TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
18 May
◆1291 The Mamlukes capture Acre, ending the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
◆1411 Papal-Angevin force defeats the Neapolitans at Roccasecca, near Cassino.
◆1452 Battle of Brechin: The Earl of Huntly defeats the Earl of Crawford.
◆1565 The Turks land on Malta and commence a siege (fails Sept 11).
◆1775 Benedict Arnold captures British sloop and renames her Enterprise, first of many famous ships with that name.
◆1794 Battle of Tourcoing, Day 2: French defeat the Austro-English.
◆1846 US troops attacked at the Rio Grande and occupied Matamoros.
◆1861 Battle of Sewell's Point VA was the 1st Federal offense against South.
◆1861 Arkansas admitted to the Confederate States of America
◆1863 Union General Ulysses S. Grant surrounds Vicksburg, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, in one of the most brilliant campaigns of the war.
◆1864 The fighting at Spotsylvania in Virginia, reached its peak at the Bloody Angle.
◆1864 Battle of Yellow Bayou, LA (Bayou de Glaize, Old Oaks).
◆1864 James B. Gordon, Confederate Brigadier-General, died.
◆1871 The Kiowa Chief Satanta joins with other Indians to massacre a wagon train near the Red River in northeastern Texas.
◆1899 The First Hague Peace Conference opened in the Netherlands as 26 nations met on World Goodwill Day. The destruction or seizure of enemy property with no military value was banned at the convention.
◆1902 Marines from the USS Ranger landed in Panama City to protect Americans.
◆1917 The U.S. Congress passed the Selective Service act, calling up soldiers to fight WWI.
◆1943 On Attu, American forces advancing from the north and south link up. They reorganize for the drive on what is believe to be the final Japanese positions on the approach to Chicago Harbor.
◆1943 Adolf Hitler launches Operation Alaric, the German occupation of Italy in the event its Axis partner either surrendered or switched its allegiance.
◆1944 The US 6th Army announces that the campaign in the Admiralty Islands has been completed. The Americans have suffered 1400 dead and wounded; the Japanese have suffered 3820 dead and 75 prisoners.
◆1945 On Okinawa, the US 6th Marine Division, part of US 3rd Amphibious Corps, captures most of the Sugar Loaf Hill, as well as parts of the Half Moon and the Horseshoe positions that overlook it, after several days of bitter fighting.
◆1945 On Luzon, American units make progress toward Woodpecker Ridge.
◆1951 Naval Task Force 77 suffered its worst single day of the war when six planes failed to return to their carriers.
◆1953 Air Force Captain Joseph C. McConnell, 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, qualified as the top ace of the war and the first of only two triple jet aces (15 kills) after shooting down another three MiGs. Captain McConnell completed his combat tour on 19 May with a total of 106 missions and 16 MiG kills.
◆1953 Air Force Lieutenant Colonel George I. Ruddell, 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, became the 31st ace of the war after making his fifth MiG kill in an F-86 Sabre called "MiG Mad Mavis."
◆1969 More than 1,500 communist troops attack U.S. and South Vietnamese camps near Xuan Loc, located 38 miles east of Saigon.
◆1969 Launch of Apollo 10, dress rehearsal for first lunar landing mission.
◆1974 In the Rajasthan Desert in the state of Pokhran, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon, a fission bomb similar in explosive power to the U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.
◆1999 Pres. Clinton declared for the first time that he would consider ground troops in Kosovo if he becomes convinced that the NATO bombing strategy would not bring victory.