120 History Speech Topics [and Cultural Artifact Speech]

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Written By Jim Peterson

Jim Peterson has over 20 years experience on speech writing. He wrote over 300 free speech topic ideas and how-to guides for any kind of public speaking and speech writing assignments at My Speech Class.

Information speech topics about working out history topics for verbal or essay writing. Historical figures, events, periods and movements, and timelines are very good sources for authentic talks.

Most informative public speaking speech examples aren’t easy to move to your speech class. So, use pictures, video, or slide sheets to make your point.

History Speech

history speech topics
Here are some models people very much like to hear a public speaker talking about:

  • Different past calendars.
  • Rise and fall of Carthage.
  • Celtic myths and legends.
  • Hieroglyphs, Rosetta Stone.
  • Inca and Maya civilizations.
  • The mummification process.
  • Medieval knighthood orders.
  • Pyramid construction theories.
  • Roman Empire ruled by senators.
  • The meaning of Stonehenge.

And what do you think of these famous periods and events?

  • Ancient Egypt
  • Ancient Greece
  • Ancient Rome
  • Cold War
  • Crusades
  • Enlightenment
  • French
  • Revolution
  • Information Age
  • Mesopotamia KingdomMiddle Ages
  • Modern Age
  • Nuclear Age
  • Prehistory
  • Reformation
  • Renaissance
  • Romanticism
  • Victorian
  • Age
  • Viking Age

Research the following questions and the information speech topics will flow out of your pen while looking for answers:

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  • What happened? When? How? Where?
  • What was the value or impact?
  • What are the major parts and facts?
  • Why was this age or period important?
  • Who played a major role?

How to research your information speech topics about people who played a vital role in the past? Well, check this out in bygone times-books or on the net.

Another list of history speech ideas for training public speakers and high school or college essay writing: famous historical figures and people. Tell their story, how they made the difference in their time:

  • Abraham Lincoln
  • Adam Smith
  • Albert Einstein
  • Alexander Graham
  • Bell
  • Alexander the Great
  • Alfred Nobel
  • Andy Warhol
  • Archimedes
  • Augustus
  • Ayatollah
  • Khomeini
  • Benjamin Franklin
  • Caligula
  • Captain James Cook
  • Charles de Gaulle
  • Claude Monet
  • Cleopatra
  • Confucius
  • David
  • Livingstone
  • Dwight Eisenhower
  • Elizabeth I
  • Erasmus
  • Florence Nightingale
  • Franklin D
  • Roosevelt
  • Galileo Galilei
  • George Washington Hannibal
  • Harry S Truman
  • Henry Kissinger
  • Henry VIII
  • Ho
  • Chi Minh
  • Imhotep
  • Isaac Newton
  • Jack the Ripper
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  • Joan of Arc
  • John Adams
  • John
  • F Kennedy
  • John Maynard Keynes
  • Joseph Stalin
  • Julius Caesar
  • King Arthur
  • King Tutankhamun
  • Konrad Adenauer
  • Leonardo da Vinci
  • Louis Pasteur
  • Mao Zedong
  • Marco Polo
  • Margaret Thatcher
  • Marie
  • Curie
  • Martin Luther Martin Luther King
  • Mary, Queen of Scots
  • Maximilien Robespierre
  • Michelangelo
  • Mohandas
  • Gandhi
  • Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Nelson Mandela
  • Nero
  • Nicholas II Tsar of Russia
  • Pablo Picasso
  • Pol
  • Pot
  • Rameses the Great
  • Rembrandt
  • Richard Nixon
  • Ronald Reagan
  • Sigmund Freud
  • Thomas Jefferson
  • Tiberius
  • Titus
  • Vasco
  • da Gama
  • Vincent Van Gogh
  • Vladimir Lenin
  • William Shakespeare
  • Winston Churchill
  • Woodrow Wilson

History Information Speech Topics

And here are some interesting history speech topic ideas:

