Today in Military History 1 Oct - 31 Dec

11 DEC

1936 King Edward VIII of the UK (Jan. 20 - Dec. 11, 1936) abdicates in favor of his brother, who becomes George VI (1936-1952)
1937 Italy withdraws from League of Nations
1941 Germany and Italy declare war on the United States
1941 Marines beat off a Japanese landing on Wake, inflicting heavy losses, sinking destroyers 'Hayate' and 'Kisaragi' [Due to the Int'l Date Line, this is the 10th, Pearl Harbor time].
1941 The America First Committee disbands -- Learn More
1941 US submarines commence war patrols against Japanese shipping
1943 British & US air forces in SE Asia form Far Eastern Air Command
1944 U.S. forces capture Ormoc, Japanese main supply dump on Leyte
1945 Adm. William F. Halsey was promoted to five star rank as a Fleet Admiral -- Learn More
1946 UNICEF formed
1954 USS 'Forrestal' (CV-59) christened in Newport News, Va
1961 JFK provides US military helicopters & crews to South Vietnam
1964 While Che Guerara is speaking at the UN, a mortar round strikes the building, in an unresolved terrorist attack
1972 Last Moon Landing: As Ronald Evans remains in orbit, Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt land on the moon; lift off on the 14th.
1974 Puerto Rican nationalists detonate a bomb in New York, one injured.
2007 Terrorist attack in Algiers: Car bombs at the Constitution Court and UN office, c. 45 dead

BORN

1882 Fiorello La Guardia, bomber pilot, aviation entrepreneur, Mayor of NYC (1934-1945), d. 1947


DIED

1941 Yank RCAF Pilot John Magee, Jr, author ("High Flight"), flight accident at 19
2016 John "Jock" Moffat, 97, sometime Royal Navy aviator, pilot of the Swordfish that put a torpedo into the 'Bismarck'

 

12 Dec

1862 Battle of Dumfries, Va
1862 Confederate "torpedo" sinks USS 'Cairo' in the Yazoo River
1901 Guglielmo Marconi makes the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission, from Cornwall to Nova Scotia
1937 Japanese aircraft and artillery "accidentally" sink the USS 'Panay' (PR 5), and damage several American merchant ships, as well as some British gunboats and shipping on the Yangtze
1941 Germans begin house-by-house search for Jews in Paris
1941 Japanese complete the occupation of southern Thailand
1941 Japanese invade Burma
1941 Japanese troops land at Legaspi, southeastern Luzon
1942 Guadalcanal: 2nd Marine Div begins taking over from the 1st, as Japanese infiltrators destroy a P-39 and fuel truck
1942 USS 'PT-45' sinks Japanese DD 'Teruzuki' off Kolombangara
1944 Leyte: US forces consolidate their positions
1945 Dutch court sentences Nazi leader Mussert to death
1953 Chuck Yeager reaches Mach 2.43 in a Bell X-1A
1958 Charles de Gaulle becomes President of France (1959-1969)
1985 DC-8 crashes near Gander, 248 US military personnnel & 8 crew members die
1991 The Russian Federation secedes from the USSR

BORN

1724 Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, admiral, d. 1816 -- Learn More
1745 John Jay, Founding Father, signer of the Treaty of Paris, first Chief Justice of the United States (1789–95), d. 1829
1805 William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist, d. 1879
1806 Stand Watie, Indian Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1871
1818 Paul Octave Hebert, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1880
1830 Joseph Orville Shelby, Brig Gen, d. 1897
1913 James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens, who spoiled Hitler's Olympics, d. 1980
1915 Frank Sinatra, notorius draft dodger, actor ("Von Ryan's Express"), d. 1998
1924 Edward Irving "Ed" Koch, sometime infantryman, 104th Inf Div., Mayor of New York (1978-1989), d. 2013

DIED

1914 Watkins Lewis, black American, lynched in Shrevport, La.
1977 Clementine Nozier Ogilvy Spencer-Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, 92, silent partner to Sir Winston

 

13 Dec

1774 John Sullivan's militiamen take Ft William & Mary, NH, from the British
1861 Combat at Buffalo Mountain/Camp Allegheny/Allegheny Summit, WVa
1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, VA; Mismanaged Union attacks lead to a devastating defeat
1864 Battle of Ft McAllister, GA
1918 The first US occupation troops cross the Rhine to enter Germany
1918 Pres. Wilson arrives at Brest on the former German liner 'George Washington', to start the first visit to Europe by a sitting president, for the Paris Peace Conference
1931 Winston Churchill is struck by a car while exiting a cab on Fifth Avenue between 76th and 77th Streets
1939 Battle of the Rio de La Plata: three British cruisers defeat the German pocket battleship 'Graf Spee'
1942 U.S. aircraft bomb Munda
1944 USS 'Nashville' (CL-43) struck by a kamikaze off the Philippines, 138 die
1966 First US bombing of Hanoi
2003 US troops find Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein in a hole in the ground
2013 Student opens fire at Arapahoe High School, Centennial, Co.: two injured, shooter killed

