I was redirected here by /u/silverappleyard after I posted this incorrectly as a thread.

The recent death of Idriss Deby, president of Chad, during clashes with rebels reminded me of Francisco Solano López, the president of Paraguay who died in battle in 1870, during the Paraguayan War. Some years ago, I asked a question about him in pub quiz and confidently claimed that he was the only man to die in battle while holding the office of President.

Kings who died in battle are far from being rare in history, but the same can't be said of presidents. However, the recent events in Chad made me wonder if I was right in that claim, or are there more presidents who died in battle.

The opening line of 1984 reads “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” How did translator get across the immediate sense of wrongness to people in countries that use military time? The line only works if your country doesn’t use military time

Hello, we are looking for a historian on Peruvian or Venezuelan history to do an AMA for r/asklatinamerica

Is there such historian in this subreddit?

When did rulers cease fighting on the frontline (Ghengis Khan, Alexander the Great etc) and instead let their soldiers fight their fights?

The American colonists did their fair share of metalworking, but most colonists in popular conception are farmers, tradesmen, and landed or urban gentry - not miners. So where did the American colonies get their metal, namely iron, copper, and tin? Was it obtained through trade with the Old World, or was it at least partly locally sourced? If it was locally sourced, who and where were the miners and mine owners? Otherwise, if much of it could only be obtained through trade, was this dependence on a crucial strategic good exploited by the British in the American Revolution?

Could you recommend some movies set in the middle ages that are historically accurate?

What did women use to tie up and pin their hair before the invention of elastic (for hair bands) and kirby grips/Bobby pins?

I know this sounds like a stupid question, but I've tried tieing up a ponytail with only ribbon and it was really difficult (and didn't hold well). But women in portraits from hundreds of years ago often have elaborate hairstyles - what's their secret?!

"Guilty" or "Not Guilty" pleads at Nuremberg.

At the Nuremberg trials many of the generals responded to the question: "guilty or not guilty?" by saying the following: "I declare myself in the sense of the Indictment not guilty."

So in what sense did they consider themselves guilty...? If at all..

Also did Rudolf Hess just lose it at some point? Supposedly during the Nuremberg trial he said things so crazy Goring was putting his head in his hands in shame and telling Hess to "shut-up".

I'm a writer and I'd like to ask what are some blatant beginner mistakes that you often meet in fiction? More precisely: what logistics and inner workings of how history happens do laymen tend to get wrong?

I guess it's more opinion based but I'd really like to hear actual historians' thoughts. I'm sorry if it's too vague.

I am working on a story about the "Limping Ladies of Alexandra" and would like to draw a parallel to something I seem to remember from history.

My memory tells me there was a King who suffered from stomach ailments and during that time, many of his subordinates and even subjects faked having stomach ailments (or even caused themselves to have such ailments) to be more like the King. Is this something I'm misremembering?

(early/high middle ages)

I've now read in two different books that in the 8th-10th centuries, the invention (or rather, the import) of the high saddleback and stirrups allowed for knights to ram their enemies and skewer them with a lance. This is supposedly why the aristocracy was so strong militarily and so hard to deal with in a battle.

But I'm quite sceptical. Surely one can just sidestep the charging horse, or duck, or just shoot an arrow at the horse, or...

I'm having a hard time believing that a guy with a stick on a horse changed warfare so much that other warrior folk couldn't cope.

Does anyone know any quality YouTube channels that focus on early/high middle ages ?

Was there an ancient culture where some people were buried with sheep teeth in their mouths so they wouldn't be able to go to the afterlife? Were there any similar "deviant burial" practices elsewhere?

A few months back I overheard an archaeology documentary about a dig where they found sheep teeth shoved into someone's mouth, and they gave the explanation that this person was murdered, and the purpose of the sheep teeth was to deny them access to the afterlife. But I didn't catch what culture, era, etc this burial was for.

I've heard of deviant burials before to stop people from coming back from the dead or haunting people (there was this story of bodies in Ireland found with large rocks in their mouths), but not ones where people were being specifically denied the afterlife.

Did national politics come into deciding which nation landed on which specific beach on D-Day?

Does anyone know the historical term for the skirt with split sides?

It’s like a kurti minus the shirt, and is often appropriated as some cheap Halloween “belly dancing costume” ?

like this

I see it nowadays as well as from historic images and art. But since can’t find the original word at all.

Why does the turkish alphabet use ı and İ isntead of i and I? Was it because when they modernized they still wanted to stand out?

I came across a comment on a TIL by a contributor here regarding Nicholas II's habit of leaving Winter Palace for Tsarskoye Selo every Friday afternoon (and particularly regarding the Bloody Sunday, 5pm Friday 7, two days before the event). Is there any English source for this, or any article that refute the claim of Grand Duchess that Nicholas II was in the capital at the time and wanted to face the protesters?

