United States Geography

Us Geography

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

All 344 questions

  1. Complete the sentence about Massachusetts with the correct year: The Plymouth Colony was founded in ______ by the Pilgrims of Mayflower.
  2. Complete the sentence about Massachusetts with the correct year: In ______, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of America's most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch t…
  3. Complete the sentence about Massachusetts with the correct year: In ______, Shays' Rebellion, a populist revolt, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention.
  4. Complete the sentence about Maine with the correct year: The first European settlement in the area was by the French in ______ on Saint Croix Island, founded by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons.
  5. Complete the sentence about Maine with the correct year: The first English settlement was the short-lived Popham Colony, established by the Plymouth Company in ______.
  6. Complete the sentence about Vermont with the correct year: Ultimately, a group of settlers with New Hampshire land grant titles established the Vermont Republic in ______ as an independent state durin…
  7. Complete the sentence about New Hampshire with the correct year: The Province of New Hampshire was established in ______, named after the English county of Hampshire.
  8. Complete the sentence about New Hampshire with the correct year: In ______, it became the first of the British North American colonies to establish an independent government and state constitution.
  9. Complete the sentence about Louisiana with the correct year: The French claimed the territory in ______, and it became the political, commercial, and population center of the larger colony of New Fran…
  10. Complete the sentence about Louisiana with the correct year: In ______, Louisiana was ranked as the least healthy state in the country, with high levels of drug-related deaths.
  11. Complete the sentence about Arizona with the correct year: The southernmost portion of the state was acquired in ______ through the Gadsden Purchase.
  12. Complete the sentence about Nevada with the correct year: The area formed from mostly Alta California and part of Nuevo México's territory within the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which gained independenc…
  13. Complete the sentence about Wyoming with the correct year: As a name for the region that would become the state of Wyoming, it was put forward by Representative James Mitchell Ashley of Ohio in ______…
  14. Complete the sentence about Wyoming with the correct year: When in ______ a bill was introduced to organize this region as a territory, Congress considered the name Lincoln, but ultimately accepted As…
  15. Complete the sentence about Wyoming with the correct year: With Mexican independence in ______, it was considered part of Alta California.
  16. Complete the sentence about Montana with the correct year: Most of Montana came under American sovereignty with the Louisiana Purchase from France in ______ and was explored by the Lewis and Clark Exp…
  17. Complete the sentence about Montana with the correct year: The ensuing gold rush, along with the passage of the Homestead Acts in ______, brought large numbers of American settlers to Montana.
  18. Complete the sentence about Montana with the correct year: Rapid population growth and development culminated in statehood on November 8, ______.
  19. Complete the sentence about Montana with the correct year: When Ashley presented a bill to establish a temporary government in ______ for a new territory to be carved out of Idaho, he again chose Mont…
  20. Complete the sentence about Kentucky with the correct year: Previously a part of Virginia, Kentucky was admitted into the Union as the fifteenth state on June 1, ______.
  21. Complete the sentence about Tennessee with the correct year: Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a ______ frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of th…
  22. Complete the sentence about Tennessee with the correct year: Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later the Southwest Territory, before its admission to the Union as the 16th state on J…
  23. Complete the sentence about Iowa with the correct year: The name received official recognition by Iowa Territory Governor Robert Lucas in ______, when he and several members of his cabinet agreed upon…
  24. Complete the sentence about Iowa with the correct year: The area of Iowa was claimed for France and remained a French territory until ______.
  25. Complete the sentence about Kansas with the correct year: The first settlement of non-indigenous people in Kansas occurred in ______ at Fort Leavenworth.
  26. Complete the sentence about Kansas with the correct year: On January 29, ______, Kansas entered the Union as a free state, hence the unofficial nickname "The Free State".
  27. Complete the sentence about Nebraska with the correct year: Nebraska was admitted into the United States in ______, two years after the end of the American Civil War.
  28. Complete the sentence about Nebraska with the correct year: After war broke out between the two countries, Spain dispatched an armed expedition to Nebraska under Lieutenant General Pedro de Villasur i…
  29. Complete the sentence about Nebraska with the correct year: In ______, during the Seven Years' War, France ceded the Louisiana Territory to Spain.
  30. Complete the sentence about Oklahoma with the correct year: Choctaw Nation Chief Allen Wright suggested the name in ______ during treaty negotiations with the federal US government on the use of India…
  31. Complete the sentence about Oklahoma with the correct year: A painting of the ______ Council now hangs in the Oklahoma Senate.
  32. Complete the sentence about Oklahoma with the correct year: Oklahoma later became the de facto name for Oklahoma Territory, and it was officially approved in ______, two years after that area was open…
  33. Complete the sentence about Oklahoma with the correct year: Spiro Mounds, in what is now Spiro, Oklahoma, was a major Mississippian mound complex that flourished between AD 850 and ______.
