What eccentric civil rights leader and self-proclaimed “Provisional President of Africa” established the enormously popular black nationalist Universal Negro Improvement Association?
Marcus Garvey
W. E. B. Du Bois
Malcolm X
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Marcus Garvey
Garvey had a captivating, larger-than-life presence, with aspirations to match. He didn’t simply support the black nationalism movement; he also purchased three ships to take black Americans back to Africa. But Garvey’s Black Star Shipping Firm was a disaster: the ships were in poor condition, the company was run (perhaps fraudulently), and Garvey died without ever having visited Africa. Garvey was a divisive figure in his day, meeting with the Grand Wizard of the K.K.K. to plan their joint objective to deport blacks back to Africa. His legacy, however, is generally good; he is acknowledged with his contribution to the black civil rights struggle (including coining the term “Black is Beautiful”) and his impact on succeeding black nationalists.
Which president stated that the US would come to the assistance of any country threatened by the Soviet Union?
Eisenhower
Truman
Bush
Nixon
Truman
Inspired by containment policy, the Truman Doctrine guaranteed help to any country that feared Soviet influence.
To establish the Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere, the Japanese invaded numerous regions of East Asia. Which of the following was NOT an invaded nation during WWII?
Thailand
Singapore
Australia
Hong Kong
Australia
Australia participated in the Pacific War, was attacked, but was never invaded.
One of World War One’s winners was ignored during treaty negotiations and ended up fighting its old comrades in World War Two. What nation was it?
United States
Korea
Italy
Japan
Japan
Japan received little of the spoils of victory, and the other victors were hesitant to admit the Japanese to their world order.
This former slave rose to become one of the most powerful abolitionists of the nineteenth century.
Martin Luther King
Frederick Douglass
Mohammad Ali
Gret Scott
Frederick Douglass
“What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham…” Frederick Douglass was renowned for his powerful and eloquent oratory, such as in this excerpt from an 1852 speech.
In May 1945, the European war concluded with the invasion of Hitler’s bunker in Berlin. What military did this?
Soviet Union
Japan
France
Italy
Soviet Union
The Soviet army stormed Berlin and besieged German soldiers, forcing the Nazis to surrender in April 1945. The other Allied forces did not intervene in this capture, allowing the Soviet Union to handle the fighting.
What makes up the legislative branch?
United States Senate
Congress
House of Representatives
The Supreme Court
Congress
The legislative branch, or United States Congress, is in charge of enacting legislation. Every state is in charge of electing congressional representatives to represent its interests in the federal government.
Which of these rights is NOT protected by the First Amendment?
Right to peaceful assembly
Freedom of religion
Right to bear arms
Right to free speech
Right to bear arms
The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting its free exercise; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or limiting the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for redress of grievances.” The Second Amendment guarantees citizens the right to bear arms.
The Holocaust, conducted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, was one of the most heinous atrocities of World War II. Which of the following is NOT a name of a concentration or extermination camp?
Munchen
Bergen-Belsen
Auschwitz
Dachau
Munchen
Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Dachau were three of the deadliest camps. Bergen-Belsen and Dachau were concentration camps, but Auschwitz was a labor and death camp.
To express the anguish of battle, many troops penned poetry, plays, and novels. Which of these was about World War I?
Ivanhoe
The Red Badge of Courage
All Quiet on the Western Front
Animal Farm
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Red Badge of Courage was about the American Civil War, Animal Farm was about the Russian Revolution, and Ivanhoe was about 12th century Scotland.
What is the system of government in America?
Oligarchy
Monarchy
Communism
Democracy
Democracy
The United States was built on democratic ideals, which means that any qualified citizen, regardless of income or social standing, can serve as an elected official. A federal republic is governed by elected individuals, and powers are divided between the federal and state levels.
What major conflict triggered the Cold War?
Vietnam War
Civil War
WWI
WWII
WWII
The United States and the Soviet Union (USSR), two of WWII’s victors, became adversaries during the Cold War.
Germany unsuccessfully pushed this country to attack the United States in order to force them into war in a leaked telegraph. What was the country?
Mexico
Canada
Spain
Poland
Mexico
Germany backed Mexico in the Zimmerman telegraph to strive to reclaim territories taken by the United States in the American Southwest.
Alexander Fleming was a biologist and pharmacologist by trade, but his most famous discovery was unintentional and changed medicine forever. What is it?
