Today in Military History 1 Apr - 30 Jun

21 April

1836 Battle of San Jacinto: Texas secures independence from Mexico -- Learn More
1861 USS 'Saratoga' captures the Boston-owned slaver 'Nightingale' with over 900 souls aboard, bound for the Confederacy
1864 President Lincoln reviews 72 court martial sentences, confirming some, reducing many, and reversing several
1865 Abraham Lincoln's funeral train leaves Washington
1914 US Marines and sailors occupy Vera Cruz, Mexico
1928 Bomb explosion in a midtown Manhattan loft, nine injured; the case remains unresolved
USAF flies a French battalion to Vietnam
1961 USAF Maj Robert M White takes X-15 to 32,000 m
1975 Nguyen Van Thieu resigns as president of South Vietnam

BORN
1816 Louis Trezevant Wigfall, Brig Gen, C. S.A., d. 1874
1834 William Rufus Terrill, Brig Gen, U.S., KIA 1862
1915 Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca -- Anthony Quinn, American actor ("Back to Bataan," "Lawrence of Arabia," etc.), d. 2001
1926 Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, Queen of the United Kingdom (1952-)

DIED
1910 Mark Twain, 74, American humorist & novelist ("Huckleberry Finn"), Missouri militiaman who fabricated his humourously war experiences
1918 Manfred "The Red Baron" von Richthofen, ground fire after his aircraft had been disabled in air-to-air combat, at 25
2004 Karl Hass, incarcerated Nazi war criminal, at 92

 

21 APRIL

1898 President McKinley orders blockade of Cuba
1898 USS 'Nashville' captures Spanish ship 'Buena Ventura'
1914 Mexico severs diplomatic relations with the US
1944 Hitler & Mussolini confer at Berchtesgarten
1945 3rd Inf Div demonstrates American cultural insensitivity by blowing up the Nuremberg Stadium swastika -- Learn More
1952 First live television broadcast of an atomic bomb test and of the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings
1954 Ticker tape parade on Broadway for the 4th Infantry Division, home from Korea
1972 Astronauts John Young & Charles Duke take a dune buggy ride on the Moon

BORN
1792 Commo. Uriah Phillips Levy, noted Jewish US Navy officer, philanthropist, duelist, d. 1862
1818 Cadwallader Colden Washburn, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1882
1823 Alfred Gibbs, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1868
1827 William Hopkins Morris, Maj Gen, U.S.. d. 1900
1831 Alexander McDowell McCook, Maj Gen, U.S., of the "Fighting McCooks", d. 1903
1904 J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist, head of Manhattan Project, d. 1967

DIED
1864 Bvt. Maj. Gen. Joseph G. Totten (USMA 1805), at 76, scholar and engineer
1994 Richard M Nixon, naval officer, President (1969-1974), stroke at 81
2004 Patrick Daniel Tillman, 27, 2000 NFL All-Pro, US Army Ranger, 2002-2004, kia Afghanistan

 

23 April
1861 Robert E Lee named major general and commander of Virginia state forces
1861 Arkansas troops seize Ft Smith
1861 Texas forces capture U.S. Army post at San Antonio
1943 USS "Seawolf" (SS-197) sinks a Japanese patrol vessel, Yellow Sea
1945 Balikpapan, Borneo: USN uses guided missiles for the first time, 2 BATS, 2 hits on Japanese shipping

BORN
1791 James Buchanan, volunteer, War of 1812, President (1857-1861) who choked in the secession crisis, d. 1868 -- Learn More
1897 Lucius D. Clay, military governor of West Germany, d. 1978
1977 Lt. Gen. Charles D. Herron, 100, who Commanded in Hawaii, 1938-1941 -- Learn More

DIED
1616 William Shakespeare, c. 52, by tradition, on his birthday [OS].
2007 Boris Yeltsin, first President of post-Soviet Russian Federation (1991-1999), at 76

 

