texts: Were Rosa Parks and Freedom Riders the first ones to use a bus to protest/change?

texts:
Buses have been around since the turn of the century. Specifically motor mass-produced buses since 1910 according to wikipedia. Now Rosa Parks did her famous civil action bit in 1955 of refusal to move. While others later appropriated the use of bus to drive change such as Freedom Riders and many others. Was Rosa Parks the first person to use bus to make a non-violent protest using bus as a prop or are/were there any others before her who used it in some different context ?

Similarly were Freedom Riders the first to use the bus to use it as a dialog or others had before no matter what the context.

I want to know if anything "interesting" happened between 1910 - 1955 which was not just about travelling, accidents or robberies/death etc. If not, then they would be the first ones to use buses in the manner that they did.


texts: Is there a historical explanation as to why the USA people are so litigious compared to the French?

texts:
I'm French and I often hear that people in USA tend to sue for almost anything. I don't hear the same about countries neighboring France (Spain, Italia, Belgium, etc..) and, since a good part of USA citizens historically came from Europe, I'm wondering where this different way of dealing with the Law comes from.

An article at European American Chamber of Commerce website

  In his book, “Exploring Global Landscapes of Litigation,” Christian Wollschlager notes that the litigation rates per 1,000 people shows that European nations top the list of the world’s most litigious countries. Here is a list of the top 5 most litigious countries by capita: 1. Germany: 123.2/1,000 2. Sweden: 111.2/1,000 3. Israel: 96.8/1,000 4. Austria: 95.9/1,000 5. U.S.: 74.5/1,000.  The Top 10 also includes the UK (64.4); Denmark (62.5); Hungary (52.4); Portugal (40.7); and France (40.3).

An article in Fordham Urban Law Journal, titled Higher Demand, Lower Supply? A Comparative Assessment of the Legal Resource Landscape for Ordinary Americans (shared by @user2705196)

The authors report that the USA has more than twice as many lawyers per capita than Germany and more than six times as many civil cases per capita (and five times as many criminal cases per capita).

I'm aware of the "today" explanation:

In France, a lawsuit takes a very long time (years) and costs a lot of money (without much to gain from winning) which isn't the case in the USA. But what brings these differences in the first place?

Is it because the country is, in some way, still "young" with way fewer laws (I have no idea if this is actually the case)? Or is it something else?

What explains this (seemingly) huge cultural difference?


texts: What is the usage of a small wash-house in Versailles during Louis XIV times?

texts:
I was searching for the usage of a small construction on the edge of the Versailles Castle gardens (the stone thing on the left on the picture below, one of the gates (Saint-Antoine) is on the right):

It is located far from the castle, near the Queen's village:

I found out that this is a wash-house (which ends decades of wondering about that each time I passed next to it and always forgot to check).

This raised another question, though. Versailles was known for its lack of hygiene but the king and its court were changing shirts several times per day, which required massive washing.

Why would there be a single, small wash-house located over there? I did not see any others in the Versailles gardens, so I do not think it would be for the usage of someone leaving next to the gates. It is way to small to be the official one for the castle either.

Any ideas?


texts: What do I need to know about Syria's history to understand the 2011-2012 uprising?

texts:
Syria is in the news a lot lately due to the current uprising, but it's not a country that many people know much about.  It can trace its history back to the origins of civilization, and as a result its wikipedia page is far too dense to be quickly comprehensible.

Give me the "elevator pitch" about Syria's history as it pertains to the 2011-2012 uprising.  What are the main factors in its history that are going to most influence what is likely to happen in this current struggle?  Why does its current government appear to be taking its cues from the 19th century?  Are the uprisings a pure "peoples' revolt" or are there any ethnic or religious angles that might lead to some sort of border redrawing (ala the breakups of Yugoslavia and Soviet Union)?  What other must-know facts are there, that would impress my friends?


texts: For steam trains, what kind of deaerator was used, if any?

texts:
Deaerators are things that remove dissolved gasses in water. Dissolved O2 and CO2 in water will result in boiler corrosion.

So I'm wondering how this was done back in the old days of steam trains, roughly 1830 to 1900. Did every water station have it's own deaerator? Did they just use chemical scavengers to remove the O2 and CO2?


texts: Is there any good reason to call the German Emperor "the Kaiser", implying something uniquely German about him?

texts:
It is common, in History-Channel-Grade English language documentaries at least, to refer to German emperors, and William II in particular, as "the Kaiser".
This is just the German term for emperor though, and it is used in this exact way in Germany.

Why is "Kaiser" used for German emperors, but the English word "Emperor" is used for other (non-English) emperors? (e.g. Chandragupta, Napoleon and others)

(Note that the question may be based on a false premise; as noted in the referenced article, Napoleon was "Imperator", the emperor of the Bulgarians was "Czar", the emperor of Spain had a Spanish title; I'm not sure how the History Channel grade documentaries refer to them.)


texts:
How good was a 40 years old or 50 years old frontline warrior expected to be historically? Experienced or decrepit?

I know boxing champion statistics, but war is more complicated than boxing.


texts: When did the use of fabricated speeches in historical works go out of fashion?

texts:
In his History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides includes a number of made up speeches based upon "what was called for in each situation". While this is frowned upon in modern histories, it seems to have been perfectly acceptable practice then and their inclusion had no bearing on the historicity of the rest of the work. Every work by an ancient historian that I have read contains such speeches, although the quality and relevance to the situation varies.

What was the first documented case of a historian expressing opposition to the use of fabricated speeches? When did the practice begin to lose acceptance amongst historians in general? What were the reasons for this change of view?


texts: Please help me identify the military uniform in picture below

texts: Can anyone identify this military uniform?


texts: What constitutes a country's military being called a "Defence Force"?

texts:
I've been looking at countries around the world, particularly Commonwealth countries.
I've noticed Australia and New Zealand call their military a defence force. Is there a legal reason for this?
This can be for any country. I'm generally curious whether or not there is a set reason for these naming conventions.


texts: Were there women who were against giving women the right to vote?

texts:
The TV show Sherlock prompted an interesting question about the historical role of women during the United Kingdom's road to women's suffrage.
In the episode "The Abominable Bride" (set in Victorian London in 1895), there was a scene where Mrs. Watson says that she is part of a campaign to give women the right to vote:

MRS WATSON: I’m part of a campaign, you know.
LESTRADE: Oh yeah? Campaign?
MRS WATSON: Votes for Women.
LESTRADE: And are you – are you for or against?
MRS WATSON (sternly pointing to the stairs): Get out.

The scene was played for laughs with the joke being that Lestrade should have realized his question was misplaced; being a woman of course she would want the right to vote.
But this made me wonder; were there women in this era who historically were against giving women the right to vote? If so, what were their reasons?
I am interested in either organized campaigns led by women or prominent women who held this view. I'd like to know about UK movements, but similar movements outside of the UK would be interesting supplementary information too.


texts:
When I was studying, one student girl asked the teacher what is so bad with Nazism. She asked what's so bad if other peoples are exterminated? The teacher thought for a while and said that it would be boring without diversity.

Although the girl did not ask any more, I think this answer is not that satisfactory because existence of diversity is not that obviously good.

So what are the modern scholarly points of view criticizing Nazism which could be satisfactory to explain to a layman why Nazism is bad?


texts: Which have been the most and least successful Olympics in terms of economic impact?

texts:
When discussing the Olympics, politicians are always keen to stress the economic benefits that will flow to the host city. A number of commentators in the media, though, have suggested that the bulk of the economic benefits flow to the IOC and sponsors while taxpayers foot the bill (for example, this article discusses the impact on Sydney).

Economically, which have been the most successful and least successful Olympics? What were the special characteristics of these events that led to their economic success/failure?


texts: Did being a "Philhellene" in ancient times mean you were not a Greek?

texts:
Phil-hellene translates to "lover of Greeks"

If some one was a Philhellene in ancient times, is that a reliable indicator that they were "not" Greek? So far vie been able to find Romans and Egyptians described as Philhellenes but have also found the following:

Jason of Pherae
Evagoras of Cyprus
Phillip II of Macedon
Alexander I of Macedon

So is it safe to assume that a philhellene didn't necessarily have to mean non-Greek, given the few exceptions above?


texts: Is there a historical example or a manuscript about troop formation or fighting stance on a boat?

texts:
Is there a historical example or a manuscript about troop formation or fighting stance on any sort of boat or ship?

Especially during colonialism or the golden age of piracy, no specific location so world wide, although I want to know the European one more.

"Troop formation or fighting stance" refers to the person or the army on the ship, "stance" here refers to fighting stance (mostly melee weapon) or foot stance/step on the ship, troop formation is self explanatory but on the ship, not the ship itself.

Here is an example of a historical manual on sword/fighting stance from royal armouries (just an example);

Feel free to edit the tag if it's not appropriate, since I'm not sure the tag is right either and can't find a clearer one.


texts: Did Einstein really say this quote about time?

texts:
This quote is commonly attributed to Albert Einstein:

  The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.

However, there are many cases of quotes misattributed to Einstein. There are many sources that use this quote, and it's quite popular in image form (as shown by a simple Google Image search). There is no mention of it on Albert Einstein's Wikiquote page, which is otherwise pretty thorough, from what I can see.

What evidence is there that Einstein really said this?


texts:
What was the purpose of this WWII boat-looking bus?

Description says:

  Royal Navy officers 'aboard' 'HMS SPURIOUS MARK II' - a bus converted to resemble the island of an aircraft carrier. The bus is being driven along a runway or taxi way at Royal Naval Air Station East Haven at Carnoustie, Scotland.

I would like to write a Wikipedia article about it, so references are very appreciated :-)


texts: How were tanks scrapped after World War Two?

texts:
Both Axis & Allied nations produced thousands of tanks during the Second World War. However, not many of these vehicles survive to this day (there are exceptions of course). When reading about the fate of these vehicles, it's always said that these tanks were "scrapped" after the war for their resources.

What was the scrapping process? Are they pushed into a giant scary blender, or are they dismantled piece by piece and melted?

I would think the second method would make more sense, but then again, I also find cases like the M4 Sherman in Wibrin (Belgium) which was saved during scrapping to be preserved as a monument. (This tank looks like it was bitten in half.)

