TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
1 November
◆630 Mohammed captures Mecca.
◆866 Battle of York: Danish raiders defeat the Yorkists.
◆1592 Battle of Busan: Korean ironclad "turtle boats" defeat the Japanese fleet.
◆1620 41 Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, anchored off Massachusetts, signed a compact calling for a "body politick." 102 Pilgrims stepped ashore. They called themselves Saints and the others Strangers. One passenger died enroute and 2 were born during the passage. Their military commander was Miles Standish.
◆1765 The Stamp Act went into effect, prompting stiff resistance from American colonists.★
◆1783 Continental Army dissolved and George Washington made his "Farewell Address."
◆1784 Maryland granted citizenship to Lafayette and his descendents.
◆1800 John and Abigail Adams moved into “the President’s House” in Washington DC. It became known as the White House during the Roosevelt administration.
◆1821 Greeks capture Missolonghi from the Turks.
◆1835 Texians begin siege of San Antonio (it falls Dec 4).
◆1841 "Mosquito Fleet" commanded by LCDR J. T. McLaughlin, USN, carries 750 Sailors and Marines into the Everglades to fight the Seminole Indians.
◆1861 Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, 50 year veteran and leader of the U.S. Army at the onset of the Civil War, retired.
◆1869 Louis Riel seized Fort Garry, Winnipeg, during the Red River Rebellion.
◆1917 First US soldiers were killed in combat in WW I.1918 4th Marine Brigade participated in action at Meuse-Argonne. Americans and French advance between Aisne and Meuse in Argonne Forest.
◆1918 British, French and Americans reach Gavere, on Scheldt (ten miles south of Ghent).
◆1924 The 118th Observation Squadron, an element of the 43rd Division receives federal recognition on this date. Originally issued with obsolete Curtis JN-4 “Jennies” left over from World War I, the unit was later equipped with experimental Curtis OX-12’s with rotary engines and a swept-wing design. While the planes proved an unstable photo-recon platform, the technology continued to improve so by World War II many American aircraft were propelled by rotary engines. When the unit was mobilized in February 1941 for World War II it was flying North American O-47B observation aircraft. Once on active duty it flew antisubmarine patrols off the coasts of South Carolina until it deployed to India in 1943. It ended the war flying reconnaissance missions in China.
◆1932 Werner von Braun was named head of German liquid-fuel rocket program.
◆1936 In a speech in Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini described the alliance between his country and Nazi Germany as an "axis" running between Rome and Berlin after Count Ciano’s visit to Germany.
◆1939 1st jet plane, a Heinkel He 178, was demonstrated to German Air Ministry.
◆1940 1st US air raid shelter was made in Fleetwood, Pa.
◆1941 Japanese marine staff officers Suzuki and Maejima arrived in Pearl Harbor.
◆1942 On Guadalcanal, two Marine regiments begin an attack west across the Matanikau River. American engineers have built bridges to aid supplying the attacks. There is heavy fighting. East of the American positions, American troops advance toward Koli Point to preempt an expected Japanese landing.
◆1943 The US 3rd Marine Division (General Turnage) lands on Bougainville, in Empress Augusta Bay at Cape Tarokina. By the end of the day 14,000 American troops are ashore. Task Force 31 (Admiral Wilkinson) provides transport, Task Force 39 (Admiral Merrill) provides support with 4 cruisers and 8 destroyers and Task Force 38 (Admiral Sherman) with the carriers Saratoga and Princeton conduct raids against Buka and the Buna airfields. Coast Guard units also are in support. The local garrison of about 200 Japanese are overcome quickly. However, the island is defended by the Japanese 17th Army (General Hyakutake) with 40,000 troops and 20,000 naval personnel concentrated in the south. After unsuccessful air attacks on the landings the Japanese dispatch Admiral Omori from Rabaul in New Britain with 4 cruisers and 6 destroyers. Nearby a marine battalion occupies Puruata Island after defeating Japanese resistance. Meanwhile, the US 2nd Marine Parachute Battalion on Choiseul continues to engage Japanese forces. This is a diversion from the attack on Bougainville.
◆1943 President Roosevelt orders the Solid Fuels Administration, headed by Ickes, to take over the operation of coal mines. There are 530,000 miners on strike at this time. Roosevelt also urges Congress to continue food subsidies to encourage production and prevent inflation.
◆1943 The British 10th Corps (part of the US 5th Army) continues attacks on German defenses between Monte Massico and Monte Santa Croce in Italy.
◆1944 On Leyte, Japanese forces in the line are reinforced by 2000 men for the base at Ormoc. The defending Japanese forces now consists of forces of the 36th Army (General Suzuki) including the original 16th Division and the new 30th and 102nd Divisions. The attacking US 7th Division (part of US 24th Corps) captures Baybay. Offshore, an American destroyer is sunk, and 5 others are badly damaged by Japanese Kamikaze and bombing attacks.
◆1944 - The first of some 9000 paper balloons, carrying bombs intended to be dropped over North American land, are released near Tokyo.
◆1944 The US B-29 Superfortress "Tokyo Rose" of the 3rd Photo Reconnaissance Squadron makes the first American flight over Tokyo since 1942.
◆1949 Authority to reestablish the Women’s Reserve of the Coast Guard Reserves (SPARS), approved by the President on 4 August 1949 became effective.
◆1950 The 24th Infantry Division's 21st Infantry Regiment achieved the northernmost progress of any U.S. ground unit in Eighth Army as it captured the village of Chonggo-do only 18 miles from Sinuiju on the Yalu River.
◆1950 The 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, began movement from the port of Hamung on the east coast to the Chosin (Changjin) Reservoir 56 miles to the northeast.
◆1950 MiG-15 jet fighters made their first appearance during the Korean War as they flew along the Yalu River to contest the Fifth Air Force's then complete dominance of the skies over North Korea.
◆1950 The 8th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division became the first U.S. unit to engage the Chinese in major ground combat when its 3rd Battalion was overrun at Unsan and suffered 600 killed or captured out of a strength 800. The entire regiment was reduced to 3/4 strength. After the battle, the attacking 115th and 116th Divisions of the Chinese 39th Army disappeared into the mountains of North Korea.
◆1951 1st atomic explosion witnessed by troops, was in New Mexico.
◆1952 The United States exploded the first hydrogen bomb, in a test at Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands.★
◆1954 The US Senate admonished Joseph McCarthy for his slander campaign.
◆1956 The 3d Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment helped evacuate Americans from Alexandria, Egypt.
◆1962 Cuban missile crisis ended. JFK said USSR was dismantling missile bases.
◆1963 South Vietnamese President Ngo Dihn Diem and his brother were assassinated in a military coup.
◆1964 The Vietcong assaulted the Bien Hoa airport at Saigon.
◆1967 Operation Coronado IX began in Mekong Delta
◆1968 Lyndon B. Johnson called a halt to bombing in Vietnam, hoping that this would lead to progress at the Paris peace talks.
◆1979 Beginning of retirement of Polaris A-3 program begins with removal of missiles from USS Abraham Lincoln. Last Polaris missile removed in February 1982.
◆1983 300 Marines of the 22d Marine Amphibious Unit staged an amphibious and helicopter landing on the island of Carriacou, 15 miles northeast of Grenada, in a search for Cuban military installations or personnel. 17 Grenadian soldiers were captured, and arms, ammunition, and training sites were found. The next day the 22d MAU left the Caribbean area and proceeded to Beirut, Lebanon to replace the 24th MAU.
◆1999 In Panama the US handed over Howard Air Force Base, Fort Kobbe and the Farfan residential zone.
◆2001 US planes made their heaviest assaults to date in northern Afghanistan.