Hard American History Trivia Questions

Position your cursor over the question mark found beside each question for the answer.


In its only run for the White House, John Bell and the Constitutional Union Party won 600,000 popular votes and 39 electoral votes in the South. They lost anyway. To whom?

       a. George Washington
       b. Andrew Jackson
       c. Abraham Lincoln
       d. Thomas Jefferson


In 1985, Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead what Indian nation?

       a. Sioux
       b. Cherokee
       c. Iroquois
       d. Apache


During the Civil War, future president William McKinley served in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry under the command of what other future president?

       a. Rutherford Hayes
       b. Ulysses Grant
       c. Benjamin Harrison
       d. James Garfield


Ulysses Grant, Rutherford Hayes and James Garfield were three consecutive Republican presidents, all of whom were bearded Union Army generals, and all of whom were from which state?

       a. Ohio
       b. California
       c. New York
       d. Pennsylvania


In 1848, Lucretia Mott and Frederick Douglass were among the participants in the Seneca Falls Convention, which advanced what cause?

       a. Women's rights
       b. Abolition of slavery
       c. Prohibition of alcohol
       d. World peace


What president's father is credited with coining the phrase, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going"?

       a. George HW Bush
       b. John Kennedy
       c. Franklin Roosevelt
       d. Benjamin Harrison


On November 6, 1963, just shy of her 17th birthday, what future First Lady ran a stop sign in Midland, Texas, and killed one of her classmates?

       a. Barbara Bush
       b. Laura Bush
       c. Lady Bird Johnson
       d. Rosalynn Carter


On May 12, 1975, communists from which country seized 30 hostages from an American commercial vessel called the Mayaguez?

       a. Cambodia
       b. North Korea
       c. Cuba
       d. Brazil


As described in a John Greenleaf Whittier poem, in what state did Barbara Fritchie defy Stonewall Jackson by flying the Stars and Stripes from a window of her home?

       a. Virginia
       b. Maryland
       c. Tennessee
       d. Pennsylvania


Who quit being governor of Tennessee so that he could live with the Cherokee, who formally adopted him as a member of their nation?

       a. Daniel Boone
       b. Andrew Jackson
       c. Sam Houston
       d. John Brown


Which future president remarried Rachel Donelson Robards after she turned out to be already married to somebody else?

       a. George Washington
       b. Ulysses Grant
       c. Andrew Jackson
       d. Abraham Lincoln


On August 16, 1812, Isaac Brock captured this city from William Hull by having the same Indians march in circles, making hundreds look like thousands. So, winning what city kept the Americans out of Canada?

       a. Buffalo
       b. Detroit
       c. Washington
       d. Boston


Who was the only president to completely pay off the national debt and leave office with a surplus in the Treasury?

       a. Andrew Jackson
       b. George Washington
       c. Ronald Reagan
       d. Bill Clinton


You know that Peter Minuit founded New Amsterdam in New York. But where did he found New Sweden, which eventually was seized by the Dutch?

       a. Kingston, Jamaica
       b. Halifax, Nova Scotia
       c. Wilmington, Delaware
       d. San Francisco, California


When James Polk asked Congress for $2 million to pay Mexico for the lands it had lost in the Mexican War, Congress attached the Wilmot Proviso to the cash. What did it do?

       a. Prohibit slavery in those lands
       b. Require a peace treaty with Mexico
       c. Lay out a claim to Cuba
       d. Forbid the teaching or use of Spanish in those lands




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