texts: Why didn't the Trafalgar Way messengers sail up the English Channel?

texts:
The dispatches from the British fleet at the battle of Trafalgar were brought by ship to Falmouth. From there, messengers rode by horse over land to the Admiralty in London, following a route known as the Trafalgar Way.

As the objective was to get these dispatches to London as quickly as possible, why didn't the messengers sail up the English Channel as close to London as possible? Surely sailing is faster than riding over land and changing horses a reported 21 times?


texts:
I am curious how much did the German universities charge their students in late 19th early 20th century.  I am specifically interested in the math/science education at University of Göttingen, one of the leading institutions of its time.

For comparison, here is what UPenn charged - they have an amazingly helpful page on this:
http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/tuition/main.html


texts: How did an advancing force walk during WW1?

texts:
I am searching for any noticeable orders, doctrine or any piece of information about how an advancing force should be organized. I am interested in the scope 1914-1918, on European and Middle-East fronts.

By "advancing force", I mean:

A force of varying size (battallion, brigade, division)
That is advancing in an open ground and not in enemy fortifications
That had passed first enemy lines.

So the question is not about:

Attack or defence tactics
Strategic movements

But I am really interesting in how a group of soldiers should advance between two fights, when it is not certain of the position of enemy forces: position in the column of cavalry, artillery, infantry, tanks...

For example:

What was the march order of the French and Serbian infantry after the breakthrough of Salonique?
How did Germans or Russians organize their marchs on the Eastern Front?
How did British army walked in Mesopotamia?

EDIT:

To clarify the question:
Imagine a situation where two armies are, on a strategic plan, closing with each other. Soldiers will come for example by railroad. When they disembark from the station, they adopt a formation and start moving in the forest/mountains/fields. Suddendly, an enemy is seen or sudden fire falls of the column. Orders are given and the formation is broken into tactical moves.

I am interested in what the formation was, in order to minimize damages (in an ambush for example) and maximize the speed of an attack (if enemy is discovered).


texts:
A long time ago -- either when I was in school, or via some documentary -- I learned that Einstein had to face a public immigration hearing in 1933 [edit: probably it was a naturalization hearing in 1940].  One of the groups speaking against him was a women's organization (I believe the tail end of the suffragettes?), motivated by the fact that he had divorced his first wife.

Googling online for details about this, however, I've found absolutely nothing, not even a discussion of the hearing.  This seems odd since I'm sure there was some vocal public opposition on account of his Jewish heritage.

Can anyone confirm this with further information?


texts: Why in most German places is the church the tallest building?

texts:
A coworker from another country asked me today if it is true that we have a law prohibiting any building in a place from being taller than their church.
I told him I don't know if we still have any such law and, if we had, I most likely would know about it.

So he asked "How come no German city has taller buildings than their church?", this question is now haunting me...

I can barely think of any city or village I ever was in (with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions), here in Germany, where the church wasn't the highest building. Maybe there once was such a law, but if it isn't in force, how did it come to be that there are rarely any modern buildings taller than the church towers?

Or is this just subjective and in fact there are a lot of German cities with taller buildings then their churches?


texts: During the Battle of Britain, how prepared was the East Front?

texts:
The Battle of Britain went on between July and October of 1940. During this time, how prepared was the German Eastern Front?

Specifically, how much of the German Army was on the West (either occupying France or waiting to invade Britain), versus how much guarding the East? How much of the Luftwaffe was busy with Britain, versus how much was guarding the East? Was the East Front fortified at all with trenches?

Or perhaps, was the east guard given mostly to the Italians?

BTW, at this time the Axis did not include Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, or Bulgaria. So the Eastern Front is relatively small at this point, running through Poland, and along Austria and Italy.

Edit: Another way of going about this is, how much of the Wermacht was occupying West Poland and Czechoslovakia at this time?


texts: Was John S. Mosby the model/motivation/template for John Carter?

texts:
I've always suspected this but have never seen any concrete proof. Was the fictitious Edgar Rice Burroughs character John Carter based on the civil war hero/villain John S. Mosby?

Mosby was arguable the most famous enlisted man (became an officer during the war) of the United States Civil war.  In the South his dashing exploits made him one of the great heroes of the "Lost Cause." In the North he was painted as the blackest of scoundrels, the boogie man, a fact explained by his amazing successes during the war. So great became the fame of Mosby's partisan exploits that soldiers of fortune came from Europe to share his adventures. Among his daring exploits:

Mosby was the chief scout for JEB Stuart when Stuart rode a circle
around the attacking Union Army commanded by Gen. George B.
McClellan outside of Richmond.
Operated behind Union Lines, captured the Payroll of the Army of the
Potomac several times.  In Virginia there is still talk of finding
some of Mosby's hidden gold.
Captured the Union General in charge of the occupation of N. Virginia
from his bed at his head quarters in Fairfax City,  including his
staff.
Required the Union to commit as many as 10,000 calvary to pursue and
protect against his raids,  Mosby himself never commanded more than
200 men throughout the war,  sometimes as few as a handful.
It is said the planks of Chain Bridge connecting Northern Virginia
and Washington DC were pulled up every night to protect the Union's
capital from John Mosby's Partisan rangers.
After President Lincoln was shot,  the Secretary of War Edwin
M. Stanton issued orders to arrest Mosby.  So great was his fame,
Stanton just knew he was behind the assassination.  Mosby was found
innocent as he was having dinner that evening with the Union General
occupying Virginia.
Honored by General Robert E. Lee,  Mosby was chosen to command his
personal escort detail which accompanied Lee to Appomattox Court House
April 9, 1865 where Lee surrendered to General Grant.
Mosby's manual on cavalry tactics would be used for decades at West
Point after the war.
Mosby's autobiography would become a best seller in the post civil war
United States in the early 20th century.
In his autobiography, Mosby counts some of his former Union captives,
as among his best friends.

Back to my Question.  Edgar Rice Burroughs, the future author of Tarzan,  would begin writing about the fictitious John Carter in 1912( A Princess of Mars).  The fictitious John Carter being a famous Virginian Cavalryman who lost faith, left the south and went prospecting in the west after the civil war.  Burroughs' John Carter was a discredited man who ultimately overcame himself to again display decisive thinking and a flare for military action and bravery, this time in the martian civil war also about slavery.  This also paralleled Col. Mosby who also left the South in disgrace just ahead of death threats and attempts on his life, after becoming a Republican and endorsing General Grant for the Presidency.

Anyway,  any hard evidence that Boroughs based John Carter on Mosby or is it all in my head?


texts: Did cakes exist before the discovery of sodium bicarbonate?

texts: I recently learned that baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) was only discovered in the 19th century, which made me wonder - did cakes as we think of them exist before that?


texts: My girlfriend found this uniform in the closet of her father. He passed some time ago. This uniform was in his possession and we are someone confused. This is obviously an US-American Uniform, yet her father was in the German Wehrmacht during WW2. This is a little messed up. Can anyone help us? Thanks


texts: What's the history of this mortar shell?

texts:
I was wondering if anyone could give me some history on this shell, which was left to my son by his great grandmother.

Could anyone give me information about these markings on this mortar shell.  Many thanks.


texts: Did the Assiniboine live around Fort Assiniboine (Canada)?

texts:
There's a place in Alberta called Fort Assiniboine.  Today it's a small village, but in the days of the fur trade, it was a fort and trading post for the Hudson's Bay Company.

The Assiniboine people are an American Indian / First Nations tribe from the Great Plains, but all the maps I've seen of their territory don't come anywhere near Fort Assiniboine.

Did the Assiniboine live around the fort in Alberta that bears their name?

If not, who did?


texts: Did Great Britain benefit economically from the loss of America?

texts:
I have been told by many acquaintances that the loss of the thirteen colonies actually BENEFITED the UK. Their claim is that the UK no longer had to pay for the colonies' defence and administration and whilst the tax loss was regretable, the colonists were not taxed very high anyway (thus why parliament voted to increase taxes in the US). On the other hand, trade boomed as the colonists prefer to do business with someone who speaks their language and has their customs.

Is there any truth in this statement? Were the 13 colonies really not profitable (i.e. defence + admin costs > tax revenue)? If so, then why do states bother with colonies at all, if a majority of the time they're not profitable?


texts: Why didn't Stalin use force to bring Tito into line?

texts:
In 1956 and 1968, the Soviets invaded Eastern European countries because they had deviated from Moscow's model.

Why didn't they do this to Tito? His independent inclinations are usually explained  by the fact that he defeated the Germans without much Soviet help. This doesn't explain why the Soviets didn't use force to bring him into line.

Possible explanations include Stalin did not want to provoke a war with the Western allies, or that he believed it would be unwise to put his forces through another conflict before they had recovered from the Second World War. I'm ready to upvote all referenced answers, whatever explanation they propose.


texts: Does the ≈400,000 figure for US soldiers killed in WW2 include the ≈80,000 MIA?

texts:
There is general consensus that there were roughly 400,000 U.S. deaths in WW2, and 80,000 MIA:

  Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than
  400,000 died during the war. At the end of the war, there were
  approximately 79,000 Americans unaccounted for. This number included
  those buried with honor as unknowns, officially buried at sea, lost at
  sea, and missing in action. DPAA

Does the 400,000 deaths number include the 80,000 MIA number? Or could you technically say that 480,000 Americans were killed or missing in WW2?


texts:
I am new to this Stack Exchange community, so please let me know if this question is out of scope.

I am looking for a book on the history of Hong Kong, but I am unsure on whether there are any main references out there. I would like a book that is rigorous yet makes for an enjoyable read. I would like the book to cover the return of the city to Chinese sovereignty so it should be a relatively recent book.

Browsing through the internet, I have found a couple of books that seem close to what I am looking for:

A History of Hong Kong, by Frank Welsh;
East and West, by Chris Patten (last British governor of Hong Kong).

