Today in Military History 1 Apr - 30 Jun

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1 April

All Fools Day -The only holiday of Atheists -Psalm 14:1 - The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.

1865 Battle of Five Forks, Lee's line of communications is severed
1893 USN establishes the rate of Chief Petty Officer
1933 Nazi Germany enacts anti-Semitic legislation
1941 The CNO orders all commands to take "special precautions against surprise attack on weekends and holidays."
1941 The US Navy takes over Treasure Island, San Francisco Bay
1943 Japanese aircraft attack the Russell Islands
1944 Adm Toyoda becomes commander of Combined Fleet
1944 The Admiralties: 1st Cav Div begins mop up of outlying islands
1944 B-24s of the 392nd Bombardment Group bomb Schoffaussen, Switzerland (on the "German" side of the Rhine), causing about 75 casualties, including 40 dead
1945 60,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines landed on Okinawa, on Easter Sunday -- Learn More
1945 US First & Ninth Armies meet to form the Ruhr pocket
1954 The US Army forms its first helicopter battalion, Fort Bragg, NC
1986 USS 'Nathanael Greene' (SSBN-656) grounds in the Irish Sea
1992 USS 'Missouri' (BB-63) decommissions for the last time
2003 USMC Task Force Tarawa secures An Nasiriyah in Iraq after a hot weeklong fight.

BORN
1621 Tegh Bahadur, Sixth Sikh Guru (1665-1675), murdered by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb
1823 Simon Bolivar Buckner, Lt Gen, C.S.A., d. 1914
1885 Clementine Hozier, later Mrs. Winston Spencer Churchill, later Baroness Spencer-Churchill, silent partner to her husband
1935 Lawrence Patton McDonald, physician, Democratic member of Congress from Georgia, killed in KAL 007, 1989
1954 US Air Force Academy

DIED

1870 Patrick Gass, last survivor of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, at 98
1946 Noah Beery, actor ("Beau Geste"), at 62
2002 Simo "Simuna" Häyhä, 96, Finnish sniper in the Winter War, with 505 confirmed kills, nicknamed "White Death"

 

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April 2
1672 King Charles II authorized the adoption of the bayonet by the English Army -- Learn More
1781 US Frigate 'Alliance 'captures British privateers 'Mars' and 'Minerva'
1827 Construction of the first U.S. Naval Hospital begins, Portsmouth, Va
1863 Richmond Bread Riot: Jeff Davis threatens to fire on women & children
1865 Battles of Petersburg/Ft Gregg/Sutherland's Station, Va: Robert E. Lee is forced to evacuate Richmond
1865 US Maj Gen James H Wilson's cavalry captures Selma
1917 Pres Wilson asks Congress to declare war against Germany
1942 USS 'Hornet' (CV-7) sails from San Francisco, carrying 16 Army B-25Bs
1942 US bombers from India attack Japanese shipping in the Andaman Islands.
1944 US Fifth Air Force raids Hansa Bay, New Guinea.
1982 Argentina invades the Falkland Is, initiating a 72-day losing war with Britain
1986 TWA Flight 840 bombed on approach to Athens airport; four passengers (all of them American), including an infant, are killed.
2012 Mass shooting at Oikos University, Oakland, California, 7 die

BORN

1826 Philip Dale Roddey, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1897
1833 Thomas Howard Ruger, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1907
1914 Alec Guinness, naval officer, actor ("Lawrence of Arabia," "Bridge on the River Kwai"), d. 2000 Learn More
1920 Jack Webb, B-26 crewman, actor ("The DI", Dragnet), d. 1982
1925 George MacDonald Fraser, soldier, author ("Flashman", "Quartered Safe Out Here"), d 2008

DIED
1787 Gen. Sir Thomas Gage, c. 68, who lost the opening act of the American Revolution -- Learn More
1865 Lt. Gen. Ambrose P. Hill, C.S.A., KIA at 39

 

