TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
13 June
◆1275 Battle of San Procolo: The Montefeltri defeat the Bolognese.
◆1373 Anglo-Portuguese alliance, the world's oldest, signed.
◆1665 Naval Battle of Lowescroft: The Duke of York (later James II) inflicts a decisive defeat on the Dutch.
◆1667 The Dutch fleet burns three more English ships-of-the-line in the Medway.
◆1777 Marquis de Lafayette landed in the United States to assist the colonies in their war against England.
◆1786 Winfield Scott, a hero in the Mexican-American War and commander of the U.S. Army at the outbreak of the Civil War, is born.
◆1798 Mission San Luis Rey [in California] was founded.
◆1863 Confederate forces on their way to Gettysburg clashed with Union troops at the Second Battle of Winchester, Virginia.*
◆1864 The bulk of the Army of the Potomac begins moving towards Petersburg, Virginia, precipitating a siege that lasted for more than nine months.
◆1871 US marines and bluejackets land on Formosa to punish the Botansha tribe for depredations against shipwreck sailors.
◆1881 USS Jeannette crushed in Arctic ice pack.
◆1900 China's Boxer Rebellion against foreigners and Chinese Christians erupted into violence.
◆1917 Major German bomber raid on London's East End, 162 die, including 18 children at the Upper North Street School.
◆1918 Marines plug the line in their exposed area. German counterattack begins supported by the artillery from three divisions and almost recaptures Bouresches. Heavy gas casualties. A planned relief of 2/5 goes for naught as 2/6 is caught in the open by a artillery barrage with gas.
◆1942 President Roosevelt created the Office of War Information, and appointed radio news commentator Elmer Davis to be its head. The OSS, Office of Strategic Services, was formed.
◆1942 John C. Cullen, Seaman 2/c discovered Nazi saboteurs landing on beach at Amagansett, Long Island. He reported this to his superiors. The FBI later captured the Nazis and Cullen was awarded the Legion of Merit. The four men had plans to sabotage NYC’s water system and industrial sites across the Northeastern US.
◆1942 First V-2 rocket launch from Peenemunde, Germany, reached 1.3 km.*
◆1944 Only one week after the Normandy invasion, the first German V-1 buzz bomb, also called the doodlebug (Fieseler Fi-103), was fired at London.*
◆1944 US 1st Army makes progress towards St Lo and across the Cotentin. Pont l'Abbe is capture in the peninsula. A German counterattack, spearheaded by 17th Panzer Division, toward Carentan is held.
◆1944 On Biak, American forces reduce the scattered Japanese resistance from caves in the east of the island. US aircraft are operating from Mokmer Airfield.
◆1944 Admiral Small leads a cruiser and destroyer group to bombard Japanese positions on Matsuwa.
◆1945 On Okinawa, the Japanese resistance in the Oruku peninsula ends. The US 6th Marine Division records a record 169 Japanese prisoners as well as finding about 200 dead. (This is a large total when compared with previous numbers of Japanese prisoners reported.) The fighting continues to the southeast, especially in the Kunishi Ridge area where a regiment of the US 1st Marine Division suffers heavy casualties. The US 24th Corps uses armored flamethrowers in the elimination of the Japanese held fortified caves on Mount Yuza and Mount Yaeju and on Hills 153 and 115.
◆1945 On Luzon, an American armored column attempts pass through the Orioung Pass, to exploit a breakthrough achieved by the US 145th Infantry Regiment (US 37th Division), but a Japanese counterattack blocks the road.
◆1949 Vietnam state was established at Saigon with Bao Dai as chief of state. Installed by the French, Bao Dai entered Saigon to rule Vietnam.
◆1951 U.N. troops seized Pyongyang, North Korea.
◆1951 U.N. commander General Mathew Ridgway's Joint Strategic Plans and Operations Group (JSPOG) discussed with him four options to carry Eighth Army above Line KANSAS so that this line would not be lost in any withdrawal required by cease-fire arrangements.
◆1966 The Supreme Court issued its landmark Miranda vs. Arizona decision, ruling that criminal suspects must be informed of their constitutional rights prior to questioning by police. The conviction of Ernesto Miranda for rape and kidnapping was overturned because his confession was not voluntarily given.
◆1967 Operation Great Bend in Rung Sat Zone, Vietnam.
◆1971 The New York Times begins to publish sections of the so-called "Pentagon Papers," a top-secret Department of Defense study of America's involvement in the Vietnam War.
◆1979 Sioux Indians were awarded $105 million in compensation for the U.S. seizure in 1877 of their Black Hills in South Dakota.
◆Falklands: Battles of Wireless Ridge and Mount Tumbledown. British defeat Argentinians.*
◆1983 After more than a decade in space, Pioneer 10, the world's first outer-planetary probe, leaves the solar system.
◆1991 Marines from Okinawa and Marine Barracks, Subic Bay, Philippines, evacuated 20,000 Americans after Mount Pinatubo erupted. HMH-772, MAGTF 4-91, MAG-36, 15th MEU and other Marine units assisted.
◆2003 US forces killed 27 Iraqi fighters in a ground and air pursuit after the Iraqis attacked an American tank patrol north of Baghdad.
◆2004 Pakistani troops ended a major operation to flush out al-Qaida suspects and their local supporters from hide-outs in a remote region near Afghanistan. 72 people died, including 17 security personnel.