History Quiz: 50 Questions From the Stone Age to AI

History Quiz: 50 Questions From the Stone Age to AI: questions and answers

Try to answer first, then tap a question to see the answer.

1. What did early humans master first? Controlling fire · Farming · Writing

   Controlling fire – Humans used fire around a million years before farming!

2. Where did our species, Homo sapiens, first appear? Asia · Africa · Europe

   Africa – The oldest fossils, about 300 thousand years old, were found in Morocco!

3. Many people today carry a little DNA from… Dinosaurs · Neanderthals · Mammoths

   Neanderthals – Most people outside Africa are about 1 to 2 percent Neanderthal!

4. The 17,000-year-old Lascaux cave paintings are in… Spain · Italy · France

   France

5. Which animal was tamed by humans first? Cow · Dog · Horse

   Dog – Dogs were tamed thousands of years before farming began!

6. The oldest known temple, Göbekli Tepe, is in today's… Egypt · Iraq · Turkey

   Turkey – It's about six thousand years older than Stonehenge!

7. Who created one of the first writing systems? Romans · Vikings · Sumerians

   Sumerians

8. Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landing or the Great Pyramid? The Great Pyramid · The Moon landing · Exactly in between

   The Moon landing – The pyramid was already about 2,500 years old in her time!

9. The first ancient Olympic Games were held in… Greece · Italy · Egypt

   Greece

10. In 218 BC, Hannibal crossed the Alps with an army of… Camels · Elephants · Lions

    Elephants

11. Julius Caesar was killed on a day now called the… New Year · Midsummer · Ides of March

    Ides of March – Ancient writers say he was stabbed 23 times!

12. Which city did Mount Vesuvius bury in 79 AD? Athens · Pompeii · Carthage

    Pompeii

13. Paper as we know it was invented in… Egypt · India · China

    China – Egypt had papyrus, but true paper came from China!

14. The Western Roman Empire fell in which century? 5th century · 3rd century · 8th century

    5th century

15. Charlemagne was crowned emperor in 800 on which day? Christmas Day · New Year's Day · Easter Sunday

    Christmas Day

16. Who reached North America about 500 years before Columbus? Romans · Chinese sailors · Vikings

    Vikings

17. In which year did the Normans conquer England? 1066 · 1215 · 1492

    1066

18. The largest connected land empire in history was built by… The Romans · The Ottomans · The Mongols

    The Mongols

19. The Black Death killed roughly how much of Europe? About 5% · A third or more · About 90%

    A third or more

20. What was the first major book Gutenberg printed? A dictionary · The Bible · A world map

    The Bible

21. Christopher Columbus was actually trying to reach… Asia · Africa · Australia

    Asia – He died believing he had reached Asia!

22. What happened to Magellan on the first trip around the world? He became a king · He came home a hero · He died on the way

    He died on the way

23. Martin Luther's 95 Theses started the… Reformation · Renaissance · Enlightenment

    Reformation

24. In 1610, Galileo discovered four moons of which planet? Jupiter · Saturn · Mars

    Jupiter

25. The Great Fire of 1666 destroyed much of which city? Paris · Rome · London

    London – Only a handful of deaths were recorded, despite 13,000 houses burning!

26. Newton invented calculus around the same time as which rival? Descartes · Galileo · Leibniz

    Leibniz – They fought for years over who came first!

27. James Watt's name is now a unit of… Distance · Power · Temperature

    Power

28. Who wrote most of the US Declaration of Independence? Thomas Jefferson · George Washington · Benjamin Franklin

    Thomas Jefferson

29. The French Revolution began with the storming of the… Bastille · Tower of London · Louvre

    Bastille – It held only seven prisoners that day!

30. Napoleon's 'short' myth partly came from mixing up French and English… Shoe sizes · Calendars · Inches

    Inches – He was about 1.69 meters, average for his time!

31. A volcano caused the Year Without a Summer in 1816. Which novel was born? Dracula · Frankenstein · Robinson Crusoe

    Frankenstein – Mary Shelley wrote it while storms kept her friends indoors!

32. The first public steam railway opened in 1825 in… United Kingdom · USA · Germany

    United Kingdom

33. Who received the first telephone patent in 1876? Alexander Graham Bell · Thomas Edison · Nikola Tesla

    Alexander Graham Bell

34. The Eiffel Tower was meant to stand for only… 5 years · 20 years · 100 years

    20 years – It survived because it was useful as a radio antenna!

35. How long was the Wright brothers' first powered flight? 12 minutes · 2 hours · 12 seconds

    12 seconds

36. The Titanic had lifeboats for roughly how many people aboard? All of them · About half · About a tenth

    About half

37. World War One was sparked by an assassination in… Sarajevo · Vienna · Berlin

    Sarajevo

38. In 1928, Fleming found penicillin growing on… A lab dish · Old bread · A banana

    A lab dish – He had left the dish out while on holiday!

39. The transistor, the heart of every computer, was invented in… 1927 · 1947 · 1967

    1947

40. Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, was launched by… USA · United Kingdom · Soviet Union

    Soviet Union – It was about the size of a beach ball and just beeped!

41. Apollo 11's crew couldn't get life insurance, so they signed… Autographs · A will · A NASA contract

    Autographs – Their families could sell the signed covers if things went wrong!

42. The first email was sent in which year? 1985 · 1993 · 1971

    1971 – Its inventor, Ray Tomlinson, picked the @ sign!

43. The first handheld cell phone call in 1973 was made to… His mother · A rival company · The President

    A rival company – Martin Cooper called a rival engineer to brag!

44. Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web at which lab? NASA · MIT · CERN

    CERN

45. Which chess world champion lost to IBM's Deep Blue in 1997? Garry Kasparov · Magnus Carlsen · Bobby Fischer

    Garry Kasparov

46. What did the very first iPhone in 2007 NOT have? A camera · An App Store · A touchscreen

    An App Store – The App Store only arrived a year later!

47. In 2016, an AI beat world champion Lee Sedol at… Go · Chess · Shogi

    Go

48. What does the T in ChatGPT stand for? Turbo · Technology · Transformer

    Transformer – The idea came from a 2017 paper called Attention Is All You Need!

49. ChatGPT reached 100 million users in about… 2 years · 2 weeks · 2 months

    2 months

50. In 2024, AI pioneers won the Nobel Prize in… Peace · Physics · Literature

    Physics – Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of AI, was one of them!

51. Which came first: the Great Pyramid, or the last woolly mammoths dying out? Mammoths dying out · The Great Pyramid · Same time

    The Great Pyramid