The armed conflict in Northern Ireland is referred to in the media and by state actors on both sides as 'the Troubles'. From where is the origin of this phrase, i.e who coined it, where was it first used how did it develop into the accepted term to use to describe the conflict? (old.reddit.com)
Is it lame to just go to the park/beach and read a book? I'm thinking of going by myself next week and I was just wondering if that's a dumb thing to do. Thank you (: (old.reddit.com)
Isn’t it inherently selfish of God to create humans just to send some of us to hell, when we could’ve just not existed and gone to neither hell or heaven? (old.reddit.com)
If the universe had to have had a beginning, and something cannot come from nothing, wouldn't that require a God or some entity to start the process? (old.reddit.com)
If there’s a food thief and you poison your food, and it turns out a pregnant coworker was eating your food and the poison killed her baby, how would the law/company react? (old.reddit.com)
On my bottle of mouthwash, directions say to rinse at full strength. Does this mean to rinse with as much force as possible, or to not dilute with water? (old.reddit.com)
There is a fairly specific modern idea of what "Viking Hair" looks like. How accurate is this conception? What kind of evidence do we have? (old.reddit.com)
I have had a crush on a girl for 2 years, and recently we actually started talking. After knowing her for about a month now, I realize I much prefer her as a friend. Is this normal? (old.reddit.com)
How did Western and Northern Europe become so secular relative to rest of the world? Why was there no counter-reaction in order to restore older order like with Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt or Islamic revolutuon in Iran? (old.reddit.com)
I read that February 12, 1899 was the coldest day recorded in Texas history (-23 degrees) and resulted in the freezing death of 40,000 cattle. As a rancher in 1899, how much warning or information about the coming weather would I have had, or would the whole thing be a big, terrible surprise? (old.reddit.com)
If news broke out that a certain celebrity was a serial killer and had been getting away with it for years, who would surprise you the least? (old.reddit.com)
Be honest, have you ever been so annoyed by somebody's reply that you went into their comment history and in a petty binge, downvoted all their comments blindly? (old.reddit.com)
Do any other iOS users get frustrated when you type the correct word, it autocorrects to a different word, then you backspace to change it back to the original word, and then it just autocorrects again? (old.reddit.com)
Why do people get so upset about COVID vaccines and mask requirements, but not about other vaccines, or in-store pants/shoes/shirt requirements ? (old.reddit.com)
You get 24 hours to earn as much money as you can in a video game before it gets converted to real money. You have to start from the beginning. What game do you choose for maximum profit? (old.reddit.com)
Agatha Christe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, and others wrote stories that prominently feature opium dens in London. How common were opium dens in London? Were they illegal? Or were these stories just perpetuating anti-Asian bias, common in stories at the time? (old.reddit.com)
Why is it that after submitting a cover letter and resume, applicants are still required to submit the same information, in a separate application form (online or at times, on paper)? (old.reddit.com)
As the only millennial in my office of boomers I’m now in charge of giving a training on cyber security. I am not at all qualified. What should I emphasize for a work cyber security training? (old.reddit.com)
Why did Hitler call himself 'Führer' instead of 'Kaiser', given how obsessed the Nazis were with Roman symbols and the fact that they called Germany the 'Reich'? (old.reddit.com)
I'm reading about another Russian doping scandal at the Olympics and I don't understand why the Russians are so myopic that they don't realize the athlete will most certainly get tested. It's pretty humiliating for Russia to have a reputation for cheating, no? (old.reddit.com)
Roman soldiers are often depicted wearing sandal-like footwear. This seems very unsafe on a battlefield with heavy/sharp objects flying around/falling. Did they really wear sandals and If so, why not something offering more protection? (old.reddit.com)
Why is reddit getting angry at the truck protestors in Canada for being disruptive and annoying, when the general consensus across reddit in the last few years is that protests are supposed to be disruptive and annoying? (old.reddit.com)
