About this quiz

Every record has to start somewhere. This history quiz asks twenty questions about famous firsts, from the first person in space and the first powered flight to the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.

The questions start with the firsts most people know and finish with a few that catch out even history fans. Each answer comes with a short fact about the person or moment behind it.

Answers explained

Show the answers (spoilers)

  1. Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?

    Neil Armstrong. Buzz Aldrin followed him onto the surface about 20 minutes later.

  2. Who was the first person to travel into space?

    Yuri Gagarin. On 12 April 1961 he orbited the Earth once, in about 108 minutes.

  3. Who was the first president of the United States?

    George Washington. He’s the only president who never belonged to a political party.

  4. Which brothers made the first powered aeroplane flight?

    The Wright brothers. Orville took the controls first, at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, in December 1903.

  5. Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?

    Marie Curie. She’s also the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences: physics and chemistry.

  6. Who ran the first mile in under four minutes?

    Roger Bannister. He ran 3 minutes 59.4 seconds in Oxford in May 1954.

  7. Who was the first person to reach the South Pole?

    Roald Amundsen. His Norwegian team beat Captain Scott’s British expedition by about five weeks, in December 1911.

  8. Who discovered penicillin, the first antibiotic?

    Alexander Fleming. In 1928 he noticed that mould growing in a dish he’d left out was killing bacteria.

  9. Who patented the first practical telephone in 1876?

    Alexander Graham Bell. His first words over it were “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.”

  10. Which country hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896?

    Greece. The first modern Games were held in Athens, in honour of the ancient Olympics.

  11. Who was South Africa’s first Black president?

    Nelson Mandela. He took office in 1994, after the country’s first fully democratic election.

  12. Who was the first woman to travel into space?

    Valentina Tereshkova. She orbited the Earth 48 times in 1963.

  13. What was the first animal to orbit the Earth?

    A dog called Laika. Laika flew aboard the Soviet Sputnik 2 in November 1957.

  14. Who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic?

    Amelia Earhart. In 1932 she flew from Newfoundland and landed in a field in Northern Ireland.

  15. What was Disney’s first full-length animated film?

    Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It premiered in December 1937.

  16. Which country was the first to give women the vote in national elections?

    New Zealand. New Zealand women won the right to vote in 1893.

  17. Who was the first British astronaut?

    Helen Sharman. She flew to the Soviet Mir space station in 1991, aged 27.

  18. Which country was the first to use paper money?

    China. Paper money was used in China more than 1,000 years ago.

  19. What was the first long-distance message Samuel Morse sent by telegraph in 1844?

    “What hath God wrought”. It travelled from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore.

  20. Who was the first woman to take her seat as an MP in the House of Commons?

    Nancy Astor. Constance Markievicz was elected first, in 1918, but as a Sinn Féin member she refused to take her seat.