Do you know which of these historical events came first?

By: John Miller
Estimated Completion Time
2 min
Do you know which of these historical events came first?
Image: Wiki commons

About This Quiz

CALLING ALL HISTORY BUFFS! When it comes to history, it's often easy to remember the major events. Alexander the Great was one of the world's greatest conquerors and who could forget the Civil War? The assassination of JFK will never be forgotten. While you might remember these events, can you remember when they happened? Take this quiz to find out if you know which of these historical events came first!

When it comes to history lessons, you might've taken courses in American History, European History, or World History. Regardless of the course, each topic would've covered some of the biggest events the world has ever seen. Traveling back in history, when it came to pandemics, the bubonic plague, cholera, and smallpox were ravaging the world's population. The 1800s was marked by the Civil War while the 1900s was a century filled with assassinations of major political figures. 

But do you remember which came first? Can you remember whether the Treaty of Versailles came before the dissolution of the Berlin Wall? Did the Vietnam War occur before or after the Korean War? If you're able to answer these questions, you're prepared for this quiz! We're traveling back in time to some of the biggest events in history. From wars and assassinations to peace treaties and inaugurations, can you choose which event happened first? Let's find out!

Which of these political killings came first?
Assassination of JFK
Assassination of Julius Caesar
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Julius Caesar was the (sometimes brutal) dictator of the Roman Empire. He was assassinated in 44 B.C.

Which of these scary events happened first?
Indonesian Tsunami
Chernobyl nuclear disaster
American Civil War
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Civil War ripped America to shreds in the 1860s. Chernobyl happened in 1986, and the tsunami? That was 2004.

Which amazing peaceful event happened first?
Treaty of Versailles
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Invention of the World Wide Web
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Treaty of Versailles signaled the end of World War I. Sadly, many people knew it was simply a stopgap solution and that a new world war was virtually inevitable. They were right.

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Which of these famous wars came first?
World War I
World War II
Vietnam War
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Clearly, World War I preceded World War II. The Great War devastated Europe. It started in 1914 and ended in 1918.

Which famous natural disaster happened first?
Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
Eruption of Mount St. Helen's
1931 China floods
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius still ranks as one of the most epic natural disasters in human history. It completely wiped out two cities, Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Which of the following economic events happened first?
Panic of 1901
Great Depression
Enron Scandal
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

If you guessed the Panic of 1901, you're right. This was the very first stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange, and it wiped out many investors' life savings.

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Which competitive event happened first?
The first Super Bowl
The Space Race
The first British Open golf tournament
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The British Open is an incredibly old event, first played in 1860. It was played on Prestwicks' 12-hole golf course, and the few people who participated played the course three times.

Which of these bleak situations transpired first?
The Holocaust
The Cold War
Persian Gulf War
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Holocaust, Hitler's systematic killing of civilians, occurred during World War II. The Cold War began at the conclusion of that war.

Which of the following wars came first?
American Revolution
Korean War
Spanish-American War
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

There was no America at all until the American Revolution, so this one came first. It ended in 1783. The Spanish-American War didn't happen for another century.

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Which famous space mission came first?
Cassini-Huygens probe
Apollo 11 moon landing
Spirit and Opportunity Mars rover mission
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Apollo 11 mission, the one that landed the first men on the moon, happened in 1969. The Cassini-Huygens probe wasn't launched until 2004. Spirit and Opportunity also landed on Mars in 2004.

Which famous awesome event came first?
The birth of L.L. Cool J
The Reformation
The First World Fair
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Reformation transformed Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. Before this event, the Catholic Church had a stranglehold on society. Reformation helped to bring the church back to a more Christian way of life.

Which life-altering era happened first?
Industrial Revolution
Hippie Counterculture
Black Plague
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Black Plague ravaged humankind in the 14th century, killing perhaps 200 million people. The Industrial Revolution didn't take hold until the 18th and 19th centuries.

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Which wrenching conflict came first?
Rwandan genocide
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Vietnam War
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The attack on Pearl Harbor happened on a date that will live infamy -- December 7, 1941. The Vietnam War consumed the late 60s and the Rwandan genocide happened in the 90s.

