Today in Military History 1 Jul - 30 Sep

8 Aug

1676 Great Fire of Boston: 160 buildings destroyed
1813 US Schooners 'Hamilton' & 'Scourge' founder in a storm on Lake Ontario
1814 Anglo-American Peace negotiations begin in Ghent, Belgium
1861 Skirmish at Lovettsville, Va
1896 Three Americans of Italian heritage lynched in St. Charles Parish, La.
1898 Skirmishing along the Guayamo-Cayey Road, Puerto Rico
1914 Montenegro declares war on Germany
1919 Third Anglo-Afghan War (begun May 6) ends as Britain recognizes full Afghan independence
1925 40,000 Klansmen march in Washington
1929 German airship 'Graf Zeppelin' begins a round-the-world flight
1940 The Battle of Britain begins
1942 Guadalcanal: Marines capture the unfinished airstrip.
1942 Japanese air raids on Guadalcanal
1942 Russian counter-offensive at Voronezh under Marshal Timoshenko
1943 Fighting continues around Munda, New Georgia
1943 Nazis initiate vegetable & fruit rationing in the Netherlands
1944 China: Japanese troops finally take Hengyang, against stiff resistance.
1944 Near Caen, US B-17s accidentally bomb elements of the 3rd Canadian Inf Div & Polish Arm Div, 65 die, c. 250 wounded
1945 Harry S Truman signs UN Charter
1945 USSR declares war on Japan.
1953 Russia's Georgi Malenkov reports possession of hydrogen bomb
1983 Brig. Gen. Efrain Rios Montt deposed as President/Strongman of Guatemala
1988 Cease fire ends the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)
1988 Russian troops begin pulling out of Afghanistan after 9 year war
1988 SecState Wm Shultz escapes assassination in Bolivia
1988 South Africa declares cease-fire in Angola
1990 Iraq annexes Kuwait
2000 Confederate submarine 'Hunley' raised after 136 years on the bottom

BORN
1812 John Rodgers II, Rear Adm, U.S., d. 1882
1819 Charles Anderson Dana, Asst Sec War, d. 1897
1820 Winfield Scott "Old Swet" Featherston, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d 1891
1822 George Stoneman Jr., American soldier, Commander, Cavalry, Army of the Potomac, d. 1894 -- Learn More
1835 James William Forsyth, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1906
1839 Nelson Appleton Miles, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1925 -- Learn More
1890 Daughters of the American Revolution
1958 John Gresham, American defense analyst and author, d. 2016

DIED
1942 Six Nazi saboteurs, executed in Washington
1947 Anton Ivanovich Denikin, 74, Tsarist general, White Guard leader
2004 Fay Wray, 96, King Kong's girl

 

9 Aug
1862 Battle of Cedar Mountain/Slaughter Mountain/ Southwest Mountain, Va
1864 Battle of Ft Morgan, Al: Confederates evacuate the post
1865 USNA returns to Annapolis after four years at Newport
1898 Battle of Coamo, P.R.: US, c. 12 casualties, Spain c. 200
1898 Skirmishing along the Guayamo-Cayey Road, Puerto Rico
1898 US landing party again raids Cape San Juan, Puerto Rico
1919 Construction of US airship 'Shenandoah' (ZR-1) authorized.
1936 Jesse Owens wins a 4th gold medal at the Berlin Olympics
1945 Second Atomic Bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, c. 30,000 die
1945 Third Fleet aircraft raid northern Honshu and Hokkaido.
1974 Richard Nixon resigns the presidency, VP Gerald Ford becomes 38th pres
1985 Former naval officer Arthur J. Walker convicted of spying for the USSR
2001 USMC Commandant James L. Jones promotes Pfc Gomer Pyle to honorary lance corporal

BORN
1808 William Thomas Ward, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1878
1823 Daniel Marsh Frost, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1900
1824 Simon Goodell Griffin, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1902
1944 Sam Elliot, actor ("Gettysburg")

DIED
1961 Walter Bedell Smith, 65, Eisenhower's chief of staff in the ETO, sometime head of the CIA
1962 Hermann Hesse, 82, German volunteer of 1914, German/Swiss novelist, pacifist, anti-Nazi

 

