texts: How did Lincoln know to stick with Grant before the completion of the Vicksburg campaign?

texts:
I'm reading Shelby Foote's book on the Civil War and something struck me:  Lincoln was sticking by Grant, whom he'd never met, well before his big victories at Vicksburg and Chattanooga.   How did Lincoln know to do that?  What made him so confident in Grant?

It sounds like Grant was pretty well under siege, politically, late 1862/early 1863.  With slow progress down the Mississippi and persistent rumors about his drinking, even Chase got a letter about Grant. Lincoln even agreed to the McClernand expedition. And, apparently, McClernand was Lincoln's buddy.

Is there any insight into what gave Lincoln such resolve about Grant at that point?  Was it just Donaldson and Shiloh?


texts: What prompted Yamaguchi to split his airgroup when attacking the Americans at Midway?

texts:
This is a followup to a previous question here
Why did the Hiryu perform two small attacks rather than a single larger one at the battle of Midway?
As noted in Shattered Sword (Ch 14), Nagumo ordered Yamaguchi to "Attack the enemy carriers." However Yamaguchi did not have all his assets available. Parshall and Tulley state, "There was no time to wait to rearm Tomonaga's remaining Type 97s" without actually stating why. As IJN doctrine has always promoted massed attack strategies and Nagumo originally made a conscious decision for a massed attack, it begs the question as to why the change now? Turns out only about an hour was needed to get his entire air-group online but Yamaguchi decided to go with a much smaller contingent initially, lowering both his chances of success and ability of pilots to return.
Clearly the Americans had thrown everything they had and would be unable to make another attack for many hours (it would be close to 7 hours) so why not wait an extra hour or even two to have a complete contingent? It would have also made more sense in that the US would be spotting and rearming when the Japanese arrived much in the same way the Japanese were caught. Considering what the Americans had been able to do, certainly what were arguably the best naval aviators on the planet might have been able to return the favor. Sending them out piecemeal like he did greatly degraded their offensive as well as defensive capability. Were Nagumo/Yamaguchi simply too shell-shocked and angry to think straight or were other factors involved that lead to that uniquely self-defeating decision?


texts: Is this quotation authentic (88mm versus Sherman)?

texts:
Have seen in several places a supposed quotation from a German WW2 battery commander or gunner, either in Italy or Normandy, to the effect that he ran out of shells before the enemy ran out of tanks (e.g. here).

  I saw an interview on television with an 88mm gun commander deployed
  in an anti-tank role [...] He spoke about a column of tanks coming
  down his road, and knocking them out one after another at a kilometer
  distance. He said, "We ran out of shells before they ran out of
  tanks."

Am wondering if this is authentic, and what is the source?


texts: What are some early examples of local businesses advertising?

texts: Today we see advertisements at sporting events, roadsides, menus, and pretty much everywhere else. What are some early (you define early, but I was specifically thinking of the hey-day of the Colosseum) examples of advertising for local businesses?


texts: Why wasn't the 1953 Iranian coup d’état considered to be a violation of United Nations Charter?

texts:
The United Nations Charter explicitly states within Article 2 that the organization is based on the "sovereign equality" of all its members. Among its foundational principles, it further states in that:

"All Members should settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered."
"All members should refrain in their international relations from the threat or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state..."
"Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter..."

It seems to me that the 1953 Iranian coup d’état was not a peaceful resolution of a dispute and used quite a bit of force -- the Iranian Prime Minister was sent to military jail, and many of his former associates and supporters were tried, imprisoned, tortured, or even executed. Since he was elected democratically, his reign was within the "domestic jurisdiction" of Iran. Furthermore, Iran was admitted into the UN in 1945, so Iran itself was presumably as equally sovereign as the US and the UK under the Charter.

The UN is an organization that is founded upon peaceful international relations and state sovereignty -- it says this in its very principles. It seems to me that the UN only really gets its power if other states recognize the authority of its branches (e.g. the International Court of Justice, and even the General Assembly, which is comprised of 193 states). If the US could go and overthrow a democratically-elected leader and get off scot-free, it seems to me that there is less incentive to trust the UN with international authority.

Is there a reason why this was not a violation of the foundational principles of the UN?


texts: Is this inscription in the Jefferson memorial consistent with Jefferson's views?

texts:
An inscription inside the Jefferon memorial says: ---
God who gave us life gave us Liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is depotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free establish the law for educating the common people. This is the business of the state to effect and on a general plan. ----
Would Jefferson have said that? He was a slave owner himself.


texts:
Dogs have an age-old relationship with humans, and nowadays almost all dogs have a name given to them.  In Homer's Odyssey (8th century BCE), upon Odysseus' return, his beloved dog Argos is the only one to recognize him.

Aptly named

  "man's best friend" is a common phrase about domestic dogs, referring
  to their millennia-long history of close relations, loyalty, and
  companionship with humans. The first recorded use of a related phrase
  is by Frederick the Great of Prussia. Wikipedia

But which named dog is the oldest we know of in recorded history?

I have searched a lot of Wikipedia pages and internet articles, but I cannot seem to find any information.


texts: Can you identify this European uniform or awards?

texts: This is my great great grandfather.  I am having trouble identifying the uniform. It should be from around 1860-1890 ish. It would be from a German speaking country. The story that was passed down was that he was part of a royal guard before he set sail for the US. Any help would be appreciated!


texts: Dunkirk Little ship requisition documents

texts: I would like to know what authorisation, if any, the ministry of shipping or the navy carried with them when commandeering the “Little Ships”. When the official presented themselves to the owner of a vessel, assuming they could find the owner, what documentation did they carry, if any?


texts: What uniform does PewDiePie wear in this picture?

texts:
There has been a recent controversy with the YouTuber PewDiePie accusing him of being a racist/Nazi. This is a video where he is wearing a brown uniform while watching a Hitler video is considered proof of this. Some places describe the uniform as Nazi, while others call it a "brown military uniform".

Can anyone identify what uniform it is?


texts:
A section of the Wikipedia article discussing the culture of the Iroquois states the following:

  ...Since it was believed that the death of a family member also
  weakened the spiritual strength of the surviving family members, it
  was considered crucially important to replace the lost family member
  by providing a substitute who could be adopted or alternatively could
  be tortured to provide an outlet for the grief.[163] Hence the
  "mourning wars".

  One of the central features of traditional Iroquois life was the
  "mourning wars" when Haudenosaunee warriors would raid neighboring
  peoples in search of captives to replace those Haudenosaunee who had
  died.[164]

The wiki article cites the following journal article:

  War and Culture: The Iroquois Experience Daniel K. Richter The William
  and Mary Quarterly Vol. 40, No. 4 (Oct., 1983), pp. 528-559

Are there other examples of cultures who practiced ritual kidnapping as a replacement for specific individuals?  If so, did they also torture the kidnapping victims?

Several citations available in this Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois.


texts: Why don't people without access to clean water drink beer anymore?

texts: In the medieval ages, peasants used to drink beer instead of water because the plain water wasn't safe to drink. Why do people in countries where the water sources are polluted not do this today? Why did this practice emerge in some countries but not others?


texts:
Why wasn't Monaco unified with the Kingdom/Republic of France during the unification? I understand France used to be a very decentralized kingdom with many areas ruled by vassal or smaller rulers, and as the King got more powerful, more area gets added to the royal domain. Didn't Monaco get absorbed by this process? Did it have a special history, special identity or become important enough to not get annexed?

Inspired by the question Why wasn't San Marino unified with Italy?.


texts: What is the true reason for the destruction of the Indus Civilisation?

texts: I would like to know the views that the historians of this age give about the destruction of the Indus Civilisation. Some views were like foreign invasions, natural disasters and epidemics. But I would like to know the latest views.


texts: How did the baking soda recipe for crack cocaine catch on?

texts:
I have read that

prior to the 1980's, those who wanted to partake of the smokable form of cocaine sometimes did so with a relatively involved and dangerous procedure involving a blow torch
as an example, Richard Pryor may have suffered accidental burns "freebasing" cocaine in this way, in 1980
smokable cocaine can be produce more safely by heating powder cocaine mixed with water and baking soda, and then letting the slurry crystalize by evaporating off the water

My questions are:

When and how did the baking soda method become popular?  I think it would have started in the early 80's in Los Angeles but I wonder if this can be pinpointed better.
Once this conversion method caught on, then did the dealers do the conversion themselves, or did they contract it out?  If they contracted it out, then to whom?  Am I right in thinking that cocaine continued to be imported in powder form from Latin America, and then went through its conversion on U.S. soil?


texts: What are Kottabos players holding in their left hand?

texts:
What are these Kottabos players holding in their left hand?

It is seen in a lot of similar pictures. It is as if the player refills the kylix from it. Is it a skyphos? Any info on this?


texts:
I have been doing research on Reconstruction Era micro-conflicts, out of curiosity, and came across this brief paragraph in a Wikipedia article about the Kirk-Holden War:

  The Klan retaliated and thirty of its members members marched on the
  small town of Pittsboro intent on taking it over. Kirk's forces
  gathered and the Klan pulled back, with Kirk in pursuit.

  In the forest of Chatham county a bloody battle ensued, though little
  is known about the events. After several similar skirmishes the war
  was over.

I did several google searches about this "battle" in the "forest of Chatham county", yet I find nothing at all about it. All other google sources just describe this conflict as a big intimidation campaign, with no direct confrontations.

Did this "battle" actually happen? If so, does anyone know more details about it? To me, it is interesting as it is the only case that I know of where the Klan actually engaged local, state, and/or federal military forces in direct battle, which was quite unlike its traditional tactics.

The other major anti Reconstruction groups that I know of, the Red Shirts and the White League, did engage in direct skirmishes with military forces (but usually melted away in the face of overwhelming force).

I am not suggesting that I support any of these organizations by mentioning them. I am just asking this question out of curiosity only.


texts: Why did cavalry keep becoming a thing if spears were always around?

texts: There seems to be a pattern in history, starting with bronze age chariots, and ending with the medieval heavy cavalry, where warfare starts to center around highly specialized horse-based soldiers. Then all of a sudden, everybody starts carrying spears, horses can't get close enough to do any serious damage, and its back to infantry warfare. My question is: why did any society ever stop fielding phalanx/spearmen/bayonets long enough for cavalry to become a thing?


texts: Where is the location shown in this picture on a modern day map?

texts:
This image from this site is named Traffic Jam at the New York Entrance of the Holland Tunnel. New York City, 1920s

As I understand, this is at Manhattan end of Holland Tunnel. I've tried, without success, to find this place with Google Street Map. Could you give coordinates of the place on the photo? And another question: What is the building in the center of square and what was this building built for?


texts: Why did the Swedish colonies in America and Africa fail?

texts: The Swedish empire controlled the Gold Coast in 1650-63 and New Sweden in present-day USA in 1638-55. Why did Sweden fail to hold these possession in the apex of its great power era?


texts: When Lenin met Mussolini, what was Mussolini's impression of Lenin?

texts:
According to Wikipedia, BM met VL in Switzerland in the 1900s. Lenin is said to have lamented the loss of 'such a capable person' to the cause later on in the 20s:

  "What a waste that we lost Mussolini. He is a first-rate man who would have led our party to power in Italy."

Vladimir Lenin, addressed to a delegation of Italian socialists in Moscow after Mussolini's March on Rome in 1922, quoted in Third World Ideology and Western Reality (1986) by Carlos Rangel, p15

However, I couldn't see anything from Lenin at the time he supposedly met Mussolini.

What did Mussolini make of Lenin? Did he meet other future Bolshevik top dogs?


texts: Was the Maltese Falcon a real historical artifact?

texts:
Am wondering if any of this is true (Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, p. 150).

"The
archives of the Order from the twelfth century on are still at Malta.
They are not intact, but what is there holds no less than three"—he
held up three fingers—"referenees that can't be to anything else but
this jeweled falcon. In J. Delaville Le Roulx's Les Archives de
l'Ordre de Saint-Jean there is a reference to it—oblique to be sure,
but a reference still. And the unpublished—because unfinished at the
time of his death—supplement to Paoli's Dell' origine ed instituto del
sacro militar ordine has a clear and unmistakable statement of the
facts I am telling you."
"All right," Spade said.
"All right, sir.
Grand Master Villiers de l'Isle d'Adam had this foothigh jeweled bird
made by Turkish slaves in the castle of St. Angelo and sent it to
Charles, who was in Spain. He sent it in a galley commanded by a
French knight named Cormier or Corvere, a member of the Order." His
voice dropped to a whisper again. "It never reached Spain." He smiled
with compressed lips and asked: "You know of Barbarossa, Redbeard,
Khair-ed-Din? No? A famous admiral of buccaneers sailing out of
Algiers then. Well, sir, he took the Knights' galley and he took the
bird. The bird went to Algiers. That's a fact. That's a fact that the
French historian Pierre Dan put in one of his letters from Algiers.

Googling just turns up page after page about movie props.
Clarification: this question asks specifically the details about the falcon, starting with bare existance.
Addition: a book by Pierre Dan, unknown whether it contains the relevant letter.
More:

It is not clear exactly how Hammett got his material. He is not known
to have read French, medieval or otherwise, or Italian. His references
must have been gleaned from a secondary source. I have been unable to
locate a simple narrative of the rental agreement between the
Hospitallers of St. John and Charles V of Spain that Hammett would
have had available to him with all of the detail Gutman provides. I
think there must be one; but what is clear, nonetheless, is that
Hammett was reading widely, carefully and thoughtfully.


texts: Why was the KPD mandate abandoned in 1933 Germany?

texts:
On the 5th of March 1933 the NSDAP received 44% of the votes. Together with the 8% of the DNVP under Papen they obtained the majority.  Yet before the first constitutive meeting the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) was abandoned which gave the NSDAP >50%.

How could they just dismiss the mandates of the KPD? What was the enabling law behind this? The official enabling law was passed 23rd of march so later which could therefore not be the foundation of that self-empowering act which on the 23rd would most likely not have passed if the KPD would still be in the senate.

Sources: German Wikipedia
at the very bottom under "Folgen".


texts: What were the factors behind the lowest AAA corporate interest rate in U.S bond history during 1946?

texts:
https://www.quandl.com/data/MOODY/AAAYLD-Aaa-Corporate-Bond-Yield

The lowest AAA corporate bond yield in U.S history happened in 1946 based on the quandl chart above. Amazingly, it was even lower than today's yield given the world of negative yield in government bonds that we are facing today.

What were the historical economic and financial conditions during that time that led to the very low interest rate for AAA corporate bonds?


texts: Could women make contracts in ancient Rome?

texts: I'm writing a story and the main character is a wealthy widow who runs the estate for her rather lazy son. Could women in ancient Rome (specifically the 3rd Century Empire) legally make contracts, or could only men?


texts: When did the Ecclesiastical courts in England lose the authority to mete out punishments such as imprisonment and execution?

texts:
In 1401, the ecclesiastical courts in England were given the power to burn heretics. In modern times the ecclesiastical courts have no control over anyone who does not belong to the Church of England, and can't give out 'serious' punishments like imprisonment.

When were they stripped of powers like this?


texts: What should I call bands of armed men in the Middle Ages?

texts:
I am writing a fiction short story roughly based off medieval times in Europe. In it I have a group of men who live in a castle and fight for the castle's lord. (They mainly protect the surrounding villages from a group of bandits.)
If they existed in modern day times I'd refer to them as soldiers. They are much like traditional knights, only they're a whole group, they've never been knighted and aren't members of nobility.
What might they be called? I'm looking for a term, from sometime in the medieval time period (I don't care when), that the surrounding villagers would call them by.
Are the terms vavasseur or sergeant appropriate? Is there another better term?


texts: Have revolutions been won without the military establishment?

texts:
Various historical and political theorists (for instance, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita) have asserted that the support, or, at most, the abstention of a country's military is necessary for a successful revolution. According to their reasoning, the leaders of the military control the military, and thus have enough firepower to defeat any popular uprising.

Have there been any cases in which a coup or revolution1 was successfully carried out, despite the leaders of the military being  essentially in favor of the current rulers? For instance:

Ideally, non-military citizens fight the military-backed government, and actually overthrow it through force.
Citizens, including citizens in the army, fight the government. In other words, a popular uprising where the people in the army (not the elites who control it) also are involved. This would effectively also include a case where a civilian uprising fought the military until the rank and file refused to kill any more of them.
Civilians form an insurgency which grows its own military over time and eventually defeats the military-backed government.

1: I'm not asking about a country being overthrown by a foreign invasion, even if preceded by an attempt at a revolution, because that's not a revolution, and a military was involved in any case (although a civilian revolution that receives foreign money or weapons might count).  I'm also not really asking about who won or who the military was with "in the end": if civilians overthrew a government, and then the military officers went over to their side, or if they overthrew a government but then the military overthrew the new government, that's still a successful coup. I'm definitely not asking about peaceful "revolutions" where a leader with heavy military support was voted out.


texts: Are there non-Biblical references to collecting foreskins?

texts:
The Old Testament is awfully big on foreskins (e.g. Genesis 34 and 1 Samuel 18:27). In particular, the Israelites are fond of collecting the foreskins of their enemies, usually after they have been slain, but occasionally beforehand.

It's such a bizarre-seeming detail that it got me wondering. Are there any non-Biblical historical references to this practice? Does it have any overlap with the historical origins of circumcision (it would seem it must, but I can't quite imagine what the backstory would be)?

Any insights would be much appreciated.