There's an anecdote about Abraham Lincoln that reads,

The first White House cats were called Tabby and Dixie and were held in high regard, with Tabby taking its own place under the table at some White House dinners where Lincoln would feed his furry friend with a gold fork. When his wife mocked him for it, he replied, "If the gold fork was good enough for former President James Buchanan, I think it is good enough for Tabby."

Did this actually happen?

Unfortunately, the uncited retellings of the story overwhelm any google results that can demonstrate historicity.

Who first predicted that Western Europe would, long-term, be much wealthier than Argentina and Chile? What were their reasons?

Measured in GDP (PPP) per capita: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

Were there any important historical figures who just sucked at life until they were like 50? Every time I open a wikipedia article it's like "They were extremely precocious as a child and always won at everything."

Is there a comprehensive list of books coming into the public domain in the next decade or how would I find out?

i heard a story once about a woman who lived next door to a nazi concentration camp, and she wrote to complain about it, not because she was against the holocaust, but because she was basically a nimby. i think but am not sure it was in the book against empathy by paul bloom. i can't find this letter or any record of it anywhere. was this story too good to be true? i'd love to read this letter, if there is one. thanks!

In war movies, they often say "Let's go kill some Nazis" - at the time, would they just have referred to them as Germans at the time, or is there any proof to them calling them Nazis.

I asked this question as an independent post but it might be easier to answer here: What did they put in rosca de reyes for Epiphany before plastic baby Jesus was invented? The link goes to the original submission I made yesterday and has more details.

To avoid the bot scolding me I will identify myself as /u/thrown-away-auk

In Charlemagne's conquests of Saxony and Bavaria; were their languages intelligible to each other? Saxon, Bavarian, and Frankish?

Everybody knows that medieval governments had kings and queens, but surely there were more people than that, right? What were their titles, and what responsibilities did they have? How did they get into these positions? My main area of interest is England during the 14th and 15th centuries, but feel free to talk about whatever you know best.

I've been looking at Napoleonic era cavalry for some style inspiration for drawing. I saw that trumpeters in hussar regiments get a flipped color scheme for their dolman and trousers and a white/gray horse as well.

Would a trumpeter expect to be attacked less than an average trooper or is the purpose of the different uniform mostly for making it easier for people on their own side to see them? Would trumpeters do any fighting or would all their time be consumed by making signal-calls during a battle?

Hi,

I remember hearing a story/tale according to which a military leader (iirc in the tale it was von Clausewitz) was the first one to ask "Questions?" after a breifing/meeting/speech.

Do you know who this is referring to and is this a real tale?

Did Pinochet's tanks really stop at the red lights during the Chilean coup? I was listening to a podcast where they mentioned this. I tried to look it up but I can only find a few throw away lines in some books.

I might have some incorrect assumptions here, but my impression was that Hitler was obsessed with Germanic bloodlines etc. But he used a lot of Roman symbols (eg the eagle). These two seem to be at odds?

Im taking a course at university about slaves in the roman republic, to be specific about Spartacus. I have one understanding question, I cant reach my prof at the moment and wanted to know if anyone here can help me.

I need to present some things about ancient graffiti and tituli picti. The most famous one being the Decimus Lucretius Satrius Valens graffito where he advertises his gladiatorial games.

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My question is, are graffiti and tituli picti the same? Are these different words for the same topic? I cant speak latin so I am kind of lost at the moment.

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Sorry for the bad English, it is not my native tongue. Thanks for the responses.

When and where was the first curfew ever imposed by the American government?

Can anybody recommend a book on the 1936 Battle of Cable Street? Or something about anti-fascist movements in 30s? No need to recommend Spanish Civil War stuff, I already have my readings on that topic

Like happens with every assassin's creed, it seems, I become completely fascinated with the time period and events of the game.

I really never considered the Viking invaders in the British isles and the Roman settlements before them to study. Does anyone have a documentary they would recommend on the two subjects?

I just heard that there have only been three prior US presidents who did not attend their successors inaugurations. Who were they and why did they not attend?

Were the terms first world, second world, and third world supposed to refer to development? I'm under the impression that first was US aligned, second was USSR aligned, and third world was non-aligned and development was not a factor.

Do we know what parts of the Declaration of Arbroath were added in and what parts are legitimate? Is the full text we know now legitimate or an invention?

What was the Japanese language like in the early 1600 years? I specifically want to use Miyamoto Musashi in part of my writing and while he isn't planned to speak much (because I don't want to butcher the language), I don't want to use modern Japanese if language back then was different.

