TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
8 October
◆876 Battle of Andernach: The Germans defeat King Charles II "the Bald" of France.
◆1652 Battle of Kentish Knock: Blake's English fleet defeats de Witt's Dutch off Dover.
◆1793 John Hancock, US merchant and signer of the Declaration of Independence, died at 56.
◆1812 Boat party under Lt. Jesse D. Elliott captures HMS Detroit and Caledonia in Niagara River.
◆1813 Treaty of Reid: Bavaria abandons its French alliance and joins Austria and Prussia in the German national war against Napoleon.
◆1842 Commodore Lawrence Kearny in USS Constitution addresses a letter to the Viceroy of China, urging that American merchants in China be granted the same treaty privileges as the British. His negotiations are successful.
◆1862 The Union was victorious at the Battle of Perryville, the largest Civil War combat to take place in Kentucky.
◆1890 Edward Vernon Rickenbacker (d.1973) was born in Columbus, Ohio. He became America's "Ace of Aces" in World War I with more than 20 kills. Rickenbacker was already a famous race car driver when he entered World War I at age 28. Although he was considered too old to become an aviator, "Rick," ultimately won the Medal of Honor for his wartime exploits. "If a thing is old, it is a sign that it was fit to live. ... The guarantee of continuity is quality."
◆1899 A force of 375 Marines under command of future Commandant George F. Elliott, attacked and captured the insurgent town of Novaleta, Luzon, Philippine Islands, and linked up with U.S. Army troops. There were 11 Marine casualties.
◆1918 Sgt. Alvin C. York almost single-handedly killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 in the Argonne Forest in France.★
◆1942 Fight at Matanikau River, Guadalcanal. This Third Battle of the Matanikau was a U.S. success: the Marines mauled a Japanese infantry regiment and disrupted their offensive by capturing assembly and artillery positions on the east bank of the Matanikau. 1945 - President Truman announced that the secret of the atomic bomb would be shared only with Britain and Canada.
◆1950 Chinese Premier Mao Tse-tung secretly ordered Chinese "volunteers" to "resist the attacks of U.S. imperialism."
◆1952 The Chinese began an offensive in Korea.
◆1952 Operation RED COW, a joint Navy -Air Force mission against enemy positions near Kaesong, was conducted with Navy F2H Banshee fighter jets from Task Force 77 providing fighter escort for Air Force B -29 Super Fortress bombers. This was one of only two instances in the war in which Navy fighters escorted Air Force bombers.
◆1955 The aircraft carrier USS Saratoga was launched at Brooklyn.
◆1960 USS Constellation (CV-64) was launched, a Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the "new constellation of stars" on the flag of the United States.
◆1968 U.S. forces in Vietnam launched Operation Sealord, an attack on North Vietnamese supply lines and base areas.
◆1987 U.S. helicopter gunships in the Persian Gulf sank three Iranian patrol boats after an American observation helicopter was fired on.
◆1993 Army policy directive authorizes wartime awards (only for actions since June 5th, 1993) and Combat Infantryman Badges and Medical Badges for participants in Somalia fighting. AC130 spectre gunships come back to Mogadishu and shell the city.
◆2001 President Bush establishes the Office of Homeland Security in the Executive Office of the President and appoints Pennsylvania Governor, and Gulf War General, Tom Ridge as Director.
◆2001 US forces hit Afghanistan with a 2nd wave of attacks. 40 Taliban commanders along with 1,200 men switched sides and handed over control of a provincial road north of Kabul. 4 UN civilian workers were later confirmed as casualties of the bombing; Abdul Saboor, Safiullah, Najibullah and Nasir Ahmad worked for a mine clearing agency.