November 10

You might not know who Mikhail Kalashnikov is, but you almost certainly know his most famous invention: the Автомат Калашникова образца 1947 года. Don't read Cyrillic? How about Avtomat Kalashnikova obraztsa 1947 goda? Okay, so you don't read Russian either. How about AK-47? Ah, that one you know. Kalashnikov was born on this day in 1919, in Russia's southern Altai region. The designer of what is probably the most famous rifle in the world holds an advanced degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences, has been twice named Hero of Socialist Labor and in 1998, was awarded an Order of Saint Andrew the Protoclete (orden Svyatogo Andreya Pervozvannogo). (Read more ...)

[more] What else happened today

1908 — Charles Cecil Ingersoll Merritt is born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He would go on to earn the Victoria Cross during the disastrous Dieppe raid against Nazi German coastal defenses on 19 August 1942. 1919 — Mikhail Kalashnikov is born in Russia's southern Altai region. 2009 — On his 90th birthday, Kalashnikov was named a "Hero of the Russian Federation" and presented with a medal by President Dmitry Medvedev who lauded him for creating "the brand every Russian is proud of." 1981 — Jason L. Dunham, American Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2004) was born in Scio, New York. 2009 — "Beltway sniper" John Allen Muhammad is executed by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia.