It got to the point that Eisenhower signed an executive order barred homosexuals from Federal government jobs in 1954.

How true is it that Cohn and Hoover themselves were gay? There are various sources and conflicting theories on this.

It's just fascinating to think about how hypocritical they could have been.

As the title says and more broadly then that specific example in the title. Would an army regular be able to fight with a king or significant nobleman on the battlefield?

A few additional related questions that I find interesting.

What kind of reception would I get for doing so? would it be okay for me to land the killing blow? Were there any other etiquette I should adhere to when in direct battle with a king or commander?

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Edit: Spelling.

I apologize if this is the wrong subreddit but Hello all. Not sure if anyone has done any research into their family military history before in Italy but I am stumped and maybe someone could help me. My Great Grandfather served in Italy during WW1. He had actually emigrated to the US before the war broke out but went back to fight for Italy. In the research I have done, I had been reading that to get any records, you need to contact the Province they were born in. So I contacted the province archives (I know his information is correct because I have his birth certificate). They told me to contact the military archives in Rome. So I did that. The archives in Rome had me turn around and re contact the same archives that I previously mentioned. They responded saying they have 1 record of him being listed on a roster with a date and that was it. They also stated unless they were a commissioned officer they usually didn't keep those records. Along with his birth certificate I have a picture of him in his military uniform so I know he was involved in some way. My goal in all of this is to just find out what unit he would have served in, any battles he would have fought in and if he was awarded any medals. I know this is asking a lot but if someone has any idea of where I can go from here I would greatly appreciate any hints or tips on where to look next. Thank you!

Hi,
I know they did use composite reflex bow, but what was the type they were using called? I found there are many shapes, some originates is Hungaria, some in Mongolia, some is Asia/Korea, but I didnt found what type was used by Genghis Khan invaders. I would also like to ask, since they were supposed to use many types of bows for different purposes (warfare, hunting, etc.), what they used as hunting bow and what draw strength it usually had?
Thanks for answer and stay safe :)

Albanians and Bosnians were already in Europe when the Ottomans arrived and converted to Islam under their rule. Albanians in particular did rise high in Ottoman society, I think an Egyptian ruler was Albanian in origin

Nonetheless Albanians regularly helped western Europeans in anti Ottoman wars and fought the Ottomans for independence. Why would they do this if the Ottoman Caliph was their religious leader?

I generally have the same questions about Arabs, but the Ottomans were considerably weaker by the time of the Arab revolts.

I’ve always wondered how much of an impact the French resistance had on the western front during WWII.

Hello fellow History Buffs and Historians,

I’m currently reading The Blood Crows by Simon Scarrow, the 12th installment in his Roman Series. Cato, the main character, devises a plan to light his pack animals on fire to break the enemy line. A confused centurion asks what he is doing, to which Cato replies “if you’ve read your Livy, then you should be able to guess.”

After googling different variations of “Livy,” “pack animal,” “fire,” and “Roman battle,” I was unable to turn up any definitive information.

My question is this:

To what Livian text and, more specifically, to what battle is Scarrow’s character referring?

Was Vietnam actually so altruistic and just wanted to save the people of Cambodia from Khmer depredations? Or were there other factors that contributed to the invasion?

This just seems like the whole “even Al-qaeda doesn’t like ISIS because it’s too violent” which ignores a much more complicated history between the two groups.

Bringing it back to Cambodia and Vietnam, the Vietnamese would have had to suspect or know that attacking the Khmer might bring the Chinese in against them, which it did, yet they still invaded Cambodia.

I just finished Ken Follets “Pillars of the earth” and loved feeling like I was learning along the way. I want to find a new book but I’m concerned that not everything will be factually accurate?

Hi, first time posting here.

I have recently been reading up on the American colonization and independence out of curiosity, and when it comes to the American Revolution there is this one concept that I cannot understand, but this may of course be down to my lack of knowledge in this area. Either there is no simple answer, or I am bad at googling, which is why I hope you can help me out.

