TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
13 August
◆29 BCE Day 1 of Octavian's Triumph, for the conquest of Illyria.
◆900 Battle of Susteren: Count Ranier of Hainaut defeats King Zwentibold of Lorraine.
◆1284 Battle of Cape Corso: the Genoese fleet defeats the Pisans.
◆1415 King Henry V & the English army land at the mouth of the Seine.
◆1521 Cortez captures Tenochtitlan from the Aztecs.
◆1680 War started when the Spanish were expelled from Santa Fe, New Mexico, by Indians under Chief Pope.
◆1704 Battle of Blenheim/Second Battle of Hochstadt: Anglo-Imperialists under Marlborough and Prince Eugene defeat the Franco-Bavarians under Tallard.
◆1704 Naval Battle of Malaga: French Adm de Bourbon (50 ships-of-the-line) defeats Sir George Rooke (41 English & 12 Dutch), but fails to regain Gibraltar.
◆1759 Battle of Kunersdorf: The Russians defeat the Prussians.
◆1777 American explosive device made by David Bushnell explodes near British vessel off New London, CT.
◆1799 English fleet under Lord Seymour captures Surinam.
◆1846 The American flag was raised for the first time in Los Angeles as a joint expedition led by CDR Robert Stockton seizes the city.
◆1862 Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeated a Union army under Thomas Crittenden at Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
◆1864 Sensing a weakness in the Confederate defenses around Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia, Union General Ulysses S. Grant seeks to break the siege of Petersburg by concentrating his force against one section of the Rebel trenches.★
◆1864 U.S.S. Agawam, Commander Rhind, engaged three different Confederate batteries near Four Mile Creek on the James River.
◆1864 Ships of the Confederate James River Squadron, including C.S.S. Virginia II, Fredericksburg, Commander Rootes, C.S.S. Hampton, Lieutenant John W. Murdaugh, C.S.S. Nansemond, Lieutenant Charles W. Hays, C.S.S. Drewry, Lieutenant William W. Hall, shelled Union Army positions near Dutch Gap, Virginia.
◆1870 Armed tug Palos becomes first U.S. Navy ship to transit Suez Canal.
◆1876 Reciprocity Treaty between US and Hawaii was ratified.
◆1898 Ambush at Las Marias, P.R.: US force inflicts heavy casualties on Spanish troops.
◆1898 Battle of Manila: US troops occupy the city against light resistance.
◆1898 Spanish-American War: Armistice declared (noon, EST).
◆1918 Opha M. Johnson enlisted at HQMC, becoming the first woman Marine.
◆1937 Japanese attack Shanghai.
◆1943 The US 5th Air Force raids the oilfields at Balikpapan with 380 planes from bases in Australia.
◆1944 The US 15th Corps (part of US 3rd Army) captures Argentan. General Bradley, commanding US 12th Army Group, orders a halt to the 3rd Army advance in this direction. Meanwhile, US 12th and 20th Corps advance on Orleans and Chartres from Le Mans.
◆1945 French troops are deployed in Berlin and take up garrison duties in the designated parts of the American and British zones in the west of the city.
◆1945 Japanese surrender documents, approved by President Truman, are sent to General MacArthur.
◆1945 About 1600 American aircraft fly over Tokyo and other Japanese cities dropping millions of leaflets explaining the position reached in the surrender negotiations and the state of affairs in Japan. Most Japanese "hawks" still refuse to admit defeat. Japanese Sub-Lieutenant Saburo Sakai, the one-eyed fighter ace (with 64 victories), shoots down a B-29 near Tokyo during the night (August 13-14).
◆1948 Responding to increasing Soviet pressure on western Berlin, U.S. and British planes airlift a record amount of supplies into sections of the city under American and British control.
◆1950 Pres. Truman gave military aid to the Vietnamese regime of Bao-Dai.
◆1960 The first two-way telephone conversation by satellite took place with the help of Echo 1, a balloon satellite.
◆1972 Communist sappers (demolitions specialists) attack the ammo dump at Long Binh, destroying thousands of tons of ammunition. Some observers said that the Communists might have been reverting to guerrilla tactics due to the overall failure of the Nguyen Hue Offensive that had been launched in March.
◆1989 The space shuttle Columbia returned from a secret military mission.