Did the Hunga-Tonga explosion produce a significant overpressure at the spot on the other side of the earth where the shockwave converged? (old.reddit.com)
Did everybody know that Jonathon Swift's "A Modest Proposal" was a satire when it was published, or did some really believe that he was seriously advocating for cannibalizing the Irish? (old.reddit.com)
Could someone with the means buy a huge large plot of land and offer it as a free campground for homeless people near or in an urban area? (old.reddit.com)
What did "being a good husband" mean to the Romans? Was "being a good husband" synonymous with "being a good man" (virtus) or were they separate things? And do records of Roman women's opinions on the topic survive, or just the those of the husbands themselves? (old.reddit.com)
Why is the usual argument against incest about how the kids will possibly have genetically inherited disorders, while if you use that same argument when talking about people who have those disorders that want to have kids, people think you are an asshole and promoting eugenics? (old.reddit.com)
What’s a hobby you have but don’t mention it when asked about your hobbies, maybe because others don’t consider it a hobby or will judge it? (old.reddit.com)
To what extent were ethnic differences between Gaelic Highlanders and Anglophone Lowlanders motivating factors during the Highland Clearances? Can they be compared to the Ulster Plantations? (old.reddit.com)
How did eating ass become normal? It's almost as if the stigma surrounding it has disappeared overnight. Maybe I missed the gradual transition. (old.reddit.com)
Do the pupils of heterochromic people contract and retract at different rates? Does eye color affect the speed at which your pupils contract/retract? (old.reddit.com)
Are spam mail sent with gender in mind, or do women also get their spam folder filled with female bots wanting you to fuck them, or asked to buy penis extension pills? (old.reddit.com)
The baby boom generation is known for their outspoken progressive views when they were young (60s and 70s), but seem to be known for their conservative views later in life. Is this simply a matter of public perception or was there a major political realignment that occurred during their lifetimes? (old.reddit.com)
How come grown Christians can't see that they were simply indoctrinated as a small child, into one of many religions with almost the same story? (old.reddit.com)
When watching the olympics or the World Cup, it’s common to hear a joke about an athlete disappearing when they make a mistake. But are there any documented cases of governments abusing, kidnapping, or murdering athletes who make mistakes or lose during competition? (old.reddit.com)
If the moon is only 1.2% the mass of Earth, why does it half roughly a sixth the earth's gravity? Is gravity not proportional to the mass of an object in astronomy? (old.reddit.com)
Obscene curse words were extraordinarily rare in American literature published before WWII, and nonexistent in pre-1960 studio films. Was cursing considered taboo in all segments of prewar society, or is this simply a result of puritanical censorship? (old.reddit.com)
It’s the year 363 and the Roman emperor Julian has just died in modern day Iraq. How long does it take for me, a Roman citizen living in modern day Portugal, to hear about it? (old.reddit.com)
Have you experienced phone anxiety, where you get extremely nervous and embarrassed when answering/making a phone call, even when its something as simple as ordering a pizza? If so, how do you deal with it? (old.reddit.com)
Astronomers just observed a star in a galaxy that is 120 million light years away explode. Does that mean it exploded 120 million years ago and we're just seeing it today? (old.reddit.com)
What do you think about guys and girls just being friends? Do you think someone always ends up catching feelings? Or can they just be friends? (old.reddit.com)
My bf started a huge argument, made me cry, and then video recorded it and posted it on TikTok...with his phone...serious question, should I end this relationship (old.reddit.com)
Was Sun Wukong a character created for Journey to the West, or was he an existing legendary character that was simply used for the novel, like Odysseus and the Odyssey? (old.reddit.com)
Was "running away to join the circus" ever actually a viable option for youngsters, or did circuses not want to hire people with no experience? (old.reddit.com)
