This Date in Military History:

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1962 – South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem survives another coup attempt when Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots Lieutenants Pham Phu Quoc and Nguyen Van Cu try to kill him and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu by bombing and strafing the presidential palace. Lieutenant Quoc was arrested after his fighter-bomber crash-landed near Saigon. Lieutenant Cu fled to Cambodia, where he remained until November 1963. The attack confirmed Diem’s conviction that his main adversaries were domestic. As a result, he retreated deeper into himself, delegating more authority to his brother Nhu, who set about eradicating dissidents–dozens of Diem political opponents disappeared, and thousands more were sent to prison camps. Diem and his brother were killed during a coup in November 1963.

1963 – The USSR said that 10,000 troops would remain in Cuba.

1965 – The U.S. State Department releases a 14,000-word report entitled “Aggression from the North–The Record of North Vietnam’s Campaign to Conquer South Vietnam.” Citing “massive evidence,” including testimony of North Vietnamese soldiers who had defected or been captured in South Vietnam, the document claimed that nearly 20,000 Viet Cong military and technical personnel had entered South Vietnam through the “infiltration pipeline” from the North. The report maintained that the infiltrators remained under military command from Hanoi. The Johnson administration was making the case that the war in Vietnam was not an internal insurgency, but rather an invasion of South Vietnam by North Vietnamese forces. This approach was a calculated ploy by President Lyndon Johnson, who realized that he would have a hard time convincing the American public that the United States should get involved in a civil war–acting to stop the spread of communism by invading North Vietnamese would provide a much better justification for increased U.S. involvement in the conflict.

1968 – CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite‘s commentary on the progress of the Vietnam War solidified President Lyndon B. Johnson‘s decision not to seek reelection in 1968. Cronkite, who had been at Hue in the midst of the Tet Offensive earlier in February, said: “Who won and who lost in the great Tet Offensive against the cities? I‘m not sure.” He concluded: “It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out…will be to negotiate, not as victors but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.” Johnson called the commentary a “turning point,” saying that if he had “lost Cronkite,” he‘d “lost Mr. Average Citizen.” On March 31, Johnson announced he would not seek reelection.

1969 – Communist forces shell 30 military installations and nine towns in South Vietnam, in what becomes known as the “Post-Tet Offensive.” U.S. sources in Saigon put American losses in this latest offensive at between 250 and 300, compared with enemy casualties totaling 5,300. South Vietnamese officials report 200 civilians killed and 12,700 made homeless.

1972 – As the concluding act of President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to communist China, the president and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai issue a joint statement summarizing their agreements (and disagreements) of the past week. The “Shanghai Communique” set into motion the slow process of the normalization of relations between the two former Cold War enemies. President Nixon arrived in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on February 21, the first time an American president had ever set foot in China. The visit was immensely significant for other reasons, as well. Following communist leader Mao Zedong’s successful 1949 revolution, the United States had refused to establish diplomatic ties with the PRC. Relations between the two nations were extremely chilly, and the U.S. and PRC troops had clashed during the Korean War from 1950 to 1953.

The Shanghai Communique set the stage for a dramatic reversal in the U.S. policy toward China. Since 1949, the United States had recognized the Nationalist regime on Taiwan as the government of China. It had consistently refused efforts to have the PRC government represented in the United Nations. After 1972, relations between the United States and the PRC began to warm. By the end of the administration of Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), the United States had-in one of the most surprising twists of the Cold War–severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan and formally extended diplomatic recognition of the PRC.

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1973 – On the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, some 200 Sioux Native Americans, led by members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), occupy Wounded Knee, the site of the infamous 1890 massacre of 300 Sioux by the U.S. Seventh Cavalry. The AIM members, some of them armed, took 11 residents of the historic Oglala Sioux settlement hostage as local authorities and federal agents descended on the reservation. AIM was founded in 1968 by Russell Means, Dennis Banks, and other Native leaders as a militant political and civil rights organization. From November 1969 to June 1971, AIM members occupied Alcatraz Island off San Francisco, saying they had right to it under a treaty provision granting them unused federal land. In November 1972, AIM members briefly occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., to protest programs controlling reservation development.

Then, in early 1973, AIM prepared for its dramatic occupation of Wounded Knee. In addition to its historical significance, Wounded Knee was one of the poorest communities in the United States and shared with the other Pine Ridge settlements some of the country’s lowest rates of life expectancy. The day after the Wounded Knee occupation began, AIM members traded gunfire with the federal marshals surrounding the settlement and fired on automobiles and low-flying planes that dared come within rifle range. Russell Means began negotiations for the release of the hostages, demanding that the U.S. Senate launch an investigation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and all Sioux reservations in South Dakota, and that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hold hearings on the scores of Indian treaties broken by the U.S. government. The Wounded Knee occupation lasted for a total of 71 days, during which time two Sioux men were shot to death by federal agents and several more were wounded.

On May 8, the AIM leaders and their supporters surrendered after officials promised to investigate their complaints. Russell Means and Dennis Banks were arrested, but on September 16, 1973, the charges against them were dismissed by a federal judge because of the U.S. government’s unlawful handling of witnesses and evidence. Violence continued on the Pine Ridge Reservation throughout the rest of the 1970s, with several more AIM members and supporters losing their lives in confrontations with the U.S. government.

In 1975, two FBI agents and a Native man were killed in a shoot-out between federal agents and AIM members and local residents. In the trial that followed, AIM member Leonard Peltier was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. With many of its leaders in prison, AIM disbanded in 1978. Local AIM groups continued to function, however, and in 1981 one group occupied part of the Black Hills in South Dakota. Congress took no steps to honor broken Indian treaties, but in the courts some tribes won major settlements from federal and state governments in cases involving tribal land claims. Russell Means continued to advocate Native rights at Pine Ridge and elsewhere and in 1988 was a presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party.

1973 – First airborne mine sweep in a live minefield took place in the Haiphong, Vietnam ship channel by helicopters from Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron Twelve on board USS New Orleans.

1976 – The final meeting between Mao Tse Tung and Richard Nixon took place.

1986 – The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis.

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1991 – XVIII Airborne Corps prepared to continue its advance east toward A1 Basrah. But before the assault could be resumed, the 24th Division had to secure its positions in the Euphrates River valley by taking the two airfields toward which it had been moving. Tallil airfield lay about 20 miles south of the town of An Nasinyah; Jabbah airfield lay 40 miles east southeast, near the lake at Hawr al Malih. The task of taking the airfields went to the units that had ended the previous day in positions closest to them. While the 1st Brigade would conduct a fixing attack toward the Jahbah airfield, the 2d Brigade planned to move east about 25 miles and turn north against the same objective. Moving north, the 197th Brigade would take Tallil. Following a four-hour rest, the 2d Brigade attacked at midnight, seized a position just south of Jallbah by 0200 on the twenty-seventh, and stayed there while preparatory fires continued to fall on the airfield. At 0600 the 1st Brigade moved east toward the airfield, stopped short, and continued firing on Iraqi positions.

At the same time, the 2d Brigade resumed the attack with three infantry-armor task forces and crashed through a fence around the runways. Although the airfield had been hit by air strikes for six weeks and a heavy artillery preparation by five battalions of XVIII Corps’ 212th Field Artillery Brigade, Iraqi defenders were still willing to fight. Most Iraqi fire was ineffectual small arms, but armor piercing rounds hit two Bradleys, killing two men of the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor, and wounding several others in the 3d Battalion, 15th Infantry. As nearly 200 American armored vehicles moved across the airfield knocking out tanks, artillery pieces, and even aircraft, Iraqis began to surrender in large numbers. By 1000 the Jahbah airfield was secure. At midday heavy artillery and rocket launcher preparations, followed by twenty-eight close air sorties, were directed on the Tallil airfield. As the fires lifted, the 197th Brigade advanced across the cratered runways and through weaker resistance than that at Jahbah.

But like the 2d Brigade at Jahbah, the 197th killed both armored vehicles and aircraft on the ground and found large numbers of willing prisoners. As the 197th Brigade assaulted Tallil, General McCaffrey realigned his other units to continue the attack east centering on Highway 8. The 1st Brigade took the division left (north) sector, tying in with the 101st Airborne Division. The 2d Squadron, 4th Cavalry, the 24th’s reconnaissance unit, moved east from the Hawr al Malih lake area to set up a tactical assembly area behind the 1st Brigade. The 2d Brigade left its newly won airfield position and assumed the center sector of the division front.

The 3d Armored Cavalry took the right sector, tying in with VII Corps to the south. With the 24th Division now oriented east after its northern advance of the first two days, a new series of phase lines was drawn between the Tallil airfield and the Ar Rumaylah oil fields, just southwest of Al Basrah. From the line of departure east of the Jahbah airfield, McCaffrey’s units would advance. The run down the highway showed more clearly than any other episode the weaknesses of Iraqi field forces and the one-sidedness of the conflict. Through the afternoon and night of 27 February the tankers, Bradley gunners, and helicopter crews and artillerymen of the 1st and 4th Battalions, 64th Armor, fired at hundreds of vehicles trying to redeploy to meet the new American attack from the west, or simply to escape north across the Euphrates River valley and west on Highway 8. With no intelligence capability left to judge the size or location of the oncoming American armored wedges and attack helicopter swarms, as well as insufficient communications to coordinate a new defense, Iraqi units stumbled into disaster.

Unsuspecting drivers of every type of vehicle, from tanks to artillery prime movers and even commandeered civilian autos, raced randomly across the desert or west on Highway 8 only to run into General McCaffrey’s firestorm. Some drivers, seeing vehicles explode and burn, veered off the road in vain attempts to escape. Others stopped, dismounted, and walked toward the Americans with raised hands. When the division staff detected elements of the Hammurabi Division of the Republican Guard moving across the 24th’s front, McCaffrey concentrated the fire of nine artillery battalions and an Apache battalion on the once elite enemy force. At dawn the next day, the twenty-eighth, hundreds of vehicles lay crumpled and smoking on Highway 8 and at scattered points across the desert. The 24th’s lead elements, only 30 miles west of A1 Basrah, set up a hasty defense. The 24th Division’s valley battles of 25-27 February rendered ineffective all Iraqi units encountered in the division sector and trapped most of the Republican Guard divisions to the south while VII Corps bore into them from the west, either blasting units in place or taking their surrender.

In its own battles the 24th achieved some of the most impressive results of the ground war. McCaffrey’s troops had advanced 190 miles into Iraq to the Euphrates River, then turned east and advanced another 70 miles, all in four days. Along the way they knocked out over 360 tanks and armored personnel carriers, over 300 artillery pieces, over 1,200 trucks, 500 pieces of engineer equipment, 19 missiles, and 25 aircraft, and rounded up over 5,000 enemy soldiers. Just as surprising as these large enemy losses were the small numbers of American casualties: 8 killed in action, 36 wounded in action, and 5 nonbattle injuries. And in the entire XVIII Airborne Corps, combat equipment losses were negligible: only 4 MlA1 tanks, 3 of which were repairable. In VII Corps’ sector the advance rolled east. The battles begun the previous afternoon continued through the morning of 27 February as General Franks’ divisions bore into Republican Guard units trying to reposition or escape.

As the assault gained momentum, Franks for the first time deployed his full combat power. The 1st Cavalry Division made good progress through the 1st Infantry Division breach and up the left side of VII Corps’ sector. By midafternoon, after a high-speed 190-mile move north, General Tilelli’s brigades were behind 1st Armored Division, tying in with the 24th Division across the corps boundary. Now Franks could send against the Republican Guard five full divisions and a separate regiment. From left (north) to right, VII Corps deployed the 1st Armored Division, 1st Cavalry Division, the 3d Armored Division, the 1st Infantry Division, the 2d Armored Cavalry, and the British 1st Armored Division. The dust storms had cleared early in the day, revealing in VII Corps’ sector the most awesome array of armored and mechanized power fielded since World War II. In a panorama extending beyond visual limits 1,500 tanks, another 1,500 Bradleys and armored personnel carriers, 650 artillery pieces, and supply columns of hundreds of vehicles stretching into the dusty brown distance rolled east through Iraqi positions, as inexorable as a lava flow.

To Iraqi units, depleted and demoralized by forty-one days of continuous air assault, Vll Corps’ advance appeared irresistible. Turning on the enemy the full range of its weapons, Vll Corps systematically destroyed Iraqi military power in its sector. About 50 miles east of Al Busayyah, the 1st and 3d Armored Divisions tore into remnants of the Tawalzalaa, Madina, and Adnan Divisions of the Republican Guard. In one of several large engagements along the advance the 2d Brigade, 1st Armored Division, received artillery fire and then proceeded to destroy not only those artillery batteries but also 61 tanks and 34 armored personnel carriers of the Madina Division in less than one hour. The 1st Infantry Division overran the 12th Armored Division and scattered the 10th Armored Division into retreat. On the south flank the British 1st Armored Division destroyed the 52d Armored Division, then overran three infantry divisions.

