** TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY **

December 6th ~ { continued... }

1941 – Japanese forces leave Palau bound for the attack on the Philippines.

1942 – In New Guinea, US forces managed to reach the beach on the east side of Buna after heavy fighting. The Australian attack at Gona has little success. Japanese reinforcement fighting along the coast from the west make some headway.

1943 – The US 5th Army offensive continues. The British 10th Corps captures Monte Camino while the US 2nd Corps attacks Monte la Difensa. To the east, the British 8th Army approaches the Moro River.

1944 – Elements of the US 3rd Army enter Saareguemines which is defended by German forces. In Holland, the British 2nd Army is held up southwest of Arnhem by the German demolition of dikes and the consequent flooding.

1944 – Coast Guardsmen participated in the landings at Ormoc, Philippine Islands.

1945 – U.S. extended a $3 billion loan to Britain to help compensate for the termination of Lend-Lease.

1948 – The “Pumpkin spy papers” were found on the Maryland farm of Whittaker Chambers. They became evidence that State Department employee Alger Hiss was spying for the Soviet Union.

1950 – Fifth Air Force jets and Australian F-51 Mustangs were credited with killing 2,500 enemy troops in an attack near Pyongyang. This did not, however, prevent the Chinese communists for occupying the North Korean capitol.

1950 – The United Nations issued a call for the communist forces to halt at the 38th parallel in Korea.

1950 – Far East Air Forces’ 27th Fighter-Escort Wing F-84 Thunderjets flew their first combat mission of the Korean War.

1957 – A launch pad explosion of Vanguard TV3 thwarts the first United States attempt to launch a satellite into Earth orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

1961 – U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff authorize combat missions by Operation Farm Gate pilots. With this order, U.S. Air Force pilots were given the go-ahead to undertake combat missions against the Viet Cong as long as at least one Vietnamese national was carried on board the strike aircraft for training purposes. The program had initially been designed to provide advisory support to assist the South Vietnamese Air Force in increasing its capability.

1973 – House minority leader Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew. Agnew, vice president to President Richard M. Nixon, resigned from his office and pleaded no contest to one charge of income tax evasion in return for the dropping of all other charges. Agnew, the only US Vice President to resign in disgrace, was fined $10,000 and given three year’s probation.

1983 – USS America battle group with 5,500 sailors, departs coast of Somalia, reducing offshore strength from 9,195 to 3,833. USS Independence takes up station.

1988 – The space shuttle Atlantis landed in California after a successful mission.

December 6th ~ { continued... }

1990 – Iraq announced that it would release all its hostages, saying foreigners could begin leaving in two days.

1998 – The astronauts of the Endeavour space shuttle attached Node 1 of the new space station to the cargo block Zarya.

2000 – A Pentagon investigation concluded in a 168-page report that 3 top Army Corps of Engineers officials manipulated a study to justify a construction binge on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers.

2000 – A Russian court found US Citizen, Edmond Pope, guilty of espionage. Pope was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment by a Moscow court for espionage; however, he was pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin and released eight days after his sentencing.

2001 – President George W. Bush dedicated the national Christmas tree to those who died on Sept. 11 and to GIs who died in the line of duty.

2001 – Anthrax tainted mail turned up at a sorting site outside the Federal building in Washington DC. It had been received Dec 5th.

2001 – In Afghanistan Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader, decided to surrender Kandahar.

2001 – The U.S. government rejected amnesty for Mullah Omar or any Taliban leaders.

2004 – In Haiti gunfire erupted in a stronghold of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide overnight, leaving at least three dead.

2004 – In Iraq 5 U.S. troops were reported killed in separate clashes in a volatile western province. Insurgents blew up part of a domestic oil pipeline in northern Iraq.

2004 – In Saudi Arabia Islamic militants threw explosives at the gate of the heavily guarded US consulate in Jiddah in a bold assault, then forced their way into the building, prompting a gunbattle that left 9 people dead and several injured. In 2005 two AK-47 assault rifles used in the attack were later traced to Yemen’s Ministry of Defense.

2005 – In Iraq, assailants kidnapped an American security consultant. On 8 December 2005, the assailants killed their victim. The Islamic Army in Iraq (IAI) claimed responsibility.

2006 – The Iraq Study Group Report was released. Iraq Study Group, made up of people from both of the major U.S. parties, was led by co-chairs James Baker, a former Secretary of State (Republican), and Lee H. Hamilton, a former U.S. Representative (Democrat). It concluded that “the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating” and “U.S. forces seem to be caught in a mission that has no foreseeable end.” The report’s 79 recommendations include increasing diplomatic measures with Iran and Syria and intensifying efforts to train Iraqi troops.

2006 – NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.

2014 – An American civilian, journalist Luke Sommers, and a South African civilian, teacher Pierre Korkie, are killed during an attempt to rescue them by U.S. Navy SEALs in Yemen. Eight others were successfully recovered. They were being held hostage by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

2014 – NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft reawakened at 8:00 PM UTC in preparation for observing the dwarf planet Pluto and its satellites. New Horizons, launched on January 19, 2006, will begin distant observations on January 15, 2015.

December 7th ~

1776 – Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, arranges to enter the American military as a major general.

1787– In Dover, Delaware, the U.S. Constitution is unanimously ratified by all 30 delegates to the Delaware Constitutional Convention, making Delaware the first state of the modern United States. Less than four months before, the Constitution was signed by 37 of the original 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention meeting in Philadelphia. The Constitution was sent to the states for ratification, and, by the terms of the document, the Constitution would become binding once nine of the former 13 colonies had ratified the document. Delaware led the process, and on June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, making federal democracy the law of the land. Government under the U.S. Constitution took effect on March 4, 1789.

1796– Electors chose John Adams to be the second president of the United States.

1805 – Having spied the Pacific Ocean for the first time a few weeks earlier, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark cross to the south shore of the Columbia River (near modern-day Portland) and begin building the small fort that would be their winter home. Lewis, Clark, and their men deserved a rest. During the past year, they had made the difficult trip from the upper Missouri River across the rugged Rockies, and down the Columbia River to the ocean.

1808– James Madison was elected president in succession to Thomas Jefferson.

1836– Martin Van Buren was elected the eighth president of the United States.

1861– USS Santiago de Cuba, under Commander Daniel B. Ridgely, halted the British schooner Eugenia Smith and captured J.W. Zacharie, a New Orleans merchant and Confederate purchasing agent.

1862– Northwestern Arkansas and Southwestern Missouri is secured for the Union when a force commanded by General James G. Blunt holds off a force of Confederates under General Thomas Hindman. Hindman assembled a force at Fort Smith, Arkansas, to make an attempt to recapture territory lost during the Pea Ridge campaign of early 1862.

Hindman planned to cross the Boston Mountains into northwestern Arkansas and then Missouri, but the Union Army of the Frontier, commanded by John Schofield, made a preemptive move to Maysville, Arkansas. Schofield had to leave the army due to illness, and Blunt assumed command. When Hindman sent an advance detachment of cavalry under John Marmaduke through the mountains in late November, Blunt moved south and defeated Marmaduke in a minor engagement at Cane Hill. After Cane Hill, Hindman moved his 11,000-man army across the Boston Mountains and approached Blunt’s 5,000 troops. Hindman prepared to attack, but was surprised by the approach of Union reinforcements from Missouri.

In one of the most dramatic marches of the entire war, Union General Francis Herron had moved 7,000 reinforcements more than 110 miles in three and a half days. Hindman turned to face Herron, but then took up defensive positions in Prairie Grove. Herron arrived and attacked Hindman on December 7. Herron sent only half of his force to the assault, believing that this was only part of Hindman’s force. Outnumbered nearly three to one, Herron’s attack failed. Hindman ordered a counterattack, but it was repulsed with heavy loses. Hearing noise from the battle, Blunt moved toward Prairie Grove and attacked Hindman later that day. This, too, failed, as did another Confederate counterattack. Darkness ended the engagement with the Confederates still holding the high ground at Prairie Grove.
The battle was a tactical draw but Hindman’s army was running low on ammunition. Confederate losses amounted to more than 1,400 killed and wounded, while the Yankees lost more than 1,200. Hindman retreated back to Fort Smith, and the region was secured for the Union.

1917– U.S. declared war on Austria-Hungary with only one dissenting vote in Congress and became the 13th country to do so.

1917 – Four U.S. battleships arrive at Scapa Flow taking on the role of the British Grand Fleet’s Sixth Battle Squadron. Include USS Delaware (BB-28), USS Florida (BB-30), New York (BB-34), and USS Wyoming (BB-32).

1930 – W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts telecasts video from the CBS radio orchestra program, The Fox Trappers. The telecast also includes the first television commercial in the United States, an advertisement for I.J. Fox Furriers, who sponsored the radio show.

December 7th ~ { continued... }

1941– At 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time, a Japanese dive bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan on its wings appears out of the clouds above the island of Oahu. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes followed, descending on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault. The surprise attack struck a critical blow against the U.S. Pacific fleet and drew the United States irrevocably into World War II.

With diplomatic negotiations with Japan breaking down, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his advisers knew that an imminent Japanese attack was probable, but nothing had been done to increase security at the important naval base at Pearl Harbor. It was Sunday morning, and many military personnel had been given passes to attend religious services off base. At 7:02 a.m., two radio operators spotted large groups of aircraft in flight toward the island from the north, but, with a flight of B-17s expected from the United States at the time, they were told to sound no alarm. Thus, the Japanese air assault came as a devastating surprise to the naval base.Much of the Pacific fleet was rendered useless: Five of eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships were sunk or severely damaged, and more than 200 aircraft were destroyed. A total of 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,200 were wounded, many while valiantly attempting to repulse the attack. Japan’s losses were some 30 planes, five midget submarines, and fewer than 100 men.

Fortunately for the United States, all three Pacific fleet carriers were out at sea on training maneuvers. These giant aircraft carriers would have their revenge against Japan six months later at the Battle of Midway, reversing the tide against the previously invincible Japanese navy in a spectacular victory. US Coast Guard patrol boat Tiger conducted anti-submarine sweeps outside of Pearl Harbor and another patrol boat Taney opened fire on Japanese aircraft that appeared over Honolulu Harbor during the attack. The Americans lose 188 aircraft; the Japanese 29. Admiral Nagumo, despite the task forces’s capacity and against advice, does not send a third wave against the base. The three American aircraft carriers serving in the Pacific are not in port and escape unharmed as does much of the infrastructure of the port, including the oil storage tanks.

However, the attack leaves the Allies with only the three US carriers and two British battleships as active capital ships in the theater. The cruisers destroyers and submarines available from the Dutch and Free French reduce the numerical inferiority against the Japanese navy, however, the Allied craft are widely dispersed and under multiple commands. The day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, President Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress and declared, “Yesterday, December 7, 1941–a date which will live in infamy–the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” After a brief and forceful speech, he asked Congress to approve a resolution recognizing the state of war between the United States and Japan.

The Senate voted for war against Japan by 82 to 0, and the House of Representatives approved the resolution by a vote of 388 to 1. The sole dissenter was Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, a devout pacifist who had also cast a dissenting vote against the U.S. entrance into World War I. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war against the United States, and the U.S. government responded in kind. The American contribution to the successful Allied war effort spanned four long years and cost more than 400,000 American lives.

1941– Evidence arose in 1999 that one of five Japanese mini submarines penetrated Pearl Harbor and hit at least one ship with torpedoes.

1941- The 1st Japanese submarine was sunk by a US ship, the USS Ward.

1941 – The last part of the Japanese signal, stating specifically that relations are being broken is intercepted and decoded by the Americans. Delays in decoding of the message and difficulty in securing an appointment with Secretary Hull ensure that the Japanese delegation do not meet their country’s deadline for presentation of official note breaking of diplomatic ties until after the attack upon Pearl Harbor is launched.

1941 – Japanese forces bomb Guam and Wake and Midway is bombarded by Japanese destroyers.

1941 – The Canadian government declares war on Japan.

1941 – Wall Street ran for cover, as panicked traders looked to dump their holdings. After a day of frantic action, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had dropped 4.08 points to close at 112.52.

1942 – The Japanese counterattacks threaten the American positions. The Americans ultimately hold.

1942 – American PT Boats force a Japanese supply convoy to turn back before landing their supplies on Guadalcanal. The convoy is escorted by 7 destroyers led by Captain Sato.

1942– The U.S. Navy launched the USS New Jersey, the largest battleship ever built.

1943 – The US 5th Army secures the Mignano gap and expands its offensive. The US 2nd and 6th Corps attack Monte Sammucro and San Pietro. There is determined German resistance.

1944 – On Leyte, the US 77th Division lands about one mile south of Ormoc. There is some Japanese resistance. One of the 12 escorting destroyers is sunk by a Kamikaze attack. Meanwhile, the US 7th Division continues attacking northward toward Ormoc.

1944 – The US 3rd Army penetrates the Siegfried Line northwest of Saarlautern.

1945– The microwave oven was patented. Percy Spencer accidentally discovered that microwaves would also heat food. Spencer, an eighth-grade dropout and electronic wizard, worked for the Raytheon Manufacturing Corporation of Massachusetts developing a radar machine using microwave radiation.

December 7th ~ { continued... }

1950 – Eight U.S. Air Force C-119 transports drop four spans of M-2 treadway bridge in the vicinity of Funchilin Pass. This operation allowed the 1st Marine Division to breach the most difficult natural obstacle of the entire breakout from the Chosin/Changjin Reservoir.

1952 – In the largest single-day tally of the Korean War, U.S. Air Force F-86 Sabre jet pilots report seven of 32 enemy fighters destroyed, one damaged and one probably destroyed.

1962– Great Britain performed a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site.

1963– During the Army-Navy game, videotaped instant replay was used for the first time in a live sports telecast as CBS re-showed a one-yard touchdown run by Army quarterback Rollie Stichweh. Navy beat Army, 21-15.

1964 – The situation worsens in South Vietnam, as the Viet Cong attack and capture the district headquarters at An Lao and much of the surrounding valley 300 miles northeast of Saigon. South Vietnamese troops regained control only after reinforcements were airlifted into the area by U.S. helicopters. During the course of the action, two U.S. advisors were killed. There were over 300 South Vietnamese casualties and as many as 7,000 villagers were temporarily forced to abandon their homes.
In response, Ambassador Maxwell Taylor, who had just returned from Washington, held a series of conferences with Premier Tran Van Huong, General Nguyen Khanh, and other South Vietnamese leaders. Taylor told them that the United States would provide additional financial aid to help stabilize the worsening situation in the countryside. It was agreed that the funds would be used to strengthen South Vietnam’s military forces (which South Vietnam agreed to increase by 100,000 men) and to “further economic assistance for a variety of reforms of industrial, urban, and rural development.”

Nothing was said during these discussions about President Lyndon B. Johnson’s plans to commence the bombing of North Vietnam, which had been decided during Taylor’s meeting with the president and his advisers when Taylor was in Washington earlier in December.

1965 – In a memorandum to President Lyndon B. Johnson, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara states that U.S. troop strength must be substantially augmented “if we are to avoid being defeated there.” Cautioning that such deployments would not ensure military success, McNamara said the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong “continue to believe that the war will be a long one, that time is their ally and their own staying power is superior to ours.”

1972– America’s last moon mission to date was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral at 12:33 a.m., and landed on the moon December 11 at 3:15 p.m.. A historic photo was taken of the Earth that showed our “isolated blue planet.”

1981– Spain became a member of NATO.

1987– Despite protests in Washington concerning Soviet human rights abuses, most Americans get swept up in “Gorbymania” as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives for his summit with President Ronald Reagan. Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, charmed the American public and media by praising the United States and calling for closer relations between the Soviet Union and America. Aside from the excitement surrounding Gorbachev (whose face was soon plastered on T-shirts, cups, and posters), the summit with Reagan resulted in one of the most significant arms control agreements of the Cold War. Reagan and Gorbachev signed off on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty, which called for the elimination of all ground cruise and ballistic missiles and launchers in Europe with ranges of 320 to 3,400 miles.

By June 1991, the United States had eliminated over 800 missiles and the Soviets had eliminated 1,800 such weapons. The INF Treaty was the first arms control agreement that eliminated, rather than simply limited, nuclear weapons. The treaty also required on-site inspections to ensure compliance, part of Reagan’s famous “trust but verify” credo. Some critics in the United States denounced the treaty, claiming that it would “de-nuke” Europe and leave America’s allies at the mercy of the Soviets’ massive conventional forces. Most Americans, however, considered it a monumental step toward the reduction of the risk of nuclear war. The treaty was ratified by the Senate and went into effect in June 1988.

1988 – The Coast Guard hosted an international summit between Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, President Ronald Reagan, and President-elect and then-Vice President George H. W. Bush on Governors Island on 7 December 1988 after Gorbachev had addressed the United Nations. In planning his trip to the UN, Gorbachev requested a meeting with Reagan. Reagan was in final weeks of his presidential term and his advisors felt it important that the visit remain low profile, so a large-scale summit or state visit to the White House was not in the cards. Yet, a short and informal meeting between the heads of state and newly elected President George Bush was possible.

The White House selected the Coast Guard base at Governors Island as a meeting site since it was a secure military installation in the middle of New York harbor and just minutes away from the United Nations. The leaders met for lunch at the LANTAREA commander’s [VADM James Irwin] home. The summit was characterized as “just a luncheon” and the meeting was the last time President Reagan and Gorbachev would meet during Reagan’s remaining term.

December 7th ~ { continued... }

1995– A 746-pound probe from the Galileo spacecraft hurtled into Jupiter’s atmosphere, sending back data to the mothership before it was presumably destroyed.

1995– US paratrooper James N. Burmeister shot and killed Jackie Burden and Michael James. He was convicted on Feb 27, 1997 of 1st degree murder and conspiracy in the hate crime and faced the death penalty. The jury deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of death so the judge sentenced him to 2 consecutive life terms in prison. He will have to serve at least 50 years before becoming eligible for parole. Malcolm Wright, a fellow soldier, was also charged in the murders and convicted on May 2, 1997.

1996– The space shuttle Columbia landed at the Kennedy Space Center, ending a nearly 18-day mission marred by a jammed hatch that prevented two planned spacewalks.

1997– A new Presidential Decision Directive was reported to replace one put into place by Pres. Reagan in 1981. It reset the guidelines for the use of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons would still be maintained as a deterrent.

1998– President Clinton announced the removal of Iran from the list of drug problem countries due to an energetic campaign to eliminate opium poppies.

1999– Daniel S. Goldin, NASA administrator, acknowledged the failure of the Mars Polar Lander and planned to appoint an independent committee of experts to examine the Mars program. In 2000 it was determined that a computer signal was misread and caused breaking to stop at 130 feet above the surface.

2001– The US called to cut off discussions about enforcing a 1972 Biological Weapons Convention on the final day of a 3-week conference in Geneva. The conference sought binding measures and disbanded in chaos.

2001– The space shuttle Endeavour docked with the international space station, delivering a new three-member crew to relieve a crew in place since August.

2001 – Mullah Omar slipped out of Kandahar with a group of loyalists and moved northwest into the mountains of Uruzgan Province, thus reneging on the Taliban’s promise to surrender their fighters and their weapons. He was last reported seen leaving in a convoy of motorcycles. Other Taliban leaders fled to Pakistan through the remote passes of Paktia and Paktika Provinces. The border town of Spin Boldak surrendered on the same day, marking the end of Taliban control in Afghanistan. Afghan forces under Gul Agha seized Kandahar, while the U.S. Marines took control of the airport and established a U.S. base.

