The Past, Twenty Questions at a Time

What this site is

Hindsight is an independent history quiz site. Everything on it is a playable quiz: a question, four options, and an immediate verdict. The subjects fall into a few wings. There is a US wing, running from a broad national survey down to single wars and single decades. There is a world wing that does the same at a larger scale. Around them sit quizzes on ancient eras and on mythologies, where the questions ask about the stories as the ancients recorded them. All of it is settled history — nothing on this site moves with the news.

Where every answer comes from

Behind the quizzes sits one dataset, written twice. Two authors compiled the same records independently of each other — a catalog of 149 historical facts and a complete list of all 47 US presidencies — and the two versions were compared key by key before any question was generated. The catalog matched on all 149 facts. The presidency records agreed on every field. Wherever the two authors could not agree, no question was asked. That rule cost some questions; it also means nothing here rests on a single writer’s memory.

How the quizzes play

Each quiz runs directly in its own page, with no signup and nothing to download.

• Every question offers four options.
• The page marks your pick right or wrong on the spot and shows the correct answer.
• A full review of every question waits at the end.
• Your best score is kept in your browser, so a return visit starts with something to beat.