SurvivalBlog.com

On May 2, 1536, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, was arrested and taken to the Tower of London. She was beheaded following a four-day show trial.

—

May 2, 1924: President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the ancient lava fields in Idaho as Craters of the Moon National Monument, in order to “preserve the unusual and weird volcanic formations.”

—

On May 2nd, 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced that high-accuarcy GPS would be made available to the public; the satellite signals had previously been degraded for nonmilitary use.

—

And on 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 was written by SurvivalBlog’s founder and Senior Editor, James Wesley, Rawles (JWR).

—

We are in need of entries for Round 118 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $950,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 118 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

May 1, 1328: The Wars of Scottish Independence ended with the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton – the Kingdom of England recognized the Kingdom of Scotland as an independent state.

—

On May 1, 1776, Adam Weishaupt founded the secret society of the Illuminati.

—

May 1st was the birthday of Pastor Archie Mitchell — a man whose civilian life was torn by both World War 2 and the Vietnam War.

—

May 1st is the birthday of the late Joel Rosenberg, a Canadian-born novelist and gun rights advocate (born 1954, died June 2, 2011). He is not to be confused with Joel C. Rosenberg (born 1967), who is another great novelist and the author of The Last Jihad novel series.

—

Today’s guest article is partly self-promotional, so it is not an entry for Round 118 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $950,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running the writing contest.  Round 118 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.

On April 30, 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States of America at Federal Hall in New York City.

On April 30, 1897, English physicist J.J. Thomson announced that he had discovered the electron, which helped revolutionize the knowledge of atomic structure; he was later awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.

April 30, 1777 was the birthday of Carl Friedrich Gauss, who is widely considered the world’s greatest mathematician.

Camerone Day is celebrated on April 30th every year — the Foreign Legion’s most important holiday.

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, we present a guest article from our friend Hub Moolman.

—

We are seeking entries for Round 118 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $950,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest.  Round 118 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Please refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic.