** TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY **

May 20th ~ {continued...}

1949 – In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established.

1951 – Air Force Captain James Jabara, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, became the first Korean War ace and the first jet ace in aviation history after downing his fifth MiG. He accomplished this feat in an F-86 Sabre with one hung drop tank.

1951 – North of Kansong on the east coast, the flagship of the U.S. 7th Fleet, the battleship USS New Jersey, fired for the first time in the Korean War.

1953 – The U.S. National Security Council decided that if “conditions arise,” air and ground operations would be extended to China and ground operations in Korea would be intensified.

1954 – Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek became president of Nationalist China.

1956 – The United States conducts the first airborne test of an improved hydrogen bomb, dropping it from a plane over the tiny island of Namu in the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The successful test indicated that hydrogen bombs were viable airborne weapons and that the arms race had taken another giant leap forward.

The United States first detonated a hydrogen bomb in 1952 in the Marshall Islands, also in the Pacific. However, that bomb–and the others used in tests that followed–were large and unwieldy affairs that were exploded from the ground. The practical application of dropping the weapon over an enemy had been a mere theoretical possibility until the successful test in May 1956. The hydrogen bomb dropped over Bikini Atoll was carried by a B-52 bomber and released at an altitude of more than 50,000 feet. The device exploded at about 15,000 feet.

This bomb was far more powerful than those previously tested and was estimated to be 15 megatons or larger (one megaton is roughly equivalent to 1 million tons of TNT). Observers said that the fireball caused by the explosion measured at least four miles in diameter and was brighter than the light from 500 suns. The successful U.S. test meant that the ante in the nuclear arms race had been dramatically upped. The Soviets had tested their own hydrogen bomb in 1953, shortly after the first U.S. test in 1952.

In November 1955, the Soviets had dropped a hydrogen bomb from an airplane in remote Siberia. Though much smaller and far less powerful (estimated at about 1.6 megatons) than the U.S. bomb dropped over Bikini, the Russian success spurred the Americans to rush ahead with the Bikini test. The massive open-air blast in 1956 caused concerns among scientists and environmentalists about the effects of such testing on human and animal life.

During the coming years, a growing movement in the United States and elsewhere began to push for a ban on open-air atomic testing. The Limited Test Ban Treaty, signed in 1963 by the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain, prohibited open-air and underwater nuclear testing.

1959 – Japanese-Americans regained their citizenship.

1964 – France proposes reconvening a 14-nation conference on Laos in Geneva; it is rejected by the United States and Great Britain but accepted by the Soviets, Poland, Cambodia, India, and Communist China.

1969 – After 10 days and 10 bloody assaults, Hill 937 in South Vietnam is finally captured by U.S. and South Vietnamese troops. The Americans who fought there cynically dubbed Hill 937 “Hamburger Hill” because the battle and its high casualty rate reminded them of a meat grinder. Located one mile east of the Laotian border, Hill 937 was ordered taken as part of Operation Apache Snow, a mission intended to limit enemy infiltration from Laos that threatened Hue to the northeast and Danang to the southeast.

On May 10th, following air and artillery strikes, a U.S.-led infantry force launched its first assault on the North Vietnamese stronghold but suffered a high proportion of casualties and fell back. Ten more infantry assaults came during the next 10 days, but Hill 937’s North Vietnamese defenders did not give up their fortified position until May 20. Almost 100 Americans were killed and more than 400 wounded in taking the hill, amounting to a shocking 70 percent casualty rate.

The same day that Hamburger Hill was finally captured, Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts called the operation “senseless and irresponsible” and attacked the military tactics of President Richard Nixon’s administration. His speech before the Senate was seen as part of a growing public outcry over the U.S. military policy in Vietnam. U.S. military command had ordered Hill 937 taken primarily as a diversionary tactic, and on May 28th it was abandoned. This led to further outrage in America over what seemed a senseless loss of American lives. North Vietnamese forces eventually returned and re-fortified their original position.

May 20th ~ {continued...}

1970 – More than 100,000 construction workers, dock men, and office workers lead a parade in New York City supporting the policies of President Nixon and attacking Mayor John Lindsay and other opponents of the Vietnam War.

1970 – About 2,500 South Vietnamese soldiers, supported by US airpower and advisors, open up a new front in Cambodia, 125 miles north of Saigon, bringing the number of South Vietnamese troops in Cambodia to 40,000. South Vietnamese troops link up with Cambodian forces 25 miles north of Takeo after a cross country drive.

1972 – President Nixon meets with Leonid Brezhnev for summit talks in Moscow. Although Vietnam is discussed, there is no change in the Soviet Union’s support of North Vietnam, and both parties are apparently unwilling to risk détente over the topic.

1985 – US began broadcasts to Cuba on Radio Marti.

1985 – FBI arrested John A. Walker. US Navy Chief Petty Officer Walker began spying for the Soviet Union in 1968 for $1,000 per week. Walker’s ex-wife turned him into the FBI.

1987 – The commander of the U.S. frigate Stark, who lost 37 of his sailors in an Iraqi missile attack, broke his silence. Captain Glenn Brindel said he was warned only seconds before the missiles struck, and that he’d had no time to activate the ship’s defense system.

1989 – China declared martial law in Beijing. During the pro-democracy protests, Beijing officials ordered CBS and CNN to end their live on-scene reports.

1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first photographs.

1996 – The US paid North Korea $2 million to help recover the remains of US soldiers killed during the Korean War.

1996 – In New York, the United Nations and Iraq agree to U.N. Security Council Resolution 986. Iraqi oil exports are expected to begin by the Fall of 1996, after a pumping station on the Iraq-Turkey pipeline is repaired and U.N monitoring and aid distribution facilities are put in place. Shortly after the agreement, the White House announces its decision to allow U.S. oil companies to purchase Iraqi oil exports.

1997 – Marine Corporal Clemente Banuelos shot and killed the goat herder Esequiel Hernandez on the Mexican border at El Paso while on border patrol. The marine claimed self-defense after Hernandez fired 2 shots from a .22-caliber rifle. A grand jury later declined to indict Banuelos.

1999 – The CGC Bear arrived in Rota, Spain. She was deployed to the Adriatic Sea in support of “Operation Allied Force” and “Operation Noble Anvil”, NATO’s military campaign against the forces of the former Republic of Yugoslavia. Bear served in the USS Theodore Roosevelt Battle Group providing surface surveillance and SAR response for the Sea Combat Commander, and force protection for the Amphibious Ready Group operating near Albania. Bear provided combat escort for U.S. Army vessel’s transporting military cargo between Italy and Albania. This escort operation took Bear up to the Albanian coastline, well within enemy surface-to-surface missile range.

2000 – The 5 nuclear powers of the UN Security Council agreed to eliminate their nuclear arsenals over time as part of a new disarmament agenda approved by 187 countries.

2003 – The Bush administration raised the terrorism alert level to orange on and called for increased security nationwide.

2003 – Afghan governors signed an agreement with President Hamid Karzai to pay vital customs revenues to the central government. Karzai had threatened to resign due to lack of revenue payments.

2004 – Iraqi police backed by American soldiers raided the home and offices of Ahmad Chalabi, a prominent Iraqi politician.

2011 – At least one person is killed and ten people injured following an explosion in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, with a United States consular convoy targeted by the Pakistani Taliban.

2014 – The VA’s Office of Inspector General says it is investigating 26 agency facilities for allegations of doctored waiting times.

May 21st ~

1542 – On the banks of the Mississippi River in present-day Louisiana, Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto dies, ending a three-year journey for gold that took him halfway across what is now the United States. In order that Indians would not learn of his death, and thus disprove de Soto’s claims of divinity, his men buried his body in the Mississippi River.

In late May 1539, de Soto landed on the west coast of Florida with 600 troops, servants, and staff, 200 horses, and a pack of bloodhounds. From there, the army set about subduing the natives, seizing any valuables they stumbled upon, and preparing the region for eventual Spanish colonization. Traveling through Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, across the Appalachians, and back to Alabama, de Soto failed to find the gold and silver he desired, but he did seize a valuable collection of pearls at Cofitachequi, in present-day Georgia. Decisive conquest also eluded the Spaniards, as what would become the United States lacked the large, centralized civilizations of Mexico and Peru.

As was the method of Spanish conquest elsewhere in the Americas, de Soto ill-treated and enslaved the natives he encountered. For the most part, the Indian warriors they encountered were intimidated by the Spanish horsemen and kept their distance. In October 1540, however, the tables were turned when a confederation of Indians attacked the Spaniards at the fortified Indian town of Mabila, near present-day Mobile, Alabama. All the Indians were killed, along with 20 of de Soto’s men. Several hundred Spaniards were wounded. In addition, the Indian conscripts they had come to depend on to bear their supplies had all fled with baggage.

De Soto could have marched south to reconvene with his ships along the Gulf Coast, but instead he ordered his expedition north-westward in search of America’s elusive riches. In May 1541, the army reached and crossed the Mississippi River, probably the first Europeans ever to do so. From there, they traveled through Arkansas and Louisiana, still with few material gains to show for their efforts.

Turning back to the Mississippi, de Soto died of a fever on its banks on May 21, 1542. The Spaniards, now under the command of Luis de Moscoso, traveled west again, crossing into north Texas before returning to the Mississippi. With nearly half of the original expedition dead, the Spaniards built rafts and traveled down the river to the sea, and then made their way down the Texas coast to New Spain, finally reaching Veracruz, Mexico, in late 1543.

1758 – Ten-year-old Mary Campbell is abducted in Pennsylvania by Lenape tribesmen during the French and Indian War. She is returned six and a half years later.

1850 – Washington Navy Yard begins work on first castings for the Dahlgren guns.

1856 – Lawrence, Kansas, was captured and sacked by pro-slavery forces. The Sacking of Lawrence occurred when pro-slavery activists attacked and ransacked the town of Lawrence, Kansas, which had been founded by anti-slavery settlers to help ensure that Kansas would become a “free state”. The incident made worse the guerrilla war in Kansas Territory that became known as Bleeding Kansas.

1863 – Nathaniel Banks, commander of the Union Department of the Gulf, surrounds the Confederate stronghold at Port Hudson and attacks. Fortifications were built at Port Hudson in 1863 to protect New Orleans from a Union attack down the Mississippi River.

In 1863, the Union command began to focus attention on clearing the Mississippi of all Rebels. The major thrust of this effort was taking Vicksburg, Mississippi, the Confederate stronghold to the north of Port Hudson. In April, Ulysses S. Grant summoned Nathaniel Banks to participate in the campaign against Vicksburg. Banks wavered at first, preferring instead to wage an independent campaign against Confederates in Louisiana.

But in May, he set out to take Port Hudson, then under the command of Franklin Gardner. Banks had some 30,000 troops under his command, while Gardner possessed a force of just 3,500. When Banks began to encircle Port Hudson, Gardner made some feeble attacks to drive him away. On May 21, Gardner received orders from Joseph Johnston, operating in Mississippi, to abandon the fort. But Gardner refused, and asked for reinforcements. This was a fatal mistake, and Banks soon had Gardner surrounded. For the next three weeks, Banks attempted to capture Port Hudson but failed each time.

It was not until Vicksburg surrendered on July 4th that Gardner also surrendered.

May 21st ~ {continued...}
1863 – Under Lieutenant Commander J. G. Walker, U.S.S. Baron De Kalb, Choctaw, Forest Rose, Linden, and Petrel pushed up the Yazoo River from Haynes’ Bluff to Yazoo City, Mississippi. As the gunboats approached the city, Commander Isaac N. Brown, CSN, who had commanded the heroic ram C.S.S. Arkansas the preceding summer, was forced to destroy three ”powerful steamers, rams and a “fine navy yard, with machine shops of all kinds, sawmills, blacksmith shops, etc. . . to prevent their capture. Porter noted that ”what he had begun our forces finished,” as the city was evacuated by the Southerners.

The Confederate steamers destroyed were Mobile, Republic, and ”a monster, 310 feet long and 70 feet beam.” Had the latter been completed, ”she would have given us much trouble.” Porter’s prediction to Secretary Welles at the end of the expedition, though overly optimistic in terms of the time that would be required, was nonetheless a clear summary of the effect of the gunboats’ sweep up the Yazoo: ”It is a mere question of a few hours, and then, with the exception of Port Hudson (which will follow Vicksburg), the Mississippi will be open its entire length.”

1864 – General David Hunter took command of Dept. of West Virginia.

1864 – Gunfire from ironclad steamer U.S.S. Atlanta, Acting Lieutenant Thomas J. Woodward, and U.S.S. Dawn, Acting Lieutenant John W. Simmons, dispersed Confederate cavalry attacking Fort Powhatan on the James River, Virginia. Dawn, a wooden steamer, remained above the fort during the night to prevent another attack.
1881 – In Washington, D.C., humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons found the American National Red Cross, an organization established to provide humanitarian aid to victims of wars and natural disasters in congruence with the International Red Cross. Barton, born in Massachusetts in 1821, worked with the sick and wounded during the American Civil War and became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield” for her tireless dedication.

In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln commissioned her to search for lost prisoners of war, and with the extensive records she had compiled during the war she succeeded in identifying thousands of the Union dead at the Andersonville prisoner-of-war camp.

She was in Europe in 1870 when the Franco-Prussian War broke out, and she went behind the German lines to work for the International Red Cross. In 1873, she returned to the United States, and four years later she organized an American branch of the International Red Cross. The American Red Cross received its first U.S. federal charter in 1900. Barton headed the organization into her 80s and died in 1912.

1917 – USS Ericsson fires first US torpedo of World War I.

1927 – Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

1940 – Nazis surrounded the British Army at Dunkirk.

1941 – The first U.S. ship, the SS Robin Moor, was sunk by a U-boat. Roosevelt describes the sinking of the Robin Moor as “an act of intimidation” to which “we do not propose to yield.”

1944 – The American beachhead at Arare is reinforces and the airfield at Wadke is repaired.

1944 – The Coast Guard-manned USS LST-69 exploded at Pearl Harbor. None of her crew were killed but 13 were seriously injured.

May 21st ~ {continued...}

1944 – A small American force lands at Sperlonga, having embarked at Gaeta. Meanwhile, forces of the US 5th Army continue attacking. The US 2nd Corps captures Fondi while the French Expeditionary Corps takes Campodimele. German resistance in the Liri Valley and around Pico prevents significant gains in these areas.

1945 – On Okinawa, US 3rd Amphibious Corps reports advances near the Horseshoe, Half Moon and Wana positions, on the western flank. On the east-side, US 7th and 96th Divisions (parts of US 24th Corps) attack near Yonabaru. Japanese forces begin to pull out of the Shuri Line.

1945 – Hermann Goring, former Reichsmarshal of the Luftwaffe, is transferred from the prisoner of war camp at Augsburg to the Palace Hotel at Mondorf where he joins other senior Nazi officials awaiting Allied interrogation.

1945 – The Japanese supply base at Malaybalay on Mindanao is captured by elements of the US 31st Division.

1951 – The U.S. Eighth Army counterattacked to drive the Communist Chinese and North Koreans out of South Korea.

1951 – The Coast Guard announced the formation, within the Washington, DC area, of a new Organized Reserve Training Unit (Vessel Augmentation). The mission of this new unit was to develop a force of experienced personnel, well-trained in all shipboard billets, with particular emphasis on anti-submarine warfare, and the use of radar, radio, and other branches of electronics. Training was to be directed towards readying personnel of the unit for immediate assignment to ships of the Coast Guard and Navy in the event of mobilization.

1956 – The first known airborne US hydrogen bomb was tested over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

1961 – Governor Patterson declared martial law in Montgomery, Alabama.

1964 – The Navy initiates a the standing carrier presence at “Yankee Station” in the South China Sea.

1964 – The UN Security Council meets to consider Cambodia’s charge that the United States directs South Vietnamese raids into Cambodia. US Ambassador Adali Stevenson calls for a clear marking of the border and the stationing of some force to police it.

1968 – The allied command in Saigon announces the start of a new program, Operation Hearts Together, designed to resettle Saigon area families.

1968 – The nuclear-powered U.S. submarine Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, was last heard from. The remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.

1970 – The National Guard was mobilized to quell disturbances at Ohio State University.

1980 – Ensign Jean Marie Butler became the first woman to graduate from a U.S. service academy as she accepted her degree and commission from the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.

May 21st ~ {continued...}

1987 – In the wake of the Iraqi attack on the U.S. frigate Stark that claimed 37 lives, the Senate approved a proposal requiring President Reagan to send Congress a report detailing the threat to U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf.

1992 – The Coast Guard announced that high-seas interdiction of Haitian refugees was being drastically scaled back because refugee camps at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba, were filled.

1997 – The space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the Russian Mir space station.

2002 – The Bush administration announced that it would resume economic aid to Yugoslavia because it had met requirements to cooperate with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

2003 – In Iraq US forces captured Aziz Saleh Numan, former Baath regional command chairman for west Baghdad. He was No. 8 on the most wanted list.

2003 – NATO’s 19 nations agreed unanimously to start planning to help Poland lead a multinational peacekeeping force in Iraq.

2004 – American AC-130 gunships and tanks bombarded militia positions near two shrines in the holy city of Karbala, killing 18 fighters loyal to a rebel cleric.

2009 – Four men are arrested for planning to bomb two synagogues and destroy military aircraft in New York, United States. The terrorist ring, led by James Cromitie, was tried and all were convicted. Cromitie, Onta Williams, David Williams, and Payen and were charged with conspiracy and weapons offenses at their first court appearance on May 21, 2009 and were ordered to be held without bail.

2011 – Dawn, Pakistan’s largest English-language newspaper, begins publication of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables it has obtained in a deal with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. The cables show that the Pakistani military asked the United States to increase its drone attacks against insurgents on Pakistani territory, a request Pakistani authorities have not admitted in public.

2013 – U.S. Army Brigadier General Bryan T. Roberts, the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Training Center and Fort Jackson in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, is suspended from his duties because of an investigation into alleged adultery (which is treated as a criminal violation, not just a civil matter, in the U.S. military), and for allegedly being in a physical altercation.

2014 – Obama says he “will not stand” for misconduct at VA hospitals, but asks for time to allow the investigation to run its course. The same day, Shinseki rescinds Phoenix VA director Sharon Helman’s $8,495 bonus. Helman got the bonus in April, even as agency investigators were looking into allegations at the facility.

May 22nd ~

1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially began as the Corps of Discovery departed from St. Charles, Missouri.

1807 – A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.

1843 – A massive wagon train, made up of 1,000 settlers and 1,000 head of cattle, sets off down the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri. Known as the “Great Emigration,” the expedition came two years after the first modest party of settlers made the long, overland journey to Oregon. After leaving Independence, the giant wagon train followed the Sante Fe Trail for some 40 miles and then turned northwest to the Platte River, which it followed along its northern route to Fort Laramie, Wyoming.

From there, it traveled on to the Rocky Mountains, which it passed through by way of the broad, level South Pass that led to the basin of the Colorado River. The travelers then went southwest to Fort Bridger, northwest across a divide to Fort Hall on the Snake River, and on to Fort Boise, where they gained supplies for the difficult journey over the Blue Mountains and into Oregon. The Great Emigration finally arrived in October, completing the 2,000-mile journey from Independence in five months. In the next year, four more wagon trains made the journey, and in 1845 the number of emigrants who used the Oregon Trail exceeded 3,000. Travel along the trail gradually declined with the advent of the railroads, and the route was finally abandoned in the 1870s.

1856 – Southern Congressman Preston Brooks savagely beats Northern Senator Charles Sumner in the halls of Congress as tensions rise over the expansion of slavery. When the controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was passed, popular sovereignty was applied within the two new territories and people were given the right to decide the slave issue by vote. Because the act nullified the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the debate over slavery intensified. Northerners were incensed that slavery could again resurface in an area where it had been banned for over 30 years. When violence broke out in Kansas Territory, the issue became central in Congress.

On May 19th, Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, an ardent abolitionist, began a two-day speech on the Senate floor in which he decried the “crime against Kansas” and blasted three of his colleagues by name, one of which—South Carolina Senator Andrew P. Butler—was elderly, sick, and absent from the proceedings. Butler’s cousin, Representative Preston Brooks, who had a history of violence, took it upon himself to defend the honor of his kin. Wielding the cane he used for injuries he incurred in a duel over a political debate in 1840, Brooks entered the Senate chamber and attacked Sumner at his desk, which was bolted to the floor. Sumner’s legs were pinned by the desk so he could not escape the savage beating.

It was not until other congressmen subdued Brooks that Sumner finally escaped. Brooks became an instant hero in the South, and supporters sent him many replacement canes. He was vilified in the North and became a symbol of the stereotypically inflexible, uncompromising representative of the slave power. The incident exemplified the growing hostility between the two camps in the prewar years. Sumner did not return to the Senate for three years while he recovered.

1863 – The US War Dept. established the Bureau of Colored Troops.

1863 – U.S. Grant’s second attack on Vicksburg, Miss., failed and a siege began.

1863 – Siege of Port Hudson: Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.

1864 – Battle of North Anna River, VA.

1864 – After ten weeks, the Union Army’s Red River Campaign ends with the Union unable to achieve any of its objectives.

May 22nd ~ {continued...}

1871 – The U.S. Army issues an order for abandonment of Fort Kearny in Nebraska.

1872 – U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act into law restoring full civil and political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.

1882 – Commodore Shufeldt signs commerce treaty opening Korea to U.S. trade.

1906 – The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their “Flying-Machine”.

1912 – First Lieutenant Alfred A. Cunningham, the first Marine officer to be assigned to “duty in connection with aviation” by Major General Commandant William P. Biddle. Cunningham reported for aviation training at the Naval Aviation Camp at Annapolis, Maryland, and Marine aviation had its official beginning.

1939 – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed a “Pact of Steel” committing Germany and Italy to a military alliance forming the Axis powers.

1942 – President Roosevelt orders the Selective Service registration of all male Americans residents who reach the age of 18 or 19 before June 30th or has reached the age of 20 since December 31, 1941. This fifth registration will generate 3.1 million new names. The same day he warns against a flood of optimism (in the wake of the Doolittle Raid of April 18th) and says it will be a long war.

1942 – Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox enlists in the United States Marine Corps as a flight instructor.

1943 – Admiral Dontiz orders all U-boat patrols in the north Atlantic to break off operations against the convoys. The submarine losses have grown too high. This decision effectively ends the battle of the Atlantic with an Allied victory. Some boats are moved south to the Caribbean and to waters off the Azores.

1944 – US 5th Army forces continue to advance. The US 2nd Corps (Keyes) advances north along the coast and Route 7. The French Expeditionary Corps captures Pico. There is continued heavy German resistance in the Liri Valley.

