AskHistorians

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I never understood zeppelins in WWI. Why were they not really easy to shoot down?	675
Did the Romans think of their gods as Roman gods, or as gods period? (In other words: when the Romans imposed their gods on conquered peoples, was this part of how they imposed Roman supremacy? Or could one worship the Roman gods without reference to Rome -- a universal religion, like Christianity?)	626
Did the Romans know about all the best passes through the Alps, or have improved routes been discovered over the centuries?	392
Reading "Survival in Auschwitz", I learned that the prisoners were given a ration of cigarettes. Why was this done? It seems unnecessarily generous and wasteful.	174
Have any bomber flight crew ever actually fallen out of the bomb bay doors, a la "Dr Strangelove"?	102
In the middle ages, what was something that was viewed as taboo and severely punishable by the government/clergy (at least officially) but that most people did anyhow? How did people reconcile these contradictions in their minds?	53
When Kennedy was assassinated, did commentators make connections to the timing of the Gettysburg address (100 yrs ago that week) -- e.g., viewing the assassination as "testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure"?	50
I notice that many Eastern European cities with German names were renamed after the borders moved (e.g. Stettin-->Szczecin). Were these "new" names created when the boundaries moved, or did these cities historically have different names in different language communities (and how did that work?)	35
In the early days of spy satellites, what sort of training was necessary for analysts to be able to make sense of those grainy images?	34
Sorry to be morbid, but could you explain how cannon and artillery are effective against things other than fortifications -- e.g., against soldiers on the move?	33

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