This Date in Military History:

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1954 – Launching of Nautilus, first nuclear submarine, at Groton, CT. Construction of NAUTILUS was made possible by the successful development of a nuclear propulsion plant by a group of scientists and engineers at the Naval Reactors Branch of the Atomic Energy Commission, under the leadership of Captain Hyman G. Rickover, USN. In July of 1951 Congress authorized construction of the world’s first nuclear powered submarine. On December 12th of that year, the Navy Department announced that she would be the sixth ship of the fleet to bear the name NAUTILUS. Her keel was laid by President Harry S. Truman at the Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton, Connecticut on June 14, 1952. After nearly 18 months of construction, NAUTILUS was launched with First Lady Mamie Eisenhower breaking the traditional bottle of champagne across NAUTILUS’ bow as she slid down the ways into the Thames River.

Eight months later, on September 30, 1954, NAUTILUS became the first commissioned nuclear powered ship in the United States Navy. On the morning of January 17, 1955, at 11 am EST, NAUTILUS’ first Commanding Officer, Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson, USN, ordered all lines cast off and signaled the memorable and historic message, “Underway On Nuclear Power.” Over the next several years, NAUTILUS shattered all submerged speed and distance records. On July 23, 1958, NAUTILUS departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii under top secret orders to conduct “Operation Sunshine,” the first crossing of the north pole by a ship. At 11:15 pm on August 3, 1958, NAUTILUS’ second Commanding Officer, Commander William R. Anderson, USN, announced to his crew “For the world, Our Country, and the Navy – the North Pole.” With 116 men aboard, NAUTILUS had accomplished the “impossible,” reaching the geographic North Pole–90 degrees north. In May 1959, NAUTILUS entered Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine for her first complete overhaul–the first of any nuclear powered ship–and the replacement of her second fuel core.

Upon completion of her overhaul in August 1960, NAUTILUS departed for a period of refresher training, then deployed to the Mediterranean Sea to become the first nuclear powered submarine assigned to the U.S. Sixth Fleet. Over the next six years, NAUTILUS participated in several fleet exercises while steaming over 200,000 miles. In the spring of 1966, she again entered the record books when she logged her 300,000th mile underway. During the following 12 years, NAUTILUS was involved in a variety of developmental testing programs while continuing to serve alongside many of the more modern nuclear powered submarines she had preceded. In the spring of 1979, NAUTILUS set out from Groton, Connecticut on her final voyage. She reached Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California on May 26, 1979–her last day underway.

She was decommissioned on March 3, 1980 after a career spanning 25 years and almost half a million miles steamed. In recognition of her pioneering role in the practical use of nuclear power, NAUTILUS was designated a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior on May 20, 1982. Following an extensive historic ship conversion at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, NAUTILUS was towed to Groton, Connecticut arriving on July 6, 1985. On April 11, 1986, eighty-six years to the day after the birth of the Submarine Force, Historic Ship NAUTILUS, joined by the Submarine Force Museum, opened to the public as the first and finest exhibit of it’s kind in the world, providing an exciting, visible link between yesterday’s Submarine Force and the Submarine Force of tomorrow.

1960 – Little Joe 1B, a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey on board. The Little Joe 1B was a Launch Escape System test of the Mercury spacecraft, conducted as part of the U.S. Mercury program. The spacecraft was recovered by a Marine helicopter and returned to Wallops Island within about 45 minutes. Miss Sam was one of many monkeys used in space travel research.

1961 – USS George Washington completes first operational voyage of fleet ballistic missile submarine staying submerged 66 days.

1968 – One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins at Khe Sanh, 14 miles below the DMZ and six miles from the Laotian border. Seized and activated by the U.S. Marines a year earlier, the base, which had been an old French outpost, was used as a staging area for forward patrols and was a potential launch point for contemplated future operations to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. The battle began on this date with a brisk firefight involving the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines and a North Vietnamese battalion entrenched between two hills northwest of the base. The next day North Vietnamese forces overran the village of Khe Sanh and North Vietnamese long-range artillery opened fire on the base itself, hitting its main ammunition dump and detonating 1,500 tons of explosives. An incessant barrage kept Khe Sanh’s Marine defenders, which included three battalions from the 26th Marines, elements of the 9th Marine Regiment, and the South Vietnamese 37th Ranger Battalion, pinned down in their trenches and bunkers. Because the base had to be resupplied by air, the American high command was reluctant to put in any more troops and drafted a battle plan calling for massive artillery and air strikes.

During the 66-day siege, U.S. planes, dropping 5,000 bombs daily, exploded the equivalent of five Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs in the area. The relief of Khe Sanh, called Operation Pegasus, began in early April as the 1st Cavalry (Airmobile) and a South Vietnamese battalion approached the base from the east and south, while the Marines pushed westward to re-open Route 9. The siege was finally lifted on April 6 when the cavalrymen linked up with the 9th Marines south of the Khe Sanh airstrip. In a final clash a week later, the 3rd Battalion, 26th Marines drove enemy forces from Hill 881 North. Gen. William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam, contended that Khe Sanh played a vital blocking role at the western end of the DMZ, and asserted that if the base had fallen, North Vietnamese forces could have outflanked Marine defenses along the buffer zone. Various statements in the North Vietnamese Communist Party newspaper suggested that Hanoi saw the battle as an opportunity to re-enact its famous victory at Dien Bien Phu, when the communists had defeated the French in a climactic decisive battle that effectively ended the war between France and the Viet Minh. There has been much controversy over the battle at Khe Sanh, as both sides claimed victory. The North Vietnamese, although they failed to take the base, claimed that they had tied down a lot of U.S. combat assets that could have been used elsewhere in South Vietnam.

This is true, but the North Vietnamese failed to achieve the decisive victory at Khe Sanh that they had won against the French. For their part, the Americans claimed victory because they had held the base against the North Vietnamese onslaught. It was a costly battle for both sides. The official casualty count for the Battle of Khe Sanh was 205 Marines killed in action and over 1,600 wounded (this figure did not include the American and South Vietnamese soldiers killed in other battles in the region). The U.S. military headquarters in Saigon estimated that the North Vietnamese lost between 10,000 and 15,000 men in the fighting at Khe Sanh.

1968 – B-52 airplane loaded with hydrogen bombs crashed at North Star Bay, Greenland near Thule Air Base, contaminating the area after its nuclear payload ruptures. One of the four bombs remains unaccounted for after the cleanup operation is complete.

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1969 – USCGC Point Banks while on patrol south of Cam Rahn Bay received a call for help from a 9-man ARVN detachment trapped by two Vietcong platoons. Petty Officers Willis Goff and Larry Villareal took a 14-foot Boston whaler ashore to rescue the ARVN troops. In the face of heavy automatic weapons fire, all 9 men were evacuated in two trips. For their actions Goff and Villareal were each awarded the Silver Star for their actions. The citation stated, “The nine men would have met almost certain death or capture without the assistance of the two Coast Guardsmen.”

1970 – U.S. planes conduct widespread bombing raids in North Vietnam.

1977 – President Carter pardoned almost all Vietnam War draft evaders as long as they had not been involved in violent acts.

1991 – Iraq announced it had scattered prisoners of war at targeted areas; President Bush denounced Iraq’s treatment of POW’s, and said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would be held responsible. CBS News correspondent Bob Simon, CBS News London bureau chief Peter Bluff, a cameraman and soundman were captured by Iraqi forces; they were released almost six weeks later.

1975 – During a press conference, President Ford states that the U.S. is unwilling to re-enter the war in Vietnam.

1988 – The U.S. accepts the immigration of 30,000 US-Vietnamese children.

1993 – Two U.S. warplanes bombed a defense site in northern Iraq after radar was turned on them.

1999 – In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 4,300 kilograms (9,500 pounds) of cocaine on board.

2000 – IAEA inspectors conduct inspections in Iraq which verified presence of nuclear material.

2002 – Sec. of State Colin Powell said the US would contribute $297 million for Afghan reconstruction over the coming year during a conference on Afghan reconstruction in Tokyo. Int’l. donors pledged over $4.5 billion over 5 years.

2003 – Colombian rebels in Arauca state kidnapped an American photographer and a British reporter, the first time foreign journalists were abducted in Colombia’s four-decade-long civil war. Scott Dalton and Ruth Morris were freed February 1st.

2003 – In Kuwait American contract worker Michael Rene Pouliat (46) was killed by gunman in an ambush near Camp Doha. Another worker was wounded. Saudi border guards arrested a Kuwaiti suspect the next day.

2003 – NATO blocked a US request to begin preparations for a military backup in the event of war with Iraq.

2003 – The United States issues a detailed report, Apparatus of Lies which seeks to expose what it calls Iraq’s “brutal record of deceit” from 1990 until the present.

2004 – NASA’s MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies in the management of its flash memory and is fixed remotely from Earth on 6 February.

2006 – The USS Winston S. Churchill, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, captured a vessel operating off the Somali coast whose crew were suspected of piracy.

2007 – In Iraq, Muqtada al-Sadr’s bloc lifts its boycott of the Iraqi political process and rejoins the government.

2009 – United States President Barack Obama halts the trials of detainees at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base’s detention camp.

2010 – The United States sends an additional 2,000 troops to Haiti to help with earthquake relief efforts.

2013 – The public portion of Barack Obama’s second inauguration takes place at nation’s capital in Washington, D.C., a day after he was officially sworn into office in the White House for his second term as President of the United States.

2013 – NASA’s Kepler space telescope is placed in a precautionary 10-day safe mode after engineers noticed a problem with the instrument’s orientation mechanism.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

ROWAND, ARCHIBALD H., JR.
Rank and organization: Private, Company K, 1st West Virginia Cavalry. Place and date: Winter of 1864_65. Entered service at: Pittsburgh, Pa. Born: 6 March 1845, Philadelphia, Pa., Date of issue: 3 March 1873. Citation: Was 1 of 2 men who succeeded in getting through the enemy’s lines with dispatches to Gen. Grant.

ALCHESAY
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Indian Scouts. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Entered service at: Camp Verde, Ariz. Born: 1853, Arizona Territory. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches.

BAILEY, JAMES E.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company E, 5th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Dexter, Maine. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches.

BEAUFORD, CLAY
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company B, 5th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Washington County, Md. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches.

BLAIR, JAMES
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company I, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Entered service at:——. Birth: Schuyler County, Pa. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches.

BLANQUET
Rank and organization: Indian Scouts. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Entered service at:——. Birth: Arizona. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches.

CHIQUITO
Rank and organization: Indian Scouts. Place and date: Winter of 1871-73. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Arizona. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches.

ELSATSOOSU
Rank and organization: Corporal, Indian Scouts. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Entered service at:——. Birth: Arizona. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches.

HINEMANN, LEHMANN
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company L, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 12 August 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches.

HUFF, JAMES W.
Rank and organization: Private, Company L, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Entered service at: Vanburan, Pa. Born: 7 February 1840, Washington, Pa. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches.

HYDE, HENRY J.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company M, 1st U .S. Cavalry. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Entered service at: Princeton, 111. Birth: Bangor, Maine. Date of issue: 12 August 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches.

JIM
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Indian Scouts. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Arizona Territory. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches.

KELSAY
Rank and organization: Indian Scouts. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Entered service at:——. Birth: Arizona. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches.

KOSOHA
Rank and organization: Indian Scouts. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Arizona. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches.

ORR, MOSES
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Entered service at:——. Birth: Ireland Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches.

OSBORNE, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company M, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: Winter of 1872-73. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Boston, Mass. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallant conduct during campaigns and engagements with Apaches.

BJORKMAN, ERNEST H.
Rank and organization: Ordinary Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 25 April 1881, Malmo, Sweden. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 145, 26 December 1903. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Leyden, 21 January 1903, Bjorkman displayed heroism at the time of the wreck of that vessel.

STUPKA, LODDIE
Rank and organization: Fireman First Class, U.S. Navy. Born: 4 March 1878, Cleveland, Ohio. Accredited to: Ohio. G.O. No.: 145, 26 December 1903. Citation: Serving on board the U.S.S. Leyden, for heroism at the time of the wreck of that vessel, 21 January 1903.

TEYTAND, AUGUST P.
Rank and organization: Quartermaster Third Class, U.S. Navy. Born: 6 April 1878, Santa Cruz, West Indies. Accredited to: New Jersey. G.O. No.: 145, 26 December 1903. Citation: For heroism while serving on board the U.S.S. Leyden at the time of the wreck of that vessel, 21 January 1903.

WALSH, MICHAEL
Rank and organization: Chief Machinist, U.S. Navy. Born: 27 July 1858, Newport, R.I. Accredited to: Rhode Island. G.O. No.: 145, 26 December 1903. Citation: Serving on board the U.S.S. Leyden; for heroism at the time of the wreck of that vessel, 21 January 1903.

CARY, ROBERT W.
Rank and organiza~ion: Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy, U.S.S. San Diego. Place and date: Aboard U.S.S. San Diego, 21 January 1915. Entered service at: Buncston, Mo. Birth: Kansas City, Mo. Citation: For extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession on the occasion of an explosion on board the U.S.S. San Diego, 21 January 1915. Lt. Comdr. Cary (then Ensign), U.S. Navy, an observer on duty in the firerooms of the U.S.S. San Diego, commenced to take the half-hourly readings of the steam pressure at every boiler. He had read the steam and air pressure on No. 2 boiler and was just stepping through the electric watertight door into No. 1 fireroom when the boilers in No. 2 fireroom exploded. Ens. Cary stopped and held open the doors which were being closed electrically from the bridge, and yelled to the men in No. 2 fireroom to escape through these doors, which 3 of them did.

Ensign Cary’s action undoubtedly saved the lives of these men. He held the doors probably a minute with the escaping steam from the ruptured boilers around him. His example of coolness did much to keep the men in No. 1 fireroom at their posts hauling fires, although 5 boilers in their immediate vicinity had exploded and boilers Nos. 1 and 3 apparently had no water in them and were likely to explode any instant. When these fires were hauled under Nos. 1 and 3 boilers, Ens. Cary directed the men in this fireroom into the bunker, for they well knew the danger of these 2 boilers exploding. During the entire time Ens. Cary was cool and collected and showed an abundance of nerve under the most trying circumstances. His action on this occasion was above and beyond the call of duty.

TRINIDAD, TELESFORO
Rank and organization: Fireman Second Class, U.S. Navy. Born: 25 November 1890, New Washington Capig, Philippine Islands. Accredited to: Philippine Islands. G.O. No.: 142, 1 April 1915. Citation: For extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession at the time of the boiler explosion on board the U.S.S. San Diego, 21 January 1915. Trinidad was driven out of fireroom No. 2 by the explosion, but at once returned and picked up R.E. Daly, fireman, second class, whom he saw to be injured, and proceeded to bring him out. While coming into No. 4 fireroom, Trinidad was just in time to catch the explosion in No. 3 fireroom, but without consideration for his own safety, passed Daly on and then assisted in rescuing another injured man from No. 3 fireroom. Trinidad was himself burned about the face by the blast from the explosion in No. 3 fireroom.

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22 January

1690 – At Onandaga, New York, the Iroquois Nation renews its allegiance to the English crown.

1807 – President Thomas Jefferson exposed a plot by Aaron Burr to form a new republic in the Southwest. In the course of the New York gubernatorial campaign of 1804, Alexander Hamilton had made derogatory remarks about Burr, who responded with a challenge. On July 11 the two men exchanged shots at Weehawken, N.J., and Hamilton was mortally wounded. A fugitive from the law in both New York and New Jersey, Burr fled to Philadelphia, where he and Jonathan Dayton, a former U.S. senator from New Jersey, developed the grandiose scheme that was to prove Burr’s downfall. Just what the plans were and whether they were treasonous are uncertain, for Burr told different stories to different people. In its most ambitious form the scheme envisaged a vast empire in the West and South, based on the conquest of Mexico and the separation of the trans-Appalachian states from the Union. This much Burr told the British minister, of whom he asked financial and naval aid. Burr then proceeded to Washington to finish his term as vice president. Jefferson received him cordially, for Burr as vice president was to preside over the impeachment trial of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, and the President wanted a conviction. The Chase impeachment failed, but Burr’s conduct of the trial was a model of decorum and impartiality. The trial and the vice-presidential term concluded, Burr returned to his schemes.

He made a personal reconnaissance of the West in the spring of 1805. It probably was on this trip that he first met Harman Blennerhassett, an Irish expatriate who lived in feudal splendor on an island in the Ohio River. He also visited James Wilkinson, now governor of the Louisiana Territory, and several other government dignitaries. Burr next acquired title to more than a million acres of land in Orleans Territory, the settlement of which thereafter became his ostensible purpose. Funds were supplied by his son-in-law, Joseph Alston, and by Blennerhassett. By the summer of 1806, boats, supplies, and men were being procured, mainly at Blennerhassett Island. Satisfied, Burr and some 60 followers set out to join Wilkinson near Natchez, Miss. Coded letters from Burr and Dayton already were on the way to Wilkinson alerting him to be ready to move on Mexico. The preparations openly being made seemed too extensive for the avowed purpose, giving substance to rumors that approached the truth. To protect himself, Burr demanded an investigation. With young Henry Clay as his attorney, he twice was cleared of any treasonable intent.

At this point, however, General Wilkinson decided to betray his friend. He wrote to the president, who issued a proclamation calling for the arrest of the conspirators. Burr learned of it on Jan. 10, 1807, as he entered Orleans Territory, then saw a newspaper transcript of his coded letter to Wilkinson. He surrendered to civil authorities at Natchez, but jumped bail and fled toward Spanish Florida.

1813 – During the War of 1812, British forces under Henry Proctor defeat a U.S. contingent planning an attack on Fort Detroit. The task of taking back Fort Detroit, which had been lost to the British, fell to General William Henry Harrison. His plan was to gather an army near the rapids of the Maumee River, and from there, to move against Detroit. While building an armed encampment, his subordinate, Brigadier General James Winchester, learned that a small garrison of British and Indians guarded provisions for the Fort Malden near the village of Raison River. There were also reports that the British planned to destroy the pro-American village.Winchester had orders from General Harrison to stay at his camp until the full army was assembled and ready to move on Detroit, but he felt he had to act immediately. On 21 January he sent seven hundred men toward the Raison River under Colonel William Lewis, who defeated the British and Indians there and then sent back to Winchester asking for reinforcements to hold the place. Winchester sent three hundred regulars under Colonel Samuel Wells, and also proceeded by carriage himself.

