History Weekly Newsletter - Friday, August 29, 2014

History newsletter

Top new questions this week: Was the location of the 180° line of longitude coincidence or deliberately chosen? This question on Politics.SE asks about the alignment of maps, and got two answers. The first (mine) says the split through the Bering Strait was chosen for practical reasons, the second says that … geography maps   asked by Bobson 13 votes answered by Oldcat 19 votes What was the internal Soviet reaction to the moon landing? The Soviet Union was a famously restrictive place when it came to news and ideological spin, and obviously their attitude toward the United States was less than supportive and warm. The Space Race … soviet-union cold-war astronomy   asked by Alexander Winn 11 votes answered by default locale 4 votes Was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in 1914 captured on film? I have a memory of reading about how Franz Ferdinand's assassination in 1914 was captured on film and watching it, but for the life of me I cannot find this and am beginning to think I fabricated it. … ww1 assassination   asked by George Mandis 9 votes What did the word 'unconstitutional' mean to Americans prior to the Revolution? I'm reading about the Townshend Acts on Wikipedia, and it says that the American colonists rejected any taxation because it was unconstitutional. Were they referring to a specific document, like the … law american-revolution constitution colonial-america   asked by Broseph 7 votes answered by Semaphore 6 votes Why were Austria-Hungary's Slavic minorities put into multinational states? From the perspective of the post-Cold War generation that saw Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia break up over ethnic squabbles (peacefully in the case of the former, acrimoniously in the case of the … 20th-century austria yugoslavia hungary czechoslovakia   asked by dan04 5 votes answered by Thomas Pornin 7 votes How to explain the Khalkhin Gol outcome in view of Soviet weakness and Japanese strength at that time? Conventional wisdom says that the USSR was very weak in 1939/40/41, in large part due to the purges of the 1930s, ideological interference in the armed forces, and lack of equipment, preparation and … military soviet-union japan   asked by Tea Drinker 4 votes answered by sds 8 votes What were the Japanese defenses for an allied invasion of Kyushu? At Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and other island bases of the Japanese forces, the Japanese created a network of deep tunnels and bunkers that made US attempts to evict Japanese forces extremely difficult, time … ww2 warfare japan   asked by Bruce James 4 votes answered by Oldcat 2 votes Greatest hits from previous weeks: What is the truth behind this speech by (Lord Macaulay)? Was this speech was delivered by Macaulay in British parliament? Got many articles saying that this speech was not delivered by Macaulay. Is it true? What are the facts behind this speech? I have … india political-history   asked by AskingStory 6 votes answered by T.E.D. 21 votes Are modern Greeks related to the ancient Greeks? Greece has been subject to many many invasions since the 7th century and there must have been a serious mixing of peoples. In a similar situation, we do not usually consider the French or the Germans … ancient-greece greece   asked by Felix Goldberg 15 votes answered by T.E.D. 11 votes Can you answer these? Where were they ecoshapping and were condemned by the UN I remember an article from some time in the past about an american/canadian indian tribe which sank an iron rich ship in their lake or inlet to the ocean in order to increase the amount of fish. I … native-americans united-nations ecology   asked by caseyr547 1 vote Etymology of Pine Street in San Francisco In San Francisco, California, what is Pine Street named after? Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymologies_of_place_names_in_San_Francisco and other internet sources about SF street naming do … california   asked by Polk 2 votes How close did the French come to digging a canal across the Isthmus of Kra in the 1880s? Ferdinand de Lesseps is known to history as the man who pushed through the construction of the Suez Canal in the 1860s. Later (from 1880 onward) he led an attempt to dig a canal through Panama, but … south-east-asia thailand engineering   asked by neubau 1 vote

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