** TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY **

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PostPosted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 8:47 am
June 4th ~

1647 – Canonicus Grand Chief Sachem of the Narragansett Indian Tribe dies. He was Chief Sachem of the Narragansett Tribe (rivals to the Wampanoag) at the time of the Pilgrims landing in Plymouth.

1738 – George III was born (d.1820). He was the King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760-1820, and the King of Hanover from 1815-1820. He was responsible for losing the American colonies. He passed the Royal Marriages Act, which made it unlawful for his children to marry without his consent.

1756 – The peace loving Quakers left the assembly of Pennsylvania.

1789 – The US constitution, enacted as sovereign law, went into effect.

1792 – Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1794 – Congress passed a Neutrality Act that banned Americans from serving in armed forces of foreign powers.

1800 – The White House was completed and President & Mrs. John Adams moved in.

1805 – The US signed a Treaty of Peace and Amity at Tripoli. The US agreed to pay Tripoli $60,000 in war reparations and was in turn absolved of tribute demands. The treaty was ratified by the US on April 17, 1806.

1812 – Following Louisiana’s admittance as a U.S. state, the Louisiana Territory is renamed the Missouri Territory.

1825 – General Lafayette, a French officer in the American Revolutionary War, speaks at what would become Lafayette Square, Buffalo, during his visit to the United States.

1855 – Major Henry C. Wayne departs New York aboard the USS Supply to procure camels to establish the U.S. Camel Corps.

1862 – Confederate forces slip out of Fort Pillow, a key stronghold on the Mississippi River, clearing the way for the Union capture of Memphis. Fort Pillow lay south of Island No. 10, the Confederates’ key defense from a Northern assault. Although considered a backup to Island No. 10, Fort Pillow was really a significant fortification in its own right. After a Union campaign captured the island in early April, Fort Pillow was all that stood between the Yankees and Memphis.

At the beginning of the war, Union military leaders had concocted the Anaconda Plan, which called for the dismemberment of the Confederacy piece by piece. The first part of the plan involved capturing the Mississippi River through operations from both the north and the Gulf of Mexico. By mid-April, a combined Union land force and naval squadron approached Fort Pillow. Most of the land force, however, had to be diverted to serve in northern Mississippi, so only 1,200 troops remained. Although the land force was too small to take the fort, Yankee ships began a weeks-long bombardment.

On May 25th, an additional flotilla arrived to step up the pressure on the Confederate bastion. Events in northern Mississippi sealed the fate of Fort Pillow. The Confederates evacuated Corinth on June 4 and fell back to a more defensible position in central Mississippi, leaving Fort Pillow dangerously isolated in Union-held territory, with no support from the southeast. On June 4th, the Rebel garrison slipped away from the fort, destroying what cannons and provisions they could not carry with them. That set the stage for the capture of Memphis on June 6th.

1862 – President Lincoln, with Secretaries Stanton and Chase on board, proceeded to Hampton Roads on steamer Miami to personally direct the stalled Peninsular Campaign. The following day, Lincoln informed Flag Officer L. M. Goldsborough: “I shall be found either at General Wool’s [Fort Monroe] or on board the Miami.” The President directed gunboat operations in the James River and the bombardment of Sewell’s Point by the blockading squadron in the five days he acted as Commander-in-Chief in the field.
PostPosted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 8:49 am
June 4th ~ {continued...}

1863 – Joint Army-Navy expedition including U.S.S. Commodore Morris, Lieutenant Commander Gillis; U.S.S. Commodore Jones, Lieutenant Commander John G. Mitchell; Army gunboat Smith Briggs, and transport Winnissimet with 400 troops embarked, ascended the Mattapony River for the purpose of destroying a foundry above Walkerton, Virginia, where Confederate ordnance was being manufactured.

The troops were landed at Walkerton and marched to the Ayletts area where the machinery, a flour mill, and a large quantity of grain were destroyed. Reembarking the troops and captured livestock, the force fell down river as the gunboats “dropped shells into many deserted houses and completely scoured the banks, and sweeping all the points on the river.

1863 – Confederate General Robert E. Lee continues to mobilize his army for an invasion of Pennsylvania by sending Richard Ewell’s corps toward the Shenandoah Valley.

1864 – With General Sherman again flanking them, Confederates under General Joseph Johnston retreated to the mountains before Marietta, Georgia.

1876 – A mere 83 hours after leaving New York City, the Transcontinental Express train arrives in San Francisco. That any human being could travel across the entire nation in less than four days was inconceivable to previous generations of Americans. During the early 19th century, when Thomas Jefferson first dreamed of an American nation stretching from “sea to shining sea,” it took the president 10 days to travel the 225 miles from Monticello to Philadelphia via carriage. Even with frequent changing of horses, the 100-mile journey from New York to Philadelphia demanded two days hard travel in a light stagecoach. At such speeds, the coasts of the continent-wide American nation were months apart. How could such a vast country ever hope to remain united?

As early as 1802, Jefferson had some glimmer of an answer. “The introduction of so powerful an agent as steam,” he predicted, “[to a carriage on wheels] will make a great change in the situation of man.” Though Jefferson never saw a train in his lifetime, he had glimpsed the future with the idea. Within half a century, America would have more railroads than any other nation in the world. By 1869, the first transcontinental line linking the coasts was completed. Suddenly, a journey that had previously taken months using horses could be made in less than a week. Five days after the transcontinental railroad was completed, daily passenger service over the rails began. The speed and comfort offered by rail travel was so astonishing that many Americans could scarcely believe it, and popular magazines wrote glowing accounts of the amazing journey.

For the wealthy, a trip on the transcontinental railroad was a luxurious experience. First-class passengers rode in beautifully appointed cars with plush velvet seats that converted into snug sleeping berths. The finer amenities included steam heat, fresh linen daily, and gracious porters who catered to their every whim. For an extra $4 a day, the wealthy traveler could opt to take the weekly Pacific Hotel Express, which offered first-class dining on board. As one happy passenger wrote, “The rarest and richest of all my journeying through life is this three-thousand miles by rail.” The trip was a good deal less speedy and comfortable for passengers unwilling or unable to pay the premium fares. Whereas most of the first-class passengers traveled the transcontinental line for business or pleasure, the third-class occupants were often emigrants hoping to make a new start in the West.

A third-class ticket could be purchased for only $40–less than half the price of the first-class fare. At this low rate, the traveler received no luxuries. Their cars, fitted with rows of narrow wooden benches, were congested, noisy, and uncomfortable. The railroad often attached the coach cars to freight cars that were constantly shunted aside to make way for the express trains. Consequently, the third-class traveler’s journey west might take 10 or more days. Even under these trying conditions, few travelers complained. Even 10 days spent sitting on a hard bench seat was preferable to six months walking alongside a Conestoga wagon on the Oregon Trail.

Railroad promotions, however, naturally focused on the speedy express trains. The arrival of the Transcontinental Express train in San Francisco on this day in 1876 was widely celebrated in the newspapers and magazines of the day. With this new express service, a businessman could leave New York City on Monday morning, spend 83 hours in relaxing comfort, and arrive refreshed and ready for work in San Francisco by Thursday evening. The powerful agent of steam had effectively shrunk a vast nation to a manageable size.
PostPosted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 8:50 am
June 4th ~ {continued...}

1896 – At approximately 1:30 a.m., Henry Ford test-drove his Quadricycle, the first automobile he ever designed or drove. Ford was working at the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit at the time that he began building the Quadricycle. He had reportedly seen an article on the gasoline engine in American Machinist while in the company of friend and fellow engineer, Charles King. In King’s recollection Ford claimed, “I want to build one of these.” Ford employed the help of his friends in the Detroit engineering community to build an internal combustion engine on his kitchen table.

It’s important to note to what extent Ford was a visionary and an organizer. He was an engineer, of course, but he didn’t by any means accomplish his engineering feats alone. Men like King, along with a whole slew of other engineers, volunteered their time to Ford’s projects. King provided Ford with a whole crew of workers who worked in the makeshift machine shop Ford had constructed in his garage behind his Bagley Avenue residence in Detroit. Ford even convinced his neighbor, Felix Julian, to donate his half of the shed to the cause. King was building his own vehicle at the time, and actually preempted Ford in testing the horseless carriage in March of 1896.

Ford followed King’s carriage’s test run on his bicycle. Ford did make one major innovation in building his first vehicle: he decided not to attach an engine to an existing carriage, but rather to construct a four-wheel body based on the principles of bicycle manufacturing. Ford completed his “Quadricycle” early in the morning on this day in 1896. He couldn’t wait to test the invention. Only one of his associates, Jim Bishop, was present at the time of the vehicle’s completion. In all of his enthusiasm in getting the car together, Ford failed to consider that his contraption was wider than the doors of the shed in which he built it. He and Bishop set upon the door and adjacent walls with axes in order to hack an entrance sufficient for the Quadricycle.

The 500-pound, two-cylinder vehicle came to life in the alley behind Ford’s house. Ford drove it down Bagley Avenue to Grand River Avenue, to Washington Boulevard, when the Quadricycle stopped. Bishop and Ford pushed the automobile to the Edison plant, where they replaced a nut and spring that had come loose. The next month, Henry drove his vehicle to his father’s farm to show it off. His father apparently walked around it cautiously. Later he expressed his doubts to one of his neighbors: “John and William (Henry’s brothers) are all right, but Henry worries me. He doesn’t seem to settle down, and I don’t know what’s going to become of him.” Maybe he’ll become the most powerful citizen in the country.

1911 – Gold was discovered in Alaska’s Indian Creek.

1917 – American men begin registering for the draft.

1918 – General Erich Ludendorff calls off his twin offensives, Bluecher and Yorck, which began on 27 May. Although his assault units have advanced to a maximum depth of 20 miles over a 30 mile line they have run out of steam. He is also facing increasingly strong counterattacks from French and , newly arrived, US forces.

1919 – US marines invaded Costa Rica.

1934 – USS Ranger, first ship designed from the keel up as a carrier, is commissioned at Norfolk, VA.