Upon arrival, Wells, pointed out to Winchester that the troops were in a highly exposed position, and recommended that scouts be sent out to learn what the British were doing. Winchester decided that the next day would be time enough to take care of these things, and went off to stay in the comfortable home of one of the community leaders, more than a mile away from his soldiers. That night, Colonel Henry Proctor, who had succeeded General Brock as the British commander at Detroit, led six hundered soldiers and six hundred Indians against the Americans, attacking before dawn. Well’s regulars formed behind a picket fence were able to kill or wound 185 of the attackers. The American militia, however, was taken by surprise in the open and quickly overcome. Winchester was captured By Chief Roundhead, and taken before Colonel Proctor. The British commander persuaded Winchester to order his regulars to surrender, supposedly to avoid a massacre by the Indians. The fighting over, Proctor withdrew to Fort Malden, taking his prisoners with him, except for sixty four wounded Americans he left at Raison River, intending to send sleds to get them the next day. That night the Indians returned and massacred thirty of the wounded men.

1814 – In the Creek Indian War, Tennessee militia forces are repulsed at Emuckfaw. The militia will also suffer defeats at Enotachopo Creek on 24 January and at Calibee Creek on 27 January.

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1863 – In an attempt to out flank Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, General Ambrose Burnside leads his army on a march to north Frederickburg, but foul weather bogs his army down in what will become known as “Mud March.” “The auspicious moment seems to have arrived to strike a great and mortal blow to the rebellion, and to gain that decisive victory which is due to the country.” so announced Gen. Ambrose Burnside to his Union Army of the Potomac on the morning of January 20, 1863, as he started out on another great drive to beat Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and capture the Rebel capitol of Richmond, VA. Burnside’s battered soldiers had had but five weeks to recover from their disastrous defeat at the Battle of Fredricksburg, but the government demanded action. The Union and Confederate armies still faced each other across the Rappahannock River at Fredricksburg, and Burnside’s plan was to quickly cross the river above Lee’s left and assail that flank of the Confederate position. The Union soldiers and their great wagon trains of pontoon boats, artillery, and supplies made a good start clearing their camp and moving up the river. Then the sky started clouding, and by mid-afternoon a slow drizzle had begun.

By nightfall a steady, relentless rain was falling, not to stop for days. The next morning the great mule-drawn wagons carrying the pontoons churned the road into a quagmire. The wagons sank to their hubs; the artillery sank until only the muzzles were out of the mud. The exhausted horses floundered, as did the men, as each slippery step through the ooze sucked at their shoes and weighed them down. “The whole country was a river of mud,” wrote one soldier. “The roads were rivers of deep mire, and the heavy rain had made the ground a vast mortar bed.” Whole regiments and triple teams of mules hitched to the wagons and guns failed to move them. Still the rain came down in torrents. By noon the next day, Burnside’s plans to maneuver past Lee’s Rebel army were hopelessly stalled, and his own army was exhausted, wet, and cold. Burnside had no choice but to abandon the movement and order his soldiers back to their camps across from Fredricksburg. Across the river, the Confederate pickets watching the struggling Union army with amusement. Some put up a large sign on the riverbank that said “Burnside’s Army Stuck in the Mud” and another that said “This way to Richmond.”

1879 –American soldiers badly beat Cheyenne Chief Dull Knife and his people as they make a desperate bid for freedom. In doing so, the soldiers effectively crushed the so-called Dull Knife Outbreak. A leading chief of the Northern Cheyenne, Dull Knife (sometimes called Morning Star) had long urged peace with the powerful Anglo-Americans invading his homeland in the Powder River country of modern-day Wyoming and Montana. However, the 1864 massacre of more than 200 peaceful Cheyenne Indians by Colorado militiamen at Sand Creek, Colorado, led Dull Knife to question whether the Anglo-Americans could ever be trusted. He reluctantly led his people into a war he suspected they could never win. In 1876, many of Dull Knife’s people fought along side Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull at their victorious battle at Little Bighorn, though the chief himself apparently did not participate.

During the winter after Little Bighorn, Dull Knife and his people camped along the headwaters of the Powder River in Wyoming, where they fell victim to the army’s winter campaign for revenge. In November, General Ranald Mackenzie’s expeditionary force discovered the village and attacked. Dull Knife lost many of his people, and along with several other Indian leaders, reluctantly surrendered the following spring. In 1877, the military relocated Dull Knife and his followers far away from their Wyoming homeland to the large Indian Territory on the southern plains (in present-day Kansas and Oklahoma). No longer able to practice their traditional hunts, the band was largely dependent on meager government provisions. Beset by hunger, homesickness, and disease, Dull Knife and his people rebelled after one year. In September 1878, they joined another band to make an epic march back to their Wyoming homeland. Although Dull Knife publicly announced his peaceful intentions, the government regarded the fleeing Indians as renegades, and soldiers from bases scattered throughout the Plains attacked the Indians in an unsuccessful effort to turn them back.

Arriving at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, near their Wyoming homeland, Dull Knife and his people surrendered to the government in the hopes they would be allowed to stay in the territory. To their dismay, administrators instead threatened to hold the band captive at Fort Robinson until they would agree to return south to the Indian Territory. Unwilling to give up when his goal was so close, in early January, Dull Knife led about 100 of his people in one final desperate break for freedom. Soldiers from Fort Robinson chased after the already weak and starving band of men, women, and children, and on January 22, they attacked and killed at least 30 people, including several in the immediate family of Dull Knife. Badly bloodied, most of the survivors returned to Fort Robinson and accepted their fate. Dull Knife managed to escape, and he eventually found shelter with Chief Red Cloud on the Sioux reservation in Nebraska. Permitted to remain on the reservation, Dull Knife died four years later, deeply bitter towards the Anglo-Americans he had once hoped to live with peacefully. The same year, the government finally allowed the Northern Cheyenne to move to a permanent reservation on the Tongue River in Montana near their traditional homeland. At last, Dull Knife’s people had come home, but their great chief had not lived to join them.

1917 – President Woodrow Wilson calls on all the combatant nations fighting in World War I, to agree to ‘peace without victory.’ The British and French reject the offer, finding some of the demands made by Germany unacceptable.

1925 – 2nd Expeditionary Force organized at Cavite, Philippine Islands, for duty at Shanghai, China to protect American lives.

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1927 – Confederate General John A. McCausland dies in Mason, West Virginia. He lived for over 50 years after the war and remained an unreconstructed rebel at the time of his death. Nicknamed “Tiger John,” McCausland was born to Irish immigrants in St. Louis and moved to Virginia as an adolescent. He attended the Virginia Military Institute and graduated in 1857. When the war began, he organized an artillery regiment and formed the 36th Virginia from the western part of the state. Now a colonel, McCausland spent most of the war in the mountainous region of western Virginia. On May 9, 1864, McCausland distinguished himself at the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain. For the victory, he was promoted to brigadier general. Two bold actions defined McCausland’s career. First, in June 1864, he drove a larger Union force commanded by General David Hunter from Lynchburg, Virginia, earning him the undying gratitude of the city. He then joined General Jubal Early’s invasion of Maryland in July.

Early dispatched McCausland and his cavalry to Hagerstown to exact a $200,000 ransom from city officials. McCausland rode into Hagerstown and delivered his hand-written note to authorities. Unfortunately, he accidentally omitted a zero–only $20,000 was secured. McCausland then moved on to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and pulled his second notorious feat–he tried to extort more than $500,000 from Chambersburg, and he burned the city when he did not receive the money. McCausland joined General Robert E. Lee for the Confederates’ last desperate attempt to escape in early 1865. He broke through the Union lines near Appomattox and surrendered later at Charleston, West Virginia, after many Rebels had laid down their arms. After the war, McCausland, facing an indictment for the burning of Chambersburg, fled to Canada, Britain, and then Mexico. He returned to the U.S. in 1868 after he was told that he would not be prosecuted for his war crimes. He settled on a farm in West Virginia and lived as a recluse for the rest of his life. He stubbornly defended the Confederate cause until his death. He died 13 months before Felix Robertson, the last surviving Confederate general.

1939 – A Nazi order erases the old officer caste, tying the army directly to the Party.

1943 – Axis forces pull out of Tripoli for Tunisia, destroying port facilities as they leave.

1943 – US attacks on Guadalcanal are renewed and begin to make progress, especially toward Kokumbona. The Japanese fight well, but US air, artillery and naval bombardment make it futile.

1943 – The last Japanese are cleared from Papua, New Guinea by Allied forces. The Japanese have lost about 7000 killed in this campaign, the Allies, half that.

1944 – U.S. troops under Major General John P. Lucas make an amphibious landing behind German lines at Anzio, Italy, just south of Rome. Following the successful Allied landings at Calabria, Taranto, and Salerno in early September 1943 and the unconditional surrender of Italy that same month, German forces begun a slow, fighting withdrawal to the north and settled into the ‘Gustav Line’, a formidable and sophisticated defensive belt of interlocking positions on the high ground along the peninsula’s narrowest point. Between October 1943 and January 1944 the Allies launched numerous costly attacks against well-entrenched enemy forces at this line. Becasue of this, the Allies initiated a larger assault south of Rome that could outflank the Gustav Line: Operation SHINGLE.

During the early morning hours of 22 January 1944, troops of the Fifth Army swarmed ashore on a fifteen-mile stretch of Italian beach near the prewar resort towns of Anzio and Nettuno. The landings were carried out so flawlessly and German resistance was so light that British and American units gained their first day’s objectives by noon. More to the east the key to defeating the Gustav line lay in the small town of Cassino lying on the river Rapido dominated by the historic Benedictine monastery atop the 1,693 foot massif of Monte Cassino itself. Only after four months with three battles the mountain only fell into Allied hands on May 18th. At Anzio, Allied troops only were able to break out around May 25th. Rome was entered by Clark’s Fifth Army on the 4th June.

The Anzio Campaign was controversial, the operation clearly failed in its immediate objectives of outflanking the Gustav Line, restoring mobility to the Italian campaign, and speeding the capture of Rome. Allied forces were quickly pinned down and contained within a small beachhead, and they were effectively rendered incapable of conducting any sort of major offensive action for four months pending the advance of Fifth Army forces to the south. Anzio failed to be the panacea the Allies sought. As General Lucas steadfastly maintained that under the circumstances the small Anzio force accomplished all that could have been realistically expected. Lucas’ critics charge, however, that a more aggressive and imaginative commander, such as a Patton or Truscott, could have obtained the desired goals by an immediate, bold offensive from the beachhead. Lucas was overly cautious, spent valuable time digging in, and allowed the Germans to prepare countermeasures to ensure that an operation conceived as a daring Allied offensive behind enemy lines became a long, costly campaign of attrition.

Yet the campaign did accomplish several goals. The presence of a significant Allied force behind the German Gustav Line, uncomfortably close to Rome, represented a constant threat. The Germans could not ignore Anzio and were forced into a response, thereby surrendering the initiative in Italy to the Allies. The 135,000 troops of the Fourteenth Army surrounding Anzio could not be moved elsewhere, nor could they be used to make the already formidable Gustav Line virtually impregnable. The Anzio beachhead thus guaranteed that the already steady drain of scarce German troop reserves, equipment, and materiel would continue unabated, ultimately enabling the 15th Army Group to break through in the south. But the success was costly.

1946 – Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.

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1951 – I and IX Corps launched a limited attack to probe the communist positions in preparation for Operation THUNDERBOLT, a reconnaissance-in-force intended to provide Lt. Gen. Matthew Ridgway with more intelligence about enemy capabilities to assist the United Nation’s drive back to the 38th Parallel. Another goal of Thunderbolt was to destroy as many enemy troops as feasible. To meet the second objective Ridgway employed the “meat grinder” strategy for the first time. That consisted of using the Eighth Army’s large artillery resources to lay down a huge barrage ahead of advancing units. The technique required controlling the advance from phase point to phase point, and maneuver commanders had little room for initiative. However, the goal was to kill more enemy soldiers while minimizing casualties among Americans and other U.N. allies. It was also intended to speed up the attrition of Chinese forces in South Korea.

1953 – The 18th FBW withdrew its remaining F-51 Mustangs from combat and prepared to transition to Sabres, thus ending the use of USAF single engine, propeller-driven aircraft in offensive combat in the Korean War. Peking radio announced the capture of Colonel Arnold and his surviving crewmembers, three having perished when the B-29 went down on January 13. The communists did not release Colonel Arnold until 1956.

1957 – The New York City “Mad Bomber”, George P. Metesky, WWI Marine Corps veteran, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and is charged with planting more than 30 bombs.

1964 – U.S. Joint Chiefs foresee larger U.S. commitment: The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff inform Defense Secretary Robert McNamara that they “are wholly in favor of executing the covert actions against North Vietnam.” President Johnson had recently approved Oplan 34A, provocative operations to be conducted by South Vietnamese forces (supported by the United States) to gather intelligence and conduct sabotage to destabilize the North Vietnamese regime. Actual operations would begin in February and involve raids by South Vietnamese commandos operating under American orders against North Vietnamese coastal and island installations. Although American forces were not directly involved in the actual raids, U.S. Navy ships were on station to conduct electronic surveillance and monitor North Vietnamese defense responses under another program called Operation De Soto.

Although the Joint Chiefs agreed with the president’s decision on these operations, they further advocated even stronger measures, advising McNamara: “… We believe, however, that it would be idle to conclude that these efforts will have a decisive effect on the communist determination to support the insurgency, and it is our view that we must therefore be prepared fully to undertake a much higher level of activity.” Among their recommendations were “aerial bombing of key North Vietnamese targets,” and “commit[ment of] additional U.S. forces, as necessary, in support of the combat actions within South Vietnam.” President Johnson at first resisted this advice, but in less than a year, U.S. airplanes were bombing North Vietnam, and shortly thereafter the first U.S. combat troops began arriving in South Vietnam.

1968 – Operating in the two northernmost military regions, the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) launches two major operations. In the first operation, conducted by the 1st Cavalry Division in Quang Tri and Thua Thien provinces, south of the Demilitarized Zone, “First Team” units launched Operation Jeb Stuart. This operation was a large-scale reinforcement of the Marines in the area and focused on clearing enemy Base Areas 101 and 114. Jeb Stuart was terminated on March 31 with enemy casualties listed at 3,268; U.S. casualties were 291 killed in action and 1,735 wounded. On the same day that Jeb Stuart was launched, other 1st Cavalry units launched Operation Pershing II in the coastal lowlands in Binh Dinh Province. This operation, designed to clear enemy forces from the area, lasted until February 29.

1968 – Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space. Apollo 5 was the first unmanned flight of the Apollo Lunar Module (LM), which would later carry astronauts to the lunar surface. It lifted off on January 22, 1968, with a Saturn IB rocket on an Earth-orbital flight.

1968 – Operation Igloo White, a US electronic surveillance system to stop communist infiltration into South Vietnam begins installation. Operation Igloo White was a covert United States joint military electronic warfare operation conducted from late January 1968 until February 1973, during the Vietnam War. These missions were carried out by the 553rd Reconnaissance Wing (553 RW), a U.S. Air Force unit flying modified EC-121R Warning Star aircraft, and Observation Squadron SIXTY-SEVEN (VO-67), a specialized U.S. Navy unit flying highly modified OP-2E Neptune[1] aircraft. This state-of-the-art operation utilized electronic sensors, computers, and communications relay aircraft in an attempt to automate intelligence collection. The system would then assist in the direction of strike aircraft to their targets. The objective of those attacks was the logistical system of the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) that snaked through southeastern Laos and was known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail (the Truong Son Road to the North Vietnamese).

1969 – Operation Dewey Canyon, perhaps the most successful high-mobility regimental-size action of the Vietnam War, began in the A Shau/Da Krong Valleys when the 9th Marines, commanded by Colonel Robert H. Barrow, and supporting artillery were lifted from Quang Tri. By 18 March the enemy’s base area had been cleared out, 1617 enemy dead had been counted, and more than 500 tons of weapons and ammunition unearthed.

1971 – Communist forces shell Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for the first time.

1973 – The crew of Apollo 17, Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, addresses a joint session of Congress after the completion of the final Apollo moon landing mission.

1982 –In a revival of the diplomacy “linkages” that were made famous by Henry Kissinger during the Nixon years, the administration of President Ronald Reagan announces that further progress on arms talks will be linked to a reduction of Soviet oppression in Poland. The U.S. ploy was but one more piece of the increasingly complex jigsaw puzzle of nuclear arms reduction. Faced with a growing anti-nuke movement in the United States and abroad, and having drawn criticism for some off-the-cuff remarks about “winning” a nuclear war, President Reagan called for negotiations on reducing intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) in Europe. These talks began in November 1981 but quickly bogged down as both the U.S. and Soviet negotiators charged each other with acting in bad faith. Almost immediately, both nations began to increase their nuclear arsenals in Europe. Some speculated that neither side was truly seeking arms control, and the reaction of building up arms as a result caused a firestorm of protest in several western European nations.

Perhaps in an effort to divert attention from the failed talks, the Reagan administration in January 1982 linked further arms negotiations to Soviet actions in Poland, indicating that the U.S. would not engage in further talks until Soviet repression in Poland was eased. In that nation, the Soviet-backed communist government imposed martial law in late 1981 in an effort to destroy the growing Solidarity movement among Poland’s labor unions. Claiming that arms reduction talks could not be “insulated from other events,” the Reagan administration declared, “The continuing repression of the Polish people-in which Soviet responsibility is clear-obviously constitutes a major setback to the prospects for constructive East-West relations.” It was unclear whether the U.S. stance had any direct impact on the ongoing INF talks. Domestic U.S. political opposition to any arms control agreement with the Soviets, combined with intense mutual distrust between the Soviet Union and the United States during much of the Reagan administration, were much more important factors in the delay in finally securing an agreement. The INF agreement did eventually get signed in 1987, when new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev broke the ice for more fruitful talks.

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1990 – Robert Tappan Morris is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet Computer worm.

1991 – Iraq fired six Scud missiles into Saudi Arabia; all were either intercepted, or fell into unpopulated areas. However, in Tel Aviv, a Scud eluded the Patriot missile defense system and struck the city, resulting in three deaths.

1992 – STS-42 was a Space Shuttle Discovery mission with the Spacelab module. Liftoff was originally scheduled for 8:45 EST (13:45 UTC), but the launch was delayed due to weather constraints. Discovery successfully lifted off an hour later at 9:52 EST (14:52 UTC). The main goal of the mission was to study the effects of microgravity on a variety of organisms. The shuttle landed at 8:07 PST (16:07 UTC) on 30 January 1992 on Runway 22, Edwards Air Force Base, California.