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3 April

1860 First ride of the Pony Express
1865 Union forces occupy Richmond & Petersberg, to the tune of "Dixie"
1943 New Guinea: Elms 41st Div land at Morobe, near the Waria River, without opposition
41st infantry division - AOL Search Results

1948 Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan
1968 Premier of the motion picture "2001: A Space Odyssey,"
1982 Security Council demands Argentina withdraw from the Falkland Islands
2009 Mass shooting at an immigration center in Binghamton, NY, 13 killed before the perpetrator commits suicide

BORN

1783 Washington Irving, soldier, novelist, short story writer, ("The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"), d. 1859 -- Learn More
1798 Charles D Wilkes, U.S. naval officer and explorer, who precipitated the "Trent Affair", d. 1877
1822 Edward Everett Hale, author ("The Man Without a Country"), d. 1909
1842 Ulric Dahlgren, Col., U.S., kia, 1864, possibly while trying to "decapitate" the Confederate government
1893 Leslie Howard, soldier, actor ("GWTW", "The Scarlet Pimpernel"), k. 1943
1917 Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, the "Soldier of Orange", d. 2007
1926 Virgil "Gus" Grissom, USAF astronaut (Mercury 4, Gemini 3), d. 1967

DIED
33 Jesus [alternative astronomical estimate]
1882 Jesse James, shot by Robert Ford, at 34, St Joseph, Mo
1919 Wilbur Little, returning black WW I veteran, lynched by a mob in Blakely, Georgia, for wearing his uniform in public.
1943 Conrad Veidt, 50, German born American actor (Major Strasser in 'Casablanca')
1946 Lt Gen Masaharu Homma, 58, shot for the Bataan Death March
1988 Milton A Caniff, US cartoonist ("Steve Canyon"), at 81
1991 Graham Greene, novelist ("Our Man in Havana"), b. 1904
2011 Kevin Jarre, 56, Civil War buff, screenwriter, actor ("Glory")

 

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4 April

1776 First USN victory at sea: USS 'Columbus' captures HM Tender 'Hawke'
1854 Sloop 'Plymouth' lands a party to protect U.S. citizens in Shanghai
1862 Battle of Yorktown: First serious fighting of the Peninsular Campaign
1865 Lincoln sits in Jeff Davis' chair, in the Confederate White House
1898 First Chief of USN's Bureau of Yards and Docks appointed, Mordecai Endicott
1933 USN Airship 'Akron' (ZRS-4) crashes off New Jersey, 73 die
1941 RAdm Claude Bloch, COM 14th Naval District, warns Midway against Japanese surprise attack

BORN
1814 John Blair Smith Todd, Brig Gen. U.S., d. 1872
1817 John Wilson Sprague, Brig Gen., U.S., d. 1893
1820 Charles Devens Jr, Brig Gen., U.S., d. 1891
1823 Robert Byington Mitchell, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1882
1831 Edward Cary Walthall, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1898
1943 4th Marine Div, at San Diego
1949 The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

DIED
1841 President William Henry Harrison, victor at Tippicanoe, after 30 days in office, at 68 -- Learn More
1968 Martin Luther King, Jr., 39, American, Peace maker, assassinated
2003 Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith, 32, kia, Bagdhad, earning a Medal of Honor

 

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5 April

Gold Star Wives Day in the United States

1614 Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe
Note - Decendents go into the 20th century - Pocahontas
1861 U.S. troops abandon Ft Quitman, Tx
1887 Lord Acton writes, "Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely."
1896 Athens: 1st modern Olympic Games begin
1945 Japanese cabinet resigns.
1955 Winston Churchill resigns as British PM, succeeded by Anthony Eden
1962 NASA civilian pilot Neil A Armstrong takes X-15 to 54,600m
1991 Iraq: US begins relief air drops to Kurds in the north

