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Pennsylvania, located in the northeastern region of the United States, is known for its rich history, diverse culture, and contributions to American industry. The state's capital is Harrisburg and the largest city is Philadelphia. Pennsylvania was one of the original thirteen colonies and was the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. The state has played an important role in American history, from the Revolutionary War to the Industrial Revolution and beyond.
Pennsylvania is home to many notable landmarks and historical sites, such as the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and Gettysburg National Military Park. The state is also known for its contributions to American industry, particularly in the fields of steel production, coal mining, and textile manufacturing. Some of the most famous companies that have their roots in Pennsylvania include Hershey's, W.R. Grace and DuPont.
Trivia questions about Pennsylvania can include questions about its history, geography, culture, and famous residents. This article will test your knowledge of the state's past and present, from its role in the American Revolution to its contributions to American industry. Get ready to learn more about Pennsylvania and see how well you fare against these challenging trivia questions. Whether you're a resident of the state or just a curious trivia buff, this article is sure to be an engaging and informative read.
1. Two of the most popular summer beverages, lemonade and iced tea, can be combined in various ratios to produce what drink named after Western Pennsylvania’s most famous professional golfer?
Answer: Arnold Palmer
2. Located in southeastern Pennsylvania, what amusement park was founded in 1906 to entertain workers at a chocolate company in the area?
Answer: Hersheypark
3. What art museum, in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, collects contemporary art and video work, and was founded by industrialist Andrew in 1895?
Answer: Carnegie Museum of Art
4. Perhaps not surprisingly, given it is home to The Hershey Company, which U.S. state produces the most chocolate? According to the U.S. Census Bureau it produces roughly half of the chocolate made in the country.
Answer: Pennsylvania
5. The Monongahela Incline, which takes passengers from Station Square to high-up Grandview Avenue, is both the oldest and steepest funicular railway in the United States. In what city can you ride it?
Answer: Pittsburgh
6. What is required when crossing into New Jersey from Pennsylvania on I-78?
Answer: Bridge Permit
7. Bill Murray has coffee at Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania's fictional Tip Top Cafe over and over in what 1993 comedy?
Answer: Groundhog Day
8. The American version of the show "The Office" premiered on NBC in 2005. The show takes place in which Pennsylvania city?
Answer: Scranton
9. While the name will remind you of Pennsylvania, which city that's home to the National Cornbread Festival is actually located in Marion County, Tennessee?
Answer: South Pittsburg
10. In 1849, Henry Box Brown escaped slavery by encasing himself in a box and shipping himself north from Richmond, Virginia to an abolitionist in what Northern city? He became a lecturer against slavery, moving to England in 1850 over fears he would be re-enslaved.
Answer: Philadelphia
11. The intersection of 33rd and Chestnut in West Philadelphia is the informal boundary between the University of Pennsylvania and what other university just north of it?
Answer: Drexel University
12. Founded as a store named "Free People" by three students in an entrepreneurship class at the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, what is the retailer that primarily targets "hipster subculture" for teens and young adults? This company received the National Preservation Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation for their office in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
Answer: Urban Outfitters
13. Hershey's is, of course, located in Hershey, Pennsylvania, but one of its most iconic products, a peppermint patty coated in dark chocolate, was invented in what town 36 miles away?
Answer: York
14. Fasnachts, pre-Lenten baked treats eaten in the Pennsylvania Dutch region of the U.S., are made with what starchy ingredient?
Answer: Potato
15. Shot partly in Pennsylvania and partly in New Zealand, what "skeletal" 2009 Peter Jackson film got Stanley Tucci a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for playing a serial killer?
Answer: The Lovely Bones
16. What two-word beer brand, now manufactured by Anheuser-Busch, was started by the Latrobe Brewing Company of Western Pennsylvania in 1939? In a green bottle or can, with a horse on the label, it claims to be “Extra Pale.”
Answer: Rolling Rock
17. What is the name of the sedimentary rock formation that is the source of the fracking that has taken off in Pennsylvania, New York, and West Virginia?
Answer: Marcellus
18. What name links Canadian rapper Aubrey Graham, a male duck, and the oil well in Cherrytree Township, Pennsylvania that is claimed to be the first commercial oil well in the United States?
Answer: Drake
19. In what northeastern city—perhaps better known from a certain popular sitcom—can you find Steamtown National Historic Site, which interprets the history of steam-powered railroads in the U.S.?
Answer: Scranton
20. Which superstar singer and pianist, definitely not an ordinary person, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and worked as a management consultant before starting his music career?
