texts: Are there any underground cities known except those found in Cappadocia?

texts:
I've recently read the story about the discovery of the underground city of Derinkuyu. Now I'm a bit curious if there are other similar archaeological discoveries: I mean something we could really call a city, a place where many people would be able to live for a long while (at least a month) and deal a "normal" life. My first steps and researches lead me to rather "Modern" underground cities such as Coober Pedy, the Wieliczka Salt Mine, Dìxià Chéng and a couple of malls which have been built in the underground of bigger cities. But what I'm looking for is something that is much older (middle age or earlier).

Strictly speaking "City" is somewhat incorrect, but I think it is clear what I mean a refuge which is big and well equipped enough to accommodate a lot of people for a longer duration and where they could still deal a good life. About Derinkuyu they pretended that the people where able to go ahead with their trade, handcraft and even gather their live stock inside this labyrinth. That staying there for a very long time would have effects on ones health is clear.


texts: How many Manila Galleons were sacked and by whom?

texts:
From the 1500s into the 1800s New Spain operated the "Manila Galleon" trade route across the Pacific. Something over four hundred huge, wealthy ships sailed, and of course they did not all arrive. Extrapolating from Isorena's numbers in "Maritime Disasters in Spanish Philippines", between a quarter and a fifth wrecked, mostly in exiting the Philippine archipelago.

The second risk to the galleons was raiders, especially, according to Dillon's "The Last Plan to Seize the Manila Galleon", a series of English privateers. Anecdotal references to these seizures abound, but overall, how many ships were captured, and were any of the attackers not English?


texts: When did "whites only" signs (racial segregation) become illegal in the USA?

texts:
I'm trying to find out when racial segregation and specifically "whites only" signs became illegal in the USA.

Researching Wikipedia has not led me to a clear conclusion. It seems like segregation was banned by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That page states:

  It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (known as "public accommodations").

However, the very next sentence says:

  Powers given to enforce the act were initially weak, but were supplemented during later years.

So when did racial segregation become illegal?


texts: arge metal badge with enamel logo, with five birds on it


texts:
I've heard that Queen Mary I of England have another name that is "Bloody Mary". and there also is a folklore about the Bloody Mary which is about holding a candle in front of mirror.
Is there any possible link between the two stories.


texts: Were the 19th century decades referred to as 40s, 50s back then?

texts:
I was just thinking what will happen to our reference of "the 50s", "the 60s" when we get to the end of this century.

So I began wondering if this collision has already happened back when the 20th century was still unfolding. Did people use to refer to 1850 as "the fifties" and such?


texts: Any examples when one civilization/country got technology from another and after due to lack of knowledge lost it

texts:
I am wondering if there where actual cases when one civilization/country got advanced technology from another and due to lack of knowledge lost it. By advanced technology I mean that it was advanced for that particular civilization/country at that time, not necessary advanced for us now.

For clarification: it should not be lost because they thought they do not need it any more. They should want it to have and use it but due to lack of knowledge how to operate/preserve lost it.


texts: What is the original French for Napoleon's quote "When your enemy is making a false move don't disturb him"?

texts:
Napoleon is well regarded as stating, prior to Soult's assault on the Pratzen Heights at Austerlitz, words to the effect of:

When your opponent is making a false move, it is wise not to disturb him.

The earliest English language rendition of the quote I have found is from G. Twemlow's Considerations on Tactics and Strategy (1855)

The enemy is making a false move, why should we interrupt him?

Similarly, William S. Walsh's Napoleon's Marshals (1891) renders the quote as:

When the enemy is making a false move, it is well not to interrupt him.

Can anyone locate the original French attribution for this quote, as well as the earliest known French rendition for it?

Courtesy of sempaiscuba in a comment below:

The earliest English version is actually in History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution in 1789 to the Restoration of the Bourbons in 1815, Volume 5 by Archibald Alison pp228-229, first published in 1836.

In that case let us wait twenty minutes; when the enemy is making a false movement we must take good care not to interrupt him.

The reference to twenty minutes is in consequence to Soult's response on the length of time it would take for his men to scale the Pratzen Heights from their obscured (by mist and smoke) location at its base.

Update - Dec. 18, 2018
Jomini appears to be the oldest extant French recollection of the quote - but was in the Tyrol at the time of Austerlitz on Ney's staff.  (see below) Any updates on this would be appreciated.
According to historyofwar.org Dumas was Napoleon's quartermaster during the Austerlitz campaign, and thus quite likely was an eyewitness to the conversation with Marshal Soult. Perhaps Jomini perfected the phrasing of an off-the-cuff remark not immediately recognized by others as profound.


texts: What are the key Syriac pieces of literature?

texts: There is very little info on the web about Syriac, but it sounds like it might have some hidden gems. I am looking here for the most detailed resource I've found. Wikipedia doesn't offer any insight to what the actual Syriac documents are even called, so I can't search for them. What are the names of some important Syriac documents, with a one-liner description?


texts: When did divorce become legal in California?

texts: California has been administered under Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. law. Divorce is presently legal, which it assuredly was not in the Spanish Empire. At which point in history did the process of divorce, civil or religious, become legal and viable in California?


texts: How expensive was seafare in the Middle Ages?

texts:
I know that travel wasn't very common, but I'm wondering how much it would cost for a well-off traveler to arrange passage on a sailing ship.

I'm looking for a price circa 1300, assuming the ship is already headed in the desired direction (carrying other cargo). The journey would be short (couple weeks), such as Britain to the Mediterranean.

I'm guessing it would be on the order of a few shillings a person, but couldn't find any sources on the subject. The closest I could find was in the 1800's, where prices were around 30 pounds, but that was with a full cabin, a lot of inflation, and may have been transatlantic.

Thanks in advance for your help!


texts: Why was Lafayette imprisoned after the French Revolution?

texts: I have read books about the American and French revolutions, but in all my reading it was never made clear why exactly Lafayette was imprisoned by the Austrians. It's clear that he angered the radical Jacobins in France, but it wasn't the Jacobins nor the French who imprisoned him. Wikipedia states that the Austrians feared he would lead Austrians to revolution given his participation in the American Revolutionary War. But it was a well-known fact that Lafayette was vastly more moderate than the French revolutionaries (Jacobins), so what did the Austrians fear exactly? And why not just deport him? Why a lengthy prison sentence?


texts: What did Richelieu mean by his "six lines" quote?

texts:
Cardinal Richelieu is frequently quoted as saying,

  If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him.

What I've never seen cited, though, was the context of this quote.  I find it difficult to imagine any context in which someone would want to actually admit this, even if it were true, because of what a horrible person it makes you look like when you come out and actually say it, but apparently he said it anyway.  Is anyone able to put this quote in its proper context?


texts: Has anybody ever tried to use sea animals to pull a ship?

texts: Given that many land animals throughout history were harnessed to pull land vehicles (horses, bulls, dogs, deer, elephants etc), I wonder whether anyone ever tried or suggested to use sea or river animals such as fish, dolphins or sea birds to pull a ship?


texts: When did the Portuguese decide to extend their West African exploration to finding a sea passage to India?

texts:
In 1421, when the Portuguese began the southwards exploration of the West African coast under Prince Henry the Navigator, their primary aim (there were several) was to find the source of wealthy goods being brought to the city of Ceuta.
There came a time when an additional aim developed, which was to find a direct sea route to India. When was this decision taken? Was it taken when the Portuguese obtained a copy of the Fra Mauro map in 1459 showing the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet at the southern point of Africa, i.e., indicating a route to India was possible?
The Fra Mauro map carries the comment,

Many have thought, and many have written, that the sea does not encompass our habitable and temperate zone on the south but there is much evidence to support a contrary opinion, and particularly that of the Portuguese, whom the king of Portugal has sent on board his caravels to verify the fact by ocular inspection.

This implies the Portuguese were seeking to round Africa before they received a copy of this map — a map that was first created about 1450.


texts: How did the Crimean war change British society?

texts:
Background: My summer reading goal is to get a handle on Europe from 1850-1914, with a strong focus on the British Empire, and within that a focus on England. So far, I've seen multiple historians single out the Crimean War as an event with major cultural, political, and military consequences.

At this point, I admit that I feel like I'm starting to lose track of all those consequences, which I'd like to bear more closely in mind as I move on to the latest part of the 19th century. I'm hoping someone more knowledgeable might be willing to give me a list and summary of the major changes, so I can reference that going forward. Where relevant, I'd also appreciate it being pointed out to me where these changes were totally contingent, and where they dovetailed with broader already probable trends, just so I can keep the threads of causality straight.

The Question: What were the major cultural, political, and military consequences of the Crimean War for Britain, and more specifically England, in the latter half of the 19th century?


texts: Have any of the Presidents of France taken advantage of its co-princeship of Andorra in a significant way?

texts:
The Principality of Andorra is quite interesting, because it is a monarchy headed by two persons, including the President of France (who is basically elected at will of foreigners).

My question is, have any of the Presidents of France used his capacity as a Co-Prince of Andorra to his or to France's advantage in a significant way? For example, joining Andorra in France's war, significant treaty or trade agreement?


texts: Why was James II and VII (same person), the last Roman Catholic monarch of Britain, not forced to convert to Anglicanism?

texts: From what I understand (although my English history is very poor), to be the monarch of England, one must convert to Anglicanism, as the monarch is also the head of the Anglican Church. I believed this had extended since the beginning of the Anglican Church with Henry VIII. But, I recently learned that James II and VII (just one person, two titles) was the last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Ireland, and Scotland (on the Wikipedia page for him), and he reigned in the late 1680s. Even just looking on the Wikipedia page for Anglicanism, it seems as though it was fairly well established by the 1680s, especially since Henry VIII reigned in the early 1500s. Am I missing something? Why was James II not forced to convert to Anglicanism? (And, if James II was allowed to keep his religion, would a modern-day English monarch be allowed to as well, or is there a legal reason why not today that there wasn't during the 17th century?)


texts: Did a German plane really land in Moscow in 1941 May?

texts:
I just read this small Wikipedia page about a 1941 Purge of the Red Army. There is something rather shocking:

  In May, a German Junkers Ju 52 landed in Moscow, undetected by the ADF beforehand, leading to massive arrests among the Air Force leadership.

