This Day In Military History...

[Cap. Teancum]

1387 - Battle of Margate. English fleet defeated French-Castilian fleet, capturing or destroying 100 ships.
Not a good site, but you can have a look on a original document:

http://www.jeanne-darc.dk/p_war/0_battles/margate.html

1566 - Garrison of Valenciennes surrenders - possible due to treachery - after only one day of bombardment.

1843 - Battle of Dubba. 5,000 British route 20,000 Baluchi troops.

http://www.ismaili.net/Source/jerruk/1.html

[Admiral]

March 25

1067 William the Conqueror orders 1st Doomsday Survey in England.
1537 5th Lithuanian war with Russia ends with peace treaty: It lasted until the start of war with the Livonian Order (1562-1582).
1655 Puritans jail Governor Stone: This after a military victory over Catholic forces in the colony of Maryland.
1776 Continental Congress authorizes a medal: It was for none other than General George Washington.
1799 French capture Florence.
1813 USS Essex takes HMS Neryeda: It was the 1st USN capture of an enemy ship in the Pacific. It was also the first time a US flag was flown in battle.
1820 Greek War for Independence begins.
1836 Texians win a small skirmish at Rocky Creek.
1843 17 Texians executed by Mexican firing squad: They had picked black beans from a jar otherwise filled with white beans. After months of raiding, captivity and escapes in Northern Mexico, Mexican president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ordered the execution of one tenth of the 176 Texas freebooters of the Mier Expedition.
1863 Skirmish at Brentwood, Tennessee.
1863 1st US Army Medal of Honor awarded.
1864 Battle of Paducah, Ky. (Forrest's raid)
1865 Battle of Bluff Spring, FL.
1865 Battle of Fort Stedman, VA: Lee's last offensive. Confederate forces capture the fort during the siege of Petersburg, Va.
1865 Battle of Mobile. (Spanish Fort, Fort Morgan, Fort Blakely)
1879 Japan invaded the kingdom of Liuqiu (Ryukyu) Islands: It was formerly a vassal of China.
1898 Theodore Roosevelt urges USNto support Samuel Langley's aviation experiments.
1905 Most battle flags captured during the Civil War are returned to the South
1915 First US submarine disaster: USS F-4 sinks off Hawaii, 21 die
1936 Britain, US & France sign naval accord in London.
1937 Pact of Belgrade: Italy & Yugoslavia sign a non-agression treaty
1940 US gives Britain & France access to American warplanes.
1941 Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers.
1941 Pacific:
*Heavy cruisers USS Chicago and USS Portland and destroyers USS Clark, USS Conyngham, USS Reid, USS Cassin and USS Downes, arrive at Brisbane, Australia.
*TG 9.2, comprising light cruisers USS Brooklyn, USS Savannah and destroyers USS Case, USS Shaw and USS Tucker, arrive at Tahiti.
1942 Atlantic:
*Dutch tanker Ocana is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-552 at 42°36'N, 64°25'W; destroyer USS Mayo rescues four survivors.
1944 Pacific:
*Destroyer escort USS Manlove and submarine chaser PC-1135 sink Japanese submarine I-32, 50 miles south of Wotje, 08°30'N, 170°10'E.
*Submarine USS Pollack attacks Japanese convoy, and sinks submarine chaser Ch 54, about 50 miles north of Muko Jima, Bonins, 28°44'N, 141°45'E.
1944 76 Allied airmen escape Stalag Luft III: The adventure in Sagan, East Prussia ends in tragedy for 50 POWs when they are captured by the SS and executed by the Gestapo.
1944 RAF Sgt. Nickolas Alkemade survives jump from his Lancaster bomber from 18,000 feet without a parachute.
1945 US 4th AD captures Hanau and Aschaffenburg.
1945 US 1st Army breaks out of Remagen bridgehead.
1945 Pacific:
*TF 54 battleships, cruisers, and destroyers bombard Kerama Retto and southeast coast of Okinawa, Ryukyus; bombardment continues daily. Off Okinawa, kamikazes damage destroyer USS Kimberley, 26°02'N, 126°54'E; light minelayer USS Robert H. Smith, 26°00'N, 128°00'E; high speed transport USS Gilmer, 26°00'N, 127°20'E; destroyer escort USS Sederstrom is damaged in collision with escort carrier USS Sangamon, 25°00'N, 130°00'E; high speed transport USS Knudsen is damaged by horizontal bomber, 26°12'N, 127°04'E.
*Submarine USS Tirante sinks Japanese auxiliary netlayer Fuji Maru off Tori Jima, Japan, 31°08'N, 130°30'E.
*TF 58 planes sink Japanese merchant cargo ships No.5 Okinoyama Maru and Chokai Maru near Naha, Okinawa, 26°13'N, 127°39'E. Auxiliary submarine chaser Sobun Maru is damaged between Yaku Jima and Amami O Shima.
*USAAF B-24s (5th Air Force) sink Japanese Kori Go Maru (ex-Chinese Houlee) in Yangtze estuary near Shanghai, 31°11'N, 122°23'E.
1953 USS Missouri fired on targets at Kojo, NK: It would be the last time her guns fire in anger until the Persian Gulf War of 1992.
1958 Canada’s era of supersonic flight began: Pilot Jan Zurakowski took off from Malton Airport near Toronto in an Avro CF-105 Arrow for a 35-minute maiden flight. Less than a month later, Zurakowski flew the Arrow at Mach 1.5 at an altitude of 50,000 feet. In spite of the aircraft’s early promise, the Canadian government scrapped the project before the Arrow could be put into production.
1960 1st guided missile launched from nuclear submarine: USS Halibut.
1981 US Embassy in San Salvador attacked: It was damaged by gunmen firing rocket propelled grenades and machine guns.
1986 US emergency aid for the Honduran army: U.S. helicopters took Honduran troops to the Nicaraguan border.
1994 US troops complete withdrawal from Somalia: 20,000 U.N. troops were left behind to keep the peace and facilitate "nation building."
1996 Ban nuclear weapons in South Pacific: France, Britain & US signed a treaty to reduce tensions in the region. China halts its 18-day naval exercises around Taiwan led by the new guided-missile destroyer Harbin.
1999 NATO forces struck Serbian air defenses: and other sites for a second night as Serb forces stepped up their efforts to crush resistance in Kosovo. The village of Goden was burned by Serb forces and 174 residents were forced to leave. 20 men were kept back and presumed killed.
2003 7th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom: US aircraft dropped more than 2,000 precision-guided bombs on Iraq since the war's start. The "smart" bombs were produced for a relatively cheap $20,000 each. Sandstorms slowed coalition movement and air missions. US officials reported 150-200 Iraqi soldiers were killed near Najaf. The US Navy brought in 2 specially trained bottle-nosed Atlantic dolphins to help ferret out mines in the approaches of the port of Umm Qasr. Six satellite jamming devices, which Iraq was using to try to thwart American precision guided weapons, were destroyed in the last 2 nights.

