TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
2 April
◆742 Charlemagne, King of the Franks, Holy Roman Emperor, was born (d. 814).
◆1513 Near present-day St. Augustine, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon comes ashore on the Florida coast, and claims the territory for the Spanish crown.★
◆1781 Frigate Alliance captures 2 British privateers, Mars and Minerva.
◆1814 Henry Lewis “Old Rock” Benning, Brig General in Confederate Army, was born.★
◆1827 First Naval Hospital construction begun at Portsmouth, VA.
◆1865 Confederate Secretary of the Navy Mallory ordered the destruction of the James River Squadron and directed its officers and men to join General Lee’s troops then in the process of evacuating Richmond and retreating westward toward Danville.
◆1865 US MG James H Wilson’s cavalry captures Selma, AL.
◆1865 Lt. Gen. Ambrose P. Hill, C.S.A., KIA at 39.★
◆1865 After a ten-month siege, Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, and Confederate General Robert E. Lee leads his troops on a desperate retreat westward.
◆1866 U.S. President Andrew Johnson declares war to be over.
◆1916 Zeppelin bombs Rosyth distillery, causing a flood of fine malt.
◆1917 At 8:30 p.m. President Woodrow Wilson, delivered his message before a joint session of Congress and recommended that a state of war be declared between the United States and the imperial German government. Realizing that the war looming ahead would be a costly one, Wilson said, “the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured…” and “The world must be made safe for democracy.”
◆1935 Sir Watson-Watt patented RADAR.
◆1941 USS Hornet with Jimmy Doolittle’s B-25s departed from San Francisco.
◆1942 US bombers from India attack Japanese shipping in the Andaman Islands.
◆1943 American aircraft conduct 8 raids on Kiska and one on Attut in the Aleutians.
◆1944 The 22nd Marine Regiment secured Majit Island in the Marshall Islands.
◆1944 Merrill’s Marauders heavily engaged at Nhpum Ga, Burma.
◆1945 On Okinawa, forces of the US 10th Army easily advance across the island to the east coast and make some progress to the north and south. At sea, in addition to the bombardment and air support missions performed by the US naval forces, there are attacks by the British carriers on Skashima Gunto Island. In Japanese Kamikaze attacks four US transports are badly damaged with many casualties among the troops aboard.
◆1945 Part of the US 163rd Regiment is landed on Tawitawi, in the Philippines Sulu Archipelago.
◆1947 UN places former Japanese mandated islands under U.S. trusteeship
◆1951 First Navy use of jet aircraft as a bomber, launched from a carrier, USS Princeton.
◆1951 Far East Air Force flew 1,245 sorties in the third highest daily total in the war.
◆1958 National Advisory Council on Aeronautics was renamed NASA.
◆1972 Soldiers of Hanoi’s 304th Division, supported by Soviet-made tanks and heavy artillery, take the northern half of the Quang Tri province.
◆1973 ITT pleaded guilty to asking CIA to “influence” Chilean presidential elections.
◆1975 As North Vietnamese tanks and infantry continue to push the remnants of South Vietnam’s 22nd Division and waves of civilian refugees from the Quang Ngai Province, the South Vietnamese Navy begins to evacuate soldiers and civilians by sea from Qui Nhon.
◆1978 Velcro was first put on the market.
◆1992 The space shuttle Atlantis returned from a nine-day mission.
◆1997 An Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt jet with four 500- pound bombs was lost over the Colorado Rockies. It was piloted by Capt. Craig Button (32). Wreckage of the plane was found Apr 20 on the sheer face of New York Mountain [Gold Dust Peak], 15 miles from Vail. It was later suspected that he committed suicide due to a possible revelation of homosexuality. A 1998 official report cited unrequited love for a former girlfriend and his mother’s Christian pacifist faith.
◆1999 Allied forces conduct air strikes on Basra, in southern Iraq.
◆2003 Polish troops fighting with the US-led coalition in Iraq reported encountering many Iraqi combatants in civilian clothes.
◆2003 PFC Jessica Lynch is rescued from the Hussein Hospital in Nasiryah where she has been held since 23 March. This is the first POW rescue by the US military since WWII.