Ⅴ of Germany (1500-1558).

In which two English cathedrals is there a copy of the Magna Carta?

Lincoln and Salisbury

Who commissioned the Arc de Triomphe in Paris?

Napoleon I

Which two out of the 54 members of the Commonwealth of Nations have no historical connection with the UK?

Mozambique and Rwanda

Poland was the first country occupied by Nazi Germany in World War Ⅱ. Which was the last?

Greece

In the US military, what is a Purple Heart awarded for?

Wounded or killed in action (‘Being wounded or killed in any action against an enemy of the United States or as a result of an act of any such enemy or opposing armed forces’).

What is the current name of White Russia?

Belarus

Who was the first Prime Minister of the Soviet Union? (Also know as Premier of the Soviet Union, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR or Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.)

Vladimir Lenin

During which battle did the charge of the Light Brigade take place?

The Battle of Balaclava (25th October 1854)

What was the name of the border crossing between East and West Germany located at the junction of Friedrichstrasse, Mauerstrasse, and Zimmerstrasse in Berlin?

Checkpoint Charlie

Emperor Showa, the 124th emperor of Japan, is better know in the west by his personal name. What is it?

Hirohito

Who was Israel’s defence minister during the Six Day War?

Moshe Dayan

The St Valentine’s Day Massacre took place in which city?

Chicago

Who was the last Queen of Pakistan?

Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ (until the declaration of the republic on 23rd March 1956).

What is the modern name of ancient Mesopotamia?

Iraq

The Nazi regime was the Ⅲ Reich. Which was the first?

The Holy Roman Empire. (The second was the German Empire of 1871-1918.)

Who claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and murder of Italian prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978?

The Red Brigades

Who was the Japanese emperor during the Showa era?

Hirohito

In which century did the Black Death reach Britain?

14th century (1348-50)

The ancient region of Nubia is in which two modern counries?

Egypt and Sudan

Air Force One is the US President’s plane. What is Marine One?

A helicopter

At the beginning of the War of American Independence, what was considered to be the 14th colony?

Nova Scotia

Eboracum is the roman name for which city?

York

How long did the 100 Years War last?

116 years: 1337 – 1453 or 114 years: 1339 – 1453.

In 1579, the Netherlands achieved independence from which country?

Spain

In which country did Che Guevara die?

Bolivia

In which country is Waterloo, where the battle took place?

Belgium

In which war did jet aircraft first fight each other?

The Korean War

Only one South American country has had a Monarchy. Which was it?

Brazil

Parker and Barrow were the surnames of which famous couple?

Bonnie and Clyde

The Defense of Rorke’s Drift was a battle in which war?

The Anglo-Zulu War in 1879

Sitting Bull belonged to which tribe?

Sioux

The American M4 tank used in the Second World War was better known by a General’s name. What was it?

Sherman

The ‘Condor Legion’ was the name of the German air force flying for Franco’s nationalist side in the Spanish Civil War. What was the name of the Irish volunteers on Franco’s side?

The ‘Blue Shirts’, founded by former Irish president William Cosgrave and commanded by General Eoin O’Duffy

The eruption of Mt Vesuvius that buried Pompeii also buried another town. Which one?

Herculaneum

The Poem ‘Defence of Fort McHenry’ written during the bombing of Baltimore is now much better known by another name.

The Star-Spangled Banner

The War of Jenkin’s Ear was waged between which two countries?

Britain and Spain (1739-1748). Known in Spanish as Guerra del Asiento.

What is 1999 in Roman numerals?

MCMXCIX

What is the name of the German officer, who lived and died in Madrid, who rescued Mussolini?

Otto Skorzeny

What was Operation Dynamo in World War Ⅱ?

The evacuation at Dunkirk

What was the code name for the American landings in Morocco in 1942?

Operation Torch

What was the name of Haile Selassie before he was crowned in 1930?

Ras Tafari

What was the name of the anti-missile missiles used by the US to shoot incoming Scud missiles in the first Gulf War?

Patriot

What was the name of the cult that Charles Manson lead which killed at least seven people?

The Family

With thanks to Ian for correcting this question

What was the name of the spacecraft in which the first three astronauts were killed in a fire in 1967?

Apollo I

What was the Volstead Act?

The National Prohibition Act named after Andrew J. Volstead which provided enforcement guidelines for the 18th Amendment.

What were Little Boy and Fat Man?

The two atom bombs dropped on Japan

Which agreement resulted in the splitting of Germany?

The Yalta agreement

Which American City is named after a British Prime Minister?

Pittsburgh

Which battle does the French Foreign Legion celebrate every year?

Camerone (Mexico), a defeat.

Which city became the capital of the USA in 1788?

New York

Which civilization built Machu Picchu?

The Incas

Which political party’s name means ‘Soldiers of Destiny’ in its own language?

