TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
5 August
◆54 BCE Battle of Wheathampstead: Caesar defeats the Britons under Cassivellaunus.
◆642 Battle of Maserfeld: King Penda of Mercia defeats King Oswald of Northumbria.
◆1063 Battle of Snowdonia: Harold Godwinson defeats King Gruffydd ap Llywelyn of Wales.
◆1192 Battle of Jaffa: a greatly outnumbered Richard Lionheart defeats Saladin.
◆1305 Scots hero William Wallace is betrayed to the English.
◆1435 Battle of Ponza: Franco-Genovese fleet defeats the Aragonese off Gaeta.
◆1600 Battle of Perth: King James VI of Scotland defeats the Earl of Gowrie.
◆1644 Second Battle of Freiburg: Bavarians defeat the French.
◆1664 After days of negotiation, the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam surrendered to the British, who would rename it New York. The citizens of New Amsterdam petitioned Peter Stuyvesant to surrender to the English. The "Articles of Capitulation" guaranteed free trade, religious liberty and a form of local representation.
◆1716 Battle of Peterwardein: 40,000 Hapsburg troops under Eugene of Savoy rout 150,000 Turks.
◆1763 Battle of Bushy Run: Henry Bosquet defeats Pontiac.
◆1781 Battle of Dogger Bank: Royal Navy defeats the Dutch.
◆1796 2nd Battle of Castiglione: Austrians defeat Bonaparte, but surrender anyway.
◆1812 Battle of Brownstone Creek: Tecumseh routs Col Thomas Van Horn's Americans.
◆1815 A peace treaty with Tripoli--which followed treaties with Algeria and Tunis--brought an end to the Barbary Wars.
◆1832 Frigate Potomac is first U.S. Navy ship to entertain royalty, King and Queen of Sandwich Islands, Honolulu.
◆1861 US Army abolished flogging.
◆1862 In an indecisive battle on the Mississippi River, the Confederates gain some breathing room after driving a Union force back into Baton Rouge from the north.
◆1863 U.S.S. Commodore Barney, Acting Lieutenant Samuel Hose, was severely damaged when a 1,000-pound electric torpedo was exploded near her above Dutch Gap, Virginia.
◆1863 A detachment of Marines arrived at Charleston harbor to augment Union forces. Rear Admiral Dahlgren quickly cut the number of Marines on board the ships of his squadron to a minimum and sent the resulting total of some 500 Marines, under Major Jacob Zeilin, ashore on Morris Island. Dahlgren ordered that the Marines be ready "to move on instant notice; rapidity of movement is one of the greatest elements of military power.
◆1864 DAMN THE TORPEDOES, FULL SPEED AHEAD: Rear Admiral Farragut took his squadron of 18 ships, including four monitors, against the heavy Confederate defenses of Mobile Bay.★
◆1858 After several unsuccessful attempts, the first telegraph line across the Atlantic Ocean is completed, a feat accomplished largely through the efforts of American merchant Cyrus West Field.
◆1882 Authorizing of first steel warships, beginning of the modern Navy.
◆1884 The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.
◆1917 The entire membership of the National Guard was drafted into federal service for World War I. After war was declared in April, 1917, National Guard units were first called into federal service by President Wilson under the militia clause of the Constitution.★
◆1918 U.S.A. Man-power Bill introduced into Congress; military age from 18 to 45.
◆1921 Yangtze River Patrol Force established as command under Asiatic Fleet.
◆1930 Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, was born in Ohio.
◆1935 Congress passed the Anti-Smuggling Act, which broadened the jurisdiction of Coast Guard.
◆1944 Elements of US 8th Corps (part of US 3rd Army) take Vannes. Other elements attack toward St. Malo and Brest. The US 15th Corps (also part of US 3rd Army) is advancing southeast from the Selune River, reaching Mayenne and Laval. To the left, US 7th Corps (part of US 1st Army) is advancing beyond Mortain.
