Maybe this is a really dumb question and I'm not sure if this is the right subreddit for it but I'm assuming you folks here have the most expertise on this stuff.

So, kings who all share the same name. You'd think that you'd give the heir to your throne a name that would make him stand out, not be 'king number six'. It reminds me of people with pets who just call each new dog 'Sparky' or each new bunny 'Mister Sniffles'.

Obviously there are the Kings named George (which would make for a nice band name) and here in the Netherlands we've had a Willem 1, Willem 2, Willem 3, followed by a queen called Wilhelmina and at the moment we have a king again, called Willem-Alexander.

Also, if you don't use roman numerals to address the different Georges and Willems it looks even weirder.

But I digress.

Collective identity is an interesting thing. The American Revolution would've never happened had the majority of colonists still viewed themselves as 'British'. It seems like this transition happened relatively quickly. But why?

After hearing some comments from a Brazilian student of mine, it got me researching this particular point of aviation history. Many regard the Wright Brothers as being the inventors of the airplane. However, according to Brazilians, Alberto Santos-Dumont was the first.

Many Brazilians claim (somewhat ironically) that Americans push a false view of history due to vanity and national pride. Obviously, the distortion of history for nationalistic purposes is well-possible of any country, so I didn't want to discount anything. While the true answer seems to be "no one person invented it," it would be nice to have some clear facts regarding this debate if it ever came up again.

Here are my specific questions:

1. What is the definition of airplane when someone says the "first airplane was invented by..." Conversely, what is the definition of a glider.

2. One of the factors that Santos-Dumont supporters often cite is that the Wright Brothers used a "catapult" system to launch the plane from the ground. It is therefore, not a plane, but a glider. Depending on whose opinion you read, this system seems to range from "nothing but a rail" to some kind of massive trebuchet-like system that propelled it into the air allowing it to glide for extended periods. What are the technical details of this device?

3. Another factor is that the French FAI officially awarded Santos-Dumont for his achievements at the time. What is their stance on the Wright Brothers flights, being documented, but not publicly shown. Also, How authoritative is the FAI in matters of aviation history?

Articles and comments on the net seem to be rife with bias without clear definitions and technical details, so any clarity on these points would be appreciated.

As someone who had a birthday yesterday I can't help but wonder when it first became common to celebrate the day of birth, and what importance it had.

I have always wondered this and I am curious if anyone has any insight

There's some minor drama in /r/books regarded Game of Thrones and how much rape and sexual violence is featured on the show. I know GoT is set in a fictional reality, but it's based on a few different historical events and is generally considered to have a medieval setting.

Was rape really more common in medieval times? Not only during war or the sacking of a city, but during peace time?

After ww1 and the depression that also struck europe, germany was completely broke. Where did all the money come from that was fed into the economy and infrastructure to feed the new war machine? Basically, who was Hitlers benefactor?

I saw a post about Pompeii and Vesuvius reach the front page today and it got me thinking about volcanic eruptions, and specifically about why Vesuvius' eruptions seems to the most studied of any of the large volcanic eruptions.

There have been several eruptions that were larger and more deadly than Vesuivias, and a few of them happening in the last 200 years (Mount Tambora, Krakatoa, Mount Pelee, and Nevado del Ruiz). Not to mention there were two eruptions between 1600-1800 that killed millions, not thousands, but millions of people (Laki and Huaynaputina).

I understand that Vesuvius was a devastating eruption, but it just seems weird that it is the most talked about, studied and cataloged.

Almost everything I "know" about Jews in Egypt comes from Jewish or Christian teachings. I'm curious if there are any records from Egypt that corroborate the Jewish stories of Egypt (particularly that of Moses, but preliminary searches indicate that such records don't appear to exist).

Are there guesses? Was the New Testament written by a disciple?

Other than royalty staying in the family wouldn't it be safer for their future children to have a child without chance of mutation?

Particularly from 1080 — 1348, what sort of military ships were used and relied upon during this time period? What did naval warfare look like, and how long could a ship or fleet sustain itself on a single voyage before having to restock on food and supplies?

I am particularly interested in answers to these questions based off of how England, France, and Spain faired during this time period.

Obviously we think of this year as 2014 AD. How did people distinguish the years before we started using this scale? Did they simply not have a need for year counting? Has there been anything found in Egyptian hieroglyphs or some lost scroll from the middle ages that determines those people were using year counting?

Essentially, when did contracting of military hardware become a formalized process and was it always done by the lowest bidder?