This Day In Military History...

[Rambow]

January 5

1920 Battle of Daugavpils: Allied Polish and Latvian troops occupied Dvinsk (now Daugavpils) in the Polish-Soviet War.

1942 Eupatoria landing: tactical operation of Soviet Black Sea Fleet. Strengthened batallion of soviet marines was landed near Eupatoria to draw german forces away from Kerch and besieged Sevastopol. Without any support the batallion was entirely annihilated in three days.

[Cap. Teancum]

January 6

By Admiral:

Born...

1367 King Richard II of England (1377-99), deposed and later murdered

1412 Joan of Arc, Warrior Maiden

1602 Karl Rabenhaupt, German/Dutch baron of Sucha/army leader

1745 James and Jacques Montgolfier, France, pioneer balloonists

1799 Jedediah Smith, fur trader, Indian fighter

1807 Joseph Holt, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1894

1822 Heinrich Schliemann, who found Troy

1827 John Calvin Brown, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1889

1827 John Wesley Frazer, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1906

1854 Sherlock Holmes

1878 Carl Sandburg, Spanish-America War veteran, poet, biographer,

1897 Peter Veres, Hungarian Minister of Defence

1948 Guy Spencer Gardner, Lt Col USAF/Astronaut, STS 27, STS 35

1957 C Michael Foale, Louth England, Astronaut, STS 45, 56, 63, 84/86

1963 Philippe Perrin, Meknes Morocco, Lt Col FAF/astronaut

Died...

1448 King Christopher III of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden

1693 Sultan Mehmed IV of Turkey, at 51

1694 Francesco Morosini, Genoese Admiral/General

1799 Prince Frederik of Orange, General

1919 Theodore Roosevelt, Medal of Honor, President, Nobel Peace Prize, at 60

1989 Emperor Hirohito of Japan (1922-89), at 87 after 62-year reign

Event...

1066 King Harald of England crowned

1099 Henry V crowned German King

1352 French King Jean II creates Order of the Star

1496 Moorish fortress Alhambra, near Grenada, surrenders to the Christi

1497 Jews are expelled from Graz, Styria, Austria

1540 King Henry VIII of England marries, fourthly, Anne of Cleves

1745 Bonnie Prince Charlies army draws to Glasgow

1781 Battle of Jersey, in the Channel Islands

1795 Members of the Queen's Rangers begin clearing a path north from York (Toronto) to Lake Simcoe. Although little more than a 20 foot wide track through the forest, the new approach is dubbed "Yonge Street".

1842 Afghanistan: British and Indians begin retreat from Kabul, all 4,500 will be lost

1859 Brig-General Archibald Henderson died in office after serving 39 years as the 5th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps.

1861 Florida troops seize the Federal arsenal at Apalachicola

1916 First enlisted flight training class at Pensacola, FL

1927 US marines sent to Nicaragua

1929 Alexander I establishes a royal dictatorship in Yugoslavia

1940 Admiral James O. Richardson relieves Admiral Claude C. Bloch as Commander in Chief U.S. Fleet on board battleship USS Pennsylvania at Pearl Harbor, T.H. Admiral Charles P. Snyder hoists flag as Commander Battle Force on board battleship USS California.

1940 U.S. passenger liner Manhattan is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities

1941 FDR's "Four Freedoms": of speech, of worship, from want, and from fear.

1941 Heavy cruiser USS Louisville departs Simonstown for New York, having taken on board $148,342,212.55 in British gold for deposit in American banks.

1942 Second Marine Brigade embarked in troop transports (former Matson Line passenger liners) Lurline, Monterey and Matsonia, and cargo ship Jupiter and ammunition ship Lassen sails from San Diego, California, for Pago Pago, American Samoa. Initial escort is provided by TF 17, formed around carrier USS Yorktown.

1942 Japanese amphibious force lands at Brunei Bay, Borneo.

1942 Malaya: British manage to hold the Japanese north of Kuala Lumpur

1942 Philippine Army units hold the Dinalupihan-Orani line

1942 Japanese capture 11 Navy Nurses in Manila, Philippines

1942 1st around world flight (Pan Am "Pacific Clipper")

1943 Motor torpedo boats PT-22 and PT-24 are damaged in collision during storm, Dora Harbor, Unimak Island, Aleutians.

1943 PBY sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Montreal Maru near Kiska, Aleutians, 53°28'N, 177°52'E.

1943 USAAF B-24s sink Japanese merchant cargo ship Kotohira Maru off Holtz Bay, Attu, 53°00'N, 173°10'E.

1943 USAAF B-17s and B-24s bomb Japanese shipping at Rabaul, New Britain, sinking army cargo vessel Keifuku Maru and damaging destroyer IJN Tachikaze and cargo vessel Kagu Maru.

1943 USAAF aircraft damage Japanese torpedo boat Tomozuru off Kai Island, Banda Sea.

1943 PBY-5A (VP 83) sinks German submarine U-164 off Brazil, 01°58'S, 39°23'W.

1943 District patrol craft YP-492 is sunk in collision with YP-6713 off eastern Florida.

1943 Papua: US and Australian troops mass for a final assault on Sanananda.

1944 Aerial minelaying operations in the Marshalls continue: One PBY-5 (VP 72), flying from Tarawa, mines Schischmarov Strait, Wotje; a second Catalina, vexed by engine trouble, brings its mines back and does not carry out the mission.

1944 Gunboat St. Augustine is sunk in collision with U.S. merchant tanker Camas Meadows, 73 miles south- southwest of Cape May, New Jersey, 38°01'N, 74°05'W.

1944 U.S. freighter William S. Rosecrans drags anchor during storm south of Naples, Italy, and strikes a mine that starts a fire that dooms the ship. She sinks later that afternoon but there are no casualties to either the merchant complement or the 27-man Armed Guard, who are all rescued by British naval vessels.

1944 Nimitz issues plan for the capture of the Marshall Islands.

1945 Japanese suicide plane attacks intensify against Lingayen Gulf invasion force; kamikazes damage battleships USS New Mexico (killing members of an observing British military mission) and USS California, light cruiser USS Columbia and destroyers USS Newcomb (she is also hit by friendly fire) and USS Richard P. Leary, 16°20'N, 120°10'E, heavy cruiser USS Louisville, 16°37'N, 120°17'E,2 destroyers USS Allen M. Sumner 16°40'N, 120°10'E, and USS O'Brien , 16°23'N, 120°14'E. Destroyer USS Lowry is damaged by friendly fire, 16°40'N, 120°10'E.

1945 Kamikazes attack minesweeping group, sinking high speed minesweeper USS Long, 16°12'N, 120°11'E, and damaging high speed minesweeper USS Southard, 16°11'N, 126°16'E, and high speed transport USS Brooks, 16°20'N, 120°10'E. Destroyer USS Walke, on detached duty covering the minesweeping operations, 16°40'N, 120°10'E, is attacked by four enemy aircraft; one crashes the ship's bridge, drenching it with burning gasoline and mortally wounding USS Walke's commanding officer, Commander George F. Davis. Davis nevertheless remains at his post, conning his ship amidst the wreckage and rallying his crew. Carried below only when assured that his ship would survive, he dies of his wounds within hours. He is subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor, posthumously.

1945 As a consequence of the kamikaze attacks, TF 38 shifts its focus from Formosa to begin operations against Japanese airfields and shipping in Luzon area. In South China Sea off northern Luzon, Navy carrier-based planes sink army cargo ship Kyodo Maru and merchant tankers No.1 Nanko Maru and 8 Iyasaka Maru and 6 Kyoei Maru and 10 Nanshin Maru and 10 Kyoei Maru and 3 Kyoei Maru.

1945 Submarine USS Besugo sinks Japanese fleet tanker Nichei Maru in Gulf of Thailand 06°45'N, 102°55'E. Coast Defense Ship No.17 carries out ineffective countermeasures.

1945 Submarine USS Sea Robin attacks Japanese convoy, and sinks fleet tanker Tarakan Maru east of Hainan Island 19°45'N, 111°25'E.

1945 USAAF aircraft sink auxiliary submarine chaser Cha 64 off Poulo Condore Island 08°55'N, 106°30'E, and merchant tanker No.3 Iyasaka Maru off Cape St. Jacques, French Indochina.

1945 U.S. freighter Isaac Shelby is damaged by mine when she straggles from Naples-bound convoy NV 90; fortunately, there are no casualties to either the merchant complement or the 12-man Armed Guard. The ship, however, is later declared a total loss.

1950 Britain recognizes Communist government of China

1967 Operation Song Than/Deckhouse V began on MeKong Delta - RVN.

1996 USS Hopper, named for RADM Grace Hopper, commissioned.

By Cap. Teancum:

1971 - The Army drops charges of an alleged cover-up in the My Lai massacre against four officers. After the charges were dropped, a total of 11 people had been cleared of responsibility during the My Lai trials.

The trials were a result of action that occurred in March 1968. During the incident, 1st Lt. William Calley, a platoon leader in the 23rd (Americal) Division, allegedly led his men to massacre innocent Vietnamese civilians, including women and children, in a cluster of hamlets in Son Tinh District in the coastal south of Chu Lai.

By 1971, charges were pending only against Lt. Calley, Capt. Ernest Medina, and Capt. Eugene Kotouc. On March 29, 1971, a Fort Benning court-martial jury found Calley guilty of the premeditated murder of at least 22 South Vietnamese civilians and sentenced him to life in prison. Kotouc was cleared by a court-martial on April 29, and Medina was acquitted on September 22.

On May 19, the Army disciplined two generals for failing to conduct an adequate investigation of My Lai, demoting Maj. Gen. Samuel W. Koster from two-star to one-star rank. At the same time, both Koster and Brig. Gen. George W. Young Jr., his assistant divisional commander at the time of the massacre, were stripped of their Distinguished Service Medals, and letters of censure were placed in their personnel files. The trials ended on December 17, when Col. Oren K. Henderson was acquitted of cover-up charges. He was the highest-ranking officer to be tried.

Of those originally charged, only Calley was convicted. Many believed that Calley was a scapegoat, and the widespread public outcry against his life sentence moved President Nixon to intervene on April 3, 1971. He had Calley removed from the Fort Benning stockade and ordered him confined to quarters pending review of his case. On August 20, Calley's life term was reduced to 20 years. In November 1974, a Federal Court judge ruled that Calley was convicted unjustly, citing "prejudicial publicity." Although the Army disputed this ruling, Calley was paroled for good behavior after serving 40 months, 35 of which were spent in his own home.

1975 - Phuoc Binh, the capital of Phuoc Long Province, about 60 miles north of Saigon, falls to the North Vietnamese. Phuoc Binh was the first provincial capital taken by the communists since the fall of Quang Tri on May 1, 1972.

