AskHistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
If I served for years in a Roman cohort and became a triarius (a veteran soldier), how much better would my life actually be as opposed to other soldiers in my unit?	46
Collapsing of the Banqiao Dam in 1975 directly led to tens of thousands of deaths and stands as the worst dam disaster in history. With the information about it being declassified in 2005, how much do we know? Was there any international reaction to it, despite the attempts to cover up the scale?	46
Is there any basis for Mrs. Lovett's lamenting over other pie shops using cat meat in Sweeney Todd? Was there a shortage of meat/price hikes of it in the 19th century England?	45
What was the reaction of American media to the eradiation of the Japanese fishing boat Daigo Fukuryū Maru (Lucky Dragon no. 5) due to the nuclear bomb test at Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954? Were there attempts to downplay/cover the event up?	44
The marriage of Pompey the Great and Julia, Caesar's daughter, was a political one. Despite this, and the thirty years age difference, it is always mentioned that the relationship was loving and devoted from both sides. What are the sources that actually talk about it?	43
Did any of the known actions by Charlie Wilson violate the Logan Act? Was there an outcry to prosecute him on that basis?	42
Is there any reason for the use of different animals in the space test flights of several countries? It seems that Soviets used mainly dogs, Americans monkeys and the French cats. Plus a whole lot of mice. How much of the physiology and behavior of the (poor) animals was considered?	40
If a fighter pilot was shot down over the ocean in a WW2 battle and managed to escape the plane, how would he signal his position and what were his chances of survival?	40
Coins were an important tool for spreading political ideology in the Roman Reublic and Empire. Were they ever means of campaigning? Could they be used to “prepare ground” for a succesor or to revise a public image of an event? Were coins minted as an ideological countermeasure to existing coinage?	40
I've read that before Ashoka won the Kalinga War and extended the Maurya empire into Kalinga, there was possibly a democratic system of rule ("first ever democracy"). Well, how sure are we of this and what do we know about the system of government before the war?	40

« < > »