Category: Note

On May 3, 1810, English poet Lord Byron swam across the dangerous Hellespont Strait in Turkey. (The modern day Dardanelles.) — May 3,1952:  The first airplane landed on the ice pack at the geographic North Pole. — And on May 3, 1999: A category F5 tornado hit parts of Oklahoma City and caused the record wind speed of about 301 mph (484 km/h). 45 people were killed, and 665 injured.  This was the highest tornado wind speed ever recorded. — Today’s feature article is a timely re-post from the SurvivalBlog archives.

On May 2, 1918, General Motors acquired the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.  This synergy helped propel GMC to be a serious rival to Ford. — May 2nd, 1803: The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France at a cost of four cents per acre for 828,000 square miles (2,144,520 square km), which soon proved to be a tremendous bargain. — Today’s feature article is a repost from the 2018 archives of SurvivalBlog. — We need more entries for Round 124 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $984,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started …

On May 1, 1840 the “Penny Black” — the world’s first adhesive postage stamp was issued by the United Kingdom. It featured an image of Queen Victoria. — May 1, 1857: William Walker, conqueror of Nicaragua, surrendered to the U.S. Navy, in Rivas. — And on May 1, 1898 US Admiral George Dewey commanded: “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley” as the US routed the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay. — An encouraging news flash: House Appropriations 2027 Funding Bill Ends Suppressor, Short Barrel Rifle Registration. JWR’s Comment:  Be sure to contact both your U.S. congressman and your …

On April 30, 711, the Islamic conquest of Iberia began. Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad (pictured) landed at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. The Al-Andalus Umayyad Caliphate eventually supplanted the Visigothic Kingdom. — April 30, 1864: New York became the first state to charge a hunting license fee. — Today is the birthday of sci-fi novelist Larry Niven (born April 30, 1938). Along with Jerry Pournelle, he co-authored the survivalist classic Lucifer’s Hammer. — Today’s feature is a reader-written piece that was to short to qualify as an entry for Round 124 of the …

On April 29, 1990, wrecking cranes began tearing down the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate. — On April 29, 1992, a jury acquitted Los Angeles Police Department officers on charges of excessive force in the beating of Rodney King.  The verdict sparked massive riots in the city and smaller ones in other U.S. cities. African-Americans in Los Angeles were enraged by the acquittal of the officers. Thousands of people began rioting across the city. For six days, scenes of wanton violence, looting, arson, assault and murder convulsed the city, with incidents like the brutal assault on truck driver Reginald …

On April 28, 1910 the first-ever nighttime airplane flight was made by Claude Grahame-White, in England. According to Britannica: “Educated at Bedford in engineering, Grahame-White owned one of the first gasoline-driven motorcars in England and worked at a motor-engineering business in London until he became interested in aeronautics in 1909. On Jan. 4, 1910, he gained the first English aviator’s certificate of proficiency. Also in 1910, he entered many flying races in Europe and in the United States, where he won the Gordon Bennett Cup.” — April 28th is the birthday of Aimo Johannes Lahti. (Born in 1896.) This inventive …

On April 27, 1667, at age 59, blind and impoverished, English poet John Milton sold his copyright to “Paradise Lost” for just £10 Sterling. — April 27, 1789: he crew of the British ship Bounty mutinied, setting Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific. — On this day in 1861, West Virginia seceded from Virginia after Virginia had seceded from the Union. — The last day! We have been running a two-week-long sale on all of our pre-1899 antique shotguns at Elk Creek Company, with deep discounts. This sales ends at midnight tonight, …

On April 26, 1777, it is claimed that 16-year-old Sybil Ludington rode all night in a rainstorm for 40 miles to warn her father’s New York militia of the approach of the British army. — April 26, 1937: The German Luftwaffe’s “Condor Legion” destroyed Basque town of Guernica, in Spain. — Just one day left! We are running a two-week-long sale on all of our pre-1899 antique shotguns at Elk Creek Company, with deep discounts. This sale will end on Monday, April 27th, 2026. Please note that some of these guns have been re-sleeved and re-proofed for modern shotshells! — …

On April 25, 1644, the last Ming Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself from a tree on Jing Mountain, Beijing, rather than be captured by the forces of Li Zicheng, the Chinese peasant rebellions leader — who soon after ruled over northern China briefly as the Yongchang Emperor. Thus ended the Ming Dynasty. — Today is the birthday of physicist, inventor, and entrepreneur Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937). He was known for his pioneering work on long-distance radio transmission as well as for the development of Marconi’s law and a radio telegraph system. He is often considered the inventor of radio. — Just a …

On April 24, 1913, the Woolworth Building was opened in New York City by Frank Winfield Woolworth. It was completed at a cost of $13.5 million. At 792 feet, it was then the world’s tallest building. It is pictured above (at center) in 1965. — April 24, 1944: The first Boeing B-29 arrived in China after flying “Over The Hump”. — And on April 24,1990 STS-31 was launched. It was the 35th mission of the US Space Shuttle program. It  carried the Hubble Space Telescope. — Today we present a short guest article by our friend Hub Moolman, of South …

On April 23, 1014, the army of King Brian Boru of Ireland defeated Viking forces at the Battle of Clontarf, freeing Ireland from Viking control. (The imaginative painting above was rendered by Hugh Frazer, 1826.) — And on this day in 1940, a dance hall fire killed 198 people in Natchez, Mississippi. — Today’s feature article is by  SurvivalBlog staff writer Tom Christianson. — We are seeking entries for Round 124 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $984,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 124 ends on May 31st, so get …

On April 22, 1056 Supernova Crab (the Crab Nebula) was last seen by the naked eye. Pictured is a mosaic image assembled from Hubble Space Telescope imagery.  Now, nearly a thousand years later, the supenova remnant is still a spectacular sight for astronomers. — At noon, on April 22, 1889, by Federal decree, white settlers were allowed into Indian Territory, sparking a land rush involving tens of thousands in what became Oklahoma Territory. — We are running a two-week-long sale on all of our pre-1899 antique shotguns at Elk Creek Company, with deep discounts. This sale will end on Monday, …

On April 21, 1864 the U.S. Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1864, which led to the “In God We Trust” wording on U.S. coins. The phrase was eventually added to all of our country’s currency. — And on April 21, 1961: USAF Major Robert M. White took the X-15-2 to the edge of space with a record-breaking flight to an altitude of 107,700 feet and a speed of 3,603 miles per hour. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 124 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: A …

On April 20th, 1653 Oliver Cromwell and 40 musketeers forcibly dissolved the English Rump Parliament, after it failed to establish a caretaker government. In Cromwell’s words “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately … In the name of God, go!” — April 20, 2010: An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, leased by BP, killed 11 workers and began spewing an estimated 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly three months, creating the worst known offshore oil spill. — April 20th is also the day that we remember …

April 19th is the original Patriot Day which marks the multiple anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord, known as “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”.  Note that due to corporate bureaucracy, the Patriot Day celebration has generally been moved to the third Monday in April to facilitate a postal/banking holiday. April 19th  also marks the anniversary of the blockade of Confederate Ports in 1861, the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Nazis in 1943, the BATF’s costly raid on the Branch Davidian Church in Waco, the gun turret explosion on the USS Iowa in 1989, the capture of the …