Would the holy Grail be considered a McGuffin?

What about Jason's Golden fleece?

What do you think the earliest example of a MacGuffin is?

In fiction, a MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or maguffin) is a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation. The specific nature of a MacGuffin is typically unimportant to the overall plot.

Examples in film include: the meaning of "rosebud" in Citizen Kane (1941),[15] the priceless statue in The Maltese Falcon (1941), the NOC list in Mission: Impossible (1996) or the Rabbit's Foot in Mission: Impossible III (2006),[16][17] the briefcases in Pulp Fiction, several Coen brothers films, and Ronin, the rug in The Big Lebowski, the Heart of the Ocean necklace in Titanic,[18] the mineral unobtainium in Avatar (2009),[19] and the One Ring in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.[20]

All the points from both sides, the background, all that. This place is the best at giving answers and I've never really looked into this

Buddhism was founded in India ~500BC, and it spread all the way to Japan by ~500AD. However it never spread to Europe, how far west did it spread? What were the interactions between Indian Buddhists and the peoples to the west such as Persian Zoroastrians? Would citizens of classical Rome have known about Buddhism?

I've always been a huge fan of good forms custom - made for a single purpose. I want to learn more about how the British and Americans overcame the tremendous organizational and administrative challenges of WWII; namely, what forms did they use, how did they handle the need for multiple copies of documents, how did they structure their paper filling systems, what systems did they have in place for approval of things like unit citations, etc. Were people given training in administrative efficiency? Are there examples or samples of forms used at the time in war departments?

I was looking at photos of it last night and it's exceptionally detailed and in great condition given how its nearly 2000 years old. Was it in one piece when it was discovered? Or was it reconstructed?

Apologies if this is a little too modern for /r/AskHistorians, we can stop the discussion at 1996 if necessary. I tried looking for similar threads here and could not find any.

The root of my question is this: I've noticed in a lot of shows and movies (Mad Men for example) that passenger airliners of the 1960s are very similar to today's modern iterations. The major difference to my radically untrained eye is merely that modern airliners are less comfortable and more cramped due to cramming more people on board. Even the flight transit times seem similar. In other words, it seems like major innovation on passenger jets stalled between the 60s and today. Contrast this to the absolutely stunning rapid improvement of aviation between 1903 and WWII and it's a bit of a discrepancy.

Feel free to destroy any assumptions I have made!

(note: I am only interested in commercial transport aviation - obviously there have been rapid improvements to military aviation).

I'm really curious about how melee fighting was handled in any of these situations, especially since renaissance pikemen didn't have shields like hellenic troops, which would suggest that this combat devolved into two growing piles of corpses.

How similar would a Soviet court be to a court in the US or UK? Would there be a prosecutor? A defence lawyer? A jury? Would the court be open to the public?

For example, do we know if people in the 1890s would ever wax nostalgic about trends from "the 60s" (meaning 1860s), etc? Or is such rapid and distinct change between decades a more recent phenomenon due to advanced manufacturing and things like that?

I was just thinking about how it will be "the 20s" again soon in a few years here, and how that might get a little confusing in future decades when people might say "the 20s" to refer to either the 2020s or the Gatsby era of flappers and Babe Ruth. Was just wondering if this dilemma occurs every century or not.

Another years has come and gone, and that means the "20 Year Rule" marches forward as well! As you may or may not be aware, we operate the rule on a calendar year, so you don't need to wait for a specific day to roll around, but instead everything from 1996 is immediately within the purview of the rule.

What does 1996 hold in store for us? Well, there were coups in Niger and Sierra Leon and the Docklands bombing by the PIRA. The Siege of Sarajevo was lifted and the Dunblane massacre occurred in Scotland. We also have the final stages of the First Chechen War and also the 1996 Olympics! The Taliban captured Kabul, and Calvin and Hobbes finished its publishing run and Wikipedia lied to me.

That's only a small number of eligible topics, so get over those hangovers, and start asking questions!

Edit: Just a reminder, this is simply an announcement posts. Don't ask (serious) questions here. Make new threads for 'em!

Did they look at it as natural or a good thing or a bad thing? Let's say on a coalminer's life had no direct effect of colonization, so how would he view it?

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There were 3 ancient civilizations (at least ) in India, China, Egypt.

While some myths have a basis in fact, the stories of a world wide flood would have disrupted (if not wiped out) the centers of culture/commerce/civilization that existed around 2400 BCE.

Do the records of the three above have a gap at the same time that could be explained by a flood, or are the records not complete enough to make such a determination?

I know that the late arrival of the idea of Englishness might be one cause, but are there others reasons?

I've always had it in my head that news was suppressed, but I don't have any basis for this assumption. Was the news clearly available? Were facts changed/withheld?

Thanks!

I've been reading about Middle and South American history lately, and this is a question I've been wondering about. If I understood correctly, most of the ruling class of both Incas and Aztecs were dealt with by the Spanish, but was there ever any real attempt to overthrow the new rule by the surviving Incas or Aztecs?

Wouldn't that be suicide?