1939 – During what became known as the “Voyage of the Damned,” the SS St. Louis, carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees from Germany, was turned away from the Florida coast. Also denied permission to dock in Cuba, the ship eventually returned to Europe. The passengers were divided among England, France, Belgium and Holland and a number of the refugees later died in Nazi concentration camps. By 2003 efforts to track their fates identified 935 out of the 937 passengers. Some 260 ended in Nazi killing centers.
PostPosted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 8:52 am
June 4th ~ {continued...}

1942 – Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, commander of the fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor, launches a raid on Midway Island with almost the entirety of the Japanese navy. As part of a strategy to widen its sphere of influence and conquest, the Japanese set their sights on an island group in the central Pacific, Midway, as well as the Aleutians, off the coast of Alaska. They were also hoping to draw the badly wounded U.S. navy into a battle, determined to finish it off.

The American naval forces were depleted: The damaged carrier Yorktown had to be repaired in a mere three days, to be used along with the Enterprise and Hornet, all that was left in the way of aircraft carriers after the bombing at Pearl Harbor. On the morning of June 4, Admiral Nagumo launched his first strike with 108 aircraft, and did significant damage to U.S. installations at Midway. The Americans struck back time and again at Japanese ships, but accomplished little real damage, losing 65 of their own aircraft in their initial attempts.

But Nagumo underestimated the tenacity of both Admiral Chester Nimitz and Admiral Raymond Spruance, commanders of the American forces. He also miscalculated tactically by ordering a second wave of bombers to finish off what he thought was only a remnant of American resistance (the U.S. forces had been able to conceal their position because of reconnaissance that anticipated the Midway strike) before his first wave had sufficient opportunity to rearm.

A fifth major engagement by 55 U.S. dive-bombers took full advantage of Nagumo’s confused strategy, and sunk three of the four Japanese carriers, all cluttered with aircraft and fuel trying to launch another attack against what they now realized-too late–was a much larger American naval force than expected. A fourth Japanese carrier, the Hiryu was crippled, but not before its aircraft finished off the noble American Yorktown. The attack on Midway was an unmitigated disaster for the Japanese, resulting in the loss of 322 aircraft and 3,500 men. They were forced to withdraw from the area before attempting even a landing on the island they sought to conquer.

1943 – Zoot suit riots took place in LA. Rioting servicemen conduct “search and destroy” raids on Mexican Americans in the downtown area — whether their victims are wearing zoot suits or not. The servicemen employ twenty taxis to look for zoot suiters.

1944 – The U-505 became the first enemy submarine captured by the U.S. Navy under Admiral Dan Gallery. The keel for the U-505 was laid on June 12, 1940. It launched from Hamburg the following year. During its career, the U-505 gained the unwelcome but lucky distinction of being the most heavily damaged U-boat to manage to return to port. Under the command of Harald Lange, the boat was attacked by an American task group led by the USS Guadalcanal.

Crewmen from the destroyer escort USS Pillsbury managed to capture the U-505 before the submariners could in scuttle her. This represented the first time since 1815 that the US Navy captured an enemy warship on the high seas (the capture remained a secret). After the war, Navy plans to scuttle the U-boat in a gunnery exercise were themselves scrapped when the president of Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry voiced interest and a plan to use the entire submarine as part of an exhibit. The U-505 was dedicated as a permanent exhibit and war memorial at the museum on September 25, 1954.

1944 – The U.S. Fifth Army entered Rome, beginning the liberation of the Italian capital during World War II.

1944 – The Allied Expeditionary Force convoys, bound for Normandy, are called back to port because of poor weather conditions expected for June 5th. Eisenhower decides, however, that the invasion can take place on June 6th. The poor weather has also encouraged the German defenders in occupied France. Rommel, commanding Army Group B, decides to go to Germany for his wife’s birthday on June 6th and to meet with Hitler. Other German commanders in the Normandy area are at a training exercise in Brittany.

1945 – On Okinawa, two regiments of US 6th Marine Division make landings on the Oroku peninsula in an attempt to outflank Japanese defensive positions. However, many of the Japanese troops formerly in the Shuri Line have withdrawn to the Oroku peninsula. General Buckner, commanding US 10th Army, reduces the frontage of the US 3rd Amphibious Corps, which has suffered the greatest losses, and increases the frontage of the US 24th Corps.

1945 – US, Russia, England & France agreed to split occupied Germany.
PostPosted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 8:54 am
June 4th ~ {continued...}

1947 – The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Labor Management Relations Act also known as the Taft-Hartley Act. It provided for an 80-day injunction against strikes that endangered public health and safety.

1951 – Eighth Army opened its forward command post in Seoul. The echelon at Taegu was designated at Eighth Army Main.

1953 – The communists launched nine stiff counterattacks to halt U.N. forces advancing on the logistical complexes of the Chorwon-Kumhwa-Pyonggang triangle.

1953 – An atomic bomb test explosion took place at Yucca Flats, Nevada, equivalent to 50,000 tons of TNT. This was double the 1945 blast over Hiroshima.

1961 – President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union, meeting in Vienna, strike a bargain to support a neutral and independent Laos. Laos had been the scene of an ongoing communist insurgency by the Pathet Lao guerrillas. In July 1959, the North Vietnamese Politburo had formed Group 959 to furnish weapons and supplies to the Pathet Lao. By 1960, the Pathet Lao was threatening the survival of the Royal Lao government.

On January 19, 1961, when President Eisenhower was about to leave office, he told Kennedy that Laos “was the key to the entire area of Southeast Asia.” Kennedy considered intervening in Laos with U.S. combat troops, but decided against it. Nevertheless, the American president did not want to lose Laos to the communists. Kennedy was prepared to accept neutrality for Laos as a solution. Eventually a 14-nation conference would convene in Geneva and an agreement was signed in July 1962, proclaiming Laos neutral. This took care of the situation in Laos for the time being, but both the communists and the United States soon ignored the declared neutrality of the area.

1964 – As a result of the report to President Johnson, Defense Secretary McNamara orders the US Army to take ‘immediate action…to improve the effectiveness and readiness status of its materiel pre-stocked for possible use in Southeast Asia.’ Specifically, he orders the Army to augment stocks at Korat, Thailand, near the Laotian border, to support potential combat operations by a US Army infantry brigade.

1965 – Major General Lewis Walt takes command of the 3rd Marine Division from Maj. Gen. William Collins. Walt was concurrently named Commander of the III Amphibious Force (III MAF), the first corps-level Marine Corps headquarters in history. As such, Walt was in command of two Marine divisions and responsible for I Corps Tactical Zone, the northernmost region of South Vietnam, which bordered the Demilitarized Zone.

His command also included serving as Chief of Naval Forces Vietnam, as well as being Senior Adviser to the commander of South Vietnam’s I Corps, who was responsible for the security of the northern portion of South Vietnam. After supervising the U.S. and South Vietnamese build up in that region from 1965 to 1967, General Walt returned to the United States and later served as Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps. He retired from active service on February 1, 1971.

1972 – Seymour Hersh further reports that a massacre at Mykhe 4, two miles from Mylai, was perpetrated by Bruno Company, Task Force barker, Americal Division on 16 March 1968–the same day as Myali. No prosecutions have been made because of lack of evidence. The Peers Report acknowledges that ‘a large number of non-combatants were killed during the search of the hamlet.’

1973 – The US Senate approves a bill to block funds for any US military activities in Indochina and the House of Representatives concurs. Nixon and Kissinger lobby to postpone the ban until 15 August, to enable continued bombing of Cambodia.
PostPosted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 8:56 am
June 4th ~ {continued...}

1987 – Jonathan Pollard pleads guilty to espionage for selling top-secret U.S. military intelligence information to Israel. The former Navy intelligence analyst sold enough classified documents to fill a medium-sized room. Pollard was arrested in November 1985 after authorities learned that he had been meeting with Israeli agents every two weeks for the last year. He was paid approximately $50,000 for the highly sensitive documents and expected to receive as much as $300,000 in a secret Swiss bank account. The top-secret information included satellite photos and data on Soviet weapons.

Pollard was sentenced to life in prison while his wife Anne received a five-year sentence for being an accessory to the crimes. The discovery of his betrayal put a chill on the relationship between the U.S. and Israel. Viewing the U.S. as its ally, Israel believed that the information should have been passed along anyway. But the fact that some Israeli agents remained in high positions despite their involvement in the espionage angered the United States. Israel has since stuck by Pollard. During peace negotiations mediated by President Clinton in the late 1990s, the nation has made Pollard’s release from prison a key point. However, the United States has declined to work out such a deal.

1987 – The congressional Iran-Contra committees voted to grant limited immunity to former National Security Council aide Oliver L. North, following an appeal by independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh to reject immunity.

1989 – Chinese troops storm through Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing, killing and arresting thousands of pro-democracy protesters. The brutal Chinese government assault on the protesters shocked the West and brought denunciations and sanctions from the United States. In May 1989, nearly a million Chinese, mostly young students, crowded into central Beijing to protest for greater democracy and call for the resignations of Chinese Communist Party leaders deemed too repressive.

For nearly three weeks, the protesters kept up daily vigils, and marched and chanted. Western reporters captured much of the drama for television and newspaper audiences in the United States and Europe. On June 4, 1989, however, Chinese troops and security police stormed through Tiananmen Square, firing indiscriminately into the crowds of protesters. Turmoil ensued, as tens of thousands of the young students tried to escape the rampaging Chinese forces. Other protesters fought back, stoning the attacking troops and overturning and setting fire to military vehicles. Reporters and Western diplomats on the scene estimated that at least 300, and perhaps thousands, of the protesters had been killed and as many as 10,000 were arrested.

The savagery of the Chinese government’s attack shocked both its allies and Cold War enemies. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared that he was saddened by the events in China. He said he hoped that the government would adopt his own domestic reform program and begin to democratize the Chinese political system. In the United States, editorialists and members of Congress denounced the Tiananmen Square massacre and pressed for President George Bush to punish the Chinese government. A little more than three weeks later, the U.S. Congress voted to impose economic sanctions against the People’s Republic of China in response to the brutal violation of human rights.