BORN

1868 Andrew Hero. Jr., American soldier, Chief of Coast Artillery, d. 1942 -- Learn More
1887 Alvin C. York, American soldier, Medal of Honor, d. 1964 -- Learn More
1914 Alan L Bullock, historian ("Hitler: A Study in Tyranny"), d. 2004

DIED

1721 Alexander Selkirk, c. 45, sailor, naval officer, castaway, who inspired DeFoe to write "Robinson Crusoe"
1783 Samuel Johnson -- "Doctor Johnson", poet, author, moralist, critic, editor, lexicographer, at 75
1969 Adm Raymond A Spruance, victor at Midway, at 83

 

14 Dec
1807 Capt Charles Johnston of HMS 'Cornwallis' discovers Johnston Is, southwest of Hawaii
1814 Battle of Lake Borgne, La: British overwhelm U.S. gunboats
1862 Battle of Kinston, NC: Union troops under John G. Foster defeat Confederates under Nathan Evans
1863 Battle of Bean's Station, Tn: Confederates repulse Union troops
1878 Battle of San Elizario: Besieged for two days, Texas Rangers surrender to Mexican-American citizens protesting discrimination, near El Pasoe
1941 B-17s in the Philippines are ordered to Australia
1941 Japanese begin repairing north Luzon airfields
1941 Japanese forces in Malaya occupy Gurun & Kroh
1942 Japanese destroyers land 800 troops at the Mambare River, near Buna
1943 'Grayback' (SS-208), sinks Japanese destroyer 'Numakaze' c. 50 miles east of Okinawa
1944 Public Law 78-482 creates the ranks of General of the Army and Fleet Admiral
1945 Ticker tape parade on Broadway for Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey
1949 "Sands of Iwo Jima" is released
1972 Last Moon Landing Ends: Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt lift off, to join Ronald Evans in orbit, for the return trip home.
2012 Mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, 20 children & 6 adults die

BORN
1716 Philip Livingston, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, d. 1778
1830 Allen Thomas, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1907
1832 Daniel Harris Reynolds, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1902
1837 William Wells, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1892
1896 James H Doolittle, intrepid airman, d. 1992
1910 The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in Washington, formed by Andrew Carnegie

DIED

1799 George Washington, 67, "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen" -- Learn More
1943 Capt. Henry T. Waskow (25), Co. B., 143rd Infantry, kia, Hill 703, near San Pietro, Italy -- Archive » The Death of Captain Waskow » Ernie Pyle
1988 Stuart Symington, 87, WW I veteran, first Secretary of the Air Force (1947-1950), liberal politician
2013 Peter O'Toole, 81, sometime Royal Navy signalman, actor ("Lawrence of Arabia," "The Lion in Winter," etc.)

 

15 Dec

1791 The "Bill of Rights" to the US Constitution goes into effect, as Virginia submits it's ratification
1864 Battle of Nashville: George Thomas crushes the Confederate Army of TN
1871 International "Alabama" Commission meets on US Civil War claims against Britain
1907 Two Italian-Americans lynched in Jackson Parish, La.
1941 Congress votes $10.1 billion (c. $1.5 trillion today) to fight the Axis
1941 USS 'Swordfish' (SS-193) becomes 1st US sub to sink a Japanese ship
1942 U.S. aircraft bomb Munda
1943 U.S. 112th Cavalry Rgt (dsmtd) lands at Arawe, New Britain
1944 US troops land on Mindoro, Philippines, as kamikaze sink two LSTs
1944 William D. Leahy is promoted to five star rank as a Fleet Admiral
1989 The Panamanian National Assembly declares war on the US


BORN

1918 Jeff Chandler, in Brooklyn, soldier, actor ("Merrill's Marauders", "Sign of the Pagan"), d. 1961
1923 Gotthard Glas, later known as Uziel "Uzi" Gal, Israeli soldier and weapons designer, d. 2002