[Admiral]

March 26

1526 King François I returned Spanish captivity to France.
1799 Napoleon Bonaparte captures Jaffa in Palestine.
1804 Congress orders removal of Indians: Those east of Mississippi would be moved to Louisiana.
1862 Battle of La Glorieta Pass: NM Territory: "The Gettysburg of the West".
1885 Battle of Duck Lake: Métis warriors, led by Louis Riel's adjuntant general Gabriel Dumont, skirmish with a force of North West Mounted Police and civilians 80 km. south-west of Prince Albert, Sask. The Métis win the day, inflicting two dozen casualties to government forces at a cost of only 5 killed. The engagement opens the North West Rebellion, which will see the eventual defeat of Riel's Métis.
1913 Bulgaria captures Adrianople: It effectively ends the First Balkan War.
1918 Action onn the Western Front: During World War I the Germans took the French towns Noyon, Roye and Lihons.
1931 Iraq and Trans-Jordan sign peace treaty.
1942 1st "Eichmann transport" to Auschwitz & Birkenau: Both death camps were newly completed to initial designs.
1942 German offensive continues in North-Africa: under Colonel-General Rommel.
1943 Battle of the Komandorski Islands: U.S. warships beat off a stronger Japanese squadron.
1944 USs Tullibee sinks itself: A malfunctioning a torpedo returned aboard the submarine, leavin but one survivor.
1944 705 British bombers attacked Essen.
1945 Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton attack at Remagen on the Rhine.
1945 Seventh Army attacks Worms on the Rhine.
1945 Kamikaze's attack US battle fleet off Okinawa.
1945 U.S. troops land on Cebu, Philippines.
1951 USAF flag approved.
1954 US set off second H-bomb in 4 weeks: It occurs at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The 15-megaton device was 750 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The blast contaminated the neighboring island of Rongelap and nearly 100 people on the island and other downwind atolls.
1958 Army launches 3rd successful US satellite, Explorer III
1960 Iraq sentences 30 to death after attack on President Kassem.
1961 US President Kennedy met with British Premier Macmillan: Their meeting in Washington was to discuss increased Communist involvement in Laos.
1970 500th nuclear explosion since 1945 announced by the US.
1979 Camp David peace treaty signed: Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat inked the document live at the White House.
1994 UN peacekeepers under fire in Bosnia-Herzegovina: They destroyed a Serb bunker following a seven-hour exchange of fire eminating from it.
1999 American-led NATO forces launched a third night of airstrikes against Yugoslavia and 2 MiG-29 fighters were shot down as Serbian troops continued to sweep ethnic Albanian villages in Kosovo.

[Cap. Teancum]

1917 - World War I: First Battle of Gaza - British troops are halted after 17,000 Turks block their advance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Gaza

[Admiral]

