TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
30 March
◆430 Battle of Mold: St. Germanus defeats the Picts and Saxons.
◆1191 King Philip II of France sails from Sicily for the Holy Land (3rd Crusade).
◆1282 "Sicilian Vespers" begin: Palermitans massacre French occupiers, initiating war to transfer the island to the Catalans.
◆1296 Battle of Berwick: King Edward I defeats Sir William Douglas & the Scottish Nobles.
◆1603 Battle of Mellifont: English defeat the Irish.
◆1639 Massacre of Aberdeen: Montrose's Scots Covenanters slaughter the Royalists.
◆1769 Following the example of the Philadelphia merchants, Baltimore merchants join the non-importation movement by banning the purchase of English goods until the repeal of the Townshend Acts.
◆1775 King George III endorses the New England Restraining Act, which forbids the New England colonies from trading with any other countries except England after 1 July, and also bans them from fishing in the North Atlantic after 20 July. On 13 April the provisions of the act will also be applied to Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia when Parliament hears that these colonies have ratified the Continental Association.
◆1814 Battle of Clichy: Austro-Russo-Prussians defeat the French.
◆1855 In territorial Kansas’ first election, some 5,000 so-called “Border Ruffians” invade the territory from western Missouri and force the election of a pro-slavery legislature.★
◆1867 The United States government put the finishing touches on the deal to purchase that “large stump of ice,” better known as Alaska.
◆1870 The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race, passed.
◆1870 Texas was the last Confederate state readmitted to the Union.★
◆1915 Wilson protests the British blockade of German ports. His concern is for US shipping and neutral vessels destined for neutral ports. However, since most of these vessels are carrying cargoes which will ultimately find their way to Germany, Britain refuses to budge.
◆1940 Japan establishes its own government in conquered Nanking, the former capital of Nationalist China.
◆1941 The U.S. seized Italian, German and Danish ships in 16 ports.
◆1942 Coast Guard was designated as a service of the Navy to be administered by the Commandant of Coast Guard under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, similar to the administration of the Marine Corps.
◆1942 The Joint Chiefs divide the Pacific into two command spheres. Admiral Nimitz is appointed Commander in Chief of the Pacific Ocean zone and General MacArthur, the Commander in Chief of the Southwest Pacific. This demarcation will lead to friction when planning the reconquest of the east.
◆1944 The U.S. fleet attacked Palau, near the Philippines. First use of torpedo squadrons from carriers to drop aerial mines (Palau Harbor).
◆1944 US forces occupy Pityilu Island to the north of Manus Island. There is little Japanese resistance.
◆1945 The US 1st Army advances north out of its salient around Marburg and reaches and crosses the Eder River. US 3rd Army is attempting to strike east and north toward Gotha and Kassel.
◆1945 Soviet troops enter Austria.
◆1945 In American air raids on the northern ports, the German cruiser Koln and 14 U-boats are sunk.
◆1945 US naval forces, including TF58 and TF52, continue air strikes on Okinawa while TF54 continues bombarding the island. A Japanese Kamikaze plane badly damages the cruiser USS Indianapolis. Unsuccessful submarine attacks continue.
◆1945 A Soviet cable was intercepted that referred to an agent named Ales, later suspected of being Alger Hiss. The intercepted cables were classified as part of the “Venona Project” released in 1996. The US began releasing the coded Venona cables in 1995. They implicated 349 US citizens and residents as Soviet helpers.
◆1946 The Allies seized 1,000 Nazis who were attempting to revive the Nazi party in Frankfurt.
◆1950 President Truman denounced Senator Joe McCarthy as a saboteur of U.S. foreign policy.
◆1951 The heaviest air attack of the war was staged by 38 B-29′s on twin bridges over the Yalu River at Sinuiju, dropping some 280 tons of bombs. Escorting F-80s and F-86s engaged enemy MiG-15 jets, destroying three and damaging six.
◆1952 A fire completely destroyed the headquarters of the 7th Cavalry Regiment at Camp Crawford, Japan. Many of the regiment’s souvenirs, some dating back to the time of Custer, were lost in the blaze.
◆1952 Chou En-Lai, Foreign Minister, Peoples’ Republic of China, suggested that POWs not desiring repatriation might be placed in the temporary custody of a neutral nation until negotiations determined their final status.★
◆1961 NASA pilot Joseph Walker takes X-15 to 51,690 m.
◆1966 The 7th Marine Regiment terminated Operation Indiana in Vietnam.
◆1972 A major coordinated communist offensive opens with the heaviest military action since the sieges of Allied bases at Con Thien and Khe Sanh in 1968.★
◆1975 As the North Vietnamese forces moved toward Saigon, desperate South Vietnamese soldiers mobbed rescue jets.
◆1981 President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by a deranged drifter named John Hinckley Jr. ★
◆1994 The Clinton administration announced it was lifting virtually all export controls on non-military products to China and the former Soviet bloc.
◆1996 The space shuttle Atlantis narrowly avoided having to make an emergency landing when its cargo-bay doors wouldn’t open at first to release built-up heat.