43
votes
Accepted
Where was gunpowder invented/ discovered?
This confusion is A Thing. I actually looked into it a few weeks back.
Its quite likely that ancient Indians were the first people to harvest and make use of saltpeter. We certainly haven't found ...
- 114k
25
votes
Accepted
Is there a historical source that might explain why so many countries use 35 as a minimum age for the president / the highest office person?
For the US, there's an article on Constitution Daily which says something about this. First it says:
At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, there was little
public debate about the age ...
- 407
24
votes
Accepted
Do we have any surviving texts by Romano-Celtic authors?
Since I have a good memory, I remembered and/or looked up a few names of Roman citizens who lived in Gaul or Britain or came from Gaul or Britain to other parts of the empire, and who wrote. These ...
- 18.4k
23
votes
Accepted
Did Hongwu Emperor flay 5000 women, and why?
The claim is sourced from 明興野記, lit. Unofficial Records of the Rise of Ming, by the contemporary Yu Ben. It was originally titled 紀事錄, lit. Chronicles, but a certain Zhang Da Tong later changed it ...
- 96.6k
23
votes
What is this symbol in a financial record from Wisconsin, USA, in 1860?
That looks like the archaic form of the letter "s". Shown here in the word "Congress" from the original US Bill of Rights:
The Latin name for that long-s glyph is "solidus&...
- 114k
18
votes
Did a German plane really land in Moscow in 1941 May?
I found what Sudoplatov actually writes in this book. The reference is in his memoirs. Here is my translation:
In May 1941, a German Ju-52 penetrated Soviet airspace and, unnoticed,
successfully ...
- 38.1k
18
votes
Do we have any surviving texts by Romano-Celtic authors?
There is a certain Rutilius Namatianus who lived in the early 5th century Gaul. I do not know how much Celtic ancestry he had.
He admired Rome and considered his family part of its "sacred Genius", ...
- 4,364
17
votes
Source of the Napoleon "God/Devil/immortal" quote
Napoleon is widely described as either a demigod or a demon / devil, though, as Danila Smirnov mentioned, not immortal. Might you be misremembering this, or perhaps something like it:
Napoleon . . ....
- 96.6k
16
votes
What (primary) sources are there on the life of female slaves in Classical Greece, more specifically Athens?
Information on how slaves were treated in the 1,000 or so city states other than Athens is thin on the ground; for most of these city states we know next to nothing about them so comparisons between ...
- 107k
16
votes
Accepted
Are the historical sources from the ancient history trustable?
Historians engage with such sources all the time. Just like any other historical source, they are evaluated in relation to other available evidence. It is true that ancient historians had different ...
- 17.8k
16
votes
What is this symbol in a financial record from Wisconsin, USA, in 1860?
Not following instructions
As found by Pieter Geerkens, the instructions for the 1860 census repeatedly state that values should be written in dollars only. However, from context, we can quickly rule ...
- 578
15
votes
Did Napoleon III reserve a special set of aluminum cutlery for special guests?
This story seems to have been popularized by S. Venetsky in an unsourced article which first appeared in July 1969 in the Russian journal Metallurgist. The article was reprinted in Tales about Metals (...
- 107k
15
votes
Did the Vikings use horses in battle?
Short Answer
Generally, there is no evidence in medieval sources for the widespread use of cavalry or horsemen in battle by the Vikings. The Vikings in Western Europe (from the late 8th century to the ...
- 107k
15
votes
Accepted
When did Lincoln claim that "Vicksburg is the key" to winning the civil war?
The quote is from the recollection of someone who was there, Admiral David Dixon Porter. You can find it on page 95 of his book, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War, published in 1886 (emphasis ...
- 36.3k
13
votes
Accepted
Did John Wesley pray because he had not been persecuted in three days?
Logically there are only two legit sources this story could come from if true; the two participants.
As the brick-chucker does not strike me as a man of letters (and is far from the hero in this ...
- 114k
13
votes
Are these remarks by Napoleon on Jesus genuine?
My hesitant conclusion, made firmer by reading the answers above, is that they are in essence genuine remarks. Though what you quote is an amalgam of three sayings from the same passage assembled ...
- 130
13
votes
Accepted
What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme?
It's a Panzer IVD of the 31st Panzer Regiment assigned to the 5th Panzer Div. commanded by Lt. Heinz Zobel lost on May 13th, 1940. The "lake" is the Meuse River. The man is a German pioneer.
...
- 54.4k
11
votes
Accepted
Why were the 8th Route Army better at fighting the Japanese than the Nationalists were?
Because they were not "better" or "more effective".
There are generally poor reports of the People's Liberation Army's effectiveness against Japan during World War II.
- Elleman, Bruce A. ...
- 96.6k
11
votes
Accepted
What does the abbreviation "adhib." mean in historiography or archival science?
It is short for adhibendum. I think the English equivalent would be something along the lines of "annex" or "appendix". As in, "Appendix B, Vol II, Proceedings of the School Conference of 1891".
I ...
- 96.6k
11
votes
Accepted
What is the reasoning behind these huge numbers for participants in the Battle of Grunwald 1410?
The first source below confirms:
that given numbers in the past may be unreliable
quotes the Lübeck Chronicle with similar numbers
As tremendous as the battle and the decision of Tannenberg was, and ...
- 8,402
11
votes
Accepted
How do we know when Nero was born?
The best way it could be determined is based on the writings of Tacitus and Suetonius.
In Tacitus annals, he provides info about the birth of Nero, and so does Suetonius, in his writing The Lives of ...
- 146
10
votes
Accepted
The most awesome army: 80 men left and 81 returned. Is it true?
Seems to check out, for a small part at least:
With 80 men moved out, with 81 returned home
The relief at home was great: "Already in Nendeln the contingent of authorities, relatives and ...
- 80k
9
votes
Who compared giving women the vote to giving cows the vote (& in what context)?
Closest I'm finding is a quote by Henry A. Wise Wood, referred to as a civic leader. Quoting Votes For Women: Woman Suffrage Movement by Marjorie Spruill Wheeler:
Women not only pointed out that ...
- 23.1k
9
votes
Accepted
How do historians deal with inconsistencies?
Those inconsistencies are exactly when historiography becomes crucial to historical understanding. Disagreement between sources raises questions about the quality of the sources and those who reported ...
- 27.4k
9
votes
Who were the social elites of the European middle ages?
If I'm going to address this in context, the general point is that all we have to go by is written records, and in eras of low literacy, that means all we get is the perspective of the few literate ...
- 114k
9
votes
What is this symbol in a financial record from Wisconsin, USA, in 1860?
Having tracked down the Instructions to U.S. Marshals, Instructions to Assistants for the 1860 census I draw attention to these excerpts describing the means of calculating and recording then census:
...
- 70.6k
8
votes
Accepted
Why was Abane Ramdane killed?
Eyes to the South offers slightly more information. An internal power struggle between the military and political faction was resolved when the military faction killed Ramdane. (See page 30)
Another ...
MCW♦
- 31.7k
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