This Date in Military History:

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1907 – World’s 1st air force was established as part of the US Army.

1911 – Trial of first Navy aircraft, Curtiss A-1. The designer, Glenn Curtiss, makes first flight in Navy’s first aircraft, A-1, at Lake Keuka, NY, then prepares LT Theodore G. Ellyson, the first naval aviator, for his two solo flights in A-1.

1916 – Establishment of informal school for officers assigned to submarines at New London, CT.

1917 – Race riots in East St. Louis, Illinois, and 40 to 200 were reported killed.

1918 – USS Covington hit without warning by two torpedoes from German Submarine U-86 and sank the next day.

1921 – The Coast Guard’s first air station, located at Morehead City, North Carolina, was closed due to a lack of funding.

1939 – Lighthouse Service of Department of Commerce transferred to Coast Guard under President Franklin Roosevelt’s Reorganization Plan No. 11. Under the President’s Reorganization Plan No. 11, made effective this date by Public Resolution No. 20, approved 7 June 1939, it was provided “that the Bureau of Lighthouses in the Department of Commerce and its functions be transferred to and consolidated with and administered as a part of the Coast Guard. This consolidation made in the interest of efficiency and economy, will result in the transfer to and consolidation with the Coast Guard of the system of approximately 30,000 aids to navigation (including light vessels and lighthouses) maintained by the Lighthouse Service on the sea and lake coasts of the United States, on the rivers of the United States, and on the coasts of all other territory under the jurisdiction of the United States with the exception of the Philippine Island and Panama Canal proper.” Plans were put into effect, “Providing for a complete integration with the Coast Guard of the personnel of the Lighthouse Service numbering about 5,200, together with the auxiliary organization of 64 buoy tenders, 30 depots, and 17 district offices.”

1940 – Roosevelt signs a further Navy bill providing for the construction of 45 more ships and providing $550,000,000 to finance these and other projects.

1941 – Aircraft from the United States Navy start antisubmarine patrols from bases in Newfoundland.

1941 – Commercial black and white television broadcasting began in the US.

1943 – “Pay-as-you-go” income tax withholding began.

1944 – Elements of the US 5th Army capture Cecina on the west coast while Pomerance falls, further inland, in the advance to Volterra.

1944 – Delegates from 44 countries began meeting at Bretton Woods, N.H., where they agreed to establish the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The US hosted an international conference at Bretton Woods, N.H., to deal with international monetary and financial problems. The talks resulted in the creation of the IMF, International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank in 1945. In 1997 Catherine Caufield wrote “Masters of Illusion: The World Bank and the Poverty of Nations.” The Bretton Woods institutions also include the United nations and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (renamed the World Trade organization). The agreement was a gold exchange standard and only the US was required to convert its currency into gold at a fixed rate, and only foreign central banks were allowed the privilege of redemption.

1945 – Some 550 B-29 Superfortress bombers — the greatest number yet to be engaged — drop 4000 tons of incendiary bombs on the Kure naval base, Shimonoseki, Ube and Kumanoto, on western Kyushu.

1946 – As a final step in the return of the Coast Guard to the Treasury Department from wartime operation under the Navy Department, the Navy directional control of the following Coast Guard functions was terminated: search and rescue functions, maintenance and operation of ocean weather stations and air-sea navigational aids in the Atlantic, continental United States, Alaska, and Pacific east of Pearl Harbor.
1946 – The United States exploded a 20-kiloton atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The energy released by any one of the ten or so major earthquakes every year is about 1,000 times as much as the Bikini atomic bomb.

1947 – State Department official George Kennan, using the pseudonym “Mr. X,” publishes an article entitled “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” in the July edition of Foreign Affairs. The article focused on Kennan’s call for a policy of containment toward the Soviet Union and established the foundation for much of America’s early Cold War foreign policy. In February 1946, Kennan, then serving as the U.S. charge d’affaires in Moscow, wrote his famous “long telegram” to the Department of State. In the missive, he condemned the communist leadership of the Soviet Union and called on the United States to forcefully resist Russian expansion.

Encouraged by friends and colleagues, Kennan refined the telegram into an article, “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” and secured its publication in the July edition of Foreign Affairs. Kennan signed the article “Mr. X” to avoid any charge that he was presenting official U.S. government policy, but nearly everyone in the Department of State and White House recognized the piece as Kennan’s work. In the article, Kennan explained that the Soviet Union’s leaders were determined to spread the communist doctrine around the world, but were also extremely patient and pragmatic in pursuing such expansion. In the “face of superior force,” Kennan said, the Russians would retreat and wait for a more propitious moment. The West, however, should not be lulled into complacency by temporary Soviet setbacks. Soviet foreign policy, Kennan claimed, “is a fluid stream which moves constantly, wherever it is permitted to move, toward a given goal.” In terms of U.S. foreign policy, Kennan’s advice was clear: “The main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.” Kennan’s article created a sensation in the United States, and the term “containment” instantly entered the Cold War lexicon.

The administration of President Harry S. Truman embraced Kennan’s philosophy, and in the next few years attempted to “contain” Soviet expansion through a variety of programs, including the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. Kennan’s star rose quickly in the Department of State and in 1952 he was named U.S. ambassador to Russia. By the 1960s, with the United States hopelessly mired in the Vietnam War, Kennan began to question some of his own basic assumptions in the “Mr. X” article and became a vocal critic of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. In particular, he criticized U.S. policymakers during the 1950s and 1960s for putting too much emphasis on the military containment of the Soviet Union, rather than on political and economic programs.

1950 – Task Force Smith, two companies of the 24th Infantry Division’s 21st Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Charles B. Smith and the first U.S. combat unit in Korea, arrived at Pusan. Major General William F. Dean, the 24th Infantry Division commander, was named commander of all U.S. forces in Korea.

1951 – North Korean leader Kim Il Sung and Peng Teh-huai, commander of the Chinese “Volunteers,” agreed to begin armistice discussions.

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1956 – The Highway Revenue Act of 1956 was put into effect by Congress, outlining a policy of taxation with the aim of creating a fund for the construction of over 42,500 miles of interstate highways over a period of 13 years. The push for a national highway system began many years earlier, when the privately funded construction of the Lincoln Highway begun in 1919. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) did much to set into motion plans for a federally funded highway system, but his efforts were halted by the outbreak of World War II. With the end of the war came America’s industrial boom and a massive increase in automobile registration. Dwight D. Eisenhower, elected president in 1952, had been a supporter of a federally funded highway system ever since, as an Army Lieutenant in 1919, he led a military convoy from San Francisco to New York. His travels through Germany during World War II only increased his desire to replicate Germany’s autobahn system. Eisenhower’s 1954 State of the Union address made clear his intentions to follow through on his interest. He declared the need to “protect the vital interests of every citizen in a safe, adequate highway system.” It wasn’t until 1956 that Eisenhower saw his vision pass through Congress. The scale of the plan was breathtaking: At a time when the total federal budget approached $71 billion, Eisenhower’s plan called for $50 billion over 13 years for highways. To pay for the project a system of taxes, relying heavily on the taxation of gasoline, was implemented. Legislation has extended the Interstate Highway Revenue Act three times. Today consumers pay 18.3¢ per gallon on gasoline. Eisenhower thought of the Federal Interstate System as his greatest achievement.

Today, revisionists question the solutions offered by our massive labyrinth of highways. Undoubtedly the interstate system changed America and made it what it is today, with suburbs and “edge cities” springing up across the country. Employment increased, as well as the U.S. gross national product. Still, both state and federal governments struggle to appropriate the funds to expand our national road network and meet the demand of the ever-growing population of car owners. Many economists subscribe to Helen Levitt’s theory that “congestion rises to meet road capacity,” and anti-road activists are citing the loss of productive farmland, the demise of small business, the destruction of the environment, and the “urbanization” of American society. Truly, the grass is always greener on the other side of the highway.

1958 – The new Atlantic merchant vessel [known by the acronym AMVER] position reporting program was established. It was aimed at encouraging domestic and foreign merchant vessels to send voluntary position reports and navigational data to U.S. Coast Guard shore based radio stations and ocean station vessels. Relayed to a ships’ plot center in New York and processed by machine, these data provided updated position information for U.S. Coast Guard rescue coordination centers. The centers could then direct only those vessels which would be of effective aid to craft or persons in distress. This diversion of all merchant ships in a large area became unnecessary.

1960 – USSR shot down a US RB-47 reconnaissance plane.

1962 – Intelligence has been an essential element of Army operations during war as well as during periods of peace. In the past, requirements were met by personnel from the Army Intelligence and Army Security Reserve branches, two-year obligated tour officers, one-tour levies on the various branches, and Regular Army officers in the specialization programs. To meet the Army’s increased requirement for national and tactical intelligence, an Intelligence and Security Branch was established in the Army effective July 1, 1962, by General Orders No. 38, July 3, 1962. On July 1, 1967, the branch was re-designated as Military Intelligence.

1965 – Undersecretary of State George Ball submits a memo to President Lyndon B. Johnson titled “A Compromise Solution for South Vietnam.” It began bluntly: “The South Vietnamese are losing the war to the Viet Cong. No one can assure you that we can beat the Viet Cong, or even force them to the conference table on our terms, no matter how many hundred thousand white, foreign (U.S.) troops we deploy.” Ball advised that the United States not commit any more troops, restrict the combat role of those already in place, and seek to negotiate a way out of the war. As Ball was submitting his memo, the U.S. air base at Da Nang came under attack by the Viet Cong for the first time. An enemy demolition team infiltrated the airfield and destroyed three planes and damaged three others. One U.S. airman was killed and three U.S. Marines were wounded.

The attack on Da Nang, the increased aggressiveness of the Viet Cong, and the weakness of the Saigon regime convinced Johnson that he had to do something to stop the communists or they would soon take over South Vietnam. While Ball recommended a negotiated settlement, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara urged the president to “expand promptly and substantially” the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam. Johnson, not wanting to lose South Vietnam to the communists, ultimately accepted McNamara’s recommendation. On July 22, he authorized a total of 44 U.S. battalions for commitment in South Vietnam, a decision that led to a massive escalation of the war. There were less than ten U.S. Army and Marine battalions in South Vietnam at this time. Eventually there would be more than 540,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam.

1966 – The U.S. Marines launched Operation Holt in an attempt to finish off a Vietcong battalion in Thua Thien Province in Vietnam.

1966 – U.S. Air Force and Navy jets carry out a series of raids on fuel installations in the Hanoi-Haiphong area. The Dong Nam fuel dump, 15 miles northeast of Hanoi, with 9 percent of North Vietnam’s storage capacity, was struck on this day. The Do Son petroleum installation, 12 miles southeast of Haiphong, would be attacked on July 3. The raids continued for two more days, as petroleum facilities near Haiphong, Thanh Hoa, and Vinh were bombed, and fuel tanks in the Hanoi area were hit. These raids were part of Operation Rolling Thunder, which had begun in March 1965. The attacks on the North Vietnamese fuel facilities represented a new level of bombing, since these sites had been previously off limits.

However, the raids did not have a lasting impact because China and the Soviet Union replaced the destroyed petroleum assets fairly quickly. China reacted to these events by calling the bombings “barbarous and wanton acts that have further freed us from any bounds of restrictions in helping North Vietnam.” The World Council of Churches in Geneva sent a cable to President Lyndon B. Johnson saying that the latest bombing of North Vietnam was causing a “widespread reaction” of “resentment and alarm” among many Christians. Indian mobs protested the air raids on the Hanoi-Haiphong area with violent anti-American demonstrations in Delhi and several other cities.

1968 – The United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and 58 other nations signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

1972 – Date of rank of Rear Admiral Samuel Lee Gravely, Jr., who was first U.S. Navy Admiral of African-American descent.

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1991 – A 14th Coast Guard District LEDET, all crewmen from the CGC Rush, deployed on board the U.S. Navy’s USS Ingersoll, made history when they seized the St. Vincent-registered M/V Lucky Star for carrying 70 tons of hashish; the largest hashish bust in Coast Guard history to date. The team, led by LTJG Mark Eyler, made the bust 600 miles west of Midway Island.

1991 – A high personnel retention level led the Commandant, ADM J. William Kime, to begin implementing a high-year tenure program, otherwise known as an “up or out” policy to “improve personnel flow and opportunities for advancement.” Two significant points of the program were that they limited enlisted careers to 30 years of active service and established “professional growth points” for paygrades E-4 through E-9, which had to be attained in order to remain on active duty. Up until this time, enlisted members could remain on active duty until age 62 — the only U.S. military work force with that option.

1992 – UNSCOM begins the destruction of large quantities of Iraqi chemical weapons and production facilities.

1993 – The space shuttle Endeavour returned from a 10-day mission.

1995 – As a result of UNSCOM’s investigations, Iraq admits for the first time the existence of an offensive biological weapons program, but denies weaponisation.

1996 – The United States rejects an Iraqi plan for distributing food and medicine under United Nations Security Council Resolution 986. It would allow Saddam Hussein’s government to evade certain sanctions as well as to give it control over distribution of supplies to separatist Kurds in northern Iraq.

1996 – Twelve members of an Arizona anti-government group, the Viper Militia, were charged with plotting to blow up government buildings. The group was infiltrated by Drew Nolan, an agent for the Federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).

2001 – In China parts of the US spy plane were flown out from Hainan Island.

2002 – Jordan reported that 11 people, including a Palestinian-Jordanian who fled the American bombing on Osama bin Laden’s stronghold in Afghanistan, have been detained in connection with an alleged plot to attack American targets.

2003 – The US planned to suspend $48 million in aid to some 35 countries for failing to meet this day’s deadline for exempting Americans from prosecution before the new UN int’l. war crimes tribunal.

2004 – The US Coast Guard began boarding foreign vessels as int’l. security rules went into effect.

2004 – Historic Afghan elections scheduled for September were delayed because of wrangling among officials and political parties.

2004 – A defiant Saddam Hussein rejected charges of war crimes and genocide in a court appearance, telling a judge “this is all theater, the real criminal is Bush.”

2004 – In Iraq US jets pounded a suspected safehouse of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Fallujah.

2006 – A Web-posted message purportedly written by Osama bin Laden urged Somalis to build an Islamic state in the country and warned western states that his al-Qaeda network would fight against them if they intervened there.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

BRONNER, AUGUST F.
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 1st New York Artillery. Place and date: At White Oak Swamp, Va., 30 June 1862. At Malvern Hill, Va., 1 July 1862. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: Continued to fight after being severely wounded.

COATES, JEFFERSON
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company H, 7th Wisconsin Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 1 July 1863. Entered service at: Boscobel, Wis. Birth: Grant County, Wis. Date of issue: 29 June 1866. Citation: Unsurpassed courage in battle, where he had both eyes shot out.

GILLIGAN, EDWARD L.
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company E, 88th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 1 July 1863. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Birth: Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 30 April 1892. Citation: Assisted in the capture of a Confederate flag by knocking down the color sergeant.

HUIDEKOPER, HENRY S.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant Colonel, 150th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 1 July 1863. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Born: 17 July 1839, Meadville, Pa. Date of issue: 27 May 1905. Citation: While engaged in repelling an attack of the enemy, received a severe wound of the right arm, but instead of retiring remained at the front in command of the regiment.

IRSCH, FRANCIS
Rank and organization: Captain, Company D, 45th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 1 July 1863. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth:——. Date of issue: 27 May 1892. Citation: Gallantry in flanking the enemy and capturing a number of prisoners and in holding a part of the town against heavy odds while the Army was rallying on Cemetery Hill.

OSBORNE, WILLIAM H.
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 29th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Malvern Hill, Va., 1 July 1862. Entered service at:——. Birth: Scituate, Mass. Date of issue: 1 April 1898. Citation: Although wounded and carried to the rear, he secured a rifle and voluntarily returned to the front, where, failing to find his own regiment, he joined another and fought with it until again severely wounded and taken prisoner.

RAFFERTY, PETER
Rank and organization: Private, Company B, 69th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Malvern Hill, Va., 1 July 1862. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 2 August 1897. Citation: Having been wounded and directed to the rear, declined to go, but continued in action, receiving several additional wounds, which resulted in his capture by the enemy and his total disability for military service.

REISINGER, J. MONROE
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company H, 150th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 1 July 1863. Entered service at: Meadville, Pa. Birth: Beaver County, Pa. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: Specially brave and meritorious conduct in the face of the enemy. Awarded under Act of Congress, January 25, 1907.

RIPLEY, WILLIAM Y. W.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant Colonel, 1st U.S. Sharpshooters. Place and date: At Malvern Hill, Va., 1 July 1862. Entered service at: Rutland, Vt. Birth:——. Date of issue: 11 March 1893. Citation: At a critical moment brought up two regiments, which he led against the enemy himself, being severely wounded.

RUTTER, JAMES M.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company C, 143d Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 1 July 1863. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Wilkes_Barre, Pa. Date of issue: 30 October 1896. Citation: At great risk of his life went to the assistance of a wounded comrade, and while under fire removed him to a place of safety.

SELLERS, ALFRED J.
Rank and organization: Major, 90th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 1 July 1863. Entered service at: Pennsylvania. Born: 2 March 1836, Plumsteadville, Bucks County, Pa. Date of issue: 21 July 1894. Citation: Voluntarily led the regiment under a withering fire to a position from which the enemy was repulsed.

TOBIN, JOHN M.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant and Adjutant, 9th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Malvern Hill, Va., 1 July 1862. Entered service at: Boston, Mass. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 11 March 1896. Citation: Voluntarily took command of the 9th Massachusetts while adjutant, bravely fighting from 3 p.m. until dusk, rallying and re_forming the regiment under fire; twice picked up the regimental flag, the color bearer having been shot down, and placed it in worthy hands.

WALLER, FRANCIS A.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company I, 6th Wisconsin Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 1 July 1863. Entered service at: DeSoto, Vernon County, Wis. Birth: Gurney, Ohio. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 2d Mississippi Infantry (C.S.A.).

AHERN, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Watertender, U.S. Navy. Born: 1861, Ireland. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 482, 1 November 1897. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Puritan at the time of the collapse of one of the crown sheets of boiler E of that vessel, 1 July 1897. Wrapped in wet cloths to protect his face and arms, Ahern entered the fireroom, crawled over the tops of the boilers and closed the auxiliary stop valve, disconnecting boiler E and removing the danger of disabling the other boilers.

WILSON, AUGUST
Rank and organization: Boilermaker, U.S. Navy. Born: 1 March 1864, Danzig, Germany. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.. 482, November 1897. Citation: For gallant conduct while serving on board the U.S.S. Puritan and at the time of the collapse of one of the crown sheets of boiler E on that vessel, 1 July 1897. Wrapping wet cloths about his face and arms, Wilson entered the fireroom and opened the safety valve, thus removing the danger of disabling the other boilers.

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BAKER, EDWARD L., JR.
Rank and organization: Sergeant Major, 10th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Santiago, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at:______. Birth: Laramie County, Wyo. Date of issue: 3 July 1902. Citation: Left cover and, under fire, rescued a wounded comrade from drowning.

BERG, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 17th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At El Caney, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: ______. Birth: Wayne County, Ill. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and while under heavy fire of the enemy.

BROOKIN, OSCAR
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 17th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At El Caney, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Green County, Ohio. Birth: Byron, Wis. Date of issue: 21 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and under heavy fire from the enemy.

BUZZARD, ULYSSES G.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company C, 17th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At El Caney, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: ______. Birth: Armstrong, Pa. Date of issue: 24 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and under heavy fire from the enemy.

CANTRELL, CHARLES P.
Rank and organization: Private, Company F, 10th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Santiago, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Nashville, Tenn. Born: 13 February 1874, Smithville, Tenn. Date of issue: 22 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and under heavy fire from the enemy.

