What was the video-recording format in the USSR/Ex-socialist countries ? Was there an equivalent to VHS ?

I figured the West has unified its format by only using VHS, and producing VCR to fit one model, though produced by multiple companies. While this is the result of Japanese predominance in electronics manufacturing from the 50's to early 1990's, I believe the USSR didn't have something quite like it. So was there a "electronic" country ? (I remember reading about Yugoslavia having been a leader in Socialist-countries computing). What were the means of recording in the USSR, and were there available ? The "consumer" market was very different and products were basic (mostly), but I can't picture a European country with no civilian appliance for taping things.

Thanks for your answer ! (and also, applies to audio cassette. Were these available in the USSR ?)

1 Answers 2016-03-19

Testifying in Roman Law

I was told that in a Roman court of law, a soldier would hold the balls of a witness while he was speaking. If the witness was found to be lying, then the soldier would exact punishment. Hence testifying. I'm not sure how true this is. Could an historian confirm or reject this?

1 Answers 2016-03-19

What was Southeastern Europe's religion before they were Christianized?

I can't find anything about SE Europe's religion before Christianity turned up. Whenever I tried to look it up, I'd be at a dead end.

3 Answers 2016-03-19

What was the daily food like onboard a navy ship for the crew in the 1700s?

Just a question because I read somewhere that ship crews ate 8,000 calories a day but couldn't find more information on it

3 Answers 2016-03-19

When was the arrow symbol first used as a symbol for direction? Did it precede bow and arrows?

[deleted]

1 Answers 2016-03-19

What types of calendars would farmers and pastoralists have used to track phenological cycles and festivals in the Pamir Mountain region of what is now Tajikistan and Afghanistan through the end of the 19th Century? What cultural models would have influenced their adoption?

2 Answers 2016-03-19

How were crimes dealt with by the various indigenous peoples of North America?

1 Answers 2016-03-19

Was the tea party a gathering of drunken lunatic frat boys and was it really about rum?

These less than scholarly articles raise some interesting questions.

http://www.cracked.com/article_22773_5-important-historical-events-fueled-entirely-by-booze.html

"The drinking started after a meeting led by Samuel Adams at the Old South Church, when a group of men gathered at the house of newspaper publisher and tea-hater Benjamin Edes to discuss what to do about the British ships. Among the participants was a potent "punch" of red wine, rum, and whiskey to facilitate the flow of ideas, served in Edes' family punchbowl, which his son Peter was instructed to keep topped off like the country itself depended on it."

"The punch-drunk patriots boarded the ships and spent hours tossing the tea crates into the harbor, their efforts reportedly slowed by mandatory barf breaks. One Son of Liberty, John Crane, was knocked unconscious by a falling crate and mistaken for dead by his comrades. Thus did they waste additional time trying to figure out where to hide the body, eventually determining that the best place for it was in a pile of wood shavings in a shop near the dock. Given the situation and BAC levels that night, this is admittedly not the worst place Crane could have woken up."

They cite a few sources, but... essentially they're the kind of sources a comedy article would cite.

http://bizzylife.com/2010/11/the-real-story-behind-the-tea-party/

And then this article claims that it was all about rum in the first place:

"Wrong. Perhaps you are smarter than a fifth grader, but that is precious little consolation once you realize we were all lied to in the fifth grade. Contrary to popular opinion, the Puritans who founded this nation drank like fish. That is, if fish swam in ethyl alcohol. In those days, people still believed that water was not fit to drink. They thought it was unhealthy. Perhaps they were right at the time. After all, they had open sewers and livestock walked in the streets. So everyone in colonial American drank ale or hard cider for breakfast, rum for lunch and then wine for dinner – that is, if they could afford it and were still sober enough to dine. Based on production levels, estimates suggest that colonial-era Americans drank as much as 8 ounces of pure alcohol per day, per capita.

So, why did those tipsy colonial-era tea-baggers toss their Earl Grey into the harbor? The simple answer is this: They had absolutely no intention of wasting a precious drop of the real reason for their revolt – rum. In point of fact, rum was the central reason for the American Revolution. Our forefathers wanted cheap booze. Period. Everything else in the history books is just propaganda."

This article cites a single book as a source.

A Google search reveals that at least a few people have heard the drunk version of events before.

Any legitimacy to these claims?

1 Answers 2016-03-19

In Kingudamu (a manga about the warring states in China), several battles are won by slaying the enemy commander. Is such a feat actually recorded, if so, how often? Have armies in this period based their entire strategy on this?

Throughout the story, even armies with a large numerical advantage give up after losing their general. Does it have any historical basis?

5 Answers 2016-03-19

I found this old helmet in an antique store, and I was wondering where it is from.

It is rather battered, with multiple scratches and whatnot, and it doesn't look that familiar to me. I'm kind of a history buff, and it doesn't match any of the major powers with helmets. It kind of looks like a mixture of a few of them. If any of you can find out the country this helmet belongs to, and possibly a rough date on it, I will be very happy. I've never done anything having to do with Reddit before, and this is my first post. Please help. Thanks. http://imgur.com/a/YdWYV Here's a link to the some pictures I took of it. Sorry for the bad quality, but I don't have a real camera so I used my phone.

1 Answers 2016-03-19

Did the japanese government make "an adress to the nation" in 1937 and 1941 ?

Hi,

I'm currently doing a paper about adresses to the nation during world war 2 (when declaring war specifically). So far I gathered a nice corpus of sources, most of them in audio and video format which is pretty good. Yet, I'm struggling with the asian area, I don't have anything (I know the emperor wasn't speaking to the populace but any general or minister ?)

Couldn't find anything for China also, but I know there was something from "the battle of China" from Capa.

Any helps is appreciated, thank you.

Edit : I found this but no transcript : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B3F1vUvi5E

1 Answers 2016-03-19

Why was the khopesh sword important to the ancient Egyptians?

Is the design of it important? (as in would it affect history if it had not been created?)

1 Answers 2016-03-19

Why do we state an Egyptian god's name when closing out a Christian prayer? Amen!

2 Answers 2016-03-19

What was Scotland trying to do with the Darien scheme and why where they able to do anything at all?

The Darien scheme was an attempt by Scotland to establish a colony in what would come to be known as panama, this area had been under Spanish rule for at least a century at this point. why did Scotland attempt to build a colony there, was this in union with Spain or if it had been successful would it have likely started a war between them?

1 Answers 2016-03-19

To what extent can 'folklore' and 'folksong' be called 'authentic' representations of popular culture as so far as they are written down and contextualized, by academics or individuals with an agenda?

2 Answers 2016-03-18

How did Martin Luther King react to JFK's assassination?

1 Answers 2016-03-18

When and why did colonists of the Americas stop identifying as English, Spanish, or Portuguese?

What caused different cultural identities to develop, despite colonial culture being almost indistinguishable from that of the mother country, even after independence?

1 Answers 2016-03-18

There appears to be evidence, including NSAM 263, to show Kennedy would have withdrawn from Vietnam. Your analysis?

[deleted]

1 Answers 2016-03-18

In the medieval times when people were meeting others at night somewhere how did they know when to meet?

Let's say someone says in two days time. How long will the person wait for the other?

1 Answers 2016-03-18

When did European armies technologically and strategically surpass other (Ottoman, Muslim, Indian etc.) armies in the world?

Even after the technological advances of Renaissance, (for instance) the Ottoman armies were able to defeat European armies in certain battles in the 1600's and 1700's. In the 19th century, though, it seems that the European armies had finally gained an edge over the armies of other gunpowder empires. What technological advances enabled this and when did this transition finally take place?

2 Answers 2016-03-18

Complaint that FDR Didn't Understand the Value of a Dollar

I was speaking with my grandfather who mentioned that it was widely known that FDR "didn't understand the value of a dollar." The gist of this remark, in essence, was that FDR constantly overspent on his pet New Deal projects. I have searched for this phrase unsuccessfully. I was wondering if anyone else had heard this remark/sentiment before. Moreover, how would I go about finding citizen discourses such as this? It's pretty easy to find FDR's rhetoric. It is far less easy to find the gossipy sort that I suspect my grandfather remembers.

1 Answers 2016-03-18

How tolerant was the Pre-Constantine Roman Empire of supposed sorcerers, wizards, and petty magic users?

1 Answers 2016-03-18

How fast was the diffusion of the Gutenberg Press? When were Turks, Slavs, and Arabs able to appropriate the technology? Was there an influx of Latin or German literature in these cultures in the meantime?

1 Answers 2016-03-18

Why was Napoleon exiled to Elba?

Why Elba?

1 Answers 2016-03-18

Why are there so many little countries in Eastern Europe while in Western Europe there are less but bigger countries?

Did Eastern European countries no focus on expansion that much as Western Nations?

1 Answers 2016-03-18

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