Fianna Fáil (founded by Eamon de Valera in 1923 and first formed government in 1932)

Which Republic exists in France since 1958?

The Fifth Republic

Which town was the scene of the gunfight at the OK Corral?

Tombstone, Arizona

Which two countries fought the Pastry War (La guerra de los pasteles) of 1838?

Mexico and France

Which two other countries joined the EEC at the same time as Ireland?

Denmark and the UK

Which was the last port of call of the Titanic?

Queenstown (now known as Cobh, Co. Cork)

Which was the most important battle fought by the Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War?

The Battle of Jarama

Which was the name of Hitler’s Spanish division?

The Blue Division

Who did Henry Ⅷ marry at the age of 18 (she was 24)?

Catharine of Aragon

Who first crossed the English channel by aeroplane?

Louis Blériot

Who was the first American President to have served non-consecutive terms in office?

Grover Cleveland

Who succeeded Charles de Gaulle as president of France?

Georges Pompidou

Who was killed playing poker while holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights leading to the expression ‘dead man’s hand’?

Wild Bill Hickock

Who was known as ‘the third mate of an American tramp’?

Edward Ⅷ (the Duke of Windsor)

Who was prime minister of Spain three times between 1856 and 1866?

O’Donnell. (Leopoldo O’Donnell y Joris, Count of Lucena and Duke of Tetuán; b. Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1809 – d. Biarritz 1867)

Who was the last British Prime Minister not to have a wife?

Liz Truss

Who was the real spy (for the Germans) in the Dreyfuss Affair?

Major Esterhazy

Who were Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘Rough Riders’?

US volunteers who fought against the Spaniards in Cuba

Alcock and Brown became well know by achieving what?

The first non-stop trans-atlantic flight, in 1919. Lindbergh only achieved the first solo crossing nearly eight years later.

In which decade does Stanley meet Livingstone, William Ⅰ of Prussia become Kaiser of a united Germany, and the Paris Commune is set up?

1870s

In which decade does the Battle of Wounded Knee (the last Indian uprising) take place, Marconi invent the wireless, and the Dreyfuss Affair take place in France?

1890s

In which decade does the Indian Mutiny take place, work on the Suez Canal commences, and the Second Republic is overthrown in France and Louis Napoleon becomes Emperor Napoleon Ⅲ?

1850s

In which decade was the Congress of Vienna held, Singapore founded by Sir Stamford Raffles, and Argentina and Chile become independent from Spain?

1810s

In which year did the Ottoman Empire collapse, the Baltic nations, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia become independent, and women over 30 are given the vote in Britain?

1918

In which year did the Yom Kippur War take place, Ceylon changed its name to Sri Lanka, and a revolution in Chile overthrows Presidente Allende?

1973

In which year does Lebanon become a republic, Hirohito becomes Emperor of Japan, and Britain is hit by a nine-day General Strike?

1926

In which year does Panama gain independence from Colombia as a US protectorate, the first radio transmission between the US and Britain take place, and the first flight in a heavier than air machine take place?

1903

In which year does the Gold Coast (renamed Ghana) achieve independence, an unsuccesful Tibetan uprising causes the Dalai Lama to flee to India, and the Soviet Union launch the first artificial satellite?

1957

In which year was Malcolm X assasinated, Singapore became independent from Malaya, and Sir Winston Churchill died?

1965

With thanks to Steve Rose for correcting this question

The Roman Appian Way went from Rome to where?

Brindisi (Brundusium)

Which Irish president was born in Manhattan?

Eamon de Valera (he never spelled his name ‘Eamonn’)

Enola Gay was the name of the bomber that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, but what was the name of the bomber that dropped it on Nagasaki?

Bock’s Car

What did members of the Nazi SS have tattooed on their armpits?

Their blood group

In 1807, the capital of Portugal was moved out of Lisbon. Where?

Rio de Janeiro

What’s the ruling family of Monaco called?

Grimaldi

What did the USA try to buy from Denmark for $100,000,000 in 1946?

Greenland

Who was the first woman to be elected head of government in a Muslim country?

Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan 1988-1990 and 1993-1996

What is the meaning of the word ‘Bolshevik’, adopted by a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split apart from the ‘Menshevik’ faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903?

‘Bolshevik’ is from the Russian ‘bolshinstvo’ (большинство – majority) as opposed to ‘menshinstvo’ (меньшевики – minority).

The Free World Military Forces, or FWMF was a military force composed of mainly Koreans with Thai, Australian, and New Zealand soldiers with a few Taiwanese and Spanish (30). In which war in the second half of the twentieth century did they take part?

The Vietnam War

In addition to Ceuta, Melilla and Gibraltar, Spain has which other territorial dispute over a town?

Olivenza (Olivença) occupied by Spain in the War of the Roses in 1801 and claimed by Portugal since the Treaty of Paris in 1814

Joseph Bonaparte (Giuseppe Buonaparte) became king of which country in 1808?

