TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
9 August
◆48 BCE Battle of Pharsalus: Caesar crushes Pompey.
◆378 Battle of Adrianople: devastating Roman defeat by the Visigoths.
◆1160 Battle of Carcano: Emperor Frederick II Barbarossa is defeated by the Lombard League.
◆1386 Battle of Sempach: Swiss defeat the Hapsburgs.
◆1638 Jonas Bronck of Holland became the 1st European settler in the Bronx.
◆1645 Settlers in New Amsterdam gained peace with the Indians after conducting talks with the Mohawks.
◆1673 Dutch recapture NY from English. It was regained by English in 1674.
◆1678 Indians sell Jonas Bronck some real estate north of Manhattan.
◆1757 English Ft. William Henry, NY, surrendered to French and Indian troops.
◆1790 The Columbia returned to Boston Harbor after a three-year voyage, becoming the first ship to carry the American flag around the world.
◆1813 After reports that British naval vessels were nearing St. Michaels, Md., to attack the shipbuilding town that night, the county militia placed lanterns on the tops of the tallest trees and on the masts of vessels in the harbor; and had all other lights extinguished. When the British attacked, they directed their fire too high and overshot the town.
◆1814 - Andrew Jackson and the Creek Indians signed the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving the whites 23 million acres of Creek territory.
◆1815 CAPT Stephen Decatur concludes treaty for U.S. with Tripoli.
◆1842 The United States and Canada signed the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, resolving a border dispute between Maine and Canada's New Brunswick and U.S. and Great Britain agreed to cooperate in suppressing the slave trade.
◆1849 Hungarian Republic crushed by Austria & Russia.
◆1862 Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson narrowly defeats a Union force led by General John Pope at Cedar Mountain, Virginia.★
◆1865 Return of Naval Academy to Annapolis after 4 years at Newport, RI.
◆1877 Having refused government demands that they move to a reservation, a small band of Nez Perce Indians clash with the U.S. Army near the Big Hole River in Montana.
◆1898 Battle of Coamo, Puerto Rico: US, c. 12 casualties, Spain c. 200. US landing party again raids Cape San Juan, P.R. also.
◆1918 Following the lead of countries all over the world, the U. S. government ordered automobile production to halt by January 1, 1919, and convert to military production. Factories instead manufactured shells, and the engineering lessons of motor racing produced light, powerful engines for planes. Manufacturers turned out staff cars and ambulances by the hundreds. In fact, World War I has often been described as the war of the machines.
◆1919 Construction of rigid airship ZR-1 (Shenandoah) authorized.
◆1929 It was hardly a tell-tale sign of trouble, but on August 9, 1929 Wall Street got an inkling of the upcoming crash as the New York Bank raised the rediscount rate on loans to brokers a full point to 6 percent.
◆1935 Fleet Marine Force Headquarters moved from Quantico to San Diego.
◆1941 President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill met at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. Their meeting produced the Atlantic Charter, an agreement between the two countries on war aims, even though the United States was still a neutral country.
◆1942 After the removal of the American aircraft carriers, a Japanese cruiser force, commanded by Admiral Mikawa enters the Sealark Channel south of Savo Island. The remaining American naval defenses, lead by Admiral Crutchley, have little experience of, or the equipment needed for, night fighting. The Americans lose four cruisers and sink none of the Japanese ships. Sealark Channel is later renamed Ironbottom Sound. The American transports unloading at Lunga Point are not attacked, however they are ordered to withdraw due to the threat and the 1st Marine Division is left short of heavy equipment and with only one half of their supplies. The Coast Guard-manned transport USS Hunter Liggett rescued the survivors of three U. S. Navy and one Australian cruisers that had been sunk the preceding night by Imperial Japanese Navy during the Battle of Savo Island. The night battle, also known as the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, was one of the worst defeats ever suffered by the Navy.
◆1942 With the Guadalcanal airstrip secure after heavy fighting with the Japanese, the 1st Engineer Battalion commenced work on the runway using captured equipment. Three days later, on 12 August, the first plane landed on Henderson Field, a Navy PBY which evacuated two wounded Marines. Nearly 3,000 wounded Marines would be evacuated from Henderson Field during the battle.
◆1944 The German attacks around Mortain continue to be held by forces of US 1st Army. Meanwhile, the US 15th Corps (part of US 3rd Army) turns north from Le Mans, aiming for Argentan and eventually a junction with the Canadians advance southward between Argentan and Falaise. Allied fight-bombers are active throughout the day.
◆1945 A second atom bomb is dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan's unconditional surrender.★
◆1949 First use of pilot-ejection seat for emergency escape in U.S. made by LT Jack I. Fruin of VF-171 near Walterboro, SC.
◆1951 The 1st Marine Air Wing was awarded the Army Distinguished Unit Citation for outstanding performance of duty and extraordinary heroism during the period from Nov. 22 to Dec. 14, 1950The award was for actions in support of X Corps in the Chosin/Changjin Reservoir campaign and the evacuation from northeast Korea.
◆1952 The 1st Marine Division defended against a Chinese attack in the vicinity of Bunker Hill.This was the first significant U.S. Marine ground action in western Korea since the Inchon-Seoul campaign. The Marine position on Hill 58 changed hands five times during the next two days. Eventually the Chinese managed to gain control of this outpost.
◆1967 First Marine Division launches Operation Cochise in the Que Son valley. Meanwhile, the First Cavalry Division continued with Operation Pershing, a major clearing operation in the Binh Dinh province designed to improve the security situation in support of the ongoing pacification effort.
◆1985 Arthur Walker, a retired U.S. Navy officer, is found guilty of espionage for passing top-secret documents to his brother, who then passed them to Soviet agents.
◆1990 A week after Iraq invaded Kuwait, Western European diplomats and Arab witnesses reported that Iraq had virtually sealed its borders, preventing thousands of foreigners from leaving Iraq or Kuwait.
◆1990 Walking off of the first American C-141 transport to bring in the first elements what would eventually be more than 527,000 American troops were two Guardsmen from Headquarters Company, 228th Signal Brigade, South Carolina Army National Guard.
◆2003 The US Army began burning chemical weapons at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Anniston, Ala.