24 April

1066 Comet Halley makes an appearance
1778 US Sloop-of-War 'Ranger' captures HMS 'Drake'
1862 Farragut runs the Confederate batteries on the Mississippi below New Orleans
1863 War Department isues GO No 100, The Law of Land Warfare, the first US ROE.
1877 Last US troops leave New Orleans: Reconstruction ends, Jim Crow begins
1898 Spain declares war on US
1917 US destroyers sail for Europe; 17 days after war is declared on Germany (see May 4)
1917 The War Department announced it was suspending acceptance of African-American volunteers, because “Colored organizations filled” -- Learn More
1943 U.S. 7th Infantry Div. having trained for desert warfare, sails from San Francisco for Alaska
1943 Fire in the freighter 'El Estero' at Jersey City threatens to detonate 5,000 tons of ammunition aboard her, two nearby ships, and at dockside; USCG tows the vessel into New York Bay and floods her
1953 Queen Elizabeth II knights Winston Churchill
1961 JFK accepts "sole responsibility" for the Bay of Pigs
1969 US B-52s drop 3,000 tons of bombs on VC positions inside Cambodia
1980 "Desert One": US operation to save 52 hostages in Iran, fails, 8 die

BORN
1800 The Library of Congress, by a congressional appropriate of $5,000
1804 Thomas Oliver Selfridge, naval officer, U.S., d. 1902, at the time the senior living admiral by date of rank in the world
1807 Charles Ferguson Smith, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1862
1815 James Edward Harrison, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1875
1822 Erastus Bernard Tyler, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1891
1828 Robert Brank Vance, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1899
1829 George Peabody Estey, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1881
1849 Joseph S. Gallieni, Hero of the Marne, d. 1916
1906 William "Lord Haw Haw" Joyce, British traitor, executed 1946

DIED
1731 Daniel Defoe, c. 70-72, English author ("Robinson Crusoe". "Journal of the Plague Year")– 24 April 1731
1967 Vladimir Komarov (40), first man to die in space, Soyuz 1 disaster

 

25 April

1464 War of the Roses - Battle of Hedgeley Moor: Marquess of Montague's Yorkists defeat the Duke of Somerset's Lancastrians
1861 7th NY & 8th Massachusetts arrive in Washington
1861 Pvt Samuel Young enlists, to retire Jan 9, 1904, as Lt Gen.
Samuel Baldwin Marks Young - Wikipedia
1875 Combat on the Pecos: Lt. John L. Bullis and Black Seminole Indian Scouts SGT John Ward, Trumpeter Isaac Payne, & PVT Pompey Factor rout c. 25-30 Lipan Indian raiders, for which the Scouts are awarded the Medal of Honor
1898 US declares war on Spain
1914 First USN air combat mission: Lt. Patrick Bellinger conducts a reconnaissance over Veracruz, receiving some damage from machine gun fire.
1942 Doolittle Mission: CVs Hornet & Enterprise return to Pearl Harbor
1944 New Britain: 1st Marine Div relieved by the 40th Infantry Div
1945 First UN Session: 45 countries convene in San Francisco
1945 Last Boeing B-17 attack against Nazi Germany
1945 The Red Army completely surrounds Berlin
1945 US & Soviet forces meet at Torgau on the Elbe River
1951 Korean War: After an heroic four day defense of Hill 235, 39 survivors of the Gloucestershire Regiment reach safety
1960 USS Triton (SSN-586) completes first submerged circumnavigation of the globe
1962 Christmas Island (Pacific): US resumes above ground nuclear testing

BORN
1599 Oliver Cromwell, "Lord Protector" of England (1653-58), d. 1658, general, dictator, & genocider
1725 Admiral Viscount Augustus Keppel, RN (1726-1786)
1840 James Dearing, Brig Gen, C.S.A., the last Confederate general kia, 1865
1914 Marcos Perez Jimenez, general, dictator of Venezuela (1952-1958), d. 2001

DIED
1607 Adm. Don Juan Álvarez de Ávila, of Spain, drowned, Battle of Gibraltar
1928 Baron Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, 49, Russian "White" general

