askhistorians

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Ice Cream has been around as early as Persian Empire, circa 500 BCE. Both Chocolate and Vanilla come from New World plants, so their use as ice cream flavorings most likely didn't happen for at least another 2000 years. What were the most popular flavors up until that point?	1648
Somewhere between, say, 1950 and 2000, the name "Dick" went from a common respectable diminutive form of the name "Richard" to almost exclusively being used as a slang term for penis. Is there any timeline of how this happened, and when it began to become frowned upon as a name?	298
How did Ancient Egypt maintain such a consistent form of art/writing/language over a period of 2,500 years?	140
Hitler had no problem intentionally portraying himself as a virgin who's only true love was for Germany thus he had no time for dating or relationships or carnal desires. When did attitudes towards sexual activity and celibacy change to the point those words would easily be campaign-ending today?	87
How did white supremacy gain popularity among some skinheads, when original skinhead culture was so immersed in black and ska influence and culture?	54
in the 190,000 or so years that anatomically modern humans have been around but before civilization happened, was there much "progress" happening towards that moment, or could have civilization really started any time given the right environmental conditions?	49
The United States has put in a significant amount of effort to prevent DPRK and Iran from producing a fully functional nuclear arsenal. Did they attempt to do the same with Pakistan, and why (or why not)? and if so, how did they react to Pakistan's eventual success?	19
Did the Japanese know exactly what the atomic bombs dropped in Nagasaki and Hiroshimi were?	11
How did people throughout the ages make the wire for chainmaile?	10
Did people before modern times experience what would be considered "traumatic events" much more often, or is that just a misconception? If they did, were mental illnesses like PTSD, Anxiety, Depression, etc far more common as well? NSFW	10

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