DIED

1796 Revolutionary War hero Maj. Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne, 51-- Learn More
1885 Jerry Thomas, 55, America's bartender to the rich and famous, collector of regimental concoctions.
1944 Major Glenn Miller, 40, big band leader, lost over the English Channel on a flight that sparks inane conspiracy theories
1962 Charles Laughton, BEF veteran, actor (Captain Bligh in "Mutiny on the Bounty"), at 63
1979 Piero Pieri, 86, sometime decorated Alpino, military historian
2011 Emmett L. Bennett, Jr., 93, American classicist, sometime US cryptanalyst, who helped decipher Cretan Linear B

 

16 Dec
1773 Boston Tea Party: American colonists protest taxation without representation
1821 American Colonization Society buys what will become Liberia
1835 "Great Fire" of New York begins; in two days $20 million (today from c. $.5 billion to c. $242 billion) is lost as over 600 buildings burn, including the stock exchange, banks, and insurance companies, initiating an economic slump
1866 USS 'New Ironsides', the most powerful American warship afloat, burns at League Island
1897 John Holland demonstrates the first sub with an internal combustion engine
1907 Great White Fleet leaves Hampton Roads on its world cruise
1942 Papua: US Lt Gen Robert Eichelberger takes over direct command of the 32nd Inf Div, after 2 commanders are WIA
1944 George C. Marshall is promoted to five star rank as a General of the Army
1944 The German offensive in the Ardennes initiates the Battle of the Bulge
1944 German V-2 strikes Antwerp theatre, 638 killed

BORN

1812 William Grose, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1900
1819 Robert Garnett, Brig Gen, C.S.A.: 1st general kia in the Civil War, 1861
1825 Henry Heth, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1899
1828 John Beatty, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1914
1830 John Frederick Hartranft, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1889
1899 Noël Coward, sometime soldier, actor ("In Which We Serve," etc.), d. 1973

DIED

1916 Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, 47, Russian mystic, assassinated, apparently much more easily than tradition holds
1922 Gabriel Narutowicz, 57, installed as the first President of Poland just five days earlier, assassinated in Warsaw

 

17 DEC

1812 Battle of the Mississinewa: U.S. troops defeat a village of friendly Lenape Indians
1846 Commo Matthew C. Perry's squadron captures Laguna de Terminos, Mexico
1852 The Hawaiian Army organizes a cavalry squadron
1861 Combat at Rowlett's Station/Mumfordsville, WVa
1862 US Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant issues G.O. #11, expelling "Jews" from Tennessee, actually intended to control cotton trading by smugglers pretending to be Jewish merchants
1903 The Wright Brothers' "Flyer" makes the first manned, controlled, heavier-than-air powered flight
1925 Court-martial rules against William "Billy" Mitchell
1927 US sub 'S-4' (SS-109) sinks after collision, all 34 aboard die
1935 First flight of the Douglas DC-3, one of the most critical weapons of WW II
1941 Adm Husband Kimmel, CINCUS and CINCPAC, relieved
1942 Americal Div attacks towards Mt. Austen on Guadalcanal
1942 Elms U.S. 25th Div land on Guadalcanal
1943 New Britain: Allies mop up Japanese on the Arawe Peninsula
1944 Ernest J. King is promoted to five star rank as a Fleet Admiral
1944 US ends wartime detention of Japanese-Americans
1944 The Malmedy Massacre - American POWs are murdered by the Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper
1957 US successfully test-fires Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile
1961 Indo-Portuguese War begins: Portugal loses its colony of Goa and associated territories within 24 hours
1969 USAF closes Project Blue Book, on UFOs
1981 Italian "Red Brigades" kidnap Brig Gen James L Dozier
1988 USS 'Tennessee' (SSBN-734) is commissioned, the first Trident 2 missiles sub
2011 Kim Jong Un, c, 28, succeeds to the leadership of North Korea, becoming the 3rd successor in the longest enduring Communist dynasty -- Learn More

BORN

1819 Samuel Jones, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1887
1820 Frederick Tracy Dent, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1892
1821 Frederick West Lander, Brig Gen, U.S., KIA. 1862
1824 Manning Ferguson Force, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1899
1833 James Thaddeus Holtzclaw, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1893

DIED

1942 Lt jg Thomas La Farge, USCG, 42, artist, lost at sea
1975 Noble Sissle, bandmaster, 369th Inf, WW I, at 86 -- Learn More
2011 Kim Jong-Il, 69, "Dear Leader" of North Korea (1994-2011)

 