To finish destruction of the Republican Guard Forces Command, General Franks conducted a giant envelopment involving the 1st Cavalry Division on the left and the 1st Infantry Division on the right. The trap closed on disorganized bands of Iraqis streaming north in full retreat. The only setback for VII Corps during this climactic assault occurred in the British sector. American Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt aircraft supporting the British advance mistakenly fired on 2 infantry fighting vehicles, killing 9 British soldiers.

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{ 1991 - continued... }

At 1700 Franks informed his divisions of an imminent theater-wide cease-fire but pressed VII Corps’ attack farther east. An hour later the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry, 1st Infantry Division, set a blocking position on the north-south highway connecting Al Basrah to Kuwait City. The next morning corps artillery units fired an enormous preparation involving all long-range weapons: 155-mm. and 8-inch (203-mm.) self-propelled pieces, rocket launchers, and tactical missiles. Attack helicopters followed to strike suspected enemy positions. The advance east continued a short time until the cease-fire went into effect at 0800, 28 February, with American armored divisions just inside Kuwait.

In ninety hours of continuous movement and combat, VII Corps had achieved impressive results against the best units of the Iraqi military. Franks’ troops destroyed more than a dozen Iraqi divisions, an estimated 1,300 tanks, 1,200 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, 285 artillery pieces, and 100 air defense systems, and captured nearly 22,000 men. At the same time, the best Iraqi divisions destroyed only 7 MlA1 Abrams tanks, 15 Bradleys, 2 armored personnel carriers, and 1 Apache helicopter.

And while killing unknown thousands of enemy troops, VII Corps lost 22 soldiers killed in action. In the Marine Central Command’s sector on 27 February the Tiger Brigade, 2d Armored Division, and the 2d Marine Division began the fourth day of the ground war by holding positions and maintaining close liaison with Joint Forces Command North units on the left flank. The next phase of operations in Kuwait would see Saudi-commanded units pass through General Boomer’s sector from west to east and go on to liberate Kuwait City. At 0550 Tiger troops made contact with Egyptian units, and four hours later Joint Forces Command North columns passed through 2d Marine Division.

During the rest of the day Tiger troops cleared bunker complexes, the Ali Al Salem Airfield, and the Kuwaiti Royal Summer Palace, while processing a continuous stream of prisoners of war. The Army brigade and the 2d Marine Division remained on Mutla Ridge until the ceasefire went into effect at 0800 on 28 February.

Prisoner interrogation during and after combat operations revealed that the Tiger Brigade advance had split the seam between the Iraqi III and IV Corps, overrunning elements of the 14th, 7th, and 36th Infantry Divisions, as well as brigades of the 3d Armored, 1st Mechanized, and 2d Infantry Divisions. During four days of combat Tiger Brigade task forces destroyed or captured 181 tanks, 148 armored personnel carriers, 40 artillery pieces, and 27 antiaircraft systems while killing an estimated 263 enemy and capturing 4,051 prisoners of war, all at a cost of 2 killed and 5 wounded.

1997 – A jury in Fayetteville, N.C., convicted former Army paratrooper James N. Burmeister of murdering a black couple so he could get a skinhead tattoo. He was later sentenced to life in prison.

1998 – The World Court ruled that it has the authority to decide on the location of a trial for the 2 Libyans accused of blowing up a jet over Lockerbee, Scotland in 1988.

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2000 – Jose Imperatori, the Cuban diplomat expelled from the US for spying, took refuge in the Cuban embassy in Ottawa.

2000 – In Germany 3 teenagers of American soldiers hurled large stones off a pedestrian bridge in Darmstadt and killed Sandra Ottman (20) and Karin Rothermel (41). The 3 teens were convicted of murder and sentenced up to 8 ½ years in prison.

2002 – Operation Enduring Freedom – Pankisi Gorge (OEF-G) in the Former Soviet Republic of Georgia, begins. The Georgia Train and Equip Program (GTEP) was an American-sponsored 18-month, $64-million plan designed to increase the capabilities of the Georgian armed forces as part of the Global War on Terrorism. The U.S. would sent approximately two hundred United States Army Special Forces soldiers to Georgia to train Georgian troops. This program implemented President Bush’s decision to respond to the Government of Georgia’s request for assistance to enhance its counter-terrorism capabilities and addressed the situation in the Pankisi Gorge. (It had allegedly often been used as a base for transit, training and shipments of arms and financing by Chechen rebels and Islamic militants, many of whom followed Ruslan Gelayev.)

The US funded the GTEP to train Georgian Armed Forces (12th “Commando” Light Infantry Battalion, 16th Mountain-Infantry Batalion, 13th “Shavnabada” Light Infantry Battalion, 11th Light Infantry Battalion, Mechanized company, and small numbers of Interior Ministry troops and border guards.) Although GTEP formally came to a close in April 2004, the US military assistance program with Georgia continues, and is now known as the Georgia Sustainment and Stability Operations Program. Part of this program has involved preparing Georgian units for operations with the US led Multinational Force Iraq. The program ended in September 2007.

2003 – The Bush administration lowered the terror alert threat to code yellow.

2003 – Iraq agreed in principle to destroy its Al Samoud Two missiles, two days before a U.N. deadline.

2003 – The USCGC Dallas was ordered to deploy overseas to support Operation Enduring Freedom and to prepare for future contingencies. She was underway on patrol when she received the order from the Atlantic Area commander to sail overseas to the Mediterranean. Dallas deployed with an HH-65B Dolphin helicopter and 7-member aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City, New Jersey.

2004 – The Coast Guard repatriated 531 Haitian migrants to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after they were rescued in the Windward Pass. The migrants were from 13 boats stopped since 21 February 2004. The repatriations were completed by three cutters. The crew of the USCGC Valiant transported 290 migrants, the crew of the USCGC Vigilant delivered another 241, and the USCGC Nantucket escorted the cutters for safety and security. The migrants were turned over to the Haitian coast guard.

2005 – Iraqi security forces reported the capture of Saddam Hussein’s half-brother and former adviser. Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, the 6 of diamonds, was No. 36 on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis. Syria captured al-Hassan and 29 other fugitives and handed them over to Iraqi security.

2007 – A suicide attack at Bagram Air Base while Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney is visiting kills 23, but the Vice President is not injured. The Taliban claims responsibility, and declares that Cheney was their intended target.

2007 – A hail storm damages the Space Shuttle Atlantis, delaying the STS-117 launch originally scheduled for March 15th.

2009 – United States President Barack Obama gave a speech at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in the US state of North Carolina announcing that the US combat mission in Iraq would end by 31 August 2010. A “transitional force” of up to 50,000 troops tasked with training the Iraqi Security Forces, conducting counterterrorism operations, and providing general support may remain until the end of 2011, the president added.

2009 – A nationwide “Chicago Tea Party” occurred across the United States, where protesters say government spending is out of control.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken this Day

SHUTES, HENRY
Rank and organization: Captain of the Forecastle, U.S. Navy. Born: 1804, Baltimore, Md. Accredited to: Maryland. G.O. No.: 71, 15 January 1866. Citation: Served as captain of the forecastle on board the U.S.S. Wissahickon during the battle of New Orleans, 24 and 25 April 1862; and in the engagement at Fort McAllister, 27 February 1863. Going on board the U.S.S. Wissahickon from the U.S.S. Don where his seamanlike qualities as gunner’s mate were outstanding, Shutes performed his duties with skill and courage. Showing a presence of mind and prompt action when a shot from Fort McAllister penetrated the Wissahickon below the water line and entered the powder magazine, Shutes contributed materially to the preservation of the powder and safety of the ship.

*WALLACE, HERMAN C.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company B, 301st Engineer Combat Battalion, 76th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Prumzurley, Germany, 27 February 1945. Entered service at: Lubbock, Tex. Birth: Marlow, Okla. G.O. No.: 92, 25 October 1945. Citation: He displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity. While helping clear enemy mines from a road, he stepped on a well-concealed S-type antipersonnel mine. Hearing the characteristic noise indicating that the mine had been activated and, if he stepped aside, would be thrown upward to explode above ground and spray the area with fragments, surely killing 2 comrades directly behind him and endangering other members of his squad, he deliberately placed his other foot on the mine even though his best chance for survival was to fall prone. Pvt. Wallace was killed when the charge detonated, but his supreme heroism at the cost of his life confined the blast to the ground and his own body and saved his fellow soldiers from death or injury.

*WALSH, WILLIAM GARY
Rank and organization: Gunnery Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Born: 7 April 1922, Roxbury, Mass. Accredited to: Massachusetts. Citation: For extraordinary gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as leader of an assault platoon, attached to Company G, 3d Battalion, 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces at Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands on 27 February 1945. With the advance of his company toward Hill 362 disrupted by vicious machinegun fire from a forward position which guarded the approaches to this key enemy stronghold, G/Sgt. Walsh fearlessly charged at the head of his platoon against the Japanese entrenched on the ridge above him, utterly oblivious to the unrelenting fury of hostile automatic weapons fire and handgrenades employed with fanatic desperation to smash his daring assault.

Thrown back by the enemy’s savage resistance, he once again led his men in a seemingly impossible attack up the steep, rocky slope, boldly defiant of the annihilating streams of bullets which saturated the area. Despite his own casualty losses and the overwhelming advantage held by the Japanese in superior numbers and dominant position, he gained the ridge’s top only to be subjected to an intense barrage of handgrenades thrown by the remaining Japanese staging a suicidal last stand on the reverse slope. When 1 of the grenades fell in the midst of his surviving men, huddled together in a small trench, G/Sgt. Walsh, in a final valiant act of complete self-sacrifice, instantly threw himself upon the deadly bomb, absorbing with his own body the full and terrific force of the explosion. Through his extraordinary initiative and inspiring valor in the face of almost certain death, he saved his comrades from injury and possible loss of life and enabled his company to seize and hold this vital enemy position. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

WATSON, WILSON DOUGLAS
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, 2d Battalion, 9th Marines, 3d Marine Division. Place and date: Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 26 and 27 February 1945. Entered service at: Arkansas. Born: 18 February 1921, Tuscumbia, Ala. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as automatic rifleman serving with the 2d Battalion, 9th Marines, 3d Marine Division, during action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 26 and 27 February 1945. With his squad abruptly halted by intense fire from enemy fortifications in the high rocky ridges and crags commanding the line of advance, Pvt. Watson boldly rushed 1 pillbox and fired into the embrasure with his weapon, keeping the enemy pinned down single-handedly until he was in a position to hurl in a grenade, and then running to the rear of the emplacement to destroy the retreating Japanese and enable his platoon to take its objective.

Again pinned down at the foot of a small hill, he dauntlessly scaled the jagged incline under fierce mortar and machinegun barrages and, with his assistant BAR man, charged the crest of the hill, firing from his hip. Fighting furiously against Japanese troops attacking with grenades and knee mortars from the reverse slope, he stood fearlessly erect in his exposed position to cover the hostile entrenchments and held the hill under savage fire for 15 minutes, killing 60 Japanese before his ammunition was exhausted and his platoon was able to join him. His courageous initiative and valiant fighting spirit against devastating odds were directly responsible for the continued advance of his platoon, and his inspiring leadership throughout this bitterly fought action reflects the highest credit upon Pvt. Watson and the U.S. Naval Service.

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28 February

1610 – The Virginia Company takes further steps to instituting absolutist rule when it appoints Thomas West, Lord Delaware, as the first lord-governor and captain-general of the Virginia colony. The broad political and military powers granted to Lord Delaware reflect the growing English concern with placing the colony on a sound footing in terms of both political and economic organization.

1704 – Indians attacked Deerfield, Mass., killing 40 and kidnapping 100.

1708 – A slave revolt in Newton, Long Island, NY, left 11 dead.

1786 – In answer to the November 30, 1785 demand of John Adams, the British respond that they will not vacate their American military garrisons along the northwest frontier—including Detroit, Michilimackinac, Niagra, and Oswego—until the Americans carry out the provisions of the Treaty of Paris with regard to the treatment of Loyalists and the collection of debts.

1844 – A 12-inch gun aboard the USS Princeton exploded, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer and several others.

1847 – Colonel Alexander Doniphan and his ragtag Missouri Mounted Volunteers rode to victory at the Battle of Sacramento during the Mexican War.

1848 – The House of Representatives and the Senate, acting on the proposal of President-elect Polk, adopt a joint resolution for the annexation of Texas. This is essentially a procedure to bypass requirement of a two-thirds vote of the Senate alone to ratify a treaty. The resolution also authorizes the President to negotiate a new treaty with Texas, one that could be approved by either procedure, but the President does not immediately exercise this choice.

1861 – With the region’s population booming because of the Pike’s Peak gold rush, Congress creates the new Territory of Colorado. When the United States acquired it after the Mexican War ended in 1848, the land that would one day become Colorado was nearly unpopulated by Anglo settlers. Ute, Arapaho, Cheyenne, and other Indians had occupied the land for centuries, but the Europeans who had made sporadic appearances there since the 17th century never stayed for long. It was not until 1851 that the first permanent non-Indian settlement was established, in the San Luis Valley. As with many other western regions, though, the lure of gold launched the first major Anglo invasion.

In July 1858, a band of prospectors working streambeds near modern-day Denver found tiny flecks of gold in their pans. Since the gold-bearing streams were located in the foothills not far from the massive mountain named for the explorer Zebulon Pike, the subsequent influx of hopeful miners was termed the Pike’s Peak gold rush. By the spring of 1859, an estimated 50,000 gold seekers had reached this latest of a long series of American El Dorados. As the first gold-bearing streams to be discovered played out, prospectors moved westward into the rugged slopes of the Rocky Mountains in search of new finds. Wherever sizeable deposits were discovered, ramshackle mining camps like Central City, Nevadaville, and Black Hawk appeared, sometimes almost overnight. Meanwhile, out on the flat plains at the edge of the mountains, Denver became the central supply town for the miners.

Although few miners came to Colorado planning to stay long, they were eager to establish some semblance of “law and order” in the region in order to protect their property rights and gold dust. Far from the seats of eastern government, the miners and townspeople cobbled together their own simple governments, usually revolving around a miners’ court that regulated claims. Technically lacking in any genuine legal foundation, the miners’ courts did maintain the minimal order needed for the mineral exploitation of the territory to continue. The unreliable mining operations soon gave way to larger, highly capitalized and relatively permanent lode mining operations. The pioneers recognized that the vast mineral resources of the Rockies could form the foundation of a thriving new state, but the people settling there needed a more formal system of laws and government.

The Congressional designation of new western states and territories had been bogged down for several years as southern and northern politicians fought over whether slavery would be permitted in the new western regions. By 1861, the South had seceded, clearing the way for the northern politicians to begin creating free-labor states. On this day in 1861, Congress combined pieces of Nebraska, Kansas, Utah, and New Mexico to make a large rectangle of land it designated Colorado Territory.

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1863 – Four Union gunboats destroyed the CSS Nashville near Fort McAllister, Ga. Popular during the Crimean War, the floating battery was revived by hard-pressed Confederates because the popular gunboats were not capable of doing the things that the batteries could do.

1864 – A major Union cavalry raid begins when General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick leads 3,500 troopers south from Stevensburg, Virginia. Aimed at Richmond, the raid sought to free Federal prisoners and spread word of President Lincoln’s Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in hopes of convincing Confederates to lay down their arms. The president’s proclamation of December 1863 offered a pardon and restoration of property (except slaves, who were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation) to all Confederates. Kilpatrick took with him Colonel Ulrich Dahlgren to conduct the prisoner release while Kilpatrick covered him with the main force. To distract attention, Union infantry under General John Sedgwick and another cavalry detachment under General George Custer would feign an attack towards western Virginia. The forces split after crossing the Rappahannock River. Kilpatrick began tearing up the Virginia Central Railroad while Dahlgren approached Richmond from the west. They were to rendezvous on the outskirts of Richmond. Kilpatrick arrived there on March 1 with General Wade Hampton’s cavalry in hot pursuit. Dahlgren was delayed when a black guide led him to a deep section of the James River.

Finding no possibility to cross, Dahlgren hung the guide on the spot. Kilpatrick had to leave for the north before Dahlgren’s arrival, so Dahlgren and his men were cut off. The colonel and about 100 of his men were ambushed as they tried to rejoin Kilpatrick. Dahlgren was killed, and his body fell into Confederate hands. He was allegedly carrying papers that included instructions to burn Richmond and kill Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet. The papers were published in the Richmond Daily Examiner, but it is not clear where the orders had come from or if they were even authentic. Some historians have suggested that they were forged by the Confederates to stir morale in Virginia. Kilpatrick suffered about 335 men killed, captured, or wounded. The raid accomplished little for the Union and the Confederate victory lifted southern morale.

1893 – Launching of USS Indiana (BB-1), first true battleship in U.S. Navy. USS Indiana (Battleship No. 1) was authorized in 1890 and commissioned five years later, she was a small battleship, though with heavy armor and ordnance. The ship also pioneered the use of an intermediate battery. She was designed for coastal defense and as a result her decks were not safe from high waves on the open ocean. Indiana served in the Spanish–American War (1898) as part of the North Atlantic Squadron. She took part in both the blockade of Santiago de Cuba and the battle of Santiago de Cuba, which occurred when the Spanish fleet attempted to break through the blockade.

Although unable to join the chase of the escaping Spanish cruisers, she was partly responsible for the destruction of the Spanish destroyers Plutón and Furor. After the war she quickly became obsolete—despite several modernizations—and spent most of her time in commission as a training ship or in the reserve fleet, with her last commission during World War I as a training ship for gun crews. She was decommissioned for the third and final time in January 1919 and was shortly after reclassified Coast Battleship Number 1 so that the name Indiana could be reused.

She was sunk in shallow water as a target in aerial bombing tests in 1920 and her hulk was sold for scrap in 1924.



1916 – Haiti became the first U.S. protectorate.

1917 – AP reported that Mexico and Japan would ally with Germany if US enters WW I.

1924 – U.S. troops were sent to Honduras to protect American interests during an election conflict.

1928 – Marines participated in the Battle of Bromaderos, Nicaragua.

1935 – DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invents nylon.

1936 – The Japanese Army restored order in Tokyo and arrested officers involved in a coup.

1940 – English divers recover three rotors from the Enigma enciphering machine on board the scuttled U-33.

1942 – There was a race riot at the Sojourner Truth Homes in Detroit.

1942 – Certain duties of former Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation transferred to Coast Guard temporarily by Executive Order 9083. The transfer was made permanent on July 16, 1946. Also, the U.S. Maritime Service was transferred to the Coast Guard from the War Shipping Administration on this date.

1942 – The heavy cruiser USS Houston is sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed. After a fierce battle of several hours duration, Houston and the Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth were sunk. Five Japanese ships were sunk by friendly fire, of which two were refloated.

1942 – U S. Maritime Service transferred to Coast Guard from War Shipping Administration.

1942 – Japanese landed in Java, the last Allied bastion in Dutch East Indies.

1943 – The Norsk Hydro power station near Ryukan is badly damaged by a sabotage team of Norwegian soldiers who have been parachuted in from Britain. This plant is known to be in use by the Germans to produce “heavy water” for atomic research.

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1944 – German forces launch a second offensive against the Anzio beachhead held by forces of the US 6th Corps (Truscott). Four German divisions attack on either side of the Cisterna-Anzio road, defended by the US 3rd Division. German forces fail to break through.

1945 – There are America landings at Puerto Princesa on Palawan by 8000 men of 41st Infantry Division (ORARNG). Admiral Fechteler leads a bombardment group of cruisers and destroyers and there is also support from land-based aircraft. There is little Japanese resistance to the landings.

1945 – U.S. tanks broke the natural defense line west of the Rhine and crossed the Erft River.

1946 – The U.S. Army declared that it would use the V-2 rocket to test radar as an atomic rocket defense system.

1951 – The last communist resistance south of the Han River collapsed.

1954 – The first color television sets using the NTSC standard are offered for sale to the general public.

1959 – Discoverer 1, an American spy satellite that is the first object intended to achieve a polar orbit, is launched. It failed to achieve orbit.

1962 – The 39th Signal battalion, a communications unit, is the first unit of US regular ground forces to arrive in Vietnam.

1968 – General Earle Wheeler, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, returns from his recent round of talks with General William Westmoreland in Saigon and immediately delivers a written report to President Lyndon B. Johnson. Wheeler stated that despite the heavy casualties incurred during the Tet Offensive, North Vietnam and Viet Cong forces had the initiative and were “operating with relative freedom in the countryside.” The communists had pushed South Vietnamese forces back into a “defensive posture around towns and cities,” seriously undermined the pacification program in many areas, and forced General Westmoreland to place half of his battalions in the still imperiled northernmost provinces, thus “stripping the rest of the country of adequate reserves” and depriving the U.S. command of “an offensive capability.” To meet the new enemy threat and regain the initiative, according to Wheeler, Westmoreland would need more men: “The add-on requested totals 206,756 spaces for a new proposed ceiling of 731,756.” It was a major turning point in the war.

To deny the request was to concede that the United States could impose no military solution in the conflict, but to meet it would require a call-up of reserves and vastly increased expenditures. Rather than making an immediate decision, President Johnson asked Defense Secretary Clark Clifford to conduct a thorough, high-level review of U.S. policy in Vietnam. A disgruntled staff member in the Johnson White House leaked the Wheeler-Westmoreland proposal for additional troops. The story broke in the New York Times on March 10, 1968. With the images of the besieged U.S. Embassy in Saigon during the Tet Offensive still fresh in their minds, the press and the public immediately concluded that the extra troops must be needed because the U.S. and South Vietnamese had suffered a massive defeat. Secretary of State Dean Rusk was subjected to 11 hours of hearings before a hostile Congress on March 11 and 12.

A week later, 139 members of the House voted for a resolution that called for a complete review of Johnson’s Vietnam policy. Discontent in Congress mirrored the general sentiment in the country. In March, a poll revealed that 78 percent of Americans expressed disapproval with Johnson’s handling of the war. On March 22, President Johnson scaled down Westmoreland’s request and authorized 13,500 reinforcements. Shortly after, Johnson announced that Westmoreland would be brought home to be Army Chief of Staff. He was to be replaced by General Creighton Abrams.

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1972 – The United States and People’s Republic of China sign the Shanghai Communiqué. The document pledged that it was in the interest of all nations for the United States and China to work towards the normalization of their relations, although this would not occur until the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations seven years later. The US and China also agreed that neither they nor any other power should “seek hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region”. This was of particular importance to China, who shared a militarized border with the Soviet Union.

Regarding the political status of Taiwan, in the communiqué the United States acknowledged the One-China policy (but did not endorse the PRC’s version of the policy) and agreed to cut back military installations on Taiwan. This “constructive ambiguity” (in the phrase of US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who oversaw the American side of the negotiations) would continue to hinder efforts for complete normalization. The communiqué included wishes to expand the economic and cultural contacts between the two nations, although no concrete steps were mentioned.

1974 – The United States and Egypt re-established diplomatic relations after a seven-year break.

1980 – Blue crew of USS Francis Scott Key (SSBN-657) launches 4 Trident I (C-4) missiles in first C-4 Operational Test.

1982 – The FALN, a Puerto Rican Nationalist Group, bombed Wall Street.

1990 – Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla. on a secret mission to place a spy satellite in orbit.

1991 – A cease-fire was announced in Kuwait. Allied and Iraqi forces suspended their attacks as Iraq pledged to accept all United Nations resolutions concerning Kuwait. Tariq Aziz announces Iraq’s acceptance of all relevant U.N. Security Council Resolutions. Saddam Hussein calls on his troops to cease fire.

1993 – Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided the ranch of the Branch Davidian sect under David Koresh in Waco, Texas. A shootout followed when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to serve warrants on the Branch Davidians; four agents and six Davidians were killed as a 51-day standoff began.

1993 – Three U.S. planes carried out the first mission to drop relief supplies over Bosnia-Herzegovina. The US Operations Deny Flight, Provide Promise, Deliberate Force, Decisive Edge, Joint Endeavour and others began in Bosnia and Macedonia. They cost $9.7 billion to date in 1999 and left 4 US casualties with 5 wounded.

1994 – In the first military action in the 45-year history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), U.S. fighter planes shoot down four Serbian warplanes engaged in a bombing mission in violation of Bosnia’s no-fly zone. The United States, 10 European countries, and Canada founded NATO in 1949 as a safeguard against Soviet aggression. With the end of the Cold War, NATO members approved the use of its military forces for peacekeeping missions in countries outside the alliance and in 1994 agreed to enforce U.N. resolutions enacted to bring about an end to the bloody conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

In 1994 and 1995, NATO planes enforced the no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina and struck at Bosnian Serb military positions and airfields on a number of occasions. On December 20, 1995, NATO began the mass deployment of 60,000 troops to enforce the Dayton peace accords, signed in Paris by the leaders of the former Yugoslavia on December 14. The NATO troops took over from a U.N. peacekeeping force that had failed to end the fighting since its deployment in early 1992, although the U.N. troops had proved crucial in the distribution of humanitarian aid to the impoverished population of Bosnia. The NATO force, with its U.S. support and focused aim of enforcing the Dayton agreement, proved more successful in maintaining the peace in the war-torn region.

1995 – U.S. Marines swept ashore in Somalia to protect retreating U.N. peacekeepers.

1996 – President Clinton and the Congress agreed on a sanctions bill aimed at driving foreign investors from Cuba.

1997 – US Navy medium attack aircraft were retired by order of Pres. Clinton. Any deep-strike mission would be in the hands of the Air Force.

