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Unusual history quiz questions: the strangest true stories and most astonishing anecdotes of the past. Free trivia with explained answers, no sign-up.
Start this quiz →🖨️ Printable version (20 questions + answers)
From the 1914 Christmas truce to history's shortest war, this quiz gathers historical anecdotes as true as they are astonishing. A fun way to rediscover the past from an unexpected angle. These unusual history quiz questions are all true stories, each one followed by its explained answer.
This quiz currently has 74 questions, ranging from easy to hard, available in French, English and Spanish when the Spanish translation is available.
Warm up before the quiz with these 14 trivia questions and their explained answers: click a question to reveal the answer.
Answer: Pedro Álvares Cabral. Pedro Álvares Cabral discovered Brazil in 1500 while searching for a sea route to India.
Answer: Henry VIII. Henry VIII had six wives, including Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, who were executed.
Answer: Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar wrote 'Commentaries on the Gallic War'.
Answer: Victor Lustig. Posing as a civil servant, he claimed that the tower, costly to maintain, was going to be demolished. The victim, too ashamed, never went to the police. The second one was more talkative.
Answer: A pig. An American farmer shot an Irish neighbour's pig that was eating his potatoes. The affair nearly escalated between two armies… before arbitration by the German Emperor in 1872.
Answer: Beards. Those who wanted to keep theirs paid and received a token proving their right. England, meanwhile, had introduced a window tax in 1696.
Answer: Rolled up in a carpet (or bedding sack). Plutarch says she had a servant carry her in a bedding sack. The carpet version was popularised by theatre and cinema.
Answer: Caligula. Caligula appointed his horse Incitatus as consul in 39 AD.
Answer: Giordano Bruno. Giordano Bruno was burned alive in 1600 for his heliocentric ideas.
Answer: Great Britain. In September 1752, Great Britain switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, skipping 11 days at once.
Answer: The Molasses Disaster. In 1919, a molasses tank exploded in Boston, causing a wave that killed 21 people.
Answer: Joshua Norton. Ruined, he published his proclamation in a newspaper. Restaurants fed him for free and some shopkeepers accepted his currency. Nearly 30,000 people attended his funeral.
Answer: Charles VIII. He was on his way to watch a game of real tennis. A few hours later he died, aged 27. Henry II, for his part, died from a lance splinter in a tournament.
Answer: Caligula. Having reached the Channel coast to invade Britain, Caligula supposedly had shells collected as trophies of his victory over the Ocean.
60 more questions are waiting for you in the quiz!