On July 19, 1843, the steamship SS Great Britain was launched, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel [1]. It was the first ocean-going craft to feature an iron hull and a screw propeller. At the time, it was the largest vessel afloat in the world.
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July 19th is coincidentally the birthday of handgun designers Samuel Colt (born 1814) and Gaston Glock. (Glock was born in 1929 and passed away in December, 2023.)
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I just got some sad news: Lou Dobbs has passed awa [2]y. My condolences to his family.
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We are in need of entries to round out Round 113 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest [3].
More than $900,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics [4]. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 113 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail [5] us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.