10 Aug

1861 Battle of Wilson's Creek/Springfield, Mo: Confederate Victory
1861 Skirmish at Potosi, Mo
1862 "Battle" of the Nueces River: Confederate Texas Rangers & militia slaughter several dozen German settlers trying to flee to Mexico
1898 Battle of Hormigueras, PR: US troops ambush the Spanish; c. 145 Sp, 20 US casualties
1918 Alvin York captures "the whole damned German Army" -- Learn More
1921 Franklin D. Roosevelt is diagnosed with polio [More probably Guillain-Barré syndrome, unknown at the time, and often confused with polio]
1942 Guadalcanal: Marines go on 2/3rds rations.
1942 USS 'S-44' (SS-155) sinks Japanese heavy cruiser 'Kako' off Rabaul.
1943 Patton slaps Pvt Paul G. Bennett, 17th Field Artillery Battalion, at the 90th Evac Hospital,
1945 Japan says it will surrender if the status of the emperor is unchanged
1945 Third Fleet aircraft raid northern Honshu and Hokkaido
1970 McSorley's Old Ale House (1854) admits women
1988 Japanese-Americans interned during WW II are awarded $20,000 each

BORN
1814 John Clifford Pemberton, inept Lt. Gen, C.S.A., d. 1881
1823 Charles Thomas Campbell, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1895
1874 Herbert C. Hoover, President (1929-1933), d. 1964 -- Learn More
1920 Henry Lafont, who would become the last French veteran of the Battle of Britain, d. 2011
1921 The US Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics
1944 Smokey the Bear
1949 The Department of Defense

DIED
1822 General Sir Samuel Auchmuty, c. 66, native New Yorker, British general, victor at Montevideo, CinC Ireland
1932 Rin Tin Tin, c. 15, German Army veteran and American movie star.
1945 Robert Goddard, inventor of the liquid-fueled rocket, 62

 

11 Aug
1942 Japanese Combined Fleet sails for Truk, to support operations on Guadalcanal.
1944 B-29s from India begin to drop marine mines throughout Southeast Asia
1945 Allied warships shell installations in the Kuriles and on Honshu.
2003 NATO assumes command of 5,000 peacekeepers in Afghanistan

BORN
1832 Thomas Ogden Osborn, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1904
1902 Christian Marie Ferdinand de la Croix de Castries, French general, who lost at Dien Bien Phu, d. 1991
1921 Alex Haley, Coastguardsman, author ("Roots"), d. 1992

DIED
1689 Pope Bl. Innocent XI - Benedetto Odescalchi (1676-1689), at 78
1975 Anthony C. McAuliffe, 77, American soldier, who had occasion to say "Nuts!" whens Germans demanded he surrender in 1944

 

12 Aug
1645 The Massachusetts Council orders a third of the men in each militia company "be ready on half an hour's warning for any service" - the first "Minute Men"
1805 the Lewis & Clark Expedition crossed the Continental Divide
1812 USS 'Constitution' captures and destroys British brig 'Adeona'
1862 John Hunt Morgan's Confederate raiders capture Gallatin, Tn
1898 US & Spanish troops skirmish at Aibonito Pass, Puerto Rico
1898 US Navy raids Manzanillo, Cuba
1898 US ships and Spanish batteries exchange fire at Santiago
1942 Guadalcanal: First US airplane reaches Henderson Field
1942 U.S. destroyer-transports land supplies on Guadalcanal.
1943 Kiska: USAAF bombs and USN shells suspected Japanese positions
1943 The alleged "Philadelphia Experiment": The US Navy supposedly successfully "cloaks" the USS "USS Eldridge" (DE 173) -- or maybe in October.
1944 Normandy: PLUTO (pipeline under ocean) begins operating
1944 SS massacres hundreds of civilians at Sant'Anna di Stazzema, Tuscany
1945 Leaflets call for Japan to surrender or face "utter devastation."
1972 Last American ground troops leave Vietnam

BORN
1819 Daniel Davidson Bidwell, Brig Gen, U.S., kia 1864
1829 John Horace Forney, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1902
1833 William Price Sanders, Brig Gen, U.S., kia 1863
1909 Maurice Heath, air marshal, RAF, d. 1998

DIED
1676 Metacom - "King Philip" - Sachem of the Wampanoag (1662-1676), shot by Colonial militiaman John Alderman, a "Praying Indian"
1914 John Philip Holland, 74, Fenian, submarine designer
1964 Ian Fleming, British officer and novelist ("James Bond"), at 56
1982 Henry Fonda, US Naval officer, actor ("Mr. Roberts," etc.), at 77
1990 USAF SSGT John Campisi, struck by a truck - 1st American to die in the Gulf War
2012 Joe Kubert, 86, soldier, American cartoonist ("Sgt. Rock", "Hawkman", etc.)

