TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
4 November
◆1354 Naval Battle of Soplegno: Geonese defeat the Venetians.
◆1576 Spanish capture Antwerp from the Dutch.
◆1760 Battle of Torgau: Frederick the Great defeats the Austrians.
◆1791 General Arthur St. Clair, governor of Northwest Territory, was badly defeated by a large Indian army near Fort Wayne. Miami Indian Chief Little Turtle led the powerful force of Miami, Wyandot, Iroquois, Shawnee, Delaware, Ojibwa and Potawatomi that inflicted the greatest defeat ever suffered by the U.S. Army at the hands of North American Indians. Some 623 regulars led by General Arthur St. Clair were killed and 258 wounded on the banks of the Wabash River near present day Fort Wayne, Indiana. The staggering defeat moved Congress to authorize a larger army in 1792.
◆1794 Battle of Warsaw: Suvarov's Russians defeat the Poles amid great slaughter, and capture the city.
◆1798 Congress agreed to pay a yearly tribute to Tripoli, considering it the only way to protect U.S. shipping. The US has no appreciable Navy as yet. This is the most expedient and assured way to protect American shipping in the Mediterranean.
◆1840 British, Turkish, Austrian fleets capture Acre, Palestine, from the Egyptians.
◆1854 The first lighthouse on the West Coast was built at Alcatraz Island.
◆1856 James Buchanan was elected US president.
◆1863 From the main Confederate Army at Chattanooga, Tenn., Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's troops were sent northeast to besiege Knoxville.
◆1864 Confederate assault on Johnsonville, Tennessee.
◆1884 Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected to his first term as president, defeating Republican James G. Blaine.
◆1918 Americans advance to Stenay on Meuse.
◆1924 Calvin Coolidge was elected 30th president on a platform of pro-business policies.
◆1942 On Guadalcanal, American forces land in regimental strength at Aola, 25 miles east of the main American position. They bring engineers to attempt to build a second airstrip on the island. This idea has been dismissed as futile by local commanders because of the difficult terrain. They are correct. Raiders from this landing move out in an attempt to connect with the main position.
◆1942 19 German and 21 Italian submarines begin to patrol around Gibraltar due to the increase of Allied shipping traffic in preparation for Operation Torch. They will achieve some success, but 6 submarines will be sunk and the destination of the transports will not be discovered.
◆1943 A new Japanese squadron led by Admiral Kurita arrives in Rabaul, New Britain Island. The Japanese force consists of 10 cruisers and 10 destroyers. American reconnaissance sights the squadron en route and Task Force 38 prepares to attack with its carrier aircraft.
◆1943 Advance of the US 5th Army continues. The British 10th Corps holds Monte Massico and Monte Croce and moves against Monte Camino with 78th Division. The US 6th Corps captures Venafro and Rocavirondola as it advances to the German defenses of the Reinhard Line. The British 8th Army has the Germans withdrawing to the Sangro River. The Allied armies now have full lateral communications through Isernia.
◆1944 A German counterattack recovers Schmidt, near Aachen, from the US 1st Army.
◆1944 On Leyte, American forces advance west of Dagami around "Bloody Ridge".
◆1948 The International Military Tribunal for the Far East was concluded.
◆1950 The 7th Marine Regiment, just north of Chinhung-ni near the Chosin (Changjin) Reservoir, destroyed the last four tanks of the North Korean 344th Tank Regiment.
◆1950 The first incendiary bombs used in the Korean War are dropped by B-29 Superfortresses of the U.S. Air Force's 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy) on the city of Chongjin in northeastern Korea.
◆1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower (Ike) was elected president the 34th president, defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson in presidential elections. The Republicans took over for the first time in 20 years. A Univac computer in Philadelphia predicted the results based on early returns.
◆1956 Following nearly two weeks of protest and political instability in Hungary, Soviet tanks and troops viciously crush the protests.★
◆1969 In the biggest battle in four months, South Vietnamese infantry, supported by U.S. planes and artillery, clash with North Vietnamese troops for 10 hours near Duc Lop near the Cambodian border. Eighty communist troops were reported killed. South Vietnamese losses included 24 killed and 38 wounded.
◆1970 The United States hands over an air base in the Mekong Delta to the Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF) as part of the Vietnamization program. President Richard Nixon initiated this program in 1969 to increase the fighting capability of South Vietnam so they could assume more responsibility for the war. It included the provision of new equipment and weapons and an intensified advisory effort. Secretary of the Air Force Robert Seamans and Gen. Creighton Abrams, commander of Military Assistance Command Vietnam, attended the ceremony. The air base became the home of two South Vietnamese helicopter squadrons, with the United States providing 62 aircraft, 31 of which were turned over along with the air base. By 1973, after additional equipment and aircraft transfers had been made to VNAF, the air base had a fleet of 1,700 aircraft, including more than 500 helicopters.
◆1971 USS Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636) launches a Poseidon C-3 missile in first surface launch of Poseidon missile.
◆1976 The first Marine Corps Marathon kicked off in Washington, DC.
◆1978 Iranian troops fired on anti-Shah student protesters by Tehran Univ.
◆1980 Ronald Reagan was elected the 40th president of the United States.