Can anyone clear this up for me and perhaps provide pictures of the scrapping process?

Thanks!


texts: Why did Russians have guns towards the end of the Mongol Yoke, but not the Mongols?

texts:
Russian soldiers first used firearms in 1382, against the Mongols (it is not mentioned in the article whether the Mongols also had guns). This would prove to be an insufficient advantage at the time, but a century later the firearms helped secure victory and break Mongol power in the West - according to Muscovite chronicles, the Mongols did not have any guns during the Great Stand, which contributed to their retreat.

However, according to this answer gunpowder got to Europe through the Mongols, or through the Silk Road (of which the Mongols controlled large sections), originating from China (which the Mongols controlled). The Mongols even used gunpowder weapons in their invasion of Korea, and used rockets against the Magyars in 1241.

Why then, many years later, did the Mongols lose access to firearms and gunpowder weapons, while their subject Russians gained them?


texts: What are the most famous individual toys in modern history?

texts:
Continuing my interest in the history of toys: Have there been any famous individual toys besides Winnie the Pooh and Paddington Bear? (Both were inspired by actual stuffed animals.)

By individual I mean real and singular toys that somehow entered popular awareness, whether as the basis of a work of fiction, or by association with a famous person, event, or image, etc. I'm not looking for information on famous toy lines and types, and not toys that originated as fiction. Info about all that is common online. (Which makes Googling my actual question pretty tricky.)

It's within the question parameters if a famous toy originated as part of a line, or was eventually featured in a piece of fiction, but for this question I'm only asking about toys that were arguably famous as or originated in significant individual objects, not just types. For example, Winnie the Pooh was based on Christopher Milne's bear, not teddy bears in general. Thanks for your time.


texts: Did Roman statutory law in the 1st century allow for crucifixion of non slaves?  I knew a Roman law scholar who claimed it did not, ergo Christ could not have been crucified but must have been deported to some far corner of the empire.


texts: Jerusalem 1187: How did ethnicity impact Saladin's army?

texts:
This is intended to be the first (and longest) of a series questions about the Siege of Jerusalem in 1187. It was originally one massive question, but the community rightly recommended that I break it down. This question and another one by others are related but (I think self-evidently) distinct.

I want to preface this one by saying that I'm not trying to assume a rigid ethnic or tribal model for understanding Saladin's army; this is just what I'm asking about right here.

BACKGROUND

In 1187 Saladin embarked on a campaign to retake Palestine from the Crusader Kingdoms. Thomas Asbridge describes his army as including "12,000 professional cavalrymen ... 30,000 volunteers" from "Egypt, Syria, the Jazira and Diyar Bakr". Ethnically, the army was composed first of Turks, and then Kurds, with the largest contingent being Turcomen nomadic tribes. But it also included remnants of the old Fatimid army, such as Arabs (Egyptian, Syrian, Bedouin), Nubians or sudani, and Berbers from the Western Sahara.

It seems like these ethnic identities played a key role in determining one's role and status within the army. Turks were prized as cavalry, including mamluks and Turcomen horse-archers, who were said to be impatient and war-like. Kurds fought "as distinct units" and their cavalry rode "shaven horses", favoring swords over lances. Nubians were "famous infantry archers" who used large powerful bows instead of composites, and no shields of any kind. Arabs were "proud of their reputation as hard-riding light cavalry", and said to be excellent lancers and raiders. Bedouin Arabs often fought as longbow infantry archers alongside horsemen.

THE QUESTION

All this brings me to the more detailed iteration of my question:

To what extent did ethnic identity impact the structure of Saladin's army and the roles of individuals within it? Did Turks and Kurds identify as "soldiers of Islam" and serve in a wider variety of roles, while other groups had more local identities and focused traditions of warfare, or is that my misconception? What else (that I've missed) were such groups known for?

My own efforts have at best partially answered the above, so I'd appreciate a more cohesive and robust picture, fact-checking, a tying things together.

SOURCES:

The Crusades. Thomas Asbridge.
Saladin in Egypt. Yaacov Lev.
Saladin and the Saracens. David Nicolle.
The Third Crusade 1191. David Nicolle.
Saracen Faris. David Nicolle.
This helpful blog.
A whole lot of google.

AN OPTIONAL ADDENDUM

Several smaller questions came up as I tried to get a more robust picture of what set apart different groups. These are helpful but optional; answer as many or few as you please, either as part of a full answer or in a comment.

1) Turks and Turcomen. Is there a difference? I got the sense the latter were peripheral tribes?

2) Infantry. Did any group(s) make up the bulk of close-combat infantry levies?

3) Arab Subgroups. What if anything distinguished Egyptian, Syrian, and Bedouin troops?

4) Berbers. I've found absolutely nothing about them in this context. Any scrap helps.


texts: Why does German money from the 1940s not bear Nazi symbols?

texts:
I have a 5-mark German banknote (I think from 1941 or 1942), looking exactly like this:

I am curious why the banknote not only does not bear a portrait of Hitler, but doesn't include any German state symbols. The only swastika on the banknote is in the stamp of the Reichsbank (which is not a part of the banknote design).

Given the known Nazi interest in symbolism this is quite surprising.


texts: Did William Shakespeare ever visit Venice, Verona and/or Rome?

texts: Some of William Shakespeare's most famous plays were located outside of England proper.  "The Merchant of Venice", "Romeo and Juliette", as well as "Julius Caesar", were plays set in the historical landscape of Italy.  However, did Shakespeare ever travel to Italy as an inspiration for writing his famous plays?-(just as Ernest Hemingway traveled to Pamplona, Spain as an inspiration to write his famous novel, "The Sun Also Rises").


texts: Why were air rifles not used more in combat?

texts:
I understand that, for example, Lewis and Clark carried an air rifle that could fire 30 shots without reloading and could kill a deer. Is a deer so different than a human that such a rifle would be useless? Could a version be made more powerful?

EDIT: Nice answer. I would suggest that the air rifle is an example of technology that most people severely over-estimate its year of invention. If you ask, which came first, air rifle or telephone? many would probably get it wrong as they would about several others.


texts: Which Latin writer wrote about the assimilation of Greek gods? I need more concretely for Hermes-Mercury. Which Latin writer said (assumed) that Hermes was identified with Mercury? I can find this identification in dictionaries on the web or in books, but I need a Latin quotation.


texts: Why were the Japanese so much better at night flying early in WWII?

texts: I have heard of stories of the Japanese conducting night aerial operations as early as the Guadalcanal campaign without the aid of radar while the Americans really didn't do anything until almost a year later with radar. How were the Japanese able to fly at night and conduct raids and reconnaissance while the Americans appear to be mostly grounded?


texts: How common was drug abuse and related deaths in the USA during the conservative 1950s?

texts:
The 1950s are often idolized as a relatively pure era in self-image and fiction: People were friendly and helpful and knew how to behave, children did not need to have fear of stranger-danger, the streets were clean, the family was intact (The manly man is working and protects his lovely girly housewife which life goal is the family), the black p...(ooops, erase erase erase).

One part I am interested in is how far the presented image was based in reality. Many drugs were already readily available (morphine which is used to suppress pain is not much different from heroin, in fact heroin was produced first from morphine). We have now the ability to check for traces of substance abuse in hairs and other body tissue from dead people and I would like to know if there have been papers about historical drug abuse and how the different epochs compare to each other (especially such epochs which present themselves as having no drug problem at all).

How common was secret drug abuse of illegal substances in the 1950s?.

Another question which directly comes from the first: Alcohol and cigarettes were legal, widespread, cheap and often socially expected in one way or other. There were also many drugs easily available and legal which are harmful and addicting if taken frequently, e.g. codeine (as cough medicine). The problem is that a dead female beautiful A+ pupil in a toilet with a needle in the arm is much more prone to enrage people than a silently dying anonymous person with lung cancer in intensive care.

If we add all numbers of substance-abuse related deaths without looking at the legality (so alcohol, cigarettes and legal drugs included) how many people died of it in the 1950s compared to the following periods?

ADDITION: Mark C. Wallace asked for the country. I choose the USA because it served as role model after the war and was embraced by political conservatism throughout Europe.


texts: What are the historical first steps to imposing autocracy? Is there a pattern?

texts:
I keep hearing people say that "throughout history" the first thing every despot/tyrant/dictator does is silence the voices that oppose them, including discrediting any form of free press. Then today I saw the following:

Besides the obvious question of the accuracy of the above list, this got me wondering in larger terms if there are any historical studies of the sequence of steps taken by various authoritarian leaders prior to imposing an an autocracy onto a society? Is there in fact a specific pattern?

I am not looking for a list of horror stories but rather a list of specific strategies employed as a means of rising to power.


texts: Was Hitler released from jail in 1924 on condition that he ran democratically?

texts:
In 1924, Adolf Hitler served only 264 days in prison after his failed coup d'état. Was his release politically ordered?

I suppose that the motive could've been that it is better to have him lead the "Völkisch" movement, than to risk more like him try new coups. And having them participate in the framework of the democracy would strengthen the weak new institutions of the Weimar Republic. Is there any support for this having been how decisionmakers were thinking?


texts: What proportion of the Austro-Hungarian army fought on each of the fronts?

texts:
During WWI, Austria-Hungary fielded an army of approximately 7.8 million soldiers.  They fought against Russia in the east, Italy in the west, and Serbia (mainly) in the south.

What proportion of the Austro-Hungarian army fought on each of these fronts?

I've been searching for some rough numbers for a while, and I haven't been able to come up with anything.  There's plenty of information readily available about the western front, and very little about any other fronts of the war.


texts: Was the Empire style of fashion adopted in Russia?

texts:
I just started re-reading War and peace, having completely forgotten it since the first time I read it. And I'm noticing that Tolstoy is referring to clothing every now and then. I wonder what it actually looked like.

Looking up the history of clothing in Wikipedia, I note that this period (1805 to 1812) was dominated by Empire style fashion, which is quite different from most periods before and after. But of course the fashion in the different countries was different, and maybe it was not adopted in Russia. On the other hand, the Russian aristocrats were imitating the French ones (about a third of the dialogue seems to be in French), and maybe they were wearing full French fashion too. The Russian translation of the Wikipedia article doesn't help, as it only depicts Western examples of the style.

