Chronicles of the Oval Office Quiz

100 questions · by Qwiz Rush

Chronicles of the Oval Office Quiz is a free 100-question multiple choice, letters and numbers quiz on Qwiz Rush, made by Qwiz Rush, split into 10 rounds. Test your knowledge of executive history with deep dives into presidential campaigns, landmark policies, and lives in the White House.

Host it live for friends, family, a class or a quiz night: everyone joins with a game code on their own device, no app needed. Or play it solo with Free Play and see how many you get right.

Every question runs on a 10-second countdown and the fastest correct answers score the most. All the questions and their choices are listed below so you can see what the quiz covers; the answers are revealed in the game. Want to change something? Make your own copy and edit it in your library.

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The 100 questions

In the pivotal election of 1800, which future Vice President tied in electoral votes with Thomas Jefferson, leading to a constitutional crisis resolved by the House of Representatives?
- Aaron Burr
- John Adams
- Alexander Hamilton
- Charles Pinckney
Which political party, advocating for the preservation of the Union above all else, was formed specifically for the 1860 election and nominated John Bell?
- Constitutional Union Party
- Whig Party
- Free Soil Party
- Know-Nothing Party
Theodore Roosevelt ran as a third-party candidate in 1912 under the banner of the Progressive Party, which was popularly known by what animalistic nickname?
- Bull Moose
- Lone Wolf
- Silver Fox
- Wild Boar
Which famous newspaper headline erroneously declared the defeat of Harry S. Truman on election night in 1948?
- Dewey Defeats Truman
- Dewey Wins
- Truman Yields to Dewey
- GOP Sweeps the White House
The 1960 presidential election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon featured the first-ever televised debates. Which state hosted this historic first debate?
- Illinois
- New York
- California
- Ohio
In the 1992 election, which independent candidate secured nearly 19% of the popular vote, the best showing for a third-party candidate since 1912?
- Ross Perot
- Ralph Nader
- George Wallace
- John Anderson
In what year did the controversial "Corrupt Bargain" presidential election take place, resulting in John Quincy Adams winning the presidency over Andrew Jackson despite Jackson winning the popular vote?

Answer with a number.
Franklin D. Roosevelt won a historic landslide victory in his first presidential election, defeating incumbent Herbert Hoover. In what year did this election take place?

Answer with a number.
Identify the Whig candidate and military hero who won the 1840 presidential election under the famous campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too".

Answer with a letter.
Identify the conservative Republican senator from Arizona who secured his party's nomination in 1964, running on the slogan "In your heart, you know he's right".

Answer with a letter.
Which U.S. President signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced relocation and internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II?
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Harry S. Truman
- Herbert Hoover
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Executive Order 9981, signed in 1948, desegregated the United States Armed Forces. Which president issued this order?
- Harry S. Truman
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- John F. Kennedy
The Homestead Act, which granted 160 acres of public land to settlers who agreed to farm it, was signed into law by which president?
- Abraham Lincoln
- Andrew Johnson
- James Buchanan
- Ulysses S. Grant
Which president established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) via an executive reorganization plan in 1970?
- Richard Nixon
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- Gerald Ford
- Jimmy Carter
Under which president's administration was the Interstate Highway System authorized through the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956?
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Harry S. Truman
- John F. Kennedy
- Lyndon B. Johnson
The Great Society was a sweeping set of domestic policy programs launched by which U.S. president to eliminate poverty and racial injustice?
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- John F. Kennedy
- Richard Nixon
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
In what year did the Emancipation Proclamation officially take effect on January 1st, freeing slaves in Confederate-held territory?

Answer with a number.
In what year did President Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Social Security Act into law, establishing the modern federal safety net?

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What is the name of the volunteer program established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 via Executive Order 10924 to provide international social and economic development assistance?

Answer with a letter.
What is the name of the landmark 1823 foreign policy statement that warned European nations against further colonization or intervention in the Western Hemisphere?

