TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
23 May
◆878 Alfred the Great defeats the Danes at Edington.
◆1430 Burgundians capture Joan of Arc, for the English.
◆1475 Battle of Neuss: The Burgundians defeat the Imperialists.
◆1701 Captain Kidd is hanged.
◆1706 Battle of Ramillies: Marlborough defeats French.
◆1775 Patrick Henry (allegedly) says "Give me Liberty or give me death!"
◆1809 Battle of Aspern-Essling (Day 2): Austrians draw with Napoleon.
◆1850 Navy sends USS Advance and USS Rescue to attempt rescue of Sir John Franklin's expedition, lost in Arctic.
◆1861 Virginia citizens voted 3 to 1 in favor of secession, becoming the last Confederate state.
◆1861 Pro Union and pro Confederate forces clashed in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
◆1861 U.S.S. Mississippi. Flag Officer William Mervine, was compelled to put back into Boston for repairs because of sabotage damage to her condensers.
◆1862 Stonewall Jackson took Fort Royal, Virginia, in the Valley Campaign.
◆1864 Battle of North Ana.
◆1868 Kit Carson, frontiersman, died.
◆1899 Marines arrived to secure Cavite Naval Base, Philippines.
◆1908 Part of the Great White Fleet arrived in Puget Sound, Washington.
◆1915 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
◆1930 Lieutenant Commander Elmer F. Stone received a medal from Congress for extraordinary achievement in making the first successful trans-Atlantic flight in 1919. Stone was the pilot of the Navy's NC-4.
◆1939 The US submarine Squalus sank off the coast of New Hampshire. A diving bell designed by Charles "Swede" Momsen (d.1967) brought 33 survivors (26 perished) safely to the surface. This was the first successful undersea rescue operation to retrieve a sunken submarine crew
◆1944 The US 6th Corps in the Anzio beachhead launches an attack on Cisterna. German resistance results in high Allied casualties. Meanwhile, the US 5th Army continues offensive operations. US 2nd Corps patrols reach Terracina. Both the French Expeditionary Corps and the Canadian 1st Corps penetrate the German-held Senger Line. The Canadians break through by the end of the day.
◆1944 American forces encounter heavy resistance in their advance westward from Arare toward Sarmi. At Aitape, Japanese attacks continue to force the Americans to fall back.
◆1944 US Task Group 58.2 (Admiral Montgomery) launches air raids on Japanese positions on Wake Island.
◆1945 American attacks bring shipping at Yokohama to a halt.
◆1945 On Okinawa, after occupying Naha, the US 6th Marine Division (part of US 3rd Amphibious Corps) encounters heavy Japanese resistance to attempts to advance further south.
◆1949 The Federal Republic of Germany (popularly known as West Germany) is formally established as a separate and independent nation.
◆1951 Eighth Army advanced toward the Kansas and Wyoming Lines to the base of the Iron Triangle against stiffening enemy resistance. By the end of May, the communists had suffered 17,000 killed and an equal number were taken prisoner.
◆1958 Mao Tse-tung starts "the Great Leap Forward" in China, millions die.
◆1967 A public controversy over the M-16, the basic combat rifle in Vietnam, begins after Representative James J. Howard (D-New Jersey) reads a letter to the House of Representatives in which a Marine in Vietnam claims that almost all Americans killed in the battle for Hill 881 died as a result of their new M-16 rifles jamming.
◆1971 North Vietnamese demolition experts infiltrate the major U.S. air base at Cam Ranh Bay, blowing up six tanks of aviation fuel, which resulted in the loss of about 1.5 million gallons. U.S. commander Creighton Abrams criticized the inadequate security.
◆1972 Heavy U.S. air attacks that began with an order by President Richard Nixon on May 8 are widened to include more industrial and non-military sites.
◆1988 The V-22 Osprey, the world's first production tilt-rotor aircraft, made its debut during rollout ceremonies at Bell Helicopter Textron's Arlington, Texas, facility.
◆2002 The Pentagon reported that the Defense Dept. sprayed live nerve and biological agents over Navy ships in 6 six tests between 1964-1968. The Project shipboard Hazard and Defense (SHAD) experiments included the use of sarin and VX nerve gases and the staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB).
◆2004 In Iraq US troops battled fighters loyal to a radical Muslim cleric in his stronghold of Kufa, and at least 32 insurgents were killed. Gunmen killed a police captain and a university student who were headed by car to Baghdad from Baqouba. Insurants loyal to al-Sadr gave up control of central Karbala.