TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
4 August
◆1265 Battle of Evesham: Prince Edward [later King Edward I] defeats Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, to end the 2nd Baron's War.
◆1347 English troops capture Calais.★
◆1645 Battle of Nordlingen: French defeat the Imperialists.
◆1846 Sailors and Marines from USS Congress capture Santa Barbara.
◆1855 In the Battle of Ty-Ho Bay, China, Marines from the USS Powhatan captured 17 pirate junks near Hong Kong.
◆1858 First trans-Atlantic cable completed by USS Niagara and British ship Agamemnon.
◆1864 A Union operation against Confederate defenses around Atlanta, Georgia, stalls when infighting erupts between Yankee generals.
◆1864 Federal troops fail to capture Fort Gaines on Dauphin Island, one of the Confederate forts defending Mobile Bay.
◆1870 Battle of Weissenburg: Prussians defeat the French.
◆1873 While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, Custer and his 7th Cavalry clash for the first time with the Sioux Indians, who will defeat them three years later at Little Big Horn.★
◆1900 Battle of Elands River: 400 Australians defeat 2,500 Boers.
◆1912 The 1st detachment of American forces requested by President Diaz, arrived at Managua, Nicaragua, from Corinto. It was a handful of seamen from the USS ANNAPOLIS.
◆1914 Britain and Belgium declared war after German troops entered Belgium.
◆1914 As World War I erupts in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson formally proclaims the neutrality of the United States; a position a vast majority of Americans favored.
◆1916 The United States purchased the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million.
◆1917 US takes title to the Virgin Islands from Denmark.
◆1918 Americans take Fismes on the last day of the Second Battle of the Marne.
◆1929 60,000 Nazi Storm Troopers march in Munich.
◆1937 Marine Corps League incorporated by Congress.
◆1943 On New Georgia, Americans capture Munda and the air field.
◆1943 American forces continue to fight for Troina, Sicily.
◆1944 German forces in Brittany, elements of the 25th Corps (General Farmbacher), fall back on the major ports: St. Malo, Brest, Lorient and St. Nazaire. The US 12th Army Group continues offensive operations. The US 8th Corps (part of US 3rd Army) occupies Rennes and continues to advance toward Vannes. The US 5th and 14th Corps (both part of US 1st Army) also advance.
◆1944 A group from Task Force 38 (Admiral Clark) attacks Japanese positions on the island of Iwo Jima causing substantial damage.
◆1944 A group from Task Force 38 (Admiral Clark) attacks Japanese positions on the island of Chichi Jima causing substantial damage.
◆1945 American aircraft drop leaflets warning of air attacks on 12 more cities.
◆1945 In Singapore, Japanese guards execute seven captured American airmen.
◆1945 American bombers attack Japanese positions at Surabaya on Java.
◆1945 The area of command under General MacArthur is extended to include the Ryukyu Islands, south of Kyushu.
◆1947 Birthdate of the Navy Medical Service Corps
◆1950 Fleet Air Wing 6 was established in Tokyo, Japan, under the acting command of Captain John C. Alderman. The wing was assigned operational control over all U.S. and British patrol squadrons in the Japan-Korea area.
◆1950 Eighth Army established a defensive line along the Naktong River just 50 miles short of the sea. Journalists labeled this line as the Pusan Perimeter.
◆1952 Helicopters from the U.S. Air Force Air Rescue Service landed in Germany, completing the first transatlantic flight by helicopter in 51 hours and 55 minutes of flight time.
◆1953 Speaking before the Governor's Conference in Seattle, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns that the situation in Asia is becoming "very ominous for the United States."
◆1955 Eisenhower authorized $46 million for the construction of CIA headquarters.
◆1964 At 8 p.m., the destroyers USS Maddox and USS C. Turner Joy, operating in the Gulf of Tonkin, intercept radio messages from the North Vietnamese that give Captain John Herrick of the Maddox the "impression" that Communist patrol boats are planning an attack against the American ships, prompting him to call for air support from the carrier USS Ticonderoga.★
◆1981 Oliver North was assigned to White House duty.
◆1988 US Congress voted $20,000 to each Japanese-American interned during WW II.
◆1998 The US Air Force announced plans to group its combat aircraft into ten teams over the next 2 years.