 

26 April

1777 Sybil Ludington, 16, makes a daring ride to alert Connecticut militiamen of a British raid
1805 Cyrus Eaton, the proverbial "few Marines", one USN medic, and some mercs storm Derna, Libya
1846 Mexican War: Mexicans beat U.S. Dragoons at Rancho Carricitos, Tx
1861 Joseph E. Johnston resigns his commission in the U.S. Army, to go South [See 1865]
Joseph E. Johnston - Wikipedia
1865 Battle of Durham Station/Greensboro, NC
1865 Battle of Ft Tobacco, VA
1865 Confederate Gen Joseph E Johnston surrenders the Army of Tennessee, Durham, NC
1926 Germany & Russia sign neutrality & friendship treaty
1944 Allied troops begin concentrating at assembly areas in Britain for D-Day
1952 USS 'Hobson' (DD-464) accidentally rams carrier 'Wasp' (CV-18), 176 die
1982 The Falklands War: Argentine forces on South Georgia I. surrender to the British

BORN
1718 Esek Hopkins, Commodore, Continental Navy (1775-1783), d. 1802.
1827 Charles Edward Hovey, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1897
1894 Rudolph Hess, Nazi, suicide in prison, 1987

DIED
1865 John Wilkes Booth, 27, hearth trhob, assassin, shot trying to avoid arrest
2004 Gunther Rothenberg, military historian, b. 1923

 

27 April

1773 British Parliament passes Tea Act, leading to the Boston Tea Party
1778 John Paul Jones begins a two-day raid on Whitehaven, U.K.
1813 Americans troops under Brig. Gen. Zebulon Pike capture Toronto
1861 The 7th NY Militia enters federal service at Washington.
1861 Col. Thomas J Jackson, CSA, assumes command at Harper's Ferry
1863 Streight's Raid: Tuscumbia to Cedar Bluff, AL
1865 Steamer 'Sultana' explodes in the Mississippi, c. 1,500 die, mostly Union soldiers recently released from Confederate P/W camps
1897 Dedication of Grant's Tomb
1940 Himmler orders establishment of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp
1945 US Fifth Army liberates Genoa

BORN
1701 King Charles Emanuel I of Sardinia (1730-1773)
1737 Edward Gibbon, Captain of the Hampshire Grenadiers, historian of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", d. 1794 -- Learn More
1770 Adm Sir Edward Codrington. GCB, Victor of Navarino, d. 1851
1822 Ulysses S Grant, general, 1861-1869, president 1869-1877, memoirist, d. 1885
1835 John Murray Corse, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1893

DIED
1813 Zebulon M Pike, army officer and explorer, kia at 34 (Pikes Peak)
1893 John Murray Corse, Brig. Gen, U.S., on his 58th birthday
1937 Daniel Joseph Daly, 6e, iconic and eloquent U.S. Marine, with two Medals of Honor -- Learn More
1965 Edward R. Morrow, war correspondent, Cold Warrior, at 57
1974 Adm. Jesse Bartlett "Oley" Oldendorf, 87, who commanded at Surigao Strait
Jesse B. Oldendorf

 

28 April

1635 Virginia Gov John Harvey accused of treason & removed from office
1818 US & Britain agree to naval disarmament on the Great Lakes
1919 Tumultuous parade up Fifth Avenue to welcome the 165th Infantry (69th New York) home from the Great War
1942 Nightly "dim-out" belatedly initiated on the East Coast, greatly reduces sinking of merchant vessels by German submarines
1950 Ticker tape parade on Broadway for Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid
Thomas C. Kinkaid - Wikipedia
1952 Japanese Peace Treaty formally ends the Asiatic-Pacific War of 1937-1945
1956 The French leave Vietnam
1965 US Marines land in the Dominican Republic, stay until October 1966
1967 Mohammad Ali refuses induction into the army
2009 A treaty between Bolivia and Paraguay formally ends the Chaco War (1932-1935)

BORN
1758 James Monroe, soldier, President (1817-1825), d. July 4, 1831 -- Learn More
1810 Daniel Ullmann, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1892
1812 Daniel Henry Rucker, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1910
1815 Andrew Jackson Smith, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1897
1825 James Winning McMillan, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1903
1937 Saddam Hussein al-Takriti, Dictator of Iraq (1979-2003), executed 2006
1943 John O Creighton, USN, astronaut
1949 Jerome "Jay" Apt, astronaut

DIED
1905 Fitzhugh Lee, Maj. Gen., CSA, Brig. Gen, USA, b 1835
1944 William Franklin "Frank" Knox, 70, Rough Rider, Republican newspaper publisher and politician, FDR's SecNav (1940-1944)
1945 Benito Mussolini (61) & Claretta Petacci (33) murdered by partisans near Milan -- Learn More

 

29 April

1814 USS 'Peacock' captures HMS 'Epervier'
1861 Maryland House of Delegates votes against secession
1863 Battle of Chancellorsville begins
1898 Cienfuegos, Cuba: US and Spanish warships exchange fire
1926 Franco-American accord on WW I war debts
1943 Dietrich Bonhoffer is arrested by Nazis
1943 Teop, Solomon Is: USS 'Gato' (SS-212) lands coastwatchers & evacuates missionaries.
1945 Adolf Hitler makes an honest woman of Eva Braun
1945 US liberates the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau
1946 Tokyo: 28 former Japanese leaders indicted as war criminals
1970 US & South Vietnamese troops invade Cambodia
1975 Last US personnel pull out of Vietnam

BORN
1815 Abram Duryee, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1890
1818 Tsar Alexander II of Russia (1855-81), blown up 1881

DIED
1862 Timothy Webster (40), American patriot, executed by the Confederacy as a spy
1918 Gavrilo Princip, assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, in jail at 23 of TB
1956 Wilhelm Josef Franz Ritter von Leeb, 79, German soldier, field marshal, defensive theoretician

 

30 April

1789 George Washington is inaugurated as the First President of the United States, at Federal Hall, NY
1860 Battle of Fort Defiance: U.S. troops beat off a Navaho attack
1861 Lincoln orders Federal troops to evacuate the Indian Territory
1862 Skirmishing at Swift Run Gap, WV
1864 Battle of Jenkins' Ferry: Inconclusive action bungled by both sides
1871 American & Mexican bandits murder 144 Apaches in Arizona
1900 USA annexes Hawaii
1937 General Douglas MacArthur marries Jean Faircloth
1942 USS 'Peto' (SS-265) is launched, first submarine built on the Great Lakes, at Manitowoc
1943 Panay: USS 'Gudgeon' (SS-211) conducts supply mission to Filipino guerrillas
1945 American & Soviet forces link up at Torgau in Germany

BORN
1798 The US Department of the Navy
1805 William Kerley Strong, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1867
1908 106th Rescue Wing, oldest Air Guard unit, formed as the First Company, Signal Corps, 71st Regiment, NYNG
1938 Bugs Bunny, sometime U.S. Marine
1993 The World Wide Web

DIED
1864 William Read Scurry, 43, Brig. Gen., C.S.A., kia, Battle of Jenkins' Ferry
1945 Adolph Hitler (56) and Eva Braun (33), suicide
1945 Col. William O. Darby, of "Darby's Rangers," kia at 34 near Lake Garda, while serving as Assistant Commander, 10th Mountain Div

 

1 MAY

1863 Confederate Congress urges the killing of black men captured in the military service of the United States
1863 Grant's Vicksburg Campaign: Battle of Port Gibson, Mississippi
1865 Some 10,000 black of Charleston, SC, dedicate a cemetery to 267 Union soldiers who died as Confederate prisoners-of-war
1865 The U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps numbered 1,000,516 -- Learn More (scroll down)
1866 Memphis Race Rioting: Whites begin attacking blacks until federal troops arrive on the 3rd, 46 blacks, 2 whites die, black women are raped, much African American property destroyed
1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago opens for 18 months -- Learn More
1931 The Empire State Building opens
1937 FDR signs the Second Neutrality Act.
1943 Wartime food rationing begins in US
1947 Vice Adm Roscoe Hillenkoeter becomes 1st CIA director
1954 Puerto Rican radicals shoot up the House of Representatives, 4 injured
1960 Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane is shot down over Sverdlovsk
1961 Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba
1961 First hijack of an American commercial airliner, to Cuba
1992 Rioting in Los Angeles over the Rodney King verdict

BORN
1764 Benjamin Henry Latrobe, designer of the U.S. Capital, d. 1820
1800 Thomas Aloysius Dornin, naval officer, U.S., d. 1874
1807 John Bankhead "Prince John" Magruder, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1871
1819 William Steele, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1885
1835 Alfred Napoleon Alexander Duffie, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1880
1881 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, sometime stretcher-bearer, 8th Moroccan Rifles (Médaille Militaire & Legion of Honor), Jesuit theologian, paleontologist, d. 1955
1909 Kathryn Elizabeth "Kate" Smith, singer ("God Bless America"), d. 1986 -- Learn More
1923 Joseph Heller, veteran, novelist ("Catch-22"), d. 1999

DIED

1888 Erstwhile Confederate brigadier William Wirt Adams (69) and Mississippi journalist John H. Martin, the former having ambushed the latter, putting three bullets into him, but receiving one through the heart in return
1933 Calvin Coolidge, 60, President (1923-1929)
2011 Osama bin Laden, 54, international terrorist, shot in his lair by US Navy SEALs

 

2 May

1776 France & Spain agree to donate arms to the American rebels
1863 Stonewall Jackson is wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, dies May 10th
1912 Flying a Short S38 'amphibian' Lt. Charles R. Samson, RN, becomes the first man to take off from a moving ship, battleship HMS 'Hibernia'
1933 Hitler bans labor unions in Germany, as Nazi Storm troopers sack union offices and collect records
1942 USS 'Drum' (SS-228) sinks Japanese seaplane carrier 'Mizuho' off Honshu.
1945 German forces in Italy surrender
1945 Hungary's Crown of St. Stephen is entrusted to the U.S., which returns it to Hungary in 1978
1964 US Aircraft Transport 'Card' (ex CVE-11) sunk by Viet Cong UDT at Saigon

BORN
1871 Francis Patrick Duffy, chaplain to the 'Fighting 69th' and "The Great White Way', d. 1932 -- Learn More
1892 Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, the Red Baron, kia 1918

DIED
1945 Martin Bormann, 44, Hitler's henchman, probably killed by Soviet troops while trying to flee Berlin
1972 J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI (1924-1972), at 77
2002 William T. Tutte, 84, British master codebreaker

 

3 May

1844 Anti-Catholic rioting in Philadelphia leaves six dead, many injured, and several churches burnt
1846 The Mexican Army invades Texas
1861 Lincoln orders expansion of Army by 23,000 and Navy by 18,000
1861 USS 'Surprise' captures Confederate privateer 'Savannah'
1861 Winfield Scott proposes the "Anaconda Plan"
1863 Battle of Salem Church, VA
1898 Marines raise Old Glory over Cavite, the Philippines
1943 US 1st Armored Div captures Mateur, Tunisia
1944 Allied aircraft begin mining waters off Rangoon and Bangkok
1944 Meat rationing ends in US
1946 The Allied Military Tribunal in Tokyo begins war crimes trials
1949 First firing of a US Viking rocket, to 80 km

BORN
1816 Montgomery Meigs, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1892
1898 Golda Meir, Israeli PM (1969-74), d. 1978

DIED
1816 James McHenry, 62, Irish-born Continental Army surgeon, Signer of the Constitution from Maryland, third U.S. SecWar (1796–1800), who gave his name to Ft. McHenry
1926 Napoleon V Bonaparte, pretender to the throne of France, at 65
2007 Walter M. Schirra, Jr., USN, astronaut, at 84

