TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
6 December
◆1704 Battle Of Chamkaur: Heavily outnumbered Sikhs are utterly defeated by a Mogul Army.
◆1790 Congress moved from New York City to Philadelphia.
◆1830 Naval Observatory, the first U.S. national observatory, established at Washington, DC, under commander of Lieutenant Louis Malesherbes.
◆1833 John Singleton Mosby (d.1916), lawyer and Col. ("Grey Ghost" of Confederate Army), was born. He later gave riding lessons to young George Patton.★
◆1846 Battle of San Pasqual.
◆1861 Union General George G. Meade led a foraging expedition to Gunnell’s farm near Dranesville, Va.
◆1862 President Lincoln ordered the hanging of 39 of the 303 convicted Indians who participated in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. They were to be hanged on Dec. 26. The Dakota Indians were going hungry when food and money from the federal government was not distributed as promised. They led a massacre that left over 400 white people dead. The uprising was put down and 300 Indians were sentenced to death. Pres. Lincoln reduced the number to 39, who were hanged. The government then nullified the 1851 treaty.
◆1864 Monitors U.S.S. Saugus, Onondaga, Mahopac, and Canonicus participated in a lively engagement with strong shore batteries at Howlett's, James River, Virginia. Saugus received a solid 7-inch shot which disabled her turret.
◆1889 Jefferson Davis (81), the first and only president of the Confederate States of America (1861-1865), died in New Orleans.
◆1904 Theodore Roosevelt confirmed the Monroe-doctrine (Roosevelt Corollary).
◆1906 Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge flew a powered, man-carrying kite that carried him 168 feet in the air for seven minutes at Baddeck, Nova Scotia.
◆1917 German submarine torpedoes sink USS Jacob Jones (DD-61) off England.
◆1917 Former Czar Nicholas II and family were made prisoners by the Bolsheviks in Tobolsk.
◆1917 At 9:05 a.m., in the harbor of Halifax in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, the most devastating manmade explosion in the pre-atomic age occurs when the Mont Blanc, a French munitions ship, explodes 20 minutes after colliding with another vessel.★
◆1923 A presidential address was broadcast on radio for the first time as President Coolidge spoke to a joint session of Congress.
◆1928 A small detail of Marines under Captain Maurice G. Holmes defeated Nicaraguan bandits near Chuyelite. GySgt Charles Williams was mortally wounded during the fighting. Capt Holmes was later awarded the Navy Cross for gallantry, and a posthumous award was given to GySgt Williams.
◆1941 President Roosevelt-convinced on the basis of intelligence reports that the Japanese fleet is headed for Thailand, not the United States-telegrams Emperor Hirohito with the request that "for the sake of humanity," the emperor intervene "to prevent further death and destruction in the world."★
◆1941 Dutch and British pilots saw Japanese invasion fleet at Singapore.
◆1941 Japanese forces leave Palau bound for the attack on the Philippines.
◆1942 Allied forces near Medjez el Bab, Tunisia are pushed back by renewed German attacks.
◆1942 In New Guinea, US forces managed to reach the beach on the east side of Buna after heavy fighting. The Australian attack at Gona has little success. Japanese reinforcement fighting along the coast from the west make some headway.
◆1943 The US 5th Army offensive continues. The British 10th Corps captures Monte Camino while the US 2nd Corps attacks Monte la Difensa. To the east, the British 8th Army approaches the Moro River.
◆1944 Elements of the US 3rd Army enter Saareguemines which is defended by German forces. In Holland, the British 2nd Army is held up southwest of Arnhem by the German demolition of dikes and the consequent flooding.
◆1944 Lieutenant General Lucian Truscott is appointed commander of the US 5th Army fighting in Italy. He replaces Lt. Gen. Mark Clark.
◆1945 U.S. extended a $3 billion loan to Britain to help compensate for the termination of Lend-Lease.
◆1950 Fifth Air Force jets and Australian F-51 Mustangs were credited with killing 2,500 enemy troops in an attack near Pyongyang. This did not, however, prevent the Chinese communists for occupying the North Korean capitol.
◆1950 The United Nations issued a call for the communist forces to halt at the 38th parallel.
◆1950 Far East Air Forces' 27th Fighter-Escort Wing F-84 Thunderjets flew their first combat mission of the Korean War.1957 - America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
◆1961 U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff authorize combat missions by Operation Farm Gate pilots.★
◆1968 Operation Giant Slingshot began in Mekong Delta
◆2000 A Pentagon investigation concluded in a 168-page report that 3 top Army Corps of Engineers officials manipulated a study to justify a construction binge on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers.
◆2000 Iridium Satellite won a 1-year, $36 million Pentagon contract for unlimited use.