What was the most common type of sword used by seamen during the golden ages of piracy in the Caribbean? what about during the 18th century? Also, handguards were a common thing in those swords?

I know that Marquis de Lafayette contributed greatly to the success of the French and American revolution, but was there an event that’s not commonly talked about where Marquis de Lafayette did something bad?

Obviously the Manhattan Project was one of the closest guarded military secrets of all time. I'm curious just how much Japanese knew about it. Were the aware of the possibility and potential of atomic weapons? When the bombs were dropped, were they instantly aware that they were nuclear in nature, or was there confusion about what could have caused such a large explosion? In the months/weeks/days leading up to the event, were they worried about the potential of such weapons being used on them, or did the existence of such devices surprise them?

It seems kind of amazing to me that the Huns and Mongols would both originate from similar parts of the world, both be impressive equestrians, and share many other similarities. I know the Huns don't have the clearest written history and it was about 800-ish years later, but did the Mongols know anything about the Huns, or the Xiongnu, (yes, I know they are not the same thing) when they were building their empire?

For example, how they sold the NES, SNES, and PS1 minis in retail stores, how gamestop has classic-ish stuff like Digimon digi pets and Disney afternoon toys. Even rereleases of Tamagotchis and Tiger Electronics. But what did the 90s have for "Nostalgic adults"? Any kind of rereleases?

In Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl, her October 9, 1942 entry says that "the English radio says they're being gassed." This is far earlier than I had thought the general public was aware of this.

I originally posted this in r/NoStupidQuestions but decided to haul it here.

There's this obvious portrayal of gender division (traditionally) where women cook and clean and men do things that require more muscle use (for the most part). But it occurred to me that if women were expected to get married young and have babies and take care of their husbands, they probably didn't have time and/or weren't expected to maintain other people's homes for income.

I don't have a specific time frame in mind, I suppose more or less from the dark ages to the 19th century. I understand that things can change a lot in such a broad era of history, so the more detailed the answer, the better.

I suppose I'm primarily thinking of Western Europe and/or Britain in the 15th-18th centuries, but the more land and time the answer covers for comparison reasons, the better please.

I remember reading at some point of a minor footnote in the history of the 4th Crusade where the crusaders encountered a noble or royal from somewhere in Africa who was on their pilgrimage. This is fairly vague but if anybody has the source this is from (or can verify that this is indeed something I am remembering correctly) that would be wonderful as I am drawing a blank as to where I've read this.

Doing an essay regarding this topic, if anyone can share any scholarly papers or articles on the topic, that would be very helpful.

Also, as a point of contrast, I can understand why middle-aged and older adults of the time were scandalized by Beavis and Butthead (whose protagonists regularly and recklessly engaged in rather serious criminal behavior for fun), but The Simpsons just doesn't strike me as being anywhere near that level, and the strong reaction to it by the authority figures of my childhood seemed disproportionate to me.

Why did European develop advanced weapons before everyone else?

Steel, armor, swords, guns and cannon.

How did 'forties' of beer/malt liquor evolve? I seem to remember reading Schlitz was popular until they went to larger bottles? Was the larger beer related to laborers going home in the evening?

Though it's commonly known that French used to be humanity's Lingua Franca until the Fin de Siecle or a bit earlier, evidence usually focuses on it being used in international institutions, summits and the like. My question is: how Franca was the Français exactly? A dimplomats language? A researchers one? Or an international common ground?

Let us use an invented acid test to that end: were I to travel in the mid 19th century, wherever (say, the NL, or meeting the leadership of Mongolia) - what language would I be expected to speak? Which one would most likely be understood? Would there be any common language at all?

PS I know a quarter of the world was dominated by Britain, and another quarter by France. Nevertheless, there must have been some language all could speak. Or was there?

Also: I'm well aware that intelectuals often used to speak more languages than one, so it's the most dominant one, the must-have, that we're looking for. Just to cherrypick, I'm reading Stephan Zweig's the World of Yesterday (located in the late 19th century), and it occured to me that he didn't mention any problem communicating in Paris fluently and making friends there, while the Londonian experience is way gloomier. And he explicitly claims his lack of linguistic proper knowledge is to blame. Now, he's Austrian, which doesn't give French any reason to be his cup of tea, yet it overwhelmingly is. How come?

Edit: turns out Mongolia wasn't a thing in our timespan, so... Even Russia will do.

I’ve recently re-read “Sniper on the Eastern Front”, and something that stood out to me was the explicit description of “human wave” like tactics, where it’s described as two waves of soviet soldiers with weapons, followed by two waves without, who were meant to pick up weapons from the fallen of the first two waves. I know this was at the very least not a common tactic, but did this happen at all? Was it something that was simple exaggerated by German commanders to explain their loss, or was it something that was generally just made up out of whole cloth?

I must be missing something or have the wrong imagery in my head, because an 18th century equivalent of Starbucks doesn't seem like the place to plan a revolution.

Would it not be more effective to bomb the capital with most of the senior officials and politicians?

Today your typical big box hardware store has dozens of glue options for different materials, different purposes, and different pros and cons. But what about 300 years ago in, say, France? Or what about 1,200 years ago in, say, present day Brazil? Or 5,000 years ago in Egypt?

And would a farmer have the same access to the same glues as a merchant? Or someone of high social status?

What about regionally? Was a glue made in a particular region highly sought after?

Were there any glue technology advances during the period you specialize in?

I think I'm skirting the edges of the 'no example seeking' rule here, but I think it'd be really interesting to read about glue details from as many different time periods and cultural perspectives as we can get.