 

4 May
1626 Peter Minuit bought Manhattan from the Lenape Indians, for a lot more than $24
1863 Battle of Chancellorsville: Army of the Potomac withdraws
1864 U. S. Grant crosses the Rapidan to begin the Overland Campaign
1865 Confederate Lt Gen Richard Taylor surrenders to Maj Gen Edward Canby, at Citronelle, Ala
1865 Lincoln is laid to rest in Springfield, Ill
1898 U.S. landing party skirmishes with Spanish troops at Guanoy, Philippines
1917 "The Mayflower Returns" - US destroyers reach Ireland, to join the U-Boat war
1942 USS "Yorktown" (CV-5) raids Japanese at Tulagi, damaging a destroyer.
1946 US Marines recapture Alcatraz from rioting prisoners
1970 Ohio National Guard kills four students at Kent State, Ohio

BORN
1796 Joseph Pannell Taylor, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1864
1796 William H. Prescott, historian ("The Conquest of Mexico"), d. 1859
1889 Francis J Spellman, Vicar General of the U.S. Armed Forces, Archbishop of NY, d. 1967

DIED
1970 Allison B. Krause (19), Jeffrey Glenn Miller (20), Sandra Lee Scheuer (20), & William Knox Schroeder (19), ROTC cadet, shot at Kent State
1980 Josip Broz Tito, dictator of Yugoslavia (1943-80), at 87

 

5 May

1814 British attack Ft Ontario, Oswego, NY
1861 Confederate troops abandon Alexandria, Va.
1862 Peninsular Campaign: Battle of Williamsburg, VA
1864 Battle of the Wilderness: Germanna Ford/Wilderness Tavern
1891 Official opening of Carnegie Hall, with a program by Walter Damrosch and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
1908 The Great White Fleet reaches San Francisco
1920 Polish troops capture Kiev
1940 Norwegians form a government-in-exile in London
1942 US begins rationing sugar during WW II
1945 Okinawa: 131 Kamikaze sink 17 ships
1945 Oregon: Japanese balloon bomb kills a pregnant woman and five children -- Learn More
1952 Herman Wouk's "The Caine Mutiny" wins the Pulitzer Prize
1954 Paraguay: Military coup installs General Alfredo Stroessner as dictator/president (1954-1989)
1961 Alan Shepard makes a suborbital flight in Freedom 7
1965 First large US ground units arrive in South Vietnam
1985 Bitburg Germany: President Reagan & Chancellor Kohl lay a wreath at a memorial marking the graves of nearly 2,000 German and Allied personnel

BORN
1822 Sir Harry Paget Flashman, V.C., etc., etc., d. 1915, fictionally
1823 James Allen Hardie, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1870
1826 Eugenie Maria de Montijo y de Guzman, Mrs. Napoleon III, d. 1920
1864 Elizabeth Cochran Seaman -- Nellie Bly, 57. famed "girl" reporter who went around the world in 72 days, d. 1922
1900 Spencer Tracy, actor ("Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo"), d. 1967

DIED
2011 Claude Stanley Choules, 110, in Australia: the last combat veteran of WW I, the last veteran of the Grand Fleet, who served in the RAN in WW II, and was also the last veteran to have served in both World Wars

 

6 May

1861 Arkansas is the 9th state to secede from the Union
1864 Battle of Port Walthall Junction, VA
1864 Cherokee Chief Stand Watie is made a Confederate brigadier general
1889 Dedication of the Eiffel Tower
1898 US ships & Spanish batteries exchange fire at Havana & Santiago
1910 King George V ascends the British throne (1911-1936)
1919 The 77th Division marches home up Fifth Avenue
1937 The airship 'Hindenburg' burns at Lakehurst, NJ, 36 die
1941 Bob Hope stages his first USO show, March Field, California
1942 Corregidor and the Philippines surrender to the Japanese
1945 Axis Sally makes her last broadcast
1955 West Germany joins NATO
1962 USS 'Ethan Allen' (SSBN-608) fires the first nuclear warhead from a submerged submarine

