History
Exploring "Why" questions about History
491 articles
why does simply checking your credit score, lower it?
Google “hard pull” versus “soft pull” When you want to know your credit score - make sure you’re only getting soft pull results. When you get closer to an event like a car purchase or house purchase -
Why do old wooden houses make creaking sounds?
Over the years the nails can become loose, and due to wood's flexibility it can make the nail move in and out if its space when you walk over it- making it rub against the inside of the hole. The fric
why do many television shows (Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones come to mind) have different directors each episode? Why is that better than having the same one each episode?
Because with a television series, you can have episodes in various stages of production and have different episodes being worked on at the same time. So if you only had one director, you would have to
why does Kim Jong Un and the Kim dynasty keep their people secluded?
Everyone (outside of NK) knows that there are huge problems in North Korea, such as people starving, poor access to electricity, and a lack of education. The only way to maintain that kind of status q
Why do we call Napoleon by his first name while other military leaders like George Washington or Erwin Rommel are referred to by their first names?
Napoleon styled himself as Napoleon I when he was Emperor of the French. Which is also why his son called himself Napoleon II (even though he was never actually Emperor,) and why his nephew called him
Why is Greek life such a big deal in America compared to Canada, and what exactly is so special about it/what does it entail?
It's simply organized social networking. Often when you go to college, you don't know many, if any, people. The Greek organizations are an easy way to join like-minded individuals--assuming that you a
Why is the campaign to free Tibet so much more popular than the Tamil push for independence from the Buddhist majority in Sri Lanka that has claimed more than 100,000 lives?
The kindly old man Dalai Lama is a much better PR face than Tamil Tiger suicide bombers. The fact that Tibet is fighting global economic power China instead of an island nation many people couldn't fi
Why is it considered okay for people in Alcoholics Anonymous to smoke cigarettes while smoking marijuana isn’t considered a “sober” alternative?
People generally start to become alcoholics because alcohol changes their mental state. They start to drink it to get "high" (we use the word 'drunk' in this case, but it's still an altered state of m
Why is Disney allowed to merge with all of these other big companies, most recently 21st Century, and not suffer from monopoly laws?
Monopolization is, generally speaking, when you control all (or a substantial portion) of a _market_ or _industry_. Standard Oil was a monopoly because they controlled almost all of the oil industry;
Why is Washington State taking so much longer than Colorado to make recreational marijuana available, given that both states approved it at the same time?
In Colorado, the medical marijuana growers were allowed to sell medical marijuana to the non-medical sellers for a year until the stores could grow their own. Washington did not have a similar policy