askhistorians

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My Grandfather who was an NYPD detective in the 50s, 60s and 70s used to drunkenly brag, that sometimes suspects would be killed and their bodies were dumped into the East River. Are there any actual cases or reports of the police doing anything like that, or is my G. Father just a crazy drunk?	5395
The American Civil War killed over 600,000 people, was that expected before the war? When looking up numbers for the Mexican American War, War of 1812 and the Revolution I rarely see figures that go higher than 30,000. And yet the Civil War was more than 20 times that.	254
Traditionally weaker naval powers like the CSA and Germany would compensate by focusing on commerce raiding tactics, instead of fighting big battles. As Japan started to lose the war, and Americas supply lines became extended, did Japan retool naval construction program?	127
The American Civil War is the bloodiest conflict in our nation's history with over half a million dead. But was that expected? The Revolution cost 30,000ish American lives, 1812-15,000 Mex-US -4,000. Did people at the time think it would be that awful?	82
How did the catholic church react when cardinal Richelieu led France to Join the 30 years war on the side of the Protestants? Also as a catholic cardinal how did he justify fighting against catholic states like Austria?	60
Did Herbert Hoover really believe the Bonus Army was a communist conspiracy? Was that a common belief among American conservatives and/or Republicans at the time? To me after the March on Rome, assuming a bunch of war veterans gathering at the capital to be a left-wing thing seems odd.	47
In the wake of the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression pact of 1939 the USSR went on to annex Bessarabia, the Baltic, Eastern Poland and fight a border war with Finland. Did Stalin take any sort of aggressive action toward other countries like Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan or China?	36
The Constitution was written in 1787, but Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin was invented in 1793, I'm curious what did the Founding Fathers think was the future of slavery up to that point? Was the expectation that it would Increase? Decrease? Become a bigger issue, a self solving issue?...	22
Looking through the discography of the likes of Louie Armstrong and Frank Sinatra, and noticing a lot of hits in the 60’s. How important was the nostalgia cycle to 1960s music?	22
I've read many of the PLA soldiers who fought in the Korean War were actually Nationalist veterans, and a vet once told me that many Chinese POWs he delt with were actually Nationalists. Were any of these men repatriated to Taiwan and ROC army?	19

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