TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
26 July
◆46 BCE Vercingetorix, Gallic hero, strangled in the Tullianum after Caesar's first triumph.
◆657 Battle of Siffin: Muawiyah I, the first Umayyad, defeats Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib, Mohammed's son-in-law.
◆711 King Roderigo of the Visigoths (710-711), kia by the Moors.
◆811 Battle of the Verbita Pass/Pliska: Bulgar Khan Krouma acquires Nicephorus I's skull as a drinking cup.
◆1469 Edgecote Hill: Sir John Conyers' Lancastrians defeat the Earl of Pembroke's Yorkists.
◆1526 The Spaniard Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon and his colonists left Santo Domingo in the Caribbean for Florida.
◆1533 The Inca Atahualpa (1532-1533), c. 36, garroted by Francisco Pizarro.
◆1579 Francis Drake left San Francisco (Drake’s Bay) to cross Pacific Ocean.
◆1649 English fleet bombards Dunkirk.
◆1757 Battle of Hastenbek: The French defeat the Anglo-Hanoverians.
◆1759 The French relinquished Fort Ticonderoga in New York to the British under General Jeffrey Amherst.
◆1812 Frigate Essex captures British brig Leander.
◆1846 USRC Woodbury put down a mutiny on board the troop ship Middlesex during the Mexican War.
◆1847 The Republic of Liberia, formerly a colony of the American Colonization Society, declares its independence. Under pressure from Britain, the United States hesitantly accepted Liberian sovereignty, making the West African nation the first democratic republic in African history. A constitution modeled after the U.S. Constitution was approved, and in 1848 Joseph Jenkins Roberts was elected Liberia's first president. The American Colonization Society was founded in 1816 by American Robert Finley to return freed African American slaves to Africa. In 1820, the first former U.S. slaves arrived at the British colony of Sierra Leone from the United States, and in 1821 the American Colonization Society founded the colony of Liberia south of Sierra Leone as a homeland for former slaves outside British jurisdiction. The American Colonization Society came under attack from U.S. abolitionists, who charged that the removal of freed slaves from the United States strengthened the institution of slavery. In addition, most Americans of African descent were not enthusiastic to abandon their native lands in the United States for the harsh West African coast. Nevertheless, between 1822 and the American Civil War, some 15,000 African Americans settled in Liberia. Independence was granted by the United States in 1847, and Liberia aided Britain in its efforts to end the illegal West African slave trade. Official U.S. diplomatic recognition came in 1862. With the backing of the United States, Liberia kept its independence though the turmoil of the 20th century. A costly civil war began in 1989 and lasted until 1997, when Charles Taylor was elected Liberian president in free elections. His administration has been criticized for supporting the rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone. Some three million people live in Liberia today.
◆1861 George McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac after the disaster at Bull Run five days prior. McClellan built the army into a powerhouse in the winter of 1861-62, although he proved to be a weak field commander.
◆1863 Sam Houston died, Liberator of Texas, at 70.
◆1863 Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and 360 of his men are captured at Salineville, Ohio, during a spectacular raid on the North.
◆1871 Ferdinand Hayden (1830-1887) and his government sponsored team arrived at the Yellowstone Lake and the geyser fields.
◆1912 First airborne radio communications from naval aircraft to ship (LT John Rodgers to USS Stringham).
◆1918 New York’s 27th Division, assigned to the British XIX Corps, which had begun relieving the French 71st Division on July 5th, completes it movement into the front lines. During its service in World War I the 27th would participate in two campaigns, the Ypres-Lys and Somme Offensive and have seven of its soldiers awarded the Medal of Honor.
◆1926 Philippines government asked the US for a plebiscite for independence.
◆1941 President Franklin Roosevelt seizes all Japanese assets in the United States in retaliation for the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China.★
◆1942 About 400 miles southeast of Fiji, the American aircraft carriers Wasp, Enterprise and Saratoga rendezvous with the invasion force for Guadalcanal. It is the most powerful force the US Navy has yet assembled in the Pacific.
◆1942 CAPT Joy Bright Hancock appointed Director, Women's Naval Reserve.
◆1942 Actor Gene Autry is sworn into the Army Air Corps on the air, during his regular radio show, Gene Autry's Melody Ranch. He served as an officer until 1945, when he resumed his show.★
◆1943 Marshal Badoglio forms a new government and declares martial law. He publicly claims loyalty to the Axis alliance with Germany.
◆1943 In the Solomons, US forces continue to make slow progress with heavy air and artillery support. Tanks and flame throwers are also used.
◆1944 Roosevelt meets with MacArthur and Nimitz to discuss strategy in the Pacific theater. MacArthur argues for an attack on the Philippines. Nimitz and the naval staff suggest the Philippines can be by-passed and Formosa should be the next major target.
◆1944 The attacks of US 1st Army continue. The US 7th Corps captures Marigny and St. Gilles. To the west, US 8th Corps crosses the Lessay-Periers road.
◆1945 The Potsdam Declaration is issued in a radio broadcast demanding the immediate and unconditional surrender of Japan. It also threatens the "prompt and utter destruction" of the Japanese homeland, if the government of Japan fails to do so.
◆1945 The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis delivers the consignment of Uranium-235, needed to assemble the first operational atomic bomb, to the American base on Tinian.
◆1947 President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act, which becomes one of the most important pieces of Cold War legislation.★
◆1948 President Harry Truman In Executive Order No. 9981 called for "equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without regard to race, color, religion or national origin."
◆1950 Up to 300 South Korean refugees trapped under a bridge at No Gun Ri were killed by small arms fire. The villagers had been gathered there by US troops. Official review in 1999 was unable to verify or rule out the claims of surviving refugees that they were fired on by US troops.
◆1951 The U.S. 2nd Infantry Division's 38th Infantry Regiment attacked in the Taeusan area along the edge of the Punchbowl, securing the objective by the July 30.
◆1953 Fidel Castro makes an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks.
◆1954 3 aircraft from USS Philippine Sea (CVA-47) shoot down 2 Chinese fighters that fired on them while they were providing air cover for rescue operations for a U.K. airliner shot down by a Chinese aircraft.
◆1956 The Suez Crisis begins when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the British and French-owned Suez Canal. ★
◆1957 USSR launches its first intercontinental multistage ballistic missile.
◆1971 Apollo 15 was launched from Cape Kennedy.
◆1972 Although South Vietnamese paratroopers hoist their flag over Quang Tri Citadel, they prove unable to hold the Citadel for long or to secure Quang Tri City.
◆1983 The United States warns of action to preserve navigation in the Persian Gulf.
◆1993 Ret. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway (98), US Army Chief of Staff (1953-55), died in Fox Chapel, Pa.