Answer with a letter.
Which future U.S. President was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2001 for his heroic actions at San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War?
- Theodore Roosevelt
- William McKinley
- Rutherford B. Hayes
- William Howard Taft
During World War II, future President John F. Kennedy commanded which patrol torpedo boat that was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer in 1943?
- PT-109
- PT-73
- PT-505
- PT-41
Which future President served as a major general in the War of 1812 and earned national fame for his victory at the Battle of New Orleans?
- Andrew Jackson
- Zachary Taylor
- William Henry Harrison
- Franklin Pierce
During the Black Hawk War of 1832, which future President served as a captain in the Illinois militia, later joking that he fought nothing but mosquitoes?
- Abraham Lincoln
- Zachary Taylor
- Millard Fillmore
- James Buchanan
Which future President commanded the Union forces at the Battle of Shiloh and the Siege of Vicksburg during the American Civil War?
- Ulysses S. Grant
- Rutherford B. Hayes
- James A. Garfield
- Benjamin Harrison
Before his presidency, James Buchanan served in what capacity during the War of 1812, making him the only president with military service who never served as an officer?
- Private
- Corporal
- Sergeant
- Seaman
In what year did George Washington lead his famous crossing of the icy Delaware River to launch a surprise attack on Hessian forces at Trenton?

Answer with a number.
How many stars did Dwight D. Eisenhower hold as a General of the Army during his service in World War II?

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Identify the prestigious military academy in New York from which both Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower graduated.

Answer with a letter.
Name the Texas city where future President Lyndon B. Johnson was stationed at Fort Sam Houston during his early active duty service in the Naval Reserve.

Answer with a letter.
Which First Lady is credited with saving the famous Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington before British troops burned the White House in 1814?
- Abigail Adams
- Dolley Madison
- Louisa Catherine Adams
- Martha Washington
Who was the first First Lady to have graduated from college, earning her degree from Wesleyan Female College in 1850?
- Lucy Webb Hayes
- Lucretia Garfield
- Frances Cleveland
- Caroline Harrison
Which First Lady served as the first chairperson of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and played an instrumental role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- Edith Wilson
- Lady Bird Johnson
- Jacqueline Kennedy
Which First Lady spearheaded the "Be Best" public awareness campaign, focusing on youth well-being, cyberbullying, and opioid abuse?
- Melania Trump
- Michelle Obama
- Laura Bush
- Hillary Clinton
Which of the following women was both the wife of a U.S. President and the mother of another?
- Abigail Adams
- Martha Washington
- Dolley Madison
- Edith Roosevelt
What was the given birth name of the First Lady widely known by her childhood nickname "Lady Bird"?
- Claudia Alta Taylor
- Elizabeth Virginia Truman
- Mamie Geneva Doud
- Lou Henry
In what year did Jacqueline Kennedy conduct her famous televised tour of the restored White House, attracting more than 80 million viewers?

Answer with a number.
How many biological children did President Theodore Roosevelt and his second wife, Edith Roosevelt, have together?

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Name the historic plantation home in Nashville, Tennessee, that belonged to President Andrew Jackson and his wife Rachel.

Answer with a letter.
Name the first name of President Woodrow Wilson's second wife, who famously managed the access to the President and effectively ran the executive branch after his stroke in 1919.

Answer with a letter.
Which French leader sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States in 1803 during Thomas Jefferson's presidency?
- Louis XVI
- Napoleon Bonaparte
- Charles de Gaulle
- Maximilien Robespierre
The 1978 Camp David Accords, brokered by President Jimmy Carter, established a historic peace treaty between Israel and which Arab nation?
- Egypt
- Jordan
- Syria
- Lebanon
In what year did the United States and Great Britain sign the Jay Treaty, resolving outstanding issues remaining from the Treaty of Paris?

Answer with a number.
President Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the Treaty of Portsmouth, which ended a war between which two nations?
- Russia and Japan
- Spain and the United States
- China and Japan
- Britain and France
What is the surname of the Secretary of State under President Truman who proposed the massive post-WWII European recovery program that bears his name?

Answer with a letter.
Which president signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into law in December 1993?
- George H.W. Bush
- Bill Clinton
- Ronald Reagan
- Jimmy Carter
In what year did President Richard Nixon travel to Moscow to sign the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) with Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev?

Answer with a number.
The 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty, negotiated during James Monroe's presidency, officially transferred control of which territory from Spain to the United States?
- Texas
- California
- Florida
- Oregon
What Belgian city hosted the signing of the historic peace treaty that officially ended the War of 1812?