1998 – First flight of RQ-4 Global Hawk, the first unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U.S. civilian airspace.

1999 – In Colombia 3 US citizens, Terence Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatok and Lahe’ena’e Gay, were kidnapped by FARC rebels. The 3 belonged to a group that worked to defend the rights of the Uwa Indians in a dispute with Occidental Petroleum. 3 FARC rebels, wanted for the kidnapping, were captured Nov 28, 2002.

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2000 – It was reported that Iraq and Syria had established diplomatic ties that were cut in Aug 1980 when Damascus sided with Iran just before the Iran-Iraq war.

2003 – NASA released video taken aboard Columbia that had miraculously survived the fiery destruction of the space shuttle with the loss of all seven astronauts; in the footage, four of the crew members can be seen doing routine chores and admiring the view outside the cockpit.

2003 – Iraq agreed to begin destroying its Al Samoud 2 missiles within 24 hours.

2003 – Pentagon officials say that satellite imagery has detected Iraqi Republican Guard units moving south from Mosul to Tikrit, about 160km north-west of Baghdad, while other units are moving into residential areas of Baghdad.

2004 – Six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear program ended without any major breakthrough. The North denounced the United States, saying it wasn’t willing to reach a settlement.

2004 – Coast Guard units responded to an explosion aboard the 570-foot Singapore-flagged tanker Bow Mariner off the coast of Chincoteague, Virginia. The Bow Mariner was carrying 6.5 million gallons of industrial ethanol when it exploded and sank. The Coast Guard rescued six survivors.

2005 – Indonesia welcomed a move by the US to resume a small but high-profile US military training program that was frozen in the 1990s.

2007 – Carlos and Elsa Alvarez are sentenced to five and three year prison terms respectively after being convicted of spying for the Cuban government.

2011 – The United States freezes $30 billion in Libyan assets.

2011 – Frank Buckles, the last surviving veteran of World War I in the United States, passes away in Charles Town, West Virginia, aged 110.

2012 – The United States announces that it will provide $60 million of food and medical aid, but not weapons, to Syrian rebel fighters.

2013 – United States v. Manning: Bradley Manning pleads guilty to 10 counts out of 22 against him for leaking classified material in the Wiki Leaks case.

2013 – A temporary third radiation belt is discovered around planet Earth by NASA’s twin Van Allen Probes.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken this Day

*WILLIS, JOHN HARLAN
Rank and organization: Pharmacist’s Mate First Class, U.S. Navy. Born: 10 June 1921, Columbia, Tenn. Accredited to: Tennessee. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Platoon Corpsman serving with the 3d Battalion, 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division, during operations against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 28 February 1945. Constantly imperiled by artillery and mortar fire from strong and mutually supporting pillboxes and caves studding Hill 362 in the enemy’s cross-island defenses, Willis resolutely administered first aid to the many marines wounded during the furious close-in fighting until he himself was struck by shrapnel and was ordered back to the battle-aid station.

Without waiting for official medical release, he quickly returned to his company and, during a savage hand-to-hand enemy counterattack, daringly advanced to the extreme frontlines under mortar and sniper fire to aid a marine lying wounded in a shell hole. Completely unmindful of his own danger as the Japanese intensified their attack, Willis calmly continued to administer blood plasma to his patient, promptly returning the first hostile grenade which landed in the shell-hole while he was working and hurling back 7 more in quick succession before the ninth 1 exploded in his hand and instantly killed him. By his great personal valor in saving others at the sacrifice of his own life, he inspired his companions, although terrifically outnumbered, to launch a fiercely determined attack and repulse the enemy force. His exceptional fortitude and courage in the performance of duty reflect the highest credit upon Willis and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

*ANDERSON, JAMES, JR.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, 2d Platoon, Company F, 2d Battalion, 3d Marines, 3d Marine Division. Place and date: Republic of Vietnam, 28 February 1967. Entered service at: Los Angeles, Calif. Born: 22 January 1947, Los Angeles, Calif. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Company F was advancing in dense jungle northwest of Cam Lo in an effort to extract a heavily besieged reconnaissance patrol. Pfc. Anderson’s platoon was the lead element and had advanced only about 200 meters when they were brought under extremely intense enemy small-arms and automatic weapons fire. The platoon reacted swiftly, getting on line as best they could in the thick terrain, and began returning fire. Pfc. Anderson found himself tightly bunched together with the other members of the platoon only 20 meters from the enemy positions.

As the fire fight continued several of the men were wounded by the deadly enemy assault. Suddenly, an enemy grenade landed in the midst of the marines and rolled alongside Pfc. Anderson’s head. Unhesitatingly and with complete disregard for his personal safety, he reached out, grasped the grenade, pulled it to his chest and curled around it as it went off. Although several marines received shrapnel from the grenade, his body absorbed the major force of the explosion. In this singularly heroic act, Pfc. Anderson saved his comrades from serious injury and possible death. His personal heroism, extraordinary valor, and inspirational supreme self-sacrifice reflected great credit upon himself and the Marine Corps and upheld the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

*LEONARD, MATTHEW
Rank and organization: platoon Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company B, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division. place and date: Near Suoi Da, Republic of Vietnam, 28 February 1967. Entered service at: Birmingham, Ala. Born: 26 November 1929, Eutaw, Ala. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. His platoon was suddenly attacked by a large enemy force employing small arms, automatic weapons, and hand grenades. Although the platoon leader and several other key leaders were among the first wounded, P/Sgt. Leonard quickly rallied his men to throw back the initial enemy assaults. During the short pause that followed, he organized a defensive perimeter, redistributed ammunition, and inspired his comrades through his forceful leadership and words of encouragement. Noticing a wounded companion outside the perimeter, he dragged the man to safety but was struck by a sniper’s bullet which shattered his left hand. Refusing medical attention and continuously exposing himself to the increasing fire as the enemy again assaulted the perimeter, P/Sgt. Leonard moved from position to position to direct the fire of his men against the well camouflaged foe.

Under the cover of the main attack, the enemy moved a machine gun into a location where it could sweep the entire perimeter. This threat was magnified when the platoon machine gun in this area malfunctioned. P/Sgt. Leonard quickly crawled to the gun position and was helping to clear the malfunction when the gunner and other men in the vicinity were wounded by fire from the enemy machine gun. P/Sgt. Leonard rose to his feet, charged the enemy gun and destroyed the hostile crew despite being hit several times by enemy fire. He moved to a tree, propped himself against it, and continued to engage the enemy until he succumbed to his many wounds. His fighting spirit, heroic leadership, and valiant acts inspired the remaining members of his platoon to hold back the enemy until assistance arrived. P/Sgt. Leonard’s profound courage and devotion to his men are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service, and his gallant actions reflect great credit upon himself and the U.S. Army.

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1 March

1642 – Georgeana, Massachusetts, now York, Maine, became the first American city to incorporate. First settled in 1624, the plantation was originally called Agamenticus, the Abenaki term for the York River. In 1638, settlers changed the name to Bristol after Bristol, England, from which they had immigrated. Envisioning a great city arising from the wilderness, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, lord proprietor of Maine under the Plymouth patent, named the capital of his province Gorgeana.

1713 – The siege and destruction of Fort Neoheroka begins during the Tuscarora War in North Carolina. The fort was besieged and ultimately attacked by a colonial force consisting of an army from the neighboring Province of South Carolina, under the command of Colonel James Moore and made up mainly of Indians including Yamasee, Apalachee, Catawba, Cherokee, and many others. The siege lasted for more than three weeks, to around March 22. Hundreds of men, women and children were burned to death in a fire that destroyed the fort. Approximately 170 more were killed outside the fort while approximately 400 were taken to South Carolina where they were sold into slavery. The defeat of the Tuscaroras, once the most powerful indigenous nation in the North Carolina Territory, opened up North Carolina’s interior to further expansion by European settlers. The supremacy of the Tuscaroras in the state was broken forever. Most moved north to live among the Iroquois.

1776 – French minister Charles Gravier advised his Spanish counterpart to support the American rebels against the English.

1780 – Pennsylvania became the first U.S. state to abolish slavery (for new-borns only). It was followed by Connecticut and Rhode Island in 1784, New York in 1785, and New Jersey in 1786. Massachusetts abolished slavery through a judicial decision in 1783.

1781 – The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation.

1790 – Congress authorized the first U.S. census. The Connecticut Compromise was a proposal for two houses in the legislature-one based on equal representation for each state, the other for population-based representation-that resolved the dispute between large and small states at the Constitutional Convention. Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman’s proposal led to the first nationwide census in 1790. The population was determined to be 3,929,625, which included 697,624 slaves and 59,557 free blacks. The most populous state was Virginia, with 747,610 people and the most populous city was Philadelphia with 42,444 inhabitants.

1792 – US Presidential Succession Act was passed.

1803 – Ohio is admitted as the 17th U.S. state. The name “Ohio” originated from Iroquois word ohi-yo’, meaning “great river” or “large creek”. The state was originally partitioned from the Northwest Territory. Although there are conflicting narratives regarding the origin of the nickname, Ohio is historically known as the “Buckeye State” (relating to the Ohio buckeye tree) and Ohioans are also known as “Buckeyes”.

1836 – A convention of delegates from 57 Texas communities convenes in Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas, to deliberate independence from Mexico.

1845 – President Tyler signed a congressional resolution to annex the Republic of Texas.

1862 – U.S.S. Tyler, Lieutenant Gwin, and U.S.S. Lexington, Lieutenant Shirk, engaged Confederate forces preparing to strongly fortify Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing), Tennessee. Under cover of the gunboats’ cannon, a landing party of sailors and Army sharpshooters was put ashore from armed boats to determine Confederate strength in the area. Flag Officer Foote commended Gwin for his successful “amphibious” attack where several sailors met their death along with their Army comrades. At the same time he added: “But I must give a general order that no commander will land men to make an attack on shore. Our gunboats are to be used as forts, and as they have no more men than are necessary to man the guns, and as the Army must do the shore work, and as the enemy want nothing better than to entice our men on shore and overpower them with superior numbers, the commanders must not operate on shore, but confine themselves to their vessels.”

1864 – President Lincoln nominates Ulysses S. Grant for the newly revived rank of lieutenant general. At the time, George Washington was the only other man to have held that rank. Winfield Scott also attained the title but by brevet only; he did not actually command with it. The promotion carried Grant to the supreme command of Union forces and capped one of the most remarkable success stories of the war. Born in Ohio in 1822, Grant attended West Point and graduated in 1843, 21st in a class of 39. He served in the Mexican War in 1847 to 1848 and on the frontier in the 1850s. During this time, Grant acquired experience in logistics and the supply of troops, developing skills that later made him a success during the Civil War. He also developed a reputation as a heavy drinker, and he denied charges of drunkenness throughout the war. When the Civil War erupted, Grant was not in the service and was working as a clerk in his father’s store in Galena, Illinois.

Grant reenlisted after Fort Sumter fell in April 1861; his first assignment was to raise troops in Illinois. In June, the governor appointed him colonel of the 21st Illinois. After leading his regiment to protect a railroad in Missouri, Grant was promoted to brigadier general on July 31, 1861. In early 1862, Grant won the first major Union victories of the war when he captured Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee. For the next two years he was the most successful general in the army. His campaign to capture Vicksburg was one of the most efficient offensives of the war, and the Yankees captured the Mississippi River and most of Tennessee under his leadership. Lincoln replaced Henry Halleck as the commander of all Union armies when he elevated Grant to the rank of lieutenant general. Unlike Halleck, Grant did not serve from behind a desk; he took the field with the largest Federal force, the Army of the Potomac, as he moved against Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Virginia.

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1867 – Nebraska becomes the 37th U.S. state; Lancaster, Nebraska is renamed Lincoln and becomes the state capital. Nebraska gets its name from the archaic Otoe words Ñí Brásge, pronounced [ɲĩbɾasꜜkɛ] (contemporary Otoe Ñí Bráhge), or the Omaha Ní Btháska, pronounced [nĩbɫᶞasꜜka], meaning “flat water”, after the Platte River that flows through the state.

1873 – E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter.

1875 – Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which was invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1883.

1876 – Nuova Ottavia, an Italian Ship, grounded off the Jones Hill North Carolina Life-Saving Station. The rescue attempt by the crew of that Life-Saving station resulted in the loss of seven surfmen, the first deaths in the line of duty since the service started with paid crews in 1870. Among the dead was African-American Surfman, Lewis White.

1893 – The US Diplomatic Appropriation Act authorized the rank of ambassador.

1893 – Electrical engineer Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri.

1912 – Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from an airplane at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. Berry jumped from a Benoist pusher biplane from 1,500 feet (457 m) and landed successfully. The pilot was Tony Jannus. The 36 foot (11 m) diameter parachute was contained in a metal canister attached to the underside of the plane – when Berry dropped from the plane his weight pulled the parachute from the canister. Rather than being attached to the parachute by a harness Berry was seated on a trapeze bar. According to Berry he dropped 500 feet (152 m) before the parachute opened.

1913 – The US Federal income tax took effect (16th amendment).

1916 – Germany began attacking ships in the Atlantic.

1917 – The U.S. government releases the unencrypted text of the Zimmermann Telegram to the public.

1927 – A system of broadcasting weather reports by radio on four lightships on the Pacific Coast was put into effect.

1936 – The Hoover Dam is completed.

1941 – “Captain America” first appeared in a comic book.

1941 – Nazi extermination camps begin full operation. These include Auschwitz, Bamberg, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Chelmno, Jena, Sobibor and Treblinka. Over 2.600.000 Polish Jews are among those killed during the course of the war. Over 12.000 people would be killed daily at Auschwitz alone. By 1945 nearly 6 million Jews and more than 3 million Communists, gypsies, socialists and other dissidents will be exterminated.

1941 – The US Navy forms a Support Force for the Atlantic Fleet. The main part of this unit is made up from three destroyer squadrons of 27 ships.

1941 – Nashville radio station W47NV begins transmitting. The station was the first in the country to receive a license for FM radio transmission: All previous commercial stations transmitted via AM, which was more prone to static and interference. The station started its FM broadcast with a commercial for Nashville’s Standard Candy Company.

1942 – American military authorities, angered over the destruction at Pearl Harbor, order Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Maj. Gen. Walter Short, the top Navy and Army officers in Hawaii at the time, court-martialed. When cooler heads prevail, the Army and Navy create Boards of Inquiry to examine the case.

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1942 – U-656 becomes the first German submarine of World War II to be sunk by Naval air (VP-82). The attack was carried out by Ensign William Tepuni piloting a Hudson bomber with Patrol Squadron 82 (VP-82). Two weeks later VP-82 pilot, Chief Aviation Machinist’s Mate Donald Mason, sank U-503 southeast of the Virgin Rocks.

1942 – Baseball decided that players in military can’t play when on furlough.

1942 – The remainder of Doorman’s naval squadron withdraws from Java fighting rear guard actions in the Sunda Strait. The force loses three cruisers and four destroyers. Japanese forces land with little or no opposition on Java at Kragan, Merak and Eretenwetan.

1942 – The “Flying Tigers” volunteer air force under the command of Claire Chennault, move to an RAF bomber base after their exceptional air defense of Rangoon.

1944 – On Los Negros, US forces eliminate some small Japanese forces that infiltrated their lines during the night.

1945 – President Roosevelt, back from the Yalta Conference, proclaimed the meeting a success when he addressed a joint session of Congress.

1945 – Munchen-Gladbach and Neuss fall to the US 9th Army, which is now advancing rapidly toward the Rhine. The attacks of US 1st Army toward Cologne are continuing as are the efforts of US 3rd Army near the River Kyll and south of Trier.

1945 – On Iwo Jima, forces of US 5th Amphibious Corps now hold both the first and second of the island’s airfields and have a foothold at the southern end of the third. There is intensive fighting all along the line.

1945 – Japanese resistance in Manila is confined to a few blocks in the administrative area of the city. Nearer the landing area at Lingayen Gulf there are renewed efforts by US 1st Corps in the direction of Baguio and north along the coast.

1945 – Part of US Task Force 58 conducts air strikes on targets on Okinawa and nearby shipping. Two small Japanese warships are sunk.

1950 – Klaus Fuchs was sentenced in London to 14 years for atomic espionage. He began passing information on the project to the Soviet Union through Ruth Kuczynski, codenamed “Sonia”, a German communist and a major in Soviet Military Intelligence who had worked with Richard Sorge’s spy ring in the Far East. In 1943, Fuchs and Peierls went to Columbia University, in New York City, to work on the Manhattan Project. In August 1944 Fuchs joined the Theoretical Physics Division at the Los Alamos Laboratory, working under Hans Bethe. His chief area of expertise was the problem of implosion (mechanical process), necessary for the development of the plutonium bomb.

After the war he worked at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell as the head of the Theoretical Physics Division. In January 1950, Fuchs confessed that he was a spy. He was sentenced to fourteen years’ imprisonment and stripped of his British citizenship. He was released in 1959, after serving nine years and emigrated to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), where he was elected to the Academy of Sciences and the SED central committee. He was later appointed deputy director of the Institute for Nuclear Research in Rossendorf, where he served until he retired in 1979.

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1951 – U.N. forces opened a major attack on the central front west of Hoengsong.

1953 – Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses; he dies four days later.

1954 – The US performed an atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island. The No. 5 Fukuryu-maru was trolling for tuna off the Bikini atoll in the Pacific. 11 crew members died in the half-century since the exposure, at least six of them from liver cancer. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 66 nuclear tests at Bikini as part of “Operation Crossroads.” In 1955 the US gave Japan $2 million in compensation.

1954 – Ted Williams fractures collarbone in 1st game of spring training after flying 39 combat missions without injury in Korean War.

1954 – In the U.S. Capitol, four members of an extremist Puerto Rican nationalist group fire more than 30 shots at the floor of the House of Representatives from a visitors’ gallery, injuring five U.S. representatives. Alvin Bentley of Michigan, George Fallon of Maryland, Ben Jensen of Iowa, Clifford Davis of Tennessee, and Kenneth Roberts of Alabama all eventually recovered from their gunshot wounds and returned to their seats in Congress. Three of the Puerto Rican terrorists were detained immediately after the shooting, and the fourth was captured later. The group was protesting the new constitution of Puerto Rico, which granted the U.S. Congress ultimate authority over the commonwealth’s affairs.

1955 – The second detonation in the Operation Teapot nuclear tests is conducted. Codenamed Tesla, predicted yield was 3.5-7 kt. The explosive used was Cyclotol 75/25. The nuclear system was a small diameter system only 10 inches wide and 39.5 inches long and weighed 785 lb. Actual yield was 7kt.

1958 – Doctors declared that President Eisenhower had fully recovered from his stroke.

1960 – The Beaufort (South Carolina) Auxiliary Air Station was redesignated a Marine Corps Air Station.

1962 – A US Army memorandum was put out titled “Possible Actions to Provoke, Harass or Disrupt Cuba.”

1962 – US-British nuclear test experiment took place in Nevada.

1965 – Ambassador Maxwell Taylor informs South Vietnamese Premier Phan Huy Quat that the United States is preparing to send 3,500 U.S. Marines to Vietnam to protect the U.S. airbase at Da Nang. Three days later, a formal request was submitted by the U.S. Embassy, asking the South Vietnamese government to “invite” the United States to send the Marines. Premier Quat, a mere figurehead, had to obtain approval from the real power, Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu, chief of the Armed Forces Council. Thieu approved, but asked that the Marines be “brought ashore in the most inconspicuous way feasible.” Rumors of the imminent arrival of American troops soon circulated in Saigon, but there was no official word from either government until March 6 when the Johnson administration publicly confirmed that it would be sending the Marines to South Vietnam.

1966 – The Ba’ath Party takes power in Syria.

1971 – A bomb explodes in the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., causing an estimated $300,000 in damage but hurting no one. A group calling itself the “Weather Underground” claimed credit for the bombing, which was done in protest of the ongoing U.S.-supported Laos invasion. The so-called Weathermen were a radical faction of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); the Weathermen advocated violent means to transform American society. The philosophical foundations of the Weathermen were Marxist in nature; they believed that militant struggle was the key to striking out against the state to build a revolutionary consciousness among the young, particularly the white working class. Their primary tools to achieving these ends were arson and bombing. Among the other targets of Weathermen bombings were the Long Island Court House, the New York Police Department headquarters, the Pentagon, and the State Department.

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1973 – Black September storms the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, resulting in the assassination of three Western hostages. Carried out by the Black September Organization in 1973, the attack on the Saudi embassy in Khartoum was a terrorist attack which took ten diplomats hostage. After President Richard Nixon stated that he refused to negotiate with terrorists, and insisted that “no concessions” would be made, the three Western hostages were killed. The hostages: Cleo A. Noel, Jr., US Ambassador to Sudan; Sheikh Abdullah al Malhouk, Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Sudan Wife of Sheikh Abdullah al Malhouk; Malhouk’s four children; George Curtis Moore, US Deputy Chief of Mission to Sudan; Guy Eid, Belgian Chargé d’affaires to Sudan; Adli al Nasser, Jordanian Chargé d’affaires to Sudan. The gunmen demanded the release of numerous Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, as well as the release of members of the Baader-Meinhof Group, and the release of Sirhan Sirhan.

However, they revised their demands and insisted that ninety Arab militants being held by the Jordanian government must be freed within 24 hours or the hostages would be killed. After twelve hours, the gunmen stated that they had killed Noel, Moore and Eid, the three Western diplomats in their custody. They demanded a plane to take them and their hostages to the United States, which was rejected by both the Sudanese and American governments. The Sudanese government continued to negotiate with the militants, and after three days the gunmen released the remaining hostages and surrendered to Sudanese authorities. In the aftermath it was found that the three of the deceased diplomats had been taken to the basement and killed.

1974 – Seven people, including former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman, former Attorney General John Mitchell and former assistant Attorney General Robert Mardian, were indicted on charges of conspiring to obstruct justice in connection with the Watergate break-in. They were convicted the following January, although Mardian’s conviction was later reversed.

1977 – US extended territorial waters to 200 miles.

1984 – NASA launched Landsat-D Prime (Landsat 5) to map the Earth.

1985 – The Pentagon accepted the theory that an atomic war would block the sun, causing a “nuclear winter”.

1988 – President Reagan arrived in Brussels, Belgium, for the first NATO summit in six years.

1990 – The controversial Seabrook, N.H. nuclear power plant won federal permission to go on line after two decades of protests and legal struggles.

1991 – President Bush said “we’ve kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all” following the allied victory in the Gulf War.

1991 – The US Embassy in Kuwait officially reopened.

1991 – US military specialists surveyed and then detonated a bunker at Kamisiyah, Iraq. The site had been declared a chemical weapons storage area by Iraq after the Gulf War. No trace of chemical agents were found before or after but US & UN inspections teams had earlier found nerve agent rockets and mustard gas shells in open pits at the site. It was later acknowledged by the Pentagon that more than 15,000 US troops may have been exposed to nerve gas due to the detonations. Defense Department logs of this period were later reported lost. In April 1997 the CIA acknowledged errors that led to the demolition.

1995 – Somalia militiamen loyal to warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid seized control of the Mogadishu airport after peacekeepers withdrew.

1996 – President Clinton slapped economic sanctions on Colombia, concluding that Colombian authorities had not fully cooperated with the US war on drugs.

1998 – Iraqi officials and independent experts report that Iraq’s oil production system has fallen into such disrepair that Iraq cannot take full advantage of a recent United Nations Security Council resolution that more than doubled U.N.-authorized Iraqi oil sales to $5.26 billion every six months. Iraq says that, under current conditions, it can sell only $4 billion worth of oil over the next six months, unless it is allowed to purchase more equipment. Experts say that Iraq’s production system needs$800 million of repairs, and that these repairs could take a year or more to complete.

1999 – The 1997 Ottawa Treaty, banning the use, production, transfer and storage of land mines, went into effect. 133 countries honored the treaty but the US and China had not signed it. Participating nations agreed to destroy anti-personnel land mines within 4 years and to get them out of fields within 10.

1999 – US warplanes dropped over 30 laser-guided bombs on military targets in northern Iraq.

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2000 – Hans Blix assumes the post of UNMOVIC Executive Chairman.

2001 – In Ecuador 7 foreign oil workers (a Chilean, an Argentine, a New Zealander and four Americans), kidnapped last October, were released following a $13 million ransom.

2002 – Operation Anaconda begins in which the United States military and CIA Paramilitary Officers, working with allied Afghan military forces, and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and non-NATO forces attempted to destroy al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. The operation took place in the Shahi-Kot Valley and Arma Mountains southeast of Zormat. This operation was the first large-scale battle in the United States War in Afghanistan since the Battle of Tora Bora in December 2001. This was the first operation in the Afghanistan theater to involve a large number of U.S. conventional (i.e. non-Special Operations Forces) forces participating in direct combat activities.

From this date to March 16, 2002 1,700 airlifted U.S. troops and 1,000 pro-government Afghan militia battled between 300 to 1,000 al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters to obtain control of the valley. The Taliban and al-Qaida forces fired mortars and heavy machine guns from entrenched positions in the caves and ridges of the mountainous terrain at U.S. forces attempting to secure the area. Afghan Taliban commander Maulavi Saifur Rehman Mansoor later led Taliban reinforcements to join the battle. U.S. forces had estimated the strength of the rebels in the Shahi-Kot Valley at 150 to 200, but later information suggested the actual strength was of 500 to 1,000 fighters.

2002 – President Bush approved plans to send some 100 US troops to Yemen to help train the nation’s military to fight terrorists.

