TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
11 December
◆1282 Battle of Orewyn Bridge: King Edward I defeats Pr. Llewellyn of Gwynedd.
◆1572 Spanish besiege Haarlem, Netherlands (falls July 12, 1573).
◆1602 Genevans surprise & defeat Savoyard-Spanish invaders.
◆1620 103 Mayflower pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
◆1710 Battle of Villa Viciosa: Buorbonist Franco-Spanish forces defeat pro-Habsburg forces.
◆1862 The Union Army of the Potomac occupies Fredericksburg, Virginia, as General Ambrose Burnside continues to execute his plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond.★
◆1863 Union gunboats Restless, Bloomer and Caroline entered St. Andrew’s Bay, Fla., and began bombardment of both Confederate Quarters and Saltworks.
◆1864 Commander Preble, commanding the Naval Brigade fighting ashore with the forces of Major General Foster up the Broad River, South Carolina, reported to Rear Admiral Dahlgren concerning a unique "explosive ball" used by Confederate forces against his skirmishers: ''It is a conical ball in shape, like an ordinary rifle bullet. The pointed end is charged with a fulminate. The base of the ball separately from the conical end, and has a leaden standard or plunger. The explosion of the charge drives the base up, so as to flatten a thin disk of metal between it and the ball, the leaden plunger is driven against the fulminate, and it explodes the ball. . . . It seems to me that use of such a missile is an unnecessary addition to the barbarities of war."
◆1872 Already appearing as a well-known figure of the Wild West in popular dime novels, Buffalo Bill Cody makes his first stage appearance on this day, in a Chicago-based production of The Scouts of the Prairie.
◆1899 Magersfontein, Second Battle of "Black Week": the Boers defeat a British attempt to capture Kimberly, inflicting heavy casualties.
◆1903 British invade Tibet.
◆1928 Police in Buenos Aires thwarted an attempt on the life of President-elect Herbert Hoover.
◆1930 This day brought another ominous sign that the nation was sliding towards a prolonged and difficult economic slump, as New York's branch of Bank of the United States announced that it had gone belly-up. Up until its downfall, the Bank held the savings of some 400,000 depositors, including a number of immigrants; its subsequent demise imperiled the finances of roughly one-third of New York and stood as the nation's single worst bank failure.
◆1937 Italy withdrew from the League of Nations.
◆1939 Actress Marlene Dietrich records her hit song "Falling in Love Again."
◆1941 Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. Shortly afterward, the US Congress issues a declaration of war against Germany and Italy.
◆1941 A Japanese invasion fleet attacked Wake Island, which was defended by 439 US marines, 75 sailors and 6 soldiers. The defenders sank 4 Japanese ships, damaged 8 and destroyed a submarine.
◆1941 Guam was occupied by Japanese troops.
◆1941 Adolf Hitler declares war on the United States, bringing America, which had been neutral, into the European conflict.
◆1942 Japanese Admiral Tanaka's "Tokyo Express" again attempts the delivery of supplies to the Japanese forces on Guadalcanal. The cargo is dropped over board and only 1/4 of it reaches the troops on shore. Machine gun fire from US PT boats sinks much of it. One of the Japanese destroyers is sunk by the defenders as well.
◆1943 The US 5th Army continues its Italian offensive without decisive gains and its momentum is wearing down.
◆1943 U.S. Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, demanded that Hungary, Rumania, and Bulgaria withdraw from the war.
◆1944 Forces of the US 7th Army enter Haguenau in Alsace and advances southeast of Rohrbach. There are German counterattacks against the US 3rd Army bridgeheads over the Saar River which are repulsed.
◆1944 Over 2000 USAAF bombers of the 8th and 15th Air Forces attack various rail targets in Germany as well as an oil plant and ordnance depots near Vienna (annexed Austria).
◆1945 B-29 Superfortress shattered all records by crossing the U.S. in five hours and 27 minutes.
◆1950 The 1st Marine Division completed its breakout from the Chosin/Changjin Reservoir entrapment and began its march to join the rest of X Corps at Hungnam.
◆1950 U.S. Navy Air Task Group 1, operating from the USS Valley Forge, flew its first combat mission of the Korean War, striking coastal rail lines and bridges in northeast Korea. This was the first of the Air Task Groups formed when Carrier Air Groups proved ineffective combat organizations when flown from Essex -class carriers.
◆1954 First supercarrier of 59,630 tons, USS Forrestal (CVA-59), launched at Newport News, VA.
◆1961 A U.S. aircraft carrier carrying Army helicopters arrived in Saigon. This was the first direct American military support for South Vietnam's battle against Communist guerrillas. JFK provided 425 US military helicopter crewmen to South Vietnam to provide training and support for South Vietnamese forces.
◆1969 Paratroopers from the U.S. Third Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, depart from Vietnam.★
◆1972 Challenger, the Lunar Lander for Apollo 17, touched down on the Moon's surface.
◆1978 Massive demonstrations took place in Tehran against the Shah. In Isfahan, Iran, 40 people were killed and 60 wounded during riots against the Shah.
◆1998 The Mars Climate Orbiter blasted off on a 9 ½ month journey to the Red Planet. The probe disappeared in September 1999, apparently destroyed because scientists had failed to convert English measures to metric values.
◆2001 US bombers continued to hit sites at Tora Bora, Afghanistan, as a deadline for al Qaeda surrender passed.
◆2002 The United States let an intercepted shipment of North Korean missiles proceed to the Persian Gulf country of Yemen a day after the vessel was detained.