On February 17, 1940, the Altmark Incident: The crew of the British destroyer Cossack (pictured) boarded the German tanker Altmark in Jøssingfjord, Norway, releasing 299 British prisoners after hand-to-hand fighting with bayonets and the last recorded Royal Naval action with cutlasses.
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I just heard that actor Robert Duval passed away. May he rest in peace. – JWR
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Using a 13-inch (33-cm) telescope at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, Clyde W. Tombaugh, a 24-year-old American with no formal training in astronomy, discovered the dwarf planet Pluto this day in 1930.
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We are nearly done with deliveries of the 2005-2025 waterproof SurvivalBlog archive USB sticks. Here is the status of the orders not yet at their destinations:
- 2 packages going to Canada – one is still with Customs Canada, and the other made it through.
- 2 packages are being held by post offices for pickup per customer request at their post offices.
- 1 package delayed due to bad weather but still being tracked to an Ohio address.
- 4 orders are still on hold awaiting payment via check or cash. (2 of those were ordered on Feb 6, 1 of them ordered on Jan 25, 1and one of them ordered on Dec 31. A note to just those four folks: You have until February 23rd to get a check to us before your orders will be cancelled.
For everyone else: The archive USB sticks all sold out within a month. We won’t be taking any new orders until the next edition of the stick is produced in January of 2027. Please mark your calendars for January 10th, 2027.
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Today’s feature article is by SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Tom Christianson.