TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
26 June
◆1242 Battle of Kuzadagh: The Mongols defeat the Seljuks.
◆1249 Battle of Fossalta: The Bolognese defeat the Modenese.
◆1604 French explorer Samuel de Champlain, Pierre Dugua and 77 others landed on the island of St. Croix and made friends with the native Passamaquoddy Indians. It later became part of Maine on the US-Canadian border.
◆1707 Marshal Daun's Austrian Army invades Spanish-held Naples.
◆1742 Arthur Middleton, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born.
◆1794 Battle of Fleurus: French defeat the Austro-English, to secure Belgium.
◆1804 The Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the mouth of the Kansas River after completing a westward trek of nearly 400 river miles.
◆1819 Abner Doubleday (d.1893), Civil War General, was born. He was incorrectly credited with inventing American baseball.
◆1849 Battle of Castrovillari: The Neapolitan Borbons defeat Sicilian-Calabrese revolutionaries.
◆1857 Indian Mutiny: Cawnpore massacre.
◆1862 SEVEN DAYS BATTLES: Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia strikes Union General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac, beginning the Seven Days' Battles.✯
◆1863 Jubal Early and his Confederate forces moved into Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
◆1876 BATTLE OF LITTLE BIGHORN (Aftermath): Following Lieutenant Colonel George Custer's death the previous day in the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Major Marcus Reno takes command of the surviving soldiers of the 7th Cavalry.✯
◆1884 Congress authorizes commissioning of Naval Academy graduates as ensigns.
◆1891 The Corps established its first post at Port Royal, South Carolina, later known as Parris Island.
◆1898 Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller was born. (died October 11, 1971) He was a general officer of the United States Marine Corps. Lt. Gen. Puller is one of the most, if not the most, decorated combat Marine in Marine Corps history. He is the only Marine to be awarded five Navy Crosses.
◆1898 Action off Santiago: US ships & Spanish batteries exchange fire. US and Spanish troops skirmish at Sevilla.
◆1900 The United States announced it would send troops to fight against the Boxer rebellion in China.
◆1900 A commission that included Dr. Walter Reed began the fight against the deadly disease yellow fever.
◆1917 AMERICANS LAND IN FRANCE: During World War I, the first 14,000 U.S. infantry troops land in France at the port of Saint Nazaire.✯
◆1918 At Belleau Woods, France after beating off some early morning counterattacks, Major Maurice Shearer sends signal, "Woods now entirely -US Marine Corps."
◆1924 After eight years of occupation, American troops left the Dominican Republic.
◆1926 A memorial to the first U.S. troops in France was unveiled at St. Nazaire.
◆1927 Direct commercial radio service between the Philippines and the US was inaugurated with a message from Manila to SF.
◆1936 The first flight of Fw61 helicopter.
◆1942 The Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter flew for the first time.
◆1944 Most of Cherbourg, except the port, is now occupied by US 7th Corps (part of US 1st Army). The German garrison commander, General Schlieben and the naval commander, Admiral Hennecke, are taken prisoner. Meanwhile, British 2nd Army forces attacking toward Caen recieve naval support from HMS Rodney, the monitor Roberts and 3 cruisers.
◆1944 The French Expeditionary Corps (part of the US 5th Army) advances north of Radicofani while South African elements of the British 8th Army, to the right, capture Chiusi.
◆1944 The American 5th Amphibious Corps continues attacking on Saipan. A small Japanese reinforcement convoy heading for the island is met and forced away by US forces.
◆1944 Admiral Small leads a cruiser and destroyer group to bombard Japanese positions on Matsuwa.
◆1945 In the Herbst Theater auditorium in San Francisco, delegates from 50 nations sign the United Nations Charter, establishing the world body as a means of saving "succeeding generations from the scourge of war."
◆1945 US Marines land on Kume Island, where a new radar station is installed.
◆1945 On Luzon, the American paratroopers dropped near Aparri link up with the US 37th Division. The divisional headquarters now takes command of the parachute battalion and the regimental task force, sent north earlier, as well as the Filipino guerrillas operating in the area.
◆1945 American B-29 Superfortress bombers launch the first in a series of nighttime raids against Japanese oil refineries.
◆1948 In response to the Soviet blockade of land routes into West Berlin, the United States begins a massive airlift of food, water, and medicine to the citizens of the besieged city.
◆1950 Far East Air Forces cargo planes began the evacuation of 700 U.S. State Department and Korean Military Advisory Group employees and their families. FEAF also sent ten F-51 Mustang fighters to the ROK forces.
◆1951 The Soviet Union proposed a cease-fire in the Korean War.
◆1962 NAVFAC Cape Hatteras makes first Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) detection of a Soviet diesel submarine.
◆1963 President Kennedy visited West Berlin, where he made his famous declaration: "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner) at the Berlin Wall.
◆1965 Gen. William Westmoreland, senior U.S. military commander in Vietnam, is given formal authority to commit American troops to battle when he decides they are necessary "to strengthen the relative position of the GVN [Government of Vietnam] forces."✯
◆1971 The U.S. Justice Department issued a warrant for Daniel Ellsberg, accusing him of giving away the Pentagon Papers. The infamous Pentagon Papers gave insights into the Johnson administration's thinking on the Vietnam War.
◆1972 The shift of fighter-bomber squadrons, involving up to 150 U.S. planes and more than 2,000 pilots from Da Nang, to bases in Thailand is completed.
◆1973 Navy Task Force 78 completes minesweeping of North Vietnamese ports.
◆1993 In retaliation for an Iraqi plot to assassinate former U.S. President George Bush during his April visit to Kuwait, President Bill Clinton orders U.S. warships to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraqi intelligence headquarters in downtown Baghdad.
◆1996 The Supreme Court ordered the Virginia Military Academy to admit women or forgo state support.