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On this day in military history....
1987 93-year-old Rudolf Hess, former Nazi leader and deputy of Hitler, is found hanged to death in Spandau Prison.
1960 American Francis Gary Powers pleads guilty at his Moscow trial for spying over the Soviet Union in a U-2 plane.
1944 The mayor of Paris, Pierre Charles Tattinger, meets with the German commander Dietrich von Choltitz to protest the explosives being deployed throughout the city.
1943 Allied forces complete the conquest of Sicily.
1943 The Royal Air Force began 'Operation Hydra', the first air raid of the Operation Crossbow strategic bombing campaign against Germany's V-1 flying bombs.
1942 Marine Raiders attack Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands from two submarines.
1812 Napoleon Bonaparte's army defeats the Russians at the Battle of Smolensk during the Russian retreat to Moscow.
1796 English ships, under the command of Admiral George Keith Elphinstone, were responsible for trapping the Dutch Fleet in Saldanha Bay, South Africa, paving the way for South Africa becoming part of the British Empire.
1743 By the Treaty of Abo, Sweden cedes southeast Finland to Russia, ending Sweden's failed war with Russia.“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
-Mark Twain
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On this day in Military history....
1979 Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini demands a "Saint War" against Kurds.
1966 Australian troops repulse a Viet Cong attack at Long Tan.
1965 Operation Starlite marks the beginning of major U.S. ground combat operations in Vietnam.
1943 The Royal Air Force Bomber Command completes the first major strike against the German missile development facility at Peenemunde.
1942 Japan sends a crack army to Guadalcanal to repulse the U.S. Marines fighting there.
1914 Germany declares war on Russia while President Woodrow Wilson issues his Proclamation of Neutrality.
1870 Prussian forces defeat the French at the Battle of Gravelotte during the Franco-Prussian War.
1759 The French fleet is destroyed by the British under "Old Dreadnought" Boscawen at the battle of Lagos Bay.
1698 After invading Denmark and capturing Sweden, Charles XII of Sweden forces Frederick IV of Denmark to sign the Peace of Travendal.
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
-Mark Twain
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On this day in military history....
2001 NATO decides to send a peacekeeping force to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
1988 Ceasefire in the 8-year war between Iran and Iraq.
1973 The coroner presiding over the Derry / Londonderry 'Bloody Sunday' inquest accused the British army of 'sheer unadulterated murder' after 13 were killed in a civil rights march on 30th Jan. 1972.
1968 Soviet forces invade Czechoslovakia because of the country's experiments with a more liberal government.
1945 President Harry S. Truman cancels all contracts under the Lend-Lease Act.
1942 U.S. Marines turn back the first major Japanese ground attack on Guadalcanal in the Battle of Tenaru.
1939 Civil Defence, to mitigate the effects of enemy attack, was started in Britain.
1918 The beginning of the Second Battle of the Somme. The battle formed the central part of the Allies' advance to the Armistice of 11th November, which went into effect at 11 a.m. 1918. It marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany.
1915 Italy declares war on Turkey.
1858 Victoria Cross winner Sir Sam Browne invented the Sam Browne belt to hold his sword and pistol after he had lost an arm in action. It soon became standard military kit.
1808 Napoleon Bonaparte's General Junot is defeated by Wellington at the first Battle of the Peninsular War at Vimiero, Portugal.
1794 France surrenders the island of Corsica to the British.
1689 The Battle of Dunkeld took place, between Jacobite clans supporting the deposed King James VII of Scotland and a government regiment of covenanters, led by the 27 year old Colonel William Cleland supporting William of Orange, King of Scotland. Fighting took place in the streets around Dunkeld Cathedral and the Jacobites were routed, having lost around 300 men. Losses on the government side are unclear, but they included Colonel Cleland, who is buried in the cathedral.
1129 The warrior Yoritomo is made Shogun without equal in Japan.“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
-Mark Twain
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On this day in Military history....
1971 Bolivian military coup: Col. Hugo Banzer Suarez ousts leftist president, Gen. Juan Jose Torres and assumes power.
1962 OAS (Secret Army Organization) gunmen unsuccessfully attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle; the incident inspires Frederick Forsyth's novel, The Day of the Jackal.
1945 Conflict in Vietnam begins when a group of Free French parachute into southern Indochina, in repsonse to a successful coup by communist guerilla Ho Chi Minh.
1945 Soviet troops land at Port Arthur and Dairen on the Kwantung Peninsula in China.
1942 Brazil declares war on the Axis powers. She is the only South American country to send combat troops into Europe.
1777 With the approach of General Benedict Arnold's army, British Colonel Barry St. Ledger abandons Fort Stanwix and returns to Canada.