Answer: John Legend
21. What “V” investment advisor, based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, was founded in 1975 by John C. Bogle? It is an English word meaning a group of people leading the way in new developments and ideas.
Answer: Vanguard
22. What school on Pittsburgh's Woodland Road, originally founded as the Pennsylvania Female College in 1869, first began admitting male students in 2016?
Answer: Chatham University
23. What Hanover, Pennsylvania-based company is known around the United States for its traditional German-style pretzels?
Answer: Snyder's of Hanover
24. With alumni including Elon Musk and Sundar Pichai, what is the name of the University of Pennsylvania's renowned business school?
Answer: Wharton School
25. This movie is not Certified Fresh! The olde-timey residents of tiny Covington, Pennsylvania are afraid of the outside world in what 2004 YMCA-less M. Night Shyamalan flick?
Answer: The Village
26. What dialect, primarily spoken by Mennonites and Amish, is spoken by over 300,000 people and is named as a combination of where it was developed and the language it is a dialect of?
Answer: Pennsylvania German
27. It's probably not surprising to hear that the state in the US that produces the most natural gas is Texas, but which state produces the second-most (more than 2x 3rd place)?
Answer: Pennsylvania
28. In 1859 the first successful drilling of an oil well was near Oil Creek in the city of Titusville. In what U.S. state did this event occur?`
Answer: Pennsylvania
29. The city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, sits at the confluence of three rivers: the Ohio, the Monongahela, and what third one?
Answer: Allegheny River
30. Bird-in-Hand is a strangely named town located in picturesque Lancaster County, in what U.S. state?
Answer: Pennsylvania
31. Despite its name, the house known as Kentuck Knob is located in Pennsylvania, and is one of many designed by what architect famous for the Prairie Style?
Answer: Frank Lloyd Wright
32. Standing for "Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority," SEPTA is the common name for the mass-transit system that serves what East Coast city?
Answer: Philadelphia
33. What is the boozy two-word name for the 1794 uprising in western Pennsylvania by citizens who refused to pay a federal liquor tax to raise money for the national debt?
Answer: Whiskey Rebellion
34. Which civil rights organization that advocates for the disabled community was founded in Pennsylvania in 1973 with the slogan, “Nothing About Us Without Us?”
Answer: Disabled in Action
35. The history of the petroleum industry in the U.S. starts with a man named David Beaty who discovered what in his home in Pennsylvania in 1875?
Answer: Crude oil
36. Which American grocery store chain with a big bird name has stores in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, and Maryland?
Answer: Giant Eagle
37. Historically, an "operating theater" was an operating room with seating for an audience of other medical professionals and students. The oldest surviving operating theater is located in a hospital in what northeastern U.S. state?
Answer: Pennsylvania
38. A historic rivalry between the high school athletics teams in towns named Lancaster and York in what U.S. state is known as the "War of the Roses?"
Answer: Pennsylvania
39. Dating back to 1877, the advertising mascot of the namesake brand of what PepsiCo subsidiary has been a figure inspired by drawings of Pennsylvania founder William Penn?
Answer: Quaker Oats
40. Coming in at the #3 biggest mall in America, you can shop the 2.9 million square feet of the King of Prussia mall if you happen to be in what state? (Hint: Food court cheesesteak optional)
Answer: Pennsylvania
41. Swanfest, the music festival headlined by Dance Gavin Dance, was held in the Eastern U.S. for the first time on October 1, 2023, in what city?
Answer: Philadelphia
42. Located in Southwest Pennsylvania, Fallingwater is one of the more well-known homes designed by what famous architect who’s also responsible for designing The Guggenheim Museum in New York City?
Answer: Frank Lloyd Wright
43. The town of Johnstown in western Pennsylvania is most notable in U.S. history for being the site of what type of disaster in 1889, which killed nearly 2,000?
Answer: Flood
44. What Pennsylvanian and inventor of the steamboat demonstrated the effectiveness of his design by traveling from Pittsburgh to New Orleans on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in 1812?
Answer: Robert Fulton
45. The highly ranked Pennsylvania College of Optometry is part of what university that merged with Philadelphia's Drexel University in 2024?
Answer: Salus
46. While the Pennsylvania Dutch’s aversion to modernity likely means that they aren’t big fans of Snapple, they are huge fans of what mush of fried pork, cornmeal, wheat flour, and spices, found all over the mid-Atlantic?
Answer: Scrapple
47. The Arboretum at the University Of Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood, bears what name, also the last name of the first African-American “Saturday Night Live” cast member, who joined during their inaugural 1975-76 season?