  34. Complete the sentence about Maryland with the correct year: In ______, Maryland's current boundaries took form following the settlement of a long-running border dispute with Pennsylvania.
  35. Complete the sentence about Maryland with the correct year: After the Civil War ended in ______, Maryland took part in the Industrial Revolution, driven by its seaports, railroad networks, and mass im…
  36. Complete the sentence about Delaware with the correct year: The state was first colonized by Dutch traders at Zwaanendael, near present-day Lewes, Delaware, in ______.
  37. Complete the sentence about Delaware with the correct year: On December 7, ______, Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, earning it the nickname "The First Stat…
  38. Complete the sentence about Rhode Island with the correct year: The state's population, however, has continually recorded growth in every decennial census since ______, and it is the second-most dense…
  39. Complete the sentence about Connecticut with the correct year: In ______, the Dutch West India Company established a small, short-lived settlement called House of Hope in Hartford.
  40. Complete the sentence about Connecticut with the correct year: In January ______, Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the Constitution.
  41. Complete the sentence about Puerto Rico with the correct year: Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since ______ and can move freely between the archipelago and the U.S.
  42. Complete the sentence about Puerto Rico with the correct year: Congress, which oversees it under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of ______.
  43. Complete the sentence about Guam with the correct year: Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, while in the service of Spain, was the first European to visit and claim the island on March 6, ______.
  44. Complete the sentence about United States Virgin Islands with the correct year: Virgin Islands are organized under the ______ Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands and have held five constitutiona…
  45. Complete the sentence about United States Virgin Islands with the correct year: Virgin Islands were originally inhabited by Arawakan-speaking peoples, with some scholars thinking that the islands were…
  46. Complete the sentence about United States Virgin Islands with the correct year: Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage in ______, is thought to have been the first European to see the islands, giv…
  47. Complete the sentence about United States Virgin Islands with the correct year: The Spanish later settled in ______, with English and French settlers arriving on St.
  48. Complete the sentence about United States Virgin Islands with the correct year: Initially the currency was the Danish West Indian rigsdaler, replaced by the daler in ______.
  49. Complete the sentence about Kodiak Island with the correct year: In ______, the settlement was moved to the site of present-day Kodiak and became the center of Russian fur trading with the Alaska Nati…
  50. Complete the sentence about Kodiak Island with the correct year: Following the ______ Alaska Purchase by the United States, the island became part of the United States.
  51. Complete the sentence about Martha's Vineyard with the correct year: In ______, the younger Mayhew was drowned when a ship he was travelling in was lost at sea on a voyage to England.
  52. Complete the sentence about Nantucket with the correct year: Nantucket was officially part of Dukes County, New York, until October 17, ______, when the charter for the newly formed Province of Massac…
  53. Complete the sentence about Key West with the correct year: The last Native American residents of Key West were Calusa refugees who were taken to Cuba when Florida was transferred from Spain to Great…
  54. Complete the sentence about Key West with the correct year: In ______ the British governor of East Florida recommended that a post be set up on Key West to improve control of the area, but nothing cam…
  55. Complete the sentence about Space Needle with the correct year: Located at 400 Broad Street in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood, it was built in the Seattle Center for the ______ World's Fair, which…
  56. Complete the sentence about Space Needle with the correct year: On April 19, ______, the city's Landmarks Preservation Board designated the tower a historic landmark.
  57. Complete the sentence about Space Needle with the correct year: On December 31, ______, a powerful beam of light was unveiled for the first time.
  58. Complete the sentence about Gateway Arch with the correct year: The Arch was designed by the Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in ______.
  59. Complete the sentence about Gateway Arch with the correct year: Around late ______, civic leader Luther Ely Smith, returning to St.
  60. Complete the sentence about Gateway Arch with the correct year: Local architect Louis LaBeaume had drawn up competition guidelines by January ______.
  61. Complete the sentence with the correct year: The sign was officially dedicated on 13 July ______, intended to last only a year and a half.
  62. Complete the sentence about Hollywood Sign with the correct year: In September ______, 24-year-old actress Peg Entwistle died by suicide by climbing a workman's ladder up to the top of the 'H' and jum…
  63. Complete the sentence about Fort Knox with the correct year: The depository was built by the Treasury in ______ on land transferred to it from Fort Knox.
  64. Complete the sentence about Fort Knox with the correct year: Fortifications were constructed near the site in ______, during the Civil War when Fort Duffield was constructed.
  65. Complete the sentence about Plymouth Rock with the correct year: In ______, the rock broke in half during an attempt to haul it to Town Square in Plymouth.
  66. Complete the sentence about Plymouth Rock with the correct year: One portion remained in Town Square and was moved to Pilgrim Hall Museum in ______.
  67. Complete the sentence about Plymouth Rock with the correct year: The top portion of the rock was returned to the shoreline of Plymouth Harbor in ______.