I would like to know if these books (or any other for that matter) are considered "canonical" in this subject.


texts: What coin denominations were used in the US before Dollars and Cents?

texts:
In Thomas Jefferson's proposal for a decimal currency, he describes the status quo as:

  The [cent] will differ little from the copper of the four Eastern
  States, which is 1/108 of a dollar; still less from the penny of New
  York and North Carolina, which is 1/96 of a dollar; and somewhat more
  than the penny or copper of Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and
  Maryland, which is 1/90 of a dollar.

By "penny", I assume he means the "d" in the £sd system like the British used, but debased.  (His calculations elsewhere in the quoted document imply that a penny sterling was 1/54 of a Spanish dollar.)  The states also had various units called the "pound":

  But what is the Pound? 1547 grains of fine silver [$4.00] in Georgia;
  1289 grains [$3.33] in Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island,
  Massachusetts, and New Hampshire; 1031¼ grains [$2.67] in Maryland, Delaware,
  Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; 966¾ grains [$2.50] in North Carolina
  and New York. Which of these shall we adopt? To which State give that
  pre-eminence of which all are so jealous? And on which impose the
  difficulties of a new estimate of their corn, their cattle, and other
  commodities? Or shall we hang the pound sterling, as a common badge,
  about all their necks? This contains 1718¾ [$4.44] grains of pure
  silver.

Note that in DE, MD, NJ, PA, NC, and NY, there were 240 "coppers" to a pound, just like in £sd.  But in CT, MA, NH, and RI, there were 360 "coppers" to a pound.  What explains the disparity?  Did these states have 30 shillings to a pound instead of 20?  Or was a "copper" 2/3 of a penny?


texts:
When I was admitted as a graduate solicitor to the Supreme Court of the State I had studied in, the Judge said:

  Treasure Judicial Independence. You can count on one hand the countries that have it!

He was referring to India, Canada, USA, UK and Australia.

Interestingly enough, many European countries developed democracies around the same time as these countries - but don't have this attribute.

(The European Court of Human Rights is in an exceptional category).

My question is: What is the reason that European Democracies developed without judicial independence?


texts: Why did the Nazis invent videotelephony?

texts:
This claim that the Nazis invented two-way video telephony is astonishing and I almost thought it was a hoax. Except it's not, because it's copiously referenced to contemporary sources.

So other than propaganda, why did the Nazis build it? It's a major achievement, but was it actually worthwhile compared to an equal investment in phone lines or other forms of telecommunication?

Secondly, did anyone pick up on the research and technology for this service, which was revolutionary at the time?


texts: Why did no one take Siberia over before the Russians, and how did they do it?

texts:
I realize that Russia had ambitions in the east and they took over Siberia. However Siberia was just north of the Mongols really and its islands were easily accessible to Japan in history. They even had navies to invade. However it were the Russians who beginning from Moscow took over Siberia.
What special skills did the Russians have that others lacked because of which they could not take?


texts: What were the Allies' plans if they caught Hitler alive?

texts: Hitler committed suicide in 1945, but I'm curious as to what would have happened to him if he hadn't. Did the Allies have any formal plans as to what they would do with Hitler if they caught him alive? Moreover, did the Allies agree on this plan, or would his ultimate fate have depended on which country caught him?


texts: How successful (or not) was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 concerning employment discrimination?

texts:
In 1964 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which greatly increased the federal government’s power concerning personal property. Using the Commerce Clause and the recent SCOTUS decision in Wickard v. Filburn, Congress was able to legislate whether businesses, rather than states, can discriminate. Title VII says:

  UNLAWFUL EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES
  SEC. 2000e-2. [Section 703]

  (a) Employer practices

  It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer -
  (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; or
  (2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees or applicants for employment in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

However, it seems as though the Civil Rights Act never actually accomplished what it meant to. Soon after the Act was enacted, employers  began requiring high school diplomas and standardized tests at a time when education was very difficult for minorities, which is still prevalent today.

How successful was this subsection of the Act, how did it affect public opinion, and how effective was it at curbing racism in employment compared to the actual Civil Rights Movement and time? What were its successes and failures?


texts:
I'm looking for examples of jokes poking fun at fat people in ancient Greek comedies. So far from my research I have been unable to find anything.

Were there any such jokes or was being overweight not considered a source of humour?


texts: What were the largest companies in the world before and after the Great Depression?

texts:
The Great Depression obviously had a very severe effect on stock markets; how did this affect the world’s largest companies, by market capitalization? Were steel companies, such as U.S. Steel, affected more strongly than oil companies, for example?
Moreover, was any sector-based differentiation endemic to these large companies, or was it true of the rest of the sector as well? The Wikipedia article on the Depression has little information on impacts on companies at all, let alone individual firms; it focuses on macroeconomic consequences, or, at best, impacts on heavy industry and consumer goods in aggregate. Furthermore, my attempts at original research have failed: there are no records of the largest annual market caps that I can find online, and a survey of the few companies with easily accessible data will likely be inaccurate.


texts: How efficiently did the Red Army conduct itself during the invasion of Poland in 1939?

texts:
In 1937, Stalin purged the majority of his top military officers, starting with Marshal Tukhachevsky
This disorganized the Red Army, to say the least, and helped account for its later poor performance against Finland, in 1939-1940, and even later against the Nazis, immediately after the invasion in June, 1941.
How well did the Red Army perform during its (brief) 1939 invasion of Poland? (Apparently they inflicted more Polish casualties than they lost of their own men.) Was the Red Army's performance "misleading" by being better than it was later? Did this episode expose weaknesses that foreshadowed the Red Army's later problems?  Or was it a "trivial" passage that did not meaningfully test the Red Army?


texts:
It seems that everyone agrees that Louis Blanc was the first to say "à chacun selon ses besoins, de chacun selon ses facultés", which is often translated as "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."

His authorship is listed by tons of web quotes pages, as well as original sources, such as:

  The formula of association then is as follows; it is thus enunciated by Louis Blanc:

    From each according to his ability.
    To each according to his needs.

  (Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, in his 1851 The General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century.)

Most web quote pages attribute the quote to 1839 L'Organisation du travail (study of Labor organizations).

But when I tried to search "L'Organisation du travail" (the  French text of the work), I got no results.

When and where did Louis Blanc say the famous "from each according to his abilities..."?


texts: How was life in the Iron Age different from life in the Middle Ages?

texts:
Let's say you were from the Middle Ages, 1200s England or Germany, and you got thrown back in time to the Iron Age.  It's still the same place, but it's 400 BC.  Apart from the language, what would you actually notice as being different?

How was everyday life any different in the Iron Age than in the Middle Ages?

(Yes, this is a rather fuzzy question, but I'm hoping to get some good insights from people.)


texts: Cost of peacock throne vs Cost of Taj Mahal

texts:
I am listening to the lectures: Professor Michael H. Fisher, phd - History of India and I stumbled upon a very surprising sentence:

  The peacock throne cost twice as much as Taj Mahal.

Amazed, I tried to dig a bit and I found a very similar sentence:

  The throne was even for the Golden Age Mughal standards supremely
  extravagant and cost twice as much as the construction of the Taj
  Mahal.

In this wikipedia article.

My question: is there any incontestable source which could confirm it?

If not, I would like at least to read some research on the topic of "cost of peacock throne". The wikipedia articles point to websites like this one here, but it's not a scientific research.


texts: What household servants would a Tudor gentleman have had?

texts:
There's a lot of easily-accessible information about the staffing of a Tudor nobleman's household, but very little about that of a Tudor gentleman's.

Was it basically the same as a nobleman's? Or would there be significantly fewer servants?

Was there a smaller proportion of gentlemen servants and a greater proportion of yeoman servants and grooms? Would there be any gentlemen servants at all, or would

(By "gentleman" I mean a wealthy land-owner (usually 200 acres or more, including a dozen or more manors), who presides over manor-courts and doesn't do any manual work himself, but who doesn't hold any aristocratic title; or the son of such a wealthy land-owner).


texts: Where are the Native American primary source documents?

texts:
I am currently looking into Crow Mythology and every website I've seen says essentially "The Native Americans thought of the crow as X". But "NATIVE AMERICANS" is too broad a category! Where are they getting this information from? No citations are ever presented. For example, here:

  Crow - Crow is the keeper of the sacred law. In Native American folklore, the intelligence of crows is usually portrayed as their most important feature. According to Native American legends and myths, some tribes believed that the Crow had the power to talk, and was therefore considered to be one of the wisest of birds.

Is there any repository of Native American folklore that would have this kind of information? The closest I have found, specifically about crows, is Hopi and Zuni folklore "talk", again without any citations though.


texts: Where were Allied soldiers in Switzerland typically kept?

texts: I've been researching for a short story, but I've been having trouble working out the exact trajectory of POWs who escaped from German camps into Switzerland. I know many were put up in hotels for the duration, but apart from this article in a local paper, which mentions a handful in passing, I can't find any concrete information on the particular hotels they might have been in, or even the cantons. Is there information available on this? I'll happily take resources in French or German if anyone finds those.


texts:
"No one has the intention of erecting a wall!" - Walter Ulbricht, June 15,1961.

The Wall was erected anyway, because more than 2.6 million East Germans escaped to West Berlin or West Germany from 1949 to 1961. People with West German DM could get goods very cheaply in the Eastern part of Berlin. Many young smart people escaped to West Germany in search for better life. GDR was piling up problems and most simple solution was to build up the wall.

After building the wall, things changed.

According to this article 63,000 East Berliners lost their jobs in the West. Trade between people from West Berlin and East Berlin stopped.  State deficits grew rapidly, world competitiveness became a far-off dream, and discontent continued to mount.
Economic and budgetary distortions remained, making it difficult either to direct resources or to control a budget. Dissatisfaction in east part of the city grew.

