Twenty history questions, from ancient empires to the twentieth century, each with three answers and the true story behind the right one. Play them as a quiz, or read the list with the answers marked.
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The same questions as the quiz, right answer highlighted and the fact under it. Print the page for a quiz night: the print layout keeps the questions and answers only. The History topic in Lock&Learn holds 127 facts in all.
Which is older, Oxford or the Aztecs?
Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire. Teaching at Oxford began by 1096. The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán wasn't founded until 1325, more than two centuries later.
Source: University of Oxford
Was Cleopatra closer to the pyramids or the Moon landing?
Cleopatra lived closer to the Moon landing than to the pyramids. The Great Pyramid was finished around 2560 BC. Cleopatra died in 30 BC, about 2,500 years later, but only 2,000 years before Apollo 11.
Source: Britannica
What Ice Age giant outlived the first pyramids?
Woolly mammoths were still alive when the pyramids were built. A small population of mammoths survived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic until about 2000 BC, centuries after the Great Pyramid rose at Giza.
Source: Smithsonian
How short can a war be?
The shortest war in history lasted about 38 minutes. The Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 ended less than an hour after it began, when the Sultan's palace was shelled and he fled.
Source: Guinness World Records
What did Romans use as detergent?
Ancient Romans washed clothes (and mouths) with urine. The ammonia in aged urine works as a cleaner, and Rome even taxed its collection. Some Romans used it as a tooth whitener too.
Source: Smithsonian
Which world icon was built to be torn down?
The Eiffel Tower was only meant to stand for 20 years. Built for the 1889 World's Fair, it was saved from demolition because it proved perfect as a giant radio antenna.
Source: Tour Eiffel official history
Was Napoleon really tiny?
Napoleon wasn't actually short. At about 1.70 m he was average height for his era. The myth grew from British propaganda and confusion between French and English inches.
Source: Britannica
Which came first, the fax or the phone?
The fax machine was invented before the telephone. Alexander Bain patented a fax-like device in 1843, more than 30 years before Bell's telephone in 1876.
Source: Britannica
What condiment used to be a prescription?
Ketchup was sold as medicine in the 1830s. An Ohio physician marketed concentrated tomato ketchup as a cure for indigestion, even selling it in pill form.
Source: Smithsonian
How long was the Hundred Years' War, really?
The Hundred Years' War lasted 116 years. The on-and-off conflict between England and France ran from 1337 to 1453. Historians rounded down for the name.
Source: Britannica
How many deaths did London's Great Fire record?
The Great Fire of London officially killed just six people. The 1666 blaze destroyed over 13,000 homes, yet only a handful of deaths were officially recorded, though the true toll was likely higher.
Source: Museum of London
What was showing in cinemas when France last used the guillotine?
France last used the guillotine the year Star Wars premiered. France's final guillotine execution took place in September 1977, months after Star Wars opened in cinemas.
Source: Britannica
What did Nintendo sell for decades before video games?
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as a playing card company. It made hand-crafted hanafuda cards in Kyoto for decades before pivoting to toys, and eventually video games, in the 20th century.
Source: Britannica
What did Viking helmets actually look like?
Vikings never wore horned helmets. No horned Viking helmet has ever been found. The image comes from 19th-century opera costumes, not archaeology.
Source: National Museum of Denmark
How old is the oldest known computer?
The Antikythera mechanism is a 2,000-year-old computer. This Greek bronze of interlocking gears predicted eclipses and planetary positions. Nothing so intricate would reappear for another 1,400 years.
Source: Wikipedia
How did an army manage to lose a battle to itself?
An 18th-century army once routed itself in a drunken panic. In 1788, Austrian troops who couldn't understand each other's languages panicked after a quarrel over drink and opened fire on their own lines in the dark.
Source: Wikipedia
Who else could be dragged into a medieval courtroom?
European courts once put animals on trial for crimes. From the 1200s to the 1700s, pigs, rats and even insects were formally prosecuted in European courts, occasionally with a lawyer appointed to defend them.
Source: Wikipedia
What's the catch with a US silver dollar dated 1804?
None of the 1804 US silver dollars were struck in 1804. They were minted in the 1830s as diplomatic gifts for envoys heading to Asian rulers, then backdated to 1804. Today they're among the rarest coins on Earth.
Source: Wikipedia
Can money lost at the bottom of the sea still be spent?
On Yap, a coin lost on the seabed is still valid money. Yap's giant stone coins were so trusted that when one sank during transport, islanders simply agreed it still belonged to its owner and kept trading it.
Source: Wikipedia
What fed the boom that built modern European cities?
The potato drove nearly half of Europe's urban growth. Unknown in Europe before 1500, the humble potato fed such a population boom that it accounts for roughly 47 percent of the continent's urban growth from 1700 to 1900.
Source: Wikipedia
This page has 20, each with three answers and the fact that settles it. They are the first 20 of the 127 facts in the History topic of Lock&Learn, which holds the rest.
Yes. Read them out, print the page (the right answers are marked) or play the quiz on a shared screen. Each question has one right answer and two plausible wrong ones, and the fact under it gives you something to say after the reveal. Please do not republish the questions elsewhere.
Every fact names its source under the answer, from space agencies and museums to encyclopedias and published research. Lock&Learn writes each one as a teaser question with three answers, and the fact that settles it.
Install Lock&Learn, then touch and hold your Lock Screen, tap Customize, tap the widget area and choose Lock&Learn. A question waits on every screen-wake; you guess, tap, and reveal the verified fact behind the answer. Pick the topics you like and the widget rotates through them.
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