TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
27 October
◆1728 Captain James Cook (d.1779), explorer, was born in England. His discoveries included Australia and the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).
◆1787 The first of the Federalist Papers, a series of 77 essays calling for ratification of the U.S. Constitution, was published in a New York newspaper. The essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay were later published as "The Federalist Papers."
◆1810 President James Madison ordered the annexation of the western part of West Florida.
◆1830 Belgian Revolution: Dutch bombard Antwerp.
◆1848 Battle of Mestre: The Venetians defeat the Austrians.
◆1858 Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States (1901-1909) who was the namesake of the “Teddy” bear, was born in New York City. Today a reconstruction of the house is a National Historic Site and open to the public. The 26th president of the U.S., Roosevelt died on January 6, 1919. He wrote the 4-volume “The Winning of the West.” In 1996 The American Experience series broadcast a 4-hr. TV special that covered his life. His pursuit of boxing left him blind in one eye. He put 230 million acres of land under federal protection. "Death is always and under all circumstances a tragedy, for if it is not, then it means that life itself has become one."
◆1862 A Confederate force was routed at the Battle of Labadieville, near Bayou Lafourche in Louisiana.
◆1864 Battle of Boydton Plank Road, Va. (Burgess' Mill, Southside Railroad).
◆1864 Battle of Fair Oaks, Va. In combination with movements against the Boydton Plank Road at Petersburg, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler attacked the Richmond defenses along Darbytown Road with the X Corps. The XVIII Corps marched north to Fair Oaks where it was soundly repulsed by Field's Confederate division. Confederate forces counterattacked, taking some 600 prisoners. The Richmond defenses remained intact. Of Grant’s offensives north of the James River, this was repulsed most easily.
◆1864 LT William Cushing, USN, sinks Confederate ram Albemarle with a spar torpedo attached to the bow of his launch.
◆1873 Farmer Joseph F. Glidden applied for a patent on barbed wire.
◆1913 Pres. Wilson said US will never attack another country.
◆1918 French 4th Army to the left [west] of the US 1st Army catches up to American front line.This is made possible by the success of two U.S. divisions, the 2nd and 36th, successfully capturing Blanc Mont Ridge in the Champagne and pursuing the enemy to the River Aisne.
◆1920 League of Nations moved headquarters in Geneva.
◆1922 Navy League of U.S. sponsors first annual celebration of Navy Day to focus public attention on the importance of the U.S. Navy. That date was selected because it was Theodore Roosevelt's birthday.
◆1922 In Italy, liberal Luigi Facta's cabinet resigned after threats from Mussolini that "either the government will be given to us or we will seize it by marching on Rome." Mussolini called for a general mobilization of all Fascists.
◆1939 King Leopold III, in a broadcast to the USA, declares that Belgium is determined to defend its neutrality.
◆1939 - The US Senate approves amendments to the Neutrality Act, repealing the arms embargo provision.
◆1941 In a broadcast to the nation on Navy Day, President Franklin Roosevelt declared: "America has been attacked, the shooting has started." He did not ask for full-scale war yet, realizing that many Americans were not yet ready for such a step.
◆1941 The Chicago Daily Tribune dismissed the possibility of war with Japan, editorializing, “She cannot attack us. That is a military impossibility. Even our base at Hawaii is beyond the effective striking power of her fleet.”
◆1942 At Guadalcanal, the Japanese halt the offensive. They have suffered 3500 casualties with entire units being destroyed. Both sides are exhaustive by the heavy day and night fighting, but the initiative has passed to the Americans.
◆1943 First women Marines report for duty on West Coast, Camp Pendleton.
◆1944 On land, the US 7th Division (part of US 24th Corps) captures Buri Airfield. Meanwhile, the Tacloban airstrip, on Leyte, becomes operational and the US 9th Fighter Squadron flies the first mission by Philippines based American fighters since 1942. At sea, a group of 3 carriers commanded by Admiral Sherman attacks Japanese shipping around Luzon, sinking 2 destroyers. There are also air strikes on Luzon. The battleship USS California is damaged.
◆1952 The 8th Fighter-Bomber Wing recorded its 50,000th combat sortie of the war.
◆1954 Pres. Eisenhower offered aid to S. Vietnam Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem.
◆1961 The 1st Saturn launch vehicle made an unmanned flight test from Cape Canaveral. The Saturn rocket evolved from the idea of clustering a number of Jupiter engines around Redstone and Jupiter propellant tanks to build a large launch vehicle. These engines, whose thrust would total 1.5 million pounds (6.7 million newtons), would be mounted on a structure consisting of eight 70-inch (178-centimeter)-diameter tanks clustered around a single 105-inch (267-centimeter) Jupiter tank. The Department of Defense's Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) gave its approval to develop such a structure in August 1958. Development of the three-stage Saturn 1 began in December 1959. In early 1960, the second stage was changed so that six less powerful engines replaced the four 20,000-pound second-stage engines, and the third stage was eliminated. Assembly of the first flight vehicle began in May 1960.
◆1966 Women Marines serve in WestPac - first time west of Hawaii.
◆1967 Operation Coronado VIII begins in Rung Sat Zone.