Except prevention of further emigration, what benefits did GDR directly receive from building the wall?


texts: How would an American returning from international travel prove his citizenship before 1914?

texts:
Apparently, international travelers didn't need any papers to travel (before WW1), at least in the USA and most parts of Europe. So how did a person 'prove' their nationality?
From OP's comments:
I'm specifically looking for practices before World War 1.
All the stuff I have found is of the immigration experience only. Nothing of the experience/processing of US citizens returning and only one mention of back and forth immigration. There's a lot of info about Ellis Island and the experience of it by the immigrants coming in steerage class in ocean liners like Mauritania, etc, but not of US citizens returning. 1st and 2nd class were inspected aboard and dropped in Manhattan. Steerage or third class was taken to Ellis Island.
But I read that in those times (before 1914), international travelers did not require any papers to travel, at least not from the US or the UK. So an US-born man/woman, coming back from London, landing in NY, how would they prove they were American? Was it an honor-based system? Take everyone at their word?


texts:
I know that this question might get closed, but I will try it, nevertheless. The reason why I am so interested in broad comparisons of historical situations with current ones, is because I believe that this is the single largest contribution the field of history can have to society.

My very broad question goes like this. What historical situation is comparable to what Europe is currently facing? By the current situation, I am particularly interested in the following qualities:

Relatively large cultural differences between regions
Mature and stable societies, that have not faced a crisis for a significant period of time (half a century in the current case)
Being a significant power, but falling behind in the power-race
Unsustainable in the long-term (aging societies), unless of course action is taken

If you believe that the question should get closed, please try to think of how I can ask a question to gain knowledge to better understand how Europe got into the current situation, and how it is likely to come out of it.


texts: Who really attacked first in the 1948 Israeli Palestinian war?

texts:
That is when Israel declared independence?
Were the Jews hungry for land and started kicking Arabs out, or did the Arabs attack first, or is it sort of a mixed bag?


texts: Who were the firefighters in Muslim North Africa in the 18th/19th Century and how were they organized?

texts:
As we know that the Romans already had some forces for keeping their cities secured and safe: The Vigiles who were what we now may call police and firefighters together!

And as I failed to find some more information about it: I wonder how this was solved and organized later in the modern times. I'm looking for information on pre-colonial firefighting in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.

To focus on one vocational field: Who where the firefighters in Muslim countries and how were they organized, and what were their duties? And how modern were they especially as influences from modern Europe may come into account.

If a focus on location is needed then I would say northern Africa/Maghreb states, would be my focus (I'm aware that even those could be divided into independent countries/states and those who were ruled by Ottomans)!

spoiler
I used the politics tag as I wasn't sure if it would be helpful to create an administration tag or something more relevant!


texts: Would Indonesia have become a communist country if Soekarno hadn't stepped down?

texts:
Along with Josip Tito and some other leaders, Soekarno is one of the founders of Non-Aligned Movement in 1961, which Britannica describes as an "abstention from the use of arrangements of collective defense to serve the particular interests of any of the big powers.".
Internally, he declared Nasakom, an abbreviation for Nationalism, Religion, and Communism. He made it clear that he stands in the neutral ground by supporting all three main political factions equally.
After the assassination of Kennedy, it seems that Soekarno's political attitude totally changed in favor of Soviet Bloc. One notable move was a purchase of Sverdlov-class cruiser from Soviet Union, which surely a political move, considering the Indonesian economy at that time, and the fact that the Sverdlov-class is an advanced cruiser. But even more bizare, Indonesia and some other communist countries even concluded a pact called Jakarta - Pnom Penh - Hanoi -  Peking - Pyongyang Axis.
Had 1965 never happened, or Soekarno resisted to step down, would Indonesia become a communist country?


texts: Plans to depose, disgrace, or assassinate Hitler

texts: Have there come to light any plans either by the allied forces or those within the Third Reich to depose/disgrace/assassinate Hitler himself, rather than just plans to crush his forces?


texts: Has Congress ever offered a proposed admission of a new state without being approached?

texts:
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 said that the territory northwest of the Ohio River should ultimately become at least three, but not more than five, states. (It ultimately became five states plus part of a sixth. I happen to be sitting now in that part of that sixth state.) But they did not at that time propose any particular new states.

In 1784 Governor George Clinton of New York asked Congress to overthrow the government of Vermont, which he considered a district in rebellion against New York. A committee in Congress recommended instead offering the rebel regime admission to the Union as a new state. Neither that proposal nor Clinton's passed. Although the committee recommended that Congress make the first move rather than waiting for a petition from Vermont, this is not fully a case of Congress making the first move, since they had been approached by Vermont on previous occasions. Vermont had been turned down because of objections from New York, which claimed Vermont.

Both of the above events involved the Congress of the Confederation rather than the later two-house Congress consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives.

In early 1791, Congress acted first to admit Kentucky, but that state was not to be admitted until well over a year later, and then to admit Vermont with only two weeks' notice. After negotiations between Vermont and New York, Vermont had submitted a petition, carried by the two lawyers Nathaniel Chipman and Lewis Morris to President Washington.

The legislature of Virginia had consented to its western district becoming the state of Kentucky. I don't know whether the proposal was submitted to Congress by the Commonwealth of Virginia or by statesmen of the proposed new state, but I doubt very much that Congress proposed the new state. I think the Virginians saw advantages in greater southern representation in the Senate and maybe also wanted to be free of expenses incurred in governing so large a region. Certainly at least one New Yorker, Alexander Hamilton, wanted Vermont admitted in order to get greater northern representation in the Senate, but it was the state of Vermont that submitted the petition.

Has Congress ever initiated the process without first receiving a petition?


texts: What happened to schizophrenics in the USSR?

texts: I'm looking for information on people who were unable to work because of schizophrenia or other major mental illness. Does anyone know what happened to them in the USSR?


texts:
-What's the secret behind the Janissaries strength?

-Historically, The Janissaries were one of the strongest military units in the entire Ottoman army:

They played key roles throughout the Ottoman wars.
They were the core units in the Ottoman army.
They achieved many triumphs for some centuries, beating Balkan armies.


texts: Why was Roman painting so inferior to the sculpture and architecture of the same period?

texts:
Compared to sculpture, surviving examples of Roman painting are relatively few. Most of them are in the form of frescoes or mosaics. Still, what gives?

While Roman sculptures and reliefs are highly sophisticated and on par with pretty much anything created later, including Michelangelo's David, the drawing and painting techniques from the same period come off as naive at best. All proportions are off, and knowledge of perspective is nonexistent, which is very odd when you think these images were created in an epoch when construction projects displayed levels of sophistication and elegance still unmatched today - some say so.

Why?


texts: What historical analyses are there to say whether or not the USSR really needed a second front (D-Day) in WWII?

texts:
I'm only generally familiar with the Eastern Front of WWII. My basic understanding is that the Soviet Union was pushed back to Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad, before finally turning things around and overwhelming the Axis Powers.

Judging from all this, did the USSR really need that other front opened up so late? (1944 Jun 06) In other words, by that point in time it looks like they would have just kept going and taken all of Germany, perhaps a little later than 1945 May 09, but taken it nonetheless. Is this true?

What I'm really hoping for are historical analyses (sources) that support or contradict this.


texts: When did leaf springs appear in vehicles?

texts:
Passenger vehicles require suspensions for ride comfort. Most today use helical springs, but leaf springs were at one time a major advance over chain or leather strap suspensions, and are still used in some applications today.

Metal springs for vehicles predate the Bessemer process. Making a leaf spring starts with forging a thin, curved piece of metal. Making a superior one calls for a smart cooling schedules (e.g. initial quench, then slow cooling) and a careful choice of materials.

When did they appear in the historical record?


texts: Wondering if anyone has ever tried to make a calendar where everything is a power of 2, so maybe the day is divided into 16 and the hour is divided into 64, etc.


texts: Why was Queretaro chosen as a fail-safe capital of Mexico?

texts:
According to this article on a person's experience in the country of Mexico, Querétaro was used as a temporary capital city of the Mexican Republic three times.  What I am having trouble finding out is the reason they chose Queretaro as the capital city.  The motivation I can understand.

They chose it in 1847 shortly before the Americans took over Mexico City
In 1867, they chose it because of the French Intervention
And in 1917, it was chosen as a place to sign the new constitution.

What I cannot understand is the value of Queretaro at the time.  Was it because Queretaro is a land-locked city surrounded by mountains?  Was it because it was founded in 1531 by the Spaniards and used as a fail-safe city?  Did they choose it to hide in?

I have researched and researched on the exact reason for this election yet all I can find is that Mexico did in fact use Queretaro as their temporary capital and that is usually the end of the statement.

What is the value of Queretaro such that the federal government "hid" there three times?


texts: What did Central America export in the early 20th century other than coffee and bananas?

texts: Coffee and bananas dominated the Central American economy after the turn of the century, accounting for 75% of the region's exports in 1930. Central America became very dependent on the fortune of their exports. Did they have any other resources or product to export if other countries were unwilling to purchase coffee and bananas, as these were classified as luxuries?


texts: When and why did Gujarat and Maharashtra separate?

texts: Post-independence, when did these two states actually separate and what was the reason?


texts: What does a leaning cross on a gravestone mean?

texts:
I found this photo I took in 2010 of a gravestone located in Fenstanton Parish Church graveyard. It is dated 1886.

I've done a little research (1,2,3) but none of them were especially helpful.

Why does the cross on this gravestone lean?


texts: How were large monetary transactions conducted in medieval Europe?

texts:
Recently, I have read in the news about a large hoard of Norman coins in England being found. Apparently, all of these coins were silver pennies. And then it occurred to me that small silver coins were the only coins minted in Western Europe for centuries (AD 700s to 1200s).

How would large payments be commonly made back then? Did people use a medley of ancient and foreign gold coins? Or bags and bags of silver pennies?

