Category: Note

Today is election day. Please get out and vote. I know that our votes don’t mean a lot in some instances, but in many mid-term races they still do. (For example, pro-gun candidate Brandon Herrera is running for Congress in Texas’s 23rd District.) Also, please pray for smaller and more responsible government. – JWR — Soon after last Tuesday’s blog was posted, I heard that Walter Koenig passed away. He will be missed. Ironically, he long outlived Anton Yelchin, who also played Ensign Pavel Chekov in the much more recent Star Trek movies. (Yelchin was accidentally crushed to death at …

On October 25, 1415, the Battle of Agincourt (aka Azincourt): Henry V‘s forces defeated a larger French army as the longbow overcame the French armored knights. — October 26, 1774: Minutemen were organized in US colonies. — October 26, 1881: Perhaps the most famous shootout in the history of America’s Wild West took place at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. On the one side stood the so-called forces of law and order: Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, and Doc Holliday. By reputation these were power-hungry and ruthless men. Opposing them were the outlaws Billy and Ike Clanton, …

This Week in History: On October 18, 1892, the first commercial long-distance phone line went into operation between Chicago and New York. Many more lines followed, necessitating the advent of long-distance switchboards to supplement local switchboards. — Deeper Discounts: To lighten the load for their upcoming move to Montana, the new owners of Ready Made Resources are offering some deeply-discounted food and gear packages.  I just heard that they have increased the discount to 50% for SurvivalBlog readers, on both their equipment and food packages, but for just the next three packages that are sold. Mention that you are a SurvivalBlog …

This Week in History: The Battle of Kappel was fought on October 11, 1531. Swiss Roman Catholic cantons defeated the Protestant forces of Zurich. In the battle, reformation leader Huldrych Zwingli leader was killed. October 12, 1773: America’s first asylum opened for ‘Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds’ in Virginia. October 12, 1901: Theodore Roosevelt renamed the “Executive Mansion” as “The White House”. And on October 13, 1773, the Whirlpool Galaxy was discovered by French astronomer Charles Messier. — I recently added more than 250 rifle and pistol magazines to the Elk Creek Company inventory. Many of these were dusted …

This Week in History: On October 4, 1535, The Coverdale Bible — the first complete Bible to be published in English — was printed in Antwerp, Belgium, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale. Pictured above is a Coverdale Bible on display at the Museum of the Bible, in Washington, D.C. — October 5, 1274: Around 1,000 soldiers of the Mongol army landed on the Japanese island of Tsushima in the first attack of Kublai Khan‘s Mongol invasion of Japan / — October 5, 1908: Bulgaria declared independence from the Ottoman Empire, and Ferdinand I (Ferdinand Maximilian Karl Leopold …

This Week in History: On September 27, AD 70, the walls of upper city of Jerusalem were battered down by the Roman army. — September 28, 1066: William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, lands at Pevensey Bay in Sussex. Thus began the Norman Conquest of England. — September 28,1542: Explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo was the first European to sail into San Diego Bay, naming it San Miguel and claiming it for Spain. — September 28, 1781: 9,000 American and 7,000 French troops began the Siege of Yorktown. — September 29, 1567: the War of Religion broke out in France as …

This Week in History: On September 21, 1893, Frank Duryea drove the first American-made gasoline-propelled vehicle. September 22, 1499: Switzerland became an independent state. September 22, 1656: An all-female jury heard the case of Judith Catchpole, accused of killing her child, and acquitted her in Patuxent County, Maryland. September 23, 1779: John Paul Jones aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard defeated the British frigate HMS Serepis and soon became the United States’ first well-known naval hero. September 24, 1869: The “Black Friday” panic on Wall Street after investors Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the gold market. — I …