1944 – An American submarine detects the concentration of the Japanese fleet around Tawitawi.

1944 – Japanese forces attack US positions around Aitape. American forces make some withdrawals.

1944 – U.S. and British aircraft begin a systematic bombing raid on railroads in Germany and other parts of northern Europe, called Operation Chattanooga Choo-Choo. The operation is a success; Germany is forced to scramble for laborers, including foreign slave laborers, to repair the widespread damage exacted on its railway network.

1945 – Heinrich Himmler, the Reichsfuhrer SS, is captured by a British patrol at Bremervorde, near Hamburg. He initially claimed to be a rural policeman named Heinrich Hitzinger but under interrogation he removed the black eye patch he was wearing and put on his familiar glasses before admitting his true identity.

1945 – President Truman reports to Congress on the Lend-Lease program. He announces that up to March 1945, Britain had received supplies worth $12,775,000,000 and the Soviets $8,409,000,000. Reverse Lend-Lease, mostly from Britain has been worth almost $5,000,000,000 in the same period.

1945 – On Okinawa, American forces enter Yonabaru and capture Conical Hill. Heavy rains begin that hamper offensive operations for the coming weeks.

1945 – Elements of the US 24th Division reach Tambongan on Mindanao.

1945 – Operation Paperclip begins. United States Army Major Robert B. Staver recommends that the U.S. evacuate German scientists and engineers to help in the development of rocket technology.

May 22nd ~ {continued...}

1947 – In an effort to fight the spread of Communism, the U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs an act into law that will later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece, each battling an internal Communist movement.

1947 – The 1st US ballistic missile was fired.

1952 – Major General William K. Harrison succeeded Admiral C. Turner Joy as Senior U.N. Command Delegate for armistice negotiations.

1958 – Naval aircraft F4D-1 Sky Ray sets five world speed-to-climb records.

1959 – Two US Air Force jets collided near Ocean Station ECHO, patrolled at that time by the CGC Mendota. A U.S. Air Force weather plane spotted both pilots in the water and, within two hours of collision, the Mendota rescued them.

1964 – In a major speech before the American Law Institute in Washington, Secretary of State Rusk explicitly accuses North Vietnam of initiating and directing the aggression in South Vietnam. US withdrawal, says Rusk, ‘would mean not only grievous losses to the free world in Southeast and Southern Asia but a drastic loss of confidence in the will and capacity of the free world.’ he concluded: “There is a simple prescription for peace– leave your neighbors alone.”

1964 – Thailand mobilizes its border provinces against incursions by the Pathet Lao and agrees to the use of bases by the US Air Force for reconnaissance, search and rescue, and attacks against the Pathet Lao. By the end of the year, 75 US aircraft will be stationed in Thailand.

1965 – US intelligence confirms that the Soviet Union is building anti-aircraft missile sites in and around Hanoi, and more of them than expected.

1966 – In a television interview, US Air Forde Secretary Harold Brown reveals that President Johnson is opposed to widening the air war in North Vietnam because such a move would not completely cut off North-South movement and it might prompt Chinese intervention.

1967 – CGC Barataria conducted the first fire-support mission for the newly created Coast Guard Squadron Three in Vietnam. This force initially consisted of five 311-footers used to support Market Time operations.

1967 – New York City reaches agreement to purchase Brooklyn Navy Yard, ending 166 years of construction and repair of naval vessels.

1968 – The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores.

1968 – Xuan Thuy, chief North Vietnamese delegate to the peace talks, declares that negotiations will remain deadlocked until the US unconditionally terminates all bombing raids on North Vietnam. Ambassador Harriman replies that a bombing halt must be accompanied by mutual troop withdrawals along the DMZ, but Thuy rejects the proposal, charging that it is the US that has violated the buffer zone.

1969 – In Phubai, South Vietnam, Major General Melvin Zais, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, says his orders were ‘to destroy enemy forces’ in the Ashau valley and Apbia mountain form May 10th-20th and says that he did not have any orders to reduce casualties by avoiding battles. Apbia mountain has been dubbed ‘Hamburger Hill’ due to high casualties on both sides. The US military command in Saigon states that the recent battle for Apbia mountain is an integral part of the policy of ‘maximum pressure’ that it has been pursuing for the last six months and confirms that no orders have been received from President Nixon to modify the basic strategy.

1969 – The lunar module of Apollo 10 separated from the command module and flew to within nine miles of the moon’s surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing.

May 22nd ~ {continued...}

1970 – The White House announces the US is prepared to continue air cover, if needed, for South Vietnamese forces that are considered almost certain to remain in Cambodia after US troops are withdrawn.

1972 – President Richard Nixon arrives in Moscow for a summit with Soviet leaders. Although it was Nixon’s first visit to the Soviet Union as president, he had visited Moscow once before–as U.S. vice president. As Eisenhower’s vice president, Nixon made frequent official trips abroad, including a 1959 trip to Moscow to tour the Soviet capital and to attend the U.S. Trade and Cultural Fair in Sokolniki Park.

Soon after Vice President Nixon arrived in July 1959, he opened an informal debate with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev about the merits and disadvantages of their governments’ political and economic systems. Known as the “Kitchen Debate” because of a particularly heated exchange between Khrushchev and Nixon that occurred in the kitchen of a model U.S. home at the American fair, the dialogue was a defining moment in the Cold War.

Nixon’s second visit to Moscow in May 1972, this time as president, was for a more conciliatory purpose. During a week of summit meetings with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and other Soviet officials, the United States and the USSR reached a number of agreements, including one that laid the groundwork for a joint space flight in 1975.

On May 26th, Nixon and Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), the most significant of the agreements reached during the summit. The treaty limited the United States and the USSR to 200 antiballistic missiles each, which were to be divided between two defensive systems. President Nixon returned to the United States on May 30th.

1973 – President Nixon confessed his role in the Watergate cover-up.

1985 – US sailor Michael L. Walker (22), member of Walker family spy ring, was arrested for spying for USSR.

1990 – Microsoft released Windows 3.0.

1993 – The United States, Russia, France, Britain and Spain agreed to enforce safe areas in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but stopped short of endorsing President Clinton’s proposal to use military force.

1994 – A worldwide trade embargo against Haiti went into effect to punish Haiti’s military rulers for not reinstating the country’s ousted elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

1996 – Iraq reached an agreement with the UN to sell $2 billion in oil for 180 days to buy food and medicine.

1996 – Amnesty International reported that Iraqi doctors were forced to cut off the ears of alleged deserters and that Kenyan doctors were pressured to ignore evidence of torture.

1997 – Kelly Flinn, the Air Force’s first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepted a general discharge, thereby avoiding court-martial on charges of lying, adultery and disobeying an order.

1998 – A joint peacekeeping force was set up by 7 European nations to maintain peace in Kosovo. Deputy defense ministers of Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, Romania and Turkey signed on after meeting in Tirana. Slovenia and the US signed on as observers.

2001 – Ethnic Albanian rebels in southern Serbia began laying aside their weapons for collection by NATO.

2003 – NASA released the 1st photo of Earth taken from Mars, 86 million miles away. The record distance was a 1990 shot by Voyager 1 from 4 billion miles.

2003 – The UN Security Council overwhelmingly approved an end to 13-year-old sanctions against Iraq and gave the United States and Britain a mandate to run and rebuild the country.

2012 – After months of delays, American company SpaceX successfully launches its unmanned Dragon spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, beginning a test mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

2014 – The chairman of the House Veteran Affairs Committee says his group has received information “that will make what has already come out look like kindergarten stuff.” He does not elaborate.

May 23rd ~

1609 – Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia takes place.