I noticed a few mentions of clothing which are consistent with Empire style, but not conclusive. One young girl is said to have naked shoulders, "as was usual then". A female figure has a reticule, and a male one a redingot. Natalia Rostova is wearing a sheer muslin skirt (кисейная юбка) and her lace drawers are visible the first time she is introduced, but this could simply be children's attire. There are also more baroque clothing items mentioned, for example a man wearing a jabot.

Should I imagine the figures wearing kiddie-pool-sized crinolines, or diaphanous gowns, or something else entirely?


texts: Is there historical evidence linking medieval forest clearences in Europe with the Medieval Warm Period?

texts:
The Medieval Warm Period was marked by a significant increase in average temperatures throughout Europe from around the mid-10th century to around the mid-13th century. This allowed an expansion of cultivation zones for crops such as wheat and grapes farther north within Europe.

This period coincided with massive deforestation and marshland conversion programs in Northern and Western Europe, sometimes called the Great Clearances, which were designed to increase the arable land available (Hoffmann, Richard. An Environmental History of Medieval Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2014, pp. 119-131).

I read a paper suggesting a causal link between the favorable climate changes and the drastic deforestation programs (Berglund, Bjorn. "Human impact and climate changes—synchronous events and a causal link?" Quaternary International 105 (2003): p. 7). It does seem reasonable to suspect that the appearance of newly favorable climates played a role in decisions to expand arable land.

Is there historical evidence supporting such a causal link? If so, were the Great Clearances enacted primarily to take advantage of a shift in suitable cultivation zones?

Update:

To clarify, I'm not looking for documentation that deforestation occurred per se because it was warmer. Instead, I expect there might be historical evidence that agricultural expansion programs were specifically enacted in certain regions due to a new recognition that cereal and other crops could grow there when they couldn't grow there before.


texts: Telegraph availability in Russia around year 1875

texts:
Were there any telegraph lines available in late 19th century Russia (let's say year 1875), which would go deep into mainland Russia?

I can find some mentions about Moscow telegraph station being created in 1852 and then extended few times around 1870. I cannot find any specific reports of the lines going between the cities, but I suppose there is a good chance they would follow main railroad routes, especially to St Petersburg (back then capital of Russia).

What I'm really interested in are any connections going the other direction - east of Moscow.

There was a failed attempt to create America->Moscow telegraph line in 1860's, but it stopped well before reaching mainland Russia.

So, in 1875, was there any possibility of sending a message from Moscow or St Petersburg, to Tomsk, for example, faster than utilizing snail mail?


texts: What mistake did abbot [Jacques?] Delille make when eating an egg at the Court of Louis XVI?

texts:
Stendhal's Scarlet and Black has a curious passage where the main character observes that even the eating of a boiled egg "reveals the progress one has made in the godly life"

To support this it refers to what is presumably a real historical event:

  The reader, who is perhaps smiling, will please to remember all the mistakes made, in eating an egg, by the abbè Delille when invited to luncheon by a great lady of the Court of Louis XVI. (p208 of Everyman Library edition)

I assume Delille here is Jacques Delille, who lived about this time and was at one time an abbot.

Anyone able to dig up reference to this egg-eating encounter and scandal?


texts: Did men carry talisman on them against threats or to bring luck during Medieval Times?

texts:
I am curious if it was normal for the 'men' to carry talisman on them (for instance a necklace or some brooch etc. ) to get lucky, or to be protected against whatever during the medieval times?

Thanks!


texts:
The attached picture shows what is believed to be a membership pin. Is it possible to identify the organization?
The pin is from the USA and dates from the period 1890-1914. A possibility is that it is from either North or South Dakota, but this is uncertain.


texts: What do these hallmarks tell me about my fork and spoon set?

texts:
I'd like to know what those two hallmarks mean and what they can tell me about the fork and spoon they are on.

Click to enlarge the photos

I see 8 star 4, J something B. What is this something?

These are some letter I'm unable to decipher entirely.

I believe the fork and spook are silver or silver-plated metal. They are not magnetic.


texts: How effective were the forces of the French Provisional Government compared to the other allies?

texts:
How effective were the French fighting forces after the creation of the Provisional Government of the Fourth French Republic on June 3rd 1944? Ways to answer this:

How did the French officers and soldiers rate their own effectiveness relative to the Americans and Brits? (Diaries, letters, reports, etc)

How did French government officials rate them?

How did the British and Americans rate them?

If a German division knew they were going to get attacked by the French, were they more or less scared than if the Americans/Brits were attacking?


texts: Was Swedish king Charles X Gustav's horse killed during Siege of Kraków (1655)?

texts:
My question is related to Siege of Kraków, which took place in 1655, between 25th of September and 13th of October, during Second Northern War, which is usually referred to as "Swedish Deluge" in Poland.

On 6th of October, Swedish king Charles X Gustav went back to his troops around Kraków. Then (not sure if it was the same day) he took a ride to examine the state of town walls. It is told that when he came too close to St. Florian's Gate, Polish soldiers started to shoot at him. While the king himself wasn't hit, his horse was killed instead of him.

At least that's how the happening is explained by Polish language article at Wikipedia. My fellow town guides confirm that the story sounds familiar, but I was totally unable to find any other sources for that yet.

So is it actually true? Is such thing mentioned in any Swedish (or other, if available) sources? Do they provide additional informations?

Siege of Krakow according to Samuel Pufendorf, 1695, click here for full resolution


texts: When Lehman Brothers collapsed, what happened to their clients?

texts:
For example, let's say a teacher held $10,000 in the account and another $10,000 in shares of other companies (LEH acting as a broker).

Was the teacher able to get her money back after the Lehman Brothers collapse?


texts: Why was the IRT Flushing line built with three sets of tracks, instead of two or four?

texts:
Why was the IRT Flushing Line built with three sets of tracks, instead of two or four? (If you don't understand this, please see the addendum below)
More generally, when are trains lines typically built like this?
If it's economical and desirable to put in a third line for express service, why not a full four track like many of the other lines in the nyc subway?
The best I can think of is that there's expected heavy demand for rush hour commuting service such that local service will have insufficient capacity then but otherwise be sufficient, and that the incremental cost of adding the fourth track makes it uneconomical to include it for future optionality.
But I have a hard time believing that this was the case for the Flushing line but not for any of the other lines. I guess maybe because the line only runs one direction out from the city center, whereas the other lines require both directions to have express trains to cover rush hour demand?

Addendum
Here is a picture of the IRT Flushing Line (commonly known as the "7 Train" these days). The three sets of tracks are labeled.

FYI, for those of you not familiar with the NYC transit system, the 7 train on track 3 is "Inbound" which means going from Queens towards Manhattan. Specifically, it will go towards the Empire State Building visible in the upper right corner. Most people take the inbound train to work in the morning. Track 1 is for the "Outbound" train. It goes from Manhattan to Queens. Most people take the "Outbound" train in the evening, to go home. And during rush hours, the middle track, track 2, carries the "express train" that skips a bunch of stops. During morning rush hour, the express train is inbound, and during evening rush hour, the express train is outbound. This photo, downloaded from Wikipedia, was taken before 2001 as the WTC is visible on the upper left corner of the photo.
Here is a map showing express service vs local service:

So look at the 7, it's the purple colored train. If you wake up in the morning, and you live near the "Junction Blvd" stop, if you take the express line, it will stop only 61 St/ Woodside and Queensboro Plaza on the way towards Manhattan. If you take the local train, it will stop at 90 St-Elmhurst Av, 82St-Jackson Hts, 74 ST-Broadway, 69St, etc. Much faster to take the express train. OTOH, if you are outbound in the morning, you must take the local train.
Contrast ths all with the the E, F, M and R trains on the Independent Line Queens Blvd, (they are yellow, orange, and blue), you will see also that there is express subway service between Jackson Hts and Forest Hills. However, on this line, there are 4 sets of tracks, and express service runs in both directions for much of the day. Because express service runs in both directions, these trains are more convenient and real estate prices are much higher. If IRT had made the same decision, perhaps real estate along the 7 line would be higher as well?  Then IRT would have made more profit?
The history question here: Why did the IRT system decide to build only 3 sets of tracks instead of 4?


texts: Is one of the causes behind the cultural atmosphere surrounding the Scopes trial, and the concepts about family, "children are the future"?

texts:
To start, I noticed that during the peak of the American eugenics movement (1920-1929) that anti-evolutionary bills and eugenical bills were being passed in the same 37 states (well, just about), particularly in the midwest and southern states. I suspect that this also correlates to the treatment of A Civic Biology during the Scopes trial, and it's reprint in 1926, A New Civic Biology, both by George W. Hunter. Wherein, the word evolution was removed and the chapters dealing with heredity were moved to the back sections of the book, as I noticed when I got a hold of these texts. The chapter on Eugenics was left where it was, but during the 4th printing, according to Adam Shapiro, American Book Company's publishers pushed Hunter to remove the language dealing with STD's, and sex itself.

What I think is happening is  was a defense of this weird contradiction, like "It's for the family/kids/future." I was told to find No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive, I got it in [yesterday now] and have read as much of it as I could in one sitting. This book doesn't seem to be enough though, it introduces me to some interesting concepts of family and children, but it's not solid enough to use as support for my argument.

Are there times in the United States when legislators, the law, and the "Establishment" are particularly protective of children?


texts: What alternative locations were considered for the United Nations?

texts: When reading up on the United Nations on Wikipedia, I noticed that Navy Island near Niagara falls was being considered at the time of the groups creation for it's location. I'm wondering what locations were considered outside of Manhattan, how seriously they were considered, and why New York was eventually chosen over them?


texts: Where did poor London women give birth in the latter half of the 19th century?

texts:
I have a personal reason for asking this question. I'm researching my family tree and I have some ancestors who lived in Mile End Old Town, London between 1850 and 1900, but gave birth in Mile End New Town, London which was a nearby but not neighbouring area.

Mile End New Town is in the pinky/purply area at the left, and Mile End Old Town is in grey close to the centre of the map.

I've looked on a modern map of London and I can't see a hospital in the area that used to be Mile End New Town, although the Royal London Hospital (then just the London Hospital) was nearby, possibly in Mile End Old Town.

However, according to this page, the poor did not give birth in hospitals in Victorian times anyway.

It seems women, or at least my ancestors, didn't give birth at home but went to a specific place to have their babies. Where did they go?


texts:
Adobe was the principal construction material used in the arid north of Mexico. In wetter parts the adobe was subject to water damage: rain ate away its exposed surfaces and softened the ground on which the terrifically heavy bricks rested. Keeping an adobe intact would have meant keeping the walls limed and the roof watertight. Ideally, it would also be built on a stable site with good drainage, which was perhaps not always possible.

The adobe in Wilder Ranch State Park (CA-SCR-123/38) was found by Kent Lightfoot to have been built on top of a shellmound. A lot has changed around it in the interim and the house is not now perceptibly higher than its surroundings.

Was building on the shellmound a deliberate plan to support structural stability? Were other coastal adobes built in such places too?


texts: Was a bomb or shell ever dropped directly down the funnel of a warship?

texts: I was surprised to learn in this awesome video about the USS New Jersey that the funnel on an Iowa-class battleship is not a straight line, there's a bit of a zig-zag in it.  The idea was that, unlike with a straight funnel, a bomb could not fall directly into the engineering spaces bypassing the armor.  This doesn't seem like a likely occurrence to me, which makes me wonder if it ever actually happened?


texts: Is there a source for excess death statistics in individual cities during the 1918 flu pandemic?

texts:
Is there a reliable source for excess deaths in US cities/counties/states around the time of the 1918 flu pandemic? I was able to find one datasource for Arizona and one for NYC but nothing specific for other regions. It would ideally have excess deaths data for the years 1910-1930 or even earlier than that.
Related question (now closed): Were cities that enacted lockdowns during the 1918 flu pandemic successful in preventing any infections?


texts: In a medieval city how large a market was needed relative to population?

texts: In a large medieval city fed by the agricultural product of the area, plus imports such as grains, spices, fish, etc. and also serving as a regional hub for the exchange of trade goods, what determined the placement and number of market locations in the city? How big was a market was needed relative to city population in terms of vendors and space?


texts: How was Napoleon's invasion of Russia supplied?

texts: How was such a great army, like the army of Napoleon on its way to Moscow, supplied with food and other needed things? Were they transporting it from France or maybe stealing from territory on their way? What were general methods to supply great armies?


texts: What were the reasons for Japan's surrender in WWII?

texts:
I have read this Quora answer with 400+ upvotes that claims that Japan surrendered not because they were nuked but because Russians were about to land on their soil and then never leave like they do.

What historical evidence is there that the impending Soviet occupation was the cause or surrender? What historical evidence is there that the atomic bombing by the Americans was the cause? If it is neither of these, what were the reasons?


texts: Was there public resistance to Queen Hatshepsut's reign in ancient Egypt?

texts:
Queen Hatshepsut ruled as pharaoh over ancient Egypt from 1479-1458 BC. From what I can tell, she was a highly successful pharaoh, both in wartime activities early on in her reign and later in peacetime governance. That being said, becoming pharaoh was an almost entirely unprecedented role for a woman in ancient Egypt, and even being in power at all was an extremely rare occurrence in of itself. Was there ever any significant public resistance to Hatshepsut's reign during her lifetime?

(I am aware that after her death her successor, pharaoh Thutmose III, made an attempt to wipe her from the public records, but that was neither a popular movement, nor was it during her lifetime).


texts: Was there ever a single train that ran straight from San Francisco to New York City, or any that ran truly from coast to coast?

texts: Though the first Transcontinental Railroad was finished in 1869, the Overland Route seems to have only taken passengers between San Francisco and Council Bluffs, Iowa / Omaha, Nebraska via the Overland Flyer.  Was there ever a train that ran straight from San Francisco to New York City, or for that matter, from any city that could be considered decidedly on the Pacific to one that sat on the Atlantic?


texts: Which Soviet submarine was HMS Splendid tracking on 30th March 1982?

texts:
In 'Vulcan 607', R. White describes the background of the submarines that headed to the Falkland Islands. For the HMS Splendid, he notes that the submarine, under CO Lane-Nott was engaged in a mission to track a Soviet submarine off Scotland with the assistance of the RAF and its Nimrod project. In the middle of this pursuit, the Splendid received an Admiralty signal telling it to return to Faslane where it took on supplies and headed to the Falkland Islands. Is the identity of this Soviet submarine known? What was its mission (if it had a specific one)?
HMS Splendid's record on Wikipedia does not mention this incident.
The book describes Lane-Nott as believing it to have been a previously unseen Soviet submarine type:

Splendid  had been at sea continuously now for nearly three months. But the success or failure of the patrol had been distilled into the last forty minutes. For sixteen hours she’d been vectored into position by RAF Nimrods. Intelligence from the RAF patrol planes would be sent back to Northwood HQ then on to Splendid  via ‘the broadcast’, a very-low-frequency transmission sent from an aerial in Northamptonshire. The reports could be received at any depth just thirteen minutes after first being made by the RAF. ...
To minimize noise from her screws and maximize the value of the intelligence he was gathering, Lane-Nott followed silently between a mile and a half and two miles to port and aft of the Soviet boat. ...
... Lane-Nott felt energized that he’d found his quarry so quickly. Now there was no need to rush things. A nuclear submarine had endurance to burn. As long as his sonar operators maintained contact he could stay with her as long as he liked. The indications were that she was something new, a ‘Victor 3’ or ‘Akula’ class. Something they didn’t have much intelligence on. By the time Splendid  turned for home, they’d be groaning with it. Every minute of the patrol was recorded. There would be miles of tape to analyse.
—White, 'Vulcan 607'

It does actually note the Akula—which looks as if it refers to the Soviet designation, Project 941 Akula, or the NATO Typhoon, given the NATO designation Akula came into service in 1984—or Victor III as the potential targets. None of the service records for those submarine classes gives anything on this event.
Some later mentions made me think it was a nuclear powered (as Lane-Nott is described as noting he had a disadvantage against the Argentinian diesel submarines; this same note isn't brought up with respect to this original Soviet submarine).
I previously looked into the Soviet submarine listing which made me think this could have been either of the NATO-designated Oscar or Typhoon classes. The first of the NATO-designated Oscar-class, K-525, was launched on 3rd May 1980. The first of the NATO-designated Typhoon-class, TK-208, was put into service on 9th February 1982. Both of these seem as relatively plausible options based on these timelines.


texts: Why did the Japanese withdraw from Siberia in 1922?

texts:
According to Wikipedia the Japanese were the de facto leaders of the foreign anti-Bolshevik intervention in Siberia during the Russian Civil War. The other foreign powers pulled out by 1920, presumably having decided it was a hopeless cause. The Japanese kept 70,000 troops there through the spring of 1922, during which time they fought off more than one Bolshevik assault. And then by October 1922, they unilaterally withdrew, apparently with many bitter recriminations at home.

This is a stark contrast (to put it mildly) to the approach Imperial Japan later took to military intervention on the mainland. So what was going on? Was there strong domestic opposition to the intervention in Siberia? If so, why?


texts: Are there any misunderstandings in history that were resolved in the 20th century?

texts:
I'm looking for an example of historians disagreeing over the same facts, but later on, the disagreements dissapear because new facts/more evidence has surfaced. It has taken me forever to try and come up with such an example, and I was hoping someone in here could help me.

Edit: Thanks so much for all your answers, but I think I need to be more specific. The historians have to have disagreed over the SAME facts (very important) before they nullify their disagreements because of new evidence surfacing. Just like people disagreeing with the Greek astronomer that the world was actually round and not flat, even though they could see his evidence. Later on, everyone came to accept the world was round because of more and more evidence for this.


texts: When the Chinese were driven out of modern Vietnam in AD 938, did an Vietnamese ethnic identity already exist?

texts:
With some periods of interruption, China dominated Vietnam for more than 10 centuries between 111 BC and 938 AD. This wikipedia article and its subsidiary links spoke of sinification and shifting of resources from the occupied population to the occupiers. Then, can there be a ethnic / genetic sense to claim that the people who ruled Vietnam between 938 AD to 1407 AD was ``Vietnamese''? That is, did an ethnic Vietnamese identity already exist start the domination in 111BC and did this identity persist in the liberation force against the Chinese in 938 AD and the group of people who ruled Vietnam until 1407 AD?

Clarification: when the
"Americans" fought for the American Independence, they were "Americans" by their own declarations but they were mostly ethnic British. Of course, over time, the culture diverged, waves of immigration and interbreeding happened. But my understanding is that at the end of the 18th century, the liberation of the US was done by mostly a group of Brits against another of group of Brits. It was not, for example, mostly a collation of native Americans against the Brits.

So I'm trying to draw a similar distinction here: the people who fought off Chinese rule of Vietnam and went on to rule that latter country for the next few centuries: were they ethnic Chinese for the most part or they were mostly descendants of the original population at the start of the occupation in 111 BC or something in between?


texts: How did people cut their nails in the past?

texts:
How did people cut their toe and fingernails before we got nail clippers after the industrial revolution?

Would they have had a fair amount of ingrown toenails, especially in the colder regions where feet had to be kept wrapped up?


texts: Can it be justified that an economic contraction of 11.3% is "the largest fall for more than 300 years"?

texts:
Today the UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak said "The OBR forecast the economy will contract this year by 11.3%, the largest fall in output for more than 300 years."  This seems to me to be a very strong claim.  In particular, comparing modern measures of economic performance to those used in the past 300 years would seem to have enough uncertainty to preclude such a statement of fact.  In particular how can one compare this years productivity impact to that of the year without a summer, the loss of UK control over the US or India or to other pandemics such as the 3rd cholera pandemic (which had approximately twice the per capita mortality rate of covid in the UK)?
Is there any good evidence that there has been no year in the last 300 with a greater drop in economic output than 11.3%?  Is there any evidence that a year more than 300 years ago did, or that our economic records allow us to accurately make a statement about the last 300 years than we could about say the last 500?
This answer answers "was 1706 worse than 2020" (the answer being we do not know, but probably not) but not "no other year since was worse than 2020" nor "this measure is/is not a meaningful measure of real economic performance".


texts: At the Battle of Zama, was the Roman army more "native" than the Carthaginian?

texts:
At the battle of Zama, which army had a higher proportion of native troops?  Within the context of this question consider troops to be either "native" or "mercenary". Native troops serve out of allegiance, while mercenary troops serve based on compensation.

The question arose because at dinner the other night, someone remarked, "The Romans won the battle of Zama because most of their soldiers were "native sons," while most of the soldiers on the Carthaginian side were mercenaries." Putting aside the question of whether or not this opinion was valid, was the premise factually correct? That is, were most of the soldiers fighting for Rome actuall "pro-Roman" and most of Hannibal's soldiers mercenaries? Consider e.g. the Numidians "pro Roman" in this regard, they were fighting for a "king and country" (Numidia) allied with Rome.


texts:
This is certainly not my expertise. I have no great ideas on how to get started.

I would comment on the the impressive abs and the lack of legs to guess Posedion (Is he presented as a "mer-man" sometimes?)  but the shape of the mustache throws me a little.

An ideal answer would not only answer the question but also speak to the process of statue identification. What questions should I be asking? What should I be looking for?

Thanks so much any help.


texts: How did the check pattern help with financial computations?

texts:
[ Wikipedia : ] The check pattern is also used in many areas other than textile styles, for example: on a board used by the mediaeval Exchequer to perform financial computations [...]
[ Etymonline : ] Government financial sense began under the Norman kings of England[,] and refers to a cloth divided in squares that covered a table on which accounts of revenue were reckoned with counters, and which apparently reminded people of a chess board.

Why did medieval officials use material with the Check Pattern for calculating?


texts: Were US exports in the early 1800s paid for with metal or with paper?

texts:
In the early 1800s, when people in the US exported goods to Europe, how were those goods paid for?  What did the buyers actually send back on ships crossing the Atlantic to pay for the goods?

I can think of a few possibilities

actual silver or gold
paper notes issued by some European bank
paper notes issued by some American bank
some other kind of goods
nothing tangible, just a record in everyone's books that the debt was owed

(For context, I'm reading about the Panic of 1819, which arose in the context of American grain being sold to Europe.  The economic panic had large effects on banking in America.)


texts: What percentage of the population in the Thirteen Colonies in 1776 were first/second generation immigrants?

texts: Besides British immigration, did the thirteen colonies see a lot of immigration from other European states?


texts: How many vehicles were involved in Operation Gothic Serpent (Mogadishu, October 3-4, 1993)?

texts:
I wanted to know how many vehicles (include their model and which country used it), aircraft and infantry were deployed in Operation Gothic Serpent in Mogadishu in October 1993.

Specific numbers of:

Aircraft and their models.
Vehicles and their models (Oct 3 — US Vehicles and Technical and
another separate for Oct 4 vehicles and tanks).
Rangers involved (among 160 men, how many were rangers on Oct 3 then
how many more were added for the rescue ops on Oct 4).
Delta operators involved (how many snipers also) .
How many Pakistani and Malaysian infantry were involved on the
rescue.

As far as I know, there were 16 helos among 18 aircraft. 8 being the Blackhawks and 8 being the Little Bird attack helicopters.

Vehicles were composed (Oct 3) of at least 9 Humvees, 3 M939 5-Ton Trucks (Oct 4) M48 Tanks, and Condor Armored Vehicles.


texts: When did Russian carriages start to have suspensions?

texts:
During the Imperial era, quality transport for Russian officials was riding in a horse-drawn open carriage called a droshky. The one pictured below has springs on each wheel, providing a much smoother ride than an unsprung vehicle would.

When did chains or leather strap suspensions become common in Russian carriages?
When did spring suspensions become common in Russian carriages?


texts: Why was the Me262 not suited for a bomber role?

texts: A documentary at Radio-Canada named "mégastructures nazies" mentioned the Me262 as not being suited for a bomber role. Also, Albert Speer was against the decision to convert the Me262 to this role, as said in the book "Albert Speer : le confident de Hitler" by Benoît Lemay. But why was it not suited for this role ? I'm not very good in planes, I'm better in tanks, so I don't have the knowledge to answer it myself.


texts:
In Wikipedia it's claimed that Etruscan Civilization had a rich literature, but only one Etruscan text has survived.

And AFAIK at the same moment we have many Ancient Greeks texts roughly from the same historical period as Etruscans. And we know that Greeks and Etruscans communicated and traded at that time (Etruscans even used the part of Greek alphabet).
So why the Etruscan literature left no trace as it never existed?


texts: Where can I get information used to make Soviet economic plans?

texts:
One kind of information used by Gosplan to create plans was a list of commodities and relationships between them, i.e. what things were required to produce other things.

I managed to find higher level summaries and analyses about the plans, e.g.

  Even then, industrial supply and distribution plans compiled by Gosplan have been known to (...) deal with well over 30000 commodities

(from: Soviet Economic Structure and Performance, Paul R. Gregory and Robert C. Stuart)

but I had no luck with finding the information that was used in the creation of plans themselves.

Does anyone of you know where I could find them? I'm specifically interested in the relationships between commodities. The info doesn't need to be about the Soviet Union, it can be about any country of the Eastern Block. Language doesn't matter too, as long as it is not Chinese.

I asked a broader version of this question on the economics stack exchange.


texts:
The question is not about the collapse of the Mongol states, but of how the Mongol war machine was outmatched.

The factors that led to the military successes of the Mongols, like lack of dependence on fixed supply sources, mobility, organization and discipline, effective tactics and commanders,  skilled soldiers, and not having sedentary settlements that could be hit; how did they cease to help them(win)?

Some instances they were defeated in the field are, Timur(who was not very different in his ways from the Mongols) , Indian campaigns, Yuan Dynasty(which had gotten sinicized?)

In most other instances, Mongol armies were defeated fighting other Mongol armies, or similar nomadic people.

Was it that the different pieces of the war machine simply stopped coming together as they used to before(as the states collapsed)?


texts: What significant regions and countries became Muslim without being first conquered by a Muslim power?

texts:
Most if not all of the present Muslim countries & regions close to Europe (or in Europe, e.g. parts of Spain and of the Balkans) in North Africa and the Middle East became Muslim as a result or in relation with their territories being first conquered by a Muslim military force, namely the Arabs and the Ottoman Turks.

But there must be exceptions to this "rule" (variations from this trend).

I think Indonesia is one (now the most populous Muslim country). Are there other exceptions in that region or in others? What about sub-Saharan Africa?


texts: What is the difference between a Division Pioneer and a Regimental Pioneer?

texts: These payment cards from the American Civil War seem to differentiate between Division Pioneer and Regimental Pioneer (see: Rosecrans' Pioneer Brigade). What is the difference, regarding where the soldier would be located and who would be in charge of them (in the Union army specifically)?


texts:
Is there anywhere that has not been at war with Britain?

"Anywhere" would mean "a contemporary country that was part of an empire or state that was at war with the United Kingdom or one of the earlier constituent countries of the British Isles". For "was part of an empire or state" we can say "was claimed by and/or under the control of an empire or state at war with Britain, and someone from there could have conceivably met the British in battle other than as a simple mercenary." Add: Private adventurers and mercenaries should be excluded.

So all of South America counts, as Britain was at war with the Spanish Empire several times. Switzerland counts, as it fought at some times on the French side in the Napoleonic wars. China counts (opium wars). Norway counts, several medieval wars with England and Scotland. Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan count, as there was an Anglo-Indian army fighting there in 1918-9.

Perhaps Mongolia? Anywhere else?


texts: What does it mean that the early supreme court "gave themselves" the power of judicial review?

texts:
I'm watching the "Crash Course: American History" youtube series, and I like, it, but it obviously skips over a ton because it's packing decades at a time into 10 minutes.

So he just (briefly) covered the part where Marshall's Supreme Court created the process of Judicial Review in the case of Marbury vs. Madison, and said that it's strange, because that power isn't anywhere in the constitution. It seems like they just decided to do it that time, and then decided that it was their power to do so in the future because of that. What I don't understand is, then how did they make it a legitimate thing to do?

If it has never gone on the books, then, if they declare a law unconstitutional, who enforces it? Why do they enforce it?


texts: Was the Iron curtain actually present at the time of the Fulton speech?

texts:
On March 5th, 1946, Winston Churchill said in his Sinews of Peace speech that

  From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

At the end of the 20th century the term "Iron curtain" meant the absence of movement of freedom between Eastern and Western blocs, i. e. it was hard for individuals and organizations to move from Eastern Europe to Western Europe and vice versa.

Did such lack of freedom of movement exist at the time of the speech (March 1946), i. e. was it hard to impossible for individuals and goods to travel from places occupied by Western troops to those occupied by the Soviet ones and vice versa?

If, say, a Pole, wanted to emigrate from Poland in March 1946, could he or she easily leave the country?


texts:
(It might be easier to understand the question if I phrase it this way from the start before reading the rest: What did states gain from spreading a particular religion?)

From what I've read, the many forms of paganism from the past tended to co-exist pretty well and they didn't seem to have power struggles among each other nor proselytization towards one another. Therefore, you'd think that to opportunistic or secular rulers, it would just be a subjective difference, like who prefers what color and so it would be unimportant; others could embrace the norm of tolerance they had grown up in.

