TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
29 March
Vietnam Veteran Recognition Day.
◆1461 Battle of Towton: Yorkists defeat the Lancastrians in the bloodiest encounter ever on English soil.
◆1682 Piedmontese invade Montferrat.
◆1790 John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States (1841-1845), was born in Charles City County, Va. He was also the first vice-president to succeed to office on the death of a president.
◆1814 In the Battle at Horseshoe Bend, Alabama, Andrew Jackson beat the Creek Indians.
◆1847 Some 12,000 US forces led by General Winfield Scott occupied the city of Vera Cruz after Mexican defenders capitulated.
◆1864 Union General Steele’s troops reached Arkadelphia, Arkansas.
◆1864 The low level of the Red River continued to hinder Rear Admiral Porter’s efforts to get his gun-boats above the rapids at Alexandria for the assault on Shreveport. He reported: “After a great deal of labor and two and a half days’ hard work, we succeeded in getting the Eastport over the rocks on the falls, hauling her over by main force... ‘ All the Army transports maneuvered safely above the rapids, but hospital ship Woodford was battered against the rocks and sank. Porter added: “I shall only be able to take up I part of the force I brought with me, and leave the river guarded all the way through.”
◆1865 Battle of Quaker Road, Va.
◆1865 The final campaign of the war begins in Virginia when Union troops of General Ulysses S. Grant move against the Confederate trenches around Petersburg.
◆1867 The United States purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars.
◆1879 Battle of Kambula: British defeat the Zulu.
◆1903 A regular news service began between New York and London on Marconi’s wireless.
◆1912 Revolutionaries from various areas of Mexico began to challenge the new government, and an offensive was launched in March 1912 by Orozco, who accused Madero of abandoning the principles of the Plan of San Luis Potosí.Orozco was defeated, however, by Victoriano Huerta, the unscrupulous commander of the federal forces. To protect the embassy staff, the U.S. sent rifles to the Mexican ambassador in Mexico City and readied U.S. ships to transport troops to fight the rebels.
◆1917 Marines garrisoned St. Croix to deny harbor to German submarines.
◆1943 World War II meat, butter and cheese rationing began.
◆1945 The US 7th Army captures Mannheim and Heidelberg.
◆1945 Gen. George S. Patton’s 3rd Army captures Frankfurt, as “Old Blood and Guts” continues his march east.★
◆1945 There are American landings in the northwest of the island Negros near Bacolod. The landing force, part of the US 185th Infantry Regiment, encounters heavy Japanese resistance on the island.
◆1945 US naval forces, including TF58 and TF52, continue air strikes on Okinawa while TF54 continues bombarding the island. Japanese Kamikaze and submarine attacks continue.
◆1951 The Chinese rejected MacArthur’s offer for a truce in Korea.
◆1953 U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel George L. Jones, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, became the 30th ace of the Korean War.
◆1954 Carrier aircraft began reconnaissance near Dien Bien Phu, Indochina.
◆1960 Launch of first fully integrated Fleet Ballistic Missile from USS Observation Island.
◆1962 Cuba opened the trial of the Bay of Pigs invaders.1962 Military coup ousts Argentine Pres Arturo Frondizi (1958-1962).
◆1964 The U.S. planned to add $50 million a year for aid to South Vietnam.
◆1973 Two months after the signing of the Vietnam peace agreement, the last U.S. combat troops leave South Vietnam as Hanoi frees the remaining, admitted, American prisoners of war held in North Vietnam. As part of the Accords, Hanoi releases the last 67 of its acknowledged American prisoners of war, bringing the total number released to 591.
◆1974 The unmanned U.S. space probe Mariner 10, launched by NASA in November 1973, becomes the first spacecraft to visit the planet Mercury, sending back close-up images of a celestial body usually obscured because of its proximity to the sun.
◆1975 Evacuation of Danang by sea began.
◆1988 US Congress discontinued aid to Nicaraguan contras.
◆1991 General H. Norman Schwarzkopf publicly apologized to President Bush for questioning his judgment about calling a cease-fire in the Gulf War.
◆1999 It was reported that the US government knowingly risked the lives of thousands of workers over the last 50 years by allowing them to be exposed to dangerous levels of beryllium, a metal critical to the military.
◆1999 Albania and Macedonia appealed for help as thousands of refugees fled Kosovo on the 6th day of bombing. NATO said Serbs were targeting ethnic Albanian leadership for executions and the US accused Milosevic of “crimes against humanity.”
◆2002 Iraq expressed interest in resuming relations with Kuwait.
◆2002 It was reported that Russia had announced plans to build a nuclear plant for North Korea.
◆2003 In the 11th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom a suicide bomber driving a taxi killed four American soldiers at a checkpoint near Najaf, Iraq. US jets destroyed a building in Basra where paramilitary fighters were meeting and 200 were reported killed.
◆2003 A low-flying Iraqi missile avoided the detection of US defense systems and landed just off the coast of Kuwait City, shattering windows at the seaside Souq Sharq shopping mall.