BORN
1818 Lewis Baldwin Parsons, Brig Gen, U.S.
1822 James Nagle, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1866
1825 David Rumph "Neighbor" Jones, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1863
1839 Robert Smalls, African-Amerian Civil War naval hero, member of congress, d. 1915
1900 Spencer Tracy, actor ("Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo"), d. 1967
1923 Nguyen Van Thieu, South Vietnamese soldier & president (1965-1975), d. 2001
1937 Colin Powell, African American general, Chairman of the JCS, national security advisor, secretary of state, d. 2021

DIED

1964 Douglas MacArthur, "Defender of Australia, Liberator of the Philippines, Conqueror of Japan", not to mention "Router of the Bonus Army", at 84
1972 Brian Donlevy, actor ("Wake Island"), at 73
1975 Chiang Kai-shek, 87, President/Premier/Leader of China , 1928-1975
1991 Manley L "Sonny" Carter Jr, 50, US astronaut, in an accident

 

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1862 Battle of Shiloh, Day 1: Confederate success -- Learn More
1906 Massive eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, hundreds die
1917 The US declared war on Germany, entering World War I -- Learn More
1934 Nazis arrest 418 Lutheran ministers
1944 The Supreme Allied Commander cancels all further military leaves throughout the British Isles, in preparation for D-Day
1968 USS 'New Jersey' (BB-62) recommissioned, the first battleship in active service since 1958

BORN
1828 Charles William Field, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1892
1866 The Grand Army of the Republic
1892 Donald Douglas, USMA alumnus, aircraft designer (DC-3/C-47, etc.) d. 1981
1892 Lowell Thomas, intrepid war correspondent, d. 1981

DIED
1994 Pres. Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi (b. 1958), Pres. Juvénal Habyarimana of Rwanda (b 1937), and 12 others, when a surface-to-air missile strikes their plane as it is landing at Kigali International Airport
2005 Rainier III Grimaldi, Sovereign Prince of Monaco (1949-2005), French soldier, at 82

 

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7 April

1818 Gen Andrew Jackson seizes St Marks, Fla, from Seminole Indians
1862 Battle of Shiloh, Day 2: Grant defeats the Confederates
1863 First Battle of Charleston, SC: Unsuccessful USN attempt to force the harbor
1865 Battle of Farmville, Va
1917 USN takes over all wireless stations for the duration of WW I
1941 USS 'North Carolina' (BB-55) is commissioned in Brooklyn
1942 USN agrees to accept black Americans for general service
1945 First Navy Nurses land on Iwo Jima: Lt, jg, Ann Purvis & Ens Jane Kendeigh
1966 US recovers lost H-bomb from sea off Palomares, Spain
1978 President Jimmy Carter defers production of neutron bomb
1980 President Jimmy Carter breaks relations with Iran over the hostage crisis

BORN
1801 Henry Eagle, naval officer, U.S., d. 1882
1893 Allan W Dulles, OSS, CIA, d. 1969

DIED
1871 Wilhelm Freiherr von Tegetthoff, 67, Austrian admiral, victor of Helgoland & Lissa
1947 Henry Ford, 82, automotive innovator

 

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8 April

1861 US mint at Dahlonega, Georgia, seized by Confederate officials
1864 Battle of Mansfield, La; U.S. forces routed by Lt Gen Richard Taylor
1865 Lee's retreat cut off near Appomattox Court House
1918 Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin hold a major war bond rally on Wall St.
1925 First planned night landings on a carrier, USS 'Langley' (CV 1), by VF-1
1945 Okinawa: Marines probe Japanese lines on the Motobu Peninsula
1950 Unarmed USN patrol plane downed over the Baltic Sea by Soviet aircraft
1956 Parris Is, SC: Six Marine recruits drown during an unauthorized night exercise

BORN
1726 Lewis Morris, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, d. 1795
1731 William Williams, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, d. 1798
1828 George Baird Hodge, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1892
1929 Renzo de Felice, historian ("Mussolini"), d. 1996

