Winter Wars
Which Revolutionary War encampment is remembered for the severe winter of 1777-1778?
Valley Forge
Kwanzaa, created in 1966, celebrates the culture and heritage of which group of people?
African Americans
Which Mongol leader launched a successful winter campaign to conquer the Jin Dynasty in 1211?
Genghis Khan
Which Asian revolutionary leader led a “Long March” through harsh winter conditions in the 1930s?
Mao Zedong
Which president famously pardoned a turkey on Christmas Eve, starting a holiday tradition that continues to this day?
John F. Kennedy
What U.S. Civil War battle was famously fought in freezing rain and snow in December 1862?
The Battle of Fredericksburg
What pagan festival celebrated the winter solstice with feasts, fire, and merriment in pre-Christian Scandinavia?
Yule
Which British queen famously introduced Christmas trees to royal celebrations in the 1840s?
Queen Victoria
The harsh winter famine of 1788-1789 contributed to the fall of which French monarch?
Louis XVI
Which U.S. president’s inauguration was one coldest on record and led to the president dying from pneumonia shortly thereafter?
William Henry Harrison
Napoleon’s army suffered significant losses during the winter retreat of 1812 in what country?
Russia
In what year was Christmas declared a federal holiday in the United States?
1870
Which Soviet leader oversaw the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in the lead-up to the Winter War?
Joseph Stalin
During what winter rebellion in 1905 did Russian workers march on the Winter Palace, only to be met with violent suppression?
Bloody Sunday
Who was the president during the Klondike Gold Rush?
William McKinley
What German military operation failed in the Soviet Union during the winter of 1942-1943, marking a turning point in World War II?
Operation Barbarossa
What German reformer is credited with popularizing the use of Christmas trees?
Martin Luther
Which Russian czar ordered the construction of St. Petersburg, often called the “City of Ice” due to its frozen winters?
Peter the Great
Which winter event in 1914 saw soldiers from opposing sides of World War I come together to celebrate Christmas, exchange gifts, and play soccer in the trenches?
Christmas Truce of 1914
Which president, spent Christmas in Panama while overseeing the construction of the Panama Canal, and took time to deliver a Christmas message to American troops stationed there?
William Howard Taft
Which country successfully defended itself against a Soviet invasion during the Winter War of 1939-1940?
Finland
Which Roman festival celebrated during the winter solstice involved gift-giving, feasts, and revelry, influencing Christmas traditions?
Saturnalia
What Viking explorer is credited with settling Greenland during its mild climatic period, later known as the Medieval Warm Period?
Erik the Red
Which 1956 uprising, resulted in Soviet forces violently quashing a revolt against communist rule?
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
Which president became the first to light the National Christmas Tree at the White House, a tradition that continues each year?
Calvin Coolidge