TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
27 December
◆1741 Prussian forces capture Olmutz, Bohemia.
◆1777 Floating mines intended for use against British Fleet found in Delaware River.
◆1836 Stephen Fuller Austin (43), founder of state of Texas, died.
◆1846 The rag-tag army of volunteers known as Doniphan's Thousand, led by Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan, wins a major victory in the war with Mexico with the occupation of El Paso.★
◆1862 Rosecrans’ army moved slowly toward General Bragg at Murfreesboro.
◆1862 Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs, Miss. (Chickasaw Bayou), began.
◆1862 Battle of Elizabethtown, KY.
◆1939 The American government protests the British seizure of US mail en route to Europe.
◆1941 The Americans declare Manila an open city. The defenders are now at their third of five lines of defense in their delaying action against the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. This line runs east and west from Paniqui.
◆1941 Rubber rationing was instituted by the U.S. government, due to shortages caused by World War II. Tires were the first items to be restricted by law.
◆1942 On Guadalcanal, US attacks on Mount Austen renew. Attacking troops from the 132nd Infantry regiment, suffer heavy loses and make no real gains despite a heavy artillery barrage prior to the attack.
◆1943 The American divisional beachhead near Cape Gloucester is extended with little resistance from the Japanese. The weather and terrain prove more formidable obstacles. The American regiment on Arawe receives reinforcements.
◆1944 Attacks by the British 30th Corps (part of US 1st Army) force the German 2nd Panzer Division (an element of 5th Panzer Army) out of Celles. The US 3rd Army expands the corridor to Bastogne.
◆1944 The US 8th Air Force bombs Coblenz, Bonn and Kaiserslautern (nominally railway targets). The RAF conducts nighttime raids on Munchen-Gladbach and Bonn.
◆1950 U.S. and Spain resumed relations for the first time since the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.
◆1950 Lieutenant General Matthew B. Ridgway took command of U.N. ground forces in Korea.★
◆1950 Captain Marcus L. Sullivan became the first Army aviator to pilot a helicopter, a Bell H-13, in Korea.
◆1966 A United States and South Vietnamese joint-service operation takes place against one of the best-fortified Viet Cong strongholds, located in the U Minh Forest in the Mekong Delta, 125 miles southwest of Saigon.
◆1968 The U.S. agreed to sell fifty F-4 Phantom jets to Israel.
◆1968 Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, returns safely to Earth after an historic six-day journey.★
◆1968 In October 1968, the United States Air Force requested additional LORAN-C Coverage in Southeast Asia and by December 27, 1968 the Coast Guard had received authorization to proceed with the project. This led to the construction of a number of LORAN sites in the area, including South Vietnam.
◆1969 In the fiercest battle in six weeks, U.S. and North Vietnamese forces clash near Loc Ninh, about 80 miles north of Saigon.
◆1979 In an attempt to stabilize the turbulent political situation in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union sends 75,000 troops to enforce the installation of Babrak Karmal as the new leader of the nation.
◆1983 President Reagan took all responsibility for the lack of security in Beirut that allowed a terrorist on a suicide mission to kill 241 Marines.
◆1991 The US and the Philippines announced that the United States would abandon the Subic Bay naval base by the end of 1992.
◆1992 The United States shot down an Iraqi fighter jet during what the Pentagon described as a confrontation between a pair of Iraqi warplanes and U.S. F-16 jets in U.N.-restricted airspace over southern Iraq.
◆2001 The US announced plans to hold Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.
◆2001 US warplanes destroyed a compound in eastern Afghanistan believed to used by a Taliban intelligence chief. Qari Ahmadullah (40), former Taliban chief of intelligence, was killed while fleeing US bombardment near Naka village in Paktia province.
◆2002 Poland announced it will buy 48 U.S.-made F-16 jet fighters from Lockheed Martin for $3.5 billion to upgrade its air force to NATO standards.
◆2003 Russia removed all Soviet-built anti-aircraft missiles from its vast arms depots in a Moldova province to prevent them from falling into the hands of terrorists. The missiles were flown from Trans-Dniester Province to the Moscow.