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 the victims of the Columbine High School tragedy. Sadly, since then only a few school districts have authorized teachers and administrators to keep guns close at hand, to prevent similar incidents. – JWR
—
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, April 27th, 2026. Please note that some of these guns have been re-sleeved and re-proofed for modern shotshells!
Also note: I recently raised my silver divisor to 56. If paying in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver coinage, you may divide the total for your order by 56. For example, for a $440 order, you’d pay just $7.85 face value in any combination of silver dimes, quarters, or half-dollars.