DIED
1973 Pablo Picasso, artistic left-leaning Nazi collaborator, at 91
1981 General of the Army Omar Bradley, 88 -- Learn More
2013 Margaret Thatcher, 87, PM of Great Britain (1979-90)

 

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9 April

1864 Battle of Pleasant Hill, La
1865 Appomattox: Robert E Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to U.S. Grant -- Learn More
1865 Union troops capture Ft Blakely, Alabama"
1913 Ebbet's Field opens in Brooklyn
1914 Tampico Incident: US sailors arrested in Mexico
1942 Bataan: c. 75,000 U.S. & Filipino troops surrender to the Japanese
1942 Manila Bay: U.S. troops hold out on Corregidor and Ft. Drum
1942 RAdm William F. Halsey, sails from Pearl Harbor in 'Enterprise' (CV-6)
1942 PT-59 torpedoes the USS 'Capella' (AK 13), in Newport Harbor, RI -- Learn More
1959 NASA names seven astronauts for Project Mercury
1963 Congress declares Winston S. Churchill an honorary U.S. citizen
1981 USS 'George Washington' (SSBN-598) rams Japanese freighter 'Nisso Maru'
2003 Brooklynite CPL Edward Chin, USMC, plants the US and Free Iraq flags on the statue of Sadam Hussein in Firdos Square, Baghdad, which is then pulled down

BORN
1812 Randolph Barnes Marcy, Brig Gen, U.S.A., d. 1887
1826 Thomas Hewson Neill, Brig Gen, U.S.A., d. 1885
1933 Jean-Paul Belmondo, actor ("Dunkerque")

DIED
1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer (39), theologian; Hans Oster (57), general; Hans von Dohnanyi (43), jurist & politician; and Wilhelm Canaris (58), admiral, anti-Nazis, hanged by Hitler
2021 Philip, Prince of Greece and Denmark, sometime naval officer, Duke of Edinburgh, and consort to Elizabeth II, at 99

 

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10 April
1845 Great fire of Pittsburgh, c. 1,000 buildings damaged or destroyed
1865 Appomattox: R. E. Lee issues Gen Order #9, his last
1917 Eddystone, PA, munitions factory explosion, 133 die
1917 Former President Theodore Roosevelt offered to raise a "Rough Riders" division for the war with Germany -- Learn More
1918 Near Toul, in eastern France, the 104th Infantry begins four days determined defense against a German assault, to become the first American regiment to be awarded the Croix de guerre
1943 USS 'Triton' (SS-201) reported overdue, presumed lost, Admiralty Islands
1945 Allies liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp
1963 Lee Harvey Oswald attempts to assassinate right-wing segregationist Edwin A. Walker, a retired general
1963 USS 'Thresher' (SSN-593) sinks east of Cape Cod, 124 die
1972 US, USSR, & 70 other nations agree to ban biological weapons
1984 US Senate condemns CIA mining of Nicaraguan harbors

BORN
1794 Matthew Perry, naval officer, who opened Japan, d. 1858
1806 Leonidas Polk, Episcopal Bishop, inept Lt Gen, C.S.A, cannon balled 1864
1823 Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb, Brig Gen, C.S.A., kia Fredericksburg, 1862
1827 Lewis Wallace, Maj Gen, U.S., author ("Ben Hur"), d. 1905
1833 David McMurtrie Gregg, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1916
1833 James Edward Rains, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1862
1915 Harry Bratsburg -- Harry Morgan, actor (Col. Potter on "M*A*S*H"), d. 2011

DIED
1940 Royal Navy Capt. Bernard Armitage Warburton-Lee (44), winning the first VC of WW II, and Commo Friedrich Bonte, 43, Kriegsmarine, earning the Knight's Cross, kia along with many others, First Battle of Narvik
1966 Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh -- Evelyn Waugh, 62, Royal Marine Commando and novelist ("Brideshead Revisited", etc.)

