Q&A

Meat matters
Why do the British not eat horseflesh?
Illustration by Glen McBeth
  Horsemeat is commonly eaten in several parts of the world, though many cultures have ambiguous feelings about it. We tend to see horses as noble companions in war, agriculture and sport. Evidence suggests there were taboos (possibly religious) against hippophagy (eating horseflesh) in Celtic cultures. Later on, the early Catholic church periodically cracked down on it as something...
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Lincoln's death
Would modern medical practices and resources have been able to save Abraham Lincoln after his trip to the theatre?
  Abraham Lincoln was shot at point-blank range on 14 April 1865 by John Wilkes Booth, wielding a Philadelphia Derringer pistol. The bullet entered his head just under his left ear, went through...
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19th-century invention
What was a phenakistoscope?
  An invention in 1832 by Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau, the phenakistoscope was one of the first devices to create moving pictures. It consisted of two cardboard discs mounted on the same...
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18th-century slave uprising
What was the Stono Rebellion?
  In September 1739, 20 slaves, led by a man known as Jemmy, gathered on the banks of the Stono river near Charleston, in the colony of South Carolina. Carrying a banner bearing the word ‘...
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'Bad' King John?
Did King John ever display goodness?
  Part of the problem in answering this question lies in the fact that the popular stereotypes of John’s malicious character are close to the truth. Thus, unsurprisingly, medieval...
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Britain at war
I recently found an interesting statistic stating that the USA has been at war for 210 years of its existence. For how many years has Britain been at war?
  The United States declared its independence in 1776, making it 236 years old. The figure of 210 years of warfare is derived from the classification of the American-Indian Wars – a series...
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Nazi legal system
Are any laws made by the Nazi regime from 1933–45 still in use in Germany, or did the whole legal system start from scratch after 1945?
All legal systems tend to be rather organic in nature, building a framework of law through evolution and amendment rather than abrupt, wholesale change. And, surprisingly perhaps, given its turbulent...
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Dot dot dot
Samuel Morse invented the Morse code, but how did he do it, how long did it take, and how long was it before its acceptance?
A well-known painter and keen amateur inventor, Samuel Morse came up with the idea for an electric telegraph when he heard about electromagnetism on a voyage from France to New York in 1832. By 1837...
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Quick Query
What were Symmes’s Holes?
John Cleves Symmes Jr was an American soldier who fought with distinction against the British in the war of 1812. After the war, Symmes became the best-known proponent of the so-called ‘Hollow...
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Quick Query
Where was Pepys Island?
In late 1683, the British privateer Ambrose Cowley was sailing the South Atlantic when he came across a hitherto unknown island, which he wrote in his log book was "a good place for fresh water...
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Quick Query
Who was ‘The Flying Duchess’?
Mary, the wife of the 11th Duke of Bedford, became known in the press as ‘The Flying Duchess’ when she learned how to fly a plane in the late 1920s. She was already in her sixties when...
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