The Book of Acts, written by the physician Luke, contains hundreds of specific historical details — names, titles, places, customs, and political arrangements — that can be checked against archaeological and historical evidence. The track record is remarkable.
Classical historian Colin Hemer identified 84 specific facts in the last 16 chapters of Acts that have been confirmed by archaeological or historical research. These include: correct titles for officials in different cities (politarchs in Thessalonica, proconsul in Cyprus and Achaia, Asiarchs in Ephesus), correct geographical references, correct local customs, and correct political arrangements.
Sir William Ramsay, a nineteenth-century archaeologist who initially set out to disprove Acts, became convinced of Luke's reliability through his research. He concluded that Luke was a historian of the first rank, comparable to the best ancient historians.
Specific confirmed details include: the correct use of 'proconsul' for Gallio in Achaia (confirmed by the Gallio Inscription at Delphi, which also helps date Paul's ministry), the title 'politarch' for Thessalonian officials (confirmed by multiple inscriptions — a title previously unknown outside of Acts), the correct identification of Lysanias as tetrarch of Abilene (confirmed by an inscription at Abila), and the correct description of Malta's 'chief man' (protos) as the island's governing title.
The accuracy of these incidental details — the kind of things only a careful contemporary observer would get right — strongly supports Luke's reliability as a historian.