American Indians are always depicted as clean shaven in popular media. Every photograph I have seen from the 1800's also depict American Indians without facial hair. I was wondering if facial hair was ever popular, and if not, am curious how American Indians went about shaving.

Was it always "the moon is shrinking, the moon is getting bigger," or what?

If the catholic church was only formed in the early 300s by Constantine, how do they list a series of popes between Peter and the actual start of the Church?

Is there any mention anywhere about how the two compared? I read that needle system was problematic, and what the Chassepot gained in performance over the Dreyse was at the cost of reliability, or something along those lines, but I was hoping for something of a more in depth comparison, if such a thing is possible.

The orthodox (no pun) view of Russia before the Bolsheviks took power is that it was painfully backward, and a living hell for anyone who wasn't nobility. But I've seen others (notably Niall Ferguson) claim that Russia was well on its way to "catching up" with Central Europe, if not the West. Ofc the USSR achieved nearly Western levels of quality of life (if not luxury), but at great cost, and the economy was disproportionately geared toward the military, leading to a lot of problems when liberalization led to the rise of the black market. So, was Russia before the war and revolution a burgeoning power or a backwater?

When was the first FPTP election, and which group/person dreamt it up?

Often people suggest that a lot of the rocket technology developed after WW2 based on technology developed by the Germans, but like many things related to the marvels of the Third Reich, it's probably an exaggeration. I've skimmed the FAQ a bit and didn't find anything about the space race, so I was hoping if someone could answer this for me or point me to another quality answer from the past, if it exists.

Thanks in advance.

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In reference to the United States, sixteen was for a long time recognized as the standard age for being eligible to get a driver's license (I'm aware that there are states where the age was younger, but most commonly it was sixteen). The legal voting age in the U.S. is 18 (down from a previous age of 21), which is also the age at which a minor becomes legally recognized as an adult. It's legal to smoke at 18 and to enlist in the armed services; legal to drink and gamble at 21.

How were these various ages arrived at? Meaning, how did we arrive at the conclusion that 18 was the appropriate time to legally classify someone as an independent adult, capable of making their own decisions without someone acting on their behalf? Prior to that, why did we arrive at 21 as the magic number? Why not 20, or 25?

How is it that we have discrepancies? If the rationale behind setting 18 as the age at which someone can legally choose to smoke, to vote, to serve in the military is that we've already declared them an adult, then why is the legal age for drinking or gambling not set until 21?

Did the legal standards grow out of general cultural trends, or what?

And what fortifications did the Seljuks and the Fatimids do to oppose them ?

I am trying to make a lecture for my university and I need information about Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus so I can make my own conclusions and observations. And I really can't find anything other than tourist sites.

1930s perception of homosexuality was quite negative. In that era, then, how did Ernst Röhm become leader of the NSDAP's far-right paramilitary, which one would assume would be even more extreme than the overall population?

I was reading a coming book were a (regular mind you, not SS) German soldier gets captured after the battle of Stalingrad and gets a pseudo trial from Russian political commissars and when facing charges of treason against the ideal of socialism he replies as a taunt "We are more socialist than you". Would this be a fair assessment of how the German perceived their official ideology during WWII ?

I watched the Extra History episode on Khavad of Iran, and in it they mentioned that a prison existed with the name "Fortress of Oblivion" (assumed translated name from old Persian), but a quick googling yields absolutely nothing on this building.

So what happened to it? Why was it built? Who gave it such a "cheesy bad guy's hideout" kind of name? Why was it abandoned?

And how did Khavad escape from it twice?