 

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11 April

1862 Confederates surrender Ft Pulaski, Georgia
1863 Battle of Suffolk, VA
1865 Confederates evacuate Mobile
1865 Lincoln urges national reconciliation.
1898 Pres McKinley asked Congress for Declaration of War against Spain -- Learn More (scroll down)
1900 USN accepts its first submarine, the USS 'Holland', originally designed for the Fenians
1935 The Stresa Conference: Britain, France, & Italy confer on what to do about Hitler, but when Mussolini calls for forceful action, his proposal is rejected
1942 American merchant mariners are authorized to receive the DSM
1944 Philippines: USS 'Redfin" (SS-272) sinks Japanese DD 'Akigumo' off Zamboanga
1951 Harry S Truman fires Gen Douglas McArthur
1953 Former Chief WAC Oveta Culp Hobby becomes the first Secretary of HEW
1957 Ryan X-13 Vertijet becomes 1st jet to take-off & land vertically
1961 Trial of Adolf Eichman begins in Israel

BORN
1902 Quentin Reynolds, war correspondent, historian ("Custer's Last Stand"), d. 1965
1919 Hugh Carey, National Guardsman, veteran of the 104th Division, Governor of N.Y. (1975-1982), d. 2011

DIED
1612 Edward Wightman, c. 32, Anabaptist preacher, having the dubious honor of being the last person burned at the state for blasphemy in England
1916 Richard Harding Davis, intrepid war correspondent, at 52 -- Learn More
2013 Jonathan Winters, 87, Marine, noted comedian

 

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12 Apr

1861 Confederates shell Fort Sumter, initiating the War For Southern Independence
1862 Great Locomotive Chase: James Andrews steals a train at Kenesaw, GA
1864 Battle of Blair's Landing, La
1864 Fort Pillow Massacre: N. B. Forrest's men slaughter black troops
1911 First US naval aviator: Lt Theodore Ellyson
1916 Battle of Hacienda Santa Cruz de la Villegas: Maj. Charles Young, senior black officer in the U.S. Army, leads a squadron of the 10th Cavalry ("Buffalo Soldiers") to rescue the white 13th Cav, besieged by the Mexicans
1945 Senior U.S. commanders visit the Ohrduf Concentration Camp; Ike & Bradley are stunned, Patton vomits
1961 Douglas MacArthur declines offer to become baseball commissioner
1966 First B-52 raids on North Vietnam
1993 Bosnia: USS 'Theodore Roosevelt' (CVN-71) & NATO a/c initiate no-fly zone

BORN
1724 Lyman Hall, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, d. 1790
1831 George Burgwyn Anderson, Brig Gen, C.S.A., kia 1862
1831 Grenville Mellen Dodge, Brig. Gen, U.S.,d. 1916
1907 Felix de Weldon, sculptor (The Marine Corps Memorial), d. 2003
1947 Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr., novelist and defense writer, "The Hunt for Red October," etc., d. 2013

DIED
1864 Thomas Green, 49, Brig Gen, C.S.A., Blair's Landing, La; having the honor of being the only Confederate general kia by the USN
1908 Charles Adelle Lewis Totten, 57, American soldier (Chiricau War), wargame designer ('Strategos')
1912 Clara Barton, war nurse, founder of the American Red Cross, at 90
1945 FDR, cerebral hemorrhage at 63 -- Learn More
1975 Josephine Baker, entertainer, resistance fighter, at 68
1981 Joe "The Brown Bomber" Louis, veteran, at 66

 

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13 April

1788 NYC "Doctors' Riot": Irate citizens attack Columbia medical school protesting corpse stealing
1906 Turret explosion in USS 'Kearsarge' (BB-5): 10 killed, 4 injured -- Learn More
1975 Wheaton Plaza Mall, Maryland: A white supremacist opens fire on black Americans, 7 are hit and 2 die, before he is killed by police
2013 Boston Marathon Bombings: Two self-proclaimed Jihadis set off two bombs, 3 die, c. 265 injured..
2036 Asteroid Apophis to make a near-Earth pass

BORN
1822 Leroy Augustus Stafford, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1864
1822 William Stephen Walker, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1899
1907 Harold Stassen, naval officer, Governor of Minnesota, perennial presidential candidate, d. 2001
1923 Donald James Yarmy, Guadalcanal marine, actor (Don Adams of "Get Smart"), d. 2005

DIED

1955 Peyton C. March, 90, American soldier, Army Chief of Staff (1918-1921) -- Learn More

 

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14 April
1865 Abraham Lincoln is mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth in Ford's Theatre, on Good Friday
1865 Mobile is captured by Union forces
1898 USS 'Solace' (later AH-2) is commissioned; the first hospital ship in the USN since 1865, and the only purpose-built hospital ship in the history of the fleet
1912 RMS 'Titanic' strikes an ice berg, c. 11:40 pm
1925 Grand-Joint Army and Navy Exercise No. 4 began -- Learn More
1945 Tokyo fire bomb raids: B-29s damage Imperial Palace
1953 Viet Minh offensive in Laos

BORN
1818 The US Army Medical Corps
1820 Harry Thompson Hays, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1876
1830 Davis Tillson, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1895
1832 James Hewett Ledlie, incompetent Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1882
1912 Bela Kiraly, Hungarian patriot & soldier, American scholar, one of the "Righteous", d. 2009
1925 Rod Steiger, actor ("Waterloo," "Lion of the Desert"), d. 2002

DIED
1943 Yakov Djugashvili, 36, Stalin's son, shot "trying to escape" from a German P/W camp
1944 General of the Army Nikolai Fyodorovich Vatutin, 42, Soviet general, of wounds from a Ukrainian resistance ambush
2004 Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, kia, Karbala; the first Marine awarded a Medal of Honor for Iraq

 

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15 April

1836 Battle of New Washington: Inconclusive skirmish between Texians and Mexicans
1861 Ft Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces
1861 President Lincoln issues a call for 75,000 Volunteers to supress "combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings."
1865 Former Brig Gen Andrew Johnson assumes the presidency (1865-1869)
1865 The Stars and Stripes are again hoisted over Ft Sumter
1943 US code breakers discover Adm Yamamoto will visit the Solomon Is.
1945 FDR is buried at his estate in Hyde Park, NY
1947 Former Army 2nd Lt Jackie Robinson begins playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers, re-integrating modern Major League baseball
1952 First test flight of a prototype B-52
1969 North Korea shoots at US airplane over the Sea of Japan
1986 US a/c raid terrorist bases in Libya, following Berlin disco bombing

BORN
1820 Evander McNair, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1902
1822 Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana, Maj Gen, U.S.
1837 Horace Porter, Bvt Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1921
1951 Marsha S Ivins, astronaut (STS 32, 46, SK:66)
1956 Gregory J Harbaugh, astronaut (STS 39, 54)

DIED
1861 Pvt Richard Hough, killed by a premature explosion during a salute to mark the surrender of Ft Sumter
1865 Abraham Lincoln, 56, several hours after being shot by John Wilkes Booth
1981 John Smith "Jimmy" Thach, Adm., USN, noted naval aviator, four days short of 76 -- Learn More
2005 Martin Blumenson, soldier, historian ("Cross Channel Attack"), at 86

 

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16 Apr
1777 Battle of Bennington: Molly Stark does not "find herself a widow"
Molly Stark - Wikipedia
1810 Notorious "War Hawk" Rep. Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina proposes "the whole army ought to be abolished"
1818 Rush-Bagot treaty ratified, creating an unfortified US-Canada border
1862 Abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia
1862 Confederate Conscription Act: extends all prior enlistments for the duration and introduces mandatory service for white men 18-35, with exemptions for slaveowners and some others
1865 Battles of Columbus & West Point, Ga
1924 Navy begins relief operations for Mississippi Valley floods (to June 16)
1942 A test mobilization of the New York Guard puts 17,000 militiamen on active duty for one day
1944 US begins planning "Operation Olympic" - the invasion of Japan.
1945 77th Inf Div lands on Ie Shima, off Okinawa
1945 US troops enter Nuremberg
1947 Congress grants Navy Nurses full commissioned status
1947 Nitrate-laden ship explodes at Texas City, over 500 die.
1965 Test flight of the Saturn S-1C rocket