1701 – At London’s Execution Dock, British privateer William Kidd, popularly known as Captain Kidd, is hanged for piracy and murder. Born in Strathclyde, Scotland, Kidd established himself as a sea captain before settling in New York in 1690, where he bought property and married. At various times he was commissioned by New York and other American colonies to rid the coast of enemy privateers. In 1695, while on a trip to London, the recently appointed governor of New York commissioned him to defend English ships from pirates in the Red Sea.

In 1696, Kidd sailed to New York aboard the Adventure Galley, enlisted men for the mission, and set sail for the Indian Ocean. The expedition met with little success and failed to capture a major prize until February 1698, when the Quedagh Merchant, an Indian vessel allegedly sailing under a French pass, was taken. Word of Kidd’s capture of the boat, which was loaded with gold, jewels, silk, sugar, and guns, aroused significant controversy in Britain, as the ship had an English captain.

Suspicions that he had turned to piracy were apparently confirmed when he sailed to St. Mary’s, Madagascar, an infamous pirate haven. From there, he traveled to the West Indies on the Quedagh Merchant, where he learned of the piracy charges against him. Intending to clear his name, he sailed to New York and delivered himself to the colonial authorities, claiming that the vessels he had attacked were lawful prizes. He was arrested and taken to London.

In 1701, he was tried on five charges of piracy and one charge of murdering a crewman. The Tories used the trial as a political opportunity to embarrass his Whig sponsors, and the latter chose to give up Kidd as a scapegoat rather than back his possibly correct claims to legitimacy. Convicted on all counts, he was executed by hanging on May 23, 1701. In later years, a colorful legend grew up around the story of William Kidd, including reports of lost buried treasure that fortune seekers have pursued for centuries.

1788 – South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U. S. Constitution.

1846 – President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declares war on the United States.

1850 – Navy sends USS Advance and USS Rescue to attempt rescue of Sir John Franklin’s expedition, lost in Arctic.

1861 – Virginia citizens voted 3 to 1 in favor of secession, becoming the last Confederate state.

1861 – Pro Union and pro Confederate forces clashed in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

1861 – U.S.S. Mississippi. Flag Officer William Mervine, was compelled to put back into Boston for repairs because of sabotage damage to her condensers.

1862 – Stonewall Jackson took Fort Royal, Virginia, in the Valley Campaign.

1864 – The campaign between Union commander Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, continues southward to the North Anna River around Hanover Junction. In early May, Grant crossed the Rapidan River with the Army of the Potomac and then clashed with Lee’s forces in the Wilderness on May 5th and 6th before racing to Spotsylvania Court House for an epic 12-day battle. Grant’s continuous pressure on Lee would ultimately win the war, but he was racking up casualties at a rate that was difficult for the Northern public to stomach.

Grant believed that Lee could not maintain his position at Spotsylvania because two other Union armies under the command of Franz Sigel and Benjamin Butler were attempting to cut off the Confederate supply line in the Shenandoah Valley and the Rebel stronghold south of Richmond. But both were failing miserably. By May 19, Grant had had enough of Spotsylvania. He pulled his troops to try another run around Lee to Richmond. Correctly predicting Grant’s move, just as he had done two weeks before when Grant left the Wilderness for Spotsylvania, Lee raced the Yankees 20 miles south and beat Grant’s troops to the North Anna River. The rail center here was crucial to his supplies.

At the North Anna, Grant found Lee’s position to be even stronger than at Spotsylvania. The river had high banks, and Lee’s side was higher than the Union side in several places. Still, Grant made an attempt to dislodge the Rebels. He made two assaults, but neither came close to breaking the Confederate lines. He would try again the next day before moving south to Cold Harbor.

May 23rd ~ {continued...}

1864 – U.S.S. Columbine, Acting Ensign Sanborn, was captured after a heated engagement with Confederate batteries and riflemen at Horse Landing, near Palatka, Florida. Columbine, a 130-ton side-wheeler operating in support of Union Army forces and with soldiers embarked, lost steering control and ran onto a mud bank, where she was riddled by the accurate Confederate fire.

With some 20 men killed and wounded, Sanborn surrendered “to prevent the further useless expenditure of human life.” Shortly after taking the prize, the Southerners destroyed her to avoid recapture by U.S.S. Ottawa, Lieutenant Commander Breese. Ottawa, cooperating with the Army in the same operation, had also been fired upon the night before and suffered damage but no casualties before compelling the Confederate battery at Brown’s Landing to withdraw.

1865 – The American flag was flown at full staff over White House for the 1st time since Lincoln was shot. Union Army’s Grand Review began in Washington DC.

1881 – Kit Carson, frontiersman, died.

1899 – Marines arrived to secure Cavite Naval Base, Philippines.

1900 – Sergeant William Harvey Carney is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery on July 18, 1863, while fighting for the Union cause as a member of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry. He was the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, which is the nation’s highest military honor. The 54th Massachusetts, formed in early 1863, served as the prototype for African American regiments in the Union army.

On July 16, 1863, the regiment saw its first action at James Island, South Carolina, performing admirably in a confrontation with experienced Confederate troops. Three days later, the 54th volunteered to lead the assault on Fort Wagner, a highly fortified outpost on Morris Island that was part of the Confederate defense of Charleston Harbor. Struggling against a lethal barrage of cannon and rifle fire, the regiment fought their way to the top of the fort’s parapet over several hours. Sergeant William Harvey Carney was wounded there while planting the U.S. flag. The regiment’s white commander, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, was killed, and his soldiers were overwhelmed by the fort’s defenders and had to fall back.

Despite his wound, Carney refused to retreat until he removed the flag, and though successful, he was shot again in the process. The 54th lost 281 of its 600 men in its brave attempt to take Fort Wagner, which throughout the war never fell by force of arms. The 54th went on to perform honorably in expeditions in Georgia and Florida, most notably at the Battle of Olustee. Carney eventually recovered and was discharged with disability on June 30, 1864.

1908 – Part of the Great White Fleet arrived in Puget Sound, Washington.

1930 – Lieutenant Commander Elmer F. Stone received a medal from Congress for extraordinary achievement in making the first successful trans-Atlantic flight in 1919. Stone was the pilot of the Navy’s NC-4.

1934 – The Auto-Lite strike culminates in the “Battle of Toledo”, a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.

1939 – The US submarine Squalus sank off the coast of New Hampshire. A diving bell designed by Charles “Swede” Momsen (d.1967) brought 33 survivors (26 perished) safely to the surface. This was the first successful undersea rescue operation to retrieve a sunken submarine crew.

May 23rd ~ {continued...}

1943 – The USS New Jersey, Admiral “Bull” Halsey’s flagship during WWII and the only Battleship to provide gunfire support during the Vietnam War, is commissioned in Philadelphia, PA for service in WWII. BB62 was built at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, and launched December 7, 1942- just a year after the Pearl Harbor Attack brought America into WWII.

The USS New Jersey (BB62) was actually the second ship to be called “New Jersey”, the first being BB16, a turn of the century (19th century) battleship. The first Battleship New Jersey (BB-16) was a Virginia class pre-dreadnought that served from 1906 until she was sunk as a bombing target in 1922. She sailed with the Great White Fleet and served her country in World War I as a training vessel. New Jersey was decommissioned on February 8, 1991 in Long Beach, California and later towed to Bremerton, Washington where she resided until heading home to New Jersey. She was officially stricken from the Navy list on February 12,1995 but was then ordered reinstated by an order of congress as a mobilization asset under Bill 1024 section 1011.

On January 4, 1999 New Jersey was again stricken from the Navy list and IOWA replaced her as a mobilization asset. On September 12, 1999 New Jersey began her Final Voyage home from Bremerton, where she had rested in mothballs for the last 8 years. On November 11th, she arrived at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Since that time, she has been restored, opened and established as an educational museum and a tribute to the brave sailors who served on her during her long and distinguished career. The Battleship New Jersey opened as a Museum and Memorial in October 2001.