To make it short: Assuming that the settlers of the British colonies of N. America were mainly British, and therefore are the colonizers - At what point do these colonizers themselves become the colonized? What instigates this change in viewpoint? When or why did they lose their connection / relation to their mother nation?

I hope it makes sense.

Greetings and apologies if this is not the correct sub -- I looked at a number of options and this seemed the safest/most relevant place to ask. Please direct me elsewhere if not the case.

My 93 yr old grandfather passed away on Tuesday. We were extremely close and it has been a tough week. I have taken to watching old family videos as a way to deal with my grief. I came across a VHS tape that is likely from the early 1990s. My grandfather was living in FL at the time and my sister asked him to answer a series of questions for a history project about WWII. He was in the Navy and gives a very emotional account of some of his time in the service. He never talked about this normally (except in the last few years, where he talked more openly about everything) -- in fact, the first part of the video is my dad asking the questions and you can see how uncomfortable he is. My dad later set the camera up and left the house, and Pop is much more at ease speaking just to the camera.

My question is whether anyone knows of any institution that collects videos of accounts from veterans. A quick Google search did not reveal anything obvious. With the permission of my family, I would like to share this video with a (legitimate) historical or academic institution so that my grandfather's account can be added to the annals of history. Thank you.

From all I've heard from the strategic bombing campaign by the Nazis during the blitz they went after large population centres, military targets and sometimes targets of cultural significance but I've never seen any mention of the Nazis using gas bombs or any type of gas weaponry in combat, so why did such a large amount of the population during the blitz have gas masks and were told to keep them on themselves at all times?

There were/are many different types of infantry, we or at least I always hear about them, but I never hear anything about cavalry. I can name only a few of them. So, can someone lay out all the types of cavalry in the Napoleonic wars and write about each of their specialties? Thank you.

For whatever siege weaponry was used, I'm assuming it was complicated enough that an individual couldn't have just "brought it from home". So who was responsible for creating these weapons? And did they work from a set of standard "blueprints", or was each piece custom-made?

I’ve been curious about this for a while as whenever I’ve seen people do 'Viking' makeup (a common find in the goth community and when you accidentally stumble into pagan Instagram) I seem to get a real mix of designs that look like they belong to other cultures. Some key examples are Inuit chin lines, Meso American nose markings and a fair amount of First Nations Warpaint.

Do we know what kind of warpaint was used by the Vikings, if any? I have heard that eyeliner was favoured but everyone (filmmakers, game makers, enthusiasts in general) want to give Vikings some Warpaint.

In my corner of England a use of woad was common in the past and is usually shown to be in swirling patterns on re-enactors but I have struggled to find information on any further truly firm details.

Any light to be shed on this topic would be very appreciated.

To clarify: my question is more aimed towards immigration between neighboring countries. Specifically the US and South Americans like Columbia and Bolivia

After the Fall of the Kingdom of Kush, or rather its destruction by the Kingdom of Aksum, the Nubian heartland turned into three kingdoms Nobatia, Makuria, and Alodia. What would have life been like in these Christian Nubian Kingdoms? What sort of culture would they have practiced?

I was reading that temperatures on the Eurasian steppe can get as low as -55 C during the winter. I imagine the nomadic people who lived in this region could deal with this by wearing warm clothing and living in portable felt dwellings like a yurt or a ger. Settled societies could build barns. But for Mongolic and Turkic tribes who depended heavily on horses (lacking the thick wool or other cold weather adaptations of, say, sheep), how did they keep the herds from freezing to death during the winter? Did the horses have their own tents? Are steppe horses just way more resilient to extreme temperatures? Did they knit them little sweaters? Light bonfires - which seems really unsafe in the middle of a grassland?

I know that this is a very touchy topic, but I constantly hear two very conflicting opinions. One is that Serbs had no power in Yugoslavia, that Serbia was constantly suppressed, and that the most important figures in Yugoslavia like Tito and Kardelj weren't even Serbian, and that influential Serbs like Ranković were promptly removed from power. The other is that Yugoslavia was essentially a greater Serbia.

I'd like to hear your opinions on this. Thanks in advance :))