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 few days left! 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!
—
The following article is a guest piece. Because it is partly self-promotional, it is not part of the writing contest judging.
—
We are in great need of 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 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.
Read the full article here