askhistorians

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What came first, the TV or the TV channel?	21
During wartime, has any submarine radar ever mistaken large creatures such as whales as enemy subs, and did they take any actions?	18
What's the origin of prisons being generous when it comes to a death row inmates "last meal"?	18
I recently learned that in the late 19th and early 20th century, police officers gave people in horse carriages speeding tickets. How did the police officers determine that they were speeding?	18
The Ku Klux Klan dwindled in membership and power leading up to World War II, but were still active. What was their official, public policy regarding the war? Internally they likely supported the Nazi policies, but publicly they must have been anti-Nazi or at the very least, isolationist?	16
Were Roman soldiers who lost limbs in battle considered heroes or outcasts in Roman society?	16
How come Syria and Jordan were so easily fooled by Egypt into thinking that they were defeating Israel early on in the Six Day War? Did Syria and Jordan not have their own intelligence or way to find out what was really happening?	16
We now know the Israelites were indigenous to the Southern Levant and emerged peacefully out of the local Canaanite population, but do we have any guess as to why the ancient Jews when creating their origin myth would say Abraham came from Ur (Iraq), instead of just the Land of Israel?	15
How did the average American patriot colonist view the Continental army's use of guerrilla tactics to fight the British in the American Revolutionary War?	15
During the First and Second Barbary Wars, what goods were American merchant ships primarily transporting, and where were the most common destinations of these ships?	13

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