/u/homeland's posts in /r/askhistorians

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Early episodes of "Seinfeld" often include scenes of relatively well-off characters going to communal laundromats. Was it uncommon for New Yorkers in the 1990s to own their own washers/dryers? If so, is that something specific to New York or a wider trend?

2447 upvotes

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Was the Imperial Japanese Navy as hesitant to issue "abandon ship" orders as the Army was to see any unit surrender?

190 upvotes

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A 1995 episode of The Simpsons sees Homer eat until he weighs 300lbs. Was that really a comically large weight at the time?

47 upvotes

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What makes/has made Shinto different from other folk religions?

45 upvotes

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How did "the government" work in the hours and days following William Henry Harrison's death?

44 upvotes

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How did magic lose its place as a serious source of royally patronized inquiry?

29 upvotes

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Shakespeare is often credited with coining a number of words and phrases now commonplace in modern English. Were there any created terms of Shakespeare's that didn't catch on? If so, do we know why some did and some didn't?

18 upvotes

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WW2 holdout Hiroo Onoda's memoir notably left out his and his squad's killing of a number of Filipinos. What, then, do historians make of the rest of the memoir?

10 upvotes

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During the Mongol conquests, did the "feigned retreat" lose effectiveness over time? Conversely, how did opposing commanders tell a feigned retreat from an authentic rout when it happened?

9 upvotes

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What factors were in play that led to war between North and South Korea that weren't between East and West Germany?

8 upvotes

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Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
Early episodes of "Seinfeld" often include scenes of relatively well-off characters going to communal laundromats. Was it uncommon for New Yorkers in the 1990s to own their own washers/dryers? If so, is that something specific to New York or a wider trend?	2447
Was the Imperial Japanese Navy as hesitant to issue "abandon ship" orders as the Army was to see any unit surrender?	190
A 1995 episode of The Simpsons sees Homer eat until he weighs 300lbs. Was that really a comically large weight at the time?	47
What makes/has made Shinto different from other folk religions?	45
How did "the government" work in the hours and days following William Henry Harrison's death?	44
How did magic lose its place as a serious source of royally patronized inquiry?	29
Shakespeare is often credited with coining a number of words and phrases now commonplace in modern English. Were there any created terms of Shakespeare's that didn't catch on? If so, do we know why some did and some didn't?	18
WW2 holdout Hiroo Onoda's memoir notably left out his and his squad's killing of a number of Filipinos. What, then, do historians make of the rest of the memoir?	10
During the Mongol conquests, did the "feigned retreat" lose effectiveness over time? Conversely, how did opposing commanders tell a feigned retreat from an authentic rout when it happened?	9
What factors were in play that led to war between North and South Korea that weren't between East and West Germany?	8