TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
14 July
◆914 Papal-Italo-Lombard-Byzantine army invests Arab-held Minturno (falls September).
◆1187 Saladin captures Nablus.
◆1291 Egyptian Mamlukes take Sidon.
◆1420 Battle of Vitkov: Hussites defeat the Imperialists.
◆1456 Battle of Belgrade: The Hungarians defeated the Ottomans.
◆1714 Aland Is: Russian fleet routs larger Swedish one.
◆1771 Father Junipero Serra founded the Mission San Antonio de Padua in California.
◆1789 Citizens of Paris storm the Bastille.
◆1798 The Sedition Act, the last of four pieces of legislation known as the Alien and Sedition Acts, was passed by Congress, making it unlawful to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the U.S. president and the U.S. government, among other things. Violations were made punishable by up to 2 years in jail and a fine of $2,000.
◆1798 1st direct federal tax in US states took effect on dwellings, land and slaves.
◆1808 Battle of Medina de Rio Seco: The French defeat the Spanish.
◆1813 LT John M. Gamble was the first marine to command a ship in battle (prize vessel Greenwich in capture of British whaler Seringapatam).
◆1825 The visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to America in 1824-1825 was in every sense a triumphal procession. The 2nd Battalion, 11th New York Artillery, was one of many militia turned out to welcome him. This unit decided to adopt the title “National Guard” in honor of Lafayette’s command of the Garde Nationale de Paris during the French Revolution. The 11th Battalion, later designated as the 7th Regiment, was prominent in the line of march on the occasion of Lafayette’s final passage through New York en route home to France. Taking note of the troops named for his old command he alighted from his carriage walked down the line clasping each officer by the hand as he proceeded. The 7th New York, with its designation “National Guard” went on to become one of the most famous of all Guard units well into the 20th century. Its nickname has come to represent all American militia for more than century.
◆1853 Commodore Matthew Perry met with Prince Toda and Prince Ido at ceremony at Kurihama, Japan, and presented a letter from former Pres. Fillmore to Emperor Osahito requesting trade relations.
◆1861 Union troops tried to force a crossing at Seneca Falls on the Potomac, northwest of Washington but were repulsed by the Confederates. A company of the Louisiana Tiger Rifles helped defend the line.
◆1861 Gen McDowell advanced toward Fairfax Courthouse, VA, with 40,000 troops.
◆1861 Naval Engagement at Wilmington, NC. USS Daylight established a blockade.
◆1863 Naval forces under Rear Admiral S. P. Lee, including U.S.S. Sangamon, Lehigh, Mahaska, Morse, Commodore Barney, Commodore Jones, Shokokon, and Seymour, captured Fort Powhatan on the James River, Virginia. Acting on orders from Secretary Welles to threaten Richmond and assist mili-tary movements in the vicinity, Lee reported: "We destroyed two magazines . . . and twenty platforms for gun carriages today." The last Confederate defense below Chaffin's and Drewry's Bluff had fallen.
◆1864 Gold was discovered in Helena, Mont. Four prospectors discovered gold in a small stream they called "Last Chance." This marked the birth of Helena, future capital of Montana.
◆1882 Sailors and Marines from 4 U.S. ships land to help restore order at Alexandria, Egypt.
◆1900 The "China Relief Expedition" captures Tientsin from the Boxers.★
◆1913 Gerald Ford, 41st vice-president and 38th president of the United States, was born as Leslie King, Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska, and became the 38th president of the Untied States.
◆1914 1st patent for liquid-fueled rocket design was granted to Dr. R. Goddard.
◆1926 The first radio-beacon established in Alaska, at Cape Spencer, was placed in commission.
◆1933 All German political parties except the Nazi Party were outlawed.
◆1941 Vichy French Foreign Legionaries signed an armistice in Damascus, allowing them to join the Free French Foreign Legion.
◆1943 The main British and American forces continue to advance evenly along the entire front. American units capture Biscani airfield and Niscemi. British units capture Vizzini.
◆1944 The French Expeditionary Corps (part of US 5th Army) captures Poggibonsi.
◆1944 Task Force 74 (Commodore Collins) bombards Japanese positions near Aitape, between Yakamul and But.
◆1945 Over 1000 US naval aircraft raid Hokkaido and the port of Kamaishi. Also, the American battleships South Dakota, Indiana and Massachusetts, as well as 2 heavy cruisers and 4 destroyers, bombard the Kamaishi steel works in the first naval gunfire directed against the Japanese home islands.
◆1945 In Konigsee, General Eisenhower announces the closure of SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) and eases some of the restrictions on private contact between American soldiers and German civilians. The carefully-defined limits to fraternization are part of a scheme prepared by Eisenhower, to be presented as part of an Allied plan for unified control of the country. Fraternization is forbidden in the British Army. Meanwhile, the French flag was formally unfurled today at the summit of the Victory Column in Berlin which commemorates the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.
◆1950 U.S. Marines sail from San Diego for Korean Conflict.
◆1950 The U.S. 555th Field Artillery Battalion ("Triple Nickel") was overrun and lost 300 soldiers.★
◆1952 Laying of keel of USS Forrestal, the first 59,900 ton aircraft carrier.
◆1964 The United States sent 600 more troops to Vietnam.
◆1964 U.S. military intelligence publicly charges that North Vietnamese regular army officers command and fight in so-called Viet Cong forces in the northern provinces, where Viet Cong strength had doubled in the past six months.
◆1969 Soccer War: El Salvador invades Honduras, c. 1000 die.
◆1972 Vietnam: the State Department criticized actress Jane Fonda after she makes first of 10 antiwar broadcasts on Radio Hanoi calling them "distressing." She is known by US veterans as ‘Hanoi Jane.’★
◆1974 U.S. Army General Carl Spaatz, fighter pilot and the first chief of staff of an independent U.S. Air Force, dies in Washington, D.C., at age 83.
◆1987 Lt. Col. Oliver North concluded six days of testimony before the Iran-Contra committees.
◆1987 Taiwan ended 37 years of martial law.
◆1988 Speaking before the U.N. Security Council, Iran's foreign minister, Ali-Akbar Velayati, denounced the U.S. downing of an Iranian jetliner as "a barbaric massacre." Vice President Bush replied that the U.S.S. Vincennes had fired in self-defense.
◆2001 The US launched a prototype missile interceptor from the Marshall Islands and successfully struck a mock warhead launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, 4,800 miles away.This was the 4th such Pentagon test. A $100 million prototype radar failed to detect the strike.