18 Dec

1813 War of 1812: British take Ft Niagara
1861 Combat at Milford/Shawnee Mound, WVa
1941 Japanese 38th Div lands on Hong Kong Island
1942 Papua: U.S. and Australian troops begin a major assault on Sanananda
1942 FDR sent an Iron Cross to New York Daily News correspondent John O'Donnell, for his frequent negative reporting on the war effort
1944 Douglas MacArthur is promoted to five star rank as a General of the Army
1944 Hankow: c. 300 US aircraft raid Japanese positions
1972 Operation Linebacker: US begins "Christmas bombing" of North Vietnam

BORN
1811 Alexander Sandor Asboth, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1868
1825 Charles Griffin, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1867
1826 John Mercer Brooke, C.S.N., naval engineer, gun founder, d. 1906
1835 George Dashiell Bayard, Brig Gen, U.S., KIA, 1862
1912 Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American general, d. 2002
1913 Willy Brandt, sometime mayor of Berlin, Chancellor of Germany, 1971 Peace Nobelist,
1927 William Ramsey Clark, US Marine, Attorney General (1966-1969)

DIED

1935 Vice Adm. Philip Andrews, sometime commander, U.S. Navy Adriatic Squadron, at 69 -- Learn More
1982 Col. Hans-Ulrich Rudel, 66, Luftwaffe ground attack ace (519 tanks, etc), lifetime Nazi sympathizer

 

19 Dec

1777 Washington's army takes up winter quarters at Valley Forge
1941 The US Congress authorized the draft of men up to age 44 -- Learn More
1942 Guadalcanal: Malaria rate reaches 972 cases per 1000 US troops
1942 Papua: Allied assault on Sanananda moves forward
1944 British Commonwealth forces in Burma make steady gains
1944 Chester W. Nimitz is promoted to five star rank as a Fleet Admiral
1944 Lt Jerry Ford decorated for battling fires aboard USS 'Monterey' (CVL-26)
1946 Indochina War breaks out, as Viet Minh attack the French in Hanoi
1950 General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower named NATO commander
1960 Fire aboard USS 'Constellation' (CV 64), building at Brooklyn Navy Yard, 50 die
1972 Apollo 17, last moon mission, returns to Earth
1988 Unexploded WW II bomb found in Frankfurt, Germany; 5,000 evacuated

BORN
1814 Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, d. 1869
1817 James Jay Archer, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d 1864
1819 James Clifford Veatch, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1895
1837 John Carpenter Carter, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d/w, 1864
1875 Carter Godwin Woodson, American historian, founder of Black History Month, d. 1950
1906 Leonid I Brezhnev, Soviet Dictator (1964-82)
1941 Lee Myung-bak, Korean businessman, ROK President (2008-2013)

DIED

1899 Maj. Gen. Henry Ware Lawton, 56, American soldier, highest ranking officer killed in action in the Philippine-American War -- Learn More
1959 Walter Williams, 105, who falsely claimed to be the last Civil War veteran -- Learn More (scroll down)
2000 John Vliet Lindsay, 79,naval officer and Mayor of New York

 

20 Dec

1822 Congress authorizes a naval expedition to suppress piracy in the Caribbean
1841 Capt Charles Wilkes' "United States Exploring Expedition" surveys Wake I.
1861 Combat at Drainsville, Va
1862 Battle of Holly Spring, Ms: Earl Van Dorn disrupts U.S. Grant's supply lines
1862 Battle of Kelly's Ford, Va
1862 Grant begins his first effort to take Vicksburg
1922 Brooklyn's Eng Company 205 makes the last run by a horse-drawn fire engine in NY City
1924 Adolf Hitler is freed from prison, having served only part of his sentence for the "Beer Hall Putsch"
1928 Australian George H. Wilkins and American Carl B. Eielson flew some 1,300 miles over the Antarctic Peninsula in about 10 hours -- Learn More
1941 American Volunteer Group ("Flying Tigers") goes into action over Kunming
1941 Ernest J. King is named Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet
1942 Papua: Allied forces make gains in the Sanananda area
1943 USS 'Puffer (SS-268) sinks the Japanese destroyer 'Fuyo' about 60 miles west of Manila
1944 Battle of Bastogne: Germans surround the American defenders, initiating a siege
1944 Dwight D. Eisenhower is promoted to five star rank as a General of the Army
1944 Japanese on Leyte told no more reinforcements or supplies will be sent
1958 First successful test of the US Titan ICBM
1989 Operation Just Cause begins: US troops invade Panama

BORN

1807 Richard Lucian Page, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1901
1808 Thomas Tingey Craven, Rear-Adm, U.S.N., d. 1887
1825 Romeyn Beck Ayres, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1888
1833 Samuel A Mudd, friend to John Wilkes Booth, probable conspirator, d. 1883
1915 Delmer Berg, American leftist, last surviving American veteran of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War, d. 2016

