Caffeine is a very popular ingredient in soda, but i'm not entirely sure why. it's bitter, so surely it doesn't add to the taste. why did caffeine end up being such a regular ingredient of so many sodas?

Are there any instances of this? Maybe some cheese maker rivalries or something of that nature?

Wouldn't Moscow have made the most sense, as it is the capital and hub of communications?

Being as blunt as possible, would individuals in the English kingdom have viewed this as a dick joke? He earned the nickname from his poor military acumen, but I was wondering if any evidence supported the idea that he was called this for non-military reasons as well.

I dont know much of anything about the history between these two nations. I understand there was a hostage crisis in the '80s that didnt go very well for anyone, and that the Iranian government today is run by religious figures.

I feel like I get conflicting messages though, where on one hand I see the government as zealots who want to start a nuclear war, and on the other I see the people of Iran as basically not being that different from Americans (particularly the youth culture).

Why is it that we in the west have so much fear and distrust in Iran, such that we try constantly to limit their influence?

Lend-lease was given to the USSR, the USSR gave equipment to the North Koreans and North Vietnamese. Was any of it ever used against American troops?

Have nations become less confrontational? Have nations become more giving to each other? Have nations become more educationally/scientifically oriented as a whole? Has the number of invasions increased/decrease? Have humans focused more on existentialism now that their world can be erased in a flash?

Hello,

I'm quite a plane enthusiast, especially WW2 prop planes. I'm looking for primary performance data, or original design documents for some world war 2 planes, mostly american planes (like the F6F, P-51, F4U, P-38, B-17 ext.).

Is there a published archive of any of these documents? or is there a book that would have complied copies of these documents?

Thanks

Did this battle between the Poles and the Soviets prevent communism from spreading to Western Europe? From my knowledge this battle ended the civil war in Russia at the time, but did this also crush Lenin's vision of a communist Europe?

edit: did this*

I read somewhere that the the Northern forces were near collapse by the time we exited Vietnam? How true was this? Were we unaware of their manpower at the time, or did we leave anyway due to public pressure?

I've been watching the German-language musical "Elisabeth" (about the life of Empress Sisi of Austria-Hungary). While it does provide a refreshingly dark view of the Hapsburg dynasty's final days (as opposed to the fairy tale romance constructed by the "Sissi" trilogy), there are some elements that confuse me that I'd like to learn more about.

As I understand, Kaiser Franz Joseph I was not actually the first in succession for the throne of Austria. He got into that position through the political maneuvering of his mother, Sophie of Bavaria. But how was this possible? What did she do in order to get him there? Why was her husband so easily persuaded to give up his claim to the throne so that it would pass to Franz Joseph?

I understand that Franz Joseph's predecessor, Ferdinand I, was feebleminded and seen as unfit to rule. But I'm still not entirely sure how a noblewoman managed to unseat an emperor. Or did Sophie simply take advantage of a power vacuum after Ferdinand's forced abdication after the 1848 revolution? Who backed her? And who was her opposition? What was the alternative?

The people's temple pulled off the only successful assassination of a u.s senator in history. When the u.s government sent Ryan in to survey jonestown, did they see his death as a possibility? What was the u.s government prepared to do in response had the people's temple not committed mass suicide afterwards? Was military intervention an option in dealing with Jonestown?

Had they been available in, say, 1944, or shortly after D-Day, when the balance was uncertain and thousands of Allied troops were dying in events like the Battle of the Bulge, do you think nuclear weapons would have been dropped on Berlin?

Seems like a potentially similar situation/moral question that they faced against Japan - the death of thousands to speed up the end of the war, vs the inevitable death of thousands in a drawn out process.

Yet it somehow seems hard to imagine - despite the firebombing of Dresden - that they would have been okay with killing so many European civilians.

Thoughts?

I was just reading my IB history textbook on China. In it they were saying no country wanted to openly challenge the United States. Referring to the Open Door Policy. This took place in 1899 but it seems to be a common idea that the US only truly became a super power during the 20th century when it 'carried' the allies to victory in WW2.

How likely is it that William delayed the launch of his fleet until Anglo-Saxon forces had been significantly weakened by Hardrada's invasion?