TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
19 May
◆1588 Spanish Armada sets sail from Cadiz for Lisbon.
◆1639 Battle of Thionville: Imperialists defeat the French.
◆1643 Battle of Rocroi/Allersheim: French victory over the Spanish.
◆1652 Spanish capture Gravelines.
◆1793 Dutch capture St. Maarten from France.
◆1796 Battle of Lodi: Bonaparte's French defeat the Austrians.
◆1849 Battle of Velletri: Neapolitans beat off Garibaldi's Roman troops.
◆1863 Union commander Major General Ulysses S. Grant fails in his first attempt to take the strategic Confederate city of Vicksburg, which sits on a bluff overlooking (and thereby controlling boat traffic on) the Mississippi River.
◆1864 A dozen days of fighting around Spotsylvania ends with a Confederate attack against the Union forces.
◆1864 Battle of Port Walthall Junction, VA (Bermuda Hundred).
◆1865 President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union Cavalry in Georgia.
◆1882 Commodore Shufeldt (USS Swatara) lands in Korea to negotiate first treaty between Korea and Western power.
◆1890 Ho Chi Minh, revolutionist and leader of North Vietnam (1946-1969), was born. He fought the Japanese, French and United States to gain independence for his country.
◆1927 The 11th Marine Regiment arrived at Esteli, Nicaragua, for garrison duty.
◆1943 On Attu, American forces advance along Clevesy Pass toward Chicago.
◆1944 Allied forces of US 5th Army continue to make advances. The US 2nd Corps captures Gasta Itri and Monte Grande. The French Expeditionary Corps nearly reaches Pico and battle for Campodimele. Meanwhile, British armor and infantry overrun the Aquino airfield, in the Liri Valley but German antitank guns repulse an attempt to seize the town.
◆1944 American aircraft the carriers of Task Group 58.2 (Admiral Montgomery) conduct a raid on Marcus Island.
◆1945 On Luzon, in the Ipoh dam area north of Manila, where the US 43rd Division of US 11th Corps is operating, Japanese resistance ends. The US 152nd Division is holding its positions near Woodpecker Ridge. The US 25th Division, part of US 1st Corps, begins mopping up in the area north and west of Santa Fe.
◆1945 On Okinawa, the US 77th Division suffers heavy casualties while fighting for the Ishimmi ridge and withdraws.
◆1945 Some 272 American B-29 Superfortress bombers strike Hamamatsu, 120 miles (192 km) from Tokyo. Bombs are dropped through the clouds from medium altitude.
◆1951 The 2nd Infantry Division, with attached French and Dutch battalions, fought their way out of a Chinese trap in the mountains of central Korea, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. The 38th Field Artillery Battalion fired 12,000 rounds in a 24-hour period in support of the division.
◆1958 The United States and Canada formally established the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
◆1959 The Peoples’ Army of Vietnam’s Military Transportation Group 559 formed on the 69th birthday of Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh. It ultimately resulted in the creation of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The trail was intended to facilitate the infiltrating of troops and transporting supplies from North Vietnam to support the revolution in South Vietnam.
◆1960 USAF Maj. Robert M White took the X-15 to 33,222 m.
◆1964 The United States initiates low-altitude target reconnaissance flights over southern Laos by U.S. Navy and Air Force aircraft.
◆1965 30th Naval Construction Regiment activated at Danang, Vietnam.
◆1967 The first U.S. air strike on central Hanoi was launched.
◆1967 One of the first major treaties designed to limit the spread of nuclear weapons goes into effect as the Soviet Union ratifies an agreement banning nuclear weapons from outer space.
◆1972 Units of South Vietnam's 9th and 21st Divisions, along with several South Vietnamese airborne battalions, open new stretches of road south of An Loc and come within two miles of the besieged city.
◆1976 The US Senate established congressional oversight over the CIA with the permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
◆1987 President Reagan defended America's presence in the Persian Gulf, two days after 37 American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. frigate Stark.
◆1990 Secretary of State James A. Baker III concluded an agreement with the Soviet Union to destroy chemical weapons and settle longstanding disputes over limits on nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.
◆1999 As NATO's Operation Allied Force entered its ninth week, Russia's special envoy to the Balkans called on both NATO and Yugoslavia to suspend hostilities.
◆2000 Nine countries banded together to petition entry into NATO in 2002. They included Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
◆2002 In Afghanistan, Operation Mountain Lion began in an attempt to seal off the border.
◆2002 A team of 50 US Green Berets landed in Tbilisi for a 2-year training program for Georgia's army.