2002– Space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth along with space station voyagers Peggy Whitsun, Valery Korzun and Sergei Treschev.

2002– The Iraqi government presented to the rest of the world a 12,000 page declaration detailing its nuclear, chemical and biological activities and formally declaring to the UN that it has no weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein grudgingly apologized to Kuwaitis for invading their country in 1990.

2003– Saudi security forces stormed a gas station and killed one of the country’s most wanted terrorist suspects and a second militant.

2004 – Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan’s first popularly elected president.

2004 – A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi National Guard patrol south of Baghdad, killing three guardsmen and wounding 11.

2007 – The Battle of Musa Qala was a military action in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, launched by the Afghan National Army and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) against the Taliban. After three days of intense fighting, the Taliban retreated into the mountains on 10 December. Musa Qala was officially reported captured on 12 December, with Afghan Army troops pushing into the town centre.

The operation was codenamed Snakepit (Pashto: Mar Kardad‎). It followed more than nine months of Taliban occupation of the town, the largest the insurgents controlled at the time of the battle. ISAF forces had previously occupied the town, until a controversial withdrawal in late 2006. It was the first battle in the War in Afghanistan in which Afghan army units were the principal fighting force. Statements from the British Ministry of Defence (MOD) emphasised that the operation was Afghan-led, although the ability of Afghan units to function without NATO control was questioned during the battle.

2009 – Afghan President Karzai said it may be five years before his army is ready to take on the insurgents. Karzai also said that Afghanistan’s security forces will need U.S. support for another 15 to 20 years.

2014 – The Obama administration orders the transfer of six prisoners from Guantanamo Bay detention camp to Uruguay, the largest single group of detainees to be released in five years and the first to be resettled in South America.

December 8th ~

1776– George Washington’s retreating army in the American Revolution crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

1861– The American Bible Society announced that it would distribute 7,000 Bibles a day to Union soldiers.

1861– CSS Sumter captured the whaler Eben Dodge in the Atlantic. The war began affecting the Northern whaling industry.

1863– President Lincoln offers his conciliatory plan for reunification of the nation with his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. By this point in the war, it was clear that Lincoln needed to make some preliminary plans for postwar reconstruction. The Union armies had captured large sections of the South, and some states were ready to have their governments rebuilt. The proclamation addressed three main areas of concern.

First, it allowed for a full pardon for and restoration of property to all engaged in the rebellion with the exception of the highest Confederate officials and military leaders. Second, it allowed for a new state government to be formed when 10 percent of the eligible voters had taken an oath of allegiance to the United States. Third, the southern states admitted in this fashion were encouraged to enact plans to deal with the freed slaves so long as their freedom was not compromised. In short, the terms of the plan were easy for most southerners to accept.

Though the emancipation of slaves was an impossible pill for some Confederates to swallow, Lincoln’s plan was quite charitable, considering the costliness of the war. With the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, Lincoln was seizing the initiative for reconstruction from Congress. Some Radical Republicans thought the plan was far too easy on the South, but others accepted it because of Lincoln’s prestige and leadership. Following the assassination of Lincoln in April 1865, the disagreements over the postwar reconstruction policy led to a heated battle between the next president, Andrew Johnson, and Congress.

1863 – The disabled merchant steamer Henry Von Phul was shelled by a Confederate shore battery near Morganza, Louisiana. U.S.S. Neosho, Acting Ensign Edwin P. Brooks, and U.S.S. Signal, Acting Ensign William P. Lee, steamed up to defend the ship and silenced the battery. Union merchantmen were largely free from such attacks when convoyed by a warship.

1863– Averell’s cavalry destroyed railroads in the southwestern part of West Virginia.

1920– President Wilson declined to send a representative to the League of Nations in Geneva.

1931– Coaxial cable was patented.

1932– Japan told the League of Nations that it had no control over her designs in China.

1933 – Secretary of the Navy establishes Fleet Marine Force, integrating a ready-to-deploy Marine force with own aircraft into Fleet organization.

1939 – The American government protests the British blockade of Germany, stating: “Whatever may be said for or against measures directed by one belligerent against another, they many not rightfully be carried to the point of enlarging the rights of a belligerent over neutral vessels and their cargoes, or otherwise penalizing neutral states or their nationals in connection with their legitimate activities.”

1940 – An Executive Order extended the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service to the noncontiguous territory of the Midway Islands.

December 8th ~ { continued... }

1941– America’s Pacific fleet lay in ruins at Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt requests, and receives, a declaration of war against Japan. Leaning heavily on the arm of his son James, a Marine captain, FDR walked haltingly into the House of Representatives at noon to request a declaration of war from the House and address the nation via radio. “Yesterday,” the president proclaimed, “December 7, 1941-a date which will live in infamy-the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.” Roosevelt’s 10-minute speech, ending with an oath-“So help us God”-was greeted in the House by thunderous applause and stamping of feet. Within one hour, the president had his declaration of war, with only one dissenting vote, from a pacifist in the House.

FDR signed the declaration at 4:10 p.m., wearing a black armband to symbolize mourning for those lost at Pearl Harbor. On both coasts, civilian defense groups were mobilized. In New York, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia ordered the rounding up of Japanese nationals, who were transported to Ellis Island and held in custody indefinitely. In California, antiaircraft batteries were set up on Long Beach and the Hollywood Hills. Reports on supposed spy activity on the part of Japanese Americans began pouring into Washington, even as Japanese Americans paid for space in newspapers to declare unreservedly their loyalty to the United States. War is also declared upon Japan by British, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the Free French, several South American countries.

China declares war upon Germany, Italy and Japan. The latter is a formal declaration only as a de facto state of war has existed between China and Japan for 7 years. Montanan Jeanette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress and a dedicated lifelong pacifist, casts the sole Congressional vote against the U.S. declaration of war on Japan.

1941 – Japanese troops occupy the city of Shanghai and capture a small US garrison in the foreign section.

1941– A US tanker was shelled by a Japanese submarine off Cape Mendocino.

1941 – USS Wake (PR-3), a river gunboat moored at Shanghai, is only U.S. vessel to surrender during World War II.

1941– The Japanese attack begins with the capture of Bataan Island and the creation of an airstrip for plane refueling. Japanese invasion troops leave Paulau for the Philippines. The main attack begins with massive air bombardment which reduces the American defenses to 17 B-17’s and less than 40 fighters. Most of the planes are destroyed on the ground. American General Douglas MacArthur has under his command 130,000 troops (20,000 Americans). His plan to defend the island becomes nonviable after the destruction of the main portion of the his air force and the losses at Pearl Harbor.1941- Fears of offending American public opinion by violating Thailand’s neutrality have prevented the British from preparing defenses in Thailand and difficulties with Thai border guards prevent a quick response to the Japanese landings further north.

1941 – Japanese aircraft attacked Wake Island within hours of the fateful attack on Pearl Harbor. Marines of the 1st Defense Battalion and Marine Fighting Squadron 211 resisted Japanese invasion attempts for over two weeks before finally succumbing to an overwhelming force. A small Japanese landing force leaves Kwajalein escorted by a cruiser and two destroyers.

1941– Japanese General Yamashita began his attack against the British army at Singapore. General Tomoyuki Yamashita earned the name “Tiger of Malaya” for his masterful capture of Singapore and the whole Malay Peninsula from the British, who had a superior number of troops. Yamashita’s forces landed on the northern Malay Peninsula and southern Thailand on December 8, 1941, and moved rapidly southward toward Singapore, which surrendered on February 15, 1942. The peninsula and Singapore remained under Japanese control throughout the war. Later in the war, while defending the Philippines from Gen. MacArthur‘s return, Yamashita’s troops wantonly slaughtered more than 100,000 Filipinos in Manila. He was later tried and executed for war crimes.

1942 – Eight PT boats (PT 36, PT 37, PT 40, PT 43, PT 44, PT 48, PT 59, and PT 109) turn back 8 Japanese destroyers attempting to reinforce Japanese forces on Guadalcanal.

1943– U.S. carriers sank two cruisers and down 72 planes in the Marshall Islands.

1943 – Kwajalein is bombarded by an American force consisting of 5 battleships and 12 destroyers commanded by Admiral Lee. One Japanese destroyer is damaged.

1943 – In Italy, the US 5th Army continues attacking but little progress is achieved. To the east, the British 8th Army operations continue as well. The Canadian 1st Division begins attacking over the Moro River, a few miles from the east coast.

1944 – US 3rd Army reports the establishment of four additional crossing of the Saar river on both sides of Sarreguemines and inside the town. American tanks are reported to be approaching the town of Rohrbach to the southeast.

1944– An American naval force, commanded by Admiral Smith and consisting of 3 heavy cruisers and a destroyer escort, bombard Iwo Jima.

1944 – On Leyte, the US 77th Division advances from its beachhead to within 1 mile of Ormoc. Attacks by the Japanese 26th Division, near Buri, are repulsed by other US forces.

1945 – The Toyota Motor Company received permission from the occupation government to start production of buses and trucks–vehicles necessary to keep Japan running. After World War II ended with Japan’s surrender on September 3, 1945, Japan remained under Allied occupation ruled by an occupation government. Its war industries were shut down completely. This was the first rumble of the postwar auto industry in Japan.

December 8th ~ { continued...}

1948– UN approved the recognition of South Korea.

1949– As they steadily lose ground to the communist forces of Mao Zedong, Chinese Nationalist leaders depart for the island of Taiwan, where they establish their new capital. Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek left for the island the following day. This action marked the beginning of the “two Chinas” scenario that left mainland China under communist control and vexed U.S. diplomacy for the next 30 years. It also signaled the effective end of the long struggle between Chinese Nationalist forces and those of the communist leader Mao Zedong, though scattered Chinese Nationalists continued sporadic combat with the communist armies. At the time, many observers hoped that the end of the fighting and the Chinese Nationalist decision to establish a separate government on Taiwan might make it easier for foreign governments to recognize the new communist People’s Republic of China. For the United States, however, the action merely posed a troubling diplomatic problem.

