I'm working on a short story involving identity theft, and I'm wondering what kind of documents could be stolen off a travelling noble and if it could be used to impersonate them.

Had any Catholic countries actually planned to invade England during the 1530s, or was Henry simply paranoid?

San Francisco has a reputation in America as being among its most socially liberal and accepting of LGBT people. Given that most major metropolitan areas tend towards social liberalism as a general rule, and that LGBT people had communities in most if not all major American cities, why did San Francisco get singled out as being "gayer" than the others? What made it stand out in this regard?

Why not, for example, New York, home of the Stonewall Riots? (New York, of course, is also seen as "pretty gay," but not to the same extent as it seems for San Francisco.)

And for bonus points: if any other cities had the reputation as the town where there was an unusual number of LGBT persons, what were they, and when did they hold this title?

I'm writing a story set in a fictional vaguely Prussian/Imperial German setting and was struck by a problem, I initially wrote that two characters meet for "tea" however it occured to me that the act of meeting for tea and sweets is a much more "English" high society recreation.

I tried to search for Imperial German high society customs and found nothing, searched for Prussian high society customs and found nothing, heck I even went and dusted off old encyclopedias searching for an answer and it was of no help.

So my question is more or less, if two German high society members were to visit one another's homes in that period, what did they do? Did they share sweets or baked goods and tea and am I just overthinking it? I'm genuinely curious.

I am doing a research paper on the Taiping Rebellion. What are some good books to use as sources. Also, where can I find first hand accounts of people during the rebellion and actual quotes?

I'm wondering because I know that these were incredibly important breakthroughs that changed the human race's understanding of the universe and fundamental ways. But I'm wondering if there was an equivalent in places like China, India, Japan, or Southeast Asia. Is there a reason that those discoveries happened in Europe and not in any of the places I just listed? Is it just because men like Einstein or Newton were unique figures at that time or place? Or, was there a deeper more cultural or societal reason then these individuals and their discoveries never sprung up outside of Europe?

Question is not intended as insensitive AT ALL, it's just genuine curiosity. I'm sorry if it offends anyone, but that is really not my intention.

I have an assignment for my history class and it has stressed me out so much. I need to pic a topic of history that historians disagree on a lot. I'm just getting overly stressed out picking a topic because finding 2 primary sources seems easy buts it's not. I was originally doing it on the ancient Sea People but finding primary sources is difficult. Any help is greatly appreciated.

A trope I've often seen used in fiction is a church that is clearly analogous to the Christian Church being put in a position where they are a force of corruption or oppression of their people. Knowing how the bad rep of the Spanish Inquisition was largely exacerbated, I've come to doubt that it is quite so cut and dry. Is the image of the Catholic Church, as well as the various Protestant Churches that came about as a result of the reformation, as oppressive and corrupt at all deserved?

So.. I was on a bit of a documentary binge about gangs in the US - and I ended up looking through Wikipedia articles on some of the most notorious. Bloods, Crips, La Raza, Aryan Brotherhood, etc...

And on the Crips page it makes the claim -

"Crips in prison modules during the 1970s and 80s would sometimes speak in Swahili to maintain privacy from guards and rival gangs"

The source for this is a book called "Inside the Crips: Life Inside L.A.'s Most Notorious Gang" by a guy called Colton Simpson.

Now I have never heard about this anywhere else, it's the only reference and there is no similar claim on the Bloods page (or any other major African-American gang for that matter)

My question is, was this a real thing?

Did some members of the Crips in the 70's and 80's in LA speak Swahili?

Where would they have even learnt it? I can't imagine many East African language teachers in inner-city LA in the 70's?

And if it was used - how wide spread was the practise? Did it continue? Are there current Crips members who speak Swahilli? (this may be breaking the 20 year rule though!)

Thanks.

EDIT: Just noticed this may actually fit this weeks theme!? That's a funny coincidence!

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I have heard that the Anicii family dated their ancestry to the Roman Republic. Is there any truth to that? Any other families?

It's not my field of study, and I don't personally know anyone in my department who works on anything related to this topic, so I was hoping maybe some of you knew enough about it to suggest some good books on the subject. Thank you!

I've just recently learned that my grandfather and 3 of his 5 brothers fought for Yugoslavia against Nazi-Germany. My grandfather was shot once in the left shoulder, then later in the war, a grenade went off near him and badly scarred his kneecaps. He also killed 2 German soldiers. This is all that I know about my grandfather's involvement in the Second World War. How fierce was the fighting in the Balkans? What were some major battles, if any? online it says Germany basically made mincemeat out of the Yugoslavians and turned them into a puppet state.