And why did it take so long to mint a higher value silver coins like shilling (1503)? I would expect any king would want to mint high value coins, even if gold is scarce.


texts: What taxes were legally required to be paid in silver in Qing China?

texts:
Background
It is often argued that the following mechanism heavily contributed to the commencement of the opium trade between the Qing and British Empires (you are welcome to correct my understanding):

Certain Qing taxes had to be paid in silver
Foreign trade transactions in the Qing Empire were only allowed in silver
Britain had a significant trade deficit with regard to Qing
This severely depleted European silver reserves
Britain sought to reverse that by introducing a new trade, the opium trade.

It has proven very difficult for me to find citable evidence for parts of the above. For the earlier Ming Dynasty I found some more concrete claims here, though it’s unclear upon what they are based:

Silver was required to pay provincial taxes in 1465, the salt tax in 1475, and corvée exemptions in 1485.

This website about Qing economy claims that:

During the Qing period, all Chinese people had to pay part of their taxes to the government in money (usually copper coins or silver) as opposed to goods-in-kind

making it sound like there was no obligation to use silver! Perhaps it was more a consequence of the copper coin’s low value, that is a practical consideration?
Edit
It appears that I have found such a law for the earlier Ming Dynasty. The Wikipedia article on the Single Whip Law states:

The unit of tax collection was changed from rice to silver, which led to an increase in the import of silver into China from Japan and Spanish-controlled America.

Question
Around 1839, which types of taxes were required by Qing law to be paid in silver?
Did this apply to everyone, including peasants in remote regions?
I will welcome answers pointing to scientific articles, but particularly  hope for references to a Chinese source from the period or translation thereof.


texts:
Marxist historiography focuses on social class and economics forces, and assumes an inexorable trend towards socialist revolution.

What kind of historiography shares the concern about class economics, but without the deterministic view of historical progress? History from below is still pretty Marxist and seems too micro in scope; Social history seems too diffuse. Perhaps I am looking for a particular kind of social history.


texts: How secret was the US and British involvement in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état?

texts:
A professor mentioned to me that one of the reason that conspiracy theories are popular in Iran (and Middle East in general) was that actual conspiracies involving Western powers against Muslim countries did happen. One such example was the 1953 Iranian coup d'état which overthrew and imprisoned Iran's elected Mosaddegh government. This effectively ended democracy in Iran and replaced it with a strong monarchical rule of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

It was orchestrated and planned by the UK and the US. According to Wikipedia, only long after this did these countries' intelligence agencies formally acknowledge their roles.

  In August 2013, 60 years after, the American Central Intelligence
  Agency (CIA) admitted that it was involved in both the planning and
  the execution of the coup, including the bribing of Iranian
  politicians, security and army high-ranking officials, as well as
  pro-coup propaganda. The CIA is quoted acknowledging the coup was
  carried out "under CIA direction" and "as an act of U.S. foreign
  policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government.

and

  Classified documents show that British intelligence officials played a
  pivotal role in initiating and planning the coup ...

My question was, how secret or well-known were these countries' involvement in this role? Did the general public (in Iran and in the West) know about this? Or did only "conspiracy theorists" believe that the US and the UK did this, initially?


texts: How did a criminal trial in the Soviet Union work after World War 2?

texts:
There are many historical accounts of "trials" in the Soviet Union. However, they tend to center around trials which are political trials. For example, a government agent accused of treason.

How did a criminal trial in the Soviet Union work? Specifically I am interested in the time immediately after World War 2.


texts: Did modern soldiers try to miss their shots?

texts: I have heard the claim many times that most soldiers shoot to miss their enemy rather than kill. The most recent claim of this was on the TV show Black Mirror. Except for exceptional circumstances of fraternization such as the 1914 Christmas truce, did soldiers actually try to miss their shots, or are such claims apocryphal?


texts: What does Deng Xiaoping mean by "Hide your capacities, bide your time '?

texts:
I came across this interesting quote by Deng Xiaoping:

  Hide your capacities and bide your time

however I didn't find much about this quote on the Internet explaining the exact context and meaning and the origin of phrase.

When and where did he say it, and what exactly did he mean by it?


texts: Why did Mettius Fufetius not join the Veiites in directly attacking the Roman King Tullus Hostilius?

texts:
I came across the story of Mettius Fufetius, the Alba Longan counterpart to Tullus Hostilius, and how he betrayed Rome when he secretly told Veii, an Etruscan rival city, that he would deploy his troops along with Rome but at the last second depart to the hills. I also know that he was angry at having lost the Battle of the Horatii and Curiatii for the Alba Longans, so he would be motivated to attack Rome.
My question is why did he not directly attack Rome itself with the Veiites? Clearly the Romans had no idea that there was going to be a widespread betrayal otherwise Tullus Hostilius would not later be credited for his quick thinking in telling his troops that this Alban retreat to the hills was planned. If the Romans didn't hear anything from any of the Alban Longan troops, why didn't Mettius command his troops to attack the Romans instead of perching his troops at a hill? His troops, having also tasted the bitterness of losing the Horatii vs. Curiatii, wouldn't need any extra motivation.
In short, why didn't Mettius commit fully to his betrayal?


texts: Was slaughtering cows in Kamchatka prohibited in the 1820s?

texts:
In To the Pacific and Arctic with Beechey: The Journal of Lieutenant George Peard of HMS Blossom, 1825–1828, Peard claims that in Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, "nearly every family possesses a Cow (against killing which there is a positive order from the Government)".

Which authority made such an "order"?


texts: When and why was Seleucia ultimately abandoned?

texts:
The ancient Seleucia was founded along the Tigris river around the year 305 BC, and abandoned in 165 AD, due to the river mutating its course (Wikipedia).

However in 780 AD the Catholicos (=Patriarch) of Seleucia was the most important Christian authority, overseeing over a quarter of the world's Christians [2]. This fact alone suggests that the city was far from an abandoned site, and rather thriving.

Some sources refer to Middle Ages Seleucia as Seleucia-Ctesiphon. So let's assume that the Catholicos was based in Ctesiphon; the destruction of Ctesiphon was perpetrated by the invading Arabs, who later founded Baghdad. However Again there is an inconsistency, as the Arabs burned Ctesiphon (or Seleucia-Ctesiphon) in the VII century, and founded Baghdad one hundred years later. Where were the Catholicoi(?) based meanwhile?

All this is in disagreement with the most common view that Seleucia was abandoned because of Roman attacks and replaced by Ctesiphon in the II century. The neighboring Ctesiphon, was in turn abandoned in the VII century after the Arab invasion, while Baghdad was founded in the VIII century.

Everything appears like a giant naming mismatch.

[2]: The Lost History of Christianity, P. Jenkins, Harper Collins


texts: History of the 1793 revision of the constitution of Vermont

texts:
Is there any account of the politics of the revisions of Vermont's constitution in 1793?  When Vermont was admitted to the Union on March 4, 1791, it continued to function under the constitution of 1786 that was written while Vermont was an independent country (and which in turn superseded the constitution of 1777).

On this matter it is very easy to surmise that a major motive of the revision was deletion of the lengthy condemnations of the two former enemy states, Britain and New York. It seems especially inappropriate to continue to speak officially of New York as an enemy after admission to the Union. (It just occurred to me that I don't know at what point the confiscations from, and deportations of, "Yorkers" ended in Vermont. In 1784 after the U.S. concluded peace with the British (and the British ceded Vermont to the U.S. although Vermont's government didn't recognize that), the governor of New York was actively threatening to invade Vermont and asking for the support of Congress in so doing.)

But a surmise about the motives is not an account of events. In particular, did the Council of Censors recommend the revision? (Robert Mello's definitive biography of Moses Robinson says nothing about the 1793 revision. I conclude that Robinson --- at that time a U.S. senator --- did not participate this time around.)


texts: Did Louis XIV flee from the Louvre or the Palais-Royal on 5th January 1649?

texts:
When visiting the Louvre once with a guide, she mentioned that the young Louis XIV, on the night of 5 January 1649, actually escaped from Palais-Royal and not from the Louvre as it is usually mentioned when talking about the Fronde.
How accurate is this statement?
I did some casual searches and it seems that most of sources mention "Paris", a few "the royal palace" (but not "Palais-Royal" which, translated word for word means "Palace-Royal" and is actually the name of a building), some others "Palais-Royal", and then some more the Louvre (surprisingly not that many sources, at least in the ones I found) which was the official place of stay for the royal family at the time.

Dans le Palais-Royal endormi, le maréchal de Villeroy gouverneur de Louis XIV, réveille le jeune roi et son frère cadet
In the sleepy Palais-Royal, Marshal Villeroy, governor of Louis XIV, awakens the young king and his younger brother

Louis XIV : Le traumatisme de la Fronde (https://www.geo.fr/voyage/louis-xiv-le-traumatisme-de-la-fronde-127599) [fr]

Les troubles de la Fronde marquent le petit roi qui, en 1649, doit fuir le palais en pleine nuit (...)
The Fronde troubles marked the little king who, in 1649, had to flee the palace in the middle of the night (...)

Wikipedia entry for Palais-Royal (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais-Royal) [fr]


texts: Who first published Marcus Aurelius' Meditations?

texts:
Marcus Aurelius wrote the famous book of philosophy Meditations while on campaign in Pannonia.  The writing was personal and intended for his eyes and reflections for he himself to meditate on and was not intended for others (see paragraph 3, and references 1 and 2 on the same page)

With that said who was the first individual or individuals to pass around or publish Meditations as we know Marcus himself did not publish it and had no intention of others seeing his writing?  How did it make its way from his private collection into the world at large?


texts: Why did Antiochus IV of the Seleucids work so hard to keep Coele-Syra from Ptolemy VI of Eygpt?

texts:
In 168 BC when Antiochus IV king of the Seleucid Empire marched on Alexandria to make sure that Ptolemy VI of Egypt would not try to take back the land that Antiochus' ancestors had gained for Egypt, what motives other than the want of more land and power did Antiochus have for doing this?

