TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
13 March
◆1569 Battle of Jarnac: French Catholics defeat the Huguenots.
◆1591 Battle of Tondibi: Moroccans defeat Sultan Askia Ishaq II of Songhai.
◆1777 Congress ordered its European envoys to appeal to high-ranking foreign officers to send troops to reinforce the American army.
◆1792 Cape Noli: Anglo-Neapolitan and French fleets begin two-day clash.
◆1814 Battle of Reims: Napoleon defeats the Russians.★
◆1836 Less than a week after the fall of the Alamo, the newly commissioned Texan General Sam Houston begins a series of strategic retreats to buy time to train his ill-prepared army.★
◆1852 The first appearance of the character Uncle Sam in the weekly comic publication “Diogenes, His Lantern.”
◆1862 Major General John P. McCown, CSA, ordered the evacuation of Confederate troops from New Madrid, Missouri, under cover of Flag Officer Hollins’ gunboat squadron consisting of C.S.S. Livingston, Polk, and Pontchartrain.
◆1863 RADM Farragut’s squadron of 7 ships forces way up Mississippi River to support Union troops at Vicksburg and Baton Rouge.
◆1881 Tsar Alexander II of Russia (1855–1881), 62, assassinated.
◆1884 Mahdists invest Khartoum, defended by George "Chinese" Gordon.
◆1885 President Grover Cleveland wants settlers to stay off of Indian lands in Oklahoma Territory.
◆1895 Award of first submarine building contract to John P. Holland Torpedo Boat Co.★
◆1900 Boer War: British capture Bloemfontein.
◆1911 Atlantic Landing Force of 688 Marines landed at Guantanamo Bay.
◆1917 Armed merchant ships authorized to take action against U-boats.
◆1942 The U.S. Army K9 Corps was born.★
◆1942 Bismarck Archipelago: Japanese troops land on Buka, to build an airfield.
◆1942 Julia Flikke of the Nurse Corps becomes the first woman colonel in the U.S. Army.
◆1943 There was a failed assassination attempt on Hitler during the Smolensk-Rastenburg flight. A time-bomb was placed on board Hitler’s personal aircraft by German Army conspirators intending to assassinate the Fuhrer. It failed to explode.
◆1943 The Arakan: Japanese 55th Division attacks the Indian 14th Division.
◆1944 On Bougainville, US forces mount a counterattack, with armor and air support, and recapture most of the ground lost during the last few days.
◆1944 On Hauwei Island, the small US forces overrun the Japanese garrison. Artillery units are landed to support planned operations on Manus Island.1945 The Arakan: Indian 26th Div makes an amphibious "end run" to trap Japanese troop.
◆1945 The 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 9th Marine Regiment attacked through “Cushman’s Pocket,” Iwo Jima. This was the last strongpoint of enemy resistance on the island.
◆1951 The communists started to withdraw across all fronts on the Korean peninsula.
◆1952 Far East Air Forces flew its 13,000th sortie of the Korean War.
◆1953 Colonel Royal N. “The King” Baker, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, achieved his 30th aerial victory and became the fifth ranking ace of the Korean War.
◆1954 General Giap's Viet Minh attack That Bien Phu.
◆1963 Soviet reconnaissance planes fly over Alaskan airspace, becoming the first established Soviet overflight of the US.
◆1969 The Apollo 9 astronauts splashed down, ending a mission that included the successful testing of the lunar module.
◆1970 Cambodia ordered Hanoi and Viet Cong troops to get out.
◆1975 Ban Me Thuot, capital of Darlac Province in the Central Highlands, falls to North Vietnamese troops.
◆1981 The U.S. planned to send 15 Green Berets to El Salvador as military advisors.