I wrote at the beginning of the week on the origins of the widespread modern scares and urban legends involving "creepy clowns".

These actually date back to a forgotten series of low-level children's panics that took place across the suburban US in 1981, as I recalled in this widely overlooked post.

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Finally got around to a full compilation of questions I've asked and had answered. Not sure if this thread or the Saturday one is best, but this seems appropriate enough. Almost everything is here, although a few old questions I did exclude when they were obviously no where near current expectations.

• How exactly did "Benefit of Clergy" work in criminal cases? answered by /u/smileyman
• Did Mussolini really "Make the Trains Run On Time" in Italy? answered by /u/kieslowskifan
• How did the Tomato come to be such an integral part of Italian cuisine? answered by /u/caffarelli
• How good of an archaeologist was T.E. Lawrence prior to his rise to fame as a soldier? answered by /u/labarge3
• During the Age of Sail, how reliable were impressed seamen considered in the Royal Navy? answered by /u/jschooltiger
• What was life like for Chinese Eunuchs post-1911? answered by /u/caffarelli
• How is the Battle of Thermopylae recorded in Persian records? answered by /u/ScipioAsina
• How big a deal were the portrayals of Hell and Satan by Dante and Milton? answered by /u/Enrico_Dandolo
• How did the earliest followers of Joseph Smith react to his introduction of Polygamy to Mormon doctrine? answered by /u/QuickSpore and /u/menziebr
• During the age of sail, what was the procedure for a reasonably sized ship to weather a hurricane? answered by Various
• Before the development of modern technology, how was FPS calculated for military munitions, and how accurate were these calculations? answered by /u/PlainTrain
• Why were charges dismissed against the organizers of the 1973 Incident at Wounded Knee? answered by /u/amanforallsaisons
• How much as the religion of the Samaritans changed over the past few thousand years? answered by /u/yodatsracist
• Has "End Time" prophecies and Millennialist-esque thought played a notable role in the history of Islam? answered by /u/yodatsracist
• How did the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union function? answered by /u/pcaharrier
• What sort of treatment, professionally speaking, was given to German academics whose credentials were earned during the Nazi era? answered by /u/kieslowskifan
• Was there notable opposition to allowing James VI to ascend to the English throne answered by /u/historiagrephour
• How did the Inca go about building and maintaining their extensive road network? answered by /u/Qhapaqocha
• What led John Calhoun to seek re-election as Vice President but abandon John Quincy Adams and instead opt to be Andrew Jackson's running mate? answered by /u/irishfafnir
• Was there a concept of pan-Greek identity in the pre-Alexander period? answered by /u/rider822
• Was the change from Principate to Dominate in 284 AD a clear shift at the time, or a post facto split recognized by historians? answered by /u/mp96
• Is there any real support for that the legend of the Loch Ness Monster dates to before the 20th century? answered by /u/depanneur
• How would the victims of Aztec (Mexica) human sacrifice understand their fate? answered by /u/Doe22
• Why was Cuba so heavily involved in African conflicts during the mid-to-late stages of the Cold War? answered by /u/gplnd
• Were the famous Swiss mercenary pikemen really worthy of their reputation? answered by /u/Itsalrightwithme
• Would Shakepeare's audience already have been aware of the basic story of Hamlet, given that is is an adaptation of an existing story [and other questions related to this practice]? answered by /u/harmania
• When and why did Judaism shift from a polygamist view of marriage to a monogamist one? answered by /u/gingerkid1234
• How did Soviet-German cooperation on armored warfare development in the late-20s/early-30s affect the direction of their respective programs? answered by /u/DuxBelisarius
• What sort of reparations did Austria, Hungary, and Turkey face in the wake of World War I, and what was the socio-cultural reaction to them in the ensuing decades? answered by /u/DuxBelisarius
• During the early 1800s as Spanish holdings in South America began to vie for independence, was there any concerted effort to create a "United States of South America"? If so, why did it fail? answered by /u/ ThucydidesWasAwesome
• What was sub-Amazonian South America like in the pre-Colonial period? answered by /u/Legendarytubahero and /u/Chumbeque
• What was the importance of the Mexican dollar in international economics during the early 20th century? answered by Various
• Were there theologians who openly argued for a revisionist view of Judas during the Medieval Period, concerning his role in helping Jesus fulfill his purpose? answered by /u/random-dent
• What was the state of battlefield medical care during the Napoleonic period? answered by /u/kieslowskifan
• How involved did the Netherlands remain with its former colonial possessions in the former Dutch East Indies? answered by /u/Itsalrightwithme
• Was the Balkan region during World War II an example of a 'three-sided' war? answered by /u/commiespaceinvader
• How did the Christian world approach the concept of the 'Crusade' during the 16th/17th centuries? answered by /u/Itsalrightwithme
• Why did the United States end up treating the territories wrested from Spain in 1898 so differently in the ensuing decades? answered by /u/Hahasauce

I remembered to save some of the ones I liked this week, so here we go.

How do historians deal with there own biases? with /u/AncientHistory

Knights, princesses, dungeons, and dragons still loom large in children's pretend play. Did children of High Medieval Europe have a similar pseudohistorical analogue for their make-believe? with /u/sunagainstgold and /u/itsallfolklore

I really enjoyed u/AbandoningAll's multi-part demolition of Keith Windschuttle and summary of the current state of the History Wars more broadly. Aside from being a good read, I was pleased to learn about new work being done on a subject (early frontier violence in Australia) I really got into as an undergrad.

This got posted late, but I gave my thoughts on the strategy of the 1812 invasion/defense of Russia here.

/u/poob1x gives an outstanding and detailed answer to the question "Was the Russian Far East colonized in a similar manner as to the American West, through the displacement of Native peoples?"

/u/400-rabbits on "Is this true?: "When the Spaniards first arrived in Mexico, natives bearing incense burners were assigned to accompany them wherever they went. The Spaniards thought it was a mark of divine honour. We know from native sources that they found the newcomers' smell unbearable.""

/u/UrAccountabilibuddy answered "I'm a female computer (someone who performs calculations by hand) sometime between 1700 and the advent of modern electrical computers. How much mathematical training do I have and where did I study?"

/u/Alkibiades415 on "What oppositions were there, if any, to Augustus’s rise to emperor?"