Questions tagged [history]
Stories that deal with History or alternate Histories, or refer to the history of a particular reality or people.
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Did griffons exist in the My Little Pony franchise before G4?
The first, a griffon character in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, appeared in episode 5 of season 1. Did the griffons appear in any of the three earlier generations, or is this their first ...
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story identification - the history (and future?) of the human race
The book was compared back then with Olaf Stapledon's 'Last and First Men' which it is not.
I read this book about twenty years ago. It is a story about pivotal moments for humankind when humankind ...
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Don't the Light's problems in the current age of WoT just boil down to poor record-keeping?
(Super-spoilers ahead, kind of.)
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As the breaking of the world begins, civilization - and the Aes Sedai especially - have a very good grip on what's going on. They might not be aware of the ...
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Does "Every time someone tries to stop a war before it starts, innocent people die" reference the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier?
In Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America says "Every time someone tries to stop a war before it starts, innocent people die." (about 1:14:20) Does this reference the events of ...
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A (probably) short fiction where a Babylonian potter’s wheel turned out to be the earliest cylinder phonograph
I just "manually" awarded the bounty to Clara Diaz Sanchez's answer which is the closest to my memories. But there are obviously a lot of stories, movies, April Fool's jokes, etc., etc., ...
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Why was Bucky Barnes named after such a disastrous figure in American history?
Captain America was created explicitly as a patriotic character. From his superhero name to his flag-themed costume, to Steve Rogers being literally born on the 4th of July, the clear purpose behind ...
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Are there any connections between the Humans of Earth being called Tau'ri by the Goa'uld and the tribe called the Tauri from Crimea in any literature?
The Goa'uld, having been separated from the Humans of Earth (Tau'ri) around 3000 BCE, named them the Tau'ri to mean "First Ones". In our history, the two histories being virtually identical ...
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Short story about invading another world, twist is the 'futuristic' invaders are actually conquistadores?
I'm looking for a short scifi story about invaders with futuristic sounding technology - blasters and chargers - invading a new world after having conquered many others and attacking the civilisation ...
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Who was the last influential sci-fi writer to die unknown? [closed]
H.P. Lovecraft was never popular during his lifetime and died virtually unknown in 1937. Was he the last sci-fi writer to die unknown, only to become famous in later years? If not, who was the last ...
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Is this mall section, in Brown Girl In The Ring, a 1999 book, more likely avoiding trademarks, or talking about knockoffs?
Is this mall section, in Brown Girl In The Ring, a 1999 book, more likely avoiding trademarks, or talking about knockoffs of "Kentucky Fried Chicken" and "Burger King"?
I've never ...
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How much did the average citizen know about the Force and Force-Using Organizations? (Canon or Legends)
We know there are archaeologists during the time of the Galactic Empire, examples being Dr. Aphra and her father, but their knowledge of the force and religions/organizations associated with it doesn'...
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Looking for a story about ancient sound recordings in stone
Many, many years ago I caught part of a radio play or story (possibly adapted from a book) about recovering audio from stone. The idea was that, since sound vibrations are absorbed by their ...
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Name of this semi historical book involving espers?
The city is Berlin. Story starts out around 1925, roughly 13 years before the Soviet Union and America will enter World War II. Life has started to resume for most people around the world. But, the ...
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Were these titles ever really used? [closed]
Titles like "First of his name" or "Fifth of his name" are a very original construct on Martin's side. However, I am curious, were these titles ever used in history for true?
Edit: I think people ...
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Where does our current technology fit into the Star Wars universe? [closed]
In the movies and comic books, you see lightsabers, faster-than-light travel, planet sized lasers, Galactic empires, and much more.
This must mean that the Star Wars universe has gone through the ...
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Pre-70s history of the future citing science-fiction authors as historical sources
I am looking for a novel that was written as a history, but from the perspective of centuries in our future. The genius of this particular work was to take future events written by other authors and ...
