My grandfather was going to be sent to the Pacific for the invasion of Japan but was instead sent to Europe because of the bomb. He basically got a free vacation out of the war. He told me that inflation was rampant in Germany after Berlin was divided up because the US printed a bunch of money in order to trade between the different sectors. He said that he could sell a carton of cigarettes for ridiculous prices in Berlin and he sent a lot of that money home where it was still worth the actual amount. Has anyone heard of this? He told this story to me again the other day and I can't seem to find any sources about it.

I found a few somewhat related question but I am looking for specific 'aha' moment or study that clearly shows this.

I envision this graph with a before we knew of hand washing and after and it will look something like

        -----------\
                        \
                          \ 
                           \

(where x is time and y is the number of sick people)

Is this true is any way? How did people teach this? Was there an uproar? Maybe people were offended thinking they are clean enough?

Things like carved pillars or painted statements on walls, if not actual documents. Specifically I want to know if there's a place online, or some book(s) or what have you, where I can read either the translations themselves or an analysis of them and what they tell us about their cultures of origin (as opposed to what's been sussed out from artifacts and paintings.) edit: Thanks you guys, you're amazing!

OK so that's a bit of a wide net I'm casting, but to be honest I'm looking at my post-grad options and I have no idea where to start.

I haven't applied to grad school next year purely for financial reasons, but I'm still really interested in historical research and academia. Is it possible to do research at a university if I'm not enrolled in its grad program? Would I be able to get a job in history anywhere else with only a Bachelor's? Or should I just bite the bullet and take out a couple student loans for my Master's/PhD (which, by the way, I don't entirely understand. Do I need a Master's before I can apply for a PhD? Are there PhD programs which include paths to a Master's?)

I feel dumb asking questions like this, but I'm only a few months away from graduating and my future just looks... gray and hazy. All I really want to do is go into academia and write and study for the rest of my life, but I don't know if a life like that is possible anymore, if it really ever existed at all.

Often in adventure films (like Indiana Jones), the ancient temple has numerous clever mechanisms designed to injure/kill our hero in their attempts to explore it.

Did ancient civilizations actually ever construct trap mechanisms like crushing ceilings, dart shooters, flooding rooms or giant rolling rocks? Or were pitfall traps about as complex as they got?

During the colonial period, what would prohibit me from crossing over the proclamation line of 1763 and claiming land for the Kingdom of Bernardia or whatever?

Similarly, in the post-independence era, what would stop me from going west and doing the same?

After the U.S., wasn't there enough material and energy overflow to defeat the dwindling German army/air-force?

I’ve had an ongoing discussion with my father (he is a sceptic) regarding whether the Vikings/Norse actually visited North America or not and if they did, how far south did they actually travel? Before getting to the actual questions I just want to say that I have done some basic googling on the topic, and have my opinions on the more subjective questions, but I still want to ask the questions as open as possible in order to not limit the answers to my limited knowledge on the topic.

*Did the Norse actually visit Vinland or was this a mythological place and is there a scientific consensus on this?

*What are the primary sources for this knowledge?

*How far south has one managed to establish that they traveled

*What are archeological evidence that L'Anse aux Meadows is a Norse settlement (please add references to published papers if possible)? Is there any other sites that have confirmed Norse presence?

*Why did the settlements fail?

*One counterargument that I’ve been told is that studies have not managed to find any genetic traces in the current population, and if there is one thing that men do when they arrive somewhere is to spread their genes. Do you know of this/these studies? Is there any validity to this argument?

*Another argument is the very subjective “those waters around Greenland are too treacherous to sail, they couldn’t have done it”, have anyone built a Viking boat and sailed to North Amerika in modern times?

And religion as a main cause, mostly.

It must have happened at some point, you build up a static charge and eventually the sparks fly, especially visible at night. How did ancient people explain these sparks, is there any folklore about this?

Any background would be really helpful. Thank you!

We've all been there... 3 am, you're a little drunk, and quite lonely, so you send a text to that not so special someone. Is there any evidence of one of these pre-cellphone era? Perhaps even a letter? Anything at all really.

I’m currently writing a paper on the Bill of Rights, and I’m slightly confused about how the whole process of the Glorious Revolution could just be declared legal retrospectively. As far as I understand, James II had discontinued Parliament, then fled, after William was invited to invade. He was then asked by some MPs of Charles II’s Parliament to summon a Convention Parliament, which he did, but was illegal as only the King could summon Parliament and he wasn’t the King yet. This Convention then declared him King and in turn, he and Queen Mary declared the Convention to be a rightful Parliament.

My problem is: Isn’t this just a paradoxical, eternal loop? I see how a Monarch could declare the Convention to be legitimate – but only a legitimate Monarch, which William and Mary only became because of the illegal Parliament. How does this work? I’m also pretty sure you can’t use Parliamentary sovereignty as an argument as this concept also only developed via the Bill of Rights.

Could anyone explain this?

from what I've been told on here in the past, I understand that calling Edo period japan "medieval" is kind of unfair. I would have thought that actual Japanese people would more inclined to fair to their own history, than westerners

If not, why? Kind of seems like a useful thing to have

Also, given the effectiveness of German subs during WW1 why didn't Britain (the world's best naval power) have subs become a major part of their navy?

If the allies did have submarines, why aren't they talked about at all?

Do you know any curious examples that I could look into? Any weird ones? How was this advertising received? Did people actually believe in tonics?

Thank you very much in advance.

I have seen many countries in MENA region with rectilinear and perpendicular borders. Is it just a coincidence, or is there a reason for it ?