"Second Best" History Edition

Can you name the things that place #2 in these historical categories?

Quiz by

Rate:

Featured Quiz

Last updated: December 15, 2021

You have not attempted this quiz yet.

More quiz info >>

First submitted	May 20, 2020
Times taken	41,222
Average score	60.0%
Rating	4.92

Quiz and answer stats >>

Friends stats >>

4:00

Enter answer here

/ 20 guessed

The quiz is paused. You have remaining.

Scoring
You scored / = %

    This beats or equals
    % of test takers
    also scored 100%
    
The average score is 

      Your high score is
      
    
Your fastest time is 
more stats >>
friends stats >>

Keep scrolling down for answers and more stats ...

Category	First	Second
Country with the most military deaths in World War II	Soviet Union	Germany
Most populous city in 1800 AD	Beijing	London
First person to walk on the moon	Neil Armstrong	Buzz Aldrin
First U.S. president	George Washington	John Adams
Most common name of French kings	Louis	Charles
Largest empire in 1800 by total area within Europe	Russian Empire	Ottoman Empire
Largest empire ever by land area	British Empire	Mongol Empire
Most guessed Shakespearean play on this quiz	Romeo and Juliet	Hamlet
First human according to the Bible	Adam	Eve
Longest-reigning British monarch	Elizabeth II	Victoria
First host city of the modern Olympics	Athens	Paris
First paramount Soviet leader	Vladimir Lenin	Joseph Stalin
Most influential person in history, according to this quiz	Jesus	Muhammad
Oldest U.S. president when taking office	Joe Biden	Donald Trump
First area annexed by Germany leading up to WWII	Austria	Sudetenland
Most valuable U.S. corporation in 1960 by market cap	AT&T	General Motors
First imperial Chinese dynasty	Qin	Western Han
First Roman emperor	Augustus	Tiberius
Oldest university in England	Oxford	Cambridge
First country to establish a Republican government (among countries that currently exist)	San Marino	Netherlands

Suggested Quizzes See all >>

U.S. Presidents Quiz

Roman Numeral Decoding Quiz

First Names of U.S. Presidents

Random Countries on the World Map

More from HinesBrothers See all >>

Biggest Cities in the United Arab Emirates

Most Populous States that Touch the Sea

Countries with the Greatest Elevation Spans

Biggest Cities in New York State on a Map

39 Comments

Level 79

Dec 15, 2021

First comment! Yay!

Level 70

Jan 8, 2022

But you did not make a comment?

Level 75

Jan 9, 2022

Why do people do this?

Level 66

Jan 11, 2022

Same reason mountain climbers climb mountains.

Level 77

Jan 21, 2022

Except that's an actual achievement, derived from notable effort and skill.

Unlike commenting "first comment" in first comments.

Level 65

Jan 23, 2022

It's based on the same impulse though

+24

Level 79

Sep 13, 2022

I trained for hours preparing for this moment, waiting for the Hines bros to post a new quiz and get onto that thing before any other commenters. I had to train my fingers to work without sufficient oxygen because god knows I'd hold my breath while writing. I lost my friend Paul before I reached the comment section. He stubbed his toe rushing to his laptop when I told him a new featured quiz was out. It was all worth it in the end, even if I had to ride Paul like a toboggan to escape the avalanche of non-first comments that followed. No regrets.

Level 79

Dec 15, 2021

Thanks for teaching me that the Saarland wasn't technically annexed! :D

Level 64

Jan 8, 2022

It was, just after Sudetenland

Level 64

May 5, 2022

Since I cant edit this Im wrong and should do research beforehand but technically it wasnt part of a foreign nation ev though it was before Rhineland and Anschluss

Level 54

Jul 16, 2022

Saarland was independent

+13

Level 66

Dec 16, 2021

Wow, the US company question is a hard one, especially for non Americans. I'd be struggling and guessing to tell you now, let alone historically.

Level 55

Jan 11, 2022

Agreed. I put General Electric. Lol.

Level 72

Jul 9, 2024

I wouldn't know what the most valuable cooperation was 65 years ago even for my own country!

Level 68

Oct 3, 2024

I liked this question because I didn't know the answer straight off but had to think about the sort of industries that would have been booming in that era. It's a broader sort of test of general knowledge.

Level 57

Oct 3, 2024

Pff... I don't know, I've got a vague idea GM was the biggest company in America when I was a kiddie, back in the 1980s, so I got it straight away. I suppose I may just be lucky to have been wrong in the right way for this quiz!

Level 32

Dec 16, 2021

amazing quiz. good idea

Level 75

Dec 18, 2021

I do love these second best quizzes, but I wonder if the first should be already given - I think it would be more interesting if it appeared after you successfully get the correct second place answer.

Level 78

Sep 1, 2022

fixed! :D

Level 91

Dec 20, 2021

Aren't the netherlands a monarchy?

Level 71

Jan 8, 2022

It's somewhat confusing language, but the Dutch did not naturally have a monarchy, they established a republic after getting independence from Spain. The monarchy was basically created by the Congress powers after Napoleon's defeat.

Level 55

Jan 11, 2022

I don't know, but when I date girls from the Netherlands, we always split the meal and go Dutch.

Level 65

Jan 8, 2022

Poland (and Lithuania) can claim to have established a republic in 1569, before the Dutch Republic.

Level 64

Jan 8, 2022

Elective monarchy, it's in the name.

Level 62

Nov 10, 2024

In Poland we call it "First Republic" or "Republic of Both Nations" hence the confusion.

+10

Level 81

Jan 8, 2022

This is the second best history quiz on the site.

Level 70

Jan 8, 2022

Ah dang it I tried putting Ford and totally forgot about General Motors.

Level 55

Jan 11, 2022

The Ottoman Empire question ruined my time. I guess Turkey was ruling Eastern Europe at the time, but it threw me way off. I kept typing in all the other empires with actual European overlord ruling nations. Ottomans/Turkey didn't even cross my mind, as they aren't really European, but conquered the Balkans area.

Level 67

Jan 17, 2022

usually i know the least guessed answer....this time i didn't....while the answer is the very country i'm from (Netherlands). *facepalm*

Level 72

Jan 27, 2022

I'm Dutch too and had no clue!

Level 39

Jun 16, 2022

Great Quiz, but I do need to make a correction...Joseph Stalin did not succeed Lenin as Premier of the Soviet Union. After Lenin's death in 1924, He was succeed by ALEXEI RYKOV, who in turn was succeeded by Molotov in 1930. Joseph Stalin was actually. the 4th Premier, succeeding Molotov on 6th May 1941

Level ∞

Sep 17, 2024

Nowhere does this quiz use the word "Premier", which was a largely ceremonial title.

The de-facto leader of the Soviet Union was the leader of the Communist Party as I'm sure you know.

Level 78

Sep 1, 2022

accidentally got netherlands while trying to answer the germany question, oops

Level 79

Sep 13, 2022

Here lies Paul. Good friend. Better toboggan.

Level 75

Oct 3, 2024

RIP Paul

Level 60

Oct 3, 2024

Netherlands is not the answer... Switzerland surely was established as republic way before in Middle Ages.

Level 55

Oct 3, 2024

I don't think Swtzerland was Switzerland back then

Level 36

Oct 6, 2024

Didn't China have the second highest number of deaths at twenty million in World War Two? They were invaded by the Japanese in 1934 and their campaigns against Japan are often overlooked.

Level 36

Oct 6, 2024

I know officially World War Two was from 1939-1945 but recently more historians have been crediting China's involvement. I could be very wrong though