CUMMINS, ANDREW J.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company F, 10th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Santiago, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: ______. Birth: Alexandria, Ind. Date of issue: 22 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and under heavy fire of the enemy.

DE SWAN, JOHN F.
Rank and organization: Private, Company H, 21st U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Santiago, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Birth: Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 22 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and under heavy fire from the enemy.

DOHERTY, THOMAS M.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company H, 21st U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Santiago, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Newcastle, Maine. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 22 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and while under heavy fire from the enemy.

FOURNIA, FRANK O.
Rank and organization: Private, Company H, 21st U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Santiago, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Plattsburg, N.Y. Birth: Rome, N.Y. Date of issue: 22 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and while under heavy fire of the enemy.

GRAVES, THOMAS J.
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 17th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At El Caney, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Millville, Ind. Birth: Milton, Ind. Date of issue: 22 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and under heavy fire from the enemy.

HARDAWAY, BENJAMIN F.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, 17th U .S. Infantry. Place and date: At El Caney, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at:______. Birth: Benleyville, Ky. Date of issue: 21 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and under heavy fire from the enemy.

KELLER, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Private, Company F, 10th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Santiago de Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Buffalo, N.Y. Birth: Buffalo, N.Y. Date of issue: 22 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and under heavy fire of the enemy.

KELLY, THOMAS
Rank and organization: Private, Company H, 21st U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Santiago de Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 22 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and while under heavy fire from the enemy.

MILLS, ALBERT L.
Rank and organization: Captain and Assistant Adjutant General, U.S. Volunteers. Place and date: Near Santiago, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: New York, N.Y. Date of issue: 9 July 1902. Citation: Distinguished gallantry in encouraging those near him by his bravery and coolness after being shot through the head and entirely without sight.

NASH, JAMES J.
Rank and organization: Private, Company F, 10th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Santiago, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Louisville, Ky. Birth: Louisville, Ky. Date of issue: 22 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and under heavy fire from the enemy.

NEE, GEORGE H.
Rank and organization: Private, Company H, 21st U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Santiago, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Boston, Mass. Birth: Boston, Mass. Date of issue: 22 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and under heavy fire from the enemy.

PFISTERER, HERMAN
Rank and organization: Musician, Company H, 21st U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Santiago, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at New York, N.Y. Birth: Brooklyn, N.Y. Date of issue: 22 June 1899 Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and under heavy fire from the enemy.

POLOND, ALFRED
Rank and organization: Private, Company F, 10th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Santiago, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Lapeer, Mich. Birth: Lapeer, Mich. Date of issue: 22 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and while under heavy fire of the enemy.

QUINN, ALEXANDER M.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 13th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Santiago, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Birth: Passaic, N.J. Date of issue: 22 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and under heavy fire from the enemy.

RESSLER, NORMAN W.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company D, 17th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At El Caney, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Dalmatia, Pa. Birth: Dalmatia, Pa. Date of issue: 21 August 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and under heavy fire of the enemy.

ROBERTS, CHARLES D.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 17th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At El Caney, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Fort D. A. Russell, Wyo. Birth: Fort D. A. Russell, Wyo. Date of issue: 21 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines under heavy fire of the enemy.

ROOSEVELT, THEODORE
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, March 3, 1863, has awarded in the name of The Congress the Medal of Honor to:
LIEUTENANT COLONEL THEODORE ROOSEVELT...UNITED STATES ARMY
for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty:

Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt distinguished himself by acts of bravery on 1 July, 1898, near Santiago de Cuba, Republic of Cuba, while leading a daring charge up San Juan Hill. Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt, in total disregard for his personal safety, and accompanied by only four or five men, led a desperate and gallant charge up San Juan Hill, encouraging his troops to continue the assault through withering enemy fire over open countryside. Facing the enemy’s heavy fire, he displayed extraordinary bravery throughout the charge, and was the frst to reach the enemy trenches, where he quickly killed one of the enemy with his pistol, allowing his men to continue the assault. His leadership and valor turned the tide in the Battle for San Juan Hill. Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect greet credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

SHEPHERD, WARREN J.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company D, 17th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At El Caney, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Westover, Pa. Birth: Cherry Tree, Pa. Date of issue: 21 August 1899. citation. Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines under heavy fire from the enemy.

WENDE, BRUNO
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 17th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At El Caney, Cuba, 1 July 1898. Entered service at: Canton, Ohio. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 22 June 1899. Citation: Gallantly assisted in the rescue of the wounded from in front of the lines and under heavy fire from the enemy.

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2 July

1775 – George Washington arrived in Boston and took over as commander-in-chief of the new Continental Army.

1776 – Congress passed Lee’s resolution that “these united Colonies are, and of right, ought to be, Free and Independent States,” and then spent two days over the wording of Jefferson’s document.

1777 – Vermont became the 1st American colony to abolish slavery.

1809 – Alarmed by the growing encroachment of whites squatting on Native American lands, the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh calls on all Indians to unite and resist. Born around 1768 near Springfield, Ohio, Tecumseh early won notice as a brave warrior. He fought in battles between the Shawnee and the white Kentuckians, who were invading the Ohio River Valley territory. After the Americans won several important battles in the mid-1790s, Tecumseh reluctantly relocated westward but remained an implacable foe of the white men and their ways. By the early 19th century, many Shawnee and other Ohio Valley Indians were becoming increasingly dependent on trading with the Americans for guns, cloth, and metal goods. Tecumseh spoke out against such dependence and called for a return to traditional Indian ways. He was even more alarmed by the continuing encroachment of white settlers illegally settling on the already diminished government-recognized land holdings of the Shawnee and other tribes. The American government, however, was reluctant to take action against its own citizens to protect the rights of the Ohio Valley Indians.

On this day in 1809, Tecumseh began a concerted campaign to persuade the Indians of the Old Northwest and Deep South to unite and resist. Together, Tecumseh argued, the various tribes had enough strength to stop the whites from taking further land. Heartened by this message of hope, Indians from as far away as Florida and Minnesota heeded Tecumseh’s call. By 1810, he had organized the Ohio Valley Confederacy, which united Indians from the Shawnee, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Winnebago, Menominee, Ottawa, and Wyandot nations. For several years, Tecumseh’s Indian Confederacy successfully delayed further white settlement in the region. In 1811, however, the future president William Henry Harrison led an attack on the confederacy’s base on the Tippecanoe River. At the time, Tecumseh was in the South attempting to convince more tribes to join his movement. Although the battle of Tippecanoe was close, Harrison finally won out and destroyed much of Tecumseh’s army. When the War of 1812 began the following year, Tecumseh immediately marshaled what remained of his army to aid the British. Commissioned a brigadier general, he proved an effective ally and played a key role in the British capture of Detroit and other battles. When the tide of war turned in the American favor, Tecumseh’s fortunes went down with those of the British. On October 5, 1813, he was killed during Battle of the Thames. His Ohio Valley Confederacy and vision of Indian unity died with him.

1862 – Lincoln signed an act granting land for state agricultural colleges.

1862 – Flag Officer L. M. Goldsborough’s fleet covered the withdrawal of General McClellan’s army after a furious battle with Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee at Malvern Hill. Dependent on the Navy for his movement to Harrison’s Landing, chosen by McClellan at Com-modore J. Rodgers recommendation because it was so situated that gunboats could protect both flanks of his army, the General acknowledged the decisive role played by the Navy in enabling his troops to withdraw with a minimum loss: “Commodore Rodgers placed his gunboats so as to protect our flanks and to command the approaches from Richmond . . . During the whole battle Commodore Rodgers added greatly to the discomfiture of the enemy by throwing shell among his reserve and advancing columns.”

The Washington National Intelligencer of 7 July described the gunboats’ part in the action at Malvern Hill: “About five o’clock in the after-noon the gunboats Galena, Aroostook, and Jacob Bell opened from Turkey Island Bend, in the James River, with shot and shell from their immense guns. The previous roar of field artillery seemed as faint as the rattle of musketry in comparison with these monsters of ordnance that literally shook the water and strained the air. . . . They fired about three times a minute, frequently a broadside at a time, and the immense hull of the Galena careened as she delivered her complement of iron and flame. The fire went on . . . making music to the ears of our tired men. . . . Confederate] ranks seemed slow to close up when the naval thunder had torn them apart. . . During the engagement at White Oak Swamp, too, the Intelligencer reported, the gunboats “are entitled to the most unbounded credit. They came into action just at the right time, and did first rate service.” The Navy continued to safeguard the supply line until the Army of the Potomac was evacuated to northern Virginia in August, bringing to a close the unsuccessful Peninsular Campaign.

1863 – General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia attacks General George G. Meade’s Army of the Potomac at both Culp’s Hill and Little Round Top, but fails to move the Yankees from their positions. On the north end of the line, or the Union’s right flank, Confederates from General Richard Ewell’s corps struggled up Culp’s Hill, which was steep and heavily wooded, before being turned back by heavy Union fire. But the most significant action was on the south end of the Union line. General James Longstreet’s corps launched an attack against the Yankees, but only after a delay that allowed additional Union troops to arrive and position themselves along Cemetery Ridge.

Many people later blamed Longstreet for the Confederates’ eventual defeat. Still, the Confederates had a chance to destroy the Union left flank when General Daniel Sickles moved his corps, against Meade’s orders, from their position on the ridge to open ground around the Peach Orchard. This move separated Sickles’ force from the rest of the Union army, and Longstreet attacked. Although the Confederates were able to take the Peach Orchard, they were repulsed by Yankee opposition at Little Round Top. Some of the fiercest fighting took place on this day, and both armies suffered heavy casualties. Lee’s army regrouped that evening and planned for one last assault against the Union center on July 3. That attack, Pickett’s charge, would represent the high tide of Confederate fortunes.

1864 – Gen. Early and Confederate forces reached Winchester.

1864 – Congress passes the Wade-Davis Bill, requiring a majority of a seceded state’s white citizens to take an oath of loyalty to the Constitution and guarantee black equality, but President Abraham Lincoln pocket vetoes the harsh plan for dealing with the defeated Confederate states.

1881 – Only four months into his administration, President James A. Garfield is shot as he walks through a railroad waiting room in Washington, D.C. His assailant, Charles J. Guiteau, was a disgruntled and perhaps insane office seeker who had unsuccessfully sought an appointment to the U.S. consul in Paris. The president was shot in the back and the arm, and Guiteau was arrested. Garfield, mortally ill, was treated in Washington and then taken to the seashore at Elberon, New Jersey, where he attempted to recuperate with his family. During this time, Vice President Chester A. Arthur served as acting president. On September 19, 1881, after 80 days, President Garfield died of blood poisoning. The following day, Arthur was inaugurated as the 21st president of the United States. Garfield had three funerals: one in Elberon; another in Washington, where his body rested in state in the Capitol for three days; and a third in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was buried. Charles Guiteau’s murder trial began in November, and in January 1882 he was found guilty and sentenced to death. In June 1882, he was hanged at his jail in Washington.

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1915 – A bomb planted by a German professor from Harvard University, Erich Muenter, destroys a reception room in the Senate. The Senate had been out of session since the previous March and was not due to reconvene until December, Muenter headed for the Senate Chamber. Finding the chamber doors locked, he decided that the adjacent Senate Reception Room would serve his purposes. He worked quickly, placing his deadly package under the Senate’s telephone switchboard, whose operator had left for the holiday weekend. After setting the timing mechanism for a few minutes before midnight to minimize casualties, he walked to Union Station and purchased a ticket for the midnight train to New York City. At 20 minutes before midnight, as he watched from the station, a thunderous explosion rocked the Capitol. The blast nearly knocked Capitol police officer Frank Jones from his chair at the Senate wing’s east front entrance. Ten minutes earlier, the lucky Jones had closed a window next to the switchboard. A 30-year police veteran, the officer harbored a common fear that one day the Capitol dome would fall into the rotunda. For a few frantic moments, he believed that day had come. Jones then entered the Reception Room and observed its devastation—a shattered mirror, broken window glass, smashed chandeliers, and pulverized plaster from the frescoed ceiling.

In a letter to the Washington Evening Star, published after the blast, Muenter attempted to explain his outrageous act. Writing under an assumed name, he hoped that the detonation would “make enough noise to be heard above the voices that clamor for war. This explosion is an exclamation point in my appeal for peace.” The former German professor was particularly angry with American financiers who were aiding Great Britain against Germany in World War I, despite this country’s official neutrality in that conflict. Arriving in New York City early the next morning, Muenter headed for the Long Island estate of J. P. Morgan, Jr. Morgan’s company served as Great Britain’s principal U.S. purchasing agent for munitions and other war supplies. When Morgan came to the door, Muenter pulled a pistol, shot him, and fled. The financier’s wounds proved superficial and the gunman was soon captured. In jail, on 6 July, Muenter took his own life.

1923 – Commissioning of Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC.

1926 – The U.S. Army Air Corps was created by Congress.

1926 – The Distinguished Flying Cross was established in the Air Corps Act (Act of Congress, Public Law No. 446, 69th Congress). This act provided for award “to any person, while serving in any capacity with the Air Corps of the Army of the United States, including the National Guard and the Organized Reserves, or with the United States Navy, since the 6th day of April 1917, has distinguished, or who, after the approval of this Act, distinguishes himself by heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight.”

1926 – An Act of Congress (Public Law 446-69th Congress (44 Stat. 780)) which established the Soldier’s Medal for acts of heroism not involving actual conflict with an enemy. The Secretary of War directed that the Quartermaster General prepare and submit appropriate designs of the Soldier’s Medal per letter signed by The Adjutant General dated 11 August 1926.

1937 – CGC Itasca, while conducting re-supply operations in the Central Pacific, made the last-known radio contact with Amelia Earhart and her co-pilot Fred Noonan. Itasca later joined the Navy-directed search for the aircraft. The search was finally called off on 17 July with no trace of the aircraft having been found.

1941 – The US authorities very soon know of a Japanese determination to attempt to seize bases in Indonesia even if it should precipitate war through their code-breaking service which has managed to work out the key to the major Japanese diplomatic code and some other minor operational codes. The information gained from the diplomatic code is circulated under the code name Magic.

1943 – The American buildup on Rendova Island continues but the Japanese garrison continues to resist. During the night a Japanese naval force bombards the American positions with little effect.

1943 – The U.S. Army Air Corps 99th Fighter Squadron, the first of the all-black Tuskegee Airmen to see combat, had been based in Africa for four months when they were assigned to escort 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers on a routine mission over Sicilian targets. Lieutenant Charles B. Hall of Brazil, Indiana became the first Tuskegee Airman to score a confirmed kill when he shot down a German fighter plane.

1944 – There are Allied landing on Numfoor Island. About 7100 troops, including elements of the US 168th Infantry Division and Australian forces, under the command of US General Patrick establish a beachhead on the north coast near Kamiri Airfield. There is no Japanese resistance. Admiral Fechteler commands the naval support with US Task Force 74 and TF75 providing escort and a preliminary bombardment. On Biak Island, remnants of the Japanese force continue to resist.

1944 – On Saipan, American forces conduct a general advance. Garapan village is overrun.

1944 – As part of Operation Gardening, the British and American strategy to lay mines in the Danube River by dropping them from the air, American aircraft also drop bombs and leaflets on German-occupied Budapest. Hungarian oil refineries and storage tanks, important to the German war machine, were destroyed by the American air raid. Along with this fire from the sky, leaflets threatening “punishment” for those responsible for the deportation of Hungarian Jews to the gas chambers at Auschwitz were also dropped on Budapest. The U.S. government wanted the SS and Hitler to know it was watching. Admiral Miklas Horthy, regent and virtual dictator of Hungary, vehemently anticommunist and afraid of Russian domination, had aligned his country with Hitler, despite the fact that he little admired him. But he, too, demanded that the deportations cease, especially since special pleas had begun pouring in from around the world upon the testimonies of four escaped Auschwitz prisoners about the atrocities there. Hitler, fearing a Hungarian rebellion, stopped the deportations on July 8. Horthy would eventually try to extricate himself from the war altogether-only to be kidnapped by Hitler’s agents and consequently forced to abdicate. One day after the deportations stopped, a Swedish businessman, Raoul Wallenberg, having convinced the Swedish Foreign Ministry to send him to the Hungarian capital on a diplomatic passport, arrived in Budapest with 630 visas for Hungarian Jews, prepared to take them to Sweden to save them from further deportations.

1945 – The submarine USS Barb fires rockets on Kaihyo Island, off the east coast of Karafuto (Sakhalin) Island. It is the first American underwater craft to fire rockets in shore bombardment. Meanwhile, Japanese sources report that only 200,000 people remain in Tokyo. All others have been evacuated to safer areas. The Japanese claim that some 5 million civilians have been killed or wounded by American fire-bombs.

1946 – Establishment of VX-3 to evaluate adaptability of helicopters to naval purposes.

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1947 – Soviet Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov walks out of a meeting with representatives of the British and French governments, signaling the Soviet Union’s rejection of the Marshall Plan. Molotov’s action indicated that Cold War frictions between the United States and Russia were intensifying. On June 4, 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech in which he announced that the United States was willing to offer economic assistance to the war-torn nations of Europe to help in their recovery. The Marshall Plan, as this program came to be known, eventually provided billions of dollars to European nations and helped stave off economic disaster in many of them. The Soviet reaction to Marshall’s speech was a stony silence. However, Foreign Minister Molotov agreed to a meeting on June 27 with his British and French counterparts to discuss the European reaction to the American offer. Molotov immediately made clear the Soviet objections to the Marshall Plan. First, it would include economic assistance to Germany, and the Russians could not tolerate such aid to the enemy that had so recently devastated the Soviet Union. Second, Molotov was adamant in demanding that the Soviet Union have complete control and freedom of action over any Marshall Plan funds Germany might receive. Finally, the Foreign Minister wanted to know precisely how much money the United States would give to each nation. When it became clear that the French and British representatives did not share his objections, Molotov stormed out of the meeting on July 2.

In the following weeks, the Soviet Union pressured its Eastern European allies to reject all Marshall Plan assistance. That pressure was successful and none of the Soviet satellites participated in the Marshall Plan. The Soviet press claimed that the American program was “a plan for interference in the domestic affairs of other countries.” The United States ignored the Soviet action and, in 1948, officially established the Marshall Plan and began providing funds to other European nations. Publicly, U.S. officials argued that the Soviet stance was another indication that Russia intended to isolate Eastern Europe from the West and enforce its communist and totalitarian doctrines in that region. From the Soviet perspective, however, its refusal to participate in the Marshall Plan indicated its desire to remain free from American “economic imperialism” and domination.

1947 – An object crashed near Roswell, N.M. The Army Air Force later insisted it was a weather balloon, but eyewitness accounts gave rise to speculation it might have been an alien spacecraft.

1950 – USS Juneau and 2 British ships sink 5 of 6 attacking North Korean torpedo boats and gunboats. This is the only significant naval engagement of the Korean War.

1950 – The Royal Australian Air Force 77 Squadron began flying F-51 Mustang missions in Korea.

1951 – The U.S. 3rd Infantry Division launched Operation DOUGHNUT, a series of attacks directed against hills in the Iron Triangle.

1957 – The Seawolf, the 1st submarine powered by liquid metal cooled reactor, was completed.

1957 – Grayback, the 1st submarine designed to fire guided missiles, was launched.

1959 – Wendy B. Lawrence, USN Lt Commander, astronaut, was born in Jacksonville, Fla.

1961 – Hanoi captures at least three members of Lansdale’s US-trained First Observation Group when their US C-47 aircraft goes down, whether by enemy fire or due to engine trouble remains unknown.