Two days later, the North Vietnamese took the last of the South Vietnamese positions in the region, gaining control of the entire province. The South Vietnamese Air Force lost 20 planes defending the province. Presidents Nixon and Ford had promised South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu that the United States would come to the aid of South Vietnam if the North Vietnamese launched a major offensive in violation of the Paris Peace Accords. However, the United States did nothing when Phuoc Binh fell to the communists. In fact, the passive response of the United States convinced North Vietnam that the Americans would not soon return to Vietnam, and encouraged the Politburo in Hanoi to launch a new attack in the hopes of creating ripe conditions for a general uprising in South Vietnam by 1976.

When the North Vietnamese launched the new offensive in early 1975, the South Vietnamese forces, demoralized by the failure of the United States to come to their aid, were defeated in just 55 days. North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the presidential palace on April 30 and South Vietnam surrendered fully to the communists.

[Cap. Teancum]

Today's event:

1940 Admiral James O. Richardson relieves Admiral Claude C. Bloch as Commander in Chief U.S. Fleet on board battleship USS Pennsylvania at Pearl Harbor, T.H. Admiral Charles P. Snyder hoists flag as Commander Battle Force on board battleship USS California.

Today's book:

On the Treadmill to Pearl Harbor : Memoirs of Admiral J.O. Richardson by James O. Richardson

Book Description:

Story of Naval officer Admiral J. O. Richardson, commander of the United States Fleet between 1940 and January 31, 1941 and his efforts to keep the main strength of that fleet from being regularly based at Pearl Harbor. With charts, illustrations, index.

http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/mcco/8748.shtml

[Cap. Teancum]

January 7

By Admiral:

Born...

1799 Daniel Tyler, Brig General, Union volunteers, d. 1882

1800 Millard Fillmore, militia officer, 1861-1865, President, 1850-53,

1808 Jacob Ammen, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1894

1816 Stephen Miller, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1881

1821 Lucius Jeremiah Gartrell, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1891

1824 James Morrison Hawes, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1889

1830 Samuel Emerson Opdycke, Bvt Major General, Union volunteers

1845 Ludwig III, last king of Bavaria (1913-18)

1883 Andrew Browne, Irish/British Admiral, WW II

1912 Charles Addams, macabre cartoonist

1935 Valeri Nikolayevich Kubasov, Cosmonaut (Soyuz 6, 36, Apollo-Soyuz)

1941 Frederick Drew Gregory, Col. USAF/Astronaut, STS 51-B, 33, 44

1951 Talgat Amangeldyyevich Musabayev, Russian Major/Cosmonaut, TM-19, TM-27

Died...

1285 Charles I of Anjou, brother of King Louis IX of France

1325 Dionysius the justified, King of Portugal (1279-1325)

1537 Alessandro de' Medici of Florence, assassinated

1598 Theodorus I, [Fedor Ivanovitch], Czar of Russia (1584-98), at 40

1892 Tewfik Pasha, Viceroy of Egypt

1943 Nikola Tesla, Yugoslavian physicist (tesla motor), at 86

1995 Viktor Vorobyov, Russian General-Major, in battle

1989 Hirohito, Emperor of Japan (1922-89), of duodenal cancer at 87

Event...

1325 Afonso IV succeeds Dionysius as King of Portugal.

1558 Calais, last English possession in France, retaken by French under Francois, Duke of Guise.

1579 England signs an offensive & defensive alliance with the Netherlands.

1598 Boris Godunov seizes the Russian throne on death of Theodore I.

1601 Robert, Earl of Essex leads revolt in London against Queen Elizabeth.

1610 Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, 46, discovered four satellites of Jupiter with the aid of the newly invented telescope. His discovery revolutionized astronomy, and led Galileo to adopt the Copernican (heliocentric) model of the solar system in place of the older, less adequate, Ptolemaic (earth-centered) view.

1618 Francis Bacon becomes English Lord Chancellor.

1622 Germany and Transylvania sign Peace of Nikolsburg.

1698 Russian Czar Peter the Great departs Netherlands to England.

1709 Russians in Veprik defeat Swedes by pouring boiling porridge on them.

1761 Battle at Panipat India: Afghan army beats Mahratten.

1813 Lt. Colonel Bruyeres, of the Royal Engineers, reports his findings on the state of defences along the St. Lawrence River. This is the main artery for transporting supplies and reinforcements from Lower to Upper Canada, and Bruyeres recommends a thorough strengthening of facilities along the route.

1822 Liberia colonized by Americans.

1835 HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin anchors off Chonos Archipelago.

1861 Florida troops takeover Ft. Marion at St. Augustine.

1862 Battle of Manassas Junction, VA.

1862 Valley Campaign: Stonewall Jackson marches on Romney.

1911 1st airplane bombing experiments with explosives, San Francisco.

1915 Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry have just taken over part of the frontline from the French around the St. Eloi area.

1916 German troops conquer Fort Vaux at Verdun.

1935 Fascist Italy and France agree to preserve Austria against Nazi Germany.

1940 U.S. freighter City of Flint departs Narvik for Baltimore, Maryland. For his "skill, fine judgement [sic], and devotion to duty" during City of Flint's ordeal, Captain Joseph A. Gainard, the freighter's master, will receive the Navy Cross.

1940 U.S. passenger liner Manhattan, detained at Gibraltar by British authorities the previous day, is released.

1940 German freighter Konsul Horn escapes from Aruba and, disguised as a Soviet merchantman, manages to deceive U.S. Navy patrol planes from the Neutrality Patrol and British light cruiser HMS Enterprise.

1941 US Office of Production Management is established under industrialist William S. Knudsen, labor leader Sidney Hillman, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson.

1941 Isoruku Yamamoto proposes a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

1942 Navy's authorized aircraft strength is increased from 15,000 to 27,500.

1942 Submarine USS Pollack torpedoes and sinks Japanese collier No.1 Unkai Maru south of Honshu, 34°27'N, 139°59'E.

1942 Malaya: Japanese turn the British defenses north of Kuala Lumpur.

1942 Japanese invest Phil-American forces on Bataan.

1942 Bataan: 15,000 US & 65,000 Philippine troops go on half-rations.

1943 USAAF B-17s, B-24s, B-25s and B-26s, supported by P-38s and P-40s, and RAAF or RNZAF Hudsons and RAF Catalinas, set upon Japanese convoy bound for Lae, New Guinea. During these attacks, army cargo ship Nichiryu Maru is sunk off Lae, 06°30'S, 149°00'E, and army cargo ship Myoko Maru is forced aground south of Arawe, 06°49'S, 147°04'E.

1943 German planes attack convoy KMS 7 off Bougie, Algeria, bombing U.S. freighter William Wirt; there are no casualties among the ship's complement (including the 21-man Armed Guard).

1943 Guadalcanal: blocking detachments set up in the Japanese rear.

1943 Stalemate in the Arakan, Burma, as British take heavy losses.

1943 Guadalcanal: US reaches 50,000, Japanese less than 25,000.

1944 Air Force announces production of 1st U.S. jet fighter, the Bell P-59.

1944 Small carrier USS Belleau Wood and destroyer USS Dunlap are damaged in collision during exercises off Oahu, T.H.

1944 Submarine USS Kingfish attacks Japanese convoy southwest of Palawan, sinking merchant tanker No.3 Fushimi Maru, 09°27'N, 117°36'E.

1944 Eight PB4Y-1s (VB 108 and VB 109), flying from Apemama, encounter bad weather that forces cancellation of their minelaying mission to the Marshalls.

1944 USAAF B-25s sink Vichy French merchant ship Kai Ping, Ben Thuy, French Indochina.

1944 Japanese cargo vessel Katsuragisan Maru is sunk by Japanese mine in northwest channel of Truk harbor, 07°30'N, 151°50'E.

1944 Fleet tug Carib stops and boards Spanish merchant ship Monte Amiboto and removes a stowaway, an alleged German internee in Argentina from the armored ship DKM Admiral Graf Spee.

1944 Destroyer USS Davis rescues 21 survivors of sunken German blockade runner Burgenland, 08°06'S, 26°45'W.

1944 Imperial HQ orders capture of the Imphal area of India.

1945 Lord Haw-Haw reports total German victory at Ardennen

1945 Bombardment and fire support group, TG 77.2 and planes from escort carrier group, TG 77.4, begin pounding Japanese defenses of Lingayen Gulf. Enemy air attacks in the area, however, continue: high speed minesweeper USS Hovey is sunk by aerial torpedo; high speed minesweeper USS Palmer by bombs, 16°20'N, 120°10'E. Kamikazes damage attack transport USS Callaway, 17°00'N, 120°00'E, and tank landing ship LST-912, 16°20'N, 120°10'E.

1945 Destroyers USS Charles Ausburne, USS Braine, USS Russell, and USS Shaw sink Japanese destroyer IJN Hinoki, 50 miles west-southwest of Manila Bay, 14°30'N, 119°30'E.

1945 Submarine USS Picuda damages Japanese army tanker Munakata Maru 28 miles northwest of Fukikaku, Formosa, 25°42'N, 121°08'E. Munakata Maru puts in to Keelung for repairs.

1945 Submarine USS Spot sinks Japanese guardboat No.2 Nichiei Maru in the Inland Sea, 31°20'N, 123°40'E.

1945 USAAF B-24s (14th Air Force), attacking Japanese convoy in the South China Sea, sink stores ship Shinsei Maru in Formosa Strait, 22°40'N, 118°45'E.

1945 British troops occupy Akyab, in the Arakan area of Burma.

1946 Cambodia becomes autonomous state inside French Union.

1948 US president Truman raises taxes for Marshall-plan.

1953 Pres Truman announces development of the hydrogen bomb.

1958 U.S.S.R. shrinks army to 300,000.

1959 U.S. recognizes Fidel Castro's Cuban government.

1960 Launch of first fully-guided flight of Polaris missile at Cape Canaveral. It flew 900 miles.

1962 Assassination attempt on Indonesian president Sukarno fails.

1967 Mobile Riverine Force begins arriving at Vung Tau, Vietnam.

1968 Surveyor 7 lands on the Moon.

1979 Vietnamese forces capture Phnom Penh from the Khmer Rouge.

1983 US President ends U.S. arms embargo against Guatemala.

1985 Japanese space probe Sakigake launched to Halley's comet.

1986 US President Reagan proclaims economic sanctions against Libya.

1987 French airplanes harass Libyan positions in Duadi Doum.

1989 Akihito becomes Emperor of Japan.

1989 International Conference on Limitation of Chemical Weapons opens in Paris.

1991 Haiti coup defeated.

1991 Soviet paratroopers sent to Baltic Republics.

[Cap. Teancum]

Today's event:

1698 Russian Czar Peter the Great departs Netherlands to England.

Today's book:

Peter the Great by Diane Stanley

Book Description:

Peter the Great, crowned tsar of Russia at the age of ten, believed that whatever he wanted he should have -- and the sooner the better. What he wanted most was to bring his beloved country into the modem world. He traveled to the West to learn European ways -- the first tsar ever to leave Russia -- disguised as a common soldier.

