Today is the birthday of Georg Johann Luger (March 6, 1849 – December 22, 1923). He was the Austrian designer of the famous Luger pistol and the now ubiquitous 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge. Because there are now hundreds of other 9mm pistol designs, the “Luger” name is no longer printed on most 9x19mm ammunition boxes.
March 6th was also the birthday of Leroy Gordon “Gordo” Cooper Jr., born in 1927 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. This U.S. Air Force pilot and astronaut was aboard Mercury 9 and Gemini 5. Cooper had his exploits well documented in Tom Wolfe’s book The Right Stuff, and in the well-done film of the same name. Cooper died at age 77 from heart failure at his home in Ventura, California, October 4, 2004.
Coincidentally, this is also the birthday of Valentina Tereshkova (born 1937), a Soviet cosmonaut and the first woman in space (aboard Vostok 6). She was born in Maslennikovo, USSR.
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I just heard that www.good2goco.com — a family-owned business and one of our former advertisers — has re-launched their U.S. store. Two years ago, they had to shut down temporarily in the U.S. because of the Covid pandemic. Their operation in Canada carried on all through the pandemic very successfully. SurvivalBlog readers in Canada can check out their Canadian store at: www.good2goco.ca. Their United States online store is: www.good2goco.com. They’re re-launching their U.S. online store with 2,000 products and will be adding more each week. They sell Country Living grain mills, Harvest Right freeze dryers, silky hand saws, several lines of long-term storage foods, and much more. Take a look at their videos and their online store.
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Today’s feature article is by SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Tom Christianson.