Wikipedia does have a source for this, but it's a giant Russian text. I could not find the reference after a translation and quick search. Even if it does reference it, I would really like a corroborating source somewhere.

So is this really true? If so, who was the pilot, what was the intention, where did the flight originate, etc.

EDIT: Okay so based on the comments, I think I better add 2 things. 1, Yes I'm aware of the MR-Pact, so USSR and Germany were officially friends (in 1941 May). But didn't everyone know of the huge ideological differences thanks to, among other things, Mein Kampf? I mean goodness, Hitler basically told everyone his strategic aim was to take the east! Wasn't the MR-Pact a huge shock to the world when it came out in 1939 August, for that very reason, and no one really believed it? 2, I know radar was not very sophisticated or widespread. I'm not shocked that it was undetected (though we would need to know the flight-path to be sure). I'm shocked that there was apparently no incident afterwards.


texts: How many Black Panthers were killed in 'justified homicide' that was later overturned?

texts:
A few days ago I was in a cafe where I picked up a leaflet on labour disputes which went into some detail about Fred Hampton. He was a African-American activist in the Black Panther Party (BPP), in fact the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers and the deputy chair of their national executive.

He was killed in December 1969 along with another activist, Mark Clark in a raid by a tactical unit of the Illinois State Attorneys office, along with the Chicago Police Department and the FBI.

The following year, the autopsy report recorded the death under justifiable homicide. This was disputed by his family over the next decade with a final settlement in 1982 by a payment of around $2 million where a third each paid by the federal government, the city of Chicago, and Cook County.

Q. For context - what is meant by a tactical unit?

Q. How many Black Panthers were killed also under 'justifiable homicide'.

Q. How many of these judgements were later overturned by a civil case, or by other means?


texts: How were documents written in Plato's time?

texts:
I'm writing an essay at the moment and I rather thoughtlessly wrote down that they used books. But it seems to me that this might not be the case and that books might be a relatively new invention.

How were documents written down in Plato's time and when was the first book produced in Europe, and elsewhere?


texts: What was the oil production of each US State around the time of WW2?

texts:
Related question that leads to this one. Around the time of WW2, what was the oil production of each US State?

The reason it's important is for logistics, for example, to see if the east coast has enough oil for the Western Front and the west coast has enough oil for the Pacific. And then there's that pesky thing known as Paukenschalg (still mad at wikipedia for not letting it be its own article).

Basically, in the first half of 1942, a few German U-Boats wrought havoc on the US East Coast, including a lot of oil tankers sunk. You see, America did not have any major crude oil pipelines at this time. Therefore, most Gulf Coast oil was shipped around to big harbors like Boston or New York, and that's how the industrial heartland got much of its oil. Earnest King actually suspended tanker shipments after losses were too heavy, and the railroads had to suddenly increase oil shipments from places like Texas to places like Chicago.


texts: Did Victorian parents raise their children "sexless" to prolong innocence?

texts:
I was reading the (albeit not very historical) Chatelaine article "Can You Actually Raise A Baby Free From Gender?" and came across the statement:

The notion that a boy should have short hair doesn’t hold in many Indigenous communities, where boys and men follow their tradition of wearing long braids. Boys in Victorian England were clothed in dresses and hair ribbons; middle- and upper-class parents of the era deliberately kept their children sexless throughout toddlerhood to extend what they viewed as a period of innocence.

Taking this statement literally, this would mean Victorian parents treated infant boys and girls exactly the same under the impression they would remain innocent longer.
Attempting to research this, I came across many articles [links below] about boys fashions in the Victorian era, specifically about how young boys wore dresses to facilitate easy diaper-changing. I also found out about the process of "breeching", where a young boy would graduate to wearing breeches for the first time at a certain age, as a rite of passage. The closest thing to "sexless" child-raising I found was a Wikipedia quote, saying after breeching, " the father became more involved with the raising of a boy".
I couldn't find anything saying that male and female children were truly raised the same, though, or anything about innocence relating to this process, or even anything about how lower class families enforced gender differences whereas other socioeconomic levels wouldn't. Is the statement bolded above historically accurate or merely a hyperbolic comment regarding how both boys and girls wore dresses?
Links:
http://www.victoriana.com/Fashion/boysclothing1860s.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeching_(boys)
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/gender-roles-in-the-19th-century#
https://medium.com/@NewAgeNews/why-is-president-franklin-d-roosevelt-wearing-a-dress-83fba3549523
Direct search for quote


texts: How did the United States penal system evolve?

texts:
The penal system of the United States is unusual in several aspects:

The United States is one of the rare Western nations that retains and practices capital punishment in law and practice.
Prison population in the United States is the highest in the world in absolute terms.
Prison sentences in the United States appear to be ** longer** than for the same crimes in many other countries.

How did this unique combination evolve historically? What are the reasons that the United States did not follow the general trend of Western societies in the second half of the 20th century towards abolition of capital punishment, reform-oriented penitentiary systems etc.?


texts: What did indigenous North Americans trade amongst themselves before Europeans arrived?

texts:
Once the colonial era began around 1500 or 1600, Europeans and Native Americans started trading. As far as I'm aware, the principal trade was beaver pelts in exchange for iron axes.

But I'm interested in trade amongst the Native Americans themselves, before the colonial era. Did any trade go on? If so, what was it? It seems like each tribe could make whatever it wanted from the materials nearby, so I am very interested in the trade situation or lack thereof.

Note, I'm also aware of some Icelanders coming to Canada around the year 1000. Not really interested in that either, as far as this question is concerned. Only care about tribe-to-tribe trade of Native Americans.


texts: Organizing the 1788 presidential and congressional elections

texts:
In 1788 the new Constitution of the United States went into effect in the states that had ratified it, and that meant elections had to be organized for representatives in Congress and for members of the electoral college (in those days I suspect they were literally for electors and the presidential candidates were not named on the ballots).  Today all presidential elections and elections for members of congress were held on the same day throughout the country.  Was that done in 1788?  If so, who organized it?  Was the Congress of the Confederation involved?

(Elections for U.S. senators were done by state legislatures then, and I suspect they were not all on the same day.)


texts: Was it possible for a young Japanese woman to end up enslaved in Great Britain in the mid-1600s?

texts:
I'm inspired to ask this by the horror visual novel The Letter, which chiefly regards a haunted building called the Ermengarde mansion, in the fictional English town of Anslem, near the equally-fictional city of Luxbourne.  The mansion is stated to have been standing "since the 1620s."

The mansion is haunted, primarily, by the ghost of a woman who was tormented and made to be burned at the stake by the lady of the house, Charlotte Ermengarde, who took ownership of the mansion after her parents died.  The plot says that the woman, named Takako, was a slave who was publicly freed by Charlotte (along with other slaves) and put to work as a maid in her mansion, until various things happened that gave Charlotte the motive to want her dead.  While it's never specified, Takako is presumably Japanese, as her name is Japanese and she speaks of seeing "chrysanthemums and cherry blossoms" in her home country.

My question, then, is two-fold:

Could there have been young Japanese women in Great Britain in the mid-1600s?
The apparent timespan puts Takoko's presence directly at the beginning of Japan's Sakoku, their period of severe isolationism, and in fact Britain had cut off all trade with Japan in 1623.  This seems to indicate it would be exceedingly unlikely that a Japanese woman would ever be seen on British soil, much less a first-generation immigrant.  But does that mean it's impossible?
Could she have been enslaved?
Wikipedia seems to indicate that internal slavery in Britain was unheard of by 1200.  As an American, the idea of abolition six hundred years before the American Civil War is amazing, to say the least.  One assumes the British would stick to their domestic policies, but 1200 to 1650 is a long time.  Were there slaves (and markets where one could publicly free them) in Great Britain in the mid-17th century?  And were there Asian slaves specifically, Japanese to be even more specific?


texts: Curious office hours of Topographical Bureau where Napoleon served in 1795?

texts:
In his new biography Napoleon the Great Andrew Roberts reports about Napoleon's stint in the Historical and Topographical Bureau of the war ministry in Paris between mid-August and early October 1795.

  The Topographical Bureau was a small, highly efficient organization
  within the war ministry that has been described as ‘the most
  sophisticated planning organisation of its day’. Set up by Carnot
  and reporting directly to the Committee [of Public Safety], it took information from the
  commanders-in-chief, plotted troop movements, prepared detailed
  operational directives and co-ordinated logistics [...]

  The Bureau didn’t decide overall grand strategy; that was done by the
  politicians on the Committee of Public Safety, which was highly
  vulnerable to factional struggles [...]

  The Topographical Bureau’s curious office hours – from 1 p.m. to 5
  p.m. and 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. – allowed Napoleon plenty of time to write
  a romantic novella entitled Clisson et Eugénie, a swansong for his
  unrequited love affair with [Eugénie Désirée Clary].

My question is this: do we know whether the bureau's indeed curious office hours were a coincidental oddity (perhaps a quirk of its then leader General Henri Clarke) or due to logistics around when new information became available in the capital of a major colonial power and when new military advice had to be dispatched.


texts: Why didn't the Soviets keep their encircled forces supplied by airlifting supplies?

texts:
I was watching a video on World War 2 and learned that the Nazis kept their encircled troops supplied by air for weeks, till the pocket was liberated.
I also know that earlier in the war, Soviet troops were encircled. I have not heard of the Soviets supplying their troops by air. Was this in fact the case, If so, why?
Is this due to the Nazis having far more control over aerial warfare than the Soviets?


texts: What is the origin of this coin? Willem WRL

texts:
My great-grandfather saved a bunch of very old coins from all around the world and from different times just for me, 7 years after he died, the coins were given to me. Here is one that I cannot find anywhere and don't know what it is. Could anyone please help!