 

13 Aug

1846 CDR Robert Stockton leads an Army-Navy-Marine party to seize Los Angeles
1870 Armed tug 'Palos' is the first U.S.N. ship to transit the new Suez Canal
1898 Ambush at Las Marias, P.R.: US force inflicts heavy casualties on Spanish troops
1898 Battle of Manila: US troops occupy the city against light resistance
1898 an armistice ended the Spanish-American War at noon, EST-- Learn More
1906 The Brownsville Riot: Black soldiers stage mutinous protest against racism
1941 Lt. Gen. Walter Short, Commanding at Hawaii, said "an attack upon these islands is not impossible and . . . might not be improbable" -- Learn More
1943 US scouts report few Japanese left on Vella Lavella.
1944 Fourteenth Air Force reconnoiters Manila from Chinese bases
1945 Air raids on Tokyo.
1945 Okinawa: USS 'LaGrange' (APA-124) last US ship hit by a kamikaze in WW II
1953 Gen of the Army Omar Bradley becomes Chairman of the JCS
1961 East German Communists began construction of the Berlin Wall

BORN
1851 John Lincoln Clem, the 'Drummer boy of Chickamauga', Maj. Gen., US, d. 1937
1927 Fidel Castro, sometime Hollywood bit player, lousy baseballer, Dictator of Cuba (1959-2008), d. 2016
1958 Randy Shughart, American soldier, kia 1993 in Mogadisciu, earning the Medal of Honor

DIED
1910 Florence Nightingale, 90, "The Lady with the lamp"
1946 H. G. Wells, author ("The Land Ironclads"), pacifist, wargamer, at 79
1991 James "Jimmy" Roosevelt, presidential son, U.S. Marine and politician, died at 83 -- Learn More
2004 Julia Child, master chef, OSS staffer, at 91.

 

14 Aug
1756 French capture Fort Oswego, NY
1813 HMS 'Pelican' captures USS 'Argus'
1842 Second Florida War (1835-1842) ends: some Seminoles are removed to Oklahoma, after enormous loss of life and money
1864 Second Battle of Deep Bottom/Fussell's Mill/New Market Road/Bailey's Creek/Charles City Road/White's Tavern, Va, Day 1:
1886 Washington Navy Yard's Naval Gun Factory established
1912 US Marines occupy Nicaragua
1931 The Air Corps fails to sink the target ship 'Mt. Shasta,' so the Coast Guard helps out.
1942 New Guinea: Japanese land 3000 construction troops near Gona
1942 The first American air victory in the ETO: Flying a P-38 Lt Ezra Shahan gets a Luftwaffe Condor patrol bomber off Iceland
1943 the Quadrant Conference began at Quebec, FDR & Churchill set "Operation Overlord" -- Learn More
1945 Japan agrees to surrender; the real V-J Day (celebrated on Sept 2)

BORN
1774 Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, d. 1809
1814 Henry Hayes Lockwood, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1899
1821 Clement Hoffman "Rock" Stevens, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d/w 1864
1824 William Terry, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1888

DIED
1870 David Glasgow Farragut, the USN's First Admiral, at 69
1936 Rainey Bethea, 25, hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky, allegedly for raping a white woman, the last public execution in the U.S.