2002 – The space shuttle Columbia with 7 astronauts blasted into orbit on an 11-day mission that included work on the Hubble Space Telescope.

2002 – NASA scientists said that vast ice fields had been detected under the surface of Mars with a gamma ray spectrometer on the Odyssey orbiter.

2003 – The US designated 3 rebel groups in Chechnya as terrorist organizations linked to al-Qaeda and imposed a freeze on their US assets.

2003 – Arab leaders held a summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The UAE became the 1st Arab country to call for Saddam Hussein to step down.

2003 – Iraq destroyed 4 of over 100 Al Samoud 2 missiles and agreed with the UN on a timetable to dismantle the rest of the missile program.

2003 – In Pakistan a joint raid outside Islamabad by CIA and Pakistani agents led to the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, along with 2 others. Documents and computer files later revealed that the al Qaeda biochemical weapons program was well advanced.

2003 – The Turkish parliament votes narrowly against allowing 62,000 US forces to use Turkey as a platform for a possible invasion of Iraq from the north.

2003 – Administrative control of the Coast Guard, Customs Service, and the United States Secret Service transferred to the newly created Department of Homeland Security.

2004 – US officials said the United States has turned over seven Russian citizens who were being held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

2004 – In Haiti rebels rolled into the capital and were met by hundreds of residents dancing in the streets and cheering the ouster of Pres. Jean-Bertrand Aristide. U.S. Marines and French troops moved to take control of the impoverished country as Aristide arrived in South Africa. There were reports of reprisal killings.

2004 – Jean-Bertrand Aristide from the Central African Republic said in a telephone interview that he was “forced to leave” Haiti by U.S. military forces.

2004 – Iraqi politicians agreed on an interim constitution with 2 official languages, a wide ranging bill of rights and a single chief executive, bridging a gulf between members over the role of Islam in the future government.

2007 – The United States formally charges David Hicks with aiding the Taliban. David Matthew Hicks (born 7 August 1975) is an Australian who was convicted by the United States Guantanamo military commission under the Military Commissions Act of 2006, on charges of providing material support for terrorism. Hicks was detained by the United States in Guantanamo Bay detention camp from 2001 until 2007 following earlier para-military training at Al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan during 2001. He was the first person tried under the new law for military commissions.

2013 – Budget sequestration comes into effect today in the United States Government. The budget sequestration in 2013 refers to the automatic spending cuts to United States federal government spending in particular categories of outlays that were initially set to begin on January 1, 2013, as an austerity fiscal policy as a result of Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA), and were postponed by two months by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 until March 1 when this law went into effect. The reductions in spending authority are approximately $85.4 billion (versus $42 billion in actual cash outlays) during fiscal year 2013, with similar cuts for years 2014 through 2021. However, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the total federal outlays will continue to increase even with the sequester by an average of $238.6 billion per year during the next decade, although at a somewhat lesser rate. The cuts are split evenly (by dollar amounts, not by percentages) between the defense and non-defense categories. Some major programs like Social Security, Medicaid, federal pensions and veteran’s benefits are exempt.

By a special provision in the BCA, Medicare spending will be reduced by a fixed 2% per year versus the other, domestic percents planned for the sequester. Federal pay rates (including military) are unaffected but the sequestration did result in involuntary unpaid time off, also known as furloughs. The sequester lowers spending by a total of approximately $1.1 trillion versus pre-sequester levels over the approximately 8 year period from 2013 to 2021. It lowers non-defense discretionary spending (i.e., certain domestic programs) by a range of 7.8% (in 2013) to 5.5% (in 2021) versus pre-sequester amounts, a total of $294 billion. Defense spending would likewise be lowered by 10% (in 2013) to 8.5% (in 2021), a total of $454 billion. Savings in non-defense mandatory spending would total $170 billion, while interest would be lowered by $169 billion.

2013 – The SpaceX Falcon 9 supply rocket launches from Cape Canaveral SLC-40 as scheduled, but encounters problems once in orbit.

2013 – Boston Dynamics upgrades the prototype United States Army robot BigDog with an arm strong enough to hurl cinderblocks.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

*BRUCE, DANIEL D.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, Headquarters and Service Company, 3d Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Place and date: Fire Support Base Tomahawk, Quang Nam Province, Republic of Vietnam, 1 March 1969. Entered service at: Chicago, 111. Born: 18 May 1950, Michigan City, Ind. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a mortar man with Headquarters and Service Company 3d Battalion, against the enemy. Early in the morning Pfc. Bruce was on watch in his night defensive position at fire support base tomahawk when he heard movements ahead of him.

An enemy explosive charge was thrown toward his position and he reacted instantly, catching the device and shouting to alert his companions. Realizing the danger to the adjacent position with its 2 occupants, Pfc. Bruce held the device to his body and attempted to carry it from the vicinity of the entrenched marines. As he moved away, the charge detonated and he absorbed the full force of the explosion. Pfc. Bruce’s indomitable courage, inspiring valor and selfless devotion to duty saved the lives of 3 of his fellow marines and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

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2 March

1776 – Colonel Knox arrived near Boston with 80 sleds packed with cannons, mortars and other heavy equipment in February and General Washington saw his chance. Even though 2,000 of his 9,000 soldiers didn’t have muskets, he figured out the perfect plan. On March 2 and 3, 1776, soldiers fired all night into the city of Boston from the west. This was a camouflage of what was really happening. South of the city there were hills named Dorchester Heights which reminded General Washington of Bunker and Breed’s Hills. The men without guns moved the artillery brought by Colonel Knox south to Dorchester Heights and set them up so they could protect their gunners and could hit the British in the city.
1776 – The Battle of the Rice Boats. A group of boats containing rice are the target of a British attack on March 2, 1776. The Council of Safety reacts quickly, ordering the local militia to set boats on fire and drive the British away. The Inverness, loaded with rice and deerskins, is set on fire and cut loose, drifting into the brig Nelly. While some 500 Whigs from South Carolina join the 600 Georgia rebels, the two ships drift downstream, setting three more ships on fire. Royal Governor Wright, who has fled tot the relative safety of the British vessels barely escapes.

1781 – Maryland ratified the Articles of Confederation. She was the last state to sign.

1792 – Congress authorized the revenue cutters to fire on merchant ships who refused to “bring to.”

1793 – Samuel Houston, the first president of the independent Republic of Texas, is born in Rockbridge County, Virginia. When Houston was 14, his father died and his mother moved her nine children to the frontier village of Maryville, Tennessee. After working for a time in the Maryville general store, Houston joined the army at the age of 20. There he attracted the admiring attention of his commanding general, Andrew Jackson, and established a distinguished record in the War of 1812. In 1818, intrigued by politics, Houston decided to abandon the military for the law. He completed an 18-month law course in six months. By the following year, he had become a district attorney in Nashville, where he could make important political connections. Five years later, he ran for Congress and won. The people of Tennessee reelected him for a second term and twice made him their governor. Houston’s personal life, however, suffered as his political fortunes soared.

In 1829, his wife abandoned him. Despondent, he resigned the governorship and went to live with Cherokee Indians in Arkansas, serving for several years as their spokesman in Washington. Houston’s interest in the fate of the Arkansas Cherokee led him to make several trips to the neighboring Mexican State of Texas. He became intrigued by the growing Texan movement for political independence from Mexico and decided to make Texas his new home. In 1836, he signed the Texas declaration of independence. Because of his previous military experience, his fellow rebels chose him as commander-in-chief of the revolutionary Texas army. Although his first efforts as a military strategist were failures, Houston led the Texan army to a spectacular victory over superior Mexican forces at San Jacinto in April 1836.

Celebrated as the liberator of Texas, Houston easily won election later that year as the first president of the Republic of Texas. He immediately let it be known that Texas would like to become part of the United States. However, American fears of war with Mexico and questions over the extension of slavery into the new territory interfered with annexation for a decade. Finally, the aggressively expansionist President James Polk pushed Congress to grant statehood to Texas in 1846. Again an American citizen, Houston served for 14 years as a U.S. senator, where he argued eloquently for Native American rights. The divisive issue of slavery finally derailed Houston’s political career. His antislavery beliefs were out of step with the dominant southern ideology of Texas, and he staunchly resisted those who argued for southern secession from the Union during the 1850s. Nonetheless, his enduring popularity won him the governorship in 1859.

When Texas voted to break from the Union in 1861, Houston refused to swear allegiance to the Confederacy. The Texas legislature voted to remove Houston from office and replaced him with a pro-Confederacy governor. Disillusioned, Houston retired to his farm near Huntsville. He died two years later, in 1863, while the fratricidal war he had sought to avoid continued to tear his beloved state and nation apart.

1797 – The Directory of Great Britain authorized vessels of war to board and seize neutral vessels, particularly if the ships were American.

1799 – Congress standardized US weights and measures.

1799 – Congress authorized that “Revenue Cutters shall, whenever the President of the United States shall so direct, cooperate with the Navy of the United States. During which time they shall be under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, and the expenses thereof shall be defrayed by the agents of the Navy Department.”

1799 – Congress authorized revenue cutter officers to board all ships of the United States within four leagues of the U.S., if bound for the U.S. and then search and examine them, certifying manifest, sealing hatches and remaining on board until they arrived in port. They were also authorized to search ships of other nations in United States’ waters and “perform such other duties for the collection and security of the Revenue” as directed by the Secretary of the Treasury.

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1799 – Congress authorized cutters and boats to be “distinguished from other vessels by an ensign and pendant” with the marks thereon prescribed by the President of the United States, to fire on vessels who refused to bring to after the pendant and ensign had been hoisted and a gun fired as a signal, masters to be indemnified from any penalties or actions for damages for so doing, and be admitted to bail if any one is killed or wounded by such firing. On August 1, 1799, Secretary Oliver Wolcott, Jr., prescribed that the ” ensign and pennant’’ should consist of “Sixteen perpendicular stripes, alternate red and white, the union of the ensign to be the arms of the United States in dark blue on a white field.” There were sixteen states in the Union at that time.

1807 – The U.S. Congress passes an act to “prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States…from any foreign kingdom, place, or country.” The first shipload of African captives to North America arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, in August 1619, but for most of the 17th century, European indentured servants were far more numerous in the North American British colonies than were African slaves. However, after 1680, the flow of indentured servants sharply declined, leading to an explosion in the African slave trade. By the middle of the 18th century, slavery could be found in all 13 colonies and was at the core of the Southern colonies’ agricultural economy. By the time of the American Revolution, the English importers alone had brought some three million captive Africans to the Americas. After the war, as slave labor was not a crucial element of the Northern economy, most Northern states passed legislation to abolish slavery. However, in the South, the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 made cotton a major industry and sharply increased the need for slave labor. Tension arose between the North and the South as the slave or free status of new states was debated.

In January 1807, with a self-sustaining population of over four million slaves in the South, some Southern congressmen joined with the North in voting to abolish the African slave trade, an act that became effective January 1, 1808. The widespread trade of slaves within the South was not prohibited, however, and children of slaves automatically became slave themselves, thus ensuring a self-sustaining slave population in the South. Great Britain also banned the African slave trade in 1807, but the trade of African slaves to Brazil and Cuba continued until the 1860s. By 1865, some 12 million Africans had been shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas, and more than one million of these individuals had died from mistreatment during the voyage. In addition, an unknown number of Africans died in slave wars and forced marches directly resulting from the Western Hemisphere’s demand for African slaves.

1815 – To put an end to robberies by the Barbary pirates, the United States declared war on Algiers.

1819 – Territory of Arkansas was organized.

1825 – Roberto Cofresí, one of the last successful Caribbean pirates, is defeated in combat and captured by authorities. The Capture of the El Mosquito refers to the defeat of Roberto Cofresí and his pirate ship off the port town of Boca Del Infierno, Puerto Rico by American and Spanish forces in March 1825. United States Navy ships of the West Indies Squadron, with help from the Spanish Military, heavily damaged Cofresi’s vessel and forced him to abandon her and escape to shore where he was later captured by Puerto Rican authorities and executed.

1829 – Carl Schurz was born in Cologne, Germany. While studying at the University of Bonn he became involved in radical politics. Schurz took part in the 1848 German Revolution and was afterwards forced to flee to Switzerland. Schurz spent time in France and England before emigrating to the United States in 1852. Schurz and his wife lived in New York for a while before buying a farm in Watertown, Wisconsin. In 1856 Margarethe Schurz founded the first kindergarten in America. A strong supporter of universal suffrage, Schurz once wrote: “Our ideals resemble the stars, which illuminate the night. No one will ever be able to touch them. But the men who, like the sailors on the ocean, take them for guides, will undoubtedly reach their goal.” A leading member of the Republican Party, in 1860 Schurz campaigned for Abraham Lincoln in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

After the election, President Lincoln appointed Schurz as U.S. envoy to Spain. Schurz was an active campaigner against slavery and on the outbreak of the American Civil War joined the forces of the Union Army. He helped recuit Germans living in New York before being asked to negotiate with European governments on behalf of Abraham Lincoln. On his return to the United States, Schurz served under General John Fremont, the commander of the Department of the West. Soon afterwards he was given the rank of brigadier general and placed in command of the 3rd Division of the Army of Virginia (26th June, 1862 to 12th September, 1862). Schurz also commanded the 3rd Division of the Army of Potomac (12th September, 1862 to 2nd April, 1863) and took part in the battles at Bull Run (July, 1862) and Fredericksburg (December, 1862). After the battle he was promoted to the rank of major general, replacing his friend and fellow German, Franz Sigel. Schurz also took part in the battle at Chancellorsville (May, 1863) and Gettysburg (July, 1863) before being given command of the 3rd Division of the Army of the Cumberland (25th September, 1863 to 21st January, 1864).