Many in America, including members of the so-called “China Lobby” (individuals and groups from both public and private life who tenaciously supported the Chinese Nationalist cause), called upon the administration of President Harry S. Truman to continue its support of Chiang’s government by withholding recognition of the communist government on the mainland. In fact, the Truman administration’s recognition of the Nationalist government on Taiwan infuriated Mao, ending any possibility for diplomatic relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. In the years after 1949, the United States continued its support of Taiwan, and Mao’s government continued to rail against the Nationalist regime off its coast. By the 1970s, however, U.S. policymakers, desirous of opening economic relations with China and hoping to use China as a balance against Soviet power, moved toward a closer relationship with communist China. In 1979, the United States officially recognized the People’s Republic of China.

1950 – The Greek Expeditionary Force arrived in Korea. The Greek Infantry Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel D. G. Arbouzis, soon saw action attached to the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division’s 7th Cavalry Regiment.

1953– Pres. Eisenhower delivered his “Atoms for Peace” address to the UN. He called on both the US and Soviet Union to abandon their nuclear arsenals. The “Atoms for Peace” program spread nuclear technology to nations that agreed not to use it for military purposes.

1965 – In some of the heaviest raids of the war, 150 U.S. Air Force and Navy planes launch Operation Tiger Hound to interdict the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the lower portion of the Laotian panhandle, from Route 9 west of the Demilitarized Zone, south to the Cambodian border. The purpose of this operation, which lasted until 1968, was to reduce North Vietnamese infiltration down the trail into South Vietnam. After 1968, the Tiger Hound missions became part of a new operation called Commando Hunt.

1966 – The International Red Cross announces in Geneva that North Vietnam has rejected a proposal by President Johnson for a resolution of the prisoner of war situation. He had proposed a joint discussion of fair treatment and possible exchange of war captives held by both sides. The International Red Cross submitted the proposal to North Vietnamese officials in July after Johnson first broached the plan on July 20 at a news conference. No solution was reached on the issue until the Paris Peace Accords were signed in January 1973. By the terms of the accords, all U.S. prisoners were to be released by the following March.

1967– In the biggest battle yet in the Mekong Delta, 365 Vietcong were killed.

1968– South Vietnam’s vice president Nguyen Cao Ky arrived in Paris for peace talks.

1969– Police made a surprise attack on Black-Panthers in LA.

1969 – At a news conference, President Richard Nixon says that the Vietnam War is coming to a “conclusion as a result of the plan that we have instituted.” Nixon had announced at a conference in Midway in June that the United States would be following a new program he termed “Vietnamization.” Under the provisions of this program, South Vietnamese forces would be built up so they could assume more responsibility for the war. As the South Vietnamese forces became more capable, U.S. forces would be withdrawn from combat and returned to the United States. In his speech, Nixon pointed out that he had already ordered the withdrawal of 60,000 U.S. troops. Concurrently, he had issued orders to provide the South Vietnamese with more modern equipment and weapons and increased the advisory effort, all as part of the “Vietnamization” program.

As Nixon was holding his press conference, troops from the U.S. 25th Infantry Division (less the Second Brigade) began departing from Vietnam. Nixon’s pronouncements that the war was ending proved premature. In April 1970, he expanded the war by ordering U.S. and South Vietnamese troops to attack communist sanctuaries in Cambodia. The resulting outcry across the United States led to a number of antiwar demonstrations-it was at one of these demonstrations that the National Guard shot four protesters at Kent State. Although Nixon did continue to decrease American troop strength in South Vietnam, the fighting continued.

In 1972, the North Vietnamese launched a massive invasion of South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese forces reeled under the attack, but eventually prevailed with the help of U.S. airpower. After extensive negotiations and the bombing of North Vietnam in December 1972, the Paris Peace Accords were signed in January 1973. Under the provisions of the Accords, U.S. forces were completely withdrawn. Unfortunately, this did not end the war for the Vietnamese and the fighting continued until April 1975 when Saigon fell to the communists.

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1982– The Washington, D.C., police shot and killed Norman Mayer 10 hours after he threatened to blow up the Washington Monument and found he had no explosives.

1983 – Four cutters arrived off of the island of Grenada to replace U.S. Navy surface forces conducting surveillance operations after the U.S. invaded the island earlier that year. The cutters involved were the Cape Gull, Cape Fox, Cape Shoalwater, and the Sagebrush.

1987– At a summit meeting in Washington, D.C., President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign the first treaty between the two superpowers to reduce their massive nuclear arsenals. Previous agreements had merely been attempts by the two Cold War adversaries to limit the growth of their nuclear arsenals. The historic agreement banned ground-launched short- and medium-range missiles, of which the two nations collectively possessed 2,611, most located in Europe and Southeast Asia. The pact was seen as an important step toward agreement on the reduction of long-range U.S. and Soviet missiles, first achieved in 1991 when President George H. Bush and Gorbachev agreed to destroy more than a quarter of their nuclear warheads.

The following year, Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed to drastically reduce their number of long-range missiles to around 3,000 launching systems each by the year 2003. In 2001, after a decade of arms control stalemate, President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin made a preliminary agreement to further reduce their nuclear arsenals to around 2,000 long-range missiles each.

1988 – A United States Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II crashes into an apartment complex in Remscheid, Germany, killing 5 people and injuring 50 others.

1988– Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev cut short his U.S. visit in order to return home following a killer earthquake in Armenia.

1990– As former American hostages began leaving Iraq and occupied Kuwait, President Bush—wrapping up his South America tour in Caracas, Venezuela—said the evacuation made for “one less worry I’ve got” in deciding whether to go to war against Baghdad.

1991– Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine declared the Soviet national government dead, forging a new alliance to be known as the Commonwealth of Independent States. Boris Yeltsin, Ukrainian Pres. Leonid Kravchuk, and Belarus Pres. Stanislav Shuskevich met in a hunting lodge to proclaim the Soviet Union null and void and to form a loose Commonwealth of Independent States.

1994– Bosnian Serbs released dozens of hostage peacekeepers, but continued to detain about 300 others.

1998– In Chechnya the severed heads of Darren Hickey, Rudolf Petschi, Stanley Shaw and Peter Kennedy were found lines up along a highway outside of Grozny. The U.S. mobile phone workers had been kidnapped Oct 3rd.

2000– The Florida Supreme Court ordered, four to three, an immediate hand count of about 45,000 disputed ballots and put Democrat Al Gore within 154 votes of George W. Bush.

2000– The US National Security Council warned that several nations had already created information-warfare units for disrupting computer networks.

2000– In Russia the pardons commission recommended to President Putin that clemency be granted to Edmond Pope.

2001– John Walker Lindh, a Taliban soldier from Marin County, Ca., was held at Camp Rhino near Kandahar as a battlefield detainee. He was captured a week earlier following the prison revolt at Mazar-e-Sharif.

2002– Iraq’s massive dossier detailing its chemical, biological and nuclear programs arrived in New York; the U.N. Security Council agreed to give full copies to the United States and the four other permanent council members — Britain, France, Russia and China.

2003– The US military launched its largest postwar offensive against Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents, sending 2,000 soldiers into a lawless swath of Afghanistan to put down a wave of attacks.

2004 – A disgruntled U.S. soldier, at the prompting of a member of the press, complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld during a question-and-answer session in Kuwait about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment.

2004 – Some 18,000 US troops in Afghanistan began Operation Lightning Freedom, a new offensive to hunt Taliban and al-Qaida militants through the country’s harsh winter.

2004 – In Iraq gunmen attacked the police headquarters in Samarra, killing an Iraqi policemen and a child who was caught in the cross fire. Insurgents detonated a car bomb in southern Baghdad, causing an unspecified number of casualties.

2004 – In Iraq 18 young Iraqi Shiites, aged 14-20, were shot and killed while seeking work at a U.S. base near Mosul. Their bodies were discovered January 5th.

2008 – A United States Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet crashes into the University City neighborhood of San Diego, California, two miles from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, killing four people.

2008 – In a Guantanamo Bay Naval Base military commission, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants announce their intentions to plead guilty to charges relating to the September 11, 2001, attacks.

2009 – Scaled Composites Space Ship Two, the world’s first commercial spacecraft, is officially unveiled in the Mojave Desert, California.

2010 – With the second launch of the Space X Falcon 9 and the first launch of the Space X Dragon, Space X becomes the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft. The spacecraft splashed down after two orbits 500 miles (800 km) west of Baja California at 2:03pm EST (19:03 UTC), becoming the first commercially-developed spacecraft to return to Earth after being launched into orbit.

December 9th ~

1640 – Settler Hugh Bewitt was banished from the Mass colony when he declared himself to be free of original sin.

1775 – American troops win their first land victory of the War for Independence at the Battle of Great Bridge, the British leave Virginia soon afterward. The Battle of Great Bridge was fought in the area of Great Bridge, Virginia. The victory by Continental Army and militia forces led to the departure of Governor Lord Dunmore and any remaining vestiges of British power from the Colony of Virginia during the early days of the conflict.

Following increasing political and military tensions in early 1775, both Dunmore and rebellious Whig leaders recruited troops and engaged in a struggle for available military supplies. The struggle eventually focused on Norfolk, where Dunmore had taken refuge aboard a Royal Navy vessel. Dunmore’s forces had fortified one side of a critical river crossing south of Norfolk at Great Bridge, while Whig forces had occupied the other side. In an attempt to break up the Whig gathering, Dunmore ordered an attack across the bridge, which, based on bad information on the Whig positions, was decisively repulsed. Shortly thereafter, Norfolk, at the time a Tory center, was abandoned by Dunmore and the Tories, who fled to navy ships in the harbor.

1793 – Noah Webster established NY’s 1st daily newspaper, American Minerva.

1809 – William Barret Travis, Commander of the Texas troops at the battle of the Alamo, was born.

