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U.S. Presidents by Event

Can you guess the President who was in office during these notable events?
Answer must correspond to the yellow box
Quiz by CBTemple
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Last updated: February 11, 2020
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First submittedApril 27, 2012
Times taken25,245
Average score70.0%
Rating4.57
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Event
President
The Louisiana Purchase
Thomas Jefferson
The Apollo 11 moon landing
Richard Nixon
The September 11 attacks
George W. Bush
The Civil Rights Act outlaws racial, gender, and religious discrimination
Lyndon B. Johnson
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
Franklin Roosevelt
Washington D.C. becomes capital of the United States
John Adams
The Cuban Missile Crisis
John F. Kennedy
The U.S. starts construction on the Panama Canal
Theodore Roosevelt
British troops capture and burn Washington D.C.
James Madison
The signing of the Indian Removal Act marks the start of the "Trail of Tears"
Andrew Jackson
The Teapot Dome scandal
Warren Harding
Iran takes hostages from the U.S. embassy in Tehran
Jimmy Carter
The Great Depression begins
Herbert Hoover
Nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Harry Truman
Construction begins on the Interstate Highway System
Dwight Eisenhower
The Spanish-American War
William McKinley
The U.S. enters WWI (after this President promised to stay out of it)
Woodrow Wilson
Americans revolt over taxes in the "Whiskey Rebellion"
George Washington
The "Golden Spike" completes the Transcontinental Railroad
Ulysses S. Grant
The Battle of Fort Sumter
Abraham Lincoln
+7
Level 86
Feb 11, 2020
I think it's Fort Sumter, not Sumpter. Good quiz!
+2
Level ∞
Feb 11, 2020
Fixed
+5
Level 88
Feb 12, 2020
A good tricky question would've been South Carolina secedes from the U.S.

Another Johnson answer would baffle a few too.

+1
Level 60
Apr 12, 2023
South Carolina seceded before Lincoln became president, not after his death. So the answer would be Buchanan, not Johnson.
+4
Level 78
Feb 11, 2020
And Americans, not American's.
+3
Level ∞
Feb 11, 2020
Ok
+7
Level 86
Feb 12, 2020
Thanks for including the picture of Grant. Saved me from having to guess the full list of indistinguishable presidents between Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt for that question.
+28
Level 88
Feb 12, 2020
That whole era was a bit Hayes-y.
+7
Level 88
Feb 21, 2020
Nah, there were a few Arthur presidents in between there.
+7
Level 76
Feb 12, 2020
Is it bad that I remember Grant is the golden spike president from the Will Smith Movie "Wild Wild West"?
+4
Level 89
Mar 28, 2020
Some people still remember Chester Arthur from Die Hard with a Vengeance.
+2
Level 65
Mar 3, 2023
He was the 21st president.
+1
Level 75
Mar 3, 2023
out of 42.
+2
Level 82
Mar 28, 2020
probably
+2
Level 77
Mar 30, 2020
I remember it being Grant because of Hell on Wheels
+2
Level 61
Mar 28, 2020
Damn. Didn't notice the picture and it was the only one I missed.
+2
Level 67
Mar 28, 2020
Same here.
+2
Level 46
Mar 28, 2020
Great Quiz!!!
+5
Level 85
Mar 28, 2020
To be fair to Wilson, circumstances had changed between the time of his promise and the time of his reneging on his promise, with the sending of the Zimmerman telegram.
+3
Level 61
Mar 28, 2020
I mostly agree with you, and I think Wilson has been judged too harshly by history for his decision to enter the war, but I also think you're (ever so slightly) overstating the importance of the Zimmerman telegram. The telegram did change popular opinion a lot, but it seems a little too convenient that Wilson's opinion on war turned on a dime. Before the telegram, he publicly opposed war, and I suspect he remained opposed in private even after entering the war. The Democratic Party built its 1916 presidential campaign around the slogan "He Kept Us Out of War", suggesting that Wilson wanted to remain neutral until right up to the Zimmerman telegram. Forgive me if I haven't done my research, but this all looks like Wilson was reluctant to enter even after the telegram, and I think historians are mostly right to criticize him for ignoring his own apprehensions and giving in to popular opinion.
+4
Level 64
Mar 29, 2020
It was apparent from the beginning that if the US would join they would join the British, given that Britain and France were democratic countries. It also gave him the ability to push his agenda of self-determination and dissolve the absolutist German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires
+2
Level 74
Mar 4, 2023
The US was already supporting the UK and France with loans and materiel, so was never really going to join the other side. The war had been going for 3 years and the Germans were on the back foot, so the US involvement accelerated their defeat (and it helps to be on the winning side). Direct involvement gave Wilson some say in how Europe was reshaped and in the formation of the League of Nations...the US went from a fairly insular, isolationist nation to one that recognised its potential for political, economic and military influence in the decades to come
+4
Level 67
Mar 28, 2020
I was really scratching my head after reading "Spanish-American War" as "Mexican-American War", I guessed all the presidents between Van Buren and Lincoln, and then was really confused, might want to pay more attention in the future!
+2
Level 78
Mar 29, 2020
Heh, same here. I typed all those guys' names, I was like "I know for sure one of these dudes was president 1848!", yet none of them worked. For a moment I was like "This quiz is jacked up!"... but then it hit me that it said "Spanish", not "Mexican", LOL.
+2
Level 75
Sep 29, 2020
Same
+2
Level 47
Dec 7, 2020
Same, except I didn't read it wrong. For example, with the Iran thing, I was like "this has to be recent!" and guessed all the recent presidents. Same with some other ones too. Good quiz overall though
+2
Level 77
Feb 12, 2021
Really surprised that Harding is at the bottom. I thought the Teapot Dome scandal was literally the only thing anybody knows about his presidency.
+1
Level 65
Mar 3, 2023
And being elected for his looks, in the first election for which women could vote xD
+1
Level 46
Aug 9, 2021
Pictures ? What pictures
+1
Level 76
Apr 2, 2022
Any reason for the parenthetical addition in the one clue, but none of the others?
+1
Level 63
Mar 3, 2023
It's a nice hint to an otherwise short event (as in the description is short)
+1
Level 66
Mar 3, 2023
Poor Herbert Hoover, from Iowa orphan to extremely successful mining engineer to savior of starving Europe/Russia. And all 99% of Americans will know him for is "the guy who was president when the Depression started."
+1
Level 76
Jan 7, 2024
Nah, we also know him for the terrible job he did after the Depression started!
+1
Level 67
Mar 6, 2023
18/20, missed Lincoln which was an obvious one now that I think of it, and missed Grant