BORN
1585 John Rolfe, husband to Pocahontas, d. 1622
1812 Maj. Martin Robinson Delany, abolitionist, seniormost black Civil War officer, d. 1885
1813 Joseph Tarr Copeland, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1893
1825 Joseph Bailey, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1867
1875 Fleet Admiral William Daniel Leahy, First Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, d. 1959
1902 Air Chief Marshal Sir Walter Lloyd Dawson, d. 1994
1953 Tony Blair, British prime minister (1997-2007)

DIED
1910 King Edward VII of Great Britain (1901-10), 68
1987 William J Casey, director of CIA (1981-87), at 73
1989 Guy Williams (Armand Joseph Catalano), actor ("Zorro"), at 65

 

7 May

1861 Knoxville, Tn: Riot between Secessionists & Unionists
1862 Battle of West Point/Eltham's Landing/Barnhamsville, VA
1915 German 'U-20' torpedoes the liner 'Lusitania', 1198 die
1943 British troops capture Tunis, the US 1st Armored Div captures Ferryville and the 9th Infantry Div takes Bizerte
1945 Germany signs a preliminary surrender agreement
1945 The SS opens fire on crowd in Amsterdam, killing 22
1945 Germany signs an unconditional surrender
1954 Dien Bien Phu: Vietminh overrun the French after a 55-day siege
1957 USAF F-104 Starfighter reaches 90,000 feet
1985 Ticker tape parade on Broadway to honor Vietnam Veterans
1992 Maiden voyage of the space shuttle 'Endeavor'

BORN

1827 Francis Engle Patterson, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1862.
1901 Gary Cooper, actor ("Sergeant York"), d. 1961

DIED
1849 William Worth, Bvt Maj. Gen., US, at 55 -- Learn More
1884 Judah P Benjamin, 72, Confederate cabinet member
2000 Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Knickerbocker Gray, naval officer, actor ("Prisoner of Zenda," "Gunga Din", etc) at 90
2013 Ray Harryhausen, 92, U.S. Army film maker, animator ("Jason and the Argonauts", "Clash of the Titans", etc.)

 

8 May
1862 Valley Campaign: Federals repulsed at Battle of McDowell, Va
1864 Battle of Spotsylvania begins
1886 Confederate veteran John S. Pemberton invents Coca Cola
1911 Birth of Naval Aviation: USN orders its first airplane, a Curtiss A-1
1918 Gen. John J. Pershing urges the men of the A.E.F. to write their mothers for Mother's Day
1942 Battle of the Coral Sea, Day 2: U.S. loses 'Lexington' (CV-2), Japanese lose many aircraft, & carrier 'Shokaku' is heavily damaged; Japanese abandon attack on Port Morseby
1945 Germany surrendered -- Victory in Europe Day -- Learn More (scroll down)
1952 US conducts the first H-Bomb test, Eniwetok Atoll
1963 JFK offers Israel assistance against aggression
1967 Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing induction into the Army

BORN
1810 James Cooper, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1863
1833 Frank Wheaton, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1903
1836 Bryan Morel Thomas, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1905
1884 Harry S Truman, National Guardsman, veteran, President (1945-1953), d. 1972

DIED
1822 John Stark, 93, Continenal major general, Hero of Bennington
1915 Henry McNeal Turner, army chaplain, at 82
1921 Cassilly Adams, American artist ("Custer's Last Stand"), 82
1945 LTC Frank Edward Bourne, OBE DCM, 91, last survivor of the defenders of Rorke's Drift, when he was the Colour Sergeant -- on VE-Day no less
1985 Theodore Sturgeon, 67, born Edward Hamilton Waldo), American science fiction and horror writer and critic.
1988 Robert A. Heinlein, 80, Naval officer, novelist ("Glory Road," etc)
1994 George Peppard, 65, Marine, actor ("The Blue Max")

 

