When did the broadsword first appear?
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http://www.thearma.org/essays/broadsword.htm
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do you mean when did it start? I heard from my college prof that it started with the military.
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the sword in the stone
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http://www.japaneseswords4samurai.com/\nhttp://www.silverdragonswords.com/site/1562835/page/685025\n\nhttp://www.mwart.com/search.asp?search_type=AND&searchfor=Naginata&submit.x=20&submit.y=12
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1788\n\nhttp://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=synge&book=seapower&story=first
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Weapon's of Shakespeare's Macbeth's time would have included swords, spears, adze, ball and chain, gaff, war hammer, whip, bow and arrow, crossbows, mace, clubs and cudgels, flail, lances, pikes, trebuchet, catapults, battering rams, daggers and different kinds of knives.  Body armour was quite important.  \n\nHope this helps.
384754
The Birth of the Bird? -\nBefore the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and they would therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous weapon was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew"). Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won the major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew!\nPLUCK YEW!" Over the years some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this symbolic gesture. Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say (like "pleasant mother pheasant plucker", which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows for the longbow), the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter.\nIt is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird".
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From the Legendary Heroes website? Christopher Lambert \nSignature Katana\nhttp://www.legendaryheroes.com/s.nl/sc.9/category.87/it.A/id.257/.f
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will it be Dadao Sword??\n\nLong the traditional weapon of China's peasant armies, the Dadao, or big sword, was used with deadly effect as late as the 1930's in the Sino-Japanese War. Its single- or two-handed versatility, combined with the tremendous slashing power of its weight-forward blade made it the ideal close-quarters weapon. Although the originals had no scabbard, a simple carrying case is provided for protection and ease of transportation.
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They say it was after the Battle of the Golden Spurs, where France was trying to invade Flanders (now part of Belgium) and the regular folkspeople (well organized) beat the heck out of the knights in armor and the French cavalry. Soon after that firepower would be discovered and it was essential to have mobility more than armor. That was around the year 1300.
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It was developed in England in the 19th Century. A great overview of the game, complete with links to sources you can cite, is at Wikipedia.
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Generally accepted as being from 410 AD (around the collapse of the Roman Empire in Britain) until 1066 with the Norman invasion of Britain at Hastings.\nhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/anglo_saxons/saxons.shtml
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"Lickety-split; like a blue streak;like a bat out of hell; with extreme rapidity.  Although this has the appearance of typical American exaggerated hyperbole, nevertheless the earliest printed record of use is in the "Boston, Lincoln, and Louth Herald", published in Lincolnshire, England, the issue of January 15, 1833: "He spoke as quick as greased lightning."  We must have taken it to our own bosoms shortly after its coinage, however, for it flourisheth here like the green bay tree"
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Long Bow (from which the 'giving the bird' symbolism of sticking 2 fingers up at an enemy is derived - give me 10 points and I'll expand on that in the comments bit for you), balister (a form of large Roman crossbow), short sword, broadsword, halberd and pike.\nLancashire won, and remains the centre of civilisation and Gods own country, Yorkshire being famous for its pudding. UK residents are reminded of this in the mnemonic for the colours of the rainbow; Richard (Red) Of(Orange) York(Yellow) Gave(Green) Battle(Blue) In(Indigo) Vain(Violet).
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The origin of this gesture is highly speculative, but is quite possibly up to 2500 years old. It is identified as the digitus impudicus ('impudent finger') in Ancient Roman writings [1] and reference is made to using the finger in the Ancient Greek comedy The Clouds by Aristophanes. It was defined there as a gesture intended to insult another.\n\nIt has long been told that the famous "two-fingers salute" and/or "V sign" derives from the gestures of English archers, fighting at Agincourt. The myth claims that the French cut off two fingers on the right hand of captured archers and that the gesture was a sign of defiance by those who were not mutilated. Knights of the time were extremely difficult to challenge in open engagement due to the amount of armor they wore, and the enormity of the horses they rode. One problem the knights faced however, was the English longbow. From a garrison or fortification, longbowmen would string their arrows in quick recession and aim for the armors weak spots. This resulted in many casualties for the knights. If the knights did however capture the fortification, they would either kill the longbowmen, or chop off their middle finger (necessary for stringing arrows effectively). As for the bowmen that escaped, upon seeing a knight, they would hold up their middle finger in mockery of the knight as if to say "ha, ha, you didn't get me"[citation needed].
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I think it is probably actually a mace or sceptre. These are used in lots of parliaments all around the world as a symbol of sovereign power. This dates back to the middle ages when Kings used them as a symbol of absolute power.
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Carl Dane, a 6ft 5in (1.96m) strongman, was the first gong-banger, starting in 1932 and banging on until 1948. Because of deteriorating film stock in the early days, the sequence had to be refilmed every three years. It was no simple task either, often taking several weeks to get right, thanks to the bronze make-up covering Dane from head to foot. “The perspiration would make it streak and we’d have to start all over again,” he remembered. \n\nHe spent his early life in the circus ring as part of an acrobatic act where he was billed as the “Boy Hercules”. As an adult he was so strong that he became the first man to pull a London double-decker bus with his teeth. But ironically the gong he pounded so impressively was made of nothing but papier- mâché. \n\nThe noise was created by the percussive genius of James Blades, also famous for the “V-for-victory” Morse code signal broadcast by the BBC during the Second World War. Blades used a Chinese instrument called a tam tam for the Rank gong noise. \n\nDane was superseded as the Golden Gong man by Bombardier Billy Wells in 1948. Wells was the first heavyweight to win the Lonsdale Belt (in 1911) and to have a beer named after him. But it was Dane who was considered the definitive Rank icon. “It is an extraordinary thing,” he said years afterwards. “That one episode has haunted me all my life. But I just did it for the money.”