Obverse:

Reverse:


texts: During the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, did society question whether or not recovered patients will remain immune?

texts:
One of the biggest controversies around the current COVID-19 pandemic involves the question of immunity. The official WHO position is as following:

  "Some governments have suggested that the detection of antibodies to
  the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could serve as the
  basis for an 'immunity passport' or 'risk-free certificate' that would
  enable individuals to travel or to return to work assuming that they
  are protected against re-infection," the WHO wrote. "There is
  currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and
  have antibodies are protected from a second infection."

Were there similar concerns in society during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic?


texts: Why have major sporting events been held every 4 years?

texts:
Many major sporting events are held every 4 years such as the Olympics, Football World Cup, UEFA European Championship, Rugby World Cup, etc.

I've had a look around and I've yet to find an answer that isn't personal opinion or is backed up with a source - one site also said that there is no evidence as per why the Olympics is held once every 4 years.

The Olympic games registration website's FAQ states that it is held every 4 years to respect tradition, but that leaves the Fifa website does not offer a reason why the world cup is held every 4 years. Is it a case that they followed the model of the olympics for traditions sake?

  To respect the ancient origins of the Games. At that time, sports competitions were organised in Olympia and were named after their location, i.e. Olympic Games. These Games were held at the same place every four years. This four-year period acquired the name Olympiad, and was used as a date system: time was counted in Olympiads, rather than years.

So, since when have these major sporting events been held every 4 years? The decision to hold them every 4 years may have been relevant due to the pressures of the era in which they begun, transport limitations, foreign policy etc.

To be clear - I am specifically asking about why the trend developed. I'm working on the assumption that the 4 year gap was not arbitrarily decided on and while the Olympics may be on a 4 year cycle to respect tradition/the origins of the tournament other tournaments with the same gap cannot share this reasoning. Research on the beginnings of the Football World Cup may present a reason for the other tournaments sharing the same cycle e.g. Spread financial pressure, it wasn't viable for athletes to gather more often due to transport, it's an acknowledged tradition in the sporting world established by the Olympic Games.


texts: Does Bob Hope hold the record for headlining the most USO tours?

texts:
Bob Hope entertaining the troops in 1944. Source: Wikipedia

Question

Multiple sources indicate that Bob Hope headlined 57 USO tours, including Wikipedia and Legacy's article on Bob Hope's USO, among others. I believe this is the record. However, I have been unable to verify this. Is there any documentation indicating anyone else having completed more than 57 USO tours, or can a source be found which indicates Bob Hope's 57 tours is the record?

Additional sources I have consulted:

Wikipedia's USO article;
USO.org - Bob Hope USO Shows: The One-Man Morale Machine;
Biography.com - Bob Hope;
CBS News - A Tribute to Bob Hope: USO Tour;
Bob Hope USO - About Us;
Library of Congress - Entertaining the Troops;
Library of Congress - Bob Hope Exhibits;
USA Patriotism - Bob Hope;
The Daily Beast - which lists "nearly 200 USO performances” by Bob Hope, and I suspect this would also be a record, though I cannot confirm this either.

I modified the title to indicate "headlined" - but originally I was looking for some unsung hero who may have toured (headlined or not) more than 57 times. Some B-lister or C-lister. I suspect 57 would be the record for headlining though even that has been extremely hard to verify (no sources found yet).

Sidebar

I love this quote from Bob Hope in 1944 (as found on this Library of Congress exhibit):

  Believe me when I say that laughter up at the front lines is a very precious thing—precious to those grand guys who are giving and taking the awful business that goes on there. . . . There’s a lump the size of Grant’s Tomb in your throat when they come up to you and shake your hand and mumble “Thanks.” Imagine those guys thanking me! Look what they’re doin’ for me. And for you. —Bob Hope, 1944

P.S. Bob - Thanks for the memories!


texts: Which George V stamp would be used for a letter sent from London to Sweden in 1919/1920?

texts:
I've inherited some letters that my great-grandmother sent from London, UK to Stockholm, Sweden in 1919 and 1920. Unfortunately the stamps have been cut out (probably by a relative who wished to save them somewhere else). My question is therefore: Do you know which George V stamp could have been used?
Thank you in advance!


texts: Were man catchers actually used in medieval times?

texts: I know that man catchers were invented sometime during the medieval times, but were they actually used during the medieval times?


texts: Cold War proxy countries views on nationalism or decolonization?

texts:
The Cold War countries like the US and USSR had interests in other regions of the world which often resulted in indirect proxy wars.

I believe the funds were provided by the larger country and often fought by the people of the country.

So I was wondering about the nationalist and anti colonial sentiment arising at the time of these proxy wars.

My question mainly focuses on what these proxy countries would have thought by looking around places like Africa or the Middle East and seeing nationalist movements throwing off their controlling powers and gaining independence.

Did these proxy countries value independence like these other countries or did they value funding and military assistance from a much more powerful but controlling country while being a proxy?


texts: How low on ammunition were the Germans at Stalingrad when they surrendered?

texts:
Hitler ordered his forces in Stalingrad to fight to the “last man and last round.”

A century and half earlier, a more respected German commander, Marshal Blücher claimed upon his surrender to the French at Lübeck, “I capitulate since I have neither bread nor ammunition.” Basically, Blücher fought to the last round and last crust, though not to the last man (he was outnumbered 4 to 1). Subsequently, many outnumbered and surrounded German units fought to the last round and then surrendered the surviving men.

How much ammunition did the Germans have when the last incoming flight arrived at Gumrak Airfield on January 22, 1943? Were they out of ammunition when they surrendered at the end of January? Did it make sense for the Germans to shoot off the last of their ammunition (at normal military usage) on any given day, and then surrender Blücher-style at least a week before they actually did? Or did Hitler give explicit orders to conserve ammunition and buy time (apparently ammunition was rationed when the Germans ran low at Stalingrad)?


texts: Were Pharaohs still inscribed on walls and written on papyrus after their deaths?

texts: If so,  was it done for historical record, or tradition? Any details on this appreciated. Do we have any instances of artifacts depicting past Pharaohs or events that occurred before they were created?


texts: Is the Cypress of Kashmar on display in Baghdad?

texts:
The Cypress of Kashmar was a sacred tree of the Zoroastrians.  Apparently, according to the Shahnameh and other sources, it was planted by Zoroaster (or his patron) at the fire temple of Kashmar, and a millennium and a half later it was cut down amid much outcry by Ja'far al-Mutawakkil to be used in palace construction in 891.  There is a Zoroastrian organization with some historical background.  Now according what looks like a blog cited by Wikipedia, the palace still stands in Iraq.  However, Wikipedia also tells us that the Abu Dulaf Mosque is built entirely of brick.  If logs from the tree really were used there, it is strange to think that a lost sacred tree from the foundation of Zoroastrianism might have been damaged during the Iraq War in 2005, when a bomb exploded at the mosque.
If the wood is anywhere in public view, its story could be confirmed with remarkable certainty - just look for beams from a tree 1450 years old, of a known species, that is 28 whip-lash lengths in circumference.
But -- is there any beam in the mosque, or the much larger region of ruins tied up with Samarra, that can be attributed to that tree?


texts: What was the actual dispute that triggered the March 2013 anti-Muslim riots in Myanmar?

texts:
The Wikipedia page notes that the riots happened after a gold-shop owner attacked a Buddhist customer.

What was the issue that led to that attack by the shop-owner? And why did they attack a customer?


texts: Who invented modern bookends? (both model T and model L)

texts:
In ancient times the bookends were made from very heavy materials to sustain the weight of the books, while the modern ones use a smarter technique: while they are light, they are shaped so that they can use the weight of the books themselves to anchor and sustain them. I call these "model T" and "model L", depending on their shape (resembling a T or an L).

I wasn't able to find much about their history, especially who invented these models and when: both wikipedia and another source vaguely claim that "it was patented in 1870s", but don't bother to say who patented that, which is the exact year, and if the model was T or L or a generic patent encompassing both.

Does someone have more information about that?


texts: Were the animals used for gladiatorial combat in Rome trained?

texts:
Were the animals used for gladiatorial combat in Rome 100% wild, or were they trained in any way (either for entertainment purposes like today's circus animals, or for fighting like fighting dogs are trained today).

If it matters, the ones I'm most interested in are big cats.

Inspired by apoorv020's comment on my prior question.


texts: What was the first confirmed use of black powder to blow stuff up in war (in China and in Europe)?

texts:
In this SciFi SE answer to "Can we date the technology in the Lord of the Rings movies?" , I made a statement that I wasn't able to research as fully as I'd have liked, and therefore would like a confirmation of whether historical research supports it.

  Gunpowder used to blow up the wall at Helm's Deep - the earliest invention is in China, 6th to 9th century. But it was not used for explosives back then IIRC - the first mention of the use of black powder for explosives I could find was Dicovery Channel's (un-cited) mention of 12th century in China. The first use of black powder as explosive (as opposed to projectile propellant) in Europe eludes me but it wasn't used for civilian purposes (mining explosives) till 17th century.

So, the questions are:

Is there a confirmed source indicating the use of black powder for military purpose explosives as early as 12th century AD in China (as in, to blow stuff up instead of to propel something)? Are there no references to earlier use?
What was the earliest confirmed such use in Europe?  (other regions matter less since Isengard seems to be a Europe equivalent in Tolkien kinda-geography, situated north of Gondor)

As Lennart correctly surmised, I was thinking of the use of black powder for demolition type effect (as was done in LOTR), NOT as an explosive in a shrapnel-producing grenade/bomb.


texts: Did nutmeg really prevent infections during the Bubonic Plague?

texts:
Not sure if this comes under biology or history.
Years ago, a chemistry professor gave us a short lesson on the history of nutmeg. He said, the priests in Europe wore pouches around their neck containing nutmeg because it apparently prevented infections during the Bubonic Plague.

