Sunday is also a chance out shout out those fascinating yet unanswered questions that caught our eyes and our interest. Feel free to post your own, or those you saw in your travels!

• /u/SaintShrink asked Why was the Gadsden Purchase so expensive compared to all of the other land purchases the United States has done?

• /u/kingbovril asked Were there many pirates from Cornwall during the golden age of piracy? I’ve noticed that a huge majority of the famous pirates in the Caribbean were either of Welsh descent or from Devon, but I can’t seem to find any from Cornwall

• /u/raketenfakmauspanzer asked Why has almost all of the rest of the world, especially in the west, adopted a Universal Healthcare system while the US did not?

We’re back with another fantastic compilation of the Sunday Digest! You know the drill you wonderful readers. Grab a seat, get those snacks (Bring some for me) and settle on down for some fantastic reading. Don’t forget to thank and upvote the writers who do so much great stuff!

As usual, lets start off with some of our weekly or special features.

• We had a super interesting Monday Methods thread thanks to /u/Commustar. Check out Monday Methods- The Universal Museum and looted artifacts: restitution, repatriation, and recent developments.

• AskHistorians Minisode - Persian Depictions of Alexander the Great with Trevor_Culley

• Hop on in for the Thursday Reading and Recommendations thread!

• Don’t forget the fun sized Friday Free for All!

• META time! I don't think mods need to apologise for moderating according to our community standards.

• There was also this META People come here to find an answer, yet most of the time they are left with deleted answers ...

And that’s a wrap! We’ve got a remarkable wealth of threads this week for you to enjoy. Have yourselves a fantastic week, stay safe out there, and I’ll see you next Sunday!

*(Bonus question, clearly we need a name for the fans of the community. We have flairs as a title, but what about a name for the wider community? AH’ers? Askers? Come on clever people, throw some names out!)

Another good month's worth

• /u/134444 answered Who invented the sci-fi space combat doctrine?

• /u/albino-rhino answered The 1950s are famous for recipes that rely on canned, gelatinized, and otherwise industrially packed ingredients. These recipes are often disgusting to a modern eye. How did culinary tastes turn against this trend in favor of "fresh" and "whole" ingredients?

• /u/AlviseFalier answered Why was the Venetian Navy so dominant in the 15 / 16 / 17th centuries? Why were the Ottomans unable to land an invasion force and take the city of Venice? and In Machiavelli‚Äôs ‚ÄúThe Prince,‚Äù he refers to the benefits of establishing colonies in newly conquered territories. In his day and age, what would he have meant by colonies, and were there any contemporary examples of such a practice? and /u/AlviseFalier answered In 1500, Italy was by far the richest country in Europe. However, the Italian economy completely stagnated throughout the Colonial Era. By 1700, three European countries had higher per-capita GDP, and by 1820 most countries were better off than Italy. What caused such the stagnation?

Time for another installment of "The Real Questions", where we take a look at the wilder side of r/AskHistorians! Here, I give a shout-out to people asking the more atypical questions on this sub: questions that investigate amusing, unique, bizarre, or less common aspects of history, as well as ones that take us through intriguing adventures of historiography/methodology or niche/overlooked topics and moments in history. It's always a wide (and perhaps confusing) assortment of topics, but at the end of the day, when I see them I think, "Finally, someone is asking the real questions!"

Below are my entries for the week - questions with a link to an older response are marked with ‡. Let me know what you think were the realest questions you saw this week, and be sure to check out my full list of Real Questions.