The AK-47 went into production 69 years ago
On July 6, 1947, the Avtomat Kalashnikova, commonly known as the AK-47, went into its first round of production in the Soviet Union. A brainchild of self-taught inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov, it was one of the world’s first operational assault rifles. According to a World Bank report, a fifth of all firearms in the world are variations of the Kalashnikov rifle.\n\n