On April 25, 1644, the last Ming Emperor Chongzhen [1] hanged himself from a tree on Jing Mountain, Beijing, rather than be captured by the forces of Li Zicheng, the Chinese peasant rebellions leader — who soon after ruled over northern China briefly as the Yongchang Emperor. Thus ended the Ming Dynasty.
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Today is the birthday of physicist, inventor, and entrepreneur Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937). He was known for his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmission as well as for the development of Marconi’s law and a radio telegraph system. He is often considered the inventor of radio.
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Just a few days left! We are running a two-week-long sale on all of our pre-1899 antique shotguns at Elk Creek Company [2], with deep discounts. This sale will end on Monday, April 27th, 2026. Please note that some of these guns have been re-sleeved and re-proofed for modern shotshells!
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The following article is a guest piece. Because it is partly self-promotional, it is not part of the writing contest judging.
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We are in great need of entries 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 this 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.