March 27

1625 Charles I ascends English & Scottish thrones.
1690 A French-Indian force of 50 raiders attack the English settlement of Salmon Falls, Maine. At the end of the day the village is in flames, 30 settlers are dead, and 54 women and children are taken prisoner.
1794 President Washington & Congress create the US Navy: Congress authorizes Americas 1st 6 frigates & name them: USS Constitution, USS Congress, USS President, USS Constellation, USS Cumberland & USS Chesapeake. The 6 'super' frigates built of American Live Oak were designed by Joshua Humphreys - likely influenced & assisted by his mentor, John Wharton - and presented themselves time after time to be superior to foreign ships of the same rate. Cannon balls were known to bounce off their side when other ships would have suffered serious damage under the same circumstances. Their stout hulls were not only a result of her side timbers, but also due to their unique keel framing - inspired by a particular type of barn then in use - lending itself to a far more superior structural configuration than ship builders had achieved elswhere at that time.
1799 USS Constitution recaptures the American sloop Neutrality from France.
1802 Treaty of Amiens signed: Wars of the French Revolution end.
1814 Battle of Horsehoe Bend: Andrew Jackson defeats the Creek indians, killing 700, losing 49 men of his own.
1835 Mexican army massacre of Texians at Gohad.
1865 Siege of Spanish Fort, AL. It was captured by Federals.
1880 USS Constellation departs NY: It is loaded with food for famine victims in Ireland.
1900 Parliament passes War Loan Act in London: It provides 35 million pounds to the Boer War cause.
1933 Japan leaves the League of Nations.
1940 Himmler orders construction of Auschwitz: The concentration camp would become a site of many horrors & atrocities upon its completion & well before its eventual liberation by allied forces.
1941 Britain leases defense bases to US: Trinidad for 99 years.
1941 Yugoslavian coup ousts pro-German Prince Paul. Hitler signs Directive 27 for an assault on Yugoslavia.
1941 US-British-Canadian staff discussions in Washington end: The ABC-1 Staff Agreement embodies the basic strategic direction of the war in the event of US entry, making the defeat of Germany a priority and establishing a Combined Chiefs of Staff. The US Atlantic Fleet is to help the Royal Navy convoy ships across the Atlantic. The agreement inextricably links the US Navy in the effort against Germany.
1941 Pacific:
*Tokeo Yoshikawa arrives in Oahu, Hawaii: His mission is that of spying for Japan on the US Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
*TG 9.2, comprising light cruisers USS Brooklyn and USS Savannah, destroyers USS Case, USS Shaw and USS Tucker, depart Tahiti for Pearl Harbor.
1942 Change of command in Ceylon: Admiral James Somerville takes over British Far Eastern Fleet.
1942 Allied assault on St Nazaire: A British raiding force begins attack on port facilities in German-held St. Nazaire, France; destroyer HMS Campbelltown (former U.S. destroyer Buchanan), reconfigured to resemble a German torpedo boat, is to ram the caisson of the only drydock on the French coast capable of handling the battleship DKM Tirpitz.
1942 Atlantic:
*Commander TF 39, Rear Admiral John W. Wilcox, taking an unaccompanied walk on deck of his flagship, battleship USS Washington, is washed overboard and disappears in a heavy sea. Rear Admiral Robert C. Giffen becomes task force commander upon Wilcox's death.
*Destroyer USS Greer proceeds to position indicated by Army plane and rescues five survivors from Panamanian freighter Equipoise, sunk the previous day by U-160; later, USS Greer picks up an additional eight survivors from the sunken Panamanian merchantman.
1942 Pacific:
*Submarine USS Gudgeon sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Nissho Maru southeast of Kumun Island, 33°50'N, 127°33'E.
*Japanese collier Yubari Maru is sunk by Dutch planes off Koepang, Timor.
*Japanese transport/cargo ship Kitano Maru is sunk by Japanese mine off Mabilao, Lingayen Gulf, 16°10'N, 120°24'E.
1943 Atlantic:
*Naval Air Facilities established at Natal, Brazil: Naval Operating Facilities at Victoria, Florianopolis, Fortaleza, Maceio, Recife, Rio Grande do Sul, Santos, and Sao Luiz, Brazil, are established.
*Cutter CG-85006 (ex-motor boat Catamount) is sunk by explosion off Long Island, New York.