DIED

1937 Erich Ludendorff, German general (WW I) and Hitler's friend, at 72
1939 Capt. Hans Wilhelm Langsdorff , 45, sometime commander of the 'Graf Spee,' suicide

 

21 Dec

1861 The Medal of Honor, was authorized by Congress --
1866 Battle of Lodge Trail Ridge: Crazy Horse wipes out Capt. William Fetterman's 82-man column
1941 Japanese renew their attempt to capture Wake Island
1942 Guadalcanal: Americal Div attack on Mt. Austen falters
1942 U.S. aircraft bomb Munda
1943 3rd Marine Div begins pulling out of the Bougainville beachhead
1944 Henry H. Arnold is promoted to five star rank as a General of the Army
1971 UN Security Council elects former Nazi Kurt Waldheim as Secretary General
1982 Puerto Rican nationalists detonate three bombs in New York, causing considerable damage and several injuries
1988 Lockerbie: A Libyan-sponsored terrorist bomb explodes on board Pan Am flight 103, 270 die.
2012 Domesday by some interpretations of the Maya Calendar (or maybe the 23rd, or maybe not at all)

BORN

1832 John Henry Ketcham, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1906.
1918 Kurt Waldheim, Nazi, UN Sec-Gen (1972-81), Austrian president (1986-1992), d. 2007 [See Events]

DIED

1907 Klara Hitler, mother of Adolf, of cancer at 47
1945 Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., 60, of injuries sustained in a car accident -- Learn More"
2013 John Eisenhower, 91, presidential son, soldier, ambassador, historian ("The Bitter Woods", "Agent of Destiny," etc.)

 

22 Dec

1841 Steam Paddle Frigate 'Mississippi' commissioned
1861 Combat at Newport News/New Market Bridge, Va
1862 John Hunt Morgan initiates a raid from Bardstown, Ky: Ends Jan 2 at Elizabethtown, KY
1864 Sherman gives Savannah to Lincoln as a Christmas gift
1919 US deports 250 alien radicals, including anarchist Emma Goldman
1941 Japanese begin major landing at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon
1941 The German Evangelical Church bars "baptized non-aryans" from services
1941 Washington: Winston Churchill arrives to confer with FDR -- Learn More
1942 Papua: Australian and American troops are halted on the Sanananda Front
1943 Japanese bombers again hit Kunming in China
1944 Vietnamese Liberation Army is formed by Vo Nguyen Giap


BORN

1803 Joseph King Fenno Mansfield, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1862
1826 James Scott Negley, Maj Gen. U.S., d. 1901
1831 Robert Ogden Tyler, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1874
1832 Edward Hatch, Brig. Gen, U.S., d. 1889
1856 Frank Kellogg, SecState who helped August Briand "outlaw" war, Nobel Peace Prize in 1929, d. 1937

DIED

1979 Darryl F Zanuck, 77, underage AEF veteran, producer ("The Longest Day")

 

23 Dec

1776 Continental Congress negotiates a war loan of $181,500 from France, today perhaps $101,000,000
1776 Thomas Paine writes "These are the times that try men's souls . . . ."
1779 Benedict Arnold court-martialed for improper conduct
1783 George Washington resigns as "General and Commander-in-Chief", Annapolis -- Learn More
1862 Benjamin Butler proclaimed a "felon, outlaw" by Jefferson Davis
1941 Gen. Douglas MacArthur decides to withdraw to Bataan
1941 Japanese begin offensive against Rangoon, Burma
1943 US Army a/c from China sink a Japanese gunboat off Formosa
1943 US Army aircraft begin operating from Munda, New Georgia
1968 Borman, Lovell, & Anders become the first men to orbit the Moon
1968 North Korea releases 82 crewmen of the USS 'Pueblo' (AGER-2), held since January
2012 Domesday by some interpretations of the Maya Calendar (or maybe the 21st), or maybe not

BORN

1808 Thomas Turner, Rear Adm, U.S., d. 1883
1818 David Addison Weisiger, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1899
1907 James "Jimmy" Roosevelt, presidential son, U.S. Marine Raider, d. 1991 -- Learn More
1923 James B. Stockdale, Vice Adm, Medal of Honor, d. 2005
1944 Wesley Clark, Gen, U.S., CDR head of SHAPE