Is there any truth to this, from a biological and historical perspective? Did the practitioners survive the plague?


texts: During the WWII, did the German Luftwaffe ever have mixed units of Bf-109s and Me-262s, and if so, which units and/or which airfields?

texts:
I have much information regarding the contemporary piston-engined Bf-109 units, as wells as the more advanced Me-262 units. However, I am wondering if any of these planes served together in the same unit and/or airfield? I have not found any information to suggest that they did, but I wondered if StackExchange had any additional information?
Here is some potentially helpful side information:

It is more likely that Bf-109s were part of Me-262 jet units, and not the other way around. Furthermore, there are much fewer Me-262 jet units that Bf-109 units. The Me-262 Jet units are:
A. Jagdgeschwader 7 (JG7) - World's first jet fighter squadrons. Mechanic records state absolutely
no maintenance data for any Bf-109, so it is highly unlikely that any Bf-109 served with JG7 if
there is no maintenance records/data. Furthermore, the regular Bf-109 squadrons were barely
getting enough replacement Bf-109 aircraft, so this makes Bf-109s in this unit unlikely.
However, this does not mean Bf-109s for OTHER squadrons did not (briefly) serve with JG7 on
JG7's airfield(s).
There are many false pictures that show Bf-109s with the same markings as JG7, but
these have been proven false because of unit misidentification on account of the
black and white photographs.
B. Jagdverband 44 (JV44)- Squadron of Germany's few remain "Experten" expert pilots. This group had
the regular piston-engined squadron Jagdgescwader 301 (JG 301) attached to protect the Me-262
units. However, there is a two part issue. First, did JG301 and JV 44 share the same airfield?
Second, JG301 had a different pistoned-engined fighter named Ta 152, but that is a different
airplane than the Bf-109. However, because there was not enough Ta 152s to serve with the Me-
262s, JG 301s Bf-109s could have filled in the role.
C. Nachtjagderschwader 11 (NJG11)- This was group night fighters that did have both Bf-109s and Me-
262s, but they seem to have operated on different airfields from each other depending on
aircraft type. This unit is one of the more likely ones to have Bf-109s and Me-262s on the same
airfield and/or unit.
D. Kampschwader 54 (KG54) - This group of Me-262 were dedicated as bombers instead of fighters,
they operated alongside other contemporary piston-engine bombers. However, none of these bombers
were the fighter Bf-109. (This one I don't expect any information, because the Bf-109 is a
fighter, and this unit flies bombers, but I included it for posterity.)
E. Ergänzungs-Jagdgeschwader 2 (EJG2) - This was a night training squadron that supplied pilots and
planes other units, notably NJG 11. Did they ever share the same airfield, if so, which one?
The Bf-109 had many sub variants, such as the Bf-109"G-6," Bf-109"G-14/AS," etc. The letter following the Bf-109 matters little to me, as long as it is a confirmed Bf-109. The same is true for the Me-262.
The time frame for any shared units would be April 1944-May 1945.


texts: How quickly could the Roman legions march? How did it compare to their cavalry?

texts:
In the history of Rome there are numerous instances of legions being marched up and down Europe, from Spain to Rome and from Rome to Syria.  I'm interested to know how quickly these armies could move?  Did it take a half a year to move from the Alps to Rome or did it take a week?

Also how does that speed compare to the pace of the mobile cavalry reserve used to such great effect by the late Roman emperors?


texts: What regiments of the British East India Company were in southeastern India in the late 1790s?

texts:
I have been researching ranks and positions that existed in various regiments and civil branches of the British East India Company during the late 1790s to early 1800s. Those aren't as hard as finding names of actual regiments, divisions, and units that moved along the southeast coast of India during the 1790s, which is what I'm asking about here. Many of the listings shown were in later 1800s and were shown to be companies that merged with the British Army.

I understand that the major branches were Madras, Bengal, and Bombay, and they dispatched smaller units to protect BEIC interests which were won from the French or the natives. I found a few of those.

Bonus points: In this same vein, were there any local forces in Visakhapatnam or Andhra Pradesh that had a particular name for its unit during the 18th century? Or is it true that these local forces didn't really have a military name?


texts: Did Julius Caesar ban low-birth people wearing pearls?

texts:
I encountered this

"in I century B.C., during the Julius Caesar consulship, it was promulgated a law that prohibited the theirs [sic] use by the lower classes" RomeAndArt

statement several times, but the source remains unclear. Could anyone help finding the source or debunking the myth, please?


texts: Have there been any countries that voted themselves out of existence?

texts:
I'm interested in countries that voted themselves out of existence because they believe that joining another country is best for them (see e.g. world government). For example, say New Zealand votes to join Australia, becoming Australia's seventh state. If Australia accepts, then the country of New Zealand has effectively voted itself out of existence.

I'm wondering if this has happened before. The closest cases I'm aware of are the Dominion of Newfoundland:

  Due to Newfoundland's high debt load arising from World War I and construction of the Newfoundland Railway, and decreasing revenue due to the collapse of fish prices, the dominion legislature voted itself out of existence in 1933 in exchange for loan guarantees by the Crown and a promise it would be re-established. On February 16, 1934, the Commission of Government was sworn in, ending 79 years of responsible government.

However this doesn't seem like a very good example, because 1) Newfoundland wasn't a sovereign country, and 2) if the description is correct, they're not uniting with the Crown, they just wanted more money, and they also received a promise that they'll be re-established.

Another case is Singapore, which became independent against its will in 1965:

  ... the then Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, seeing no alternative to avoid further bloodshed, advised the Parliament of Malaysia that it should vote to expel Singapore from Malaysia. On 9 August 1965, the Malaysian Parliament voted 126 to 0 (with Singaporean delegates not present) to move a bill to amend the constitution providing for Singapore to separate from the Federation of Malaysia. This gave Singapore independence, unusually against its own will.

This implies that if there was a vote then about whether Singapore should join Malaysia, the country would vote yes; however since Malaysia was not willing to accept it doesn't match what I'm looking for either.

Finally there is the Scottish independence referendum of 2014, but again that does not work because Scotland isn't a sovereign country.


texts: Did many Nationalist Chinese soldiers fight in the Korean War on the Communist side?

texts:
Some years ago I was told by some Taiwanese friends that Nationalist troops who had surrendered to the Communists during or after the Chinese Civil War were made to fight for the Communists rather than demobilized. As the story goes, when the Korean War started, these troops were sent to fight in Korea as a way of reducing their numbers.

Is there any truth to this story?


texts: Where did Medieval Europe's gold come from?

texts:
Medieval Europe processed copious amounts of gold into religious artifacts, jewelry and of course gold coins, as evidenced by the large number of those that survive to this day.

Given that today, no European country is even remotely near the world's top producers of gold (cf. http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/gold/mcs-2009-gold.pdf), where did all that gold come from? I am aware that the ancient Romans had trade networks that extended deep into Africa, giving them access to the Nubian gold mines, but how did e.g. 12th century Germans acquire enough gold to make as large an object as the Shrine of the Three Kings?


texts: Dimensions and parts of Fort Douglas, Winnipeg Canada

texts:
I am having troubles estimating the dimensions of Fort Douglas that WAS in Winnipeg Canada. Fort Douglas (from what I understand, correct me if I'm wrong) was the stage of the battle of Seven Oaks. I can't seem to find much since the original building was washed away in a flood, but I was able to find this picture:

However this picture does not show the rest of the fort.So, my main Questions:

Dimensions

The width and length (the height of the walls would be awesome, but not neccesary)

Approximate will do just as well, although I am trying to be as accurate as possible.

Things inside the fort

All the buildings inside.
Can be approximate.
An image, whether drawn by yourself, or by someone else would be the best, laying out the locations and titles of the different building inside the fort.

HOWEVER! if you cannot find information about this fort you can provide information about the dimension and buildings inside a Canadian fort of a similar time period.


texts: Strong movement to deregulate professions in the 1960's?

texts:
In chapter 11, page 209, of his book "predictably irrational", Dan Ariely writes:

  "The word profession comes from the Latin professus, meaning "affirmed
  publicly." Professions started somewhere deep in the past in religion
  and then spread to medicine and law. Individuals who had mastered
  esoteric knowledge, it was said, not only had a monopoly on the
  practice of that knowledge, but had an obligation to use their power
  wisely and honestly. The oath—spoken and often written—was a reminder
  to practitioners to regulate their own behavior, and it also provided
  a set of rules that had to be followed in fulfilling the duties of
  their profession. Those oaths lasted a long time. But then, in the
  1960s, a strong movement arose to deregulate professions. Professions
  were elitist organizations, it was argued, and needed to be turned out
  into the light of day. For the legal profession that meant more briefs
  written in plain English prose, cameras in the courtrooms, …"

I couldn't find any references for the part mentioned in bold. Will someone please help me find one? Or explain what is meant by a "strong movement", or the results of the deregulation? (as far as I understand, lawyers and physicians still have oaths)


texts: Why didn't the British test the effects of shells on trench warfare defenses?

texts: At the battle of the Somme the British bombarded the Germans for seven days.  They fired over 1.5 million shells.  But most of these shells were shrapnel shells. These shells failed to cut and eliminate the defenses most importantly the barbed wire.  Why didn't the British test on an artillery range the effects of shells on trench warfare defenses?  Did any power test how shelling effected defense lines?


texts: When did inadequate or inaccurate maps produce important historical consequences?

texts:
For example, Christopher Columbus' sense of place in the New World was perhaps shaped by a c. 1491 map made by Henricus Martellus:

(From: Did This Map Guide Columbus?)

