TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
14 May
◆756 Battle of Cordoba: The Yemenites defeat the Quaisiti.
◆1314 The Earl of Moray captures Edinburgh from the English.
◆1509 Battle of Agnadello: the French defeat the Venetians.
◆1559 Battle of Deoraj: Moghul Emperor Aurangzeb defeats Dara Shikon.
◆1607 Just over 100 men and boys filed ashore from the small sailing ships Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery, onto what English adventurers came to call Jamestown Island in Virginia. 104 Englishmen arrived.
◆1710 King Adolfus Frederik of Sweden born.
◆1801 Tripoli declares war against the United States
◆1804 One year after the United States doubled its territory with the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition leaves St. Louis, Missouri, on a mission to explore the Northwest from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.
◆1812 The Ordnance Department was established by act of Congress.
◆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.
◆1845 First U.S. warship visits Vietnam. While anchored in Danang for reprovisioning, CAPT John Percival commanding USS Constitution, conducts a show of force (by landing US Marines) against Vietnamese authorities in an effort to obtain the release of a French priest held prisoner by Emperor of Annam at Hue.
◆1863 Union General Nathanial Banks took his army out of Alexandria, Louisiana, and headed towards Port Hudson along the Mississippi River. The fort was considered the second most important strategic location on the river, after Vicksburg.
◆1864 BATTLE OF RESACA.
◆1897 "Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Phillip Sousa was performed for the first time in Philadelphia.
◆1897 Guglielmo Marconi made the first communication by wireless telegraph.
◆1908 1st passenger flight in an airplane.
◆1942 The Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) was established.
◆1942 The first indications of Japanese planning for an attack on Midway Island, in the Central Pacific, reach the code breakers.
◆1943 U.S. and Great Britain chiefs of staff, meeting in Washington, D.C., approve and plot out Operation Pointblank, a joint bombing offensive to be mounted from British airbases on Germany.
◆1944 The attacks by forces of the US 5th Army continue. The French Expeditionary Corps advances into the Ausente Valley, capturing Ausonia, and continue to advance over the Aurunci Mountains toward the next German defensive line, which is not occupied in strength at this time. The US 2nd Corps makes progress against the defending German 94th Division.
◆1944 Merrill's Marauders in surprise attack on Japanese airport at Myitkyina.
◆1945 US Army announced the discovery of millions of dollars worth of art looted by the Nazis from all over Europe well as 100 tons of gold bars and currency hidden in a salt mine located on the Losa Plateau in Austria.
◆1945 On Luzon, units of the US 25th Division, part of US 1st Corps, advance north of the Balete Pass. Elements of the the US 43rd Division, part of US 11th Corps, reach the Ipoh dam, which has been fortified by the Japanese.
◆1945 Elements of Florida’s 124th Infantry, 31st Infantry Division repel several Japanese “banzi” suicidal attacks.
◆1945 The US 20th Air Force conducts a fire bombing raid Nagoya. About 2500 tons of incendiary bombs are dropped by 472 B-29 Superfortress bombers. Some 20 Japanese fighters are shot down.
◆1945 On Okinawa, 20 American Marines reach the summit of Sugar Loaf Hill. The airfield at Yonabaru is captured.
◆1949 Pres. Truman signed a bill establishing a rocket test range at Cape Canaveral.
◆1955 WARSAW PACT ESTABLISHED.
◆1973 US Supreme court approved equal rights to females in military.
◆1973 Skylab, America's first space station, is successfully launched into an orbit around the earth.
◆1975 U.S. forces raided the Cambodian island of Koh Tang and recaptured the American merchant ship Mayaguez. All 40 crew members were released safely by Cambodia, but some 40 U.S. servicemen were killed in the military operation.
◆1996 The Voice of America turned on its newest radio transmitter in Kuwait. It was 12 times more powerful than any broadcast station in the US and was directed at Iraq and Iran.
◆1997 Negotiators agreed on a pact to create a Russia-NATO advisory council. NATO agreed not to base nuclear weapons or substantial combat forces in countries that were recently under Moscow’s control.