1964 – At a joint news conference, Senate Republican leader Everett Dirksen (Illinois) and House Republican leader Charles Halleck (Indiana) say that the Vietnam War will be a campaign issue because “Johnson’s indecision has made it one.” President Lyndon B. Johnson had assumed office after the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Kennedy had supported Ngo Dinh Diem, the president of South Vietnam, who was assassinated during a coup just before Kennedy was killed. The deaths of both Diem and Kennedy provided an opportunity for the new administration to undertake a reassessment of U.S. policy toward Vietnam, but this was not done. Johnson, who desperately wanted to push a set of social reforms called the Great Society, was instead forced to focus on the deteriorating situation in South Vietnam. Caught in a dilemma, he later wrote: “If I…let the communists take over South Vietnam, then I would be seen as a coward and my nation would be seen as an appeaser and we would both find it impossible to accomplish anything for anybody anywhere in the entire globe.”

Faced with having to do something about Vietnam, Johnson vacillated as he and his advisers attempted to devise a viable course of action. The situation changed in August 1964 when North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked U.S. destroyers off the coast of North Vietnam. What became known as the Tonkin Gulf incident led to the passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which passed 416 to 0 in the House, and 88 to 2 in the Senate. This resolution, which gave the president approval to “take all necessary measures to repel an armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression,” provided the legal basis for President Johnson to initiate a major commitment of U.S. troops to South Vietnam, which ultimately totaled more than 540,000 by 1968.

1967 – The U.S. Marine Corps launched Operation Buffalo in response to the North Vietnamese Army’s efforts to seize the Marine base at Con Thien.

1967 – During Operation Bear Claw, Seventh Fleet Amphibious Force conducts helicopter assault 12 miles inland at Con Thien.

1993 – Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, some of whose followers were accused in the bombing of the World Trade Center, surrendered to immigration officials in New York City.

1996 – US federal officials announced the arrest of 12 members of a militia unit, called Viper Militia, that had planned to bomb government offices in the Phoenix area. On Dec 19 two members pleaded guilty to explosives and weapons charges. On Dec 27 three more members pleaded guilty.

1997 – The US began a round of underground nuclear weapons-related tests in Nevada.

1997 – A federal judge in New York ruled that the military policy, “don’t ask, don’t tell,” is unconstitutional and only serves to cater to the biases of many heterosexuals.

1998 – Apologizing to viewers and Vietnam veterans for “serious faults” in its reporting, Cable News Network retracted a story alleging U.S. commandos had used nerve gas to kill American defectors during the war.

2002 – Philippine Vice President Teofisto Guingona resigned as foreign minister, settling but perhaps not ending a public row with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo over U.S. military exercises in the south of the country.

2014 – Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed caliph of the new Islamic State, said that Muslims should unite to capture Rome in order to “own the world”. He called on Muslims the world over to unite behind him as their leader.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

ALLEN, NATHANIEL M.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company B, 1st Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Boston, Mass. Birth: Boston, Mass. Date of issue: 29 March 1899. Citation: When his regiment was falling back, this soldier, bearing the national color, returned in the face of the enemy’s fire, pulled the regimental flag from under the body of its bearer, who had fallen, saved the flag from capture, and brought both colors off the field.

CAREY, HUGH
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company E, 82d New York Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 6 February 1888. Citation: Captured the flag of the 7th Virginia Infantry (C.S.A.), being twice wounded in the effort.

CARLISLE, CASPER R.
Rank and organization: Private, Company F, Independent Pennsylvania Light Artillery. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Allegheny County, Pa. Birth: Allegheny County, Pa. Date of issue: 21 December 1892. Citation: Saved a gun of his battery under heavy musketry fire, most of the horses being killed and the drivers wounded.

CHAMBERLAIN, JOSHUA L.
Rank and organization: Colonel, 20th Maine Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Brunswick, Maine. Born: 8 September 1828, Brewer Maine. Date of issue: 11 August 1893. Citation: Daring heroism and great tenacity in holding his position on the Little Round Top against repeated assaults, and carrying the advance position on the Great Round Top.

CLARK, HARRISON
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company E, 125th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Chatham, N.Y. Birth: Chatham, N.Y. Date of issue: 11 June 1895. Citation: Seized the colors and advanced with them after the color bearer had been shot.

FASSETT, JOHN B.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company F, 23d Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Birth: Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 29 December 1894. Citation: While acting as an aide, voluntarily led a regiment to the relief of a battery and recaptured its guns from the enemy.

FORCE, MANNING F.
Rank and organization: Brigadier General, U.S. Volunteers. Place and date: At Atlanta, Ga., 22 July 1864. Entered service at: Cincinnati, Ohio. Born: Washington, D.C. 17 December 1824. Date of issue: 31 March 1892. Citation: Charged upon the enemy’s works, and after their capture defended his position against assaults of the enemy until he was severely wounded.

FURMAN, CHESTER S.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company A, 6th Pennsylvania Reserves. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Columbia, Pa. Date of issue: 3 August 1897. Citation: Was 1 of 6 volunteers who charged upon a log house near Devil’s Den, where a squad of the enemy’s sharpshooters were sheltered, and compelled their surrender.

GAGE, RICHARD J.
Rank and organization: Private, Company D, 104th Illinois Infantry Place and date: Elk River, Tenn., 2 July 1863. Entered service at. Ottawa, Ill. Birth: Grafton County, N.H. Date of issue: 30 October 1897. Citation: Voluntarily joined a small party that, under a heavy fire, captured a stockade and saved the bridge.

HART, JOHN W.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company D, 6th Pennsylvania Reserves. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Cumberland, Md. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 3 August 1897. Citation: Was one of six volunteers who charged upon a log house near the Devil’s Den, where a squad of the enemy’s sharpshooters were sheltered, and compelled their surrender.

HOLLAND, LEMUEL F.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company D, 104th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Elk River, Tenn., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: La Salle County, Ill. Birth. Burlington, Ohio. Date of issue: 30 October 1897. Citation: Voluntarily joined a small party that, under a heavy fire, captured a stockade and saved the bridge.

HORAN, THOMAS
Rank and organization. Sergeant, Company E, 72d New York Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Dunkirk, N.Y. Birth:——. Date of issue: 5 April 1898. Citation: In a charge of his regiment this soldier captured the regimental flag of the 8th Florlda Infantry (C.S.A.).

HOUGHTON, GEORGE L.
Rank and organization: Private, Company D, 104th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Elk River, Tenn., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Brookfield, Cook County, Ill. Birth: Canada. Date of issue: 27 March 1900. Citation: Voluntarily joined a small party that, under a heavy fire, captured a stockade and saved the bridge.

JOHNSON, WALLACE W.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company G, 6th Pennsylvania Reserves. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Waverly, N.Y. Birth: Newfield, N.Y. Date of issue: 8 August 1900. Citation: With five other volunteers gallantly charged on a number of the enemy’s sharpshooters concealed in a log house, captured them, and brought them into the Union lines.

KNOX, EDWARD M.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, 15th New York Battery. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: New York, N.Y. Date of issue: 18 October 1892. Citation: Held his ground with the battery after the other batteries had fallen back until compelled to draw his piece off by hand; he was severely wounded.

LONERGAN, JOHN
Rank and organization: Captain, Company A, 13th Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Burlington, Vt. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 28 October 1893. Citation: Gallantry in the recapture of 4 guns and the capture of 2 additional guns from the enemy; also the capture of a number of prisoners.

MARSH, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company D, 104th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Elk River, Tenn., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Brookfield, La Salle County, Ill. Birth: Brookfield, La Salle County, Ill. Date of issue: 17 September 1897. Citation: Voluntarily led a small party and, under a heavy fire, captured a stockade and saved the bridge.

MEARS, GEORGE W.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 6th Pennsylvania Reserves. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Bloomsburgh, Pa. Birth: Bloomsburgh, Pa. Date of issue: 16 February 1897. Citation: With five volunteers he gallantly charged on a number of the enemy’s sharpshooters concealed in a log house, captured them, and brought them into the Union lines.

PIPES, JAMES
Rank and organization: Captain, Company A, 140th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863; At Reams Station, Va., 25 August 1864. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Green County, Pa. Date of issue: 5 April 1898. Citation: While a sergeant and retiring with his company before the rapid advance of the enemy at Gettysburg, he and a companion stopped and carried to a place of safety a wounded and helpless comrade; in this act both he and his companion were severely wounded. A year later, at Reams Station, Va., while commanding a skirmish line, voluntarily assisted in checking a flank movement of the enemy, and while so doing was severely wounded, suffering the loss of an arm.

POSTLES, JAMES PARKE
Rank and organization: Captain, Company A, 1st Delaware Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Wilmington, Del. Born: 28 September 1840, Camden, Del. Date of issue: 22 July 1892. Citation: Voluntarily delivered an order in the face of heavy fire of the enemy.

PURMAN, JAMES J.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant, Company A, 140th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Greene County, Pa. Birth: ——. Dare of issue: 30 October 1896. Citation: Voluntarily assisted a wounded comrade to a place of apparent safety while the enemy were in close proximity; he received the fire of the enemy and a wound which resulted in the amputation of his left leg.

REED, CHARLES W.
Rank and organization: Bugler, 9th Independent Battery, Massachusetts Light Artillery. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Charlestown, Mass. Date of issue: 16 August 1895. Citation: Rescued his wounded captain from between the lines.

ROOSEVELT, GEORGE W.
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company K. 26th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Bull Run, Va., 30 August 1862. At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Chester Pa. Birth: Chester, Pa. Date of issue: 2 July 1887. Citation: At Bull Run, Va., recaptured the colors, which had been seized by the enemy. At Gettysburg captured a Confederate color bearer and color, in which effort he was severely wounded.

ROUSH, J. LEVI
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company D, 6th Pennsylvania Reserves. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Bedford County, Pa. Date of issue: 3 August 1897. Citation: Was 1 of 6 volunteers who charged upon a log house near the Devil’s Den, where a squad of the enemy’s sharpshooters were sheltered, and compelled their surrender.

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SHAPLAND, JOHN
Rank and organization: Private, Company D, 104th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Elk River, Tenn., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Ottawa, Ill. Birth: England. Date of issue: 30 October 1897. Citation: Voluntarily joined a small party that, under a heavy fire, captured a stockade and saved the bridge.

SICKLES, DANIEL E.
Rank and organization: Major General, U.S. Volunteers. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: New York, N.Y. Date of issue: 30 October 1897. Citation: Displayed most conspicuous gallantry on the field vigorously contesting the advance of the enemy and continuing to encourage his troops after being himself severely wounded.

SLAGLE, OSCAR
Rank and organization: Private, Company D, 104th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Elk River, Tenn., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Manlius, Ill. Birth: Fulton County, Ohio. Date of issue: 30 October 1897. Citation: Voluntarily joined a small party that, under a heavy fire, captured a stockade and saved the bridge.

SMALLEY, REUBEN S.
Rank and organization: Private, Company D, 104th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Elk River, Tenn., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Brookfield, La Salle County, Ill. Birth: Washington County, Pa. Date of issue: 30 October 1897. Citation: Voluntarily joined a small party that, under a heavy fire, captured a stockade and saved the bridge.

SMITH, THADDEUS S.
Rank and organization. Corporal, Company E, 6th Pennsylvania Reserve Infantry. Place and date. At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Franklin County, Pa. Date of issue: 5 May 1900. Citation: Was 1 of 6 volunteers who charged upon a log house near the Devil’s Den, where a squad of the enemy’s sharpshooters were sheltered, and compelled their surrender.

STACEY, CHARLES
Rank and organization: Private, Company D, 55th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: ——. Birth: England. Date of issue: 23 June 1896. Citation: Voluntarily took an advanced position on the skirmish line for the purpose of ascertaining the location of Confederate sharpshooters, and under heavy fire held the position thus taken until the company of which he was a member went back to the main line.

TOZIER, ANDREW J.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company I, 20th Maine Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 2 July 1863. Entered service at: Plymouth, Maine. Birth: Monmouth, Maine. Date of issue: 13 August 1898. Citation: At the crisis of the engagement this soldier, a color bearer, stood alone in an advanced position, the regiment having been borne back, and defended his colors with musket and ammunition picked up at his feet.

WELBORN, IRA C.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, 9th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Santiago, Cuba, 2 July 1898. Entered service at: Mico, Miss. Birth: Mico, Miss. Date of issue: 21 June 1899. Citation: Voluntarily left shelter and went, under fire, to the aid of a private of his company who was wounded.

GREER, ALLEN J.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 4th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: Near Majada, Laguna Province, Philippine Islands, 2 July 1901. Entered service at: Memphis, Tenn. Birth: Memphis, Tenn. Date of issue: 10 March 1902. Citation: Charged alone an insurgent outpost with his pistol, killing 1, wounding 2, and capturing 3 insurgents with their rifles and equipment.

HENDERSON, JOSEPH
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Troop B, 6th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Patian Island, Philippine Islands, 2 July 1909. Entered service at: Leavenworth, Kans. Birth: Leavenworth, Kans. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: While in action against hostile Moros, voluntarily advanced alone, in the face of a heavy fire, to within about 15 yards of the hostile position and refastened to a tree a block and tackle used in checking the recoil of a mountain gun.

MILLER, ARCHIE
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, 6th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Patian Island, Philippine Islands, 2 July 1909. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo. Birth: Fort Sheridan, Ill. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: While in action against hostile Moros, when the machinegun detachment, having been driven from its position by a heavy fire, 1 member being killed, did, with the assistance of an enlisted man, place the machinegun in advance of its former position at a distance of about 20 yards from the enemy, in accomplishing which he was obliged to splice a piece of timber to one leg of the gun tripod, all the while being under a heavy fire, and the gun tripod being several times struck by bullets.

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[SHOOTER13]

3 July

1775 – On Cambridge common in Massachusetts, George Washington rides out in front of the American troops gathered there, draws his sword, and formally takes command of the Continental Army. Washington, a prominent Virginia planter and veteran of the French and Indian War, was appointed commander in chief by the Continental Congress two weeks before. In serving the American colonies in their war for independence, he declined to accept payment for his services beyond reimbursement of future expenses. George Washington was born in 1732 to a farm family in Westmoreland County, Virginia. His first direct military experience came as a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia colonial militia in 1754, when he led a small expedition against the French in the Ohio River valley on behalf of the governor of Virginia. Two years later, Washington took command of the defenses of the western Virginian frontier during the French and Indian War. After the war’s fighting moved elsewhere, he resigned from his military post, returned to a planter’s life, and took a seat in Virginia’s House of Burgesses. During the next two decades, Washington openly opposed the escalating British taxation and repression of the American colonies.

In 1774, he represented Virginia at the Continental Congress. After the American Revolution erupted in 1775, Washington was nominated to be commander in chief of the newly established Continental Army. Some in the Continental Congress opposed his appointment, thinking other candidates were better equipped for the post, but he was ultimately chosen because as a Virginian his leadership helped bind the Southern colonies more closely to the rebellion in New England. With his inexperienced and poorly equipped army of civilian soldiers, General Washington led an effective war of harassment against British forces in America while encouraging the intervention of the French into the conflict on behalf of the colonists. On October 19, 1781, with the surrender of British General Charles Lord Cornwallis’ massive British army at Yorktown, Virginia, General Washington had defeated one of the most powerful nations on earth. After the war, the victorious general retired to his estate at Mount Vernon, but in 1787 he heeded his nation’s call and returned to politics to preside over the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The drafters created the office of president with him in mind, and in February 1789 Washington was unanimously elected the first president of the United States. As president, Washington sought to unite the nation and protect the interests of the new republic at home and abroad. Of his presidency, he said, “I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn in precedent.” He successfully implemented executive authority, making good use of brilliant politicians such as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson in his Cabinet, and quieted fears of presidential tyranny. In 1792, he was unanimously reelected but four years later refused a third term. He died in 1799.

1778 – The Wyoming Massacre occurred during the American Revolution in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. As part of a British campaign against settlers in the frontier during the war, 360 American settlers, including women and children, were killed at an outpost called Wintermoot’s Fort after they were drawn out of the protection of the fort and ambushed.

1844 – Ambassador Caleb Cushing successfully negotiated a commercial treaty with China that opened five Chinese ports to U.S. merchants and protected the rights of American citizens in China.

1861 – US Colonel Jackson received his CSA commission as brigadier general.

1863 – Troops under Confederate General George Pickett begin a massive attack against the center of the Union lines at Gettysburg on the climactic third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the largest engagement of the war. General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia encountered George Meade’s Army of the Potomac in Pennsylvania and battered the Yankees for two days. The day before Pickett’s charge, the Confederates had hammered each flank of the Union line but could not break through. Now, on July 3, Lee decided to attack the Union center, stationed on Cemetery Ridge, after making another unsuccessful attempt on the Union right flank at Culp’s Hill in the morning. The majority of the force consisted of Pickett’s division, but there were other units represented among the 15,000 attackers. After a long Confederate artillery bombardment, the Rebel force moved through the open field and up the slight rise of Cemetery Ridge. But by the time they reached the Union line, the attack had been broken into many small units, and they were unable to penetrate the Yankee center. The failed attack effectively ended the battle of Gettysburg. On July 4, Lee began to withdraw his forces to Virginia. The casualties for both armies were staggering. Lee lost 28,000 of his 75,000 soldiers, and Union losses stood at over 22,000. It was the last time Lee threatened Northern territory.

1863 – Major General Grant and Lieutenant General Pemberton, CSA, the gallant and tireless commander of the Vicksburg defenses, arranged an armistice to negotiate the terms of capitulation of the citadel. Only with the cessation of hostilities did the activity of the fleet under Rear Admiral Porter come to a halt off Vicksburg.

1863 – Battle of Donaldsonville, LA.

1864 – Battle of Chattahoochee River, GA, began and lasted until July 9th.

1864 – At Harpers Ferry, WV, Federals evacuated in face of General Early’s advance.

1890 – Idaho, the last of the 50 states to be explored by whites, is admitted to the union. Exploration of the North American continent mostly proceeded inward from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and northward from Spanish Mexico. Therefore, the rugged territory that would become Idaho long remained untouched by Spanish, French, British, and American trappers and explorers. Even as late as 1805, Idaho Indians like the Shoshone had never encountered a white man. That changed with the arrival of the American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in the summer of 1805. Searching for a route over the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River, Lewis and Clark traveled through Idaho with the aid of the Shoshone Indians and their horses. British fur traders and trappers followed a few years later, as did missionaries and a few hardy settlers. As with many remote western states, large-scale settlement began only after gold was discovered. Thousands of miners rushed into Idaho when word of a major gold strike came in September 1860. Merchants and farmers followed, eager to make their fortunes “mining the miners.”

By 1880, Idaho boasted a population of 32,610. In the southern section of the territory, many settlers were Mormons who had been dispatched from Salt Lake City to found new colonies. Increasingly, Idaho territory became divided between a Mormon-dominated south and an anti-Mormon north. In the mid-1880s, anti-Mormon Republicans used widespread public antipathy toward the Mormon practice of polygamy to pass legislation denying the predominantly Democratic Mormons the vote. With the Democratic Mormon vote disarmed, Idaho became a Republican-dominated territory. National Republicans eager to increase their influence in the U.S. Congress began to push for Idaho statehood in 1888. The following year, the Idaho territorial legislature approved a strongly anti-Mormon constitution. The U.S. Congress approved the document on this day in 1890, and Idaho became the 43rd state in the Union.

1898 – The Spanish cruisers Cristóbal Colón, Almirante Oquendo, Vizcaya and Infanta Maria Teresa, and two torpedo-boat destroyers, lay bottled up in Santiago Harbor, with seven American ships maintaining a blockade just outside. Without warning, the Spanish squadron attempted to break out, and the Americans attacked, sinking one torpedo boat and immediately running the other aground. The Americans gave chase to Oquendo, Vizcaya and Colón. After a brief battle, all the Spanish warships were overtaken, with only two American causalities, both from the U.S. armored cruiser Brooklyn.


