TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
14 June
◆1645 Battle of Naseby: Cromwell's Roundheads defeat the Royalists.
◆1646 Naval Battle of Orbetello: the Spanish defeat the French.
◆1775 UNITED STATES ARMY FOUNDED: The U.S. Army was founded when the Continental Congress first authorized the muster of troops under its sponsorship.*
◆1777 FLAG DAY: During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress adopts a resolution stating that "the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate stripes red and white" and that "the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation."*
◆1777 John Paul Jones takes command of USS Ranger.1800 Battle of Marengo: The French (Napoleon) defeat the Austrians.1800 The French (Napoleon) capture Alessandria, Italy, from the Austrians.
◆1801 Former American Revolutionary War General Benedict Arnold died in London.
◆1805 Robert Anderson (d.1871), Bvt. Major General (Union Army), defender of Ft. Sumpter, was born.
◆1809 Battle of the Raab: French (Napoleon) defeat the Austrians.
◆1846 BEAR FLAG REVOLT: Anticipating the outbreak of war with Mexico, American settlers in California rebel against the Mexican government and proclaim the short-lived California Republic.*
◆1847 Commodore Matthew Perry launches amphibious river operations by Sailors and Marines on Tabasco River, Mexico.
◆1863 SECOND BATTLE OF WINCHESTER: A small Union garrison in the Shenandoah Valley town of Winchester, Virginia, is easily defeated by the Army of Northern Virginia on the path of the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania.*
◆1864 At the Battle of Pine Mountain, Georgia, Confederate General Leonidas Polk was killed by a Union shell.
◆1864 U.S.S. Kearsarge, Captain Winslow, arrived off Cherbourg, France. The ship log recorded: "Found the rebel privateer Alabama lying at anchor in the roads." Kearsarge took up the blockade in international waters off the harbor entrance. Captain Semmes stated: ". . . My intention is to fight the Kearsarge as soon as I can make the necessary arrangements. I hope they will not detain me more than until tomorrow evening, or after the morrow morning at furthest. I beg she will not depart before I am ready to go out." With the famous Confederate raider at bay, Kearsarge had no intention of departing-the stage was set for the famous duel.*
◆1898 Two companies of Marines defeated the Spanish near Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
◆1940 In German-occupied Poland the first inmates arrived at Auschwitz concentration camp. They were all Polish political prisoners. The Nazis opened their concentration camp at Auschwitz.
◆1942 The first bazooka rocket gun, produced in Bridgeport, Ct., demolished a tank from its shoulder-held position.
◆1944 The first raid by American B-29 Superfortress bombers is carried out. A total of 48 planes (of which 4 are lost) make an ineffective strike on the Yawata iron and steel works during the night from bases in China.*
◆1944 US naval forces conduct bombardments of Saipan and Tinian in preparation for landings on these islands. The two American naval groups, commanded by Admiral Ainsworth and Admiral Oldendorf, include 7 battleships and 11 cruisers as well as 8 escort carriers in support. The battleship USS California is hit by a Japanese shore battery. Extensive mine-sweeping operations are also conducted by American forces.
◆1944 A third corps, the US 19th Corps, is becomes operational between the 5th and 7th Corps. Free French leader, General de Gaulle, visits the beachhead and takes steps to restoring French civilian government in captured territory.
◆1945 On Okinawa, mopping up operations proceed on the Oroku peninsula. The troops of the US 3rd Amphibious Corps and the US 24th Corps continue to eliminate fortified caves held by Japanese forces on Kunishi Ridge and on Mount Yuza and Mount Yaegu. An American regiment of the US 96th Division reaches the summit of Mount Yaegu, while the US th Division extends its control of Hills 153 and 115.
◆1945 On Luzon, American forces dislodge the Japanese blocking the Orioung Pass. Elements of the US 37th Division, formed into an armored column, advance as far as Echague. From Santiago, other units advance toward Cabanatuan and Cauayan.V1945 The US Joint Chiefs of Staff issue a directive to General MacArthur, General Arnold and Admiral Nimitz to prepare plans for the immediate occupation of the Japanese islands in the event of a sudden capitulation. This order may have been given in light of recent progress on the production of an atomic bomb but this is not stated.
◆1951 A single communist Polikarpov PO-2 biplane dropped bombs on Suwon Airfield and another PO-2 bombed a motor pool at Inchon. These attacks marked the beginning of enemy night harassing missions that soon became known as "Bedcheck Charley."
◆1951 The destroyer-minesweeper USS Thompson was hit by communist shore battery fire suffering three sailors killed and three wounded. Having sustained 13 hits, the Thompson barely managed to escape out of range of the North Korean guns.
◆1951 U.S. Census Bureau dedicates UNIVAC, the world's first commercially produced electronic digital computer.
◆1952 The USS Nautilus, the first atomic submarine, was dedicated in Groton, Connecticut.
◆1954 NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST?: Over 12 million Americans "die" in a mock nuclear attack, as the United States goes through its first nationwide civil defense drill.*
◆1954 President Eisenhower signed an order adding the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.
◆1969 The U.S. announces that three combat units will be withdrawn from Vietnam. They were the 1st and 2nd Brigades of the U.S. Army 9th Infantry Division and Regimental Landing Team 9 of the 3rd Marine Division--a total of about 13,000 to 14,000 men. These troops were part of the first U.S. troop withdrawal, which had been announced on June 8 by President Richard Nixon at the Midway conference with South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu. Nixon had promised that 25,000 troops would be withdrawn by the end of the year, and more support troops were later sent home in addition to the aforementioned combat forces in order to meet that number.
◆1982 Falklands: Argentines surrender to Britain; 74-day war ends.
◆1999 About 15,000 NATO peacekeepers spread out across Kosovo, including a convoy of about 1200 US Marines.
◆2002 The US became officially free from a 1972 treaty that banned major missile defenses. In Alaska work was set to begin on missile interceptors.