After the war Schurz worked as the Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune. This was followed by a period as editor-in-chief of the Detroit Post. In 1867 he became editor of the German language newspaper, the Westliche Post, in St. Louis, Missouri. Schurz remained active in the Republican Party and in 1869 was elected to the Senate. In 1872 he, like many Radical Republicans, supported Horace Greeley against Ulysses S. Grant, the official Republican candidate. Despite the efforts of Schurz and his close friend in Missouri, Joseph Pulitzer, Grant won the presidential election by 286 electoral votes to 66. In 1877 President Rutherford Hayes appointed Schurz as his secretary of the interior.

Over the next four years Schurz introduced civil service reforms and made improvements to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. After leaving office in 1881 Schurz returned to journalism and became managing editor of the New York Evening Post. He also wrote for Harper’s Weekly, The Nation and had several books published including The Life of Henry Clay (1887) and Abraham Lincoln (1891). Carl Schurz died on 14th May, 1906.

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1836 – During the Texas Revolution, a convention of American Texans meets at Washington-on-the-Brazos and declares the independence of Texas from Mexico. The delegates chose David Burnet as provisional president and confirmed Sam Houston as the commander in chief of all Texan forces. The Texans also adopted a constitution that protected the free practice of slavery, which had been prohibited by Mexican law. Meanwhile, in San Antonio, Santa Anna’s siege of the Alamo continued, and the fort’s 185 or so American defenders waited for the final Mexican assault. In 1820, Moses Austin, a U.S. citizen, asked the Spanish government in Mexico for permission to settle in sparsely populated Texas. Land was granted, but Austin died soon thereafter, so his son, Stephen F. Austin, took over the project.

In 1821, Mexico gained independence from Spain, and Austin negotiated a contract with the new Mexican government that allowed him to lead some 300 families to the Brazos River. Under the terms of the agreement, the settlers were to be Catholics, but Austin mainly brought Protestants from the southern United States. Other U.S. settlers arrived in succeeding years, and the Americans soon outnumbered the resident Mexicans. In 1826, a conflict between Mexican and American settlers led to the Freedonia Rebellion, and in 1830 the Mexican government took measures to stop the influx of Americans. In 1833, Austin, who sought statehood for Texas in the Mexican federation, was imprisoned after calling on settlers to declare it without the consent of the Mexican congress. He was released in 1835.

In 1834, Antonio Lpez de Santa Anna, a soldier and politician, became dictator of Mexico and sought to crush rebellions in Texas and other areas. In October 1835, Anglo residents of Gonzales, 50 miles east of San Antonio, responded to Santa Anna’s demand that they return a cannon loaned for defense against Indian attack by discharging it against the Mexican troops sent to reclaim it. The Mexicans were routed in what is regarded as the first battle of the Texas Revolution. The American settlers set up a provisional state government, and a Texan army under Sam Houston won a series of minor battles in the fall of 1835. In December, Texas volunteers commanded by Ben Milam drove Mexican troops out of San Antonio and settled in around the Alamo, a mission compound adapted to military purposes around 1800.

In January 1836, Santa Anna concentrated a force of several thousand men south of the Rio Grande, and Sam Houston ordered the Alamo abandoned. Colonel James Bowie, who arrived at the Alamo on January 19, realized that the fort’s captured cannons could not be removed before Santa Anna’s arrival, so he remained entrenched with his men. By delaying Santa Anna’s forces, he also reasoned, Houston would have more time to raise an army large enough to repulse the Mexicans. On February 2, Bowie and his 30 or so men were joined by a small cavalry company under Colonel William Travis, bringing the total number of Alamo defenders to about 140. One week later, the frontiersman Davy Crockett arrived in command of 14 Tennessee Mounted Volunteers.

On February 23, Santa Anna and some 3,000 Mexican troops besieged the Alamo, and the former mission was bombarded with cannon and rifle fire for 12 days. On February 24, in the chaos of the siege, Colonel Travis smuggled out a letter that read: “To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World…. I shall never surrender or retreat…. Victory or Death!” On March 1, the last Texan reinforcements from nearby Gonzales broke through the enemy’s lines and into the Alamo, bringing the total defenders to approximately 185.

On March 2, Texas’ revolutionary government formally declared its independence from Mexico. In the early morning of March 6, Santa Anna ordered his troops to storm the Alamo. Travis’ artillery decimated the first and then the second Mexican charge, but in just over an hour the Texans were overwhelmed, and the Alamo was taken. Santa Anna had ordered that no prisoners be taken, and all the Texan and American defenders were killed in brutal hand-to-hand fighting. The only survivors of the Alamo were a handful of civilians, mostly women and children. Several hundred of Santa Anna’s men died during the siege and storming of the Alamo.

Six weeks later, a large Texan army under Sam Houston surprised Santa Anna’s army at San Jacinto. Shouting “Remember the Alamo!” the Texans defeated the Mexicans and captured Santa Anna. The Mexican dictator was forced to recognize Texas’ independence and withdrew his forces south of the Rýo Grande. Texas sought annexation by the United States, but both Mexico and antislavery forces in the United States opposed its admission into the Union. For nearly a decade, Texas existed as an independent republic, and Houston was Texas’ first elected president. In 1845, Texas joined the Union as the 28th state, leading to the outbreak of the Mexican-American War.

1853 – The Territory of Washington was organized after separating from Oregon Territory.

1859 – Launch of Saginaw at Mare Island, first Navy ship built on the West Coast of the United States.

1861 – The Territory of Nevada was created by an act of Congress. The first elected governor of the state was Henry G. Blasdel. US Congress created the Dakota & Nevada Territories out of the Nebraska & Utah territories.

1861 – U.S. Revenue Schooner Henry Dodge, First Lieutenant William F. Rogers, USRM, was seized at Galveston, as Texas joined the Confederacy.

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1862 – Gen’l. Frederick W. Lander (b.1821), transcontinental engineer and Union General, died of “congestion of the brain” at Paw Paw, Virginia. He was the chief engineer of the Central Overland route. In 2000 Gary L. Ecalbarger authored “Frederick W. Lander: The Great Natural American Soldier.”

1865 – General Lee proposed peace to Grant. President Abraham Lincoln rejected Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s plea for peace talks, demanding unconditional surrender.

1865 – Union General George Custer’s troops rout Confederate General Jubal Early’s force, bringing an end to fighting in the Shenandoah Valley. The Shenandoah Valley was the scene of many battles and skirmishes during the Civil War. It was located directly in the path of armies invading from the south–as Confederate General Robert E. Lee did during the 1863 Gettysburg campaign-and the north. The fertile valley could sustain armies, and the gentle terrain allowed for rapid troop movement. In 1862, Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson staged a brilliant campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, defeating three Yankee armies with quick marching and bold attacks. In 1864, Early drove through the valley to threaten Washington, D.C., as he tried to relieve pressure on Lee, who was pinned down near Richmond. That fall, General Ulysses S. Grant, the Union commander, dispatched General Philip Sheridan to stop Early. At Cedar Creek on October 19, Sheridan achieved his goal. The Confederates were soundly defeated, but the remnants of Early’s force lingered at the southern end of the valley through the winter of 1864 and 1865.

Grant ordered Sheridan to move further west and destroy a railroad in southwestern Virginia. As Sheridan marched from the valley, Early sent a few hundred cavalry under General Thomas Rosser to block his path. On March 1, Rosser set fire to a bridge along the middle fork of the Shenandoah River, but Custer, leading the advance units of Sheridan’s army, charged across the burning span and extinguished the fire before the bridge was destroyed. The next day, Custer followed Sheridan’s orders and chased down the bulk of Early’s force, which numbered about 2,000. Custer and about 5,000 troops found the Confederates entrenched along a ridge near Waynesboro. Part of the Yankee army shelled the Rebel position, while the rest slipped undetected through some woods that stood between Early’s line and the South River. Custer gave the order in the late afternoon, and the Union troops stormed out of the woods and swarmed over the Confederate trenches from the rear. In a short time, 80 percent of the Confederates were captured and only nine Federal troops were killed. Early and his staff narrowly escaped over the Blue Ridge Mountains, marking the end of the Confederate presence in the Shenandoah Valley.

1867 – The first Reconstruction Act was passed by Congress, it divided the South into five districts, each governed by martial law. It was the first of a series of four bills that the Radicals passed that year.

1867 – Jacob Zeilin, Colonel Commandant of the Marine Corps from 30 June 1864, was this date promoted to the rank of Brigadier General Commandant, the first time Congress authorized this rank for the Marine Corps. The statute, however, was repealed in June 1874 so that the rank of Commandant would again revert to colonel upon Zeilin’s retirement. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 16 July, 1806; died in Washington, D. C., 18 November, 1880. He entered the marine corps and was commissioned a 2d lieutenant, 1 October, 1831, promoted to 1st lieutenant, 12 September, 1836, and cruised in the “Columbus” and “Congress” in 1845-‘8 during the Mexican war. He participated in the operations on the Pacific coast and in de fence of Monterey, 15 July, 1846, was transferred to command the marines in the frigate ” Congress,” and took part with Commander Robert F. Stockton in the conquest of California.

He was brevetted major for gallantry in the action at crossing San Gabriel river, 9 January, 1847, and took part in the capture of Los Angeles and in the battle of La Mesa. He was military commandant at San Diego in 1847, and participated in the capture of Guaymas in September. 1847, and in the action at San Jose, 30 September, 1847. During October, 1847, and till the end of the war, he was at Mazatlan, where he tool; part in frequent skirmishes with the Mexicans, who had been obliged to evacuate the city. He was commissioned captain, 14 September, 1847, and served at New York in 1849, and in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1849-’52. He was fleet marine-officer in the flag-ship “Mississippi,” in Commander Matthew C. Perry’s expedition to Japan in 1852-‘4, and commanded the battalion of marines at the landing on 14 July, 1853. He was stationed at Norfolk in 1854-‘7, and at Washington in 1857, and there commanded the first; company of marines which quelled the riot of Baltimore roughs, 1 June, 1857.

When the civil war began he took command of the right company in the marine battalion in co-operation with the army in 1861, participated in the battle of Bull Run on 21 July, and was slightly wounded, he was commissioned major in the marine corps, 26 July, 1861, was commandant at New York barracks in 18(i2-‘3, and in August, 1863, had command of the marine battalion that sailed from New York and landed on Morris island, Charleston harbor, to participate in the operations of the South Atlantic blockading squadron under Admiral Dahlgren. In March, 1864, he returned to the north and took command of the marine barracks at Portsmouth, New Hampshire He was appointed colonel commandant of the marine corps, 10 June, 1864, and assumed control at headquarters at Washington, D. C. He was commissioned brigadier-general commandant, 2 March, 1867. General Zeilin was retired on account of age and long and faithful service, 1 November, 1876.

1876 – Birthday of Civil Engineer Corps.

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1877 – Congress accepts an electoral commission’s decision that Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won the disputed presidential election of the previous November. Three days later, Hayes was inaugurated as the 19th U.S. president. The result was greeted with outrage by some Northern Democrats, who thereafter referred to Hayes as “His Fraudulency.” One of President Hayes’ first acts was to end the federal military occupation of the South and to recognize Democratic control over the region, thus bringing the Reconstruction era to a close.

On November 7, 1876, Democratic presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden received more popular votes than Hayes, and early returns indicated a Democratic victory in the electoral college as well. However, Republicans refused to concede on the grounds that returns from Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina were still in dispute, and because a presidential elector in Oregon, who voted for Hayes, was found ineligible. The Oregon elector, John Watts, served in the appointive position of postmaster for one week after learning he was chosen to be an elector.

Although he resigned well before the December electoral vote, Democrats claimed he violated the constitutional clause that no elected or appointed official may serve as a presidential elector. A candidate needed 185 electoral votes to win, and with these 20 electoral votes still undecided Tilden had 184 votes to Hayes’ 165 votes. Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina each sent two sets of electors to the electoral college, and the Republicans and Democrats each claimed the disputed Oregon vote. The Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives could not decide how to count the votes, and a deadlock ensued.

