askhistorians

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As someone who grew up with cars, to me the words “It’s 2 hours away” means something that’s just far away enough to groan a bit, maybe download a podcast to pass the time. What did “2 hours away” mean anytime in the past?	4
Would a peasant from the Middle Ages think the earth was flat? No, right?	4
Did giving mixtape as a show of romance evolve out of an earlier music-related practice?	4
Where did the standard list of classics (Dickens, Shakespeare, etc) come from? A lot of them were written during the 1800s, is there an explanation for this? What were the classics before the current classics?	4
Is the screenshot of a tumblr post below correct in saying what Jesus meant by “turning the other cheek” was to subvert Roman social norms and force them to treat their subjects as equals?	4
When did donating your body to science become an option? What about being an organ donor? How did a system of storing organs developed? Did WWII advance this? Answers that touch on religious backlash and body farms much appreciated.	4
How were burial rituales decided upon in the event an astronaut died in space?	4
A doctor telling loved ones their patient has “flat-lined” is a repeated occurrence in media. When did the flat-lining of a heart monitor become an iconic image in media? How did this medical device make its way into the media? Was it first through movies?	4
John Watson from the Sherlock Holmes series fought at the Battle of Miawand. At what age would the Royal Army accept army doctors?	4
For how long has public transportation had the reputation for being the place to find an assortment of weird/gross/pervy/odd people? Or is this view not universal, and confined to only the US?	4

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