Today everyone is commonly using year's numbers to talk about them, but were people in the past (mostly late medieval, early Renaissance) also using numbers in day to day talking or did it in different way?

I want to learn as much interesting history as I possibly can using books and accumulate knowledge. However I don’t know where to start with, it seems as if there’s endless amount of history and even more endless amount of books on that timeframe. Can you recommend me some interesting history books I can use to learn and go from there? As for interests I suppose I’m interested in the middles ages but the books don’t exactly have to be from there. Thank you.

I am reading the Ulysses S. Grant memoir and having a hard time comprehending or finding more info on how he describes the city in this passage. Literally built on planks over the water?

“In 1853 the town had grown out into the bay beyond what was the end of this wharf when I first saw it. Streets and houses had been built out on piles where the year before the largest vessels visiting the port lay at anchor or tied to the wharf. There was no filling under the streets or houses. San Francisco presented the same general appearance as the year before; that is, eating, drinking and gambling houses were conspicuous for their number and publicity. They were on the first floor, with doors wide open. At all hours of the day and night in walking the streets, the eye was regaled, on every block near the water front, by the sight of players at faro. Often broken places were found in the street, large enough to let a man down into the water below. I have but little doubt that many of the people who went to the Pacific coast in the early days of the gold excitement, and have never been heard from since, or who were heard from for a time and then ceased to write, found watery graves beneath the houses or streets built over San Francisco Bay.”

I just recently saw a meme which implied this idea to be true, even in the comments I saw one talking about how this person's history teacher told their class about this being true.

I personally didn't find any evidence of this being certain. Everything I found on "Leonardo Da Vinci's boyfriend" was about Cesare Borgia, but no accounts of him and Leo dating, only speculation. Furthermore, on "The face of Jesus" was also mentioned Gian Giacomo Caprotti, who was a pupil of Leo's. Both of them seem to be "the face of Jesus" but none are proven to have dated Leonardo.

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but curiosity struck me and maybe here I will find my answers. I also apologize for any misspelling, bad grammar or poor formulation, English is not my mother tongue.

In the Middle Ages did any people live outside of the feudal system in a forest or something and evade being some rich king's serf and instead get to live on a patch of land that they owned?

coming out of concentration camps, we have traumatized adults, probably with their property stolen and certainly without jobs, as well as orphaned children. How were these people reintegrated into society? And because Jews made up the largest number of ex-prisoners, was there a significant difference in their experience with others?

The books of Ezekiel and Jeremiah foretold that Nebuchadnezzar would attack and desolate Egypt. The Egyptians would be taken into exile, and then they would return after 40 years.

What, if any, is the evidence for this 40-year desolation of Egypt?

When people think of cats and Egypt, the thought of why Egyptians worshipped them comes up and I was wondering if they were able to generate fertilizer to hold up a large civilization like Egypt in it's prime.

How they would be used for fertilizers:

1. Cats can be trained to use a litter box.
2. Sand, excrement, and urine from a litter box may be useful in combination.
3. Cats can also eat and repel rat populations, helping in vermin control.

Final questions:

1. Why were cats worshipped in Egypt?
2. Were they used to generate fertilizers?

What is it made of? What surrounds it? Would it differ if I was Anglo-Saxon or British/Celtic? How would it be decorated?

From what I gathered, it seems that Grimm's fairy tales were brought to Japan as late as 19th century. Is that correct?

And how much do we know exactly about this phenomenon? Who was the first publisher or translator of these tales? Were they instantly accepted or did it take some time? What are the most important milestones in Japan's acceptance of German fairy tales?

If you have any knowledge on European tales brought to Japan in general, that could be an interesting read too.

Thank you for your attention! (And my apologies in advance for any cases of slight miscommunication due to language barrier)

While it's taboo in most Christian countries to name your son Jesus, it's quite common in Hispanic countries. It's also common in Islamic societies to name boys Muhammad and variations thereof.
Is this related to the cultural shift that happened in Spain during the reign of the Emirate of Cordoba? Or is there another reason?

I have heard about them running out of food and getting stuck in the mountains in the cold because of issues with the map. But I don't know any of the specifics of exactly what happened. Could someone please explain what happened?

I recently learned about the Late Bronze Age Collapse and how it lead to a dark age. I understood how other factors (earthquakes, drought, famine) weakened the Hittites, Mycenaeans, and Kassites before the Sea Peoples arrived. Who exactly were the Sea Peoples and what happened to them after they sacked these civilizations?

I thought I heard Dan Carlin relating this story, but all I could find from Googling is the story of Zedekiah.

I May be off on the empire. It may have been the Babylonians or Assyrians.

But was there a real event close in description to the Zedekiah story; and if so, what was it?

I am wanting to begin work on an alternate-history project that focuses on this topic in particular, and I was wondering what are some examples of the Entente going back on promises, breaking them, or similar acts, whether these were actually done or just believed to be by the other party.

The two examples that I know of are Italy's belief that they did not gain all of the territory promised to them, and the decision to split the Middle East into distinct nations instead of founding the United Arab Kingdom.

I am not very well-versed in the history of the Great War, so it would be great to see some ideas I can use as starting points.

(Again to specify, the Parentheses around "agreements" in the title in case these broken promises are believed to be exaggerated or fabricated by the hurt party. )

I’ve got a term paper coming up and I’d like to write about the pony express. This paper has to be rather long (10 pages) and only 18 months of operation doesn’t give me a lot to go on. Any ideas, scholarly articles or sources would help.

I understand how the governors and urban merchants and their descendants would switch to Latin and its descendants.

What I don’t understand is how the peasants switched languages. How did that happen?