Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — July 17, 2024

On July 17, 1603, English explorer Walter Raleigh was arrested by forces of King James I of England. He was executed in 1618.

July 17th, 1889 was the birthdate of Erle Stanley Gardner. He was an American lawyer and author. Though best known for the Perry Mason series of detective stories, he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces, as well as a series of nonfiction books, mostly narrations of his travels through Baja California and other regions in Mexico. The best-selling American author of the 20th century at the time of his death, Gardner also published under numerous pseudonyms, including A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray, and Robert Parr.

July 17th, 1897: The first ship arrived in Seattle carrying gold from the Yukon mines.

On July 17, 1917, a Royal Proclamation by King George V changed the name of the British Royal family from the German “Saxe-Coburg-Gotha” to Windsor. This was nearly three full years after Brtain’s declaration of war against Germany, on August 4th, 1914.

Today, in lieu of a feature article, we are posting a lengthy letter, from reader  M.M.

There are just two weeks left in Round 113 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. Get your article in to us, soon! More than $900,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. In 2023, we polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 113 ends on July 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.