Answer with a letter.
Which bilateral treaties, signed by Jimmy Carter in 1977, guaranteed that Panama would gain full control of the Panama Canal after 1999?
- Torrijos-Carter Treaties
- Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaties
- Clayton-Bulwer Treaties
- Taft-Diaz Agreements
Which theater was President Abraham Lincoln attending when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth in April 1865?
- Ford's Theatre
- Grover's Theatre
- National Theatre
- McVicker's Theatre
Which disgruntled office-seeker assassinated President James A. Garfield in 1881?
- Charles J. Guiteau
- Leon Czolgosz
- Giuseppe Zangara
- John Schrank
At which international exposition in Buffalo, New York, was President William McKinley assassinated in 1901?
- Pan-American Exposition
- World's Columbian Exposition
- Louisiana Purchase Exposition
- Centennial Exposition
From which building did Lee Harvey Oswald fire the shots that assassinated President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas?
- Texas School Book Depository
- Dal-Tex Building
- Dallas County Courthouse
- Texas Theatre
Following the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, President Ronald Reagan famously quoted a poem describing the crew as having "slipped the surly bonds of" what?
- Earth
- Gravity
- Heaven
- The World
In which city was President Franklin D. Roosevelt staying at his "Little White House" retreat when he suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage in April 1945?
- Warm Springs, Georgia
- Hyde Park, New York
- Key West, Florida
- Camp David, Maryland
How many sitting United States presidents have died by assassination in the nation's history?

Answer with a number.
In what year did John Hinckley Jr. attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton Hotel?

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Identify the United States Navy battleship whose sudden explosion in Havana Harbor in 1898 served as a major national tragedy and catalyst for war.

Answer with a letter.
Name the New York city where President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901.

Answer with a letter.
Which President famously declared, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" in his 1933 inaugural address?
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Herbert Hoover
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Woodrow Wilson
Which President's inaugural address was the shortest in U.S. history, clocking in at just 135 words?
- George Washington
- John Adams
- Abraham Lincoln
- James Madison
In his 1961 inaugural address, John F. Kennedy famously said, "Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country." Who is credited as the primary speechwriter who helped craft this address?
- Ted Sorensen
- Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
- McGeorge Bundy
- Pierre Salinger
Which President delivered the longest inaugural address in history (8,445 words) in freezing weather, only to die of pneumonia one month later?
- William Henry Harrison
- Zachary Taylor
- James K. Polk
- Franklin Pierce
Which President coined the phrase "the Great Society" during a 1964 speech, setting the stage for his administration's domestic policy agenda?
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- John F. Kennedy
- Richard Nixon
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
In his 1865 second inaugural address, which President uttered the famous words, "With malice toward none, with charity for all"?
- Abraham Lincoln
- Andrew Johnson
- Ulysses S. Grant
- James A. Garfield
In what year did Ronald Reagan deliver his first inaugural address, in which he famously declared that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem"?

Answer with a number.
How many words long was George Washington's second inaugural address, delivered in Philadelphia in 1793?

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Name the author of the Declaration of Independence who, in his first inaugural address in 1801, sought to unify the nation by declaring, "We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists."

Answer with a letter.
What surname is shared by the father-and-son presidential duo, the second of whom delivered his first inaugural address in 2001 after a highly contested election outcome?

Answer with a letter.
Which US President holds the record for the most presidential vetoes, issuing a total of 635 regular and pocket vetoes during his time in office?
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Grover Cleveland
- Harry S. Truman
- Woodrow Wilson
In 1845, Congress successfully overrode a presidential veto for the first time in US history. Which President's veto did they override?
- John Tyler
- Andrew Jackson
- James K. Polk
- Millard Fillmore
How many total vetoes did George Washington issue during his entire presidency?

Answer with a number.
Name the influential Whig Senator from Kentucky who bitterly clashed with President John Tyler over the national bank, leading to Tyler vetoing his party's bills.

Answer with a letter.
President Andrew Johnson had a notoriously hostile relationship with the Reconstruction-era Congress. How many of his vetoes were successfully overridden?
- 15
- 29
- 8
- 5
The War Powers Resolution of 1973, which limited the president's power to commit US forces to armed conflict abroad, was passed over the veto of which President?
- Richard Nixon
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- Gerald Ford
- Jimmy Carter
In what year did Congress successfully override a presidential veto for the first time in United States history?

