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Posted by /u/indyobserver

META: Today's sedition at the United States Capitol is something unprecedented in American history

Given the unprecedented events today and my contributions about the history of American elections on the forum over the last year, I've been asked by the mods here at /r/AskHistorians to write a little bit about how today's events might be viewed in the context of American histo…

Posted by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov

In 30 minutes, at 8:30 PM EDT, /r/AskHistorians will be going dark for one hour in protest of broken promises by the Admins

Edit IV: It appears the feature has been rolled back from the subreddit, and a few others I checked. del We will stay tuned for an official announcement by the Admins, but it looks like we have been successful. /del And now confirmed by the admins. Thank you everyone for your su…

Posted by /u/commiespaceinvader

Askhistorians has a policy of zero tolerance for genocide denial

The Ask Historians moderation team has made the commitment to be as transparent as possible with the community about our actions. That commitment is why we offer Rules Roundtables on a regular basis, why we post explanations when removing answers when we can, and why we send doz…

Posted by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov

Thank you everyone who supported us the past day. The Admins have listened and removed the unmoderated Chat feature from the site. We deeply appreciate the support of our readers and the wider mod community who stood with us.

For those who missed the excitement, see this thread (It is temporarily removed as we don't want two META threads at the top of the sub. This, ironically, just means actual questions get less attention which we of course don't want!!) We return to our regular content now, so ple…

Posted by /u/Powder9

Is it possible with ancient cultures that we are falsely misled to think they took their beliefs entirely seriously? I.E similar to someone in 3000 years discovering all our Santa decor...

I have always been troubled that there is a lack of humor possibilities without tonal context in reviewing ancient culture. Have we not considered that some of it - maybe cat statues, are just ancient memes or were a gag? Edit: are there any examples of this where historians lat…

Posted by /u/thenormaldude

What did Native Americans use to wipe their butts? (This sounds ridiculous but I have a good reason to ask)

I know that I didn't specify a time period and that Native Americans are not a monolith. But I'm asking the question this way because I promised a historican I would. This is for the colonial and pre-colonial periods. Context: I work in the textbook publishing industry and was t…

Posted by /u/shmecklestein

hey mods, i know you’ll remove this but i just wanna say thank you for making this such a professional and truly educational subreddit, keep up the good work:)

Posted by /u/ask-if-im-a-bucket

How did the dandelion, an edible and remarkably versatile plant, come to be classified as a weed?

I was reading in the memoir of a Great Depression survivor that she would stop and gather dandelions while out looking for work and bring them all home for a dandelion dinner in case her mother had been unable to find anything to eat. This piqued my interest, and I did some rese…

Posted by /u/TVotte

Dolly Parton had a famous song "9 to 5", yet every full time job I have had is 8 to 5. Did people work one hour less in the 80s? How did we lose that hour?

Edit. In other words did people used to get paid for lunch breaks and then somehow we lost it?

Posted by /u/SarahAGilbert

[META] Tomorrow AskHistorians will go private

A few days ago we shared a post outlining our thoughts around API uncertainty. The tldr: changes negatively impact our ability to moderate. These changes are part of a larger pattern in which Reddit’s leadership has failed to support what we believe is one of its greatest assets…

Posted by /u/drock45

Michael Phelps beat a 2000 year old Olympic record set by Leonidas of Rhodes in 152 B.C for the most Olympic wins ever. Are there any other ancient Olympic records that have remained unbroken?

Posted by /u/RusticBohemian

Black Panther members once openly carried firearms and would stand nearby when the police pulled over a black person. They would shout advice, like the fact that the person could remain silent, and assured them that they'd be there to help…

Posted by /u/gunslingrburrito

How did the Eagles manage to rescue Frodo and Sam at Mt Doom and still have time to record "Hotel California"?

edit: thanks all very much for the gold, and your comments are freaking hilarious

Why are elementary-aged students in the US knowingly taught a version of US History that middle and high schools have to completely contradict and reexplain?

I’ve always wondered why so many of the lessons about history (especially US history) taught during the early years of my education (late ‘90s and early ‘00s) were based on myths or tall tales that all my later teachers would have to completely negate. Stuff along the lines of “…

Posted by /u/sphericpanda3

In the netflix series “The Crown”, S2:E8 shows John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy’s visit to Buckingham Palace. In it, they portray JFK as abusive to his wife, and both him and Jackie getting administered drug cocktails before important di…

It is my understanding that JFK was not one to resist the urges of infidelity, but was he abusive (verbally and/or physically to his wife), and did they really frequent drug use?

Posted by /u/jschooltiger

UPDATE: The Trump Administration and the National Endowment for the Humanities

Hi, folks: You might have missed it in the flood of political news lately, but President Trump's budget proposal proposes to defund the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and eliminate the Corporation for Public Broadcastin…

Posted by /u/OffsidesLikeWorf

In the sitcom Married... with Children, protagonist Al Bundy is able to support himself, his homemaker wife, and two children on the income he earns as a shoe salesman in a strip mall in the suburbs of Chicago. Was this at all realistic fo…

I'm not entirely sure if it's relevant, but the show posits that Bundy did once score four touchdowns in a single football game while in high school, which may have affected his earning potential.

Posted by /u/Blaskowicz

The physician in the autopsy of Charles II gave some very... colorful (if not medically impossible) descriptions like "heart the size of a peppercorn" and "did not contain a single drop of blood." What was going on in these autopsies?

I was reading Wikipedia's entry on the death of Charles II, and the autopsy report states that "did not contain a single drop of blood; his heart was the size of a peppercorn; his lungs corroded; his intestines rotten and gangrenous; he had a single testicle, black as coal, and…

Posted by /u/EverythingSucks12

The Chemical Weapons Convention (1993) has prohibited the use of tear gas in warfare, but explicitly allows its use in riot control. What is the logic behind it being too bad for war, but perfectly acceptable for use against civilians?

Posted by /u/Frigorifico

Why do boomers hate their wives?

There used to be a lot of shows in the 80s and 70s in which the butt of the joke was often the husband and the wife hating each other This contrasts with earlier comedies like I love Lucy or Bewitched where the couple loved each other dearly, and with more current shows which al…