2000 – Iraq reaches an agreement on the continuation of oil supplies to Jordan. Under the agreement, Iraq will give Jordan $300 million worth of crude oil in 2000 free of charge, and Jordan will pay a maximum of $19 per barrel for any additional volumes imported.

2002 – US officials reported that Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a former head of al Qaeda training in Afghanistan, had provided information on an alleged plot to blow up the US Embassy in Yemen a week earlier.

2003 – Bill Maudlin (b.1921), WW-II era cartoonist, died in Newport Beach, Ca. In 1945 he won a Pulitzer Prize for his war cartoons and later authored “Up Front,” a collection of cartoons and an essay on war.

2003 – France and Germany joined forces to prevent any U.S.-led war on Iraq. Countering blunt talk of war by the Bush administration, France and Germany defiantly stated they were committed to a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis.

2004 – NASA said it lost contact with the Mars spirit rover.

2010 – Former U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel James Fondren is sentenced to three years in prison for providing classified documents to Chinese spy Tai Shen Kuo.

2012 – A U.S. drone strike occurred near Mogadishu killing British al-Qaeda operative Bilal el-Berjawi.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

ANGLING, JOHN
Rank and organization: Cabin Boy, U.S. Navy. Born: 1850, Portland, Maine. Accredited to: Maine. G.O. No.: 59, 22 June 1865. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Pontoosuc during the capture of Fort Fisher and Wilmington, 24 December 1864 to 22 January 1865. Carrying out his duties faithfully during this period, C.B. Angling was recommended for gallantry and skill and for his cool courage while under the fire of the enemy throughout these various actions.

BETHAM, ASA
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 1838, New York, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 59, 22 June 1865. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Pontoosuc during the capture of Fort Fisher and Wilmington, 24 December 1864, to 22 January 1865. Carrying out his duties faithfully during this period, Betham was recommended for gallantry and skill and for his cool courage while under the fire of the enemy throughout these various actions.

BLAIR, ROBERT M.
Rank and organization: Boatswain’s Mate, U.S. Navy. Born: 1836, Peacham, Vt. Accredited to: Vermont. G.O. No.: 59, 22 June 1865. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Pontoosuc during the capture of Fort Fisher and Wilmington, 24 December 1864 to 22 January 1865. Carrying out his duties faithfully throughout this period, Blair was recommended for gallantry and skill and for his cool courage while under the fire of the enemy throughout these actions.

*HOOKER, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Private, Company K, 5th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Tonto Creek, Ariz., 22 January 1873. Entered service at ——. Birth: Frederick, Md. Date of issue: 12 August 1875. Citation. Gallantry in action in which he was killed.

LEWIS, WILLIAM B.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company B, 3d U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Bluff Station, Wyo., 20-22 January 1877. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Boston, Mass. Date of issue: 28 March 1879. Citation: Bravery in skirmish.

DAVIS, JOSEPH H.
Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Born: 22 July 1860, Philadelphia, Pa. (Letter, Mate J. W. Baxter, U.S. Navy, No. 8985, 25 January 1886.) Citation: On board the U.S. Receiving Ship Dale off the Wharf at Norfolk, Va., 22 January 1886. Jumping overboard from the ferryboat, Davis rescued from drowning John Norman, ordinary seaman.

McCALL, THOMAS E.
Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company F, 143d Infantry, 36th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near San Angelo, Italy, 22 January 1944. Entered service at: Veedersburg, Ind. Birth: Burton, Kans. G.O. No.: 31, 17 April 1945. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. On 22 January 1944, Company F had the mission of crossing the Rapido River in the vicinity of San Angelo, Italy, and attacking the well-prepared German positions to the west. For the defense of these positions the enemy had prepared a network of machinegun positions covering the terrain to the front with a pattern of withering machinegun fire, and mortar and artillery positions zeroed in on the defilade areas. S/Sgt. McCall commanded a machinegun section that was to provide added fire support for the riflemen. Under cover of darkness, Company F advanced to the river crossing site and under intense enemy mortar, artillery, and machinegun fire crossed an ice-covered bridge which was continually the target for enemy fire. Many casualties occurred on reaching the west side of the river and reorganization was imperative.

Exposing himself to the deadly enemy machinegun and small arms fire that swept over the flat terrain, S/Sgt. McCall, with unusual calmness, encouraged and welded his men into an effective fighting unit. He then led them forward across the muddy, exposed terrain. Skillfully he guided his men through a barbed-wire entanglement to reach a road where he personally placed the weapons of his two squads into positions of vantage, covering the battalion’s front. A shell landed near one of the positions, wounding the gunner, killing the assistant gunner, and destroying the weapon. Even though enemy shells were falling dangerously near, S/Sgt. McCall crawled across the treacherous terrain and rendered first aid to the wounded man, dragging him into a position of cover with the help of another man. The gunners of the second machinegun had been wounded from the fragments of an enemy shell, leaving S/Sgt. McCall the only remaining member of his machinegun section.

Displaying outstanding aggressiveness, he ran forward with the weapon on his hip, reaching a point 30 yards from the enemy, where he fired 2 bursts of fire into the nest, killing or wounding all of the crew and putting the gun out of action. A second machinegun now opened fire upon him and he rushed its position, firing his weapon from the hip, killing 4 of the guncrew. A third machinegun, 50 yards in rear of the first two, was delivering a tremendous volume of fire upon our troops. S/Sgt. McCall spotted its position and valiantly went toward it in the face of overwhelming enemy fire. He was last seen courageously moving forward on the enemy position, firing his machinegun from his hip. S/Sgt. McCall’s intrepidity and unhesitating willingness to sacrifice his life exemplify the highest traditions of the Armed Forces.

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23 January

1730 – Joseph Hewes, US merchant (Declaration of Independence signer), was born.

1737 – John Hancock (d.1793), American statesman, was born.

1775 – The Georgia Colony adopts a revised version of the Continental Association which mandates a nonimportation policy and a trade embargo against Britain to force a repeal of the Coercive Acts of 1774.

1800 – Edward Rutledge (50), US attorney (signed Declaration of Independence), died.

1845 – US Congress decided all national elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The law was signed by President John Tyler.

1855 –John Moses Browning, sometimes referred to as the “father of modern firearms,” is born in Ogden, Utah. Many of the guns manufactured by companies whose names evoke the history of the American West-Winchester, Colt, Remington, and Savage-were actually based on John Browning’s designs. The son of a talented gunsmith, John Browning began experimenting with his own gun designs as a young man. When he was 24 years old, he received his first patent, for a rifle that Winchester manufactured as its Single Shot Model 1885. Impressed by the young man’s inventiveness, Winchester asked Browning if he could design a lever-action-repeating shotgun. Browning could and did, but his efforts convinced him that a pump-action mechanism would work better, and he patented his first pump model shotgun in 1888. Fundamentally, all of Browning’s manually-operated repeating rifle and shotgun designs were aimed at improving one thing: the speed and reliability with which gun users could fire multiple rounds-whether shooting at game birds or other people. Lever and pump actions allowed the operator to fire a round, operate the lever or pump to quickly eject the spent shell, insert a new cartridge, and then fire again in seconds.

By the late 1880s, Browning had perfected the manual repeating weapon; to make guns that fired any faster, he would somehow have to eliminate the need for slow human beings to actually work the mechanisms. But what force could replace that of the operator moving a lever or pump? Browning discovered the answer during a local shooting competition when he noticed that reeds between a man firing and his target were violently blown aside by gases escaping from the gun muzzle. He decided to try using the force of that escaping gas to automatically work the repeating mechanism. Browning began experimenting with his idea in 1889. Three years later, he received a patent for the first crude fully automatic weapon that captured the gases at the muzzle and used them to power a mechanism that automatically reloaded the next bullet. In subsequent years, Browning refined his automatic weapon design. When U.S. soldiers went to Europe during WWI, many of them carried Browning Automatic Rifles, as well as Browning’s deadly machine guns. During a career spanning more than five decades, Browning’s guns went from being the classic weapons of the American West to deadly tools of world war carnage. Amazingly, since Browning’s death in 1926, there have been no further fundamental changes in the modern firearm industry.

1863 – Confederate General John Bell Hood is officially removed as commander of the Army of Tennessee. He had requested the removal a few weeks before; the action closed a sad chapter in the history of the Army of Tennessee. A Kentucky native, Hood attended West Point and graduated in 1853. He served in the frontier army until the outbreak of the Civil War. Hood resigned his commission and became a colonel commanding the 4th Texas Infantry. Hood’s unit was sent to the Army of Northern Virginia, where it fought during the Peninsular Campaign of 1862. Hood, now a brigadier general, built a reputation as an aggressive field commander. He distinguished himself during the Seven Days’ battle in June, and was given command of a division. His counterattack at Antietam in September may have saved Robert E. Lee’s army from total destruction.

After being severely wounded at Gettysburg in July 1863, Hood was transferred to the Army of Tennessee. He was soon wounded again, losing a leg at Chickamauga in September. Hood was promoted to corps commander for the Atlanta campaign of 1864, and was elevated to commander of the army upon the removal of Joseph Johnston in July. Over the next five months, Hood presided over the near destruction of that great Confederate army. He unsuccessfully attacked General William T. Sherman’s army three times near Atlanta, relinquished the city after a month-long siege, then took his army back to Tennessee in the fall to draw Sherman away from the deep South. Sherman dispatched part of his army to Tennessee, and Hood lost two disastrous battles at Franklin and Nashville in November and December 1864. There were about 65,000 soldiers in the Army of Tennessee when Hood assumed command in July. On January 1st, a generous assessment would count 18,000 men in the army. The Confederate Army of Tennessee was no longer a viable fighting force.

1865 – Battle of City Point, VA (James River, Trent’s Reach). The Confederate James River squadron sortied from Richmond in hopes of disrupting Grant’s supply line and raising the siege of Petersburg. The result was almost a non-battle, as the squadron had a comic propensity to run aground as they came down the river. One ship would run aground; another ship would come up to help and ground itself in the process, etc. The delays in getting back underway forfeited the advantage of surprise, allowing the dilatory Union squadron commander to come up and, in combination with shore batteries, chase the Confederates back up the river.

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1870 – 173 Blackfoot, including 140 women and children, were killed in Montana by US Army. Declaring he did not care whether or not it was the rebellious band of Indians he had been searching for, Colonel Eugene Baker orders his men to attack a sleeping camp of peaceful Blackfeet along the Marias River in northern Montana. The previous fall, Malcolm Clarke, an influential Montana rancher, had accused a Blackfeet warrior named Owl Child of stealing some of his horses; he punished the proud brave with a brutal whipping.

In retribution, Owl Child and several allies murdered Clarke and his son at their home near Helena, and then fled north to join a band of rebellious Blackfeet under the leadership of Mountain Chief. Outraged and frightened, Montanans demanded that Owl Child and his followers be punished, and the government responded by ordering the forces garrisoned under Major Eugene Baker at Fort Ellis (near modern-day Bozeman, Montana) to strike back. Strengthening his cavalry units with two infantry groups from Fort Shaw near Great Falls, Baker led his troops out into sub-zero winter weather and headed north in search of Mountain Chief’s band. Soldiers later reported that Baker drank a great deal throughout the march.

On January 22, Baker discovered an Indian village along the Marias River, and, postponing his attack until the following morning, spent the evening drinking heavily. At daybreak on the morning of January 23, 1870, Baker ordered his men to surround the camp in preparation for attack. As the darkness faded, Baker’s scout, Joe Kipp, recognized that the painted designs on the buffalo-skin lodges were those of a peaceful band of Blackfeet led by Heavy Runner. Mountain Chief and Owl Child, Kipp quickly realized, must have gotten wind of the approaching soldiers and moved their winter camp elsewhere.

Kipp rushed to tell Baker that they had the wrong Indians, but Baker reportedly replied, “That makes no difference, one band or another of them; they are all Piegans [Blackfeet] and we will attack them.” Baker then ordered a sergeant to shoot Kipp if he tried to warn the sleeping camp of Blackfeet and gave the command to attack. Baker’s soldiers began blindly firing into the village, catching the peaceful Indians utterly unaware and defenseless.

By the time the brutal attack was over, Baker and his men had, by the best estimate, murdered 37 men, 90 women, and 50 children. Knocking down lodges with frightened survivors inside, the soldiers set them on fire, burnt some of the Blackfeet alive, and then burned the band’s meager supplies of food for the winter. Baker initially captured about 140 women and children as prisoners to take back to Fort Ellis, but when he discovered many were ill with smallpox, he abandoned them to face the deadly winter without food or shelter.

When word of the Baker Massacre (now known as the Marias Massacre) reached the east, many Americans were outraged. One angry congressman denounced Baker, saying “civilization shudders at horrors like this.” Baker’s superiors, however, supported his actions, as did the people of Montana, with one journalist calling Baker’s critics “namby-pamby, sniffling old maid sentimentalists.”

Neither Baker nor his men faced a court martial or any other disciplinary actions. However, the public outrage over the massacre did derail the growing movement to transfer control of Indian affairs from the Department of Interior to the War Department–President Ulysses S. Grant decreed that henceforth all Indian agents would be civilians rather than soldiers.

1909 – RMS Republic, a passenger ship of the White Star Line, becomes the first ship to use the CQD distress signal after colliding with another ship, the SS Florida, off the Massachusetts coastline, an event that kills six people. The Republic sinks the next day. Florida came about to rescue Republic’s complement, and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service cutter Gresham responded to the distress signal as well. Passengers were distributed between the two ships, with Florida taking the bulk of them, but with 900 Italian immigrants already on board, this left the ship dangerously overloaded.

The White Star liner Baltic, commanded by Captain J. B. Ranson, also responded to the CQD call, but due to the persistent fog, it was not until the evening that Baltic was able to locate the drifting Republic. Once on-scene, the rescued passengers were transferred from Gresham and Florida to Baltic. Because of the damage to Florida, that ship’s immigrant passengers were also transferred to Baltic, but a riot nearly broke out when they had to wait until first-class Republic passengers were transferred. Once everyone was on board, Baltic sailed for New York.

1920 – The Dutch government refused demands from the victorious Allies to hand over Kaiser Wilhelm II, the dethroned German monarch who had fled to the Netherlands.

1940 – Britain and France warn that they will attack German shipping encountered by their navies in the Pan-American neutral zone.

1941 – Charles A. Lindbergh, a national hero since his nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic, testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Lend-Lease policy-and suggests that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Hitler. Lindbergh was born in 1902 in Detroit. His father was a member of the House of Representatives. Lindbergh’s interest in aviation led him to flying school in Lincoln, Nebraska, and later brought him work running stunt-flying tours and as an airmail pilot. While regularly flying a route from St. Louis to Chicago, he decided to try to become the first pilot to fly alone nonstop from New York to Paris. He obtained the necessary financial backing from a group of businessmen, and on May 21, 1927, after a flight that lasted slightly over 33 hours, Lindbergh landed his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, in Paris. He won worldwide fame along with his $25,000 prize.

In March 1932, Lindbergh made headlines again, but this time because of the kidnapping of his two-year-old son. The baby was later found dead, and the man convicted of the crime, Bruno Hauptmann, was executed. To flee unwanted publicity, Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow, daughter of U.S. ambassador Dwight Morrow, moved to Europe. During the mid-1930s, Lindbergh became familiar with German advances in aviation and warned his U.S. counterparts of Germany’s growing air superiority. But Lindbergh also became enamored of much of the German national “revitalization” he encountered, and allowed himself to be decorated by Hitler’s government, which drew tremendous criticism back home. Upon Lindbergh’s return to the States, he agitated for neutrality with Germany, and testified before Congress in opposition to the Lend-Lease policy, which offered cash and military aid to countries friendly to the United States in their war effort against the Axis powers. His public denunciation of “the British, the Jewish, and the Roosevelt Administration” as instigators of American intervention in the war, as well as comments that smacked of anti-Semitism, lost him the support of other isolationists.

When, in 1941, President Roosevelt denounced Lindbergh publicly, the aviator resigned from the Air Corps Reserve. He eventually contributed to the war effort, though, flying 50 combat missions over the Pacific. His participation in the war, along with his promotion to brigadier general of the Air Force Reserve in 1954 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a popular Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Spirit of St. Louis,, and a movie based on his exploits all worked to redeem him in the public’s eyes.

1942 – Japanese troops land at Rabaul in New Britain, at Balikpapan in Borneo, near Kavieng on New Ireland and on Bougainville in the Solomons.

1943 – On Guadalcanal, American forces begin to make rapid gains because of the Japanese withdrawal toward the Cape Esperance positions. The Americans fail to realize the significance. The Gifu strongpoint falls.

1943 – World War II: Australian and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua.

1944 – There are now about 50,000 Allied troops concentrated in the Anzio beachhead. General Lucas commands. German resistance is light but the Allied forces advance slowly. Meanwhile, Kesselring believes it is possible to maintain the Gustav Line defenses at the same time as containing the Anzio landings. The commander of the German 10th Army, von Vietinghoff favors a withdrawal from the southern defensive line. The German High Command allots German reserves from France, northern Italy and the Balkans as well as the German 14th Army headquarters to organize defenses around Anzio. Within a week a total of 8 German divisions are concentrated in the area.

1945 – In the Philippines, elements of US 14th Corps take Bamban in their continuing southward attacks and almost reach Clark Field.

1945 – St. Vith falls to the attack of tank units from US 18th Corps. The German forces are falling back over the River Our from throughout the Ardennes salient but are losing heavily to Allied air attacks.

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1948 – The Soviets refused UN entry into North Korea to administer elections. The surrender of Japan was inevitable after the United States dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima in August of 1945. Stalin was waiting for just such an opportunity where the Soviets could enter the war against Japan while incurring minimal loss, and so it was no surprise when he declared war against Japan after the U.S. dropped the second atom bomb. Upon Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, Soviet military forces swept through Manchuria and North Korea taking over Japanese control over these provinces. The United States reacted in alarm when she realized the potential danger of having the strategic Korean peninsula controlled by communist forces. President Truman proposed a joint occupation of Korea by the two powers where the Soviets would occupied the territory north of the 38 parallel, while the U.S. would controle the area south of the line. Initially, it was the intention of both sides to establish a stable and unified Korea in order to withdraw their military forces from the area. However, neither the Soviet Union or the U.S. wanted the peninsula to fall into the other’s hand. In short, the Soviets and the U.S. desired to withdraw their military and resources out of Korea, but they also wanted to leave behind a nation that was favorable to each’s ideology; the Soviets desired a Communist Korea whereas the U.S. wanted a democratic nation to be established.

