TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
10 February
◆1098 Crusaders defeat the Prince of Aleppo at Antioch.
◆1258 Hulagu Khan & the Mongols begin a bloody sack of Baghdad (ends 28th).
◆1519 Cortez sails from Cuba with c. 550 men bound for Mexico.
◆1620 Battle of Ponts de Ce: Supporters of Queen-Regent Marie de Medici of France are defeated by her son King Louis XIII of France.
◆1676 In King Philip’s War Narragansett and Nipmuck Indians, searching for food, raided Lancaster, Mass. Over 35 villagers were killed and 24 were taken captive including Mary Rowlandson and her 3 children. Rowlandson was freed after 11 weeks and an account of her captivity was published posthumously in 1682.
◆1677 Virginia Governor William Berkley revokes the royal pardon which Colonel Herbert Jeffreys has brought for rebels of Bacon’s Rebellion. In defiance of the Crown, Berkley proceeds to execute 23 of the rebels.
◆1763 The Seven Years' War, a global conflict known in America as the French and Indian War, ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by France, Great Britain, and Spain.
◆1814 Battle of Champaubert: Napoleon defeats the Russians.
◆1846 Battle of Sobran: British defeat Sikhs.
◆1853 Taiping rebels capture Nanking.
◆1861 Jefferson Davis receives word that he has been selected president of the new Confederate States of America.
◆1865 The Confederate Navy began its last attempt to gain control of the James River and thus force the withdrawal of General Grant's army by cutting its communications at City Point. The expedition of 100 officers and men was led by the audacious naval lieutenant, Charles W. Read. He loaded four torpedo boats on wagons and started overland from Drewry's Bluff. The plan called for marching to a place below City Point on the James River where the party would launch the boats, capture any passing tugs or steamers, and outfit these prizes with spats and torpedoes. The expedition would then ascend the river and attack and sink the Union monitors, leaving the Union gunboats at the mercy of the Confederate ironclads. The James, without which Grant would be denied transport and supplies, would be under Confederate control from Richmond to Hampton Roads.
◆1890 Around 11 million acres, ceded to US by Sioux Indians, opened for settlement.
◆1896 Insurgents in Cuba are suppressed when General Valeriano Wyler arrives from Spain. The “Yellow Press” quickly dubs him “the Butcher.”
◆1915 President Wilson blasted the British for using the U.S. flag on merchant ships to deceive the Germans. He also warned the Kaiser that he would hold Germany "to a strict accountability" for U.S. lives and property endangered. In Europe [Lithuania], the Germans encircled and captured 100,000 Russians near Nieman River. When the United States entered World War I, propagandist George Creel set out to stifle anti-war sentiment.
◆1940 President Roosevelt condemns the USSR, saying the US backs Finland.
◆1941 Iceland was attacked by German planes. In July, the US 5th Division will be deployed for the defense of Iceland.
◆1942 The war halted civilian car production at Ford. Henry Ford opposed America's entry into World War II until the attack on Pearl Harbor, which inspired him to begin an all-out effort to manufacture planes and vehicles for the war effort.
◆1942 Japanese submarine launches a brutal attack on Midway, a coral atoll used as a U.S. Navy base.
◆1944 Australian forces advancing from Sio link up with American forces near Saidor. Allied forces now occupy most of the Huon Peninsula.
◆1945 German forces open the Schwammenauel Dam, opposite the US 1st Army, in a partially successful attempt to delay the advance of the American forces nearby.
◆1945 American USAAF B-24 and B-29 bombers raid Iwo Jima in preparation for the landings later in the month. They drop a daily average of 450 tons of bombs over the course of 15 days (6800 tons).
◆1945 Task Force 58, with Marine Fighter Squadrons 123, 216, 217, 212, and 451 on board carriers, attacked Tokyo and provided air cover support for Iwo Jima landing forces. They also bombed and strafed Okinawa.
◆1951 Eighth Army units retook Inchon and Kimpo airfield. U.N. patrols entered Seoul.
◆1952 Operation CLAM-UP began as a moratorium and was imposed on the use of infantry patrols, indirect fire missions and close-air support. The purpose of CLAM-UP was to lure the enemy into investigating the situation and them ambushing them. Unfortunately, the communists did not respond to the bait.
◆1953 General James A. Van Fleet retired. General Maxwell D. Taylor assumed command of Eighth Army.
◆1954 Eisenhower warned against US intervention in Vietnam.
◆1955 Bell Aircraft displayed a fixed-wing vertical takeoff plane. An ingenious blend of airplane and helicopter features, the Fairey Rotodyne was a case of almost--but not quite enough.
◆1960 USS Sargo (SSN-583) surfaces at North Pole.
◆1962 Francis Gary Powers, an American who was shot down over the Soviet Union while flying a CIA spy plane in 1960, is released by the Soviets in exchange for the U.S. release of a Russian spy.★
◆1965 Viet Cong guerrillas blow up the U.S. barracks at Qui Nhon, 75 miles east of Pleiku on the central coast, with a 100-pound explosive charge under the building.
◆1966 Protester David Miller was convicted of burning his draft card.
◆1999 US and British jets again hit Iraqi air defense sites. It was reported that Saddam Hussein has offered $14,000 to air defense troops who shoot down a US or British plane.
◆2003 In Kabul, Afghanistan, Germany and the Netherlands took control of the 22-nation peacekeeping force (ISAF) charged with keeping order, replacing Turkey.
◆2007 David Petraeus was made commander of Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF-I), the four-star post that oversees all coalition forces in country, replacing General George Casey.