We’ve come to the first Digest of February and an excellent wrap up from January. We’ve got lots of exciting threads, and a bunch of very special features for your perusal. So pour yourself a tasty drink, pull up a comfy chair, and enjoy some awesome history reading.

We had a very special feature for Holocaust Remembrance Day – to remember and pay respect to those who perished and those who survived.

And another great special feature! Special Feature: Happy National Freedom Day! The History of Black History Month from /u/EdHistory101.

I don’t usually link to twitter, but we’ve been upping our meme game and you should check it out. I approve of this greatly.

Flairs, posters, lurkers, lend me your ears! I come to praise our NEW MOD! We welcome /u/SarahAGilbert to the trenches glorious ranks of Mod-dom!

Floating Feature: Swing in Hepcat, and Dig the History of 1868 to 1959 CE! It's Volume XII of 'The Story of Humankind'!

Our final feature went up yesterday. There’s still time to pitch in and write something yourself if you’ve been debating! I’ll make sure it’s seen! Check out Close Up Shop and Celebrate History Coming to an End as 'The Story of Humankind' Concludes With Volume XIII from 1947 to 2000 CE!

Get some good book ideas, or ask about some, in the Thursday Reading and Rec thread!

The Friday Free For All saw memes, viral tweeting, some addictive Historiography and a pretty thorough summary.

/u/Klesk_vs_Xaero had a feverish post in the Saturday Showcase (Feel better soon!)

Don’t forget! The Best of January voting thread went up today! Go vote for your favorite thread and show some love to the amazing entries!

That’s it for me this week. There’s just a ton of special features this week worth checking out. Enjoy the staggering variety of posts, keep your eyes open for some of the Black History Month special features, and I’ll see you next Sunday!

Edit: Reddits been weird and swallowing posts. If you find doubles or it looks like there's big gaps let me know!

I did some extra research this week to answer a puzzler that needed access to a good research library, and as it's a follow-up to an old post it's possible even /u/Gankom may not pick up on its existence. But I'm pleased to say that the question

St William of York's sarcophagus was found in York Minster during renovations in the 60s. Along with his remains, they supposedly found the remains of baby in there with him. Is this true? Why was a baby placed with him?

now has a reasonably definitive answer.

/u/amp1212 on "What happened that cause the size of armies to go from hundreds of thousands in the time of Alexander the Great to just mere thousands in the time of the battle of Agincourt?"

/u/benetgladwin answered "Why did the Progressive Conservatives get destroyed in the 1993 Canadian election?"

/u/buddythebear on "Is Holocaust denial just a modern issue, or were there Holocaust deniers directly after WWII as well?"

Greetings fellow digest readers! It’s Black History Month and we here at AskHistorians are teaming up with /r/BlackPeopleTwitter for a special showcase of Black history, Black historians, and significant events and people in American history. For the rest of the month the Digest will feature a collection of fascinating older answers on this theme. Check them out, have a read, and maybe get inspired to ask or answer some questions of your own!

Firstly, check out the opening thread from /u/EdHistory101. Special Feature: Happy National Freedom Day! The History of Black History Month

Today’s theme is Culture and Education!

The ever amazing EdHistory101 wrote some great threads. Have a look at Were there any African-American learning institutions that resisted integration with whites during Civil Rights? If so, did they challenge it and how did that turn out?

Brown vs Board lead to firing of thousands of black teachers as schools were desegregated. Were many of these teachers also integrated into the newly mixed schools?

And After the slaves were freed in 1865, where did they go? How did they live?

Check out their profile for more excellent threads.

/u/ripred42 and /u/Bacarruda discussed What did Malcolm X mean in his propagation of "Black Nationalism?" Did he mean it in the same way that that white nationalists do?

Spare a thought for those interesting yet overlooked questions that still cry out for the attention of an expert. Here are a fraction of the ones that caught my eye, feel free to post up your own.

Edit: Reddits being weird and swallowing posts, so if you see doubles or glitches let me know!

/u/AgitatedResearch got worked up to ask about How close were Romans and Greeks to the Industrial Revolution?

/u/alekzander01 asked How did the rest of Europe react to England executing King Charles I?

/u/nueoritic-parents asked How did we get to modern conceptions of a witch being female, and a wizard, warlock, or sorcerer being male?

I wrote a couple of more under-the-radar answers this week that I really like. :) So perhaps if you read through more than the Digest itself, you might check out:

• What was it like for a peasant to attend Mass during the High and Late Middle Ages?

• Wikipedia claims that before Joan of Arc's birth, several prophecies had been made in France saying the nation would be saved "by a virgin from the borders of Lorraine who would work miracles". Is this a retcon or were there actually such prophecies?