AskHistorians

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Why are the Chinese immigrants in the 19th century U.S. stereotypically associated with running a laundry business?	128
John Lackland (King of England, 1199 - 1216) was supposedly a keen chess player. Who would be the most likely candidate to be his chess opponent? What was the etiquette regarding the king losing a game? Would the person who won have any reason to be worried afterwards?	127
Giacomo Colonna, the person who in 1421 supposedly found the old Letter of Lentulus, with a physical description of Jesus, has very little info about him out there. Who was he? For what reasons is the letter considered apocryphal/fake?	124
The Hiroshima explosion was described in TIME magazine as being seven times the strength of the Halifax explosion. Before Halifax (and Hiroshima becoming the standard), was there a man-made explosion which would be known well enough to be used as a measurement unit?	111
One of the laws Gaius Marius enacted as a fresh tribune of the plebs, was narrowing down the passages through which electors walked to get to the ballots. This apparently angered the Metelli family, who helped him in his political career. Why were Metelli preocuppied with how narrow passages are?	109
Iceland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden have all very strict naming laws. How did this come to be? Is it a reaction to something in particular? Is there a common thread between the reasons?	108
The Kiribati culture seems to have developed many kinds of martial arts, a very specific type of weaponry and woven armour, as well as a tradition of dueling. Can anyone tell me more about the history of Kiribati warrior culture and the strategies used in conflicts?	108
Was Ada Lovelace's first ever recognized program, an algorithm for producing Bernoulli numbers on Babbage's Analytical Engine, ever practically tested? Were there any bugs?	104
I have encountered factoids about Romans using urine to whiten their teeth or as a cleaning agent for clothes. I've also read that "money doesn't stink" is attributed to emperor Vespasian after introducing taxes on distribution of urine. So, how useful was pee in Roman Empire and Late Republic?	99
Dr. Karl Köller (credited with discovering anesthetic effects of cocaine), was challenged to a duel after having to suffer through an anti-semitic attack on his person, in 1885, Vienna. Were Jewish men of the time at higher risk for ending up in a duel, thanks to anti-semitic moods in the society?	91

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