1944 – The US 6th Corps in the Anzio beachhead launches an attack on Cisterna. German resistance results in high Allied casualties. Meanwhile, the US 5th Army continues offensive operations. US 2nd Corps patrols reach Terracina. Both the French Expeditionary Corps and the Canadian 1st Corps penetrate the German-held Senger Line. The Canadians break through by the end of the day.

1944 – American forces encounter heavy resistance in their advance westward from Arare toward Sarmi. At Aitape, Japanese attacks continue to force the Americans to fall back.

1944 – US Task Group 58.2 (Admiral Montgomery) launches air raids on Japanese positions on Wake Island.

1945 – American attacks bring shipping at Yokohama to a halt.

1945 – On Okinawa, after occupying Naha, the US 6th Marine Division (part of US 3rd Amphibious Corps) encounters heavy Japanese resistance to attempts to advance further south.

1945 – At Flensburg, the successor government of the Third Reich, including Karl Donitz, the nominal Fuhrer, as well as the German military leadership, are all arrested on the orders of General Eisenhower. At Luneburg, Heinrich Himmler commits suicide while being examined by a doctor at the headquarters of the British 2nd Army. He had been stripped and searched but bit down on a hidden vial of cyanide when the doctor attempted to stick a finger in his mouth.

At St. Johann, US troops uncover $4 million in mixed currencies believed to belong to Himmler. In Bavaria, the former leading Nazi anti-Semitic propagandist, Julius Streicher, is arrested by Americans.

May 23rd ~ {continued...}

1946 – The end of World War II unleashed a torrent of labor activity. Workers, whose wages had been frozen in the name of the war effort, strove not only to boost their take-home pay, but to preserve the modest cost of living that wartime price caps had helped establish. On this day in 1946, the nation’s rail workers got into the act and headed to the picket line to agitate for fairer compensation. The ensuing strike, led by the Railroad Trainmen and Locomotive Brotherhoods, effectively stopped up the nation’s still rail-heavy transportation network and enabled the workers to win better wages.

The thrill of this victory was short-lived, however, as the rail unions, along with other labor organizations, failed in their quest to maintain price controls. Under heavy pressure from business leaders, who were more concerned with their respective bottom-lines than the ravages of inflation, President Harry Truman eventually acquiesced and rolled back price controls. As the unions had feared, the demise of price caps sparked a heady wave of inflation that washed away the rail workers’ post-war wage gains.

1946 – Commodore Edward M. Webster, USCG, headed the US Delegation to the International Meeting on Radio Aids to Marine Navigation, which was held in London, England. As a result of this meeting, the principal maritime nations of the world agreed to make an intensive study of the World War II-developed devices of radar, LORAN, radar beacons, and other navigational aids with a view to adapt them to peacetime use. This was the first time that the wartime technical secrets of radar and LORAN were generally disclosed to the public.

1949 – The Federal Republic of Germany (popularly known as West Germany) is formally established as a separate and independent nation. This action marked the effective end to any discussion of reuniting East and West Germany. In the period after World War II, Germany was divided into four occupation zones, with the British, French, Americans, and Soviets each controlling one zone.

The city of Berlin was also divided in a like fashion. This arrangement was supposed to be temporary, but as Cold War animosities began to harden, it became increasingly evident that the division between the communist and non-communist controlled sections of Germany and Berlin would become permanent.

In May 1946, the United States halted reparation payments from West Germany to the Soviet Union. In December, the United States and Great Britain combined their occupation zones into what came to be known as Bizonia. France agreed to become part of this arrangement, and in May 1949, the three zones became one. On May 23rd, the West German Parliamentary Council met and formally declared the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Although Konrad Adenauer, the president of the council and future president of West Germany, proudly proclaimed, “Today a new Germany arises,” the occasion was not a festive one. Many of the German representatives at the meeting were subdued, for they had harbored the faint hope that Germany might be reunified. Two communist members of the council refused to sign the proclamation establishing the new state. The Soviets reacted quickly to the action in West Germany.

In October 1949, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was officially announced. These actions in 1949 marked the end of any talk of a reunified Germany. For the next 41 years, East and West Germany served as symbols of the divided world, and of the Cold War animosities between the Soviet Union and the United States. In 1990, with Soviet strength ebbing and the Communist Party in East Germany steadily losing its grip on power, East and West Germany were finally reunited as one nation.

1951 – Eighth Army advanced toward the Kansas and Wyoming Lines to the base of the Iron Triangle against stiffening enemy resistance. By the end of May, the communists had suffered 17,000 killed and an equal number were taken prisoner.

1958 – The satellite Explorer 1 ceases transmission.

May 23rd ~ {continued...}

1961 – Vice-President Johnson reports to President Kennedy on his visit to Asia. Giving Thailand and Vietnam pivotal significance, he reports that the United States must either aid these countries or ‘pull back our defenses to San Francisco and a “Fortress America” concept.’ he feels Asian leaders would welcome US troops if openly attacked.

1962 – Launch of Aurora 7 (Mercury 7), piloted by LCDR Malcolm Scott Carpenter, USN, who completed 3 orbits in 4 hours, 56 minutes at an altitude up to 166.8 statute miles at 17,549 mph. He was picked up by HSS-2 helicopters from USS Intrepid (CVS-11). The capsule was recovered by USS John R. Pierce (DD-753).
1964 – Assistant Secretary of State William Bundy directs the drawing up of a three-day scenario that, while publicly pretending that the US and South Vietnam are trying to avoid widening the war, assumes that the US will begin full-scale bombing against the North.

1967 – A public controversy over the M-16, the basic combat rifle in Vietnam, begins after Representative James J. Howard (D-New Jersey) reads a letter to the House of Representatives in which a Marine in Vietnam claims that almost all Americans killed in the battle for Hill 881 died as a result of their new M-16 rifles jamming. The Defense Department acknowledged on August 28th that there had been a “serious increase in frequency of malfunctions in the M-16.”

The M-16 had become the standard U.S. infantry rifle in Vietnam earlier in 1967, replacing the M-14. Almost two pounds lighter and five inches shorter than the M-14, but with the same effective range of over 500 yards, it fired a smaller, lighter 5.56-mm cartridge. The M-16 could be fired fully automatic (like a machine gun) or one shot at a time. Because the M-16 was rushed into mass production, early models were plagued by stoppages that caused some units to request a reissue of the M-14.

Technical investigation revealed a variety of causes for the defect, in both the weapon and ammunition design, and in care and cleaning in the field. With these deficiencies corrected, the M-16 became a popular infantry rifle that was able to hold its own against the Soviet-made AK-47 assault rifle used by the enemy.

1968 – At the conclusion of an experimental civic affairs program in Longan province, John Paul Vann and other US advisors issue a report recommending widespread changes in the pacification effort. The report states that Saigon has little understanding of its people’s needs and has consistently failed to provide adequate funds and services for grass-roots programs. As a result, the Vietcong continue to collect taxes and recruit troops from many hamlets that the government claims it has pacified.

1971 – North Vietnamese demolition experts infiltrate the major U.S. air base at Cam Ranh Bay, blowing up six tanks of aviation fuel, which resulted in the loss of about 1.5 million gallons. U.S. commander Creighton Abrams criticized the inadequate security.

1972 – Heavy U.S. air attacks that began with an order by President Richard Nixon on May 8 are widened to include more industrial and non-military sites. In 190 strikes, the United States lost one plane but shot down four. The new strikes were part of the ongoing Operation Linebacker, an effort launched in response to the massive North Vietnamese invasion of South Vietnam on March 30th.