Is there any reason to believe people in the past may have smoked partially for warmth, in addition to pleasure?

I recently watched a documentary about the history of writing. At one point they show, how modern alphabets develloped from egyptian hieroglyphs, via the proto-sinaitic script. One historian than says that the idea of creating an alphabet from a logographic script only happend once, with the developpment of the proto-sinaitic script. Is this true? I can only think of the 2 japanese scripts, which develloped from chinese characters and the korean alphabet wich I think also develloped from chinese. Did really no culture, except these 3, develop an alphabet by themselve?

The cathars, sufis, bogomilists, and thinkers like eckart and ibn arabi seem like the result of a general resurgence of gnosticism and mysticism across the whole abrahamic world during the 1200's. Is it correct to link them together? were there other related movements at the time?

why the british monarchs were not called emperor/empress instead of king/queen?

Is it unrealistic to expect a proper investigation to be held by Japanese police in 1955 (1950's in general)? How could their investigation be compromised compared to today's standards if planned murder was reported?

When was the last time US Capitol building was stormed? Did the British attack it in the War of 1812?

Can anybody recommend documentaries about the historical context of poverty in Africa?

When did Pope Pius V tell Roman Catholics not to attend the Church of England, was it in 1566 or 1570?

Canadian here interested in reading a comprehensive-ish introduction to the Revolutionary War. What is your favourite book about it?

Who are the four people in the Window of this political cartoon? MAJOR ANTI SEMITISM WARNING

For context, I believe this cartoon is from just after the 1938 Evian conference. 32 Western and Latino nations convened to address the growing Jewish refugee crisis, but none actually agreed to expand their visa quotas. Nasi propagandists took advantage of the conference's failure. I see Uncle Sam in the window, but I do not know who the other figures are or who they represent.

We have identified Uncle Sam in the upper right. We believe the upper left to be British solider, and the lower right a French general. We are confused as to who the lower left might be. To help with the process of elimination, the other nations present at the Evian conference were:

Argentina Australia Belgium Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Columbia Costa Rica Cuba Denmark Dominican Republic (the DR did increase the visa quotas by a lot after the conference.) Ecuador France Guatemala Haiti Honduras Ireland Mexico The Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Norway Panama Peru Sweden Switzerland Uruguay Venezuela

During World War 2, they counted on radio operators to relay orders. What was the penalty if an operator was found to have relayed orders that they themselves made up as real orders, motivated by what they saw as their better understanding of the situation as a small mitigating factor?

Book recommendation on the food history of India?

I know this changes constantly but what should I google or look up to find the answer to this:

"Half of all humans lived before/after X year."

There have apparently been 136 billion humans ever, I want to know at what point there had been 60 billion. Was it before or after 1AD?

Overly broad question, maybe better for another subreddit:

With social media filter/censorship policies finally coming to ahead, are there any relevant observations on adaptations to past mass media technologies that can inform what is happening now? I imagine these technologies also had potent affects on society with associated periods of adjustment and instability that led to all sorts of policies and controls from various institutions of power to control information. Regulating literacy, printing presses, radio waves etc.

Did any Japanese soldiers stay behind in occupied areas after WW2 and assimilate into the local society?

Is there a way to access military personnel records from ww2? Would love to look up any information possible about my grandfather in the war.

Has anyone read "To Calais, In Ordinary Time", and could give a brief comment as to its historical accuracy? It struck me as very well researched but I would be interested in a historian's opinion.

I want to be able to differentiate Medieval houses by their time periods, does anyone know a source that could help me to do that?

Can anyone recommend good documentaries about Japanese history? I am particularly interested in the time period from the end of the Tokugawa shogunate to world war 2.

Is there any solid research that quantifies the impact that the Iraq war(s) and ISIS had on the cultural heritage of Iraq (Destruction of mesopotamian etc sites, looting...)?

How quick was the transportation of war letters over time? I’m currently reading the book Tolkien and the Great War and it crossed my mind that I have no reference as to how quick letters were sent over time. Though I am specifically looking at WWI, I do want to know how quick letters were sent to and from the frontlines during wars. Any answers are kindly received- thanks in advance.

So I'm just curious about something; what were the Sumerian names for the seven classical planets? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_planet Wikipedia mentions some but when I tried to look them up I found more stuff listing those as the Akkadian names.
But yeah. Just wondering what the actual proper Sumerian names were, beside the actual theonyms. If you could give the Babylonian/Akkadian ones too that's neat but not necessary.