Random History Topic Generator

Ways to use this list

• Class projects: spin once per student with Remove the winner on, so everyone researches a different topic, then pin the results on a class timeline.
• Grades 3–5: press Ancient world or Middle Ages for topics with plenty of children's books in most school libraries.
• Historical fiction: press History stories for story ideas set in the past; each story must include three true facts about the time.
• Compare and contrast: set Winners to 2 and ask what changed and what stayed the same between the two topics.
• Lesson starter: spin a topic and give the class one minute to list everything they already know about it, then look at the list again at the end of the unit.
• Timeline game for older students: place each spun topic on a blank timeline and explain why it goes there, then check against the full list below.

Press Spin the wheel, tap the game or press the Space bar. Change the list in the box as you like: add your own, delete what doesn't suit you, or write *2 after an entry to give it double the chance. The game buttons switch the same list to a duck race, hat, claw machine and more.

The full list (52 entries)

• Stone Age cave paintings – prehistory
• Stonehenge – prehistory, built in stages from about 3000 BC
• Mesopotamia and the first writing – ancient world
• Ancient Egypt – ancient world
• The pyramids of Giza – ancient world
• Egyptian hieroglyphs – ancient world
• The Indus Valley civilisation – ancient world
• Ancient China – ancient world
• The Great Wall of China – built and rebuilt over many centuries
• Ancient Greece – ancient world
• The ancient Olympic Games – ancient world, from 776 BC by tradition
• Ancient Rome – ancient world
• Roman roads and aqueducts – ancient world
• The Terracotta Army – ancient world, made for China's first emperor
• The Silk Road – ancient world to the Middle Ages
• The Maya – ancient world to the Middle Ages, Mexico and Central America
• Polynesian ocean navigators – ancient world to the Middle Ages, Pacific Ocean
• The Vikings – Middle Ages, late 700s to 1066
• Medieval castles – Middle Ages
• Knights and coats of arms – Middle Ages
• Samurai of Japan – Middle Ages to the 1800s
• Great Zimbabwe – Middle Ages, southern Africa
• The Kingdom of Mali – Middle Ages, West Africa
• The Aztecs – 1300s to 1500s, Mexico
• The Inca and Machu Picchu – 1400s to 1500s, Peru
• The printing press – 1400s in Europe; printing began much earlier in China
• The Renaissance – 1300s to 1600s, Europe
• Leonardo da Vinci's inventions – late 1400s to early 1500s
• The building of the Taj Mahal – 1600s, India
• Life on a sailing ship – 1500s to 1800s
• The Great Fire of London – 1666
• The golden age of piracy – late 1600s to early 1700s
• The Industrial Revolution – about 1760 to 1840, starting in Britain
• The first steam railways – 1800s
• Fossil hunters of the 1800s – 1800s
• The invention of photography – 1820s and 1830s
• The California Gold Rush – 1848 to 1855
• The invention of the telephone – 1870s
• Electric light in homes – late 1800s
• The first cars – 1880s onwards
• The Wright brothers' first flight – 1903
• The Titanic – 1912
• The race to the South Pole – 1910 to 1912
• The discovery of penicillin – 1928
• The home front in World War II – 1939 to 1945
• Codebreakers of World War II – 1939 to 1945
• The first computers – 1940s
• The Moon landing – 1969
• The history of the internet – 1960s to today
• Schools 100 years ago – 1920s
• The history of chocolate – from the ancient Americas to today
• Toys through time – any period

↺ Put this list back in the picker 📋 Copy the list ⬇️ Download (.txt) See all 263 ready-made lists

📖 Related guide: How to pick students at random, fairly