1943 US troops attack Fonduk Pass, Tunisia.
1944 1,000 Jews leave Drancy, France, for Auschwitz Concentration Camp.
1944 2,000 Jews are murdered in Kaunas Lithuania.
1944 40 Jewish policemen in Riga Latvia ghetto are shot by the gestapo.
1944 Nazis collect all the Jewish children of Lovno.
1944 Pacific:
*Destroyer USS Hoel encounters and sinks outrigger canoe bound from Mussau, St. Matthias Group, Bismarck Archipelago, to Tingwon Island, part of the effort to evacuate the Mussau garrison by any means available.
*Motor torpedo boats PT-121 and PT-353 are mistakenly sunk by friendly bomber, Bismarck Archipelago, 05°17'S, 151°01'E.
*Submarine USS Hake sinks Japanese merchant tanker Yamamizu Maru about 75 miles south of Borneo, 03°53'S, 109°42'E.
*Submarine USS Rasher, in attack on Japanese convoy in the Java Sea, sinks army cargo ship Nichinan Maru about 50 miles north of Bali, 07°27'S, 115°55'E.
*RAAF Catalinas sink Japanese merchant cargo vessel Shinsei Maru in Banda Sea north of Dowalger Island, 07°44'S, 130°02'E.
1944 Mediterranean:
*Destroyer USS Livermore provides gunfire support at Anzio.
*Motor torpedo boat PT-207 is damaged by naval gunfire off Anzio-Nettuno, Italy, 41°27'N, 12°40'E.
*Allied force of American and British motor torpedo boats and British motor gunboats destroys six German ferry barges off Vada Rocks, Corsica. U.S. motor torpedo boats PT-208, PT-214 and PT-218 participate in the battle.
1945 Army troops cross the Rhine at Mainz, Germany: TG 122.5.1 Navy landing craft ferry them across in the face of "all the fire power at [the Germans'] disposal," ranging from machine guns and small arms to the deadly 88-millimeter weapons.
1945 US XX Corps captures Wiesbaden, Germany: General Dwight D. Eisenhower tells reporters in Paris that German defenses on the Western Front had been broken.
1945 Pacific:
*Second Battalion, 151st Infantry, 38th Division, supported by destroyers USS Conway and USS Cony and three rocket-equipped motor torpedo boats, lands on Caballo Island near Corregidor, preceded by an air strike.
*Operation STARVATION, the USAAF aerial mining campaign (using Navy-provided mines) commences, as 94 B-29s mine the Shimonoseki Straits and the waters of Suo Nada, Japan. This operation and the six that follow are in support of the Okinawa campaign.
*High speed transport USS Newman, covering the landings on Cebu, sights and attacks a Japanese midget submarine off Talisay, Cebu. She is given credit for a "possible" submersible sunk.
*Off Okinawa, an aircraft operational casualty damages carrier USS Essex, 25°10'N, 132°05'E; kamikazes damage light minelayer USS Adams, 26°17'N, 127°40'E.
*Submarine USS Trigger sinks Japanese cable layer Odate, 200 miles southwest of Kyushu, 30°40'N, 127°50'E.
*TF 58 planes sink Japanese guardboats No.13 Choun Maru and No.27 Yusen Maru and army cargo ship No.28 Suma Maru, Kuchinoerabu Bay, Osumi-Gunto, 30°30'N, 130°05'E, and No.12 Myojin Maru, west of Tori Jima, 30°00'N, 139°30'E.
*British submarine HMS Stygian damages Japanese minelayer IJN Wakatake (previously damaged on 25 March 1945 when she encounters a shoal upon leaving Macassar) in Java Sea, south of Kangean Island. Reaching Surabaya on 1 April 1945, IJN Wakatake performs no more active service.
*USAAF B-24s attack six-ship Japanese convoy off Surabaya, damaging submarine chaser Ch 5 by near-misses.
*Japanese auxiliary minesweeper Wa.1 is sunk by mine (laid by RAF planes) near the Deli River, Sumatra, 03°52'N, 98°45'E.
*Occupation of Iwo Jima complete: This after 22,000 Japanese and 6,000 US killed.
1952 Unsuccesful assassination attempt on German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
1952 US 8th Army reaches 38th parallel in Korea: This was the original dividing line between the two Koreas.
1956 French commandos land in Algeria.
1958 Nikita Khrushchev becomes premier & first sectretary of the CPUSSR.
1964 UN peacekeeping troops arrive on Cyprus.
1968 New president of Indonesia: General Suharto succeeded Sukarno. General Suharto thwarted a Communist coup and gradually assumed power. Thousands of alleged communists were executed amid widespread violence in ensueing weeks.
1999 NATO expands air assault on Yugoslavia: It is the fourth straight day of attacks. A $42 million US F-117A stealth fighter was downed over Yugoslavia during continued NATO airstrikes. The downed American pilot was rescued by US forces. The wreckage was later believed to have been sold.

