TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
2 October
◆1263 Battle of Largs, Ayrshire: Scots defeat King Haakon IV of Norway.
◆1341 Battle of San Quirico: The Pisans defeat the Florentines.
◆1569 Battle of Montcontour: French Catholics defeat the Huguenots.
◆1799 The Duke of York captures Alkmaar in the Netherlands.
◆1799 Establishment of Washington Navy Yard. The Washington Navy Yard is the U.S. Navy's oldest shore establishment, in operation since the first decade of the 19th century. It evolved from a shipbuilding center to an ordnance plant and then to the ceremonial and administrative center for the Navy. The yard is home to the Chief of Naval Operations and is headquarters for the Naval Historical Center, the Marine Corps Historical Center, and numerous naval commands.
◆1835 Battle of Gonzales: The first battle of the Texas Revolution took place as American settlers defeated a Mexican cavalry near the Guadalupe River.★
◆1862 An Army under Union General Joseph Hooker arrived in Bridgeport, Alabama to support the Union forces at Chattanooga.
◆1865 Former Confederate General Robert E. Lee became president of Washington and Lee University in Virginia.
◆1918 Marines participated in the Battle of Blanc Mont in France.
◆1939 Foreign ministers of countries of the Western Hemisphere agree to establish a neutrality zone around the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North and South America to be enforced by the U. S. Navy. All belligerent actions by hostile powers are supposed to be forbidden in this zone.
◆1942 Enrico Fermi and others demonstrated the 1st self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction under Stagg Field at the University of Chicago.
◆1942 Major J. L. Smith shot down 18th Zero. He becomes the highest scoring ace to this date.
◆1942 President Roosevelt is granted power to control wages, salaries and agricultural prices.
◆1942 American forces begin to build a base on Funafuti Atoll in the Ellice Islands of the South Pacific.
◆1950 The ROK Capital and 3rd Divisions seized Yangyang on the East Coast while in the southeast ROK Marines took the port of Mokpo. Chinese Foreign Minister Chou En-lai warned the Indian Ambassador in Beijing that if the Americans cross the 38th parallel China would enter the war.
◆1951 Future jet ace Colonel Francis S. "Gabby" Gabreski, Vice Commander of the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, downed his third MiG-15 of the war in an F-86 Sabre jet. Colonel Gabreski was a leading World War II ace with 28 German aircraft kills while flying a P-47 Thunderbolt.
◆1962 "Combat" premiers on ABC, runs for five seasons.★
◆1978 Syrians and Palestinians on a shooting spree in East Beirut kill 1,300.
◆1990 Allies ceded any remaining rights as occupiers of Germany.
◆1996 The US Army prepared to shift 5,000 troops to Bosnia from Germany for 6-months to protect troops slated to leave.
◆1999 Russian troops engaged Chechen guerrilla defenders as armored columns rolled into the villages of Alpatova and Chernokosova.