I'm interested in more examples such as this one and especially in detailed cases.


texts: What factors led some South American governments to be sympathetic to Nazi war criminals?

texts: What were some of the factors that contributed to some South American governments being so sympathetic to Nazi war criminals that they harbored them?


texts: Did churches in American south have to be segregated by law?

texts:
Years ago I spoke with some people who were members of a church in either Georgia or Florida. They told me that they had heard that during segregation their church had had a red thread or cord that separated the main meeting room, for the reasons of racial segregation.

I wanted to look into this to determine what the underlying reason for this thread had been (if it was in place because of law or public sentiment or some other reason).

So I have two questions I wanted to ask:

During the era of racial segregation in USA, were churches obligated
to stay segregated?
(If answer to #1 is "yes") From early 1900's until segregation was
abolished by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, were there any specific
requirements on how churches should implement segregation?


texts: What was the stand of K Kamaraj about anti-Hindi agitation of 1965?

texts:
What was the stand of K Kamaraj in anti Hindi agitation in 1965?
What were his actions to stop the people from riot?
And whether the leaders from Congress in Tamilnadu supported the Hindi imposition?


texts: Are there any sources supporting the claim that Jews were less affected by epidemics?

texts:
There is a common thread that Jews historically suffered less from epidemics because of Jewish ritual requirements of cleanliness.
E.g., Wikipedia - Perceived Jewish immunity has 3 weakly supporting references:

The Black Death: "The Christians claimed that the Jews died at only half the rate. Even if true, it would then be about 20% of the Jewish population who died from the plague."
Pasachoff, Naomi E.; Littman, Robert J. (2005). A Concise History of the Jewish People. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 154. ISBN 0-7425-4365-X: "However, Jews regularly ritually washed and bathed, and their abodes were slightly cleaner than their Christian neighbors'. Consequently, when the rat and the flea brought the Black Death, Jews, with better hygiene, suffered less severely ..."
Joseph P Byrne (2012). Encyclopedia of the Black Death Volume 1. p. 15 "Anti-Semitism and AntI-Jewish Violence before the Black Death": "Their attention to personal hygiene and diet, their forms of worship, and cycles of holidays were off-puttingly different."

However, all these quotes speak of explaining the effect, not of its presence.
My question is about the premise:
Is it actually true that Jews were indeed less affected by a major historical epidemic?
The aforecited wikipedia page also contains a weak refutation of the premise:
Simonsohn, Shlomo (1991). Apostolic See and the Jews. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Vol. 1: Documents, 492. p. 1404. ISBN 9780888441096: "Pope Clement VI tried to protect the Jewish communities, issuing two papal bulls in 1348, on 6 July and 26 September, saying that `It cannot be true that the Jews, by such a heinous crime, are the cause or occasion of the plague, because through many parts of the world the same plague, by the hidden judgment of God, has afflicted and afflicts the Jews themselves and many other races who have never lived alongside them'." (no claim is made wrt the rates of infection)
Conditions:

Time: before Germ theory of disease led to wide adoption of hygienic practices, so, say, pre-1800.
Place: sufficiently large area (i.e., not a single town), so that local peculiarities (like the size of the ghetto or water access arrangements) do not affect the spread of the disease.


texts: Were cities that enacted lockdowns during the 1918 flu pandemic successful in preventing any infections?

texts:
Many parallels are currently being drawn between the flu pandemic of 1918 and the modern spread of the coronavirus, including how a lockdown was imposed in many cities:

  It happened a century ago, too.

  On Oct. 5, 1918, Seattle Mayor Ole Hanson made a stunning
  announcement.

  He ordered “every place of indoor public assemblage in Seattle,
  including schools, theatres, motion picture houses, churches and dance
  halls closed by noon” that day, a Seattle Daily Times story said.

But what was the purpose of these lockdowns? Medicine was rudimentary and couldn't do much to help against viral infections - not that we're much more effective in 2020, given our struggles with COVID-19. Attempts were made to develop vaccine, but authorities weren't able to produce enough injections to inoculate the entire population. Contact tracing would've been impossible given the lack of available tests. Given the above, is it known if the lockdown of 1918 was actually effective or did every American eventually become ill with the novel flu regardless of the lockdowns?


texts: What does "Central Europe AG 2006" mean in discharge papers?

texts:
The discharge papers state

  "Northern France GO 33 WD 45

(which I think I understand),

  Central Europe AG 2006

and

  Rhineland AG 2006.

What do these references mean?


texts: What did 19th century playgrounds look like?

texts: In the beginning of the novel Cold Mountain, a character recollect his childhood at a school house (maybe in the 1840s or 1850s in rural North Carolina) and describes flinging his hat out onto the playground from inside the building. Is this anachronistic? If not, what did 19th century playgrounds look like? When did they start to resemble the fort like structures with swings and such we know today?


texts: What was the military makeup of the Baltic tribes/Lithuania from 1200 to 1500 AD?

texts:
There is quite a lot written on the Teutonic Order and its military, but I'm having a harder time finding any good English sources on the military of one of its chief foes, Lithuania and the other Baltic tribes.

How was their military structured in this period (1200-1500 AD) and what kind of equipment and fighting styles were used? And is there any good material on this in English?


texts: I have a German 1.50 gold mark that looks to be made of leather. It is about 3/16 of an inch thick. and dyed black. It has many symbols. Please if anyone can tell me about this. It looks to be dated 1923. I can not find another like it anywhere online.  Thank you


texts: Why is president Nixon considered worst president in the history of US?

texts:
I have listened from people that Nixon is considered the worst president of US.

I also watched a Doctor Who episode in which Nixon asks The Doctor whether he would be remembered or not. Then, The Doctor said that nobody would ever forget him. Later in behind the scenes, I found some guy from production team was laughing at this saying The Doctor made him even more worse.

Why is Nixon considered worst president of United States?


texts: Why did Mongolia split in two when they declared independence?

texts:
When Mongolia declared independence from the Qing Empire in 1911, part of it stayed under Qing control. This is the part known today as Inner Mongolia. But even before their independence, there were "Outer Mongolia" and "Inner Mongolia."

Is there a historical reason for why there was a distinction between Inner and Outer Mongolia in the first place?


texts: Did Brahms really leave Germany because he was dissatisfied with the political realities of that time?

texts: I read in a body of text introducing musician Johannes Brahms that one main reason he left Germany for Austria in 1862 was his dissatisfaction with the political reality ("repressive regime") at that time. Also, the material claimed that he had conflicting sentiments towards the imperial Germany unified by Bismarck in 1871. However, I couldn't easily find such materials online elsewhere. The material didn't list any citations. Are such claims substantiated by historical evidence or are they most likely some ideological propaganda?


texts: Why were the ship names "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" used together?

texts:
In the German Navy (both the Kaiserliche Marine and Kriegsmarine), the two ship names of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were used together for sister ships; for example the SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were sister armoured cruisers in WWI and the Germans also planned the names Ersatz Sharnhorst and Gneisenau for two never-built battlecruisers. The names also reappeared together in the Scharnhorst-class battleships of the Kriegsmarine in WWII. Why did the Germans keep on pairing these two ship names together?

Note: I do know that the namesake for these two ships were Prussian generals in the Napoleonic Wars, but why were the names used together on sister ships instead of other names of generals of the same era like Blücher?


texts: What was the effect of the Panic of 1837 on financial/banking policy?

texts: Were there any direct or immediate financial/banking policies made because of this recession? I've read that a combination of factors helped get America out of the Panic, but it never mentioned a reform in those policies.


texts: How did sugar go from a luxury to a necessity in 18th century?

texts:
The only thing I came up with is slavery.

This would be due to the wage differences between slave and free man.  If plantations were manned by indentured labor, then wages would have been higher. Also, the free trade movement.

What other things made it a necessity?


texts: How did the news of the reality Nazi concentration camps reach the United State's mainstream? What were the waves of awareness and when?

texts:
I just watched a documentary (I think it was called "We Were There" or "I Was There") featuring interviews of US soldiers that were Jewish and had helped liberate Nazi concentration camps.  I was struck with how many of them mentioned they had no clue the Nazis were burning, gassing, torturing, and starving Jews.  They were in many cases approaching the gates of these facilities with the label "concentration camp" in mind and expecting a more standard military detention center or jail.

I guess I had wrongly assumed that soldiers and even the broader American public knew what was going on during the Holocaust and that it had been part of the US mainstream accepting the need to go to war. Certainly people were escaping these camps and telling their stories to international media.  How can we characterize US citizens' awareness of the full horror of the Holocaust in 1940, 41, 42, 43, and on?  When did people become broadly aware?  And how were the horrors explained by escapees or loose-lipped guards disregarded or acknowledged but only in a small segment of the population?


texts: Did alcohol consumption increase in the U.S. after 1933?

texts: Did people in the United States drink more alcohol after it became legal in 1933? Or was it the same? And how was it before it become illegal to drink in 1920?


texts: Could besieged medieval cities develop a micro-economy during wars to endure the siege for long time?

texts:
During the medieval age, one of the main reasons that pushed besieged cities to capitulate was the exhaustion of provisions (foods,water,drugs...) that maintain the every-day life of the city population.

I wonder to what extent could a city generate its own resources by harnessing the little bit of available room and creating farms, small factories and recycling, thus avoiding famine, plague and acquiring what could spare souls...

I konow that someones may argue that there is not enough space to create farms or factories but cities like Byzantium or Cairo were huge and have enough room for that.

Are there any known cities that have been through such an experience, enduring sieges, or was the only hope to smuggle provisions through the enemy lines?


texts: How long did belief in the Egyptian sun god Ra last?

texts:
According to Wikipedia, Ancient Egyptian belief in the sun god Ra started sometime before 2500 BC. In that Wikipedia article, it also states, "The rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire put an end to the worship of Ra by the citizens of Egypt." But I can't seem to find a time frame for that. Obviously, some time after 0 CE, but how long after?

