Category: Note

On March 6, 1475 Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti—who exerted an unparalleled influence on Western sculpture, painting, and architecture and whose works rank among the most famous in existence—was born in the Republic of Florence. Today is the birthday of Georg Johann Luger (March 6, 1849 – December 22, 1923). He was the Austrian designer of the famous Luger pistol and the 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge. March 6th was the birthday of Leroy Gordon “Gordo” Cooper Jr., born in 1927 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. This U.S. Air Force pilot and astronaut was aboard Mercury 9 and Gemini 5. Cooper had his exploits …

On March 5, 1963, American country and western singer Patsy Cline—who was one of the classic performers of the genre, known for such ballads as I Fall to Pieces and Crazy—died in an airplane crash near Camden, Tennessee, at age 30. Also killed in the crash were Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Randy  Hughes. This is the birthday of Howard Pyle (1853-1911) an influential American book illustrator, painter, and author. He was the mentor of many great American artists including Thornton Oakley, Frank E. Schoonover, Allen Tupper True, and of course his most famous student: N.C. Wyeth. March 5th is …

On March 4, 1681, William Penn secured from King Charles II of England the colonial province of Pennsylvania in North America, hoping to provide a refuge in the New World for Quakers and other persecuted people and to build an ideal Christian commonwealth. — And on March 4, 1955, the first radio facsimile (or “fax”) transmission, was sent across the continent. — I mailed out the first four-page hardcopy issue of the SurvivalBlog Old School (SOS) Newsletter on Friday. If you’d like to get a copy of that first issue and become a subscriber, then send a donation of $55 …

On March 3, 1877, Rutherford B. Hayes was inaugurated in a private ceremony, following a hotly-contested election.  According to the Rutherford B. Hayes Library web page: “The election of 1876 between Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden of New York was one of the most hostile, controversial campaigns in American history. Tilden won the popular vote and led in the electoral college, but 19 votes from three Republican-controlled states (Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina) remained disputed. Oregon’s count was also challenged. Allegations of widespread voter fraud forced Congress to set up a special electoral commission to determine the winner, composed …

March 2, 1965: The Sound of Music, a film adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical play, premiered; the movie, which was based on the real-life story of the Trapp family of Austria, was a commercial success and won an Oscar for best picture. On March 2nd, 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico. Today is coincidentally also the birthday of Sam Houston. Today is also the birthday of Moe Berg, an American baseball player and clandestine agent. (He died in 1972.) His biography The Catcher Was a Spy is fascinating reading. And this is the birthday of libertarian economist …

Today is the 70th birthday of filmmaker Ron Howard, who first achieved fame as a child actor in The Andy Griffith Show and later became an Academy Award-winning director. — March 1st is the birthday of actor and former WW2 commando David Niven. His full name was James David Graham Niven. (1910-1983.) — And today is the birthday of the late singer, songwriter, and cowboy poet Allen Wayne Damron. Damron was quite the Texan, through and through. (Born 1939, died August 13, 2005, in Terlingua, Texas.) — Here is an interesting North Carolina property listing at SurvivalRealty: Private and Remote …

Happy Leap Year Day! We all get this extra day once every four years, to keep the calendar in sync with the Earth’s 365-and-a-quarter day orbit. My personal tradition for leap year days is to contact friends and distant relatives with whom I’ve been out of touch for at least three years. Pictured above, in Holland: Crossing a flooded field with leaping poles. (“Met de polsstok door ondergelopen akker“.) — On February 29, 2020 a new, democratic constitution was adopted by the National Assembly elected by Czech and Slovak leaders, furthering the consolidation of the two states into Czechoslovakia. — …

On February 28, 1827, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad became the first steam-operated railway in the United States to be chartered as a common carrier of freight and passengers. — William Ewart Fairbairn (28 February 1885 – 20 June 1960) was a British soldier and police officer. He developed hand-to-hand combat methods for the Shanghai Police during the interwar period, as well as for the Allied special forces during World War II. He created his own fighting system known as Defendu. Notably, this included innovative pistol shooting techniques and the development of the Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife. — February 28th is …

On February 27th, 1933, the German Reichstag (parliament) building caught fire, a key event in the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship. More recently, the terms “Reichstag Fire” and “False Flag Event” have both come into use to describe triggering events covertly used to shift public opinion and shape government policies. On February 27th, 1900 — Felix Hoffman patented acetylsalicylic acid, better known as aspirin. February 27th, 1902 Harry ‘Breaker’ Harbord Morant was executed in Pretoria. On this day in 2010, a magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile, causing widespread damage and triggering a tsunami that devastated coastal areas; it was the most …

Forced to abdicate as French emperor in 1814, Napoleon escaped from exile on the island of Elba on this day in 1815 and, gathering support en route, retook power on his return to Paris on March 20, ushering in the Hundred Days. — February 26, 1993: A truck bomb built by Islamic extremists explodes in the parking garage of the North Tower of New York’s World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 others. — February 26th is also the birthday of Major-General Orde Charles Wingate (born, 1903, died 24 March 1944), an eccentric British Army officer …

February 25th is the birthday of the late bluegrass music legend Ralph Stanley (1927 – 2016). His harmonizing and high tenor solos had an almost haunting sound to them. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 111 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 $2,000. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or …

On this day in 1868, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 126–47 to impeach President Andrew Johnson, whose lenient Reconstruction policies regarding the South after the Civil War angered Republicans in Congress. Most notably, Johnson had vetoed legislation that had been passed to protect the rights of those who had been freed from slavery. When the trial concluded on May 16, Johnson had won acquittal, not because a majority of senators supported his policies but rather because a fairly large minority wanted to preserve the balance of powers and protect the office of the presidency. — On February 24, 1803, …

A News Flash:  An Earth-facing X6.3 solar flare was reported on Friday (22 February, 2024). There have already been cellular phone network outages reported.  My advice: Tuck all of your spare electronics into Faraday cans/bags, for the next few days! The photo above of this event is courtesy of NASA. – JWR — Composer George Frideric Handel, a leading figure of late Baroque music, was born in Germany on February 12, 1685 February 23, 1945, is the day that six Marines from E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi during the battle of Iwo …

On February 22, 1847,  U.S. General Zachary Taylor led troops against a Mexican force commanded by General Antonio López de Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista. February 22, 1857 was the birthday of Heinrich Hertz, a German physicist who was the first to broadcast and receive radio waves and helped to invent radar technology On this day in 1943, Sophie Scholl was executed by beheading for organizing the White Rose group–a student resistance to the Hitler regime. She had been convicted of high treason, after having been found distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich (LMU) with …

On February 21, 1947, Edwin Land (pictured) presented his Polaroid photo product, the world’s first instant photos, in New York City. On February 21, 1972, Richard Nixon became the first US President to visit China, normalizing relations between the countries in a meeting with Chinese leader Mao Zedong in Beijing. On February 21, 1995, American businessman and adventurer Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon. It was the first of his many aviation records. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 111 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing …