askhistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
Smoking was prevalent in the 20th century. When NASA was first choosing astronauts for the space program, was this a consideration? Were any of the astronauts smokers? Did NASA reject smokers, or deliberately hire non-smokers as astronauts?	3437
I have read that the demise of streetcars in the U.S. was due to a conspiracy by GM and other auto manufacturers. I've also read that this is an urban legend. What's the truth?	2102
Before "man", "dude", and "bro", what slang terminology were Americans using to refer to each other?	729
The Beatles came out of the Merseybeat scene, and the Beach Boys came out of the L.A. surf rock scene, and the Grateful Dead came out of the San Francisco psychedelic scene, but the Velvet Underground seemed to come out of nowhere. What was going on in New York and who were their contemporaries?	226
When the U.S. put Japanese people in internment camps during WWII, how did they determine who needed to be rounded up? Did they have a list of Japanese people already and where they lived?	58
In early 1993, there were two hit songs called "Whoot (There It Is)" and "Whoomp (There It Is)", both reaching the Top 20 of the Billboard charts. What led to this? Was this a popular saying at the time that they both capitalized on? Also, what the heck does "Whoo__, there it is" even mean?	43
I have often seen the claim that Robert E. Lee was offered command of the Union Army at the outset of the Civil War, but turned it down. Did this really happen, or is this an urban legend/Lost Cause mythology? If it did happen, when was the offer made and who made it?	24
Before Northern Europe (say, England) became Christian, were people going to Pagan worship services every Sunday? I understand a lot of the attraction of going to church was to socialize. Had this been carried over from Pagan times, or was it different before?	20
William Henry Harrison famously died after only 30 days in office. He was followed by his VP John Tyler who was famously kicked out of the Whig Party. Was Tyler's agenda that drastically different from Harrison's? What did he do differently from what Harrison was planning to do?	14
During radio's heyday, what was the programming schedule of network radio like? Was it sitcoms, dramas, and talk show like network TV today? Or was it more like modern radio, with mostly music?	8

« < > »