1717 The Austrian army forces the Turkish army out of Belgrade, ending the Turkish revival in the Balkans.
1642 The English Civil War began, between the supporters of Charles I (Cavaliers) and of Parliament (Roundheads), when the king called the English Parliament traitors and raised his standard at Nottingham.
1485 Richard III of England was defeated and killed at The Battle of Bosworth Field, the last of the Wars of the Roses between the Houses of Lancaster and York. He was the last English king to die in battle.
1138 The English defeated the Scots at Cowton Moor. Banners of various saints were carried into battle, which led to its being called the Battle of the Standard.
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
-Mark Twain
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On this day in Military history....
1979 Iranian army opens offensive against Kurds.
1961 Belgium sends troops to Rwanda-Urundi during bloody Tutsi-Hutu conflict.
1950 Up to 77,000 members of the U.S. Army Organized Reserve Corps are called involuntarily to active duty to fight the Korean War.
1944 German SS engineers begin placing explosive charges around the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
1942 German forces begin an assault on the major Soviet industrial city of Stalingrad.
1940 The German Luftwaffe began night bombing London.
1939 Joseph Stalin and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop sign a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, freeing Hitler to invade Poland and Stalin to invade Finland.
1914 The Emperor of Japan declares war on Germany.
1914 The Battle of Mons - the first major battle of World War I.
1839 Britain captured Hong Kong as a base as it prepared for war with China. The ensuing 3 year conflict was later to be known as the First Opium War.
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
-Mark Twain
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On this day in military history....
1979 Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb explodes under bandstand in Brussels' Great Market as British Army musicians prepare for a performance; four British soldiers wounded
1944 German forces in Toulon and Marseilles, France, surrender to the Allies.
1914 The Battle of Heligoland Bight, the first major naval battle of World War I, was fought. The Germans lost four ships and 1,000 sailors. British casualties numbered 33.
1862 Mistakenly believing the Confederate Army to be in retreat, Union General John Pope attacks, beginning the Battle of Groveten. Both sides sustain heavy casualties.
1640 The Scots, under Sir Alexander Leslie, defeated royalist English forces“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
-Mark Twain
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On this day in military history....
1995 NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.
1960 US U-2 spy plane spots SAM (surface-to-air) missile launch pads in Cuba.
1952 In the largest bombing raid of the Korean War, 1,403 planes of the Far East Air Force bomb Pyongyang, North Korea.
1945 U.S. airborne troops are landed in transport planes at Atsugi airfield, southwest of Tokyo, beginning the occupation of Japan.
1862 Union General John Pope's army is defeated by a smaller Confederate force at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
1842 The Treaty of Nanking was signed between the British and the Chinese, ending the Opium War, and leasing the Hong Kong territories to Britain.
1782 The British battleship HMS Royal George sank off Spithead with the loss of more than 900 crew while repairs were being carried out beneath the ship's waterline.
1776 General George Washington retreats during the night from Long Island to New York City.
1526 Ottoman Suleiman the Magnificent crushes a Hungarian army under Lewis II at the Battle of Mohacs.“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
-Mark Twain
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On this day in military history....
1945 Japan signs the document of surrender aboard the USS Missouri, ending World War II
1944 Troops of the U.S. First Army enter Belgium.
1915 Austro-German armies take Grodno, Poland.
1870 Napoleon III capitulates to the Prussians at Sedan, France.
1807 The Royal Navy bombarded Copenhagen with fire bombs and phosphorus rockets to prevent Denmark from surrendering its fleet to Napoleon.
1798 The Maltese people revolt against the French occupation, forcing the French troops to take refuge in the citadel of Valetta in Malta.
1792 Verdun, France, surrenders to the Prussian Army.
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
-Mark Twain
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On this day in military history....
1982 Douglas Bader, the famousBritish fighter pilot who lost his legs in a aircraft crash before the war died.
1944 Germany launches its first V-2 missile at Paris, France
1939 As war breaks out across Europe, American President Roosevelt declared the United States to be neutral.
1914 The First Battle of the Marne began. German, British and French troops fought for six days. Half a million people were killed.
1905 The Russian-Japanese War ends as representatives of the combating empires, meeting in New Hampshire, sign the Treaty of Portsmouth. Japan achieves virtually all of its original war aims.
1804 US Navy lieutenant Richard Somers and members of his crew are buried at Tripoli; they died when USS Intrepid exploded while entering Tripoli harbor on a mission to destroy the enemy fleet there during the First Barbary War.
1800 Following a blockade by Admiral Horatio Nelson, French troops surrendered the Mediterranean island of Malta to Britain.
1664 After days of negotiation, the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam surrenders to the British, who will rename it New York.
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
-Mark Twain
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