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History: What Came First? #1

We give you two things. You guess which appeared earliest on the historical timeline.
Technically a few of these are prehistoric
Too easy? Try this quiz which is way too hard
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Featured Quiz
Last updated: October 20, 2020
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First submittedOctober 19, 2020
Times taken55,697
Average score72.2%
Rating4.79
Quiz and answer stats >>
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1. The Middle Ages or the Renaissance
Middle Ages ✓
Renaissance ✓
Middle Ages: c. 500–1500. Renaissance: c. 1400–1700.
2. The Bible or the Quran
Bible ✓
Quran ✓
The Bible: c. 1000 BC–100 AD. Quran: c. 650 AD.
3. Flowers or Insects
Flowers ✓
Insects ✓
Insects: 300 million years ago. Flowering plants: 140 million years ago.
4. Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great
Julius Caesar ✓
Alexander the Great ✓
Julius Caesar: 100 BC–44 BC. Alexander the Great 356 BC–323 BC.
5. The Bronze Age or the Iron Age
Bronze Age ✓
Iron Age ✓
Bronze Age started 3300 BC. Iron Age started 1200 BC.
6. Baseball or Golf
Baseball ✓
Golf ✓
Baseball: 1800s. Golf: 1400s.
7. The U.S. Civil War or the English Civil War
U.S. Civil War ✓
English Civil War ✓
U.S. Civil War: 1861–1865. English Civil War: 1642–1651.
8. Beer Bottles or Beer Cans
Bottles ✓
Cans ✓
Bottles: 1700s. Cans: 1935.
9. Dickens or Shakespeare
Dickens ✓
Shakespeare ✓
Charles Dickens: 1812–1870. William Shakespeare: 1564–1616.
10. Louis Armstrong or Miles Davis
Louis Armstrong ✓
Miles Davis ✓
Louis Armstrong: 1901–1971. Miles Davis: 1926–1991.
11. Athens or Rome
Athens ✓
Rome ✓
Athens: before 1400 BC. Rome: 8th century BC.
12. Henry VIII or Richard the Lionheart
Henry VIII ✓
Richard the Lionheart ✓
Henry VIII: 1491–1547. Richard the Lionheart: 1157–1199.
13. Napoleon or Dynamite
Napoleon ✓
Dynamite ✓
Napoleon: 1769–1821. Dynamite: 1867.
14. Jurassic or Triassic
Jurassic ✓
Triassic ✓
Jurassic ended 145 million years ago. Triassic ended 251.9 million years ago.
15. Charlemagne or Genghis Khan
Charlemagne ✓
Genghis Khan ✓
Charlemagne: 748–814. Genghis Khan c.1155–1227.
16. The Airplane or the Digital Computer
Airplane ✓
Computer ✓
The airplane: 1903. The digital computer: 1945.
17. Christopher Columbus or Gunpowder
Christopher Columbus ✓
Gunpowder ✓
Columbus: 1451–1506. Gunpowder: 9th century.
18. Art movements: Baroque or Romanticism
Baroque ✓
Romanticism ✓
Baroque: c. 1600–1750. Romanticism: c. 1800–1850.
phalocrocorax
+34
Level 82
Oct 19, 2020
Q13 is brilliant :)
IsleAuHaulte
+17
Level 88
Oct 19, 2020
Not as brilliant as the first person to make a liger. It's pretty much like my favorite animal.
quizzicalguy
+2
Level 64
Oct 21, 2020
Which came first, the lion or the tiger?
BrennoAU
+5
Level 43
Oct 26, 2020
Based on my short cladistical analysis, Panthera tigris (Tiger) is more ancient than Panthera leo (Lion). This is due to lions being more steps away from the base of Panthera than tigers
zaba2048
+11
Level 72
Oct 20, 2020
Great quiz - could you put the explanatory comments (with the actual dates) on all of the answers please? Saves a Google!
sumguy
+5
Level 83
Oct 20, 2020
Exactly what I was about to write. Saves a dozen Googles.
Quizmaster
+12
Level ∞
Oct 20, 2020
Done!
FFFantasia
+7
Level 48
Oct 20, 2020
Surprised so many people got Dickens/Shakespeare, but couldn't get things like the Bible/Quran, or Bronze Age/Iron Age
JSWTW21
+3
Level 40
Oct 20, 2020
Shakespeare is studied more to be fair.
HappiestWhale
+10
Level 76
Oct 21, 2020
I think the Bible is just a little bit more studied on average worldwide...
duckwantbread
+1
Level 61
Dec 22, 2022
True, but the Qaran isn't, so most people won't be able to compare the dates. Meanwhile whilst Dickens isn't as well studied as Shakespeare there have been enough adaptations of his books (Oliver, Christmas Carol etc.) that most people will know he's Victorian.