In other words, was there something in Coele-Syria that would give Antiochus more power over Egypt?


texts: Which event is this memorial referring to when it says WW1 ended in 1919?

texts:
This war memorial says that the Great War (WW1) lasted from 1914 to 1919:

I was always taught the war was 1914 to 1918. Which 1919 event is this memorial referring to?


texts: Can anyone identify what uniform this child soldier from Switzerland c1870 is wearing?

texts: I don't have any information about this card apart from the photo itself.  Carte de visite circa 1860-1880 from Lausanne, Switzerland.  As you can see, this child is wearing a soldier's uniform and is holding a rifle.  Would love any information or speculation about what/why.  Thanks for looking!


texts: Why did an imperialistic country like France (at that time) sell a territory so large for so cheap? Was it an important region at the time? I heard that the port of New Orleans was particularly valuable. Even if at that time maybe it wasn't so useful, look at it now!


texts:
Are there any sources of historical land use/land cover data for the United Kingdom and Ireland? (Not just Northern Ireland) I'm specifically interested in datasets that, for each point/area in the UK/Ireland (ideally, at the resolution of a parish, since I'm studying historical deforestation at the parish level), list whether the land was forest, urban, agricultural/cultivated, etc. for the time period 1800-1900.

There are modern versions of these data, e.g. the Corine land cover data, which have been addressed in other questions, but nothing historical.

The Ordnance Surveys supposedly include some data like this for the years 1842 onward, but actually looking at the list of years in which each county was mapped shows that the actual data is mostly much later.
https://maps.nls.uk/os/6inch-england-and-wales/

See this meta question for a brief discussion about the suitability of this question for history.SE.


texts: Any precedents of U.S. presidents having served in other government roles after the ends of their terms?

texts:
Are there any precedents for U.S. presidents having served in other official government roles after the ends of their terms. Conceivably they could become ambassadors or Supreme Court judges, for example.

I am aware that some former presidents served on special government commissions (true e.g. for President Hoover under President Truman) or as official envoys on  foreign policy occasions (true e.g. for Presidents Carter and Nixon, I believe), but these are not official roles in the sense of this question. It is about regular and permanent roles in the executive branch, legislature, or judiciary.

The background of my question is of course that e.g. Presidents Clinton and Obama held (hold) office at a relatively young age, and they and their contemporaries normally go on to run their own foundations. I am wondering about conceivable alternatives.


texts: Unofficial title for third or fourth son of a king?

texts: So, this is possibly a dumb question, but is there an unofficial title for the third or fourth son of a king? Like the first son is "the heir" and the second is "the spare" but is there something similar of the third or fourth son? Or is it just third in line and fourth in line? I've tried looking it up online but I can't seem to find anything about it.


texts: Why are ancient pottery items so well preserved?

texts: I have a general question which may sound naive: archeologists eg in Ancient Greece take a lot of information from preserved pottery they found. What physical attributes of ceramic items made of clay make them so likely to be preserved?


texts: Did Marie Leszczyńska, queen of France, have any lovers?

texts:
"Always going to bed, always pregnant, always giving birth" said Marie Leszczyńska, queen of France. Marie was chosen to be wife of Louis XV for two reasons. First of all, she was ready to get pregnant, unlike his definitely too young fiancee, Mariana Victoria of Spain, and it was very important, as Louis XV had weak health and his death could end the royal line of Bourbon dynasty. Secondly, being a daughter of Stanisław Leszczyński, Polish king in exile, marrying her wouldn't result with any undesired alliance, and France had already enough external problems after rules of Louis XIV.

The provided quote is Marie's complaint about her overall life as a queen. At the beginning she fell in love with Louis XV, but with time, her husband started to prefer his lovers over a wife, whose role downgraded mainly to taking care of children and giving birth to more of them.

But the question is - did she had any lover by herself, during her life at the French court? Are there any records of such person? I know she was very religious, but after all it was Versailles, world capitol of love affairs.

Also, once I've read an old article about her early life and there was a French officer, who felt in love with her, while guarding her on the way to Paris for the wedding ceremony. From what I remember, it was only a platonic romance, but still, I'd love to know his name.


texts: Why did the person in charge of a principality not just declare themself king?

texts:
I don't understand the concept of principalities, why wouldn't you just call yourself king?

The job description appears to be exactly the same.

When England was ruled by the Saxons we had a bunch of kings, who slowly all got defeated and the winner declared the old king a eorls/ thegn/ gesiths (take your pick).

Is it when an empire got too big to manage the King set his sons off to manage chunks and over time they became more autonomous?

I tried to google but all I could find really were about the Bible and demons. One article about Wales looked really promising but it just seemed to be an extract about a book.

I looked at the proposed duplicate How were nobles 'promoted' in aristocracies?.
A better example is Queen Victoria deciding to become Empress of all India after her daughter became Empress of Germany. (I know it is politically more complicated than that really.)

This thread doesn't answer my question as principalities weren't under a king who had given them their title and who they owed fealty to. Principalities are top of their own pile. Somebody has answered my question with the Russian Tsar example.

I have just read the other suggested link Why is the heir to the British throne called "Prince of Wales"?
and the fact that prince actually means leader is very interesting.


texts: Historically, how did people living in distant regions communicate?

texts:
For example, how did Marco Polo manage to communicate with the Chinese and the Mongolians during his travels?

Did he learn Chinese? Did he manage to find a Chinese translator somehow? Was there a sort of a chain of translators from Marco Polo's language to whatever language the local people spoke?


texts: Were smoke signal used to trigger a company-scale infantry advance by the US during WWII?

texts:
In the context of WW2, US land forces, any non-Pacific theater (Africa, Italy, Normandy--Germany campaign): Was there a doctrine in place utilizing smoke grenade signals for triggering an infantry advance? And/or, is there a documented example of doing so? By infantry advance, I mean a movement of an infantry unit (up to a company level) towards an enemy position within shooting distance.

To provide a specific example of what I mean by triggering an infantry advance, see this fictional depiction from the HBO show Band of Brothers.

This question was originally inspired by me doubting the delay element in assault in the linked video. Thanks to constructive comments, I've rephrased it to explicitly focus on the element of plausibility from the point of WWII tactics, which I was after anyway.


texts: Why are modern tanks regiments called cavalry?

texts:
The word cavalry is derived from the French word cavalerie which means horse. Historically the term cavalry has been used to represent troops mounted on horseback. After the invention of battle tanks and the decline of usage of horses in army the term started representing tanks regiments.
Which army first stated to call its tanks regiments as Cavalry? And when did this happen?
Why are tank regiments called cavalry but not other mechanized regiments (e.g. mechanized infantry or artillery)?


texts: How often did ships stop at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the early 1800s?

texts: In 1813, Petropavlosk became the administrative center of Kamchatka, but it was still tiny. How often did ships stop there around the time of this change? Likely, many of the voyages were to Okhotsk, Kodiak, or Novo-Arkhangelsk.


texts: Why did United States stop celebrating The Eighth(January 8) as a federal holiday?

texts:
According to Wikipedia the Eighth celebrated United States' victory in battle of New Orleans over Great Britain in War of 1812. It was once larger celebration than Christmas. It was a federal holiday from 1828 to 1861.

What happened in 1861 caused it to lose its status as a United States federal holiday?

Obviously, American Civil War begun in 1861 but what does it have to do with this holiday becoming forgotten?

Source


texts: Henry I. (the Fowler): What kind of contact to hostages was seen as appropriate?

texts:
Early 929 Henry I., King of East Frankia, took the Hevelli chieftain Tugumir hostage. As far as is known, the sister of Tugumir went with him into captivity. In the same year she gave birth to Wilhelm, son of Otto (later Otto I. (the Great)), Henry's son and heir. The birth was out of wedlock and there seems to have been no intention for a marriage.
Tugumir himself became a christian during this time and later served Otto as vassal.

What I find peculiar about this story is, that a hostage, i.e. someone who's home was just destroyed and who was deported to a foreign country, would freely be having intercourse with her captor's son.
As far as my understanding goes, hostages were considered to be some kind of guarded guests, even if they were not treated too well. But this story has the stink of rape, as far as I understand it. But all biographies I have read seem to think nothing of it.

Maybe someone knows more about hostages and their treatment in the years between 900 and 1000 in the middle of Europe, and can explain to me, what I am missing here.

Thank you for reading.


texts: Was there a military practice of reloading while marching/running, in Europe or America during the 18th and 19th centuries?

texts:
This reenactor does a fine job of reloading a flintlock rifle while running. He is attempting to recreate something from the Indian Wars in America, in the 1770s. My question is about the historical accuracy of what the video is attempting to reconstruct, and how it relates to American and European military practice.

vonadler on reddit gave an excellent summary of European schools of thought on military doctrine in the early(?) 18th century, here, and dismissed the rumour that the Swedish and Russian forces practiced reloading while marching: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/7qck4a/did_the_swedish_empire_have_a_tactical_doctrine/dspcjp9/

This appears to imply that running or marching while reloading was a practice native to America? The only account I can find from Europe, so far, was an account from the battle of Jena from a Prussian sergeant. He said that as they advanced through the fog to meet the enemy, they reloaded their muskets as they marched (this was not done while under fire).

I ask if anyone can clarify if there was a practice of marching while loading in the 18th or 19th century, or if it was the oddity of a couple of conflicts. The video's performance has lead me to become deeply curious in this matter.


texts: How Hussars had turned from heavy cavalry into light cavalry?

texts:
In 16th century Polish hussars were heavy cavalry, they were what knights became.
In 17-18th centuries hussars were light cavalry. How and why did the change  happen? Wiki mentions the change, but says nothing about the reasons.
It was not that all cavalry became light. Notice, that both heavy and light cavalry continued to exist during all time of 16-19th centuries. But the Hussars and only they changed their armor, weapons and role so dramatically.
And yes, the Hungarian hussars of 15th century were not heavy, but medium cavalry, but that was BEFORE the period mentioned.


texts: How did a scientist who came from China in 1935 become a US Army Colonel by 1945?

texts:
Qian Xuesen - Wikipedia

In August 1935, Qian left China on a Boxer Indemnity Scholarship to study mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned a Master of Science degree after one year.

