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Which Came First? 33 Questions That Will Surprise You

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Which Came First? 33 Questions That Will Surprise You

About this quiz

Which came first? 33 surprising matchups of inventions, buildings and events from history. ⏳

The Great Pyramid or the last woolly mammoths? The fax machine or the telephone? The tin can or the can opener? Pick what came first, then see the dates. Great for family quiz nights, road trips and classrooms.

❓ IN THIS QUIZ

  • Which came first: the Great Pyramid or the last woolly mammoths?
  • Which came first: the fax machine or the telephone?
  • Which came first: the lighter or the match?
  • Which came first: the chicken or the egg?

💬 How many did you get right? Tell us your score in the comments. Which answer surprised you most?

How to play

  1. Read the question and look at the pictures.
  2. Pick your answer before the timer runs out (or switch the timer off).
  3. See if you were right and read the fun fact.
Answers and fun facts (spoilers!)
  1. Let's play which came first! Here's the first one.
    Great Pyramid
    The Great Pyramid: about 2560 BC. The Colosseum opened in AD 80.
  2. Which came first?
    Stonehenge
    Work on Stonehenge began around 3000 BC, before the Great Pyramid!
  3. Which came first?
    Telephone
    Telephone 1876, car 1886, airplane 1903.
  4. Which came first?
    Steam train
    Steam locomotive 1804, the first bicycle 1817, the car 1886.
  5. Which came first?
    Great Pyramid
    The Great Pyramid was built around 2560 BC, and woolly mammoths were still alive on an Arctic island until about 2000 BC!
  6. Which came first?
    Chocolate bar
    First chocolate bar 1847, cola 1886, sliced bread 1928.
  7. Which came first?
    Radio
    Radio in the 1890s, television in the 1920s, the internet's ancestor in 1969.
  8. Which came first?
    Fax machine
    A fax-type device was patented in 1843, more than 30 years before the telephone!
  9. Which came first?
    Lighter
    The first lighter was invented in 1823, the friction match in 1826!
  10. Which came first?
    Printing press
    Gutenberg's press 1440, Columbus 1492, Shakespeare born 1564.
  11. Which came first?
    First Olympics
    Olympics 776 BC, Roman Empire 27 BC, Colosseum AD 80.
  12. Which came first?
    Tin can
    The tin can was patented in 1810, but the can opener only came in 1855!
  13. Which came first?
    Button
    Buttons are thousands of years old. Zipper 1913, Velcro 1955.
  14. Which came first?
    Harvard
    Harvard was founded in 1636, before calculus was invented in the 1660s!
  15. Which came first?
    US independence
    US independence 1776, first manned balloon flight 1783, French Revolution 1789.
  16. Which came first?
    First airplane flight
    First flight 1903, Titanic 1912, World War I 1914.
  17. Which came first?
    Photograph
    First photograph about 1826, telegraph 1837, typewriter 1868.
  18. Which came first?
    Tenochtitlan
    Tenochtitlan was founded in 1325, Machu Picchu around 1450, Columbus arrived in 1492.
  19. Which came first?
    Pencil
    Graphite pencils go back to the 1500s! The sandwich got its name in the 1700s.
  20. Which came first?
    Vikings
    Vikings reached North America around the year 1000, almost 500 years before Columbus!
  21. Which came first?
    Stegosaurus
    Stegosaurus lived before the first flowers appeared about 130 million years ago!
  22. Which came first?
    Big Ben
    Big Ben's tower 1859, Statue of Liberty 1886, Eiffel Tower 1889.
  23. Which came first?
    X-rays
    X-rays 1895, insulin 1922, penicillin 1928.
  24. Which came first?
    Microwave oven
    The first microwave oven was sold in 1947!
  25. Which came first?
    Ballpoint pen
    The ballpoint pen was patented by Hungarian László Bíró in 1938!
  26. Which came first?
    Hadrian's Wall
    Hadrian's Wall AD 122, Notre-Dame begun 1163, Machu Picchu around 1450.
  27. Which came first?
    Mayflower voyage
    Mayflower 1620, Taj Mahal finished 1653, Great Fire 1666.
  28. Which came first?
    Coins
    Coins about 2,600 years ago, paper money in China over 1,000 years ago, credit cards in the 1950s.
  29. Which came first?
    Abacus
    The abacus is thousands of years old!
  30. Which came first?
    Gutenberg Bible
    Gutenberg Bible about 1455, Columbus 1492, Mona Lisa begun around 1503.
  31. Which came first?
    Neanderthals died out
    Neanderthals vanished about 40,000 years ago; the Lascaux cave paintings are about 17,000 years old.
  32. Which came first?
    Sun
    The Sun formed about 4.6 billion years ago, then Earth, then the Moon.
  33. Final question, the big one! Which came first: the chicken or the egg?
    The egg
    Animals were laying eggs hundreds of millions of years before chickens existed!