TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
22 July
◆838 Battle of Anzen/Dazman, Anatolia: Abbassids defeat the Byzantines.
◆1209 Crusaders capture Beziers from the Albigensians, amid great slaughter - "Kill them all; God will know His own."
◆1298 Battle of Falkirk: English defeat the Scots.
◆1484 Battle of Kirkconnel: The Duke of Albany is defeated by rebels.
◆1499 Battle of Dornach: Swiss defeat Emperor Maximilian I.
◆1555 Battle of Sirind: The Moguls defeat the Hindus.
◆1587 A second English colony of 114-150 people under John White, financed by Sir Walter Raleigh, was established on Roanoke Island off North Carolina. The colony included 17 women and 9 children. Croatoan Indians informed them that Roanoke Indians had killed the men from the previous expedition. A three-year draught, the worst in 800 years, peaked during this time.
◆1620 The Pilgrims set out from Holland destined for the New World.★
◆1631 Battle of Werben: Swedes defeat the Imperialists.
◆1796 Cleveland was founded by Gen. Moses Cleveland. Moses Cleveland came to where the city of Cleveland now sits and surveyed the land. After three months he returned to Connecticut. The city bears his name.
◆1802 Frigate Constellation defeats 9 Corsair gunboats off Tripoli.
◆1812 Battle of Salamanca: Wellington's Anglo-Spanish Army defeats the French.
◆1814 Five Indian tribes in Ohio made peace with the United States and declared war on Britain.
◆1823 Marines attack Pirates near Cape Cruz, Cuba.
◆1864 Confederate General John Bell Hood continues to try to drive General William T. Sherman from the outskirts of Atlanta when he attacks the Yankees on Bald Hill.★
◆1942 President Roosevelt agrees that the second front in Europe, code-named Operation Sledgehammer, will not be possible this year. He instructs his staff in London to agree to "another place for US troops to fight in 1942." The plan to invade North Africa, renamed Operation Torch is adopted. The design of Operation Torch was to secure all of North Africa for the Allies.
◆1942 First Battle of Alamein: British halt German-Italian drive under Rommel.
◆1943 The American Seventh Army forces led by Gen. George S. Patton captured Palermo, Sicily. Gen Patton moved his troops across Sicily through August.★
◆1943 US naval forces (2 battleships and 4 cruisers as well as lighter units) bombard Japanese held Kiska Island.
◆1944 On Guam, marines of US 3rd Amphibious Corps attempt to link up their two beachheads with converging attacks. The American forces each advance about one mile against heavy Japanese resistance.
◆1945 The American Far East Air Force attack Japanese air bases and shipping in the Shanghai area with 300 planes (including the new Douglas A-26 Invader light bomber). The Japanese news agency later reports that the Shanghai area was bombed by about 100 bombers and fighters and claims the Japanese shot down 4 planes and damaged 7 others.
◆1945 US Task Force 92 bombards Paramushiro in the Kurile Islands. During the night (July 22-23), 9 American destroyers penetrate Tokyo Bay under the cover of a storm and attack a Japanese convoy. Other Allied task forces are being resupplied in the largest resupply at sea operation of the war.
◆1945 The Japanese government announces that it is open to peace negotiations but not to threats.
◆1950 After 17 days of continuous combat, the U.S. 24th Infantry Division had been driven back 100 miles, suffered more than 30 percent casualties, and had more than 2,400 men missing in action.
◆1950 The Department of the Army asked reserve officers to volunteer for active duty.
◆1953 Major John H. Glenn, future astronaut and U.S. senator, claimed his third MiG kill in the last aerial victory of the Korean War by a Marine pilot.
◆1953 First Lieutenant Sam P. Young, 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, was credited with the final MiG kill of the Korean War.
◆1953 U.S. ships laid down heavy barrage to support UN troops in Korea.
◆1960 Cuba nationalized all US owned sugar factories.
◆1964 Four Navy Divers (LCDR Robert Thompson, MC; Gunners Mate First Class Lester Anderson, Chief Quartermaster Robert A. Barth, and Chief Hospital Corpsman Sanders Manning) submerge in Sealab I for 10 days at a depth of 192 feet, 39 miles off Hamilton, Bermuda. They surfaced on 31 July 1964.
◆1966 B-52 bombers hit the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Vietnam for the first time.
◆1975 The House of Representatives joined the Senate in voting to restore American citizenship of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
◆1987 In a dramatic turnaround, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev indicates that he is willing to negotiate a ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles without conditions.
◆1987 The United States began its policy of escorting re-flagged Kuwaiti tankers up and down the Persian Gulf to protect them from possible attack by Iran.
◆1988 Some 500 US scientists pledged to boycott Pentagon germ-warfare research.
◆1998 Iran conducted a successful Shahab 3 missile test with a medium-range of 800 miles.
◆2003 The two sons of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Qusay Saddam Husayn (the Ace of Clubs in the deck of 52 playing cards featuring Iraq’s “most wanted”) and Uday Saddam Husayn (the Ace of Hearts) are trapped in a house and killed in a fire-fight with American troops from the 101st Airborne Division. ★
◆2004 The 567-page 9/11 Commission Report was made public.