Also in the same comment he cited Richard Pipes' The Russian Revolution and Orlando Figes' A People's Tragedy to prove that Nicholas II didn't think much of the event until after the Bloody Sunday. However at the same time I have red another claim that Nicholas II feared for his life when his uncle was assassinated and left for Tsarskoye Selo because of it. Is this claim have any validity, when it contradicted Kent de Prince's translation of Diary of Nicholas II,in which he didn't think much of the assassination and therefore made his leave for Tsarskoye Selo not different from any of his usual Friday?

Grover Cleveland is the only US president to have served two non-consecutive terms. Have any governors, senators, or representatives (or other notable US politicians) served non-consecutive terms after failing to be re-elected?

I found a few examples of senators who served non-consecutive terms, but these were cases where someone was elected on their own, retired, and was appointed to fill out someone else's term.

Military Battle tactics late 18th century (especially American revolution).

When you had the colonial and British lines pointing at each other, each line firing one after the other...

was there a particular time (Example after third volley, or some other "kind of objective metric") that dictated when one side decided to fix bayonets and charge?

If it was based on "feeling" what types of things would evoke the "time to charge" feeling?

Also, if you have a 3 lines of infantry. First line fires and kneels. Does second line move infront of firstline, then fire, then kneel - and essentially keep rolling forward? Fire, kneel, move up, fire, kneel, move up, etc? Or were they essentially static until charge? (I suspect they would of course fill in the first line when others were killed but..)

Who was the last Holy Roman emperor to use the title King of Burgundy and to claim rights on its territories?

How do I as a layperson make historical videos without coming across as a hack? In other words, how do I make sure my content would be respectable enough for this subreddit?

(Since the Armenian genocide is in news lately,) I was wondering if 1971 Bangladesh genocide is widely accepted as a genocide by historians? and also, is it widely accepted as such by many countries?

I'm a mathematician working on a book all about the Pythagorean theorem. Most of it would be fairly standard math which I don't really have a problem with but I also kind of want to talk about the history of this theorem (did it really came from Pythagoras ? was it used before ?) and about Pythagoras. There are a lot of rumors and misinformations about these two subjects so I was wondering if someone here had some interesting sources and books about any of those two things.

Any recommendations for reputable (and affordable) books about the early Church? The ones on the booklist are a bit pricey.

During a siege, what happened if archers ran out of arrows? Was there a craftsman inside who was making them? We’re the collected off of dead bodies, or perhaps reused arrows that the enemy had shot at them?

In "Travels In Southern Abyssinia through the Country of Adal to the Kingdom of Shoa" by Charles Johnston, he noted a local referring to a killed Portuguese cook as "one radgpoot". What could be the origin/history behind such a term?

Why are jews always treated as a race instead of a religion. For example, when some says they’re jewish or I heard someone say that once jewish people where trying to disguise themselves as italians.

Does anyone know who this is in this picture, or what the language is? http://imgur.com/a/zEjxzIf

Edit :translator thread here if anyone's interested https://www.reddit.com/r/translator/comments/n0akm4/georgian_english_translate_request_from_georgian/

Why did the Roman's consider Northern Britain 'lower britain' like it says here?

I know Egyptians called their northern territory 'Lower Egypt' cause the Nile flowed north to south. The Romans have the same conception of how the world was oriented?

what language would have been spoken in 6-4th century bce in the region of Gandhara? (so before and after the conquest of alexander the great)

hindi? urdu? pashto? or a whole other language entirely?

What is the historical perspective in Finland about their collaboration with Germany during WW2? Do they accept it as a necessary evil to stand against the Soviets, or do they regret it/sweep it under the rug?

Was Tamerlane/Timur (I don't know how he's called in english) a mongol?

Me and a friend have been arguing over this for a while now but I don't think I know enough to refute his claim that Tamerlane was a mongol. To put it shortly this discussion originates from a trivia question that asked "who was the last nomadic mongol conqueror of central Asia" he stated that it was Tamerlane and since the trivia was made by him that was the "right"answer.

He bases his claim in a quote from the spanish wikipedia article about Tamerlane that refers to him as "el último gran líder del poder nómada." in the english article something similar is said about him "Timur was the last of the great nomadic conquerors of the Eurasian steppe".

Those same articles also said that he saw himself as a successor of the mongol empire, that he was turco-mongol and that he supposedly was a descendant from Genghis Khan himself but as far as I know none of those things make him a mongol, or not in the sense that I am thinking of. The very same article in spanish that he read lists him as a governor of the Timurid empire, not of the mongol and in the spanish article about the mongol empire he isn't listed as a ruler.

This would probably be more appropriate for a subreddit of classic philology but I have not found any that is actually active. If anyone happens to know one I'd be happy to be redirected there!

Where can I find Neophron's Medea fragments, as in the Greek text? I have found a lot of articles in it and it is mentioned in just about any literature about Euripides's version, but I am struggling to find the original texts, both online and in my universities library. Anyone got a pointer?