 

15 Aug

1863 Submarine CSS 'Hunley' arrives in Charleston by rail
1864 CSS 'Tallahassee' captures 6 U.S. schooners off New England
1895 Second class battleship 'Texas' commissioned; sunk as target, 1911
1896 The "Bicycle Corps" of the 25th Infantry began a "march" from Ft. Missoula, Montana, to Mammoth Springs, Wyoming -- Learn More
1940 Hitler's first "D-Day" for Operation Sea Lion
1942 U.S. transports land supplies at Guadalcanal
1943 Elms 25th Inf Div land on Vella Lavella, opposed only by Japanese a/c.
1943 Kiska: U.S. and Canadian troops land with heavy naval and air support`
1944 Operation Anvil-Dragoon: Allied troops land in Provence
1945 Hirohito's surrender message is broadcast to the Japanese people.
1945 Japanese a/c raid TF 38, 12 hours after Hirohito's surrender order
1945 US ends wartime rationing of gasoline & fuel oil

BORN
1761 Edward Preble, Commodore, USN, First Barbary War, d. 1807 -- Learn More
1823 Orris Sanford Ferry, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1875
1845 U.S. Naval Academy is established at Ft Severn, Annapolis
1912 Julia Child, OSS worker, chef, d. 2004

DIED
1935 William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers, 55, Cherokee-American humorist, journalist, actor, and aviator Wiley Post, 36, airplane accident, Point Barrow
1989 Minoru Genda, one day short of 89, Japanese airman who planned the Pearl Harbor attack
1992 Giorgio Perlasca, 82, Italian anti-fascist diplomat who saved 5,200 Jews in Hungary
2003 Jannie Brandes-Brilleslijper, 86, Dutch Resistance fighter, friend to Anne Frank.

 

16 Apr

1777 Battle of Bennington, Vt: Americans defeat British
1780 Battle of Camden: British decisively defeat the Americans
1812 Maj. Gen. William Hull surrendered Detroit & the Michigan territory to the British -- Learn More
1819 "Peterloo Massacre" - British fire on protesters at Manchester, 11 die
1861 Skirmish at Fredericktown & Kirkville, Mo.
1864 Battle of Front Royal, Va
1914 Adolf Hitler joins the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry
1918 US troops capture Archangelsk
1934 US ends occupation of Haiti, begun in 1915
1943 US troops encounter stiff resistance on Baanga I., near New Georgia
1943 Vella Lavella: 25th Infantry Div encounters moderate resistance.

BORN
1828 Joseph Bradford Carr, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1895
1831 Edward Payson Chapin, Brig Gen, U.S., kia 1863
1888 Thomas Edward Lawrence -- "Lawrence of Arabia", British scholar and soldier, d. 1935
1892 Harold Foster, cartoonist ("Tarzan", "Prince Valiant"), d. 1982
1904 Minoru Genda, Japanese airman who planned the Pearl Harbor attack, d. 1989, one day short of 85
1943 4th Marine Div, at Camp Pendleton

DIED
1945 Vice Admiral Takihiro Onishi, 54, founder of the Kamikaze, on a mission
1949 Margaret Mitchell, 48, novelist ("GWTW"), after being hit by a taxi
1959 Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey, 76 (5 Star)
William Halsey Jr. - Wikipedia.
1977 Elvis Aaron Presley, 42, Sergeant, 3rd Armored Division

 

17 Aug
1807 Robert Fulton's steamboat begins its first voyage from Albany to New York
1812 US frigate 'President' captures British schooner 'L'Adeline'
1843 Herman Melville enlists in the USS 'United States'
1846 CDR Robert F Stockton declares California annexed to the US
1862 The "Great Sioux Uprising" begins in Minnesota
1940 FDR & Canadian PM William King agree to create a joint defense commission
1942 First independent US bomber raid in Europe, against Rouen
1942 Marine 2nd Raider Bn lands on Makin Island, Gilbert I. [withdraws 18th]
1943 Japanese reinforcements land on Vella Lavella, DDs beat off U.S. DDs
1943 US troops under Maj Gen George S. Patton capture Messina
1943 Wewak, New Guinea: U.S./Aussie air raid, 100 Japanese a/c destroyed
1943 Mackenzie King, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met in Quebec for the Quadrant Conference -- Learn More
1945 B-32 bombers attacked by Japanese a/c over Tokyo, without casualties.
1959 Arleigh Burke is appointed to an unprecedented 3rd term as CNO
1960 Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy trial opens in Moscow, on his birthday

BORN
1786 David Crockett, frontiersman, k. 1836
1819 James Henry Van Alen, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1886
1914 Franklin D Roosevelt, Jr., naval officer, d. this date in 1998 -- Learn More
1929 Francis Gary Powers, U-2 pilot, d. 1977