And so the roots of division were laid from the very onset of Korea’s liberation. During the period of civil turmoil of 1945- 1946, there were many different leftist factions vying for power. It was during this time that the Soviets helped establish Kim Il Sung, a product of the Soviet military machine, as the leading political figure in the north. In the south an entirely different story unfolded. During this time, a korean patriot named Syngman Rhee began to acquire political power among the conservative elitists in South Korea. His dogmatic advocacy for Korea’s full independence often caused friction between him and U.S. officials. But due to Rhee’s strong stance against communism, and because of his commitment to maintaining civil order during these turbulent times, the US had no other choice but to give support to Rhee.

Therefore, with U.S. support and the use of strong arm tactics, Syngman Rhee eventually positioned himself has the dominant political leader in South Korea by 1947. Although two different political governments had emerged in Korea by 1947, the fact that they were still only provisional governments gave the korean people hope for a possible unification. Up until this time, nationalists from both the North and South continued their efforts to negotiate a unification treaty, however, irreconcilable differences between the U.S. and the Soviet Union prevented any such goal. Eventually, the U.S. concluded that the chasm that existed between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in establishing a unified Korea was insurmountable and so they pressured the United Nations to allow for a general election in Korea. Suspicious of foul play by the U.S., the Soviets refused to allow the election to be held in North Korea.

1951 – Thirty-three F-84s of the U.S. Air Force’s 27th Fighter-Escort Wing engaged 30 MiG-15s in a dogfight over the skies of Sinuiju. In less than a minute Captains Allen McGuire and William Slaughter each destroyed a MiG while First Lieutenant Jacob Kratt scored two kills, the first double MiG kill of the war.

1951 – U.S. First Marine Division elements attacked guerrilla concentrations in the vicinity of Andong.

1953 – The U.S. Air Force’s 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing flew the last F-51 Mustang mission of the war.

1960 – The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 meters (35,797 ft) in the Pacific Ocean. Trieste is a Swiss-designed, Italian-built deep-diving research bathyscaphe, which with her crew of two reached a record maximum depth of about 10,911 metres (35,797 ft), in the deepest known part of the Earth’s oceans, the Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench near Guam in the Pacific. On 23 January 1960, Jacques Piccard (son of the boat’s designer Auguste Piccard) and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh achieved the goal of Project Nekton. Trieste was the first manned vessel to have reached the bottom of the Challenger Deep.

1964 – The 24th amendment to the Constitution, eliminating the poll tax in federal elections, was ratified.

1968 – The U.S. intelligence-gathering ship Pueblo is seized by North Korean naval vessels and charged with spying and violating North Korean territorial waters. Negotiations to free the 83-man crew of the U.S. ship dragged on for nearly a year, damaging the credibility of and confidence in the foreign policy of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. The capture of the ship and internment of its crew by North Korea was loudly protested by the Johnson administration. The U.S. government vehemently denied that North Korea’s territorial waters had been violated and argued the ship was merely performing routine intelligence gathering duties in the Sea of Japan. Some U.S. officials, including Johnson himself, were convinced that the seizure was part of a larger communist-bloc offensive, since exactly one week later, communist forces in South Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive, the largest attack of the Vietnam War.

Despite this, however, the Johnson administration took a restrained stance toward the incident. Fully occupied with the Tet Offensive, Johnson resorted to quieter diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in North Korea. In December 1968, the commander of the Pueblo, Capt. Lloyd Bucher, grudgingly signed a confession indicating that his ship was spying on North Korea prior to its capture. With this propaganda victory in hand, the North Koreans turned the crew and captain (including one crewman who had died) over to the United States. The Pueblo incident was a blow to the Johnson administration’s credibility, as the president seemed powerless to free the captured crew and ship. Combined with the public’s perception–in the wake of the Tet Offensive–that the Vietnam War was being lost, the Pueblo incident resulted in a serious faltering of Johnson’s popularity with the American people. The crewmen’s reports about their horrific treatment at the hands of the North Koreans during their 11 months in captivity further incensed American citizens, many of whom believed that Johnson should have taken more aggressive action to free the captive Americans.

1969 – NASA unveiled a moon-landing craft.

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1973 – President Nixon announces that Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, the chief North Vietnamese negotiator, have initiated a peace agreement in Paris “to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.” Kissinger and Tho had been conducting secret negotiations since 1969. After the South Vietnamese had blunted the massive North Vietnamese invasion launched in the spring of 1972, Kissinger and the North Vietnamese had finally made some progress on reaching a negotiated end to the war. However, a recalcitrant South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu had inserted several demands into to the negotiations that caused the North Vietnamese negotiators to walk out of the talks with Kissinger on December 13. President Nixon issued an ultimatum to Hanoi to send its representatives back to the conference table within 72 hours “or else.”

The North Vietnamese rejected Nixon’s demand and the president ordered Operation Linebacker II, a full-scale air campaign against the Hanoi area. This operation was the most concentrated air offensive of the war. During the 11 days of the attack, 700 B-52 sorties and more than 1,000 fighter-bomber sorties dropped roughly 20,000 tons of bombs, mostly over the densely populated area between Hanoi and Haiphong. On December 28, after 11 days of intensive bombing, the North Vietnamese agreed to return to the talks. When the negotiators met again in early January, they quickly worked out a settlement. Under the terms of the agreement, which became known as the Paris Peace Accords, a cease-fire would begin at 8 a.m., January 28, Saigon time (7 p.m., January 27, Eastern Standard Time).

In addition, all prisoners of war were to be released within 60 days and in turn, all U.S. and other foreign troops would be withdrawn from Vietnam within 60 days. With respect to the political situation in South Vietnam, the Accords called for a National Council of Reconciliation and Concord, with representatives from both South Vietnamese sides (Saigon and the National Liberation Front) to oversee negotiations and organize elections for a new government. The actual document was entitled “An Agreement Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam” and it was formally signed on January 27.

1986 – U.S. began maneuvers off the Libyan coast. Following Libyan involvement in murderous attacks at the El Al counters at the Vienna and Rome airports in 1985, and after a considerable portion of Libya’s involvement in international terrorism had become public knowledge, U.S. President Reagan, in January 1986, ordered all economic ties with Libya severed and Libyan assets in the U.S. frozen. Reagan also called upon other countries to join the economic boycott against Libya. U.S. concentrated troops from the Sixth Fleet in the Gulf of Sidra opposite Libya. A series of terrorist attacks will lead the U.S. to take retaliatory military action in April 1986, American planes will attack government and military installations in Benghazi and Tripoli.

1991 – After some 12,000 sorties in the Gulf War, General Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said allied forces had achieved air superiority, and would focus air fire on Iraqi ground forces around Kuwait.

1991 – Iraqi military forces deliberately create a huge oil spill in the Persian Gulf, the largest oil spill on record. U.S. officials term the spill an act of “environmental terrorism.”

1996 – The US Army disclosed that it had 30,000 tons of chemical weapons stored in Utah, Alabama, Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, Arkansas, Colorado and Oregon.

1998 – A judge in Fairfax, Va., sentenced Mir Aimal Kasi to death for an assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters in 1993 that killed two men and wounded three other people. Kasi was executed November 2002.

1999 – US jets attacked 2 Iraqi surface-to-air missile batteries after encountering anti-aircraft fire and MiG jets in the southern no-fly zone.

2002 – US authorities raised the reward for information leading to the arrest of the anthrax perpetrator to $2.5 million.

2002 – US soldiers captured 27 Taliban fighters in Hazar Qadam, north of Kandahar. Gov. Jan Muhammad Khan later said that 60 people were killed and denied that any were Taliban or al Qaeda fighters. US military later acknowledged that some of the dead may have been allies. The captives were released Feb 6 and reported that they had been beaten and abused.

2002 – John Walker Lindh, a U.S.-born Taliban fighter, was returned to the United States to face criminal charges that he’d conspired to kill fellow Americans.

2002 – Daniel Pearl, Wall Street Journal reporter, was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan, by the “National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty.” A deadline to kill him was extended a day pending 4 demands that included: the return of Pakistanis in Cuba; access to lawyers for Pakistani detainees in the US; the return of a former Taliban ambassador; and the release of F-16 jets purchased by Pakistan in the 1980s. Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh became the chief suspect. Pearl was later murdered.

2003 – In Texas 2 military helicopters collided and 4 marine reservists were killed.

2003 – The government of Kuwait said a Kuwaiti had confessed to the Jan. 21 shootings of two U.S. defense workers in Kuwait.

2003 – Final communication between Earth and Pioneer 10. Pioneer 10 (originally designated Pioneer F), an American space probe, weighing 258 kilograms, completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Thereafter, Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to achieve escape velocity from the Solar System. This space exploration project was conducted by the NASA Ames Research Center in California, and the space probe was manufactured by TRW. Pioneer 10 was assembled around a hexagonal bus with a 2.74 meter diameter parabolic dish high-gain antenna, and the spacecraft was spin stabilized around the axis of the antenna. Its electric power was supplied by four radioisotope thermoelectric generators that provided a combined 155 watts at launch.

Pioneer 10 was launched on March 3, 1972, by an Atlas-Centaur expendable vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Between July 15, 1972, and February 15, 1973, it became the first spacecraft to traverse the asteroid belt. Photography of Jupiter began November 6, 1973, at a range of 25,000,000 km, and a total of about 500 images were transmitted. The closest approach to the planet was on December 4, 1973, at a range of 132,252 km. During the mission, the on-board instruments were used to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter, the solar wind, cosmic rays, and eventually the far reaches of the solar system and helio sphere. Radio communications were lost with Pioneer 10 because of the loss of electric power for its radio transmitter, with the probe at a distance of 12 billion kilometers (80 AU) from Earth.

2004 – US District Judge in LA, Aubrey Collins, ruled that a part of the Patriot Act, that makes it a crime to give expert advice to foreign terrorist organizations, was unconstitutional.

2004 – It was reported that Halliburton told the Pentagon that 2 employees took kickbacks at up to $6 million from a Kuwaiti-based company for supplying US troops in Iraq.

2004 – The World Economic Forum began in Davos, Switzerland. The war in Iraq and the threat of terrorism dominated the Forum as the US appealed for cooperation on both issues and the U.N. chief warned that an overly narrow focus could worsen global tensions.

2005 – In the ongoing dispute between the United States and Venezuela, the US tried to veto a sale of Embraer airplanes to Venezuela. Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim branded the US attempted veto as “indefensible nonsense”. The US recently failed to block a large sale of Spanish military equipment to Venezuela.

2007 – In the State of the Union Address, Bush announced “deploying reinforcements of more than 20,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Iraq”.

2013 – The United States Armed Forces overturns its ban on women serving in combat, reversing a 1994 rule, and potentially clearing the way for women to serve in front-line units and elite commando forces.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions taken This Day

DEMPSEY, JOHN

Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1848, Ireland. Accredited to: Massachusetts. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Kearsarge at Shanghai, China, 23 January 1875. Displaying gallant conduct, Dempsey jumped overboard from the Kearsarge and rescued from drowning one of the crew of that vessel.

MOORE, FRANCIS

Rank and organization: Boatswain’s Mate, U.S. Navy. Born: 1858 New York. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 326, 18 October 1884. Citation: For jumping overboard from the U.S. Training Ship Portsmouth, at the Washington Navy Yard, 23 January 1882, and endeavoring to rescue Thomas Duncan, carpenter and calker, who had fallen overboard.

FOSS, JOSEPH JACOB

Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Marine Fighting Squadron 121, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing. Place and date: Over Guadalcanal, 9 October to 19 November 1942, 15 and 23 January 1943. Entered service at: South Dakota. Born: 17 April 1 915, Sioux Falls, S. Dak. Citation: For outstanding heroism and courage above and beyond the call of duty as executive officer of Marine Fighting Squadron 121, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, at Guadalcanal. Engaging in almost daily combat with the enemy from 9 October to 19 November 1942, Capt. Foss personally shot down 23 Japanese planes and damaged others so severely that their destruction was extremely probable. In addition, during this period, he successfully led a large number of escort missions, skillfully covering reconnaissance, bombing, and photographic planes as well as surface craft.

On 15 January 1943, he added 3 more enemy planes to his already brilliant successes for a record of aerial combat achievement unsurpassed in this war. Boldly searching out an approaching enemy force on 25 January, Capt. Foss led his 8 F-4F Marine planes and 4 Army P-38’s into action and, undaunted by tremendously superior numbers, intercepted and struck with such force that 4 Japanese fighters were shot down and the bombers were turned back without releasing a single bomb. His remarkable flying skill, inspiring leadership, and indomitable fighting spirit were distinctive factors in the defense of strategic American positions on Guadalcanal.

ORESKO, NICHOLAS

Rank and organization: Master Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company C, 302d Infantry, 94th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Tettington, Germany, 23 January 1945. Entered service at: Bayonne, N.J. Birth: Bayonne, N.J. G.O. No.: 95, 30 October 1945. Citation: M/Sgt. Oresko was a platoon leader with Company C, in an attack against strong enemy positions. Deadly automatic fire from the flanks pinned down his unit. Realizing that a machinegun in a nearby bunker must be eliminated, he swiftly worked ahead alone, braving bullets which struck about him, until close enough to throw a grenade into the German position. He rushed the bunker and, with pointblank rifle fire, killed all the hostile occupants who survived the grenade blast. Another machinegun opened up on him, knocking him down and seriously wounding him in the hip.

Refusing to withdraw from the battle, he placed himself at the head of his platoon to continue the assault. As withering machinegun and rifle fire swept the area, he struck out alone in advance of his men to a second bunker. With a grenade, he crippled the dug-in machinegun defending this position and then wiped out the troops manning it with his rifle, completing his second self-imposed, 1-man attack. Although weak from loss of blood, he refused to be evacuated until assured the mission was successfully accomplished. Through quick thinking, indomitable courage, and unswerving devotion to the attack in the face of bitter resistance and while wounded, M /Sgt. Oresko killed 12 Germans, prevented a delay in the assault, and made it possible for Company C to obtain its objective with minimum casualties.

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24 January

1639 – Representatives from three Connecticut towns banded together to write the Fundamental Orders, the first constitution in the New World.

1712 – Frederick II (d.1786), Frederick the Great, the Hohenzollern King of Prussia (1740-1786), was born. He was noted for his social reforms and leading Prussia in military victories. Among his military innovations was the professional General Staff. A model that would be adopted by all modern militaries.

1732 – Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais, French dramatist, was born. He was best remembered for his plays “Barber of Civil” and “Marriage of Figaro.” He was a conduit for French gold and arms to American Revolution, persecuted by mob during French Rev. “It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them.”

1776 – Colonel Henry Knox arrives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with the 43 British Cannon and 16 mortars captured by Ethan Allen at Fort Ticonderoga. These artillery have been transported cross-country through the wilderness.

1826 – The US signs the Treaty or Washington with the Creek Tribe, granting them the right to stay on their lands for two years.

1847 – 1,500 New Mexican Indians and Mexicans were defeated by US Colonel Price.

1848 – A millwright named James Marshall discovers gold along the banks of Sutter’s Creek in California, forever changing the course of history in the American West. A tributary to the South Fork of the American River in the Sacramento Valley east of San Francisco, Sutter’s Creek was named for a Swiss immigrant who came to Mexican California in 1839. John Augustus Sutter became a citizen of Mexico and won a grant of nearly 50,000 acres in the lush Sacramento Valley, where he hoped to create a thriving colony. He built a sturdy fort that became the center of his first town, New Helvetia, and purchased farming implements, livestock, and a cannon to defend his tiny empire. Copying the methods of the Spanish missions, Sutter induced the local Indians to do all the work on his farms and ranches, often treating them as little more than slaves. Workers who dared leave his empire without permission were often brought back by armed posses to face brutal whippings or even execution.

In the 1840s, Sutter’s Fort became the first stopping-off point for overland Anglo-American emigrants coming to California to build farms and ranches. Though sworn to protect the Mexican province from falling under the control of the growing number of Americans, Sutter recognized that his future wealth and influence lay with these Anglo settlers. With the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846, he threw his support to the Americans, who emerged victorious in the fall of 1847. With the war over and California securely in the hands of the United States, Sutter hired the millwright James Marshall to build a sawmill along the South Fork of the American River in January 1848. In order to redirect the flow of water to the mill’s waterwheel, Marshall supervised the excavation of a shallow millrace.

On the morning of January 24, 1848, Marshall was looking over the freshly cut millrace when a sparkle of light in the dark earth caught his eye. Looking more closely, Marshall found that much of the millrace was speckled with what appeared to be small flakes of gold, and he rushed to tell Sutter. After an assayer confirmed that the flakes were indeed gold, Sutter quietly set about gathering up as much of the gold as he could, hoping to keep the discovery a secret. However, word soon leaked out and, within months, the largest gold rush in the world had begun.

Ironically, the California gold rush was a disaster for Sutter. Though it brought thousands of men to California, the prospectors had no interest in joining Sutter’s despotic agricultural community. Instead, they overran Sutter’s property, slaughtered his herds for food, and trampled his fields. By 1852, New Helvetia was ruined, and Sutter was nearly wiped out. Until his death in 1880, he spent his time unsuccessfully petitioning the government to compensate him for the losses he suffered as a result of the gold rush he unintentionally ignited.

1861 – Georgia troops seize the Federal arsenal in Augusta. The U. S. Arsenal on Walton Way is the only United States arsenal in the south, east of the Mississippi. In 1819 the 1st U.S. arsenal at Augusta was completed on the Savannah River near the present location at the King and Sibley mills. After a black fever epidemic it was moved to more healthy quarters on a 70-acre tract costing $ 6,000.00 on the sand hills, where the buildings were erected. Five days after the secession of Georgia from the union in 1861, the arsenal was surrendered to Georgia troops with a mere exchange of formal diplomacy between Captain Arnold Elzey who represented the United States and Colonel W. T. H. Walker who represented Governor Brown of Georgia. After the formalities the two men met at the mess hall for a convivial evening.

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1865 – The Confederate Congress agrees to continue prisoner exchanges, opening a process that had operated only sporadically for three years. In the first year of the war, prisoner exchanges were conducted primarily between field generals on an ad hoc basis. The Union was reluctant to enter any formal agreements, fearing that it would legitimize the Confederate government. But the issue became more important as the campaigns escalated in 1862. On July 2, 1862, Union General John Dix and Confederate General Daniel H. Hill reached an agreement. Under the Dix-Hill cartel, each soldier was assigned a value according to rank. For example, privates were worth another private, corporals and sergeants were worth two privates, lieutenants were worth three privates, etc. A commanding general was worth 60 privates.