Answer with a number.
Which US President famously utilized the short-lived Line Item Veto Act of 1996 before the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 1998?
- Bill Clinton
- Ronald Reagan
- George H.W. Bush
- George W. Bush
Name the major 1947 federal law, also known as the Labor Management Relations Act, which restricted the activities and power of labor unions and was passed over President Harry S. Truman's veto.

Answer with a letter.
Which of the following early US Presidents did not issue a single veto during his entire term in office?
- John Adams
- James Madison
- James Monroe
- Andrew Jackson
Which former U.S. President founded the Carter Center in 1982 to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering?
- Jimmy Carter
- Gerald Ford
- Ronald Reagan
- Richard Nixon
Which presidential library was the first to be officially administered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)?
- Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
- Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library
- Harry S. Truman Presidential Library
- Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
In what year did the Presidential Libraries Act formally establish a system of privately built but federally maintained presidential libraries?

Answer with a number.
Name the Georgia hometown of Jimmy Carter where his presidential library's museum archives are symbolically connected, and where he returned to teach Sunday school for decades after his presidency.

Answer with a letter.
Which former president was appointed as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1921, achieving his lifelong dream after leaving the presidency?
- William Howard Taft
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Woodrow Wilson
- Warren G. Harding
In what year did former President John Quincy Adams suffer a fatal stroke on the floor of the House of Representatives, where he was serving as a Congressman?

Answer with a number.
Located in Dallas, Texas, on the campus of Southern Methodist University, which president's library features a full-scale replica of the Oval Office and a piece of the World Trade Center?
- George W. Bush
- George H.W. Bush
- Lyndon B. Johnson
- Ronald Reagan
What is the surname of the only former U.S. president to serve in the House of Representatives after his presidency, famously earning the nickname "Old Man Eloquent"?

Answer with a letter.
Following his presidency, Ulysses S. Grant wrote his highly acclaimed personal memoirs while dying of throat cancer in order to secure his family's financial future. Who was the famous American author who published these memoirs?
- Mark Twain
- Walt Whitman
- Herman Melville
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Which former president founded the University of Virginia in 1819, designing its curriculum and iconic Rotunda during his post-presidency?
- Thomas Jefferson
- James Madison
- James Monroe
- John Adams
Which US President was a licensed bartender who co-owned a tavern in New Salem, Illinois, before his political career took off?
- Abraham Lincoln
- Andrew Jackson
- Franklin Pierce
- Ulysses S. Grant
Which president famously went skinny-dipping in the Potomac River early in the morning, once leading to a female journalist sitting on his clothes until he agreed to an interview?
- John Quincy Adams
- Andrew Jackson
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Herbert Hoover invented his own medicine-ball game to keep fit, which was played on the White House lawn every morning. What was this sport called?
- Hooverball
- President's Tennis
- Medicine Dodge
- Gravity Ball
Which US President was an avid collector of postage stamps, accumulating a collection of over 1.2 million stamps during his lifetime?
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Woodrow Wilson
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Warren G. Harding
Which president had a mechanical toy horse installed in the White House, riding it daily for exercise because he disliked real horses?
- Calvin Coolidge
- William Howard Taft
- Warren G. Harding
- Herbert Hoover
Which president was an accomplished pianist who performed a self-composed concerto on 'The Jack Paar Show' in 1961?
- Richard Nixon
- Harry S. Truman
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Ronald Reagan
Andrew Jackson's pet parrot had to be removed from his funeral because it wouldn't stop screaming profanities. In what calendar year did this funeral take place?

Answer with a number.
Bill Clinton famously showcased his love for the saxophone by performing on 'The Arsenio Hall Show' during his presidential campaign. In what year did this iconic television appearance occur?

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Name the stringed instrument that Thomas Jefferson practiced for hours a day, which he famously used to court his future wife, Martha Wayles Skelton.

Answer with a letter.
Name the sport that Gerald Ford played so exceptionally well at the University of Michigan that he turned down contract offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers.

Answer with a letter.