DIED
310 Pope St Eusebius (Apr 18-Aug 17, 310 - or possibly 309)
1786 King Frederick II "The Great" of Prussia (1740-86), 74 -- Learn More
1877 F.P. Cahill, Billy the Kid's first victim
1962 Peter Fechter, 18, shot by East German border guards at the Berlin Wall
1987 Rudolph Hess, Nazi, suicide at 93, after 46 years in Allied custody
1988 FDR Jr, naval officer, on his 74th birthday

 

18 Aug
1838 U.S. Exploring Expedition under Lt Charles Wilkes begins world cruise
1846 Maj. Gen. Stephen Watts Kearney captures Santa Fe
1864 Petersburg Campaign: Battle of Weldon Railroad begins.
1911 Esther Voorhees Hasson is appointed the first Sup't of the Navy Nurse Corps
1914 Pres Wilson issues a Proclamation of Neutrality
1920 The ratification of the 19th Amendment to US Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote
1943 Baanga: US forces capture Japanese guns shelling Munda
1943 Nationalist Chinese charge they are being ignored by the Allies.
1944 USS 'Rasher' (SS-269) sinks Japanese CVE 'Taiyo' off Luzon
1945 Three days after the Armistice, B-32s patrolling over Tokyo are damaged by Japanese a/c, but down three attackers.
1961 Construction on Berlin Wall completed

BORN
1587 Virginia Dare, first English child born in the Americas, who will disappear with the Roanoke Colony
1813 Benjamin Alvord, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1884
1818 William Farquhar Barry, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1879
1913 The Veterans of Foreign Wars
1917 Casper Weinberger, soldier, budget cutter who then became SecDef (1981-87) and complained about the "hollow" armed forces, d. 2006

DIED
1989 Luis Carlos Galan, 45, Colombian presidential candidate, assassinated
2010 Bill Millin, 88, who piped for Lord Lovat during the relief of Pegasus Bridge, on D-Day

 

19 August

1812 USS 'Constitution' takes HMS 'Guerriere' in a celebrated fight -- Learn More
1818 Capt James Biddle, USN, claims the Oregon Territory for the US
1854 The Grattan 'Massacre': Lt. John Grattan gets himself and 30 US troops killed attempting to bully some peaceful Sioux
1861 Combat at Charlestown/Bird's Town, Mo
1934 Hitler becomes Fuhrer by 95.7% of voters, in a one-man election
1942 Guadalcanal: 5th Marines skirmish with Ichiki Detachment.
1943 Heavy Allied air raids on Wewak, New Guinea.
1943 Japanese sub 'I-17' sunk by U.S. a/c and N.Z. corvette 'Moa', Espiritu Santo
1944 FDR sends envoy to China to reconcile Nationalists & Communists
1944 The Liberation of Paris: The Resistance rose against the Germans as the French 2nd Arm Div approaches
1960 U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers convicted of spying by USSR
1981 The First Gulf of Sidra Incident: USS 'Nimitz' (CVN 68) a/c down Libyan a/c that attacked over international waters


BORN

1815 John Porter McCown, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1879
1831 Stephen Gano Burbridge, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1894
1871 Orville Wright, aviation pioneer, d.1912
1921 Eugene "Gene" Roddenberry,17 pilot and creator of "Star Trek", d. 1991

DIED
1936 Federico Garcia Lorca, 38, Spanish poet, murdered
1944 Generalfeldmarschall Günther "Clever Hans" von Kluge, 61, suicide rather than surrender
1974 Rodger P. Davies, 53, US Amb to Cyprus, shot in the Embassy during an anti-American demonstration

 

