I've heard claims that ancient Egyptians were "pitch black" in terms of skin tone. I know this comes from a very afrocentric view of history, which carries a lot of political connotations. But can we for certain say "the ancient Egyptians were X color"?

If I were alive in 1890, living in Gothenburg, Sweden, and wanted to travel to the Ural Mountains (such as Perm or Yekaterinburg) in Russia, how would I go about it? My guess is taking a boat and somehow continuing east along the Volga River, but perhaps there were railroads that would make the trip easier? Also, what kind of travel documents or passports were needed? Any information on this would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

I understand some states have had their own referenda but I was wondering if there was any history of nationwide referenda in the United States. I have a keen interest, but my knowledge of the history of the US is limited and I can't say I've ever heard of a nationwide referendum in the US. Is this something that federal law permits? If not why not? Throughout history has there ever been a serious call for a referendum on a specific issue?

As someone with semi-long hair this has kind of been bugging me lately.

Also, how did these differences affect the paths these countries took?

Journey to the West is one of the most well-known pieces of Chinese literature. But I've always found it puzzling how Sun Wukong (aka Monkey or the Monkey King) became associated with the historical monk Xuanzang's journey to India. How did the story of Sun Wukong originate? How did it get wrapped up with Xuanzang's story?

At the time of the October revolution, the Bolsheviks were not at all popular, particularly in comparison to the Mensheviks, so how did they manage to form a government with such little public support and divisions within the party, and go on to rule the country with great popularity for a number of decades?

Was he aware of Ishii's intended human testing when he approved the project?

So diving straight into it:

Why is it called University in Europe/Australia/Asia but College in America?

Why is Public School in Britain but Private School in Australia?

Why is it 1st, 2nd, 3rd year in Australia but Freshman, Sophomore and Senior in America?

Whether Herald, Times, Independent, Examiner, Sun, Tribune or Post. etc. I've seen all these in Europe and the US and elsewhere.

How did this happen, (and is it replicated in other languages)?

Specifically what I'm interested in is how their military was created and run before the british mandate officially terminated at midnight on May 14th.

I was also wondering how they were so effective in the following wars since the IDF was such a new force.

Lastly I know that its not technically "military" but I was wondering how Mossad became so effective/"powerful" so quickly.

This new TV show called Scorpion claimed that Einstein's IQ was "only 165" while the main character has an IQ of 178. I realize the show is full of crap, but I keep hearing that number for Einstein. Is this just someone's best guess, or do we actually have a record of him taking a reliable IQ test? If so, can you link the source?

I was playing Mario Kart 64 the other day, and couldn't help but notice how bizarre the artistic direction was. Everything about it felt very Japanese. I'm wondering Mario is full of cultural motifs that I'm unaware of.

There are many things to look at here: story of a lone everyman rescuing a woman from a castle, turtles depicted as being evil, mushrooms and veggies being magical, the acid-trip art style, to name a few.

Nuclear weapons and civil strife influenced Akira, were there any influences the first few Mario games (say, pre n-64).

I'm just curious if there is any other recorded American searches or trials for witches. We all know about the salem ones but I would love some info on any from the NY & NJ Region or anywhere for that matter. Thank you, also happy Halloween in advance!

I know that "Native Americans" may be too broad to provide a good answer. If it is, then how about the Native Americans who lived in or near the colonial regions, or the tribe that Pocahantas was from?