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[SHOOTER13]

1903 – The first cable across the Pacific Ocean was spliced between Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila. Teddy Roosevelt placed the atoll of Midway Island under Navy supervision. The Commercial Pacific Cable Co. (later AT&T) set cable across the Pacific via Midway Island and the first around the world message was sent. The message took 9 minutes to circle the globe.

1905 – An Executive Order extended the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service to the noncontiguous territory of the American Samoan Island.

1915 – US military forces occupied Haiti, and remained until 1934.

1927 – Ensign Charles L. Duke, in command of CG-2327, boarded the rumrunner Greypoint in New York harbor and single-handedly captured the vessel, its 22-man crew, and its cargo of illegal liquor.

1930 – Congress created the U.S. Veterans Administration.

1943 – During the day, the Australians link up with the Americans from the Nassau Bay landing force in the Bitoi River region.

1943 – On New Georgia, American forces land at Zanana, about 8 miles east of Munda. There is no Japanese resistance and the beachhead is quickly consolidated.

1944 – Forces of the US 1st Army launch an offensive drive south from the Cotentin Peninsula with the objective of reaching a line from Coutances to St. Lo. The difficult terrain and poor weather contribute to a limited advance during the day toward St. Jean de Daye and La Haye du Puits. German forces resist.

1944 – Troops of the French Expeditionary Corps (part of US 5th Army) capture Siena. Other elements of the 5th Army reach Rosignano. Forces of the British 8th Army take Cortona.

1945 – The first American occupation troops arrive in Berlin. Meanwhile, Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, nominated by Hitler in 1940 to be Gauleiter of Britain, is captured by Allied troops.

1945 – American B-29 bombers attack Himeji, on Honshu, and the towns of Takamatsu, Tokushima and Kochi, on Shikoku Island, to the south of Honshu.

1947 – Soviet Union didn’t partake in the Marshall Plan.

1950 – USS Valley Forge and HMS Triumph participate in first carrier action of Korean Conflict. VF-51 aircraft (Valley Forge) shoot down 2 North Korean aircraft. The action is first combat test of F9F Panther and AD Skyraider.

1950 – Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Leonard H. Plog, flying a F9F Panther jet fighter, shot down a Yak-9P, claiming the first U.S. Navy aerial victory of the Korean War.

1968 – The U.S. command in Saigon releases figures showing that more Americans were killed during the first six months of 1968 than in all of 1967. These casualty figures were a direct result of the heavy fighting that had occurred during, and immediately after, the communist Tet Offensive. The offensive had begun on January 30th, when communist forces attacked Saigon, Hue, five of six autonomous cities, 36 of 44 provincial capitals, and 64 of 245 district capitals.

The timing and magnitude of the attacks caught the South Vietnamese and American forces completely off guard, but eventually the Allied forces turned the tide. Militarily, the Tet Offensive was a disaster for the communists. By the end of March 1968, they had not achieved any of their objectives and had lost 32,000 soldiers with 5,800 captured. U.S. forces suffered 3,895 dead; South Vietnamese losses were 4,954; non-U.S. allies lost 214. More than 14,300 South Vietnamese civilians died.

Though the offensive was a crushing military defeat for the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese, early reports of a smashing communist victory went largely uncorrected in the U.S. news media. This was a great psychological victory for the communists. The heavy U.S. casualties incurred during the offensive, coupled with the disillusionment over the earlier overly optimistic reports of progress in the war, accelerated the growing disenchantment with President Johnson’s conduct of the war. Johnson, frustrated with his inability to reach a solution in Vietnam, announced on March 31, 1968, that he would neither seek nor accept the nomination of his party for re-election.

1986 – President Reagan presided over a gala ceremony in New York Harbor that saw the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty.

1988 – In the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy cruiser Vincennes shoots down an Iranian passenger jet that it mistakes for a hostile Iranian fighter aircraft. Two missiles were fired from the American warship–the aircraft was hit, and all 290 people aboard were killed. The attack came near the end of the Iran-Iraq War, when U.S. vessels were in the gulf defending Kuwaiti oil tankers. Minutes before Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down, the Vincennes had engaged Iranian gunboats that shot at its helicopter. Iran called the downing of the aircraft a “barbaric massacre,” but U.S. officials defended the action, claiming that the aircraft was outside the commercial jet flight corridor, flying at only 7,800 feet, and was on a descent toward the Vincennes. However, one month later, U.S. authorities acknowledged that the airbus was in the commercial flight corridor, flying at 12,000 feet, and not descending. The U.S. Navy report blamed crew error caused by psychological stress on men who were in combat for the first time. In 1996, the U.S. agreed to pay $62 million in damages to the families of the Iranians killed in the attack.

1996 – US Secret Service agents claimed to have broken up an operation by a New York couple that used monitoring equipment to steal 80,000 cellular phone numbers and id codes from motorists on an expressway that passed their apartment building.

1996 – Lockheed Martin Corp. won a $1 bil federal contract to build the next-generation space shuttle.

2000 – A 1970’s steel observation tower that preservationists said had desecrated the battlefield of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania was demolished.

2001 – The last parts of the US spy plane in China were flown out.

2002 – It was reported that Operation Xtermination, a drug investigation at Camp Lejeune, NC, seized over $1.4 million in drugs and convicted over 80 marines and sailors.

2002 – Chinese police found Wang Bingzhang, a pro-democracy activist and US resident, in Guangxi Province. He had been recently kidnapped with 2 others in Vietnam.

2002 – In Pakistan security forces killed 4 al Qaeda fighters near the Afghan border at Germa. 3 security men were killed. A land dispute broke out in Northern Waziristan near the Afghan border and 21 people were killed.

2002 – The first of the Coast Guard’s Maritime Safety and Security Teams (MSSTs), MSST-91101 was commissioned in Seattle, Washington on 3 July 2002. MSSTs were created in response to the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on 11 September 2001.

MSSTs are domestic, mobile units that possess specialized training and capabilities to perform a broad spectrum of port safety and security operations. They were designed to offer operational commanders with a quick response capability that would meet changing threats in the nation’s harbors, ports, and internal waterways and to enforce moving and fixed security zones to protect commercial high interest vessels, U.S. Navy high value assets, and critical waterside infrastructure. Twelve MSST units were planned for deployment around the nation.

2003 – The US military commander in Europe was ordered to begin planning for possible American intervention in Liberia.

2003 – US troops killed 11 Iraqis who ambushed a convoy outside Baghdad.

2014 – ISIS captured Syria’s largest oilfield from rival Islamist fighters, Al-Nusra Front, who put up no resistance to the attack. Taking control of the al-Omar oilfield gave ISIS access to potentially useful crude oil reserves.

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[SHOOTER13]

Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

BACON, ELIJAH W.
Rank and organization: Private, Company F, 14th Connecticut Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Berlin, Conn. Birth: Burlington, Conn. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 16th North Carolina regiment (C.S.A.).

BENEDICT, GEORGE G.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, Company C, 12th Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Burlington, Vt. Birth: Burlington, Vt. Date of issue: 27 June 1892. Citation: Passed through a murderous fire of grape and canister in delivering orders and re-formed the crowded lines.

*BROWN, MORRIS, JR.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company A, 126th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Penn Yan, N.Y. Born: August 1842, Hammondsport, N.Y. Date of issue: 6 March 1869. Citation: Capture of flag.

CLOPP, JOHN E.
Rank and organization: Private, Company F, 71st Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Birth: Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 2 February 1865. Citation: Capture of flag of 9th Virginia Infantry (C.S.A.), wresting it from the color bearer.

*CUSHING, ALONZO H.
Rank and Organization: 1st Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Battery A, 4th US Artillery, II Corps, Army of the Potomac. Place and Date: Gettysburg, PA, July 3rd, 1863. Entered Service At: Fredonia, New York. Born: 19 January 1841, at Delafield, Wisconsin. Departed: Yes (07/03/1863). G.O. Number: . Date of Issue: 11/06/2014. Citation: First Lieutenant Alonzo H. Cushing distinguished himself by acts of bravery above and beyond the call of duty while serving as an artillery commander in Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on July 3rd, 1863 during the American Civil War. That morning, Confederate forces led by General Robert E. Lee began cannonading First Lieutenant Cushing’s position on Cemetery Ridge. Using field glasses, First Lieutenant Cushing directed fire for his own artillery battery. He refused to leave the battlefield after being struck in the shoulder by a shell fragment. As he continued to direct fire, he was struck again – this time suffering grievous damage to his abdomen. Still refusing to abandon his command, he boldly stood tall in the face of Major General George E. Pickett’s charge and continued to direct devastating fire into oncoming forces. As the Confederate forces closed in, First Lieutenant Cushing was struck in the mouth by an enemy bullet and fell dead beside his gun. His gallant stand and fearless leadership inflicted severe casualties upon Confederate forces and opened wide gaps in their lines, directly impacting the Union force’s ability to repel Pickett’s charge. First Lieutenant Cushing’s extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty at the cost of his own life are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, Army of the Potomac, and the United States Army.

DE CASTRO, JOSEPH H.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company I, 19th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at:——. Birth: Boston, Mass. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 19th Virginia regiment (C.S.A.).

DORE, GEORGE H.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company D, 126th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: ——. Birth: England. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: The colors being struck down by a shell as the enemy were charging, this soldier rushed out and seized it, exposing himself to the fire of both sides.

ENDERLIN, RICHARD
Rank and organization: Musician, Company B, 73d Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 1-3 July 1863. Entered service at: Chillicothe, Ohio. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 11 September 1897. Citation: Voluntarily took a rifle and served as a soldier in the ranks during the first and second days of the battle. Voluntarily and at his own imminent peril went into the enemy’s lines at night and, under a sharp fire, rescued a wounded comrade.

*FALLS, BENJAMIN F.
Rank and organization: Color Sergeant, Company A, 19th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Lynn, Mass. Birth. Portsmouth, N.H. Date of issue. December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag.

FLYNN, CHRISTOPHER
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company K, 14th Connecticut Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Sprague, Conn. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 52d North Carolina Infantry (C.S.A.).

FUGER, FREDERICK
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 24 August 1897. Citation: All the officers of his battery having been killed or wounded and five of its guns disabled in Pickett’s assault, he succeeded to the command and fought the remaining gun with most distinguished gallantry until the battery was ordered withdrawn.

HINCKS, WILLIAM B.
Rank and organization: Sergeant Major, 14th Connecticut Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Bridgeport, Conn. Birth: Bucksport, Me. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: During the highwater mark of Pickett’s charge on 3 July 1863 the colors of the 14th Tenn. Inf. C.S.A. were planted 50 yards in front of the center of Sgt. Maj. Hincks’ regiment. There were no Confederates standing near it but several were Iying down around it. Upon a call for volunteers by Maj. Ellis, commanding, to capture this flag, this soldier and 2 others leaped the wall. One companion was instantly shot. Sgt. Maj. Hincks outran his remaining companion running straight and swift for the colors amid a storm of shot. Swinging his saber over the prostrate Confederates and uttering a terrific yell, he seized the flag and hastily returned to his lines. The 14th Tenn. carried 12 battle honors on its flag. The devotion to duty shown by Sgt. Maj. Hlncks gave encouragement to many of his comrades at a crucial moment of the battle.

JELLISON, BENJAMIN H.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company C, 19th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Newburyport, Mass. Birth: Newburyport, Mass. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 57th Virginia Infantry (C.S.A.). He also assisted in taking prisoners.

MAYBERRY, JOHN B.
Rank and organization: Private, Company F, 1st Delaware Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Kent County, Del. Birth: Smyrna, Del. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag.

McCARREN, BERNARD
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 1st Delaware Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Wilmington, Del. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag.

MILLER, JOHN
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company G, 8th Ohio Infantry.
Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Freemont, Sandusky County, Ohio. Birth: Germany. Date of issue. 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of 2 flags.

MILLER, WILLIAM E.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company H, 3d Pennsylvania Cavalry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: ——. Born: 5 February 1836, West Hill, Pa. Date of issue 21 July 1897. Citation: Without orders, led a charge of his squadron upon the flank of the enemy, checked his attack, and cut off and dispersed the rear of his column.

MUNSELL, HARVEY M.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 99th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 1_3 July 1863. Entered service at: Vanango County, Pa. Birth: Steuben County, N.Y. Date of issue: 5 February 1866. Citation: Gallant and courageous conduct as color bearer. (This noncommissioned officer carried the colors of his regiment through 13 engagements.)

O’BRIEN, HENRY D.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company E, 1st Minnesota Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: St. Anthony Falls, Minn. Birth: Maine. Date of issue: 9 April 1890. Citation: Taking up the colors where they had fallen, he rushed ahead of his regiment, close to the muzzles of the enemy’s guns, and engaged in the desperate struggle in which the enemy was defeated, and though severely wounded, he held the colors until wounded a second time.

PLATT, GEORGE C.
Rank and organization: Private, Troop H, 6th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Fairfield, Pa., 3 July 63. Entered service at: —–. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 12 July 1895. Citation: Seized the regimental flag upon the death of the standard bearer in a hand_to_hand fight and prevented it from falling into the hands of the enemy.

RAYMOND, WILLIAM H.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company A, 108th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Penfield, N.Y. Birth: Penfield, N.Y. Date of issue: 10 March 1896 Citation: Voluntarily and under a severe fire brought a box of ammunition to his comrades on the skirmish line.


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[SHOOTER13]

RAYMOND, WILLIAM H.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company A, 108th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Penfield, N.Y. Birth: Penfield, N.Y. Date of issue: 10 March 1896 Citation: Voluntarily and under a severe fire brought a box of ammunition to his comrades on the skirmish line.

RICE, EDMUND
Rank and organization: Major, 19th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Boston, Mass. Birth: Brighton, Mass. Date of issue: 6 October 1891. Citation: Conspicuous bravery on the third day of the battle on the countercharge against Pickett’s division where he fell severely wounded within the enemy’s lines.

RICHMOND, JAMES
Rank and organization: Private, Company F, 8th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Toledo Ohio. Birth: Maine. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag.

ROBINSON, JOHN H.
Rank and organization: Private, Company I, 19th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Roxbury, Mass. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 57th Virginia Infantry (C.S.A.).

ROOD, OLIVER P.
Rank and organization: Private, Company B, 20th Indiana Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Terre Haute, Vigo County, Ind. Birth: Frankfort County, Ky. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 21st North Carolina Infantry (C.S.A.).

SHERMAN, MARSHALL
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 1st Minnesota Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at. St. Paul, Minn. Birth: Burlington, Vt. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 28th Virginia Infantry (C.S.A.).

SOUTHARD, DAVID
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company C, 1st New Jersey Cavalry. Place and date. At Sailors Creek, Va., 6 April 1865. Entered service at:——. Birth: Ocean County, N.J. Date of issue: 3 July 1865. Citation: Capture of flag; and was the first man over the works in the charge.

THOMPSON, JAMES B.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company G, 1st Pennsylvania Rifles. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Perrysville, Pa. Birth: Juniata County, Pa. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 15th Georgia Infantry (C.S.A.).

VEAZEY, WHEELOCK G.
Rank and organization: Colonel, 16th Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Springfield, Vt. Born: 5 December 1835, Brentwood, N.H. Date of issue: 8 September 1891. Citation: Rapidly assembled his regiment and charged the enemy’s flank; charged front under heavy fire, and charged and destroyed a Confederate brigade, all this with new troops in their first battle.

WALL, JERRY
Rank and organization. Private, Company B, 126th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Milo, N.Y. Birth: Geneva, N.Y. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag.

WEBB, ALEXANDER S.
Rank and organization: Brigadier General, U.S. Volunteers. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Born: 15 February 1835, New York, N.Y. Date of issue: 28 September 1891. Citation: Distinguished personal gallantry in leading his men forward at a critical period in the contest.

WELLS, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Major, 1st Vermont Cavalry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: Waterbury, Vt. Born: 14 December 1837, Waterbury, Vt. Date of issue: 8 September 1891. Citation: Led the second battalion of his regiment in a daring charge.

WILEY, JAMES
Rank and organization. Sergeant, Company B, 59th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pa., 3 July 1863. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Ohio. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of a Georgia regiment.

WILSON, CHARLES E.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 1st New Jersey Cavalry. Place and date: At Sailors Creek, Va., 6 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Bucks County, Pa. Date of issue: 3 July 1865. Citation: Charged the enemy’s works, colors in hand, and had 2 horses shot from under him.

BRADBURY, SANFORD
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company L, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Hell Canyon, Ariz., 3 July 1869. Entered service at. ——. Birth: Sussex County, N.J. Date of issue: 3 March 1870. Citation: Conspicuous gallantry in action.

HAUPT, PAUL
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company L, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Hell Canyon, Ariz., 3 July 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Prussia. Date of issue: 3 March 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

MITCHELL, JOHN J.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company L, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Hell Canyon, Ariz., 3 July 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 3 March 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

HOLT, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Quarter Gunner, U.S. Navy. Born: 1840, Kentucky. Accredited to: Kentucky. G.O. No.: 180, 10 October 1872. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Plymouth, Hamburg Harbor, 3 July 1871. Jumping overboard at the imminent risk of his life, Holt, with a comrade, rescued from drowning one of a party who was thrown from a shore boat into a 4-knot, running tide while the boat was coming alongside the ship.

TOBIN, PAUL
Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Birth: Plybin, France. Entered service at: Brest, France. G.O. No.: 180, 10 October 1872. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Plymouth, Hamburg Harbor, 3 July 1871. Jumping overboard at the imminent risk of his life, Tobin, with a comrade, rescued from drowning one of a party who was thrown from a shore boat into a 4-knot running tide while the boat was coming alongside the ship.

MAcNEAL, HARRY LEWIS
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 22 March 1875, Philadelphia, Pa. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No.: 526, 9 August 1899. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Brooklyn during action at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, 3 July 1898. Braving the fire of the enemy, MacNeal displayed gallantry throughout this action.

GLOWIN, JOSEPH ANTHONY
Rank and organization: Corporal, U .S. Marine Corps. Born: 14 March 1892, Detroit, Mich. Accredited to: Michigan. G.O. NO.: 244, 30 October 1916. Citation: During an engagement at Guayacanas on 3 July 1916, Cpl. Glowin participated in action against a considerable force of rebels on the line of march.

WINANS, ROSWELL
Rank and organization: Brigadier General (then First Sergeant), U.S. Marine Corps. Place and date: Guayacanas, Dominican Republic, 3 July 1916. Entered service at: Washington. Born. 9 December 1887, Brookville, Ind. G.O. No.: 244, 30 October 1916. Citation: During an engagement at Guavacanas on 3 July 1916, 1st Sgt. Winans participated in action against a considerable force of rebels on the line of march. During a running fight of 1,200 yards, our forces reached the enemy entrenchments and Cpl. Joseph A. Gowin, U.S.M.C., placed the machinegun, of which he had charge, behind a large log across the road and immediately opened fire on the trenches. He was struck once but continued firing his gun, but a moment later he was again struck and had to be dragged out of the position into cover. 1st Sgt. Winans, U.S.M.C., then arrived with a Colt’s gun which he placed in a most exposed position, coolly opened fire on the trenches and when the gun jammed, stood up and repaired it under fire. All the time Glowin and Winans were handling their guns they were exposed to a very heavy fire which was striking into the logs and around the men, 7 men being wounded and 1 killed within 20 feet. 1st Sgt. Winans continued flring his gun until the enemy had abandoned the trenches.

