TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
17 February
◆1370 Battle of Rudau: Holy Roman Empire defeats Lithuania.
◆1461 Second Battle of St. Albans: Lancastrians defeat the Yorkists.
◆1500 Battle of Hemmingstedt: Peasant rebels in Schleswig-Holstein defeat ducal forces.
◆1621 Miles Standish was appointed 1st commander of Plymouth colony.
◆1778 In response to Franco-American treaties, Lord North presents a plan of conciliation with the colonies to the British Parliament.
◆1814 Battle of Valjouan: The French defeat the Austrians.
◆1820 The Senate passes the Missouri Compromise, an attempt to deal with the dangerously divisive issue of extending slavery into the western territories.
◆1861 Local militia forced the surrender of the federal arsenal at San Antonio even before the state seceded on March 2. Subsequently, San Antonio served as a Confederate depot. Several units such as John S. Ford's Cavalry of the West were formed there, though the city was removed from the fighting.
◆1862 Ironclad C.S.S. Virginia (ex-U.S.S. Merrimack) commissioned, Captain Franklin Buchanan commanding.
◆1864 Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley, Lieutenant George E. Dixon, CSA, destroyed U.S.S. Housatonic, Captain Charles W. Pickering, off Charleston, and became the first submarine to sink an enemy ship in combat.★
◆1865 Union forces regained Fort Sumter.
◆1867 The first ship passed through the Suez Canal.
◆1868 Brazilian fleet runs the Paraguayan batteries at Humaita.
◆1870 Mississippi became the 9th state readmitted to US after Civil War.
◆1872 The Senate refuses to ratify a treaty with the Samoan Islands that would have given the US the right to install a naval coaling station on Pago Pago and become "protector" of Samoa. Earlier that year the United States ship Narragansett. Commander Richard W. Meade, visited Pago Pago in the island of Tutuila and an agreement was concluded whereby Mauga, high chief of Tutuila, expressed a desire for the friendly protection of the United States, granting in return the exclusive privilege of establishing a naval station in Pago Pago harbour. The agreement was communicated to the United States Government, but, inasmuch as it was contrary to the foreign policy of that country, it was rejected.
◆1877 Andre Maginot was born, French soldier, War Minister, promoter of the defensive line that bears his name d. 1932
◆1900 In response to an ambush that has killed two Philippine based Marines the day before, the gunboat USS Manileno was present and willing to help but broken down, so Captain Draper, the local commander, prevailed upon the master of a native steamer to tow the gunboat with himself and a force of 107 men aboard to the village of Moron a little after midnight on the morning of 17 February.★
◆1909 Apache chief Geronimo dies of pneumonia at age 80, while still in captivity at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.★
◆1933 The League of Nations censured Japan in a worldwide broadcast. The rise of militaristic nationalism led Japan down the road to Pearl Harbor and World War II.
◆1940 United States Lines sells the liner President Harding and seven cargo ships to a Belgian concern in an attempt to circumvent the ban on US sea borne trade with Europe, imposed by the Neutrality Act.
◆1942 The 296 men of the first naval construction unit to deploy from the United States was designated the First Construction Detachment arrived at Bora Bora in the Societies Islands with the mission of constructing a fueling station and other facilities.★
◆1943 Attacks by the forces under von Arnim and Rommel make good progress. In the north, Axis forces are approaching Sheitla, having destroyed two thirds of the US 1st Armored Division.★
◆1944 Operation Catchpole is launched as American troops devastate the Japanese defenders of Eniwetok and take control of the atoll in the northwestern part of the Marshall Islands.★
◆1944 During the night (February 17-18), US destroyers bombard Japanese bases at Rabaul and Kavieng.
◆1944 American forces attack the Japanese base at Truk and nearby shipping. Three groups of Task Force 58 (Admiral Mitscher) and one group of Task Forces 50 (Admiral Spruance) engage. The operation is under the command of Spruance. In total 9 carriers and 6 battleships as well as cruisers, destroyers and submarines are involved.
◆1944 German forces continue attacks on the Anzio beachhead. The US 45th Division barely contains the German attack. Heavy losses are sustained by both sides. Offshore, the British cruiser Penelope is damaged by a torpedo attack. To the south, near Cassino, German forces recover Point 593 after losing possession briefly to the British 4th Indian Division (part of the US 5th Army).
◆1945 There are new attacks by US 12th and 20th Corps, of US 3rd Army, from Luxembourg and around Saarlouis. US 7th Army units are attacking near Saarbrucken while 1945 - US Task Force 58 conducts a second day of air raids. On this day the aircraft strike Tokyo and Yokohama. In two days of operations, the American planes have conducted over 2700 sorties, losing 88 aircraft. It is reported that twice as many Japanese planes are shot down. After completing the attacks, TF58 moves toward Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands.
◆1945 US Task Force 54 and TF52 continue the preliminary bombardment of Iwo Jima. The battleship Tennessee and a cruiser as well as several smaller ships are damaged by Japanese return fire. Meanwhile, a USAAF raid by B-24 bombers is also conducted.
◆1951 FBI director J. Edgar Hoover initiated a secret nationwide program intended to remove politically suspect employees from their jobs. Congress never authorized the “Responsibilities Program” and over 4 years it provided governors of nearly every state verbal reports on the political backgrounds of 908 employees.
◆1951 B-26s flew the first night bombing mission using SHORAN, a short-range navigation system employing an airborne radar device and two ground beacon stations for precision bombing.
◆1953 The 1,000th helicopter landing was recorded aboard the hospital ship USS Repose. The destroyers USS Mansfield, De Haven, Collet, and Swensen joined TF 90 for the third time.
◆1957 Suez Canal reopened.
◆1959 The U.S. launched its first weather station in space, Vanguard II weighing 9.8 kg.
◆1966 In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Gen. Maxwell Taylor states that a major U.S. objective in Vietnam is to demonstrate that "wars of liberation" are "costly, dangerous and doomed to failure."★
◆1967 The first full day of Operation DECKHOUSE VI, which lasted until 3 March, was conducted near Quang Ngai city. The Special Landing Force (BLT Y4 and HMM-363) accounted for 280 enemy killed.
◆1968 American officials in Saigon report an all-time high weekly rate of U.S. casualties--543 killed in action and 2,547 wounded in the previous seven days. These losses were a result of the heavy fighting during the communist Tet Offensive.1972 - President Nixon departed on his historic 10-day trip to China.
◆1973 President Gerald Ford announces sweeping changes in the US Intelligence Community. This includes the establishment of PFIAB, the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
◆1979 Communist China invades Communist Vietnam, and gets a bloody nose.
◆1996 The NEAR-Shoemaker space craft was launched. The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous craft was scheduled to reach the Eros asteroid in 4 years. NASA planned to land the craft on Eros, a 22 by 8 mile rock, in Feb 2001.