General Knowledge
Which Came First Quiz
Inventions, discoveries, and events — test your sense of historical chronology.
Inventions, discoveries, and events — test your sense of historical chronology.
Oxford University was founded in 1096, more than two centuries before the Aztec Empire began in 1325. Our sense of historical chronology is often wildly wrong, and this quiz will prove it with 50 mind-bending timeline questions.
Each round presents 10 randomized multiple-choice questions drawn from a pool of 50, so every playthrough is different. You get instant feedback with explanations after each answer, plus a shareable score at the end.
This quiz covers surprising chronological facts about inventions (fax machine vs telephone, sliced bread vs microwave), ancient history (sharks before trees, mammoths during the Pyramids), pop culture firsts (first movie, first video game, first email), food history, and the mind-bending timeline overlaps that make history so fascinating.
Yes! Oxford University began teaching as early as 1096 and was well established by 1167. The Aztec Empire didn't begin until 1325 when Tenochtitlan was founded. That means Oxford was already over 200 years old when the Aztecs started building their empire.
Yes! Alexander Bain patented the first fax machine concept in 1843, over 30 years before Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent in 1876. The early fax used chemical and electrical signals to transmit images over telegraph wires.
Absolutely. Sharks have been around for about 450 million years, while the first trees (Archaeopteris) appeared about 350 million years ago. Sharks predate trees by roughly 100 million years and have survived all five mass extinction events.
Last updated: April 2026