On November 22, 1574, the uninhabited Juan Fernández Islands off Chile were discovered by Spanish sailor Juan Fernández. Later, they were famously the home of marooned sailor Alexander Selkirk, who inspired the novel Robinson Crusoe.
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On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
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Today is the birthday of Adelbert Rinaldo Buffington, a well-known designer of military gun parts and acccessories. most notably the Buffington rifle rear sight.
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Today is remembered as the birthday of the late Eugene M. Stoner. (Born 1922, died April 24, 1997.) He was the designer of the AR-7, AR-10, AR-15, AR-180, the Stoner 63, and several other firearms. His AR-10 was the basis of the AR-15 which in turn spawned the very widely used M16 and all of its variants including the M4 Carbine. It has been estimated that 21 million rifles from the AR-15 family are owned by civilians in the United States, and military production M16 variants worldwide exceeds nine million rifles.
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Today’s feature piece is by JWR.
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We need a few more entries for Round 121 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $970,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 121 ends on November 30th, 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.