[Cap. Teancum]

1846 - Mexican-American War: Siege of Fort Texas.

1918 - Moldova and Bessarabia annexed to Romania.

1938 - Battle of Tai er zhuang

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tai_er_zhuang

2004 - HMS Scylla, a decommissioned Leander frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe.

[Admiral]

March 28

49 -BC- Julius Caesar visits Cicero at Formiae: Julius Ceasars health was then in serious decline.
1503 2nd Lithuanian war with Russia (1500-1503) ends: Lithuania loses 1/4 of its territory as a consequence of the peace treaty.
1774 Britain passes Coercive Act: It is directed against Massachusetts.
1800 USS Essex 'rounds the Cape of Good Hope: She is the first American warship to do so.
1814 Capture of USS Essex: HMS Phoebe & HMS Cherub take the vessel off Valparaiso, Chile.
1854 Britain & France declare war on Russia. During the Crimean War.
1862 Skirmish at Bealeton Station in Virginia.
1879 Battle on Hlobane Mountain: British mounted troops under Colonel Henry Evelyn Wood went up Hlobane Mountain to battle the Zulus—only to be surrounded by a 22,000-man impi (army). Lieutenant Colonel Redvers Buller, received the Victoria Cross for his gallantry during the difficult withdrawal of his troopers from the mountain. Hlobane was the worst rout of British cavalry—and the last Zulu victory—of the Anglo-Zulu War in South Africa.
1885 North West Mounted Police abandon Fort Carlton: They sought to avoid further violence in by the Métis and Plains Indians then in open revolt against the Canadian government.
1917 Jews are expelled from Tel Aviv & Jaffa by Turkish authorities.
1917 Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) founded: These were Great Britain’s first official service women.
1918 Riots explode in Quebec City when a mob rescues a young man who has been arrested for not having a certificate of military exemption. The rioters free the prisoner and begin a rampage that shows the frustration of the French-speaking population against conscription.
1933 German Reichstag confers power on Hitler. A dictator he become.
1939 Spanish Civil War ends as Madrid falls: Francisco Franco became head of Fascist Spain ending the Spanish Civil War. Franco emerged victorious and executed more than 100,000 people who had opposed him.
1941 Naval battle of Cape Matapan: Italians lose three cruisers as their fleet is routed by the British Royal Navy.
1942 British Royal Navy again targets St. Nazaire: The primary target was its dry docks.
1942 British Bomber Command targets Lubeck: The Royal Air Force attacks the German city with 234 bombers.
1945 Last V-1 attack on London.
1962 US Air Force reveals laser research: Their goal is to intercept missiles and satellites.
1988 Iraq used chemical weapons on Halabja: The target was the cities Kurdish civilians.
2003 The biggest bombs dropped on Baghdad so far: Two 4,700-pound "bunker busters," struck a communications tower during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
2003 Iraqi fighters fired on hundreds of civilians: They were trying to flee the besieged city of Basra during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
2003 Japan's first spy satellites launched: It caused an angry North Korea to warn the move could spark an arms race in the region.

[Cap. Teancum]

193 - Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus.

364 - Roman Emperor Valentinian I appoints his brother Flavius Valens co-emperor.

845 - Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.

1794 - Allies under the prince of Coburg defeated French forces at Le Cateau.

[Admiral]

I'll have very little time to spare over the next few days, Luis...

March 29

1430 Sultan Murad II captures Thessaloniki from the Venetians
1461 Battle of Towton Field
1836 Santa Anna orders massacre of c. 350 Texian prisoners near Coleto Creek
1865 Battle of Quaker Road, VA
1935 French liner Normandie begins its maiden voyage
1942 British cruiser Trinidad torpedoes itself in the Barents Sea
1943 Meat, butter & cheese rationing begin in the US
1962 Argentine Pres Arturo Frondizi flees after a military coup
1969 Communist New People's Army founded in Philippines
1971 1st Lt William L Calley Jr found guilty in My Lai massacre
1973 Last US troops leave Vietnam, 9 years after the Tonkin Gulf Resolution

[Cap. Teancum]

1792 - King Gustav III of Sweden dies after being shot in the back at a midnight masquerade at Stockholm's Royal Opera just 13 days earlier. He is succeeded by Gustav IV Adolf.

1809 - King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden abdicates after a coup d'état. At the Diet of Porvoo, Finland's four Estates pledge allegiance to Alexander I of Russia, commencing the secession of the Grand Duchy of Finland from Sweden.

1847 - Mexican-American War: United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.

1849 - The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab.

1857 - Sepoy Mangal Pandey of the 34th Regiment, Bengal Native Infantry revolts against the British rule in India and inspires a long-drawn War of Independence of 1857 also known as the Sepoy Mutiny.

