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1500 questions
24
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2 answers
Why was the Red Army successful against the Japanese in 1939 but perform poorly against Finland 1939-40 and early part of WW2?
The Soviet Union's Red Army had great difficulty overcoming the vastly outnumbered Finns in the 1939-40 Winter War, and suffered disastrous defeats in the early stages of the German invasion in World War II, retreating to the outskirts of Moscow and…
Timothy
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When and where was salt as valuable as gold?
I have often heard that gold and salt were sometimes considered of equal value. When and where did that occur?
Dale
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4 answers
What exactly was East Prussia between 1933 and 1945? Was it part of a larger government, and which one?
I've read some about WWII, but until I started reading the book "Inge's War" (Svenja O'Donnell) I had apparently misunderstood Germany. I had envisioned Germany as its own entity.
Inge's War tells the story of a young woman born in Königsberg, in…
nuggethead
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3 answers
Did viking longboats in fact have shields on the side of the ships?
We are currently working on an educational video game about the Viking Age. In this we want to make as historically accurate illustrations as possible.
I myself am working as a historian on the project. Many years ago I worked with Viking Age…
Gamu catex
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1 answer
What is the origin of the names of planets in Arabic?
The names of the classical planets in Arabic (Mercury to Saturn) are not based on the usual Roman deities nor on the the classic elements like in East Asian countries. What is the origin of their names?
I have seen artistic website like majnouna …
Moritz
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2 answers
Does anyone recognize the identity and location of this octagonal structure?
The attached picture is from the video Unique color footage of The Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg - YouTube at about 2:52. It is of an octagonal structure, possibly in Nazi Germany. Not sure if the design at the center of the structure is a…
ron
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Were there any crops and livestock common to both the Old and New Worlds prior to the Columbian exchange?
The Columbian exchange (this is the correct spelling) transferred a diverse set of crops and livestock animals between the Old and New Worlds. However, I have begun to wonder if there were any crops and animals that were common to both.
Wikipedia…
Jimadilo
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24
votes
3 answers
Was there a fighter jet designed without cannons?
I have heard in the past that there was a jet fighter somewhere in the Korean War time (might also have been Vietnam) that didn't have any onboard cannons since at that time it was believed that air-to-air missiles made cannons obsolete. That…
PejoPhylo
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3 answers
Did the Vikings use horses in battle?
We are currently working on a project which purpose is to depict the Vikings through a digital card video game and we are in the process of researching which cards to put into the game. We have some difficulty with horses in the Viking period as are…
Gamu catex
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1 answer
How much did J. Robert Oppenheimer get paid while overseeing the Manhattan Project?
I am curious to determine how much J. Robert Oppenheimer got paid in today's dollars when he was the head of Los Alamos National Laboratory?
Do we have any HR or accounting documents of the Los Alamos National Lab when it was tasked with the…
Gabriel Fair
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Researching a Spanish document from the ~XV century
One of my family relatives who lives in Seville, Spain (my family is from Andalusian descent) has sent me pictures of a book she owns and has received from her mother. My family claims that the book in question was passed from generation to…
Amelio Vazquez-Reina
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24
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7 answers
Is it true that medieval villages didn't have names?
Recently I've read a certain book about the Middle Ages that has been quite popular with laymen but is held in utter contempt by professional medievists. In fact, I hadn't known the book's reception history before I finished reading it, so I…
Felix Goldberg
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What would have been the price of a loaf of bread in 1645 Amsterdam?
I want to know how much a loaf of bread would cost in Amsterdam in the year 1645.
Preferably I'd like the pricing of a bakery near the harbor but a comparison of the bread prices between the harbor bakeries and the bakeries in the rural backland of…
user32366
24
votes
3 answers
How expensive were castles? And how were the costs distributed?
In, Castles, Battles, Bombs: How Economics Explained Military History, I came across this passage :
"The cost lay mostly in direct labor cost, as most labor had to be paid. (In contrast, raw material cost does not seem to have been much of an…
Pulse Reborn
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24
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1 answer
How many times did the the sacred fire of Vesta die?
The sacred fire of Vesta was a sacred eternal flame in Ancient Rome, tended to by the Vestal Virgins. Except once a year for the kalendae (first day of March), extinguishing the sacred fire resulted in all kinds of horrible and innovative…
Tom Sol
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