Questions tagged [historical-accuracy]
Questions that are designed to understand whether certain concepts of history as they are popularised in media were, in fact, accurate to that time and period.
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Were Patton's and/or other generals' vehicles prominently flagged with stars (and if so, why)?
In the movie Patton (1970), Patton's jeep has two large flags attached, each with 3 stars.
This seems implausibly foolish to me as this tells enemy soldiers/snipers/pilots where a very high-value ...
user54367
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When did Abu Dulaf Khazraji ascend Mount Damavand?
There are two reported dates for the ascention of Mount Damavand by Abu Dulaf Khazraji.
In this site (which Wikipedia is using as a source) and some others it's stated that:
The earliest recorded ...
user40948
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How reliable and accurate is the Nuremberg Chronicle?
A certain book publisher (taschen.com) is doing a winter sale, where one of the books on sale is the Weltchronik - 1493 (aka the Nuremberg Chronicle). However, I cannot find any criticism of the work, ...
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How accurately did Victory Through Air Power portray the state of the war at the time?
I have just watched Disney's 1943 wartime propaganda film, Victory Through Air Power. The film (which was based on Alexander P. de Seversky's book by the same name) was intended to convince government ...
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What is a major historical event historians are deeply divided over?
I am teaching a middle school history class and need an example of a historical event that has legitimate historians highly divided into at least two camps.
My goal is demonstrate that, though ...
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What is the reasoning behind these huge numbers for participants in the Battle of Grunwald 1410?
I was reading about the Battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) in 1410 during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War and I found this strange excerpt from current Wikispeedia, (which is based on an old Wikipedia ...
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Is the use of flamethrower style naval weapons depicted in this game accurate?
In the popular strategy game Age of Empires 2, one key naval unit is the so-called Fire Ship. Fire ships in the game use a siphon to launch a continuous stream of fire projectiles on the enemy.
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Did medieval people wear collars with a castellated hem?
Many drawings of peasants in the Middle Ages show the men with an oversized collar or short cape with a distinctive castellated margin.
Did this really exist, and if so, was the shape dictated by a ...
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In 19th century France, were police able to send people to jail without a trial, as presented in "Les Misérables"?
This is inspired by this question from Literature.se
In the book, the police inspector Javert arrests a prostitute who has attacked an "upstanding citizen". Following this arrest he thinks ...
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How realistic is the food consumption in Astrid Lindgrens 'Emil of Lönneberga' books?
The books take place on a small rural farm in Smaland in Sweden. I don't think it is spelled out exactly what time period it takes place but I would put it around 1830 to 1850. If someone has some ...
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Is Josephus' account for the length of the Jewish War generally accepted as correct?
In Josephus' famous work on the subject, the First Jewish-Roman War is depicted as lasting a full number of years,1 inasmuch as it is presented as starting in the month of Artemisius (II Wars 14:4), ...
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Did a fallen-out red signal lens ever cause a railway accident?
The Straight Dope (Cecil Adams, 1986) writes:
When the first primitive railroad signaling devices were developed in the 1830s and 1840s, red meant “stop,” green meant “caution,” and clear (i.e., ...
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Did Cao Cao really say the greatest traitor resembled an honest man?
The greatest traitor has always resembled an honest man and the
greatest falsehood comes across as truth.
Righteousness and evil cannot be discerned by their appearance.
People have decided wrongly ...
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How old was the Pripyat hospital МСЧ-126 at the time of Chernobyl disaster?
After seeing praises (both in general and about the historically accurate display of Soviet Union) on the Chernobyl series, I decided to watch it.
In the first episode we see a hospital. What striked ...
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In Romance of the Three Kingdoms why do people still use bamboo sticks when paper had already been invented?
By the time of the setting of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, paper had already been invented. Why do kings often (according to the movies) receive letters on bamboo sticks?
Is this historically ...
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