BORN
1816 Edward "Allegheny" Johnson, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1873
1823 Orlando Bolivar Wilcox, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1907
1867 Wilbur Wright, co-inventor of the airplane, 1903, d. 1912

DIED
1947 Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss, 45, German SS-man, sometime commandant of Auschwitz, hanged in Poland 1901 Germany d 45
1978 Walter Edward Whitehead, sometime Commander, R.N., television personality, at 77 -- Learn More
1978 Lucius D Clay, U.S. military governor of West Germany, at 80

 

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17 Apr

1808 Napoleon's Bayonne Decree authorizes seizure of American ships
1861 Confederacy authorizes privateers
1861 U.S. steamer 'Star of West' captured by Confederates, Indianola, Texas
1861 Virginia is the 8th state to secede
1863 Brig. Gen. Benjamin Grierson begins a raid from La Grange, Tn., to Baton Rouge, La
1864 Battle of Plymouth, NC
1864 Bread riot in Savannah, Georgia
1864 Grant suspends prisoner-of-war exchanges over Confederate refusal to treat black troops as soldiers
1865 Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in Lincoln's assassination
1945 Baltic: German SS 'Goya' (5,230 GRT) sunk, c. 6,000 killed
1945 Mussolini flees from Salo, heading for Milan
1945 U.S. forces land on Mindanao Island, Philippines.
1961 Bay of Pigs: 1,400 Cuban exiles land to overthrow Castro, all are killed or captured by the 19th

BORN
1788 Joseph Gilbert Totten, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1864
1809 Philip St George Cooke, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1861
1813 Henry Washington Benham, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1884
1915 Anthony Quinn, actor ("Back to Bataan"), d. 2001
1918 William Holden, AAF veteran, actor ("Stalag 17", "Bridge Over the River Kwai"), d. 1981

DIED
1790 Benjamin Franklin, sometime militiaman and military engineer, at 84
1945 Walter Model, Nazi field marshal, suicide at 54, rather than surrender
1983 Gen. Mark W Clark, at 87
1987 Dick Shawn, actor ("What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?"), at 63
1997 Chaim Herzog, President of Israel (1983-93), at 78

 

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18 April

1775 Paul Revere, Samuel Prescott, & William Dawes take a little ride
1804 President Jefferson welcomes Alexander von Humboldt to the White House, initiating a week long visit punctuated by lengthy philosophical, geographic, and scientific discussions
1861 Baltimore mob attacks the 27th Pennsylvania, several injured
1861 Col R E Lee may have been offered and refused a major command in the U.S. Army
1861 Confederates capture Harpers Ferry arsenal
1862 Farragut's fleet bombards Fts Jackson & St. Philip, below New Orleans
1864 Battle of Poison Springs, Ark
1912 Regia Marina Capt. Enrico Millo leads a nocturnal torpedo boat raid into the Dardanelles.
1934 The U.S. Army discontinued issuing sabers for combat by the cavalry.
1942 Doolittle Raid: 16 B-25Bs off the USS 'Hornet' (CV 8) strike Tokyo and other targets
1942 World War II edition of "Stars & Stripes" begins publication in England
1946 The League of Nations is officially dissolved
1983 Beirut: Suicide bomber attacks the US Embassy, 63 die

BORN
1864 Richard Harding Davis, intrepid war correspondent, d. 1916 -- Learn More
1927 Samuel P. Huntington, political scientist - "The Soldier & the State," "Clash of Civilizations," d. 2008

