(2-part post):
How about a nice easy (?) multi-choice question to get your quiz going? (A good quiz should always have plenty of questions which allow for 'guessing'. Otherwise competitors can get frustrated by a string of questions to which they don't know the answers, and can't guess).:
Q1: Many scholars now believe that America was named after Richard Ameryk, rather than after Amerigo Vespucc. Which country did Ricard Ameryk hail from? England? Scotland? Ireland? or Wales?
A1: Wales
Here's another one which allows for a bit of guessing:
Q2: How many US presidents have had the same initial for bith their forename and surname?
A2: 3 (Wilson Woodrow, Herbert Hoover & Ronald Reagan).
However, if I was asked to write a quiz with 'an American theme', I'd be looking beyond national history.
I'd be seeking to include something like this question:
Q3: Which singer won $5, and a free ticket to all the fair rides at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair, on October 3rd, 1945?
A3: Elvis Presley.
'Sequential' questions are good:
Q4: What happened at Max Yasgur's farm in August 1969?
A4: The Woodstock festival
and:
Q5: What didn't happen on a farm near Grover's Mill, New Jersey on 30th October 1938, but still caused alarm across large parts of America?
A5: A Martian Invasion. (The broadcast of George Orwell's "War of the Worlds', in the format of a news report, caused widespread panic).