Under this system, thousands of soldiers were exchanged rather than languishing in prisons like those in Andersonville, Georgia, or Elmira, New York. The system was really a gentlemen’s agreement, relying on the trust of each side. The system broke down in 1862 when Confederates refused to exchange black Union soldiers. From 1862 to 1865, prisoner exchanges were rare. When they did happen, it was usually because two local commanders came to a workable agreement. The result of the breakdown was the swelling of prisoner-of-war camps in both North and South. The most notorious of all the camps was Andersonville, where one-third of the 46,000 Union troops incarcerated died of disease, exposure, or starvation. Though the prisoner exchanges resumed, the end of the war was so close that it did not make much difference.

1895 – Hawaii’s Queen Lili’uokalani formally abdicated her throne and swore allegiance to the Republic of Hawaii.

1903 – U.S. Secretary of State John Hay and British Ambassador Herbert created a joint commission to establish the Alaskan border.

1907 – In Ormond Beach, Florida, Glenn Curtiss, an engineer who got his start building motors for bicycles, set an unofficial land-speed record on a self-built V-8 motorcycle on this day: 136.29mph. No automobile surpassed that speed until 1911. In 1907, four years after the Wilbur and Orville Wright accomplished the first successful airplane at Kitty Hawk, Curtiss established the Curtiss Aeroplane Company, the first airplane manufacturing company in the United States. In the next year, the “June Bug,” an aircraft powered by a Curtiss engine, won the Scientific American Trophy for the first flight in the U.S. covering one kilometer. In 1909, Curtiss, piloting his own planes, won major flying events in Europe and America. Over the next five years, Curtiss continued to be an innovator in airplane design, and in January of 1911, built and demonstrated the world’s first seaplane for the U.S. Navy.

1908 – Boy Scouts movement begins in England with the publication of the first installment of Robert Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys. The name Baden-Powell was already well known to many English boys, and thousands of them eagerly bought up the handbook. By the end of April, the serialization of Scouting for Boys was completed, and scores of impromptu Boy Scout troops had sprung up across Britain. In 1900, Baden-Powell became a national hero in Britain for his 217-day defense of Mafeking in the South African War. Soon after, Aids to Scouting, a military field manual he had written for British soldiers in 1899, caught on with a younger audience. Boys loved the lessons on tracking and observation and organized elaborate games using the book. Hearing this, Baden-Powell decided to write a nonmilitary field manual for adolescents that would also emphasize the importance of morality and good deeds. First, however, he decided to try out some of his ideas on an actual group of boys.

On July 25, 1907, he took a diverse group of 21 adolescents to Brownsea Island in Dorsetshire where they set up camp for a fortnight. With the aid of other instructors, he taught the boys about camping, observation, deduction, woodcraft, boating, lifesaving, patriotism, and chivalry. Many of these lessons were learned through inventive games that were very popular with the boys. The first Boy Scouts meeting was a great success. With the success of Scouting for Boys, Baden-Powell set up a central Boy Scouts office, which registered new Scouts and designed a uniform. By the end of 1908, there were 60,000 Boy Scouts, and troops began springing up in British Commonwealth countries across the globe. In September 1909, the first national Boy Scout meeting was held at the Crystal Palace in London. Ten thousand Scouts showed up, including a group of uniformed girls who called themselves the Girl Scouts.

In 1910, Baden-Powell organized the Girl Guides as a separate organization. The American version of the Boy Scouts has it origins in an event that occurred in London in 1909. Chicago publisher William Boyce was lost in one of the city’s classic fogs when a Boy Scout came to his aid. After guiding Boyce to his destination, the boy refused a tip, explaining that as a Boy Scout he would not accept payment for doing a good deed. This anonymous gesture inspired Boyce to organize several regional U.S. youth organizations, specifically the Woodcraft Indians and the Sons of Daniel Boone, into the Boy Scouts of America.

Incorporated on February 8, 1910, the movement soon spread throughout the country. In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts of America in Savannah, Georgia. In 1916, Baden-Powell organized the Wolf Cubs, which caught on as the Cub Scouts in the United States, for boys under the age of 11. Four years later, the first international Boy Scout Jamboree was held in London, and Baden-Powell was acclaimed Chief Scout of the world. He died in 1941.

1911 – U.S. Cavalry was sent to preserve the neutrality of the Rio Grande during the Mexican Civil War.

1916 – Although the Constitution explicitly forbade direct taxation of citizens, the United States flirted with the notion of an income tax during the latter half of the nineteenth century. In fact, the government briefly instituted a tax during the Civil War. This tax was repealed in 1872, but legislators, casting about for ways to raise federal funds, continued to push for an income tax. Congress gave the green light to a income tax bill in 1894, only to watch as the Supreme Court deemed the tax unconstitutional on the grounds that it failed to raise revenues that were commensurate with the various populations of America’s states. Undeterred, Congress passed the Sixteenth Amendment in 1909 that, after state ratification in 1913, effectively granted the federal government constitutional authority to levy an income tax. Again, the legislation was taken before the Supreme Court for review. On January 24, 1916, the Court handed down a decision that no doubt still causes some Americans deep anguish, ruling in favor of the amendment and paving the way for the federal income tax.

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1933 – The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, changing the beginning and end of terms for all elected federal offices.

1936 – Congress passes the Adjusted Compensation Act by overriding President Roosevelt’s veto. The bill allows for immediate cash redemption of the bonus certificates held by veterans of World War I.

1942 – A special court of inquiry into America’s lack of preparedness for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor placed much of the blame on Rear Adm. Husband E. Kimmel and Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, the Navy and Army commanders.

1942 – Battle of Makassar Strait, destroyer attack on Japanese convoy in first surface action in the Pacific during World War II. Four Dutch and American destroyers attack Japanese troop transports off Balikpapan sinking five ships.

1942 – In the Philippines, American forces begin withdrawals to their second line of defense.

1943 – President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco. The Allied differences have been resolved by the Chiefs of Staff. The war against the U-boats and supplies for the USSR are to have priority. Preparations for a landing in western Europe are to proceed. Offensive operations in the Pacific are also to continue as is the campaign in Tunisia and North Africa. The forces in North Africa will proceed to Sicily and Italy following the completion of the North African campaign. At a press conference, Roosevelt states that the Allies are seeking the “unconditional surrender” of Germany, Italy and Japan. Churchill endorses this position.

1943 – A US naval task force attacks Kolombangara Island in the New Georgia group of islands. On Guadalcanal, American forces push west of Kokumbona.

1944 – The Anzio beachhead continues to expand, albeit, slowly. To the south, along the German defenses of the Gustav Line, the Free French Corps (part of US 5th Army) attacks Monte Santa Croce. The US 2nd Corps (also part of 5th Army) continues attacking over the Rapido River, toward Caira.

1945 – In the Ardennes there are Allied advances north and south of St. Vith. US 3rd Army reaches the Clerf River. The British 2nd Army enters Heinsberg, about 3 miles west of the Roer River.

1945 – Calapan is taken by the US forces on Mindoro. Japanese resistance on the island has been reduced to isolated pockets. Cabanatuan is taken by the US forces on Luzon.

1945 – The US 14th Air Force has to abandon Suichuan airfield, in China, because of Japanese advances nearby.1946 – The UN established the International Atomic Energy Commission.

1951 – General Matthew B. Ridgway and Major General Earl E. Partridge personally reconnoitered the front lines in a T-6 Texan aircraft prior to the Jan. 25 dawn attack on communist Chinese forces, Operation THUNDERBOLT.

1952 – The U.S. 24th Infantry Division announced the first use of scout dogs in Korea.

1952 – Air Force Captains Dolphin D. Overton III and Harold E. Fischer Jr., both of the 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, became the 24th and 25th fifth aces of the war. They flew F-86’s named “Dolph’s Devil” and “Paper Tiger.” In addition, Captain Overton set a record for becoming a jet ace in the shortest time of four days.

1958 – After warming to 100,000,000 degrees, 2 light atoms were bashed together to create a heavier atom, resulting in the 1st man-made nuclear fusion.

1964 – Studies and Observation Group (“SOG”) is created. MACV headquarters in Saigon issued General Order 6, creating a highly secret new organization to execute clandestine operations. It was euphemistically called MACV’s “Studies and Observation Group,” known as MACVSOG or simply SOG. The operations were approved by President Lyndon Johnson three years after President Kennedy had called for a serious program of covert actions against North Vietnam. The plan, recommended by Robert McNamara and Dean Rusk, contained a total of 72 categories of action.

1966 – In the largest search-and-destroy operation to date–Operation Masher/White Wing/Thang Phong II–the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), South Vietnamese, and Korean forces ssweep through Binh Dinh Province in the central lowlands along the coast. The purpose of the operation was to drive the North Vietnamese out of the province and destroy enemy supply areas. In late January, it became the first large unit operation conducted across corps boundaries when the cavalrymen linked up with Double Eagle, a U.S. Marine Corps operation intended to destroy the North Vietnamese 325A Division. Altogether, there were reported enemy casualties of 2,389 by the time the operation ended.

1966 – Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, in a memorandum to President Johnson, recommends raising the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam to more than 400,000 by the end of the year. However, he warned that planned deployments and increased bombing would not ensure military success. Ultimately, McNamara was correct and the war raged on even as total U.S. troop strength in country went over 500,000 soldiers in 1969.

1972 – After 28 years of hiding in the jungles of Guam, local farmers discover Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese sergeant who was unaware that World War II had ended. Guam, a 200-square-mile island in the western Pacific, became a U.S. possession in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. In 1941, the Japanese attacked and captured it, and in 1944, after three years of Japanese occupation, U.S. forces retook Guam. It was at this time that Yokoi, left behind by the retreating Japanese forces, went into hiding rather than surrender to the Americans. In the jungles of Guam, he carved survival tools and for the next three decades waited for the return of the Japanese and his next orders. After he was discovered in 1972, he was finally discharged and sent home to Japan, where he was hailed as a national hero. He subsequently married and returned to Guam for his honeymoon. His handcrafted survival tools and threadbare uniform are on display in the Guam Museum in Agana.

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1973 – National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger announces that a truce is also expected in Laos and Cambodia. Kissinger had been meeting privately with Le Duc Tho and other North Vietnamese and Viet Cong representatives in Paris since early January. They had worked out a peace agreement that was initialled in Paris on January 23 “to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.” Under the provisions of the agreement, a cease-fire would begin in Vietnam at 8 a.m., January 28, Saigon time (7 p.m., January 27, Eastern Standard Time). Kissinger said that the terms of the agreement would be extended to Cambodia and Laos, where government troops had been locked in deadly combat with the local communist forces (Khmer Rouge and Pathet Lao, respectively) and their North Vietnamese allies.

1975 – A Puerto Rican terrorist group detonates a bomb at Fraunces Tavern in New York City, killing four people.

1980 – In an action obviously designed as another in a series of very strong reactions to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, U.S. officials announce that America is ready to sell military equipment (excluding weapons) to communist China. The surprise statement was part of the U.S. effort to build a closer relationship with the People’s Republic of China for use as leverage against possible Soviet aggression. The announcement concerning military equipment sales was one of many actions on the U.S-China front taken in the wake of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in December 1979. The U.S. Congress, on the same day, approved most-favored-nation trading status for China. In addition, an agreement was signed for the construction of a station in China that would be able to receive information from an American satellite; such information would aid China in such fields as agriculture and mining. The proposed sale of military equipment, however, was the most dramatic and controversial move made by the administration of President Jimmy Carter.

Though such equipment would be limited to non-weapon materiel related to such areas as transportation and communications, the step was a significant one in terms of the developing U.S.-China relationship. The fact that the announcement occurred so soon after the Soviet action in Afghanistan was no coincidence–as one U.S. official noted, that action “sped up or catalyzed the process.” The Carter administration’s decision to sell military equipment to communist China barely a year after establishing diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China was an indication of just how seriously the United States government viewed the Soviet attack on Afghanistan. The U.S. response to the Soviet Union was multi-faceted and vigorous, including diplomatic broadsides, economic sanctions, and even boycotting the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow. Many political analysts believed that the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan was a grievous diplomatic error, as it virtually ended any talk of detente with the United States.

1982 – A draft of Air Force history reported that the U.S. secretly sprayed herbicides on Laos during the Vietnam War.

1986 – The Voyager 2 space probe swept past Uranus, coming within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet of the solar system. Uranus has puzzled scientists ever since the probe Voyager 2 did the flyby and found that its magnetic field appeared to break the planetary rulebook. In 2004 scientists noted that Neptune and Uranus have an interior structure that is different from those of Jupiter and Saturn.

1991 – A brief skirmish occurred high above the Persian Gulf as a Saudi warplane shot down two Iraqi jets.

1991 – Helos from USS Leftwich and USS Nicholas recapture first Kuwaiti territory from Iraqis.

1996 – Specialist Michael New was discharged from the US Army after a court-martial jury convicted him for disobeying lawful orders. He refused to wear a UN beret for a peacekeeping mission in the former Yugoslavia.

1999 – US jets attacked 2 Iraqi surface-to-air missile batteries after encountering radar detection in the northern no-fly zone.

2000 – Stanislav Lunev, a former Soviet spy, testified at a congressional hearing that Soviet operatives had placed weapons and communications caches in California and other states during and after the Cold War to destabilize the US in the event of war.

2002 – The US imposed sanctions on 3 Chinese entities accused of giving chemical and biological arms technology to Iran.

2002 – John Walker Lindh transported to Alexandria, Virginia, to be tried in a civilian criminal court for conspiring to kill Americans. He makes his first appearance before a U.S. District Court. A criminal complaint lists four charges, including conspiracy to kill his fellow Americans in Afghanistan.

2003 – The US Department of Homeland Security under Tom Ridge became the government’s 15th Cabinet department.

2003 – The United States adds 20,000 reservists to those already on active duty.

2003 – American warplanes bombed an Iraqi air defense site, the 12th strike in the southern flight interdiction zone this month.

2003 – Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran and Turkey meet in Istanbul in a diplomatic effort to avert a war in Iraq. They urge Iraq to “demonstrate a more active approach” in providing information on its weapons programs.

2003 – In Spain police arrested 16 suspected al-Qaida terrorists.

2004 – A 2nd NASA rover was set to land on Mars.

2005 – Authorities in Iraq said Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf, an al-Qaeda lieutenant in custody, had confessed to masterminding most of the car bombings in Baghdad.

2010 – Afghanistan postpones its upcoming parliamentary elections to 18 September due to lack of funds and security concerns.

2013 – David Headley, an American terrorist of Pakistani origin, and a spy who conspired with the Lashkar-e-Taiba Islamist organization and Pakistani intelligence officers in plotting the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role in the 2008 attacks.

2013 – North Korea authorities announce a new nuclear weapon and long range missile test, threatening the United States, as their primary target.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

GREAVES, CLINTON
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company C, 9th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Florida Mountains, N. Mex., 24 January 1877. Entered service at: Prince Georges County, Md. Birth: Madison County, Va. Date of issue: 26 June 1879. Citation: While part of a small detachment to persuade a band of renegade Apache Indians to surrender, his group was surrounded. Cpl. Greaves in the center of the savage hand-to-hand fighting, managed to shoot and bash a gap through the swarming Apaches, permitting his companions to break free .

SMITH, WILHELM
Rank and organization: Gunner’s Mate First Class, U.S. Navy. Born: 10 April 1870, Germany. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 202, 6 April 1916. Citation: On board the U.S.S. New York, for entering a compartment filled with gases and rescuing a shipmate on 24 January

*HANSON, ROBERT MURRAY
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Born: 4 February 1920, Lucknow, India. Accredited to: Massachusetts. Other Navy awards: Navy Cross, Air Medal. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life and above and beyond the call of duty as fighter pilot attached to Marine Fighting Squadron 215 in action against enemy Japanese forces at Bougainville Island, 1 November 1943; and New Britain Island, 24 January 1944. Undeterred by fierce opposition, and fearless in the face of overwhelming odds, 1st Lt. Hanson fought the Japanese boldly and with daring aggressiveness.

On 1 November, while flying cover for our landing operations at Empress Augusta Bay, he dauntlessly attacked 6 enemy torpedo bombers, forcing them to jettison their bombs and destroying 1 Japanese plane during the action. Cut off from his division while deep in enemy territory during a high cover flight over Simpson Harbor on 24 January, 1st Lt. Hanson waged a lone and gallant battle against hostile interceptors as they were orbiting to attack our bombers and, striking with devastating fury, brought down 4 Zeroes and probably a fifth. Handling his plane superbly in both pursuit and attack measures, he was a master of individual air combat, accounting for a total of 25 Japanese aircraft in this theater of war. His great personal valor and invincible fighting spirit were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

*PARRISH, LAVERNE
Rank and organization: Technician 4th Grade, U.S. Army, Medical Detachment, 161st Infantry, 25th Infantry Division . Place and date: Binalonan, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 18-24 January 1945. Entered service at: Ronan, Mont. Birth: Knox City, Mo. G.O. No.: 55, 13 July 1945. Citation: He was medical aid man with Company C during the fighting in Binalonan, Luzon, Philippine Islands. On the 18th, he observed 2 wounded men under enemy fire and immediately went to their rescue. After moving 1 to cover, he crossed 25 yards of open ground to administer aid to the second. In the early hours of the 24th, his company, crossing an open field near San Manuel, encountered intense enemy fire and was ordered to withdraw to the cover of a ditch.

While treating the casualties, Technician Parrish observed 2 wounded still in the field. Without hesitation he left the ditch, crawled forward under enemy fire, and in 2 successive trips brought both men to safety. He next administered aid to 12 casualties in the same field, crossing and re-crossing the open area raked by hostile fire. Making successive trips, he then brought 3 wounded in to cover. After treating nearly all of the 37 casualties suffered by his company, he was mortally wounded by mortar fire, and shortly after was killed. The indomitable spirit, intrepidity, and gallantry of Technician Parrish saved many lives at the cost of his own.

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25 January

1775 – Americans dragged cannon up hill to fight the British at Gun Hill Road, Bronx. When the British navy landed on Staten Island in 1775, New York City Patriots feared an imminent invasion. They did not want the precious cannon at the Battery to fall into enemy hands. Thus, in December, 1775, they took the cannon to the mainland and scattered them roughly along present-day Gun Hill Road from today’s Jerome Avenue across the Bronx River to modern White Plains Road.

1787 – Small farmers in Springfield, Massachusetts led by Daniel Shays continued their revolt against tax laws. Federal troops broke up the protesters of what becomes known as Shay’s Rebellion. Shays’ Rebellion suffered a setback when debt-ridden farmers led by Capt. Daniel Shays failed to capture an arsenal at Springfield, Mass.