He explored the West with excitement and curiosity and returned home ready to undertake a series of momentous social reforms. And to satisfy his boyhood dream of a Russian naval port, he began to build, on a freezing swamp, a glittering new capital to be named St. Petersburg.

In this welcome reissue of Diane Stanley's acclaimed picturebook biography, her meticulously researched text and sumptuous illustrations capture the fabulous world of seventeenth -- and eighteenth-century tsarist Russia and the greatness of its larger-than-life leader -- a man of huge stature and tremendous spirit whose impatience and vision, insatiable curiosity and boundless energy transformed half a continent.

http://www.amazon.com/Peter-Great-Di...e=UTF8&s=books

[Cap. Teancum]

January 8

By Admiral:

Born...

1081 Henry V, King of Germany, Holy Roman Emperor (1098/1111-25)

1628 Francois de Montmorency-Bouteville, duc de Luxemburg, French soldier

1814 Thomas Green, Brig Gen, C.S.A., KIA by the U.S. Navy, 1864

1815 George Webb Morell, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1883

1815 Lawrence Pike Graham, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1905

1817 John Selden Roane, Brig Gen, d. 1867

1821 James Longstreet, Lt. Gen., C.S.A., 1st Corps, ANV, Lee's "Old War Horse"

1830 Gouverneur Kemble Warren, Maj Gen, U.S., d. 1882

1851 Gerad Leman, Belgian Count/General, defender of Liege, 1914

1870 Miguel Primo de Rivera Orbaneja, Spanish General, dictator (1923-30)

1891 Walter Bothe, Germany, subatomic particle physicist, Nobel 1954

1902 Georgy M Malenkov, Stalin's successor as head of CPSU, PM (1953-55)

1923 Joseph Wiezenbaum, artificial intelligence pioneer

1935 Elvis Aaron Presley, Sgt, 3rd Armored Division, King of Rock & Roll

1942 Vyacheslav Dmitriyevich Zudov, U.S.S.R., Cosmonaut, Soyuz 23

1951 Gerard Leman, Belgian General

Died...

624 Abu Sufjan ibn Harb, Kurashite chief, in battle

1324 Marco Polo, Venetian explorer/Governor of Nanking

1598 Johan Georg of Brandenburg (1571-91)

1642 Galileo Galilei, Italian physicist/astronomer, at 77 in Italy

1711 Philips van Almonde, Zealand, Lieutenant Admiral, at 66

1811 Samuel Story, Dutch Rear Admiral (Battle of Kamperduin), at 58

1815 Edward Pakenham, English General, KIA at the Battle of New Orleans.

1842 Pierre, Earl de Cambronne, French General (Waterloo, Elba), who said "Merde!" at Waterloo, at 71.

1922 Charles Young, U.S. Army colonel, at 58, in Lagos, Nigeria

1935 Jesse Garon Presley, twin brother of Elvis, stillborn

1941 Lord Robert Baden Powell, of the Boys Scouts, at 83

1976 Chou En-lai, China's PM (1949-76), of cancer in Beijing at 78

1988 Frank Pace Jr, U.S. Secretary of Army (1950-53), at 76

1992 Menachim Begin, Israeli PM

1993 Hakija Turajlic, Bosnian Vice-Premier, assasinated

1993 Asif Nawaz, Pakistan, General

1996 François Mitterrand, President of France (1981-95)

Event...

624 Moslem army occupies Kurashitische Caravan

794 First Viking Raid on Britain, Abbey at Lindisfarne Island destroyed

871 Battle at Ashdown: Ethelred of Wessex beats Danish invasion army

1214 Earl Ferrand of Flanders drops ties with France

1558 French troops under Duke de Guise occupy Calais

1598 Jews are expelled from Genoa, Italy

1745 England, Austria, Netherlands and Saxon sign anti-Prussian Quadruple Alliance

1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops occupy Stirling

1776 American Continental Congress orders more troops dispatched to reinforce those beseiging Quebec.

1800 Austrians defeat French in the Second Battle of Novi

1811 Louisiana: Charles Deslondes' slave rebellion begins

1815 Battle of New Orleans, Marines, with Andrew Jackson's help, repulsed British forces at New Orleans 15 days after the Treaty of Ghent - ending the war, but nobody knew.

1838 Anti-English rebellion at Amherstburg, Ontario breaks out

1847 Battle of San Gabriel, Ca: Army-Navy-Marine victory over Mexican forces

1848 Austrian soldiers kill 10 students, Pavia

1877 Wolf Mountain: The US Army disperses a large Sioux-Cheyenne encampment

1883 The Essex Militia lands at Bois Blanc Island (off Amherstburg, Ont.), to fend off an expected invasion by the Michigan wing of the "Patriot Army of the North-West".

1917 Austria-Hungarian troops conquer Forlani Italy

1918 US President Wilson outlines his "14 Points" for peace after WW I

1926 Abdul-Aziz ibn Sa'ud becomes King of Hejaz; renames it Saudi Arabia

1940 Britain initiates 1st rationing - of bacon, butter, and sugar

1941 British Air Marshal Richard Peirse resigns

1941 Admiral William D. Leahy, USN (Retired) presents his credentials as Ambassador to France at Vichy.

1942 Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-19 reconnoiters Pearl Harbor.

1942 Malaya: British fall back to "Johore Line," c. 50 mi north of Singapore

1943 Allied a/c hit Japanese transports at Lae, in NE New Guinea.

1943 British turn control of Madagascar over to the Free French.

1943 USAAF B-17s, B-24s, B-25s and A-20s, supported by P-38s, attack Japanese convoy unloading off Lae, New Guinea. Army cargo ship Myoko Maru, forced aground south of Arawe, 06°49'S, 147°04'E, the previous day, is destroyed by bombs.

1943 Shortly before midnight, submarine U-124 attacks 12-ship Rio de Janeiro, Brazil-bound convoy TB 1, torpedoing U.S. tanker Broad Arrow at 07°21'N, 55°43'W, and freighter Birmingham City at 07°12'N, 55°37'W. On board the former, the initial explosion kills seven of the eight-man Armed Guard, and her complement abandons the blazing ship (which is illuminating the entire convoy) without orders. Birmingham City sinks in three minutes

1944 TF 38, consisting of two light cruisers and five destroyers, bombards Japanese shore installations on Faisi, Poporang, and Shortland Islands, Solomons.

1944 Aerial minelaying operations in the Marshalls continue: eight PB4Y-1s (VB 108 and VB 109), flying from Apemama, mine the waters off Wotje and then strafe enemy facilities on the island and shipping offshore; seven PBY-5s (VP 72), flying from Tarawa, mine Wotje anchorage and Schischmarov Strait.

1944 Light cruiser USS Marblehead rescues 72 survivors of sunken German blockade runner Rio Grande, 07°45'S, 33°00'W. Destroyer USS Winslow rescues 35 survivors of sunken German blockade runner Burgenland,08°14'S, 29°22'W.

1944 U.S. Navy bombards Japanese base at Shortlands in the Solomon islands.

1945 During continuing Japanese aerial onslaught on the Lingayen Gulf invasion force, kamikazes damage escort carriers USS Kitkun Bay, 15°48'N, 119°09'E, and USS Kadashan Bay, 15°10'N, 119°08'E. A suicider also crashes close aboard Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Australia, ending her support operations that day.

1945 Infantry landing craft (gunboat) LCI(G)-404 is damaged by suicide swimmers, Yoo Passage, Palaus.

1945 Submarine USS Balao sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Daigo Maru southwest of Korea, 34°28'N, 122°39'E.

1945 Coordinated submarine attack group, TG 17.21 attacks Japanese convoy off northwest coast of Formosa. USS Barb sinks merchant cargo ships Anyo Maru, 24°34'N, 120°37'E, and Shinyo Maru, 24°55'N, 120°26'E (which explodes violently, forcing USS Barb deep and tearing off deck gratings); and merchant tanker Sanyo Maru, 24°37'N, 120°31'E, and damages army cargo ship Meiho Maru, 24°25'N, 120°29'E; USS Picuda damages cargo ship Rashin Maru, 24°41'N, 120°40'E; and USS Queenfish damages tanker Manju Maru, 24°25'N, 120°28'E. In the confusion generated by TG 17.21's attack, merchant tanker Hikoshima Maru runs aground in Tungshiao Bay.

1945 Submarine USS Piranha damages auxiliary netlayer No.2 Shinto Maru in the Nansei Shoto, 29°55'N, 130°05'E.

1945 Japanese ship No.22 Seikai Maru is sunk by mine off Haha Jima.

1945 Cargo ship Malay Maru is damaged by mine (laid by British submarine HMS Stoic on 3 June 1944) off west coast of Malaya, 05°57'N, 100°14'E.

1945 U.S. freighter Blenheim is damaged by explosion of German rocket bomb at Antwerp, Belgium; Armed Guard quarters are wrecked and there are 20 casualties among the 44 merchant sailors, 25 Armed Guard and one passenger on board at the time.

1945 Heavy US air strikes on Luzon, concentrating on Lingayen Gulf area

1947 General George Marshall becomes Secretary of State

1948 Queen Wilhelmina signs death sentence against Ans van Dijk for treason

1958 Cuban revolutionary forces capture Havana

1959 Charles de Gaulle inaugurated as President of France's 5th Republic

1964 President Lyndon B Johnson declares "War on Poverty"

1964 European Parliament accept Mansholt Plan

1973 Secret peace talks between US & North Vietnam resumed near Paris

1973 U.S.S.R. launches Luna 21 for Moon landing

1979 Vietnamese troops succeed in overtaking Khmer Rouge and occupy Phnom Penh

1989 Soviet Union promises to eliminate stockpiles of chemical weapons

1992 US President George H. W. Bush gets ill & vomits in the Japanese Prime Minister's lap

1985 Japan launches Sakigake space probe to Halley's Comet

1986 President Ronald Reagan freezes Libyan assets in the US

1994 Russian manned space craft TM-18, launches into orbit

1998 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Ahmed Yousef sentenced to life

By Cap. Teancum:

1967 - About 16,000 U.S. soldiers from the 1st and 25th Infantry Divisions, 173rd Airborne Brigade and 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment join 14,000 South Vietnamese troops to mount Operation Cedar Falls.

This offensive, the largest of the war to date, was designed to disrupt insurgent operations near Saigon, and had as its primary targets the Thanh Dien Forest Preserve and the Iron Triangle, a 60-square-mile area of jungle believed to contain communist base camps and supply dumps. During the course of the operations, U.S. infantrymen discovered and destroyed a massive tunnel complex in the Iron Triangle, apparently a headquarters for guerrilla raids and terrorist attacks on Saigon. The operation ended with 711 of the enemy reported killed and 488 captured. Allied losses were 83 killed and 345 wounded. The operation lasted for 18 days.

[Cap. Teancum]

Today's event:

871 Battle at Ashdown: Ethelred of Wessex beats Danish invasion army

Today's book:

The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings by Peter Sawyer

Book Review:

This is one of the best books on the Vikings I've ever read (and I've read dozens!). With numerous contributors from many universtities, each chapter is written with detailed authority and offers a fresh perspective. The chonology at the back of the book is a bonus feature. My only criticism is that, depspite chapters on exploration to the west (what I consider to be the most important legacy of the Vikings), Sawyer still tends to let the British perspective of victimization by the Vikings dominate the book.

http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Illustr...e=UTF8&s=books

[Cap. Teancum]

January 9

By Admiral:

Born...

1803 Christopher Gustavus Memminger, Secretary Treasury, Confederacy, died in 1888

1816 John Palmer Usher, Secretary Interior, Union, died in 1889

1822 John Porter Hatch, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1901

1908 Simone de Beauvoir, Vichyite, French author, feminist

1913 Richard Milhous Nixon, sometime naval officer/ diplomat/artist

Died...

1324 Marco Polo Italian explorer

1798 Pedro Pablo Abarca d Bolea earl of Aranda, Spanish officer, at 79

1878 King Victor Emanuel II of Sardinia (1849-61) and Italy (1861-78), at 57

1879 Don Joaquin BF Espartero, Spanish Field Marshall/Viceroy of Navarra, at 86

1893 Mohara, Arab ivory/slave trader, dies in battle and is eaten

1927 Houston S Chamberlain, British-German racial theorist

1993 Alois Brunner, German/Syrian commandant of KZ-Lower Drancy

1995 Souphanouvong, [Red Prince], President of Laos (1975-87), at 85

1997 Edward Osobka-Morawski, Prime Minister of Poland (1945-47),

Event...

1296 Earl Floris V signs accord with French King

1317 Philip V the Tall, crowned King of France

1349 700 Jews of Basel Switzerland, burned alive in their houses

1558 Geneva becomes independent from Berne canton, Switzerland

1570 Tsar Ivan the terrible kills 1000-2000 residents of Novgorod

1718 France declares war on Spain

1760 Afghans defeat Marathas in battle of Barari Ghat

1792 Russia and Turkey sign Peace of Jassy

1793 Dutch Prince Willem V establishes 2 brigades Drive Artillery

1793 Jean Pierre Blanchard makes 1st balloon flight in North America at Philadelphia

1805 Lord Nelson is buried in the crypt of St. Paul's, London

1812 Napoleon occupies Swedish Pomerania, in northeastern Germany

1834 HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin arrives in Port San Julian, Patagonia

1838 200 Canadian rebels and their American supporters, the Michigan wing of William Lyon Mackenzie's republican insurrection, land on Bois Blanc Island (Detroit River). The schooner Anne, one of two attacking vessels, is grounded near the town and is swiftly captured by the local militia. This act prompts the rebels to return to the United States.

1847 US Marines participated in the Battle of La Mesa (California) during the Mexican War.

1848 People's uprising in Palermo Sicily

1861 1st Shot of the Civil War: Star of the West fired in Charleston Harbor

1861 Mississippi becomes 2nd state to secede

1879 Cheyenne prisoners led by Dull Knife revolt at Fort Robinson

1904 Lt Gen Samuel B. M. Young retires; on active duty since April 25, 1861.

1905 Bloody Sunday-demonstrators fired on by tsarist troops

1912 U.S. Marines invade Honduras

1916 The rearguard of the Newfoundland Regiment is evacuated from the Gallipoli peninsula, and end its adventure in the Dardanelles.

1918 Establishment of (US) Naval Overseas Transportation Service to carry cargo during WWI

1923 Juan de la Cierva makes 1st autogiro (helicopter) flight, Spain

1936 M-1 semi-automatic Garrand rifle adopted by the US Army

1936 Semi-automatic rifles adopted by U.S. army

1940 U.S. freighter Western Queen is detained at Gibraltar for several hours by British authorities.

1940 2 German officers make emergency landing in Belgium

1941 6,000 Jews exterminated in pogrom in Bucharest Romania

1941 Transport William Ward Burrows arrives at Wake Island with first increment of workmen (Contractors Pacific Naval Air Bases) to begin building a naval air station there.

1942 Submarine USS Pollack torpedoes and sinks Japanese merchant cargo ship Teian Maru (ex-Yugoslav Tomislav) 40 miles south-southwest of Inubozaki, Japan, 35°00'N, 140°36'E.

1942 First Japanese offensive against the Bataan defenses.

1942 Malaya: Japanese amphibious "end run" around Br left at Port Settenham

1942 Japanese submarines begin operating in the Indian Ocean.

1942 Joint Chiefs of Staff established by FDR

1943 Submarine USS Gar damages Japanese oiler Notoro in Makassar Strait, N.E.I., 01°46'N, 119°01'E.

1943 Submarine USS Nautilus sinks Japanese transport Yoshinogawa Maru just east of Kieta, Bougainville, 06°13'S, 156°00'E; even though she is damaged early in the engagement, Yoshinogawa Maru depth-charges USS Nautilus, but the latter escapes unharmed.

1943 Submarine USS Searaven damages Japanese army cargo ship Yubae Maru, 07°38'N, 134°12'E.

1943 Submarine USS Tautog damages Japanese light cruiser IJN Natori southeast of Ambon, 04°07'S, 128°32'E.

1943 German submarine U-384 attacks Belfast, Ireland-bound U.S. freighter Louise Lykes in the North Atlantic at 58°55'N, 23°40'W; although the U-boat will ultimately destroy the merchantman, Armed Guard gunfire nearly turns the tables on the enemy. Sadly, none of Louise Lykes's people (including the 24-man Armed Guard) survive.

1943 German submarine U-124 continues assault on convoy TB 1, begun shortly before midnight the day before, about 100 miles northeast of Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana. U-124 torpedoes freighters Collingsworth and Minotaur at 07°12'N, 55°37'W; each ship sinks four minutes after being struck. Tanker Broad Arrow sinks as the result of damage received in U-124's initial attack. Submarine chaser PC-577 rescues survivors from all four ships sunk by the U-boat. Of the Armed Guards on the four merchantmen, only one sailor of the eight-man guard on board Broad Arrow survives; five of the 18-man Armed Guard perish in the abandonment of Birmingham City; Collingsworth's detachment loses four of 24 men; Minotaur's 15-man Armed Guard, however, survives intact.

1944 District patrol craft YP-281 founders in heavy weather west of the Society Islands, 16°53'S, 177°18'W, and is scuttled by submarine chaser PC-1134.

1944 Burma: Heavy fighting along the Tarung River.

1944 Burma: In the Arakan, British troops recapture Maungdaw.

1945 Under the overall direction of General Douglas MacArthur, USA, TF 77 lands Sixth Army troops under Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, at Lingayen Gulf under cover of heavy gunfire from the bombardment force, TG 77.2 and aircraft from the escort carrier force, TG 77.4. The troops initially encounter little resistance, but Japanese air attacks and assault demolition boats continue to vex the invasion forces off the beaches. Kamikazes crash battleship USS Mississippi, 16°08'N, 120°18'E; light cruiser USS Columbia, 16°08'N, 120°10'E; and destroyer escort USS Hodges, 16°22'N, 120°12'E, in addition to Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Australia, which is finally sent to the rear areas for repairs. Friendly fire damages battleship USS Colorado, 16°08'N, 120°10'E; Japanese assault demolition boats damage transport War Hawk and tank landing ships LST-925 and LST-1028, 16°20'N, 120°10'E.

1945 TF 38 supports the landings at Lingayen Gulf with attacks on Japanese airfields and shipping in the Formosa, Ryukyus, and Pescadores Islands areas. Off Formosa, TF 38 planes sink Coast Defense Vessel No.3 north of Keelung, 27°10'N, 121°45'E; submarine chaser Ch 61, 22°40'N, 120°04'E; and fleet tanker Kuroshio Maru, merchant tanker Kaiho Maru, and cargo ship Fukuyama Maru south of Formosa; and small cargo vessel No.21 Ume Maru off Keelung; cargo ship Hisagawa Maru, 23°04'N, 119°51'E. They damage escort vessel IJN Yashiro, oiler Kamoi, and escort destroyer IJN Miyake and cargo ship Tainan Maru off Takao; Coast Defense Vessel No.9, Coast Defense Vessel No.13, and Coast Defense Vessel No.60 off Saei; auxiliary submarine chaser Cha 161 in Formosa Strait; minesweeper W.102 and auxiliary submarine chaser No.22 Nitto Maru off Keelung; and auxiliary submarine chaser Kinsui Maru north of Formosa.

1945 Japanese merchant tanker Hikoshima Maru sinks as the result of damage inflicted by submarine USS Barb and beaching the previous day, 24°37'N, 120°31'E.

1945 Dutch submarine HNMS O 19 sinks gunboat No.1 Shinko Maru off Tandjung Puting, Borneo, Banten Bay, 03°41'S, 111°57'E.

1945 Other Japanese shipping casualties include merchant tanker No.4 Nanshin Maru sunk by aircraft off northwest tip of Luzon; merchant cargo ship No.9 Hokoku Maru is sunk by aircraft off Ishigaki Jima; auxiliary submarine chaser Cha 216 damaged by aircraft off Paishatun.

1945 U.S. freighter Jonas Lie, in New York-bound convoy ON 277, is torpedoed by German submarine U-1055 at the entrance to the Bristol Channel, 51°43'N, 05°25'W. The ship, abandoned, later sinks on 14 January.

1951 Light cruiser USS Brooklyn transferred to Chile

1952 US Marines give notice that they will recall baseballs Ted Williams to active duty

1958 1st Bn 8th Marines left Camp Lejeune for Med Cruise.

1962 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1964 Anti-US rioting in the Panama Canal Zone

1968 Surveyor 7 space probe soft lands on Moon

1973 Luna 21 launched, to Moon

1978 Commonwealth of Northern Marianas established

1987 Chinese/Vietnamese border skirmishes, 1500 killed

1991 Baker and Aziz meet in Geneva; talks fail to defuse gulf crisis

1995 Ecuador and Peru involved in boundary skirmishes

By Cap. Teancum:

1847 - Battle of San Gabriel. Ended Mexican-Californian resistance to Americans during the Mexican-American War.

1952 - In his 1952 State of the Union address, President Harry S. Truman warns Americans that they are "moving through a perilous time," and calls for vigorous action to meet the communist threat.

Though Truman's popularity had nose-dived during the previous 18 months because of complaints about the way that he handled the Korean War, his speech received a standing ovation from congressmen and special guest Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Truman spent much of his speech addressing foreign policy concerns. The primary focus was on meeting the communist challenge. The president declared that the United States was confronted with "a terrible threat of aggression." He also pointed with pride to U.S. action in meeting that threat. In Korea, combined U.S. and United Nations forces "turned back the Chinese Communist invasion;" elsewhere in Asia, U.S. assistance to its allies was helping to "hold back the Communist advance;" and in Europe and the Middle East, the fight against Soviet expansion was also ongoing.

Truman was particularly proud of the Point Four program, which provided U.S. scientific and technical assistance (such as in the field of agriculture) to the underdeveloped world, claiming that it helped "feed the whole world so we would not have to stomach communism." There could be no slacking of effort, however, since the Soviet Union was "increasing its armed might," and with the Soviet acquisition of atomic bomb technology, the world was still walking "in the shadow of another world war."

Truman's speech was a stirring rebuttal to domestic critics like Senator Joseph McCarthy, who attacked Truman's "softness" on communism. Perhaps such criticism contributed to Truman's decision not to run for re-election. Adlai Stevenson ran as the Democratic candidate, but he lost the election to Dwight Eisenhower.

1965 - Under pressure from United States officials, Gen. Nguyen Khanh and the newly formed Armed Forces Council--generals who participated in the bloodless coup on December 19, 1964--agree to support the civilian government of Premier Trran Van Huong.

The coup occurred when Khanh and a group of generals, led by Air Commodore Nguyen Cao Ky and Army Maj. Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu, arrested three dozen high officers and civilian officials and took control of the government. The coup was part of the continuing political instability that followed the November 1963 coup that resulted in the murder of President Ngo Dinh Diem. The period following the overthrow of Diem was marked by a series of coups and "revolving door" governments.

In addition to pledging to support Huong, Khanh and the generals agreed to release five High National Council members and 50 others arrested during the coup. They also promised to confine their activities to the military sphere. A national convention was to be convened to "assume legislative powers" and to draw up a permanent constitution. However, this did not happen. Tran Van Huong was unable to put together a viable government and the Armed Forces Council ousted him on January 27 and installed General Khanh to power. Khanh was ousted by yet another coup on February 18, led by Ky and Thieu. Khanh then moved to the United States and settled in Palm Beach, Florida.

A short-lived civilian government under Dr. Phan Huy Quat was installed, but it lasted only until June 12, 1965. At that time, Thieu and Ky formed a new government with Thieu as the chief of state and Ky as the prime minister. Thieu and Ky were elected as president and vice-president in general elections held in 1967. They served together until 1971, when Thieu was re-elected president.

1967 - The Agency for International Development (AID) attempts to respond to reports in the American media of widespread corruption and thievery of commodities sent to South Vietnam by the United States. In a report to the president, AID officials asserted, "No more than 5-6 percent of all economic assistance commodities delivered to Vietnam were stolen or otherwise diverted."

[Cap. Teancum]

Today's event:

1792 Russia and Turkey sign Peace of Jassy

Today's book:

A History of Islamic Societies by Ira M. Lapidus

Book Review:

This book is absolutely essential for any historian interested or concerned with Islamicate societies. It is certainly more readable than Hodgeson's 3 volume Venture of Islam and on the same level of scholarly mastery. Consider this the product of a top historian reflecting upon a career of work within this field. Each paragraph is like a synthesis of ideas from across the field.

For me, this was an invaluable book for preparing for my minor field exam in medieval Islamic history (a graduate level exam). While it is never a replacement for more detailed studies, it serves as an "all you need to know" for many topics/ or a great launch pad for further research depending on what your purpose for reading is. There are more accessible books available for somebody only casually interested in the field, and I would be hard pressed to recommend it for in that case. Berkey's 'Formation of Islam' is a slimmer and easier to handle introduction, though his writing style is a tad dense even for somebody already introduced to the field.

Overall, I highly recommend it for any historian as a go to book. As my focus is Europe in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, it is perfect since enables me to have a huge field on hand without consulting numerous individual studies. As one reviewer remarked, though, this is most definitely a history book and so do not come looking for a poetic and emotional read.

http://www.amazon.com/History-Islami...e=UTF8&s=books

[Cap. Teancum]

January 10

By Admiral:

Born...

1644 Louis Boufflers, Marshal of France

1738 Ethan Allen, Green Mountain Boy

1759 Michel Ney, Marshal of France, Waterloo, executed 1815.

1815 Alexander Brydie Dyer, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1874

1815 Thomas Williams, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1862

1825 Alexander Travis Hawthorn, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1899

1880 Manuel Azana y Diaz, PM/President of 2nd Spanish republic, 1936-39

1942 Aleksandr Yakovlevich Petrushenko, Russia, Cosmonaut

1945 Frank Sinatra Jr, draft dodger

Died...

976 Co-Emperor John I Tzimisces of Byzantium (969-76)

1645 William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, beheaded for treason at 71

1775 Jemeljan Pugatshov Russian Kosak leader/"Czar Peter III"

1824 King Victor Emanuel I of Sardinia (1802-21)

1862 Samuel Colt, inventor of the six-shot revolver, at 47

1917 "Buffalo Bill" Cody, frontier scout, showman

1970 Pavel Ivanovich Belyayev, U.S.S.R., Cosmonaut (Voskhod II), at 44

Event...

49 -BC- "Alea iacta est!" -- Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, Invades Italy

69 Roman emperor Galba adopts Marcus Piso Licinianus as Caesar

1072 Robert Guiscard conquers Palermo

1429 Order of the Golden Fleece established by the House of Habsburg

1642 King Charles I and family flee London for Oxford

1776 Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" is published

1806 Dutch surrender Cape Town, South Africa, to the British

1806 A ball is held in Quebec to celebrate Nelson's victory over the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar the previous year.

1811 Slave rebellion in two Louisiana parishes

1847 US Navy-Marine Corps landing party occupies Los Angeles

1861 Florida becomes 3rd state to secede

1861 Fts Jackson & St. Philip are taken over by Louisiana state troops

1861 US forts & property seized by Mississippi

1862 Battle of Big Sandy River/Middle Creek, KY

1862 Battle of Romney, WV

1863 January-uprising begins in Poland

1863 General McClernand's Union troops surround Fort Hindman, Arkansas

1889 Ivory Coast declared a protectorate of France

1900 Lord Roberts & Lord Kitchener reach Capetown

1917 US Navy places first production order for aerial photographic equipment.

1920 League of Nations established

1923 Lithuania seizes and annexes country of Memel

1923 Last U.S. troops leave Rhineland

1925 France-Saarland forms

1927 2nd Bn 5th Marines landed in Nicaragua

1928 Soviet Union orders Leon Trotsky exiled to Siberia

1934 VP-10F flies first non-stop formation flight from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor, arriving 11 Jan.

1940 U.S. steamship President Van Buren, bound for Genoa, Italy, and New York, is detained at Port Said, Egypt, and subsequently discharges items of cargo, deemed as contraband, at Alexandria, Egypt, before being allowed to proceed.

1941 Seyss-Inquart begins registration of Jews

1941 Auxiliary Bear returns to Bay of Whales, Antarctica, to evacuate West Base; the evacuation is under the supervision of Commander Richard H. Cruzen, second-in-command of the U.S. Antarctic Service.

1941 During air attack on British force off Malta, carrier HMS Illustrious is bombed and damaged by Luftwaffe JU 87s; Lieutenant Commander Frederick P. Hartman, U.S. Naval Observer on board, is consequently commended for gallantry in action.

1942 Destroyer USS Paul Jones rescues survivors from Dutch steamships Camphuijs (sunk on 9 January by Japanese submarine I-158 at 04°40'S, 111°47'E) and Benkoelen (also sunk on the 9th by Japanese submarine I-165 at 04°50'S, 112°50'E).

1942 Submarine USS Pickerel torpedoes and sinks Japanese gunboat Kanko Maru at mouth of Davao Gulf, off Cape San Augustin, P.I., 06°19'N, 125°54'E.

1942 Submarine USS Stingray torpedoes and sinks Japanese cargo ship Harbin Maru in South China Sea off the south coast of Hainan Island, 17°40'N, 109°20'E.

1942 Dutch submarine O-19 torpedoes and sinks Japanese army cargo ship Akita Maru and torpedoes merchant cargo ship Tairyu Maru at the mouth of the Gulf of Siam, 07°40'N, 102°50'E.

1942 Bataan: Japanese troops continue pressure

1942 Java: Wavell arrives at Bandung to take command of ABDA

1942 Japan invades North-Celebes, Netherlands Indies

1942 Borneo: Japanese begin landing at Tarankan Bay

1943 Russian offensive against German 6th/4th Armies near Stalingrad

1943 Guadalcanal: "Tokyo Express" is ambushed by PT-boats, losing two ships

1943 1st US President to visit a foreign country in wartime-FDR leaves for Casablanca, Morocco

1943 Papua: Limited Allied attacks continue in the Sanananda.

1943 Guadalcanal: Henderson Field is complete and usable in all weather

1943 Guadalcanal: U.S. begin a general offensive to eliminate Japanese.

1943 Transport submarine USS Argonaut is sunk by Japanese aircraft (582d Kokutai, 21st Air Flotilla) and destroyers IJN Isokaze and IJNMaikaze, as USS Argonaut attacks convoy southeast of New Britain, 05°40'S, 152°02'E.

1943 Destroyer USS Shaw is damaged by grounding, Bulari Passage, New Caledonia.

1943 Motor torpedo boats PT-27 and PT-28 are damaged by storm, Dora Harbor, Unimak Island, Aleutians.

1943 Submarine USS Trigger sinks Japanese destroyer IJN Okikaze off Yokosuka, 35°02'N, 140°12'E.

1943 RAAF Hudsons and Catalinas damage Japanese army cargo ship Brazil Maru off Lae. Navy planes attack the same convoy later but do not achieve any damage.

1943 U.S. freighter Norwalk is sunk in collision with Norwegian freighter Nidareid north of Cuba, 28°18'N, 80°00'W. While one of the 30-man merchant crew perishes in the accident, none of the 14-man Armed Guard are hurt.

1943 Norwegian freighter Dalvanger rescues 21 men from U.S. freighter Collingsworth, torpedoed and sunk by U-124 the previous day while in convoy TB 1.

1944 Burma: British begin dropping naval mines in the Salween River. British troops conquer Maungdaw, Burma

1944 New Britain: Major Japanese counterattacks.

1944 Motor minesweeper YMS-127 sinks after running aground, Aleutian Islands.

1944 Submarine USS Seawolf begins series of attacks on Japanese convoy about 70 miles north of Naha, Okinawa, sinking army cargo ship Asuka Maru, 27°30'N, 127°45'E, and merchant cargo ship Getsuyo Maru at 27°10'N, 127°28'E.

1944 Submarine USS Steelhead, in the midst of a "full- fledged typhoon," attacks Japanese convoy south of Honshu, sinking repair ship Yamabiko Maru, 31°28'N, 137°44'E.

1944 Aerial minelaying operations in the Marshalls continue: two PBY-5s (VP 72), flying from Tarawa, mine Meichen Channel and Legediak Strait, Wotje.

1944 Japanese planes again bomb advanced base at Apamama, but inflict neither casualties nor serious damage to installations.

1944 U.S. freighter Daniel Webster is damaged by German aerial torpedo during air attack on convoy KMS 37 while en route from Gibraltar to Augusta and Naples, 36°04'N, 00°14'W

1945 Luzon: US forces enlarge their beachhead.

1945 British and Indian forces capture Shwego, in the Arakan.

1945 Japanese assault demolition boats infiltrate the transport areas off Lingayen, sinking infantry landing craft (mortar) LCI(M)-974, 16°06'N, 120°14'E and infantry landing craft (gunboat) LCI(G)-365, and damaging destroyers USS Robinson and USS Philip, transport USS War Hawk and tank landing ship LST-610. Japanese air attacks against the fleet off Lingayen continue, damaging destroyer USS Wickes,16°04'N, 118°55'E; kamikazes damage destroyer escort Leray Wilson, 16°20'N, 120°10'E, and attack transport Dupage, 16°17'N, 120°15'E.

1945 Off west coast of Luzon, high speed transport USS Clemson and battleship USS Pennsylvania are damaged in collision, 16°20'N, 120°10'E. USS Clemson is also accidentally rammed the same day by attack transport USS Latimer, 16°20'N, 120°10'E; oiler Guadalupe is damaged in collision with Nantahala , 20°06'N, 121°34'E; tank landing ship LST-567 is damaged in collision with LST-610, 16°20'N, 120°10'E.

1945 Submarine USS Puffer sinks Japanese Coast Defense Vessel No.42 and damages Coast Defense Vessel No.30 in the East China Sea, 26°45'N, 126°11'E.

1945 Merchant vessel No.2 Seikai Maru is damaged by aircraft off Mukai Jima.

1945 Northern Burma: Chinese and American forces continue to advance.

1946 UN General Assembly convenes for the first time in London

1946 U.S. Army establishes 1st radar contact with Moon, Belmar, NJ

1947 Greek steamer "Himara" strikes a wartime mine in Saronic Gulf south of Athens with loss of 392 of 637 aboard

1951 UN headquarters opens in Manhattan NY

1956 Establishment of first Navy nuclear power school at Submarine Base, New London, CT

1964 Panamá severs diplomatic relations with US

1964 Hindu-Muslim Rioting in Calcutta

1964 Two CF-104 Starfighters collide in mid-air over Cold Lake, Alta. Fortunately, both pilots have time to eject from their aircraft.

1966 India & Pakistan sign peace accord

1968 U.S. Surveyor 7 lands near lunar crater Tycho

1969 Sweden recognizes North Vietnam

1969 U.S.S.R.'s Venera 6 launched for parachute landing on Venus

1978 Soyuz 27 carries 2 Cosmonauts to Salyut 6 space station

1981 El Salvador guerrilla group FMLN opens "general offensive"

1984 Argentine ex-President/General Bignone arrested

1985 Daniel Ortega Saavedra inaugurated as President of Nicaragua

1986 Palau signs Compact of Free Association with US

1990 China lifts martial law (imposed after Tiananmen Square massacre)

1991 U.S. Congress begins debate on Persian Gulf crisis

1994 Ukraine says it will give up world's 3rd largest nuclear arsenal

By Cap. Teancum:

1967 - President Johnson, in his annual State of the Union message to Congress, asks for enactment of a 6 percent surcharge on personal and corporate income taxes to help support the Vietnam War for two years, or "for as long as the unusual expenditures associated with our efforts continue." Congress delayed for almost a year, but eventually passed the surcharge. The U.S. expenditure in Vietnam for fiscal year 1967 would be $21 billion.

1972 - Former Vice President Hubert Humphrey criticizes President Richard Nixon, saying that it was taking longer for President Nixon to withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam than it did to defeat Hitler.

Humphrey called for an immediate end to the war, declaring: "Had I been elected, we would now be out of that war." Humphrey ran against Nixon in the 1968 election, winning the Democratic nomination for president over Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-Minnesota) after President Lyndon Johnson declined to run for re-election. In the race, Humphrey had tried to distance himself from Johnson and his war policy, but Republican nominee Nixon, promising to "to end the war and win the peace," won the election by less than 1 percent of the popular vote.

[Cap. Teancum]

Today's event:

49 -BC- "Alea iacta est!" -- Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, Invades Italy

Today's book:

The Life & Times of Augustus Caesar by Jim Whiting

Book Description:

When a teenager named Octavian learned that he was the heir of Julius Caesar, the most powerful man in Rome, it seemed like a recipe for disaster. Caesar had just been assassinated, and in the chaotic world of Roman politics the inexperienced young man would seem to have no chance against men two and three times his age. But Octavian had a genius for politics. Within a year he emerged as one of three leaders of Rome. Just over a decade later he took total control. Soon afterward, the Roman people gave him a new name: Augustus Caesar. It was the name which would make him immortal. He ushered in a period of peace and prosperity, ending decades of civil conflict that had cost uncounted thousands of lives. His reign was also characterized by a flourishing of art and architecture. He was the first ruler of the Roman Empire. He was almost certainly the best.

http://www.amazon.com/Augustus-Caesa...e=UTF8&s=books

[Cap. Teancum]

January 11

By Admiral:

Born...

1403 Duke Jan IV of Brabant and Limburg

1757 Alexander Hamilton, Maj. Gen., U.S.

1807 Alfred Eugene "Mudwall" Jackson, Brig Gen, C.S.A.

1814 Richard Griffith, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1862

1815 John A MacDonald, C, 1st PM of Canada, 1867-73

1816 Fitz-Henry Warren, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1878

1818 John Reese Kenly, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1891

1831 James Ronald Chalmers, Brig Gen, C.S., d. 1898

1878 Theodorus Pangalos, Greek General/Dictator, d. 1926

1926 Lev Stepanovich Demin, Russia, Cosmonaut, Soyuz 15

Died...

1055 Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos of Byzantium

1775 Yemelyan Pugachov, Cossack rebel, executed by Catherine the Great

1797 Francis "Lightfoot" Lee, Signer of Declaration of Independence

1843 Francis Scott Key of "The Star Spangled Banner", at 63

1893 Benjamin F Butler, Maj Gen, U.S., at 74

1923 King Constantine I of Greece (1913-17, 20-22)

1943 Carlo Tresca, Italian anti-fascist, murdered in New York

1944 Galeazzo Ciano, Italian politician, shot by his father-in-law, Benito Mussolini

1952 Jean JM de Lattre de Tassigny, Marshal of France, (N-Africa/Indo-China), at 61

1955 Rodolfo Graziani, Italian general, at 72

1988 Gregory (Pappy) Boyington, ace WW II pilot, of cancer at 75

1994 John Bradley, helped raise U.S. flag at Iwo Jima, at 70

Event...

532 Nike Riots at Hippodrome Constantinople against Justianus and Theodora

1158 Vladislav II of Bohemia becomes King

1599 Jacob van Necks fleet leaves Bantam Java with pepper, clove & muskaat

1758 Russian troops occupy Königsberg, East-Prussia

1776 General Benedict Arnold reports to the Continental Congress on the death of General Montgomery during the Americans' recent failed assault against Quebec.

1803 Monroe & Livingston sail for Paris to buy New Orleans; they instead purchase that then known as Louisiana

1861 Alabama becomes 4th state to secede

1861 Mexico City captured by Juaristas during the War of the Reform

1863 CSS Alabama sinks USS Hatteras off Galveston

1863 Union forces capture Arkansas Post, or Ft Hindman, Arkansas

1865 Battle of Beverly, WVa

1879 The Great Anglo-Zulu War begins

1916 French troops capture/Serbian army flees to Corfu

1919 Romania annexes Transylvania

1923 France & Belgium occupy the Ruhr to collect reparations from Germany

1940 Fleet Landing Exercise (FLEX) No. 6 begins at Culebra, Puerto Rico. Lack of transports compels the Navy to substitute combatant ships in that role for purposes of the exercise; an important exception is the prototype high speed transport USS Manley, converted from a World War I-emergency program "flush-deck, four-pipe" destroyer, which amply proves her worth.

1940 Gunboat Charleston suffers damage when she runs aground at Colon, C.Z.

1940 U.S. freighter Tripp is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities

1941 Princess Irene Brigade established in Congleton

1941 Rear Admiral Harold M. Bemis relieves Captain Eugene T. Oates as Commandant, Sixteenth Naval District and Navy Yard, Cavite, P.I. Captain Oates had been acting commandant since the incapacitation of Rear Admiral John M. Smeallie in December 1940.

1942 Carrier USS Saratoga is torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-6, 500 miles southwest of Oahu, T.H., 19°00'N, 165°00'W.

1942 Naval Station Pago Pago, Samoa, is shelled by Japanese submarine.

1942 Japan declares war on the Netherlands; invasion of Netherlands East Indies begins as Japanese Central Force lands Army 56th Regimental Combat Group and 2d Kure Special Naval Landing Force at Tarakan; naval paratroops (1st Yokosuka Special Landing Force) occupy Menado. Eastern Force then follows up the airborne assault on Menado with 1st Special Landing Force going ashore at Menado and Kema, Celebes. These operations will secure control of the northern approaches to the Java Sea.

1942 U.S. Army transport Liberty Glo is torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-166 about 10 miles southwest of Lombok Strait, 08°54'S, 115°28'E. Although destroyer USS Paul Jones and Dutch destroyer USS Van Ghent take the damaged ship in tow and beach her on the shores of Bali, Liberty Glo will be written off as a total loss.

1942 U.S. tankship Manatawny sinks in Manila Bay as the result of damage received on 13 December 1941.

1942 Operation Paukenschlag ("roll of the kettledrums") descends upon the eastern seaboard of the U.S. like a "bolt from the blue." The first group of five German submarines takes up station off the east coast of the United States on this date. Over the next month, these boats (U-66, U-109, U-123, U-125 and U-130) will sink 26 Allied ships; the presence of the enemy off the eastern seaboard takes U.S. Navy antisubmarine forces by surprise

1942 Bataan: Heavy fighting

1942 Malaya: Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.

1943 US and Britain relinquish extraterritorial rights in China

1943 Nine motor torpedo boats operating from Tulagi, directed to the scene by a PBY, attack Japanese Reinforcement Unit, eight destroyers strong, off Cape Esperance, Guadalcanal; destroyer IJN Hatsukaze is damaged. Motor torpedo boat PT-112 is sunk and PT-43 damaged by Japanese destroyer gunfire (09°15'S, 159°42'E).

1943 Submarine USS Trout damages Japanese oiler Kyokuko Maru off Miri, 04°24'N, 113°51'E.

1943 New Guinea: Aus Kanga Force begins 3-day raid against Japanese at Mubo

1943 Guadalcanal: 35th Inf succeeds in encircling the Gifu, against fierce fierce.

1944 Submarine USS Seawolf concludes operations against Japanese convoy attacked the previous day, sinking army cargo ship Yahiko Maru about 50 miles north of Naha, Okinawa, 27°10'N, 127°28'E.

1944 Submarine USS Sturgeon attacks Japanese convoy in approaches to Bungo Suido, sinking army cargo ship Erie Maru about 20 miles east of Saeki, Kyushu, 32°56'N, 132°02'E, and survives ensuing depth-charging by escorts.

1944 Submarine USS Tautog damages Japanese ammunition ship Kogyo Maru off Honshu, 34°10'N, 136°56'E.

1944 British submarine HMS Tally Ho sinks Japanese light cruiser IJN Kuma (en route to conduct torpedo practice) 10 miles northwest of Penang, Malaya, 06°00'N, 39°00'E.

1944 Aerial minelaying operations in the Marshalls continue: four PBYs (VP 72), flying from Tarawa, mine Meichen Channel and Schischmarov Strait, Wotje; Enibin and Torappu channels, Maleolap.

1944 USAAF B-25Gs strike Japanese shipping and installations at Maleolap and Wotje, damaging destroyer IJN Ushio.

1944 New Guinea: Allied airfield at Saidor becomes operational.

1944 Brazilian 10th Military Region forces take custody of 22 survivors of German blockade runner Rio Grande who reach Fortaleza, Brazil.

1944 U.S. freighter Daniel Webster, damaged by German aerial torpedo the previous day, reaches Oran under escort of British frigate HMS Barle; rescue tug ATR-47 brings Daniel Webster into port where she is subsequently written off as a total loss. There are no fatalities among the ship's complement (which includes a 29-man Armed Guard).

1944 Krakow-Plaszow Concentration Camp established

1945 Motor minesweeper YMS-14 is sunk in collision with destroyer USS Herndon in north channel of Boston, Massachusetts, Harbor

1945 MAG-24 landed in the Philippines to provide air support to the U.S. Army.

1945 Off Luzon, high speed transport USS Belknap is damaged by kamikaze, 16°20'N, 120°10'E; tank landing ships LST-270 and LST-918 are damaged by shore battery, 16°20'N, 120°10'E; and tank landing ship LST-700 is damaged by friendly fire, 16°43'N, 119°58'E.

1945 U.S. destroyer gunfire sinks Japanese auxiliary minesweeper Wa.10, south of Vigan, 17°20'N, 120°00'E. Auxiliary minesweeper No.56 Banshu Maru and auxiliary submarine chaser IJN Hakuyo Maru are scuttled as blockships at south entrance of Manila Bay, Luzon.

1945 During hunter-killer operations near Yap, destroyer USS Evans and destroyer escort USS McCoy Reynolds bombard Japanese defenses; they repeat the operation the following day.

1945 Destroyer escort USS Brackett extracts party of Marshallese scouts from Jaluit, where they had been landed on 9 January to determine the condition of the garrison there.

1945 Japanese submarines commence operation KONGO, employing suicide torpedoes [kaitens]; I 36 launches kaitens that damage ammunition ship Mazama and infantrylanding craft LCI-600 at Ulithi.

1945 Japanese merchant cargo ship Kinsei Maru is sunk by marine casualty in Osaka Bay, Japan.

1945 Japanese decide to put remaining resources into suicide weapons.

1946 Enver Hoxha becomes dictator of Albania

1960 Chad declares independence from France

1972 East-Pakistan becomes independent state of Bangladesh

1975 Soyuz 17 carries 2 Cosmonauts to space station Salyut 4

1976 Military coup in Ecuador, President Guillermo Lara leaves

1977 France releases Abu Daoud, a Palestinian suspected of involvement in massacre of Israeli athletes at 1972 Munich Olympics

1978 Soyuz 27 links with Salyut 6 and Soyuz 26 (1st time 3 spacecraft link)

1989 140 nations agree to ban chemical weapons

1990 200,000 demand return of Lithuania's independence

1991 Soviet troops storm buildings in Vilnius to block Lithuania independence

1991 US Congress empowers Bush - the elder - to order attack on Iraq

1997 Telstar 401 Satellite Fails

[Cap. Teancum]

Today's event:

1942 Operation Paukenschlag

Today's book:

The Battle of the Atlantic: 1939-1943 by Samuel Eliot Morison

Book Description:

This spectacular fifteen-volume series that charts the U.S. Naval operations during World War II with an insider's perspective. Morison, a Harvard professor, was given a special rank and writing post by FDR. He had active duty aboard eleven different ships, allowing him to witness many crucial battles in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Volume One explores all United States naval operations in the Atlantic, from pole to pole, including the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, Barents Sea and Atlantic territorial waters. Filled with many maps and file photographs.

http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Atlanti...e=UTF8&s=books

[Cap. Teancum]

January 12

By Admiral:

Born...

1562 Duke Charles Emanuel I the Great of Savoy

1638 Ernst Tarhemberg, Austrian Fieldmarshal, Turkish Wars

1737 John Hancock, 1st to sign Declaration of Independence

1751 King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies

1792 Robert Patterson, Maj Gen, Pennsylvania, d. 1881

1810 King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies

1814 Jones Mitchell Withers, Maj Gen, C.S., d. 1890

1819 Zealous Bates Tower, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1900

1825 Joseph R. Davis, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1896, inept nephew of Jefferson

1832 Richard Waterhouse Jr, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1876

1852 Joseph J C Joffre, Marshal of France, (Indo China, Marne)

1893 Hermann Goring, Reichsmarshall/Nazi war criminal/Flying Circus

1893 Afred Rosenberg, Nazi war criminal

1903 Igor V Kurtshatov, Russian nuclear physicist, 1st Russian nuclear bomb

1902 Ibn Abdul-Aziz Saud, Kuwait, King, Saudi Arabia

1902 Simon H. Spoor, Dutch General/intelligence officer for General MacArthur

1908 Ben Seijes, Dutch WW II historian

Died...

1517 Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Spanish Conquistador/Admiral, beheaded at 41

1519 Holy Roman Emperor - German Kaiser Maximilian I von Habsburg

1789 Ethan Allen, drowned in an accident while drunk

1956 John Raedecker Dutch sculptor (WWII Monument Amsterdam), at 70

1965 Sir Winston Churchill(b. 1874) Half American - ALL British Prime Minister

1967 General H. M. (Howling Mad) Smith, "Father of Amphibious Warfare" He was one hell of a Marine!

Event...

1493 Last day for all Jews to leave Sicily

1559 Elizabeth I "Gloriana" Crowned Queen of England

1806 French evacuate Vienna

1807 Gunpowder-ship explodes in Leiden Netherlands, 150

1809 British take Cayenne, French Guiana, and hold it until 1814

1813 The frigate USS Chesapeake captures HMS Volunteer

1816 France decrees Bonaparte family excluded from the country forever

1836 HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin reach Sydney Australia

1836 Seminole Wars: Battle of Wetumka, Fla.

1848 Mexican forces attack Sloop-of-War USS Lexington, San Blas, Mexico

1861 Florida state troops demand surrender of Ft Pickens

1863 President Davis delivers his "State of the Confederacy" address

1865 Union fleet bombs Fort Fisher NC

1879 British Zulu War begins: Lt-General Chelmsford invades Zululand

1904 Southwest-Africa uprising under Samuel Maherero against German garison

1907 Britain grants responsible government to former colony of Transvaal

1915 Cerebro-spinal meningitis is spreading through the Canadian training camp on Salisbury Plain, in southern England. Close quarters and wet weather combine to increase the incidence of the disease.

1916 Britain proclaims Gilbert and Ellice Is colony in Pacific

1933 U.S. Congress recognize independence Philippines

1937 Plow for laying submarine cable patented

1940 Interior Department motorship North Star (U.S. Antarctic Service) reaches Bay of Whales, Antarctica, and immediately begins discharging cargo to establish West Base. Ice conditions prohibit unloading at the original chosen site, King Edward VII Land.

1942 Authorized enlisted strength of the U.S. Navy is increased to 500,000.

1942 Dutch army shore battery sinks Japanese minesweepers W.13 and W.14 off Tarakan, Borneo; destroyer IJN Asagumo is damaged when she runs aground off Tarakan.

1942 Japanese submarine I-121 mines Clarence Strait, the body of water connecting Van Diemen Gulf and the Timor Sea, off Australia's northern territory, at the approaches to Darwin, the Asiatic Fleet's main logistics base

1942 Bataan: Heavy fighting

1942 Malaya: Japanese begin to advance on Malacca.

1942 North Africa: British troops capture Sollum

1942 National War Labor Board created

1942 Authorized enlisted strength of the U.S. Navy is increased to 500,000.

1943 TF 8 covers unopposed landing of Army troops to occupy Amchitka, Aleutians. Destroyer USS Worden is lost when she sinks after running aground south of Kirilof Point, at entrance to Constantine Harbor.

1943 Motor torpedo boat PT-28 is damaged by grounding during storm, Dora Harbor, Unimak Island, Aleutians.

1943 Submarine USS Guardfish sinks Patrol Boat No.1 about 10 miles southwest of the Tingwon Islands, located just southwest of the northern tip of New Hanover, Bismarck Archipelago, 02°51'S, 149°43'E.

1943 New Zealand corvette scuttles hulk of motor torpedo boat PT-43 off Guadalcanal.

1943 District patrol vessel YP-183 sinks after running aground off west coast of Hawaii, T.H.

1944 PB4Ys (VB 108 and VB 109) bomb Japanese shipping in Kwajalein lagoon, sinking gunboat Ikuta Maru, 08°42'N, 167°44'E. Aerial minelaying operations continue in the Marshalls as five PBY-5s, flying from Tarawa, mine Tokowa and Torappu channels and the south entrance to Maleolap; one Catalina goes on to bomb Jabor but is forced down by antiaircraft fire six miles east of Jaluit.

