I've been curious how popular braces (worn on teeth) were during World War II era United States. I know that they've been around since the early 20th century, but was curious how prominent they really were, especially among High School aged teenagers.

I'm curious. The typical narrative about Prohibition is that we should laugh at the folly of the nanny state but I recall reading at some point that alcohol abuse was a much worse problem back then than it is now, that we are judging things by our own contemporary experience, and wish to know how true that is.

I'm interested in the medieval period, and whether assassinations were really as common as the media presents them. Also, how would one have gone about hiring an assassin, and what methods would they have used? Would some targets, such as clergymen, have been considered above assassination? Sorry for the many questions, I've just become really interested in this topic (mostly after playing medieval II total war).

Personally I'm rather skeptical of the type of claims made by Francis Fukuyama about the end of history: that liberal democracy or capitalism or whatever is leading us to an end of conflict. This skepticism got me wondering, does anyone know of any academics, or leaders or generals or anyone throughout history who has applied similar logic? Someone who has concluded that the world they live in is approaching the ends of human development. Sorry if I'm not being very clear :)

In 1948, many Arab countries presented a united front against Israel. By 1994, Jordan and Egypt had made peace with Israel, and Lebanon had just ended in 1990 a 15-year long civil war. What brought about this stark change?

I mean, if we follow what the Gospels are saying, we know:

• it was the day before a sabbath (Friday)
• the sky went dark (which I've often heard explained as an eclipse)
• it was during Passover (which occurs based off of a lunar cycle)

Wouldn't all of these requirements narrow down the options for a possible exact date?

I recently wondered how the ancients (particularly the Greeks & Romans) measured what year it was. Our modern BCE/CE calendar system is based upon eras set by Christianity. The aforementioned civilisations existed well before Christianity gained widespread popularity, and thus well before our BCE/CE system was even constructed. The ancients lived in their perceived present day (as do we), so what event did they utilise to identify current/previous eras, and more so, to identify the year number (i.e '2014').

tl;dr How did classical antiquity measure what year it was, what calendar system did they use, and from what point did they measure from?

I ask because it's Good Friday, and because I'm genuinely curious.

I know nothing of Roman currency of the time.

I would like a cheaper option (although/because I realize nothing will be 'cheap') which is not too worn.

I know they are for sale on eBay, but I don't know the difference between the various options.

I would think that if it's such an important building the government would always try to keep it maintained. Where was the gap from when it was really important in antiquity to now when we think it's a valuable piece of history that should be preserved? And why that gap?

While the United States' expansion across North America and later the Pacific was certainly Imperialistic, I was wondering why the US did not establish itself as a global empire in a fashion resembling France or Great Britain instead of controlling its neighbors through semi-puppet governments.

I absolutely abhor the ideology, but I think there is a lot of very interesting music produced around that time.

Even if not produced, the march songs were very carefully selected AFAIK.

I'd love to hear more about it, and if someone could point me in the right direction as to where I can learn more about it that would be very interesting for me to look into.

Britain already had a lot of political control in the Middle East, and I doubt they were motivated by ethical considerations of Zionism. What was in it for them to establish Israel?

I noticed that when talking about casualties in the Civil War the number combines all the people who were killed, wounded, or captured but for other wars, like WW2, the casualties number just includes dead, why is this?

I am talking about the American President, of course. Did any First lady give birth while her husband was President? Who was the most recent?