TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
29 August
◆1014 Battle of Kleidion: Byzantine Emperor Basil II slaughters the Bulgars, blinds 15,000 more.
◆1179 Castle Chastelet, invested on the 24th, falls to Saladin.
◆1350 Battle of Winchelsea: English defeat a Spanish mercenary fleet in French service.
◆1612 Battle of Kringellen: Scots in Swedish service crush Norwegians..
◆1622 Battle of Fleurs: Palatinate Germans routed by the Spanish.
◆1693 Battle of Landen: costly French victory over the Allies.
◆1708 Haverhill, Mass., was destroyed by French & Indians.
◆1758 New Jersey Legislature formed the 1st Indian reservation.
◆1776 General George Washington retreated during the night from Long Island to New York City withdrawing from Manhattan to Westchester.
◆1786 Shay’s Rebellion began in Springfield, Mass. Daniel Shay led a rebellion in Massachusetts to protest the seizure of property for the non-payment of debt. Shay was a Revolutionary War veteran who led a short-lived insurrection in western Massachusetts to protest a tax increase that had to be paid in cash, a hardship for veteran farmers who relied on barter and didn‘t own enough land to vote. The taxes were to pay off the debts from the Revolutionary War, and those who couldn‘t pay were evicted or sent to prison. ★
◆1842 Treaty of Nanking: First Opium War ends.
◆1861 U.S.S. Yankee, Commander T. T. Craven, and U.S.S. Reliance, Lieutenant Mygatt, engaged Confederate battery at Marlborough Point, Virginia.
◆1861 Four U.S. steamers engaged Confederate battery at Aquia Creek, Virginia, for three hours.
◆1862 Union General John Pope's army was defeated by a smaller Confederate force at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
◆1863 Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, Lieutenant Payne, sank in Charleston harbor for the first time. After making several practice dives in the harbor, the submarine was moored by lines fastened to steamer Etiwan at the dock at Fort Johnson. When the steamer moved away from the dock unexpectedly, H. L. Hunley was drawn onto her side. She filled with water and rapidly sank, carrying with her five gallant seamen. Payne and two others escaped. H. L. Hunley was subsequently raised and refitted, as, undaunted by the "unfortunate accident," another crew volunteered to man her.
◆1909 World’s 1st air race was held in Rheims France. American Glenn Curtiss won.
◆1915 Navy salvage divers raise F-4, first U.S. submarine sunk in an accident.
◆1916 Congress passes act for expansion of Navy but most ships not completed until after World War I.
◆1916 Congress created the US Naval reserve.
◆1916 The Marine Corps Reserve was founded.
◆1942 Japanese naval forces enter Milne Bay.
◆1942 The American Red Cross announced that Japan had refused to allow safe conduct for the passage of ships with supplies for American prisoners of war.
◆1944 Pennsylvania’s 28th Infantry Division leads the American contingent in the “Liberation Day” parade down the Champs Elysees as Paris explodes with joy after the Germans withdraw from the city. The Allies, who had landed in Normandy on June 6th, had spent more than six weeks fighting through the Norman hedgerows before finally breaking out on the French Plain and headed for Paris. The 28th was one of four Guard infantry divisions to see combat in Normandy.
◆1944 The British 21st Army Group and US 1st Army Group continue to advance. The US 7th Corps (part of US 1st Army) captures Soissons and crosses the Aisne River. Elements of US 3rd Army take Reims and Chalons-sur-Marie.
◆1945 The American battleship USS Missouri anchors in Tokyo Bay.
◆1945 Gen MacArthur was named the Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in Japan.
◆1945 U.S. airborne troops landed in transport planes at Atsugi airfield, southwest of Tokyo, beginning the occupation of Japan.
◆1945 Secret Army and Navy reports of official enquiries into the raid on Pearl Harbor are made public. The blame is placed on a lack of preparedness, confusion and a breakdown of inter-service coordination. Former Secretary of State Hull, General Marshall and Admiral Stark are criticized. President Truman objects to the findings on Hull and Marshall.
◆1949 The USSR successfully detonated its first atomic bomb at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. It was a copy of the Fat Man bomb and had a yield of 21 kilotons.
◆1952 In the largest bombing raid of the Korean War, 1,403 planes of the Far East Air Force bombed Pyongyang, North Korea.
◆1958 Air Force Academy opened in Colorado Springs, Colo.
◆1962 A US U-2 flight saw SAM launch pads in Cuba.
◆1965 Gemini 5, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles ("Pete") Conrad, splashed down in the Atlantic after eight days in space.
◆1990 A defiant Iraqi President Saddam Hussein declared in a television interview that America could not defeat Iraq, saying, "I do not beg before anyone."
◆1991 In a stunning blow to the Soviet Communist Party, the Supreme Soviet legislature voted to suspend the activities of the organization and freeze its bank accounts because of the party's role in the failed coup.
◆1992 The U.N. Security Council agreed to send 3,000 more relief troops to Somalia to guard food shipments.
◆2003 Six nations trying to defuse a standoff over North Korea's nuclear program ended their talks in Beijing with an agreement to keep talking.