1944 Submarine USS Albacore sinks Japanese gunboat No.2 Choko Maru about 350 miles southwest of Truk, 03°30'N, 147°27'E; she also damages motor gunboat Hayabusa-Tei No.4, under tow of No.12 Choko Maru, so badly that the smaller craft has to be scuttled, 03°37'N, 147°27'E.

1944 Submarine USS Hake sinks Japanese aircraft transport Nigitsu Maru about 300 miles southeast of Okinawa, 23°15'N, 133°49'E.

1944 Japanese army cargo vessel Kanjo Maru is sunk by USAAF mine in Takao harbor, Formosa, 22°37'N, 120°15'E.

1944 Naval Air Station, Port Lyautey, French Morocco, is established.

1944 Churchill and de Gaulle begin a two day conference in Marrakech

1945 German forces in Belgium retreat in Battle of Bulge

1945 TF 38 (Vice Adm John S. McCain) operating in the South China Sea hits Japanese shipping, airfields, and other shore installations in southeastern French Indochina. TF 38 planes sink training cruiser IJN Kashii north of Qui Nhon, 13°50'N, 109°20'E; escort vessel IJN Chiburi, Coast Defense Vessel No.17, and Coast Defense Vessel No.19 off Cape St. Jacques, 10°20'N, 107°50'E; submarine chaser Ch 31, minesweeper W.101, Patrol Boat No.103 [ex-U.S. minesweeper Finch], Coast Defense Vessel No.35, Coast Defense Vessel No.43, and merchant tanker Ayayuki Maru off Cape Padaran, 11°10'N, 108°55'E; submarine chaser Ch 43 near Cam Ranh Bay, 11°53'N, 109°08'E; landing ship T.140 and victualling stores ship Ikutagawa Maru at Saigon, 10°20'N, 107°50'E; Coast Defense Vessel No.23 and Coast Defense Vessel No.51 north of Qui Nhon, 14°15'N, 109°10'E; auxiliary minesweeper Otowa Maru at Cam Ranh Bay, 11°50'N, 109°00'E; oil tanker Kumagawa Maru and transports Shinsei Maru and Toyu Maru off Cape St. Jacques, 10°20'N, 107°45'E; transport Kembu Maru and army cargo ships Yushu Maru and Kyokuun Maru north of Qui Nhon; army cargo ships Kiyo Maru and No.17 Shinsei Maru, Saigon; and merchant cargo ships Kenei Maru and Taikyu Maru andtanker No.9 Horai Maru at Saigon; tanker Akashi Maru off Cape St. Jacques; cargo ship Eiman Maru and tanker No.2 Nanryu Maru, east coast (exact location unspecified) of French Indochina; tanker Shoei Maru, cargo ships Hotsusan Maru, Tatsuhato Maru, Otsusan Maru, Yujo Maru, and No.63 Banshu Maru north of Qui Nhon; and tankers Koshin Maru, Ayanami Maru, Hoei Maru, and Eiho Maru, and cargo ship Kensei Maru, southeast of Cape St. Jacques. TF 38 planes also damage escort vessels IJN Daito and IJN Ukuru, Coast Defense Vessel No.27, and fleet tanker San Luis Maru north of Qui Nhon; submarine chaser Ch 34 and merchant cargo ship Ryuyo Maru at Cam Ranh Bay; landing ships T.149 and T.137 and fleet tanker No.3 Kyoei Maru off Cape St. Jacques; landing ship T.131 near Saigon; guardboat No.2 Fushimi Maru at entrance to Vung Tau; army cargo ship France Maru and merchant tanker Shingi Maru, southeast of Cape St. Jacques; and merchant cargo ships Chefoo Maru and Kanju Maru at Saigon. Vichy French ships, due to their proximity to Japanese vessels, also come under attack: TF 38 planes sink light cruiser Lamotte-Picquet off Cat Lai, and sink French surveying vessel Octant. Combined, TF 38 sank 41 ships on this day.

1945 Other Japanese casualties include Coast Defense Vessel No.2 damaged by aircraft (location unspecified); and auxiliary vessel Keishu Maru damaged by aircraft off Longhai.

1945 Off the west coast of Luzon, kamikazes damage destroyer escorts USS Richard W. Suesens and USS Gilligan, 16°20'N, 120°10'E; attack transport USS Zeilin, 15°23'N, 119°25'E; and tank landing ship LST-700, 14°04'N, 119°25'E; suicide pilots target U.S. merchant ships, damaging freighters Elmira Victory (there are no casualties to either the merchant complement or the 27- man Armed Guard) 16°11'N, 120°20'E (friendly fire also accounts for damage to the ship); Otis Skinner, on board which Armed Guard sailors contribute to fire- fighting efforts, 14°42'N, 119°35'E; Edward M. Wescott off the west coast of Luzon (10 of the 25-man Armed Guards are wounded by flying debris); Kyle V. Johnson, (on board which 129 of 506 Army troops, being transported, die) at 15°12'N, 119°30'E; and David Dudley Field at Subic Bay (Armed Guard gunfire deflects the kamikaze so that it only strikes the ship a glancing blow). Friendly fire accounts for damage to high speed transport USS Sands and tank landing ships LST-710 and LST-778, 15°00'N, 119°30'E.

1945 Operation KONGO continues; submarine I 47 launches kaitens that damage U.S. freighter Pontus H. Ross off Hollandia, New Guinea, 02°33'S, 140°06'W; there are no casualties among the merchant sailors or the 27-man Armed Guard. Efforts by submarines I 53 at Kossol Roads, Palau; I 56 at Manus, in the Admiralties; and by I 58 at Apra Harbor, Guam, are not unsuccessful

1949 Dutch court affirms death sentence against SS chief Hanns Rauter

1950 U.S.S.R. re-introduces death penalty for treason, espionage and sabotage

1950 Swedish tanker rams British submarine HMS Truculent in Thames, 64 die

1953 First landings on USS Antietam, first angled deck carrier

1957 HMCS Magnificent, Canada's only aircraft carrier, arrives in Egypt carrying 405 soldiers and tonnes of vehicles and supplies for the United Nations Emergecy Force (UNEF).

1961 U.N. genocide pact goes into effect

1964 Revolution overthrows Sultan of Zanzibar, one month after independence

1966 Lyndon Baines Johnson says U.S. should stay in South Vietnam until communist aggression ends.

1970 Biafran War ends, Biafra surrenders to Nigeria

1974 Libya and Tunisia announces they are merging as "Islamic Arab Republic"

1976 U.N. Security Council votes 11-1 to seat Palestine Liberation Org

1977 Anti-French demonstrations takes place in Israel after Paris released Abu Daoud, responsible 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli athletes

1987 Prince Edward resigns from the Royal Marines

1989 Idi Amin expelled from Zaire

1990 Romania bans Communist party It was the1st Warsaw Pact member to do so.

1991 The 5th MEB embarked and arrived in the North Arabian Sea in support of Desert Shield.

1991 U.S. Congress gives George Bush authority to wage war against Iraq

1996 Russian troops arrived in Bosnia for a joint operation with U.S.

1997 HAL becomes operational (2001: A Space Odyssey); this date was given as January 12, 1992 on screen, but 1997 is the date used in both the novel and screenplay

By Cap. Teancum:

1879 - The British-Zulu War begins as British troops under Lieutenant General Frederic Augustus invade Zululand from the southern African republic of Natal.

In 1843, Britain succeeded the Boers as the rulers of Natal, which controlled Zululand, the neighboring kingdom of the Zulu people. Boers, also known as Afrikaners, were the descendants of the original Dutch settlers who came to South Africa in the 17th century. Zulus, a migrant people from the north, also came to southern Africa during the 17th century, settling around the Tugela River region.

In 1838, the Boers, migrating north to elude the new British dominions in the south, first came into armed conflict with the Zulus, who were under the rule of King Dingane at the time. The European migrants succeeded in overthrowing Dingane in 1840, replacing him with his son Mpande, who became a vassal of the new Boer republic of Natal. In 1843, the British took over Natal and Zululand.

In 1872, King Mpande died and was succeeded by his son Cetshwayo, who was determined to resist European domination in his territory. In December 1878, Cetshwayo rejected the British demand that he disband his troops, and in January British forces invaded Zululand to suppress Cetshwayo. The British suffered grave defeats at Isandlwana, where 1,300 British soldiers were killed or wounded, and at Hlobane Mountain, but on March 29 the tide turned in favor of the British at the Battle of Khambula.

At Ulundi in July, Cetshwayo's forces were utterly routed, and the Zulus were forced to surrender to the British. In 1887, faced with continuing Zulu rebellions, the British formally annexed Zululand, and in 1897 it became a part of Natal, which joined the Union of South Africa in 1910.

1962 - The United States Air Force launches Operation Ranch Hand, a "modern technological area-denial technique" designed to expose the roads and trails used by the Viet Cong.

Flying C-123 Providers, U.S. personnel dumped an estimated 19 million gallons of defoliating herbicides over 10-20 percent of Vietnam and parts of Laos between 1962-1971. Agent Orange--named for the color of its metal containers--was the most frequently used defoliating herbicide. The operation succeeded inn killing vegetation, but not in stopping the Viet Cong. The use of these agents was controversial, both during and after the war, because of the questions about long-term ecological impacts and the effect on humans who either handled or were sprayed by the chemicals.

Beginning in the late 1970s, Vietnam veterans began to cite the herbicides, especially Agent Orange, as the cause of health problems ranging from skin rashes to cancer to birth defects in their children. Similar problems, including an abnormally high incidence of miscarriages and congenital malformations, have been reported among the Vietnamese people who lived in the areas where the defoliating agents were used.

1971 - The Reverend Philip F. Berrigan, serving a six-year prison term on charges of destroying draft records, and five others are indicted by a grand jury on charges of conspiring to kidnap presidential adviser Henry Kissinger and of plotting to blow up the heating tunnels of federal buildings in Washington. The "Harrisburg Six," as they came to be known, denied the charges and denounced them as a government effort to destroy the peace movement.

[Cap. Teancum]

Today's event:

1879 British Zulu War begins: Lt-General Chelmsford invades Zululand

Today's book:

The Zulu War, 1879 by Ian Knight

Book Description:

The Zulu War of 1879 remains one of the best known British colonial wars and included two battles whose names reverberate through history. At Isandlwana the Zulus inflicted a crushing defeat on the British; the gallant British defence at Rorke's Drift followed and re-established British prestige. Yet as this book shows, there was more to the war than this. Six months of brutal fighting followed, until the Zulu kingdom was broken up, its king imprisoned and the whole structure of the Zulu state destroyed. Years of internecine strife followed, until the British finally annexed Zululand as a colonial possession.

http://www.amazon.com/Zulu-War-1879-...e=UTF8&s=books