  1. Dinosaurs and how they left the face of the earth.
  2. The role of Jawaharlal Nehru in India’s independence.
  3. John F. Kennedy’s scandals and assassination.
  4. The importance of the Great Wall of China.
  5. The patterns of U.S. immigration.
  6. The fire at Yellowstone National Park in 1988.
  7. The history of immigrants in the American workforce.
  8. The real origin of the fortune cookie.
  9. The history of Native American tribes.
  10. The history of the use of human cadavers.
  11. The history of American comic books.
  12. The history of witchcraft.
  13. The history of antibiotics.
  14. The history of English rule in South Africa.
  15. How World War Two started and ended.
  16. The evolution of the English language.
  17. Gold rushes outside of California.
  18. The life and works of Mahatma Gandhi.
  19. The life and works of Mother Teresa.
  20. The effects of U.S. colonialism.
  21. The history of Valentine’s day.
  22. The seven wonders of the world.
  23. Leaders that changed the world.
  24. The history of fringe political parties.
  25. The history of early 20th century filmmaking.
  26. The history of the Dominican Republic.
  27. People who have changed the world.
  28. The lighthouse of Alexandria.
  29. The history of feminism.
  30. The great escape of Alcatraz.
  31. The history of chalk.
  32. The Assyrian genocide.
  33. The history of tobacco use.
  34. The black arts of 13th century.
  35. The history of the Selma civil rights march.
  36. The best accidental inventions.
  37. The origins of nursery rhymes.
  38. How the Civil War started.
  39. The history of Halloween.
  40. The industrial revolution.
  41. What was the poor law act?
  42. The origins of superstitions.
  43. The evolution of voting laws.
  44. The history of the British royal family.
  45. The origin of alphabets.
  46. The history of medicine.
  47. The history of nomadic people in Libya.
  48. How the Cold War began.
  49. The history of women in the military.
  50. Censorship throughout history.
  51. The history of the Great Depression.
  52. The life of Helen Keller.
  53. The heroes of World War II.
  54. The most famous Civil War generals.
  55. The origin of holidays.
  56. How the Columbine massacre happened.
  57. The history of the Supreme Court.
  58. The history of model trains.
  59. The most famous diplomats in history.
  60. The funniest inventions in history.
  61. The most famous robberies in history.
  62. The most famous speeches in history.
  63. The history of honor killings.
  64. The history of organized crime.
  65. Life during the middle ages.
  66. The causes of the Afghanistan war.
  67. The history of the national park system.
  68. The history of Indian culture.
  69. The history of labor unions.
  70. The history of street gangs.
  71. The most famous riots in history.
  72. The history of batteries.
  73. The craziest laws and their history.

Cultural Artifact Speech

Cultural artifact speech topics for those who urgently needs to build a a 3 to 5 minute reflective informative public speech based on an object in which you reveal civilizing information about its maker(s) and user(s).

What Is
First a common definition to start with. A cultural artifact is:

  1. created by man;
  2. tells us something about the creator(s);
  3. tells us something about the people who use it;
  4. tells us something about the cultural background and/or historical time of its creator and users.

In advance you can present the following information about the cultural artifact speech topics of your choice:

  1. how it is made;
  2. to what means.

What Are
Almost everything that you can think of could serve as idea. Not only archaeological objects, also even things from this century. As long as you are able to provide the information in the points above. Key term is: cultural background info!

Examples of Cultural Artifact Speech Topics

  1. 17th century ship cannon
  2. African tribal basket
  3. Ancient copper chisels
  4. Ancient Phoenician glass
  5. Ancient Roman military uniform
  6. Army uniform patches
  7. Australian Aboriginal didgeridoo
  8. Bronze Age artifacts
  9. Buddhist prayer flags
  10. Çatalhöyük murals, Turkey
  11. Celtic bronze fibula-brooch
  12. Chinese New Year dragon
  13. City police badge
  14. Code of Hammurabi, California
  15. College student club ties
  16. Commemorative coffee mugs
  17. Confederate Civil War belt plate
  18. Crystal Skulls
  19. Eastern Orthodox Christianity icons
  20. Firefighter artifacts
  21. French Louis XVI chair
  22. High school flags
  23. Historical markers and monuments in your town
  24. Missouri Indian necklace
  25. Native American arrowheads
  26. Old Alaska Eskimo tools
  27. Participation medals, e.g. Olympic Medals and the story
  28. Political campaign buttons
  29. Salutation Royal Mail stamps
  30. Ships in bottles, how to make those nautical artifacts
  31. Shipwreck Treasure Coins
  32. Sioux Rawhide parfleches and storage boxes
  33. Sixteenth-century poison ring
  34. Stained glass window in church
  35. Stone Sculpture from Guerrero, Mexico
  36. Sung Dynasty jar of Chinese ceramic art
  37. Teotihuacan Aztec pottery in Mexico
  38. The Black Stone in Mecca in the wall of the Kaaba
  39. The ceramic mask of the head of the jackal god Anubis, Germany
  40. The Terracotta Armyin the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, China
  41. The Thiruvalluvar Statue, Tamil Nadu, India
  42. The vuvuzela or lepatata Mambu
  43. The origin of the Jack Sparrow Tricorn hat
  44. Ukhahlamba cave paintings, Drakensberg Park, South Africa
  45. Vintage golf plaques and their story
  46. Wooden farmer shoes people in Holland wear
  47. Your own stuffed teddy bear and the history of bears for kids.

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