1835 – Inspired by the spirited leadership of Benjamin Rush Milam, the newly created Texan Army takes possession of the city of San Antonio, an important victory for the Republic of Texas in its war for independence from Mexico. Milam was born in 1788 in Frankfort, Kentucky. He became a citizen and soldier of Mexico in 1824, when newly independent Mexico was still under a republican constitution. Like many Americans who immigrated to the Mexican state of Texas, Milam found that the government both welcomed and feared the growing numbers of Americans, and treated them with uneven fairness. When Milam heard in 1835 that Santa Ana had overthrown the Mexican republic and established himself as dictator, Milam renounced his Mexican citizenship and joined the rag-tag army of the newly proclaimed independent Republic of Texas.

After helping the Texas Army capture the city of Goliad, Milam went on a reconnaissance mission to the southwest but returned to join the army for its planned attack on San Antonio-only to learn that the generals were postponing the attack on San Antonio for the winter. Aware that Santa Ana’s forces were racing toward Texas to suppress the rebellion, Milam worried that any hesitation would spell the end of the revolution. Milam made an impassioned call for volunteers, asking: “Who will go with old Ben Milam into San Antonio?” Inspired by Milam’s bold challenge, three hundred men did volunteer, and the Texas Army began its attack on San Antonio at dawn on December 5th.

By December 9, the defending forces of the Mexican army were badly beaten, and the commanding general surrendered the city. Milam, however, was not there to witness the results of his leadership–he was killed instantly by a sniper bullet on December 7. If Milam had survived, he might well have been among the doomed defenders of the Alamo that were wiped out by Santa Ana’s troops the following March.

1861 – To monitor both military progress and the Lincoln administration, Congress creates the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. The War Committee, as it was called, was created in the aftermath of the disastrous Battle of Ball’s Bluff in October 1861 and was designed to provide a check over the executive branch’s management of the war.

The committee was stacked with Radical Republicans and staunch abolitionists, however, and was often biased in its approach to investigations of the Union war effort. Among other things, the War Committee investigated fraud in government war contracts, the treatment of Union prisoners held in the South, alleged atrocities committed by Confederate troops against Union soldiers, and the Sand Creek Massacre of Indians in Colorado.

1863 – Major General John G. Foster replaced Major General Ambrose E. Burnside as Commander of the Department of Ohio.

1864 – U.S.S. Otsego, Lieutenant Commander Arnold, sank in the Roanoke River near Jamesville, North Carolina, after striking two torpedoes in quick succession. Double-ender Otsego, along with U.S.S. Wyalusing, Lieutenant Commander English, Valley City, Acting Master John A. J. Brooks, and tugs Belle and Bazely, had formed an expedition to capture Rainbow Bluff, on the Roanoke River, and the Confederate ram rumored to be building at Halifax, North Carolina.

Commander Macomb anchored his squadron at Jamesville to await the arrival of cooperating troops, and Otsego struck two torpedoes while anchoring. Bazely, coming alongside to lend assistance, also struck a torpedo and sank instantly. Lieutenant Commander Arnold and part of his crew remained on board the sunken Otsego to cover that portion of the river with her guns above water on the hurricane deck, and the rest of the group slowly moved upriver, dragging for torpedoes, to commence the attack on Rainbow Bluff.

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1867 – The capital of Colorado Territory was moved from Golden to Denver.

1888 – Statistician Herman Hollerith installs his computing device, a mechanical tabulator based on punched cards to rapidly tabulate statistics from millions of pieces of data, at the United States War Department.

1909 – The 1st US monoplane was flown by Henry W. Walden at Long Island, NY.

1938 – Prototype shipboard radar, designed and built by the Naval Research Laboratory, is installed on USS New York (BB-34).

1941 – Gilbert Islands, Tarawa and Makin are occupied by the Japanese1941 – Franklin D. Roosevelt told Americans to plan for a long war.

1941 – 1st US WW II bombing mission in Far East took place over Luzon, Philippines.

1941 – Hitler ordered US ships torpedoed.


1941 – USS Swordfish (SS-193) makes initial U.S. submarine attack on Japanese ship.
1941 – The Automobile Racing Drivers Club of America (ARDCA) closed its doors due to World War II, which created shortages of fuel, tires, and other automotive necessities–including men to drive the cars. After the war, the ARDCA never got started again.

1942 – On Guadalcanal, General Patch’s 14th Corps relieves the exhausted Marines. The Marines leave for Australia.

1943 – German forces counterattack near Monte Sammucro but the forces of the US 5th Army hold. The Monte Camino perimeter is consolidated.

1943 – On Bougainville, a recently constructed American airfield becomes operational at Cape Torokina.

1944 – US 3rd Army is engaged in fighting around the various bridgeheads over the Saar River.

American forces are within 4 miles of Saarbrucken. A German counterattack, with tanks and infantry, near Saarlouis is defeated as US forces advance further into the German held Siegfried Line. To the right of the Allied line, the US 7th Army and French 1st Army continue offensive operations.

1944 – The US 8th Air Force attacks Stuttgart during the day.

1944 – On Leyte, a small number of Japanese reinforcements are successfully landed at Palompon on the west coast, northwest of Ormoc. To the south of Ormoc, the US 77th Divsion continues expanding its beachhead.

1948 – U.S. abandoned a plan to de-concentrate industry in Japan.

1948 – The International Convention Against Genocide was approved by the UN General Assembly.

1949 – UN took trusteeship over Jerusalem.

1950 – President Truman banned U.S. exports to Communist China.

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1950 – Harry Gold–who had confessed to serving as a courier between Klaus Fuchs, a British scientist who stole top-secret information on the atomic bomb, and Soviet agents–is sentenced to 30 years in jail for his crime. Gold’s arrest and confession led to the arrest of David Greenglass, who then implicated his brother-in-law and sister, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Gold’s arrest was part of a massive FBI investigation into Soviet espionage, particularly the theft of atomic secrets. Gold, a 39-year-old research chemist, made the acquaintance of British atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs during the latter’s trips to the United States during World War II. Fuchs worked at the Los Alamos laboratory on the Manhattan Project, the top secret U.S. program to develop an atomic weapon. David Greenglass was also employed at Los Alamos.

In February 1950, Fuchs was arrested in Great Britain and charged with passing atomic secrets on to the Soviets. He was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in a British prison. Fuchs then accused Gold of having been the go-between with Soviet agents. Gold was picked up a short time later and eventually confessed to his part. He explained that, at the time, he did not believe that he was helping an enemy, but was instead assisting a wartime ally of the United States. Further questioning of Gold led him to implicate David Greenglass. Greenglass then informed on Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, claiming that both of them actively spied for the Soviet Union during World War II and after. The Rosenbergs were later convicted and executed for espionage.

1950 – X Corps was forced to withdraw from Hungnam by sea. A curtain of intense naval gunfire greatly aided the successful evacuation of 3,834 U.N. military personnel, 1,146 vehicles, 10,013 tons of bulk cargo and 7,000 Korean civilian refugees by elements of the U.S. Navy’s Task Force 90.

1952 – Three carriers of Task Force 77 launched aircraft to strike military targets at Munsan, Hyesanjin, Rashin and Hunyun, the latter being the northernmost air raid on the Korean War.

1958 – In Indianapolis, retired Boston candy manufacturer Robert H.W. Welch, Jr., establishes the John Birch Society, a right-wing organization dedicated to fighting what it perceives to be the extensive infiltration of communism into American society. Welch named the society in honor of John Birch, considered by many to be the first American casualty in the struggle against communism. In 1945, Birch, a Baptist missionary and U.S. Army intelligence specialist, was killed by Chinese communists in the northern province of Anhwei. The John Birch Society, initially founded with only 11 members, had by the early 1960s grown to a membership of nearly 100,000 Americans and received annual private contributions of several million dollars. The society revived the spirit of McCarthyism, claiming in unsubstantiated accusations that a vast communist conspiracy existed within the U.S. government. Among others, the organization implicated President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren.

However, after the debacle of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s public hearings in the early 1950s, America became more wary of radical anti-communism, and few of the society’s sensational charges were taken seriously by mainstream American society. The John Birch Society remains active today, and its members seek “to expose a semi-secret international cabal whose members sit in the highest places of influence and power worldwide.”

1960 – The Laos government fled to Cambodia as the capital city of Vientiane was engulfed in war.

1968 – Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as “The Mother of All Demos”, publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS).

1969 – U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers proposes his plan for a ceasefire in the War of Attrition; Egypt and Jordan accept it over the objections of the PLO, which leads to civil war in Jordan in September 1970.

1971 – For the first time since the Paris peace talks began in May 1968, both sides refuse to set another meeting date for continuation of the negotiations. The refusal to continue came during the 138th session of the peace talks. U.S. delegate William Porter angered the communist negotiators by asking for a postponement of the next scheduled session of the conference until December 30, to give Hanoi and the Viet Cong an opportunity to develop a “more constructive approach” at the talks. The U.S. side was displeased with the North Vietnamese, who repeatedly demanded that South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu resign as a prerequisite for any meaningful discussions.

Although both sides returned to the official talks in January 1972, the real negotiations were being conducted between Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the lead North Vietnamese negotiator, in a private villa outside Paris. These secret talks did not result in a peace agreement until January 1973, after the massive 1972 North Vietnamese Easter Offensive had been blunted and Nixon had ordered the “Christmas bombing” of Hanoi and Haiphong to convince North Vietnam to rejoin the peace negotiations.

December 9th ~ { continued... }

1984 – In Iran, a five-day hijack drama ended when Iranian commandos captured the Kuwaiti plane. Four armed men had seized a Kuwaiti airliner en route to Pakistan and forced it to land in Tehran, where the hijackers killed American passenger Charles Hegna.

