TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
24 May
◆1568 Battle of Groningen: Dutch defeat the Spanish.
◆1658 Battle of the Dunes: Anglo-French troops defeat the Spanish near Dunkirk.
◆1607 Captain Christopher Newport and 105 followers founded the colony of Jamestown on the mouth of the James River in Virginia.
◆1764 Bostonian lawyer James Otis denounced "taxation without representation" and called for the colonies to unite in demonstrating their opposition to Britain's new tax measures.
◆1818 Gen. Andrew Jackson captured Pensacola, Florida.
◆1822 Battle of Pichincha: Bolivar secures independence of Peru.
◆1830 The first passenger railroad in the United States began service between Baltimore and Elliott's Mills, Md.
◆1844 In a demonstration witnessed by members of Congress, American inventor Samuel F.B. Morse dispatches a telegraph message from the U.S. Capitol to Alfred Vail at a railroad station in Baltimore, Maryland.
◆1846 General Zachary Taylor captured Monterey in the Mexican War.
◆1856 The Potawatomi Massacre took place in Kansas. John Brown, American abolitionist and horse thief, presided over the hacking to death with machetes of five unarmed pro-slavery Border Ruffians in Potawatomi, Kansas.
◆1861 Commander Rowan, commanding U.S.S. Pawnee, demanded surrender of Alexandria, Virginia; amphibious expedition departed Washington Navy Yard, after embarking secretly at night under Commander Dahlgren's supervision, and occupied Alexandria.
◆1863 Forces led by Captain William Marchbanks attacked a Federal militia party in Nevada, Missouri.
◆1863 Confederates fired on the commissary and quartermaster boat of the Marine Brigade under Brigadier General A. V. Ellet above Austin, Mississippi, on the evening of 23 May.
◆1900 Marines landed at Taku, China, to establish Legation Guard at Peking.
◆1915 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
◆1916 Germans capture Ft. Douaumont, Verdun, from the French.
◆1916 US pilot William Thaw shot down a German Fokker.
◆1917 First U.S. convoy to cross North Atlantic during World War I leaves Hampton Roads, VA.
◆1918 USS Olympia anchors at Kola Inlet, Murmansk, Russia, to protect refugees during Russian Revolution.
◆1939 First and only use of VADM Allan McCann's Rescue Chamber to rescue 33 men from sunken USS Squalus (SS-192).
◆1940 Hitler ordered a halt to his forces converging on Dunkirk and the British, who were backed to the sea.
◆1941 The German battleship Bismarck sank the British dreadnought HMS Hood in the North Atlantic.
◆1941 Authorization of construction or acquisition of 550,000 tons of auxiliary shipping for Navy.
◆1942 U.S. General Joseph Stilwell arrives in Delhi after a 140 mile retreat through the Burma jungle. In a press interview he is quoted say: "I claim we got a hell of a beating. We got run out of Burma and it is as humiliating as hell. I think we ought to find out what caused it, go back and re-take it."
◆1943 On Attu American forces make some progress along the Clevesy Pass. There is heavy fighting over Fish Hook Ridge.
◆1944 Attacks by the US 5th Army and the British 8th Army continue. The Canadian 1st Corps captures Pontecorvo and elements reach the Melfa River and establish a bridgehead. The US 2nd Corps takes Terracina against heavy opposition from the German 29th Panzergrenadier Division. At Anzio forces of US 6th Corps reach Route 7 near Latina, to the south of German-held Cisterna. Meanwhile, north of Rome, RAF Spitfires shoot down 8 German Fw190 fighter bombers.
◆1945 On Kyushu, aircraft from US Task Force 58 raid several airfields used by the Kamikaze forces attacking American naval forces around Okinawa. Meanwhile about 520 US bombers strike Tokyo, dropping some 3646 tons of bombs.
◆1945 On Okinawa, during the night, Japanese paratroopers on a suicide mission are landed on American held Yontan airfield and destroy a significant number of aircraft before being wiped out. Meanwhile, Japanese troops conduct vigorous counterattacks in the direction of Yonabaru and make a small penetration into the lines of the US 32nd Division.
◆1951 Lines Kansas and Wyoming became increasingly important with the possibility of a cease-fire and the demilitarized zone that might be required.