/u/suburbanpride's posts in /r/askhistorians
Maybe it's selection bias on my part, but it seems popular Christmas music in the US is heavily represented by recordings from the mid-20th century. Is there a reason for this, and will Bing/Frank/Dean/Nat forever be the faces on the Mt. Rushmore of holiday music?
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I read that February 12, 1899 was the coldest day recorded in Texas history (-23 degrees) and resulted in the freezing death of 40,000 cattle. As a rancher in 1899, how much warning or information about the coming weather would I have had, or would the whole thing be a big, terrible surprise?
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In westerns like The Quick and the Dead (1995) and Unforgiven (1992), towns are run and terrorized by a single person. How common was this in late-1800s American west reality?
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I just read about a plot to spike Hitler’s food with estrogen in WW2. That sounds crazy, but I’m sure it’s not the only “out there” plan of the war… right? So what other far-fetched plans existed, and did any actually work?
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In Imperial China, how does one go about deciding to become a eunich? How safe is the process, and what assurances exist that the decision is good for one's career prospects?
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