TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
23 July
◆586 BCE Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon captures Jerusalem, besieged since Janaury 588 BCE.
◆1298 Jewish community in Wurzburg, Germany, annihilated.
◆1403 Battle of Shrewsbury: the Percys are beaten by King Henry I.
◆1595 The Spanish sack & burn Mousehole & Penzance, Cornwall.
◆1637 King Charles of England handed over the American colony of Massachusetts to Sir Fernando Gorges, one of the founders of the Council of New England.
◆1664 4 British ships arrived in Boston to drive the Dutch out of NY.
◆1793 Mainz: Besieged French garrison surrenders to the Prussians.
◆1798 Napoleon captures Alexandria, Egypt.★
◆1808 Battle of Bailen, Spain: 18,000 French troops surrender to the Spanish.
◆1812 Battle of Mogilev, Russia: Napoleon defeats Tsar Alexander I.
◆1836 A band of Seminole Indians attacked and burned the Cape Florida lighthouse.
◆1848 Battle of Sommacampagna: Austrians defeat the Piedmontese.
◆1849 Baden: Republican regime surrenders to the Prussians.
◆1851 Sioux Indians and US signed the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux.
◆1863 Battle of Mannassas Gap, Virginia.
◆1863 Bill Anderson and his Confederate Bushwackers gutted the railway station at Renick, Missouri.
◆1864 Army transport B.M. Runyan, with some 500 military and civilian passengers on board, sank in the Mississippi River near Skipwith's Landing, Mississippi, after hitting a snag. U.S.S. Prairie Bird, Acting Master Thomas Burns, rescued 350 survivors and salvaged part of the cargo. Rescue and humanitarian operations have been a continuing naval mission throughout our history.
◆1865 William Booth founded the Salvation Army.
◆1885 Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union forces at the end of the Civil War and the 18th president of the United States, died in Mount McGregor, N.Y., at age 63. He had just completed the final revisions to his memoirs, which were published as a 2 volume set by Mark Twain. His tomb was placed in the largest mausoleum in the US on a bluff over the Hudson River.
◆1898 US landing at Rio Manimani, Cuba.
◆1914 Austria and Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand; the dispute led to World War I.
◆1940 German bombers began the "Blitz," the all-night air raids on London. ★
◆1940 The British Purchasing Mission in the United States reaches agreement that it will be allowed to buy up 40 percent of the United States' production of aircraft.
◆1942 US Secretary of State Hull urges the formation of an international peace keeping organization by the United Nations after the war.
◆1943 Americans occupy Trapani and Marsala. On the north coast, US forces reach Termini Imerese.
◆1944 Elements of the US 4th Corps (part of US 5th Army) penetrate the outskirts of Pisa but are only able to occupy the area south of the Arno River.
◆1944 On Guam, American marines on the northern beachhead reach Point Adelup. On the southern beachhead, the marines cross the neck of the Orote Peninsula, thereby cutting off the main Japanese airfield on the island.
◆1944 Elements of the 3rd Marine Division completed the occupation of Cabras Island, Tinian, Marianas.
◆1947 First Navy all jet squadron (VF-17A) receives its first aircraft (FH).
◆1948 USS Putnum (DD-757) evacuates U.N. team from Haifa, Israel and becomes first U.S. Navy ship to fly the U.N. flag.
◆1950 USS Boxer sets record crossing of Pacific to bring aircraft, troops, and supplies to Korea at start of the Conflict.
◆1950 Units from the 2d Marine Division prepared to move from Camp Lejeune, N.C., to Camp Pendleton, Calif., to join the 1st Marine Division.
◆1956 The Bell X-2 rocket plane set a world aircraft speed record of 3,050 kph.
◆1958 USS Nautilus (SSN-571) departs Pearl Harbor for first submerged transit of North Pole.
◆1962 Avoiding a Cold War showdown, the United States and the Soviet Union sign an agreement guaranteeing a free and neutral Laos.
◆1973 Eddie Rickenbacker, World War I flying ace, died in Zurich, Switzerland at the age of 82.★
◆1988 Iran accused Iraq of pushing deep into Iranian territory and using chemical weapons. At Halabja an Iraqi chemical attack killed thousands and in 1999 was still causing genetic damage and deaths.
◆1990 Unconfirmed reports indicate that as many as 30,000 Iraqi troops have been moved to the border with Kuwait.
◆1993 Sarah Deal becomes first female Marine selected for naval aviation training.
◆1993 Army Chief of Staff authorizes 10th Mountain Division soldiers to wear the combat patch, shoulder sleeve insignia-former wartime service and overseas service bar for service in Somalia.
◆1997 In Serbia Slobodan Milosevic was sworn in as president of Yugoslavia and crowds reacted by throwing shoes at his motorcade, symbolizing the young people who have left Serbia due to his regime.
◆1998 It was reported that Congress made the Air Force buy more C-130 transport aircraft against its wishes. Since 1978 only 5 of 256 C-130s sent to the Air National Guard and Air Reserve were requested by the Air Force. The planes were built in Georgia.
◆1999 Russia ended a 4-month boycott on contacts with NATO.
◆2001 The US Pentagon shut down public access to its web sites due to a computer worm called the Code Red worm. It defaced web sites with the words "Hacked by Chinese."