askhistorians

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How did Jains (the Indian religion with a radical commitment to nonviolence against any and all beings) react to germ theory and the discovery of microorganisms?	1097
How did we come to have two very different ways of writing the number 4?	964
Why was the Gadsden Purchase so expensive compared to all of the other land purchases the United States has done?	936
How did "kamehameha", the main attack from the Japanese anime franchise Dragon Ball, come to be named after a Hawaiian royal dynasty?	892
Not very long ago, wars of conquest were just an accepted fact of life and seemingly the right of any nation that could make a go at it. Now, any nation doing so is decried by even average citizens of almost every state. What caused this profound change?	791
The ancient Olympics were just one of four important games festivals in ancient Greece, along with the Pythian, the Nemean, and the Isthmian Games. I've never heard of any of these. Why did only the Olympics go the distance and last 2500 years?	748
Was anti-semitic "humor" popular in Nazi Germany prior to more actively anti-semitic policies? Has there been research done on whether comedy contributed significantly to the environment that led to the Holocaust?	715
American Comic book author Rob Liefeld is... not well regarded by most of the internet's comics book fans, with many of his drawings becoming mainstays in "bad anatomy" complications. But how was he recieved in the mid 90s when many of his most infamous illustrations were actually published?	505
Is there a reason American football never took off anywhere besides the United States?	439
I own a decent pair of $300 beginner binoculars, 8x magnification, 42mm lens. How would my ability to stargaze have compared with Galileo?	426

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