Aspirin
Flu Shot
Penicillin
Salbutamol
Penicillin
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin after leaving a culture plate out in his lab before going on vacation. When he returned, he saw that mold had developed that would eventually become the world’s first true antibiotic.
Which of George Washington’s plantations was nearly destroyed by the British?
Mount Vernon
Graceland
Vistaland
Rodney Plantation
Mount Vernon
Anchored on the Potomac River near Washington’s Mount Vernon plantation, the Brits requested that the estate send “a huge quantity of provisions.” Lund, Washington’s estate manager and relative, agreed to their request. Washington responded to this, writing, “It would have been a less painful circumstance to me, to have heard, that in consequence of your non-compliance with , they had burnt my House, and laid the Plantation in ruins.”
What is the name of this historical figure is depicted in this image?
Albert Einstein
Robert E. Lee
Stephen Hawking
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
During the American Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant led the Union army as the 18th President of the United States. For his achievements, he was honored with a $50 note and is hailed as a great general. He was given the first name Hiram when he was born, and the “S.” in his name stands for nothing.
What are the requirements for running for President of the United States?
Natural-born U.S. citizen AND at least 35 years old
Natural-born U.S. citizen OR at least 45 years old
Natural-born U.S. citizen ONLY
At least 35 years old ONLY
Natural-born U.S. citizen AND at least 35 years old
Article II, Section I of the United States Constitution specifies the qualifications for running for president as being a natural-born citizen of the United States and being at least 35 years old. Individuals who had been a permanent resident of the United States for at least 14 years were also eligible in the early years of American history, but that provision is now essentially outdated.
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone. He was born in which country of the United Kingdom in 1847?
Scotland
England
Greenland
Finland
Scotland
Alexander Graham Bell was the second son of Alexander Bell and Eliza Symonds Bell and was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Alexander junior’s name was not changed to “Graham” until he was ten years old.
Who leads the executive branch of the United States government?
The Speaker of the House
Congress
The Supreme Court
The President
The President
The president of the United States is the executive branch’s leader as well as the Commander in Chief of the United States military. The Armed Forces. The primary check on presidential authority is that he or she cannot enact laws, but the individual may veto legislation passed by the legislative branch.
When President Lincoln refused to surrender the territory, this fort was bombarded by Southern troops, kicking off the Civil War.
Fort Henry
Fort Sumter
Fort Wagner
Fort Donelson
Fort Sumter
The first fight of the Civil War took place at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, which was also the first state to secede.
Which baseball icon became the first African American to play in the Major Leagues, breaking the sport’s color barrier?
Jackie Robinson
Jesse Owens
Hank Aaron
Willie Mays
Jackie Robinson
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson made history by starting at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Black ballplayers had previously exclusively participated in the Negro Leagues. Robinson went on to have an incredible baseball career, earning Rookie of the Year his first year and League MVP two years later.
What were the alliances that brought the eastern and western blocs together against one another?
NATO and the Warsaw Pact
NATO and Sykes-Picot Act
NATO and IMF
Versaille Treaty
NATO and the Warsaw Pact
NATO was formed at the end of WWII to provide mutual defense against internal and external attack; the Warsaw Pact was founded in 1955 to retain Soviet rule over these regions.
Adolphe Sax was a talented Belgian violinist. Which section of the orchestra did his most renowned invention come from?
Woodwind
Keyboards
Strings
Percussion
Woodwind
Despite its brass construction, the saxophone is classified as a woodwind instrument due to its sound generating mechanism. Unlike real brass instruments, the sound of a saxophone is produced by a vibrating reed rather than the player’s lips.
Which nation saw a communist revolution that toppled its ruler during WWI?
Ottoman Empire
Poland
France
Russia
Russia
Czar Nicholas II of Russia was overthrown in 1917, paving the way for the formation of the USSR.
Who was the Soviet Union’s leader during the start of the Cold War?
Klakashinov
Medvedev
Stalin
Putin
Stalin
At the start of the Cold War, the Soviet ruler was Josef Stalin. As a tyrant, he created a personality cult around himself, and cities were renamed in his honor.
Bang, Bang! What was the location of the “shot heard round the world”?
Battle of Monmouth
Battle of Concord
Battle of Midway
Battle of Bunker Hill
Battle of Concord
“By the rude bridge that arched the flood/Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled/Here once the embattled farmers stood/And fired the shot heard round the world,” according to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn,” was fired on April 19, 1775, when 70 Minutemen gathered on Lexington’s village green to meet the British marching toward Concord. Nobody knows which side fired the initial shot, and the rest is history.
