Hey /r/askhistorians, Who was mark rothko? I know he was a contemporary artist in the 20th century and what-not, but what major impacts did he have? Why does everyone know his name? What is he especially well known for (in the art world and otherwise)? thanks!

The episode is set in 1961 and the baby is born via c-section so the mother is not awake to see the baby being born. The baby is just taken to the room where bed pans and such were emptied and I wonder if this really did happen? Were babies just left to die by themselves?

I understand that potatoes were and are a staple crop in Andean diets but it's hard for me to picture what meals looked like back then considering so many current recipes use Old World live stock. I would imagine that llamas, guinea pigs, and in the southern reaches of the empire, guancos, would be seen in some recipes. Thank you for your time.

For example, I know Marx wasn't around during the French Revolution and America was finishing their own, but were there social/economic/political reasons for why the Third Estate couldn't have established a ruling Communist party?

Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism all have foods that their adherents are not supposed to eat. I'm going to frame this question in terms of Judaism, which is the one I know most about, but I'm interested in this in terms of any and all religions.

For Jews, kosher rules are extensive. No meat from an animal that doesn't have both split hooves and chew its cud, so while sheep, goat, and cattle are ok, there's not a lot beyond that. Only a select few birds are OK, and any seafood needs to have scales and fins - which rules out all shellfish. Beyond that, the animal needs to be slaughtered according to set rules, and after slaughter, only certain PARTS of the animal are ok (no kosher filet mignon or sirloin).

Now, I have no idea how these rules evolved over the millenia, but Jewish dietary rules are pretty restrictive. It's not so difficult to manage to get enough food in modern times, but how did such restrictive rules arise in the first place? Was there such an extensive food surplus in the ancient middle east that people had enough calories they were all right ignoring so many food supplies that neighboring peoples ate freely?

Everyone knows the German 6. Army at Stalingrad (probably) - a numbered army. Also, the Corps in the American Civil War were numbered. But when did Armies actually start numbering all their subunits / which country was the first to number their formations?

And were there any notable exceptions after that?

Edit: I feel some more description would be useful:

With leaders names I understand for example A.P. Hills division of the American Civil War. Or the general name of the Armies in that War (Army of the James, the Potomac etc. ), for other, different Naming conventions.

Nowadays, Units are usually Numbered (101. Airborne, 6. Jägerbattalion ...). But when did numbering replace naming?

I've read that some people say that it was to improve literacy rates, and others say it was so they could rewrite history when they translated old text written in traditional characters.

To be more specific, in Germany, France or England during the High Middle Ages. I can't lose my medievalist street cred by being insufficiently precise with periodization.

I imagine they'd be stamped out very quickly, but just wondered if there's ever been any record of rebel groups trying to organise in DPRK?

If the trenches of WW1 were a long continuous line, when a sector was captured in battle why didn't the victors just move all the way down the line until the whole line was captured?

For instance, with the Roman fascination and idealization of Greek culture, how common would it be for an educated Roman citizen to name their child after a well known Greek figure? Or a medieval Japanese person being named after a Chinese philosopher or warrior? I am curious about any examples, but particularly interested in name appropriation in Eurasian tribal groups. Would a Kievan Rus family name their eldest son after a Scythian king, for instance?

In regards to public perception mostly. Having signed into law the bills that created OSHA and the EPA, built diplomatic ties with China, and other progressive reforms, was Nixon viewed as potentially another "great" president for this sort of work? Was the level of reform and diplomacy considered above average for a president to accomplish?

It seems as if he's vilified in modern times for his roles in Vietnam and Watergate, but how did the contemporary public view him?

Do any of the texts specifically mention how skilled he was in battle at all? Was he as dangerous and as effective as modern historians have made him out to be, and what separated him from other knights of his time?

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It has recently occurred to me that all the famous universities in Japan are relatively new. I looked up and apparently the oldest university in Japan was built in mid XIX century. It seems strange to me given that most European countries have universities dating back more than 400 hundred years, some countries like UK and Italy have universities as old as XI century. Japan is a pretty old country with a long and rich history, so why desn't it have much older higher education institutions? Or did they simply not survive until now?

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As a half-Austrian half-Spaniard born in Flanders with a life spent both in Germany and Spain, I've always wondered what accent Charles V would have used naturally, in normal conversation. His famous quote, though mis-attributed through a lack of historical evidence, is that he spoke "Spanish to God, Italian to Women, French to Men, and German to [his] Horse", so might it have been more a case that he was so multi-lingual he just used whatever accent came with the language he would have been speaking at the time?

The 1914 - 1918 war was known as "The Great War" for some time. When did the phrase World War come into common usage?

The American and the Soviet program were influenced by finding blueprints of the V-2 from captured factories, as well as capturing scientists. I know that the Soviet's heavily based their R1 ICBM on the V-2, but were they influenced after the production of the R1, or did the program rely more on modified Soviet designs and scientists?