Answer: Morris Arboretum
48. What was the name of the newspaper founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1728?
Answer: Pennsylvania Gazette
49. What bestselling 2006 graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel details her experiences as a child in Pennsylvania with her closeted father, as well as coming to understand her own sexuality?
Answer: Fun Home
50. Which medical center in City Center is not only top-ranked but also a National Historic Landmark (it's home to America’s first surgical amphitheater)?
Answer: Pennsylvania Hospital
51. Older even than that of Harvard, a 2015 Lancet article claims that America's oldest medical school was founded in 1765 at the College of Philadelphia, which eventually became what Ivy League institution?
Answer: University of Pennsylvania
52. Before participating in the shootout at the OK Corral, what Wild West gambler and gunman had graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery and practiced as a dentist in Georgia, Texas, and Kansas?
Answer: Doc Holliday
53. Although well-known for founding the colony of Pennsylvania and leading both the planning and development of Philadelphia, William Penn was in fact born in what other city?
Answer: London
54. Featuring the path of a vertical loop followed by a half corkscrew of the same name, the Jolly Rancher Remix at Pennsylvania’s Hershey Park amusement park used to be called by what twisty ten-letter name?
Answer: Sidewinder
55. Which brand has been supplying amateur and pro cooks alike with bonded cookware since the ‘70s when it was started by a metallurgist in Pennsylvania who originally just wanted to make a nice pan for himself?
Answer: All-Clad
56. Although some scenes were shot in Virginia and the Bahamas, most of what 1991 "Big Five" Oscar Winner (i.e., it won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay) was filmed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania?
Answer: The Silence of the Lambs
57. From 1831-1833, George M. Dallas, the man who the city is named after, served as a US Senator representing which state, his birthplace?
Answer: Pennsylvania
58. Some have speculated that the "33" on each bottle of what beer, brewed in a small Pennsylvania town 34 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, refers to the year of the founding of the Pittsburgh Steelers?
Answer: Rolling Rock
59. In 1889, the first Carnegie Library opened in Braddock, a suburb of what Pennsylvania city?
Answer: Pittsburgh
60. Called a "giant brain" by the media, ENIAC was a pioneering computer that debuted in 1946 after being built in secret at what southernmost Ivy League university?
Answer: University of Pennsylvania
61. The Wildcats are what the students and alumni call themselves at what "V" institution that's the oldest Catholic university in Pennsylvania and is the home of their current mascot Will D. Cat?
Answer: Villanova University
62. In addition to claiming the nation's oldest hospital, which Ivy League university is home to the Perelman School of Medicine, the oldest medical school in the U.S.?
Answer: The University of Pennsylvania
63. What is the name of the "Island" that had a famous nuclear accident with a radiation leak in Pennsylvania in 1979?
Answer: Three Mile Island
64. As of July 2018, what U.S. state has the highest gas tax at 58.7 cents per gallon?
Answer: Pennsylvania
65. Which U.S. president, the 15h, was the only president to ever be from Pennsylvania?
Answer: James Buchanan
66. What 2009 Philipp Meyer novel, set in a fictional southwestern Pennsylvania town, has a title that refers to the declining fortunes of steel towns in the U.S.?
Answer: American Rust
67. Cheyney University and Lincoln University are both in Pennsylvania and both claim the distinction of being the nation's first what?
Answer: HBCU
68. Killing a man in self-defense and starting a career in social work are among the many plot points for Llanview, Pennsylvania resident Rachel Gannon, a character on what long-running soap opera?
Answer: One Life to Live
69. Even though the kiddos traveled all around the country to compete and the show had a few spin-offs in other parts of the U.S., what state did the original “Dance Moms” cast hail from (i.e., the location of Abby Lee Miller’s studio)?
Answer: Pennsylvania
70. Electrobat, the first commercially viable electric car, was patented in the 1890s by Pedro Salom and Henry G. Morris, inventors from what Northeast U.S. city?
Answer: Philadelphia
71. What alliterative toy, in which a magnet is used to trace metal filings over a cartoon face, was first introduced by a Pennsylvania toy company in 1955?
Answer: Wooly Willy
72. The border between Pennsylvania and Delaware is based upon a twelve-mile circle drawn from a courthouse in what Delaware city?
Answer: New Castle
73. Simon Cameron received quite the plum position as Secretary of War after delivering Lincoln the delegation of what key state at the Republican National Convention?
Answer: Pennsylvania
74. Bill Mazeroski hit a walk-off home run in Game 7 to clinch the Pittsburgh Pirates’ World Series victory over the New York Yankees in what year? In that same year, the Pennsylvania Republican Party voted to nominate Richard Nixon for president in a losing campaign.
Answer: 1960
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