I haven't been able to find anything clarifying this online, or even in this sub; Is the book by Giles Milton, "Fascinating Footnotes from History," accurate? Are there any flaws in it or an ounce of fiction or exaggerations? Is everything carefully researched?

Armenian genocide and Turkish government denialism:

What's the reason for being so strongly and firmly denying it even if atrocities were committed over a hundred years ago? To put in perspective Italy and Germany do not reject their role in 2nd world war, they accept it and make efforts to accept and mitigate their responsibility etc...so why can't Turkey do the same?

In 1929, Jimmie Rodgers recorded Nobody Knows but Me, a song about a prisoner feeling regret for his life.

One stanza goes,

When you realize that you're all alone seated in a two-by-four
That little cell is just a taste of hell if you ain't been there before
Well you're locked up tight but they treat you fair
You get everything that you need in there
That's just why you'll say

What is a "two-by-four"?

Viktor Frankl's imprisonment duration?

Most notably I have trouble getting a straight answer considering his time in Auschwitz. I started reading "Man's Search for Meaning" and the book so far tries to imply that he spent a considerable amount of time there, while all "official" resources which I found neglect to put a timeline and various comments claim he only spent few days there before being transported to Dachau.

With this in mind, I'm looking for a well sourced answer as to how much time he spent in Auschwitz (extra points for exact timelines for other camps).

Other comments concerning validity of claims made in the book are also welcome.

[previously a full post, got removed and I got redirected here]

Thanks

What was the purchasing power of a Prussian thaler in 1824? What could you buy with one thaler? With 30?

When was the Matchlock Musket and Matchlock trigger mechanism invented?

When and where did the rooster crow of "Cock-a-doodle-do" originate in English? In other languages I am aware of the sounds for a rooster crow vary vastly, and I was wondering if there was an origin behind the English interpretation of it.

Who was the first person to exceed terminal velocity and how?

For most of history, the fastest anyone could travel was terminal velocity while falling - about 200km/h.

It takes about 450m of free fall to reach this speed. So, over the course of human history and prehistory, it is likely that thousands of people achieved this speed ... albeit, dying shortly after.

However, at some point of technological development, there would have been the first person to go faster (lethally or not). So, who and how?

Hello everyone,

Doing some gift shopping and a request I got was for Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs. I usually prefer to read a couple reviews/critiques before I buy books as gifts, but was unsuccessful in finding any. I was hoping someone here would be familiar with it and could give me a quick thumbs up/thumbs down on it's accuracy and degree of bias.

When is it appropriate to use the term "liberation". Is it restricted solely for WW2(like the liberation of Paris) or can we use it for other conflicts as well(like the American Civil War)?

I've just learnt of the Battle of Shiroyama recently, and is curious as to if there's any last stand of the same nature in the West. More specifically, I'm looking for battles that:

• Is a part of United States/Europe's (either Western or Eastern) history. As in, it doesn't have to take place in Europe/America, but if European/American influence was among the chief factors leading to it, it will count.
• Happened before the 1950s.
• Must be blatantly suicidal for the losing side from the start (meaning nothing like the Battle of Thermopylae, where the Spartans had an advantageous defending position and stood a good chance of holding out).
• [OPTIONAL] Is now popularly considered marking the end of an era, or at least a distinctive way of life.

If you know any battle like that, please let me know. It'll be much appreciated!

Is there a pattern of circumstances that underlie peaceful restructuring of governments? I'm not sure how I would define 'restructuring' but I'm thinking along the lines of rewriting the constitution, overhauling the electoral system, etc.

I'm happy to read any sources if writing it down is exhausting.

Does anyone have a couple of sources for researching prices on specific items in the USA, 1900-2000ish? I have some 3c skeins of embroidery thread I'm trying to find a 'latest date' for, but I'm having a tough time finding price history sources.

... Alternate request, if this question isn't in quite the right place: can someone suggest a better reddit sub for this question?

If the Greeks of antiquity were able to build such a stunningly intricate mechanism like the Antikythera mechanism shouldn't it have been trivial for them to build clocks? At that time was time even measured in a way that could be reflected in clocks (i.e. hours and minutes)? Is there any evidence for clocks in Greek antiquity?

What is a .50 Pitt I have been listening to a lot of Vietnam songs and they reference a .50 pitt (spelled how they do in the lyrics) and I can't find what it is referring to? a good example is this song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9eybY9qFfY

What did Glaucon mean by a skillful pilot?

In The Republic by Plato, Book II, Glaucon remarks to Socrates, "... like the skillful pilot or physician, who knows intuitively his own powers and keeps within their limits..."

A Pilot is defined as "a person who operates the flying controls of an aircraft". There were no aircraft in a modern sense in Glaucon's time, so what occupation was he referring to? Is this just a mistranslation? Did being a pilot mean something different back then?