Spain

Sam Houston was the first president of which independent country in 1836?

The Republic of Texas

From which country did Panama declare independence in 1903?

Colombia

What was Papa Doc’s real name (president of Haiti)?

Dr François Duvalier

Who preceded Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa and then became deputy president under Mandela? (He shared the Nobel Peace Prize and the Príncipe de Asturias with Mandela)

F.W. (Frederik Willem) de Klerk

Which is the only president of the United States not to have been elected as either president or vice-president?

Gerald Ford

Which European country had a ‘Carnation Revolution’ on the 25th of April 1974?

Portugal

Who succeeded Paul von Hindenburg as the German head of state?

Adolf Hitler

What did Captain Cook name Hawaiʻi when he first arrived?

The Sandwich Islands

Clara Petacci was murdered for being the mistress of whom?

Benito Mussolini

The Kings of Italy all belonged to which house?

House of Savoy

Christopher Columbus died on May 20, 1506 in which Spanish city?

Valladolid

Who revealed the Koran to Mohammed?

The angel Gabriel (Jibril)

Who had the titles of Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Mediator of the Swiss Confederation, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine?

Napoleon I

Where was the ancient Kingdom of Iberia from where the Iberians in Spain probably came from?

Modern Georgia

Complutum was the Roman name for which Spanish town?

Alcalá de Henares

Pedro Ⅱ was the last emperor of which country?

Brazil 1831-1889

The ‘Dauphin of France’ was a title given to whom?

The heir apparent to the throne of France (from 1350 to 1791 and from 1824 to 1830).

In the Second World War, what was the ‘British Free Corps’?

British and Commonwealth volunteers in the Waffen-SS. It achieved a maximum strength of 27 men.

What did the acronym MAD, coined by then Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, referring to nuclear weapons stand for?

Mutually Assured Destruction

Which country lost access to the sea in the 19th Century although it still maintains a navy on a lake?

Bolivia

Sir Stamford Raffles founded which city in 1819?

Singapore

What was the capital city of India until December 1911?

Calcutta

To which city was Tsar Nicholas Ⅱ and his family taken to and executed after the Russian revolution?

Yekaterinburg

The Wars of the Roses (1455-87) were a series of dynastic civil wars between supporters of which two houses of England?

Lancaster and York

Which was the first European country to gain independence in the ⅩⅩ Century, in 1905?

Norway

What was the name of the foot soldiers who moved on horseback, especially popular in the 17th and 18th centuries?

Dragoons

Who was the penultimate King of Egypt?

King Farouk I, succeeded by his infant son King Fuad II

In 1990, four countries united to form two countries. North and South and East and West formed which countries?

North and South Yemen became Yemen, and East and West Germany became Germany

On the 19th of December 1961, India went to war with a European nation. In two days India defeated which country?

Portugal. Operation Vijay resulted in the annexation of Goa and the Daman and Diu Islands.

What are, in this order, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, George Bush?

Losing US presidential candidates (1976-1992). Followed by Robert Dole, Al Gore, and John Kerry.

What in 1982 were Operation Rosario and Operation Corporate?

The Falklands War (Rosario was the Argentine invasion and Corporate was the British counterattack)

What was unusual about Khaled Ibrahim Tafeesh, who was running for election (for Hamas) in 2006?

He was in an Israeli prison

O’Duffy’s Irish Brigade and Conolly’s Column were made up of Irish volunteers and they fought on opposite sides of which war?

The Spanish Civil War (O’Duffy with Franco and Connolly’s Column in the Republican International Brigades)

In what language is the Book of Kells written?

Latin

Which Irish saint supposedly sailed to America in the sixth century?

Saint Brendan

Who was crowned ‘Imperator Augustus’ by Pope Leo Ⅲ on Christmas day 800 AD?

Charlemagne

When the Portuguese built Casablanca in 1515 its original name only differed by one letter from its current name. What was it?

Casabranca

What is commonly know as the ‘Zapruder film’?

The Zapruder film is a silent, 8 mm colour home movie, shot by a private citizen named Abraham Zapruder, of the presidential motorcade of John F. Kennedy through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. The film is the most complete visual recording of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

What did Napoleon’s soldiers find in 1799 that would later prove invaluable to archaelogists and historians, among others?

The Rosetta Stone

Which 20th century dictator ordered that all sparrows in the land be killed?

Mao Zedong, with a great deal of success although it backfired on him

Who discoverered the Tristan da Cunha islands in 1506?

Tristan (or Tristão) da Cunha

Who was Alexander the Great’s famous tutor?

Aristotle

Troops from (mainly) which country stormed Vimy Ridge in 1917?

Canada

What were the Janissaries?

Christian troops fighting for the Ottoman Empire (1330-1826)