On January 28, 1754, British writer Horace Walpole (pictured), in a letter to Horace Mann, coined the word serendipity.
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January 28, 1915: The first US ship lost in WW I, William P. Frye. It was sunk by cannon fire from the Imperial German Navy raider SMS Prinz Eitel Friedrich. The William P. Frye had been carrying wheat to the UK.
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And on January 28, 2014, DNA analysis confirmed that the 6th Century Plague of Justinian was caused by a variant of Yersinia pestis (the same bacteria attributed to the Black Death.)
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A USB Archive Stick Update: All of the waterproof 2005-2025 SurvivalBlog archive USB sticks have sold out. The stick mailings began on January 22nd. They are now being mailed out in the same sequence that the orders were placed. We should be caught up on the mailing of all of the orders on or before February 24th. And all orders should be in your hands by February 28th. Please don’t send us any queries requesting tracking numbers before March 1st. Thanks for your patience. – JWR
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Today, we present a guest article from a SurvivalBlog reader. Because it is partially promotional for a published book, it is not part of the judging for Round 122 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest.
More than $978,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 123 of the writing contest begins on February 1st, so get busy writing and e-mail 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. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.