But then there are instances where some religion (or sometimes irreligion, in more modern times) was promoted by the state - but why? What would it matter secularly/pragmatically if, for example, an animal was sacrificed to Hephaestus instead of Ares? Like Akhenaten's efforts for instance:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten#Religious_policies

  Certainly, as time drew on, he revised the names of the Aten, and other religious language, to increasingly exclude references to other gods; at some point, also, he embarked on the wide-scale erasure of traditional gods' names, especially those of Amun.[29]

EDIT:

One way or another, all societies seem to have gone through some kind of religious unification though the past shows it to be unnecessary (the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians did well without it for a long time) and even today we can think of it this way ; if you're a Christian, the Hindus unified around Hinduism particularly for no apparent reason, if you're a Hindu, the Christians unified around Christianity particularly for no apparent reason. Others unified over what we think isn't true, and practices we think are unnecessary. Imagine if in Bhutan, over the next 30 years, the state put effort into stopping rock concerts and making rock music inaccessible on Youtube or something like that, while putting up ads for jazz and promoting jazz concerts, and that eventually the entire country stops listening to rock and listens to jazz or certain forms of it. Why would this matter to the state? To us it seems useless or just a subjective difference whether or not you would wake up at 7 am to burn frankincense on Saturdays or some other religious practice. Surely, the state or ruling party aren't harmed by this occurring on Saturdays rather than Wednesdays for example.

Why were societies artificially subjected to this homogenization of religious beliefs? Artificially meaning that believers weren't just left to change their beliefs over thousands of years as their convictions changed, but the societies or states would use propaganda, removal/addition of symbols/practices or buildings of some kinds, proselytize or incentivize to make the populace as polarized as possible.
Was there an advantage to centralizing religion/religious beliefs in a society like this that could make sense of all these unifications from any perspective?

NOTE:

I removed the more detailed "discussion" about Akhenaten because it might have mislead as to what I was asking, but the point of it was to eliminate what I think would be "uninteresting", broad explanations. Like for example if I ask why the industrial revolution spread, you could say "Greed" or "Laziness" - and that would be true - but that could be said for so many things, the "why" of "Why was the wheel invented?" and "Why was the stock exchange invented?" are very different even if both are out of greed and/or laziness in the end.


texts: Were there any Frankish/French kings who probably had no extramarital sexual relations?

texts:
I was listening to Dan Carlin's podcast about the start of Merovingian dynasty, and he made a snide quip about the early Merovingians (starting with Clovis) and even Carolingians not exactly being paragons of Christian morality - including having official concubines.

We also know that many later French kings in 16th+ century clearly had mistresses (I'm excluding Louis XIII who everyone and their grandmother thinks was homosexual or at least bi, and had male lovers even if he had no known female mistresses).

Were there any French kings who probably had no extramarital sexual relations? (e.g. who were renowned among their contemporaries for their "chastity," as opposed to merely not having proof to the contrary).

I'm doing this according to Catholic doctrine, so divorcing and re-marrying counts as "extramarital" - so Philip I the Amorous doesn't count even if he married Bertrade de Montfort.

Also, someone who was actually married and of an age/position to have extramarital affairs is a working assumption here.


texts: What is this Soviet Uniform? Made in 1975

texts: I recently got this uniform off a Russian website, but I the website did't specify which it was, and I haven't been able to identify it using google searches? Anyone here know?


texts: In ancient Rome what could 'childhood innocence' save a child from being punished for?

texts:
The "Innocence of a child", you know, that thing that lets curious little kids sneak onto the white house lawn and not immediately get shot or whatever.

In ancient Rome (lets say during the republic in a not-as-chaotic period of time), what could a young child (lets say below ten) do or say that a adult would never be able to get away with, something they would be punished for, or at least more severely punished then a kid would be.

Slaves probably couldn't say much, and the elite could probably get away with murder, so let's talk about the pleb kids, the kid of your average nobody, what could they get away with?

Also, probably little to no real info available on this, but how would gender play into it?


texts: Was "Blitzkrieg" at least partly intended for trapping the Jews?

texts:
I encountered a point of view that the German tactic of "Blitzkrieg", besides purely military purpose to achieve victory as quick as possible, was in fact designed to trap the Jews so that they could not flee.

Is this true and to what extent?

Take also into account the known fact that at the time of the siege of Minsk Germany dropped paratroopers to the east of the city who drove the fleeing population back to Minsk. I wonder whether it was done intentionally so to make the Minsk Jews impossible to escape? Note that Minsk had about the highest percentage of Jewish population in the world.


texts: Have any artifacts or archaeological remains from the White Ship disaster of 1120 ever been recovered?

texts:
After the White Ship disaster, which claimed the lives of all on board (except one), including William Adeline, the heir to the English throne, England was plunged into a civil war known as the Anarchy.

I have read a great deal about the disaster, but I have yet to come across any information about whether any part of the ship, or any artifacts from the passengers, were ever found and have survived.


texts: Did Reza Shah Pehlavi know about Turkish offer to restore Ahmad Shah Qajar?

texts:
Ahmad Shah Qajar, Shah of Persia was deposed in a military coup by Colonel Reza Khan in 1921 and was subsequently exiled.

While he was in exile, Kemal Ataturk summoned the Persian ambassador Anoushirvan Sepahbody and sent a message to the deposed Shah, offering to restore him to the throne.

  "The Turkish government, in pursuance of its own national interest and
  for reasons of friendship, goodwill, and a desire to assist Your
  Majesty, is willing to extend a formal invitation to Your Majesty, to
  travel to Turkey and hence, to offer the help of a sufficient number
  of Turkish troops for Your Majesty to be able to enter Persia from the
  West and regain his throne."

The deposed Shah thanked Ataturk but refused to accept the offer.

After that, Turkish Government recognized Reza Khan (Now Reza Shah) as the legitimate Shah of Persia and formed friendly relations with the new regime.

So my question is, Did Reza Shah Pehlavi know of Turkish offer to Ahmad Shah Qajar?


texts: "Napoleon suppressed independent banks" vs. "Monte dei Paschi di Siena"

texts:
Wikipedia's article about Bank of Saint George states that:

  After Napoleon invaded Italy, he suppressed independent banks, and this led to the Bank's closure in 1805.

However Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) has been operating continuously since 1472.

The Italian and the English Wikipedia entries on either bank say nothing about it; nor does the entry on the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

So, since Tuscany was eventually all under Napoleon's control, did he actually try but fail to close all banks, or is that statement "just wrong", or was MPS still active but under state control, or what?


texts: Why and how did some Germans choose to join the Stasi (Staatssicherheit)?

texts:
I'm wondering;

What motivated some Germans to join the Stasi or to support the
Stasi?
Were there any common backgrounds among those who did so apart from
living or being from the East?
Why did so many East Germans support and wanted the GDR?

Thank you.


texts: Was a technological advantage more effective in European warfare than in China's history?

texts:
In Europe, the Spartans won against the Persians due to hoplites fighting in a phalanx formation. Then the Spartans were defeated by Macedonians because the Macedonians used longer spears called sarissa. Subsequently, this pattern of superior weapons prevailing continued through the use of swords, bows, and guns, etc.

In contrast, in China, the Ming used cannons, and guns, but were slaughtered by the Jin cavalry that didn't have firearms.

I've never heard about any battle in Chinese history where the superiority of technology was a significant factor in the victory. Was the Jin victory an anomaly, or are there other examples of inferior types of weaponry being used by the winning side in a battle?


texts:
How did the "Forty Niners" get to California in 1849?

In 1849, the Panama Canal would not have been built for over 50 years, meaning that ships from the U.S. east coast would have had to sail all the way around South America, through Cape Horn, and up the west coast of South and North America.

And the overland route was fraught with dangers; the travails of the Donner party are too horrible to describe.

Did people actually use these routes? Are there ones that I overlooked? And are there any statistical breakdowns of percentages that used Cape Horn, overland, or other routes?


texts: What are the most comprehensive historical references for ancient India?

texts:
India is referenced in many ancient Greek and Persian sources, but these are often fragmentary. Which sources (if any) exist which describe ancient India in detail?

Since ancient can be interpreted in various ways, let's take it as before the CE (Common Era).


texts: What is the date and original source of this medieval picture?

texts:
While researching the history of chimneys, I came across this medieval image on two different sites, neither of which gives any details.

Source: Dark Ages Project. The same picture can also be found here.

Questions

Can anyone put an approximate date on this picture? I'd also like to know where it is from (knowing the actual manuscript - if that is the source - would be great, but I'll settle for a region or country).
I'm also curious about the large (and not-at-all-to-scale) structure in the middle of the picture. Are these priests preaching or perhaps blessing (if so, no one seems to be paying much attention), or is this scene purely artistic licence?

NOTE:

My reason for wanting to know the date & source of this picture relates to chimneys: it appears that they became widespread later in Britain (16th century) than in Italy (14th century or earlier), but the evidence is not conclusive. Please note that chimneys are not part of the question, just the reason for it.


texts:
How did one go about starting a guild?
Were guilds usually formed by a group of individuals or just a single person?
What restrictions existed on starting a guild?

What I'm mainly interested in is how a guild decided who its initial master craftsmen would be. Were the founders the initial masters? What was required to be taken seriously when declaring that you wanted to start a guild?


texts:
This question concerns why Cretan archers were so prolific and well regarded during Antiquity.

As seen in Xenophon's Anabasis Cretan archers often were hired to serve as mercenaries in Greece and continued to do so during the wars of Alexander the Great

For example: Xenophon's Anabasis 1.2.9 and Arrian's Anabasis 2.9.3

My question is now: Why did the Cretan archers become such famous and often hired archers?

The rest of the Greek world seemed to hold a somewhat low opinion of archers, but the Cretan archer seemed to be a household name.

As seen in: Davis, Todd Alexander. Archery in Archaic Greece. Columbia University, 2013


texts: What did Sweden do with all the wrong-sided steering wheels after Högertrafikomläggningen?

texts:
Högertrafikomläggningen happened on September 3rd 1967. On that day Sweden changed from driving on the left side of the road to the right (normalizing with all of its neighbors).

I would guess that before that day many cars in Sweden had their steering wheels on the right side of the car. So what happened to all those cars after the switch? On one side it would be prohibitively expensive to have everyone's car retrofitted with the new direction, but on the other side its more difficult and dangerous to drive on the right hand side of the road with a right hand side steering wheel.

