Category: Note

To those who are celebrating the Advent of our Lord and Savior, the team at SurvivalBlog wishes you a peaceful and meaningful Christmas. For those who choose to celebrate our Lord through the biblical feasts, stay safe out there during this holiday season. Our prayer is that each and every one of you enjoy the family time and that you stay safe on the roads. Photo: Christmas in a European Salt Mine: “Viering kerstnacht/kerstfeest in een zoutmijn te Duitsland, 1933. Mijnwerkers met carbidlampen zingen bij brandende waxinelichtjes.” — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 86 of …

December 24 is the 20th anniversary of when John Joe Gray’s legal troubles began, in 2000. He and his family had been self-sufficiently holed up in their Texas ranch for nearly 15 years, in defiance of a warrant for his arrest, before the district attorney dropped the charges. This was the longest standoff in American history, in which he faced the administrations of four different county sheriffs. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 86 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A $3,000 …

December 23rd is the birthday of Founding Father and Supreme Court Justice John Jay. (Born 1745, died May 17, 1829.) December 23rd is also the anniversary of the establishment of of the exclusive private banking cartel known as The Federal Reserve, in 1913. I recommend the book The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve. — JWR Asks: I’m running low on writing contest articles to post in January. So I encourage any blog readers with some quiet vacation time available to get busy writing. An article as short as 1,500 words could be awarded  one …

December 22nd is the anniversary of the death of SP4 James T. Davis, the first uniformed American combat casualty of the Vietnam War, in 1961. This Army Security Agency (ASA) soldier of the 3rd Radio Research Unit was killed in a Viet Cong ambush on a road outside Saigon. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 86 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from veteran-owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator …

On December 21, 1620, William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims landed on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 86 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from veteran-owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value), …

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 86 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from veteran-owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three …

December 19th is the birthday of physicist Albert A. Michelson (born 1852, died May 9, 1931), who was the first American to be awarded a Nobel Prize in science, for measuring the speed of light. I’m distantly related to him, by way of my great aunt, Zelpha Rawles Michelson. — On Dec 19, 1776, Thomas Paine published “American Crisis”. “These are the times that try men’s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. …

Mat Stein: Rest In Peace We are sad to report the death of Matthew Stein, our Back-Country Editor. At the request of a family member, the publication of his obituary was delayed in SurvivalBlog. (They wished to downplay Mat’s survivalist outlook and preparations.) Mat was a design engineer, green builder, and author of two best-selling books: When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency and When Disaster Strikes: A Comprehensive Guide for Emergency Planning and Crisis Survival. He also authored a children’s book, titled Geronimo the Frog. All three of those books are still in …

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, at age 96. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 86 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from veteran-owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public. A Gunsite Academy Three …

December 16th is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, in 1773. — And 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 he had a troubled personal life (with drug use and several failed marriages), his captivating books certainly had a knack for envisioning potential futures.

The 15th of December, 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 Kibbutz Yagur in the British Mandate of Palestine where he changed his name to Uziel Gal. In 1943, he was arrested for illegally carrying a gun and sentenced to six years in prison. However, he was pardoned and released in 1946, serving less than half of his sentence.” He is, of course, remembered as the inventor of the …

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 General James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle, who died September 27, 1993.

After spending nine months on the run, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured on December 13, 2003. During his 24 years in office, Saddam’s secret police, charged with protecting his power, terrorized the public, ignoring the human rights of the nation’s citizens. While many of his people faced poverty, he lived in incredible luxury, building more than 20 lavish palaces throughout the country. It was fitting that, in the end, he was hiding in nothing more than a hole in the ground covered by plywood. — December 13th is also the birthday of Sergeant Alvin York.

On December 12, 1989, the Queen of Mean was sentenced to four years in prison, 750 hours of community service, and a $7.1 million tax fraud fine in New York. Leona Helmsley, nicknamed the “Queen of Mean” by the press, became the object of loathing and disgust when she quipped that “only the little people pay taxes.” Helmsley died in August 2007 at age 87. She famously left $12 million to her dog, Trouble.

Happy birthday to actress Teri Garr (born 1944.) She was unforgettable in Young Frankenstein.