1995 – French General Bernard Janvier, supreme UN military commander in the former Yugoslavia, met with Bosnian Serb military commander, Ratko Mladic. He pleaded for the release of UN captives and offered to halt future NATO air attacks. Shortly after Yasushi Akashi publicly affirmed that the UN would abide by peacekeeping principles – shorthand for no more air attacks.

1996 – US and French officials signed a secret agreement to share nuclear weapons information and facilitate joint work between scientists.

1996 – NATO foreign ministers approved plans to shift focus toward intervention in small regional conflicts and away from containing Russia, its primary focus for 47 years.
PostPosted: Sat Jun 04, 2016 8:57 am
June 4th ~ {continued...}

1997 – In a unanimous vote, the United Nations Security Council renews for another 180-day period its “oil-for-food” initiative with Iraq. Under the resolution, Iraq may sell $2 billion worth of oil to buy food, medicine and other necessities to alleviate civilian suffering under the sanctions imposed when it invaded Kuwait in 1990.

1998 – In Denver a federal judge sentenced Terry Nichols to life in prison without parole for conspiring in 1995 to bomb the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

1998 – Americans aboard the shuttle Discovery arrived at the Russian space station Mir to pick up U.S. astronaut Andrew Thomas, who’d spent four months in orbit.

1999 – NATO commanders met with Yugoslav army officers in Macedonia to arrange for the withdrawal of some 40,000 Serbian troops from Kosovo.

2000 – President Clinton and President Putin agreed to each dispose 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium and to establish a military center in Moscow for US and Russian officers to share early warning data on missile and space launches. Clinton then answered questions from the public at the Ekho Moskvy radio station.

2000 – NASA directed the $670 million crippled Compton Gamma Ray Observatory into a suicide plunge into the Pacific Ocean in a controlled re-entry to avoid debris over populated areas.

2001 – US Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld had virtually cut off all Pentagon contacts with the Chinese armed forces in displeasure over the spy plane incident. Rumsfeld announced that he had given limited permission to resume military-to-military contacts with China due to the progress in the resolution of the spy plane incident.

2002 – President Bush said the CIA and FBI had failed to communicate adequately before the Sept. 11th, 2001, terror attacks; Congress began extraordinary closed-door hearings into intelligence lapses.

2003 – In Afghanistan 40 Taliban suspects were killed in one of the deadliest exchanges between Taliban and government troops since the hardline religious regime was overthrown in late 2001. 7 government soldiers also died in the nine hours of fighting in three villages north of Spinboldak, near the border with Pakistan.

2003 – A UN-backed war crimes court indicted Liberian Pres. Charles Taylor, accusing him of “the greatest responsibility” in the vicious 10-year civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone.

2004 – In southern Afghanistan U.S. troops and warplanes attacked Taliban rebels besieging a remote checkpoint. Eight militants were killed.

2004 – American and Shiite militia forces agreed to withdraw from the holy cities of Najaf and Kufa and turn over security to Iraqi police.

2007 – The United States government arrests ten people, including former Laotian Army general Vang Pao, on charges of organizing a plot to overthrow the Laotian government.

2007 – A military judge dismisses terrorism-related charges against, Omar Khadr, a Canadian Guantanamo Bay detainee charged with killing a United States Army soldier, Sgt. Christopher Speer, in Afghanistan.

2010 – Falcon 9 Flight 1 is the maiden flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40.

2013 – The United States expands its military presence in Jordan, sending a Patriot missile battery and an undeclared number of F-16 fighters to the area.
PostPosted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 9:26 am
June 5th ~

1637 – The English and their Mohegan allies slaughtered as many as 600 Pequot Indians [in the area of Connecticut]. The survivors were parceled out to other tribes. Those given to the Mohegans eventually became the Mashantucket Pequots. American settlers in New England massacred a Pequot Indian village.

1794 – Congress passed the Neutrality Act, which prohibited Americans from enlisting in the service of a foreign power.

1794 – The Third Congress authorized an additional 10 revenue cutters and gave the Treasury Department the responsibility for lighthouses, beacons, buoys, and piers.

1794 – First officers of the U.S. Navy under the Constitution are appointed. The first 6 captains appointed to superintend the construction of new ships were John Barry, Samuel Nicholson, Silas Talbot, Joshua Barney, Richard Dale, and Thomas Truxtun.

1837 – Houston is incorporated by the Republic of Texas.

1848 – Army officer John C. Fremont submitted his “Geographical Memoir” to the US Senate where the SF Bay entrance was called Chrysopylae (Golden Gate). He had in mind the Chrysoceras (Golden Horn) of Constantinople, and suggested that the SF Bay would be advantageous for commerce.

1851 – Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, starts a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper.

1856 – U.S. Army troops in the Four creeks region of California, headed back to quarters, officially ending the Tule River War. Fighting, however, continued for a few more years.

1861 – Federal marshals seized arms and gunpowder at Du Pont works in Delaware.

1861 – Revenue Cutter Harriett Lane, Captain Faunce, USRM, engaged Confederate battery at Pig Point, Hampton Roads.

1862 – Union forces arrive at Fort Pillow, a key stronghold on the Mississippi River, to find that the Confederates had already evacuated the day before.

1863 – Battle of Franklin’s Crossing, VA (Deep Run).

1864 – Union forces under General David Hunter rout a Confederate force led by General William “Grumble” Jones, giving the North their first real success in the 1864 Shenandoah campaign. As part of his attempt to knock out the Confederates in Virginia, Union General Ulysses S. Grant sent Franz Sigel to neutralize Rebel forces in the Shenandoah Valley in western Virginia. But Sigel did little to assist Grant, instead presiding over a Union defeat at New Market on May 15th. Hunter, who replaced Sigel, quickly moved toward the rail center at Staunton with some 11,000 soldiers and another 5,000 cavalry troopers.

Resisting him were about 5,600 troops under the command of Jones and John D. Imboden, cobbled together from various Confederate units scattered about western Virginia. As the Union force marched south to Staunton, Imboden moved his part of the army to block the Yankees. They met north of Piedmont, where Hunter attacked on the morning of June 5 and forced Imboden to retreat. After being reinforced by Jones at Piedmont, the Confederates spread out to stop the Federals but left a small gap in their lines that later proved fatal.

The Union troops pressed through the gap, and Jones was killed while leading an attempt to drive the Yankees back. The Confederate line was broken, and the Southerners retreated. Six hundred soldiers were killed or wounded, and another 1,000 were captured; the Yankees lost 800. Rebel opposition evaporated, and Hunter entered Staunton the next day. The victory cleared the way for Union occupation of the upper Shenandoah Valley.

1884 – Civil War hero General William T. Sherman refused the Republican presidential nomination, saying, “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.”
PostPosted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 9:28 am
June 5th ~ {continued...}

1912 – US Marines invaded Cuba for a 3rd time.

1912 – Senator Charles E. Townsent of Michigan introduced a bill to consolidate Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service to form Coast Guard. The bill became law on 28 January 1915.

1917 – About 10 million American men began registering for the draft in World War I.

1917 – First military unit sent to France, First Naval Aeronautical Detachment, reaches France on board USS Jupiter.

1933 – The U.S. Congress abrogates the United States’ use of the gold standard by enacting a joint resolution (48 Stat. 112) nullifying the right of creditors to demand payment in gold.

1940 – The Battle of France began during World War II. The German army began its offensive on Southern France.

1941 – The US Army Bill for 1942 is introduced into Congress. It calls for appropriations amounting to $10,400,000,000.

1943 – The L.A. Zoot Suit Riot continues with attacks on all “pachuco”-looking males. A group of musicians leaving the Aztec Recording Company on Third and Main Streets are attacked. Attorney Manuel Ruíz and other Mexican American professionals meet with city officials. Carey McWilliams calls California Attorney General Robert Kenny to encourage Governor Earl Warren to appoint an investigatory commission.

1944 – Allied airborne troops embark for Normandy just before midnight. The convoys carrying the Allied Expeditionary Force are nearing France.

1944 – The BBC broadcasts a second message, intended for the French Resistance, warning of the imminent invasion. Again, the significance of the message is noted by German authorities but the 7th Army in Normandy is not alerted.

1944 – Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote a note to be issued in case the D-Day invasion turned out to be a failure: “Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold, and I have withdrawn the troops.” The note was apparently misdated July 5th.

1944 – More than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries placed at the Normandy assault area, while 3,000 Allied ships cross the English Channel in preparation for the invasion of Normandy-D-Day. The day of the invasion of occupied France had been postponed repeatedly since May, mostly because of bad weather and the enormous tactical obstacles involved.

Finally, despite less than ideal weather conditions-or perhaps because of them-General Eisenhower decided on June 5th to set the next day as D-Day, the launch of the largest amphibious operation in history. Ike knew that the Germans would be expecting postponements beyond the sixth, precisely because weather conditions were still poor. Among those Germans confident that an Allied invasion could not be pulled off on the sixth was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who was still debating tactics with Field Marshal Karl Rundstedt.

Rundstedt was convinced that the Allies would come in at the narrowest point of the Channel, between Calais and Dieppe; Rommel, following Hitler’s intuition, believed it would be Normandy. Rommel’s greatest fear was that German air inferiority would prevent an adequate defense on the ground; it was his plan to meet the Allies on the coast-before the Allies had a chance to come ashore. Rommel began constructing underwater obstacles and minefields, and set off for Germany to demand from Hitler personally more panzer divisions in the area. Bad weather and an order to conserve fuel grounded much of the German air force on June 5th; consequently, its reconnaissance flights were spotty. That night, more than 1,000 British bombers unleashed a massive assault on German gun batteries on the coast.

At the same time, an Allied armada headed for the Normandy beaches in Operation Neptune, an attempt to capture the port at Cherbourg. But that was not all. In order to deceive the Germans, phony operations were run; dummy parachutists and radar-jamming devices were dropped into strategically key areas so as to make German radar screens believe there was an Allied convoy already on the move. One dummy parachute drop succeeded in drawing an entire German infantry regiment away from its position just six miles from the actual Normandy landing beaches. All this effort was to scatter the German defenses and make way for Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy.
PostPosted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 9:32 am
June 5th ~ {continued...}

1944 – The US 5th Army enters Rome in force and continues to advance in pursuit of the retreating German forces. Traffic congestion on the limited road network hinders the advance, as does the German rearguards.

