TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
30 April
◆1305 Massacre of Adrianople: Byzantine Emperor Michael IX Palaiologos contrives the destruction of the Catalan Company.
◆1349 Massacre of the Jews of Radolszell, Germany.
◆1494 Christopher Columbus arrived in Guantanamo Bay on his 2nd voyage to the Americas.
◆1789 In New York City, George Washington, the great military leader of the American Revolution, is inaugurated as the first president of the United States.
◆1794 Menin, Belgium: Austrians break out of a French siege.
◆1798 US NAVY “UNOFFICIAL” BIRTHDAY: Congress established the Department of the Navy on this date in 1798, however, the United States Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which the Continental Congress established on 13 October 1775 by authorizing the procurement, fitting out, manning, and dispatch of two armed vessels to cruise in search of munitions ships supplying the British Army in America. In 1972 Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt authorized recognition of the 13 October 1775 date as the Navy’s "official" birthday.
◆1803 During the early moments of the nineteenth century, the United States government wheeled and dealed its way into what is generally regarded as the "greatest land bargain" in the nation's history, the Louisiana Purchase.
◆1812 Louisiana became the 18th state.
◆1832 All commissions of naval officers in Revenue Cutter Service revoked. Vacancies filled by promotion for first time.
◆1848 Battle of Pastrengo: Piedmontese defeat the Austrians.
◆1849 Battle of the Villa Pamfili: The Garibaldini defeat the French outside Rome, who fall back on Civitavecchia.
◆1860 Navajo Indians attacked Fort Defiance (Canby).
◆1861 President Lincoln ordered Federal Troops to evacuate Indian Territory.
◆1863 Major General Grant ferried his troops across the Mississippi River at Bruinsburg to commence the work of isolating Vicksburg from reinforcements.
◆1864 Work began on the Dams along the Red River which would allow Union General Nathaniel Banks’ troops to sail over the rapids above Alexandria, Louisiana.
◆1864 Battle of Jenkin's Ferry.
◆1865 Gen Sherman's "Haines's Bluff" at Snyder's Mill, Virginia.
◆1871 Apaches in Arizona surrender to white and Mexican adventurers; 144 died.
◆1889 Washington's inauguration became the first U.S. national holiday.
◆1900 Hawaii was organized as a U.S. territory.
◆1943 Operation Husky.
◆1944 The 8th and 9th US Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force Bomber Command began to fly sorties into France and the Low Countries in preparation for the Allied Expeditionary Force landing on Jun 6.
◆1943 The Germans retake Djebel Bou Aoukaz, Tunisia. Farther north, the Americans gain a foothold on Hill 609.
◆1944 US Task Force 58 (Admiral Mitscher) raids the Japanese base at Truk for a second day.Over the two days, the Japanese lose 93 aircraft out of a total 104 while the Americans lose 35 planes. Meanwhile, American Admiral Oldendorf leads a force of 9 cruisers and 8 destroyers to bombard targets in the Sawatan Islands, southeast of Truk.
◆1945 US troops attacked at the Elbe.
◆1945 Col. William O. Darby, of "Darby's Rangers," killed in action near Lake Garda, Italy serving as commander of the 10th Mountain Division.
◆1945 Der Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, burrowed away in a refurbished air-raid shelter, consumes a cyanide capsule, then shoots himself with a pistol, on this day in 1945, as his "1,000-year" Reich collapses above him.
◆1945 On Okinawa, Japanese counterattacks and infiltration attempts along the Shuri Line area are defeated. There is heavy fighting in the Maeda and Kochi Ridge positions. The US 1st Marine and 77th Divisions replace the US 27th and 96th Divisions in the line.
◆1945 The preparatory bombardment of targets in the Tarakan area in the northeast of the island of Borneo continues. A small American landing force goes ashore on the island of Sadan.
◆1951 U.N. Forces, having withdrawn to a new defense line, halted the Chinese offensive north of Seoul and the Han River.
◆1951 Far East Air Forces accumulated 1,277 sorties, the largest number to date. Fifth Air Force accounted for a record breaking 960 of them.
◆1952 The destroyers USS Maddox and Laffey participated in the most protracted gun duel of the Korean War as the engaged enemy shore batteries in Wonsan Harbor. Heavy coastal artillery fire was received, but neither of the two U.S. ships was damaged.
◆1968 U.S. Marines attacked a division of North Vietnamese in the village of Dai Do.
◆1969 US troops in Vietnam peaked at 543,000. Over 33,000 had already been killed.
◆1970 President Nixon announced to a national TV audience that the United States was sending troops into Cambodia “to win the just peace that we desire.”
◆1972 The North Vietnamese launched an invasion of the South.
◆1975 By dawn, communist forces move into Saigon, where they meet only sporadic resistance.
◆1988 Gen. Manuel Noriega, waving a machete, vowed at rally to keep fighting US efforts to oust him as Panama's ruler.
◆1992 As rioting in Los Angeles entered its second day, President Bush condemned the violence and said the Justice Department would intensify its investigation of police conduct in the beating of Rodney King.
◆1998 The US Senate approved the expansion of NATO to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
◆1999 NATO undertook over 600 sorties and strikes in Montenegro and Kosovo.