On December 9th, 1315, the Swiss Woudsteden renewed their Eternal Covenant. (Eidgenossenschaft or Oath Commonwealth). According to Wikipedia: “[Eidgenossenschaft] means “oath commonwealth” or “oath alliance”, in reference to the “eternal pacts” formed between the Eight Cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy [1] of the late medieval period. In Swiss historiography [2], this relates most notably to the Rütlischwur [3] (Rütli Oath) between the three founding cantons Uri [4], Schwyz [5] and Unterwalden [6], which traditionally dates to 1307. In modern usage, Eidgenossenschaft is the German term used as an equivalent to “Confederation [7]” in the official name of Switzerland, Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft (rendered, respectively, as Confédération suisse and Confederazione svizzera in French and Italian).
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December 9, 1854: Alfred Tennyson [8]‘s poem “Charge of the Light Brigade”, written at Farringford, was published in The Examiner.
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December 9th, 1914 was the birthday of Maximo Guillermo “Max” Manus. He passed away in 1996. His exploits are fairly accurately shown in the 2008 movie Max Manus: Man of War.
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Today’s feature article was written by JWR.
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We need more entries for Round 122 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest [9]. More than $978,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 122 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail [10] 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. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics [11]. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.