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*KOELSCH, JOHN KELVIN.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant (J.G.), U.S. Navy, Navy helicopter rescue unit. Place and date: North Korea, 3 July 1951. Entered service at: Los Angeles, Calif. Birth: London, England. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with a Navy helicopter rescue unit. Although darkness was rapidly approaching when information was received that a marine aviator had been shot down and was trapped by the enemy in mountainous terrain deep in hostile territory, Lt. (J.G.) Koelsch voluntarily flew a helicopter to the reported position of the downed airman in an attempt to effect a rescue. With an almost solid overcast concealing everything below the mountain peaks, he descended in his unarmed and vulnerable aircraft without the accompanying fighter escort to an extremely low altitude beneath the cloud level and began a systematic search. Despite the increasingly intense enemy fire, which struck his helicopter on 1 occasion, he persisted in his mission until he succeeded in locating the downed pilot, who was suffering from serious burns on the arms and legs. While the victim was being hoisted into the aircraft, it was struck again by an accurate burst of hostile fire and crashed on the side of the mountain. Quickly extricating his crewmen and the aviator from the wreckage, Lt. (J.G.) Koelsch led them from the vicinity in an effort to escape from hostile troops, evading the enemy forces for 9 days and rendering such medical attention as possible to his severely burned companion until all were captured. Up to the time of his death while still a captive of the enemy, Lt. (J.G.) Koelsch steadfastly refused to aid his captors in any manner and served to inspire his fellow prisoners by his fortitude and consideration for others. His great personal valor and heroic spirit of self-sacrifice throughout sustain and enhance the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

*SHUCK, WILLIAM E., JR.
Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps, Company G, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Rein.). Place and date: Korea, 3 July 1952. Entered service at: Cumberland, Md. Born. 16 August 1926, Cumberland, Md. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a squad leader of Company G, in action against enemy aggressor forces. When his platoon was subjected to a devastating barrage of enemy small-arms, grenade, artillery, and mortar fire during an assault against strongly fortified hill positions well forward of the main line of resistance, S/Sgt. Shuck, although painfully wounded, refused medical attention and continued to lead his machine gun squad in the attack. Unhesitatingly assuming command of a rifle squad when the leader became a casualty, he skillfully organized the 2 squads into an attacking force and led 2 more daring assaults upon the hostile positions. Wounded a second time, he steadfastly refused evacuation and remained in the foremost position under heavy fire until assured that all dead and wounded were evacuated. Mortally wounded by an enemy sniper bullet while voluntarily assisting in the removal of the last casualty, S/Sgt. Shuck, by his fortitude and great personal valor in the face of overwhelming odds, served to inspire all who observed him. His unyielding courage throughout reflects the highest credit upon himself and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

*BLANCHFIELD, MICHAEL R.
Rank and organization: Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army, Company A, 4th Battalion, 503d Infantry, 173d Airborne Brigade. Place and date: Binh Dinh Province, Republic of Vietnam, 3 July 1969. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill. Born: 4 January 1950, Minneapolis, Minn. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sp4c. Blanchfield distinguished himself while serving as a rifleman in Company A on a combat patrol. The patrol surrounded a group of houses to search for suspects. During the search of 1 of the huts, a man suddenly ran out toward a nearby tree line. Sp4c. Blanchfield, who was on guard outside the hut, saw the man, shouted for him to halt, and began firing at him as the man ignored the warning and continued to run. The suspect suddenly threw a grenade toward the hut and its occupants. Although the exploding grenade severely wounded Sp4c. Blanchfield and several others, he regained his feet to continue the pursuit of the enemy. The fleeing enemy threw a second grenade which landed near Sp4c. Blanchfield and several members of his patrol. Instantly realizing the danger, he shouted a warning to his comrades. Sp4c. Blanchfield unhesitatingly and with complete disregard for his safety, threw himself on the grenade, absorbing the full and fatal impact of the explosion. By his gallant action and self-sacrifice, he was able to save the lives and prevent injury to 4 members of the patrol and several Vietnamese civilians in the immediate area. Sp4c. Blanchfield’s extraordinary courage and gallantry at the cost of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

*FOLLAND, MICHAEL FLEMING
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Army, Company D, 2d Battalion, 3d Infantry, 199th Infantry Brigade. Place and date: Long Khanh, Providence, Republic of Vietnam, 3 July 1969. Entered service at: Richmond, Va. Born: 15 April 1949, Richmond, Va. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Cpl. Folland distinguished himself while serving as an ammunition bearer with the weapons platoon of Company D, during a reconnaissance patrol mission. As the patrol was moving through a dense jungle area, it was caught in an intense crossfire from heavily fortified and concealed enemy ambush positions. As the patrol reacted to neutralize the ambush, it became evident that the heavy weapons could not be used in the cramped fighting area. Cpl. Folland dropped his recoilless rifle ammunition, and ran forward to join his commander in an assault on the enemy bunkers. The assaulting force moved forward until it was pinned down directly in front of the heavily fortified bunkers by machine gun fire. Cpl. Folland stood up to draw enemy fire on himself and to place suppressive fire on the enemy positions while his commander attempted to destroy the machine gun positions with grenades. Before the officer could throw a grenade, an enemy grenade landed in the position. Cpl. Folland alerted his comrades and his commander hurled the grenade from the position. When a second enemy grenade landed in the position, Cpl. Folland again shouted a warning to his fellow soldiers. Seeing that no one could reach the grenade and realizing that it was about to explode, Cpl. Folland, with complete disregard for his safety, threw himself on the grenade. By his dauntless courage, Cpl. Folland saved the lives of his comrades although he was mortally wounded by the explosion. Cpl. Folland’s extraordinary heroism, at the cost of his life, was in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

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4 July

INDEPENDENCE DAY

1636 – City of Providence, Rhode Island, was formed.

1754 – Lieutenant Colonel George Washington is compelled to surrender “Fort Necessity” to a French task force from Fort Duquesne (present day Pittsburgh). Washington had been dispatched by Virginia’s governor with a mixed force of soldiers of the Virginia Provincial Regiment and Virginia militiamen to remove the French from Duquesne which was located in an area claimed by colonial government. When his advanced was blocked by the French Washington had his troops build a quickly constructed log fort in hopes of holding the French at bay. However, he was soon surrounded and forced to surrender. The French commander granted him the “honors of war” by allowing him to march out with colors flying, retaining one piece of artillery and with his men under arms. This rebuff of the claim by Virginia, and by extension Britain, to this area led directly to the outbreak of war between France and Britain in 1756. Known in Europe as the Seven Year’s War in American it’s more popularly called the “French and Indian War.” The men serving in the Virginia Provincial Regiment were full-time paid soldiers, mostly enlisted from the county militias. They were paid and equipped by the colony and used to garrison small outposts and patrol its western frontier. It was one of the first “professional” military organizations in British North America.

1776 – The Continental Congress approved adoption of the amended Declaration of Independence, prepared by Thomas Jefferson and signed by John Hancock–President of the Continental Congress–and Charles Thomson, Congress secretary, without dissent. However, the New York delegation abstained as directed by the New York Provisional Congress. On July 9, the New York Congress voted to endorse the declaration. On July 19, Congress then resolved to have the “Unanimous Declaration” inscribed on parchment for the signature of the delegates. Among the signers of the Declaration of Independence, two went on to become presidents of the United States, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

1776 – The Declaration of Independence was signed by president of Congress John Hancock and secretary Charles Thomson. John Hancock said, “There, I guess King George will be able to read that.” referring to his signature on the Declaration of Independence. Other signers later included Benjamin Rush and Robert Morris. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, eight were born outside North America.

1777 – John Paul Jones hoists first Stars and Stripes flag on Ranger at Portsmouth, NH.

1785 – The first Fourth of July parade was held in Bristol, Rhode Island. It served as a prayerful walk to celebrate independence from England.

1796 – 1st Independence Day celebration was held.

1800 – The Marine Band played at Tun Tavern, Philadelphia, in their first public appearance.

1801 – First Presidential Review of U.S. Marine Band and Marines at the White House.

1802 – The United State Military Academy opened its doors at West Point, New York, welcoming the first 10 cadets.

1804 – Staging the first-ever Fourth of July celebration west of the Mississippi River, Lewis and Clark fire the expedition cannon and order an extra ration of whiskey for the men. Six weeks earlier, Lewis and Clark left American civilization to depart on their famous journey. Since their departure, the party of 29 men–called the Corps of Discovery–had made good progress, traveling up the Missouri River in a 55-foot keelboat and two dugout canoes. When the wind was behind them, Lewis and Clark raised the keelboat sail, and on a few occasions, managed to travel 20 miles in a single day. By early July, the expedition had reached the northeastern corner of the present-day state of Kansas. The fertility of the land astonished the two leaders of the expedition. Clark wrote of the many deer, “as plenty as Hogs about a farm,” and with his usual creative spelling, praised the tasty “rasberreis perple, ripe and abundant.”

On this day in 1804, the expedition stopped near the mouth of a creek flowing out of the western prairie. The men asked the captains if they knew if the creek had a name. Knowing none, they decided to call it Independence Creek in honor of the day. The expedition continued upstream, making camp that evening at an abandoned Indian village. To celebrate the Fourth of July, Lewis and Clark commanded that the keelboat cannon be fired at sunset. They distributed an extra ration of whiskey to the men, and the explorers settled back to enjoy the peaceful Kansas night. In his final journal entry of the day, Clark wondered at the existence of, “So magnificent a Senerey in a Contry thus Situated far removed from the Sivilised world to be enjoyed by nothing but the Buffalo Elk Deer & Bear in which it abounds & Savage Indians.” The next day, the travelers resumed their journey up the Missouri River toward the distant Pacific Coast. They would not pass by their pleasant camping spot in Kansas again until their return journey, two years and many adventures later.

1819 – The Territory of Arkansas was created.

1826 – John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the second and third presidents of the United States, respectively, die on this day, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Both men had been central in the drafting of the historic document; Jefferson had authored it, and Adams, who was known as the “colossus of the debate,” served on the drafting committee and had argued eloquently for the declaration’s passage. After July 4, 1776, Adams traveled to France as a diplomat, where he proved instrumental in winning French support for the Patriot cause, and Jefferson returned to Virginia, where he served as state governor during the dark days of the American Revolution. After the British defeat at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781, Adams was one of the negotiators of the Treaty of Paris that ended the war, and with Jefferson he returned to Europe to try to negotiate a U.S.-British trade treaty. After the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, Adams was elected vice president to George Washington, and Jefferson was appointed secretary of state. During Washington’s administration, Jefferson, with his democratic ideals and concept of states’ rights, often came into conflict with Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who supported a strong federal government and conservative property rights. Adams often arbitrated between Hamilton and his old friend Jefferson, though in politics he was generally allied with Hamilton. In 1796, Adams defeated Jefferson in the presidential election, but the latter became vice president, because at that time the office was still filled by the candidate who finished second. As president, Adams’ main concern was America’s deteriorating relationship with France, and war was only averted because of his considerable diplomatic talents.

In 1800, Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans (the forerunner of the Democratic Party) defeated the Federalist party of Adams and Hamilton, and Adams retired to his estate in Quincy, Massachusetts. As president, Jefferson reduced the power and expenditures of the central government but advocated the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France, which more than doubled the size of the United States. During his second administration, Jefferson faced renewed conflict with Great Britain, but he left office before the War of 1812 began. Jefferson retired to his estate in Monticello, Virginia, but he often advised his presidential successors and helped establish the University of Virginia. Jefferson also corresponded with John Adams to discuss politics, and these famous letters are regarded as masterpieces of the American enlightenment. By remarkable coincidence, Jefferson and Adams died on the same day, Independence Day in 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Adams’ last words were, “Thomas Jefferson still survives,” though his old friend and political adversary had died a few hours before.

1831 – James Monroe, 5th President of the United States, died in New York City at age 73, making him the third ex-President to die on Independence Day.

1832 – The song “America” was sung publicly for the first time at a Fourth of July celebration by a group of children at Park Street Church in Boston. The words were written on a scrap of paper in half an hour by Dr. Samuel Francis Smith, a Baptist minister, and were set to the music of “God Save the King.”

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1834 – President Andrew Jackson ordered green and buff as the Corps’ uniform colors.

1836 – The territorial government of Wisconsin was established.

1842 – First test of electrically operated underwater torpedo sinks gunboat Boxer.

1848 – The Communist Manifesto was published.

1848 – The Cornerstone of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. was laid by President Polk. The white marble obelisk, which is 555 feet tall and 55 fee square at the base, was not completed until 1184. The public was admitted to the monument on October 9, 1888.

1850 – President Zachary Taylor stood hatless in the sun for hours listening to long-winded speeches. He returned to the White House and attempted to cool off by eating cherries, cucumbers and drinking iced milk. Severe stomach cramps followed and it is likely that Taylor’s own physicians inadvertently killed him with a whole series of debilitating treatments. Taylor died July 9th.

1861 – Union and Confederate forces skirmished at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

1862 – Battle at Green River, Ky. (Morgan’s Ohio Raid).

1862 – U.S.S. Maratanza, Lieutenant Stevens, engaged C.S.S. Teaser, Lieutenant Davidson, at Haxall’s on the James River. Teaser was abandoned and captured after a shell from Maratanza exploded her boiler. In addition to placing mines in the river, Davidson had gone down the river with a balloon on board for the purpose of making an aerial reconnaissance of General McClellan’s positions at City Point and Harrison’s Landing. By this time both Union and Confederate forces were utilizing the balloon for gathering intelligence; Teaser had been the Southern counterpart of U.S.S. G. W. Parke Custis, from whose deck aerial observations had been made the preceding year. The balloon, as well as a quantity of insulated wire and mine equipment, were found on board Teaser. Six shells with ”peculiar fuzes” were also taken and sent to Captain Dahlgren at the Washington Navy Yard for examination.

1863 – Boise, Idaho, was founded.

1863 – The Confederacy is torn in two when General John C. Pemberton surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksburg. The Vicksburg campaign was one of the most successful campaigns of the war. Although Grant’s first attempt to take the city failed in the winter of 1862-63, he renewed his efforts in the spring. Admiral David Porter had run his flotilla past the Vicksburg defenses in early May as Grant marched his army down the west bank of the river opposite Vicksburg, crossed back to Mississippi, and drove toward Jackson. After defeating a Confederate force near Jackson, Grant turned back to Vicksburg. On May 16, he defeated a force under John C. Pemberton at Champion Hill. Pemberton retreated back to Vicksburg, and Grant sealed the city by the end of May.

In three weeks, Grant’s men marched 180 miles, won five battles, and took 6,000 prisoners. Grant made some attacks after bottling Vicksburg, but found the Confederates well entrenched. Preparing for a long siege, his army constructed 15 miles of trenches and enclosed Pemberton’s force of 29,000 men inside the perimeter. It was only a matter of time before Grant, with 70,000 troops, captured Vicksburg. Attempts to rescue Pemberton and his force failed from both the east and west, and conditions for both military personnel and civilians deteriorated rapidly. Many residents moved to tunnels dug from the hillsides to escape the constant bombardments. Pemberton surrendered on July 4th, and President Lincoln wrote that the Mississippi River “again goes unvexed to the sea.” The town of Vicksburg would not celebrate the Fourth of July for 81 years.

1863 – General Lee’s army limped toward Virginia after defeat at Gettysburg. 28,063 of 75,000 confederate soldiers were lost. General Meade’s army suffered 23,049 soldiers killed, wounded and missing.

1863 – Paul Joseph Revere, US grandson of Paul Revere, Union brig-gen, died from wounds at Gettysburg.

1863 – Failed Confederate assault on Helena, Arkansas, left 640 casualties.

1863 – Skirmish at Smithburg, TN.

1864 – U.S.S. Hastings, Acting Lieutenant J. S. Watson, engaged Confederate sharpshooters on the White River above St. Charles, Arkansas. Lieutenant Commander Phelps, embarked in the 300-ton, 8-gun Hastings, commented in his report to Rear Admiral Porter: “I had been at a loss to know how we should celebrate the Fourth, being underway and having so much of a convoy in charge, but this attack occurring about noon furnished the opportunity of at once punishing the enemy and celebrating the day by firing cannon.” It had been a year before, on 4 July 1863, that Union forces had commemorated Independence Day with decisive victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the latter pivoting on the Union Navy. With control of the Western waters assured, the North was certain of victory.”

1872 – John Calvin Coolidge (d.1933) 30th President of the United States (1923-29), was born in Plymouth, Vermont. Calvin Coolidge, also known as ‘Silent Cal,’ was a Republican; Vice President from 1921-23 and succeeded to the Presidency on the death of Warren Harding in 1923; elected President in 1924 and served a full term. He was especially known for his economy of language. A lady dinner companion during his presidency told him she had a bet she could get him to say more than two words; he replied: “You lose.” “Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good.”

1875 – White Democrats killed several blacks in terrorist attacks in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1884 – The Statue of Liberty was presented to the United States in ceremonies at Paris, France. The 225-ton, 152-foot statue was a gift from France in commemoration of 100 years of American independence. Created by the French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the statue was installed on Bedloe Island (now Liberty Island) in New York harbor in 1885. It was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

1894 – The Provisional Government under Judge Stanford B. Dole declared Hawaii a republic.

1898 – A US flag was hoisted over Wake Island during the Spanish-American War.

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1901 – William H. Taft, later the 27th president of the United States, became the American territorial governor of the Philippines. Taft soon appointed Prof. Bernard Moses secretary of public instruction for the Philippines. Taft, who had been solicitor general of the U.S. under President Benjamin Harrison, was a federal circuit court judge when President William McKinley appointed him to serve as president of the U.S. Philippines Commission in 1900-01. Later in 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt named Taft the first civil governor of the Philippines Islands, a post he held for four years. Roosevelt named Taft secretary of war in 1904. A Republican, Taft was president from 1909 to 1913 and Supreme Court Chief Justice from 1921 to 1930. He was born in 1857 and died on March 8, 1930, shortly after his resignation from the court.

1902 – President Roosevelt officially ended the Philippine-American War. Estimates for the civilian people killed ranged from 250,000 to 1 million. Creighton Miller in 1982 published “Benevolent Assimilation,” a comprehensive account of the conflict.

1916 – Tokyo Rose, (Iva Toguri D’Aquino), was born in Los Angeles. She did propaganda broadcasts against the U.S. from Japan during World War II.; imprisoned after the war, then received presidential pardon in 1977.

1917 – During a ceremony in Paris honoring the French hero of the American Revolution, US Lt. Col. Charles E. Stanton declared, “Lafayette, we are here!”

1926 – The NSDAP (Nazi) party formed in Weimar.

1942 – Irving Berlin’s musical review “This Is the Army” opened at the Broadway Theater in New York.

1942 – 1st American bombing mission over enemy-occupied Europe (WW II). US air offensive against Nazi-Germany began. Six American planes join a RAF squadron attacking airfields in Holland.

1943 – On New Georgia, US forces advancing from Zanana to Munda encounter heavy Japanese resistance. The Japanese land 1200 troops from 3 destroyers at Vila on Kolombangara.

1944 – Attacks by the US 7th and 8th Corps (parts of US 1st Army) continue. The Canadian 3rd Division (part of British 2nd Army) captures the village of Carpiquet, west of Caen, but cannot secure the airfield.

1944 – 1,100 US guns fired 4th of July salute at German lines in Normandy.

1944 – Elements of US Task Force 58 attack Guam Island with carrier aircraft.

1944 – Elements of US Task Force 58 attack Chichi Jima Island with carrier aircraft.

1944 – Elements of US Task Force 58 attack Iwo Jima Island with carrier aircraft.

1944 – Japanese made their first kamikaze (god wind) attack on a US fleet near Iwo Jima.

1945 – On Mindanao, the US 24th Division organizes an amphibious expeditionary force to liberate Sarangani Bay, in the south of the island, south of Davao. Filipino guerrilla forces assist in clearing out the Japanese pockets of resistance.

1946 – The Philippines became independent of U.S. sovereignty. The Philippines, which officially became a territory of the United States in 1902, gained its independence. In 1932 a movement to implement Philippine independence began to grow. The Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934, providing for independence after 12 years, was unanimously accepted and a Philippine constitution approved by President Roosevelt in February 1935. Manuel Quezon was elected the first president of the Philippines on September 17, 1935. In 1937 a Joint Preparatory Commission on Philippine Affairs was established by Roosevelt to recommend a program for economic adjustment. The Republic of the Philippines was inaugurated.

