TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
20 March
◆1631 Imperial troops sack Magdeburg, 25,000 said to have died.
◆1800 Battle of Heliopolis: French defeat the Turks.
◆1813 King Frederick Wilhelm III of Prussia creates the Iron Cross.
◆1814 Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, Day 1: Austro-Russians v. Napoleon.
◆1815 Napoleon reaches Paris from Elba; The Hundred Days begin.
◆1833 CDR Geisinger of Peacock negotiates first commercial treaty with King of Siam.
◆1836 Coleto Creek: Texian garrison of Goliad surrenders to the Mexican Army.
◆1849 Battle of Cava: Austrians defeat the Piedmontese.
◆1863 Battle of Pensacola, FL- which is evacuated by Federals.
◆1865 A plan by John Wilkes Booth to abduct U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was ruined when Lincoln changed his plans and did not appear at the Soldier’s Home near Washington, DC.
◆1896 U.S. Marines landed in Corinto, Nicaragua to protect U.S. citizens in the wake of a revolt.★
◆1918 The Bolsheviks asked for American aid to rebuild their army.
◆1922 President Harding ordered U.S. troops back from the Rhineland.
◆1922 The USS Langley was commissioned into the U.S. Navy as America’s first aircraft carrier.★
◆1939 Naval Research Lab recommends financing research program to obtain power from uranium.
◆1941 Sabotage was discovered on an Italian vessel at Wilmington, North Carolina.
◆1942 General MacArthur slipped out of Corregidor and vowed: “I shall return.”
◆1943 The Allies attacked Rommel’s forces on the Mareth Line in North Africa.
◆1943 Marine “Avengers” conducted the first aerial mine-laying mission.
◆1944 British General Alexander, Supreme Allied Command in the Mediterranean, agrees to the request of New Zealand Corps commander General Freyberg to halt attacks on Cassino because of heavy losses, unless substantial progress is achieved within the next two days.
◆1944 The US 4th Marine Division (General Noble) lands on Emirau Island, in the Matthias group.★
◆1945 US Task Force 58 (Admiral Mitscher) is replenishing in preparation for operations around Okinawa. There are Japanese Kamikaze attacks that fail to achieve significant success. Admiral Spruance, command the US 5th Fleet, is present for the operations.
◆1945 Troops of US 7th Army capture Saarbrucken as well as Zweibrucken a little to the east. Forces of US 3rd Army capture Ludwigshafen and Kaiserslautern. Farther north, the US 1st Army continues fighting to expand the Remagen bridgehead which is now almost 30 miles wide and 19 miles deep.
◆1951 The battleship USS Missouri fired 246 tons of 16-inch shells and 2,000 rounds of 5-inch ammunition on Wonsan in the heaviest such attack of the war.★
◆1953 The Joint Chiefs of Staff approved Operation MOOLAH. This was an effort to entice MiG pilots to defect with their aircraft and in return receive political asylum and a monetary reward.
◆1991 A US jet fighter shot down an Iraqi warplane in the first air attack since the Gulf War cease-fire.
◆2002 US began war games with South Korea, the biggest ever.
◆2003 The US military invasion of Iraq began.★
◆2003 Turkey’s parliament approved a motion allowing over-flights for US warplanes. Turkey announced plans to send thousands of troops into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.
◆2004 NATO-led forces surrounded Kosovska Mitrovica in efforts to separate ethnic Albanians and Serbs and prevent a resurgence of attacks that killed 28 people and wounded 600. Ethnic Albanians looted villages and apartments abandoned by Serb civilians. Some 110 homes and at least 16 Serb Orthodox churches were destroyed by arson.