TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
5 December
◆1757 Seven Years' War - Battle of Leuthen: Frederick the Great's Prussians defeat the Austrians under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine.
◆1782 Martin Van Buren, 8th President (1837-1841) and first born in the United States, was born in Kinderhook, N.Y.
◆1792 George Washington was re-elected president; John Adams was re-elected vice president.
◆1804 Thomas Jefferson was re-elected US president.
◆1812 Napoleon deserts his army during the retreat from Moscow.
◆1832 Andrew Jackson was re-elected US president.
◆1839 Union General George Armstrong Custer is born in Harrison County, Ohio.★
◆1843 Launching of USS Michigan at Erie, Penn., America's first iron-hulled warship, as well as first prefabricated ship.
◆1848 President Polk triggered the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California.
◆1861 Gatling gun was patented.
◆1862 Union general Ulysses Grant’s cavalry received a setback in an engagement on the Mississippi Central Railroad at Coffeeville, Mississippi.
◆1864 Confederate General Hood sent Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry and a division of infantry towards Murfreesboro, Tenn.
◆1904 Japanese destroyed Russian fleet at Port Arthur in Korea.★
◆1912 Italy, Austria, and Germany renewed the Triple Alliance for six years.
◆1929 Marine Captain A. N. Parker was the first person to fly over unexplored Antarctica.
◆1932 German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa, making it possible for him to travel to the United States.
◆1933 Prohibition was repealed.
◆1941 President Roosevelt sent a message to Japanese Emperor Hirohito expressing hope that gathering war clouds would be dispelled. Hirohito smiled enigmatically, knowing that Japan would attack Pearl Harbor the next day.
◆1941 USS Lexington, one of the two largest aircraft carriers employed by the United States during World War II, makes its way across the Pacific in order to carry a squadron of dive bombers to defend Midway Island from an anticipated Japanese attack.
◆1942 Japanese forces repel a strong US attack on their defensive positions at Buna, New Guinea.
◆1945 At 2:10 p.m., five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission.★
◆1950 Pyongyang in Korea fell to the invading Chinese army.
◆1950 The carrier, USS Princeton, commanded by World War II hero Captain William O. Gallery, arrived on station in Korea.