1799– Having existed, essentially nameless, for 8-1/2 years, Alexander Hamilton’s “system of cutters” was referred to in legislation as “Revenue Cutters.” Some decades later, the name evolved to Revenue Cutter Service and Revenue Marine.

1806 – Secretary of State James Madison delivers a report to Congress on the continuing British interference with the commercial shipping of neutral nations, including the US, and on British policy of impressing US seamen, in the context of the Napoleonic Wars. Madison’s report will give rise to a new wave of anti-British feeling.

1814 – Congress modifies the embargo against Britain when the embargo leads to famine on Nantucket Island, off the Massachusetts coast.

1856 – Marines and seamen from the U.S. sloop DECATUR went ashore at the village of Seattle, Washington, to protect settlers from Indian raids. The Indians launched a seven-hour attack but were driven off later that day after suffering severe losses. Incredibly, only two civilian volunteers were killed and no Marines or sailors were lost.

1863 – After two months, General Ambrose Burnside is removed as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Burnside assumed command of the army after President Lincoln removed General George B. McClellan from command in November 1862. Lincoln had a difficult relationship with McClellan, who built the army admirably but was a sluggish and overly cautious field commander. Lincoln wanted an attack on the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, which was commanded by Robert E. Lee. Burnside drafted a plan to move south towards Richmond. The plan was sound, but delays in its execution alerted Lee to the danger. Lee headed Burnside off at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 13. Burnside attacked repeatedly against entrenched Confederates along Marye’s Heights above Fredericksburg with tragic results. More than 13,000 Yankees fell; Lee lost just 5,000. Northern morale sunk in the winter of 1862-1863. Lincoln allowed Burnside one more chance. In January, Burnside attempted another campaign against Lee. Four days of rain turned the Union offensive into the ignominious “Mud March,” during which the Yankees floundered on mud roads while the Lee’s men jeered at them from across the Rappahannock River. Lincoln had seen enough–General Joe Hooker took over command of the army.

1879 – The Arrears of Pensions Act is passed by Congress. It authorizes back-payment of military pensions beginning from the day of discharge. If the veteran is dead, payments will be made to the family.

1898 – Continuing his preparations for war, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt, sends a highly confidential order to Commodore George Dewey, leader of the Asiatic Squadron, to go to Hong Kong. Dewey is to be prepared to attack the Spanish fleet in the Philippines should war be declared.

1906 – Major Gen. Joseph Wheeler II (70), Confederate, US General, died. He led a cavalry division in the Battle of San Juan Hill in 1898. As a Confederate brigadier and then major general, “Fightin’ Joe” Wheeler commanded the cavalry of the Confederate Army of Mississippi and, later, the Army of Tennessee. Captured in May 1865, he went on to have a prosperous postwar life, serving as a U.S. congressman for eight terms. After his Spanish-American War service, Wheeler retired from the army as a brigadier general of U.S. Regulars. He was interred in Arlington National Cemetery.

1915 – The inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, inaugurated transcontinental telephone service in the United States. Bell placed the first ceremonial cross-continental call from New York to his old colleague Thomas Watson in San Francisco.

1918 – Austria and Germany rejected U.S. peace proposals.

1919 – The League of Nations plan was adopted by the Allies.

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1922 – In Managua, Nicaragua, a series of clashes between Marines and police came to a head on the night of 8 December 1921, when a private shot and killed a policeman. As a result of this incident, a systematic town patrol was begun and every effort was made to raise the morale and standards of conduct of the command. While these reforms were taking place, the guard was reinforced to head off any Liberal-inspired rioting. A group of 30 Marines arrived from the USS GALVESTON. A little later, 52 men arrived from the DENVER, while the NITRO contributed 45 Leathernecks. After a few weeks, the majority of these reinforcements were withdrawn.

1928 – Marines participated in the Battle of El Chipote during the occupation of Nicaragua. A patrol was sent to storm the Sandino stronghold on the mountain El Chipote. This patrol had begun probing the area from 20 January. Moving cautiously, the patrol would reach the crest very early on January 26. Although a quantity of supplies were captured, Sandino and his main body had escaped.

1940– The ocean station program was formally established on 25 January 1940 under order from President Franklin Roosevelt. The Coast Guard, in cooperation with the U. S. Weather Service, were given responsibility for its establishment and operation. The program was first known as the Atlantic Weather Observation Service and later became known (and “beloved’) by thousands of Coast Guardsmen who served after World War II as the “Ocean Station” program. Cutters were dispatched for 30-day patrols to transmit weather observations and serve as a SAR standby for transoceanic aircraft. The program ended in the 1970s.

1942 – Thailand, a Japanese puppet state, declares war on the Allies. When war broke out in Europe in September 1939, Thailand declared its neutrality, much to the distress of France and England. Both European nations had colonies surrounding Thailand and hoped Thailand would support the Allied effort and prevent Japanese encroachment on their Pacific territory. But Thailand began moving in the opposite direction, creating a “friendship” with Japan and adding to its school textbooks a futuristic map of Thailand with a “Greater Thailand” encroaching on Chinese territory. Thailand’s first real conflict with the Allies came after the fall of France to the Germans and the creation of the puppet government at Vichy. Thailand saw this as an opportunity to redraw the borders of French Indochina. The Vichy government refused to accommodate the Thais, so Thai troops crossed into French Indochina and battled French troops.

Japan interceded in the conflict on the side of the Thais, and used its political alliance with Germany to force Vichy France to cede 21,000 square miles to Thailand. On December 8, 1941, the Japanese made an amphibious landing on the coast of Thailand, part of the comprehensive sweep of South Pacific islands that followed the bombing raid at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Japanese had assistance, though: Thailand’s prime minister, Lang Pipul, collaborated with the Japanese, embracing the Axis power’s war goal of usurping territory in China and ruling over the South Pacific. Pipul wanted to partake in the spoils; toward that end, he declared war on the United States and England. In October, he took dictatorial control of Thailand and became a loyal puppet of the Japanese.

1943 –In Tunisia, American forces advance to Maknassy, threatening Sfax and Gabes.

1944 – Forces of the US 5th Army continue attacks on the German-held Gustav Line. The Free French Corps makes some gains on Colle Belvedere. At Anzio, Allied efforts to expand the beachhead make slow progress.

1945 – The US 37th Division, US 14th Corps (Griswold), occupies a large part of the Clark Field air base in the Philippines.

1945 – Iwo Jima is bombarded by the battleship Indiana and a force of cruisers and destroyers. There are also air attacks by B-24 and B-29 bombers. This is the first step in the preparation for the US landings in February.

1949 – Axis Sally, who broadcast Nazi propaganda to U.S. troops in Europe, stands trial in the United States for war crimes. Out of the 12 Americans indicted for treason following World War II, all but five were radio broadcasters. One of the most notorious to be convicted was Mildred Gillars, or “Axis Sally” as she was known to the GI’s who heard her Radio Berlin broadcasts. A graduate of Hunter College in New York, Gillars went to France to study music in 1929 after failing as an actress. By 1934 she was in Germany, where she fell for former Hunter professor Max Otto Koischewitz. Koischewitz became Radio Berlin’s Program Director, and GIllars became his star propaganda broadcaster. Typically, she did a DJ program — breaking up the music with anti-semetic raps. “Damn Roosevelt! Damn Churchill!” went one of her tirades. “Damn all Jews who made this war possible. I love America, but I do not love Roosevelt and all his kike boyfriends.”

“Axis Sally” also liked to air messages from American POWs. Telling the POWs she visited that she was a Red Cross representative, she enticed them to send happy messages to suggest that living under the Nazis, even in POW camps, was a good thing. Once on the air, she would intercut POWs messages with propaganda, despite having promised the prisoners not to do so. Despite all her other antics, “Axis Sally” was convicted on the basis of just one broadcast, a radio drama called “Vision of Invasion” that – on the eve of D-Day – sought to scare GI’s out of invading occupied Europe. In the play, the mother of an Ohio soldier sees her son in a dream. He tells her that he’s already dead, his ship having been destroyed mid-invasion by Germans. GI’s can be heard sobbing and shrieking in the background, and the effect of the broadcast is said to have been chilling. Gillars tried several tactics in court, but ultimately claimed, unsuccessfully, that her love for Koischewitz had motivated her. Her lawyers argued that Koischewitz had a Svengali-like grip over her; she was his puppet.

1951 – General Ridgway and I and IX Corps launched Operation THUNDERBOLT, a counteroffensive northward to the Han River. This large-scale reconnaissance in force was the first ground offensive since the full-scale intervention of the Chinese. The purpose of the operation was to determine the enemy’s disposition of forces and reestablish contact.

1952 – During the third largest aerial victory of the Korean War, F-86s shot down 10 MiG-15s and damaged three others without suffering any losses.

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1953 – Operation SMACK was launched in the western I Corps sector by the U.S. 7th Infantry Division. This air-ground coordinated test strike lasted three hours and involved close air support in concert with a combined arms task force of tanks, infantry and artillery. The operation achieved disappointing results.

1955 – Columbia University scientists developed an atomic clock that was accurate to within one second in 300 years.

1956 – In a long interview with visiting American attorney Marshall MacDuffie, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev adopts a friendly attitude toward the United States and indicates that he believes President Dwight Eisenhower is sincere in his desire for peace. The interview was the precursor to Khrushchev’s announcement later that same year that he wanted “peaceful coexistence” between the United States and the Soviet Union. MacDuffie, a long-time acquaintance of the Soviet leader and a proponent of closer relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, spent three hours conducting the interview. During the discussion, Khrushchev indicated that it was his desire that “We should have disarmament and we should think how to avoid a new war.”

He was critical of some U.S. officials that he accused of making belligerent statements towards the Soviet Union, but he was also quick to point out that he did not hold Eisenhower responsible for those statements. In fact, the Soviet leader praised the president’s leadership, and apparently hoped that Eisenhower might negotiate seriously on a number of issues. Later that year, Khrushchev announced that the goal of the Soviet Union was “peaceful coexistence” with the United States. Eisenhower and his secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, were cautiously optimistic about this new Soviet approach-an American response that was markedly different from the pessimistic vigilance assumed during the harsh confrontational Stalin era. Later in the year, however, much of the new optimism was shattered when Soviet troops brutally suppressed revolts in Hungary, as any talk of striving for peace was overshadowed by that use of armed force.

1961 – In Washington, D.C. John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference.

1963 – 1st Seabee Technical Assistance Team arrives in Vietnam.

1968 – Operation Windsong I in Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

1968 – President Johnson sends the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise to the Sea of Japan in a show of force, hoping this will be sufficient to prevent direct military action with North Korea over the Pueblo incident.

1969 – The first fully attended meeting of the formal Paris peace talks is held. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, the chief negotiator for the United States, urged an immediate restoration of a genuine DMZ as the first “practical move toward peace.” Lodge also suggested a mutual withdrawal of “external” military forces and an early release of prisoners of war. Tran Buu Kiem and Xuan Thuy, heads of the National Liberation Front and North Vietnamese delegations respectively, refused Lodge’s proposals and condemned American “aggression.”

1972 – President Richard Nixon, in response to criticism that his administration has not made its best efforts to end the war, reveals that his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger has held 12 secret peace negotiating sessions between August 4, 1969, and August 16, 1971. The negotiations took place in Paris with Le Duc Tho, a member of Hanoi’s Politburo, and/or with Xuan Thuy, Hanoi’s chief delegate to the formal Paris peace talks. Nixon also disclosed the text of an eight-point peace proposal presented privately to the North Vietnamese on October 11, 1971.

The main features of the eight-point plan were: withdrawal of all U.S. and Allied troops and all communist troops from South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos within six months of an agreement; simultaneous release of all military and civilian prisoners of both sides; supervision of the cease-fire by an international commission; and presidential elections in South Vietnam organized and supervised by a coalition of factions including the Viet Cong, with President Nguyen Van Thieu and Vice President Tran Van Huong resigning one month after the voting. The North Vietnamese rejected the U.S. peace proposal and presented a proposal of their own.

While Washington wanted the withdrawal of all foreign forces from South Vietnam with the condition of an agreement in principle on a final solution, Hanoi insisted on the withdrawal of U.S. and Allied troops from all of Indochina without condition. Hanoi also wanted the immediate resignation of the Thieu regime. With the secret talks now public and at an impasse, the North Vietnamese leadership decided to order a massive invasion of South Vietnam, which was launched in March 1972.

1980 – Highest speed attained by a warship, 167 kph, USN hovercraft.

1981 – The 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived in the United States.

1983 – The IRAS space probe was launched. It studied infrared radiation from across the cosmos and exposed stars as they were born from clouds of gas and dust.

1984 – President Reagan endorsed the development of the first U.S. permanently manned space station.

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1990 – Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega was transferred to a Miami federal prison.

1991 – During the Gulf War Iraq sabotaged Kuwait’s main supertanker loading pier, dumping an estimated 460 million gallons of crude oil into the Persian Gulf. Missiles fired from western Iraq struck in the Tel Aviv and Haifa areas, killing one Israeli and injuring more than 40 others.

1993 – Cobra helicopters from 10th Mountain Divisions 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment destroy 6 armed vehicles, killing 8 Somalis in Kismaayo.

1993 – Five commuters were shot outside the gates of the US CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. Two people died. Mir [Amil] Aimal Kasi, a Pakistani national, was tracked down for the shooting in 1997 in Afghanistan and returned to the US. He was convicted of murder in 1997 and was executed Nov 14, 2002.

1994 – The United States launched Clementine I, an unmanned spacecraft that was to study the moon before it was “lost and gone forever.”

1995 – Russia’s early-warning defense radar detects an unexpected missile launch near Norway, and Russian military command estimates the missile to be only minutes from impact on Moscow. Moments later, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, his defense minister, and his chief of staff were informed of the missile launch. The nuclear command systems switched to combat mode, and the nuclear suitcases carried by Yeltsin and his top commander were activated for the first time in the history of the Soviet-made weapons system. Five minutes after the launch detection, Russian command determined that the missile’s impact point would be outside Russia’s borders. Three more minutes passed, and Yeltsin was informed that the launching was likely not part of a surprise nuclear strike by Western nuclear submarines.

These conclusions came minutes before Yeltsin and his commanders should have ordered a nuclear response based on standard launch on warning protocols. Later, it was revealed that the missile, launched from Spitzbergen, Norway, was actually carrying instruments for scientific measurements. Nine days before, Norway had notified 35 countries, including Russia, of the exact details of the planned launch. The Russian Defense Ministry had received Norway’s announcement but had neglected to inform the on-duty personnel at the early-warning center of the imminent launch. The event raised serious concerns about the quality of the former Soviet Union’s nuclear systems.

1998 – American astronaut Andrew Thomas moved from the space shuttle Endeavour into the Russian space station Mir as the relief for David Wolf.

1999 – The US planned to notify the World Trade Organization that it planned sanctions on the European Union and 100% tariffs on a wide range of products due to a dispute over EU banana import laws.

2000 – In Bosnia NATO peacekeepers arrested Mitar Vasiljevic (45), a member of the White Eagles Bosnian-Serb paramilitary group, on charges of extermination of Bosnian Muslim civilians between 1992 and 1994. The charges included helping to burn scores of Muslims to death in Visegrad.

2002 – In Afghanistan leaders called for an increase in peacekeeping troops as warlords competed for power outside of Kabul.

2003 – Three Iraqi weapons specialists refuse to be interviewed by UN inspectors without government authorities present.

2003 – NASA launched a spacecraft into orbit to measure all the radiation streaming toward Earth from the sun. The small satellite is called SORCE — for Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment.

2004 – NASA’s Opportunity rover zipped its first pictures of Mars to Earth, delighting and puzzling scientists just hours after the spacecraft bounced to a landing on the opposite side of the red planet from its twin rover, Spirit.

2004 – US soldiers arrested nearly 50 people and confiscated weapons in several raids in Iraq’s volatile Sunni Triangle.

2004 – In northern Iraq a US helicopter crashed while searching for a river patrol boat that had capsized on the Tigris. A soldier and 2 pilots were missing.

2004 – A helicopter crew from Coast Guard AIRSTA Detroit helped rescue 14 people stranded on an ice floe about one mile west of Catawba Island, Ohio.

2005 – In a newly released video, Roy Hallums, an American hostage kidnapped in November, pleaded for his life with a rifle pointed at his head. Hallums was rescued by coalition troops on September 7, 2005.

2006 – Lucia Pinochet, daughter of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, asks for political asylum in the United States following her arrest at Washington Dulles International Airport on a Chilean arrest warrant for tax evasion.

2008 – Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki claims al-Qaeda in Iraq has been pushed out of most of the nation, and Iraqi security forces are preparing a “decisive” offensive against the group in Mosul, their last stronghold, in response to attacks in the city that have killed around 40 people, including the area’s police chief.

2011 – A U.S. judge sentences Ahmed Ghailani, the first Guantanamo detainee to have a civilian trial in America, to life imprisonment for conspiracy to destroy government buildings. He was found “not guilty” of 285 other charges filed against him, including 200 counts of murder and dozens of other charges.

2012 – Two U.S. Navy Seal teams raided a compound 12 miles north of Adow, Somalia, freeing two hostages while killing nine pirates and capturing five others.

2013 – John Kiriakou, the former CIA agent, who publicly discussed the U.S. government agency’s use of waterboarding interrogation techniques, is sentenced to 30 months in prison. An argument that he was a whistleblower was dismissed and he was instead convicted of violating an intelligence law, the first person to be successfully targeted under the statute in 27 years.

2014 – ISIS announced the creation of its new Lebanese arm, pledging to fight the Shia militant group Hezbollah and its supporters in Lebanon.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

BEHNE, FREDERICK
Rank and organization: Fireman First Class, U.S. Navy. Born: 3 October 1873, Lodi, N.J. Accredited to: New Jersey. G.O. No.: 182, 20 March 1905. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Iowa, 25 January 1905. Following the blowing out of the manhole plate of boiler D of that vessel, Behne displayed extraordinary heroism in the resulting action.

BEHNKE, HEINRICH
Rank and organization: Seaman First Class, U.S. Navy. Born: 10 April 1882, Germany. Accredited to: Washington, D.C. G.O. No.: 182, 20 March 1905. Citation: While serving aboard the U.S.S. Iowa, Behnke displayed extraordinary heroism at the time of the blowing out of the manhole plate of boiler D on board that vessel, 25 January 1905.

