TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
4 March
◆1222 Battle of Chateaubriant: The Bretons defeat the French.
◆1238 Battle of the Sith River: the Mongols under Batu Khan obliterate the Russians under Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal, near Yaroslav.
◆1394 Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal was born, died 1460.
◆1519 Hernan Cortez, adventurer and lawyer, lands in Mexico.
◆1665 England declares war on the Netherlands, initiating the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667).
◆1681 England’s King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn (37) for 48,000 square miles that later became Pennsylvania.
◆1766 The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, the cause of bitter and violent opposition in the colonies.
◆1781 At Clapp’s Mill North Carolina, Lt. Col. Henry Lee’s U.S. forces attempted to ambush Col. Banastre Tarleton’s British forces. Tarleton recoved and Lee was forced to retreat, losing 8 men, while the British lost 20.
◆1791 President Washington called the US Senate into its 1st special session.
◆1791 Vermont was admitted as the 14th state. It was the first addition to the original 13 colonies.
◆1793 George Washington was inaugurated as President for the second time.
◆1801 Thomas Jefferson was the first President to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C. The Marine Band performed at a Presidential Inauguration for the first time.
◆1809 Madison became 1st President inaugurated in American -made clothes.
◆1814 Battle of Longwood: Americans defeat the British, near Wardsville, Ontario.
◆1849 The US had no President. Polk’s term ended on a Sunday and Taylor couldn’t be sworn -in; Senator David Atchison (pres pro tem) term had ended March 3rd.
◆1861 Confederate States adopted the “Stars and Bars” flag.★
◆1863 Battle of Thompson’s Station, Tennessee.
◆1865 Confederate congress approved the final design of “official flag.”
◆1911 Appropriation of first funds for experiments in naval aviation.
◆1925 Swain’s Island (near American Samoa) was annexed by US.
◆1925 Congress authorizes restoration of USS Constitution.
◆1929 Congress appropriated $144,000 for seaplanes and equipment for Coast Guard.
◆1942 US China headquarters is established by General Stillwell at Chunking.
◆1942 American Admiral Halsey’s naval force attacks Marcus Island. At Marcus Island, 760 miles west -northwest of Wake, and 990 miles southeast of Yokohama, Admiral Halsey’s forces executed a successful air attack just before dawn on the 4th dropping flares to illuminate objectives. No enemy aircraft or ships were present. Heavy antiaircraft fire was encountered while planes dropped 96 bombs on the small island, resulting in considerable damage to hangars, fuel and ammunition storages, radio installations and aircraft runways. Loss in this engagement was one aircraft.
◆1943 Battle of the Bismark Sea; Japanese are mauled by US and Australian forces crippling their defense of New Guinea.★
◆1944 US Task Force 74 (Crutchley) shells Japanese batteries on Hauwei and Ndrilo. These guns have hampered American access to Seeadler Bay.
◆1944 The U.S. Eighth Air Force launches the first American bombing raid against the German capital.★
◆1945 US 1st and 9th Armies continue their advance to the Rhine River. The US 7th Corps from US 1st Army reaches the Rhine just north of Cologne.
◆1945 On Iwo Jima, the first damaged B -29 uses the landing field.
◆1951 U.S. Marines advanced to within nine miles of Hongchon.
◆1952 North Korea accused the U.N. of using germ warfare.
◆1952 An air detachment consisting of three helicopters and necessary personnel, established as the first unit of its type on a test basis at the air station, Brooklyn, New York, began operating in support of port security operations.
◆1954 Speaking before the 10th Inter-American Conference, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles warns that “international communism” is making inroads in the Western Hemisphere and asks the nations of Latin America to condemn this danger.
◆1955 1st radio facsimile transmission (fax) was sent across the continent.
◆1959 US Pioneer IV missed the Moon and became a 2nd (US 1st) artificial planet.
◆1962 AEC announced 1st atomic power plant in Antarctica in operation.
◆1968 Orbiting Geophysical Observatory 5 was launched.
◆1979 US Voyager I photo revealed Jupiter’s rings.
◆1982 NASA launched Intelsat V.
◆1990 US 65th manned space mission STS 36 (Atlantis 6) returned from space.
◆1991 2:05 p.m., The Army’s 37th Engineer Battalion blew up 33 Iraqi bunkers in the Iraqi desert. The Pentagon later acknowledged that one of the bunkers probably contained shells of sarin, a nerve agent, and mustard gas.
◆1994 The space shuttle STS -62 (Columbia 16) blasted off on a two -week mission.
◆2001 President George W. Bush dedicated a $4 billion aircraft carrier in honor of former President Reagan. Nancy Reagan christened the ship. It was commissioned in 2003.
◆2003 The Army’s oldest armored division, “Old Ironsides,” got orders to head for the Persian Gulf as the total of U.S. land, sea and air forces arrayed against Iraq or preparing to go neared 300,000.