Today in Military History 1 Jan - 31 Mar

23 Mar

1775 Patrick Henry says ". . . give me liberty or give me death!"
1806 Lewis & Clark reach the Pacific Coast
1815 USS 'Hornet' captures HMS 'Penguin' in just 22 minutes, though the War of 1812 has been over for more than three months
1862 Battle of Kernstown, Va: Jackson begins his Valley Campaign
1864 Skirmish at Camden, Arkansas
1865 First black troops muster into the Confederate Army, c. 200 men at Ricmond
1871 The training vessel HMS 'Eurydice" founders in a storm off the Isle of Wight, two of her 319 crew and trainees survive.
1882 USN establishes the Office of Naval Intelligence
1901 Brig Gen Frederick Funston personally captures Emilio Aguinaldo
1903 The Wright Brothers receive a patent for their airplane
1918 The Union League Club of New York presents colors to the 367th Infantry, the city's s black draftee regiment, as it prepares to ship out for France
1933 The Reichstag grants Hitler dictatorial powers
1957 US army sells its last homing pigeons
1965 Gemini 3 launched, first US 2-man space flight (Grissom & Young)
2003 USMC Task Force Tarawa captures An Nasiriyah after a hot fight.

BORN
1818 Don Carlos Buell, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1898
1825 Edward Lloyd Thomas, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1898
1915 Vasily Grigoryevich Zaytsev, noted sniper (c. 400 kills), Hero of the Soviet Union, d.

DIED
1994 Luis Donaldo Colosio, 44, Mexican presidential candidate, assassinated in Tijuana
2006 Desmond Doss, 87, conscientious objector who had earned a Medal of Honor as a medic on Okinawa

 

24 Mar
1765 Britain enacts the Quartering Act
1832 Christians terrorists beat & tar & feather Mormon leader J Smith, in Hiram, Ohio
1898 The battleships 'Kentucky' (BB 6) and 'Kearsarge' (BB-5) were launched in a unique double ceremony -- Learn More
1919 New York's 27th Division returns from the Great War, marching up Fifth Avenue
1920 First Coast Guard air station established, Morehead City, NC
1938 Battle of Taierzhuang begins: Japanese offensive meets stout Chinese resistance, which holds until April 7
1941 Donald Duck entlists in the Army, for the first of six war cartoons.
1944 The Great Escape: 76 Allied officers flee Stalag Luft 3
1945 Operation Varsity: Allied airborne crossing of the Rhine
1958 Elvis becomes US-5531076 at Memphis

BORN
1821 George Hector Tyndale, Brig Gen, U.S., d.1890

1851 Francis Bannerman VI, Scottish-born American surplus arms dealer, d. 1918 -- Learn More
1884 Eugène Gabriel Gervais Laurent Tisserant, soldier, scholar, diplomat, cardinal, d. 1972 -- Learn More
1898 Dorothy Stratton, first head of the SPARS, d. 2006
1930 Terence Steven "Steve" McQueen, Marine, & actor ("The Great Escape", etc.), d. 1980 (See Events, 1944)

DIED
1882 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 75, American poet ("Paul Revere's Ride", "The Song of Hiawatha," etc), educator, and scholar (translator of Dante)
1905 Jules Verne, visionary author ("20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", etc), at 77
1984 Sam Jaffe, actor ("Gunga Din", etc.), at 93
1993 John Hersey, war correspondent, at 78

 

25 Mar

1813 USS 'Essex' takes 'Neryeda', first USN victory in the Pacific
1836 Texians win a small skirmish with Mexian troops at Rocky Creek
1864 Battle of Paducah, Ky (Bedford Forrest's raid)
1865 Battle of Fort Stedman, VA: Lee's last offensive
1898 Asst SecNav Theo. Roosevelt urges the Navy to support Samuel Langley's aviation experiments.
1905 Most battle flags captured during the Civil War are returned to the South
1915 First USN submarine disaster: USS 'F-4' sinks off Hawaii, 21 die
1945 US 4th Armored Division captures Hanau and Aschaffenburg
1958 Elvis gets a G.I. haircut, courtesy of his Uncle Sam

BORN

1818 Isaac Ingalls Stevens, Maj Gen, U.S, KIA, Chantilly, 1862
1823 William Thompson Martin, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1910
2184 Pavel Andreivich Chekov, Star Fleet officer

DIED

1945 Maj. Gen. William Henry Rupertus, USMC, 55, Commander, 1st Mar. Div., Cape Gloucester and Peleliu, author of "The Rifleman's Creed", heart attack
1948 Adm. Joseph M. Reeves, USN, 75, "The Father of Carrier Aviation" -- Learn More
1949 Hanns Albin Rauter, 54, SS-commandant in the Netherlands, executed

 

26 Mar

Seems to be a problem with my source

 

27 Mar

1794 Congress approves construction of 6 frigates, including USS 'Constitution'
1799 USS 'Constitution' recaptures the American sloop 'Neutrality' from the French
1814 Battle of Horseshoe Bend: Andrew Jackson defeats the Creeks - Learn More
1863 Confederate President Jefferson Davis declares a day of fasting & prayer
1933 Japan leaves the League of Nations
1942 Allied air attack on German sub base at St Nazaire, - nocturnal Commando raid
1945 B-29s begin mining Japanese waters

BORN
1823 Samuel Kosciusko Zook, Brig Gen, U.S., d/w, Gettysburg, 1863
1898 Charlotte Winters, last surviving WW I "Yeomanette", at 109
SitNews: Oldest female veteran dies at 109