1944 – On Biak, elements of the US 41st Division continue to advance, reducing pockets of Japanese resistance. On the mainland, near Aitape, American forces evacuate one of their beachheads because of continuing Japanese attacks. The Japanese forces are sustaining heavy losses.

1944 – The first B-29 bombing raid struck the Japanese rail line in Bangkok, Thailand.

1945 – On Okinawa, Japanese forces on the Oroku peninsula strongly resist the US 6th Marine Division which nonetheless captures most of the airfield. In the south the forces of the US 24th Corps near the last Japanese defensive line, running from Yuza in the west to Guschichan on the east coast and based on the three hills, Yaeju, Yuza and Mezado. At sea, a sudden typhoon damages 4 battleships, 8 aircraft carriers, 7 cruisers, 14 destroyers, 2 tankers, and and ammunition transport ship, of the US 3rd Fleet. A Japanese Kamikaze attack cripples the battleship USS Mississippi and the heavy cruiser USS Louisville.

1945 – The Allied Control Commission meets for the first time in Berlin. The country is to be divided into four occupation zones and Berlin is to be divided into four occupation sectors. Eisenhower, Montgomery, Zhukov and de Lattre de Tassigny meet in a riverside club which is the Soviet delegation headquarters. They sign a document, containing 15 articles, in which the four powers reaffirm the complete defeat of Germany and assume authority over all aspects of life in the country. The frontiers of Germany are identified as those which existed on December 31, 1937.

1945 – On Luzon, the US 37th Division (US 1st Corps) occupy Aritao and advance northward from the town.

1945 – A total of 473 US B-29 Superfortress bombers strike Kobe with 3000 tons of incendiary bombs.

1947 – In one of the most significant speeches of the Cold War, Secretary of State George C. Marshall calls on the United States to assist in the economic recovery of postwar Europe. His speech provided the impetus for the so-called Marshall Plan, under which the United States sent billions of dollars to Western Europe to rebuild the war-torn countries.

In 1946 and into 1947, economic disaster loomed for Western Europe. World War II had done immense damage, and the crippled economies of Great Britain and France could not reinvigorate the region’s economic activity. Germany, once the industrial dynamo of Western Europe, lay in ruins. Unemployment, homelessness, and even starvation were commonplace. For the United States, the situation was of special concern on two counts. First, the economic chaos of Western Europe was providing a prime breeding ground for the growth of communism. Second, the U.S. economy, which was quickly returning to a civilian state after several years of war, needed the markets of Western Europe in order to sustain itself.

On June 5th, 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall, speaking at Harvard University, outlined the dire situation in Western Europe and pleaded for U.S. assistance to the nations of that region. “The truth of the matter,” the secretary claimed, “is that Europe’s requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products–principally from America–are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political deterioration of a very grave character.” Marshall declared, “Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.” In a thinly veiled reference to the communist threat, he promised “governments, political parties, or groups which seek to perpetuate human misery in order to profit therefrom politically or otherwise will encounter the opposition of the United States.”

In March 1948, the United States Congress passed the Economic Cooperation Act (more popularly known as the Marshall Plan), which set aside $4 billion in aid for Western Europe. By the time the program ended nearly four years later, the United States had provided over $12 billion for European economic recovery. British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin likened the Marshall Plan to a “lifeline to sinking men.”

1953 – U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Vermont Garrison, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, became the 32nd ace of the Korean War and, at age 37, the oldest.

1963 – Movement of 15 Khordad: Protests against the arrest of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini by the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In several cities, masses of angry demonstrators are confronted by tanks and paratroopers.
PostPosted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 9:34 am
June 5th ~ {continued...}

1964 – DSV Alvin is commissioned. Alvin (DSV-2) is a manned deep-ocean research submersible owned by the United States Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. The vehicle was built by General Mills’ Electronics Group in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Named to honor the prime mover and creative inspiration for the vehicle, Allyn Vine. The submersible is launched from the deep submergence support vessel RV Atlantis (AGOR-25), which is also owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by WHOI. The submersible has made over 4,400 dives, carrying two scientists and a pilot, to observe the life forms that must cope with super-pressures and move about in total darkness, as well as exploring the wreck of Titanic. Research conducted by Alvin has been featured in nearly 2,000 scientific papers.

1965 – The State Department confirms that US troops, assigned to guard US installations in Vietnam, are in fact, engaging in some combat against Communist forces.

1968 – Senator Robert Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary. Immediately after he announced to his cheering supporters that the country was ready to end its fractious divisions, Kennedy was shot several times by the 22-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. He died a day later.

The summer of 1968 was a tempestuous time in American history. Both the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement were peaking. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in the spring, igniting riots across the country. In the face of this unrest, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided not to seek a second term in the upcoming presidential election. Robert Kennedy, John’s younger brother and former U.S. Attorney General, stepped into this breach and experienced a groundswell of support.

Kennedy was perceived by many to be the only person in American politics capable of uniting the people. He was beloved by the minority community for his integrity and devotion to the civil rights cause. After winning California’s primary, Kennedy was in the position to receive the Democratic nomination and face off against Richard Nixon in the general election.

As star athletes Rafer Johnson and Roosevelt Grier accompanied Kennedy out a rear exit of the Ambassador Hotel, Sirhan Sirhan stepped forward with a rolled up campaign poster, hiding his .22 revolver. He was only a foot away when he fired several shots at Kennedy. Grier and Johnson wrestled Sirhan to the ground, but not before five bystanders were wounded. Grier was distraught afterward and blamed himself for allowing Kennedy to be shot. Sirhan confessed to the crime at his trial and received a death sentence on April 24, 1969. However, since the Supreme Court invalidated all death penalty sentences in 1972, Sirhan has spent the rest of his life in prison. He has never provided a clear explanation for why he targeted Bobby Kennedy. Hubert Humphrey ended up running for the Democrats in 1968, but lost by a small margin to Nixon.

1969 – There was a race riot in Hartford, Connecticut.

1972 – Testifying before a joint Congressional Appropriations Committee, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird says the increase in U.S. military activity in Vietnam could add up to $5 billion to the 1973 fiscal budget, doubling the annual cost of the war. This increased American activity was in response to the North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive, also called the Easter Offensive, which had been launched on March 31. This offensive was a massive invasion by North Vietnamese forces designed to strike the blow that would win them the war.

1986 – A federal jury in Baltimore convicted Ronald W. Pelton of selling secrets to the Soviet Union. (Pelton was sentenced to three life prison terms plus 10 years.)
PostPosted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 9:36 am
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1989 – Chinese soldiers slaughtered pro-democracy students at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. In one of the most remembered images of China’s crushed pro-democracy movement, a lone man stood defiantly in front of a line of tanks in Beijing until friends pulled him out of the way. In 2001 “The Tiananmen Papers,” a book based on classified documents smuggled out of China, was published. Zhang Liang was the pseudonym of the compiler.

1991 – The space shuttle “Columbia” blasted off with seven astronauts on a nine-day mission.

1993 – In Somalia, militiamen loyal to Mohamed Farrah Aidid killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

1993 – 2 US soldiers (trucker and engineer) are wounded in the bloodiest day in 3 months during running battles across Mogadishu. An 85 man company from 1/22 Infantry, 10th Mountain Division, is air assaulted in to repel further attacks.

1997 – Harold J. Nicholson, the highest-ranking CIA officer ever caught spying against his own country, was sentenced to 23 1/2 years in prison for selling defense secrets to Russia after the Cold War.

1999 – NATO commanders spelled out the withdrawal terms to Yugoslav military officers in a 5-hour meeting near the Macedonian border. More talks were scheduled.

2002 – It was reported that US intelligence believed that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed of Kuwait, a key bin Laden lieutenant, was the mastermind of the Sep 11 terrorist attacks.

2002 – The space shuttle Endeavour launched from Cape Canaveral carrying 7 new residents for the international space station.

2003 – Speaking to U.S. soldiers in Qatar, President Bush argued the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was justified and pledged that “we’ll reveal the truth” on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.

2003 – The United States agreed to pull its ground troops away from the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea.

2004 – Ronald Reagan, US president (1981-1989), died in California after a long twilight struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.

2007 – I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Jr., former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is sentenced to 30 months in prison after being convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in the CIA leak grand jury investigation.

2008 – Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others are arraigned at Guantanamo Bay detention camp under the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and charged with crimes related to the September 11th, 2001 attacks.

2014 – A AV-8B Harrier jet crashes in the U.S. city of Imperial, California, resulting in the destruction of three homes.
PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 10:15 am
June 6th ~

1639 – Massachusetts granted 500 acres of land to erect a gunpowder mill.

1772 – Haitian explorer Jean Baptiste-Pointe DuSable settled Chicago.

1813 – The U.S. invasion of Canada was halted at Stoney Creek, Ontario.

1822 – Alexis St. Martin, a fur trader at Fort Mackinac in the Michigan territory, was accidentally shot in the abdomen. William Beaumont, a US Army assistant surgeon, treated the wound and St. Martin survived. The stomach wound did not close and Beaumont undertook experiments in 1825 to study the digestive system.

1833 – In Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland, President Andrew Jackson boards a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad train for a pleasure trip to Baltimore. Jackson, who had never been on a train before, was the first president to take a ride on the “Iron Horse.” The steam locomotive was first pioneered in England at the beginning of the 19th century by Richard Trevithick and George Stephenson.

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad began operation in 1828 with horse-drawn cars, but after the successful run of the Tom Thumb, a steam train that nearly outraced a horse in a public demonstration in 1830, steam power was added. By 1831, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had completed a line from Baltimore to Frederick, Maryland. Two years later, Andrew Jackson gave railroad travel its presidential christening.

The acceptance of railroads came quickly in the 1830s, and by 1840 the nation had almost 3,000 miles of railway, greater than the combined European total of only 1,800 miles. The railroad network expanded quickly in the years before the Civil War, and by 1860 the American railroad system had become a national network of some 30,000 miles. Nine years later, transcontinental railroad service became possible for the first time.

