TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
19 April
◆530 Battle of Callenico: The Persians defeat the Byzantines.
◆1587 Frances Drake raids Cadiz.
◆1775 BATTLE OF LEXINGTON GREEN.★
◆1778 Marines participated in the USS Ranger's capturing and sinking of a British schooner off the coast of Ireland.
◆1782 Netherlands recognized the United States.
◆1783 George Washington proclaims end of hostilities.
◆1802 Spain reopened the New Orleans port to American merchants.
◆1809 Battle of Teugen: The French defeat the Austrians.
◆1861 Residents of Baltimore, Maryland, attack a Union regiment while the group makes its way to Washington, D.C. Baltimore's hostilities to the North were already well known, as just two percent of the city's voters cast their ballots for Abraham Lincoln while nearly half supported John Breckinridge, the Southern Democratic Party candidate.
◆1864 C.S.S. Albemarle, Commander Cooke, attacked Union warships off Plymouth, North Carolina, at 3:30 in the morning.
◆1865 Lieutenant W. H. Parker, commanding naval escort entrusted with the Confederate archives, treasury, and President Davis' wife, successfully evaded Federal patrols en route southward from Charlotte and arrived at Washington, Georgia, on the 17th. Parker, still without orders as to the disposition of his precious trust and unable to learn of the whereabouts of President Davis and his party (including Secretary Mallory), decided to push on through to Augusta, Georgia, where he hoped to find ranking civilian and military officials. The escort commander recorded: "We left the ladies behind at the tavern in Washington for we expected now a fight at any time." The escort again, however, managed to elude Federal patrols and arrived without incident at Augusta where Parker placed his entrusted cargo in bank vaults and posted a guard around the building. Having learned upon arrival that armistice negotiations between Generals Sherman and Johnston were in progress, the escort commander decided to remain in the city and await the outcome of the conference.
◆1865 U.S.S. Lexington, Acting Lieutenant William Flye, conveyed Colonel John T. Sprague, Chief of Staff to General John Pope, from Cairo and up the Red River to meet Confederate General Kirby Smith. At the ensuing conference, Smith was given the terms under which the surrender of his forces would be accepted.
◆1898 Congress passed a resolution recognizing Cuban independence and demanding that Spain relinquish authority over Cuba. President McKinley was also authorized to use military force to put the resolution into effect.
◆1916 Italian troops storm the Colonel di Lana at Merano.
◆1919 Leslie Irvin of the US makes first free fall parachute jump.
◆1933 The United States went off the gold standard by presidential proclamation. FDR tied this with orders that 445,000 newly minted gold $20 “Double Eagle” coins be destroyed. Ten coins escaped and one was scheduled for auction in 2002. The coin fetched $7.59 million.
◆1938 General Francisco Franco declared victory in the Spanish Civil War.
◆1938 RCA-NBC launches its first regular TV broadcasts. The programs, broadcast from the Empire State Building, were an experiment and aired only five hours a week. Very few TV sets existed at the time to receive the programs.
◆1942 In Burma, General Alexander confers with his field commanders (British Brigadier General Slim and American Lieutenant General Stilwell). Meanwhile, the Japanese strike at the weak and poorly led Chinese 55th Division, which the Japanese find idly sitting in its bivouacs. The Chinese are attacked from three directions at once and the division disintegrates. Soldiers flee into the hills. The 93rd Chinese Division moves in to help, sees the chaos, and retreats without fighting.
◆1942 On Bataan, Japanese resources are overwhelmed by thousands of American and Filipino prisoners who assemble in the town of Balanga.
◆1944 The British Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean (Admiral Somerville) is reinforced with the USS Saratoga. The carrier aircraft attack Japanese positions at Sabang and nearby airfields. One plane is lost and 27 Japanese planes are claimed to have been shot down.
◆1944 The House of Representatives approves an extension of Lend-Lease legislation.
◆1945 US aircraft carrier Franklin was heavily damaged in Japanese air raid.
◆1945 In the advance by US 1st Corps units, on the northwest coast of Luzon, Vigan is taken.
◆1945 On Okinawa, the US 24th Corps now has three divisions in the line and all three begin attacks after a heavy ground and air bombardment. The heaviest efforts are on coastal flanks.
◆1945 The US 1st Army captures Leipzig. The British 2nd Army reaches the Elbe south of Namburg.
◆1951 Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his command by President Truman, bid farewell to Congress, quoting a line from a ballad: "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."
◆1951 I and IX Corps reached the Utah Line, south of the Iron Triangle.
◆1952 The U.N. delegation informed the communists that only 70,000 of 132,000 of the prisoners of war held by the United Nations Command were willing to return home.
◆1987 Maxwell D. Taylor (85), US commander 101st airborne (WW II), died.
◆1989 The battleship USS Iowa's number 2 turret exploded while on maneuvers northeast of Puerto Rico.★
◆1990 Nicaragua's nine-year-old civil war appeared near an end as Contra guerrillas, leftist Sandinistas and the incoming government agreed to a truce and a deadline for the rebels to disarm.
◆1993 WACO MASSACRE.★
◆1995 BOMBING OF THE MURRAH BUILDING.★
◆1999 In Hallac, Kosovo, 20 Albanian men were killed by Serb paramilitaries. 11 were shot in a vacant lot and 9 were killed in their homes. They were buried in a mass grave and later reburied individually just before NATO forces moved into Kosovo.
◆1999 In Puerto Rico two US Marine jets in training dropped bombs over the island of Vieques and missed their targets. One civilian, David Sanes Rodriguez, was killed and 4 people were injured.
◆1999 Yugoslav authorities shut down the Morini border crossing to Albania. NATO bombing continued and a Serb government headquarters building in Novi Sad was badly damaged. An estimated 500,000 to 850,000 ethnic Albanians remained were still inside Kosovo.
◆2002 US and British planes bombed Iraqi air defense systems in response to anti-aircraft fire.
◆2012 USMC opens infantry training to women.