Which famous leader lived first?
Martin Luther King, Jr.
George Washington
Jesus Christ
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Jesus died in around 33 A.D., long before either of those other famous men. He was famously crucified due to an order by ruler Pontius Pilate.

Which famous battle happened first?
Battle of the Bulge
Battle of Waterloo
Battle of Thermopylae
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Battle of Thermopylae happened in 480 B.C., when a small group of Spartan warriors repeatedly repelled much larger Persian forces. It's the battle featured in the movie "300."

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Which bloody civil war came first?
Spanish Civil War
American Civil War
Sesame Street Civil War
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

As much as we'd like to see Big Bird throw down on Elmo, there was no Sesame Street Civil War. The American Civil War happened in the 1860s, decades before the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.

Which tragic event came first?
Wall Street Crash of 1987
Hurricane Katrina
The 9/11 attacks
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The 9/11 attacks happened in 2001. Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, exposing many flaws in America's disaster response systems. So the Crash of 1987 came first.

Which famous massacre came first?
Battle of The Little Bighorn
Nanking Massacre
Massacre of Thessalonica
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

As you can probably guess from the name, the Massacre of Thessalonica happened in antiquity, back in 390 A.D. The Nanking Massacre was one of the ugliest events of the 1930s. And the Battle of the Little Bighorn happened in 1876.

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Which famous woman lived first?
Joan of Arc
Mary Magdalene
Eleanor Roosevelt
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Mary Magdalene was supposedly one of Jesus' most passionate followers, so she lived until around 40 AD. According to the Bible, she witnessed his execution and was reportedly the first to see Jesus when he rose from the dead.

Which famous human-made disaster came first?
London Killer Fog
Kuwaiti Oil Fires
The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In 1952, a combination of cold weather and coal-burning pollution caused a killer smog to smother London. More than 10,000 people died as a result of the awful smog.

Which famous invasion happened first?
Invasion of Kuwait
Invasion of Normandy
Invasion of Poland
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland, in effect triggering World War II. The invasion of Normandy came in 1944, as the Allies tried to retake ground from the German aggressors.

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Which human-caused disaster came first?
Three-Mile Island Nuclear Disaster
Great Fire of London
First Sudanese Civil War
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

In 1666, an enormous fire enveloped London. Few people died, but more than 10,000 buildings burned, gutting much of the city's ancient core.

Which history-altering event happened first?
Renaissance
Cold War
American Revolution
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Renaissance started in the 1300s, heralding a new age for humankind, one in which people generated new ideas and art at a stunning pace.

Which major war came first?
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
First Congo War
Chinese Civil War
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Wars of the Three Kingdoms are also known as the British Civil Wars. In the 17th century, these wars found England, Scotland and Ireland often at violent odds with one another.

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Which famous person died first?
B.B. King
Princess Diana
President Nixon
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is one of our tougher ones due to the close timeline. Princess Diana died in a terrible 1997 car wreck. But Nixon died three years earlier. B.B. King passed much later, in 2015.

Which ugly political event happened first?
Great Leap Forward
French Revolution
Watergate
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The French Revolution ended all the way back in 1799. The Chinese Great Leap Forward ended in 1962, and, instead of improving the country, it probably caused a huge famine.

Which amazing invention came first?
Printing press
Railroads
The Internet
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Gutenberg printing press was invented in around 1440. This fantastic invention changed the way human beings shared and documented information of all kinds.

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Which vehicular disaster happened first?
Sinking of the Titanic
Hindenburg Disaster
Challenger explosion
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The great ship Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912. The Hindenburg airship disaster happened in 1937. More than 1,500 people died after the Titanic went down.

Which religious icon lived first?
Pope Pius IX
Muhammad
Mother Teresa
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Muhammad lived until about 630 A.D., long before Pope Pius IX, who served in the 19th century. Mother Teresa, of course, is a 20th-century icon.

Which crazy aircraft-related event happened first?
First drone strike
U-2 spy plane incident
Roswell Incident
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Roswell Incident happened in 1947 and became the world's most famous UFO incident. In 1960, an American U-2 spy plane was shot down inside Soviet airspace, creating an international scandal of sorts.

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