1987 – On the second day of their White House summit, President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev grappled with differences over Afghanistan and cutbacks in long-range nuclear arms.
1992 – Former CIA spy chief Clair George was convicted of lying to Congress about the Iran-Contra affair. President Bush pardoned him.
1992 – US Force Recon Marines and Navy SEAL’s, followed by Company F, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment arrive in Mogadishu, launching America’s intervention in Somalia.

1993 – The Air Force destroyed the first of 500 Minuteman II missile silos marked for elimination under an arms control treaty.

1993 – Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour completed repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope.

1996 – More than four months after the Olympic Games bombing, the FBI posted a $500,000 reward. Richard Jewell, the security guard who was wrongfully accused of planting a bomb during the Olympics, and his lawyers negotiated a $500,000 settlement from NBC. NBC settled to avert a defamation suit.

1996 – UN chief Boutros-Ghali gave Iraq the go-ahead to resume oil exports for the first time since 1990 to buy food and medicine. Two billion of oil sales will be allowed every 6 months to buy food, medicine and other necessities.

1997 – It was reported that the US had agreed to provide over $500 million towards the construction of a new atom smasher in Geneva under the direction of CERN. The large Hadron Collider was expected to be completed for $6 billion by 2005.

1997 – North Korean officials agreed to a 4-nation meeting in Geneva for a permanent peace treaty to the 1950-1953 Korean War. The talks inaugurated formal discussion for a permanent peace agreement and a new session was scheduled for March 16th.

1998 – Iraq refused UN inspectors access to an office of the ruling Baath Party.

1999 – Seven Marines were killed after a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed while ferrying troops between ships 14 miles off Point Loma, Ca.

2000 – The US Supreme ruled 5-4 to stop the recount in Florida until arguments are heard December 11th.

2000 – President Putin said he would follow the recommendation of the pardons commission and free Edmond Pope. It was later reported that Pope’s efforts to buy technology ran parallel to Canadian efforts to buy advanced Shkval torpedoes from a defense plan in Kyrgyzstan.

2001 – The United States disclosed the existence of a videotape in which Osama bin Laden said he was pleasantly surprised by the extent of damage from the September 11th terrorist attacks.

2001 – US B-52s continued strikes over Tora Bora. A Northern Alliance helicopter crashed and 18 people were killed including 2 Pashtun commanders. The last province under Taliban control, Zabul, was handed over to tribal leaders.

2002 – The Spanish SPS Navarra (F85) intercepted the unflagged freighter So San several hundred miles southeast of Yemen at the request of the United States government. The frigate fired across the So San’s bow after the freighter ignored hails and attempted to evade the frigate. The freighter’s crew was North Korean; 23 containers containing 15 complete Scud ballistic missiles, 15 high-explosive warheads, and 23 nitric acid (used as an oxidizer for fueling Scud missiles) containers were found on board. Yemen claimed ownership of the shipment and protested the interception and U.S. officials released the vessel after receiving assurances that the missiles would not be transferred to a third party.

2002 – The United States received a copy of Saddam Hussein’s massive arms declaration as inspectors began combing the dossier for clues about whether Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction.

2002 – Serbia headed for a major political crisis after it failed a second time to elect a president, with supporters of the top vote-getter vowing to challenge the outcome.

2003 – North Korea offered an apparent counterproposal to a U.S.-backed plan to resolve the standoff over its nuclear program, saying it would freeze the project in return for energy aid and being removed from Washington’s list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

2004 – Indian officials cautioned Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that a proposed US sale of military hardware worth $1.2 billion to Pakistan could damage a fragile peace process between the nuclear-armed neighbors and harm India-US relations.

2004 – United Airlines was scheduled to begin service to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

2006 – The Space Shuttle Discovery makes a rare night time launch. STS-116 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle Discovery. Discovery lifted off at 20:47:35 EST. It was the first night launch of a space shuttle since STS-113 in November 2002. The mission is also referred to as ISS-12A.1 by the ISS program. The main goals of the mission were delivery and attachment of the International Space Station’s P5 truss segment, a major rewiring of the station’s power system, and exchange of ISS Expedition 14 personnel. The shuttle landed at 17:32 EST on 22 December 2006 at Kennedy Space Center 98 minutes off schedule due to unfavorable weather conditions.

This mission was particularly notable to Sweden, being the first spaceflight of a Scandinavian astronaut, Christer Fuglesang. STS-116 was the final scheduled space shuttle launch from Pad 39B as NASA reconfigured it for Ares I launches. The only remaining use of Pad 39B by the shuttle was as a reserve for the STS-400 Launch On Need mission to rescue the crew of STS-125, the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, if their shuttle became damaged. After STS-116, Discovery entered a period of maintenance. Its next mission would be STS-120 starting on 23 October 2007.

2008 – The Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama’s election to the Presidency.

2014 – The Democratically-controlled United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence releases a report critical of the post-September 11th Bush Administration-era CIA interrogation techniques used to extract intelligence from captured Al-Qaeda operatives. The Obama Administration orders US embassies around the world be placed on high alert. The report is the result of several years of research and has been compiled by the Democratic members of the committee, another report is expected to be published by the committee’s Republican members.

December 10th ~

1817 – Mississippi was admitted as the 20th state of the Union. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary and comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi (“Great River”). Jackson is the state capital.

1845 – President James Polk make a bold move to radically expand the burgeoning United States. Polk gave Congressman John Slidell the go-ahead to settle a border dispute concerning Texas, as well as to purchase New Mexico and California, from Mexico. As per Polk’s demand, Slidell anted up $5 million for New Mexico and $25 million for California; however, Mexico refused the offer, emboldening the president to marshal a war effort in the name of “reannexing” the territory.

1861 – The Confederate States of America accept a rival state government’s pronouncement that declares Kentucky to be the 13th state of the Confederacy.

1862 – U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill creating the state of West Virginia.

1864 – Union General William T. Sherman completes his “March to the Sea” when he arrives in front of Savannah, Georgia. Since mid-November, Sherman’s army had been sweeping from Atlanta across the state to the south and east towards Savannah, one of the last Confederate seaports still unoccupied by Union forces. Along the way, Sherman destroyed farms and railroads, burned storehouses, and fed his army off the land. In his own words, Sherman intended to “make Georgia howl,” a plan that was approved by President Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, general-in-chief of the Union armies.

The city of Savannah was fortified and defended by 10,000 Confederates under the command of General William Hardee. The Rebels flooded the rice fields around Savannah, so only a few narrow causeways provided access to the city. Sherman’s army was running low on supplies and he had not made contact with supply ships off the coast. Sherman’s army had been completely cut off from the North, and only the reports of destruction provided any evidence of its whereabouts. Sherman directed General Oliver O. Howard to the coast to locate friendly ships. Howard dispatched Captain William Duncan and two comrades to contact the Union fleet, but nothing was heard of the trio for several days. Duncan located a Union gunboat that carried him to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Supply ships were sent to Savannah, and Duncan continued on to Washington to deliver news of the successful “March to the Sea” to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. For ten day, Hardee held out as Sherman prepared for an attack. Realizing the futility of losing in force entirely, Hardee fled the city on December 20 and slipped northward to fight another day.

1864 – C.S.S. Macon, Lieutenant Kennard, C.S.S. Sampson, Lieutenant William W. Carnes, and C.S.S. Resolute, Acting Master’s Mate William D. Oliveira, under Flag Officer Hunter, took Union shore batteries under fire at Tweedside on the Savannah River. Hunter attempted to run his gunboats downriver to join in the defense of Savannah, but was unable to pass the strong Federal batteries. Resolute was disabled in this exchange of fire, 12 December, and was abandoned and captured. Recognizing that he could not get his remaining two vessels to Savannah, and having destroyed the railroad bridge over the Savannah River which he had been defending, Hunter took advantage of unusually high water to move upstream to Augusta.

1898 – In France, the Treaty of Paris is signed, formally ending the Spanish-American War and granting the United States its first overseas empire. The Spanish-American War had its origins in the rebellion against Spanish rule that began in Cuba in 1895. The repressive measures that Spain took to suppress the guerrilla war, such as herding Cuba’s rural population into disease-ridden garrison towns, were graphically portrayed in U.S. newspapers and enflamed public opinion.
In January 1898, violence in Havana led U.S. authorities to order the battleship USS Maine to the city’s port to protect American citizens. On February 15, a massive explosion of unknown origin sank the Maine in Havana harbor, killing 260 of the 400 American crewmembers aboard. An official U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry ruled in March, without much evidence, that the ship was blown up by a mine, but it did not directly place the blame on Spain. Much of Congress and a majority of the American public expressed little doubt that Spain was responsible, however, and called for a declaration of war. In April, the U.S. Congress prepared for war, adopting joint congressional resolutions demanding a Spanish withdrawal from Cuba and authorizing President William McKinley to use force. On April 23, President McKinley asked for 125,000 volunteers to fight against Spain. The next day, Spain issued a declaration of war. The United States declared war on April 25.

On May 1, the U.S. Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish Pacific fleet at Manila Bay in the first battle of the Spanish-American War. Dewey’s decisive victory cleared the way for the U.S. occupation of Manila in August and the eventual transfer of the Philippines from Spanish to American control. On the other side of the world, a Spanish fleet docked in Cuba’s Santiago harbor in May after racing across the Atlantic from Spain. A superior U.S. naval force arrived soon after and blockaded the harbor entrance.

In June, the U.S. Army Fifth Corps landed in Cuba with the aim of marching to Santiago and launching a coordinated land and sea assault on the Spanish stronghold. Included among the U.S. ground troops were the Theodore Roosevelt-led “Rough Riders,” a collection of western cowboys and eastern blue bloods officially known as the First U.S. Voluntary Cavalry. On July 1, the Americans won the Battle of San Juan Hill, and the next day they began a siege of Santiago. On July 3, the Spanish fleet was destroyed off Santiago by U.S. warships under Admiral William Sampson, and on July 17 the Spanish surrendered the city–and thus Cuba–to the Americans. In Puerto Rico, Spanish forces likewise crumbled in the face of superior U.S. forces, and on August 12 an armistice was signed between Spain and the United States, ending the brief and one-sided conflict.

