Quiz on The United States

Which city serves as the capital of the United States?

• New York City
• Washington, D.C. ✓ (Correct answer)
• Los Angeles
• Boston

Source: Washington was deliberately built as a capital so no existing state could dominate the seat of power.

Which national holiday celebrates American independence?

• Memorial Day
• Fourth of July ✓ (Correct answer)
• Labor Day
• Thanksgiving

Source: Independence was actually voted on July 2nd; the famous date marks adoption of the wording instead.

Which ocean borders the U.S. state of California?

• Atlantic Ocean
• Pacific Ocean ✓ (Correct answer)
• Gulf of Mexico
• Arctic Ocean

Source: Its coastline sits on the Ring of Fire, which is why earthquakes rattle the state so often.

Which branch of the U.S. government is led by Congress?

• Executive
• Judicial
• Legislative ✓ (Correct answer)
• Federal

Source: This branch alone holds the power of the purse, controlling every dollar the nation spends.

How many stars currently appear on the American flag?

• 48
• 50 ✓ (Correct answer)
• 52
• 13

Source: The 13 stripes honor the original colonies, while each star stands for one of the present states.

Which document begins with the words 'We the People'?

• Declaration of Independence
• Bill of Rights
• The Constitution ✓ (Correct answer)
• Gettysburg Address

Source: Those three words made it clear the new government drew its authority from citizens, not a king.

Which American state is the largest by land area?

• Texas
• California
• Alaska ✓ (Correct answer)
• Montana

Source: It is so vast that it could swallow Texas more than twice over with room to spare.

Which monument features four U.S. presidents carved into a mountain?

• Mount Rushmore ✓ (Correct answer)
• Stone Mountain
• Crazy Horse
• Hoover Dam

Source: The colossal faces took 14 years to carve, yet not a single worker died on the project.

Which mountain range stretches from New Mexico to Canada across the western United States?

• Appalachians
• Rocky Mountains ✓ (Correct answer)
• Sierra Madre
• Cascades

Source: Rainfall on one side drains to the Pacific and the other to the Atlantic, splitting the continent.

Which river is the longest flowing through the United States?

• Mississippi River
• Missouri River ✓ (Correct answer)
• Colorado River
• Rio Grande

Source: Though less famous than the Mississippi it feeds, this tributary is actually the longer waterway.

Which country gifted the Statue of Liberty to the United States?

• France ✓ (Correct answer)
• Britain
• Spain
• Italy

Source: Its full copper skin is barely as thick as two stacked pennies.

Which territory did the U.S. buy from France in 1803?

• Florida
• Texas
• Louisiana ✓ (Correct answer)
• Alaska

Source: At roughly three cents an acre, it doubled the country's size in a single stroke of a pen.

Which U.S. president appears on the one-dollar bill?

• Abraham Lincoln
• George Washington ✓ (Correct answer)
• Thomas Jefferson
• Benjamin Franklin

Source: Franklin features on the hundred, yet despite being on the cash he never actually served as president.

Which 1969 mission first landed humans on the Moon?

• Gemini 4
• Apollo 11 ✓ (Correct answer)
• Apollo 13
• Mercury 7

Source: The astronauts left behind a plaque reading 'We came in peace for all mankind.'

Which war concluded with a surrender at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865?

• War of 1812
• Civil War ✓ (Correct answer)
• Revolutionary War
• Spanish-American War

Source: More Americans died in this conflict than in all the nation's other wars combined.

Which agency operates the Kennedy Space Center in Florida?

• NASA ✓ (Correct answer)
• NOAA
• DARPA
• Air Force

Source: Its budget is under half a percent of federal spending, far less than most Americans guess.

Which amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery?

• First
• Tenth
• Thirteenth ✓ (Correct answer)
• Nineteenth

Source: It still permits forced labor as punishment for crime, a clause that shapes U.S. prisons today.

Which president authorized the atomic bombings of Japan in 1945?

• Franklin Roosevelt
• Harry Truman ✓ (Correct answer)
• Dwight Eisenhower
• Woodrow Wilson

Source: He learned the bomb even existed only after taking office, kept in the dark as vice president.

Which state was the last of the contiguous 48 to join the Union?

• Oklahoma
• New Mexico
• Arizona ✓ (Correct answer)
• Utah

Source: It became a state in 1912, the final piece before Alaska and Hawaii rounded out the map decades later.

Which U.S. president served two non-consecutive terms in office?

• Andrew Jackson
• Grover Cleveland ✓ (Correct answer)
• Martin Van Buren
• William McKinley

Source: Grover Cleveland is the only U.S. president counted twice, serving as both the 22nd and 24th president after losing re-election in between.