20 Aug

1781 Washington marches from NY to fight Cornwallis at Yorktown -- Learn More
1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers: Maj Gen "Mad" Anthony Wayne routs the Ohio Indian Confederacy -- Learn More
1847 Battle of Contreras: Brig Gen (and future president) Franklin Pierce breaks the Mexican front -- Learn More
1861 Skirmish at Hawk's Nest, WVa
1861 Skirmish at Jonesboro, Ms
1866 Pres Andrew Johnson formally declares the Slaveholders' Rebellion over
1882 Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuts in Moscow, with help from the gunners of the Imperial Guard -- Learn More
1940 Winston Churchill says, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" -- Learn More
1942 31 Marine aircraft off USS 'Long Island' (CVE-1) land on Guadalcanal
1942 Wartime dim-out begins in San Francisco
1943 Kiska secured, as Japanese had left prior to Allied landing on the 15th
1943 Marines take Baanga I, at a cost of 52 killed and 110 wounded
1944 Biak I., off New Guinea, is cleared of Japanese forces after 3 months
1944 Charles de Gaulle returns to Paris
1944 Russian offensive at Iasi & Kishinev, Romania
1945 Five days after the Armistice, a second militarist coup is suppressed at Tokyo
1955 USAF Col. Horace A. Hanes' SuperSaber reaches 40,000 feet and 822.135 mph
1982 US Marines land in Beirut

BORN
1802 Cadwalader Ringgold, naval officer, U.S., d. 1867
1811 Gilman Marston, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1890
1824 Absalom Baird, Brig Gen, U.S, d. 1905
1832 Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe, Civil War balloonist, d. 1913
1833 Benjamin Harrison, sometime colonel, 70th Indiana, President (1889-1893), d. 1901 -- Learn More
1890 Howard Phillips Lovecraft, American author, creator of 'Cthulhu', d. 1937

DIED
1804 SGT Charles Floyd, c. 22, of "bilious cholic" - the only fatality on the Lewis & Clark Expedition
2006 Joe Rosenthal, 91, photographer -
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima photograph

2010 Charles Roberts, 80, pioneer wargame publisher

 

21 Aug

1861 James A. Garfield was commissioned Lt Col of the 42nd Ohio -- Learn More
1863 Despite Jefferson Davis having declared the day one of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, Quantrill's Confederate brigands raid Lawrence, Ks
1864 Battle of Summit Point, Va
1942 US DDs and APDs resupply Guadalcanal, with loss of one destroyer.
1944 B-29s from Ceylon begin raids on Japanese installations on Sumatra.
1945 Pres Truman ends the Lend-Lease program
1983 South Korean 747 airliner is shot down by Russian aircraft after straying into Soviet airspace, 269 die
1987 Marine Sgt Clayton Lonetree convicted of spying for the KGB while an embassy guard in Moscow

BORN

1810 Thomas Jefferson McKean, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1870
1821 William Barksdale, Brig Gen, C.S.A., kia 1863
1824 John Sanford Mason, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1897
1874 John Francis O'Ryan, New York attorney, National Guardsman, d. 1961 -- Learn More

DIED
1982 King Ngwenyama Sobhuza II of Swaziland/Ngwane (1921-82), 82
1983 Benigno Aquino, Jr., 50, Philippine presidential candidate, assassinated

 

22 Aug
1848 U.S. Grant married Julia Dent, with Longstreet in attendance -- Learn More
1851 The first "Queen's Cup" race, won by the schooner 'America' -- origins of the "America's Cup Races"
1858 Queen Victoria and President Buchanan exchange greetings via the Atlantic cable
1862 Combat of Catlett's Station, Va
1862 Santee Sioux Indians attack Fort Ridgely
1864 The First Geneva Convention: 12 nations conclude a pact "for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field".
1864 Lincoln wrote to 166th Ohio Infan, thanking them for their service -- Learn More
1877 Nez Perce Indians flee to Yellowstone National Park
1914 Cavalry skirmish near Mons: First Anglo-German engagement of World War I
1942 Army P-400s land at Henderson field from New Caledonia.
1942 Savo: Jap DD 'Kawakaze' torpedoes USS 'Blue' (DD-387), towed to Tulagi.
1943 Marines occupy undefended Nukufetau in the Ellice Islands.
1943 U.S. destroyers shell Finschhafen, in eastern New Guinea.
1962 Charles De Gaulle evades an assassination attempt, an incident treated in the novel "Day of the Jackal"

BORN
1818 William Selby Harney, feisty American cavalryman, Mexico, Civil War, d. 1889
1822 George Stoneman, Maj Gen, US, cavalryman, d. 1894
1827 Joseph Anthony Mower, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1870
1834 Nathaniel Harrison Harris, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1900
1836 Archibald M Willard, artist ("The Spirit of '76"), d. 1918
1934 Norman Schwarzkopf, Gen., US, Liberator of Kuwait in 1991, d. 2012

DIED
1922 Michael "Big Mike" Collins, 31, Irish revolutionary hero, in an ambush by the IRA
2000 Abülfaz Elçibay, 62, first President of Azerbaijan (June 1992-June 1993), ousted in a coup

 

23 Aug

1775 George III declares that the American colonies are in a state of rebellion
1864 Battle of Ft. Morgan: US capture the post from the Confederates, near Mobile
1896 The "Bicycle Corps" of the 25th Infantry completed a "march" from Ft. Missoula, Montana, to Mammoth Springs, Wy, having covered 323 miles in eight days -- Learn More
1914 Battle of Mons: The BEF fights a delaying action against the German First Army
1914 Austria-Hungary declares war on Japan
1916 A military court in Berlin sentences Socialist Karl Liebknecht to 4 years for opposing the war
1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact: Hitler&Stalin cooperate in plundering Europe -- Learn More
1942 Damaged USS 'Blue' (DD-387) is scuttled at Tulagi.
1942 US 40th Infantry Div departs San Francisco for Hawaii.
40th Infantry Division (United States) - Wikipedia
1942 US recon a/c spot Japanese force intent on reinforcing Guadalcanal
1943 Japanese sub 'I-25' reconnoiters Espiritu Santo with a small scout plane.
1943 NY Yankees 'Old Timers' Game: 69,126 fans pack Yankee Stadium to see Babe Ruth play for the first time in seven years, raising $80,000 for the Army-Navy Relief Fund
1963 First SatPhone Call: From the White House President John F. Kennedy speaks with Nigerian Prime Minister Abubakar Balewa, who is aboard USNS 'Kingsport' at Lagos

BORN
1788 Joseph Gilbert Totten, Brig. Gen., US, scholar, d. 1864 -- Learn More
1818 Rufus Ingalls, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1893
1832 Alexander Chambers, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1888
1923 John Eisenhower, soldier, historian ("The Bitter Woods"), d. 2013
1944 6th Marine Div, on Guadalcanal.

DIED
1819 Oliver Hazard Perry, 34, Commo, USN, who met the enemy and they were his, yellow fever
1900 Nathaniel Harrison Harris, Brig Gen, C.S.A., at 66 and one day
1973 Eddie Rickenbacker, American ace, at 82
1999 King Hassan II of Morocco (1961-1999), at 80

 

24 Aug

1814 The British burn Washington, after Sir George Cockburn eats Pres. Madison's dinner in the White House
1914 American Alan Seeger joined the French Foreign Legion -- Learn More
1929 Palestinians attack orthodox Jews in Jerusalem
1943 The Quadrant Conference ended -- Mackenzie King, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met in Quebec for the Quadrant Conference -- Learn More
1970 Anti-war protesters bomb U of Wisconsin's Army Math Research Center, 1 dies
1991 Gorbachev resigns as head of Communist Party of the USSR
1991 Ukraine declares independence from USSR

BORN
1808 Benjamin G. Humphreys, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1882
1808 Thomas F. Drayton, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1891
1814 Jérôme Napoléon Charles Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon, who might have been King of the UK, d. 1847 -- Learn More
1827 Walter H. Stevens, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1867
1828 George "Maryland" Steuart, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1903
1886 William Francis Gibbs, naval architect (liners 'America' & 'United States', and most of the WW2 fleet), d. 1967
1949 The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

DIED
1680 Col. Thomas Blood, c. 62, who had stolen the Crown Jewels in 1671
1970 Robert Fassnacht, 33, by an "anti-war" bomb, U of Wisconsin
1974 Alexander P. de Seversky, 80, aviator, author, aeronautical engineer

 