1862 – Union claims Memphis, Tennessee, the Confederacy’s fifth-largest city, a naval manufacturing yard, and a key Southern industrial center. One of the top priorities for Union commanders at the start of the war was to sever the Confederacy along the Mississippi. In April 1862, the Union scored major victories toward this goal with the capture of New Orleans in the south and the fall of Island No. 10 in the north. For seven weeks following the defeat of Island No. 10, Yankee ships pounded away at Fort Pillow, 40 miles north of Memphis.

On June 4th, a Rebel garrison abandoned the fort after Confederate troops withdrew from Corinth, Mississippi, leaving them dangerously isolated in Union-held territory. The next day, the Union flotilla steamed to Memphis unopposed. The city had no fortifications, because the Confederates had directed their resources toward strengthening the installation upriver. All that stood between the Yankees and Memphis was a Rebel fleet of eight ships.

On the morning of June 6th, thousands of residents lined the shores to watch the action. Three Confederate ships were rammed and sunk, and one Union ship was struck and severely damaged. Union guns aboard the other ships began a devastating barrage that destroyed all but one of the Confederate vessels. The Rebel fleet was decimated with only four Union casualties and one damaged ship.

1862 – Battle of Port Royal, SC (Port Royal Ferry).

1864 – Lieutenant Commander Owen, U.S.S. Louisville, covered the embarkation of 8,000 Union troops under General A. J. Smith on transports near Sunnyside, Arkansas, on the Mississippi River. Under Owen’s charge, the transports had landed the Federal force on 4 June, and the soldiers had engaged Confederate units near Bayou Macon, Louisiana, forcing the Southerners into the interior.

Owen noted in his report to Rear Admiral Porter: “The object that brought the enemy here in the first place doubtless still remains, and I may expect him any time after the departure of General Smith. Unless Marmaduke’s forces, with his artillery, are driven away or destroyed, they will very much annoy navigation between Cypress Bend and Sunnyside.”
PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 10:17 am
June 6th ~ {continued...}

1865 – William Quantrill, the man who gave Frank and Jesse James their first education in killing, dies from wounds sustained in a skirmish with Union soldiers in Kentucky. Born and raised in Ohio, Quantrill was involved in a number of shady enterprises in Utah and Kansas during his teens. In his early 20s, he fled to Missouri, where he became a strong supporter of pro-slavery settlers in their sometimes-violent conflict with their antislavery neighbors.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the 24-year-old Quantrill became the leader of an irregular force of Confederate soldiers that became known as Quantrill’s Raiders. By 1862, Union forces had established control over Missouri, but Quantrill’s Raiders continued to harass the northern army and unguarded pro-Union towns over the next three years. Quantrill and other guerrilla leaders recruited their soldiers from Confederate sympathizers who resented what they saw as the unfairly harsh Union rule of their state.

Among those who joined him was a 20-year-old farm kid named Frank James. His younger brother, Jesse, joined an allied guerrilla force a year later. In August 1863, Frank James was with Quantrill when he led a savage attack on the largely defenseless town of Lawrence, Kansas. Angered that the townspeople had allowed Lawrence to be used as a sporadic base for Union soldiers, Quantrill and his guerrillas shot every man and boy they saw. After killing at least 150 male civilians, the raiders set the town on fire.

In May 1865, Quantrill was badly wounded in a skirmish with Union forces, and he died on this day in 1865. Since Quantrill’s men were guerillas rather than legitimate soldiers, they were denied the general amnesty given to the Confederate army after the war ended. Some, like Frank and Jesse James, took this as an excuse to become criminals and bank robbers.

1918 – The first large-scale battle fought by American soldiers in World War I begins in Belleau Wood, northwest of the Paris-to-Metz road. In late May 1918, the third German offensive of the year penetrated the Western Front to within 45 miles of Paris. U.S. forces under General John J. Pershing helped halt the German advance, and on June 6 Pershing ordered a counteroffensive to drive the Germans out of Belleau Wood.

U.S. Marines under General James Harbord led the attack against the four German divisions positioned in the woods and by the end of the first day suffered more than 1,000 casualties. For the next three weeks, the Marines, backed by U.S. Army artillery, launched many attacks into the forested area, but German General Erich Ludendorff was determined to deny the Americans a victory. Ludendorff continually brought up reinforcements from the rear, and the Germans attacked the U.S. forces with machine guns, artillery, and gas.

Finally, on June 26th, the Americans prevailed but at the cost of nearly 10,000 dead, wounded, or missing in action. This is first battle where the AEF experienced the heavy casualties associated with the Great War. It represents the embodiment of U.S. Marine Corps determination and dedication and served as a signal to both allies and adversaries that America was on the Western Front to fight.

1918 – Battalions of the 5th and 6th Marine Regiments frontally assault the woods from the south and west and attempt to capture Bouresches on the east edge of Belleau Wood. This afternoon attack was to be coordinated between the 3rd Batt, 5th Marines [3/5] and 3rd Batt, 6th Marines [3/6] with the latter taking the village of Bouresches the next day.

1924 – The German Reichstag accepted the Dawes Plan, an American plan to help Germany pay off its war debts.

1932 – The first gasoline tax levied by Congress was enacted as a part of the Revenue Act of 1932. The Act mandated a series of excise taxes on a wide variety of consumer goods. Congress placed a tax of 1¢ per gallon on gasoline and other motor fuel sold.

1933 – The US Employment Service was created.

1941 – The U.S. government authorized the seizure of foreign ships in U.S. ports.

1942 – The 1st nylon parachute jump was made in Hartford, Ct., by Adeline Gray.

1942 – Japanese troops landed on Kiska, Aleutians.
PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 10:19 am
June 6th ~ {continued...}

1942 – The Battle of Midway. Admiral Yamamoto considers engaging in a surface battle against the US carrier fleet, but decides to retreat instead. The loss of the main portion of the Japanese carrier fleet and their aircraft pilots in the battle on June 4th has robbed the Japanese of the initiative in the naval battle in the Pacific. Also of importance is the use of code-breaking by the Americans to intercept Japanese planning. Prior knowledge of Japanese intentions at Midway allowed the Americans to prepare a trap.

1943 – The L.A. Zoot Suit Riot escalates and spreads into East Los Angeles. California Attorny General Kenny meets with Mayor McWilliams regarding the investigation and creates the McGucken Committee. Chaired by the Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles, Joseph T. McGucken, the committee blames the press for its irresponsible tone and the police for overreacting to the riot.

1944 – Operation Overlord begins. In Normandy, France, during the predawn hours, the US 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions are dropped inland from the right flank beach. The British 6th Airborne Division is landed inland from the left flank beach. These forces achieve their objectives and create confusion among the German defenders.

The Allied Expeditionary Force lands in Normandy at dawn. Forces of the 21st Army Group (Field Marshal Montgomery) commands the US 1st Army (General Bradley) on the right and the British 2nd Army (General Dempsey) on the left. There are five invasion beaches: Utah on the right flank, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword, on the left flank. At Utah, the US 7th Corps (General Collins) lands with US 4th Division spearheading the assault. The troops advance inland against light resistance. Admiral Moon provides naval support.

At Omaha, the US 5th Corps (General Gerow) lands. There is heavy resistance and by the end of the day the American forces have advance less than one mile inland. Admiral Hall provides naval support. At Gold, the British 30th Corps (General Bucknall) lands with 50th Infantry Division and 8th Armored Brigade leading the assault. There is reasonable advance inland although the assigned objectives are not met. At Juno beach, the British 1st Corps (General Crocker) lands with the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division and the Canadian 2nd Armored Brigade leading the assault. The tanks and infantry quickly push inland. Naval support is under the command of Commodore Oliver.

At Sword beach, other elements of the British 1st Corps land. The British 3rd Infantry Division, 27th Armored Brigade and several Marine and Commando units lead the assault. The beach is quickly secured and bridges over the Orne River are captured but the first day objectives are not reached. The German 21st Panzer Division counterattacks in the late afternoon but does not dislodge the British defenders. Overall, the Allies land almost 150,000 men. Naval support and massive aerial interdiction prevents the German defenders from concentrating forces for a decisive counterattack.

Despite the German resistance, Allied casualties overall were relatively light. The United States and Britain each lost about 1,000 men, and Canada 355. Before the day was over, 155,000 Allied troops would be in Normandy. However, the United States managed to get only half of the 14,000 vehicles and a quarter of the 14,500 tons of supplies they intended on shore.

Three factors were decisive in the success of the Allied invasion:

First, German counterattacks were firm but sparse, enabling the Allies to create a broad bridgehead, or advanced position, from which they were able to build up enormous troop strength.

Second, Allied air cover, which destroyed bridges over the Seine, forced the Germans to suffer long detours, and naval gunfire proved decisive in protecting the invasion troops.

And Third, division and confusion within the German ranks as to where the invasion would start and how best to defend their position helped the Allies. (Hitler, convinced another invasion was coming the next day east of the Seine River, refused to allow reserves to be pulled from that area.)

Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, commander of Britain’s Twenty-first Army Group (but under the overall command of General Eisenhower, for whom Montgomery, and his ego, proved a perennial thorn in the side), often claimed later that the invasion had come off exactly as planned. That was a boast, as evidenced by the failure to take Caen on the first day, as scheduled. While the operation was a decided success, considering the number of troops put ashore and light casualties, improvisation by courageous and quick-witted commanders also played an enormous role.

1944 – Brigadier General Norman “Dutch” Cota was the first American General to step foot on Omaha Beach. Cota, assistant commander of the 29th Infantry Division, heroically spurred his men to cross the beach under withering German fire. He went on to lead his infantrymen across France to the Siegfried Line and in the battle of Hurtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge.
PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 10:21 am
June 6th ~ {continued...}

1944 – The Allied invasion of France, commonly known as “D-Day” begins as Guardsmen from the 29th Infantry Division (DC, MD, VA) storm onto what will forever after be known as “bloody Omaha” Beach. The lead element, Virginia’s 116th Infantry, suffers nearly 80% casualties but gains the foothold needed for the invasion to succeed. The 116’s artillery support, the 111th Field Artillery Battalion, also from Virginia, loses all 12 of its guns in high surf trying to get on the beach. Its men take up arms from the dead and fight as infantrymen. Engineer support came from the District of Columbia’s 121st Engineer Battalion.

