Author: James Wesley Rawles

On February 21, 1568, the treacherous Treaty of Adrianople: Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II (pictured) and Ottoman Sultan Selim II signed a peace agreement between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire; the Ottomans received cash and the territories of Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia. — And on February 21, 1808, Russia invaded Finland (then part of the Swedish Kingdom), with 24,000 troops. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 123 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Gunsite Academy Three-Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any …

On February 20, 1472, the Orkney and Shetland Islands were ceded by Norway to Scotland as part of a dowry payment. (Pictured are some of the Shetland Islands.) — February 20, 1824: The first description of a dinosaur: ‘Megalosaurus or Great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield’ was pesented to the Geological Society of London by William Buckland, beginning dinosaur mania — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 123 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Gunsite Academy Three-Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, …

On February 19, 2008, Fidel Castro finally stepped down as Cuba’s president. He was then 81 years old and had been in power for 49 years. His successor was his younger brother Raul, who was also a stiff-necked communist.  He held power until 2021. The nation is still mired in communist bureaucracy and central planning. — And on February 19, 1910, Typhoid Mary (Mary Mallon) was  freed from her first periods of forced isolation and went on to cause several further outbreaks of typhoid in the New York area. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round …

February 18, 1678: John Bunyan‘s Christian novel “The Pilgrim’s Progress” was published in London by Nathaniel Ponder.  Pictured is John Bunyan’s Tomb, at Bunhill Field, London. — Today is also the birthday of astronaut Theodore Cordy “Ted” Freeman (February 18, 1930 – October 31, 1964.) Ted Freeman and his wife Faith were friends of my mother and father.  Both my father and Ted Freeman were stationed at Bryan Air Force base in the early 1950s, and they rented houses three blocks apart, in College Station, Texas. (My father was a T-33 instructor pilot.) About ten years later, while training as …

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. — I just heard that actor Robert Duvall passed away at age 95.  May he rest in peace. – JWR — 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. — We are nearly done …