dave123
+4
Level 65
Oct 23, 2020
'Cross-national/ cultural' comparisons are harder, I think?
MaxStickies
+4
Level 79
Oct 20, 2020
Didn't think mine was that challenging, but having looked at the stats... seems it was.
GrammarBeane1
+5
Level 80
Oct 20, 2020
I can't believe I knew the flowers/insects and Jurassic/Triassic but not Napoleon/Dynamite >:-(
JackintheBox
+2
Level 78
Oct 21, 2020
I got all but Jurassic/Triassic!!
p1colo
+4
Level 21
Oct 21, 2020
Insects before flowers? wtf
HappiestWhale
+27
Level 76
Oct 21, 2020
It makes sense. Insects are capable of existing without flowers, but most flowers can't function without insects. Flowers couldn't evolve if there were no insects already present.
YantheMan
+5
Level 65
Oct 22, 2020
I had not thought of that. Well reasoned.
sumguy
+6
Level 83
Oct 21, 2020
I liked all of them except for the Armstrong/Davis question. They were born 25 years apart and died 20 years apart. You need to specifically know jazz history to know who came first among people who were alive at the same time.
JenkinsEar
+12
Level 88
Oct 21, 2020
They definitely lived close to one another, but in terms of their place in jazz history, they're ages apart.
Koopa
+1
Level 75
Nov 13, 2022
That's the one question I got incorrect on this quiz.
camus
+3
Level 78
Oct 21, 2020
I missed 2 in this quiz and got 2 in the other one.
perman17
+3
Level 69
Oct 21, 2020
According to the Bible, plants came before living creatures.
JenkinsEar
+10
Level 88
Oct 21, 2020
According to a literalist interpretation of Genesis 1 . . .
HinesBrothers
+2
Level 75
Oct 21, 2020
Which interpretation doesn't agree with what perman17 said?
bostjan
+11
Level 73
Oct 21, 2020
Flowers are plants but not all plants are flowers, anyway.
kalbahamut
+15
Level 83
Oct 21, 2020
yeah and light came before the sun, moon, and stars. Maybe not a reliable source of information.
MindWax
+3
Level 80
Dec 22, 2022
I know you're trying to be snide, but light did come far, far before any stars formed in the universe...
kalbahamut
+3
Level 83
Dec 22, 2022
right... because the authors of the Old Testament clearly knew a lot about radiation, ionized plasma and ancient cosmology and that's probably what they were referring to. Makes sense to bring this up in a conversation about the order that things appeared on planet Earth, too.
HappiestWhale
+2
Level 76
Oct 21, 2020
On the geological time scale, flowers are relatively new. I believe the first ones didn't appear until the early cretaceous period.
BrennoAU
+2
Level 43
Oct 26, 2020
Late Jurassic (Kimmerdigian epoch) I believe
gnorrn
+2
Level 22
Dec 22, 2022
Plants probably are older than animals -- but flowering plants are a much later development.
Nachtschicht
+4
Level 57
Dec 22, 2022
According to the Bible, Methuselah lived for 969 years...
Lukose
+1
Level 62
Sep 5, 2023
Can’t decide what’s more moronic; thinking plants aren’t alive or thinking all plants have flowers.
kalbahamut
+21
Level 83
Oct 21, 2020
Disappointed by the lack of questions about chickens and eggs.
Blasphemian
+2
Level 46
Oct 21, 2020
What came first: quantum mechanics or sliced bread?
bostjan
+3
Level 73
Oct 22, 2020
Easy - Quantum Mechanics. Sliced bread (in a package) wasn't invented until the late 1920's. Einstein wrote his four famous papers in 1905, which formed the foundation for general relativity, Brownian motion, quantum mechanics, and mass-energy equivalence. By 1924, quantum mechanics had been pretty well formalized into the set of ideas we still use to define it today (although, like any branch of science, it's grown quite a bit since then).
Arii78
+5
Level 45
Oct 26, 2020
So what you're saying is Einstein did not have pre-sliced bread for breakfast while wirting his paper.