I know there won't be exact dates for the beginning and end of the time frame that the Ancient Egyptians worshipped Ra and his pantheon of associated gods. But I'd like to get a reasonable number, rounded to the nearest hundred years if possible, to complete this sentence: "The ancient Egyptians worshipped Ra for ____ years."


texts:
From a British perspective in both WW1 and WW2 the USA have entered the war at a later stage and supported the allies.

The decision for the US to enter the war has often been portrayed to be based on particular acts of aggression against them. The sinking of the Lusitania and the attack on Pearl Harbour.

Was there ever any doubt which side the USA would join? Is there evidence to suggest that these triggers decide which side the USA would join as well as the level of their involvement?


texts: A city or a geographical area with corners forming only 45, 90, and 135 degree angles.

texts:
Not sure this is a proper historical question, more like geographic, but since I'm asking about both current and historical cities, here it is.

Preamble:

In the industry I work in we deal with certain geometrical shapes. Many designs have this nice feature that all shapes are rectangles and they always meet at 90-degree angles. The whole industry calls such designs "Manhattan" because much of Manhattan consists of rectangular blocks and streets/avenues there meet at 90 degree angles.

Recently a different kinds of designs become increasingly important. They consist besides rectangles of triangles and trapezoids with 45 degree angles that meet at 45, 90, or 135 degree angles. These designs naturally should be named somehow, analogously to Manhattan.

The question: are there / were there any well-known cities with corners forming only 45, 90, and 135 degree angles? The blocks may include octagons or 45-degree trapezoids, etc.

The only candidate that we have is Barcelona: the new part of that city consists of octagons and squares, and the streets in that part of the city often form the prescribed angles. Unfortunately, this applies only to a relatively small part of Barcelona...


texts: When and where did people first start wearing underpants?

texts:
Specifically, when did people start wearing short underpants in addition to trousers? Loincloths and breechcloths have been worn since at least the neolithic, and various types of skirts since ancient history - but I can't find any historical accounts these being worn specifically as underwear. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, early trousers-wearing peoples like the Scythians and Xiongnu specifically did not wear undergarments beneath them.

When did "underpants" in the modern sense first appear? And if people had lived just fine without them up until the 18th century or later, why did they start wearing underpants in the first place?

(Inspired by a similar question about socks.)


texts: During feudalism in Europe, was one's allegiance to the lord more or less important than the allegiance to the king?

texts: So, let's say your feudal overlord is rebelling against the king. Who do you owe your allegiance to, the lord, or the king? It's best to fight for the one who's going to win, obviously, but what would the lawful decision be?


texts: What does 'trade in' mean in this article on the Westway project?

texts:
A little background so you know where we are at. I'm doing a paper concerning the Westway project* specifically the period immediately before the collapse of the project in which hundreds of individuals rallied to bring down the project on grounds of environmentally (and other) detrimental effects.

There is an article in the New York Times (1982) stating:

  "At the end of 1981 the value of the trade-in was estimated at $1.2
  billion. But that money would not come from the [Federal Highway Trust
  Fund]; Congress would have to dip into general revenues. It now has a
  backlog of $5.7 billion in already approved trade-ins, yet has been
  appropriating only $800 million a year." [For westway, yet again. (1982, Mar 26). New York Times (1923-Current File).]

I have a few questions.

The Westway highway project was staunchly opposed because it was exorbitantly expensive. To add insult to injury, the plan could be "traded-in" for money from the feds to help with other non-road building expenses such as the much needed subway/mass-transit aide. What do you understand the word "trade-in" to mean? Is this quote implying that if the Westway project were to be "traded-in" for mass-transit aide it may be impossible to collect?
How do you interpret the last sentence? Is the Federal government being stingy with revenue? Or is it that the general funds are already overloaded by $5.7 billion and somehow they're only manage to dole out $800 million a year?

(*) For those who don't know, Westway was a series of proposed plans to improve the state of the Joe DiMaggio Highway (or West Side Highway).


texts: Where was the cultural inheritance of the Greco/Roman world/antiquity preserved?

texts:
In school and later in media (this is northern Europe) I was/am always told that it was the Arabs/Muslim world that preserved the science, technology, literature, art, culture etc from the Greek and Roman civilization while Western Europe declined in all these areas during the medieval period. However, the more I read about Byzantium the more this description sounds counter-intuitive. East Rome was richer than West Rome (which should/could be one explanation of the failure of West and the relative success of East) and lasted well into the Renaissance period.

Wouldn't it be more logical if Greco-Roman culture was preserved in - duh! - a Greco-Roman empire such as Byzantium rather than in a completely different culture and language area such as the Arab (or Turkish/Persian) speaking Muslim world? And wouldn't it make more sense if this inheritance was transferred back to western Europe in languages the intellectual elite there read and spoke (that is, Latin and Greek)?

Was/is the explanation that the Greco-Roman culture survived in the Arab speaking world correct/a reasonable simplification/wrong (and maybe an example of history writing based on ideological bias)?


texts: What are the "sexual causes" for the French Revolution cited in Wikipedia?

texts:
In the Wikipedia article on the causes for the causes of the French Revolution, among the causes listed in the earlier revision (I've changed it for now) was:

  Sexual: Amongst the lesser known facts is the practice of polygamy. Men used to force women despite their will. This was another major contributing factor, though not a direct one.

Aside from the ambiguity in the sentence, I haven't been able to find what it's referring to. What does this point allude to?


texts: Did the Romans see Africa as a black continent? Was there a perception of a divide between Africa and Europe?

texts:
Nowadays the Western world perceives Africa as the continent of the black people and hence a standard African person as a black individual.

How did the people in the Roman empire perceive the African continent and "its people"?

Furthermore, North Africa was under Roman control for a very long time and Carthage was a very important city. This brings another question: Did individuals within the Roman empire perceive Africa and Europe as entirely separate places, as is the case today?

If there was no divide between Africa and Europe in the social framework, then at what moment in history did people started seeing Africa as a totally separate place?


texts: Who, if anyone, was the first astronaut to return to earth in a different vessel?

texts: I assume, with the advent of the ISS, it is common for astronauts to return to earth in a different capsule to the one in which they first left the atmosphere.  (I may be wrong)  but who were the first person or people to do this?  Was there someone on Skylab or Mir who did the same?


texts: Was Roman expansion & casus belli as just as they claimed?

texts:
Every time I read about Rome conquering some other land or nation, it always says that they were the ones attacked and then won that fight. And I find it a bit too convenient and Rome's greatest extent too large to be believable, it sounds like some really good instance of "history is written by the victors". Why do we believe it then? Knowing the propaganda they spread against Carthage for example, and the political games they played in their internal power struggles and civil wars, it seems so strange that they always were given some real reason to conquer some place instead of just being like "We hear there's gold in this place, so we will invade it".

For example:

Gaul sacking Rome first, that's a good reason for retaliation and justifying conquest of all of Gaul.
Macedon tries to annex part of Epirus from the Romans, so they
initiated hostilities, giving Rome a good reason to conquer Macedon.
Capua calling the Romans in to protect them against Samnites, so the
Romans end up being the good guys again in defeating the Samnites.
The punic wars essentially being started by Syracuse and the
Mamertines calling for protection from the two superpowers Rome and
Carthage. Again it's "for a good cause".
Illyrian pirates raid merchant ships regularly in the Adriatic, and the Illyrians try to expand into Italy, giving Rome a reason to invade Illyria.

In those stories alone there is enough reason to conquer large swaths of land in Gaul, the Balkans, Northern Africa, Iberia. It just seems like Rome never did what empires usually do, which is to just want a piece of land and conquer it for the sake of expansion, but that they were always somehow attacked. What I imagine would be normal "imperial" behaviour is like what Hungary tried to do many a time against Bosnia; nag the pope that they're heretics and then try to conquer the land because you want to have it. There was no interference from Bosnia calling in the Ottomans or abducting Hungarians, raiding Hungarian lands or any act of war to justify the Hungarian invasions like that.

So my question is:

Is there proof that all of these explanations, backgrounds or chronologies we have are at very least very likely to be spun in the favor of Rome, or have we found out enough to be able to say/conclude that we've uncovered/uprooted all of those intentional "we were the victims in this"-stories? In which case it seems like the far-fetched, hyperbolic hypothetical situations we bring up sometimes when we speculate("Let's say for instance you get stopped by the police 20 times in one day..", those kinds of things when we try to make a point), happened in the shape of Rome.


texts: How dangerous was it to be a coast watcher during the Pacific War?

texts:
The movie, South Pacific featured two "coast watchers" as heroes, the American, Lt. Joseph Cable, and the Frenchman, Emil de Becque, who observed, and reported on Japanese naval movements. The Japanese treated these people as "spies," and killed them at every opportunity. In the movie, Cable died but deBecque survived.
How dangerous was it to be such a coast watcher? Could they camouflage themselves and hide in the vegetation, and mostly survive? Or did "coastwatching" require them to expose themselves, use binoculars and radios, and generally make it obvious to enemy ships and planes as to what they were doing? Did the Japanese land troops to make "sweeps" of areas that coasts watchers used?
Put another way, what were the sources of risk to coastwatchers, and what evasive actions did they take?


texts: In the first half of 20th century, how was gold inspected for authenticity?

texts:
Let's say this for the years 1900 - 1950, before we had modern analysis tools. When trade payments were made in gold, how was the gold inspected for quality? How did they assess the purity of gold, such that they knew a particular ingot weighed 3 kg but was only 0.9 pure and thus they were really getting 2.7 kg of actual gold?

I'm imagining this for trade agreements. At the port, someone exchanges gold for the goods. Surely that gold was inspected somehow.


texts: What language(s) were spoken within the Holy Roman Empire?

texts: What language(s) were considered the primary language for the Holy Roman Empire? Were there many different languages spoken due to the many different regions?


texts: How was the literacy rate of Americans impacted by the establishment of public schools?

texts:
I've heard that people in the United States were mostly literate before Government took over education and literacy rates have been on the decline since. I haven't been able to find any proof of this idea. Likely I don't know where to look.

