TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
30 May
◆1213 English raid Damme, on Zwyn Estuary in Flanders, burning French ships.
◆1431 Joan of Arc, 19, burned as a witch by the English, Rouen.
◆1498 Columbus departed with 6 ships for his third trip to America.
◆1539 Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto landed at Tampa Bay, Florida, with 600 soldiers in search of gold. Hernando de Soto returned to the New World at the head of a 1,000-man expedition into North America. He landed near present-day Tampa Bay and proceeded through what is now Alabama and Tennessee, making treaties with some Indian, viciously fighting with others.
◆1559 Battle of Konia: Prince Selim of Turkey defeats his half-brother Bayazid.
◆1588 The Spanish Armada sails from Lisbon for the Netherlands.
◆1806 In Logan County, Kentucky, future president Andrew Jackson participates in a duel, killing Charles Dickinson, a lawyer regarded as one of the best pistol shots in the area.
◆1814 Navy gunboats capture three British boats on Lake Ontario near Sandy Creek, NY.
◆1848 Mexico ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo giving US: New Mexico, California and parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona & Colorado in return for $15 million.
◆1848 Battle of Goito: Piedmontese defeat the Austrians.
◆1849 Battle of Palestro: Austrians defeat Sardinians by the 31st.
◆1849 Battle of San Pancrazio: Garibaldi defeats the French near Rome.
◆1854 Battle of Cienquilla: Apache ambush the 1st Dragoons, 22 die.
◆1854 The territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established.
◆1861 U.S.S. Merrimack, scuttled and burned at Norfolk Navy Yard, raised by Confederates.
◆1862 Confederates abandon the city of Corinth.
◆1861 Union troops occupy Grafton, Virginia.
◆1862 Battle of Front Royal, VA.
◆1864 Battle of Bethesda Church, VA.
◆1865 William Clarke Quantrill (27), Confederate bushwhacker, died.
◆1912 U.S. Marines were sent to Nicaragua to protect American interests.
◆1942 Four Japanese submarines arrive too late to intercept the American task forces destined for Midway.
◆1942 US aircraft carrier Yorktown left Pearl Harbor.
◆1943 US forces complete the occupation of Attu Island. American losses are reported as 600 dead and 1200 wounded. Japanese losses are given as 2350 killed (including many suicides) and 28 wounded have been captured.
◆1945 On Okinawa, American forces reach Shuri, south of the former Japanese positions. Two battalions of US Marines reach the southeast edge of Naha.
◆1945 The Iranian government formally requests the withdrawal of American, British and Soviet troops from Iran.
◆1951 Eighth Army regained the Kansas Line.
◆1952 Far East Air Forces had flown 200,000 sorties in the Korean War during some 330 consecutive days of combat operations.
◆1958 Unidentified soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean conflict were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
◆1965 Viet Cong offensive began against US base at Da Nang.
◆1966 In the largest raids since air attacks on North Vietnam began in February 1965, U.S. planes destroy five bridges, 17 railroad cars, and 20 buildings in the Thanh Hoa and Vinh areas (100 and 200 miles south of Hanoi, respectively). Others planes hit Highway 12 in four places north of the Mugia Pass and inflicted heavy damage on the Yen Bay arsenal and munitions storage area, which was located 75 miles northeast of Hanoi. A U.S. spokesman attributed the unprecedented number of planes taking part in the raids to an improvement in weather conditions.
◆1971 The U.S. unmanned space probe Mariner 9 is launched on a mission to gather scientific information on Mars, the fourth planet from the sun.
◆1982 Spain became NATO's 16th member, the first country to enter the Western alliance since West Germany in 1955.