In 1974, the CIA recovered the bodies of six Soviet sailors as part of a top-secret operation. The remains were buried at sea with at least an approximation of full Soviet military honours. Are there any other examples of Cold War adversaries treating 'enemy' dead with similar respect? (old.reddit.com)
META: In September 2020, AskHistorians hosted its first conference, hoping to bring scholarly conversations to the public like never before. Today, a peer-reviewed article about the conference has been published in ‘History’ – and it’s available to read now for free! (old.reddit.com)
Why do people seem to hate the government so much (US) when it comes to general working and living conditions, but trust them so much when it comes to health and safety? (old.reddit.com)
There are numerous accounts of young men simply showing up in port and "going away to sea". Who hired these untrained youngsters, how were they trained, and was someone with no sailing experience more of a liability or an asset to their captains? (old.reddit.com)
Why doesn’t the world care about what’s happening to the Uyghurs in China? Why did they allow the Olympics to be held in such a place? (old.reddit.com)
"Armenia in the east was a major source of wealth, but [it] would require regular and vigorous defence against various perennial enemies." Why was small, landlocked Armenia so important to the economy of the Byzantine Empire? (old.reddit.com)
Is the stomach basically a constant ‘vat of acid’ that the food we eat just plops into and starts breaking down or do the stomach walls simply secrete the acids rapidly when needed? (old.reddit.com)
How would you feel after seeing your therapist several times and during one of the last visits she says, "just put some lipstick on and go out, you'll feel better"? (old.reddit.com)
Why didn’t other Iberian languages like Catalan, Mirandese, Galician, Basque language, etc spread to Latin America? Why only Castilian Spanish and Portuguese? (old.reddit.com)
In ancient times, there was reportedly a "Sylphium plant" used by Romans as a contraceptive, birth control and aphrodisiac - now extinct. Have modern scientists, botanists and doctors studied on what plant could it be and its effectiveness, or was it mythical? (old.reddit.com)
Lincoln didn’t appear on the ballot of ten slave states in 1860. Was this unconstitutional at the time? If not, what’s stopping states from doing it now? (old.reddit.com)
Grocery store cashiers, if a parent left a kid at the checkout to get something they forgot, do you intentionally scan everything faster to make the kid nervous? (old.reddit.com)
Got served very rare (practically raw) chicken. I ate most of it before noticing. How dead am I and is there a way lower my future deadness ? (old.reddit.com)
You are laborer in the wool manufacturing trade in 1400s Florence - what are you having for lunch? How is that different from the lunch of a successful bank manager during that same time? (old.reddit.com)
I've heard the poet Sappho was supposedly married to Kerkylas of Andros, but that this would translate to "Dick Allcocks of Man Island" - how much truth is there to this? (old.reddit.com)
In New England, farmhouses from the late 1700s and early 1800s are large and impressive, but those from circa 1900 are comparatively tiny. Is this a reflection of the declining fortunes of New England farmers, or survivorship bias for grand old Colonial/Federalist houses? (old.reddit.com)
In *Robin Hood: Men in Tights* (1993), Robin introduces Ahchoo to Blinkin, the latter of who misheard and in a shock said "A Jew!? Here??". How common were Jewish people in late 12th/ early 13th Century England? Especially in the middle of England, around Nottingham. (old.reddit.com)
What happened during WW2 with US Treasury bonds held by Germany/Italy/Japan? Did they still pay out to an enemy power or were they voided somehow? (old.reddit.com)
Ross Perot had one of the most successful independent presidential campaigns in US history, receiving 19% of the popular vote. Did Perot ever have a realistic chance of winning the electoral college in 1992? (old.reddit.com)
Seriously, How would the public feel, about a guy who's a serial killer but kills other serial killers, and never gets caught. Would people be angry if a person like this existed, or how would the criminal justice feel if he would ever appear in court? (old.reddit.com)
In the movie "Hidden Figures," everyone seems to know the term "astronaut" before the first people go into space. How early did the term "astronaut" spread to the general public? (old.reddit.com)