Bonus points: What about buses? They presumably had exits on one side. How did they continue to operate after the switch?


texts: Why did Syria intervene in favour of the Maronites during the Lebanese Civil War?

texts:
From pg. 382, A History of the Modern Middle East by Martin Bunton  and William Cleveland

  "The [Lebanese Civil War] was expanded and then brought temporarily to an end by Syrian intervention. In May 1976
  President al-Asad of Syria sent his army into Lebanon to rescue the Christian militias from the battering
  they were taking at the hands of the PLO and the forces of Jumblatt. Al-Asad’s choice of allies was
  perplexing because it created a situation in which Syrian troops and Maronite militiamen fought side by
  side against the PLO and the forces of the National Movement. Whatever al-Asad’s motives may have
  been for supporting the Maronite faction, Syria’s invasion of Lebanon escalated the fighting and
  expanded the level of destruction."

As noted, this is very perplexing. Syria has always had an extremely anti-Israel position, never having formally recognized the country. Wouldn't Syria supporting the Christian Maronites and fighting the PLO be strategically beneficial for Israel? Indeed, destroying the PLO in Lebanon (thus getting a free hand  in the West Bank) and installing a Christian government were Israel's principal objectives when it invaded Lebanon in 1982.


texts: Did Hitler display gratitude towards Hugo Gutmann?

texts:
It is well-known that many high-ranking Nazis tried to protect some Jews. The idea was that, yes, generally speaking, the Jews were a menace to Germany, but there was this individual jew who was quite an exceptionally good human being. This happened also with Hitler: he protected Eduard Bloch, the physician of his family. In fact, Hitler described him as a “noble Jew” and added that “if all Jews were like him, there would be no Jewish question”.
But there was another Jew who was important in Hitler's life: Hugo Gutmann, one of his superior officers in World War I, and the one who recommended Hitler for the award of the Iron Cross. In fact, Hitler was wearing that iron cross when he committed suicide.
My question is: did Hitler himself ever display any gratitude towards Gutmann? Or did he try to protect him? There's a footnote at the Wikipedia article on Gutmann which claims “According to the historian Werner Maser, Gutmann received, by Hitler's intervention, a pension from Nazi Germany until the end of the Second World War in Europe.” However, no reference is provided and furthermore the German version of the article doesn't mention that. On the other hand, my question is not about whether or not someone, in Nazi German, who knew about the relationship between Hitler and Gutmann, helped Gutmann because of that. It's about any help or sign of gratitude by Hitler himself.


texts: Were the political attacks on the Gracchi brothers unique events? Or was street violence already common?

texts:
The deaths of the Gracchi at the hands of their political foes seemed to herald the increasing streets violence that would characterize the Roman Civil War and decline of the Republic, as more politicians maintained bands of thugs in Rome itself.
Was this street violence a new turn of events? Or was it already common, or at least not unheard of, by the time of Tiberius Gracchus? Was his murder an unprecedented act that shocked Rome generally? Were there any discernible trends in political street violence around this time?
And yes, as an aside, I am thinking of parallels in Weimar and, sad to say, our own time, where legitimate political parties also have informal militias putting in shows of force in public, with accelerating effects.


texts: Did John Milton and Baruch Spinoza know of and/or about each other?

texts:
In these iTunes U lectures on Milton, John Rogers suggest that Milton was espousing "monism" in Paradise Lost; that the theology of Paradise Lost involved the ideas that the soul and body are one and that everything is part of God.

This seemed similar to Spinoza's philosophy.  Even if I have this all wrong, I wondered if Milton and Spinoza knew of or about each other.


texts: When did springs first appear in or below vehicle seats?

texts:
It's common for seats to contain springs. Cushions have been part of seats as long as there has been upholstery. In vehicle seats, springs absorb unwanted forces perpendicular to the direction of the vehicle's travel. This job is identical to that of the vehicle's suspension (if any).

In vehicle suspensions, suspended carriages preceded sprung carriages. If the same thing happened for vehicle seats, then U.S. Patent 104,714 of 1870, for seats suspended from "bars", might precede the use of springs in seats.

When did elastic, solid springs first appear in or below vehicle seats?


texts: I actually have done research on the Maya, the Inca, and the Aztecs, but I'm wondering about a specific question that we had to study on flashcards for a test on a few days ago, which stated, " What happened to the Maya civilization?" The answer was, cities were abandoned. I thought that there must be a reason why they were abandoned. These answers are good, I just want an answer that is simple. Again, please tell me why they were abandoned and make it simple and easy to understand! Thank you for reading this because I really want to know.


texts:
I am looking for information on the general perception of the educated population in the decade leading up to WW1.  I would like to know to what extent a tragedy of the scale of WW1 was foreseen.  Was it a shock that it happened, or was it something that many saw inevitably nearing?

I find it difficult to find information on this topic by searching the internet. I can find analyses about the causes of the war, and discussions about whether it was inevitable.  But I am unable to find information about how the situation was perceived at that time.

Just to be clear, I am sure that there are some writings out there that seem to have predicted it, but statistically there will always be a few. This is not what I am asking about.  I would like to know if concerns about a disaster of this scale were something that came up relatively frequently in intellectual discussions of that time (as they do in our time).


texts: The history of toys: Who invented the first porcelain dolls?

texts:
I've been reading about the history of toys online, as part of a personal project. One thing that surprised me was that every article I've found lists porcelain toys as having been invented by Europeans. Different sites give dates between the 1500s and 1700s, depending on the country, the type of doll, and the method of manufacture.

This seems odd to me; for obvious reasons I would have expected china dolls to originate ... in China. It's strange that they would have used it to make figurines, decorative objects, etc., but never produced toys intended for children. So to my question:

When and where were the first porcelain or china toys made? Were porcelain toys made in China or Japan prior to the European Renaissance? If so, what were they like?


texts: Life in the middle ages for ordinary people?

texts:
From studying medieval history and reading related literature, I know enough about day to day life in the sense of life expectancy, work, pleasure, etc.

My question is, given that human nature is essentially unchanged (hope you agree) how did people cope with the lack of social mobility and in many cases the inability to relocate?

Were the majority too preoccupied with the toils of life to complain?

Did they turn to religion and is that how religious institutions started to gain considerable power during the high middle ages?

I am considering a thesis for a paper that would argue that the reason religion was able to take hold was helped largely by the lack of competing distractions. Do you agree that religion was able to take off due to relative lack of social events/"distractions"?


texts: How did one's statistical chance of survival as a hidden Jew change during the course of the Nazi occupation of northern France?

texts:
A Jewish relative who had grown up in Vienna fled from Germany to France to escape persecution.  Then Germany invaded France, and this relative went into hiding.  He and his wife hid successfully until shortly before Liberation.

I wonder how common that was.  Did the chance increase, that a neighbor would denounce you, as the end of the war approached?  Perhaps because shortages of food and fuel became more acute?


texts: Was there a Viking Exchange as well as a Columbian one?

texts:
In the Columbian Exchange, many tropical and temperate species crossed the Atlantic for the first time. Was there previously a Viking Exchange at higher latitudes?

According to Jesse Byock's Viking Age Iceland, Vikings brought along familiar mammals, insects, and crops as they migrated west to Iceland. In Greenland, they kept stock and cultivated barley. However, according to Janet E. Kay there is no evidence that the colony at L'anse aux Meadows kept livestock or practiced agriculture.

In their centuries of ocean crossings, did the Vikings bring any species eastward? Speculatively, they could have developed a taste for American or Icelandic plants, or accidentally carried American insects.


texts: Why did Churchill accept the Order of the Garter in 1953?

texts: Churchill had refused the Order of the Garter in 1945, quipping that he couldn't accept the garter from the king after the people gave him the boot. But in 1953 he relented and accepted the honour? Is it known what exactly made him change his mind?


texts: Independent persons founding personal fiefdoms

texts:
Question:

I am interested to know of any more possible instances like Sarawak and the Cocos-Keeling Islands described below, where individuals have managed to establish de facto fiefdoms or states lasting a significant amount of time. I am guessing there may of been more occurrences like these in the Age of Discovery, but i have not managed to find any.

White Rajahs of Sarawak

James Brooke received territory from the Sultan of Brunei as a reward for helping the Sultan fight of insurgents. The Brookes ruled Sarawak for three generations until it was ceded in the aftermath of WW2.

Kingdom of the Cocos Islands

John Clunies-Ross established a de facto kingdom in the Cocos Islands in the beginning of the 1800s when he established a settlement on the islands. The Clunies-Ross ruled the islands until 1978 when the islands where sold to Australia.


texts: What does King Henry III have on his lap in this illustration from a Matthew Paris chronicle?

texts:
In Abbreviatio chronicorum Angliae, the chronicler Matthew Paris (d. 1259) included drawings of the Norman and Plantagenet kings up to Henry III. The image below shows from L-R, top-bottom: Henry II, Richard I (‘the Lionheart’), John I (‘Lackland’) and Henry III

Source: Matthew Paris and his Abbreviated Chronicle of England

Henry II and John are shown with buildings; these may be ones of which they were patrons of, as in the Historia Anglorum. Richard I has a sword and shield, which seems easy enough to explain. Henry III's 'object' is less clear, though. There seems to be some kind of chest on his lap.

What does Henry III have on his lap, and what is his connection with it?

Also, can anyone identify the buildings shown with Kings Henry II and John?


texts: What is the definition, usage, and etymology of “Sandy ware”?

texts:
Wikipedia has the category "Sandy ware in the Portable Antiquities Scheme"

Is it a kind of pottery? Or a type of coating for pottery? That's what I would understand from this page. What would it have been used for, and why?

Here's an example I found online that's identified as Anglo-Saxon:


texts: What would be the problem if Turkey admits Armenian Massacre?

texts:
Armenian massacre happened long before the establishment of Turkish republic.

Can't Turkey just say that, "Yes, it happened. But since the Ottoman emperor Abdul Hamid is responsible for that, Turkey has nothing to do with it."?

