The 1950s brought rock and roll, rabbit-ear television, space-age dreams, and some truly heroic kitchen appliances.
These 1950s trivia questions mix famous names with deeper cuts from entertainment, technology, household life, and decade-defining culture.
Big Headlines of the 1950s
Begin with the elections, conflicts, and turning points that shaped the decade.
- Who was U.S. president when the 1950s began?
Answer: Harry S. Truman - Who became U.S. president in January 1953?
Answer: Dwight D. Eisenhower - Which war began when North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel in 1950?
Answer: The Korean War - What 1953 agreement stopped the fighting in Korea?
Answer: The Korean Armistice Agreement - Which British monarch came to the throne in 1952?
Answer: Queen Elizabeth II - What canal did Egypt nationalize before the Suez Crisis?
Answer: The Suez Canal - Which Soviet leader died in 1953?
Answer: Joseph Stalin - What uprising did Soviet forces suppress in 1956?
Answer: The Hungarian Revolution - Which European economic organization was created by the 1957 Treaty of Rome?
Answer: The European Economic Community - Which U.S. state became the 49th state in 1959?
Answer: Alaska - Which state joined the Union as the 50th state in 1959?
Answer: Hawaii - Who led the Cuban Revolution that triumphed in 1959?
Answer: Fidel Castro - Which senator became synonymous with anti-Communist accusations early in the decade?
Answer: Joseph McCarthy - What Cold War alliance admitted West Germany in 1955?
Answer: NATO - What rival military alliance was formed in 1955?
Answer: The Warsaw Pact
Civil Rights and Social Change
These questions cover landmark challenges to segregation and the people who pushed the United States toward change.
- What 1954 Supreme Court case rejected racial segregation in public schools?
Answer: Brown v. Board of Education - Who was arrested after refusing to give up her Montgomery bus seat in 1955?
Answer: Rosa Parks - What protest followed Rosa Parks's arrest?
Answer: The Montgomery Bus Boycott - Which minister emerged as a leader during that boycott?
Answer: Martin Luther King Jr. - How long did the Montgomery Bus Boycott last?
Answer: 381 days - Which nine students integrated Central High School in 1957?
Answer: The Little Rock Nine - Who sent federal troops to protect the Little Rock Nine?
Answer: President Dwight D. Eisenhower - What civil rights organization was formed in 1957 with Martin Luther King Jr. as its first president?
Answer: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference - Which baseball player received the Spingarn Medal in 1956 for civil rights contributions?
Answer: Jackie Robinson - Who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman?
Answer: Emmett Till - Which journalist helped expose Till's open-casket funeral to a national audience?
Answer: Jet magazine photographer David Jackson - What federal law created a Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department in 1957?
Answer: The Civil Rights Act of 1957 - Who became the first Black woman elected to the New York state legislature in 1954?
Answer: Bessie A. Buchanan - What 1956 federal court decision struck down segregated buses in Montgomery?
Answer: Browder v. Gayle - What 1950 Supreme Court case challenged segregated graduate education?
Answer: Sweatt v. Painter
Rock and Roll Takes the Stage
Turn up the jukebox for the artists, records, and dances that gave the fifties a brand-new beat.
- Which singer became known as the King of Rock and Roll?
Answer: Elvis Presley - What was Elvis Presley's first single for Sun Records?
Answer: That's All Right - Which 1955 Elvis recording opens with the image of a train arriving?
Answer: Mystery Train - Which Elvis double-sided single topped the Billboard pop chart for 11 weeks in 1956?
Answer: Hound Dog and Don't Be Cruel - Who recorded Johnny B. Goode in 1958?
Answer: Chuck Berry - Which Little Richard hit opens with the cry 'A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop'?
Answer: Tutti Frutti - Who had a major 1956 hit with Blueberry Hill?
Answer: Fats Domino - Which singer recorded Peggy Sue?
Answer: Buddy Holly - What was Buddy Holly's backing group called?
