Questions tagged [history]
Use this tag for questions that pertain to historical events, or claim whose evidence is historical in nature.
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The origin of "99 cents"
I've seen two competing theories on the origin of pricing products at $<desired dollar amount minus 1>.99 (i.e. charging $19.99 instead of $20, of $5.99 instead of $6):
Psychological pricing ...
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Was Stalin planning to attack Germany?
I have read a couple of books by Viktor Suvorov, such as Icebreaker as a child where he presents a theory that before World War 2, Stalin was planning to attack the West via Germany, and/or had set ...
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Did Tesla say that one could get or transmit energy through thin air [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Can you create energy out of nowhere ?
I recall reading that Nikola Tesla suggested that electricity could be created from the air. This claim is stated in the following quote ...
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Did Winston Churchill say that proof of alien spacecraft would threaten the Church?
I heard that the historical basis for the ongoing denial of UFO's by most world governments is because Winston Churchill said it would threaten the legitimacy of the church.
Did Winston Churchill ...
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Does the idea of vampires come from rabies?
I've heard the rabies creates some vampire-like symptoms, such as fear of water, photosensitivity, and an urge to bite.
Is rabies the origin of what we commonly now refer to as "vampires"?
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Were "Ancient Astronauts" or extra-terrestrials responsible for the construction of Stonehenge?
There is a theory which seems to continue to percolate (e.g., Erich von Daniken is still active, though I don't know if he still advances this idea in particular) which claims that Stonehenge required ...
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Did the 1938 radio broadcast of 'The War of the Worlds' lead to mass hysteria?
I've heard it so many times that I considered it a fact.
(Image Source)
In 1938 Orson Welles' radio adaption of H.G.Wells' The War of the World incited a nationwide panic:
All across the United ...
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Were 1200 black soldiers massacred at Camp Van Dorn in 1943?
In 1998 a book was published called The Slaughter: An American Atrocity by Carroll Case. It alleged that in June of 1943 at an Army base in Mississippi 1200 black soldiers were massacred by white ...
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Are any notable biblical characters historical figures?
Are any of the *main** characters who appear in the Bible that are real historical people, their existence supported by multiple sources.
In addition do their actions in the Bible support or ...
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Did Hitler design the VW Beetle?
It if often cited that Adolf Hitler designed the VW Beetle. Is there any truth to this myth, did he perhaps commission it?
It seems strange that a car supposedly designed in the 30s could have been ...
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Prior knowledge of Pearl Harbor
An oft repeated conspiracy theory asserts officials in the US military had prior knowledge of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and allowed the attack to occur anyway. The conspiracy theorists point ...
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Did the Ottoman sultans kill their own brothers?
I've read a couple of texts, including on wikipedia, that claims that the Ottoman sultans kill or imprison their own brothers for life to remove rival claims for the throne.
In the Ottoman Empire a ...
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The starchild skull
A program on History Channel describes an allegedly non-human skull found in mexico, called the starchild skull. From http://www.starchildproject.com/:
THE STARCHILD SKULL is a genuine
900-year-...
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Claimed similarities between Jesus Christ and Horus and other Gods
The 2007 conspiracy theory film Zeitgeist: The Movie (Website, Watch online, Wikipedia Entry) states in Part I "The Greatest Story Ever Sold" that major points of the story about Jesus Christ's birth,...
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Is the Amityville Horror real?
No one disputes the atrocity of the 1974 murders committed by Ronald DeFeo Jr which occurred at the house. However, was there any truth to the 1977 book by Jay Anson which chronicled various claims ...
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Was the Patterson Bigfoot Film Faked?
On October 20, 1967, Roger Patterson made a video which seared an image of Bigfoot into the popular consciousness.....
Is that video real?
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Did Jesus live?
Regardless of whether you believe or not...
What is the non-Biblical evidence regarding his existence around the time he is commonly thought to have lived? That is, are there other historically ...
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What is the current state of the evidence of the existence of the so-called Nazi UFO's?
As a skeptic, I was present at a meeting during which the presenter stated his belief in Nazi UFOs.
Many websites claim that the Nazis had developed flying saucer technology during WWII:
In science ...
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Was the mathematical genius of Gauss discovered at school?
It is often said that the genius of Carl Friedrich Gauss was first discovered when his teacher told the students to calculate the sum of all integers from 1 to 100 to keep them occupied and young ...
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Did Charles have Lady Diana murdered?
Apparently, the English monarchy had the motive and the opportunity:
In 1997, Princess Diana (Princess of Wales) and Dodi Fayed (son of Mohamed Fayed, owner of the Ritz Hotel and Harrods) were ...