  68. Complete the sentence about Plymouth Rock with the correct year: The rock first attracted public attention in ______ when the residents of Plymouth began plans to build a wharf that would bury it.
  69. Complete the sentence about Independence Hall with the correct year: The building, which is the centerpiece of Independence National Historical Park, was designated a World Heritage Site in ______.
  70. Complete the sentence about Independence Hall with the correct year: Independence Hall, which was initially called Pennsylvania State House, was completed in ______.
  71. Complete the sentence about Independence Hall with the correct year: From May 25 to September 17, ______, the Pennsylvania State House hosted the Constitutional Convention, where the U.S.
  72. Complete the sentence about Independence Hall with the correct year: In ______, the building was renamed the Hall of Independence when it hosted the Marquis de Lafayette.
  73. Complete the sentence about Ellis Island with the correct year: The name derives from Samuel Ellis, a Welshman who bought the island in ______.
  74. Complete the sentence about Ellis Island with the correct year: After ______, Ellis Island was used primarily as a detention center for migrants.
  75. Complete the sentence about American bison with the correct year: In English usage, the term buffalo was used to refer to the American mammal as early as ______.
  76. Complete the sentence about Grizzly bear with the correct year: In ______, Rausch reduced the number of North American subspecies to one, Ursus arctos middendorffi.
  77. Complete the sentence about American alligator with the correct year: Historically, hunting had decimated their population, and the American alligator was listed as an endangered species by the Endang…
  78. Complete the sentence about American alligator with the correct year: The American alligator was first classified in ______ by French zoologist François Marie Daudin as Crocodilus mississipiensis.
  79. Complete the sentence about American alligator with the correct year: In ______, a Late Miocene fossil skull of an alligator, dating to approximately seven or eight million years ago, was discovered i…
  80. Complete the sentence about California condor with the correct year: A conservation plan put in place by the United States government led to the capture of all the remaining wild condors by ______, wi…
  81. Complete the sentence about Gray wolf with the correct year: In ______, the Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus published in his Systema Naturae the binomial nomenclature.
  82. Complete the sentence about Saguaro with the correct year: In ______, Saguaro National Park, near Tucson, Arizona, was designated to help protect this species and its habitat.
  83. Complete the sentence about Appalachian Trail with the correct year: On October 7, ______, the first section of the trail, from Bear Mountain west through Harriman State Park to Arden, New York, was o…
  84. Complete the sentence about Appalachian Trail with the correct year: MacKaye then called for a two-day Appalachian Trail conference to be held in March ______ in Washington, D.C.
  85. Complete the sentence about Appalachian Trail with the correct year: Anderson's efforts helped spark renewed interest in the trail, and Avery, who led the project after Perkins's death in ______, was…
  86. Complete the sentence about Pacific Crest Trail with the correct year: Cleator had led the Forest Service's design of the Skyline Trail through Oregon beginning in ______ and planned an extension thro…
  87. Complete the sentence about Pacific Crest Trail with the correct year: Before the PCT became an official trail, Martin Papendick was the first known person to hike across three states of the PCT in __…
  88. Complete the sentence with the correct year: On October 16, ______, Eric Ryback, an 18-year-old student, completed the first PCT thru-hike.
  89. Complete the sentence about Route 66 with the correct year: The highway was officially removed from the United States Highway System in ______ after being largely replaced by Interstate highways.
  90. Complete the sentence about Route 66 with the correct year: The road and impact of the Interstate Highway System bypassing small towns along the route was central to the story in Disney and Pixar's __…
  91. Complete the sentence about Blue Ridge Parkway with the correct year: The ______ party that surveyed the boundary included Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson.
  92. Complete the sentence about San Andreas Fault with the correct year: The fault was first identified in ______ by Professor Andrew Lawson of UC Berkeley.
  93. Complete the sentence about San Andreas Fault with the correct year: In the wake of the ______ San Francisco earthquake, Lawson was tasked with deciphering the origin of the earthquake.
  94. Complete the sentence about San Andreas Fault with the correct year: In ______, geologist Thomas Dibblee concluded that hundreds of miles of lateral movement had occurred along the fault.
  95. Complete the sentence about Tornado Alley with the correct year: One particular tornado-afflicted town, Moore, Oklahoma, managed to increase its building requirements in ______.
  96. Complete the sentence about Chesapeake Bay with the correct year: Scientists' Cliffs is a beach community in Calvert County named for the desire to create a retreat for scientists when the community w…
  97. Complete the sentence about Lake Erie with the correct year: René de Bréhant de Galinée recorded the name of the lake as Lac Érié around ______.
  98. Complete the sentence about Lake Ontario with the correct year: During the War of ______, the ice cover was stable enough the American naval commander stationed at Sackets Harbor feared a British atta…
  99. Complete the sentence about Lake Okeechobee with the correct year: All of Lake Okeechobee was included in the boundaries of Palm Beach County when it was created in ______.
  100. Complete the sentence about Lake Okeechobee with the correct year: In ______, the lake was divided among the five counties surrounding the lake: Glades, Okeechobee, Martin, Palm Beach, and Hendry coun…

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