United States Geography

Us Geography

344 practice questions, each with the answer and an explanation.

Practise Us Geography now

Random questions from this topic, one at a time. You see the answer and the explanation straight after each one.

All 344 questions

  1. Complete the sentence about New York City with the correct year: Manhattan Island was inhabited by Munsee-speaking Lenape around ______.
  2. Complete the sentence about Los Angeles with the correct year: The area that became Los Angeles was originally inhabited by the indigenous Tongva people and later claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo fo…
  3. Complete the sentence about Los Angeles with the correct year: The city was founded on September 4, ______, under Spanish governor Felipe de Neve, on the village of Yaanga.
  4. Complete the sentence about Los Angeles with the correct year: Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, ______, five months before California achieved statehood.
  5. Complete the sentence about Los Angeles with the correct year: The city was further expanded with the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in ______, which delivers water from Eastern California.
  6. Complete the sentence about Chicago with the correct year: Chicago was incorporated as a city in ______ near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed.
  7. Complete the sentence about Phoenix, Arizona with the correct year: With over 1.6 million residents at the ______ census, Phoenix is the fifth-most populous city in the United States and the most popu…
  8. Complete the sentence about San Antonio with the correct year: The area was named "San Antonio" in ______ by a Spanish expedition in honor of Saint Anthony of Padua.
  9. Complete the sentence about San Antonio with the correct year: In ______, a group of Spanish explorers and missionaries came upon the river and Payaya settlement on June 13, the feast day of St.
  10. Complete the sentence about San Diego with the correct year: In ______, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area for Spain, forming the basis for the settlement of Alta California, 200 years later.
  11. Complete the sentence about San Diego with the correct year: The Presidio and Mission San Diego de Alcalá, founded in ______, formed the first European settlement in what is now California.
  12. Complete the sentence about San Diego with the correct year: In ______, San Diego became part of the newly declared Mexican Empire.
  13. Complete the sentence about San Diego with the correct year: San Diego's name can be traced back to the 17th century when Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno bestowed it upon the area in ______.
  14. Complete the sentence about Dallas with the correct year: The area remained under Spanish rule until ______, when Mexico declared independence from Spain, and the area was considered part of the Mexic…
  15. Complete the sentence about San Jose, California with the correct year: San Jose was founded on November 29, ______, as the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, the first city founded in the Californias.
  16. Complete the sentence about San Jose, California with the correct year: Results of the ______ U.S. census indicated that San Jose had surpassed San Francisco in population.
  17. Complete the sentence about Austin, Texas with the correct year: IBM followed in ______, opening a facility to produce its Selectric typewriters.
  18. Complete the sentence about Jacksonville, Florida with the correct year: In ______, the French founded the short-lived Fort Caroline near the mouth of the St.
  19. Complete the sentence about Jacksonville, Florida with the correct year: Spain regained control of the area in ______, following Britain's defeat in the American Revolutionary War.
  20. Complete the sentence about Fort Worth, Texas with the correct year: The city of Fort Worth was established in ______ as an army outpost on a bluff overlooking the Trinity River.
  21. Complete the sentence about Fort Worth, Texas with the correct year: The Treaty of Bird's Fort between the Republic of Texas and several Native American tribes was signed in ______ at Bird's Fort in p…
  22. Complete the sentence about Fort Worth, Texas with the correct year: In January ______, Worth proposed a line of 10 forts to mark the western Texas frontier from Eagle Pass to the confluence of the We…
  23. Complete the sentence about Fort Worth, Texas with the correct year: In August ______, Arnold moved the camp to the north-facing bluff, which overlooked the mouth of the Clear Fork of the Trinity Rive…
  24. Complete the sentence about Fort Worth, Texas with the correct year: The United States War Department officially named the post Fort Worth on November 14, ______.
