Author: James Wesley Rawles

May 4th is now informally known as “Star Wars Day”, because of a silly play on words: “May The Fourth Be With You.” May 4th 1943 – A patent for helicopter controls was obtained by Igor Sikorsky. Sikorsky invented fixed-winged and multi-engined aircraft, transoceanic flying boats, and helicopters. On May 4, 1415, reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus were condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance. The death of Hus inspired the later Hussite revolution in Bohemia. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 118 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this …

On May 3, 1621, after confessing to corruption, Lord Chancellor of England Francis Bacon was sentenced to imprisonment in the Tower of London, a £40,000 fine, and banishment from court, Parliament, and public office. — May 3rd, 1952 was the birthday of Pastor Chuck Baldwin. He has done yeoman service in promoting the American Redoubt movement. — Today’s feature article was too short to be included in the judging for Round 118 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $950,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 118 ends on May 31st, so …

On May 2, 1536, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, was arrested and taken to the Tower of London. She was beheaded following a four-day show trial. — May 2, 1924: President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the ancient lava fields in Idaho as Craters of the Moon National Monument, in order to “preserve the unusual and weird volcanic formations.” — On May 2nd, 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced that high-accuarcy GPS would be made available to the public; the satellite signals had previously been degraded for nonmilitary use. — And on May 2nd, 1803, the United States purchased …

May 1, 1328: The Wars of Scottish Independence ended with the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton – the Kingdom of England recognized the Kingdom of Scotland as an independent state. — On May 1, 1776, Adam Weishaupt founded the secret society of the Illuminati. — May 1st was the birthday of Pastor Archie Mitchell — a man whose civilian life was torn by both World War 2 and the Vietnam War. — May 1st is the birthday of the late Joel Rosenberg, a Canadian-born novelist and gun rights advocate (born 1954, died June 2, 2011). He is not to be confused with …

On April 30, 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States of America at Federal Hall in New York City. On April 30, 1897, English physicist J.J. Thomson announced that he had discovered the electron, which helped revolutionize the knowledge of atomic structure; he was later awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. April 30, 1777 was the birthday of Carl Friedrich Gauss, who is widely considered the world’s greatest mathematician. Camerone Day is celebrated on April 30th every year — the Foreign Legion’s most important holiday. Today is the birthday of sci-fi novelist Larry Niven …