October 19, 1987: Black Monday. Stock market indices around the world crashed, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), which fell 508.32 points (22%). That was 4½ times the previous daily record.
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October 19th also marks the anniversary of Operation Gatling; the famous “Green Leader” raid in 1978 in which Rhodesia attacked ZIPRA (Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army) in retaliation for ZIPRA shooting down a scheduled passenger flight, Rhodesia flight 825, during the Rhodesian Bush War. The Rhodesian military suffered only minor casualties in the raid, but claimed to have killed 1,500 ZIPRA personnel as well as some Cuban military instructors. Other sources falsely claimed that those killed were refugees camped near the border. Sadly, history does not seem to remember the two airliners shot down by ZIPRA along with the innocent civilians killed on them, but emphasizes the retributory Rhodesian strikes.
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Today’s feature article is by SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Tom Christianson. We usually post his review articles on Mondays, but I moved this one up to Sunday, since we have a six-part article in the queue. That will be posted starting tomorrow.
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We need 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.
Read the full article here