TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
24 March
◆1688 Governor Edmund Andros issues an order placing the militia of the New England colonies under his own direct control.
◆1765 Britain enacted the Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide temporary housing to 10,000 British soldiers in public and private buildings.★
◆1814 Although US General James Wilkinson is acquitted by a court of inquiry for his conduct in the Montreal campaign, he is replaced by Major General Jacob Brown who, along with newly promoted Brigadier General Winfield Scott, is to head the military operations in the Niagra region.
◆1825 The Mexican state of Tejas-Coahuilla officially declares itself open to US settlers.
◆1832 As part of Jackson’s continuing effort to move Native American tribes, the Creeks sign a treaty to cede their territory east of the Mississippi to the US.
◆1903 George Dewey commissioned Admiral of the Navy with the date of rank, 2 March 1899. He was the only person to hold this rank.
◆1916 German U-Boats sink the French vessel Sussex in the English Channel.★
◆1934 President Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines. 1938 – The U.S. asked that all powers help refugees fleeing from the Nazis.
◆1942 American positions on Bataan and Corregidor are attacked by Japanese aircraft and artillery.
◆1944 76 Allied officers escaped Stalag Luft 3.★
◆1944 On Bougainville, significant Japanese resistance ends. American forces do not attempt to clear the Japanese remnants from the island. Over the course of the past few weeks, Japanese casualties are estimated at 8000 while the US forces have suffered about 300 casualties.
◆1944 The 22nd Marine Regiment captured Ebon and Namu Atolls in the Marshall Islands.
◆1945 The US 9th Army begins to cross the Rhine a little to the south of the British and Canadians forces.
◆1945 Gens. Eisenhower, Montgomery and Bradley discussed advance in Germany.
◆1945 US Task Force 58 (Admiral Mitscher) conduct air raids on Okinawa. The island is also bombarded by 5 battleships and 11 destroyers under the command of Admiral Lee. Japanese submarines make unsuccessful attacks on the American ships. Meanwhile, American scout planes sight a Japanese convoy south of Kyushu and subsequent attacks sink all 8 ships.
◆1951 MacArthur threatened the Chinese with an extension of the Korean War if the proposed truce was not accepted.
◆1951 ROK Army units crossed the 38th parallel.
◆1953 The 2nd Infantry Division’s artillery units began to support the embattled 7th Infantry Division on Pork Chop Hill, firing 15,000 rounds in one week.★
◆1958 Elvis Presley is inducted into the army on this day in 1958.★
◆1965 US Ranger 9 struck the Moon, 10 miles (16 km) NE of crater Alphonsus.
◆1966 Selective Service announced college deferments based on performance.
◆1967 Viet Cong ambushed a truck convoy in South Vietnam, damaging 82 of the 121 trucks.
◆1975 The North Vietnamese “Ho Chi Minh Campaign” begins.★
◆1980 ABC’s nightly Iran Hostage crisis program was renamed “Nightline.”
◆1982 The US submarine Jacksonville collided with a Turkish freighter near Virginia.
◆1991 General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the American commander of Operation Desert Storm, told reporters in Saudi Arabia the United States was closer to establishing a permanent military headquarters on Arab soil.
◆1991 In liberated Kuwait, banks reopened for the first time since Iraqi troops had shut them down the previous December.
◆1999 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) commences air strikes against Yugoslavia with the bombing of Serbian military positions in the Former Yugoslav province of Kosovo.
◆1999 Russia denounced the NATO attack on Serbia.
◆2003 In the 6th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom US forces began strikes against the Medina Division of the Republican Guard guarding Baghdad. Hussein appeared on Iraqi TV as coalition forces held over 3,000 prisoners. 10 Marines were killed in combat around Nasiriya.
◆2003 Coalition forces have pushed further into Iraq securing most of the southern oilfields over the weekend.★
◆2003 Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi TV telling his nation that “victory is soon.”
◆2004 A NASA unpiloted X-43A jet, part of its Hyper-X program, reached a record speed of 5,200 mph, Mach 6.83, after a rocket boosted it to 3,500 mph.★