TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
11 June
◆1187 BCE The Greeks take Troy [alternate date].
◆90 BCE Social War: Battle of the Tolenus-Consuls.
◆88 BCE Social War: Didius & Magius storm Herculaneum.
◆173 "Miracle of the Thundering Legion": A sudden rainstorm turns a possible defeat of Marcus Aurelius' Romans by the Marcomanni [in Bohemia] into a victory.
◆690 Battle of Beachy Head/Bevezier: Tourville's French fleet defeats, but fails to destroy, Torrington's inferior Anglo-Dutch squadron, which prevents an invasion of England.
◆1298 Battle of Campaldino: Tuscan Guelfs (including Dante) defeat the Arretine Ghibellines.
◆1488 Battle of Sauchieburn: Duke James of Rothesay defeats King James III of Scotland.
◆1517 Sir Thomas Pert reached Hudson Bay.
◆1666 Three Day Anglo-Dutch Naval Battle of Vierdaagse begins.
◆1776 A committee to draft the document of Independence met. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, Roger Sherman and Thomas Jefferson were the members. They immediately delegated the writing to Adams and Jefferson, and Adams gave it over to Jefferson.
◆1788 ALASKA DISCOVERED BY RUSSIANS: Searching for sea otter pelts and other furs, the Russian explorer Gerrasim Grigoriev Izmailov reaches the Alaskan coast, setting his ship in at Yakutat Bay.
◆1798 Bonaparte captures Malta, en route to Egypt.
◆1823 Major General James L. Kemper (d.1895), Confederate hero, was born. He fought at the battles of Williamsburg and Gettysburg.
◆1853 Five Navy ships leave Norfolk, VA on three year exploring expedition to survey the far Pacific.
◆1859 Comstock silver load was discovered near Virginia City, Nevada. Prospector James Finney stumbled across thick, bluish clay in western Nevada. A fellow minor, Henry Comstock, gave his name to the lode, the most lucrative silver ore mine in history. Ott’s Assay Office in Nevada City, Ca., first assayed samples of the rich Comstock Lode of Nevada. Four Irishmen known as the Bonanza Kings bought up shares in the Comstack mines and became rich. They were John Mackay, James Fair, James Flood, and William O’Brian. Ore from the Comstock lode was hauled by horse-drawn wagon over Donner Pass to SF.
◆1861 Union forces under General George B. McClellen repulsed a Confederate force at Rich Mountain in Western Virginia.
◆1862 C.S.S. Virginia blown up by her crew off Craney Island to avoid capture.
◆1864 BATTLE OF TREVILIAN STATION: Confederate cavalry intercepts General Phillip Sheridan's Union cavalry as it seeks to destroy a rail line. A two-day battle ensued in which the Confederates drove off the Yankees with minimal damage to a precious supply line.
◆1865 Major General Henry W. Halleck found documents and archives of the Confederate government in Richmond, Virginia. This discovery led to the publication of the official war records.
◆1918 A Marine assault following artillery bombardment succeeds in capturing two-thirds of Belleau Wood, but with heavy casualties. A battalion commander, Lt. Col. Frederick Wise erroneously reports his men were in control of the woods, but has misread his maps and position. Brigade Commander James Harbord requests relief for his men reporting their near physical exhaustion.
◆1927 USS Memphis arrives at Washington, DC, with Charles Lindbergh and his plane, Spirit of St. Louis, after his non-stop flight across the Atlantic.
◆1941 Amendment to act creating Coast Guard (January 28, 1915) provided "The Coast Guard shall be a military service and constitute a branch of the land and naval forces of the United States at all times."
◆1942 Soviet Ambassador Litvinov and US Secretary of State Hull sign an additional Lend-Lease agreement between the US and the USSR.
◆1943 The bombardment of the Italian island of Pantelleria continues. More than 5000 tons of bombs have been dropped on the island in the last month. Pantelleria's 11,000-strong Italian garrison surrenders without a fight on the approach of an Allied assault force. The damage done by the lengthy, intensive bombardment is less than has been expected.
◆1944 NORMANDY BEACHHEAD CONSOLIDATED: Five days after the D-Day landing, the five Allied landing groups, made up of some 330,000 troops, link up in Normandy to form a single solid front across northwestern France.
◆1944 U.S. battleships off Normandy provide gunfire support.
◆1944 Elements of the French Expeditionary Corps (part of US 5th Army) capture Montefiascone, west of Viterbo. Force of the British 8th Army, inland, are engaged near Cantalupo and Bagnoregio.
◆1944 The US 15th Air Force, operating from bases in Italy, raids the airfield at Focsani, Romania. The aircraft fly on to Soviet held territory in the first "shuttle" run of this sort.
◆1944 US Task Force 58 (Admiral Mitscher) begins raids against Japanese bases on Saipan, Tinian and other islands. TF58 has 9 fleet carriers and 6 light carriers. Task Group 58.7 (Admiral Lee) provides escort. An estimated 36 Japanese planes are shot down. Task Group 58.4 attacks shipping in the area. The Japanese lose 3 minor warships and about 30,000 tons of merchant transport by the aircraft. The operations are overseen by Admiral Spruance, commanding the Central Pacific Area, on board the cruiser Indianapolis.
◆1945 On Okinawa, the Japanese pocket in the Oroku Peninsula has been reduce to perimeter measurable in yards but their resistance remains fanatical. An assault by the US 1st Marine Division (US 3rd Amphibious Corps) fails to capture Kunishi Ridge. A regiment of the US 96th Division reaches the town of Yuza but is forced to withdraw by intensive Japanese fire. An important height east of Mount Yaeju is capture by American forces.
◆1945 On Luzon, fighting at Orioung Pass continues as Japanese forces continue to hold the US 37th Division.
◆1951 Elements of the 3rd Infantry Division captured Chorwon.
◆1963 Facing federalized Alabama National Guard troops, Alabama Governor George Wallace ends his blockade of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and allows two African American students to enroll.
◆1967 Israel and Syria accepted a UN cease-fire. The UN brokered a cease-fire between Israel and the defeated Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, ending the Six-Day War with Israel occupying the Sinai, West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
◆1970 The United States presence in Libya came to an end as the last detachment left Wheelus Air Base.
◆1970 A force of 4,000 South Vietnamese and 2,000 Cambodian soldiers battle 1,400 communist troops for control of the provincial capital of Kompong Speu, 30 miles southwest of Phnom Penh.
◆1993 US troops participate in a retalitory strike against Aidid's forces for the June 5 ambush. The UN strikes a second heavy follow-up blow against Aidid. US Special Operations AC-130 Spectre gunships attack six targets in capital city of Mogadishu.
◆2003 The US military launched a massive operation to crush opposition north of Baghdad and captured nearly 400 suspected Saddam Hussein loyalists in a bid to end daily attacks against American soldiers.