BRESNAHAN, PATRICK FRANCIS
Rank and organization: Watertender, U.S. Navy. Born: 1 May 1872, Peabody, Mass. Accredited to: Vermont. G.O. No.: 182, 20 March 1905. Citation: Serving on board the U.S.S. Iowa for extraordinary heroism at the time of the blowing out of the manhole plate of boiler D on board that vessel, 25 January 1905.

CORAHORGI, DEMETRI
Rank and organization: Fireman First Class, U.S. Navy. Place and date: Aboard U.S.S. Iowa, 25 January 1905. Entered service at: New York. Born: 3 January 1880, Trieste, Austria. G.O. No.: 182, 20 March 1905. Citation: Serving on board the U.S.S. Iowa for extraordinary heroism at the time of the blowing out of the manhole plate of boiler D on board that vessel, 25 January 1905.

FLOYD, EDWARD
Rank and organization: Boilermaker, U.S. Navy. Born: 21 February 1850, Ireland. Accredited to: South Carolina. G.O. No.: 182, 20 March 1905. Citation: Serving on board the U.S.S. Iowa, for extraordinary heroism at the time of the blowing out of the manhole plate of boiler D on board that vessel, 25 January 1905.

JOHANNESSEN, JOHANNES J.
Rank and organization: Chief Watertender, U.S. Navy. Born: 13 May 1872, Bodo, Norway. Enlisted at: Yokohama, Japan. G.O. No.: 182, 20 March 1905. Citation: Serving on board the U.S.S. Iowa, for extraordinary heroism at the time of the blowing out of the manhole plate of boiler D on board that vessel, 25 January 1905.

KLEIN, ROBERT
Rank and organization: Chief Carpenter’s Mate, U.S. Navy. Born: 11 November 1884, Gerdonen, Germany. Enlisted at: Marseilles, France. G.O. No.: 173, 6 October 1904. Citation: Serving on board the U.S.S. Raleigh, for heroism in rescuing shipmates overcome in double bottoms by fumes of turpentine, 25 January 1904.

*VALDEZ, JOSE F.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company B, 7th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Rosenkrantz, France, 25 January 1945. Entered service at: Pleasant Grove, Utah. Birth: Governador, N. Mex. G. O. No.: 16, 8 February 1946. Citation: He was on outpost duty with 5 others when the enemy counterattacked with overwhelming strength. From his position near some woods 500 yards beyond the American lines he observed a hostile tank about 75 yards away, and raked it with automatic rifle fire until it withdrew. Soon afterward he saw 3 Germans stealthily approaching through the woods. Scorning cover as the enemy soldiers opened up with heavy automatic weapons fire from a range of 30 yards, he engaged in a fire fight with the attackers until he had killed all 3. The enemy quickly launched an attack with 2 full companies of infantrymen, blasting the patrol with murderous concentrations of automatic and rifle fire and beginning an encircling movement which forced the patrol leader to order a withdrawal.

Despite the terrible odds, Pfc. Valdez immediately volunteered to cover the maneuver, and as the patrol 1 by 1 plunged through a hail of bullets toward the American lines, he fired burst after burst into the swarming enemy. Three of his companions were wounded in their dash for safety and he was struck by a bullet that entered his stomach and, passing through his body, emerged from his back. Overcoming agonizing pain, he regained control of himself and resumed his firing position, delivering a protective screen of bullets until all others of the patrol were safe. By field telephone he called for artillery and mortar fire on the Germans and corrected the range until he had shells falling within 50 yards of his position. For 15 minutes he refused to be dislodged by more than 200 of the enemy; then, seeing that the barrage had broken the counter attack, he dragged himself back to his own lines. He died later as a result of his wounds. Through his valiant, intrepid stand and at the cost of his own life, Pfc. Valdez made it possible for his comrades to escape, and was directly responsible for repulsing an attack by vastly superior enemy forces.

*MILLER, ROBERT J.
Organization: U.S. Army, Company: Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha 3312, Division: Special Operations Task Force 33, Born: 14 October 1983, Departed: Yes, Entered Service At: Oviedo, Florida, G.O. Number: , Date of Issue: 10/06/2010, Accredited To: Florida, Place / Date: Konar Province, Afghanistan, 25 January 2008. Citation: Robert J. Miller distinguished himself by extraordinary acts of heroism while serving as the Weapons Sergeant in Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha 3312, Special Operations Task Force-33, Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan during combat operations against an armed enemy in Konar Province, Afghanistan on January 25, 2008. While conducting a combat reconnaissance patrol through the Gowardesh Valley, Staff Sergeant Miller and his small element of U.S. and Afghan National Army soldiers engaged a force of 15 to 20 insurgents occupying prepared fighting positions. Staff Sergeant Miller initiated the assault by engaging the enemy positions with his vehicle’s turret-mounted Mark-19 40 millimeter automatic grenade launcher while simultaneously providing detailed descriptions of the enemy positions to his command, enabling effective, accurate close air support.

Following the engagement, Staff Sergeant Miller led a small squad forward to conduct a battle damage assessment. As the group neared the small, steep, narrow valley that the enemy had inhabited, a large, well-coordinated insurgent force initiated a near ambush, assaulting from elevated positions with ample cover. Exposed and with little available cover, the patrol was totally vulnerable to enemy rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapon fire. As point man, Staff Sergeant Miller was at the front of the patrol, cut off from supporting elements, and less than 20 meters from enemy forces. Nonetheless, with total disregard for his own safety, he called for his men to quickly move back to covered positions as he charged the enemy over exposed ground and under overwhelming enemy fire in order to provide protective fire for his team. While maneuvering to engage the enemy, Staff Sergeant Miller was shot in his upper torso. Ignoring the wound, he continued to push the fight, moving to draw fire from over one hundred enemy fighters upon himself. He then again charged forward through an open area in order to allow his teammates to safely reach cover.

After killing at least 10 insurgents, wounding dozens more, and repeatedly exposing himself to withering enemy fire while moving from position to position, Staff Sergeant Miller was mortally wounded by enemy fire. His extraordinary valor ultimately saved the lives of seven members of his own team and 15 Afghanistan National Army soldiers. Staff Sergeant Miller’s heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty, and at the cost of his own life, are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Army.

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26 January

1784 – In a letter to his daughter, Benjamin Franklin expressed unhappiness over the Eagle as the symbol of America. He wanted the Turkey.

1787 – Daniel Shays leads his rebel force in an unsuccessful attack against the Federal arsenal at Springfield, Massachusetts.

1837 – Michigan became the 26th state of the US. By the early 1830s, Michigan had enough residents to apply for statehood. However, approval of this measure languished for several years due to a boundary dispute (the Toledo War) with Ohio, with both sides claiming a strip of land around Toledo. Ultimately, Congress awarded the “Toledo Strip” to Ohio, but as compensation, granted the entire Upper Peninsula to Michigan.

1856 – First Battle of Seattle. Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after all day battle with settlers. At the time, Seattle was a settlement in the Washington Territory that had recently named itself after Chief Seattle (Sealth), a leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish peoples of central Puget Sound. Backed by artillery fire and supported by Marines from the United States Navy sloop-of-war Decatur, anchored in Elliott Bay (Seattle’s harbor, then called Duwam-sh Bay), the settlers suffered only two deaths. The battle, part of the multi-year Puget Sound War or Yakima War, lasted a single day.

1861 – Louisiana becomes the sixth state to secede from the Union when a state convention votes 113 to 17 in favor of the measure.

1862 – Union squadron commanded by Captain Davis, comprising U.S.S. Ottawa, Seneca, and other vessels, with 2400 troops under Brigadier General Horatio G. Wright conducted a strategic reconnaissance of Wassaw Sound, Georgia. Telegraph lines between Fort Pulaski and Savannah were severed. Five Confederate gunboats under Commodore Tattnall were engaged while attempting to carry stores to Fort Pulaski. Though the exchange of fire was sharp, three of Tattnall’s steamers made good their passage to the fort, the other two being unable to get through. In his report of the reconnaissance operation, Captain Davis noted: ”As a demonstration the appearance of the naval and military forces in Wilmington and Wassaw Sound has had complete success. Savannah was thrown into a state of great alarm, and all the energies of the place have been exerted to the utmost to increase its military defenses for which purpose troops have been withdrawn from other places.” On the Confederate side, General Robert E. Lee commented: ”If the enemy succeeds in removing the obstacles [in Wall’s Cut and Wilmington Narrows] there is nothing to prevent their reaching the Savannah River, and we have nothing afloat that can contend against them.”

1863 – General Joseph Hooker assumes command of the Army of the Potomac following Ambrose Burnside’s disastrous tenure. Hooker was a West Point graduate and a veteran of the Seminole War and the Mexican War, and he had served in the American West in the 1850s. When the Civil War erupted, Hooker was named brigadier general in the Army of the Potomac. He quickly rose to division commander, and he distinguished himself during the Peninsular Campaign of 1862. He also continued to build his reputation as a hard drinker and womanizer. He earned the nickname “Fighting Joe,” and received command of the First Corps in time for the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862. His corps played a major role in the Battle of Antietam in September, and when Burnside failed as commander, Hooker had his chance. The general first had to deal with the sagging morale of the army. He reorganized his command and instituted a badge system, where each division had their own unique insignia. This helped to build unit pride and identity, and Hooker led a reenergized army into Virginia in April 1862.

Hooker’s appointment was part of Lincoln’s frustrating process of finding a winning general in the east. After Irwin McDowell, George McClellan, John Pope, McClellan again, and then Burnside, Lincoln hoped Hooker could defeat Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It was a tall order, though, and Hooker was not up to the challenge. In May 1863, Hooker clashed with Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville, and the Union army suffered a decisive and stunning defeat. Lincoln’s search for an effective commander continued, and he eventually replaced Hooker with George Meade.

1863 – Governor of Massachusetts John Albion Andrew receives permission from Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.

1870 – Virginia rejoins the Union.

1871 – US income tax repealed.

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1880 – Douglas MacArthur, the son of the high-ranking military figure, Arthur MacArthur, was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. Although previously a poor scholar, in 1903 MacArthur graduated first in his 93-man class, at West Point Military Academy. Commissioned in the Corps of the Engineers, MacArthur was sent by the United States Army to the Philippines and by 1904 had been promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. Later that year he joined his father who was serving in Far East before becoming aide-de-camp to President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. MacArthur was assigned to general staff duty with the War Department and was an official observer with the Vera Cruz Expedition. On the advice of General Leonard Wood, MacArthur was promoted to major. In the First World War MacArthur commanded the 42nd Division on the Western Front and was decorated 13 times and cited seven additional times for bravery. Promoted the the rank of brigadier in August, 1918, three months later he became the youngest divisional commander in France.

After the war MacArthur returned to the United States where he became brigadier general and the youngest ever superintendent of West Point in its 117 year history. Over the next three years he doubled its size and modernized the curriculum. In 1922 MacArthur was sent to the Philippines where he commanded the newly established Military District of Manila. At the age of forty-three MacArthur became the army’s youngest general and in 1928 was appointed president of the American Olympic Committee. MacArthur was appointed chief of staff of the US Army in 1930. Once again he was the youngest man to hold the office and over the next few years attempted to modernize America’s army of 135,000 men. MacArthur developed right-wing political views and at one meeting argued that: “Pacifism and its bedfellow, Communism, are all about us. Day by day this cancer eats deeper into the body politic.”

In June 1932, MacArthur, controversially used tanks, four troops of cavalry with drawn sabers, and infantry with fixed bayonets, on the Bonus Army in Washington. He justified his attack on former members of the United States Army by claiming that the country was on the verge of a communist revolution. Dwight D. Eisenhower and George Patton also took part in this operation. In 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent MacArthur to organize the defense of the Philippines. He retired from the army in 1937 but stayed on the island where he became the country’s military adviser. When negotiations with the Japanese government broke down in June 1941, Roosevelt recalled MacArthur to active duty as a major general and was granted $10 million to mobilize the Philippine Army. It was also decided to send MacArthur 100 B-17 Flying Fortress to help defend the Philippines. Most of MacArthur’s troops were deployed to protect the two main islands of Luzon and Mindanao and by October 1941, MacArthur informed General George Marshall that he now had 135,000 troops, 227 assorted fighters, bombers and reconnaissance aircraft and this provided a “tremendously strong offensive and defensive force” and claimed that the Philippines was now the “key or base point of the US defense line.”

The Japanese Air Force attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on the 7th December 1941. The following day they carried out air strikes on the Philippines and destroyed half of MacArthur’s air force. MacArthur was much criticized for this as he had been told to move his air force after the raid on Hawaii the previous day. The Japanese Army also invaded the Philippines and they soon held the three air bases in northern Luzon. On 22nd December the 14th Army landed at Lingayen Gulf and quickly gained control of Manila from the inexperienced Filipino troops. Although only 57,000 Japanese soldiers were landed on Luzon it had little difficulty capturing the island. General Douglas MacArthur now ordered a general retreat to the Bataan peninsula. A series of Japanese assaults forced the US defensive lines back and on 22nd February, 1942, MacArthur was ordered to leave Bataan and go to Australia. General Jonathan Wainright remained behind with 11,000 soldiers and managed to hold out until the beginning of May. The American forces were re-organized and MacArthur was appointed Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific Area and Admiral Chester Nimitz became Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet. Along with Admiral Ernest King Commander-in-Chief of the US Navy, Macarthur and Nimitz, decided that their first objective should be to establish and protect a line of communications across the South Pacific to Australia. This resulted in the battles of Coral Sea and Midway, where the Japanese Navy lost all four of her carriers. In the summer of 1942 fighting in the Pacific was concentrated around Rabaul, the key Japanese military and air base in the Solomon Islands.

On 7th August there was an Allied landings at Guadalcanal. Over the next eight months there were ten major land battles and seven major naval engagements in this area. MacArthur now developed what became known as his island hopping tactics. This strategy involved amphibious landings on vulnerable islands, therefore bypassing Japanese troop concentrations on fortified islands. This had the advantage of avoiding frontal assaults and thus reducing the number of American casualties. By the spring of 1944, 100,000 Japanese soldiers were cut off at Rabaul and the Japanese 18th Army were surrounded in New Guinea. In September US troops took Morotai and all of New Guinea was now in Allied hands. It was not until 1944 that MacArthur was given permission to begin the campaign to recapture the Philippines. The first objective was the capture of Leyte, an island situated between Luzon and Mindanao. After a two day naval bombardment General Walter Krueger and the 6th Army landed on 22nd October, 1944. This was followed by Leyte Gulf, the largest naval engagement in history. It was a decisive victory for the Allies with the Japanese Navy lost four carriers, three battleships and ten cruisers. It was now clear that the US Navy now had control of the Pacific and that further Allied landings in the region were likely to be successful. After bitter fighting the US forces captured the important port of Ormoc on 10th December. By the time Leyte was secured the US Army had lost 3,500 men. It is estimated that over 55,000 Japanese soldiers were killed during the campaign.

On 9th January 1945 Allied troops landed on Luzon, the largest of the islands in the Philippines. The Japanese Army, under General Tomoyuki Yamashita, fought a vigorous rearguard action but within a month MacArthur and his troops had crossed the Central Plain and were approaching Manila. Yamashita and his main army now withdrew to the mountains but left enough troops in Manila to make the capture of the city as difficult as possible. An estimated 16,000 Japanese soldiers were killed before it was taken on 4th March 1945. General Robert Eichelberger and the US 8th Army landed on Mindanao on 10th March and began advancing through the southern Philippines. This included the capture of Panay, Cebu, Negros and Bohol. MacArthur’s last amphibious operation was at Okinawa. Lying just 563km (350 miles) from the Japanese mainland, it offered excellent harbor, airfield and troop-staging facilities. It was a perfect base from which to launch a major assault on Japan, consequently it was well-defended, with 120,000 troops under General Mitsuru Ushijima. The Japanese also committed some 10,000 aircraft to defending the island.

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{ MacArthur continued... }

After a four day bombardment the 1,300 ship invasion forced moved into position off the west coast of Okinawa on 1st April 1945. The landing force, under the leadership of Lieutenant-General Simon Buckner, initially totalled 155,000. However, by the time the battle finished, more than 300,000 soldiers were involved in the fighting. This made it comparable to the Normandy landing in mainland Europe in June, 1944. On the first day 60,000 troops were put ashore against little opposition at Haguushi. The following day two airfields were captured by the Americans. However when the soldiers reached Shuri they came under heavy fire and suffered heavy casualties. Reinforced by the 3rd Amphibious Corps and the 6th Marine Division the Americans were able to repel a ferocious counter-attack by General Mitsuru Ushijima on 4th May. At sea off Okinawa a 700 plane kamikaze raid on 6th April sunk and damaged 13 US destroyers. The giant battleship, Yamato, lacking sufficient fuel for a return journey, was also sent out on a suicide mission and was sunk on 7th May.

On 11th May, Lieutenant-General Simon Buckner, ordered another offensive on the Shuri defences, and the Japanese were finally forced to withdraw. Buckner was killed on 18th June and three days later his replacement, General Roy Geiger, announced that the island had finally been taken. When it was clear that he had been defeated, Mitsuru Ushijima committed ritual suicide (hari-kiri). The capture of Okinawa cost the Americans 49,000 in casualties of whom 12,520 died. More than 110,000 Japanese were killed on the island. While the island was being prepared for the invasion of Japan, a B-29 Superfortress bomber dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima on 6th August 1945. Japan did not surrender immediately and a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later. On 10th August the Japanese surrendered and the Second World War was over.

MacArthur was named Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) and he received the formal surrender and President Harry S. Truman appointed him as head of the Allied occupation of Japan. He was given responsibility of organizing the war crimes tribunal in Japan and was criticized for his treatment of Tomoyuki Yamashita, who was executed 23rd February, 1946. However he was praised for successfully encouraging the creation of democratic institutions, religious freedom, civil liberties, land reform, emancipation of women and the formation of trade unions. On the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, MacArthur was appointed commander of the United Nations forces. The surprise character of the attack enabled the North Koreans to occupy all the South, except for the area around the port of Pusan. On 15th September, 1950, MacArthur landed American and South Korean marines at Inchon, 200 miles behind the North Korean lines. The following day he launched a counterattack on the North Koreans.

When they retreated, MacArthur’s forces carried the war northwards, reaching the Yalu River, the frontier between Korea and China on 24th October, 1950. Harry S Truman and Dean Acheson, the Secretary of State, told MacArthur to limit the war to Korea. MacArthur disagreed, favoring an attack on Chinese forces. Unwilling to accept the views of Truman and Acheson, MacArthur began to make inflammatory statements indicating his disagreements with the United States government. MacArthur gained support from right-wing members of the Senate such as Joe McCarthy who led the attack on Truman’s administration: “With half a million Communists in Korea killing American men, Acheson says, ‘Now let’s be calm, let’s do nothing’. It is like advising a man whose family is being killed not to take hasty action for fear he might alienate the affection of the murders.”

