AskHistorians

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In the TV show Vikings, an English Queen references the fact the moon shines because it's reflecting light from the sun. Was this known in the 8th century?	65
In the movie Lincoln (2012), Lincoln tells Alexander Stephens of the inevitability of slavery's abolition, mentioning that even some Southern state's will ratify the 13th Amendment. Stephens resignedly says "Tennessee and Louisiana" almost immediately. Why these states?	65
[deleted by user]	65
In the landslide presidential election of 1936, Franklin Roosevelt won every state except for Maine and Vermont. Why did his opponent (Alf Landon, former governor of Kansas) do so much better in Northern New England than anywhere else?	65
Was there a word for racism before the 1900s? Also was racism as a concept a thing in peoples minds before 1900s?	65
Russia claims the US agreed to not expand NATO further east after the fall of the Soviet Union. According to the New York Times Daily podcast, the US says they never made this agreement. What really happened?	65
As a Circassian, I’ve grown up knowing that we were quite common and popular in the slave trade regarding the Italians. Genoese&Venetians merchants would frequent the Circassian coast of the Black Sea and also Trebizond in Turkey for slaves - any truth to this? Please write down anything you know.	65
Why is it so common for people to talk about how 'evil' humankind is nowadays, like humankind has historically been less 'evil'? Has this phenomenon historically been ever present?	65
A common trope about the Vietnam War is that the Viet Cong were relatively untrained “farmers”. How true is this characterization of the Viet Cong? How well trained and equipped was your average viet cong soldier?	64
When did people start calling pre-1066 England "Anglo-Saxon", and what exactly did the "Anglo-Saxons" call themselves?	64

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