30 questions · true or false · Updated October 28, 2026
True or False History Questions
From the pharaohs to the first steps on the Moon, here are 30 history statements to judge true or false, each with the answer and a short explanation. For a quiz night with friends, a family get-together or a game played remotely: read the statement out loud, let the players decide, then reveal the answer.
Tip: read the statement out loud, let people buzz, then open the answer.
01Christopher Columbus reached the Americas in 1492.Show the answer
True
On October 12, 1492, he landed on an island in the Bahamas. He believed he had reached Asia, which is why the people he met were called “Indians”.
02Napoleon Bonaparte was unusually short for his time.Show the answer
False
He stood about 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in), average or even slightly above average for a Frenchman of his era. The legend owes a lot to British cartoons and to confusion between French and English inches.
03The Great Wall of China can be seen with the naked eye from the Moon.Show the answer
False
From the Moon, about 384,000 km away, no human-made structure is visible to the naked eye. Even from low orbit, the wall is narrow and blends in with the landscape, so it is very hard to spot.
04Cleopatra lived closer in time to us than to the building of the Great Pyramid of Giza.Show the answer
True
The Great Pyramid dates from around 2560 BC and Cleopatra died in 30 BC: roughly 2,500 years apart, versus just over 2,000 years between her and us.
05The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris.Show the answer
True
It opened in 1889 for the Exposition Universelle, which marked 100 years since the French Revolution. Meant to stand for only 20 years, it was saved partly thanks to its use as a radio antenna.
06Vikings wore horned helmets in battle.Show the answer
False
Archaeologists have never found a horned Viking helmet. The image dates from the 19th century and was popularized notably by costumes for Wagner’s operas.
07The first human to travel into space was Yuri Gagarin, in 1961.Show the answer
True
On April 12, 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut orbited the Earth aboard the Vostok 1 capsule, in less than two hours.
08In ancient Rome, a vomitorium was a room where people went to throw up during feasts.Show the answer
False
A vomitorium was a passageway that let crowds pour out of an amphitheater quickly: it “spewed out” the spectators. The idea of a special room for vomiting is a myth.
09Julius Caesar was the first Roman emperor.Show the answer
False
Caesar was a dictator but never an emperor. The first emperor was his adopted son Octavian, who became Augustus in 27 BC.
10Tutankhamun became pharaoh when he was still a child.Show the answer
True
He came to the throne at around 8 or 9 years old. He is best known for his tomb, found almost intact by archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922.
11Gutenberg developed movable-type printing in Europe around 1450.Show the answer
True
Around 1450, in Mainz, he developed a printing press using movable metal type. In China, movable type had already existed since the 11th century.
12The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911.Show the answer
True
An Italian glazier, Vincenzo Peruggia, took it in August 1911. It was recovered in Florence in 1913, and the theft did a lot to make the painting world-famous.
13In the Middle Ages, European scholars believed the Earth was flat.Show the answer
False
Scholars had known the Earth was round since ancient Greece, and medieval scholars knew it too. The myth of a “flat Earth” Middle Ages spread mostly in the 19th century.
14The Titanic sank after colliding with another ship.Show the answer
False
It struck an iceberg on the night of April 14–15, 1912, during its maiden voyage from England to New York.
15The Rosetta Stone helped Champollion decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs.Show the answer
True
It carries the same text in hieroglyphs, Demotic and ancient Greek. By comparing these scripts, Champollion cracked the secret of hieroglyphs in 1822.
16King Henry VIII of England had six wives.Show the answer
True
He married six times, and three of his wives were named Catherine: Catherine of Aragon, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr.
17Marie Antoinette said “Let them eat cake” about the starving people of France.Show the answer
False
There is no evidence she ever said it (in French, the line is about “brioche”, not cake). A similar line, attributed to “a great princess”, appears in Rousseau’s Confessions, written when she was still a child in Austria.
18The ancient Romans had a numeral for zero.Show the answer
False
Roman numerals (I, V, X, L, C, D, M) have no zero. Zero as a number was developed in India and later reached Europe through scholars of the Arab world.
19The city of Pompeii was buried by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.Show the answer
True
Ash and volcanic rock covered the city, which preserved it remarkably well. Excavations began in the 18th century.
20The Taj Mahal in India was built as a palace for an emperor.Show the answer
False
It is a mausoleum: the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan had it built in Agra in the 17th century in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal.
21Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the Moon, in 1969.Show the answer
True
He set foot on the Moon in July 1969 during the American Apollo 11 mission, speaking his famous line about “one small step” for man.
22The Wright brothers made their first powered airplane flight in 1903.Show the answer
True
On December 17, 1903, in North Carolina, their Flyer stayed in the air for 12 seconds on the first try. The best flight that day lasted nearly a minute.
23Knights in armor had to be lifted onto their horses with a crane.Show the answer
False
A full suit of armor usually weighed between 15 and 25 kg (about 33 to 55 lb), spread over the whole body, so a knight could mount on his own. The crane image comes mostly from the movies.
24Every pharaoh of ancient Egypt was a man.Show the answer
False
Women ruled too, such as Hatshepsut, often shown with the pharaoh’s regalia including the false beard, and later Cleopatra VII.
25Gunpowder was invented in China.Show the answer
True
It was developed in China around the 9th century and used for fireworks as well as weapons, before reaching Europe in the 13th century.
26Queen Elizabeth II reigned for more than 70 years.Show the answer
True
She became queen in February 1952 and reigned until her death in September 2022: just over 70 years, the longest reign in British history. Only a handful of monarchs, such as France’s Louis XIV (72 years), have reigned longer.
27The Maya predicted the end of the world for December 21, 2012.Show the answer
False
That date simply marked the end of a great cycle in their calendar, known as the Long Count. No known Maya text announces the end of the world on that day.
28The Berlin Wall fell in 1989.Show the answer
True
Built in 1961, it was opened on November 9, 1989. Germany was reunified less than a year later, on October 3, 1990.
29The Leaning Tower of Pisa leans because of an earthquake.Show the answer
False
It leans because the soft ground on one side sank under its weight. The tilt began while it was still being built, in the 12th century.
30Gustave Eiffel designed the inner framework of the Statue of Liberty.Show the answer
True
Sculptor Bartholdi designed the statue and Gustave Eiffel engineered the metal framework that holds it up from inside. A gift from France, it was unveiled in New York in 1886.
Play these questions with the buzzer
In the same room, the host pulls these questions at random on the TV and everyone buzzes with their phone. Remotely, everyone can pick them on their turn in the group.
To play with a real buzzer, open Buzzloo’s quiz buzzer: each player uses their own phone. You read a statement, the fastest player buzzes in and must say “true” or “false”. Right answer, they score the point; wrong answer, the next player gets a turn. Then read the explanation: that’s often where the debate starts. The full plan for an evening is in our guide to hosting a quiz night.