American History Trivia - Successes and Failures

The first English attempt at a settlement, Roanoke (1587), vanished with the only clue being the word "Croatoan" carved into a post.

• The colonial period spans roughly 1607–1776, ending with the American Revolution.

• The first permanent English settlement was Jamestown, founded in 1607, near present-day Williamsburg, Virginia.

• Immigrants came seeking religious freedom, especially in New England, while others migrated for economic opportunity.

• Before it was New York, it was New Netherland. The British took it from the Dutch in 1664 without firing a single shot.

• There were about 2.5 million colonialists at the start of the American Revolution.

• Early English explorers like Sir Walter Raleigh and Captain John Smith helped map the East Coast.

• European diseases killed massive numbers of Native Americans.

• Colonists developed local self-government, including town meetings and assemblies.

• A meeting between Samoset tribe and the Pilgrims in 1621 is one of the earliest recorded Native–colonist interactions.

• Colonists frequently lived in small, close-knit communities with strict social structures.

• Many practiced subsistence farming, producing just enough for their families.

• Colonial laws and customs varied widely between regions, allowing them to develop their own unique regional identities.

• From 1659 to 1681, the Puritans in Massachusetts banned the celebration of Christmas, viewing it as a pagan-influenced "popish" holiday.

• Harvard is older than calculus: Founded in 1636, Harvard University was established before Isaac Newton or Gottfried Leibniz published their work on calculus.

• Because water sources were often contaminated, people of all ages—including children—drank "small beer" (low alcohol content) as a safer alternative.

• In many colonies, it was illegal to "dress above your station." Commoners could be fined for wearing silk or gold lace.

• Benjamin Franklin believed sitting naked in his room with the windows open for an hour a day would prevent sickness.

• During the 1721 Boston Smallpox outbreak, Cotton Mather championed inoculation (introducing a small amount of the virus to build immunity).

• If a colonist survived to age 20, they had a decent chance of living into their 60s.

• Many colonists believed tomatoes were poisonous.

• In most colonies, you didn't just have to be a white male; you had to own a specific amount of property to be eligible to vote.

• In Virginia and Maryland, tobacco was so valuable it was used as legal tender to pay taxes and fines.

• The craze for beaver-skin hats in Europe was the primary driver for the early colonial fur trade and North American exploration.

• Ben Franklin revolutionized mail delivery speed.

• Franklin also started the first subscription library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, in 1731.

• By 1800, the population had doubled to 5 million.

• The 1800 presidential election was tied between Jefferson and Aaron Burr, resolved by the House of Representatives.

• The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 doubled U.S. size for $15 million.

• Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in an 1804 duel in Weehawken, New Jersey.

• Zebulon Pike led a 1806 expedition into the Rockies, naming Pikes Peak.

• Robert Fulton's steamboat (1807) revolutionized river travel.

• John Jacob Astor became America's first millionaire via the fur trade in 1808

• The War of 1812 was fought against Britain.

• The British burned Washington, D.C., in 1814, but failed at Baltimore, inspiring "The Star-Spangled Banner."

• The USS Constitution, aka "Old Ironsides", was a warship.

• The Monroe Doctrine (1823) shaped US foreign policy.

• The Erie Canal (completed 1825) connected the Great Lakes to NYC.

• The Industrial Revolution was starting.

• Slavery was a major issue, with many opposing it.

• The Underground Railroad was developed to help slaves escape.

• Women's rights were limited.

• Education was mostly for the wealthy.

• The Pony Express wasn't around yet, but stagecoaches were.

• Newspapers were a main source of news.

• James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans" (1826) was popular.

• Westward expansion led to conflicts with Native Americans.

• Early 1800s shoes weren't made left or right, shaping to feet over time.

• In the 1830s and 40s, ketchup was sold in pill form as a cure for indigestion and jaundice.

• Between 1840 and 1860, approximately 400,000 people made the 2,000-mile Oregon Trail trek west.

• In 1841, the U.S. had three different presidents: Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison (who died after 31 days), and John Tyler.

• Taking a portrait in the 1840s required sitting still for up to two minutes, which is why people rarely smiled—it was too hard to hold a grin.

• The 1840s saw the rise of cheap, mass-produced newspapers that focused on sensationalism and crime rather than just dry politics.

• In 1844, Samuel Morse sent the first message—"What hath God wrought"—from Washington D.C. to Baltimore.

• When gold was found at Sutter’s Mill in 1848, the population of San Francisco jumped from about 1,000 to 25,000 in just two years.

• In the 1850s, the U.S. Army experimented with using camels as pack animals in the Southwest. The Civil War ultimately ended the project.

