You've probably seen Western duels in movies or TV shows. Two cowboys standing at opposite sides of the town, seeing who can pull out their gun and shoot the other the fastest.

Did cowboys really duel each other, or is it just an invention of Hollywood?

Title is self explanatory really but I have been wondering if there was a specific fund for the ferryman, because the size and scale of some battles/wars that must have been a huge cost to all parties involved, would this have affected the war effort through lack of funds for other things? Or would it have come out of that soldiers pay like a death tax?

I recently saw an article claiming Vikings brought cats with them on raids (and that this should be added into the upcoming Assassin's Creed game). I was just wondering what evidence we have for this as I've never heard anything like this before in my years as a history student specialising in Viking studies.. I'm 2 years out of practice so maybe I missed something?

If this is actually true, what would the potential benefits be of bringing cats with them? Owning cats myself, they have a tendency to get lost if you put them in a new environment, and the only thing I would think they could reliably hunt down would be fish.

Thanks in advance

I was recently re-watching the World at War documentary series and Specifically the episode about Barbarossa. In this episode they mention the Allied encouraged Yugoslav coup d'etat, which kicked the Nazi favored government out of power in the country.

In the series they mentioned that the following invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis delayed the commencement of Operation Barbarossa by 5 weeks.

Does anyone know how significant this was? If the Germans had an extra 5 weeks at the start of their Campaign could they have struck a killing blow before the Russian winter and Siberian divisions pushed them back, or were the Germans at the limits of their supply anyway?

I appreciate that these kind of 'What If' questions are often impossible to answer but I would be very interested if anyone knew of any academic or amateur works (or had an Opinion) on this matter.

In terms of economic policy, freedoms/rights and politics were his ideas well represented in communist societies?

Most monarchs are the king or queen of a country (Queen of United Kingdom, King of the Netherlands), but in the middle ages there were also some monarchs with a title such as 'King of the Germans' or 'King of the Scots'. Does this distinction have any meaning and who decided the title?

Modern media, through films such as 300, portrays a glamourised and muscular male physique. I was wondering to what extent this is reflective of ancient male body types? The Spartans obviously would have been fit thanks to extensive training but is the modern reflection accurate? would the Spartan diet have been sufficient for maintenance of the body type portrayed in modern media?

I know about the creeping barrage tactic used in WW1 and how it's used to cover an advance. My question is why didn't they just bombard the enemy so they would be unable to defend their positions while crossing no man's land, and instead using such a risky tactic.

In many fantasy works and historical pieces, a woman drinks a herbal tea after sex to try and stop from conceiving. I thought this was just fictional and a myth, but apparently such abortifacient herbal teas did really exist.

Were they common knowledge? As in, did the average woman know about them? Were they easy to access if they were common knowledge?

This is something I've wondered about the past few days.

I understand that these colonial expeditions were, more than anything, business ventures. They required huge sums of capital from investors, and of course those investors expected high returns for the high risk.

So where was the profit expected to be generated? How would explorers "sell" their expedition to investors? What could/would they have pointed to and said "this is how we will make money"?

Are there any quotes (primary sources) regarding charlemagne and his religious reform during the middle ages. If so, would you be able to link to these sources? Thank you.

The Greek plays were of course a big part of entertainment in Greek culture, and tragedies are remembered today as being notable: Oedipus Rex, The Odyssey, etc. But how were these stories perceived by the common folk at the time? Did children (or adults) look up to these characters?

I've heard a lot about the US and Great Britain, but did Russia also attack eastern Germany or were the defences too strong?

Maybe a dumb question, but when asking about the history of a given subject, who do you ask? I understand that most musicians and scientists would have a certain amount of understanding about the history of their profession, but are they the people to go to when wanting to learn about the history of the subjects?

I read somewhere that in Indian culture traveling outside India, specially traveling by water, was a sin. The author then made some wild claims that this idea alone was one of the main factors to hamper India's development in the 17-18 centuries

Is there some truth to this?, does this idea still exist?, why does it exist?, what's the logic behind it?