Pick A Date Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1 September 1939

Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, and on 3 September 1939 Britain and France declared war on Germany.

Answer: 6 April 1652

Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck departed from Texel in the Netherlands on 24 December 1651, accompanied by his wife and son, and arrived in the Cape of Good Hope on 6 April 1652.

Answer: 22 November 1963

President John F. Kennedy was fatally wounded by Lee Harvey Oswald on 22 November 1963. Oswald never stood trial for the crime as he himself was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a nightclub operator from Dallas.

Answer: 14/15 April 1912

In the course of 14 April 1912, Titanic's radio operators received six messages from other ships warning of drifting ice, which passengers on Titanic had begun to notice in the afternoon. After the collision with the iceberg the Titanic began sinking at 23:40hrs on 14 April. Two hours and forty minutes later, at 02:20hrs on 15 April, she was gone. Edward J. Smith was captain of the RMS Titanic.

Answer: 14 October 1066

After his victory at Hastings, William of Normandy took the throne of England and became known as William the Conqueror. King Harold was killed during the battle, allegedly by an arrow which struck him in the eye.

Answer: 12 April 1961

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (9 March 1934-27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He became an international celebrity and was given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He died in 1968 when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting crashed.

Answer: December 7, 1941

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan). The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II.

Answer: 480 BC

The Battle of Thermopylae (The Hot Gates) was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium, in August or September 480 BC, at the narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae.

Answer: 21 October 1600

The Battle of Sekigahara was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 (Keichô 5, 15th day of the 9th month) which cleared the path to the Shogunate for Tokugawa Ieyasu. Though it would take three more years for Ieyasu to consolidate his position of power over the Toyotomi clan and the daimyo, Sekigahara is widely considered to be the unofficial beginning of the Tokugawa bakufu, the last shogunate to control Japan. Japan had a long period of peace after the battle.

Answer: 28 April 1945

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, also known as "Il Duce", was born on 29 July 1883. He died on 28 April 1945 after trying to flee north to Switzerland. He was captured by Italian partisans and summarily executed near Lake Como. His body was then taken to Milan where it was hung upside down at a service station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise.