AskHistorians

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"In Ancient Rome, the punishment for killing a parent involved the perpetrator being sewn into a sack with a monkey, a snake, a dog and a chicken and thrown into the Tiber to drown." Why the animals? Why not just drown the murderer?	42
On Wikipedia, it's claimed that during the Age of Sail, it was assumed for documentation purposes that 50% of a British ship's men would succumb to scurvy. First off, is this realistic, or a dramatic worst case scenario? Second, if this is true, how the heck did someone reach the rank of admiral?	36
Following WW2, the United States entered a period of prosperity due to being largely undamaged by the war while trading with its beleaguered allies. Did Canada also have this effect?	33
Historically, I hear about wine, beer and tea. I think I saw milk mentioned exactly once. When did non-alcoholic cold drinks - especially juice - become normal parts of our diets?	31
Eratosthenes proved the circumference of the Earth to be about what we know it to be today. Columbus thought the world was smaller and "proved it" by sailing West to "India", which was much closer than most people believed. What impact did this have on educated people's view of the world?	29
If the Soviet Union was nominally atheist, were Christmas and other Christian holidays in any way recognized, if not by the state then at least by the people?	23
What was the impact of the New Deal on the popularity of communism in the United States? Did the embracement of leftism boost it or did the reduction in need for communism hurt it?	23
Medieval commoners didn't understand Latin mass and mass was only in Latin for a long time. In Jewish and Muslim traditions, both of which have an ecclesiastic language that might not match the vernacular language, was there a similar problem?	22
If not a kangaroo, then who? What is the current state of scholarship on the Devil's Footprints phenomenon of February 1955, in which odd footprints showed up in a 100 mile track overnight? Is there an agreed upon or likely cause? Was it a complete overblowing of a few snow marks in a couple places?	22
1 in 8 German voters chose the Communist party in the 1933 elections. A general draft seems likely to catch a lot of them. Did communists serve in the Wehrmacht in World War 2? If so, to what extent?	20

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