  25. Complete the sentence about Columbus, Ohio with the correct year: The first European settlement was Franklinton, now a city neighborhood, in ______.
  26. Complete the sentence about Columbus, Ohio with the correct year: Columbus was founded in ______ at the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers.
  27. Complete the sentence about Charlotte, North Carolina with the correct year: Charlotte is named for Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who became queen consort of Great Britain and Ireland in ______.
  28. Complete the sentence about Charlotte, North Carolina with the correct year: Local leaders and signed the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence in ______, one of the first such declarations that eve…
  29. Complete the sentence about Charlotte, North Carolina with the correct year: Railroads turned Charlotte into a regional trading hub after the American Civil War, and by ______ it had surpassed Wilming…
  30. Complete the sentence about San Francisco with the correct year: The California gold rush of ______ brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time.
  31. Complete the sentence about Indianapolis with the correct year: In ______, Indianapolis was established as a planned city for the new seat of Indiana's state government.
  32. Complete the sentence about Denver with the correct year: Denver, the governor of the Kansas Territory at the time, Denver was founded at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River in _…
  33. Complete the sentence about Denver with the correct year: Wynkoop came to Colorado in ______ and became one of the city's founders.
  34. Complete the sentence about Washington, D.C. with the correct year: The Residence Act, adopted on July 16, ______, approved the creation of the capital district along the Potomac River, and is conside…
  35. Complete the sentence about Washington, D.C. with the correct year: In ______, Congress reduced the size of the district when it returned the land that Virginia had ceded, including the city of Alexan…
  36. Complete the sentence about Washington, D.C. with the correct year: Designed in ______ by Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the city is split into quadrants that meet at the Capitol Building, with 131 neighbor…
  37. Complete the sentence about Boston with the correct year: Boston was founded on Shawmut Peninsula in ______ by English Puritan settlers, who named the city after the market town of Boston, Lincolnshir…
  38. Complete the sentence about Boston with the correct year: In ______, settlers led by John Winthrop arrived and found Shawmut Peninsula nearly empty of Native people.
  39. Complete the sentence about Boston with the correct year: In September ______ Puritans made the crossing to present-day Boston.
  40. Complete the sentence about Nashville, Tennessee with the correct year: Nashville as part of Tennessee seceded during the American Civil War; in ______ it was the first state capital in the Confederac…
  41. Complete the sentence about Nashville, Tennessee with the correct year: Since ______, Nashville has had a consolidated city-county government, which is composed of six smaller municipalities in a two…
  42. Complete the sentence about Detroit with the correct year: In ______, French explorers Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and Alphonse de Tonty founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit.
  43. Complete the sentence about Detroit with the correct year: Since reaching a peak of 1.85 million at the ______ census, Detroit's population has declined by more than 65 percent.
  44. Complete the sentence about Las Vegas with the correct year: In ______, Mexican trader and explorer Antonio Armijo led a group consisting of 60 men and 100 mules along the Old Spanish Trail from moder…
  45. Complete the sentence about Memphis, Tennessee with the correct year: European exploration of the area began with Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto in ______.
  46. Complete the sentence about Memphis, Tennessee with the correct year: Modern Memphis was founded in ______ by John Overton, James Winchester, and Andrew Jackson.
  47. Complete the sentence about Memphis, Tennessee with the correct year: Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated there in ______, and the city is now home to the National Civil Rights Museum, a Smithsoni…
  48. Complete the sentence about Louisville, Kentucky with the correct year: Louisville is the historical county seat and, since ______, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana state line.
  49. Complete the sentence about Louisville, Kentucky with the correct year: Since ______, Louisville and Jefferson County have shared the same borders following a city-county merger.
  50. Complete the sentence about Louisville, Kentucky with the correct year: Named after King Louis XVI of France, Louisville was founded in ______ by George Rogers Clark, making it one of the oldest citie…
