TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
9 July
◆586 BCE Babylonian King Nebukadnezar II takes Jerusalem.
◆1553 Battle of Sievershausen: Elector Maurice I of Saxony defeats Albert of Brandenburg-Kulmbach.
◆1755 General Edward Braddock was mortally wounded when French and Indian troops ambushed his force of British regulars and colonial militia, which was on its way to attack France's Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh). Gen. Braddock's troops were decimated at Fort Duquesne, where he refused to accept Washington's advice on frontier style fighting. British Gen'l. Braddock gave his bloody sash to George Washington at Fort Necessity just before he died on Jul 13.
◆1776 The Declaration of Independence was read aloud to Gen. George Washington's troops in New York.
◆1776 New York was the 13th colony to ratify the Declaration of Independence.
◆1795 James Swan paid off the $2,024,899 US national debt.
◆1846 An American naval captain occupies the small settlement of Yerba Buena, a site that will later be renamed San Francisco.★
◆1850 Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States, dies suddenly from an attack of cholera morbus.
◆1861 Confederate cavalry led by John Morgan captured Tompkinsville, Kentucky. "The Yankees will never take me a prisoner again," vowed Confederate General John Hunt Morgan.
◆1864 Confederate General Jubal Early brushes a Union force out of his way as he heads for Washington.★
◆1900 Marines helped in the capture of Tientsin Arsenal.
◆1941 Crackerjack British cryptologists break the secret code used by the German army to direct ground-to-air operations on the Eastern front.
◆1943 Operation Husky: The invasion of Sicily begins. The landing force is concentrated around Malta. There are 1200 transports and 2000 landing craft which will land elements of 8 divisions. In the evening, there are airborne landings by the US 82nd Airborne Division and British units which cause disruption in the Axis defenses, although they do not manage to seize their objectives. The Italian 6th Army (General Guzzoni) is responsible for the defense of Sicily. There are a total of about 240,000 troops (a quarter of which are Germans).
◆1943 On New Georgia American forces attack toward Munda. Heavy Japanese resistance limits the advance. Meanwhile, Americans send reinforcements to Rendova and the Japanese send reinforcements to Kolombangara.
◆1944 The US 1st Army continues attacks toward St. Lo.
◆1944 Elements of US 5th Army advance. The US 88th Division captures Volterra and elements of the French Expeditionary Corps reach Poggibonsi.
◆1944 On Saipan, US forces reach Point Marpi and the last organized Japanese resistance is overcome. An estimated 27,000 Japanese have been killed and 1780 are prisoners, both figures include civilians. US forces have lost 3400 killed and 13,000 wounded.
◆1945 American bombers strike two airfields near Tokyo.
◆1945 -Chinese forces capture the Tanchuk airbase. Chinese forces advancing rapidly eastward in southern Kwangsi province have severed the last link between the Japanese army in China and the garrison in Indochina. With Nanning and Luichow recaptured, Chinese units now again control the three US 14th Army Air Force bases lost last year.
◆1947 In a ceremony held at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, General Dwight D. Eisenhower appoints Florence Blanchfield to be a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, making her the first woman in U.S. history to hold permanent military rank.
◆1960 President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev trade verbal threats over the future of Cuba.
◆1966 The Soviet Union sends a note to the U.S. embassy in Moscow charging that the air strikes on the port of Haiphong endangered four Soviet ships that were in the harbor.
◆1971 Four miles south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), about 500 U.S. troops of the 1st Brigade, 5th Mechanized Division turn over Fire Base Charlie 2 to Saigon troops, completing the transfer of defense responsibilities for the border area. On the previous day, nearby Fire Base Alpha 4 had been turned over to the South Vietnamese. This was part of President Richard Nixon's Vietnamization policy, which had been announced at a June 1969 conference at Midway Island. Under this program, the United States initiated a comprehensive effort to increase the combat capabilities of the South Vietnamese armed forces. As the South Vietnamese became more capable, responsibility for the fighting was gradually transferred from U.S. forces. Concurrent with this effort, there was a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces.
◆1987 In his third day of testimony on Capitol Hill, Lt. Col. Oliver North said he had shredded evidence as part of a planned cover-up of his role in the Iran-Contra affair.
◆1996 The Bosnian federation approved the merger of the Muslim and Croat armies. This clears the way for the US to begin training and shipping arms to Bosnian troops