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What is the most realistic estimate for how far the Vikings could have explored the western hemisphere?
There is at least one proposal that Vikings sailed around the northern coast of Canada and made it as far south along the west to reach Vancouver Island.
(Image taken from the link in the previous ...
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Was the Great Sphinx of Giza originally an Anubis?
Does Robert Temple's book The Sphinx Mystery: The Forgotten Origins of the Sanctuary of Anubis have any support in the academic community?
For those of you unfamiliar with his theory, here's a quote ...
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Was the world life expectancy only 30 years at 1900?
In this article, About.com article on Life Expectancy they claim:
In 1900, the world life expectancy was approximately 30 years
I've also the same claim elsewhere.
However, this doesn't jibe with ...
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Were people shorter in the middle ages?
In many castles or museums you'll find medieval armor, belonging to a knight. Those are often very small compared to the average human nowadays. I've heard this explained multiple times as being due ...
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Could a Great Flood have happened? [closed]
In Noah's Ark myth God sent 40 days of rain to flood the Earth.
Are any such long periods of persistent rain recorded? What kind of disaster could happen to cover all continents with water?
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Does the Mount Washington wind speed record have scientific validity?
A record wind gust of 231 miles/hour was recorded in 1934, according to http://www.mountwashington.org/about/visitor/recordwind.php
Wind speeds of this magnitude are commonly known to damage or ...
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Was McCarthy directly involved with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)?
There are often claims that Joe McCarthy started, led, or was responsible for the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
Examples:
BBC reports "Many of those forced to appear before ...
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Did (Does?) the Shaolin Wooden Men labyrinth exist?
It is mentioned in nearly every fiction on Shaolin Temple, but did it really exist? Wikipedia didn't mention it at all the last time I read, so I assume it's all fiction. But I haven't had a chance to ...
user288
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Is the Bible the most read book?
I have often heard that the most popular book is the Bible, but it seems to me that, for example, classical Indian books as the Mahabharata or the Chinese Four Books and Five Classics may be more ...
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Pirates with a prosthetic hook: Lore or Truth?
Was it common practice for pirates to replace a lost hand with a prosthetic hook? Or was this lore perpetrated by fiction and Hollywood?
It does seem like a reasonable choice, since a hook is a ...
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What formal education did L Ron Hubbard have?
There are various claims that L. Ron Hubbard (the creator of Scientology) had degrees and doctorates.
What formal education and qualifications did he have?
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Was kissing punishable by death in 16th century Naples?
According to Dr Karl:
And in 16th century Naples, in Italy,
kissing was an offence that carried
the death penalty.
Is that true?
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Do ley lines exist in the landscape?
The alignment of ancient sites (1500+ years) in the landscape is said to be evidence of ley lines.
In the UK and elsewhere in Europe, it is said that many Saxon churches and pre-Christian monuments ...
Zzzzzzz123
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Ash Wednesday History
I recently read a blog that stated:
Ash Wednesday is a relatively late addition to the Christian liturgical calendar, first surfacing in the tenth century according to accounts written in the ...
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Has there been an increase in the frequency of seismic activity? [closed]
First it was New Zealand, now Japan -- two major earthquakes in a span of less than 2 months. Cults could use this opportunity to sell their end-day stories.
Joking aside, is there any scientific ...
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Did sailors mistake sea cows for mermaids?
I've heard theories that mermaid sightings were the result of sex-starved sailors mistaking manatees, dugongs or Steller's sea cows for beautiful women. History.com claims Columbus did this, "How I ...
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When did people first know the Earth was a sphere?
I've heard it numerous times, that in the old days people thought that the world was flat. Most commonly I heard this in connection with the voyage of Columbus, that he believed the earth to be a ...
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How were the pyramids built?
It is claimed in many different pseudoscience publications and sites that it was impossible for the ancient Egyptian civilization to build the pyramids, because:
too much labour was needed
it was ...
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Was the golden ratio deliberately used for aesthetics in ancient or Renaissance times?
It's a famous claim that the golden ratio was both known to and deliberately used by artists and/or architects, for example in the Parthenon. I doubt this, and suspect that any observations about the ...
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What is going to happen in 2012? [closed]
The Mayan calendar completes its 5,125 year cycle, on 21 December 2012. Is there any evidence they foresaw the end-of-the-world?
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Have there been unusual disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle?
An unusual number of ships and planes are said to have disappeared without a trace in the area called the Bermuda Triangle. This has caused some people to claim supernatural causes for these ...
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