Despite high loses too, its men succeed in blowing holes in several obstacles clearing paths for the men to get inland off the beach. In the early afternoon, Maryland’s 115th Infantry lands behind the 116th and moves through its shattered remnants to start the movement in off the beach. Supporting the invasion was the largest air fleet known to history. Among the units flying missions were the Guards’ 107th (MI) and 109th (MN) Tactical Reconnaissance Squadrons The Normandy campaign lasted until the end of July with four Guard infantry divisions; the 28th (PA), 29th, 30th (NC, SC, TN) and the 35th (KS, MO, NE) taking part along with dozens of non-divisional units all earning the “Normandy” streamer.

1944 – Cherokee tribal members communicated via radios in their native language on the Normandy beaches. Some 6,603 Americans were killed along the coast of France during the D-day invasion. A total of 9,758 Allied soldiers died during the invasion. “D-Day” by Stephen Ambrose was published in 1994.

1944 – Ninety-nine Coast Guard cutters, Coast Guard-manned warships and landing craft participated in the landings at Normandy, France. CAPT Miles Imlay took command of one of the assault groups attacking Omaha Beach during the invasion. He directed the invasion from his command USS LCI(L)-83. LCI(L)s 85, 91, 92, and 93 (Coast Guard-manned) were lost at the Omaha beachhead that day. Sixty cutters sailed in support of the invasion forces, acted as search and rescue craft for each of the landings. A Coast Guard manned assault transport, the USS Bayfield, served as the command and control vessel for the assault at Utah beach.

1944 – The French Expeditionary Corps (part of US 5th Army) completes the capture of Tivoli. Recent combat has depleted 4 German infantry divisions and reduced six of their panzer and panzer grenadier divisions.

1944 – On Biak, elements of the US 41st Division (ORARNG) prepare to advance on Mokmer Airfield while other elements are engaged near Ibdi.

1945 – Coast Guard-manned USS Sheepscot (AOG-24) went aground and was lost off Iwo Jima. No lives were lost.

1945 – On Okinawa, elements of the US 6th Marine Division advance in the Oruka Peninsula following their landing. Naha airfield is secured. Elements of the US 96th Division (US 24th Corps) reach the lower slopes of Mount Yaeju and are halted by intensive Japanese fire.

1945 – American forces advance without meeting significant resistance in the Cayagan valley, on Luzon, as well as on Minadanao.
PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 10:23 am
June 6th ~ {continued...}

1949 – George Orwell’s novel of a dystopian future, Nineteen Eighty-four, is published. The novel’s all-seeing leader, known as “Big Brother,” becomes a universal symbol for intrusive government and oppressive bureaucracy. George Orwell was the nom de plume of Eric Blair, who was born in India. The son of a British civil servant, Orwell attended school in London and won a scholarship to the elite prep school Eton, where most students came from wealthy upper-class backgrounds, unlike Orwell. Rather than going to college like most of his classmates, Orwell joined the Indian Imperial Police and went to work in Burma in 1922.

During his five years there, he developed a severe sense of class guilt; finally in 1927, he chose not to return to Burma while on holiday in England. Orwell, choosing to immerse himself in the experiences of the urban poor, went to Paris, where he worked menial jobs, and later spent time in England as a tramp. He wrote Down and Out in Paris and London in 1933, based on his observation of the poorer classes, and in 1937 his Road to Wigan Pier documented the life of the unemployed in northern England. Meanwhile, he had published his first novel, Burmese Days, in 1934. Orwell became increasingly left wing in his views, although he never committed himself to any specific political party.

He went to Spain during the Spanish Civil War to fight with the Republicans, but later fled as communism gained an upper hand in the struggle on the left. His barnyard fable, Animal Farm (1945), shows how the noble ideals of egalitarian economies can easily be distorted. The book brought him his first taste of critical and financial success. Orwell’s last novel, Nineteen Eighty-four, brought him lasting fame with its grim vision of a future where all citizens are watched constantly and language is twisted to aid in oppression. Orwell died of tuberculosis in 1950.

1951 – U.N. naval aircraft, along with Air Force and Marine Corps reinforcements, flew 230 sorties against enemy troop concentrations and supply lines in the central and western sectors.

1952 – Operation COUNTER began as the 45th Infantry Division (OKARNG) launched a two-phased series of attacks to establish strategic outpost sites in the Old Baldy area. The 45th Infantry Division seized 11 outposts west of Chorwon. Repeated communist counterattacks during the remainder of the month failed to dislodge friendly troops.

1952 – F-86 Sabres scored one of the greatest single victories of the war, destroying eight MiGs and damaging two others.

1964 – The UN Security Council names Brazil, the Ivory Coast, and Morocco to form a commission to investigate conditions on the Cambodia-Vietnam border.

1964 – Two U.S. Navy jets flying low-altitude target reconnaissance missions over Laos are shot down by communist Pathet Lao ground fire. Washington immediately ordered armed jets to escort the reconnaissance flights, and by June 9, escort jets were attacking Pathet Lao headquarters. The downing of the two reconnaissance aircraft and the retaliatory strikes were made public, but the full extent of the U.S. involvement in Laos was not. In fact, the U.S. fighter-bombers were flying combat missions in support of Royal Lao forces in their war against the communist Pathet Lao and would continue to do so until 1973.

1972 – South Vietnamese forces drive out all but a few of the communist troops remaining in Kontum. Over 200 North Vietnamese had been killed in six battles in and around the city. The city had come under attack in April when the North Vietnamese had launched their Nguyen Hue Offensive (later called the Easter Offensive), a massive invasion by North Vietnamese forces designed to strike the blow that would win them the war. The attacking force included 14 infantry divisions and 26 separate regiments, with more than 120,000 troops and approximately 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles. In addition to Kontum, the other main North Vietnamese objectives were Quang Tri in the north and An Loc farther to the south.

Initially, the South Vietnamese defenders were almost overwhelmed, particularly in the northernmost provinces, where they abandoned their positions in Quang Tri and fled south in the face of the enemy onslaught. At Kontum and An Loc, the South Vietnamese were more successful in defending against the attacks, but only after weeks of bitter fighting. Although the defenders suffered heavy casualties, they managed to hold their own with the aid of U.S. advisors and American airpower. Fighting continued all over South Vietnam into the summer months, but eventually the South Vietnamese forces prevailed against the invaders and retook Quang Tri in September. With the communist invasion blunted, President Nixon declared that the South Vietnamese victory proved the viability of his Vietnamization program, which he had instituted in 1969 to increase the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces so that U.S. troops could be withdrawn.
PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 10:27 am
June 6th ~ {continued...}

1977 – The liberal newspaper The Washington Post reported that US had developed a neutron bomb.

1985 – CGC Polar Sea departed Seattle for a voyage through the Northwest Passage by way of the Panama Canal, the east coast, and then Greenland, sparking an international incident with Canada. She completed the first solo circumnavigation of the North American continent by a U.S. vessel and the first trip by a Polar-Class icebreaker. She also captured the record for the fastest transit of the historic northern route. She arrived back in Seattle on 27 October 1985.

1988 – Morton Thiokol Inc., which built the booster rocket involved in the Challenger explosion in 1986, announced it would not bid to build the next generation of rocket motors for the nation’s manned space shuttles.

1991 – NATO issued a statement saying it would not accept any “coercion or intimidation” against the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe.

1995 – US astronaut Norman Thagard broke NASA’s space endurance record of 84 days, one hour and 16 minutes, aboard the Russian space station “Mir.”

1995 – NATO launched 2 air raids against an ammunition dump in Serb-held central Bosnia. The air strikes touched off a crises in which 350 UN peacekeepers were taken hostage by Bosnian Serbs. Serb forces seized 270 UN peacekeepers, shackled them to potential targets, and ordered them to plead on camera for the NATO air attacks to stop. Serbia improved its relations with the West by helping to arrange the release of the hostages.

1996 – China agreed conditionally to a ban on the use of nuclear explosions for civilian projects.

1996 – Cuba announced plans to create free trade zones on the island.

1998 – The UN Security Council demanded in a unanimous vote that India and Pakistan refrain from further nuclear tests and sign nuclear control agreements.

1999 – The Shuttle Discover landed at Kennedy Space Center just after 2 a.m. following a ten-day mission and the first docking with the new int’l. space station.

1999 – NATO officials failed to reach an agreement with Yugoslav military officers on withdrawal plans from Kosovo. Bombing continued on Yugoslav army positions near the Albania-Kosovo border.

1999 – NATO said that Yugoslav army troops and police had gone on a looting spree in Pristina and Prizren.

1999 – In Iraq US and British warplanes struck military facilities after being fired on in the no-fly zone of southern Iraq.

2001 – President Bush announced plans to restart negotiations with North Korea on issues ranging from missile production to border soldier deployment.

2002 – President Bush proposed a new Cabinet department for domestic security. The Department of Homeland Security would operate on a $37.5 billion budget and have 169,154 employees.

2003 – Chile became the first South American country to sign a free trade agreement with the United States.

2003 – An Iraqi prisoner (52) of war was found dead at a camp run by the 1st Marine Division near Nasiriyah. On Oct 8 Marine reservists stationed at Camp Pendleton were charged in connection with his death.

2003 – The Netherlands said it will send 1,100 peacekeepers to southern Iraq to join the British-led multinational stabilization force.

2004 – The US military free 320 prisoners at Abu Ghraib leaving some 3,100.

2006 – The United States was successful in tracking Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed in a targeted killing, while attending a meeting in an isolated safe house approximately 8 km (5.0 mi) north of Baqubah. Having been tracked by a British UAV, radio contact was made between the controller and two United States Air Force F-16C jets which identified the house and at 14:15 GMT, the lead jet dropped two 500-pound (230 kg) guided bombs, a laser-guided GBU-12 and GPS-guided GBU-38 on the building where he was located.
PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2016 9:33 am
June 7th ~

1498 – Christopher Columbus left on his third voyage of exploration.