This Week in History: On September 15, 1600, the Battle of Sekigahara, (Sekigahara Kassen Byōbu『関ヶ原合戦屏風』) marked the rise of the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan. — September 15, 1774: Cossack pretender to the Russian throne Yemelyan Ivanovich Pugachev was captured. — On September 16, 1620 the Mayflower departed Plymouth, England, with 102 Pilgrims and about 30 crew for the New World. — September 17,1776: The fortress Presidio of San Francisco was founded in New Spain to gain a foothold in Alta California and secure the San Francisco Bay for Spain. — And on September 18, 1851, the first edition of The …

Friday, September 11th marks the 25th anniversary of the brutal 9/11 terror attacks.  Never forget, America, the magnitude of the losses. See the 2:10 mark, and beyond. – JWR. Today is also the anniversary of the Benghazi Embassy attacks, in 2012. (Those events were recounted in the Hollywood film 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.) Please remember the sacrifice of J. Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, and CIA (former Navy SEAL) agents Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Between them, Woods and Doherty reportedly dropped at least 60 of the attackers, before their position was overwhelmed. Please also remember the spineless …

This Week in History On September 8, 1664, the Dutch surrendered their colony of New Netherland, including New Amsterdam, to 300 English soldiers. Following the capture, New Amsterdam’s name was changed to New York, to honor the Duke of York, who had organized the mission. — September 9, 1000: Battle of Svolder, Baltic Sea: King Olaf on board the Long Serpent was defeated in one of the greatest naval battles of the Viking Age. He leapt to his death, overboard. — September 10, 1919:  Treaty of Saint-Germain. Austria ended its incorporation with Germany. But its independence was short-lived. In the …

This Week in History: On September 1, 1255, Königsberg (modern day Kaliningrad) was founded by Teutonic Knights. It was named in honor of the Bohemian King Ottokar II. Pictured is Kaliningrad’s Brandenburg Gate. (Public domain photo by Jan Pešula.) — The 1859 Carrington Event — the largest geomagnetic storm in recorded history began on this day. Richard Carrington and Richard Hodgson made the first observation of a large solar flare. — On September 2, 1666, the Great Fire of London began at 2 am in Pudding Lane. An estimated 80% of London was destroyed. — And on September 4, 1950: …

This Week in History: On August 25, 1537, The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, was formed. Pictured is the Honourable Artillery Company Band at Balboa Park, while on a visit to San Diego, California. — August 25, 1898: 700 Greeks and 15 Englishmen were massacred by the Turks in Heraklion, Crete. — August 26, 1789: The National Constituent Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen at the beginning of the French Revolution. — August 26,1859: A geomagnetic storm caused the Aurora Borealis to …

This Week in History: On August 18, 1877, the Martian Moon Phobos was discovered. One of the two natural satellites of Mars, Phobos, was discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall. Hall also discovered Deimos, the other Martian Moon. Named after the Greek God of fear, Phobos orbits only 3,700 miles from the surface of Mars. This makes it the Moon to orbit closest to its planet in the Solar System. Because of this odd orbit, Phobos completes each orbit around Mars in just 7 hours and 39 minutes. — August 19, 1895: American frontier murderer and outlaw John Wesley Hardin …

This Week in History: The Sea Battle of Zierikzeen was fought on August 11, 1304, Franco-Holland forces defeated the Flemish fleet. — August 12, 1336 English King Edward III banned wool export to Flanders and later granted a company of merchants a monopoly on selling wool in attempt to maximize taxes. — August 12, 1940: The German Luftwaffe bombed British radar stations, suffering a loss of 31 aircraft. — August 13, 1521: Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés captures Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in Tenochtitlan. This brought the Aztec Empire to an end. — And on August 14, 1040, King Duncan …

This Week in History: On  August 4, 1873, while protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the US 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (pictured), clashed for the first time with the Sioux Indian tribe near the Tongue River, killing one man on each side. — August 6, 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved. It was described by Voltaire as “in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” Emperor Francis II renounced his title of Holy Roman Emperor, becoming instead the first Emperor of Austria. — August 4, 1900: An allied expeditionary force, made up of …