In April 1951, Harry S Truman removed MacArthur from his command of the United Nations forces in Korea. McCarthy now called for Truman to be impeached and suggested that the president was drunk when he made the decision to fire MacArthur: “Truman is surrounded by the Jessups, the Achesons, the old Hiss crowd. Most of the tragic things are done at 1:30 and 2 o’clock in the morning when they’ve had time to get the President cheerful.” On his arrival back in the United States MacArthur led a campaign against Harry S Truman and his Democratic Party administration.

Soon after Dwight Eisenhower was elected president in 1952 he consulted with MacArthur about the Korean War. MacArthur’s advice was the “atomic bombing of enemy military concentrations and installations in North Korea” and an attack on China. He rejected the advice and MacArthur played no role in Eisenhower’s new Republican administration. After leaving the United States Army, MacArthur accepted a job as chairman of the board of the Remington Rand Corporation. Douglas MacArthur died in the Water Reed Hospital, Washington, on 5th April, 1964.

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1893 – Captain Abner Doubleday was born at Ballston Spa, New York, in 1819, and attended schools at Auburn and Cooperstown. He attended West Point, and graduated in 1842 with a commission in the artillery. Doubleday served in the Mexican War and, during the 1850s, in a campaign against the Seminole Indians in Florida. He was promoted to captain in 1853, and was stationed in Charleston Harbor when the crisis at Fort Sumter occurred. As a staunch unionist who strongly opposed slavery and supported Lincoln, Doubleday regarded the Carolinians as traitors. His opinions won him no friends in Charleston. His wife shared his views, and while she was staying i n Washington in mid-March 1861, she was consulted by Lincoln after his cabinet first gave its views about relieving the fort. Lincoln wished to see her husband’s letters so that he could get a fuller picture of the situation at Sumter. After the surrender of Sumter, Doubleday served in numerous campaigns throughout the Civil War, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1863.

After the war, he attained the rank of colonel before retiring from active service in December 1873. He then made his home in Mendham, New Jersey, where he died in January 1893. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Doubleday has often been credited with inventing the game of baseball in 1839 at Cooperstown, New York, now the location of the baseball’s Hall of Fame. This claim appears to date from the late nineteenth century, when baseball owners tried to disassociate the game from any connection to the English game of rounders. The assertion that Doubleday invented baseball is almost certainly untrue. Doubleday was not at Cooperstown in 1839; he never referred to the game, much less claimed that he invented it, and his obituary in the New York Times did not mention baseball, either.

1904 – The emperor of Addis Ababa, Abyssinia, decorated Marine Captain G. C. Thorpe for escorting diplomats 500 miles through the desert.

1911 – Glenn Curtiss piloted the 1st successful hydroplane in San Diego to and from the battleship USS Pennsylvania.

1913 – The body of John Paul Jones is laid in its final resting place in the Chapel of Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD.

1939 – During the Spanish Civil War, Barcelona, the Republican capital of Spain, falls to the Nationalist forces of General Francisco Franco. In 1931, King Alfonso XIII approved elections to decide the government of Spain, and voters overwhelmingly chose to abolish the monarchy in favor of a liberal republic. Alfonso subsequently went into exile, and the Second Republic, initially dominated by middle-class liberals and moderate socialists, was proclaimed. During the first five years of the republic, organized labor and leftist radicals forced widespread liberal reforms as independence-minded Spanish regions such as Catalonia and the Basque provinces achieved virtual autonomy. The landed aristocracy, the church, and a large military clique increasingly employed violence in their opposition to the Second Republic, and in July 1936, General Francisco Franco led a right-wing army revolt in Morocco, which prompted the division of Spain into two key camps: the Nationalists and the Republicans.

Franco’s Nationalist forces rapidly overran much of the Republican-controlled areas in central and northern Spain, and Catalonia became a key Republican stronghold. During 1937, Franco unified the Nationalist forces under the command of the Falange, Spain’s fascist party, while the Republicans fell under the sway of the communists. Germany and Italy aided Franco with an abundance of planes, tanks, and arms, while the Soviet Union aided the Republican side. In addition, small numbers of communists and other radicals from France, the USSR, America, and elsewhere formed the International Brigades to aid the Republican cause. The most significant contribution of these foreign units was the successful defense of Madrid until the end of the war. In June 1938, the Nationalists drove to the Mediterranean Sea and cut the Republicans’ territory in two. Later in the year, Franco mounted a major offensive against Catalonia.

In January 1939, its capital, Barcelona, was captured, and soon after the rest of Catalonia fell. With their cause all but lost, the Republicans attempted to negotiate a peace, but Franco refused. On March 28, 1939, the victorious Nationalists entered Madrid, and the bloody Spanish Civil War came to an end. Up to a million lives were lost in the conflict, the most devastating in Spanish history.

1940 -The American-Japanese Treaty of Navigation and Commerce is allowed to lapse because the US government refuses to negotiate in protest against Japanese aggression in China.

1942 – The first American expeditionary force to go to Europe during World War II went ashore in Northern Ireland.

1942 – The Board of Inquiry established to investigate Pearl Harbor find Admiral Kimmel, (then Commander in Chief, US Fleet) and General Short (then Commander in Chief, Hawaii Department) guilty of dereliction of duty. Both have already been dismissed.

1943 – The first OSS (Office of Strategic Services) agent parachutes behind Japanese lines in Burma. OSS’s Detachment 101 came perhaps the closest to realizing General Willaim “Wild Bill” Donovan’s original vision of “strategic” support to regular combat operations. Under the initial leadership of “the most dangerous colonel,” Carl Eifler, Detachment 101 took time to develop its capabilities and relationships with native guides and agents. Within a year, however, the Detachment and its thousands of cooperating Kachin tribesmen were gleaning valuable intelligence from jungle sites behind Japanese lines.

With barely 120 Americans at any one time, the unit eventually recruited almost 11,000 native Kachins to fight the Japanese occupiers. When Allied troops invaded Burma in 1944, Detachment 101 teams advanced well ahead of the combat formations, gathering intelligence, sowing rumors, sabotaging key installations, rescuing downed Allied fliers, and snuffing out isolated Japanese positions. Detachment 101 received the Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation for its service in the 1945 offensive that liberated Rangoon.

1944 – The forces of US 5th Army continue their offensive. The Free French Corps captures Colle Belvedere and advance toward Monte Abate. The US 2nd Corps establishes a bridgehead over the Rapido River.

1944 – On New Britain, there is a heavy bombing raid on the Japanese base at Rabaul, by US aircraft. Many Japanese planes are claimed to be shot down.

1945 – Units of US 3rd Army in the Ardennes have now crossed the Clerf River in several areas and are attacking all along the front of US 3rd and 12th Corps.

1945 – American Lt. Audie Murphy, is wounded in France. Born the son of Texas sharecroppers on June 20, 1924, Murphy served three years of active duty, beginning as a private, rising to the rank of staff sergeant, and finally winning a battlefield commission to 2nd lieutenant. He was wounded three times, fought in nine major campaigns across Europe, and was credited with killing 241 Germans. He won 37 medals and decorations, including the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star (with oak leaf cluster), the Legion of Merit, and the Croix de Guerre (with palm).

The battle that won Murphy the Medal of Honor, and which ended his active duty, occurred during the last stages of the Allied victory over the Germans in France. Murphy acted as cover for infantrymen during a last desperate German tank attack. Climbing atop an abandoned U.S. tank destroyer, he took control of its .50-caliber machine gun and killed 50 Germans, stopping the advance but suffering a leg wound in the process.

Upon returning to the States, Murphy was invited to Hollywood by Jimmy Cagney, who saw the war hero’s picture on the cover of Life magazine. By 1950, Murphy won an acting contract with Universal Pictures. In his most famous role, he played himself in the monumentally successful To Hell and Back. Perhaps as interesting as his film career was his public admission that he suffered severe depression from post traumatic stress syndrome, also called battle fatigue, and became addicted to sleeping pills as a result. This had long been a taboo subject for veterans. Murphy died in a plane crash while on a business trip in 1971. He was 46.

1949 – USS Norton Sound, first guided-missile ship, launches first guided missile, Loon.

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1951 – U.S. warships bombarded Inchon for the second time during the war. The first was during the initial allied invasion, Sept. 15, 1950.

1951 – Far East Air Forces flew its first C-47 “control aircraft”, loaded with enough communications equipment to connect by radio all T-6 Mosquitoes, tactical air control parties, and the Tactical Air Control Center. This was the harbinger of today’s warning and control aircraft.

1952 – A rescue helicopter, behind enemy lines near the coastline of the Yellow Sea, received small arms fire while rescuing an F-84 pilot, Capt. A.T. Thawley.

1953 – Surface ships blasted coastal targets as the USS Missouri completed a 46-hour bombardment of Songjin.

1953 – The last F4U Corsair rolled off the Chance Vought Aircraft Company production line. Despite the dawning of the jet age, this World War II fighter remained in production due to its vital close-air support role in the Korean War. Almost 12,000 Corsairs were produced in various models.

1954 – The Senate consents to a defense treaty between the US and South Korea.

1962 – The United States launched Ranger 3 to land scientific instruments on the moon, but the probe missed its target by some 22,000 miles.

1970 – U.S. Navy Lt. Everett Alvarez Jr. spends his 2,000th day in captivity in Southeast Asia. First taken prisoner when his plane was shot down on August 5, 1964, he became the longest-held POW in U.S. history. Alvarez was downed over Hon Gai during the first bombing raids against North Vietnam in retaliation for the disputed attack on U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964. Alvarez was released in 1973 after spending over eight years in captivity, the first six months as the only American prisoner in North Vietnam. From the first day of his captivity, he was shackled, isolated, nearly starved, and brutally tortured.

Although he was among the more junior-rank prisoners of war, his courageous conduct under horrendous conditions and treatment helped establish the model emulated by the many other POWs that later joined him. After retirement from the Navy, he served as deputy director of the Peace Corps and deputy administrator of the Veterans Administration during the Reagan administration.

1972 – Radio Hanoi announces North Vietnam’s rejection of the latest U.S. peace proposal. Revealing more details of the secret Paris peace talks, Henry Kissinger responds publicly, condemning the North Vietnamese announcement and criticizing Hanoi’s nine-point counter-proposal, which had been submitted during the secret talks. Kissinger took exception with the communist insistence on the end of all U.S. support for the South Vietnamese government. The communists maintained that “withdrawal” meant not only withdrawal of U.S. troops, but also the removal of all U.S. equipment, aid, and arms in the possession of the South Vietnamese army. Kissinger asserted that the abrupt removal of all U.S. aid would guarantee the collapse of the Saigon regime. With the peace talks at a virtual impasse, the North Vietnamese leadership decided to launch a massive invasion of South Vietnam in March 1972.

1980 – At the request of President Jimmy Carter, the U.S. Olympic Committee votes to ask the International Olympic Committee to cancel or move the upcoming Moscow Olympics. The action was in response to the Soviet military invasion of Afghanistan the previous month. Demonstrating once again that the Cold War infiltrated every facet of world life, the action indicated that even the Olympic games, an arena for sportsmanship and friendly international competition, could be a highly politicized event. Although the Committee stopped short of announcing a U.S. boycott of the Olympics in Moscow, the U.S. stance left little room for optimism on that count. President Carter made it clear that if the Soviets did not disengage from Afghanistan by February 20, a cancellation of U.S. participation in the Olympics was all but certain. As one member of the committee stated, the vote reflected “what the president requested the committee to do.”

He indicated that the vote was a message to the Soviets that “their aggression in Afghanistan will not go unanswered.” On the other side of the argument, a number of U.S. Olympic athletes were highly critical of both the vote and President Carter’s ultimatum, feeling that an international sports competition should not be a tool for political statements. The Soviets ignored the vote and the ultimatum, and the U.S. Olympic Committee decided to boycott the games. It was the first time in the modern history of the Olympics that the United States refused to participate. Almost a decade passed before the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan.

1990 – Attorneys for Manuel Noriega challenged the jurisdiction of U.S. courts to try the deposed Panamanian leader on drug-trafficking charges, and said Noriega should be declared a prisoner of war.

1991 – Upon receiving a request from the Saudi government, the Bush Administration determined that the Coast Guard would head an interagency team that will assist the Saudi government in an oil spill assessment and plan for a clean-up operation.

1993 – A Marine is KIA by sniper fire in Mogadishu.

1999 – Some 700 US troops were ordered by NATO to be pulled from Bosnia in a 10% force reduction.

1999 – US jets again fired on air-defense sites in Iraq and Pres. Clinton approved more aggressive rules of engagement.

2000 – The U.N. Security Council reaches agreement on the appointment of Hans Blix of Sweden, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA), to lead UNMOVIC.

2001 – Pres. Bush renewed his pledge to build a missile defense system and to reduce the nuclear arsenal.

2002 – IAEA inspectors in Iraq verified presence of nuclear material.

2003 – Secretary of State Colin Powell, citing Iraq’s lack of cooperation with U.N. inspectors, said he’d lost faith in the inspectors’ ability to conduct a definitive search for banned weapons programs.

2004 – President Hamid Karzai signed Afghanistan’s new constitution into law, putting into force a charter meant to reunite his war-shattered nation.

2005 – A US military transport helicopter crashed in bad weather in Iraq’s western desert, killing 31 people, all believed to be Marines.

2005 – After being incarcerated without trial for almost three years, the four British detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Moazzam Begg, Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga and Richard Belmar, are free to go home, having been released without charge by the UK government.

2015 – The U.S. Secret Service recovers a flying drone from the lawn at the White House.

2015 – The US FBI arrests three alleged Russian Foreign Intelligence Service spies working in the United States. The three men sought secrets about US economic plans and proposed sanctions against Moscow.

2015 – The US Eastern District Court of Virginia convicts a disgruntled former CIA officer, Jeffrey Alexander Sterling, of leaking secrets to a reporter. All nine charges he faced stem from a secret CIA mission to derail Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

MURPHY, AUDIE L.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Company B 1 5th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Holtzwihr France, 26 January 1945. Entered service at: Dallas, Tex. Birth: Hunt County, near Kingston, Tex. G.O. No.. 65, 9 August 1945. Citation 2d Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by 6 tanks and waves of infantry. 2d Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to prepared positions in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, 1 of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. 2d Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2d Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machinegun against the enemy.

He was alone and exposed to German fire from 3 sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate 2d Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad which was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued the single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2d Lt. Murphy’s indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy’s objective.

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[SHOOTER13]

27 January

1776 – Henry Knox’s “noble train of artillery” arrives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Knox Expedition, was an expedition led by Continental Army Colonel Henry Knox to transport heavy weaponry that had been captured at Fort Ticonderoga to the Continental Army camps outside Boston, Massachusetts during the winter of 1775–1776. Knox went to Ticonderoga in November 1775, and, over the course of 3 winter months, moved 60 tons of cannons and other armaments by boat, horse and ox-drawn sledges, and manpower, along poor-quality roads, across two semi-frozen rivers, and through the forests and swamps of the lightly inhabited Berkshires to the Boston area. Historian Victor Brooks has called Knox’s exploit “one of the most stupendous feats of logistics” of the entire American War of Independence. The route by which Knox moved the weaponry is now known as the Henry Knox Trail, and the states of New York and Massachusetts have erected markers along the route.

1778 – Marines landed at New Providence, Bahamas; the American flag flew over foreign soil for the first time. The first American soldiers sent forth from the fledgling nation’s shores were a detachment of Marines. That amphibious raid–the first in what remains today a Marine specialty–aimed to seize guns and gunpowder from a British fort.

1787 – General Benjamin Lincoln arrives in Springfield Massachusetts and moves on to drive Shays’ rebels northward.

1814 – Congress authorizes a United States Army of 62,773 men. To this time the effective strength of the army had been about 11,000 regulars. Secretary of War John Armstrong divides the US into nine military districts and he will go on to remove such ineffectual leaders form command as General James Wilkenson and General Wade Hampton for their part in their failure to take Montreal.

1823 – Pres. Monroe appointed 1st US ambassadors to South America.

1825 – Congress approved Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the “Trail of Tears.”

1837 – Marines fought in the Battle of Hatchee-Lustee (Muskogee for “Black Creek”), which is today Reedy Creek, Florida. A combined force under General Jesup of Army and Marines attacked a large Seminole village and captured or drove off the inhabitants.

1862 – President Lincoln issues General War Order No. 1, ordering all land and sea forces to advance on February 22, 1862. This bold move sent a message to his commanders that the president was tired of excuses and delays in seizing the offensive against Confederate forces. The unusual order was the product of a number of factors. Lincoln had a new Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, who replaced the hopelessly corrupt Simon Cameron. Lincoln was much more comfortable with Stanton. The president had also been brushing up on his readings in military strategy. Lincoln felt that if enough force were brought to bear on the Confederates simultaneously, the Confederates would break. This was a simple plan that ignored a host of other factors, but Lincoln felt that if the Confederates “…weakened one to strengthen another,” the Union could step in and “seize and hold the one weakened.”

The primary reason for the order, however, was General George McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac in the east. McClellan had a deep contempt for Lincoln that had become increasingly apparent since Lincoln appointed McClellan in July 1861. McClellan had shown great reluctance to reveal his plans to the president, and he exhibited no signs of moving his army in the near future. Lincoln wanted to convey a sense of urgency to all the military leaders, and it worked in the West. Union armies in Tennessee began to move, and General Ulysses S. Grant captured Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, respectively. McClellan, however, did not respond. Lincoln’s order called for strict accountability for each commander who did not follow the order, but the president had to handle McClellan carefully. Because McClellan had the backing of many Democrats and he had whipped the Army of the Potomac into fine fighting shape over the winter, Lincoln had to give McClellan a chance to command in the field.

1863 – Ironclad U.S.S. Montauk, Commander John L. Worden, and U.S.S. Seneca, Wissahickon, Dawn, and mortar schooner C. P. Williams engaged Confederate batteries at Fort McAllister, Georgia, on the Ogeechee River. Worden was acting under orders from Rear Admiral Du Pont to test the new ironclads; though McAllister was an important objective itself, Du Pont was primarily readying his forces for the spring assault on Charleston-for the success of which the Department relied greatly on the monitor class vessels. Worden, unable to proceed within close range of the fort because of formidable sunken obstructions which “from appearances” were “protected by torpedoes,” engaged for four hours before withdrawing.

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