Scroll down.

In 1945, as an Army colonel with a security clearance, Tsien was sent to Germany to investigate laboratories and question German scientists, including Wernher von Braun.[18][19]

Wikipedia has this blurry picture of him, but I can't see the colonel eagle rank insignia.


texts: How did the Nuremberg Trials decide whether a guilty defendant was to be sentence to death or life imprisonment?

texts: This page contains a list of Nuremberg defendants, their verdict and sentence. While explanations for lighter sentence (e.g. Dönitz was only sentenced to 10 years) can be found quite easily, many Nazi leaders were sentenced to death or life imprisonment, and it seems quite arbitrary. What criteria did the trials use to decide whether to sentence someone to death or life imprisonment? Was there a precedent for this distinction?


texts: What was the typical range of travel of a Pennsylvanian resident for everyday life in the late 18th early 19th Century Pennsylvania?

texts:
How much traveling did a typical Pennsylvanian resident do for everyday life in the late 18th early 19th Century (1775-1825) Pennsylvania, and what was the 'typical' range (in miles) from their home that they would generally travel?

I am referring to their range of travel from where they live, such as obtaining and selling goods and services (including crops), going to church, visiting close friends, or possibly meeting someone for marriage. If there is another specific and established term for this range, that would also be helpful to know.

This is takes into consideration pre-canal, railroad, and minimal turn-pike road system. As an explanation of why I am asking is that I am researching a specific individual from say Lancaster, PA that I know very little about. How far out from that location should I be looking for information for them and make a reasonable assumption that it refers to the same individual and not some other person with a similar name, say in Philadelphia. Also, how far would someone ostracized need to travel to not regularly run into their normal acquaintances? (Specific examples are out of scope, just an example of why I am asking)

So the root of my question is:
Given that a person lived in this place and time period, how far (in miles) is the general base guideline for someone of this time period and area to be regularly traveling from their home?

My hope is that someone familiar with this time period and area would know of some general guideline used by researchers of the era. I would appreciate a 'source' based answer with reference links/bibliography if applicable so I can research further if necessary.


texts:
At least on the western front, trenches were heavily defended. Any charge was just suicidal, with heavy losses for the attacker and much smaller losses for the defender. As there is a big strategic advantage to be the defender and not the attacker, why bother launch an attack?

I understand that breaking the line of defense of the enemy and conquer their land grants you victory, but it's not the only way: the USA lost the Vietnam War, without being conquered. They withdrew because they endured too much of a loss.


texts: Which founding fathers pushed for the right to bear arms?

texts: Which members of the constitutional convention wrote and/or pushed for the right to bear arms?  Did anyone fight it?


texts: What was Marcus Aurelius's view of and interactions with Christianity?

texts:
I know that Christians were persecuted during Marcus Aurelius's lifetime. I believe he mentions them only once in his Meditations, in which he scorns them. But that's really all I know about the subject. Do we know anything more about his view of or his interactions with Christianity? What were his words and his deeds on the matter? And what actions by Christians (or even by his mentors) may have colored his view of Christianity?

Preliminary research

From the introduction of my copy of Meditations, I know a few basic things.

He only mentions them once in his meditations, and in so doing, scorns them.
Christians were persecuted during his lifetime.
Saint Justin (who wrote an apology for Christianity) was martyred during his lifetime.
The prefect (Junius Rusticus) who tried Justin Martyr was a mentor to Aurelius.


texts: How were small swords worn in the 18th century?

texts:
Quick summary:

How was the small sword (or dress sword) fastened to the body?
What are the different ways of wearing it?

Looking at many drawings from this period, a good bunch of them depicts men with small swords. But it is hard to notice how the sword was connected to their body. There usually is no belt (let alone a duty belt). See for example here or here. Next, probably two connections are needed to make the blade have a nice 45° angle.

IF a belt was used under the waistcoat, why was it worn under and not over the waistcoat? People in those times surely could create nice belts with nice buckles to give a great overall picture.

Most notably from the first picture: The sword is really more on the back than on the side. So this seems to be more ceremonial, because it would have taken much too long to take the sword. On the other drawing we see it more on the side. So how did people decide where to put it?
I assume, that for the side option, the longer part of the blade was somewhere in the frills of the justaucorps. While for the back option, it goes through the cut in the back?

Have people in those times used different angles for the sword? Like more downward, so that one could navigate easier in larger crowds?

Update

The way of wearing the sword surely evolved over time and possibly changed within or before/after the 18th century. Answers are allowed and even encouraged to put things into their appropiate context and include such info.

One comment suggests, that this question is a red herring and there are way too many ways of wearing the small sword.
First: I thihk, there were rules on this. At those times, there were many rules for etiquette like things (like how to lift your tricorne). There were also rules on when not to wear the small sword, etc. So I doubt that there were no rules on how to wear it.
Second: Assuming there were a lot of variants (I can imagine that things changed over time), then a good answer could reference some more common forms and give some evidence on not so common ones or the like.


texts:
Gastev was the chief Soviet proponent of Taylorism, aka scientific management:

In the Soviet Union, Taylorism was advocated by Aleksei Gastev and
nauchnaia organizatsia truda (the movement for the scientific organisation of labor). It found support in both Vladimir Lenin and
Leon Trotsky. Gastev continued to promote this system of labor
management until his arrest and execution in 1939.

The institute he founded and directed till 1937 also did not overlive its creator by long - it was closed down in 1940 (though a rump of it was transferred to the aviation ministry).
Was Gastev's execution part of a general clampdown on scientific management in the Soviet Union during the period (the way Stalin proscribed and presecuted scientists who worked in other fields he disliked, such as genetics and cybernetics) or was it because of other reasons? (He was an "old Bolshevik", that is member of a group which was also singled out by Stalin for elimination).
To be sure, there seems to have been some persecution of the scientific management field:

Во второй половине 1930-х деятельность ЦИТ подвергается критике,
прикладные науки о труде обвиняют в идеализме и методологической
нейтральности, им навешивается ярлык «буржуазных» наук. Закрываются
все лаборатории по промышленной психотехнике и психофизиологии труда,
в значительной степени свертывается работа ЦИТа и местных институтов
труда (в 1920-х годах их было свыше 10). В 1939 основателя и
бессменного руководителя ЦИТ Гастева расстреляли за антисоветскую
деятельность.

GT:

In the second half of 1930 has been criticized CIT activity, applied
science Labour accused of idealism and methodological neutrality, they
are labeled as "bourgeois" science. Closes all laboratory and
industrial psychotechnics psychophysiology of labor, largely curtailed
work ITCA and local institutions work (in 1920 there were over 10). In
1939, the founder and head of CIT Gasteva shot for anti-Soviet
activities.

(the quote is from the Russian wikipedia article on CIT).
However, it is not clear whether other people who worked on scientific management were also executed or merely fired.


texts:
In reading this Washington Post article titled Five myths about the atomic bomb, it's mentioned:

The decision to use nuclear weapons is usually presented as either/or: either drop the bomb or land on the beaches. But beyond simply continuing the conventional bombing and naval blockade of Japan, there were two other options recognized at the time.
The first was a demonstration of the atomic bomb prior to or instead of its military use: exploding the bomb on an uninhabited island or in the desert, in front of invited observers from Japan and other countries; or using it to blow the top off Mount Fuji, outside Tokyo. The demonstration option was rejected for practical reasons. There were only two bombs available in August 1945, and the demonstration bomb might turn out to be a dud.

(emphasis is mine)
I can't find any corroborating evidence to this through googling, but this seems crazy to me if only because the effects of bombing Fuji-san could surely be more catastrophic than bombing a conventional target--for example, if the bomb happened to catalyze an eruption, which could also catalyze major earthquakes.
So my questions are:

Did the US really consider demonstrating the atomic bomb to the Japanese by "blowing the top" off of Mt. Fuji?
If so, was any analysis done, by people with appropriate geological expertise, to estimate the risk this could carry to catalyze major eruptions or earthquakes?


texts: Was it ever illegal for two people of different religions to marry in the UK?

texts:
Was it ever illegal for 2 people of different religions (e.g. Catholic & Anglican) to marry in the UK? I'm refering only to "civil marriage". I'm sure, even now, that the Catholic church may not view a marriage of an Anglican and a Catholic as "valid", but for the purposes of civl law, they could be legally married. Was there ever a time, in the UK, when it was not a legal marriage if the 2 people were of different Christian faiths?

If so, when did that change? When was that sort of marriage made legal?


texts: When did the last Terra Nullius vanish from the earth?

texts:
By "Terra Nullius" or "white spot" I mean a place where you (if you were so inclined) could "legally" settle and live in some wilderness as a trapper or farmer without having to ask for permission, pay taxes, etc. (A place where you could get away with anarchy, if you will.)

If you look at today's word map it's clear that all territory belongs to states, which need to support themselves, hence ask duties and raise taxes from their citizens, etc. I once thought that during the settlement of the American Wild West there was still plenty of "white space" left (every rancher is his own king, so to speak), but presumably all its territory was already claimed by the time of, say, the early 19th century? Would there perhaps have been "white space" left e.g. from the point of view of precolonial Indians?

Or did the possibility vanish even earlier? (IMO it must have existed somewhen in the past when population counts were low compared to habitable areas. According to this movie the Last Trapper may be still alive and well ...)


texts:
I watch a show about WWII submarines. After Pearl Harbor they send 4-5 submarines of a new class with large dimension so can have bigger autonomy range. This was related to the first German waves to the USA East Coast and the great success of one Nazi captain because american didn't have enough resources to defend their coast.