  51. Complete the sentence about Albuquerque, New Mexico with the correct year: Albuquerque was founded in ______ as an outpost as La Villa de Alburquerque by Francisco Cuervo y Valdés in the province of S…
  52. Complete the sentence about Tucson, Arizona with the correct year: Tucson was founded as a military fort by the Spanish when Hugo O'Conor authorized the construction of Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón…
  53. Complete the sentence about Tucson, Arizona with the correct year: Tucson was Arizona's largest city by population during the territorial period and early statehood, until it was surpassed by Phoenix…
  54. Complete the sentence about Fresno, California with the correct year: The first European to enter the San Joaquin Valley was Pedro Fages in ______.
  55. Complete the sentence about Fresno, California with the correct year: The San Joaquin River flooded on December 24, ______, inundating Millerton.
  56. Complete the sentence about Fresno, California with the correct year: In ______, Anthony Easterby purchased land bounded by the present Chestnut, Belmont, Clovis and California avenues, that today is…
  57. Complete the sentence about Fresno, California with the correct year: Unable to grow wheat for lack of water, he hired sheep man Moses Church in ______ to create an irrigation system.
  58. Complete the sentence about Kansas City, Missouri with the correct year: On June 1, ______, the town of Kansas was incorporated; soon afterwards, a region designated as the Kansas Territory was establ…
  59. Complete the sentence about Omaha, Nebraska with the correct year: Omaha's pioneer period began in ______, when the city was founded along the Missouri River by speculators from neighboring Council Bl…
  60. Complete the sentence about Omaha, Nebraska with the correct year: Omaha introduced this new West to the world in ______, when it played host to the World's Fair, dubbed the Trans-Mississippi Expositi…
  61. Complete the sentence about Colorado Springs, Colorado with the correct year: In ______, after the first local settlement was established, it became part of the Jefferson Territory on October 24 and o…
  62. Complete the sentence about Colorado Springs, Colorado with the correct year: Colorado City at the Front Range confluence of Fountain and Camp creeks was "formally organized on August 13, ______" duri…
  63. Complete the sentence about Raleigh, North Carolina with the correct year: The establishment of the Research Triangle Park in ______ helped create thousands of jobs in the fields of science and techno…
  64. Complete the sentence about Raleigh, North Carolina with the correct year: The colony had no permanent institutions of government until the new capital, New Bern, was established in ______.
  65. Complete the sentence about Raleigh, North Carolina with the correct year: In December ______, Joel Lane successfully petitioned the North Carolina General Assembly to create a new county.
  66. Complete the sentence about Raleigh, North Carolina with the correct year: On January 5, ______, the bill creating Wake County was passed in the General Assembly.
  67. Complete the sentence about Miami with the correct year: Miami is a majority-minority city, with 70.2 percent of the city's population identifying as Hispanic and Latino as of ______.
  68. Complete the sentence about Tulsa, Oklahoma with the correct year: In ______, Hernando de Soto became the first European to visit and document the original Tulsa in the southeast.
  69. Complete the sentence about Cleveland with the correct year: Cleveland was established on July 22, ______, by surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company when they laid out Connecticut's Western Reserve…
  70. Complete the sentence about Cleveland with the correct year: The first permanent European settler in Cleveland was Lorenzo Carter, who arrived in May ______ and built a cabin on the banks of the Cuyah…
  71. Complete the sentence about New Orleans with the correct year: The United States, which had acquired possession from France in ______, anglicized the French name to New Orleans.
  72. Complete the sentence about Anchorage, Alaska with the correct year: In September ______, the City of Anchorage merged with the Greater Anchorage Area Borough, creating the Municipality of Anchorage.
  73. Complete the sentence about Pittsburgh with the correct year: Pittsburgh was named in ______, by Scottish General John Forbes, in honor of British statesman William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham.
  74. Complete the sentence about Pittsburgh with the correct year: The Pittsburg Press continued spelling the city without an h until ______.
  75. Complete the sentence about Cincinnati with the correct year: Settled in ______, Cincinnati was among the top 10 U.S. cities by population throughout much of the 19th century.
