TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
13 December
◆405 BCE Battle of Aegospotami: Spartans crush the Athenian fleet, ending the Peloponnesian War.
◆1577 English seaman Francis Drake sets out from Plymouth, England, with five ships and 164 men on a mission to raid Spanish holdings on the Pacific coast of the New World and explore the Pacific Ocean.★
◆1636 The National Guard was officially created in 1916; however, the heritage of the National Guard traces back to English common law and the citizen militias of the British North American colonies.★
◆1774 Some 400 colonials attacked Ft. William & Mary, NH.
◆1775 Continental Congress authorizes the building of 13 frigates, mounting 24 and 36 guns.
◆1814 General Andrew Jackson announced martial law in New Orleans, Louisiana, as British troops disembark at Lake Borne, 40 miles east of the city.
◆1816 Patent for a dry dock was issued to John Adamson in Boston.
◆1861 Battle of Alleghany Summit, WV.
◆1862 Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia repulses a series of attacks by General Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg, Virginia.★
◆1864 Battle of Ft. McAllister, Ga.
◆1864 The Union fleet massed for the bombardment of Fort Fisher departed Hampton Roads for Wilmington. Wooden double-ender U.S.S. Sassacus, Lieutenant Commander John L. Davis, was assigned the duty of towing the powder ship Louisiana to Beaufort, North Carolina, where she was to take on more powder Army transports carrying the invasion force commanded by Major General Butler left Hampton Roads at approximately the same time as the supporting naval group.
◆1887 Corporal Alvin C. York of Wolf River Valley, Tennessee, was born.★
◆1918 President Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit Europe while in office.
◆1918 US army of occupation crossed the Rhine and entered Germany.1920 - League of nations established the Int’l. Court of Justice in The Hague.
◆1942 Over Tunisia, US air forces stage heavy raids on Bizerta and Tunis.
◆1943 The P-51D Mustang fighter is first used on a bomber escort mission in support of the USAAF 8th Air Force raid on Kiel.
◆1944 The US 1st Army achieved minor progress in a new offensive 22 miles south of Duren. US 5th Division captures Fort Jeanne d'Arc -- the last German stronghold at Metz. The advance of US 7th Army encounters German armored forces and is engaged around Seltz, in Alsace, near the German border.
◆1944 The American heavy cruiser Nashville (flagship of the Mindoro invasion fleet) and a destroyer are heavily damaged in Kamikaze attacks. Both ships are part of the US invasion force heading for Mindoro in the Philippines.
◆1951 After meeting with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, President Harry S. Truman vowed to purge all disloyal government workers.
◆1951 U.S. Air Force George A. Davis, flying a F-86 Sabre jet out of the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, was credited with four aerial victories against MiG-15s, the largest number of kills by a single pilot in one day during the war. These victories made Davis the first "double ace" of the Korean War. A double ace has 10 enemy kills.
◆1966 The 1st US bombing of Hanoi took place.
◆1969 Raymond A. Spruance (83), US Admiral (Battle of Midway), died.
◆1974 North Vietnamese General Tran Van Tra orders 7th Division and the newly formed 3rd Division to attack Phuoc Long Province, north of Saigon.
◆2001 The US military sent in special operations forces into the Tora Bora area to look for al Qaeda leaders.◆2003 Saddam Hussein is captured.