TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
31 May
◆1223 Battle of Kalka: Subotai's Mongols defeat the Russians.
◆1257 Battle of Pontargottn: the Welch defeat the English.
◆1634 Massachusetts Bay colony annexed the Maine colony.
◆1859 Battle of Palestro: Franco-Piedmontese defeat the Austrians.
◆1861 Gen. PGT Beauregard was given command of Confederate Alexandria Line.
◆1862 Confederate forces strike Union troops in the Peninsular campaign. During May 1862, the Army of the Potomac, under the command of George B. McClellan, slowly advanced up the James Peninsula after sailing down the Chesapeake Bay by boat. Confederate commander Joseph Johnston had been cautiously backing his troops up the peninsula in the face of the larger Union force, giving ground until he was in the Richmond perimeter. When the Rebels had backed up to the capital, Johnston sought an opportunity to attack McClellan and halt his advance. That chance came when McClellan's forces were straddling the Chickahominy River. The swampy ground around the river was difficult to maneuver, and the river was now a raging torrent from the spring rains. A major storm on May 31 threatened to cut the only bridge links between the two wings of the Union army. Johnston attacked one of McClellan's corps south of the river on May 31 in a promising assault. The plan called for three divisions to hammer the Federal corps from three sides, but the inexperienced Confederates were delayed and confused. By the time the attack came, McClellan had time to muster reinforcements and drive the Rebels back. A Confederate attack the next day also produced no tangible results. The Yankees lost 5,000 casualties to the Rebels' 6,000. But the battle had two important consequences. McClellan was horrified by the sight of his dead and wounded soldiers, and became much more cautious and timid in battle—actions that would eventually doom the campaign. And since Johnston was wounded during the battle's first day, Robert E. Lee replaced him. Lee had been serving as Confederate President Jefferson Davis' military advisor since his undistinguished service in western Virginia during the war's first year. The history of the war in the eastern theater drastically changed as Lee ascended the ranks. His leadership and exploits soon became legend.
◆1863 U.S.S. Carondelet, Lieutenant Murphy, patrolling the Mississippi River below Vicksburg, proceeded to Perkins Landing, Louisiana, where Army troops were found cut off from the Union headquarters.
◆1863 Rear Admiral Porter, accompanied by some of the fleet officers, went ashore, mounted horses and rude to Major General 'V. T. Sherman's headquarters before Vicksburg.
◆1864 Grant moves his lines towards Cold Harbor.
◆1868 The 1st Memorial Day parade was held in Ironton, Ohio.
◆1900 Sailors and Marines from USS Newark and USS Oregon arrive at Peking, China with other Sailors and Marines from Britain, France, Russia, Italy and Japan to protect U.S. and foreign diplomatic legations from the Boxers.
◆1940 President Roosevelt introduces a "billion-dollar defense program" which is designed to boost the United States military strength significantly.
◆1942 In an attempt to reinforce the Pacific Fleet, battleships Colorado and Maryland sail from San Francisco.
◆1944 USS England sank a record sixth Japanese submarine in 13 days.
◆1944 The Canadian 1st Corps captures Frosinone; the British 10th Corps takes Sora. Around Anzio, forces of the US 6th Corps capture Velletri and Monte Artemiso while other elements attack Albano. The German loss of Velletri unhinges their defenses of the Caesar Line.
◆1944 US forces reduce their perimeter near Arare. All the American beachheads on the north coast experience significant Japanese attacks. Meanwhile, to the east, Australian forces capture Bunabum.
◆1945 On Okinawa, the US 6th Marine Division (part of US 3rd Amphibious Corps) encounters Japanese rearguards near Hill 46. Japanese forces pull out of Shuri.
◆1945 On Negros, organized Japanese resistance ends. On Luzon, a regiment of the US 37th Division begins moving northward from Santa Fe through the Cagayan valley.
◆1965 U.S. planes bomb an ammunition depot at Hoi Jan, west of Hanoi, and try again to drop the Than Hoa highway bridge. These raids were part of Operation Rolling Thunder, which had begun in March 1965. President Lyndon B. Johnson had ordered the sustained bombing of North Vietnam to interdict North Vietnamese transportation routes in the southern part of North Vietnam and slow infiltration of personnel and supplies into South Vietnam. In July 1966, Rolling Thunder was expanded to include North Vietnamese ammunition dumps and oil storage facilities as targets. In the spring of 1967, it was further expanded to include power plants, factories, and airfields in the Hanoi-Haiphong area. The White House closely controlled operation Rolling Thunder and President Johnson occasionally selected the targets himself. From 1965 to 1968, about 643,000 tons of bombs were dropped on North Vietnam. A total of nearly 900 U.S. aircraft were lost during Operation Rolling Thunder. The operation continued, with occasional suspensions, until President Johnson halted it on October 31, 1968, under increasing domestic political pressure.
◆1988 President Ronald Reagan ends his first trip to Moscow, and his fourth summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, on notes of both frustration and triumph.
◆1988 The first search and rescue agreement with the Soviet Union was signed at a summit in Moscow. The agreement set a general line, or boundary, separating SAR regions and provided for exchange visits to SAR coordination centers in both countries, joint SAR exercises, and regular communication checks.
◆1994 The United States announced it was no longer aiming long-range nuclear missiles at targets in the former Soviet Union.
◆1995 President Clinton declared he was ready to permit the temporary use of American ground forces in Bosnia to help UN peacekeepers move to safer positions if necessary.
◆1997 Rosie Will Monroe (76), WW II icon (Rosie the riveter), died.
◆2002 The US State Dept. urged some 60,000 Americans in India to leave over concerns of war between India and Pakistan.
◆2002 Bulgaria signed an agreement with the US to destroy its Cold War-era missiles. The US planned to pay the costs of destruction.