• The Transcontinental Telegraph: Completed in 1861, it immediately rendered the Pony Express obsolete, causing it to shut down just two days later.

• The men's "beard movement" took off mid-century as a symbol of rugged masculinity and health.

• Without modern sewers, cities like New York were so pungent that residents often carried scented handkerchiefs to press against their noses.

• Tobacco chewing was so common that spittoons were required in almost all public buildings.

• The First Baseball Rules, called The "Knickerbocker Rules," established in 1845, formalized the game we recognize today—including the diamond-shaped infield.

• The Battle of Antietam (1862) remains the deadliest single day in American military history, with over 22,000 casualties.

• The iconic cast-iron dome of the U.S. Capitol was actually completed during the CivilWar; Lincoln insisted construction continue as a sign the Union would endure.

• Custer's Last Stand occurred in 1876 at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

• New York held the first ever state fair in 1841 in Syracuse.

• Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday participated in the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, in 1881.

• The first Labor Day parade was held in New York City in 1882, though it wouldn't become a federal holiday until 1894.

• The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in 1886, a gift from France that became America's most iconic symbol of immigration and freedom.

• Coca-Cola was invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Pemberton in Atlanta, originally marketed as a medicinal tonic.

• The first electric chair execution took place in New York in 1890, promoted by Thomas Edison as proof of the dangers of his competitor's AC current.

• Ellis Island opened as an immigration station in 1892.

• The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy for a magazine celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus's voyage.

• Electric lights were showcased to millions of visitors at the 1893 World's Fair, transforming public perception of technology.

• The Chicago World's Fair of 1893 (World's Columbian Exposition) introduced the Ferris wheel, Cracker Jack, and the "White City" that influenced American architecture.

• The zipper was invented in 1893 by Whitcomb Judson, though it wouldn't become popular in clothing until the 1920s.

• The first subway system in the Americas opened in Boston in 1897, predating New York's by seven years.

• The Johnstown Flood of 1889 killed over 2,200 people in Pennsylvania when a poorly maintained dam failed, one of America's worst disasters.

• The U.S. annexed Hawaii in 1898 after American businessmen had overthrown Queen Liliuokalani five years earlier

• The US acquires Hawaii (1898) and the Philippines (1898)

• The U.S. population reached approximately 76 million by 1900, having more than doubled since 1860.

• President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901 in Buffalo, making Theodore Roosevelt, at 42, the youngest president in American history.

• The first powered flight by the Wright Brothers occurred in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, lasting just 12 seconds.

• The first cross-country automobile trip was completed by Horatio Nelson Jackson in 1903, taking 63 days from San Francisco to New York.

• Industrial titans like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and Cornelius Vanderbilt amassed unprecedented wealth during the Gilded Age.

• The era saw the rise of department stores, with Macy's expanding in New York and Marshall Field's dominating in Chicago.

• Life Expectancy: In 1900, the average life expectancy in the U.S. was only 47 years.

• The Flatiron Building (1902) was one of NYC’s first skyscrapers. With 22 stories and 285 feet tall, people were so convinced it would blow over that they gathered nearby to watch it fall during storms.

• Inspired by a 1902 hunting trip where Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a trapped bear, a Brooklyn shopkeeper created the "Teddy" bear.

• The Panama Canal construction began in 1904 (completed 1914).

• The First Movie Theaters called “Nickelodeons" opened in Pittsburgh in 1905. Admission, as the name suggests, was just five cents.

• The Pure Food and Drug Act was passed in 1906.

• San Francisco had a devastating earthquake in 1906.

• Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for mediating the end of the Russo-Japanese War.

• The Model T Ford was introduced in 1908

• The NAACP was founded in 1909.

• The Lincoln Penny: First minted in 1909, it was the first American coin to feature a historical person rather than the personification of "Liberty."

• Women's suffrage movement was gaining momentum.

• The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire occurred in 1911.

• The Oreo cookie was first introduced by Nabisco in 1912 to compete with the Hydrox cookie.

• The 16th Amendment (income tax) was ratified in 1913.

• The First Crossword: Published in the New York World on December 21, 1913

• Jeannette Rankin: In 1916, Montana elected Rankin to the House of Representatives—

making her the first woman in Congress four years before women nationwide had the right to vote.

• The Lusitania: The 1915 sinking of this British ocean liner by a German U-boat killed 128 Americans, tilting U.S. public opinion toward joining WWI.

• The Spanish Flu: In 1918, this pandemic infected about one-third of the world's population; in the U.S., it killed more people than were lost in combat during WWI.

