As you've no doubt discovered while reading the questions and answers offered in /r/AskHistorians, in a bid to keep the focus off of current events (and, moreover, current politics) we have chosen to enact a not-always-elegant and not-always-total ban on discussions of events that had taken place less than 20 years ago. Up until yesterday, that cut us off at the end of 1993 -- but no longer.

1994 is now open for business!

And what a year it was! Here are some of the highlights:

• Designated by the United Nations as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal.

• Finland and Sweden vote to join the European Union.

• Jan. 1: The establishment of NAFTA

• Jan. 14: U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin Accords

• Feb. 12: Edvard Munch's famous painting "The Scream" is stolen from a museum in Oslo

• Feb. 12: Opening of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer

• March 1-ish: China connects to the Internet for the first time

• March 1: Justin Bieber born

• March 12: First female priests in Church of England ordained

• March 27: Silvio Berlusconi elected Prime Minister of Italy

• March 31: Confirmed report of the discovery of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull

• April 7: The Rwandan Genocide begins

• April 8: Kurt Cobain of the popular band Nirvana found dead

• April 22: Death of controversial former U.S. President Richard Nixon

• April 27: The first multi-racial elections in South African history mark the formal end of Apartheid; Nelson Mandela elected president

• May 1: Death of Ayrton Senna, internationally celebrated Formula One champion, in an accident during a Grand Prix in Italy

• May 6: The great Channel Tunnel (or "Chunnel", as some came to call it) opens between England and France after over seven years of construction

• June 1: The Republic of South Africa rejoins the British Commonwealth after having left it in 1961

• June 15: Israel and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations for the first time

• June 23: First Centennial of the International Olympic Committee

• July 12: Allied occupation of Berlin formally concludes

• August 31: Departure of Russian army from Latvia and Estonia marks formal conclusion of all Soviet occupation in Eastern Europe

• September 19: Deployment of American troops in support of exiled Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide

• October 3-4: Members of the Solar Temple Cult commit mass suicide at compounds in Canada and Switzerland

• November 5: Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan announces he has Alzheimer's Disease

• December 14: Construction of massive Three Gorges Dam in China begins

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the events of 1994, however, and I'm sure we'll be hearing about a great deal more of them as the months unfold.

So: you may now discuss 1994 -- please use these powers responsibly.

I know that Prussia became communist Poland and east Germany after the war, but was there a significant Prussian aristocracy/culture/philosophies etc remain in post-war Germany?

Back when interracial marriage was a contested legal issue, were there any opponents that used the "slippery slope" argument, and claimed that it could lead to legal homosexual marriage?

I'm aware that the answer to this question might simply be "very little or none at all". But I'm curious...It seems to me that the events and ideas of the French Revolution had a great impact on the history of Haiti, but what of the other Francophone culture in the Americas? Obviously there is a major difference in that Haiti was under French rule and Quebec under British rule, but the people of Quebec were culturally and linguistically French. Was news of the revolution widespread in Quebec? Did the revolutionary ideas have any cultural or political ramifications in Canada or was it just a passing news story?

Who decided it was this day and not any other day?

The first few chapters of 'Inverting the Pyramid' by Jonathan Wilson discuss the spread of football (or soccer) to the rest of Europe and to South America by British emmigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

But why did football not take off in many of the countries that were British colonies at the time (e.g. India, Pakistan, Australia, NZ, West Indies) - or, at least, not to the same extent as in the two 'traditional' footballing continents? And why were other British sports like cricket and rugby exported within the empire more successfully? (Or am I understating football's relative popularity in these countries?)

I have often come across people on this sub saying that in the middle ages, swords were incredibly expensive and almost exclusively used by knights who could afford them - the rest of the melee infantry used spears because they were cheaper.

But swords were used all the time in the ancient world. Every legionary had one, most hoplites had a sword as a sidearm, and they were also used by "barbarians" (although the spear was more common, i've read)

Were swords more rare in the middle ages because of the lack of strong, centralized government or was iron/steel more hard to come by? Or was is there another reason?

1776 seems characterized by gobs of colorful, foppish finery, perched atop spindly, stockinged legs. But by the 1800s, we seem to be fully involved in more of a steampunk look, characterized by the color black, frock coats, and long pants. I have 2 questions: 1) Was the change really as fast and complete as it seems? 2) What brought such a fast, radical, change in such a short time?

To clarify what I'm asking: Take Christopher Columbus, for example.

Every schoolkid knows his expedition sighted land on the 12th of October, 1492. But only 90 years later, Spain and Italy changed from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar, and lost 10 days. So did Columbus actually sight land on what we would call the 12th of October? Or what he called the 12th of October at the time?

I asked this question in the fantastic Napoleon AMA (thanks for all the answers) but unfortunately I was too late to receive an answer.

I'm not that knowledgeable about Napoleon so would like to have some introduction on his life.

Happy 2014

I want to know if there were slaves whose "owner" was the government itself instead of a private individual or group, and if so what were the similarities or differences between this and being owned by a private individual?

Thanks for your help.

I'd like to hear a 100-year contrast. I wish to listen to the top-charting hits of 1914 just to hear how different they were from the top-charting hits of this year. Thanks.

I'm sitting here watching how the world celebrates the beginning of 2014 and since watching an old TV movie called "The Crossing", I wondered about this.

They got such good terms and could move all those troops to the West, one would think it would have been a huge boost. The armistice was declared in December, 1917 I believe, so that would have allowed the movement of troops to meet the new American troops coming in.

What are the top ten things that happened in 2013 B.C.E.? (So, anywhere in the world 4000 years ago)

Edit: 4025 years ago

Have historians written about how history has been written about? I'm specifically looking at history as a discourse from the 1700s to the present.