Category: Note

The Winter Solstice has finally arrived. Those of us who are gardeners can now look forward to longer days and a Spring planting date.  Patience, folks! — On December 21, 1784, John Jay became acting US Secretary of State. He served in that office from 1789 to 1790. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 116 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than …

December 20, 1192: On his way home from the Third Crusade, English King Richard the Lionheart (Richard Cœur de Lion) was captured near Vienna by troops of Leopold of Austria. He was released 1194. — On December 20th, 1606, the Virginia Company loaded three ships with settlers and set sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 116 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide …

On December 19, 1732, Benjamin Franklin, under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, began publication of “Poor Richard’s Almanack”. He produced an annual issue for the next 25 years. — December 19, 1972: Apollo 17 — the last of Apollo manned Moon landing series — returned to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, southeast of Samoa. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 116 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model …

On December 18, 216 BC, in the Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia. Hannibal’s Carthaginian army defeated Roman forces on Roman soil. — December 18, 1777: The first national Thanksgiving Day, commemorating British General Burgoyne’s surrender. — December 18th is the birthday of Charles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788). He wrote more than 1,700 hymns. — Today is also the birthday of Jørgen Haagen Schmith (born December 18, 1910, died October 15, 1944). He was better known under the codename “Citron” and was a famous Danish resistance fighter in occupied Denmark. His biographical sketch at Wikipedia …

On December 17th, 1718, France, Britain and Austria declared war on Spain. (War of the Quadruple Alliance 1718–1720.) — December 17th, 1905, was the birthday of Simo Häyhä, who was the world’s most successful sniper. Using an iron-sighted Mosin–Nagant in Finland’s Winter War, he had an astounding 505 confirmed sniper kills. He died April 1, 2002. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 116 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the …

On December 16, 1497, Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama became the first European to sail along Africa’s East Coast. He named it Natal. — The Romanian Revolution began on December 16th, 1989. No less than 1,066 civilians died in the successful attempt to overthrow the dictatorial President Nicolae Ceaușescu. — December 16th, 1928, was the birthday of Philip K. Dick, who died March 2, 1982. He penned a remarkable number of sci-fi novels and novellas that have been adapted into movies, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, Screamers, Impostor, Minority Report, Paycheck, A Scanner Darkly, Next, and The Adjustment Bureau. Though …

December 15, 1929: Swiss pilot and photographer Walter Mittelholzer was the first man to fly over Mount Kilimanjaro. — December 15th is Bill of Rights Day. The Bill of Rights became law on this day in 1791, following ratification by the state of Virginia. We encourage our American readers to gather publicly and read the Bill of Rights aloud. — December 15, 1923, was the birthday of Uziel “Uzi” Gal (born Gotthard Glas). According to Wikipedia, he was “…born in Weimar, Germany. When the Nazis came to power in 1933 he moved first to England and later, in 1936, to …

On December 14, 1542, Princess Mary Stuart succeeded her father James V to become Queen Mary I of Scotland, at just six days old. — December 14, 1702:  The famed forty-seven Ronin (leaderless samurai), under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master in Japan. — December 14th is the birthday of the late John Warren Wadleigh (born 1927, died September 24, 2013). Wadleigh was better known to many SurvivalBlog readers by his pen name– Oliver Lange. He was the author of the best-selling resistance warfare novel Vandenberg. — This is also the birthday of Air Force …

On December 13, 1266, rebels that were holed up inside Kenilworth Castle surrendered after 172 days to Henry III, ending one of the longest sieges in medieval English history. Here is an excerpt from a piece at English-heritage.org: “In the mid 1260s England was divided by civil war. Henry III, who had been on the throne since 1216, was at loggerheads with some of his leading nobles, who wanted to reform how the king governed. Their leader was the king’s brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, who defeated the king’s forces at the Battle of Lewes in 1264 and …

December 12, 1914: The largest one-day percentage drop in the history of Dow Jones Industrial Average. It was down 24.39%. — December 12, 1953: Chuck Yeager reached Mach 2.43 in a Bell X-1A rocket plane. — And on December 12, 2019, the British General Election was won by Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party in a landslide win with 80-seat majority. The Scottish National Party also won 48 of 59 seats in Scotland. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 116 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power …

On December 11, 1913, DaVinci’s “Mona Lisa” was recovered two years after it was stolen from the Louvre Museum. — December 11, 1978: Six masked men bound 10 employees at Lufthansa cargo area at NYC Kennedy Airport and made off with $5.8 Lillion USD in cash and jewelry. All of the participants and some associates were later killed on order of the alleged organized crime mastermind. The loot was never recovered. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 116 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power …

On December 10, 1907, Rudyard Kipling received the Nobel prize for literature, the first English-language writer to do so. — On December 10, 1869, while still a territory, Wyoming became the first state to grant women the right to vote. — And on this day in 1942, my great uncle Lt. Robert I. Kinsella was killed when his B-24 bomber (part of the 90th Bombardment Group, Heavy, 320th Bomber Squadron), flying from the Iron Range Airfield in Northern Queensland, Australia went down in the South Pacific. — Gerber Gear (maker of knives and multi-tools  and one of our affiliate advertisers) …

December 9, 1775: At Fort Ticonderoga, New York, Henry Knox began his historic transport of abandoned British artillery to Boston, Massachusetts, that later forced the British to evacuate Boston. — December 9, 1914 was the birthday of Maximo Guillermo “Max” Manus. He was one of the few Norwegians who fought the Nazi occupiers. Max Manus passed away in 1996. His exploits are fairly accurately shown in the movie Max Manus: Man of War. — Today’s feature article was penned by Field Gear Editor Tom Christianson. — We are seeking entries for Round 116 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More …

On December 8, 1864, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was finally opened in Bristol, England, five years after his death. The deck and cables that we see today are replacements, but the footings and towers are original. — Today’s feature article is an open letter by SurvivalBlog Senior Editor, James Wesley, Rawles (JWR). — We are seeking entries for Round 116 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $935,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to …

On December 7, 1909, inventor Leo Baekeland patented the first thermosetting plastic, Bakelite. This sparked the birth of the plastics industry.  By the 1930s, the majority of tabletop radios had Bakelite cabinets. — On this day in 43 B.C., Roman orator and politician Marcus Tullius Cicero was assassinated in Formiae by soldiers under the command of Mark Antony. — December 7, 1703: The Great Storm of 1703 hit Southern England – thousands were killed, Royal Navy losses included 13 ships and around 1,500 seamen. — On a Sunday morning in 1941, America was caught sleeping. Then there was that September …