Questions tagged [history]
Use this tag for questions that pertain to historical events, or claim whose evidence is historical in nature.
902 questions
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Did around 50% of sailors die from scurvy on long voyages?
Wikipedia's article on scurvy asserts:
During the Age of Sail, it was assumed that 50 percent of the sailors
would die of scurvy on a major trip.
This is cited to an article by Catherine Price, who ...
- 3,122
33
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2
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Did Microsoft Windows popularize Klondike solitaire?
I saw this claim on Twitter:
Sometimes in period movies or TV, they'll depict someone playing
Solitaire.
But the form of Solitaire they're usually depicted playing—a.k.a.
Klondike—was actually very ...
- 833
-1
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1
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Was there a punishment in Mauryan Empire where one would be forbidden from speaking rest of life?
The Geographica is an ancient Greek Encyclopedia, thought to have been written around 2,000 years ago by Strabo.
An English language translation, The Geography of Strabo, was written by Horace Leonard ...
user94578
4
votes
1
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333
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Did Bengal Presidency in British India around 1810-1820 have 100000 schools according to British documents?
In this video (Hindi Language), Sudhanshu Trivedi claims that in Bengal Presidency in 1810-1820, according to a British report, there were 1 lakh (100,000) villages and 1 lakh schools. (at 0:38)
He ...
user94578
7
votes
1
answer
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Were more than 1100 industrial firms wiped out under the directions of Veselin Vukotić?
This documentary by Boris Malagurski claims that than 1100 industrial firms were wiped out from January 1989 to September 1990 under the lead of the US-supported Yugoslavian minister of privatisation ...
- 1,193
7
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0
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Did James J Kilroy write "Kilroy was here" on ships under construction?
James J. Kilroy is considered (on Wikipedia) as one of the best candidates for the origin of the phrase "Kilroy was Here".
The relevant portion is here:
One theory identifies James J. ...
- 225
1
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0
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Did Socrates have a homosexual relationship with an Athenian statesman?
There are many conflicting accounts as to whether the Athenian statesman Alcibiades was a lover of Socrates. The Wikipedia page on Alcibiades' depiction in culture states:
"Alcibiades also ...
- 2,378
11
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1
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Is there a snake-like entity depicted on the Altamira caves?
I've seen some articles (CogniArchae.com, Facebook, X.com) featuring what appears to be a serpent-like entity allegedly depicted on a wall in the Altamira caves, as below:
Yet I haven't found any ...
- 441
4
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1
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Did the Zionist paramilitary organization, Lehi, try to assassinate the US president Harry Truman with letter bombs?
A social media post I encountered stated that Lehi was supposedly the sender of letter bombs to the then-president Harry Truman and other high-ranking officers at the White House during Jewish ...
- 141
11
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2
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Did Lord Byron have an incestuous relationship with his sister?
It is often remarked that Lord Byron (often regarded as one of "the greatest British poets") had an incestuous relationship with his half-sister Augusta Leigh (eg here). However, other ...
- 2,378
11
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1
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Did ancient Locrian code punish new law proposers with death if the people did not vote to enact it?
Wikipedia's article on Zaleucus as well as the one on Locri cite a rule about proposing a new law:
Anyone who proposed a new law, or the alteration of one already existing, had to appear before the ...
- 10.1k
8
votes
1
answer
460
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Did Hume play a major role in the development of the theory of evolution?
According to the SEP page on David Hume (see my emphasis in bold):
"Kant reported that Hume’s work woke him from his “dogmatic slumbers” (Prolegomena, Introduction) and Jeremy Bentham remarked ...
- 2,378
6
votes
1
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Did the mother of an Oprah guest from 1989 participate in child sacrifices?
There is this very haunting clip from an Oprah Winfrey interview from 1989 where this woman (the guest) claimed that she participated in child sacrifices when she was young and that she was brutally ...
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14
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1
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Did Napoleon III serve his guests with aluminium plates?
Los Angeles Times said about Napoleon III:
How changeable is taste. In the mid-19th century, when aluminum was rare and fantastically expensive, Napoleon III served his most honored guests’ meals on ...
- 438
20
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1
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Does allopathy kill 225-783 thousand people in the US per year?
According to the website Before It's News:
With its smorgasbord of synthetic
drugs, vaccines, surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, Western medicine
or allopathy has earned the dubious honor of ...
- 425