(actually this will make it easier to remember for me)

SuperPerfundo
+2
Level 62
Oct 21, 2020
Never thought I'd see a quiz with Miles Davis and Genghis Khan! Great quiz!
InterAlia
+2
Level 72
Oct 21, 2020
What came first: rocket science or brain surgery?
HendogJP
+3
Level 56
Nov 24, 2020
Brain Surgery. The first successful removal of a tumor from the brain was in 1887, and the first liquid fueled rocket was made by Robert Goddard in 1926.
RedStar12345
+1
Level 47
Dec 22, 2022
Also, there is evidence of trepanation surgeries on ancient human skulls.
Lukose
+1
Level 62
Sep 5, 2023
Gunpowder rockets were used militarily by the 1200s. Why specify liquid?
Dontforget
+3
Level 57
Oct 24, 2020
Napoleon/dynamite... I see what you did there hehe
Arii78
+2
Level 45
Oct 26, 2020
I don't. What did they do ?
HendogJP
+4
Level 56
Nov 24, 2020
Napoleon Dynamite is a very popular movie. (at least to some people) Hope that helps!
Ferbin
+3
Level 75
Dec 10, 2020
"Very popular to some people" is a contradiction. Actually, the movie is a bit of a niche cult semi-classic for more or less recent generations. If that sounds very specific, it's cause it is. The movie is not really popular at all, except apparently here in Jetpunk, as I've seen it in quizzes more times than it merits.
Chrome
+5
Level 66
Sep 14, 2021
Napoleon Dynamite is a popular movie. It isn't niche at all.
Poudlard
+1
Level 33
Feb 5, 2021
Very cool quiz
HollowYT
+1
Level 38
Dec 3, 2021
Surprising that dinosaurs existed before flowers

and almost existed before insects but we're 50 million years away.

Bonzo65
+1
Level 68
Dec 22, 2022
Airplane is still correct but the Lehmer Sieve was a primitive digital computer first built in 1926. The first digital electronic computer was 1945.
perman17
+1
Level 69
Dec 22, 2022
According to the Bible, flowers came before insects. (1st chapter of Genesis).
RobNobody
+2
Level 75
Mar 11, 2023
So?
Lukose
+1
Level 62
Sep 5, 2023
Fantastic. Are you also going to dispute the existence of the bronze and iron ages? Peddle that trash elsewhere
ozzdome
+2
Level 68
Dec 22, 2022
So, when I saw Airplane, for some reason I thought it meant Airplane! the movie -- so yeah, missed that one.
Mikasuomi
+1
Level 46
Dec 22, 2022
I also had a flashback from that movie. On my part it is because we were taught in school in Finland, that the machine that flies is "aeroplane" (in Finnish it is lentokone, literally flying machine). When I was a child, word "Airplane" (with capital letter) was always connected to that movie, and I wondered, how it is written (and I of course thought that it is logical with word "air" as part of it). It was long before I learned about spelling differences in British and American English.
Mikasuomi
+2
Level 46
Dec 22, 2022
Thank you, these are great! Ability to relate events on time line tells much more about historical knowledge than knowing exact dates.

PS. Woman's photo on front page, in which question is she connected to?

Dimby
+3
Level 75
Dec 22, 2022
Yeah, what’s with the hip looking princess type lady on the thumbnail?
kalbahamut
+1
Level 83
Dec 22, 2022
she came first
Odyssey1983
+3
Level 24
Dec 23, 2022
The photo is related to the first question. According to Google/ Wikipedia, it's from the Three Barons Renaissance Fair in Anchorage. File here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lady_at_Three_Barons_Renaissance_Fair_Anchorage_(IMG_7768a).jpg
Mikasuomi
+1
Level 46
Dec 23, 2022
Nice to know that, thanks for the information!
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