TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
16 June
◆1426 Battle of Aussig: The Hussites defeat the Imperialists.
◆1487 Battle of Stoke Field: King Henry VII defeats the Earl of Lincoln.
◆1745 English fleet occupied Cape Breton on St. Lawrence River.
◆1755 British captured Fort Beausejour and expelled the Acadians. The Accadians of Nova Scotia were uprooted by an English governor and forced to leave. Some 10,000 people moved to destinations like Maine and Louisiana. Some moved to Iles-de-la-Madeleine off Quebec. The Longfellow story "Evangeline" is based on this displacement.
◆1775 BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL (BREEDS HILL): American Col. William Prescott led 1200 men from Cambridge to dig in at Bunker’s Hill but arrived at night and dug in at Breed’s Hill. A siege on Boston by Colonial militia generals John Stark and Israel Putnam prompted the British to attack.*
◆1775 Continental Congress authority for a "Chief Engineer for the Army" was passed. The Finance Corps is the successor to the old Pay Department, which was created. The Quartermaster Corps, originally designated the Quartermaster Department, was established. The post of Adjutant General was established.*
◆1779 Spain, in support of the US, declared war on England.
◆1815 Battle of Ligny: Napoleon defeats Blucher's Prussians, forcing a retreat.
◆1832 Blackhawk War: Battle of Kellogg's Grove, Ill.
◆1861 BATTLE OF SECESSIONVILLE: A Union attempt to capture Charleston, South Carolina, is thwarted when the Confederates turn back an attack at Secessionville, just south of the city on James Island.*
◆1864 Siege of Petersburg and Richmond began after a moonlight skirmish.
◆1864 Battle of Lynchburg, VA.
◆1864 U.S.S. Commodore Perry, Acting Lieutenant A. P. Foster, shelled Fort Clifton, Virginia, at the request of Major General Butler. Bombardment by the ship's heavy guns was almost a daily part of continuing naval support of Army operations along the James River.
◆1897 The US government signed a treaty of annexation with Hawaii.
◆1898 U.S. squadron bombards Santiago, Cuba.
◆1922 Henry Berliner demonstrated his helicopter to US Bureau of Aeronautics.
◆1941 The 1st Provisional Marine Brigade was activated for duty in Iceland.
◆1943 US fighters from Henderson Field claim to have shot down 93 Japanese aircraft from a force attacking shipping assembled for operations against New Georgia Island.
◆1943 Operation Husky. The first convoys bound for the invasion of Sicily leave port.
◆1944 Forces of the US 5th Army take Grosseto, Italy.
◆1944 Elements of the US 1st Army, advancing westward, cross the Douvre River and capture St. Saveur in the Cotentin Peninsula.
◆1944 US battleships, under the command of Admiral Ainsworth, shell Guam. The invasion of the island is deferred, however, because of the approach of the Japanese fleet. On Saipan, the elements of US 5th Amphibious Corps link the two beachheads by capturing Charan Karoa and Afetna Point. There is substantial use of artillery by the Japanese and American counter battery fire in addition to the infantry combat.
◆1944 Admiral Clark leads two groups of US carrier forces raiding Iwo Jima, Chichi Jima and Haha Jima. The Japanese fleets link up and refuel. US patrols make two sightings.
◆1945 On Okinawa, Mount Yuza is captured by the US 381st Infantry Regiment. Fighting continues on the south of the island. At sea, the Japanese air offensive against American ships slackens, but the Japanese still sink 1 destroyer and damage 1 escort carrier.
◆1947 Pravda denounced the Marshall Plan.
◆1951 The 1st Marine Division reached its objective; a line running northeast from the Hwachon Reservoir through the Punch Bowl, a gigantic volcanic crater.
◆1953 Soviet tanks crush workers' protest in Berlin.
◆1961 Following a meeting between President John F. Kennedy and South Vietnam envoy Nguyen Dinh Thuan, an agreement is reached for direct training and combat supervision of Vietnamese troops by U.S. instructors.
◆1965 Navy Department schedules reactivation of hospital ship Repose (AH-16), first hospital ship activated for Vietnam Conflict.
◆1965 Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces that 21,000 more U.S. troops are to be sent to Vietnam.
◆1993 Six hours of fierce street battles are fought by UN troops backed by US helicopters, to capture Aidid's headquarters. One American GI is slightly injured. 130 GIs of the 1/22 Infantry are rushed in to back the UN forces.