What is the problem if Turkey admits that the genocide really took place?


texts: Why was Polish king Sigismund II Augustus' coronation held when his father Sigismund I was still alive?

texts:
Sigismund II Augustus was born in 1520 and crowned at age 10 in 1530, while his father Sigismund I the Old was still alive.
Could someone explain me the reason for this coronation?
Sigismund II August took the throne after Sigismund I the Old died, but he was crowned vivente rege as a king of Poland in 1530 (unfortunately not mentioned in English Wiki, but is in Polish Wiki). My research gave me nothing but this date and unconvincing explanation, that it was because his mother wanted to give him a proper education


texts: Why Were Madagascar and New Zealand Discovered So Late?

texts:
Considering how exploration over long distances into the unknown has been a part of human nature right at the beginning, it's surprising that some fairly large places have been discovered relatively recently.  The island of Madagascar, for example, is large and very close to Africa, yet it was discovered in 500 AD.  Even then, it wasn't by nearby Africans, but by faraway Austronesians.  New Zealand, which was just as tantalizingly close to Australia, was discovered by Polynesian (Austronesian sub-group) sailors 800 years later.

So why were these large and incredibly close landmasses discovered so late in the history of human existence?  What was stopping the settlers from getting there a lot earlier, like before the Common Era?


texts:
I found this in my great-aunt's pictures after she passed, but no one in my family knows who it might be. We're not even sure it's an American uniform as her side of the family came over from Germany and Ireland. It's a tintype, if that might be relevant.

My cousin posted it to Twitter asking for help but no luck so far. The link is below.


texts: Japan is a nation of twelve year olds: Why?

texts: MacArthur famously uttered the words, "Japan is a nation of twelve year olds". Why?


texts:
We know that Archimedes learnt a lot from his father, Phidias (who was an astronomer) and most likely studied in Alexandria, alongside other great contemporaries such as Eratosthenes of Cyrene and Conon of Samos, with whom he would have collaborated and corresponded with about his work.

Do we however know at all whether Archimedes had any students that he would have taught personally?


texts: Does anyone know a quote, from an opponent of MLK (e.g. a sheriff) which presents him as radical?

texts: This is for some research I am doing about the life of Martin Luther King.


texts: Has a book ever secretly been written with gold ink?

texts:
I heard a story that goes as follows:

A prospector struck gold and didn't want to share. So this man was trying to hide his gold from all of his other partners. The story says that he melted the gold and mixed the gold with black ink and wrote in his journal about his adventures.

By the end of the book he ran out of things to write so he started writing randomly, and people interpreted this as a sign that he was going crazy. Does anyone know if this is a true story and if so, can you provide me with the source?


texts:
I know how they wrote the information down:

  Documents, like legal contracts, were usually written in pen and ink on papyrus. Books were also written in pen and ink on papyrus or sometimes on parchment. -- emory.edu

But I'm interested how it was stored. Ruling for 600+ years means they must have had to keep track for a lot of information (censuses, jail records etc).

How was this stored?


texts: How, where and when did Lily Pettigrew die?

texts:
Lily Pettigrew (born Lilian Pettigrew, on 25 Feb 1870, in Portsmouth in the UK) was a famous artist's model in turn-of-the-century London, alongside her equally famous sisters Hetty and Rose. She is the woman depicted in numerous illustrious works by J A M Whistler and J W Godward, amongst others.

According to her Wikipedia page (the only one available is in Spanish) she took her own life in São Paulo, Brazil, on 26 Feb 1920. However:

This doesn't fit with what little I know of her life. Why on earth would she be in Brazil?
I can't back this claim up with any source outside of Wikipedia and its sister projects.

What I'd like is either a refutation or a confirmation of this Brazilian story.

Some useful stuff I've found so far:

A search through British birth, marriage and death records (using Free BMD) faithfully corroborates the date of birth given on Wikipedia, but none of the death (or marriage) records match our particular Lilian Pettigrew.
According to this article, '[n]othing is known about Lily after 1911'.
The aforementioned Wikipedia page gives Miss Pettigrew's cause of death as 'Suicidio por salto al vacío'. A Spanish speaker has confirmed that this means that she died by jumping from a great height.

A bit of context: the Spanish Wikipedia page for Lily's sister, Harriet Pettigrew, states that Harriet died following a fall on 30 Oct 1953, at 86, in Buenos Aires. Perhaps this adds some credibility to her sister dying in Brazil? However:

This page says that the death of one Harriet S Pettigrew - our Harriet Pettigrew's middle name was Selina - was registered in March (or January or February) 1953, with the age given as 83.
The above record states that the death was registered in Croydon (a London borough). But I presume that, even in the 1950s, if a British national died abroad, the death would still be registered in the UK? But then why wasn't Lily's death registered?


texts: Did the Norse visiting the Americas cause any high-mortality epidemics?

texts:
Guns, Germs and Steel (Diamond 1997) argues that Old World invaders of the New World c. 1500 carried high-mortality infections to Native Americans, but the latter couldn't similarly infect the former, because such diseases' existence results from zoonoses in cities where both humans and domesticated animals have a high population density. This is the first of two videos giving a much shorter discussion of the idea than the book-length one due to Diamond.

But there was a limited presence of Norse people in the
Americas c. 1000 AD. Did this also infect natives with something deadly to which they lacked immunity? If not, why not? I've found one online discussion of why this may not have happened, but I was hoping for something more concise than 615 comments. As best I can tell, the short answer is Norse practices didn't predispose them to such infections, but I'm unclear on the details.


texts: Where is the Hindu law/instruction of Cremation?

texts:
Coming from the northern half of India, I assumed that Hindus were all cremated. In the southern half of the country, I was surprised to find many Hindu burial grounds. Subsequent searches showed many such burial grounds exist even in Northern India, but the usual explanation was that these were for the "low castes". Other explanations such as "Shavaites bury the dead" and "Vaishnavs cremate" are also available on the net. However, I cannot seem to find the law or instruction or the first manual that says how to treat the dead body in any document.

Seen this and this and this and also on burial but none of them quote any source or reference of these laws.

A  clarification: I'm not looking for current manuals such as the "Panjika" which may tell you what to do after someone's death, but the source of the law from ancient texts.


texts: Did Marduk-balassu-iqbi help Assur-Danin-Pal?

texts:
This is a question about Assur-Danin-Pal and his relationship to the Babylonian kings. First I need to introduce the characters:

Shalmaneser III: King of Assyria (859-824)

Assur-Danin-Pal: His son, who rebelled

Shamsi-Adad V: his other son, who put down the rebellion and became king in 824

Marduk-Zakir-Sumi I: King of Babylon (855-819), contemporary of Shalmaneser III

Marduk-balāssu-iqbi: his son (r. 819-813)

Marduk Zakir Sumi I helped Shamsi Adad V put down the rebellion. Shamsi Adad V was therefore indebted to the Babylonian King and married his daughter Shammuramat. This is conventional knowledge.

The page for Assur Danin Pal says that he (the usurper) sought the support of the Babylonian king Marduk-balāssu-iqbi. It describes the revolt as "marauding armies of Babylonians". This information is uncited and seems obscure. Marduk-balassu-iqbi suceeded his father a few years later.

Marduk-balassu-iqbi initially ruled an area in northeast Babylon that had been contested for centuries between Assyria and Babylon. He would have been well positioned to invade Assyria. If the above account is true then it raises the question of what the relationship was between the Babylonian king and his son. Was he acting as a vassal or rebel to his father when he backed Assur-Danin-Pal? It seems unlikely that his father would let him act on his own from this strategic location, unless he wanted him to embark on a fool's errand. The chronology may be telling; the son led his armies into Assyria's civil wars then his father had the last word. The son later became a rival to his sister Shammuramat.

Bounty: Did Marduk-ballasu-iqbi help Assur-Danin-Pal?

Can this also be answered: What was the relationship of Marduk-Zakir-Sumi to his son's invasion, if it did happen?


texts: When did the British gentry stop wearing wigs?

texts:
I'm researching dress in 18th century Britain.

This article  claims the following: "Brits stopped wearing wigs after William Pitt levied a tax on hair powder in 1795." The date seems odd to me, because I could have sworn I once read a social history that claimed a Briton "wouldn't be caught dead in a wig" by the 1780s, or even the 70s, and backed it up with a quote from a contemporary letter. But I can't be sure I'm remembering correctly. The book Daily Life in 18th Century Britain says that that "wigs went out of fashion for good (except in the law courts) at the end of the century, when powder taxes and sympathies for the French revolutionaries made short, natural hair the rage."

If this is right, it implies multiple causes (and also taxes plural) and a slower phase out than just 1795. The political and fashionable aspects also make me wonder if it may have been first ditched by the young or politically left. Odd as it may seem, I'd like to know the status of the wig down to the year, because my project focuses on 1793-94.

So, when did the British gentry do away with the wig? Secondarily, did it go very suddenly, or did any particular group stop wearing them first? Was it ever politically controversial? And on a final note, did Britain uniformly adopt short hair, or was there greater variation?


texts: Were B-17s (rather than B-29s) ever used to bomb mainland Japanese territory during WW2 (at least before the capture of Okinawa)?

texts:
I am wondering if B17s ever flew bombing raids against the Japanese mainland, and if so, did they do it before the capture of Okinawa, which was much closer than the previously captured islands like Iwo Jima.
Some links indicating that only B29s were used.
defense.gov
Wikipedia:AirRaidsOnJapan
Iwo Jima - Tokyo (one way): 760 miles/1220 km
Coastal China/Korea to Japan distance is on the order of 800km, but Japan held most, if not all, of the Chinese/Korean coast during the war.
B17-G range - Range: 2,000 mi (3,219 km, 1,738 nmi) with 6,000 lb (2,700 kg) bombload
B29 range - Range: 3,250 mi (5,230 km, 2,820 nmi)
Motivation for this question is a question Why was the USA planning on attacking Japan before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour? concerning a claim by Chomsky asked on SE Politics that Japan had good reasons to start the war because it was feeling threatened by B-17 bombers.
Furthermore the title of the question implies not only the Japanese perception, but actual US intentions.  Which I don't think is based on any kind of objective reality as the B-17 just lacked the range to bomb Japan from any area under US control (or outside the reach of Japan) in 1941.


texts: Was Eumenes really a non Greek by birth?

texts:
I have been reading a very interesting graphic novel by Hitoshi Iwaaki which is about Eumenes.

It starts of by saying that Eumenes was not a Greek by birth, but was born in a tribe called Scythians. When I searched in the internet, I could not find even one credible source confirming the same. Was Eumenes really a non Greek and Scythian by birth?