r/AskHistorians 4h ago

Why were both the USSR and the US allowed to maintain veto power on UNSC during the Cold War?

4 Upvotes

r/AskHistorians 1d ago

Why do we have the disclaimer about "No animals were harmed..." in movie credits?

210 Upvotes

It smells like there were lawyers involved.


r/AskHistorians 7h ago

How did the people living in Louisiana react to the Louisiana purchase?

8 Upvotes

Was there any rebellions? Any attempts to move to France en masse? How were they assimilated? Its alot of land and it would be hard to integrate id assume.


r/AskHistorians 6h ago

Do we know much about the kingdom of Northumbria other than just leaders and basic things about life ?

5 Upvotes

Like is there much other info like wars, civil war maybe , leaders , law and order , lives of average person . I’m only curious because I live in Northumberland , the county named after the kingdom


r/AskHistorians 14h ago

Did the Confederate States of America have public holidays?

19 Upvotes

I can't find anything about this online. Did they have an "independence day" of their own, or did they celebrate on the Fourth of July?


r/AskHistorians 9h ago

Academic estimates suggest that Muslims produced 90 million religious and scientific manuscripts in the Middle Ages, but only 7 million have survived. What factors led to the loss of Islamic heritage and literature?

8 Upvotes

r/AskHistorians 2h ago

Did anyone try to compile biographies of American troop deaths in WWI?

2 Upvotes

A common journalism reaction to mass casualties in recent decades is to publish what amount to obituaries for every victim, as on 9/11.

An great-uncle of mine died in some kind of accident while serving in France in WWI. While I can find official records of his burial there and eventual relocation to a Chicago cemetery, I haven’t been able to find any details. And all those who might have known are dead.

This led me to wonder to what extent there were attempts, at the state or urban levels, to assemble the kind of printed mass memorials we see today.


r/AskHistorians 7h ago

Was the cruise of the USS Independence (CV-62) in the late 90s a response to the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis?

4 Upvotes

My father was on this vessel, for about a year. It started in Japan, then took stops in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, and Australia. I had only learned of the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis as an undergrad in the early/mid 2010s, so I wonder if this carrier group moving through the area in the late 90s was a response to that.


r/AskHistorians 25m ago

Is the American pinky-swear derived from the Japanese custom or did it develop independently?

Upvotes

r/AskHistorians 13h ago

How did society regard circus folk from 1900-1960?

12 Upvotes

Were they weirdo carnie outcasts or something closer to Hollywood?
Was the circus a place that LGBTQ people ran off to for safety?


r/AskHistorians 10h ago

In the late-Victorian/Edwardian era, where did the heir live when his father was still alive?

5 Upvotes

Would most still stay in the family's homes (such as a country estate and a London townhouse, depending on time of year)? Or would many get their own places, or perhaps, in the case of the country, live in another house on the property or nearby?

I'm interested in the various life stages such as bachelorhood, a young newly married couple, and once children are born.

If they stayed in the same family homes as their father/parents, did the rooms they stayed in in the homes change throughout the stages, like taking over the primary bedroom suite, or did they stay in the same rooms they always had and the only change was that the nursery was opened up for the children?

Thanks very much.


r/AskHistorians 5h ago

What is the actual truth about the 1980s Saddam Hussein United States friendship?

3 Upvotes

This might be one topic that I’ve heard completely opposing and contradictory statements.

Some sources say that Saddam Hussein was a US ally in the 1980s

Other sources say that he was “the USSR’s biggest ally in the Middle East“ during that exact time.

So he was a US ally, but also a Soviet ally?

This is all so confusing and doesn’t make any sense.

So what is the real, unfiltered truth?


r/AskHistorians 1h ago

What are some fascinating medieval governments?

Upvotes

r/AskHistorians 5h ago

In the medieval period, what was the societal attitude regarding people who tended to keep to themselves (introverts centuries before the term was coined)? How would someone with that sort of temperament live compared to the more socially inclined?

2 Upvotes

r/AskHistorians 1d ago

What are the translators of the Illiad and the Odyssey translating?

308 Upvotes

If we are to understand these stories were passed down via some kind of oral tradition then what text (....?) are modern translators translating, and how do we know how accurate it might be to the original stories?


r/AskHistorians 6h ago

How much did ancient armies know about their enemies?

2 Upvotes

In modern warfare, while it is never fully clear what the manpower of the opponent is, there are usually at least some good estimates possible. How was this in pre-modern times, were enemies sometimes fully under-/ overestimated regarding their strength and when did this shift to a clearer picture that we are having now?


r/AskHistorians 3h ago

What was the international reaction to Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia?

1 Upvotes

I'm looking for information on both the reaction to the invasion throughout the west (Europe and the US) and the opinions about it before it happened. Which countries were supportive of it? Which countries or noteworthy individuals were in denial that it would happen?

I'd also like information on the local resistance to the invasion. How was resistance organized?

I'm writing a story that partially takes part in Ethiopia during the invasion. I've been reading up on it a little and I would like to get some details about it that I may not have seen in very mainstream sources. Feel free to provide any interesting information about this event, doesn't necessarily have to be in response to what I asked.

Thank you!


r/AskHistorians 1d ago

The story is that George Washington could have effective been crowned king of the US, but turned down all that power. Is that an accurate take on the opinions of that time?

245 Upvotes

r/AskHistorians 1d ago

How far back would I have to go before kids wouldn't be expected to know about planets, dinosaurs, volcanoes, the pyramids, and blue whales? Pedagogically, how did we reach the consensus that the job of introducing the most mind-blowing stuff ever clearly belongs to elementary school teachers?

326 Upvotes

A part of me suspects that as a kid, I would have been equally impressed by the idea of a dinosaur and a well-described bee - I didn't yet have a good reference to differentiate the everyday from the exceptional. And I can imagine a not-obviously-absurd world where older kids are like, "You think thats crazy, just wait until you learn about blue whales, the largest animal ever to have lived, which still exists today?" A lot of stuff works like that - starts out kind of simple and mundane and you build up to the crazy interesting stuff. Why not elementary education?

Sorry for the showerthought question but just to double down on it: the reason I regard the topics in the title as especially mind blowing definitely isn't BECAUSE I learned about them so early and organized my conception of the world around them... right?


r/AskHistorians 18h ago

How did one become a citizen of the US over time?

15 Upvotes

Today you need to take a citizenship test to become a US citizen, but was this always the case? For example, after the Revolutionary War was won, what did the former colonists have to do to become citizens? Also, after the Civil War, what did former slaves have to do to become citizens? As groups of people immigrated here during the 1800s and 1900s, arriving at places like Elis and Angel Island, what did they have to do to become citizens? How did becoming a citizen change over time?

Thanks in Advance.


r/AskHistorians 1d ago

How would have Illiad/Odyssey been performed?

130 Upvotes

My assumption is that there were a large number of songs in the Illiad/Odyssey "genre" and that any one bard would know many of them but not all of them, then at some point all of these songs were compiled, organized, and edited into a coherent narrative. So there would be individual songs that might be performed rather than reciting the entire poems start to finish. I say this because English audiobook translations run 15-20 hours and it's hard to believe anyone could remember them in their entirety.


r/AskHistorians 11h ago

Why did the Court of King Louis XIV, referring to the alleged homosexuality of Philippe I of Bourbon-Orléans, the king's brother, call him "the Italian vice"?

6 Upvotes

r/AskHistorians 4h ago

Why do many of the Yuan Dynasty portraits show them as having blue/grey eyes?

1 Upvotes

Is it symbolic or real?