9 May

1763 Pontiac's Rebellion: Pontiac invests the British at Ft. Detroit [gives up, Oct 31, 1763]
1861 US Naval Academy moves from Annapolis to Newport, aboard the USS 'Constitution'
1862 Confederates abandon positions near Ft Pickens, Pensacola
1864 Battle of Swift Creek/Drewery's Bluff/Ft Darling, Va
1864 Naval battle of Helgoland: Tegethoff's Austrians defeat the Danes
1898 Havana: US ships & Spanish batteries exchange fire
1912 1st plane Take Off From a Ship: Lt. Charles Sampson, RN, flies a Short Pusher off HMS 'Hibernia' in Weymouth Bay, England
1926 Lt Cdr Richard Byrd & CMM Floyd Bennett fly over the North Pole
1942 USS 'Wasp' (CV-7) launches 47 RAF Spitfires to reinforce Malta
1955 German Federal Republic joins NATO
2010 For the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, American, French, Polish, and British troops joined troops from Russia and the former Soviet Union for the annual victory parade through Red Square --

BORN
1775 Jacob Brown, NY militiaman, Commanding General, US Army (1821-1828), d. 1828 -- Learn More
1800 John Brown, radical abolitionist, hanged, 1859
1824 William Edmonson "Grumble" Jones, Brig Gen, C.S.A.
1843 Belle Boyd, Confederate spy, not nearly as effective, nor as pretty, as claimed, d.1900
1882 Henry J. Kaiser, industrialist, master ship builder, d. 1967

DIED
1864 Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, kia at 50, though smaller than an elephant
1889 William Selby Harney, 88 feisty American cavalryman, 1812, Mexico,
1919 James Reese Europe was born, American composer, Jazz master, and Bandmaster of the 369th Infantry, murdered at 38, Learn More
1977 James Jones, 55, American soldier, novelist ("From Here to Eternity", etc.)
1992 Marlene Dietrich, actress, determined anti-Nazi, at 91

 

10 May
1676 Bacon's Rebellion begins in Virginia
1748 John Newton, slaver, sees the light, becomes an abolitionist, clergyman, and hymn writer ("Amazing Grace")
1775 The 2nd Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia, to fight the American Revolution
1775 Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allan, & the Green Mountain Boys capture Ticonderoga
1849 Riot in Astor Place, NYC, between the partisans of an 'American" actor and those of a "British" one, c. 25 die
1857 Sepoy uprising at Meerut initiates the Indian Mutiny
1861 Riot in St. Louis between Secessionists and Loyalists, c. 30 die
1862 Battle of Plum Run Bend, TN
1862 Confederates torch & evacuate the Norfolk and Pensacola Navy Yards
1865 Irwinsville, Ga.: Jefferson Davis captured by Union troops
1898 Havana: US ships & Spanish batteries exchange fire
1919 Race riot in Charleston, 2 blacks killed
1924 J Edgar Hoover appointed head of FBI (1924-1972)
1933 Nazis stage book burnings throughout Germany
1940 Winston S. Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the UK (1940-1945, and again later 51-55)
1941 Rudolf Hess, Adolph Hitler's deputy, parachutes into Scotland
1960 USS 'Triton' (SSN-586) completes first submerged circumnavigation
1968 Vietnam War: Paris peace talks begin, as does the Battle of Hamburger Hill
1972 Vietnam War: USN aviators Randy "Duke" Cunningham & Willie Driscoll score their 3rd, 4th, & 5th MiGs, are then shot down by an SA2, but rescued

BORN
1730 George Ross, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, d. 1797
1810 James Shields, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1879
1824 Charles Henry Van Wyck, Brig Gen. U.S., d 1895
1838 John Wilkes Booth, actor, heartthrob, assassin, k 1865

DIED
1818 Paul Revere, silversmith, gun founder, Patriot, 83
1863 Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, 39, Lt Gen, C.S.A., probably of pneumonia, complicated by the loss of his arm -- Learn More
1904 Henry M Stanley, 63, Union & Confederate veteran, explorer, imperialist
Henry Morton Stanley - Wikipedia