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 Famous Speeches

Rabble-rousers of History, if there were ever one. How much do you know about the words that inspired people through the ages?

Click here to flip columns.

 
 About the Speech Speech Title
35.
Famous speech from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. The speech was delivered by Pericles, an eminent Athenian politician, at the end of the first year of the Peloponnesian War (431/0 BCE) as a part of the annual public funeral for the war dead.
 
 
AnswerPericles' Funeral Oration
34.
Valedictory speech given by General Douglas MacArthur at West Point on 12 May 1962.
 
 
AnswerDuty, honor, Country
33.
Speech delivered by Confederate Vice President, Alexander Stephens extemporaneously in Savannah, Georgia on March 21, 1861. The speech explained the differences were between the constitution of the Confederate Republic and that of the United States, laid out the Confederate causes for the American Civil War, and defended slavery.
 
 
AnswerCornerstone Speech
32.
Phrase that is associated with John Winthrop's sermon, "A Model of Christian Charity," given in 1630. Winthrop warned the Puritan colonists of New England who were to found the Massachusetts Bay Colony that their new community would be a this (X) watched by the world.
 
 
AnswerCity upon a Hill
31.
Speech delivered by President Woodrow Wilson of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress on January 8, 1918. In his speech, Wilson intended to set out a blueprint for lasting peace in Europe after World War I.
 
 
AnswerFourteen Points Speech
30.
Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he defends himself against the charges of being a man "who corrupted the young, did not believe in the gods, and created new deities".
 
 
AnswerThe Apology of Socrates
29.
Speech made by Mahatma Gandhi on August 8th 1942, on the eve of a famous movement where he called for determined, but passive resistance that signified the certitude that Gandhi foresaw for the movement as best described by his call to Do or Die.
 
 
AnswerQuit India Speech
28.
Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev famously used an expression generally translated into English as this (X) while addressing Western ambassadors at a reception in Moscow in November, 1956. The translation has been controversial because it was presented out of context as being belligerent.
 
 
Answer"We will bury you!"
27.
Salvador Allende's last speech.
 
 
AnswerThe great avenues will open again...
26.
Speeches given in 63 BC by Marcus Tullius Cicero, the consul of Rome, exposing to the Roman Senate the plot of Lucius Sergius Catilina and his friends to overthrow the Roman government.
 
 
AnswerCatiline Orations
25.
Speech delivered on December 8, 1941 by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, one day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
 
 
AnswerInfamy Speech
24.
Popular name given to the historic public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., when he spoke of his desire for a future where blacks and whites would coexist harmoniously as equals.
 
 
Answer"I Have a Dream"
23.
One of the most famous of 30 fireside chats broadcast on the radio by United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was read on December 29, 1940, at a time when Nazi Germany had conquered much of Europe and threatened Britain. Franklin Roosevelt had referred to Detroit as this (X) when the auto industry geared up to produce weaponry during World War II.
 
 
Answer"Arsenal of Democracy"
22.
Speech delivered by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels at the Berlin Sportpalast to a large but carefully-selected audience on 18 February 1943, as the tide of World War II was turning against Nazi Germany.
 
 
AnswerSportpalast Speech or Total War Speech
21.
Speech in which four goals were famously articulated by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the State of the Union Address he delivered to the 77th United States Congress on January 6, 1941.
 
 
AnswerFour Freedoms Speech
20.
One of the most famous sermons preached by Jonathan Edwards, a prominent Calvinist Congregational minister, in Enfield, Connecticut, in 1741. It is frequently used in American high school and college English courses as an example of Puritan literature.
 
 
AnswerSinners in the Hands of an Angry God
19.
Speech delivered by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago advocating Bimetallism.
 
 
AnswerCross of Gold Speech
18.
A famous speech made on December 10, 1992 by then Prime Minister of Australia Paul Keating at Redfern Park. The speech dealt with the challenges faced by Indigenous Australians.
 
 
AnswerRedfern Park Speech
17.
Speech made by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on August 20, 1940, at the height of the Battle of Britain referring the RAF. It is best remembered for his use of the phrase "the few" to describe the Allied aircrew of Royal Air Force (RAF).
 
 
AnswerNever was so much owed by so many to so few
16.
A famous quotation attributed to Patrick Henry from a speech made to the Virginia House of Burgesses.
 
 
AnswerGive me Liberty, or give me Death!
15.
A speech given on 28 June 1989 by Slobodan Milošević, then President of Serbia. It was the centrepiece of a day-long event to mark the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo. The speech has since become famous for Milošević's reference to the possibility of "armed battles", in the future of Serbia's national development.
 
 
AnswerGazimestan Speech
14.
The famous challenge from United States President Ronald Reagan to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to destroy the Berlin Wall.
 
 
AnswerTear down this wall
13.
Speech made by Marcus Tullius Cicero on behalf of his friend Titus Annius Milo. Milo was accused of murdering his political enemy Publius Clodius Pulcher on the Via Appia. The speech was written by Cicero in 52 BC.
 
 
AnswerPro Milone
12.
The concluding sentence and subsequent title of a four-hour speech made by Fidel Castro on 16 October 1953. Castro made the speech in his own defense in court against the charges brought against him after leading an attack on the Moncada Barracks. Though no record of Castro's words was kept, he reconstructed them later for publication in what was to become the manifesto of his 26th of July Movement.
 
 
AnswerHistory Will Absolve Me
11.
Speech delivered in the summer of 1588 by Queen Elizabeth I of England to the land forces assembled at Tilbury in Essex in preparation to repel the expected invasion by the Spanish Armada.
 
 
AnswerSpeech to the Troops at Tilbury
10.
A historically-important address made by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to the Parliament of South Africa, on 3 February 1960 in Cape Town. The speech signalled clearly that the British Government intended to grant independence to many of these territories, which indeed happened subsequently, with most of the British possessions in Africa becoming independent nations in the 1960s.
 
 
AnswerWind of Change Speech
9.
The most famous speech of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and one of the most quoted speeches in United States history.
 
 
AnswerGettsburg Address
8.
A famous speech by Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the Free French Forces, in 1940. The appeal is the origin of the French Resistance to the German occupation during World War II. It is one of the most important speeches in French history.
 
 
AnswerAppeal of 18 June
7.
Most famous speech made by Malcolm X.
 
 
AnswerThe Ballet or the Bullet
6.
Speech made by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of the Republic of India to the Indian Constituent Assembly, on the eve of India's independence, towards midnight on August 14, 1947.
 
 
AnswerTryst with destiny Speech
5.
Three speeches given during the period of the Battle of France by Winston Churchill. Each of these speeches were a great inspiration to an embattled United Kingdom as it entered what was probably the most dangerous phase of the entire war.
 
 
Answer"Blood, toil, tears, and sweat", "We shall fight on the beaches" and "This was their finest hour".
4.
Title of a famous speech by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck given in 1862 about the unification of the German territories.
 
 
AnswerBlood and Iron
3.
In the concession speech given by Parti Québécois Premier Jacques Parizeau after narrowly losing 50.58% to 49.42% in the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty, he blamed the defeat on this (X).
 
 
AnswerMoney and the ethnic vote
2.
The climactic closing words of the graveside oration of Patrick Pearse at the funeral of Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa on 1 August 1915. The oration roused Irish republican feeling and was a significant element in the lead-up to the Easter Rising of 1916.
 
 
Answer"Ireland unfree shall never be at peace"
1.
A famous quotation from a June 26, 1963, speech of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin. He was underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after the Soviet-supported Communist state of East Germany erected the Berlin Wall as a barrier to prevent movement between East and West.
 
 
Answer"Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a citizen of Berlin")
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