I don't doubt the second part, with literacy rates so low today, but I still wonder, if not to educate people better than the free market was, why federalize the education of children?


texts: Did Germany produce ammunition with depleted uranium?

texts:
Albert Speer in a footnote in Inside the Third Reich states,

  "During 1940 1200 metric tons of uranium ore had been seized in Belgium."

Later in the book, Speer states,

  "In the summer of 1943 wolframite imports from Portugal were out off, which created a critical situation for the production of solid-core ammunition. I thereupon ordered the use of uranium cores for this type of ammunition."

A new type of ammunition for 3cm automatic cannons was made:

804g for complete round
350g projectile made of DU
960 m/s muzzle velocity
penetration - 100mm RHA at 300m

Source Note: this is merely a reference to AFATL-TR-84-03

Why Belgium had so much uranium ore?

Is Germany the first in creation of ammunition with depleted uranium or it is just speculation? Are there other sources that confirm this (except AFATL-TR-84-03)?


texts: Battle of Xiaoting: was Shu's invasion doomed from the start?

texts:
The Battle of Xiaoting was one of the three major battles of China's Three Kingdoms period; after the kingdom of Wu invaded Jing province a few years earlier, the state of Shu amassed an army to retake it but they were halted and defeated decisively in said battle.

The usual reasoning for the battle was that Shu's sovereign Liu Bei made tactical blunders which were taken advantage of by Wu's commander Lu Xun: landing his naval forces instead of attacking by river and land; overextending his supply lines; forgoing advantageous mountainous terrain; overextending his camps; and the most fatal of them all, relocating his camps into the nearby forest which was easily set on fire.

However, even before the outset of the invasion, Shu had a number of large setbacks which leads me to question if the invasion was doomed from the start. They are, in no particular order:

No advantage in numbers: I'm not certain of the exact army strengths, but it seems that they were about the same magnitude
Hasty invasion: Shu had only just captured Yi province
Well prepared defenders: Wu invaded Jing province with the full expectation of a large counterattack, and had prepared accordingly, such as treating the citizens with benevolence to prevent possible uprisings
Loss of key personnel: in the preceding years, Shu not only lost a large portion of its best generals and advisors, those left did not accompany the invasion. Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Huang Zhong, Fa Zheng and Pang Tong had all died; Zhao Yun, Wei Yan and Zhuge Liang all stayed back to defend from a possible Wei invasion.

In other words, although the lack of able advisors lead to Liu Bei making key mistakes, even if those mistakes were not made, it seems that Shu would have lost the invasion eventually anyway. With the odds stacked so far against them, the only question was when their invasion would be repulsed.

My question is, was the invasion doomed for Shu from the start? Or did Shu have a fair chance of succeeding in retaking Jing province?


texts: What happened to people of color on interstate railroads traveling from segregated states to non-segregated states?

texts:
I'm imagining people of color taking a train (or bus, for that matter) from the south to the north during the period when segregation was largely phased out in the north but still law in the south.  When they get on the train or bus, the law forces them to sit in a separate area, use "colored only" facilities, etc.

Then the train or bus enters a state where segregation is no longer law.  Do they get to sit where they want, use whichever restrooms they want, drink from whatever water fountain they choose, etc?

Would the same system apply to a trip from the north to the south?


texts: When did worship of Baal cease to exist?

texts:
I read in Luke a spot where people, witnessing a miracle of Jesus, attribute it to Beelzebub "the chief of the devils."

The other apparent reference to that deity, in the Bible, is in 2 Kings 1. I have been researching, but there is not a great deal of information that I could find quickly on this particular deity, from reputable sources. Some places link him to Baal Hadad, but like many pagan gods, Baal pops up in various people groups and cultures, although some of the connections may be too speculative to count (one person even connected Baal to a celtic god).

It is almost a thousand years between the mention of Baal-zebub in 2 Kings and Beelzebub in Luke. I am wondering if there is any information on when worship of Baal in general faded away? I know with the merging and appropriating of gods it can be difficult to draw distinctions, but the Baal that is referenced in the Bible, particularly...was worship of that still going on in the Roman Empire and later?

Thanks!


texts: How were years numbered on the Republican Calendar?

texts: The French Republican Calendar was created after the revolution to remove all religious references from the calendar, but how were years numbered on it? The Gregorian Calendar (which was used before the Revolution and after the Reign of Terror) numbers years starting from the birth of Christ, so it seems implausible to me that the radicals in the government would keep that dating system in use. How were years numbered on this calendar?


texts: How many men were lost on the USAT Arcata and was she loaded with troops when she was hit?

texts:
On the 14th of July 1942 the 2,722-ton US Army Troopship (USAT) Arcata was attacked and sunk by Japanese Submarine I-7 at 53-41N, 157-45W.

The records that I could find show that this ship as a freighter (cargo ship) that had a crew of only 8 men, but in the book "The Thousand Mile War" by Brian Garfield  on page 131 the ship is described as being a troopship and Mr. Garfield states that "only 12 men survived" this would imply that there were more than 12 men on board and raises the question as to whether the ship was carrying troops at the time of the attack or not.

In reading about the HIJMS I-7 I could only find that the Japanese submarine attack the ship with torpedoes and its deck gun(s) until life rafts were spotted.

There was a general news black-out in the Aleutians at this time as the US govt. thought it my be demoralizing if the public knew the Japanese had invaded the US and actually landed troops on US soil.

So the question remains: How many men went down with the USAT ARCATA and was she loaded with troops when she was hit?


texts: What is the origin of Indian weekday names?

texts:
The days of the week in several Indian languages are named after the same planets/gods as the Graeco-Roman days of the week.

Did these arise from some common source predating both (PIE?), or was the Graeco-Roman week imported into India at some later point in time?


texts: The allure of totalitarianism/ communism/ fascism

texts:
In the 1930s there was a rise of totalitarianism whether fascism or communism such as Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, and Stalin's Soviet Union

  What would've been the allure of totalitarianism for the people of 1930s?

Did they simply hate the system of "parliamentarianism", or did they think communism or fascism would give them something new, or improve the country? Overall, I am wondering what were the reasons why the idea of totalitarianism became so popular?


texts: Why did J. Edgar Hoover publicly deny the existence of the Mafia for so long?

texts:
According to Wikipedia, Hoover denied or ignored the existence of the Mafia as a criminal organization until the Apalachin Meeting in late 1957, when it became impossible to ignore.

What good did this do him? I realize the FBI had (and still has) only so many resources, but if Hoover had spoken up about the Mafia earlier, it's likely he would have gotten the additional resources he needed to combat them.


texts: Is it true that Operation Popeye had a trial run in India - code name project Gromet?

texts:
There are speculations that the artificial rains created by US over the Ho Chi Minh trail during Vietnam war to slow down the enemy movement, had a prior trial run in drought hit states of India.

Operation Popeye


texts: What was preventing the populace from progressing in medieval times?

texts:
I haven't studied the medieval period in much depth, but some basic research tells me that the general populace after the fall of Rome lost a lot of the technological and artistic advances of the Roman Empire.

What I can't find is exactly why the populace stayed in this state for as long as it did. As far as I can tell, for the majority of the medieval period the technology, economy, artistic, etc. remained where they were in terms of development.

Why? What kept the people of Europe from advancing?

I apologize if there is an obvious answer. I feel like it should be obvious, but I can't seem to find it.


texts: What did an ancient Roman certificate of land ownership look like; or, what did it consist of?

texts:
Suppose you're a landowner in Germania, just west of the Rhine. It is the 2nd Century A.D. You own a number of farms, a couple of good houses, maybe some slaves, some of whom are on the verge of buying themselves out. You've just paid your taxes.

The publican whose duty it is to collect taxes in your area sends his agents to you demanding you pay again. Something has gone wrong somewhere, the publican's office is short of the expected budget. It's a shakedown, pure and simple.

You tell the agents they're mistaken. They tell you they don't care, and you'd better pay up right now. A dozen cutthroats show up armed to the teeth to back up the agents' claim. You've got no choice. You pay.

The following week, the agents show up again, accompanied by two dozen cutthroats this time, and simply tell you that you have to vacate the premises now: your land, with everything on it, belongs to the publican, effective immediately. You tell them the land has been in your family for three generations. They call you a liar.

You ask them to give you an hour. They agree. You take a bath, put on your best toga, and rush to the magistrate. You explain the situation to him. The magistrate says:

"Can you prove it?"
"Prove what?"
"Prove that a) they made you pay twice and b) that they're illegally expropriating your estate."

What kind of proof would you have to present? Documents? A plaque? Would you have to produce witnesses who could confirm that the land is rightfully yours? Would there be a record in the Quaestor's office over in Rome? Would you, as the owner, have a copy of that record? Signed by whom? If signatures were important, who'd be called upon to verify them, what kind of specialist?


texts: Are the historical sources from the ancient history trustable?

texts: Are the historical books of Herodot or Polybius or any other historian from ancient history usually correct? Did they add some 'drama' in their books or did they desire to gain favor of those of high ranks, by praising them, by spreading their fame in some of their texts? Did we ever have proven historical inaccuracies in one of their books? For example, Polybius has written that Scipio Aemilianus cried at the destruction of Carthage. How can this be true? How did he know that as no one saw him?


texts: What's the meaning of a knight fighting a snail in medieval book illustrations?

texts:
Someone sent me this really weird picture of a medieval illustration.

It depicted a knight fighting a snail, and was basically a viral snarky commentary about how weird medieval ideas were.

I tried to figure out what it was about, and seemed to be able to find the original source (by Google image search) to be from.

  Knight v Snail III: Extreme Jousting (from Brunetto Latini's Li Livres dou Tresor, France (Picardy), c. 1315-1325, Yates Thompson MS 19, f. 65r)

The page listing it actually had LOTS of images of knights fighting snails, but offered no meaningful explanation of what the point of such imagery was.