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Identify Novel about Russia/United States where Boris Yeltsin downed pills with vodka and died [closed]
I'm trying to remember the title of a book I was reading for a short time while working an unpleasant job last year haha.
I thought Tom Clancy was the author, but I looked up his novels & none ...
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Pulp era book, spaceship accidentally time travels back to the Old Testament, saves Jonah
I remember some pieces of the story.
It was a small but FTL cabable ship, I seem to remember some kind of military discipline, they were doing something routine (patrol?) when "things went wrong".
...
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Are there any real-life parallels to the Night's Watch and their fall from prestige? [closed]
In A Song of Ice and Fire (and also in the series Game of Thrones), the Night's Watch is a peculiar institution: Regardless of its actual usefulness, it serves a supposedly "vital" function which was ...
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Why this year in Valerian?
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets starts with this awesome montage
showing humanity's progress through a series of peaceful handshakes as vessels and space ...
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A story about Earth warriors who think they are fighting aliens, but discover they're fighting other humans
I need help idenfying this story, published before 1979 (when I read it).
Earth armies fight what they are told are aliens. They have a rallying cry as they attack the aliens (something like "Dirty ...
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Explanation of this quote "it took man six thousand years really to discover science"?
The quote is from Theodore Sturgeon's "Microcosmic God", 1941, and in full is:
It took man six thousand years really to discover science, three hundred to put it to work. It took Kidder's creatures ...
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Wonder Woman and world history in the DCEU
In the Wonder Woman movie, she
who is a very important historical person. If you consider Hitler's rise for power, the Beer Hall Putsch from November 1933 would not have had this impact on Hitler's ...
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What's the significance of the boat rides? [duplicate]
In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, we see Harry and the rest of the first-years riding boats up to Hogwarts when we're first introduced to it.
According to the wikia (emphasis mine):
The ...
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How accurate is the portrayal of Leonardo Da Vinci in Star Trek: Voyager?
A rich portrayal of Leonardo Da Vinci is displayed in Star Trek: Voyager, in the episode “Concerning Flight” (Season 4, Episode 11). How close to life is this? The character seems full of specific ...
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Is there more information on what Yoda did on Dagobah? [duplicate]
His Wookieepedia page and databank give some details on his housing situation and how he helped out a couple surviving Jedi, but is there any story or series of stories that better explain the ...
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Who drew this hollow Moon theory picture?
I would like to use this hollow Moon picture on my site (from elarcadelosdioses.wordpress.com):
Here is a similar contrast photo of the Moon from space.com:
It appears often and w/o any credentials. ...
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Is there a timeline for the urbanization of Coruscant?
Coruscant would have gone through a gradual transformation from an all-natural world to an ecumenopolis.
When was it an almost 100% natural world, without civilized settlements? (Meaning the only ...
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What did Coruscant's nature look like before it was urbanized?
Clearly Coruscant was not always an ecumenopolis. It would have once been a normal planet with nature, etc.
To narrow this down, I'm looking for a general description of the characteristics of the ...
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Series of novels about a future Britain with a lot of musicians as part of the government?
These are rock-ish musicians who go around giving a lot of concerts (described in detail) that either pacify or rouse up the audience. They also engage in street fighting, and are part of a group that ...
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What's the most recent specific historical element that is common between Star Trek and the real world?
It is well known that there appears to be some divergence between the events of the Star Trek universe and ours (in particular, the Augments and Khan Singh, etc.)
Related: Has Star Trek ever ...
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In the 90's I read a series of books
I can't remember the name, but it had a college age magician who was supposed to have been corrupted by a succubus, but she ended up falling in love with him. In addition to this, there were various ...
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Tolkien's history of Elves singing and Ents walking and talking
Background
Gandalf, when prompting Théoden to get him to understand from his memory who might have brought the forest to fight the Orcs at Helm's Deep, states (bold added):
It is not wizardry, but ...
