Category: Note

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 …

On April 18, 1775 Paul Revere (pictured) met with Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington, Massachusetts, to warn them that British troops were marching from Boston to Lexington. — April 18,1906: San Francisco earthquake and fire killed nearly 4,000 while destroying 75% of the city. — And on April 18, 1949, the Republic of Ireland withdrew from the British Commonwealth. — Today’s feature article is a guest post from a long-time SurvivalBlog reader. Because it is partly self-promotional, it is not part of the writing contest judging. We need entries for Round 124 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. …

On April 17, 1935:  The first commercial flight from the mainland to Hawaii, as Pan Am’s Pioneer Clipper was flown from San Francisco to Honolulu. — April 17, 1964: The Ford Mustang was formally introduced, with a base price of $2,368. — We are running a two-week-long sale on all of our pre-1899 antique shotguns at Elk Creek Company, with many 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! — Today’s feature article is a guest post from a long-time SurvivalBlog reader. …

The Battle of Culloden was fought on April 16, 1746. Royalist troops under the Duke of Cumberland defeated the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart in the final battle of the Jacobite Rising on British soil. — April 16, 1866: Nitroglycerine exploded at a Wells Fargo & Company office in San Francisco. This reportedly shattered glass in a half a mile radius. — April 16th is the birthday of libertarian novelist J. Neil Schulman. He was best known as author of the novel Alongside Night. — I just heard that famed mountaineer Jim Whittaker passed away, at age 97. — Today’s …

On April 15th, 1621, Hugo Grotius arrived in France after escaping prison in a book chest. Grotius is renowned primarily for his work in philosophy, political theory, and law. This work laid the groundwork for an international law rooted in Grotius’ understanding of natural law, stemming from his Protestantism. His books with the most significant impact were De jure belli ac pacis (On the Law of War and Peace) and Mare Liberum (The Free Seas). — April 15th, 1912, is the anniversary of the sinking of the “unsinkable” Titanic. 1,517 people lost their lives on the ship’s maiden voyage. — …

On April 14, 1849, Hungary declared itself independent of Austria, with Lajos (Louis) Kossuth as its leader. — On this day in 1865, just after the effective end of the American Civil War, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending a production at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., and died the next morning. — April 14, 1881: The famed Four Dead in Five Seconds gunfight in El Paso, Texas. — Today’s feature article is a guest post from a long-time SurvivalBlog reader. Because it is partly self-promotional, it is not part of the writing contest …

On April 13, 1012: A ransom of 48,000 pounds was paid to a large band of Vikings, led by Danish warlord Thorkell the Tall, for the liberation of Canterbury, after a raid on the city and the capture of Alphege [Aelfheah] Archbishop of Canterbury — April 13, 1743, was the birthday of Thomas Jefferson. — And on April 13, 1933: First flight over Mount Everest, by Lord Clydesdale. — We’ve just started a two-week-long sale on all of our pre-1899 antique shotguns at Elk Creek Company.  There are some deep discounts. This sale will end on Monday, April 27th, 2026. …

On April 12, 1811, the first US colonists on the Pacific coast arrived at Cape Disappointment, in what is now the state of Washington. — April 12, 1933: US Navy commissioned Air Station Sunnyvale (later renamed NAS Moffett Field) in Santa Clara County, California — at the southern end of San Francisco Bay. — April 12th is the birthday of the late novelist Tom Clancy. (Born 1947, died October 1, 2013). It was Clancy who almost single-handedly created the modern techno-thriller genre, with his first novel, The Hunt For Red October. Coincidentally, Tom Clancy’s first literary agent is now my …

The Battle of Ravenna was fought on April 11, 1512. French forces under Gaston de Foix defeated the Holy League in this major battle of the Italian Wars. — April 11th is the birthday of John Milius, who was born in 1944. He both wrote the screenplays and directed the films Dillinger, The Wind and the Lion, Big Wednesday, Conan the Barbarian, Red Dawn, Farewell to the King, and Flight of the Intruder. He also wrote the screenplays of the first two Dirty Harry movies as well as the first draft of the screenplay for Patton (before Francis Ford Coppola …