TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
13 July
◆100 BCE Gaius Julius Caesar was born today [or maybe the 12th], murdered 44 BCE.
◆633 Battle of Ajnadain: Arab Moslems defeat the Byzantines.
◆1462 Battle of Mondolfo: The Papal Army defeats the Malatesti of Rimini.
◆1494 French Fleet prevents the Neapolitan Fleet from capturing Genoa.
◆1534 Ottomans capture Tabriz, Persia.
◆1585 A group of 108 English colonists, led by Sir Richard Grenville, reached Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Roanoke Island near North Carolina became England's first foothold in the New World. Sir Walter Raleigh sent a detachment of 108 men to build a fort on the island. The detachment included two scientists, Thomas Hariot, a surveyor, mathematician, astronomer and oceanographer, and Joachim Gans, a metallurgist.
◆1643 Battle of Roundway Down: Cavaliers beat the Roundheads.
◆1755 Edward Braddock, British general, died in battle at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh).
◆1787 Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, enacted the Northwest Ordinance, establishing rules for governing the Northwest Territory, for admitting new states to the Union and limiting the expansion of slavery.
◆1821 Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest was born in Tennessee's Bedford County.
◆1854 US forces shelled and burned San Juan del Norte, Nicaragua.1861 Union General George B. McClellan routs Confederates under General Robert Garnett at Corrick's Ford in western Virginia.
◆1862 Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeated a Union army at Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
◆1863 Rioting against the Civil War military draft erupted in New York City; about 1,000 people died over three days. Antiabolitionist Irish longshoremen rampaged against blacks in the deadly Draft Riots in New York City in response to Pres. Lincoln’s announcement of military conscription. Mobs lynched a black man and torched the Colored Orphan Asylum.
◆1863 USS Wyoming battled Japanese warlord's forces.
◆1864 Gen Jubal Early retreated from the outskirts of Washington back to Shenandoah Valley.
◆1866 Colonel Henry Carrington begins construction on Fort Phil Kearny, the most important army outpost guarding the Bozeman Trail.★
◆1890 John C. "Pathfinder" Fremont (76), US explorer, governor (Ariz), died. He was buried in obscurity in Sparkill, NY. Fremont (b.1830) was the 1st Republican presidential candidate in 1856.
◆1900 Boxer Rebellion: In China, Tientsin is retaken by European Allies from the rebelling Boxers.
◆1916 The first aero Company, New York National Guard, was called to Federal service during the border crisis with Mexico on July 13, 1916. This was the first time a National Guard aviation unit was mobilized. The unit was commanded by Capt. Raynal C. Bolling.
◆1916 Guardsmen of the 4th South Dakota Infantry prepare to leave for San Benito, Texas, to take up their station as part of the partial mobilization to protect the Mexican border against bandit raids lead by Pancho Villa.★
◆1943 The 10 Mountain Division came into being on July 13, 1943, at Camp Hale, Colorado as the 10th Light Division (Alpine).★
◆1939 Appointment of RADM Richard Byrd as commanding officer of 1939-1941 Antarctic Expedition.
◆1943 During Battle of Kolombangara in Solomon Islands, U.S. lost USS Gwin. (DD-433) while Japanese lost light cruiser Jintsu. American reinforcements arrive on Rendova and New Georgia. The attack on New Georgia makes more progress against, continued, heavy Japanese resistance.
◆1944 The US 1st Army makes no progress in its attack toward St. Lo. A formal assault on the German defenses to the east of the town is now considered.
◆1944 The French Expeditionary Corps (part of US 5th Army) is attacking around Poggibonsi and Castellina, about 20 miles south of Florence.
◆1944 Around Aitape, the US 128th Regiment falls back to the Driniumor River. On Numfoor the final pockets of Japanese resistance are being cleared.
◆1945 In Berlin, the municipal council officially confiscates all property held by members of the NSDAP, the Nazi Party. Meanwhile, on the eve of the dissolution of SHAEF, General Eisenhower issues a farewell message to all members of the Allied Expeditionary Force. "No praise is too high," says the message, "for the manner in which you surmounted every obstacle."
◆1945 The American government admits responsibility for sinking the Japanese relief ship Awa Maru in error.
◆1950 Lieutenant General Walton H. Walker, commander of Eighth Army, assumed command of all ground forces in Korea, establishing his headquarters at Taegu.
◆1950 The newly arrived 22d and 92d Bombardment Groups launched a radar-directed attack against the marshaling yards and oil refinery at Wonsan. This mission marked the groups' entry into combat and the first combat mission flown by Far East Air Forces Bomber Command.
◆1953 The final communist offensive of the war began.
◆1954 The 3rd Marine Division was placed on 48-hour alert in preparation to move in support of the French in Indochina. The alert was later cancelled.