1950 – General MacArthur informed the communists that the U.N. expected all prisoners of war to be well treated.

1959 – A 49-star flag was raised for the first time at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., in honor of Alaska which had become the 49th state in the Union on July 7, 1958.

1960 – The 50-star flag made its debut in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A 50th star was added to the American flag in honor of Hawaii’s admission into the Union on August 21, 1959.

1963 – Gen. Tran Van Don informs Lucien Conein of the CIA that certain officers are planning a coup against South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem, who had been supported by the Kennedy administration, had refused to make any meaningful reforms and had oppressed the Buddhist majority. Conein informed Washington that the generals were plotting to overturn the government. President John F. Kennedy, who had come to the conclusion that the Diem government should no longer be in command, sent word that the United States would not interfere with the coup. In the early afternoon hours of November 1st, a group of South Vietnamese generals ordered their troops to seize key military installations and communications systems in Saigon and demanded the resignation of Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu. Diem was unable to summon any support, so he and Nhu escaped the palace through an underground passage to a Catholic church in the Chinese sector of the city.

From there, Diem began negotiating with the generals by phone. He agreed to surrender and was promised safe conduct, but shortly after midnight he and his brother were brutally murdered in back of the armored personnel carrier sent to pick them up and return them to the palace. Kennedy, who had given tacit approval for the coup, was reportedly shocked at the murder of Diem and Nhu. Nevertheless, U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge called the insurgent generals to his office to congratulate them and cabled Kennedy that the prospects for a shorter war had greatly improved with the demise of Diem and Nhu.

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1968 – The radio astronomy satellite Explorer 38 launched.

1970 – 100 were injured in race rioting in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

1976 – The nation held a 200th anniversary party across the land in celebration of America’s 200 years of independence. President Ford made stops in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and New York, where more than 200 ships paraded up the Hudson River in Operation Sail.

1976 – A government program was begun in 1937 to provide American flags, certified to have flown over the capital, to the public. Each flag was provided a certificate with the date it was flown and the name of the person for whom it was flown. By 1998 the program average 250-300 flags per day with a peak of 10,471 flown on July 4, 1976, and a record of 154,224 flown in 1991.

1982 – The space shuttle Columbia 4 concluded its fourth and final test flight with landing at Edwards AFB.

1987 – Discovery moved to Launch Pad 39B for STS-26 mission.

1994 – The United States opened its embassy in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, with a Fourth of July party.

1994 – Cutters assigned to Operation Able Manner, which commenced under presidential order on 15 January 1994, rescued 3,247 Haitian migrants from 70 grossly overloaded sailboats in the Windward Passage. They rescued a total of 15,955 during the month of July, 1994.

1995 – The space shuttle “Atlantis” and the Russian space station “Mir” parted after spending five days in orbit docked together.

1997 – After traveling 120 million miles in seven months, NASA’s Mars Pathfinder becomes the first U.S. spacecraft to land on Mars in more than two decades. In an ingenious, cost-saving landing procedure, Pathfinder used parachutes to slow its approach to the Martian surface and then deployed airbags to cushion its impact. Colliding with the Ares Vallis floodplain at 40 miles an hour, the spacecraft bounced high into the Martian atmosphere 16 times before safely coming to rest. On July 5, the Pathfinder lander was renamed Sagan Memorial Station in honor of the late American astronomer, and the next day Sojourner, the first remote-control interplanetary rover, rolled off the station. Soujourner, which traveled a total of 171 feet during its 30-day mission, sent back a wealth of information about the chemical components of rock and soil in the area. In addition, nearly 10,000 images of the Martian landscape were taken. The Mars Pathfinder mission, which cost just $150 million, was hailed as a triumph for NASA, and millions of Internet users visited the official Pathfinder Web site to view images of the red planet.

1999 – In Puerto Rico anti US Navy protests drew some 50,000 people.

1999 – In Russia troops were forced to delay their departure for Kosovo after NATO blocked air corridors on their route.

2001 – The US counter-terrorism group run by Richard Clarke sent a memorandum to Condoleeza Rice, national security advisor, that described a series of steps that the White House had taken to put the nation on heightened terrorist alert. It noted that all 56 FBI field offices were tasked in late June to go to increased surveillance and contact informants related to known or suspected terrorists.

2002 – Hesham Mohamed Hadayet (41), an Egyptian-born 10-year resident of Irvine, opened fire at Israel’s El Al airline ticket counter in Los Angeles’ airport. Victoria Hen and Yaakov Aminov were killed before Hadayet, born July 4, 1961, was shot to death by a guard.

2002 – American warplanes bombed an Iraqi air defense system after coming under attack from Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery.

2002 – Benjamin O. Davis Jr. (89), leader of the all-black Tuskegee Airmen during World War II and the first black general in the Air Force, died in Washington.

2003 – President Bush visited Dayton, Ohio, to praise the work of U.S. troops and celebrate the 100th anniversary of flight in the hometown of the Wright brothers.

2003 – US forces raided a Turkish special forces office in northern Iraq and detained 11 soldiers on reports that Turks were plotting to kill the governor of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

2003 – A voice purported to be Saddam Hussein’s, aired on the Arab television station Al-Jazeera, said he is in Iraq directing attacks on American forces and called on Iraqis to help the resistance against the US-led occupation.

2003 – Liberia’s President Charles Taylor, under US pressure to quit, said he had agreed to step down. A senior Nigerian official said Taylor had accepted an offer of asylum.

2004 – In NYC a 20-ton slab of granite, inscribed to honor “the enduring spirit of freedom,” was laid at the World Trade Center site as the cornerstone of the skyscraper that will replace the destroyed towers.

2004 – The Army’s 1st Armored Division stowed its flags and prepared to head home after the longest tour in Iraq of any American combat command — 15 months.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

CAPEHART, CHARLES E.
Rank and organization: Major, 1st West Virginia Cavalry. Place and date: At Monterey Mountain, Pa., 4 July 1863. Entered service at: Washington, D.C. Born: 1883, Conemaugh Township, Cambria County, Pa. Date of issue: 7 April 1898. Citation: While commanding the regiment, charged down the mountain side at midnight, in a heavy rain, upon the enemy’s fleeing wagon train. Many wagons were captured and destroyed and many prisoners taken.

HANNA, MARCUS A.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company B, 50th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Port Hudson, La., 4 July 1863. Entered service at: Rockport, Mass. Born: 3 November 1842, Bristol, Maine. Date of issue: 2 November 1895. Citation: Voluntarily exposed himself to a heavy fire to get water for comrades in rifle pits.

KENNEDY, JOHN T.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 6th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Patian Island, Philippine Islands, 4 July 1909. Entered service at: Orangeburg, S.C. Birth: Hendersonville, S.C. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: While in action against hostile Moros, he entered with a few enlisted men the mouth of a cave occupied by a desperate enemy, this act having been ordered after he had volunteered several times. In this action 2d Lt. Kennedy was severely wounded.

WILSON, ARTHUR H.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, 6th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Patian Island, Philippine Islands, 4 July 1909. Entered service at: Springfield, Ill. Birth: Springfield, Ill. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: While in action against hostile Moros, when, it being necessary to secure a mountain gun in position by rope and tackle, voluntarily with the assistance of an enlisted man, carried the rope forward and fastened it, being all the time under heavy fire of the enemy at short range .

*NAKAMURA, WILLIAM K.
Private First Class William K. Nakamura distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 4 July 1944, near Castellina, Italy. During a fierce firefight, Private First Class Nakamura’s platoon became pinned down by enemy machine gun fire from a concealed position. On his own initiative, Private First Class Nakamura crawled 20 yards toward the hostile nest with fire from the enemy machine gun barely missing him. Reaching a point 15 yards from the position, he quickly raised himself to a kneeling position and threw four hand grenades, killing or wounding at least three of the enemy soldiers. The enemy weapon silenced, Private First Class Nakamura crawled back to his platoon, which was able to continue its advance as a result of his courageous action. Later, his company was ordered to withdraw from the crest of a hill so that a mortar barrage could be placed on the ridge. On his own initiative, Private First Class Nakamura remained in position to cover his comrades’ withdrawal. While moving toward the safety of a wooded draw, his platoon became pinned down by deadly machine gun fire. Crawling to a point from which he could fire on the enemy position, Private First Class Nakamura quickly and accurately fired his weapon to pin down the enemy machine gunners. His platoon was then able to withdraw to safety without further casualties. Private First Class Nakamura was killed during this heroic stand. Private First Class Nakamura’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.

*ONO, FRANK H.
Private First Class Frank H. Ono distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 4 July 1944, near Castellina, Italy. In attacking a heavily defended hill, Private First Class Ono’s squad was caught in a hail of formidable fire from the well-entrenched enemy. Private First Class Ono opened fire with his automatic rifle and silenced one machine gun 300 hundred yards to the right front. Advancing through incessant fire, he killed a sniper with another burst of fire, and while his squad leader reorganized the rest of the platoon in the rear, he alone defended the critical position. His weapon was then wrenched from his grasp by a burst of enemy machine pistol fire as enemy troops attempted to close in on him. Hurling hand grenades, Private First Class Ono forced the enemy to abandon the attempt, resolutely defending the newly won ground until the rest of the platoon moved forward. Taking a wounded comrade’s rifle, Private First Class Ono again joined in the assault. After killing two more enemy soldiers, he boldly ran through withering automatic, small arms, and mortar fire to render first aid to his platoon leader and a seriously wounded rifleman. In danger of being encircled, the platoon was ordered to withdraw. Volunteering to cover the platoon, Private First Class Ono occupied virtually unprotected positions near the crest of the hill, engaging an enemy machine gun emplaced on an adjoining ridge and exchanging fire with snipers armed with machine pistols. Completely disregarding his own safety, he made himself the constant target of concentrated enemy fire until the platoon reached the comparative safety of a draw. He then descended the hill in stages, firing his rifle, until he rejoined the platoon. Private First Class Ono’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.

*MENDONCA, LEROY A.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company B, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Chich-on, Korea, 4 July 1951. Entered service at: Honolulu, T.H. Birth: Honolulu, T.H. G.O. No.: 83, 3 September 1952. Citation: Sgt. LeRoy A. Mendonca, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. After his platoon, in an exhaustive fight, had captured Hill 586, the newly won positions were assaulted during the night by a numerically superior enemy force. When the 1st Platoon positions were outflanked and under great pressure and the platoon was ordered to withdraw to a secondary line of defense, Sgt. Mendonca voluntarily remained in an exposed position and covered the platoon’s withdrawal. Although under murderous enemy fire, he fired his weapon and hurled grenades at the onrushing enemy until his supply of ammunition was exhausted. He fought on, clubbing with his rifle and using his bayonet until he was mortally wounded. After the action it was estimated that Sgt. Mendonca had accounted for 37 enemy casualties. His daring actions stalled the crushing assault, protecting the platoon’s withdrawal to secondary positions, and enabling the entire unit to repel the enemy attack and retain possession of the vital hilltop position. Sgt. Mendonca’s extraordinary gallantry and exemplary valor are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Army.

*NEWLIN, MELVIN EARL
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, 2d Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Rein), FMF. Place and date: Quang Nam Province, Republic of Vietnam, 4 July 1967. Entered service at: Cleveland, Ohio. Born: 27 September 1948, Wellsville, Ohio. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a machine gunner attached to the 1st Platoon, Company F, 2d Battalion, on 3 and 4 July 1967. Pfc. Newlin, with 4 other marines, was manning a key position on the perimeter of the Nong Son outpost when the enemy launched a savage and well coordinated mortar and infantry assault, seriously wounding him and killing his 4 comrades. Propping himself against his machinegun, he poured a deadly accurate stream of fire into the charging ranks of the Viet Cong. Though repeatedly hit by small-arms fire, he twice repelled enemy attempts to overrun his position. During the third attempt, a grenade explosion wounded him again and knocked him to the ground unconscious. The Viet Cong guerrillas, believing him dead, bypassed him and continued their assault on the main force. Meanwhile, Pfc. Newlin regained consciousness, crawled back to his weapon, and brought it to bear on the rear of the enemy, causing havoc and confusion among them. Spotting the enemy attempting to bring a captured 106 recoilless weapon to bear on other marine positions, he shifted his fire, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy and preventing them from firing the captured weapon. He then shifted his fire back to the primary enemy force, causing the enemy to stop their assault on the marine bunkers and to once again attack his machinegun position. Valiantly fighting off 2 more enemy assaults, he firmly held his ground until mortally wounded. Pfc. Newlin had single-handedly broken up and disorganized the entire enemy assault force, causing them to lose momentum and delaying them long enough for his fellow marines to organize a defense and beat off their secondary attack. His indomitable courage, fortitude, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of almost certain death reflect great credit upon himself and the Marine Corps and upheld the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

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5 July

1775 – The Olive Branch Petition was adopted by the Continental Congress and professed the attachment of the American people to George III. It expressed hope for the restoration of harmony and begged the king to prevent further hostile actions against the colonies. The following day, Congress passed a resolution written by Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson, a “Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms,” which rejected independence but asserted that Americans were ready to die rather than be enslaved. King George refused to receive the Olive Branch Petition on August 23 and proclaimed the American colonies to be in open rebellion.

1776 – The Declaration of Independence was first printed by John Dunlop in Philadelphia. 200 copies were prepared July 5-6th and distributed to the states.

1801 – David G. Farragut (d.1870), American naval hero, was born in Knoxville, Tenn.

1814 – U.S. troops under Jacob Brown defeated a superior British force at Chippewa, Canada.

1814 – Sloop-of-war Peacock captures British Stranger, Venus, Adiona, and Fortitude.

1815 – Commodore Stephen Decatur’s squadron arrives at Tripoli to collect reparations for seizure of American merchant ships in violation of Treaty of 1805.

1861 – The first large-scale engagement of the Civil War is fought in southwestern Missouri, signaling an escalation in the hostilities between the North and South. Missouri was the scene of some of the most bitter partisan fighting during the war. After the clash at Fort Sumter in April, the state was deeply divided. The Missouri State Guardsmen, a force of 6,000 men commanded by Confederate Governor Claiborne Jackson and Colonel Sterling Price, were poorly equipped and outfitted mostly in civilian clothing. Their Union counterpart was a force of 1,100, mostly German-Americans from St. Louis, commanded by General Franz Sigel. Sigel’s force occupied Springfield in late June, and then collided with the Confederates at nearby Carthage on July 5. Outnumbered, Sigel eventually withdrew, but was able to hold off several small attacks. By nightfall, the Union troops had retreated through Carthage and escaped a dangerous trap. Both sides declared victory, and losses were light: 13 Union men were killed and 31 were wounded, while 40 Confederates were killed and 120 were wounded. The forces remained in the area of Springfield, gathering strength over the next month. They would fight again in August at Wilson’s Creek, Missouri.

1862 – Act to reorganize the U.S. Navy Department increased the number of Bureaus to eight: Yards and Docks, Equipment and Recruiting, Navigation, Ordnance, Construction and Repair, Steam Engineering, Provisions and Clothing, Medicine and Surgery. This act, and other far-reaching measures were guided through Congress by Senator Grimes of Iowa, who had an outstanding appreciation of sea power.

1863 – Federal troops occupied Vicksburg, Mississippi, and distributed supplies to the citizens. The battles of Jackson and Birdsong Ferry, were fought in Mississippi.

1940 – Congress passes the Export Control Act, forbidding the exporting of aircraft parts, chemicals, and minerals without a license. This prohibition was a reaction to Japan’s occupation of parts of the Indo-Chinese coast. Now that the Germans occupied a large swath of France, the possibility of Axis control of French colonies became a reality. Among those of immediate concern was French Indo-China. The prospect of the war spreading to the Far East was now a definite possibility. Increasing its likelihood was the request by Imperial Japan to use army, naval, and air bases in French Indo-Chinese territory, an important vantage point from which to further its campaign to conquer China. As Vichy France entered into negotiations on this issue, the Japanese peremptorily occupied key strategic areas along the coast of Indo-China. The United States, fearing the advance of Japanese expansion and cooperation, even if by coercion, between German-controlled France and Japan, took its own action, by banning the export of aircraft parts without a license and, three weeks later, the export of aviation fuel and scrap metal and iron without a license. The United States was not alone in its concern. Great Britain, which had it own colonies in the Far East (Burma, Hong Kong, and Malaya) also feared an aggressive Japan. The day after the Export Act was passed, the British ambassador would be asked by Japan to close the Burma Road, a key supply route of arms for China, Japan’s prey. Britain initially balked at the request but, fearing a declaration of war by a third enemy, caved in and closed the road, though only for a limited period.

1943 – US invasion fleet (96 ships) sailed to Sicily.

1943 – On New Georgia, American force of regimental strength lands in the north at Rice Anchorage. Fighting on the Zanana-Munda track continues. During the night (July 5-6th) Japanese destroyers bring nearly 3000 more troops to Vila. Admiral Ainsworth, with 3 cruisers and 4 destroyers, engages elements of the Japanese force and sinks one destroyer while losing the cruiser Helena.

1944 – The Japanese garrison on Numfoor, New Guinea, tried to counterattack but was soon beaten back by U.S. forces.

1944 – Elements of US 1st Army capture La Haye du Puits.

1945 – It is announced that General Spaatz will lead the US Strategic Air Force in the campaign against Japan.

1945 – Britain and the United States recognize a new Polish government of National Unity. Mikolajczyk, former leader of the London based Polish government in exile, is one of the deputy premiers.

1945 – US General Douglas MacArthur announced that the liberation of the Philippines from its Japanese occupiers was complete.

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1946 – French designer Louis Reard unveils a daring two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in Paris. Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modeled the new fashion, which Reard dubbed “bikini,” inspired by a news-making U.S. atomic test that took place off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week. European women first began wearing two-piece bathing suits that consisted of a halter top and shorts in the 1930s, but only a sliver of the midriff was revealed and the navel was vigilantly covered. In the United States, the modest two-piece made its appearance during World War II, when wartime rationing of fabric saw the removal of the skirt panel and other superfluous material. Meanwhile, in Europe, fortified coastlines and Allied invasions curtailed beach life during the war, and swimsuit development, like everything else non-military, came to a standstill.

In 1946, Western Europeans joyously greeted the first war-free summer in years, and French designers came up with fashions to match the liberated mood of the people. Two French designers, Jacques Heim and Louis Reard, developed competing prototypes of the bikini. Heim called his the “atom” and advertised it as “the world’s smallest bathing suit.” Reard’s swimsuit, which was basically a bra top and two inverted triangles of cloth connected by string, was in fact significantly smaller. Made out of a scant 30 inches of fabric, Reard promoted his creation as “smaller than the world’s smallest bathing suit.” Reard called his creation the bikini, named after the Bikini Atoll. In planning the debut of his new swimsuit, Reard had trouble finding a professional model who would deign to wear the scandalously skimpy two-piece. So he turned to Micheline Bernardini, an exotic dancer at the Casino de Paris, who had no qualms about appearing nearly nude in public. As an allusion to the headlines that he knew his swimsuit would generate, he printed newspaper type across the suit that Bernardini modeled on July 5th at the Piscine Molitor.

