TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
15 June
◆923 Battle of Soissons: King Charles- France defeats "Robert I."
◆1094 El Cid liberates Valencia from the Moors.
◆1219 Battle of Reval: The Danes defeat the Estonians.
◆1567 Battle of Carberry Hill: the Earl of Moray defeats the Earl of Bothwell.
◆1607 Colonists in North America completed James Fort in Jamestown.
◆1674 Battle of Sinsheim: The French defeat the Imperialists.
◆1743 Battle of Dettingen: English under George II crush the French.
◆1775 The Second Continental Congress voted unanimously to appoint George Washington head of the Continental Army.
◆1775 Word reached the Americans that the British intended to occupy the Charlestown peninsula.
◆1776 Americans burn and abandon Montreal
◆1776 Delaware declared independence from both England and Pennsylvania with whom it had shared a royal governor.
◆1779 General Anthony Wayne captured Stony Point, New York, from the British. "I'll storm the Gates of Hell if you will but plan the attack," Wayne told Gen. Washington.
◆1836 Arkansas was admitted into the Union as the 25th state.
◆1844 Charles Goodyear (b.1800) received a patent for the vulcanization of rubber, his process to strengthen rubber.
◆1846 Representatives of Great Britain and the United States sign the Oregon Treaty, which settles a long-standing dispute with Britain over who controlled the Oregon territory.
◆1849 James Polk, the 11th president of the United States, died in Nashville, Tenn.
◆1862 Confederate cavalry commander J.E.B. Stuart completes a four-day ride around George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac in the area of the James Peninsula.*
◆1863 President Abraham Lincoln calls for help in protecting the capital.
◆1864 Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton signed an order establishing a military burial ground at Robert E. Lee's home estate at Arlington. This became Arlington National Cemetery.
◆1864 During the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia collide for the last time as the first wave of Union troops attacks Petersburg, a vital Southern rail center 23 miles south of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
◆1866 Prussia declares war on Austria, initiating the Seven Weeks' War.
◆1877 Some 800 Nez Perce were pursued by the US Army and began their journey to reach safety in Canada. The Nez Perce had been ordered to leave the valley of the Winding Waters in the Northwest. They refused to be resettled and fled.
◆1888 Wilhelm II became emperor of Germany.
◆1898 The U.S. House of representatives approved the annexation of Hawaii. Some 38,000 Hawaiians signed the “Monster Petition” that was delivered to Washington by Queen Liliu’okalani. the petition was ignored.
◆1898 US marines attacked the Spanish off Guantanamo, Cuba.
◆1916 President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America.
◆1940 Another Navy bill passes into law. This provides for a much expanded air corps, with 10,000 planes and 16,000 more aircrew.
◆1943 Paul Blobel, an SS colonel, is given the assignment of coordinating the destruction of the evidence of the grossest of Nazi atrocities, the systematic extermination of European Jews.
◆1944 SAIPAN INVASION: American forces began their successful invasion of Saipan during World War II. Meanwhile, B-29 Superfortresses made their first raids on Japan.*
◆1944 Admiral Clark leads two groups of US carrier forces raiding Iwo Jima, Chichi Jima and Haha Jima. The Japanese carriers are sighted by US patrols heading through the San Bernardino Strait while some of the Japanese battleships are seen east of Mindanao.
◆1944 A fourth American corps is add to the US 1st Army. The US 8th Corps becomes operations on the Cotentin Peninsula. Meanwhile, elements of the US 7th Corps capture Quineville.
◆1944 The first B-29 Superfortress raid on Japan is conducted. Bombers from the US 20th Air Force in China attack Yawatta on Kyushu.
◆1945 American OSS units complete mopping up operations in the Shan Mountains area.
◆1945 US B-29 Superfortress bombers drop 3000 tons of bombs on Osaka.
◆1945 On Okinawa, Marines suffer heavy casualties and are unable to advance on Kunishi Ridge.The US 1st Division, already short of troops, is attached to the US 2nd Marine Division. Forces of the US 24th Corps continue operations to eliminate Japanese positions on Mount Yaeju and Mount Yuza.
◆1945 On Luzon, Filipino guerrillas seize Cervantes in the north. Meanwhile, the US 37th Division continues to battle forward in the Cagayan valley, eliminating a Japanese strong point about 3 miles from Santiago, near Cabanatuan.
◆1946 10th Marines help police in Black Market Riot - Nagasaki.
◆1952 U.S. Air Force Second Lieutenant James F. Low, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, became the 17th ace of the Korean War with his fifth MiG kill. The most junior in grade ace of the war, Low had been in combat for only six days.
◆1953 The USS Princeton launched 184 sorties and established a single-day Korean War record for offensive sorties flown from the deck of a carrier.
◆1963 Launching of combat store ship, Mars (AFS-1), first of new class of underway replenishment ships.
◆1965 OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER: U.S. planes bomb targets in North Vietnam, but refrain from bombing Hanoi and the Soviet missile sites that surround the city.*
◆1991 Mount Pinatubo (4,750 feet high) erupted. Due to early warning 56,000 people were evacuated and only 450 people died. The eruption forced the closure of Clark Air Force Base in Angeles City and displaced hundreds of families of the Aeta tribe. 2 battle groups and amphibious ships evacuate dependents and Air Force personnel from Clark.
◆1998 US F-16 fighter jets took off as part of a 13-nation, 85 warplane NATO show of force over Albania and Macedonia. Meanwhile Serb forces attacked 4 Kosovo villages with grenades and helicopter gunships and began sealing off the border to Albania.
◆2003 With a deadline passed for Iraqis to hand in heavy weapons, U.S. forces fanned out across Iraq to seize arms and put down potential foes.