TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
25 May
◆451 Battle of Avarayr: Armenians are defeated by the Persians.
◆1626 Battle of Dessau: Imperialists defeat the Protestants.
◆1632 Albrecht von Wallenstein's Imperial troops recapture Prague from the Saxons.
◆1864 Battle of New Hope Church, Ga. Joseph E. Johnston tried to halt Sherman’s advance on Atlanta at the Hell Hole.
◆1878 Bill "Bojangles" Robinson born, drum major, 369th Infantry, WW I, dancer, d. 1949.
◆1898 First US troop transport to Manila left San Francisco.
◆1942 American submarines move into patrol positions as part of the countermeasures to the expected Japanese attack on Midway.
◆1944 Patrols of the US 2nd Corps link up with forces of the US 6th Corps from Anzio near Latina (Pontine Marshes). In its advance, the US 6th Corps captures Cisterna and Cori. The German 10th Army is in danger of being cut off and Army Group C (Kesselring) sends its last reserve, the "Hermann Goring" Division, for reinforcement. The US 5th Army (Clark), however, now puts the weight of its forces into the capture of Rome. Meanwhile, the British 8th Army crosses the Melfa River in strength.
◆1944 American forces advancing from Arare cross the Tirfoam River after engaging Japanese defenders.
◆1945 The American armed forces Chiefs of Staff set November 1, 1945 as the start date for the invasion of Japan; Operation Olympic.
◆1945 On Okinawa, the US 4th Marine Regiment eliminates the Japanese casemates and underground positions on Machishi Hill. The US 29th Regiment secures Naha.
◆1951 Eighteen U.S. Marines and one U.S. Army infantryman captured during the Chosin/Changjin Reservoir campaign were returned to U.N. control.
◆1952 ROK President Syngman Rhee declared martial law in Pusan and arrested members of the Korean National Assembly.
◆1952 The USS Iowa made its heaviest attack to date against the industrial seaport of Chongjin.
◆1953 The first atomic cannon was fired at Frenchman Flat, Nevada.
◆1961 President Kennedy asked the nation to work toward putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
◆1961 NASA civilian pilot Joseph A. Walker took the X-15 to 32,770 meters.
◆1962 US performed an atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island.
◆1968 The communists launch their third major assault of the year on Saigon. The heaviest fighting occurred during the first three days of June, and again centered on Cholon, the Chinese section of Saigon, where U.S. and South Vietnamese forces used helicopters, fighter-bombers, and tanks to dislodge deeply entrenched Viet Cong infiltrators. A captured enemy directive, which the U.S. command made public on May 28, indicated that the Viet Cong saw the offensive as a means of influencing the Paris peace talks in their favor.
◆1972 US performed a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
◆1973 Launch of Skylab 2 mission, which was first U.S. manned orbiting space station.
◆1977 US performed a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
◆1990 A congressional report cast doubts on the US Navy’s official finding that a troubled sailor probably had caused the blast that killed 47 servicemen aboard the battleship USS “Iowa.”
◆1995 NATO warplanes struck Bosnian Serb headquarters. Serbs answered with swift defiance, storming UN weapons depots, attacking safe areas and taking peacekeepers as hostages.
◆1996 President Clinton, honoring the men and women who died in military service, used his weekly radio address to defend America's global military role, saying it "is making our people safer and the world more secure."
◆1999 NATO approved plans for 50,000 ground soldiers to move into Kosovo.
◆2004 U.S. warplanes helped Afghan forces pound Taliban militants in the mountains of southern Afghanistan, killing some 20 suspected insurgents at a recently discovered camp.