◆1945 On Tinian, at about 0210 hours, seven American aircraft take off for Japan. One of the aircraft is the specially modified B-29 Superfortress -- the Enola Gay -- carrying the "Little Boy" atomic bomb and heading for Hiroshima.
◆1945 Aircraft from the US 5th and 7th Air Forces, based in Okinawa, raid Tarumizu in the south.About 325 planes take part in the attack. Another 12 Japanese cities have leaflets dropped on them by B-29 bombers, warning of coming raids. During the night, American bombers strike Imabari, Ube, Mayobashi, Saga, Nishinomiya and Mikage, fulfulling the threat made by leaflet drops.
◆1950 The USS Philippine Sea arrived in Korean waters - the second carrier to enter the war.
◆1950 Major Kenneth L. Reusser was awarded a gold star in lieu of a second Navy Cross and became the first Marine to be decorated for valor during the Korean War.
◆1951 The United Nations Command suspended armistice talks with the North Koreans when armed troops are spotted in neutral areas.
◆1952 In LA, Ca., 14 Communist leaders were convicted of conspiring to overthrow the US government. 6 of the defendants were from SF, one was from Oakland.
◆1952 USAF Major Robinson Risner scored his first aerial victory of the Korean War. He later became a POW during the Vietnam War and retired as a brigadier general.
◆1953 Exchange of prisoners of war of Korean Conflict (Operation Big Switch) begins.
◆1963 Representatives of the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons in outer space, underwater, or in the atmosphere.
◆1964 F-8 Crusaders, A-1 Skyraiders, and A-4 Skyhawks, from the carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation stationed in the South China Sea, fly 64 sorties against North Vietnamese coastal targets as part of Operation Pierce Arrow in retaliation for the Tonkin Gulf incidents of August 2 and 4. The U.S. warplanes destroyed or damaged 25 North Vietnamese PT boats (claimed by U.S. officials to be about one-half of the North Vietnamese Navy) at bases at Hon Gai, Loc Ghao, Phuc Loi, and Quang Khe; destroyed seven anti-aircraft installations at Vinh; and severely damaged an oil storage depot at Phuc Loi. Two U.S. planes were shot down. One pilot, Lieutenant j.g. (or "junior grade") Everett Alvarez, parachuted to safety, but broke his back in the process and was taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese. He was the first of some 600 U.S. airmen who would be captured during the war and not released until the cease-fire agreement was signed in 1973.
◆1967 Operation Coronado III begins in Rung Sat Zone, Vietnam.
◆1969 The U.S. space probe Mariner 7 flew by Mars, sending back photographs and scientific data. It returned 127 images of the South Polar icecap and southern hemisphere. Mariner 6 also flew past Mars this year and returned 75 images of the Martian equator along with the surface temperature, atmospheric pressure and composition.
◆1974 President Richard Nixon admitted that he ordered a cover-up of the Watergate break-in for political as well as national security reasons. He was forced to release tapes that proved he had ordered a cover-up, which became know as the "smoking gun."
◆1974 Congress places a $1 billion ceiling on military aid to South Vietnam for fiscal year 1974. This figure was trimmed further to $700 million by August 11. Military aid to South Vietnam in fiscal year 1973 was $2.8 billion; in 1975 it would be cut to $300 million. Once aid was cut, it took the North Vietnamese only 55 days to defeat the South Vietnamese forces when they launched their final offensive in 1975.
◆1986 US Senate voted for the SDI-project, better known as Star Wars.★
◆1987 President Reagan announced his administration had reached a "general agreement" with leaders of Congress on a new Central America peace plan. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega offered to discuss the U.S. proposal.
◆1990 An angry President Bush again denounced the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, telling reporters, "This will not stand. This will not stand, this aggression against Kuwait."
◆1990 Navy and Marine Task Force (USS Saipan, USS Ponce, and USS Sumter) begin evacuation of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals from Liberia during civil war.
◆2002 The coral-encrusted gun turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was raised from the floor of the Atlantic, nearly 140 years after the historic warship sank during a storm.
◆2005 The US military begins a major offensive in Anbar Province in Western Iraq.