TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
28 June
◆1098 Battle of Antioch: Crusaders defeat the Syrians.
◆1119 Battle of Balat/Sarmada: Ilghazi defeats the Principlaity of Antioch.
◆1147 Afonso I of Portugal lays siege to Lisbon (falls Oct 24).
◆1389 Battle of Kosovo: Turks defeat the Serbs.
◆1451 An eclipse occurred that allegedly prevented the outbreak of war between the Mohawk and the Seneca Indians.1651 Battle of Berestechko, 1st Day: Poles vs. Ukrainians & Tatars.
◆1776 Colonists repulsed a British sea attack on Charleston, South Carolina.
◆1778 "Molly Pitcher," Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley, wife of an American artilleryman, carried water to the soldiers during the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth, N.J. and, supposedly, took her husband's place at his gun after he is overcome with heat.✯
◆1794 Joshua Humphreys appointed master builder to build Navy ships at an annual salary of $2,000.
◆1814 USS Wasp captures HMS Reindeer.
◆1836 James Madison (85), the 4th president of the United States (1809-17), died in Montpelier, Va. His writings included the 29 Federalist essays.
◆1861 Side-wheel steamer St. Nicholas, making scheduled run between Baltimore and Georgetown, D.C., was captured by Confederates who had boarded her posing as passengers at the steamer's various stopping points on the Potomac River.
◆1862 At Garnett’s and Golding’s farms, fighting continued for a 4th day between Union and Confederate forces during the Seven Days in Virginia.
◆1862 A Confederate band makes a daring capture of a commercial vessel on Chesapeake Bay. The plan was the brainchild of George Hollins, a veteran of the War of 1812. Hollins joined the navy at age 15, and had a long and distinguished career.✯
◆1863 General Meade replaced General Hooker three days before the Battle of Gettysburg.
◆1865 CSS Shenandoah captures eleven American whalers in one day.
◆1902 Congress passed the Spooner bill, authorizing a canal to be built across the isthmus of Panama. The US purchased a concession to build Panama canal from French for $40 million.
◆1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia, while riding in an Austro-Daimler that was chauffeured by Otto Merz, a Mercedes team driver.✯
◆1918 The Chemical Warfare Service was established on June 28, 1918, combining activities that until then had been dispersed among five separate agencies of Government. It was made a permanent branch of the Regular Army by the National Defense Act of 1920. In 1945, it was redesignated the Chemical Corps.
◆1919 At the Palace of Versailles outside Paris, Germany signs the Treaty of Versailles with the Allies, officially ending World War I.
◆1935 FDR ordered a federal gold vault to be built at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
◆1941 The US Army Bill for 1942 is passed by Congress.
◆1943 More American forces occupy Kiriwina and Woodlark islands. Construction of airfields begins.
◆1944 In the Cotentin Peninsula, American forces of US 1st Army prepare to eliminate German resistance in the direction of Cap de la Hague. The forces of British 2nd Army cross the Odon River on a 2 mile front near Mondrainville.
◆1944 On Biak, the American divisional force, now commanded by General Doe, clears the Japanese-held caves in the western part of the island.
◆1945 General MacArthur announces that the operations on Luzon are complete. It has been 5 months and 19 days since the American invasion began. An estimated 11,000 Japanese troops remain isolated in the Sierra Madre mountains and another 12,000 are trapped in the Kiangan-Bontoc (or Ifugao-Bontoc) area. The US 8th Army is assigned the task of mopping up on Luzon while the US 6th Army is reorganized for the invasion of Japan (Operation Olympic). Much of the mopping-up will be left to Filipino units. On Mindanao, mopping up operations continue.
◆1946 Peacetime cruises for the cadets of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy at New London Connecticut, were revived.
◆1949 The last U.S. combat troops were called home from Korea, leaving only 500 advisers.
◆1950 General Douglas MacArthur arrived in South Korea as Seoul fell to the North Korean forces.
◆1950 Sergeant Leroy Deans, Korean Military Advisory Group, received a wound in the eye thereby earning the first ground combat Purple Heart of the Korean War.
◆1950 Detachment X, 35 men of the 507th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion, was the first U.S. ground force unit to arrive in Korea. Within a short time the detachment shot down a Yak fighter with quad .50-caliber machine guns, suffering five wounded in the action.
◆1950 Far East Air Force aircraft dropped the first psychological warfare leaflets over Korea.
◆1965 In the first major offensive ordered for U.S. forces, 3,000 troops of the 173rd Airborne Brigade~in conjunction with 800 Australian soldiers and a Vietnamese airborne unit~assault a jungle area known as Viet Cong Zone D, 20 miles northeast of Saigon. The operation was called off after three days when it failed to make any major contract with the enemy. One American was killed and nine Americans and four Australians were wounded. The State Department assured the American public that the operation was in accord with Johnson administration policy on the role of U.S. troops.
◆1970 Muhammed Ali, formerly Cassius Clay, stood before the Supreme Court regarding his refusal of induction into the Army during the Vietnam War.
◆1970 USS James Madison (SSBN-627) completes conversion to Poseidon missile capability
◆1972 President Nixon announces that no more draftees will be sent to Vietnam unless they volunteer for such duty. He also announced that a force of 10,000 troops would be withdrawn by September 1, which would leave a total of 39,000 in Vietnam.
◆1976 The first women entered the U.S. Air Force Academy.
◆1993 US helicopters attack Somali positions killing 2 gunmen.
◆1996 The Citadel voted to admit women, ending a 153-year-old men-only policy at the South Carolina military school.
◆1999 It was reported that NATO scaled backed initial estimates of damage to the Yugoslav army in the 78-day air campaign.