  76. Complete the sentence about St. Louis with the correct year: The city was founded on February 14, ______, by French fur traders Gilbert Antoine de St.
  77. Complete the sentence about St. Louis with the correct year: Louis County in ______, becoming an independent city and limiting its political boundaries.
  78. Complete the sentence about Salt Lake City with the correct year: Salt Lake City was founded in ______ by settlers led by Brigham Young who were seeking to escape persecution they had experienced whil…
  79. Complete the sentence about Salt Lake City with the correct year: Owing to its proximity to the Great Salt Lake, it was originally named Great Salt Lake City; the word "Great" was dropped from the cit…
  80. Complete the sentence about Orlando, Florida with the correct year: The Orlando metropolitan area has an estimated 2.67 million residents as of ______, making it the third-largest metropolitan area in…
  81. Complete the sentence about Tampa, Florida with the correct year: Tampa's origins can be traced to the establishment of Fort Brooke in ______, soon after the United States acquired the Florida territo…
  82. Complete the sentence about Tampa, Florida with the correct year: The surrounding settlement of Tampa was formally incorporated in ______ but remained small and isolated until the mid-1880s, when the…
  83. Complete the sentence about Tampa, Florida with the correct year: A ______ British map had "B. del Spirito Santo" for Tampa Bay and "Carlos Bay" to the south.
  84. Complete the sentence about Savannah, Georgia with the correct year: During the ______ Summer Olympics hosted by Atlanta, Savannah held sailing competitions in the nearby Wassaw Sound.
  85. Complete the sentence about Savannah, Georgia with the correct year: In ______, Savannah and the rest of Georgia became a Royal Colony, with Savannah as its capital.
  86. Complete the sentence about Savannah, Georgia with the correct year: In December ______ the state legislature declared Milledgeville the new capital of Georgia.
  87. Complete the sentence about Charleston, South Carolina with the correct year: Charleston was founded by the English in ______ as Charles Town, named in honor of King Charles II.
  88. Complete the sentence about Charleston, South Carolina with the correct year: King Charles II granted the chartered Province of Carolina to eight of his loyal friends, known as the Lords Proprietors…
  89. Complete the sentence about Charleston, South Carolina with the correct year: In ______, Governor William Sayle arranged for several shiploads of settlers from Bermuda and Barbados.
  90. Complete the sentence about Santa Fe, New Mexico with the correct year: Nuevo México became a territory of Mexico after Mexican independence from Spain in ______.
  91. Complete the sentence about Santa Fe, New Mexico with the correct year: Territory of New Mexico; it became New Mexico's state capital in ______.
  92. Complete the sentence about Boise, Idaho with the correct year: The HBC was present at the fort until ______, and afterward handed it over to the United States Army.
  93. Complete the sentence about Boise, Idaho with the correct year: With the discovery of gold in California in ______ and the passage of Donation Land Claim Act, the settler incursions increased exponent…
  94. Complete the sentence about Juneau, Alaska with the correct year: Juneau was named the capital of Alaska in ______, when the government of what was then the District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as…
  95. Complete the sentence about Juneau, Alaska with the correct year: The Alaska State Capitol in downtown Juneau was built as the Federal and Territorial Building in ______.
  96. Complete the sentence about Montgomery, Alabama with the correct year: The city was incorporated in ______ as a merger of two towns situated along the Alabama River.
  97. Complete the sentence about Richmond, Virginia with the correct year: During the Revolutionary War period, several notable events occurred in the city, including Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or gi…
  98. Complete the sentence about Statue of Liberty with the correct year: The project is traced to a mid-______ conversation between Laboulaye, a staunch abolitionist, and Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, a scu…
  99. Complete the sentence about Golden Gate Bridge with the correct year: The bridge opened to the public on May 27, ______, and has undergone various retrofits and other improvement projects in the decad…
  100. Complete the sentence about Golden Gate Bridge with the correct year: A ferry service began as early as ______, with a regularly scheduled service beginning in the 1840s for the purpose of transportin…

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