On December 9, 1793, Noah Webster established New York’s first daily newspaper, the “American Minerva“.

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On December 9, 1315, the Swiss Woudsteden renewed the Eternal Covenant. (The Oath Society)

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On December 9, 1688 King James II‘s wife and son fled England for France, to help preserve the Stuart family.

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December 9th, 1914 was the birthday of Maximo Guillermo “Max” Manus. He was one of the few Norwegians who had the testicular fortitude to put his life on the line, fighting the Nazi occupiers. (There surely would have been more active resistance fighters, but fearing widespread reprisal executions by the Germans, King H7 asked the civilian populace to stand down.) Max Manus passed away in 1996. His exploits are fairly accurately shown in the movie Max Manus: Man of War.

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We are in need of entries for Round 110 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. More than $850,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. We recently polled blog readers, asking for suggested article topics. Refer to that poll if you haven’t yet chosen an article topic. Round 110 ends on January 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.