RD.COM Knowledge Facts
ByHedy Phillips
Updated: May 23, 2024
Test your smarts with these trivia questions about everything!
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How many of these tricky trivia questions can you answer correctly?
Just how much do you know … really? Oh sure, you might be an expert in your field, but do you know the answers to trivia questions about history, science, pop culture and everything in between? These interesting facts are, well, interesting—and they make for great dinner-party conversation, bragging rights in a pub quiz and just general knowledge you’ll be happy you learned.
Ahead, you’ll find random trivia questions and answers about a little bit of everything. And they’re not all trick questions and hard trivia—there are definitely some you’ll know the answers to, even if you doubt yourself at first. See how many you can get right, and then put your friends and family to the test. Looking for something the whole family can enjoy?
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Geography trivia questions
1. Question: What is the only U.S. state that borders just one other?
Answer: Maine
2. Question: What’s the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world?
Answer: Jericho
3. Question: What is the only U.S. state with a Spanish motto?
Answer: Montana, where the motto is “Oro y plata” (which translates to “Gold and silver”). Bonus points: Montana’s state nickname is the Treasure State.
4. Question: What is the only U.S. state with a name that ends in three consecutive vowels?
Answer: Hawaii
5. Question: In 2015, which country started thanking people via text message when their donated blood was used?
Answer: Sweden
6. Question: What color are the arches at the McDonald’s in Sedona, Arizona?
Answer: Turquoise
7. Question: What is the most common street name in the United States?
Answer: Second Street
8. Question: Which country makes up more than half the western coastline of South America?
Answer: Chile
9. Question: What is the driest place on earth?
Answer: McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica
10. Question: What is the only U.S. state that does not have a rectangular flag?
Answer: Ohio
Did you ace these trivia questions? See if you can continue the streak with these geography quiz questions people always get wrong.
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Science trivia questions
11. Question: What are the three states of matter?
Answer: Solid, liquid and gas
12. Question: Which planet is closest to the sun?
Answer: Mercury
13. Question: What is the largest organ of the human body?
Answer: The skin
14. Question: How many teeth do adult humans have?
Answer: 32
15. Question: What is the rarest blood type?
Answer: AB–
16. Question: What is the boiling point of water?
Answer: 100 degrees Celsius
17. Question: How many elements are in the periodic table?
Answer: 118
18. Question: What is the compound H2O?
Answer: Water
19. Question: What side of the brain deals with language?
Answer: Left
20. Question: Biology is the study of what?
Answer: Life
Next, here are more science trivia questions.
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Pop culture trivia questions
21. Question: What was the original name of the band Led Zeppelin?
Answer: The New Yardbirds
22. Question: Which comic book character did Michael Jackson want to play so much that he considered buying Marvel Comics in the 1990s?
Answer: Spider-Man
23. Question: Which original Winnie the Pooh voice actor attempted to create an artificial heart?
Answer: Tigger’s Paul Winchell
24. Question: The son of which famous author successfully wrote stories for 10 years before revealing who his father was to the public?
Answer: Stephen King
25. Question: What comic strip’s joke name for the row of spikes on a stegosaurus’s tail, the “thagomizer,” ended up becoming the official name?
Answer: The Far Side
26. Question: Which African country was the setting for Tatooine in Star Wars?
Answer: Tunisia
27. Question: Who was the first Bachelor?
Answer: Alex Michel
28. Question: How many seasons of Game of Thrones aired?
Answer: 8
29. Question: Where did Prince William and Kate Middleton first meet?
Answer: The University of St. Andrews
30. Question: Who wrote the Twilight books?
Answer: Stephenie Meyer
Check out these other pop culture trivia questions that just might stump you.
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Movie trivia questions
31. Question: In which movie did the song “White Christmas” make its debut?
Answer: Holiday Inn
32. Question: How many different characters does Tom Hanks play in the 2004 Christmas movie The Polar Express?
Answer: 5
33. Question: Netflix founder Reed Hastings claimed (possibly falsely) that he thought of the idea for his company after receiving a $40 late fee from Blockbuster. What was the movie he said he failed to return?
Answer: Apollo 13
34. Question: What is the highest-grossing movie of all time?
Answer: Avatar
35. Question: Who performs at the wedding in Bridesmaids?
Answer: Wilson Phillips
36. Question: What is the name of the famous dance in The Rocky Horror Picture Show?
Answer: “The Time Warp”
37. Question: What was the first movie made in color?
Answer: Visit to the Seaside
38. Question: In Risky Business, what song did Tom Cruise lip-sync to in his underwear?
Answer: “Old Time Rock and Roll”
39. Question: Who was the first actor to play Batman?
Answer: Lewis Wilson
40. Question: Which movie was incorrectly announced as the winner of Best Picture at the 2017 Academy Awards?
Answer: La La Land
Don’t miss these other movie trivia questions all movie lovers should know.
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Disney trivia questions
41. Question: What year did Walt Disney World open?
Answer: 1971
42. Question: What are the names of Cinderella’s stepsisters?
Answer: Anastasia and Drizella
43. Question: What does “Hakuna matata” mean?
Answer: No worries
44. Question: What are the names of the seven dwarfs in Snow White?
Answer: Dopey, Doc, Bashful, Sneezy, Happy, Grumpy and Sleepy
45. Question: How many years was Genie stuck in the lamp before Aladdin found him?
Answer: 10,000 years
46. Question: Who is the fashion designer in The Incredibles?
Answer: Edna Mode
47. Question: How many Disney parks are there?
Answer: Twelve parks in six resorts
48. Question: What is Goofy’s son’s name?
Answer: Max
49. Question: What was the first Pixar movie?
Answer: Toy Story
50. Question: How many puppies did Pongo and Perdita have in 101 Dalmatians?
Answer: 15
Next, check out these Disney trivia questions only true fans can answer.
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History trivia questions
51. Question: How many legitimate children did King George III have?
Answer: 15
52. Question: How many people stood in the line of succession between King George IV and Queen Victoria?
Answer: 6
53. Question: Who was the first woman to die in an aviation-related incident?
Answer: Sophie Blanchard (a balloonist who died in 1812)
54. Question: How many people survived the 1959 incident at Dyatlov Pass?
Answer: 1
55. Question: Which fruit did many people in the Western world think was poisonous until 1820?
Answer: Tomatoes
56. Question: What did the Raines Law, enacted in 1896 in New York, do?
Answer: Made it illegal to sell alcohol on Sundays
57. Question: Which unusual substance was the primary ingredient in the laxatives Lewis and Clark brought on their expedition?
Answer: Mercury
58. Question: In the 1830s, which scientifically gifted woman led to the coining of the term scientist, because man of science didn’t apply?
Answer: Mary Somerville
59. Question: Where did Albert Einstein live before moving to the United States?
Answer: Germany
60. Question: Who invented the cotton gin?
Answer: Eli Whitney
Here are another 100 history questionsthat will test your smarts.
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American history trivia questions
61. Question: The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States … but in this context, bald doesn’t mean hairless. The bald part of the bird’s name comes from an Old English word meaning what?
Answer: White
62. Question: Which U.S. president fathered a child at age 70?
Answer: John Tyler, the 10th president
63. Question: Who performed the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean?
Answer: Charles Lindbergh
64. Question: Who won the very first Emmy for Most Outstanding Television Personality in 1949?
Answer: Shirley Dinsdale
65. Question: Which U.S. state’s constitution did Congress forget to ratify when it was granted statehood, an omission that wasn’t fixed until 150 years later?
Answer: Ohio
66. Question: Which U.S. president pardoned all Vietnam War draft dodgers on his second day in office?
Answer: Jimmy Carter
67. Question: Which U.S. president considered funding an expedition to the center of the Earth?
Answer: John Quincy Adams
68. Question: What is the oldest European-founded city in the United States?
Answer: St. Augustine, Florida
69. Question: What was the date of the Boston Tea Party?
Answer: Dec. 16, 1773
70. Question: Who was the shortest-serving U.S. president?
Answer: William Henry Harrison, who died on his 32nd day in office
If you’re an American-history buff, you’ll want to dive right into moreUnited States trivia.
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Animal trivia questions
71. Question: How many scent receptors do dogs have in their noses?
Answer: 300 million
72. Question: How many words can dogs understand?
Answer: More than 150
73. Question: Sea urchins got their name from what non-aquatic animal, which was known as an “urchin” until the 15th century?
Answer: The hedgehog
74. Question: What is the gestation period for an elephant?
Answer: 22 months
75. Question: What color is a giraffe’s tongue?
Answer: Black, blue or purple
76. Question: What color is a polar bear’s skin?
Answer: Black
77. Question: What is the fastest land animal?
Answer: The cheetah
78. Question: Which animal supposedly has nine lives?
Answer: The cat
79. Question: How many layers of skin does a chameleon have?
Answer: Four
80. Question: What is the largest type of frog?
Answer: The Goliath frog
Before you can claim your title as king (or queen) of the jungle, try your hand at these otheranimal trivia questions.
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Holiday trivia questions
81. Question: What does Cinco de Mayo celebrate?
Answer: Mexico’s victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862
82. Question: How many days of Kwanzaa are there?
Answer: 7
83. Question: Who was the first U.S. president to recognize Hanukkah in the White House?
Answer: Jimmy Carter
84. Question: What is the highest-grossing Christmas movie?
Answer: Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch
85. Question: Where did Christmas originate?
Answer: Rome
86. Question: When was the first New Year’s Eve ball drop in New York City?
Answer: 1907
87. Question: What was candy corn originally called?
Answer: Chicken feed
88. Question: How long was the first Thanksgiving celebration?
Answer: Three days
89. Question: In what country did the tradition of the Easter bunny originate?
Answer: Germany
90. Question: Who was the first First Lady to decorate the White House for Halloween?
Answer: Mamie Eisenhower
Obsessed with the holidays and pop culture? See if you can answer our tricky Christmas movie trivia.
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TV show trivia questions
91. Question: What are the names of the four Golden Girls?
Answer: Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia
92. Question: What is the Munsters’s address?
Answer: 1313 Mockingbird Lane
93. Question: What was Lucy trying to sell during her famous commercial on I Love Lucy?
Answer: Vitameatavegemin
94. Question: What is the longest-running prime-time live-action scripted show?
Answer: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
95. Question: Where did the students hang out in Saved by the Bell?
Answer: The Max
96. Question: Where did the friends hang out in Friends?
Answer: Central Perk
97. Question: What was the name of the annoying kid next door in Sister, Sister?
Answer: Roger
98. Question: What is the name of the team Ted Lasso coaches on Ted Lasso?
Answer: AFC Richmond
Here are some fun trivia team name suggestions to make your trivia night more exciting.
99. Question: Family Matters was a spinoff of which other show?
Answer: Perfect Strangers
100. Question: On The Big Bang Theory, Penny is a waitress at which restaurant?
Answer: The Cheesecake Factory
Prepare for even more TV trivia questions by binge-watching the best shows on Netflix, Hulu and Apple TV+. Hey, it’s research!
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Music trivia questions
101. Question: What year was the first Grammy Awards held?
Answer: 1959
102. Question: Who won the first season of American Idol?
Answer: Kelly Clarkson
103. Question: Who founded Motown Records?
Answer: Berry Gordy
104. Question: Who was the first woman ever inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?
Answer: Aretha Franklin
105. Question: What was Taylor Swift’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 song?
Answer: “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”
106. Question: Who is the only member of One Direction to win a Grammy?
Answer: Harry Styles
107. Question: Which classical composer was deaf?
Answer: Ludwig van Beethoven
108. Question: Which singer was born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou?
Answer: George Michael
109. Question: What was the first music video ever to air on MTV?
Answer: “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles
110. Question: What does the “J” in Mary J. Blige stand for?
Answer: Jane
These “did you know” facts will also prepare you for your next trivia night, in the pub or your own living room. You’re welcome!
Additional reporting by Meghan Jones and Lauren Cahn.
Originally Published: October 04, 2019
Author
Hedy Phillips
Hedy Phillips is a lifestyle writer covering beauty, shopping and pop culture. She devotes 99% of her time to snuggling with her cats and 100% of her money to following Harry Styles around on tour. She's always on the lookout for another slice of New York pizza, and she's never met a Starbucks drink she doesn't like.
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