On December 10, the Treaty of Paris officially ended the Spanish-American War. The once-proud Spanish empire was virtually dissolved as the United States took over much of Spain’s overseas holdings. Puerto Rico and Guam were ceded to the United States, the Philippines were bought for $20 million, and Cuba became a U.S. protectorate. Philippine insurgents who fought against Spanish rule during the war immediately turned their guns against the new occupiers, and 10 times more U.S. troops died suppressing the Philippines than in defeating Spain.

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1905 – To evaluate its use in lighthouse work, radio equipment was installed experimentally on Nantucket Lightship in August of 1901. On December 10, 1905, while riding out a severe gale, Lightship No. 58 on the Nantucket Shoals Station sprang a serious leak. There being no recognized radio distress signal at that time, the operator could only repeatedly spell out the word “help”. Although no reply was received Newport Navy station (radio) intercepted the call and passed it on to the proper authorities.

The lightship tender Azalea was dispatched to the assistance of Lightship No. 58, and upon arrival at the scene passed a towline. The long tow to a safe harbor began, but after a few hours it was quite evident that Lightship No. 58 was sinking. Azalea took off her crew of thirteen men only minutes before she sank. This pioneer use of radio had indeed proved Its worth in rescue operations.

1906 – President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.

1918 – U.S. troops were called to guard Berlin as a coup was feared.

1926 – Part 2 of Hitler’s Mein Kampf was published.

1939 – The American government grants Finland, at war with the USSR, a $10 million credit for agricultural supplies, a gesture largely due to Finland being the only country to have paid war debts from the World War I to the United States.

1940 – Roosevelt announces an extension of the export-license system. Iron ore, pig iron and many important iron and steel manufactures are brought within the system. Like previous measures this is aimed at Japan. The changes come into effect at the end of the year.

1941 – Japanese air attacks and troop landings on Luzon. Attack on the naval base at Caite destroys weapons stocks. At Aparri, on the north coast, 2000 troops of the Tanaka Detachment land, while troops of the Kanno Detachment land at Vigan in the northeast. Both landings are well supported by naval forces.

1941 – Admiral Goto commands a Japanese force which captures the 300 man US garrison on Guam.

1941 – Aircraft from USS Enterprise attack and sink Japanese Submarine I-70 north of Hawaiian Islands. A participant in the Pearl Harbor Attack. At the time, I-70 is thought to be the first Japanese combatant ship sunk during World War II.

1941 – PBY piloted by LT Utter of VP-101 shoots down Japanese ZERO in first Navy air-to-air kill during World War II.

1941 – The US submarine Sea Lion was sunk in an air attack at Manila Bay. 10 crewman were captured by the Japanese and shipped to work in a Mitsubishi copper mine in northern Japan.

1941 – With no weapon larger than the .30 caliber MG, 153 Marines defended Guam until overwhelmed.

1941 – The long-running debate on draft regulations ends with Roosevelt signing into law a revised bill which puts those who have been fathers since before Pearl Harbor at the bottom of the list.

1943 – On Bougainville, the first American aircraft arrive at the Cape Torokina airfield. American divisions are gradually extending their perimeter.

1944 – On Leyte, the US 77th Division captures Ormoc, the main Japanese base on the island. Japanese forces are now mostly concentrated around Palompon.

1944 – The US 7th Corps (part of US 1st Army) launches an attack west of Aachen directed at Duren. To the south, US 3rd Army continues to defend its bridgeheads on the Saar River.

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1950 – Evacuation operations at Wonson, North Korea, completed.

1950 – The U.S. Air Force Combat Cargo Command completed a four-day emergency mission in which it airdropped 1,580 tons of supplies and equipment and evacuated 4,687 casualties from the Hagaru-ri and Koto-ri areas near the Chosin/Changjin Reservoir.

1951 – The 45th Infantry Division of the Oklahoma Army National Guard arrived in Korea to replace the 1st Cavalry Division.

1958 – The first domestic passenger jet flight took place in the United States as a National Airlines Boeing 707 flew 111 passengers from New York City to Miami.

1970 – The defense opens its case in the murder trial of Lt. William Calley. Charged with six specifications of premeditated murder, Calley was a platoon leader in Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, 11th Infantry Brigade (Light) of the 23rd (Americal) Division. He was tried because of his leadership role in the My Lai massacres. On March 16, 1968, Calley led his troops to murder innocent Vietnamese civilians living in a cluster of hamlets located in Son Tinh District in Quang Ngai Province in the northern coastal lowlands. Citing “superior’s orders,” Defense Attorney George Lattimer contended that Capt. Ernest Medina, Calley’s company commander, told his men that they were finally going to fight the enemy. He reportedly ordered “every living thing” killed. Lattimer also cited poor training of the platoon, the rage of the men who had seen their buddies killed, and the expectation of fierce resistance as additional factors contributing to the incident. The lawyer also charged that higher commanders on the ground and in the air observed the episode but did nothing.

Despite Lattimer’s argument, Calley was found guilty of murdering 22 civilians and sentenced to life imprisonment. His sentence was reduced to 20 years by the Court of Military Appeals and further reduced to 10 years by the Secretary of the Army. Proclaimed a “scapegoat” by much of the public, Calley was paroled by President Richard Nixon in 1974, after serving about a third of his 10-year sentence.

1972 – Technical experts on both sides begin work on the language of a proposed peace accord, giving rise to hope that a final agreement is near. A peace agreement was signed on January 23, 1973. The peace agreement came out of secret negotiations National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger was conducting with North Vietnamese representatives at a villa outside Paris. Gen. Alexander Haig, who had been briefing President Richard Nixon on the Paris talks, was alerted to fly to Saigon with the document when it was completed, so that Saigon could sign while the United States and Hanoi signed in Paris. Unfortunately, the talks broke down two days later when South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu balked at the proposed agreement because it did not require North Vietnamese troops to leave the south.

The North Vietnamese negotiators refused to discuss the withdrawal of their troops and walked out. They returned only after Nixon ordered the bombing of North Vietnam. After 11 days of bombing, Hanoi agreed to send negotiators back to Paris. When the talks resumed in January 1973, the negotiations moved ahead quickly. On January 23, the United States, North Vietnam, the Republic of Vietnam, and the Viet Cong signed a cease-fire agreement that took effect five days later.

1979 – First Poseidon submarine configured with Trident missiles, USS Francis Scott Key (SSBN-657) completes initial deterrent patrol.

1980 – US Representative John W. Jenrette (Democrat, South Carolina) resigned to avoid being expelled from the House following his conviction on charges relating to the FBI’s ABSCAM investigation.

1981 – A Coast Guard HH-52A landed on CGC Dependable’s flight deck, marking the 5,000th helicopter landing on board the ship. According to AVTRACEN records, this was the most helicopter landings ever recorded aboard a cutter. The landing occurred off Dauphin Island in the Gulf of Mexico.

1982 – USS Ohio (SSBN-726), first Trident-Class submarine, returns from first deterrent patrol.

1987 – President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev concluded three days of summit talks in Washington.

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1990 – The space shuttle “Columbia” returned from its tenth mission.1993 – The crew of the space shuttle Endeavour deployed the repaired Hubble Space Telescope into Earth orbit.

1993 – Secretary of Transportation Andrew H. Card, Jr., awarded the military members of the Coast Guard the Humanitarian Service Medal and the civilian employees the Coast Guard Public Service Commendation for their services for the period from October 1991 through November 1992.

1994 – Advertising executive Thomas Mosser was killed by a mail bomb attributed to the Unabomber at his home in North Caldwell N.J.

1995 – In Bosnia, 22 Marines from Marine Corps Security Force Company, Naples, Italy were among the first American troops to arrive. They provided the security for Allied Forces Southern Europe headquartered at Sarajevo. About 2,500 NATO troops would be in place by 19 December taking on the task of peace enforcement in former Yugoslavia from the U.N.

1996 – NATO took formal steps to expand and reassured Russia that it had no plans to move nuclear weapons into the territory of new members.

1998 – Six astronauts jubilantly swung open the doors to the new international space station, becoming the first guests aboard the 250-mile-high outpost.

1999 – Wen Ho Lee, nuclear physicist, was charged with 59 counts of mishandling classified information at Los Alamos National Laboratory. After three years under suspicion as a spy for China, computer scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested and charged with removing secrets from secure computers at the Los Alamos weapons lab. Lee was later freed after pleading guilty to one count of downloading restricted data to tape; 58 other counts were dropped.

1999 – In Kuwait 3 US airmen were killed when an Air Force C-130 transport made a belly landing and ignited a fire.

1999 – The UN extended Iraq’s “oil-for-food” program for 6 months and set the stage for the suspension of sanctions if UN weapon’s inspectors are not allowed back into the country.

2001 – US air strikes continued at Tora Bora and Afghan fighters moved in on al Qaeda defenders in fortified caves.

2001 – In Kenya Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, an al Qaeda operative, was arrested in Mandera near the Somalia border for involvement in the Aug 7, 1998 US Embassy bombing.

2002 – A U.S. F-16 fighter bombed an Iraqi surface-to-air missile system after Iraq moved it deep into the southern no-fly zone.

2003 – A U.S. Department of Defense document limits contracts for 26 Iraqi reconstruction projects to companies from countries that supported the war. Companies from France, Russia, and Germany will still be able to compete for sub-contractor roles.

2004 – Bernard Kerik withdrew his name from consideration to be President Bush’s homeland security secretary.

2004 – Staff Sgt. Johnny M. Horne Jr. (30) of Wilson, N.C., was sentenced to three years in prison for killing severely wounded Qasim Hassan (16) in Sadr City on Aug 18th.

2004 – A US passenger jet, United Flight 869, landed in Vietnam, the first since the Vietnam War ended nearly 30 years ago.

2009 – U.S. President Barack Obama accepts the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.