DIED
1943 Adm. Yamamoto Isoruku (59), air ambush in the Solomon Islands.
1945 Ernie Pyle, war correspondent, kia at 44, Ie Shima, Okinawa -- Learn More
1955 Albert Einstein, 76, scientist

 

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19 Apr

1775 The Battles of Lexington & Concord -- "The Shot Heard 'Round the World"
1782 The Netherlands recognizes the US
1783 Congress orders hostilities with Britain at an end, eight years after "The Shot Heard 'Round the World."
1861 The Baltimore Riots: Secessionist mobs attack the 6th Mass ( 4 soldiers, c. 12 rioters killed) and Rabbi David Einhorn, who had delivered an anti-slavery sermon
1861 Lincoln orders blockade of Confederate ports
1919 Leslie Irvin of the US makes 1st free fall parachute jump
1941 US Marines begin construction of an airfield on Wake Island
1943 USS 'Scorpion' (SS-278) initiates mining of Japanese home waters
1962 NASA pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to 46,900 m
1989 USS 'Iowa' (BB-61) gun turret explosion, 47 die
1995 Oklahoma City: Self-styled "patriot" kills 168 Americans

BORN
1787 Erastus "Deaf" Smith, American frontiersman, Texian revolutionary, d. 1837
1793 Ferdinand I, Emperor of Austria, etc., etc., (1835-1848), abdicated, d. 1875
1821 Mortimer Dormer Leggett, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1896
1905 John Smith "Jimmy" Thach, naval aviator, innovative tactician, d. 1981 -- Learn More

DIED
1882 Charles Darwin, 73, scientist, author ("On the Origin of Species", etc.)
1987 Maxwell D Taylor, commander 101st Airborne Division9in WW II, at 85
2009 Ray Nance (94), last of 30 men from Bedford, Virginia, who landed on Omaha on D-Day with Co. A, 116th Infantry, 22 of whom never got off the beach (29th Inf "Blue-Gray" Division)
https://www.dday-overlord.com/en/battle-of-normandy/forces/usa/29th-infantry-division

 

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20 Apr
1775 American patriots blockade the British in Boston
1789 George Washington is sworn in as the first POTUS, Federal Hall, NY
1836 Skirmish between Texian and Mexican outposts near San Jacinto
1861 Robert E Lee resigns from the United States Army
1861 Union forces burn and abandon Gosport (Norfolk, Va) Navy Yard.
1864 Confederates capture 85th NY at Plymouth, NC
1915 US Navy issues its first contract for lighter-than-air craft.
1945 US Seventh Army captures Nuremberg, site of Nazi Party rallies
1947 Peleliu: 27 Japanese troops surrender, 18 months after VJ-Day
1951 Ticker tape parade on Broadway for General of the Army Douglas MacArthur
1987 US deports Karl Linnas, charged with Nazi war crimes, to USSR
1999 Columbine Massacre: Two students run amok in Columbine High School, Colorado, 13 killed, 2 suicides

BORN
1808 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, better known as Napoleon III or Napoleon "the Little", d. 1873 -- Learn More
1809 John Smith Preston, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1881
1824 Alfred Holt Colquitt, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1894
1827 John Gibbon, Maj Gen, U.S., who held "The Angle" at Gettysburg, d. 1896
1882 Holland M. "Howlin' Mad" Smith, USMC general , d. 1967
1889 Adolph Hitler, Frontsoldat (1914-1918), German Chancellor & Fuhrer (1933-45), mass murderer, suicide 1945
1918 Edward Latimer Beach, Jr. , American naval officer, submariner (12 war patrols), author ("Run Silent, Run Deep," etc), d. 2002

DIED
1812 George Clinton, 72, Revolutionary war general, governor of New York, Vice-President
1912 Abraham "Bram" Stoker, 64, Anglo-Irish author ("Dracula") and theatrical personality
1982 Archibald MacLeish, 89, American poet and author, Librarian of Congress, OSS officer