DIED

1948 The Japanese War Criminals: Kenji Doihara (65), former chief of intelligence in Manchukuo; Koki Hirota (70), former foreign minister & pemier, Seishiro 63); former war minister, Heitaro Kimura (60), former commander, Burma Expeditionary Force; Iwane Matsui (70), former commander, Shanghai Expeditionary Force and Central China Area Army; Akira Muto (56), former commander, Philippines Expeditionary Force; and Hideki Tojo (63), former commander, Kwantung Army and Premier (1941-44), executed
1975 Richard S Welch, 46, CIA station chief in Athens, murdered
1982 John Randolph "Jack" Webb, former B-26 aircrewman, actor ("The DI"), 62

 

24 Dec

1782 The French Army sails for home from Boston, after 2.5 years in America
1814 Treaty of Ghent signed to end the War of 1812
1914 The first German air raid on Britain: An airplane drops a bomb on Dover, which falls in a rectory garden.
1941 Arcadia Conference, in Washington FDR, Churchill, and their military chiefs plan Allied strategy
1941 Italian blockade runner 'Orseolo' departs Kobe for Bordeaux, on her second run through the Allied blockade
1941 Winston Churchill spends Christmas in the White House -- Learn More
1942 First powered flight of V-1 cruise missile, Peenemende, Germany
1943 FDR appoints Dwight Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe
1943 Stilwell undertakes to relieve encircled Chinese New 38th Div in Burma
1944 SS 'Leopoldville' is torpedoed off France, 800 US GI's from the 66th Inf Div die
1944 U.S. cruisers and destroyers bombard Iwo Jima
1966 USAF C-144 crashes near Binh Thai, Vietnam, 129 die
1989 Operation Just Cause: Panama's Manual Noriega flees to Vatican embassy
1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of Soviet Union
2012 Sniper attack in Webster, NY: 2 firefighters die and several wounded, before the gunman commits suicide

BORN

1745 Benjamin Rush, Physician-General of the Continental Army, d. 1813
1809 Christopher "Kit" Carson, scout, Brig Gen, U.S.V., d. 1868
1865 Ku Klux Klan, formed by Confederate veteran in Pulaski, Tn., to restore white supremacy
1923 Maj. Gen. George Smith Patton, IV, d. 2004
1928 Manfred Rommel, Luftwaffe veteran (1943-1944), son of the field marshal, internationalist, d. 2013

DIED

1922 Giovanni Martini -- John Martin, Trumpeter, 7th Cavalry, in Brooklyn at 70 -- Learn More
1942 Admiral of the Fleet Jean Darlan, 62, Vichyite, murdered
1985 Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, 81, last descendant of his great-grandfather Abraham Lincoln
2001 Robert Leckie, 81, Guadalcanal Marine and military historian ("The Wars of America,", "Okinawa", etc.)
2008 Samuel P. Huntington (81), political scientist - "The Soldier & the State," "Clash of Civilizations"

 

25 Dec

1066 Coronation of William the Conqueror as King of England (1066-1087) -- Learn More
1776 Washington crosses the Delaware to begin the Trenton Campaign
1826 "Egg Nog" Riot at West Point: Cadets (including Jefferson Davis) indulging in illicit pre-dawn holiday cheer get out of hand
1862 Hilton Head, SC: 40,000 watch Union troops play baseball
1914 The Christmas Truce: Sporadic local cease-fires and some fraternization occurs across the Western Front; The Royal Welch Fusiliers play soccer with the 133rd Saxon Infantry and Prussian 6th Jager Battalion
1941 Manila is heavily bombed by Japanese aircraft
1941 First performance of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas," by Bing Crosby, on his NBC radio program The Kraft Music Hall
1942 Guadalcanal: Americal Div bogged down before the Gifu
1942 U.S. a/c continue bombing Munda, to hamper Japanese air field construciton
1943 German SS 'Bogota' resupplies the Japanese sub 'I-29' in the Indian Ocean
1943 U.S. carrier aircraft raid Kavieng, New Ireland, sink or damage several ships
1959 Cologne, Germany: A synagogue is desecrated with swastikas
2016 54,000 citizens of Augsburg, Germany, are evacuated after the discovery of an unexploded RAF 1.8 ton bomb dropped during World War II.