1712 – The Pennsylvania Assembly banned the importation of slaves.

1769 – Daniel Boone first began to explore the present-day Kentucky.

1775 – The United Colonies changed their name to United States.

1776 – Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress the resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence: that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States…” Congress delayed the vote on the resolution until July 1st.

1819 – LT John White on merchant ship Franklin, anchored off Vung Tau is first U.S. naval officer to visit Vietnam.

1828 – A party led by Jebediah Smith completed a journey down the Klamath River and were on the verge of starvation when they were visited by Indians who brought food. Smith’s party proceeded north to Oregon and most of the party was killed by Umpqua Indians. Smith was killed in 1831 by Comanches on the Cimarron River. Smith’s party were the 1st white people to see Lake Earl, the biggest lagoon on the West Coast.

1862 – U.S.S. Wachusett, Commander W. Smith, U.S.S. Chocura, and Sebago escorted Army transports up the York River, supported the landing at West Point, Virginia, and countered a Confederate attack with accurate gunfire. U.S.S. Currituck, Acting Master William F. Shankland, sent on a reconnaissance of the Pamunkey River by Smith on the 6th, captured American Coaster and Planter the next day. Shankland reported that some twenty schooners had been sunk and two gunboats burned by the Confederates above West Point.

1862 – William Mumford became the 1st US citizen to be hanged for treason. New Orleanian William Mumford was hanged by occupying commander General Benjamin Butler for lowering the Union flag that flew over the New Orleans branch of the United States Mint.

1863 – A Confederate attempt to rescue Vicksburg and a Rebel garrison held back by Union forces to the east of the city fails when Union troops turn back the attack. By late May 1863, Union General Ulysses S. Grant had surrounded Vicksburg, the last major Confederate possession on the Mississippi River. In one of the more remarkable campaigns of the war, Grant had slipped his army around the city, dove toward the middle of Mississippi, and then bottled up Vicksburg from the east. He held off one Confederate army while pinning another, commanded by John C. Pemberton, in the city. Grant then laid siege and waited for surrender.

Since Grant’s army was holding off Rebel forces to the east of Vicksburg, the Confederates would have to come from across the Mississippi to stage a rescue attempt. General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the South’s Trans-Mississippi Department, dispatched a force under Richard Taylor to attack Federal supply lines on the western side of the river. Taylor aimed the assault at Milliken’s Bend, once a key supply point for the Union forces, just north of Vicksburg. Unfortunately for the Confederates, the Yankees had already moved the supply point several miles away.

Before dawn on June 7, the advancing Confederates encountered Union pickets and began driving them back toward the river. But once the Yankee defenders were backed up to the Mississippi, U.S.S. Choctaw, Lieutenant Commander Ramsay, and U.S.S. Lexington, Lieutenant Commander Bache, defended Union troops, blasting the Rebels with grapeshot and canister. The Confederates withdrew, while Federal gunboats broke up nearby attacks before they could materialize. Confederate losses stood at 44 killed, 131 wounded, and 10 missing; the Union suffered much heavier losses: 101 killed, 285 wounded, and 266 missing. Hardest hit were the newly formed African-American regiments that were made up of freed slaves from captured areas in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The 9th Louisiana lost 45 percent of its force.
PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2016 9:37 am
June 7th ~ {continued...}

1864 – Suspecting that Confederates were using cotton to erect breastworks on the banks of the Suwannee River, Florida, boat expedition commanded by Acting Ensign Louis R. Chester, composed of men from U.S.S. Clyde and Sagamore, proceeded upriver. They captured over 100 bales of cotton in the vicinity of Clay Landing.

1868 – The American flag was raised over Fort Wrangell, formerly known as Fort Stikine and Fort Dionysius.

1900 – Boxer rebels cut the rail links between Peking and Tientsin in China.

1912 – US army tested the 1st machine gun mounted on a plane.

1912 – Company A, 1st Marines landed at Santiago, Cuba.

1914 – The first vessel passed through the Panama Canal.

1915 – The resignation of William Jennings Bryan as Woodrow Wilson‘s secretary of state, was prompted by the “second Lusitania note.” Bryan, who had signed the first Lusitania note demanding that Germany stop unrestricted submarine warfare, disavow the sinking of the Lusitania and make reparations for the loss of U.S. lives, declined to sign a second note out of fear it might involve the U.S. in World War I.

The second note, which demanded certain pledges from Germany, was dispatched on June 9th over the signature of Bryan‘s replacement, Robert Lansing. A third note, dispatched on July 2st1, was a virtual ultimatum warning that repetition of such acts as the sinking of Lusitania would be regarded as “deliberately unfriendly.”

1917 – U.S. subchasers arrive at Corfu for anti-submarine patrols.

1918 – French and Americans capture Veuilly-la-Poterie and Vinly (west of Chateau-Thierry), Bouresches and Hill 204 (west of Chateau-Thierry).

1932 – Over 7,000 war veterans march on Washington, D.C. demanding their bonuses for service in WW I.

1940 – A crew of 25 workmen began construction of Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage. In 1960, a memorial to the late Capt. M. Elmendorf was dedicated. Elmendorf was killed at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio while testing a new type of pursuit plane.

1942 – The Battle of Midway–one of the most decisive U.S. victories in its war against Japan–comes to an end. In the four-day sea and air battle, the outnumbered U.S. Pacific Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers with the loss of only one of its own, the Yorktown, thus reversing the tide against the previously invincible Japanese navy.

In six months of offensives, the Japanese had triumphed in lands throughout the Pacific, including Malaysia, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, and numerous island groups. The United States, however, was a growing threat, and Japanese Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto sought to destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet before it was large enough to outmatch his own. A thousand miles northwest of Honolulu, the strategic island of Midway became the focus of his scheme to smash U.S. resistance to Japan’s imperial designs.

Yamamoto’s plan consisted of a feint toward Alaska followed by an invasion of Midway by a Japanese strike force. When the U.S. Pacific Fleet arrived at Midway to respond to the invasion, it would be destroyed by the superior Japanese fleet waiting unseen to the west. If successful, the plan would eliminate the U.S. Pacific Fleet and provide a forward outpost from which the Japanese could eliminate any future American threat in the Central Pacific.

Unfortunately for the Japanese, U.S. intelligence broke the Japanese naval code, and the Americans anticipated the surprise attack. Three heavy aircraft carriers of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were mustered to challenge the four heavy Japanese carriers steaming toward Midway.
PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2016 9:43 am
June 7th ~ {continued...}

1942 – The Battle of Midway - {continued...}

In early June, U.S. command correctly recognized a Japanese movement against Alaska’s Aleutian Islands as a diversionary tactic and kept its forces massed around Midway. On June 3rd, the Japanese occupation force was spotted steaming toward the island, and B-17 Flying Fortresses were sent out from Midway to bomb the strike force but failed to inflict damage.

Early in the morning on June 4th, a PBY Catalina flying boat torpedoed a Japanese tanker transport, striking the first blow of the Battle of Midway. Later that morning, an advance Japanese squadron numbering more than 100 bombers and Zero fighters took off from the Japanese carriers to bomb Midway.

Twenty-six Wildcat fighters were sent up to intercept the Japanese force and suffered heavy losses in their heroic defense of Midway’s air base. Soon after, bombers and torpedo planes based on Midway took off to attack the Japanese carriers but failed to inflict serious damage. The first phase of the battle was over by 7:00 a.m.

In the meantime, 200 miles to the northeast, two U.S. attack fleets caught the Japanese force entirely by surprise. Beginning around 9:30 a.m., torpedo bombers from the three U.S. carriers descended on the Japanese carriers. Although nearly wiped out, they drew off enemy fighters, and U.S. dive bombers penetrated, catching the Japanese carriers while their decks were cluttered with aircraft and fuel.

The dive-bombers quickly destroyed three of the heavy Japanese carriers and one heavy cruiser. The only Japanese carrier that initially escaped destruction, the Hiryu, loosed all its aircraft against the American task force and managed to seriously damage the U.S. carrier Yorktown, forcing its abandonment.

At about 5:00 p.m., dive-bombers from the U.S. carrier Enterprise returned the favor, mortally damaging the Hiryu. It was scuttled the next morning. Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto still had numerous warships at his command, but without his carriers and aircraft he was forced to abandon his Midway invasion plans and begin a westward retreat.

On June 5th, a U.S. task force pursued his fleet, but bad weather saved it from further destruction. On June 6th, the skies cleared, and U.S. aircraft resumed their assault, sinking a cruiser and damaging several other warships. After the planes returned to their carriers, the Americans broke off from the pursuit. Meanwhile, a Japanese submarine torpedoed and fatally wounded the Yorktown, which was in the process of being salvaged. It finally rolled over and sank at dawn on June 7th, bringing an end to the battle.

At the Battle of Midway, Japan lost four carriers, a cruiser, and 292 aircraft, and suffered 2,500 casualties. The U.S. lost the Yorktown, the destroyer USS Hammann, 145 aircraft, and suffered 307 casualties. Japan’s losses hobbled its naval might–bringing Japanese and American sea power to approximate parity–and marked the turning point in the Pacific theater of World War II. In August 1942, the great U.S. counteroffensive began at Guadalcanal and did not cease until Japan’s surrender three years later.

1942 – Japanese soldiers occupy the American islands of Attu and Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska, as the Axis power continues to expand its defensive perimeter. Having been defeated at the battle of Midway–stopped by the United States from even landing on the Midway Islands–the Japanese nevertheless proved successful in their invasion of the Aleutians, which had been American territory since purchased from Russia in 1867. Killing 25 American troops upon landing in Attu, the Japanese proceeded to relocate and intern the inhabitants, as well as those at Kiska. America would finally invade and recapture the Aleutians one year later-killing most of the 2,300 Japanese troops defending it–in three weeks of fighting.

1943 – The worst of the L.A. Zoot Suit Riot violence occurs as soldiers, sailors, and marines from as far away as San Diego travel to Los Angeles to join in the fighting. Taxi drivers offer free rides to servicemen and civilians to the riot areas. Approximately 5,000 civilians and military men gather downtown. The riot spreads into the predominantly African American section of Watts.
PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2016 10:05 am
June 7th ~ {continued...}

1944 – Construction of artificial harbors and sheltered anchorages begins off Normandy coast.