But there are some incidents make me wonder what happen.

1) During day the submarine stay on the sea bed and go hunting during night. But on one opportunity the submarine went up too early and still was some daylight and one American plane detect it and throw some explosives.

Why the submarine go all the way up? Why don't go to periscope level first to take a peek? That would be enough to realize there is still daylight and even if were already dark watch for any close threat.

2) After sunk a ship instead of killing the survivor the submarine just go away. I have seen other episodes where the submarine crew use machine guns to kill all floating survivor. Is that a tactic implemented later? On this case the survivor went and alert about the submarine presence.

3) With very low number of torpedo remaining, the submarine decide to use the boat deck gun against one small cargo vessel but when the gun didn't work right away they went for the torpedo.

Why they didn't continue shooting with the boat deck gun? My guess is if the submarine has that weapon is for something, but if can't handle a defenseless boat why they put it there.

4) At the end without any torpedoes and low fuel they were returning home but were spotted by a whaler transformed into oil tanker, the whaler was going in a collision curse and because the submarine has engine problem was going 1 knots slower than the whaler. Finally they fix the engine and could escape by going 0.5 knots faster than the whaler.

But why they don't use the deck gun to scare the whaler?


texts: When was the first usage of the slogan "Wer hat uns verraten..."?

texts:
Inspired by this question on Movie&TV.SE, I am looking for the origin of the phrase/slogan

  Wer hat uns verraten? Sozialdemokraten!

  Who betrayed us? Social democrats!

It is still used in modern political discussions, which makes it hard to find the origin via web search.

The phrase is usually attributed to the political far left. However, I found conflicting information, when and why exactly the phrase was used the first time:

at 1914 by the USPD as response to the "Burgfriedenspolitik" of the SPD and their agreement to war credits or
at 1918/19 by the KPD as response to the role of the SPD and/or some of their politicians during the German Revolution of 1918–19.

This Wikipedia entry about the MSPD, for example, mentions the slogan without explicitly saying that the slogan was coined exactly at this time and circumstances:

  Die Rolle Eberts, Noskes und Scheidemanns während der Monate der Novemberrevolution und ihrer Niederschlagung führte zum Vorwurf verschiedener parlamentarisch und vor allem außerparlamentarisch aktiver linker Gruppen und Parteien an die SPD, die Revolution und damit zu einem großen Teil gerade ihre eigenen Anhänger verraten zu haben („Wer hat uns verraten? - Sozialdemokraten!“).

  Eberts, Noskes and Scheidemann's role during the months of the November Revolution and its suppression led to accusations by various left-wing groups and parties active both in and outside parliament that the SPD had betrayed the revolution and, to a large extent, its own supporters ("Who betrayed us? - Social Democrats!").

I also found this page that claimed, that the slogan was used (around 1933?) by the NSDAP as well, but again without linking to the actual references. (or I didn't find it):

  Und damit auch der einfache Bürger, der noch nicht bis ins letzte Tüpfelchen rechtspolitisiert war, begriff, wer die Schuld an allem hatte, was jetzt geschah, veranstaltete die BTZ im Verbreitungsgebiet Braunschweig-Hannover ein großes Preisausschreiben. [...] Die Auflösung bestand aus einem Wahlslogan der NSDAP: "Wer hat uns verraten - Die Sozialdemokraten. Wer macht uns frei - Die Hitlerpartei!"

  And so that even the ordinary citizen, who had not yet been right-politicised to the last dot, understood who was to blame for everything that was happening now, the BTZ organised a large competition in the Braunschweig-Hannover area of distribution. [...] The solution consisted of an election slogan of the NSDAP: "Who betrayed us - The Social Democrats. Who makes us free - The Hitler Party!

Is it possible, to trace back this slogan to a specific date and author, and to its first usage by left-wings and right-wings?


texts: The diminishing role of the "family name" throughout the Byzantine Empire

texts:
Why did the use of the family name (Cognomen), as one's surname, diminish and nearly disappear entirely during the 4th - 11th centuries throughout the Eastern Roman Empire?

Brief history of the early existing Roman naming practices of the Principate Period (27 BC – 284 AD)

  According to Christopher Andersen (1977), the ancient Greeks, Hebrews,
  and Romans had surnames. After the fall of the Roman Empire,
  however, surnames disappeared until the eleventh century.

NOTE: In the text above, Christopher Andersen was strictly referring to the Roman Empire which would have been a predecessor to the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire | 330 AD to 1453 AD).


texts: Why did Jodrell Bank assist the Soviet Union to collect data from their spacecraft in the mid 1960's?

texts:
I've just listened to the short BBC News audio podcast clip How British academics spied on the superpowers:

Tim O’Brien from the Jodrell Bank radio telescope discusses 50 year old recordings which show how Britain monitored Soviet space missions - and shared the findings with the Soviet Union.

He does indeed describe something more like assistance than spying (my attempt at transcription):

The Russians used to send Jodrell all the coordinates and the frequencies they were using, so that we could track these spacecraft, and of course we would then announce this to the world.
And I suppose in part, maybe, verify that they were really doing what they claimed to be doing, because when people would claim that they weren’t really technologically capable of doing this… because there was obviously a big political battle between these two superpowers.
So it had this sort-of role, even to the extent that Jodrell would track the spacecraft, and record the signals on to tape, and a Russian would fly into Ringway airport in Manchester as it was then, and someone from here would drive up… get off the plane and hand them a tape, and they’d head off to Moscow with that recording.

Was this purely scientific camaraderie (pardon the pun), or inter-government cooperation or something else? Clearly the Soviet Union's space program benefited from both data and PR; did the UK benefit as well?


texts: What is the history of the use of word dividers in Greek?

texts:
In my understanding, Ancient Greek was usually written with a vertical line or three vertical dots separating words. This was  phased out in favor of scriptio continua (continuous script) and eventually replaced with the modern practice of white space between words.

I am looking for more details.  When approximately did these changes occur?  (Obviously it was an instantaneous change process - first known dates and last known dates of a style would be helpful though.)  What motivated these changes?


texts: Once the samurai lost his master he becomes a rōnin. Could he become a samurai again by acquiring another master?


texts: Name of a small state west of the Xiongnu and south of Wusun c. 50 A.D

texts:
There was a very small state in Western Mongolia which played a part in the politics of ancient Mongolia, circa 50 A.D. It sounded something like Wu-Shan-Mu or Wu-Shi-Mu. During a war between the Xiongnu (50 B.C. or A.D.?) it backed a certain faction, or the Northern or Southern Xiongnu. I think it was in the [Altai?] mountains, or up against them. It may have given princesses or consorts. It may have been connected with Kangju.

What was it?

Added: This was on Wikipedia, not too long ago. It had to do with a Xiongnu civil war or a war between the North and South Xiongnu. I seem to remember 50s or 60s as a date. I think I might confusing the roles, and "Wu Shi Mu" may have received help from Xiongnu. I am going to look over the individual Wiki pages for the Xiongnu rulers of this era. It was probably some type of tributary of Kangju in the mountains.


texts: Was it Legal for Sheriff Don Chafin to Raise an Army and Air Force?

texts:
In 1921 Sheriff Don Chafin of Logan County West Virginia participated in a major conflict with coal miners. The concluding battle of that conflict is known as The Battle for Blair Mountain.

  Faced with the oncoming miner army, Chafin put into place plans he had been forming since early summer. Chafin had formed a small army of several hundred volunteers, composed of his deputies, mine guards, and members of the Logan County middle class, and had begun to train them in June.
  He established large weapons caches, including a stockpile of machine guns, and erected breastworks on the slopes of Blair Mountain. At around 2 a.m. on August 25, Chafin turned on the fire siren in the town of Logan, calling together his army. By morning, 700 members of his volunteer army were assembled on the slopes of Blair Mountain.
  In addition to his land forces, Chafin established a small air force, composed of three biplanes that he rented from private owners for use in reconnaissance.

https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Don_Chafin

Chafin's armed forces were funded by the Logan County Coal Operators Association.

  Chafin was supported financially by the Logan County Coal Operators Association, creating the nation's largest private armed force of nearly 2,000.

Chafin did get a request from West Virginia Governor Morgan to create a "home guard"

  West Virgina Govener Morgan "called Don Chafin and asked him to create a home guard. The sheriff mustered hundreds of local businessmen into service, and told his deputies to scour the coal towns and order the miners to join his defense forces or be fired from their jobs.
  Within a few days, Chafin would have three thousand well-armed men under his command"

James Green - The Devil Is Here in These Hills: West Virginia's Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom

Chafin's army consisted of about 2,000 men with a variety of weapons including machine guns and airplanes that dropped gas and explosive bombs.

  "Sheriff Chafin had chartered three private biplanes and equipped them with teargas and pipe bombs loaded with nuts and bolts for shrapnel. The planes dropped the homemade explosives over two of the miners’ strongholds, but failed to inflict any casualties. "

https://www.history.com/news/americas-largest-labor-uprising-the-battle-of-blair-mountain

As I understand the research:

Sheriff Chafin assembled his own army with air support funded by the Logan County Coal Operators Association.
Governor Morgan did ask Sheriff Chafin to create a home guard but the research seems to indicate that everything was in place before the call came.

No charges were ever brought against Sheriff Chafin in the aftermath of the conflict for any of his actions during the conflict.

Were there laws at that time that would prevent a public law officer from taking private funds and building an army?


texts: What % of slave owners in the antebellum south committed rape?

texts:
In David Blight’s biography of Frederick Douglas, he explains the young Frederick witnesses several violent beatings and or rapes by the age of 7 or 8.

It’s also unclear weather or not the head of the plantation or his sons has been Frederick’s father via rape.