BORN
1 Jesus [Traditional -- more likely in the Spring of 4 BC]
1821 Clara Barton, feminist, war nurse, founder of the American Red Cross, d. 1912
1823 Preston Smith, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1863
1832 Thomas Alfred Smyth, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1865
1899 Humphrey Bogart, erstwhile steersman, USS 'Leviathan,' 1918-1919, actor, d. 1957
1918 Pres Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt (1970-81), Peace Nobelist (1978), murdered, 1981
1924 Rod Serling, Pacific War veteran (511th Airborne Infantry), creator of 'The Twilight Zone', d. 1975

DIED

1989 Former Pres Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania (1969-1989), 71, and his wife Elena, 73, executed
2009 Knut Haugland, 92, Norwegian soldier, resistance fighter, Kon-Tiki crewman

 

26 Dec
1620 The "Pilgrim Fathers" land near what becomes Plymouth, though not on a rock
1773 Patriots expel tea ships from Philadelphia
1860 Maj Robert Anderson, commanding the garrison of the Charleston Harbor forts, concentrates his men at Ft Sumter
1862 1st US navy hospital ship, 'Red Rover' commissioned, with four Catholic nuns serving as nurses
1917 American railroads are nationalized for the duration of WW I
1919 Boston Red Sox sells Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, initiating the "Curse of the Bambino"
1933 US initiates the "Good Neighbor Policy," forswearing armed intervention in the Western Hemisphere
1941 MacArthur declares Manila an open city
1941 Winston Churchill becomes the first British PM to address Congress
1942 23rd "Americal" Div makes limited gains against the Gifu, on Guadalcanal
1943 1st Marine Div lands at Cape Gloucester, New Britain
1943 Battle of North Cape: Royal Navy sinks German BB Scharnhorst
1943 USS 'Brownson" (DD-518), sunk by Japanese Army a/c off Cape Gloucester, New Ireland
1944 Battle of the Bulge: US 4th Armored Div relieves Bastogne
1985 Palestinian terrorists slay 15 at the Rome & Vienna airports, before being killed

BORN

1809 William Nelson Pendleton, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1883
1815 Israel Bush Richardson, Maj Gen, U.S., d/w, 1862
1820 Gustavus Adolphus Smith, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1885
1824 Augustus Louis Chetlain, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1914
1837 Admiral of the Navy George Dewey, d. 1917 -- Learn More
1893 Mao Tse-tung, intellecutually inclined poet and mass murderer, d. 1976

DIED

1811 Governor of Virginia George William Smith, 51, former Senator Abraham Bedford Venable, 53, and c. 100 others Great Richmond Theatre Fire
1862 32 Sioux, hanged at Mankato, Mn, for their part in the "the Great Sioux Uprising"
1955 Vice-Admiral Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter, 74, who won a VC at Zeebrugge, 1918
1972 Harry S Truman, National Guardsman, veteran, President (1945-1953), at 88 -- Learn More
1974 Jack Benny, World War I veteran, US Navy, comedian, at 80
2006 Gerald R. Ford, sometime naval officer, President (1974-1976), at 93

 

27 Dec

1753 Attempting to deliver a letter from Virginia's Gov Dinwiddie to French agents at the head of the Ohio, George Washington is attacked and injured by Indians
1845 'New York Morning News' editor John L. O'Sullivan coins the phrase "manifest destiny".
1922 The IJN commissions the 'Hôshô', the first purpose-built carrier to enter service in any navy
1935 Army B-10s bomb a lava flow in Hawaii, the Air Corps hails the great success of for air power -- Learn More (scroll down)
1942 Heavy fighting around the Gifu, on Guadalcanal
1942 Lead elms U.S. 41st Inf Div land at Port Moresby, Papua-New Guinea
1943 Burma: Chinese New 38th Div heavily engaged in the Hukawng Valley
1943 Cape Gloucester: 1st Marine Div makes a three mile advance in monsoon
1944 B-29s from Saipan make their fifth major raid on Tokyo
1979 Soviets invade Afghanistan, initiating a disastrous nine-year war that opens the country to a Taliban takeover

BORN

1814 James Henry Carleton, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1873
1816 Eliakim Parker Scammon, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1894
1829 James Clay Rice, Brig Gen, U.S. d/w, 1864
1831 Lucius Fairchild, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1896
1864 Peyton C. March, American soldier, Army Chief of Staff (1918-1921), d. 1955 -- Learn More
1919 George S. Pappas, USMA 1944, Coast Artilleryman, historian, d. 2010


DIED

1923 Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, 91, French engineer, who built a famous tower
1997 William Stephen "Billy" Wright, 37, radical Ulster Protestant terrorist
2012 H. Norman Schwarzkopf, 78, Gen., US Army, "Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm"

 

28 Dec

1942 German armed forces begin retreating from the Caucasus
1942 Papua: Japanese forces at Buna begin withdrawing to Giruwa
1943 Bougainville: Americal Div completes relief of the 3rd Marine Div
1943 New Britain: Japanese attack at Arawe is repulsed
1950 Korea: Chinese troops cross 38th Parallel