1944 – Allied forces attempt to link up the beachheads. Gold and Juno beach are already joined. Elements of US 7th Corps, on Utah beach, attempts to link up with the paratroops of 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions and advances toward Carentan and Montebourg. The US 5th Corps, on Omaha, advances toward Isigny and Bayeux. Elements of the British 30th Corps cut the Caen-Bayeux road. The 50th Division captures Bayeux. Meanwhile, German reserves are concentrating on the right flank of the invasion against the British forces threatening Caen.

1944 – Elements of US 5th Army capture Bacciano and Civitavecchia. The port facilities are serviceable. Elements of British 8th Army advance as well. Subiaco is taken. The South African 6th Armored Division captures Civita Castellana and advances to Orvieto.

1944 – On Biak Island, elements of US 41st Division capture Mokmer Airfield. Japanese resistance continues.

1945 – On Luzon forces from US 1st Corps take Bambang and move northeast toward the Cagayan Valley. Other units are moving around the coast from the northwest to the north of the island.

1945 – On Okinawa, in the Oroku peninsula, Japanese forces hold attacks by the US 6th Marine Division while the US 1st Marine Division advances southward and isolates the peninsula defenders. The US 24th Corps is engaged in artillery bombardments.

1945 – All German citizens in the zone occupied by the western Allies are order to watch films of Belsen and Buchenwald — former Nazi concentration camps.

1953 – President Eisenhower announced that proposals for a Korean truce are acceptable to the US and appealed to South Korea to accept terms to stop the war.

1955 – President Eisenhower became the 1st president to appear on color TV.

1962 – Joseph A. Walker, NASA civilian test pilot, took the X-15 to 31,580 meters.

1963 – Diem’s sister-in-law, Madame Nhu, self-styled First lady of Vietnam, alleges the Buddhists are being manipulated by the Americans, publically contradicting Diem. This does nothing to improve the ‘Dragon Lady’ image that Madame Nhu has begun to acquire in the United States. Pressure form Deputy Ambassador William Trueheart forces Diem to create a cosmetic committee to investigate the Hue incident.

1964 – US officials report that Vietcong are blockading a 600-square-mile area south of Camau to starve the residents and to deprive South Vietnam of charcoal.

1965 – General Westmoreland requests a total of 35 battalions of combat troops, with another nine in reserve. This gave rise to the “44 battalion” debate within the Johnson administration, a discussion of how many U.S. combat troops to commit to the war. Westmoreland felt that the South Vietnamese could not defeat the communists alone and he wanted U.S. combat troops to go on the offensive against the enemy.

His plan was to secure the coastlines, block infiltration of North Vietnamese troops into the south, and then wage a war of attrition with “search and destroy” missions into the countryside, using helicopters for rapid deployment and evacuation. Westmoreland had some supporters in the Johnson administration, but others of the president’s advisers did not support Westmoreland’s request for more troops, because they disagreed with what would be a fundamental change in the U.S. role in Vietnam. In the end, Johnson acquiesced to Westmoreland’s request; eventually there would be over 500,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam.
PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2016 10:08 am
June 7th ~ {continued...}

1965 – Gemini 4 completed 62 orbits.

1968 – In Operation Swift Saber, U.S. Marines swept an area 10 miles northwest of Danang in South Vietnam.

1968 – Tuy Hoa Air Base, Vietnam — New Mexico’s 188th Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS) arrives, becoming the third Air National Guard unit to serve in Vietnam. Combined on June 14th with New York’s newly arrived 136th TFS into the 31st Tactical Fighter Wing, both squadrons immediately began flying close ground support missions for American troops. These two units are the only Guard units, Air or Army to actually be assigned to the same operational headquarters while serving in Vietnam. During the course of its tour the 188th will fly 6,029 sorties and lose three pilots in combat, including two missing in action and later declared killed.

The 136th flew nearly as many sorties and fortunately lost no members to combat although it did have three pilots killed in stateside training. One member of the 188th, Sergeant Melvyn S. Montano, will become a commissioned officer after the unit returns home and in December 1994 he is appointed the Adjutant General of New Mexico; the only known enlisted Guardsman serving in Vietnam War to later achieve this position in any state.

1971 – In an unusual secret US Senate session to review the American military role in Laos, including some $350 million annually in aid, regular raids by B-52 bombers, and 4,800 CIA financed Thai troops, Stuart Symington (D-MO), J. William Fullbright (D-AR), and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) attack the Nixon administration’s policies. The State Department defends the use of ‘volunteer’ Thais predating the 1970 congressional ban on the use of mercenaries.

1981 – Israeli F-16 fighter-bombers destroyed a nuclear power plant in Iraq at Osirak, Iraq, before it went into operation, a facility the Israelis charged could have been used to make nuclear weapons. Pilot Ilan Ramon flew the last of the 8 planes that bombed the reactor.

1998 – CNN and Time magazine reported that a secret 1970 raid called Operation Tailwind by a Special Forces unit called the Studies and Observations Group (SOG) used the nerve gas sarin in Laos to kill American armed service members who had defected. CNN and Time magazine later recanted the story due to insufficient evidence. Reporter April Oliver and senior producer Jack Smith were fired.

1999 – The FBI put alleged terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden on the bureau’s list of the Ten Most Wanted fugitives.
PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2016 10:12 am
June 7th ~ {continued...}

1999 – NATO dropped cluster bombs on an estimated 800-1,200 Yugoslav troops near the Kosovo-Albanian border. An estimated 650 sorties were flown in the last 24 hours.

1999 – Russia balked at a UN peace deal for Kosovo because it did not want its troops under NATO control.

2001 – The US and China agreed on a final plan for the removal of the US spy plane from Hainan Island.

2001 – A federal judge refused to stop plans for a World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

2002 – In El Salvador Mauricio Gonzalez (68), retired dental hygienist from San Ramon, Ca., was kidnapped near Sonsonate. A demand for $500,000 was made. This was the 4th kidnapping of a US citizen here since Jan 1st, 2000.

2002 – In the Philippines Martin Burnham, an American missionary, was killed along with Philippine nurse Ediborah Yap when troops stormed an Abu Sayyaf outpost on Mindanao. Burnham’s wife, Gracia Burnham, was wounded.

2003 – The Saudi interior minister linked last month’s Riyadh bombings to the al-Qaida terror network in an interview, and his ministry identified 12 of the attackers.

2004 – In Iraq 9 militias agreed to disband in exchange for veteran’s pensions, jobs and other rewards. The Mahdi Army of al-Sadr was not included.

2004 – US and South Korean officials announced plans to withdraw a third of 37,000 US troops from South Korea by the end of next year.

2006 – Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, is confirmed killed by US airstrikes on a safe house north of Baghdad.
PostPosted: Wed Jun 08, 2016 9:41 am
June 8th ~

632 – In Medina, located in present-day Saudi Arabia, Muhammad, one of the most influential religious and political leaders in history, dies in the arms of Aishah, his third and favorite wife. Born in Mecca of humble origins, Muhammad married a wealthy widow at 25 years old and lived the next 15 years as an unremarkable merchant. In 610, in a cave in Mount Hira north of Mecca, he had a vision in which he heard God, speaking through the angel Gabriel, command him to become the Arab prophet of the “true religion.”

Thus began a lifetime of religious revelations, which he and others collected as the Qur’an. These revelations provided the foundation for the Islamic religion. Muhammad regarded himself as the last prophet of the Judaic-Christian tradition, and he adopted the theology of these older religions while introducing new doctrines. His inspired teachings also brought unity to the Bedouin tribesmen of Arabia, an event that had sweeping consequences for the rest of the world.

By the summer of 622, Muhammad had gained a substantial number of converts in Mecca, leading the city’s authorities, who had a vested interest in preserving the city’s pagan religion, to plan his assassination. Muhammad fled to Medina, a city some 200 miles north of Mecca, where he was given a position of considerable political power. At Medina, he built a model theocratic state and administered a rapidly growing empire.

In 629, Muhammad returned to Mecca as a conqueror. During the next two and a half years, numerous disparate Arab tribes converted to his religion. By his death on June 8, 632, he was the effective ruler of all southern Arabia, and his missionaries, or legates, were active in the Eastern Empire, Persia, and Ethiopia. During the next century, vast conquests continued under Muhammad’s successors and allies, and the Muslim advance was not halted until the Battle of Tours in France in 732.

By this time, the Muslim empire, among the largest the world had ever seen, stretched from India across the Middle East and North Africa, and up through Western Europe’s Iberian peninsula. The spread of Islam continued after the end of the Arab conquest, and many cultures in Africa and Asia voluntarily adopted the religion. Today, Islam is the world’s second-largest religion.

1813 – David D. Porter, Union Admiral, was born.

1830 – Sloop-of-war Vincennes becomes first U.S. warship to circle the globe.

1845 – Seventh President Andrew Jackson dies. Born in South Carolina in 1767, Jackson gained his first military experience at the age of 15 when, as a member of a local militia company, he helped to repel a British raiding party in 1782. Later he served in the Tennessee militia, rising to the rank of major general. He was affectionately known by his troops as “Old Hickory” because of his hard but fair discipline.

During the War of 1812 he commanded a combined force of Regulars and militiamen in suppressing the Creek Indians in Alabama. His determined leadership soon led to his appointment as a major general in the Regular Army in 1814, just in time to lead a combined Regular and militia force in the defense of New Orleans against a British attack in January 1815. In 1818-1819 he lead a combined army of Regulars and militia in his invasion of western Florida chasing raiding Indians who sought sanctuary in the then Spanish colony.

In fact, his action helped induce the Spanish government to sell Florida to the US. Jackson was elected president in 1828. In 1918, the 30th Division, composed of National Guard soldiers from the Carolina’s and Tennessee, proudly adopted a division shoulder patch that featured the Roman numerals “XXX” indicating the division’s designation surrounded by the letters “OH” for “Old Hickory” in honor of Jackson.
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