TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
26 April
◆1501 Cesare Borgia captures Faenza, besieged since Nov 7, 1500.
◆1604 Battle of Blankenbergh: Spanish defeat the Dutch.
◆1607 Ships under the command of Capt. Christopher Newport sought shelter in Chesapeake Bay. The forced landing led to the founding of Jamestown on the James River, the first English settlement. An expedition of English colonists, including Capt. John Smith, went ashore at Cape Henry, Va., to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere.
◆1655 Dutch West Indies Co. denied Peter Stuyvesant's desire to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam.
◆1718 Esek Hopkins, first U.S. commander-in-chief, was born.
◆1777 Sybil Ludington (16) rode from NY to CT rallying her father’s militia.
◆1805 Cyrus Eaton leads a handful of US Marines, and mercs to take Derna, Libya.
◆1856 Some 20 settlers of Honey Lake Valley, California, met at the cabin of Isaac Roop and formed "the independent Territory of Nataqua." They named the cabin Fort Defiance, chose Peter Lassen as their surveyor and selected Susanville, named after Roop's daughter, as the territorial capital.
◆1862 Fort Macon, North Carolina, surrendered to combined land-sea forces under Commander Lock¬wood and Brigadier General John G. Parke. U.S.S. Daylight, State of Georgia, Chippewa, and Gemsbok heavily bombarded the fort; blockade runners Alliance and Gondar were captured after the fort's surrender.
◆1937 During the Spanish Civil War, the German military tests its powerful new air force, the Luftwaffe, and the principles of Blitzkreig, on the Basque town of Guernica in northern Spain.
◆1943 An American squadron under the command of Admiral McMorris bombards the Japanese held harbors on Attu Island.
◆1943 New plans are approved for the Solomon Islands operations (code named "Cartwheel").Admiral Halsey's South Pacific Area forces are to advance through New Georgia and Bougainville. MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area is to continue its advance northwest along the coast of New Guinea until he and Halsey can link up to isolate the Japanese bases at Rabaul and Kavieng.
◆1944 The American beachheads at Tanahmerah Bay and Humboldt Bay are linked up. Australian forces, to the east, capture Alexishafen, west of Madang.
◆1945 US 3rd Army units take Regensburg while other elements enter Austria. In the south, the French 1st Army reaches Lake Constance.
◆1945 US 5th Army units head north from Verona toward the Brenner Pass and west toward Milan. The British 8th Army has crossed the Adige River and moves northeast toward Venice and Trieste.
◆1945 There is a further American landing on Negros, this time by units of the Americal Division in the southwest of the island. The troops advance well inland before encountering Japanese resistance.
◆1945 On Okinawa, the US 24th Corps attacks the along the Japanese held Maeda Escarpment (Shuri Line). American armor reaches the reverse slope.
◆1952 Armistice negotiations resumed.
◆1952 Air Force Major William H. Wescott, 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, scored his fifth aerial victory to become the 12th ace of the Korean War. His F-86 Sabre "Lady Francis/Michigan Center" was also used by Colonel "Gabby" Gabreski for one of his victories.
◆1955 The Israeli-developed submachine gun “Uzi“, named after its developer Uziel Gal, was first introduced to the IDF on Israel’s 7th Independence Day.
◆1968 - The United States exploded beneath the Nevada desert a one-megaton nuclear device called "Boxcar."
◆1971 The U.S. command in Saigon announces that the U.S. force level in Vietnam is 281,400 men, the lowest since July 1966.
◆1972 President Nixon, despite the ongoing communist offensive, announces that another 20,000 U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Vietnam in May and June, reducing authorized troop strength to 49,000. Nixon emphasized that while U.S. ground troops were being withdrawn, sea and air support for the South Vietnamese would continue. In fact, the U.S. Navy doubled the number of its fighting ships off Vietnam.
◆1980 - Following an unsuccessful attempt by the United States to rescue U.S. Embassy hostages in Iran, the Tehran government announced that captives were being scattered to thwart any future effort.
◆2001 A US federal judge ruled that military exercises could resume on Vieques Island. Puerto Ricans mobilized for mass demonstrations.
◆2003 In Iraq attackers fired into an ammunition dump guarded by Americans on Baghdad's southeastern outskirts, setting off thunderous explosions that killed at least six Iraqis and wounded four. As many as 40 were thought killed.