So, what was the point? Was the snail a representation of armor? Some weird French food hunting thing? :)


texts: Has there ever been a practise of duelling with bows?

texts:
I'm aware of a history of duelling in European cultures over a number of centuries. Usually the result of one or other party being insulted and it seems to only 'count' as a duel if there's a good chance of someone dying.

It seems to have been common-place to duel with swords, and later with pistols. Was there ever a recorded instance of people duelling with bows? If not, why not?


texts: What repercussions did Agrippina's murder have for Pompeii?

texts:
This review of a book about Pompeii has an intriguing remark (emphasis mine):

  There is an emphasis within this book on weaving both Imperial and
  provincial figures, events and episodes into the narrative. We learn
  of Poppaea's family connections in Pompeii, the repercussions of
  Agrippina's murder and Nero's actions in the last years of his rule.
  There is mention of Nero's visit to Pompeii following the devastating
  earthquake or as the authors put it, 'to the Campanian backwater
  (which) was probably in large part a favour to (Poppaea)' (209). This
  was fascinating, but required patient reading on less relevant and
  digressive topics before small nuggets of interesting facts could be
  found.

Does anyone know what is the reviewer alluding to?


texts: Why did Lincoln wait to issue the Emancipation Proclamation?

texts:
(Apologies in advance:  not being American, while I've read up somewhat about the military aspects of the Civil War, I am somewhat unclear as to its political dimension.)

Lincoln did not declare the slaves free until 1863, despite his personal beliefs.

Did he wait because he was not sure of the political support in the North for accepting Abolition as a war aim, along with stopping Secession?  Or did he wait to preserve the possibility of negotiations with the Confederacy?  If it was the second reason, is there any indication of what he was willing to compromise on?  If the first, what changed?

Yes, I've seen What is the context of Lincoln saying: "if I could save the union without freeing any slave I would do it" but it doesn't tell me why he waited and what got him to commit to abolition.


texts:
Tengri is the intelligence and power behind all of nature. Everything
  is ultimately controlled by him, from the weather to the fate of
  individuals and nations, which is why Genghis Khan says in the Altan
  Tobchi: 'I have not become Lord thanks to my own bravery and strength,
  I have become Lord thanks to the love of our mighty father Tengri. I
  have defeated my enemies thanks to the assistance of our father
  Tengri. I have not become Khan thanks to my own all-embracing prowess.
  I have become Lord thanks to the love of our father Khan Tengri. I
  have defeated alien enemies thanks to the mercy of our father Khan
  Tengri.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengrism


texts: Were any of the major battle plans in WWII changed last minute by officers on the ground?

texts:
I haven't found any consistent reference to a particular battle wherein the battle plans were changed by a lower level officer on the ground at the last minute. Specifically, a major battle plan, not a 24 hour ancillary skirmish. Part of my hypothesis for the lack of good examples of this, as I'm sure it did happen, is that the managing generals, chief staff and white house took credit for adaptable and effective last minute planning and the lieutenants were silent.

Is this the case? Were in fact any major plans changed on the ground at the brink of battle by those closest to it?


texts: How did criminal law work in the Roman Empire?

texts:
I have old memory from when I was in little school: During the Roman empire, criminal law was very "flexible". You could kill nearly anyone in the Empire, as long as you were able to pay a fee to the community afterwards. As I remember, the higher the social position of the target, the higher the fee was.

Well, my memory might be wrong and indeed is very vague. It might be right with regard to the law but actually concerns another society and/or other times. Would someone knowledgeable give me some hint or contradict my point please?


texts:
Pontus de la Gardie was a French nobleman who ended up fighting in Swedish service against the Russians, being given the Livonian governorate as a reward, who died in 1585 (the most common though looking into publications I've seen 1580 and 1583 also listed) by drowning. What's not clear is how this drowning took place.
An unsourced story I heard was that his boat was hit by a salute given in honour of a recent Swedish victory, after which he fell into the waters and drowned due to his armour. This is supported by the Russian Wikipedia, which notes this as one of many options for his death (I had to Google Translate this but the quality was very poor so I didn't want to copy it here). Also, I don't understand why the Russians cover this in more detail than the Swedes given Pontus was a Swedish landlord, governor, and favourite of the King.
Another source, Solovev's 'History of Russia' describes de la Gardie as having drowned while crossing the Narva River during some negotiations.
Is there any certainty as to how Pontus de la Gardie drowned? Which primary sources describe this event?
There are two answers at present with three different narratives, but none of these reference primary sources which would have covered this event.


texts: What was the impact of utilitarianism upon the development of psychiatric care in 18th-19th century England?

texts: I'm interested in the impact of utilitarianism upon English psychiatric care by way of the philosophy's influence on social reformers. More tenuously, I want to know whether and in what ways utilitarianism shaped theoretical writings on the nosology/aetiology of madness within the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th amongst physicians.


texts: How did public debt financing through annuities work in the States General of the Netherlands?

texts:
We're going through some readings regarding how the formation of modern states was structured through the many wars throughout Europe across the centuries, and one of the points that concerns me - which is found in chapter 3 of Charles Tilly's Coercion, Capital and European States - is the innovation of public debt financing that occurred in the Habsburg's Netherlands.

The book mentions that

  "(...) critical innovations had occurred between 1515 and 1565, when the States General of the Habsburg Netherlands (...) took steps toward issuing state-backed annuities secured by specific new taxes and bearing attractive interest (...) As a result, 'in an emergency, the Dutch Republic could raise a loan of 1 million florins at only 3 percent in two days'"

I can grasp that this was a strategy formulated by the government so as not to raise taxes too much and too abruptly, thus causing discontent among the population. What I do not understand, however - and haven't found a good explanation for - is how, exactly, did these annuities work. In other words, the internal mechanics of the thing, and possibly a more detailed account on how the whole matter was settled by the government and/or how people reacted to it. To sum it up, any explanation that could make me understand well of the matter would make me happy, if anyone could provide it.


texts: During the cold war, were there any serious air clashes, resulting in mass scrambling of aircraft on both sides,  between the Chinese and Taiwanese Airforces over the Taiwan Straits and the Southern and Eastern China Seas?


texts:
It seems historically in almost all societies and cultures, premarital sex for women of high standing has been frowned upon. Only in Western societies after the 1960s did it become acceptable and the norm.

Is this statement historically accurate and if so what was the reason for it?

Was it that people married earlier those days or that contraceptives were not available or effective so there was the fear of children being born out of wedlock? Any other reasons why it was looked upon with such evil?

EDIT : It has been stated that this question is too broad, so let me make it more specific in that I am asking only about Western/European society. Why did the taboo exist all the way to the 1960s and then disappear almost completely at that point?


texts:
I have read the article Did Herod the "Great" Really Die In 4 B.C.? which argues that Herod the Great might have died in 4 BC instead of 1 BC.

What is the evidence of this claim? Is this new date widely accepted among modern historians?


texts: Did US soldiers typically keep an official journal or log during the Civil War era?

texts: During the Civil War, or time in US history thereabouts the end of the 19th Century, into the Indian Wars west of the Mississippi, would it be common practice for a member of a group of soldiers to officially keep a detailed log book or journal, basically documentation describing the group's actions? If so, what was the official name for these logs? What type of soldier had this responsibility? And would there be a certain number per a particular unit, e.g. squad, division battalion, brigade, etc.?


texts: When was the change from kalends, ides and nones to numbers

texts:
The Romans named the days of the month by counting down to kalends, ides and nones. We use numbers counting up from one for the first day of the month. When did this change take place?

I assume that it was gradual, with people using the modern system when it was the more convenient, but I can find no information about who did it, nor when it happened, except a vague reference to the Roman system being in use until the Renaissance.


texts: Can you identify this British Army uniform, worn in India circa 1920?

texts:
This is my grandfather, John P Lockton, and he was based at Raniket in North India.
My grandmother died in 1925 while giving birth to my twin uncles; both survived!  My mother was only 5 years old at the time and she and her siblings were placed in a Catholic boarding school.

I am planning to try and find my grandmother's gravestone, which I have a photo of, but first I need to identify my grandfather's regiment to try and find the military grave where she may be buried.

Can you help me identify my grandfather's uniform pictured below?


texts:
I'm looking for information about the number of children a woman has over their life time. I get an average to be 5-7 or 10-12 with 1-2 or ~50% dying pre-puberty.

What I'm looking for now is how those children are spaced between 14 and 55 usually, or rather have been across history, rather than modern times because I know its a bit off in modern times.

Is it more likely that a woman would just go and have 7 children in a row between 14 and 20, or space it out at 1 every other year, or 1 every 4 years? I know that in modern times there seems to be a common trend of a child every 2.5 to every 5 years in smaller families, while in bigger they seem to try to get as many kids as possible early... and often couples do kids at the beginning of a marriage. And I know that there are rarities of 10 and 20 year gaps and some women holding off till their forties.

Has this always been the norm or are these trends the norm throughout history?


texts: Was the average lifespan of a soldier deployed within Stalingrad only 24 hours?

texts:
The military history YouTube channel The Armchair Historian opens their episode on the Battle of Stalingrad with the line "The average lifespan of a soldier in Stalingrad was just 24 hours."
The YouTube channel is a generally reputable source but this fact made me skeptical. When looking for confirmation of this fact the Britannica article on Stalingrad lists that the lifespan for a Soviet solider is 24 hours, whereas the video seems to depict a German solider as the host recites his opening line.
The thought that life could be so disposable during the Battle of Stalingrad is already difficult for me to come to terms with, and the slightly differing reports of which combatants had the shorter lifespan creates additional ambiguity. Other aspects such as "does this quote encompass the immediate area outside of Stalingrad" or "was this fact true for only specific operations during the battle" are unclear. An answer may reflect either a specific operation or the battle as a whole.
Did Soviet soldiers deployed to Stalingrad have an average lifespan of 24 hours? Did German soldiers have the same life expectancy too?