Jack Johnson defeated James J. Jeffries in a 1910 heavyweight boxing match, sparking race riots nationwide.

• The 16th Amendment (income tax) was ratified in 1913.

• The 17th Amendment (direct election of Senators) was ratified in 1913.

• In 1914, Henry Ford doubled his workers' pay to $5 a day. It wasn’t just out of kindness; he wanted his employees to be able to afford the cars they were building.

• World War I started in Europe in 1914; the US entered in 1917.

• The 18th Amendment (Prohibition) was ratified in 1919.

• The 19th Amendment in 1920 passes, granting women the right to vote nationwide.

• The Roaring Twenties saw a cultural shift with jazz, flappers, and more.

• The Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, opened in 1923 and is considered the first regional shopping center designed specifically for shoppers arriving by car.

• The Jazz Singer (1927) was the first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue, effectively ending the silent film era.

• When it was first erected in 1923, the “HOLLYWOOD” sign actually read

"HOLLYWOODLAND." It was an advertisement for a real estate development, not the film industry.Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo transatlantic flight in 1927

• October 29, 1929 ("Black Tuesday"), triggering the Great Depression.

• The Empire State Building was completed in 1931.

• The 21st Amendment (repealing Prohibition) was ratified in 1933.

• The Social Security Act passed in 1935.

• The Hindenburg airship disaster occurred in 1937.

• The Fair Labor Standards Act established minimum wage in 1938.

• The first public demonstration of television in the U.S. occurred at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.

• The attack on Pearl Harbor happened on December 7, 1941 and the US enters after Pearl Harbor in 1941.

• Japanese Americans were interned during WWII, starting in 1942.

• The Manhattan Project developed the atomic bomb.

• D-Day, June 6, 1944.

• 1945, engineer Percy Spencer was working on radar technology when he noticed a candy bar in his pocket had melted. This led to the invention of the microwave oven.

• 1947, Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

• Color television emerged as a revolutionary invention during the 1950s, transforming American entertainment.

• McCarthyism began in 1950, driven by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti‑communist accusations.

• The Korean War started in 1950, marking one of the first major conflicts of the Cold War.

• The comic strip Peanuts debuted in 1950, introducing Charlie Brown and Snoopy to the world.

• The U.S. detonated its first hydrogen bomb on Eniwetok Atoll in 1952.

• Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, sparked a 13-month boycott starting in 1955.

• Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959

• Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite, launched on January 31, 1958.

• Four Black college students staged the first sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, on February 1, 1960.

• Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run record with his 715th on April 8, 1974

• The Watergate scandal led to President Richard Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974.

• Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, killing 57 people.

• 1980 The personal computer revolution began.

• MTV launched in 1981, transforming music and youth culture.

• The Space Shuttle program began in the 1980s.

• Operation Desert Storm liberated Kuwait from Iraq in 1991 during the Gulf War.

• President Clinton signed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in 1993 for gay military service.

• In the early 1990s, the internet entered mainstream American life.

• Columbine High School shooting on April 20, 1999, killed 13 and wounded 23, sparking gun control debates.

The 2000 Presidential Election was so close it took 36 days and a Supreme Court ruling (Bush v. Gore) to determine the winner.

• The U.S. did not participate in the 2000 World Expo, the first absence since 1851

• In 2003, scientists finished sequencing 99.99% of the human genome, a project that took 13 years to complete.

• When Mark Zuckerberg launched "TheFacebook" in 2004, it was restricted only to Harvard students.

• Tesla introduced its first car, the Roadster, in 2006. In 2018, SpaceX launched Elon Musk's personal Tesla Roadster into orbit.

• The U.S. population reached 300 million in 2006 and surpassed 331 million by the 2020 census.

• Steve Jobs introduced the first Apple iPhone in January 2007, famously describing it as "a widescreen iPod with touch controls.

• Barack Obama, the first black President, was inaugurated on January 20, 2009.

• In 2009, Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger successfully ditched US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River; all 155 people on board survived.

• In 2012, the Mars rover Curiosity landed on the Red Planet. It notably "sang" itself "Happy Birthday" using motor vibrations a year later.

• Donald Trump became the first U.S. president with no prior military or political experience when he took office in 2017.

• In 2017, a "Great American Eclipse" crossed the entire continent from Oregon to South Carolina for the first time since 1918.

• The COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in 2020, leading to widespread shutdowns.

• Marriage rates in the U.S. hit a record low in 2020, with only 5.1 marriages per 1,000 people.

• At 78, Joe Biden became the oldest person ever inaugurated as president in 2021

• Space tourism became a reality in 2021 when Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic successfully launched civilians to space.

• Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court in 2022.