Answer: The Crickets - Which 1954 Bill Haley hit helped bring rock and roll to mainstream audiences?
Answer: Rock Around the Clock - Who sang Great Balls of Fire?
Answer: Jerry Lee Lewis - Which vocal group recorded Earth Angel?
Answer: The Penguins - What style of vocal harmony flourished on street corners in the 1950s?
Answer: Doo-wop - Which 1958 dance song by The Champs was named for a liquor?
Answer: Tequila - Which record label did Berry Gordy found in 1959?
Answer: Motown Records
Television in the Living Room
With television sets becoming household fixtures, sitcoms, westerns, and variety shows supplied plenty to talk about.
- Which sitcom starred Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz?
Answer: I Love Lucy - What was Lucy Ricardo's husband called?
Answer: Ricky Ricardo - What nightclub did Ricky perform at?
Answer: The Tropicana - Which real-life couple played Lucy and Ricky?
Answer: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz - What 1950s sitcom followed the Anderson family?
Answer: Father Knows Best - Which sitcom featured Ward, June, Wally, and Beaver Cleaver?
Answer: Leave It to Beaver - What was Beaver Cleaver's given name?
Answer: Theodore - Which western series featured Marshal Matt Dillon?
Answer: Gunsmoke - Which actor originated Matt Dillon on television?
Answer: James Arness - What anthology series did Rod Serling launch in 1959?
Answer: The Twilight Zone - Which high-stakes quiz show debuted on CBS in 1955?
Answer: The $64,000 Question - What children's program featured Buffalo Bob and a freckled marionette?
Answer: Howdy Doody - Which variety host introduced acts with a stiff-backed gesture and the phrase 'a really big show'?
Answer: Ed Sullivan - What TV show first aired Disneyland-themed programming in 1954?
Answer: Disneyland - Which canine star was owned on screen by the Miller family beginning in 1954?
Answer: Lassie
Movies, Stars, and Drive-Ins
This round has giant screens, giant monsters, and stars whose glamour still defines old Hollywood.
- Which 1952 musical features Gene Kelly dancing in the rain?
Answer: Singin' in the Rain - Who played Princess Ann in Roman Holiday?
Answer: Audrey Hepburn - Which actor starred opposite Hepburn in Roman Holiday?
Answer: Gregory Peck - What 1954 film introduced the monster Godzilla?
Answer: Godzilla - Which 1954 Alfred Hitchcock film centers on a photographer watching neighbors?
Answer: Rear Window - Who played the photographer in Rear Window?
Answer: James Stewart - Which 1955 film starred James Dean as Jim Stark?
Answer: Rebel Without a Cause - In what film did Marilyn Monroe stand over a subway grate in a white dress?
Answer: The Seven Year Itch - Which 1959 comedy paired Marilyn Monroe with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon?
Answer: Some Like It Hot - What 1956 biblical epic starred Charlton Heston as Moses?
Answer: The Ten Commandments - Which 1959 epic features a famous chariot race?
Answer: Ben-Hur - Which 1951 film adaptation starred Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois?
Answer: A Streetcar Named Desire - What animated Disney film features Lady and Tramp sharing spaghetti?
Answer: Lady and the Tramp - Which 1953 western ends with a child calling after the title character?
Answer: Shane - Which film format widened screens to compete with television beginning in 1953?
Answer: CinemaScope
Home Life, Fashion, and Food
Now open the pantry, check the hemlines, and admire a house full of labor-saving promises.
- What full skirt style became closely associated with teenage girls of the 1950s?
Answer: The poodle skirt - What fitted calf-length trousers were also called pedal pushers?
Answer: Capri pants - What men's hairstyle used grease to slick hair back?
Answer: The greaser style - What conical bra silhouette became fashionable in the decade?
Answer: The bullet bra - What postwar housing development became a symbol of mass-produced suburbs?
Answer: Levittown - Which room increasingly centered on a television set?
Answer: The living room - What frozen meal format debuted nationally under the Swanson name in 1953?
