Trivia Mama

Free American Trivia Questions & Answers

Questions with answers on American topics.

American Trivia
American Trivia
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World Trivia
World Trivia
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American Trivia

In 1814 when Francis Scott Key wrote what is now our National Anthem, how many stars and stripes were on the flag flying over Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor?
A: Fifteen each. They represented the original 13 states plus Vermont and Kentucky.

Who was Florence Nightingale Graham?
A: Beauty entrepreneur Elizabeth Arden. (Consistent with her given name, she briefly pursued a nursing career.)

How much did Texas millionaire H. Ross Perot pay for a copy of the Magna Carta in 1984?
A: He paid $1.5 million for a version issued in 1297 and believed to be the most complete of the 17 copies known to exist. The original was issued in 1215, and 4 copies of that still exist: 2 in the British Museum, 1 at Lincoln Cathedral and 1 at Salisbury Cathedral.

Where in the U.S. will you find both Neon and Krypton?
A: In Kentucky. They're small towns named after the two elements.

How did the town of Disco, Michigan, get its name?
A: From a school once located there that was called Disco--which in Latin means "I learn."

What are the numbers of the three interstate highways that run from coast to coast?
A: !-10, I-80, and I-90.

How many elevators are there in the Empire State Building in New York City?
A: 73.

How many windows are there in the Pentagon, the world's largest office building?
A: 7,754.

What was the given name of Doc Holliday, the frontier dentist, gambler and gunman who befriended Wyatt Earp and was at his side during the shootout at the O.K. Corral?
A: John Henry

Which American city was the first to establish a police department?
A: Boston. Regular-duty officers were appointed on May 5, 1838.

What comic strip character did the grateful farmers of Crystal City, Texas, honor with a six-foot-high stone mountain in 1937?
A: Popeye--for his role in popularizing spinach, their main crop.

Who came in second to Eleanor Roosevelt in a 1945 Fortune magazine poll taken to determine the most famous woman in America?
A: The fictitious Betty Crocker, the symbol created in 1921 for General Mill's baking products.

Who once said: "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax?"
A: Albert Einstein.

Whose appearance in a nearly transparent white fishnet bathing suit in the 1978 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue led an editor to promise, "We never have, and never will, run anything so revealing again"?
A: Cheryl Tiegs.

What was the average amount of money left per visit by the tooth fairy in 1950?
A: A quarter.

Why did Trinity College in Durham, North Carolina, change its name to Duke University in 1924?
A: To honor its leading benefactor, tobacco tycoon James Buchanan Duke, and his family.

How much did Baltimore seamstress Mary Young Pickersgill charge for materials and labor for the 30-by 42-foot woolen flag immortalized in Frances Scott Key's "The Star Spangled Banner"?
A: $405.90.

How high was the 1,340-foot-long wall that gave New York's Wall Street its name?
A: 12 feet. It was erected in 1653 by the Dutch colonists as protection against their enemies.

Which U.S. Supreme Court justice wrote the greatest number of majority opinions?
A: Oliver Wendell J Holmes. He wrote 873 majority opinions while serving on the Court form 1902 to 1932. Morrison H. Waite, chief justice from 1874 to 1888, wrote just one less-872.