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Why were Hobbits not included in the old lists?
In the chapter on "Treebeard" in The Two Towers, we find that Treebeard, upon first encountering the Hobbits, has no recollection of their kind in the "old lists" the Elves had made regarding the ...
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What is the first appearance of a dark alternate world in fiction?
In many works of fiction we have seen the presence of a dark, alternate, usually near mirrored version of a world. Examples of this would be in Zelda: A Link to the Past, and more recently
My ...
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Under which kingdom are the Iron Islands?
According to the Game of Thrones Wiki, there seem to be 7 kingdoms but 8 governors. It seems to me that this is the correspondence:
Kingdom of the North -- The Lord Paramount of the North and Warden ...
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What major real-earth historical events had a different outcome because of Marvel Supers?
I am interested to know if any past event (let’s only consider Earth's timeline up to World War II, for the sake of brevity — the events from WWII to the present are well-covered in the comics).
We ...
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What was Herman Munsters' role when he fought in World War II?
I was researching the Munsters as I build a Lego Munsters diorama for Emerald City ComiCon. According to Herman Munster's Wikipedia page, he fought in World War II.
Herman married Lily, and ...
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According to comic book canon, how many full scale, full bodied Kryptonian humanoids made it to Earth?
According to comic book canon, how many full scale, full bodied Kryptonian humanoids made it to Earth? Krypto, being non humanoid, of course wouldn't make the list, and neither would any Kandorians (...
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When did magic originate in humans? [duplicate]
I have no idea how the magic gene in Harry Potter is supposed to work, or how it first came about. It could have been some kind of genetic mutation, or maybe we--I mean, wizards--are a totally ...
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Are there any real people mentioned in the Potterverse?
In HP is there ever a mentioning of a person that exists or did exist in reality? I'm looking for specific persons (e.g. George Bush) not titles (e.g. President of the USA).
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Does Harry Potter contradict any historical events?
Which historical events are different in Harry Potter, than they are in recorded history? I'm not looking for the major things that the books add in (i.e. magic), but for small things.
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When did pure-historical Doctor Who go out of fashion?
When Doctor Who first came on TV in the 1960s, it was designed in large part as an educational show, and alternated between stories set in the past (teaching children about history) and stories set in ...
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Is Harry Potter a World War II allegory?
JKR, when asked about the influence of Nazism on the series, answered with the following:
"I wanted Harry to leave our world and find exactly the same problems in the wizarding world. So you have ...
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Looking for novel/novella (80s?, 90s?) about history revisionism
I recall it as a paperback novel from the late 80s or early to mid 90s. Maybe 200-300 pages (so I don't think it was part of an novella anthology, but perhaps I'm misremembering it).
It involved a ...
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Who got warp drive when and how?
What is the timeline for the acquisition or development of warp drive among the various major species of Star Trek (e.g. Humans, Vulcans, Bajorans, Cardassians, Romulans, Klingons etc.)? If the ...
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Did the First Slayer face Turok-Han?
"As Neanderthals are to humans, so the Turok-Han are to vampires."
So says Giles in Season 7 of Buffy. I'm wondering, do we have a timeline on the Turok-Han's presence on the Earth? Actual ...
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When did the "Mutant Problem" begin?
X-Men (and related stories) feature mutants of various kinds at pretty much every point in history, including some who pre-date history.
That being said, my understanding is that public awareness of ...
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Christopher Priest, *The Affirmation*: "Who is Alice Dowden?"
This is from page 160 of the Gollancz "SF Masterworks" edition (2011) of Christopher Priest's slipstream (or at any rate elusive) novel The Affirmation (1981).
In an alternate reality (later explored ...
user46249
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The rise and fall of empires (cyclical barbarian invasions) set in a lecture hall
I read a short story a few years ago (late 90s) where a professor of Ancient History is giving his favorite lecture to his students about the rise of their empire. Some points I remember:
The story ...
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