TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
19 December
◆1562 Battle of Dreux: French Catholics defeat the Huguenots.
◆1776 Thomas Paine published his first "American Crisis" essay, writing: "These are the times that try men's souls."
◆1777 With the onset of the bitter winter cold, the Continental Army under General George Washington, still in the field, enters its winter camp at Valley Forge, 22 miles from British-occupied Philadelphia.
◆1817 Confederate General James Archer is born in Harford County, Maryland. Archer received his education at Princeton University and Boston College before serving in the Maryland volunteers during the Mexican War.
◆1862 Nathan B. Forrest tore up the railroads in Grant and Rosecrans' rear, causing considerable delays in the movement of Union supplies.
◆1862 Skirmish at Jackson-Salem Church, Tenn., left 80 casualties.
◆1928 The 1st autogiro flight was made in the US. It was a predecessor of the helicopter.
◆1939 The German liner Columbus, closely trailed by the US cruiser Tuscaloosa, is scuttled some 300 miles from the American coast, to avoid capture by the approaching British destroyer HMS Hyperion.
◆1941 Adolf Hitler assumes the position of commander in chief of the German army.
◆1941 Japanese land 500 men from the 56th Infantry Regiment near Davao on Mindanao.
◆1942 On Guadalcanal, US forces on Mount Austen meet heavy resistance.
◆1943 The American regiment at Arawe captures the nearby Japanese airstrip and hold against counterattacks.
◆1944 It is decided that the Japanese 35th Army on Leyte is no longer to be reinforced or supplied. Nonetheless, fighting continues to the north of Ormoc and throughout the northwest of the island.
◆1944 Forces of the German 6th SS Panzer Army reach Stavelot in the north while elements of 5th Panzer Army approach Houffalize. Some US forces between these advance continue to defend positions around Gouvy and St. Vith.
◆1944 During the Battle of the Bulge, American troops began pulling back from the twin Belgian cities of Krinkelt and Rocherath in front of the advancing German Army.
◆1946 War broke out in Indochina as Ho Chi Minh attacked the French in Hanoi.
◆1950 The North Atlantic Council named General Eisenhower supreme commander of Western European defense forces of NATO.
◆1950 The carrier USS Bataan, commanded by Captain T. N. Neale, arrived on station in Korean waters.
◆1959 Reputed to be the last civil war veteran, Walter Williams, died at 117 in Houston.
◆1960 A fire aboard USS Constellation, under construction at Brooklyn, killed 50.
◆1972 Hanoi's foreign ministry, calling the new B-52 raids against Hanoi and Haiphong "extremely barbaric," accuses the United States of premeditated intensification of the war and labels the actions "insane."
◆1972 The Apollo lunar-landing program ends on December 19, 1972, when the last three astronauts to travel to the moon splash down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
◆1990 Iraq urged its people to stockpile oil to avoid shortages should war break out, and Saddam Hussein declared he was “ready to crush any attack.”
◆1996 The Pentagon chose Lawrence Livermore National Labs. for a $1.1 billion super-laser project. Known as the National Ignition Facility, its goal will be to ignite a self-sustaining fusion reaction in a controlled lab setting.
◆2003 China said it has issued rules restricting exports of missile, nuclear and biological technologies that can be used to make or deliver weapons of mass destruction.
◆2003 Japan announced that it will begin building a missile defense system.