Month: January 2018

January 10th, 1776 is the day that North Carolina Governor, Josiah Martin issued a proclamation calling on the king’s loyal subjects to raise an armed force to combat the “rebels”. This ultimately led to Colonel Donald McLeod leading the men on an assault on the Patriot forces that ended with fifty of his men dead and 880 captured. The defenders lost only two of their number. Also on this day in 1976 the song “Convoy” by C.W. McCall was the #1 song on the U.S. pop charts.

On this day in 1776, writer Thomas Paine published his pamphlet “Common Sense,” setting forth his arguments in favor of American independence. Although little used today, pamphlets were an important medium for the spread of ideas in the 16th through 19th centuries. o o o We are coming up on the end of Round 74 of the SurvivalBlog writing contest and we still have quite a few openings for submissions. If you have ever looked at the prize list and thought “I sure would like that!” now is is your opportunity. Send it in to us via email .

On this day, in 1835, the U.S. National Debt reached zero for the first and only time. This is also the birthday of the late Algis Budrys (born 1931, died June 9, 2008). He was the Lithuanian-American science fiction author who wrote the classic survivalist novel Some Will Not Die.