TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
11 May
◆878 Battle of Ethandun: King Alfred of Wessex defeats the Danes.
◆1502 Columbus embarked on his 4th voyage with 150 men in 4 caravels. He reached the coast of Honduras after 8 months and passed south to Panama (1503). He returned to Spain Nov 7, 1504, after suffering a shipwreck at Jamaica.
◆1647 Peter Stuyvesant (37) arrived in New Amsterdam to become governor. The one-legged professional soldier was sent from the Netherlands to head the Dutch trading colony at the southern end of Manhattan Island. Stuyvesant lost a leg in a minor skirmish in the Caribbean in 1644.
◆1689 Naval Battle of Bantry Bay: French vs English.
◆1690 KING WILLIAMS WAR: In the first major engagement of King William’s War, British troops from Massachusetts seized Port Royal in Acadia (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) from the French, their objective was to take Quebec.
◆1745 War of the Austrian Succession: Battle of Fontenoy.
◆1792 The Columbia River was discovered and named by Captain Robert Gray.
◆1846 MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR BEGINS: Congress declares war against Mexico at request of the President James Polk.
◆1862 C.S.S. Virginia blown up by her crew off Craney Island to avoid capture.
◆1864 BATTLE OF YELLOW TAVERN: A dismounted Union trooper fatally wounds J.E.B. Stuart, one of the most colorful generals of the South, at the Battle of Yellow Tavern, just six miles north of Richmond.
◆1889 ARMY PAYROLL STOLEN: Major Joseph Wham and group of soldiers, carrying a military payroll of $29,000, were attacked by a dozen outlaws near Fort Thomas, Arizona Territory.
◆1894 THE PULLMAN RIOTS: During the Depression of 1893, the company handed out a hefty round of wage cuts; though the cuts ate up 25 percent to 40 percent of workers' take-home pay, the company refused to lower its rents.
◆1898 Revenue Cutter Hudson towed the crippled USS Winslow from certain destruction under the Spanish forts at Cardenas, Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Congress later conferred a Gold Medal of Honor on her commanding officer, Revenue First Lieutenant F. H. Newcomb. His officers and crew were awarded Silver and Bronze Medals.
◆1898 BATTLE OF CIENFUEGOS: Sailors and Marines from USS Marblehead and USS Nashville cut trans-oceanic cable near Cienfuegos, Cuba, isolating Cuba from Spain.
◆1916 Einstein's Theory of General Relativity was presented.
◆1920 The 16th Marine Regiment organized at Philadelphia for duty in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
◆1942 The Air Medal was authorized by President Roosevelt by Executive Order 9158 and established the award for "any person who, while serving in any capacity in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard of the United States subsequent to September 8, 1939, distinguishes, or has distinguished, himself by meritorious achievement while participating in an aerial flight."
◆1943 The US 7th Division (commanded by General Brown) lands on Japanese occupied Attu Island. Admiral Kinkaid's Task Force 16 supports the operation. The supporting naval forces include 3 battleships, 1 escort carrier and numerous cruisers and destroyers. Once ashore, the American troops encounter difficulties advancing inland due to Japanese resistance and difficult terrain.
◆1943 Hermann Goering division in Tunisia surrendered.
◆1944 BATTLE OF THE GUSTAV LINE: The US 5th Army launches new attacks against the German-held Gustav Line.
◆1944 The US 9th Air Force begins a series of raids on airfields around Caen.
◆1944 The Japanese begin to assemble most of their remaining heavy warships at Tawitawi. Admiral Ozawa commands the forces. The build up is in anticipation of the American offensive against the Mariana Islands to the northeast.
◆1945 On Okinawa, American forces conduct a coordinated attack on the Japanese held Shuri Line. The forces deployed include the US 3rd Amphibious Corps on the right of the line and the US 24th Corps on the left. Only minor gains are achieved. At sea, Kiyoshi Ogawa, Japanese pilot, crashed his plane into the US carrier Bunker Hill near Okinawa. 496 Americans died with him and the ship was knocked out of the war. Two destroyers are also damaged by kamikaze attacks.
◆1945 On Luzon, elements of US 1st Corps make contact on Kapintalan Ridge. The US 25th Division advances on Santa Fe. On Mindanao, elements of US 40th Division advance to hills overlooking Del Monte airfield. Units of Filipino guerrillas liberate Cagayan. The US 24th Division mops up the area northeast of the Talomo river, near Mintal. On Samar, a small American contingent is landed to spot Japanese artillery sites firing on Davao on Mindanao. Fighting continues in the western mountains on Negros.
◆1945 Units of the Soviet 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts eliminate most of the German resistance in Czechoslovakia and make contact with American forces at Pilsen.
◆1947 The B.F. Goodrich Company of Akron, Ohio, announced the development of a tubeless tire.
◆1951 Communist forces conducted a massive shift eastward, completing the move and commencing a new attack on May 16.
◆1961 President Kennedy approves sending 400 Special Forces troops and 100 other U.S. military advisers to South Vietnam.
◆1962 US sent troops to Thailand.
◆1965 U.S. destroyers deliver first shore bombardment of Vietnam War.
◆1967 In Vietnam the siege of Khe Sanh ended, with the base still in American hands.
◆1969 HAMBURGER HILL (Day 2): U.S. and South Vietnamese forces battle North Vietnamese troops for Ap Bia Mountain (Hill 937), one mile east of the Laotian border.
◆1973 Charges against Daniel Ellsberg for his role in the Pentagon Papers case were dismissed by Judge William M. Byrne, who cited government misconduct.
◆1975 The Cambodian government seized an American merchant ship, the Mayaguez.
◆1989 President Bush ordered nearly 2,000 troops to invade Panama.
◆1991 President Bush dispatched an amphibious task force with thousands of Marines and dozens of helicopters to help cyclone-ravaged Bangladesh with disaster relief efforts.
◆1999 NATO bombings continued in Serbia with strikes against radio and TV towers, oil storage tanks, bridges and army barracks.
◆1999 US and British warplanes bombed air defense targets in northern and southern Iraq after they were targeted by radar.