I recently rewatched the Rocky Horror Picture Show with my wife and some friends, and I noticed that the liquid in Rocky's vat was rainbow coloured. Now, the movie is filled with queer themes and symbols (in the same scene, for instance, Frank N. Furter has a pink triangle on his lab gown), but, I thought the Pride Flag wasn't invented until 1978, while the movie had been filmed in 1974 and released in 1975 (no idea if there were rainbows in the 1973 stage musical), so that seems anachronistic to me.

Were rainbows already a queer symbol before the Pride Flag came about? If so, since when, and how did that come to be? Or is it mere coincidence? Maybe the rainbow is meant to be more associated with prisms and breaking of light, and thus science? Thanks!

Why did the Mongols spare the Christian population during the siege of baghdad

Was frances financial struggles before their revolution known to the Americans or was that kept secret?

Like did Jefferson and co know that they had essentially bankrupted france or was that not known until later when historians looked everything over?

I'm prepping a tabletop RPG campaign set during the Albigensian Crusade (yes, my life is that cool) and I'm trying to better understand the period and the region. By going through AH, I've found a number of book recommendations, but I figured I might as well ask directly in this thread (if this is the appropriate place for it).

I've already read A Most Holy War by Mark Gregory Pegg. I'm currently reading The War on Heresy by R.I. Moore and also a translation of The Song of the Cathar Wars. After those, I want to go on to Corruption of Angels and a biography of Philip Augustus by Jim Bradbury.

Which other books should I read? I'm mostly interested in getting a better sense of the day to day life and the mechanics of medieval warfare.

[Meta] Is there any rule or etiquette about questions implicitly being about the USA?

I often see question titles that refer to things like "the Civil War" or "Republicans" with no other country-specific context, that are then answered exclusively from an American perspective even though they could apply dozens of countries' histories. It's a very small thing, but the presumption can be slightly jarring at times.

Forgive the wretched subject matter. When reading up on the Borgias, I discovered that people in Renaissance Italy would engage in ritual gang rape of courtesans in order to get revenge on them. The Trentuno (meaning Thirty-One) consisted of exactly thirty-one people engaging in gang rape. The Trentuno Reale (meaning the 'actual' thirty-one?) consisted of seventy-nine people doing the same. The fact that the number was specific is very curious but I can't find any reason for it. I've been trying to consult medieval and renaissance numerology hoping to see if an answer could be picked out from the Renaissance Italian's understanding of the significance of numbers. No dice. At this point I'm not sure if anyone knows, and I've exhausted my own resources. If anyone has good sources to explain this or even very educated speculation I'm completely down. Thanks.

What's the best way to find actual historical sources online? An example is that I've been looking at Mesoamerican carvings, iconography and such lately, but if I look for things like Aztec eagle warriors as an example, you get everything from modern interpretations to tattoos to anime girls. Short of going to museums and historical sites, what's the best way to find sources, especially images? Is there a sci-hub for history or something?

It seems that every city or big town had a red light district with brothels; When did they become illegal? Was there a Vice crusade against them like alcohol?

How and when did "mother's maiden name" become the standard security question? I reckon I could find that out about somebody quite easily.

How much did the Austrian population support Anschluss? Or the Nazi party in general?

What action (if any) did the Māori/Pasifika gangs of New Zealand take for/against the infamous 1981 Springbok Tour?

(posted last week but no replies, apologies if posting it again is frowned upon).

In the memoirs of Baron Lejeune, he makes a remark that he renamed his valet Guillaume to Williams for fashion reasons.

Why would a French guy during the Napoleon era consider it fashionable to rename his servants?

I've looked everywhere, but can't find an answer. Does anyone know the height of the German fighter ace Erich Hartmann?

Now before you laugh or freak out, this is something ive recently read in the "Hitler Table talks" Or so I think it is, now I dont know if this is accurate or in the sense translated correctly, but I would therefore like to ask the historians in this channel, if this is some misprint or mistranslation or is it correct and the table talks is just inaccurate and disregarded?

Did Hitler consider berbers and Kurds as some "Lost germanic tribes" or was it the above?

https://www.nationalists.org/pdf/hitler/hitlers-table-talk-roper.pdf

// Source

// Picture of the said statement.

How many people participated in The Long March and how many died?

There have been a couple of answers in this sub that quote a diary written by a medieval german man

I think he was a carpenter or some other kind of artisan, and he lived in one of the city states of the HRE but I can't remember which one

In his diary he mentions politics, economics, and religion

Of course he was kinda exceptional, few people of his status were literate or kept diaries, and that's what makes his diary so important, because it proves that if they wanted even peasants could be well informed about what was going on in the world

Do Historians know the name of the French Pastry Cook that complained about the Mexican officers damaging his Restaurant in Tacubaya, Mexico City?

There is this historical theory about how history can be put into these 4 genres: the tragedy, the satire, the comedy and the romance. What is the name of that theory and who made it? Because i can’t find anything about it when i try to search for it.