TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
13 May
◆1110 Crusaders capture Beirut amid great slaughter.
◆1307 Battle of Ayr: Robert Bruce defeats Ralph de Monthermet.
◆1568 Battle of Langside: the Earl of Moray defeats the Earl of Argyll.
◆1607 Some 100 English colonists settle along the west bank of the James River in Virginia to found Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America.
◆1779 War of the Bavarian Succession ends.
◆1787 Arthur Phillip set sail with 11 ships of criminals to Botany Bay, Australia. By year’s end some 50,000 British convict servants were transported to the American colonies in commutation of death sentences. After the American Revolution, Britain continued dumping convicts in the U.S. illegally into 1787. Australia eventually replaced America for this purpose.
◆1801 Tripoli declares war against the United States
◆1836 U.S. Exploring Expedition authorized to conduct exploration of Pacific Ocean and South Seas, first major scientific expedition overseas. LT Charles Wilkes USN, would lead the expedition in surveying South America, Antarctica, Far East, and North Pacific.
◆1846 War 'officially' declared by Congress on Mexico.
◆1861 Queen Victoria proclaimed British neutrality and forbade British subjects to endeavor to break a blockade "lawfully and effectually established."
◆1861 Union troops occupy Baltimore.
◆1864 Battle of Resaca commenced as Union General Sherman fought towards Atlanta.
◆1865 The last battle of the Civil War, fought near the Rio Grande River, ends in a Confederate victory. Soon after, word arrives of the surrender of the Confederate armies in the east and these men give themselves up to Union forces on June 2nd. The Civil War is officially over at the cost of more than 600,000 dead.
◆1912 Britain creates the Royal Flying Corps.
◆1928 BATTLE OF COCO RIVER, NICARAGUA.
◆1942 A helicopter made its 1st cross-country flight.
◆1943 US forces now outnumber the Japanese defenders on Attu Island by 4 to 1. However, the Americans are unable to extend their front beyond the landing areas. Bad weather and the terrain hinder progress.
◆1944 Forces of the US 5th Army continue to attack. The Polish 2nd Corps suffers heavy losses in unsuccessful attacks against the German 1st Parachute Division holding Cassino. The French Expeditionary Corps, however, captures Castelforte as well as Monte Maio and advance to the Liri River at Sant'Appollinaire. The US 2nd Corps and British 13th Corps make limited advances during the day.
◆1944 An American escort destroyer sinks the Japanese submarine I-501 (formerly U-1224) off the Azores. The submarine had been presented to the Japanese by the German Kriegsmarine.
◆1945 On Okinawa, fierce fighting continues along the Shuri Line. The US 6th Marine Division suffers heavy losses but completes the capture of Dakeshi Ridge. On the east coast, elements of the US 96th Division penetrate the strip east of the Shuri line and take part of Conical Hill.
◆1945 In Czechoslovakia, German forces continue to attempt to evade capture by Soviet forces and seek to surrender to American forces instead. Active resistance ends.
◆1945 After more heavy fighting on Mindanao, the Del Monte airfield is captured by units of the US 40th Division. The US 24th Division advances northwards along the Talomo track in the river valley. On Luzon, the force of the US 1st Corps complete the occupation of the Balete Pass, clearing the way into the Cagayan valley. The US 43rd Division, part of US 11th Corps, comes within sight of the Ipoh dam.
◆1952 Naval Task Force 77 began Operation INSOMNIA - a series of abbreviated night attacks.
◆1953 General Clark authorized the mobilization of four more ROK divisions.
◆1953 The Air Force's 58th Fighter-Bomber Wing attacked Toksan Dam in North Korea and destroyed this major irrigation system.
◆1972 Seventeen U.S. helicopters land 1,000 South Vietnamese marines and their six U.S. advisors behind North Vietnamese lines southeast of Quang Tri City in the first South Vietnamese counterattack since the beginning of the communist Nguyen Hue Offensive.
◆1975 Marines recapture Mayaguez, go ashore on Koh Tang Island and release the crew.
◆1989 In unusually strong language, President Bush called on the people of Panama and the country's defense forces to overthrow their military leader, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega.
◆1996 Britain’s last Polaris submarine, the HMS Repulse, came home for good. The Polaris subs have been replaced by the US Trident nuclear subs.