So, obviously, the UK voted out. Just in case you hadn't heard. I keep thinking about what Richard Dawkins said in his recent AMA. To paraphrase because I can't find the post now, he basically said "I'm Remain, but I think it's disgusting that ignoramuses like me can decide, who are neither economists nor historians". And then I remembered that I have access to a futuristic communication network that will let me ask some historians.

Just to be clear, I'm not asking about anyone's opinion on the Brexit. Pretty sure that is forbidden and it's your own business anyway. I just want to know if there are any historical precedents for a core member of a federation (or quasi-federation, hegemony, trade alliance, whatever) leaving by choice (as opposed to violence/disaster) and what the fallout was, or if we are in truly uncharted waters.

I know that the US began as 13 colonies of the UK and many aspects of the US were inspired by the UK, so I'm wondering if the name is one of these aspects.

To my rather uninitiated eyes, it seems that after centuries of France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire jostling for space on the continent and England being a bit of a peripheral player, from 1700 Spain suddenly disappears, Prussia explodes out of nowhere, and Britain and Russia become the make-or-break powers for European coalitions. Also, in most histories you hear nothing of the Ottomans from there on until Napoleon invades Egypt, when in 1683 they were at the gates of Vienna.

What happened?

Im asking because theres opposing views on what should be fact.

Some people say Africa was rich with everyone living a decent life. It had civilizations more advanced than Europe, than Europeans colonized Africa to make it poor. Europeans are responsible for all of Africas problems. If it wasnt for colonialism, Africans wouldnt be starving. Is this true?

There's obviously a morale factor at play for America and Russia to want to be the first to put a man on the moon. JFK commented that "We choose to do [this] not because it is easy, but because it is hard."

However, it seems to me that each of the two superpowers must have had other reasons for wanting to do this - "just because we can" is rarely a strategy undertaken by a government in time of war.

Was there a desire to do this, on either side, for larger technological/economic/military reasons? How did winning the space race factor into each countries' Cold War strategy?

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I know that political activism was much more popular in the 60s and 70s. Did high school and college age people vote more during that time? What happened in the 80s and 90s that created the low voter turn out of young people that exists today?

Since things that touched Jesus' blood were seen as holy (such as the Holy Grail, the Spear of Destiny, etc), what about Jesus' urine? Were the places where he went to the bathroom seen as holy or was it just his blood that was seen as the holy bodily fluid? This is kind of a silly question, but I'm quite curious about this. What other things that Jesus used are now seen as holy relics?

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The country that area belonged to changed frequently, did the people see themself as germans or french?

Obviously you didn't have assault rifles in ancient Rome. But were there, I don't know, mass stabbings?

I know about the Spanish Road, but Spain was a great power and the Habsburgs were Holy Roman Emperors. What about e.g. Brandenburg owning East Prussia and Cleves, or Bavaria owning the Palatinate?

In the popular video game Skyrim, guards in the cities that exist within the game will say the following "I used to be an adventurer like you, until I took an arrow to the Knee".

As the game grew in popularity so did this phrase along with it. I use to think it was just some quirky funny dialog they threw in there, but I recently saw something that claims the "Arrow to the knee" part is actually from Nordic/viking slang meaning to either be engaged or to be married. Supposedly it alludes to how you get down on one knee when you propose, similarly to how you get down on one knee after being shot by in the knee by an arrow during battle.

The game does heavily borrow from Nordic/viking culture, even including the title of Jarl for chieftains/mayors of the cities, towns and villages you visit in the game, so I would no be too surprised if this phrase really does have it's roots from Nordic culture. Could anybody tell me if this is true or not, or at least shed some more light on it for me?