DIED
1836 James Walker Fannin, Jr. (c. 32), inept commander, and c. 320 other Texians, executed at Goliad
1942 John W. Wilcox, Jr., 60, Rear Adm, USN, washed overboard from the stern of the battleship 'Washington' (BB 56) in the North Atlantic
1991 Aldo Ray (Aldo Da Re), 64, veteran, actor ("What Did You Do in the War, Daddy")

 

28 Mar

1774 Britain passes Coercive Act, to punish Mass for the Tea Party and other acts of resistance
1782 George Washington authorizes the kidnapping of Prince William Henry, a midshipman in the British fleet at New York -- Learn More
1799 NY State initiates the abolition of slavery, which is completed in 1827
1814 HMS's 'Phoebe' and 'Cherub' capture USS 'Essex' off Valparaiso, Chile
1958 Elvis joins Co A, 2nd Bn, 37th Armor, 2nd Arm Div, Ft. Hood

BORN
1818 Wade Hampton, Lt Gen, C.S.A., d. 1902
1928 Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor (1977-1981)

DIED
1915 Leon C. Thrasher, drowned in the sinking of the 'Falaba' -- the first American civilian killed in WW I
1969 Dwight Eisenhower, soldier, president (1953-1961), at 78 -- Learn More
1987 Maria - "Sound of Music" - von Trapp, at 82 -- Learn More
2013 Robert Remini, 91, US Navy veteran, historian ("The Life of Andrew Jackson", etc.

 

29 Mar

1847 Mexican–American War: Winfield Scott captures Veracruz after a short siege
1849 Henry "Box" Brown escapes slavery by shipping himself from Richmond to Philadelphia in a packing case
1865 Battle of Quaker Road, VA
1911 The U.S. Army adopts the M1911 .45 ACP pistol as its official sidearm
1943 US begins rationing meat, butter, & cheese
1971 1st Lt William L Calley Jr found guilty in the My Lai massacre
1973 Last US troops leave Vietnam, 9 years after the Tonkin Gulf Resolution

BORN

1790 John Tyler, militiaman, president (1850-1853), d. 1862 -- Learn More
1816 James Gallant Spears, Brig Gen, U.S., court martialed and dismissed for insubordination, 1864, d. 1869
1821 Joshua Thomas Owen, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1887
1829 Robert Emmett Rodes, Maj Gen, C.S.A., kia 1864
1947 Aleksandr Stepenovich Viktorenko, Russian cosmonaut

DIED
1970 Vera Mary Brittain, 76, British pacifist and author ("Testament of Youth", etc.)
2007 Lloyd Brown, last US Navy veteran of WW I, at 109
2015 Robin L. Hite, 95, sometime Doolittle Raider, prisoner of the Japanese (1942-1945)

 

30 March

1961 NASA pilot Joseph Walker takes X-15 to 51,690 m
1981 Pres. Ronald Reagan and two others are wounded in an assassination attempt by John Hinckley, Jr.

BORN
1790 Joseph Smith, naval officer, U.S., d. 1877
1823 Joseph Farmer Knipe, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1901
1824 Innis Newton Palmer, Brig Gen., U.S., d. 1900
1825 Samuel Bell Maxey, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1895
1866 Philip Andrews, U.S. naval officer, commander Adriatic Squadron, d. 1935 -- Learn More
1880 Walter Short, US Army commander at Pearl Harbor, who didn't understand the words "war warning", d. 1949 -- Learn More
1939 Batman, in "Detective Comics" #27

DIED
1945 Maj Gen Maurice Rose (45), 3rd Arm Div, killed while being captured - the highest ranking American Jewish casualty in WW II
1986 James Cagney, actor ("The Fighting 69th", "The Gallant Hours"), 86
1986 John Ciardi, B-29 pilot, poet, translator of Dante, at 69
2002 Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, at 101

 

31 March

1814 The Allies capture Paris, as Napoleon makes feeble efforts to stave them off
1854 Commodore Perry forces Japan to open its ports to foreign trade
1865 Battle of Dinwiddie Court House, Va: Confederate's frustrate a Union attempt to turn their strategic flank at Petersburg
1865 The troop transport 'General Lyon' catches fire off Cape Hatteras and sinks; c, 500 die, many Confederate P/Ws and civilian refugees, and all but 29 of the 156 men of the 56th Illinois
1889 The Eiffel Tower is opened to the public
1917 US gains possession of the Virgin Is from Denmark, for $25 million
1941 Hawaii: Frederick L. Martin and Patrick N. L. Bellinger, the senior Army & Navy aviation officers, warn Short & Kimmel of the danger of Japanese carrier raids
1942 U.S. leases air base rights from Liberia
1943 USAAF accidentally bombs a residential area of Rotterdam, 326 die
1944 New Guinea: Fifth Air Force bombs Hollandia
1954 USSR offers to join NATO
1966 Anti-war demonstration in NY, c. 250,000 march
1968 LBJ announces he will not seek re-election

BORN

1840 John Herbert Kelly, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d/w 1864
1948 Albert Gore Jr,soldier, vice-president (1993-2001)

DIED
1850 John C. Calhoun, notable Secretary of War, architect of secession, at 68
1980 Jesse Owens, 66, who spoiled Hitler's Olympics
1994 Léon Joseph Marie Ignace Degrelle, 87, Belgian Fascist, leader of the SS Walloonian Brigade, in exile in Spain