Between 1915 and 1970, this artwork by African-American artist Jacob Lawrence illustrates the great movement of blacks from the rural south to metropolitan places in the North and Midwest. What term do historians use to describe this time of tremendous population shift?
Great Exodus
Great Crossing
Great Migration
Great Transition
Great Migration
At the turn of the twentieth century, the great majority of African Americans still remained in the South. Only 53% remained in the South at the conclusion of the Great Migration in 1970. Eighty percent of African Americans currently live in cities across the country. Why did millions of African-Americans flee the South? To seek better economic possibilities, away from the racially discriminatory institution that remained in place after the end of slavery 50 years earlier.
What is the total number of senators in the United States Senate?
100
200
500
10
100
Each state has two senators, for a total of 100 senators, with the vice president serving as Senate president. The Senate is responsible for approving any treaties or hired officials suggested by the president, in addition to formulating and adopting measures.
What country began the Cold War partnered with the Soviet Union and gradually got closer to the United States?
North Korea
China
South Korea
France
China
The infamous Sino-Soviet split allowed Americans to send an olive branch to China. This was most notably done by Richard Nixon on his 1971 visit to China.
George Washington Carver, a brilliant botanist and innovator, is well recognized for developing several unusual applications for this lowly crop?
Potato
Peanuts
Wheat
Sweet Potato
Peanuts
George Washington Carver was able to transform peanuts into over 100 various goods, including fuel, polymers, colors, and even an unproven polio therapy.
During the Civil War, he was the President of the Confederate States of America. What is the name of this man?
James Shortstreet
Brixton Bragg
Jefferson Davis
George Puckett
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis was the Confederacy’s president. He was a Democratic representative from Mississippi prior to the war.
Which individual was assassinated that ignited WWI?
Winston Churchill
George Washington
Queen Elizabeth
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was killed on June 28, 1914, by the Serbian nationalist movement the Black Hand.
Rudolf Diesel named the mechanical mechanism that became his most renowned invention after himself. What was this device?
Spark plug
Engine
Wheels
Incandescent Bulb
Engine
Rudolf Diesel’s engine design work aimed for a substantially greater efficiency ratio than steam engines.
On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed which historic document involving slavery?
Emancipation Proclamation
Articles of Confederation
Gettysburg Address
2nd Amendment
Emancipation Proclamation
While the Emancipation Proclamation was a significant step toward the abolition of slavery in the United States, it only declared the liberation of a subset of slaves: those residing in the Confederacy’s rebel states. To prevent confrontation, slaves in neutral border states and those already under Union administration were excused. The proclamation also stated that emancipated black males might now join the Union Army; by the conclusion of the Civil War, approximately 200,000 black soldiers had fought for the Union and the cause of freedom.
What year would we be in if we could travel back in time to the start of the Civil War?
1861
1862
1863
1865
1861
On April 12, 1861, Confederate soldiers bombarded the Union-controlled Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay, officially starting the Civil War.
The United States did not declare war until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. When did this happen in 1941?
11-Dec
7-Dec
1-Nov
4-Jul
7-Dec
The Japanese attacked the American facility at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Approximately 2400 Americans were slain.
When the Japanese refused to surrender, President Truman detonated the newly created atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What was the plane’s name that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima?
Spirit of St. Hiro
Double Lion II
Enola Gay
Lady Southern Cross
Enola Gay
On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay flew over Japan and dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
“All’s well that ends well.” What is considered the war’s final major battle?
Battle of Cowhens
Battle of Princeton
Battle of Stalingard
Battle of Yorktown
Battle of Yorktown
The Colonial Army defeated British General Lord Cornwallis at the Action of Yorktown, which turned out to be the war’s final significant battle. When Cornwallis surrendered, Prime Minister Lord North exclaimed across the water, “Oh God, it’s all over.” He was right.
If both the President and the Vice President are unable to serve for whatever reason, who takes over the presidency?
The Congress
The Senate
Speaker of the House
First Lady
Speaker of the House
If both the President and the Vice President are unable to serve, the Speaker of the House steps in.
Aside from inventing the Morse code, Samuel Morse was also known for what artistic pursuit?
Painting
Sculpture
Acting
Music
Painting
Samuel Morse’s creative talent led to his admission to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1811.
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