I'd just like to make a quick shout out to the very kind and generous member of the community who, wishes to remain anonymous, who recently donated 36 months worth of reddit gold to the mod team to use as we thought would best benefit the sub! Over the next few months, we'll be using that gold to provide a little extra recognition to posts which really go the extra mile. It's always wonderful to see users write answers to a question that got only got a small handful of upvotes, or even dipping back and answering something month's old, where the audience is really the OP and few others, and its that kind of passion for the topic, and sharing of knowledge, that makes our community so awesome, and we're pleased to be able to offer a little extra recognition of the users who do so.

While looking through old local newspapers again, I found this rather tragic story.

Pvt. Louis Marino, father of six small children, was killed in action July 16 in France, according to War Department information received by his wife, Mrs. Sarah Marino, 1014 South Twenty-third street.

Pvt. Marino, 28, member of the Nebraska national guard, was called to active duty when the guard was mobilized in 1940, had been overseas since last May, [sic] in England a month, in France two weeks.

The six children are: Lucille Dolores, 8; Rose Marie, 6; Anthony, 5; Joseph, 3; Louis, Jr., 2; and Robert, eight months. He has three brothers, Pfc. Sam in South Carolina with the Army; Pvt. Carl, Texas, and Frank, AOM3c, with the Navy in New Jersey, and a sister, Miss Sarah Marino, Omaha.

The War Department telegram came Monday, birthday of Lucille Dolores.

Mrs. Marino has a sister, Mrs. Louise Lazzaro, serving in the WACs.

"I am very, very proud of him." Mrs. Marino said Tuesday as she gathered her brood about her.

Stories like this would unfortunately be repeated many times, particularly from 1944 on; Congress' dithering in the fall of 1943 backed the War Department and Selective Service System into a corner manpower-wise for the rest of the war.

142. Number of Fathers Inducted, October 1943 Through December 1945, All Races

I had heard a story some time ago, almost a legend, that the area I grew up in once claimed U.S. national rowing titles, and the team had traveled to England and competed against Oxford on the Thames for world acclaim. It's ridiculous because the team would have had no major river or huge lake to even train or learn on.

But it's true, and I found a NY Times article to prove the U.S. title part:

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1879/07/15/80688877.pdf

The Hillsdale Rowing Club won that first title in 1879, and won it again in 1880 and 1881. The freshwater lake they trained on isn't exactly huge: it's 414 acres in size according to the Michigan DNR^1. The lake is not long and thin, but more round, thus not lending itself to much room to work with. Also, some accounts are that in addition to a fairly small lake to train on, the rowing crew had no coach and had developed their own awkward rowing technique, having known no better^2. I am truly dying to know how they rowed that was different, but can find no such account of their technique. There are accounts of mocking and derision being directed at then for the technique, but nothing sourceable.

In 1882, they raised funding and traveled to England to challenge Oxford's rowing team on the Thames in a race of over 4 miles. The only sources I can find seem to be American-biased, but the long and short of it seems to be Hillsdale was originally winning when a seat broke on their boat, and they were unable to then make up the ground lost.

Accounts are made of commentary from British publication The Sportsman re: the race, but the publication folded in the 1920's and I can find nothing of theirs online to authenticate. Which is a shame for obvious reasons.

I did find that one of the medals the Hillsdale crew won from 1881 is currently on display at the National Rowing Hall of Fame in Mystic, CT in cabinet 3, shelf 2...^3

It is nothing else if a curious reminder that interesting bits of history can come out of the smallest, most-unlikely places. Even if you think a place is boring and has absolutely no history worth anything.

1. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:d7gww9v5ToAJ:www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10364_53405-302856--,00.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
2. https://www.hillsdalehistoricalsociety.org/four-oarsmen/
3. http://www.rowinghistory.net/exhibit.htm#Cab3

Since I do not have a specific period in mind, I think this thread is the best place to ask this questions. Who are some of the most consequential seers and prophets in history? Soothsayers who were advisers to monarchs and leaders and who, with their predictions, directly marked the course of some historical event. I need this information for a piece of fiction I'm writing and I'd love to get suggestions. Any answer would be a great help, and once I have some names, I can dig deeper. My own research is pointing mostly to biblical figures, but I prefer something more grounded.

Thank you.

I have a conference interview today for a summer internship at a fairly large museum in the region. Since I'm graduating in May, I really hope I get this and can then end up getting a position there afterwards.

Pretty nervous, but I'm going in with the best of hopes.

I recently jointed the reddit community with the sole reason to become an active part of Askhistorians. I like how the upvoting system highlights popular questions at the top of the thread, and i have found that the greater part of questions are related to the history of USA. Although USA has played a large role in recent history, i feel like it takes too much space in the subreddit thereby leaving the really great but apparently less popular questions unanswered. As a european person this is the major flaw (but so far the only, thankfully) of this subreddit. Dont get me wrong, even without much personal interest in american history, i can still find the questions related to USA an interesting topic! I would like to hear your thoughts on this - Do you think it has something to do with the majority of active reddit users in this subreddit being american or is it really just interesting to everyone and thereby making the questions upvoted? I ask because the self critical part of me wants to disprove the natural assumption i have of americans being self centered and far more interested in own affairs than others nationalities.

AND i want to mention the high quality answers in this subreddit that i find extremely satisfying - Its great - lets keep it that way!

Maybe I should message the mods rather than ask here?

Is it OK to just point to a FAQ section without listing individual post titles, URLs, and /u references? For example,

There is an FAQ section on "Toilet Hygiene" at https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/health?v=ef437f02-36aa-11e6-b73f-0e313517c039#wiki_toilet_hygiene . Six of the seven discussions there have to do with wiping buttocks.

I will probably never ask a question. I just really enjoy this sub and the amazing depth to the answers. I get a particular satisfaction seeing the deletes as it highlights how vigilant the moods are. Thanks so much.

I saw a reference to the Erie Canal, and it made me wonder: what were notably successful canals? (Suez, Panama, Erie, ...?) But worded like that, it looks like rule-breaking example-seeking, possibly because it's like example-seeking.

Can anyone suggest a question that could fit the AskHistorians milieu and also elicit such information without the moderators taking firm action? Maybe "Were canals generally bad investments: high cost, insufficient use and profit?"?

Quick question I’ve just had: Did King/Queen Consorts hold any real power in medieval europe?

How important is the horse in understanding the spread of cultures and language from the steppes?

Any of you brilliant historians on Twitter? Or do you have favorite historians to follow on Twitter? Please comment with some handles, I'm creating a Twitter list for history students to follow!!