The Battle of Ravenna was fought on April 11, 1512. French forces under Gaston de Foix defeated the Holy League in this major battle of the Italian Wars.
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April 11th is the birthday of John Milius [1], who was born in 1944. He both wrote the screenplays and directed the films Dillinger, The Wind and the Lion, Big Wednesday, Conan the Barbarian, Red Dawn, Farewell to the King, and Flight of the Intruder. He also wrote the screenplays of the first two Dirty Harry movies as well as the first draft of the screenplay for Patton (before Francis Ford Coppola turned it into a vaguely anti-war commentary laced with references to reincarnation). Milius also co-wrote the screenplay for Jeremiah Johnson. Milius is my favorite Hollywood writer and director, in part because he stands for everything that Hollywood doesn’t. Note: A well-balenced biographical documentary on John Milius [2] is available for free download on Vudu.
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Today’s feature article was too short to be part of the judging for Round 124 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest [3].
More than $984,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running the contest. Round 124 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail [4] 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 [5]. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.