1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kambula

1911 - The M1911 semi-automatic handgun designed by John Browning becomes the standard-issue handgun in the United States Army, and is subsequently widely used in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.

1936 - In Germany, dictator Hitler receives 99% of the votes in a referendum to ratify Germany's illegal reoccupation of the Rhineland, receiving 44.5 million votes out of 45.5 million registered voters. In 1933] all political parties and political liberty had been abolished.

1941 - World War II: British Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy forces intercept those of the Italian Regia Marina off the Peloponnesus coast of Greece in the Battle of Cape Matapan.

1945 - World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England.

1951 - Red Scare: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.

2004 - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO as full members.

[Admiral]

March 30

1282 The Sicilian Vespers: Furious inhabitants of Palermo attack French occupation force. 1492 King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella sign decree expelling Jews from Spain.
1533 Henry VIII divorces his 1st wife, Catherine of Aragon.
1603 Battle at Mellifont: English army under Lord Mountjoy beats Irish.
1644 One hundred Iroquois warriors surround the new settlement of Ville Marie. (Montreal) The garrison's commander, Maisonneuve, leads 30 Frenchmen into an ambush and leaves three dead before quickly retiring behind the village palisades.
1865 Battle at 5 Forks in Virginia.
1919 Belgian Army occupies Düsseldorf.
1941 German counter offensive ensues in North-Africa.
1942 SS murders 200 inmates of Trawniki labor camp.
1943 British 1st army recaptures Sejenane.
1944 TF 58 begins several days of raids on Palau, Yap, and Ulithi.
1944 781 British bombers attack Neurenberg.
1945 Soviet troops enter Austria.
1945 The Battle of the Rhineland winds down as Canadian troops secure the western outskirts of Emmerich this evening. The soldiers fight on through the battered city with rifle and grenade.
1961 NASA civilian pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 169,600'. (51,690 m)

[Cap. Teancum]

1296 - Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between the two nations.

1814 - Napoleonic Wars: Sixth Coalition forces march into Paris.

1844 - One of the most important battles of the Dominican War of Independence from Haiti takes place near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.

1855 - Origins of the American Civil War: Bleeding Kansas - "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature.

1856 - The Treaty of Paris (1856) is signed, ending the Crimean War.

1912 - Sultan Abdelhafid signs the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate.

1940 - Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking to be the capital of a new Chinese puppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Ching-wei.

1965 - Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.

1972 - Vietnam War: The Eastertide Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.

[Cap. Teancum]

March 31

1653 - Battle of Leghorn. Dutch destroy British squadron but their commander, Van Gelen, was mortally wounded.

1774 - American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed in the Boston Port Act.

1849 - Battle of Brescia, Austrians put down Italian revolt.

1865 - Fighting at White Oak Road and Dinwiddie Court House.

http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/t...6&cat=10272941

1866 - The Spanish Navy bombs the harbour of Valparaíso, Chile.

1885 - The United Kingdom establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland.

1905 - The First Moroccan Crisis.

http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/t...6&cat=16369391

1909 - Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina.

1940 - Germany's Atlantis launches.

http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/t...ory=worldwarii

1941 - Scharnhorst and Gneisenau bombed at Brest.

1964 - The Dictatorship in Brazil, under the aegis of general Castello Branco, begins.

1967 - Republic of Vietnam: While supporting operation Junction City, the 1/26 Inf was air assaulted on Mar 26 into an LZ near Ap Gu, 25 miles northeast of Tay Ninh city to search for a suspected enemy basecamp. Several fortified positions were found but only small contacts were made with the enemy. On Mar 30 while patrolling north of their NDP, heavy contact was made. Air and Arty were applied and the 1/16 Inf was inserted to reinforce. The VC assault and the fire fight that followed lasted two days. 1st Infantry Division Arty fired over 15,000 rounds and 133 airstrikes were delivered. The 271st VC Regiment left 609 dead in the area.