Answer: The TV dinner - Which fast-food chain began franchising under Ray Kroc in 1955?
Answer: McDonald's - What colorful candy-coated cereal debuted as Sugar Pops in 1950?
Answer: Corn Pops - Which powdered drink mix reached stores nationally in 1959 after NASA-related marketing came later?
Answer: Tang - What plastic storage brand became famous through home parties?
Answer: Tupperware - What ring-shaped baked good grew more popular through automated production and suburban shops?
Answer: The doughnut - Which countertop appliance popularized quick milkshakes and sauces?
Answer: The electric blender - What backyard cooking appliance became a suburban leisure symbol?
Answer: The barbecue grill - What hula-inspired plastic toy became a craze in 1958?
Answer: The Hula Hoop
Science, Gadgets, and Space-Age Dreams
The decade's future arrived through transistors, vaccines, satellites, and a very determined beeping sphere.
- What Soviet satellite became the first artificial satellite in 1957?
Answer: Sputnik 1 - What animal orbited Earth aboard Sputnik 2?
Answer: Laika the dog - Which U.S. satellite became America's first successful satellite in 1958?
Answer: Explorer 1 - What federal space agency was created in 1958?
Answer: NASA - Who developed the first widely used polio vaccine announced effective in 1955?
Answer: Jonas Salk - What vaccine approach did Albert Sabin develop?
Answer: An oral polio vaccine - Which device was demonstrated by Bell Labs scientists in 1947 and transformed 1950s electronics?
Answer: The transistor - What portable audio product did Regency introduce in 1954?
Answer: A transistor radio - Which company introduced the first commercial videotape recorder in 1956?
Answer: Ampex - What copying process did Xerox commercialize at the end of the decade?
Answer: Xerography - Which credit card launched nationally in 1950 for restaurant and travel purchases?
Answer: Diners Club - What type of oven was introduced commercially for restaurants before home models became common?
Answer: The microwave oven - Which structure did Francis Crick and James Watson propose for DNA in 1953?
Answer: A double helix - Who shared the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the Krebs cycle and coenzyme A discoveries?
Answer: Hans Krebs and Fritz Lipmann - Which three Bell Labs scientists shared the 1956 Nobel Prize for transistor research?
Answer: John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley
Sports, Games, and Fifties Fun
Close with champions, toys, theme parks, and pastimes that kept the decade in motion.
- Which baseball team moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles after the 1957 season?
Answer: The Dodgers - Which baseball team moved from New York to San Francisco at the same time?
Answer: The Giants - Who broke Major League Baseball's color barrier before the decade and won the 1955 World Series with Brooklyn?
Answer: Jackie Robinson - Which team won the 1955 World Series?
Answer: The Brooklyn Dodgers - Which team won the 1950 NBA championship?
Answer: The Minneapolis Lakers - Which boxer defeated Floyd Patterson for the heavyweight title in 1959?
Answer: Ingemar Johansson - Who was the first runner to break the four-minute mile, in 1954?
Answer: Roger Bannister - Which country hosted the 1952 Summer Olympics?
Answer: Finland - Which city hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics?
Answer: Melbourne - What theme park opened in Anaheim in 1955?
Answer: Disneyland - What construction toy with interlocking plastic bricks took its modern form in 1958?
Answer: LEGO bricks - Which board game about global diplomacy was first commercially released in 1959?
Answer: Diplomacy - Which dice game was commercially introduced by Edwin S. Lowe in 1956?
Answer: Yahtzee - Which doll debuted at the American International Toy Fair in 1959?
Answer: Barbie - Who created Barbie?
Answer: Ruth Handler
Keep the game going with 70s trivia, decades trivia, and Elvis Presley trivia.
Sources and Further Reading
- Smithsonian: America in the 1950s
- Library of Congress: The Postwar United States
- NASA History: Sputnik and the Dawn of the Space Age
- National Archives: Brown v. Board of Education
- Rock & Roll Hall of Fame artist archive
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