The bikini was a hit, especially among men, and Bernardini received some 50,000 fan letters. Before long, bold young women in bikinis were causing a sensation along the Mediterranean coast. Spain and Italy passed measures prohibiting bikinis on public beaches but later capitulated to the changing times when the swimsuit grew into a mainstay of European beaches in the 1950s. Reard’s business soared, and in advertisements he kept the bikini mystique alive by declaring that a two-piece suit wasn’t a genuine bikini “unless it could be pulled through a wedding ring.” In prudish America, the bikini was successfully resisted until the early 1960s, when a new emphasis on youthful liberation brought the swimsuit en masse to U.S. beaches. It was immortalized by the pop singer Brian Hyland, who sang “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini” in 1960, by the teenage “beach blanket” movies of Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, and by the California surfing culture celebrated by rock groups like the Beach Boys. Since then, the popularity of the bikini has hardly diminished; though on beaches in Brazil and the Mediterranean today, many women favor the “mono-kini,” a swimsuit style that consists solely of a bikini bottom.

1947 – Rancher Mac Brazel found unusual debris 75 miles northwest of Roswell, NM, scattered over an area 300 years wide and ¾ of a mile long. This led to rumors of an alien crash. The military said it was a crashed weather balloon.

1950 – Task Force Smith, B and C Companies of the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, and A Battery, 52nd Field Artillery Battalion, all of the 24th Infantry Division, met a large tank and infantry element of the North Korean 4th Division just north of Osan. After seven hours of brisk action, battered by the T-34 tanks’ fire and flanked by overwhelming numbers of infantry, the Task Force Smith withdrew under fire. Of the 520 infantry and artillery men of the Task Force, only 185 made it to friendly lines. A North Korean soldier who came on the scene just after the battle recorded in his diary, “We met vehicles and American PWs. We also saw some American dead. We found four of our destroyed tanks. Near Osan there was a great battle.”

1950 – Near Sojong, South Korea, Private Kenneth Shadrick, a 19-year-old infantryman from Skin Fork, West Virginia, becomes the first American reported killed in the Korean War. Shadrick, a member of a bazooka squad, had just fired the weapon at a Soviet-made tank when he looked up to check his aim and was cut down by enemy machine-gun fire. Near the end of World War II, the “Big Three” Allied powers–the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain–agreed to divide Korea into two separate occupation zones and temporarily govern the nation. The country was split along the 38th parallel, with Soviet forces occupying the northern zone and Americans stationed in the south.

By 1949, separate Korean governments had been established, and both the United States and the USSR withdrew the majority of their troops from the Korean Peninsula. The 38th parallel was heavily fortified on both sides, but the South Koreans were unprepared for the hordes of North Korean troops and Soviet-made tanks that suddenly rolled across the border on June 25, 1950. Two days later, President Harry Truman announced that the United States would intervene in the Korean conflict to stem the spread of communism, and on June 28 the United Nations approved the use of force against communist North Korea. In the opening months of the war, the U.S.-led U.N. forces rapidly advanced against the North Koreans, but in October, Chinese communist troops entered the fray, throwing the Allies into a hasty retreat.

By May 1951, the communists were pushed back to the 38th parallel, where the battle line remained for the rest of the war. In 1953, an armistice was signed, ending the war and reestablishing the 1945 division of Korea that still exists today. Approximately 150,000 troops from South Korea, the United States, and participating U.N. nations were killed in the Korean War, and as many as one million South Korean civilians perished. An estimated 800,000 communist soldiers were killed, and more than 200,000 North Korean civilians died. The original figure of American troops lost–54,246 killed–became controversial when the Pentagon acknowledged in 2000 that all U.S. troops killed around the world during the period of the Korean War were incorporated into that number. For example, any American soldier killed in a car accident anywhere in the world from June 1950 to July 1953 was considered a casualty of the Korean War. If these deaths are subtracted from the 54,246 total, leaving just the Americans who died (from whatever cause) in the Korean theater of operations, the total U.S. dead in the Korean War numbers 36,516.

1951 – Dr. William Shockley invented junction transistor at Murray Hill, NJ.

1952 – Kentucky’s 623rd Field Artillery Battalion, armed with eighteen 155mm towed howitzers, moves into this area in support of X Corps in holding operations against Communist Chinese assaults. During this period it will earn a Republic of Korea Unit Citation for its fire support of South Korea troops in repelling an enemy assault. In October the battalion, the last Guard artillery unit deployed to Korea, will see hard fighting and earns a Navy Unit Commendation embroidered PANMUNJOM for firing missions in support of the 1st Marine Division. The unit served again overseas in Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

1954 – The B-52A bomber made its maiden flight.

1966 – National Guard was mobilized in Omaha, NE after a 3rd night of rioting. For three straight nights there were confrontations between black teenagers and the police. Trouble developed after youth gathered late at night in food store parking lots; as one observer said, they were the places to go, in lieu of recreational facilities. Rioters threw rocks and bottles, smashed windows, and looted several stores… The police made sixty arrests, concentrating on containing the mobs and holding down violence. On the third night the police had trouble with a milling and rock-throwing crowd of around 150 people and authorities called in a small contingent of steel-helmeted Nebraska National Guardsmen to restore order. They cleared the streets without violence as those involved quickly dispersed.

1966 – 1st full day of operation “MACON”, Vietnam (4 July – 28 October).

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1986 – Statue of Liberty was reopened after being refurbished.

1989 – Former National Security Council aide Oliver North received a $150,000 fine and a suspended prison term for his part in Iran-Contra. The convictions were later overturned.

1990 – NATO leaders opened a two-day meeting in London to revise the alliance’s strategy in light of easing East-West tensions in Europe and the unraveling of the Warsaw Pact.

1992 – Iraq refuses to allow a U.N. inspection team to enter a building in Baghdad believed to contain documents related to Iraq’s nuclear program. Inspectors withdraw without gaining access.

1993 – A United Nations team left Iraq after trying for more than a month to persuade the Baghdad government to allow surveillance cameras at two former missile test sites.

1997 – NASA scientists brainstormed to fix problems that left Mars Pathfinder’s robot rover stuck aboard the lander.

1998 – Iraq and Jordan sign an agreement for the construction of an oil pipeline between the two countries. The pipeline is expected to replace a fleet of more than 3,000 tankers that currently transport Iraqi crude oil to Jordan. Jordan depends entirely on Iraq for oil and currently incurs $50 million per year in transportation fees.

1999 – In Fort Campbell, Ky., Pvt. Calvin Glover (18) beat to death Pfc. Barry Winchell (21) with a baseball bat. Glover was later convicted of pre-meditated murder and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

1999 – NATO and Russia resolved their differences and cleared the way for some 3,600 Russian troops to arrive in Kosovo.

2000 – Coast Guard HH-65A CGNR 6539 rescued 51 persons from a burning oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The aircrew responded to the fire and safely airlifted 15 people to a nearby platform nine miles from the fire. They then evacuated another 36 people to awaiting boats. One of the 6539’s crew had landed on the platform to coordinate the rescue. As the helicopter returned to retrieve him, the rig exploded and sent a fireball 100 feet into the air. Unsure whether he survived, the 6539 flew into the thick, black column of smoke and safely rescued him. All four aircrew were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

2001 – Kenneth Williams, an FBI agent in Phoenix, Arizona, wrote to bureau headquarters that al Qaeda could be sending terrorists to train as student pilots. He urged the investigation of Middle Eastern men enrolled in American flight schools.

2001 – The US spy plane from China arrived at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Georgia aboard a Russian Antonov-124 transport plane.

2001 – Iraq accepted a 5-month UN extension for the oil-for-food program.

2002 – Talks in Vienna between the United Nations and Iraq end without agreement on inspections as Baghdad seeks assurances that sanctions will be lifted.

2003 – In Ramadi, Iraq, an explosion struck a ceremony for Iraqi policemen graduating from US training, killing at least seven recruits and wounding dozens.

2004 – US military families planned to leave Bahrain in the next few days following reports terrorists were planning attacks here.

2004 – US-led coalition forces launched an air strike in the restive city of Fallujah on a suspected safe house used by followers of al-Zarqawi. The attack killed 15 insurgents.

2004 – Rwaida Al Shemre (33), an Iraqi interpreter for the US 3rd Battalion, was assassinated as she was driven to work.

2008 – The US Coast Guard launches the USCGC Bertholf, it’s first National Security Cutter. The cutter — 418 feet from stem to stern — is set to patrol the Pacific from California to Ecuador — a patch of ocean as large as the United States. The first of eight similar cutters to be rolled out over the next several years, its acquisition is part of the Coast Guard’s Deepwater program, a plan to modernize an aging fleet and keep up with its expanded Homeland Security role. The Legend Class National Security Cutter (NSC) was designed to be the flagship of the fleet – capable of meeting all maritime security mission needs, and supportive of the joint Coast Guard/Navy commitment to Joint Service Combatant Commanders. The NSC contributes to Intelligence Collection/Information Sharing through a sophisticated Command and Control system, sensors and increased data exchange bandwidth. The NSC’s Deepwater and DoD interoperability capabilities are enhanced with DHS- and local responder interoperable radio communications. The NSC flight deck will grow to accommodate all variants of DHS and DoD HH-60 helicopters to provide enhanced interoperability with interagency and inter-service counter-terrorism teams. The NSC will now be fully integrated with the National Distress Response Modernization Program, known as RESCUE 21, which will provide port commanders with real-time tracking of the NSC and seamless Common Operational Picture data sharing.

The NSC Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection suite will include underwater sonar that will allow the cutter to scan ports, approaches, facilities and high-value assets for underwater, min elike devices and detect swimmers. The cutter’s small arms mounts will be remote operated and fully integrated with the cutter’s radar and infrared sensors such that the cutter and high-value assets under its protection can be protected from a USS COLE-like incident. The Maritime Security Capabilities allow the cutter’s weapons and command and control suite to be upgraded and hardened to better survive potential terrorist incidents and process increased data flow. This will include a missile defense system with CIWS, SLQ-32, and a medium caliber deck gun (57MM) that will provide the ability to stop rogue merchant vessels far from shore. An integrated CBRNE Detection and Defense capability allows the NSC to remain on scene and operate in Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) scenarios.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

None this Date

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[SHOOTER13]

6 July

1669 – The explorer LaSalle left Montreal to explore Ohio River.

1699 – Pirate Captain William Kidd was captured in Boston.

1701 – William Kidd, English-US buccaneer, was hanged.

1747 – John Paul Jones, naval hero of the American Revolution, was born near Kirkcudbright, Scotland. As a US naval commander he invaded England during the American War of Independence.

1776 – The US Declaration of Independence was announced on the front page of “PA Evening Gazette.”

1777 – British forces under Gen. Burgoyne captured Fort Ticonderoga from the Americans. Lieutenant General John Burgoyne’s 8,000-man army occupied high ground above the fort, and nearly surrounded the defenses. These movements precipitated the occupying Continental Army, an under-strength force of 3,000 under the command of General Arthur St. Clair, to withdraw from Ticonderoga and the surrounding defenses. Some gunfire was exchanged, and there were some casualties, but there was no formal siege and no pitched battle. Burgoyne’s army occupied Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, the extensive fortifications on the Vermont side of the lake, without opposition on 6 July. Advance units pursued the retreating Americans. The uncontested surrender of Ticonderoga caused an uproar in the American public and in its military circles, as Ticonderoga was widely believed to be virtually impregnable, and a vital point of defense. General St. Clair and his superior, General Philip Schuyler, were vilified by Congress. Both were eventually exonerated in courts martial, but their careers were adversely affected. Schuyler had already lost his command to Horatio Gates by the time of the court martial, and St. Clair held no more field commands for the remainder of the war.

1779 – The Battle of Grenada took place during the American War of Independence in the West Indies between the British Royal Navy and the French Navy, just off the coast of Grenada. The British fleet of Admiral John Byron, the grandfather of Lord Byron, had sailed in an attempt to relieve Grenada, which the French forces of the Comte D’Estaing had just captured. Incorrectly believing he had numerical superiority, Byron ordered a general chase to attack the French as they left their anchorage at Grenada. Because of the disorganized attack and the French superiority, the British fleet was badly mauled in the encounter, although no ships were lost. Naval historian Alfred Thayer Mahan described the British loss as “the most disastrous … that the British Navy had encountered since Beachy Head, in 1690.” Despite the French victory, d’Estaing did not follow up with further attacks, squandering any tactical advantage the battle gave him.

1785 – The dollar is unanimously chosen by the Congress of the Confederation (Articles) as the monetary unit for the United States. When the British finally took their American cousins’ advice and waddled – somewhat uncertainly – away from their shores, the newly-liberated United States of America was left in desperate need of a currency of its own. So desperate was that need, that Congress adopted a young Hispanic currency – The Dollar – as its own.

1798 – US law made aliens “liable to be apprehended, restrained, …& removed as alien enemies.”

1809 – Congress authorized the construction of twelve new cutters to enforce President Thomas Jefferson’s embargo.

1863 – Vincent Strong, US Union brigadier general, died from wounds at Gettysburg.

1864 – Confederate General Jubal Early’s troops cross the Potomac River and capture Hagerstown, Maryland. Early had sought to threaten Washington, D.C., and thereby relieve pressure on General Robert E. Lee, who was fighting to keep Ulysses S. Grant out of Richmond. During the brutal six-week campaign against Grant in June 1864, Lee was under tremendous pressure. On June 12th, he dispatched Jubal Early to Lynchburg, in western Virginia, to hold off a Union attack by General David Hunter. After defeating Hunter, Early was ordered to head down the Shenandoah Valley to the Potomac. Lee hoped that this threat to Washington would force Grant to return part of his army to the capital and protect it from an embarrassing capture by the Confederates. Lee was inspired by a similar Shenandoah campaign by Stonewall Jackson in 1862, in which Jackson occupied three Federal armies in a brilliant military show. However, the circumstances were different in 1864. Grant now had plenty of men, and Lee was stretched thin around the Richmond-Petersburg perimeter. Still, the first part of Early’s raid was successful. His force crossed the Potomac on July 6, and a cavalry brigade under John McCausland rode into Hagerstown. Early instructed McCausland to demand $200,000 from the city officials of Hagerstown for damages caused by Hunter in the Shenandoah Valley, but McCausland felt the amount was too large, so he asked for $20,000. After receiving the money, Early’s army turned southeast toward Washington. The Confederates reached the outskirts of the city before being turned away by troops from Grant’s army.

1887 – David Kalākaua, monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, is forced at gunpoint by Americans to sign the Bayonet Constitution giving Americans more power in Hawaii while stripping Hawaiian citizens of their rights.

1898 – Armed Auxiliary Dixie captures Spanish Three Bells, Pilgrim, and Greeman Castle.

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1905 – Marines escorted the body of John Paul Jones from France to Annapolis.

1908 – CDR Robert Peary sails in Roosevelt from New York to explore Arctic.

1911 – First naval aviation base established at Annapolis, MD.

1920 – Test and first use of radio compass in aircraft off Norfolk, VA.

1923 – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed.

1943 – Night Battle of Kula Gulf results in loss of 2 Japanese destroyers and USS Helena.

1943 – An American force (4 cruisers and 4 destroyers) led by Admiral Giffen bombards Japanese positions on Kiska Island.

1944 – Lieutenant Jackie Robinson of the U.S. Army, while riding a civilian bus from Camp Hood, Texas, refused to give up his seat to a white man. Lt. Jackie Robinson was court martialed for refusing the order of a civilian bus driver to move to the back of the bus. He was acquitted.

1944 – On Numfoor, American forces capture Namber airfield. Allied fighter aircraft are flown in.

1945 – General Claire Chennault resigns his command of the US 14th Army Air Force in protest to plans to disband it.

1945 – President Truman signed an executive order establishing the Medal of Freedom.

1945 – Some 600 US B-29 Superfortress bombers struck Osaka, Kofu, Chiba, Shimizu (near Tokyo), Shimotsu and Akashi, all on Honshu. Nearly 4000 tons of bombs are dropped.

1945 – Operation Overcast began in Europe–moving Austrian and German scientists and their equipment to the United States.

1946 – Forty-third President of the United States George W. Bush is born. Raised in Midland, Texas, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1968. Upon graduation he joined the 111th Fighter Squadron, Texas Air National Guard. After completing a year’s flight training he became an F-102 Delta Dagger fighter-interceptor pilot. His unit, which was organized in 1923 as the 111th Observation Squadron, an element of Texas’ 36th Division, had fought in Europe during World War II and was one of only six Air Guard squadrons to actually fight in Korea during that war. When Bush joined the unit it was tasked with the continental air defense mission against possible Soviet bomber attack. He remained with the unit until his honorable discharge in late 1973. After graduating with an MBA from Harvard Business School he entered the oil business. Later he was twice elected as the Governor of Texas and in 2001 became the 43rd U.S. President. Of the 19 former Guardsmen who have become president, he is the only one with an Air Guard background.

1950 – The 24th Infantry Division’s 34th Infantry Regiment was driven from Pyongtaek by an overwhelming North Korean onslaught in the first of a series of delaying actions down the peninsula.

1950 – U.S. Air Force B-29s from the 19th Bomb Group hit the Wonsan oil refinery following a move from Guam to a new base in Okinawa in record time.

1950 – Acting on the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of Defense, President Truman approved raising the authorized strength of the Army from 630,000 to 680,000.

1955 – Diem declares in a broadcast that since the Geneva Agreements were not signed, South Vietnam is not bound by them. Although he does not reject the ‘principle of elections,’ any proposals from the Vietminh are out of the question ‘if proof is not given us that they put the higher interest of the national community above those of Communism.’

1962 – Storax Sedan was a shallow underground nuclear test conducted in Area 10 of Yucca Flat at the Nevada National Security Site as part of Operation Plowshare, a program to investigate the use of nuclear weapons for mining, cratering, and other civilian purposes. The radioactive fallout from the test contaminated more US residents than any other nuclear test. The Sedan Crater is the largest man-made crater in the United States, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

1964 – At Nam Dong in the northern highlands of South Vietnam, an estimated 500-man Viet Cong battalion attacks an American Special Forces outpost. During a bitter battle, Capt. Roger C. Donlon, commander of the Special Forces A-Team, rallied his troops, treated the wounded, and directed defenses although he himself was wounded several times. After five hours of fighting, the Viet Cong withdrew. The battle resulted in an estimated 40 Viet Cong killed; two Americans, 1 Australian military adviser, and 57 South Vietnamese defenders also lost their lives. At a White House ceremony in December 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented Captain Donlon with the first Medal of Honor of the Vietnam War.

1976 – In Annapolis, Maryland, the United States Naval Academy admits women for the first time in its history with the induction of 81 female midshipmen. In May 1980, Elizabeth Anne Rowe became the first woman member of the class to graduate. Four years later, Kristine Holderied became the first female midshipman to graduate at the top of her class. The U.S. Naval Academy opened in Annapolis in October 1845, with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors. Known as the Naval School until 1850, the curriculum included mathematics, navigation, gunnery, steam, chemistry, English, natural philosophy, and French. The Naval School officially became the U.S. Naval Academy in 1850, and a new curriculum went into effect requiring midshipmen to study at the Academy for four years and to train aboard ships each summer–the basic format that remains at the academy to this day.

1982 – President Ronald Reagan agreed to contribute U.S. troops to the peacekeeping unit in Beirut.

1989 – The U.S. Army destroyed its last Pershing 1-A missiles at an ammunition plant in Karnack, Texas, under terms of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

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1990 – NATO leaders concluded two days of meetings in London, pledging to sharply reduce both nuclear and conventional defenses in Europe.

1993 – Two US soldiers are WIA when a Rocket Propelled grenade hits their guard post.

1997 – The rover Sojourner rolled down a ramp from the Mars Pathfinder lander and began mankind’s first mobile exploration of Mars. The first rock targeted for examination was named “Barnacle Bill.”

1998 – It was reported that a planned shipment of nuclear rods was to be transported across Northern California, Nevada and Utah to Idaho for processing before final storage in South Carolina. The federal government had made 154 secret shipments of spent nuclear fuel rods over the last 40 years. Four more shipments from 7 Asian countries were planned to occur by 2009.

1999 – Pres. Clinton signed Executive Order 13129 to impose sanctions against the ruling Taliban militia in Afghanistan.