BORN

1801 James Barnes, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1869
1822 William Booth Taliaferro, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1898
1827 Robert Latimer McCook, Brig Gen, U.S., KIA in 1862
1833 Charles Miller Shelley, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1907
1856 Thomas Woodrow Wilson, President (1913-1921), 1919 Peace Nobelist, segregationist, d. 1924 -- Learn More
1859 John W Fortescue, British military historian (the 20 volume "A History of the British Army"), d. 1938
1898 Jean Faircloth, Mrs. Douglas MacArthur, d. 2000
1908 Lew Ayres, actor ("All Quiet on Western Front"), d. 1996
1941 The USN Seabees

DIED

1694 Queen Mary II of England (1688-1694), 32, wife to William III [OS]
1993 William Lawrence Shirer, 89, American journalist, war correspondent, and historian ("The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich)
2002 Regine Orfinger Karlin, Belgian Jewish anti-Nazi resistance fighter, at 92

 

29 Dec
1778 The British capture Charleston from the American Patriots
1812 USS 'Constitution' takes HMS 'Java' off Bahia in a four-hour fight
1837 Canadian militiamen destroy the steamer 'Caroline', docked at Buffalo
1862 Battle of Chickasaw Bayou: Sherman's three-day effort to get behind Vicksburg is defeated by Confederate forces
1890 Wounded Knee, last "battle" or "massacre" of the Indian Wars
1934 Japan renounces the 1922 Washington and 1930 London Naval Arms Limitation Treaties
1940 The first Luftwaffe fire raid on London: 127 tons of explosives & 22,000 incendiaries leave c. 200 dead and the city's rare book district devastated, but St. Paul's survives -- Learn More's-Cathedral-undamaged-stands-out-among-the-devastation-caused-by-the-Luftwaffe-raid-of-Dec-29-1940-01.html
1940 FDR's "Fireside Chat" about "The Arsenal of Democracy" --
1942 Papua: Japanese forces near Buna Mission are cut off by U.S. troops
1943 Burma: Chinese New 38th Div weakens Japanese on the Tarung River line
1943 Cape Gloucester: 1st Marine Div captures Japanese airfield
1951 Capt. Kurt Carlsen of the 'Flying Enterprise' remains with his battered & listing vessel as his passengers & crew are rescued in heavy seas off Britain [See Jan 10]
1975 Unknown terrorists detonate a bomb at La Guardia Airport, NY, 11 dead, 75 wounded


BORN

1808 Andrew Johnson, Brig Gen, U.S.V., President (1865-69), d. 1875 -- Learn More
1809 Albert Pike, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1891
1879 William "Billy" Mitchell, mendacious aviation advocate, d. 1936

DIED

1890 Chief Big Foot, c. 65, and perhaps 150 other Sioux, and 45 US troops, at Wounded Knee
1941 Luigi Albertini, 70, Italian statesman, journalist, and historian ("Origins of the War of 1914")

 

30 DEC

1803 In a ceremony at New Orelans, the United States takes possession of Louisiana from France
1813 The British burn Buffalo, NY
1853 The Gadsden Purchase: The US buys what are now southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico from Mexico
1903 Chicago's Iroquois Theatre burns, c. 600 die
1918 Anarchists bomb the homes of three prominent Philadelphians, no one is killed, one wounded
1941 The Philippine 91st Division collapses, uncovering the right flank of the Bambam-Gapan line, forcing Fil-Am forces to retreat as the Japanese capture Gapan.
1944 USAAF aircraft attack Japanese shipping in the Manila Bay area
1959 USS 'George Washington' (SSBN-598) is commissioned, the first ballistic missile sub
1972 Pres Nixon halts bombing of North Vietnam & announces peace talks

BORN

1818 James Cantey, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1874
1819 John White Geary, Brig Gen, U.S, d. 1873
1828 Mark Perrin Lowrey, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1885
1865 Rudyard Kipling, poet and author ("Barrack Room Ballads", "Kim"), d. 1936
1922 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, d. Dec 31, 1991.

DIED

1803 Francis Lewis, 90, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
1905 Frank Steunenberg, 44, former Governor of Idaho, champion of miners' rights, assassinated by an agent of the Cripple Creek Mining Association
1979 Richard Charles Rodgers, 77, American composer ("South Pacific", "Victory at Sea")
2006 Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, erstwhile Dictator of Iraq (1979-2003), hanged at 69