The purpose of the raids were to interdict supplies from outside sources and the movement of equipment and supplies to the North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam. The strikes concentrated on rail lines around Hanoi and Haiphong, bridges, pipelines, power plants, troops and troop training facilities, and rail lines to China.

1977 – The US Supreme Court refused to hear appeals of former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman & John Mitchell in connection with their Watergate convictions.

May 23rd ~ {continued...}

1988 – The V-22 Osprey, the world’s first production tilt-rotor aircraft, made its debut during rollout ceremonies at Bell Helicopter Textron’s Arlington, Texas, facility. More than 1,000 representatives from the military, industry, and media, gathered to hear various speakers, including Gen Alfred Gray, Commandant of the Marine Corps, praise the versatile rotor craft designed to meet the needs of 21st Century battlefields.

1992 – President Bush ordered the Coast Guard to intercept boats with Haitian refugees.

1992 – The United States and four former Soviet republics signed an agreement in Lisbon, Portugal, to implement the START missile-reduction treaty that had been agreed to by the Soviet Union prior to its dissolution.

1995 – The nine-story hulk of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was demolished. That day, James Nichols, whose brother and a friend were charged in the Oklahoma bombing, was released from federal custody.

1995 – The first version of the Java programming language is released.

1999 – In Iraq US planes bombed Iraqi defense systems.

2001 – Iraq threatens to halt oil exports if a British-US proposed Security Council resolution on a new sanctions regime is enacted.

2002 – The Pentagon reported that the Defense Dept. sprayed live nerve and biological agents over Navy ships in 6 six tests between 1964-1968. The Project shipboard Hazard and Defense (SHAD) experiments included the use of sarin and VX nerve gases and the staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB).

2002 – The UN voted to extend the mandate for an int’l. force in Afghanistan for 6 months but with no expansion of troops or presence beyond Kabul.

2003 – The Iraqi Army is disbanded.

2004 – In Iraq US troops battled fighters loyal to a radical Muslim cleric in his stronghold of Kufa, and at least 32 insurgents were killed. Gunmen killed a police captain and a university student who were headed by car to Baghdad from Baqouba. Insurants loyal to al-Sadr gave up control of central Karbala.

2007 – PFC Anzack, one of three captured US soldiers in Iraq is found dead, during an extensive manhunt which occupied nearly 3% of US troops. On 12 May 2007, a U.S. military observation post near Mahmoudiyah in Iraq was attacked. Four American and one Iraqi soldiers manning the post were killed, three other Americans: PFC Joseph Anzack, PVT Byron Fouty, and SPC Alex Jimenez, were abducted and found killed later. Anzack’s body was pulled out of the Euphrates River, with a gunshot wound in the head.

2012 – The Iranian navy assists an American cargo ship that was attacked by pirates off the United Arab Emirates.

May 24th ~

1607 – Captain Christopher Newport and 105 followers founded the colony of Jamestown on the mouth of the James River in Virginia. They had left England with 144 members, 39 died on the way over. The colony was near the large Indian village of Werowocomoco, home of Pocahontas, the daughter Powhatan, an Algonquin chief. In 2003 archeologists believed that they had found the site of the village.

1624 – After years of unprofitable operation, Virginia’s charter was revoked and it became a royal colony.

1764 – Bostonian lawyer James Otis denounced “taxation without representation” and called for the colonies to unite in demonstrating their opposition to Britain’s new tax measures.

1818 – General Andrew Jackson captured Pensacola, Florida.

1830 – The first passenger railroad in the United States began service between Baltimore and Elliott’s Mills, Maryland.

1830 – Navy officers, under furlough from the Navy until April 1832, were given commissions in the Revenue Service.

1844 – In a demonstration witnessed by members of Congress, American inventor Samuel F.B. Morse dispatches a telegraph message from the U.S. Capitol to Alfred Vail at a railroad station in Baltimore, Maryland. The message–“What Hath God Wrought?”–was telegraphed back to the Capitol a moment later by Vail. The question, taken from the Bible (Numbers 23:23), had been suggested to Morse by Annie Ellworth, the daughter of the commissioner of patents.

Morse, an accomplished painter, learned of a French inventor’s idea of an electric telegraph in 1832 and then spent the next 12 years attempting to perfect a working telegraph instrument. During this period, he composed the Morse code, a set of signals that could represent language in telegraph messages, and convinced Congress to finance a Washington-to-Baltimore telegraph line.

On May 24, 1844, he inaugurated the world’s first commercial telegraph line with a message that was fitting given the invention’s future effects on American life. Just a decade after the first line opened, more than 20,000 miles of telegraph cable crisscrossed the country. The rapid communication it enabled greatly aided American expansion, making railroad travel safer as it provided a boost to business conducted across the great distances of a growing United States.

1846 – General Zachary Taylor captured Monterey, California in the Mexican War.

1856 – The Potawatomi Massacre took place in Kansas. John Brown, American abolitionist and horse thief, presided over the hacking to death with machetes of five unarmed pro-slavery Border Ruffians in Potawatomi, Kansas.

1861 – General Benjamin Butler declared slaves to be the contraband of war.

1861 – Commander Rowan, commanding U.S.S. Pawnee, demanded surrender of Alexandria, Virginia; amphibious expedition departed Washington Navy Yard, after embarking secretly at night under Commander Dahlgren’s supervision, and occupied Alexandria.

Admiral D. D. Porter later noted of this event: “The first landing of Northern troops upon the Virginia shores was under cover of these improvised gunboats [U.S.S. Thomas Freeborn, Anacostia, and Resolute at Alexandria . . . Alexandria was evacuated by the Confederates upon demand of a naval officer-Commander S. C. Rowan . . . and . . the American flag was hoisted on the Custom House and other prominent places by the officer in charge of a landing party of sailors-Lieutenant R. B. Lowry. This . . . gave indication of the feelings of the Navy, and how ready was the service to put down secession on the first opportunity offered.”

May 24th ~ {continued...}

1861 – As Union troops enter the vital port city of Arlington across the Potomac River from Washington, DC, they moved to secure it against rebel resistance. Colonel Elmer Ellsworth noticed a Confederate flag flying from the roof of a tavern and was shot and killed while removing it. Ellsworth, 24, gained national fame in the years prior to the Civil War by commanding two distinctive uniformed volunteer units which put on drill performances for the paying public.

His first company was the “U.S. Zouave Cadets of Chicago” and the second was the “11th New York Fire Zouaves” a regimental-sized organization composed entirely of NYC fireman. ‘Zouave’ units were based upon the French North African troops of the same designation and had world renown for their particularly elaborate form of drill and tactical evolutions. They sported distinctive dress uniforms usually composed of a red fez or white turban, short embroidered jacket, baggy red or white trousers and white gaiters.

Despite the high costs of these uniforms the style quickly caught on with young men serving in militia companies both North and South just prior to the Civil War. Ellsworth was a talented showman promoting himself and his troop’s performances with posters, music song sheet covers, calendars and newspaper ads. While performing in Chicago he met Abraham Lincoln and they became fast friends. When not on the road he worked to help Lincoln win the presidency.

Just before the start of the Civil War Ellsworth moved to New York City and linked up with the 11th Regiment and was soon elected its colonel. Immediately upon the outbreak of war he traveled with the regiment to Washington at the invitation of Lincoln. He stayed at the White House and often accompanied the president around town as an unofficial aide. Lincoln was devastated at his death. His body lay in state in the White House before a federal train to carried it back to Chicago for burial.

Ellsworth was the first noteworthy person to die in the war. In the north his image appeared everywhere in memoriam and many men ‘joined the colors’ angered at his killing. In death he became a “poster boy” for the Union cause.