2001 – The United States turned over to Japanese authorities an American serviceman accused of rape.

2001 – Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen pleaded guilty to 15 criminal counts and agreed to give a full accounting of his spying activities for Moscow.

2002 – Gunmen assassinated Afghan Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir (48) and his driver in broad daylight in the capital Kabul. Qadir was a prominent Pashtun businessman and was suspected of being involved in the opium trade.

2002 – Greek police, assisted by American and British agents, raided an apartment and found dozens of anti-tank rockets they believe were stolen from the army in the late 1980s by the elusive November 17 terrorist group.

2002 – In Latvia hopes were high at a summit of 10 former communist countries aspiring to join NATO, and many delegates already were looking ahead to the responsibilities of membership.

2004 – A group of armed, masked Iraqi men threatened to kill Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi if he did not immediately leave the country, accusing him of murdering innocent Iraqis and defiling the Muslim religion.

2004 – In Iraq a car bomb exploded in the town of Khalis, killing 13 people attending a wake for the victims of a previous attack.


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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

*VAN VOORHIS, BRUCE AVERY
Rank and organization: Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy. Born: 29 January 1908, Aberdeen, Wash. Appointed from: Nevada. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Squadron Commander of Bombing Squadron 102 and as Plane Commander of a PB4Y-I Patrol Bomber operating against the enemy on Japanese-held Greenwich Island during the battle of the Solomon Islands, 6 July 1943. Fully aware of the limited chance of surviving an urgent mission, voluntarily undertaken to prevent a surprise Japanese attack against our forces, Lt. Comdr. Van Voorhis took off in total darkness on a perilous 700-mile flight without escort or support.

Successful in reaching his objective despite treacherous and varying winds, low visibility and difficult terrain, he fought a lone but relentless battle under fierce antiaircraft fire and overwhelming aerial opposition. Forced lower and lower by pursuing planes, he coolly persisted in his mission of destruction. Abandoning all chance of a safe return he executed 6 bold ground-level attacks to demolish the enemy’s vital radio station, installations, antiaircraft guns and crews with bombs and machinegun fire, and to destroy 1 fighter plane in the air and 3 on the water. Caught in his own bomb blast, Lt. Comdr. Van Voorhis crashed into the lagoon off the beach, sacrificing himself in a single-handed fight against almost insuperable odds, to make a distinctive contribution to our continued offensive in driving the Japanese from the Solomons and, by his superb daring, courage and resoluteness of purpose, enhanced the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

DONLON, ROGER HUGH C.
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army. Place and date: Near Nam Dong, Republic of Vietnam, 6 July 1964. Entered service at: Fort Chaffee, Ark. Born: 30 January 1934, Saugerties, N.Y. G.O. No.: 41, 17 December 1964. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while defending a U.S. military installation against a fierce attack by hostile forces. Capt. Donlon was serving as the commanding officer of the U.S. Army Special Forces Detachment A-726 at Camp Nam Dong when a reinforced Viet Cong battalion suddenly launched a full-scale, predawn attack on the camp. During the violent battle that ensued, lasting 5 hours and resulting in heavy casualties on both sides, Capt. Donlon directed the defense operations in the midst of an enemy barrage of mortar shells, falling grenades, and extremely heavy gunfire. Upon the initial onslaught, he swiftly marshaled his forces and ordered the removal of the needed ammunition from a blazing building. He then dashed through a hail of small arms and exploding hand grenades to abort a breach of the main gate. En route to this position he detected an enemy demolition team of 3 in the proximity of the main gate and quickly annihilated them. Although exposed to the intense grenade attack, he then succeeded in reaching a 60mm mortar position despite sustaining a severe stomach wound as he was within 5 yards of the gun pit. When he discovered that most of the men in this gunpit were also wounded, he completely disregarded his own injury, directed their withdrawal to a location 30 meters away, and again risked his life by remaining behind and covering the movement with the utmost effectiveness. Noticing that his team sergeant was unable to evacuate the gun pit he crawled toward him and, while dragging the fallen soldier out of the gunpit, an enemy mortar exploded and inflicted a wound in Capt. Donlon’s left shoulder.

Although suffering from multiple wounds, he carried the abandoned 60mm mortar weapon to a new location 30 meters away where he found 3 wounded defenders. After administering first aid and encouragement to these men, he left the weapon with them, headed toward another position, and retrieved a 57mm recoilless rifle. Then with great courage and coolness under fire, he returned to the abandoned gun pit, evacuated ammunition for the 2 weapons, and while crawling and dragging the urgently needed ammunition, received a third wound on his leg by an enemy hand grenade. Despite his critical physical condition, he again crawled 175 meters to an 81mm mortar position and directed firing operations which protected the seriously threatened east sector of the camp. He then moved to an eastern 60mm mortar position and upon determining that the vicious enemy assault had weakened, crawled back to the gun pit with the 60mm mortar, set it up for defensive operations, and turned it over to 2 defenders with minor wounds. Without hesitation, he left this sheltered position, and moved from position to position around the beleaguered perimeter while hurling hand grenades at the enemy and inspiring his men to superhuman effort. As he bravely continued to move around the perimeter, a mortar shell exploded, wounding him in the face and body. As the long awaited daylight brought defeat to the enemy forces and their retreat back to the jungle leaving behind 54 of their dead, many weapons, and grenades, Capt. Donlon immediately reorganized his defenses and administered first aid to the wounded. His dynamic leadership, fortitude, and valiant efforts inspired not only the American personnel but the friendly Vietnamese defenders as well and resulted in the successful defense of the camp. Capt. Donlon’s extraordinary heroism, at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

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7 July

1742 – A Spanish force invading Georgia ran headlong into the colony’s British defenders. A handful of British and Spanish colonial troops faced each other on a Georgia coastal island and decided the fate of a colony.

1777 – American troops gave up Fort Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, to the British.

1778 – Allied French fleet under Comte d’Estaing arrives in America.

1797 – For the first time in U.S. history, the House of Representatives exercises its constitutional power of impeachment and votes to charge Senator William Blount of Tennessee with “a high misdemeanor, entirely inconsistent with his public duty and trust as a Senator.” In 1790, President George Washington appointed Blount, who had fought in the American Revolution, as governor of the “Territory South of the River Ohio,” now known as Tennessee. Although he was a successful territorial governor, personal financial problems led him to enter into a conspiracy with British officers to enlist frontiersmen and Cherokee Indians to assist the British in conquering parts of Spanish Florida and Louisiana. Before the conspiracy was uncovered, Blount presided over the Tennessee Constitutional Convention and in 1796 became the state’s first U.S. senator.

The plot was revealed in 1797, and on July 7th the House of Representatives voted to impeach Senator Blount. The next day, the Senate voted by a two-thirds majority to expel him from its ranks. On December 17, 1798, the Senate exercised its “sole power to try all impeachments,” as granted by the Constitution, and initiated a Senate trial against Blount. As vice president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson was president of the Senate and thus presided over the impeachment trial proceedings. After two months, Jefferson and the Senate decided to dismiss the charges against Blount, determining that the Senate had no jurisdiction over its own members beyond its constitutional right to expel members by a two-thirds majority vote. By the time of the dismissal, Blount had already been elected as a senator to the Tennessee state legislature, where he was appointed speaker. The constitutional conundrum of conducting a trial of an impeached senator has not yet been resolved.

1798 – Hostilities began in the Quasi-War with France with Frigate Delaware capturing French privateer, Croyable. The Revenue Cutters Pickering, Virginia, Scammel, South Carolina, Governor, Jay, Eagle, General Greene, and Diligence were the first to be placed under Naval orders, comprising about one-third the U .S. Fleet.

1846 – U.S. annexation of California was proclaimed at Monterey after Commodore Sloat reached Monterey and claimed California for the US.

1861 – Two floating torpedoes (mines) in the Potomac River were picked up by U. S. S. Resolute, Acting Master W. Budd- the earliest known use of torpedoes by the Confederates. During the course of the war a variety of ingenious torpedoes destroyed or damaged some 40 Union ships, forecasting the vast growth to come in this aspect of underwater naval warfare.

1863 – Confederate General Robert E. Lee, in Hagerstown, Maryland, reported his defeat at Gettysburg to President Jefferson Davis.

1863 – The 1st military draft was called by the US. It allowed exemptions for $300.

1863 – Orders barring Jews from serving under US Grant were revoked.

1863 – Lt. Colonel Christopher “Kit” Carson leaves Santa Fe with his troops, beginning his campaign against the Indians of New Mexico and Arizona. A famed mountain man before the Civil War, Carson was responsible for waging a destructive war against the Navajo that resulted in their removal from the Four Corners area to southeastern New Mexico. Carson was perhaps the most famous trapper and guide in the West. He traveled with the expeditions of John C. Fremont in the 1840s, leading Fremont through the Great Basin. Fremont’s flattering portrayal of Carson made the mountain man a hero when the reports were published and widely read in the east. Later, Carson guided Stephen Watts Kearney to New Mexico during the Mexican-American War. In the 1850s he became the Indian agent for New Mexico, a position he left in 1861 to accept a commission as lieutenant colonel in the 1st New Mexico Volunteers.

Although Carson’s unit saw action in the New Mexico battles of 1862, he was most famous for his campaign against the Indians. Despite his reputation for being sympathetic and accommodating to tribes such as the Mescaleros, Kiowas, and Navajo, Carson waged a brutal campaign against the Navajo in 1863. When bands of Navajo refused to accept confinement on reservations, Carson terrorized the Navajo lands–burning crops, destroying villages, and slaughtering livestock. Carson rounded up some 8,000 Navajo and marched them across New Mexico for imprisonment on the Bosque Redondo, over 300 miles from their homes, where they remained for the duration of the war.

1865 – The trap doors of the scaffold in the yard of Washington’s Old Penitentiary were sprung, and Mary Surratt, Lewis Paine, David Herold and George Atzerodt dropped to their deaths. The four had been convicted of “treasonable conspiracy” in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and had learned that they were to be hanged only a day before their execution. Shortly after 1 p.m. the prisoners were led onto the scaffold and prepared for execution. The props supporting the platform were knocked away at about 2 p.m. Assassin John Wilkes Booth had been killed on April 26th, 12 days after Lincoln’s assassination. Other convicted conspirators–Edman Spangler, Dr. Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold and Michael O’Laughlin–were imprisoned. Surratt was the first woman to be executed in the United States.

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1898 – The United States annexed Hawaii.

1905 – The International Workers of the World founded their labor organization in Chicago. The IWW was formed by William Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners, Daniel De Leon of the Socialist Labor Party and Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party. Members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were also known as Wobblies. The Wobblies were formed partly in response to the American Federation of Labor’s opposition to the unionization of unskilled labor. As an organization that advocated sabotage, they were suppressed and prosecuted by the federal government from 1917-18 and were driven underground by the “Red Scare” that started in the United States in 1919. Ideological disputes with the newly formed U.S. Communist Party dissipated their remaining energies so that they ceased to be a force of any significance past the mid-1920s. In 1969 Melvyn Dublfsky authored its definitive history “We Shall Overcome.”

1908 – The Great White Fleet left San Francisco Bay.

1916 – Thomas A. Edison becomes head of Naval Consulting Board which screens inventions for use by the Navy.

1920 – A device known as the radio compass was used for the first time on a U.S. Navy airplane.

1939 – On this date, “the Lighthouse Bureau went out of existence and its personnel moved themselves and their equipment to Coast Guard Headquarters from the Commerce Department building. Thus did lighthouses return to the Treasury Department from the Department of Commerce.

1941 – The neutral United States moves closer to war with Germany when U.S. forces land on Iceland to take over its garrisoning from the British. From thereon, the U.S. Navy had the responsibility of protecting convoys in the nearby sea routes from attack by German submarines. With Iceland and its nearby sea routes under U.S. protection, the British Royal Navy was more free to defend its embattled Mediterranean positions. The occupation of Iceland came less than a month after President Franklin D. Roosevelt froze all German and Italian assets in the United States and expelled the countries’ diplomats in response to the German torpedoing of the American destroyer Robin Moor. Much of the North Atlantic was now in the American sphere, and U.S. warships patrolled the area for German submarines, notifying London of all enemy activity. The United States officially entered World War II after Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii in December 1941.

1941 – The 1st Marine Aircraft Wing was commissioned at Quantico.

1942 – General Spaatz is appointed to command US air forces in Europe.

1942 – Heinrich Himmler, in league with three others, including a physician, decides to begin experimenting on women in the Auschwitz concentration camps and to investigate extending this experimentation on males. Himmler, architect of Hitler’s program to exterminate Europe’s Jewish population, convened a conference in Berlin to discuss the prospects for using concentration camp prisoners as objects of medical experiments. The other attendees were the head of the Concentration Camp Inspectorate, SS General Richard Glueks (hospital chief), SS Major-General Gebhardt and Professor Karl Clauberg (one of Germany’s leading gynecologists). The result of the conference was that a major program of medical experimentation on Jewish women at Auschwitz was agreed upon. These experiments were to be carried out in such a way as to ensure that the prisoners were not aware of what was being done to them. (The experimentation would take the form of sterilization via massive doses of radiation or uterine injections.) It was also decided to consult with an X-ray specialist about the prospects of using X rays to castrate men and demonstrating this on male Jewish prisoners.

Adolf Hitler endorsed this plan on the condition that it remained top secret. That Heinrich Himmler would propose such a conference or endorse such a program should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with his resume. As head of the Schutzstaffel (“Armed Black Shirts or Protection Squad”), the SS, the military arm of the Nazi Party, and assistant chief of the Gestapo (the secret police), Himmler was able over time to consolidate his control over all police forces of the Reich. This power grab would prove highly effective in carrying out the Fuhrer’s Final Solution. It was Himmler who organized the creation of death camps throughout Eastern Europe and the creation of a pool of slave laborers.

1943 – Adolf Hitler made the V-2 missile program a top priority in armament planning.

1944 – US 5th Army forces advance along the coast. The US 34th Division captures Pignano.

1944 – The US 1st Army continues its offensive toward Coutances and St. Lo. The US 8th, 7th and 19th Corps attack along a line from La Haye du Puits to Vire. German forces resist effectively.

1944 – On Saipan, most of the remaining Japanese garrison, about 3000 men, assault American lines south of the village of Makunsha. The Japanese are forced to retreat with heavy losses.

1945 – US Navy Privateer patrol bombers (modified B-24 bombers) damage or sink numerous small Japanese vessels in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea.

1948 – First six enlisted women sworn into Regular Navy. The Navy WAVES in Naval Reserve, who were the first to transfer to the Regular Navy, were Kay Louise Langdon, Aviation Storekeeper First Class; Wilma Juanita Marchal, Chief Yeoman; Frances Teresa Dovaney, Storekeeper, Second Class; Edna Earle Young, Yeoman, Second Class; Doris Roberta Robertson, Teleman, Second Class; and Ruth Flora, Hospital Corpsman, First Class.

1950 – The U.N. Security Council recommended that all military assistance provided to the U.N. should be made available to a unified command under U.S. authority. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was named commander in chief of the United Nations Command.

1950 – The 1st Provisional Marine Brigade was activated at Camp Pendleton, Calif.. The brigade, formed around the 5th Marine Regiment, began embarkation for Korea within a week.

1956 – Seven Army trucks loaded with dynamite exploded in middle of Cali, Columbia, killing 1,100-1,200. 2000 buildings were destroyed.

1958 – President Eisenhower signed the Alaska statehood bill.

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1966 – The U.S. Marine Corps launched Operation Hasting to drive the North Vietnamese Army back across the Demilitarized Zone in Vietnam.

1966 – Female nurses of the 150th Aeromedical Flight, New Jersey Air National Guard, receive men injured or ill from their duty in Vietnam to treat them on their return flights to stateside hospitals for convalesce. Nurses from several Air Guard units volunteered to staff these missions in a temporary duty status, usually lasting about a month for each individual. They were not allowed to enter the combat zone of Vietnam so they would link up with evacuation flights in Japan or Hawaii (staffed by Regular Air Force or Navy nurses) and rendered medical support in bringing the men back to the states, thus ‘freeing up’ the Regular nurses to return to the theater. At this point in the war no Guard units, Air or Army had yet been mobilized but the Air Guard in particular was voluntarily playing an increasing role in supporting the war effort. Besides these nurse evacuation flights other Air Guard units, mostly those equipped with long-range C-97 or C-121 transport aircraft, were flying large amounts of cargo into Vietnam. As with the Air Guard women, these men were all volunteers and could not stay in Vietnam. They landed, off-loaded their cargo and took off again (hopefully before anybody got hurt), flying back to the Philippines to rest before returning home. In January 1968 and again in May 1968 a total of thirteen Air Guard units were mobilized to support the war in Vietnam and the potential of renewed conflict in Korea. Among these units was a small number of women in Air Guard tactical dispensaries or hospitals. While four of the Air Guard fighter squadrons served in Vietnam and two more were based in Korea, as far as can be documented none of their supporting units deployed with any mobilized female nurses.

1969 – A battalion of the U.S. 9th Infantry Division leaves Saigon in the initial withdrawal of U.S. troops. The 814 soldiers were the first of 25,000 troops that were withdrawn in the first stage of the U.S. disengagement from the war. There would be 14 more increments in the withdrawal, but the last U.S. troops did not leave until after the Paris Peace Accords were signed in January 1973.

1976 – For the first time in history, women are enrolled into the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. On May 28, 1980, 62 of these female cadets graduated and were commissioned as second lieutenants. The United States Military Academy–the first military school in America–was founded by Congress in 1802 for the purpose of educating and training young men in the theory and practice of military science. Established at West Point, New York, the U.S. Military Academy is often simply known as West Point. Located on the high west bank of New York’s Hudson River, West Point was the site of a Revolutionary-era fort built to protect the Hudson River Valley from British attack. In 1780, Patriot General Benedict Arnold, the commander of the fort, agreed to surrender West Point to the British in exchange for ý6,000. However, the plot was uncovered before it fell into British hands, and Arnold fled to the British for protection. Ten years after the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy in 1802, the growing threat of another war with Great Britain resulted in Congressional action to expand the academy’s facilities and increase the West Point corps.

Beginning in 1817, the U.S. Military Academy was reorganized by superintendent Sylvanus Thayer–later known as the “father of West Point”–and the school became one of the nation’s finest sources of civil engineers. During the Mexican-American War, West Point graduates filled the leading ranks of the victorious U.S. forces, and with the outbreak of the Civil War former West Point classmates regretfully lined up against one another in the defense of their native states. In 1870, the first African American cadet was admitted into the U.S. Military Academy, and in 1976, the first female cadets. The academy is now under the general direction and supervision of the department of the U.S. Army and has an enrollment of more than 4,000 students.

1987 – Lt. Col. Oliver North began his long-awaited public testimony at the Iran-Contra hearing, telling Congress that he had “never carried out a single act, not one,” without authorization.

1988 – The PHOBOS 1 Orbiter and lander was launched.

1995 – The space shuttle “Atlantis” landed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, bringing back American astronaut Norman Thagard, who’d spent three and a-half months aboard the Russian space station “Mir.”

1997 – Three days after landing on Mars, the Pathfinder spacecraft yielded what scientists said was unmistakable photographic evidence that colossal floods scoured the Red Planet’s now-barren landscape more than a billion years ago.

1999 – President Clinton became the first president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to visit an Indian reservation as he toured the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

2000 – A$100 million US test missile failed to hit a dummy warhead from another missile. It was the 2nd failure of 3 tests.

2003 – A chunk of foam insulation fired at shuttle wing parts blew open a gaping 16-inch hole, yielding what one member of the Columbia investigation team said was the “smoking gun” proving what brought down the spaceship on February 1st.

2003 – NASA’s 2nd Mars Lander, named Opportunity, was launched.

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