How common was this practice?  What % of enslaved women were raped at least once?


texts: Increment of workers in agriculture during periods of economical crisis

texts:
Was there an increment of the percent of people working in the agricultural sector during the economical crises of the last couple of centuries?

What are the factors influencing the ratio of farmers?


texts: Why did the movement that initiated the Stockholm appeal never condemned Soviet atomic experiments?

texts: The Mouvement mondial des partisans de la paix, or Comité permanent mondial des intellectuels pour la paix according to Touchard in Le Siècle des Excès, stood for "the absolute prohibition of atomic weapons" with the Stockholm Appeal on March, 19th 1950. Yet, according to the Wikipedia page of the Movement, it never condemned Soviet atomic experiments. I assume that this movement was of communist inspiration and that was the reason of justifying it. Considering the aura of its call, I wondered how it could assume and justify such a contradiction.


texts: Why did Renaissance come first only in the Europe?

texts: When we read about the history of Scientific Revolution during the Enlightenment, we come to know that the roots of Scientific Revolution first started in Europe during the Renaissance. But can you enlighten me why did this happen in Europe instead of Asia? Did other countries not face the same problems or they were suppressed by some strong laws?


texts: How did soldiers in WWI who wore jackboots keep the boots from being sucked off in the mud?

texts:
In the trench warfare of the First World War, the mud was often knee deep, although it sometimes reached well above the soldiers' chests.  These conditions were obviously horrendous, and made it almost impossible to fight effectively.  I know that several combatant nations issued jackboots (i.e., boots that slip on, and don't have laces) to their infantry, most notably the Germans.

Although it would have been difficult for anyone to keep their boots on in the thick, deep, sucking mud, I imagine that it would be even worse for troops wearing jackboots, which aren't quite as snug as laced boots.

How did soldiers who wore jackboots avoid losing their foot gear in the mud?


texts: Who was "The famous American Roberts" in 1920's Europe?

texts:
Reading this clip from a German newspaper left me puzzled:

Die praktischen, die smarten Amerikaner! Das Girl haben sie bei uns eingeführt und den Jazz und die Songs mit Rachenkatarrh, und die amerikanische Buchhaltung und Roberts und fast sogar auch den Kaugummi. Wissen Sie, dass jeder fünfte Amerikaner sein eigenes Auto hat? Bitte schön: Hut ab!
__(My translation and emphasis: The practical, the smart Americans! They introduced the girl to us and the jazz and the songs with throat catarrh, and the American accounting and Roberts and almost even the chewing gum. Do you know that every fifth American has his own car? Here you go. Kudos.)

Image of the article, click for full size view.
Source: Ibrahim Nierndl in: Volkszeitung (1890-1904) / Berliner Volkszeitung (1904-1930), Morgen-Ausgabe, Nr 432, 77. Jahrgang, 13 September 1929.
Perhaps a better optical view on Zephys, but without OCR: Berliner Volkszeitung, Digitalisierte Ausgaben zum 13.09.1929, direct link

The headline reads "Achtung BVZ-Sender" (an allusion to this newspaper piece being radio-like). The whole piece is a gloss and therefore mostly quite sarcastic and 'critical'.
So it seems that "girl" and "jazz" etc. are negative concepts in this context.
The larger piece above this article might be connected to the opinionated commentary the quote is from. The larger article deals mainly with American and European – that is: international – relations and focusses on financials. ("Are they living beyond their means?") That makes it almost prescient and quite interesting for the context of being published just before the stock market crash of the Great Depression. That whole topic of finance seems to be quite unusual for this paper at the time.
That name is not the rarest and still doesn't ring a bell for me. This person or thing was apparently famous or infamous enough not needing any further explanation for a general German audience in Berlin 1929.
Yet, going through the list of people with the surname Robert or Roberts on Wikipedia (or the list on the German Wikipedia) seems equally unfruitful as googling the Tom, Dick and Harry name.
Who, or maybe what, was Roberts, introduced from America to Germany in the 1920s? What did he do or for what was he known for?
The most probable seems to me that it may refer to an artist, a musician, a cultural concept like a dance? Or going by the slightly dominating large financial theme of the whole newspaper page: some kind of fraud, accounting, credit, borrowing or lending?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Why was Africa colonized last of the continents in the Age of Discovery?

When the British colonized the Americas and Australia, they made sure to move normal civilians in and take over the land, pushing the original natives out of their way (either by killing them or by sending them west and/or to reservations).

This was different than the Spanish strategy of just plundering the occupied land for gold. Yet, when they colonized Africa, they never actually colonized the territories they claimed. Why not?


texts:
This is a picture of an uncle and his friend taken about 1925 or 1930. I don't know if he was in the US military or not, but this seems to be a US Infantry uniform. Can anyone identify the uniform?

I note the rifles seem to be authentic Springfield 1903, the cartridge belt is authentic, and the leggings look authentic. But no unit identifying badges, and I can't see what the hat badge might be. Perhaps this was a situation where people could dress up like a soldier to get a souvenir picture?


texts: Was the Dargah Shrine at Ajmer built over a Hindu temple?

texts:
This article points that the popular Ajmer Sufi Shrine (Dargah) of Khwaja Chisti in India was built on a demolished Hindu Temple (Varaha Temple). What are the historical sources for such a claim?

The link claims to have evidence from books Gulshan-i-Ibrahimi by Ferishta and the book Prithviraj Raso by Chand Bardai.

Also I found some books on ancient history by ferishta here, but it is hard to understand and get the above information.

Also are there any archaeological studies for the these incidents?


texts:
I don't know a lot of Roman history, but I noticed in some of their statues, naked people. Their sexual organs are shown and obivious to people. Here's a simple google search.

Was it normal back then for citizens to show their sexual organs? Was it a symbol of strength? Could someone walk naked in the summer?


texts: What was it like to travel to Easter Island?

texts:
Reviewing the question "How did people travel to remote islands like Easter Island?, @dotancohen has a few additional questions:

How long did they sail?
How could they row for so long (exhaustion)?
How many rowers (crew) were on board?
How big were the canoes?
How could they have room for enough supplies (food and water)?


texts: Who is Brezhnev's aide on this 1978 photo?

texts:
Here is Brezhnev awarding the Order of the Red Banner of Labor to chess player Karpov on 27 Dec 1978.
Who is the man smiling in the background?


texts: What is Poosball, an early 1900s women's team sport?

texts:
My girlfriend recently showed me a 1908 yearbook in which several women are marked as playing "Poos-ball" or "Poosball." An internet search for this reveals mostly misspellings of "Foosball," however, if the search is specific enough, the most common relevant results lead back to this same high school in Cincinnati.  An example and, a photo of the "A grade Girls' Poos Ball team"!
 The question, of course, is what is Poos Ball? By the ball size, seems like soccer, volleyball, basketball, and water polo are the best bets. All four were invented prior to 1908, though the latter three sports would have been relatively new. However, there is no mention on the internet of any of these being formerly named Poosball! Thoughts?


texts: Who created the Korean Unification Flag?

texts:
Wikipedia: The Unification Flag is a flag designed to represent all of Korea when North and South Korea participate as one team in sporting events.

Still according to Wikipedia, in recent years the North Korean government is using this flag outside of the sport context, at highly political border events.

Who created this flag?
In particular, was the flag created more by a side than the other?


texts: Argentina's involvement with the League of Nations

texts: Argentina was a founding member of the League of Nations. However, Argentina left in 1921 when an Argentine resolution was rejected. Why, and through what procedure (if any), was Argentina allowed to rejoin the League in 1933?


texts: Was Brezhnev's rule an "era of stagnation"

texts:
Reading my IB textbooks, they say Brezhnev's rule was an "era of stagnation". However they are only able to cite evidence of economic stagnation when claiming that would require "stagnation" in multiple aspects, such as political, economic, social, military, ideological...

From what I read, "stagnation" should refer to a lack of development in itself, and not a backwardness relative to other countries such as the USA, Japan ...?


texts: Did Lee Harvey Oswald receive any medals or ribbons?

texts: Did Lee Harvey Oswald, in his time as a marine, receive any medals or ribbons? I don't expect any significant decorations (other than sharpshooter). I know he worked as a metalworker (both in Texas and the USSR). I know that he shot at people who had multiple decorations (other than Kenedy). I just don't know where to look to see if he got a good conduct medal or a campaign ribbon.


texts: What evidence is there for chain stores or restaurant chains in Ancient Rome?

texts:
In his book City, David Macaulay creates a fictional Roman city called Verbonia to show how a 'typical', planned Roman city was started from scratch. Although Verbonia and thus its characters are fictional, the book relates how Romans planned and constructed a city. On page 81, I found this passage:

  Most of the eating places were owned by Servius Vitellius, who also owned a chain of them in Ariminium....each contained a concrete counter decorated with pieces of coloured marble....A row of clay cups with Servius' name stood on a marble shelf next to the counter.

After some googling, I came across Joe Carlen's 'A Brief History of Entrepreneurship which seems to confirm the above. Referring to 'less respectable residents of Rome' (equestrian class, slaves and freedmen), the author states:

  ...these were the people who not only established and operated new businesses but, in some instances, even expanded them into something akin to chain stores

(my highlighting)

Unfortunately, there are no details. It would not be surprising if there were entrepreneurs who had several outlets in a city, or outlets in several towns or cities, but the excerpts above are implying something more than that.

A 'chain outlet' would usually be defined as one of a number of stores or restaurants owned by one company or individual and selling the same or similar merchandise or providing the same or similar services. They also usually have similar decor.

What evidence is there for the existence of chain stores and chain restaurants in Ancient Rome (including other cities in Italy)?

Did stores or restaurants have a 'brand name' or some kind of sign on the store front that would identify them as being part of a chain?

One possible (perhaps the most likely) source of evidence might be inscriptions.