askhistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
What happened around Day 130 of President Clinton's term?	92
From 1967 onward, a significant majority of grandmaster chess players hailed from the USSR. Was this overrepresentation due to Soviet government sponsorship to produce more grandmaster players, something unique to Soviet culture that made chess a popular extracurricular, or something else entirely?	90
How were executioners in the Middle Ages generally chosen/appointed? Based on skill/experience? Political connections? Heredity?	87
How would a traveler in the American West during the latter half of the 19th-century prove ownership of a horse (and by extension, carriage, wagon, etc)?	71
Given that they spent much more time in wooded areas and tall grasses than we do today, did the native peoples of North America have a significant problem with ticks?	70
Did Polynesian cultures that adorned themselves in elaborate tattoos do a good job at sterilizing their needles and pigments? Were skin infections or other side effects ever a recurring problem for these cultures?	63
Prior to the passage of Prohibition, the average American was consuming significantly more alcohol than they are today. If alcohol use was so widespread and popular, how was the temperance movement able to garner enough political support to completely ban it?	61
I am a male member of a Puritan village in New England during the late 17th century. I want to marry a woman from a local tribe. Assuming our two communities are on generally good relations, what kind of discrimination are we going to face?	45
How much difference did the English longbow really make in the Hundred Years' War, as compared to other bows, crossbows, and ranged weaponry of the same time period? Was it really the game-changer that popular media would have us believe, or has it been over-romanticized in the modern day?	44
What led to the custom of "paying" for public restrooms being widespread in Europe, but not the United States?	42

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