2012 – Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra is declared a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

December 11th ~

1816 – Indiana was admitted to the Union as the 19th state. Indiana is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern and Great Lakes regions of North America. Since its founding as a territory, settlement patterns in Indiana have reflected regional cultural segmentation present in the Eastern United States; the state’s northernmost tier was settled primarily by people from New England and New York, Central Indiana by migrants from the Mid-Atlantic states and from adjacent Ohio, and Southern Indiana by settlers from the Southern states, particularly Kentucky and Tennessee.

1862 – The Union Army of the Potomac occupies Fredericksburg, Virginia, as General Ambrose Burnside continues to execute his plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond. Unfortunately for the Union, the occupation did not happen until three weeks after Burnside’s army had arrived at Falmouth, just across the river from Fredericksburg. Due to a logistical error, pontoon bridges had not been available so the army could not cross; the delay allowed Confederate General Robert E. Lee ample time to post his Army of Northern Virginia along Marye’s Heights above Fredericksburg. Burnside replaced General George McClellan as head of the Army of the Potomac in early November. He devised a plan to move his army quickly down the Rappahannock River, cross the river, and race Lee’s army south to Richmond. Everything went according to plan as the Yankees sped south from Warrenton, Virginia. Burnside surprised Lee with his swiftness–the leading Union corps covered 40 miles in two days. The entire army was at Falmouth by November 19.

Although ready to cross the Rappahannock, the army did not begin receiving the pontoon bridges until the end of the month due to mistakes made by the engineering corps.
The delay allowed Lee to move his troops into position on the opposite side of the river. President Lincoln visited his army at the end of November, and, realizing that the element of surprise was lost, characterized Burnside’s plan as “somewhat risky.” On December 11, Burnside’s engineers finally began to assemble the bridges. Confederate snipers in Fredericksburg picked away at the builders, so Yankee artillery began a barrage that reduced to rubble many of the buildings along the river. Three regiments ran the sharpshooters out of the town, and the bridge was completed soon after. By evening on the 11th, the Union army was crossing the Rappahannock. By the next day, the entire army was on the other side and Burnside planned the actual attack. The Battle of Fredericksburg, which took place on December 13, was an enormous defeat for the Army of the Potomac. Ten percent of Burnside’s soldiers were casualties. Lee lost less than 5,000 men while Burnside lost 12,600.

1863 – Union gunboats Restless, Bloomer and Caroline entered St. Andrew’s Bay, Fla., and began bombardment of both Confederate Quarters and Saltworks.

1864 – Commander Preble, commanding the Naval Brigade fighting ashore with the forces of Major General Foster up the Broad River, South Carolina, reported to Rear Admiral Dahlgren concerning a unique “explosive ball” used by Confederate forces against his skirmishers: ”It is a conical ball in shape, like an ordinary rifle bullet. The pointed end is charged with a fulminate. The base of the ball separately from the conical end, and has a leaden standard or plunger. The explosion of the charge drives the base up, so as to flatten a thin disk of metal between it and the ball, the leaden plunger is driven against the fulminate, and it explodes the ball. . . . It seems to me that use of such a missile is an unnecessary addition to the barbarities of war.”

1872 – Already appearing as a well-known figure of the Wild West in popular dime novels, Buffalo Bill Cody makes his first stage appearance on this day, in a Chicago-based production of The Scouts of the Prairie. Unlike many of his imitators in Wild West shows and movies, William Frederick Cody actually played an important role in the western settlement that he later romanticized and celebrated. Born in Iowa in 1846, Cody joined the western messenger service of Majors and Russell as a rider while still in his teens. He later rode for the famous Pony Express, during which time he completed the third longest emergency ride in the brief history of that company. During the Civil War, Cody joined forces with a variety of irregular militia groups supporting the North. In 1864, he enlisted in the Union army as a private and served as a cavalry teamster until 1865. Cody began to earn his famous nickname in 1867, when he signed on to provide buffalo meat for the workers of the Eastern Division of the Union Pacific Railroad construction project.

His reputation for skilled marksmanship and experience as a rapid-delivery messenger attracted the attention of U.S. Army Lieutenant General Philip Sheridan, who gave Cody an unusual four-year position as a scout-a testament to Cody’s extraordinary frontier skills. Cody’s work as a scout in the western Indian wars laid the foundation for his later fame. From 1868 to 1872, he fought in 16 battles with Indians, participating in a celebrated victory over the Cheyenne in 1869. One impressed general praised Cody’s “extraordinarily good services as trailer and fighter . . . his marksmanship being very conspicuous.”

Later, Cody again gained national attention by serving as a hunting guide for famous Europeans and Americans eager to experience a bit of the “Wild West” before it disappeared. As luck would have it, one of Cody’s customers was Edward Judson, a successful writer who penned popular dime novels under the name Ned Buntline. Impressed by his young guide’s calm competence and stories of dramatic fights with Indians, Buntline made Cody the hero of a highly imaginative Wild West novel published in 1869. When a stage version of the novel debuted in Chicago as The Scouts of the Prairie, Buntline convinced Cody to abandon his real-life western adventures to play a highly exaggerated version of himself in the play. Once he had a taste of the performing life, Cody never looked back. Though he continued to spend time scouting or guiding hunt trips in the West, Cody remained on the Chicago stage for the next 11 years. Buffalo Bill Cody was the hero of more than 1,700 variant issues of dime novels, and his star shone even more brightly when his world-famous Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show debuted in 1883. The show was still touring when Buffalo Bill Cody died in 1917.

December 11th ~ { continued... }

1901 – Marconi sent his 1st transatlantic radio signal from Cornwall to Newfoundland.

1928 – Police in Buenos Aires thwarted an attempt on the life of President-elect Herbert Hoover.

1930 – This day brought another ominous sign that the nation was sliding towards a prolonged and difficult economic slump, as New York’s branch of Bank of the United States announced that it had gone belly-up. Up until its downfall, the Bank held the savings of some 400,000 depositors, including a number of immigrants; its subsequent demise imperiled the finances of roughly one-third of New York and stood as the nation’s single worst bank failure.

1937 – Italy withdrew from the League of Nations.

1939 – Actress Marlene Dietrich records her hit song “Falling in Love Again.” Dietrich also became a U.S. citizen in 1939. Born in Berlin, Dietrich came to the United States in 1930 to make movies after considerable success on the German screen. She allegedly refused several offers to return to Germany to star in Nazi films. She became a U.S. citizen in 1939 and worked tirelessly during and after World War II to sell war bonds and entertain troops. She was awarded the Medal of Freedom and named Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor.

1941 – Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. Shortly afterward, the US Congress issues a declaration of war against Germany and Italy.

1941 – A Japanese invasion fleet attacked Wake Island, which was defended by 439 US marines, 75 sailors and 6 soldiers. The defenders sank 4 Japanese ships, damaged 8 and destroyed a submarine.

1941 – Guam was occupied by Japanese troops.

1941 – Buick lowered its prices to reflect the absence of spare tires or inner tubes from its new cars. Widespread shortages caused by World War II had led to many quotas and laws designed to conserve America’s resources. One of these laws prohibited spare tires on new cars. Rubber, produced overseas, had become almost impossible to get. People didn’t mind the spare-tire law too much, though. They were too busy dealing with quotas for gasoline, meat, butter, shoes, and other essentials.

1941 – Adolf Hitler declares war on the United States, bringing America, which had been neutral, into the European conflict. The bombing of Pearl Harbor surprised even Germany. Although Hitler had made an oral agreement with his Axis partner Japan that Germany would join a war against the United States, he was uncertain as to how the war would be engaged. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor answered that question.

On December 8, Japanese Ambassador Oshima went to German Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop to nail the Germans down on a formal declaration of war against America. Von Ribbentrop stalled for time; he knew that Germany was under no obligation to do this under the terms of the Tripartite Pact, which promised help if Japan was attacked, but not if Japan was the aggressor. Von Ribbentrop feared that the addition of another antagonist, the United States, would overwhelm the German war effort. But Hitler thought otherwise. He was convinced that the United States would soon beat him to the punch and declare war on Germany. The U.S. Navy was already attacking German U-boats, and Hitler despised Roosevelt for his repeated verbal attacks against his Nazi ideology. He also believed that Japan was much stronger than it was, that once it had defeated the United States, it would turn and help Germany defeat Russia.

So at 3:30 p.m. (Berlin time) on December 11, the German charge d’affaires in Washington handed American Secretary of State Cordell Hull a copy of the declaration of war. That very same day, Hitler addressed the Reichstag to defend the declaration. The failure of the New Deal, argued Hitler, was the real cause of the war, as President Roosevelt, supported by plutocrats and Jews, attempted to cover up for the collapse of his economic agenda. “First he incites war, then falsifies the causes, then odiously wraps himself in a cloak of Christian hypocrisy and slowly but surely leads mankind to war,” declared Hitler-and the Reichstag leaped to their feet in thunderous applause.

1942 – Japanese Admiral Tanaka’s “Tokyo Express” again attempts the delivery of supplies to the Japanese forces on Guadalcanal. The cargo is dropped over board and only 1/4 of it reaches the troops on shore. Machine gun fire from US PT boats sinks much of it. One of the Japanese destroyers is sunk by the defenders as well.

1943 – The US 5th Army continues its Italian offensive without decisive gains and its momentum is wearing down.

1943 – U.S. Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, demanded that Hungary, Rumania, and Bulgaria withdraw from the war.

1944 – Forces of the US 7th Army enter Haguenau in Alsace and advances southeast of Rohrbach. There are German counterattacks against the US 3rd Army bridgeheads over the Saar River which are repulsed.

1944 – Over 2000 USAAF bombers of the 8th and 15th Air Forces attack various rail targets in Germany as well as an oil plant and ordnance depots near Vienna (annexed Austria).

1945 – A B-29 Superfortress shattered all records by crossing the U.S. in five hours and 27 minutes.