TODAY IN MILITARY HISTORY
29 October
◆539 BCE Cyrus the Great of Persia captures Babylon.
◆969 Byzantines capture Antioch from the Saracens.
◆1467 Battle of Bruthem: Charles the Bold of Lorraine defeats Liege.
◆1587 Battle of Vimory: French Catholics defeat the Huguenots.
◆1814 Launching of the first American steam powered warship, at New York City. The ship was designed by Robert Fulton. While never formally named, Fulton referred to it as Demologos.
◆1847 Marines help take a Mexican schooner in the Gulf of Mexico.
◆1863 The troops of Union General Ulysses S. Grant open a supply line into Chattanooga, Tennessee, when they drive away a Confederate attack by General James Longstreet.
◆1885 George B. McClellan (58), Union army general, died.
◆1921 Bill Maudlin, American political cartoonist whose GI “Willie” and “Joe” characters appeared in Stars and Stripes newspapers, was born in New Mexico.★
◆1929 The DJIA dropped 11.7%. "Black Tuesday" was the worst day of the market crash as panicked survivors dumped 16 million shares on the market.
◆1939 Reflecting the rising number of Chinese defections to the Japanese, the US military attache reports that there are 100,000 armed Chinese serving as Huang Hsieh Chun (Imperial Assisting Troops).
◆1940 The first draftees are selected by lottery from the Selective Service registrations. In New York, the first person chosen is Yuen Chong Chan. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson drew the first number.
◆1942 On Guadalcanal, the Japanese, stung by their heavy losses begin withdrawals from the coast to the west of the American beachhead. The Americans begin preparing to occupy this area.
◆1943 3 Allied officers escaped the German camp Stalag Luft 3.
◆1944 On Leyte, elements of US 24th Corps capture Abuyag, south of Dulag, while Catmon Hill is cleared and the advance to Dagami continues. At sea, carrier groups under the command of Admiral Davison and Admiral Bogan conduct air strikes. In two days, they destroy almost 100 Japanese planes for a loss of 15 American aircraft. The carrier USS Intrepid is damaged by a Kamikaze attack.
◆1950 The X Corps advance in the northeast was slowed by determined resistance by communist forces. First Marine Division units were attacked at Kojo. The 7th Infantry Division landed at Iwon, 150 miles north of Wonsan to join X Corps forces on the ground.
◆1956 Israeli armed forces push into Egypt toward the Suez Canal, initiating the Suez Crisis.
◆1971 The total number of US troops remaining in Vietnam drops to 196,700 - lowest level since January 1966. This was a result of the Vietnamization program announced by President Richard Nixon at the June 1969 Midway Conference. U.S. troops were to be withdrawn as the South Vietnamese assumed more responsibility for the war. The first withdrawal included troops from the 9th Infantry Division, who departed in August 1969. The withdrawals continued steadily, and by January 1972 there were less than 75,000 U.S. troops remaining in South Vietnam.
◆1980 USS Parsons (DDG-33) rescues 110 Vietnamese refugees 330 miles south of Saigon.
◆2004 Hundreds of British soldiers arrived at their base near Baghdad in a deployment aimed at provide cover for U.S. troops considering a new assault on Iraqi insurgents.