Category: Note

On Jul 26th, 1931, a swarm of grasshoppers descended on crops throughout the American heartland, devastating millions of acres. Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, already in the midst of a bad drought, suffered tremendously from this disaster. The July 1931 swarm was said to be so thick that it blocked out the sun and one could shovel the grasshoppers with a scoop. Cornstalks were eaten to the ground and fields left completely bare. Since the early 1930s, swarms have not been seen in the United States. However, North Africa and parts of the Middle East continue to experience problems with …

Thought that you couldn’t afford one of those nifty PVS-14, 3rd generation, autogated night vision devices? Ready Made Resources is now offering financing on these 100% USA made (parts included). Note that these units have no manual gain, but are $1000 less than the manual gain units.

July 24 – The late Jerry Ahern passed away on this day, July 24th, in 2012. He is missed. o o o From Spaceweather.com: “On Sunday July 23rd, a spectacular X-class CME emerged from the farside of the sun. . . If this explosion had occurred 2 weeks ago when the huge sunspot was facing Earth, we would be predicting strong geomagnetic storms in the days ahead. Instead, the CME is racing away from our planet … and directly toward Mars.”

On July 23rd, 1982, outside Santa Clarita, California, actor Vic Morrow (of Combat! fame) and two children were killed when a helicopter crashed onto them while shooting a scene from Twilight Zone: The Movie. o o o There is only one more week left in Round 71 of the SurvivalBlog Non-Fiction Writing contest. Get your entry in soon!

Jully 22nd is the birthday of actor Willem Dafoe (born 1955). Perhaps his best role was in the movie The Hunter, set in Tasmania.

July 21st is the birthday of Ernest Hemingway. He was born in 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. He committed suicide in July 2, 1961 in Ketchum, Idaho, after being diagnosed with haemochromatosis, and after electroshock treatments failed to lift him from chronic alcoholic depression. He lived a sad life but was a great writer.

Today is the 84th birthday of novelist Cormac McCarthy (born, 1933.) He is the author of the survivalist novel The Road, which later became a popular movie with the same title. On July 20th, 1969, At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, spoke these words to more than a billion people listening at home: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

July 19th is coincidentally the birthday of handgun designers Samuel Colt (born 1814) and Gaston Glock (born 1929).

July 18th, 1954 is the birthdate of Ricky Skaggs, an American country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, mandocaster, and banjo. o o o We are coming into the homestretch of Round 71 of SurvivalBlog’s Writing Contest. It’s time to finish up those articles and e-mail them to us.  This is a merit-based competition, with more than $11,000 worth of prizes awarded bi-monthly. It is not a game of chance!

July 17th, 1889 was the birthdate of Erle Stanley Gardner. He was an American lawyer and author. Though best known for the Perry Mason series of detective stories, he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces, as well as a series of nonfiction books, mostly narrations of his travels through Baja California and other regions in Mexico. The best-selling American author of the 20th century at the time of his death, Gardner also published under numerous pseudonyms, including A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr.

July 16th is the anniversary of the death of Hugh John McCall, in Rhodesia, in 1979.

On July 15th, 1888, the Bandai Volcano erupted on the Japanese island of Honshu killing hundreds and burying many nearby villages in ash. While Honshu is in an area of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, this eruption was surprising. The volcano had erupted only four times in the 1,000 years prior and none had been particularly deadly. However, this eruption was different. The rumblings started just after 7 a.m. Within 30 minutes there was an explosion on the north side of the mountain and over the next two hours there were dozens of explosions giving villagers very little time to …

July 14th is the birthday of Colonel Einar A. Malmstrom. He was born in 1907 and died August 21, 1954 near Great Falls, Montana, in the crash of a T-33 jet. He was a decorated Air Force pilot, a Luft Stalag POW survivor, and test pilot. Malmstrom AFB was one of the settings for JWR’s novel Founders. (The base was named in his honor.) o o o Just a quick reminder on the comments section of the blog. We encourage our readers to share their thoughts on the articles and join in the conversation, but please keep the comments on-topic …

On this day in 1787, Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance structuring settlement of the Northwest Territory and creating a policy for the addition of new states to the nation. The members of Congress knew that if their new confederation were to survive intact, it had to resolve the states’ competing claims to western territory.

On July 12, 1865, George Washington Carver, the African-American scientist whose numerous discoveries helped to improve agriculture in the South, was born. He died on Jan. 5, 1943.