1968 - LBJ announces an end to air strikes into North Vietnam above the 20th parallel and makes another offer to the North Vietnamese to negotiate; as well, he says that he will not run for office again. To Johnson's surprise, Hanoi agrees to talk, though they won't agree to practically anything else over the next four years.

1972 - After firing more than 5,000 rockets, artillery, and mortar shells on 12 South Vietnamese positions just below the Demilitarized Zone, the North Vietnamese Army launches ground assaults against South Vietnamese positions in Quang Tri Province. The attacks were thrown back, with 87 North Vietnamese killed. South Vietnamese fire bases Fuller, Mai Loc, Holcomb, Pioneer, and two smaller bases near the Demilitarized Zone were abandoned as the North Vietnamese pushed the defenders back toward their rear bases. At the same time, attacks against three bases west of Saigon forced the South Vietnamese to abandon six outposts along the Cambodian border.

1979 - The last British soldier leaves the Maltese Islands.

1991 - Warsaw Pact ends.

http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/t...6&cat=10272942

1994 - Americans withdraw from Somalia.

2004 - In Fallujah, Iraq, 4 American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed and their bodies mutilated after being ambushed.


A special thanks for the Nam contributions by Boonie

[Cap. Teancum]

APRIL 1

527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne.

1318 - Berwick-upon-Tweed is captured by the Scottish from the English.

1572 - The Watergeuzen succeeded in capturing Den Briel, effectively sealing off the Meuse River from the Spaniards.

1865 - American Civil War: Battle of Five Forks - In Petersburg, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.

1867 - Singapore becomes a British crown colony.

1918 - The Royal Flying Corps is replaced by the Royal Air Force.

1924 - Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in jail for his participation in the "Beer Hall Putsch." However, he spends only nine months in jail, during which he writes the book Mein Kampf.

1937 - Aden becomes a British crown colony.

1939 - Generalísimo Francisco Franco of the Spanish State announced the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the last of the Republican forces surrendered.

1941 - The Blockade Runner Badge for German navy is instituted.

1944 - Accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen. The bombers were lost.

1945 - World War II: Operation Iceberg - United States troops land on Okinawa in the last campaign of the war.

1946 - Formation of the Malayan Union.

1948 - Cold War: Berlin Airlift - Military forces, under direction of the Soviet-controlled government in East Germany, set-up a land blockade of West Berlin.

1948 - Faroe Islands receive autonomy from Denmark.

1949 - Chinese Civil War: Communist Party of China hold unsuccessful peace talks with the Kuomintang in Beijing, after three years of fighting.

1954 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes the creation of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.

1955 - The EOKA rebellion starts in Cyprus, aiming at the island´s independence from Great Britain.

1969 - The Hawker-Siddeley Harrier enters service with the RAF.

2001 - An EP-3E United States Navy plane collides with a Chinese People's Liberation Army fighter jet. The Navy crew makes an emergency landing in Hainan, People's Republic of China and is detained.

2001 - Former president of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on charges of war crimes.

[Cap. Teancum]

APRIL 2

69 - Galba, governor of Spain, names himself legatus senatus populique Romani, breaking the line of Roman emperors begun with Julius Caesar and Augustus.

1453 - Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (İstanbul), which would fall on May 29

1755 - Commodore William James captures pirate fortress of Severndroog on west coast of India.

1801 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Copenhagen - The British destroy the Danish fleet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Copenhagen

1865 - American Civil War: Siege of Petersburg broken - Union troops capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, forcing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to retreat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Petersburg

1865 - American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

1917 - World War I: U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.

1972 - Vietnam War: Easter Offensive begins - North Vietnamese soldiers of the 304th Division take the northern half of Quang Tri Province.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Offensive

1975 - Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from the Quang Ngai Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.

1982 - Falklands War: 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentina. The disputed islands are later retaken by the United Kingdom.

2002 - Israeli forces surrounded the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem which has around 200 Palestinians inside. A siege ensues.