Author: James Wesley Rawles

On June 24, 1374, a sudden outbreak of St. John’s Dance caused people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapsed from exhaustion. There is now conjecture that this strange outbreak was caused by rye bread contaminated with ergot fungus — a mycotoxin. — June 24th is the birthday of rifle-toting abolitionist pastor Henry Ward Beecher. (Born 1813, died March 8, 1887.) He and his adherents from his church smuggled so many Sharps rifles to Bleeding Kansas that the Sharps rifles picked up the nickname Beecher’s Bibles. The Infogalactic …

On June 23, 930, the world’s oldest parliament, the Icelandic Parliament — the Alþingi — was established. — To reiterate and expand on my note posted yesterday: My e-mail inbox has been full of queries from readers about the USAF bomber strikes on Iranian nuclear weapons development sites. Folks want to know if this might mean WW3. For some articles on that topic, see our June 19th Odds ‘n Sods column.  There could indeed be some escalation.  There is certainly the risk of an Iranian sub-critical  “dirty bomb” being detonated, most likely at an American container seaport. And there is …

On June 22, 1476, the army of Charles the Bold invaded Switzerland. Their first engagement was the Battle of Morat which was fought about 30 kilometers from Bern. The successive Burgundian invasions were successfully repelled by the pike tactics of the well-trained and organized Swiss militias. — June 22, 1633: Galileo Galilei was coerced by Pope Gregory XV to recant his belief in heliocentrism–that the Earth orbits the Sun. The Vatican did not concede that it was wrong until October 31, 1992. — And on June 22, 1848, the Barnburners (an anti-slavery party) nominated Martin Van Buren for President. — …

June 21, 1672: Grand Pensionary of Holland Johan de Witt was seriously wounded by a knife-wielding would-be assassin. — June 21st is the birthday of Rex Applegate (June 21, 1914 – July 14, 1998), author of Kill or Be Killed. He was the friend and mentor of SurvivalBlog’s Field Gear Editor Emeritus, Pat Cascio. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 119 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, two, or three-day course …

On June 20th, 1627, Ottoman pirates (“corsairs”) began raids on Icelandic villages. They eventually captured more than 400 people to sell into slavery. — Today marks the Summer solstice. We will have less than four hours of total darkness, at the latitude of the Rawles Ranch. — June 20th is the birthday of Audie L. Murphy. He was born in 1925. He died in a plane crash on May 28, 1971. — A fan of SurvivalBlog is one of the organizers of a real estate raffle for a 32-acre parcel of waterfront land in northwest Montana that looks quite retreat-worthy.  …