1863 – Bushwackers led by Captain William Marchbanks attacked a Federal militia party in Nevada, Missouri.

1863 – Confederates fired on the commissary and quartermaster boat of the Marine Brigade under Brigadier General A. V. Ellet above Austin, Mississippi, on the evening of May 23rd. Before dawn, this date, Ellet’s forces went ashore, engaged Confederate cavalry some 8 miles outside of Austin, and, after a 2-hour engagement, compelled the Southerners to withdraw.

Finding evidence of smuggling and in reprisal for the firing of the previous evening, Ellet ordered the town burned. ”As the fire progressed,” Ellet reported, ”the discharge of firearms was rapid and frequent in the burning buildings, showing that fire is more penetrating in its search [for hidden weapons] than my men had been, two heavy explosions of powder also occurred during the conflagration.

1864 – Accurate gunfire from wooden steamer U.S.S. Dawn, Acting Lieutenant Simmons, compelled Confederate troops to break off an attack on the Union Army position at Wilson’s Wharf on the James River. Other ships quickly moved to support the troops.

1864 – Union General Ulysses S. Grant continues to pound away at Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in the engagement along the North Anna River that had begun the day before. Since early May, Lee and Grant had been slugging it out along an arc from the Wilderness to Spotsylvania and to Hanover Junction, on the North Anna River. Grant was doing what other Union commanders had failed to do since 1861: ensuring that the Army of Northern Virginia was in constant action to prevent them from retooling.

The cost in men, however, was frighteningly high. Grant had lost 33,000 troops in the fighting at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania. Worse, he could not gain the upper hand over Lee. As they raced along the arc, Lee had the advantage of moving along the interior lines, while Grant moved on the outside. As a result, Lee always had a shorter distance to the next point on the waltz around Richmond. At North Anna, Lee beat Grant to the river and quickly assumed a strong position on the high, steep banks. Grant had made two attacks the previous day but each failed.

On May 24th, the Yankees again probed Lee’s position but could not penetrate the Confederate defenses. On another part of the line, a Union brigade carried out an unauthorized assault by a general named James Ledlie, who was evidently drunk. Crossing near Ox Ford in the strongest part of the Confederate line, Ledlie’s men nearly broke through before retreating. Surprisingly, Ledlie never faced any punishment, despite the fact that 220 men were lost in the charge.

The engagement at North Anna was small by the standards of this campaign. Grant was wise to refrain from an all-out assault on the Confederate position. Unfortunately, he was not as cautious just a week later at Cold Harbor, where Northern soldiers were butchered wholesale in a devastating attack on fortified Rebels.

May 24th ~ {continued...}

1869 – John Wesley Powell departed Green River City, Wyoming, with 9 men on an expedition to explore the canyons of the Green and Colorado River. Over 3 years he led two expeditions to explore the Grand Canyon. Three members of the first expedition were killed, reportedly by Indians. His written account was suspected to be inflated if not fictitious.

1900 – Marines landed at Taku, China, to establish Legation Guard at Peking.

1916 – US pilot William Thaw shot down a German Fokker over France during WWI.

1917 – First U.S. convoy to cross North Atlantic during World War I leaves Hampton Roads, VA.

1918 – USS Olympia ( now a museum in Philadelphia, PA ) anchors at Kola Inlet, Murmansk, Russia, to protect refugees during Russian Revolution.

1939 – First and only use of VADM Allan McCann’s Rescue Chamber to rescue 33 men from sunken USS Squalus (SS-192).

1940 – Hitler ordered a halt to his forces converging on Dunkirk and the British, who were backed to the sea. This event and the next 4 days were described in the 1999 book: “Five Days in London, May 1940” by John Lukacs.

1940 – Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.

1941 – The German battleship Bismarck sank the British dreadnought HMS Hood in the North Atlantic. 1416 died with only three survivors. CGC Modoc sighted the German battleship SMS Bismarck while the cutter searched for survivors of a convoy southeast of Cape Farewell, Greenland.

British Swordfish torpedo planes from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Victorious circled Modoc as they flew towards the German battleship’s position. The Modoc’s crew then spotted the flashes caused by anti-aircraft fire from the Bismarck and then sighted British warships on the opposite horizon. The cutter then maneuvered to avoid contact with any of the warships and managed to steam out of the area unscathed.

1941 – Authorization of construction or acquisition of 550,000 tons of auxiliary shipping for Navy.

1942 – U.S. General Stilwell arrives in Delhi after a 140 mile retreat through the Burma jungle. In a press interview he is quoted say: “I claim we got a hell of a beating. We got run out of Burma and it is as humiliating as hell. I think we ought to find out what caused it, go back and re-take it.”

1942 – When the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 115th Fighter Squadron lands at Alaska’s Annette Island, a US Customs officer refuses to let the pilots out of their planes until they pay duty on their arms and equipment. It takes a message from Secretary of State Cordell Hull granting the Canadians Distinguished Foreign Visitor status to end this idiocy.

1943 – On Attu American forces make some progress along the Clevesy Pass. There is heavy fighting over Fish Hook Ridge.

1944 – Attacks by the US 5th Army and the British 8th Army continue. The Canadian 1st Corps captures Pontecorvo and elements reach the Melfa River and establish a bridgehead. The US 2nd Corps takes Terracina against heavy opposition from the German 29th Panzergrenadier Division. At Anzio forces of US 6th Corps reach Route 7 near Latina, to the south of German-held Cisterna. Meanwhile, north of Rome, RAF Spitfires shoot down 8 German Fw190 fighter bombers.

1945 – On Kyushu, aircraft from US Task Force 58 raid several airfields used by the Kamikaze forces attacking American naval forces around Okinawa. Meanwhile about 520 US bombers strike Tokyo, dropping some 3646 tons of bombs.

1945 – On Okinawa, during the night, Japanese paratroopers on a suicide mission are landed on American held Yontan airfield and destroy a significant number of aircraft before being wiped out. Meanwhile, Japanese troops conduct vigorous counterattacks in the direction of Yonabaru and make a small penetration into the lines of the US 32nd Division.

May 24th ~ {continued...}

1951 – Lines Kansas and Wyoming became increasingly important with the possibility of a cease-fire and the demilitarized zone that might be required.

1962 – American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.

1962 – USS Gurke notices signals from 12 men from Truk who were caught in a storm, drifted at sea for 2 months before being stranded on a island for 1 month. USS Southerland investigated, notified Truk, and provided provisions and supplies to repair their outrigger canoe. The men would be picked up on 7 June by the motor launch Kaselehlia.

1964 – Senator Barry Goldwater, regarded as a serious contender for the Republican nomination for the presidency, gives an interview in which he proposes the use of low-yield atomic bombs to defoliate forests and the bombing of bridges, rods, and railroad lines bringing supplies form Communist China.

During the storm of criticism that follows, Goldwater tries to back away from these drastic proposals stating that he was repeating suggestions made by military advisors. Johnson will capitalize on the controversy and paint Goldwater as an extremist.

1967 – In response to Secretary of Defense McNamara’s order for a new study of bombing alternatives on 20 May, the Joint Chiefs submit three memoranda renewing earlier recommendations for more then 200,000 new troops and for air attacks on Haiphong, mining of Haiphong Harbor, and raids on eight major railways leading to China.

1968 – Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) separatists bomb the U.S. consulate in Quebec City.

1980 – Iran rejected a call by the World Court in The Hague to release the American hostages.

1994 – Four men convicted of bombing New York’s World Trade Center were each sentenced to 240 years in prison. The attack was planned by a group of terrorists including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal A. Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmed Ajaj. They received financing from Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, Yousef’s uncle.

The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property, and interstate transportation of explosives. In November 1997, two more were convicted: Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the truck carrying the bomb.