25 Aug

1825 USMA Cadet Jefferson Davis penalized for imbibing, and on the Sabbath
1862 US SecWar authorizes Gen Rufus Saxton to arm 5,000 slaves
1864 Petersburg Campaign: Second Battle of Ream's Station, Confederates defeat US
1905 First Presidential submarine dive: Theodore Roosevelt in the USS 'Plunger' (SS 2) at Sag Harbor, staying under nearly an hour.
1917 The 82nd Division, National Army, was activated -- Learn More
1921 US signs peace treaty with Germany
1942 Marine & Navy a/c attack Japanese reinforcing squadron near Guadalcanal.
1943 US forces land on New Georgia in Solomon Islands
1944 Paris liberated from Nazi occupation
1944 U.S. troops defeat Japanese in the Aitape region, New Guinea

BORN
1811 Joseph D. Webster, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1876
1812 Percival Drayton, Capt, USN, d. 1865
1819 Allan Pinkerton, detective, inept Union spymaster, d. 1884
1823 John Newton, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1895
1825 Henry W. Birge, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1888
1938 Frederick Forsyth, novelist ("The Dogs of War"), putschist, d. 2001

DIED
1807 Edward Preble, 46, Commodore, USN, First Barbary War -- Learn More
1945 Vice Admiral Willis Augustus "Ching" Lee, Jr., 57, premier USN battleship commander, Olympian, heart attack -- Learn More
1967 George Lincoln Rockwell, 49, USN veteran, American Nazi, shot by a follower
2009 Edward "Ted" Kennedy, 77, sometime soldier, politician, last of four brothers who were devoted to national service
2012 Neil Armstrong, who on July 20, 1969 took a 'small step', at 82

 

26 Aug

1775 First Congressional action on veterans' benefits
1839 US Revenue Cutter 'Washington' seizes the Spanish ship 'Amistad', manned by self-liberated slaves, off Montauk Point
1843 USS 'Missouri', the first steam warship to cross the Atlantic, and the most powerful frigate in the world, is destroyed by fire & magazine explosion at Gibraltar
1861 Combat at Cross Lanes/Summerville, WVa
1863 Battle of Rocky Gap/White Sulphur Springs, WVa
1942 Vichy French police round up 7,000 Jews
1943 U.S. bombers in China attack Japanese installations in Hong Kong..

BORN
1811 Danville Leadbetter, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1866
1833 Charles Jackson Paine, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1916
1835 Theodore Washington Brevard, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1892
1901 Maxwell D Taylor, sometime commander, 101st A/B Div, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, d. 1987

DIED
1942 Benito Albino Mussolini, 26, illegitimate son of Mussolini and the Russian socialist Ida Dasler, in an insane asylum, possible murdered
1974 Charles Lindbergh, intrepid flyer, environmentalist, Nazi stooge, anti-Semite, at 72 -- Learn More
2010 William B Lenoir, 71, astronaut
2011 General Donn Albert Starry, soldier, scholar, military reformer, at 86

 

27 Aug

1776 Battle of Brooklyn/Long Island: British defeat the Americans -- Learn More
1861 Skirmish at Ball's Cross Roads, WVa
1862 Action at Cub Run, Va
1920 Dedication of the Altar to Liberty, in Greenwood Cemetery, to commemorate the Battle of Long Is/Brooklyn in 1776
1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact: 60 nations agree that war is naughty
1942 Guadalcanal: 5th Marines raid Kokumbona
1942 USS 'Iowa' (BB 61) is launched at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
1943 Elms 43rd Inf Div land on Arundel Island in the Solomons, unopposed
1945 Third Fleet enters Sagami Bay, south of Tokyo Bay, as US troops begin the occupation of Japan
1945 Ticker tape parade on Broadway for General Charles de Gaulle -- Learn More
1958 Ticker tape parade on Broadway for CDR William Anderson & the crew of the USS 'Nautilus' (SS 571)

BORN
1824 Hiram Gregory Berry, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1863
1826 Frank Stillman Nickerson, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1917
1832 James Alexander Walker, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1901
1839 Emory Upton, Maj Gen, U.S.V., military theorist, d. 1881
1908 Lyndon B Johnson, incidental naval officer, President (1963-1969)
1916 Martha Raye, comedienne, who also served, d. 1994

DIED
1975 Haile Selassie, 83, deposed Emperor of Ethiopia (1930-1974)
1979 Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (79), his grandson Nicholas Knatchbull (14), and Paul Maxwell (15), murdered by the IRA [Baroness Doreen Knatchbull Brabourne, 83, dies the next day]