Finally, at the end of January 1877, Congress voted to establish a special electoral commission to decide the disputed presidential election, with five members from each house of Congress and five members from the Supreme Court. There were seven Democrats, seven Republicans, and one independent, Supreme Court Justice David Davis. However, before any voting occurred, Davis resigned from the commission when he was elected a U.S. senator from Illinois. The justice who replaced him was Joseph Bradley, a staunch Republican. The commission voted along party lines, with Hayes receiving eight votes to Tilden’s seven, and Democrats in Congress launched filibusters and other delay tactics to block approval of the decision.

Finally, in late February, some House Democrats began to support Hayes’ claim. Although no bargain was publicly revealed, it is known that Southern Democrats were assured of a conciliatory attitude toward the South under a Hayes administration, including acceptance of Democratic governors and a withdrawal of federal troops. In the early morning of March 2, Congress agreed to award the contested votes to Hayes, giving him a bare majority over Tilden, and he won the presidency.

Shortly after Hayes’ inauguration, the Republican Party’s radical Reconstruction policies, which dominated Southern politics for nearly a decade, all but collapsed. If Tilden had been elected, however, the result would likely have much been the same. During Hayes’ four years in the White House, the Southern Republican Party vanished, as Southern state governments effectively nullified the 14th and 15th Amendments, stripping Southern African Americans of the right to vote. It would be nearly a century before the nation would again attempt to establish equal rights for African Americans in the South.

1889 – Congress passed the Indian Appropriations Bill, proclaiming unassigned lands in the public domain; the first step toward the famous Oklahoma Land Rush.

1899 – President McKinley signed a measure creating the rank of Admiral of the Navy for Admiral George Dewey.

1901 – Congress passed the Platt amendment, which limited Cuban autonomy as a condition for withdrawal of U.S. troops and makes Puerto Rico a protectorate.

1908 – An international conference on arms reduction opened in London.

1917 – Congress passes the Jones Act, making Puerto Rico a United States Territory and Puerto Ricans, US citizens.

1925 – The first nationwide highway numbering system was instituted by the joint board of state and federal highway officials appointed by the secretary of agriculture. In order to minimize confusion caused by the array of multiform state-appointed highway signs, the board created the shield-shaped highway number markers that have become a comforting sight to lost travelers in times since. Later, interstate highway numbering would be improved by colored signs and the odd-even demarcation that distinguishes between north-south and east-west travel respectively. As America got its kicks on Route 66, it did so under the aegis of the trusty shield. For instance, in the east, there is U.S. 1 that runs from New England to Florida and in the west, the corresponding highway, U.S. 101, from Tacoma, WA to San Diego, CA.

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1929 – The Jones Act, the last gasp of the Prohibition, is passed by Congress. Since 1920 when the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect, the United States had banned the production, importation and sale of alcoholic beverages. But the laws were ineffective at actually stopping the consumption of alcohol. The Jones Act strengthened the federal penalties for bootlegging. Of course, within five years the country ended up rejecting Prohibition and repealing the Eighteenth Amendment. Prohibition was never particularly popular across the nation and when the people slowly realized that it had other ramifications, it rapidly fell by the wayside. The chief problem with Prohibition is that it didn’t stop the public’s demand for alcohol. Although consumption did drop in raw numbers, it remained substantial.

In order to fill this demand, an entire criminal infrastructure was created virtually overnight. The enormous amounts of money that were available in illegal trafficking helped established organized crime. The nation’s major cities were dominated by criminal syndicates that could afford to bribe officials throughout the criminal justice system. This, in turn, produced a significant change in law enforcement. For the first time, the federal government became a major player in policing and prosecuting law breakers. Many feel that Prohibition also caused a major breakdown in the social fabric because of its effect on the national psyche. With so many of the people brazenly ignoring the law, an atmosphere of cynicism and hypocrisy was established. When the Eighteenth Amendment was finally repealed, Prohibition was widely viewed as a total failure.

1939 – The Massachusetts legislature voted to ratify the Bill of Rights, 147 years after the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution had gone into effect.

1943 – U.S. and Australian land-based planes begin an offensive against a convoy of Japanese ships in the Bismarck Sea, in the western Pacific. On March 1, U.S. reconnaissance planes spotted 16 Japanese ships en route to Lae and Salamaua in New Guinea. The Japanese were attempting to keep from losing the island and their garrisons there by sending 7,000 reinforcements and aircraft fuel and supplies. But a U.S. bombing campaign, beginning March 2 and lasting until the March 4, consisting of 137 American bombers supported by U.S. and Australian fighters, destroyed eight Japanese troop transports and four Japanese destroyers.

More than 3,000 Japanese troops and sailors drowned as a consequence, and the supplies sunk with their ships. Of 150 Japanese fighter planes that attempted to engage the American bombers, 102 were shot down. It was an utter disaster for the Japanese–the U.S. 5th Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force dropped a total of 213 tons of bombs on the Japanese convoy. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill chose March 4, the official end of the battle, to congratulate President Franklin D. Roosevelt, since that day was also the 10th anniversary of the president’s first inauguration. “Accept my warmest congratulations on your brilliant victory in the Pacific, which fitly salutes the end of your first 10 years.”

1943 – US forces recover Sbeitla, Tunisia and advance toward Feriana. To their north, the British hold against Axis attacks.

1944 – A second 1000 men from the US 5th Cavalry Regiment arrives at Los Negros. Meanwhile, the American forces already on the island capture Momote airfield with fire support from destroyers offshore.

1944 – Lend-Lease aid to Turkey is cut off because it is reluctant to join the war on the Allied side or make any other contribution to the war effort.

1945 – Trier is captured by units of US 20th Corps, part of US 3rd Army. The US 1st Army, to the north, is extending its advance beyond the Erft River toward Cologne and to the south. US 9th Army captures Roermond and Venlo on the Maas on the left flank of its advance while on the right, the Rhine River is reached opposite Dusseldorg.

1945 – Elements of US Task Force 58, consisting of 4 cruisers and 15 destroyers, under the command of Admiral Whiting, bombard Okino Daito Jima.

1946 – Ho Chi Minh was elected president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

1949 – The Lucky Lady II (USAF B-50 Super Fortress), landed at Fort Worth , Texas, after completing the first non-stop, round-the-world flight: 23,452-mis in 94 hours.

1950 – Silly Putty was introduced as a toy. Silly Putty was accidentally invented by Earl Warrick, a Dow scientist, while searching for a silicone-based rubber substance during WW II.

1951 – The U.S. Navy launched the K-1, the first modern submarine designed to hunt enemy submarines.

1953 – The United Nations Command continued to reaffirm that it never engaged in germ warfare in Korea.

1962 – JFK announced US will resume above ground nuclear testing.

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1965 – Operation Rolling Thunder begins with more than 100 United States Air Force jet bombers striking an ammunition depot at Xom Bang, 10 miles inside North Vietnam. Simultaneously, 60 South Vietnamese Air Force propeller planes bombed the Quang Khe naval base, 65 miles north of the 17th parallel. Six U.S. planes were downed, but only one U.S. pilot was lost. Capt. Hayden J. Lockhart, flying an F-100, was shot down and became the first Air Force pilot to be taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese. Lockhart was released in 1973 when U.S. POWs were returned under provisions of the Paris Peace Accords. The raid was the result of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s decision in February to undertake the sustained bombing of North Vietnam that he and his advisers had been considering for more than a year.

The goal of Rolling Thunder was to interdict North Vietnamese transportation routes in the southern part of North Vietnam and the slow infiltration of personnel and supplies into South Vietnam. In July 1966, Rolling Thunder was expanded to include North Vietnamese ammunition dumps and oil storage facilities as targets and in the spring of 1967 it was further expanded to include power plants, factories, and airfields in the Hanoi-Haiphong area. The White House closely controlled Operation Rolling Thunder and President Johnson occasionally selected the targets himself.

From 1965 to 1968, about 643,000 tons of bombs were dropped on North Vietnam. A total of nearly 900 U.S. aircraft were lost during Operation Rolling Thunder. The operation continued, with occasional suspensions, until President Johnson halted it on October 31, 1968, under increasing domestic political pressure.

1966 – There were some 215,000 US soldiers in Vietnam.

1967 – US performed a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1968 – The siege of Khe Sanh ended in Vietnam, the U.S. Marines stationed there were still in control of the mountain top.

1968 – USAF displayed Lockheed C-5A Galaxy, biggest plane in the world.

1970 – Supreme Court ruled draft evaders can not be penalized after 5 years.

1972 – Pioneer 10, the world’s first outer-planetary probe, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to Jupiter, the solar system’s largest planet. In December 1973, after successfully negotiating the asteroid belt and a distance of 620 million miles, Pioneer 10 reached Jupiter and sent back to Earth the first close-up images of the spectacular gas giant. In June 1983, the NASA spacecraft left the solar system and the next day radioed back the first scientific data on interstellar space. NASA officially ended the Pioneer 10 project on March 31, 1997, with the spacecraft having traveled a distance of some six billion miles.

Headed in the direction of the Taurus constellation, Pioneer 10 will pass within three light years of another star–Ross 246–in the year 34,600 A.D. Bolted to the probe’s exterior wall is a gold-anodized plaque, 6 by 9 inches in area, that displays a drawing of a human man and woman, a star map marked with the location of the sun, and another map showing the flight path of Pioneer 10. The plaque, intended for intelligent life forms elsewhere in the galaxy, was designed by astronomer Carl Sagan.

1973 – Women begin pilot training in U.S. Navy.

1973 – Federal forces surrounded Wounded Knee, South Dakota, which was occupied by members of the militant American Indian Movement who were holding at least 10 hostages.

1973 – Arab commandos, “Black September” terrorists, led by Abu Jihad executed 3 hostages in Khartoum, Sudan, after Pres. Nixon refused their demands. US ambassador Cleo A. Noel, deputy George Curtis Moore and Belgian charge d’affaires Guy Eid. The operation was later reported to have been organized by Yasser Arafat.

1974 – A grand jury in Washington, D.C. concluded that President Nixon was indeed involved in the Watergate cover-up.

1981 – The United States planned to send 20 more advisors and $25 million in military aid to El Salvador.

1988 – The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to order the United States to submit to binding arbitration its plan to close the observer mission of the Palestine Liberation Organization. A federal court later stopped the U.S.

1989 – A grenade attack in downtown Panama killed a U.S. soldier and injured 28 other people at the My Place discotheque on Via Espania and Calle 50.

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1991 – The United Nations Security Council passes Security Council Resolution 686 establishing cease-fire terms. The United Nations requires Iraq to rescind its annexation of Kuwait, to accept in principle liability for damages and injuries caused by the invasion and occupation of Kuwait, to release coalition POWs immediately, to release all Kuwaitis, third country nationals, and remains in Iraqi government possession, to return all stolen Kuwaiti property, to end all military action, to identify mines and booby traps (and disclose information on any chemical or biological weapons stored) in areas of Iraq occupied by coalition forces.

1991 – Iraq released CBS newsman Bob Simon and his crew, held captive for nearly six weeks.

1991 – Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq and the Kurds rose up against Iraqi forces but were crushed by Iraqi armor that killed 50,000 and forced more than a million Kurds to flee to Turkey and Iran.

1993 – Members of 10th Mountain Divisions Bravo Company 2/87 Infantry fight their way out of a crossfire in Kismaayo. 4 grunts, while pinned down, kill 9 Somalis. No US casualties.

1995 – The space shuttle STS-67 (Endeavour 8) blasted off to study the far reaches of the universe.

1995 – The last U.N. peacekeepers in Somalia were evacuated.

1998 – The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves Resolution 1154 endorsing Secretary Kofi Annan’s agreement with Iraq on weapons inspections which includes the controversial presidential palaces. The Resolution threatens any Iraqi violation of the agreement with the “severest consequences.”

1998 – Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter’s moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.

1999 – In Uganda Hutu rebels killed 8 hostages and 4 Ugandans. Among the dead were Americans Robert Haubner and Susan Miller of Hillsboro, Ore. They were there to track the mountain gorillas. Uganda insisted that the 2 Americans, 4 Britons and 2 New Zealanders died in a police rescue bid.

2000 – Dr. Larry C. Ford committed suicide just days after a botched assassination attempt on his business partner at Biofem Inc., of Irvine, Calif. Ford had met with scientists from South Africa’s Project Coast in the 1980s to discuss chemical and biological warfare under Wouter Basson, head of the project. Project Coast, which has been accused of trying to create deadly bacteria that would only affect blacks, poisoning opponents’ clothing and stockpiling cholera, HIV and anthrax, opened an offshore bank account to pay Ford. In 2002 former FBI informant Peter Fitzpatrick told “60 Minutes” that Ford passed a bag filled with cholera, typhoid, botulism, anthrax and bubonic plague to a South African military doctor during a meeting at the house of the South African trade attache in California.

2001 – In Afghanistan the Taliban began the destruction of the giant Buddha of Bamiyan despite int’l. protests. The United Nations tried in vain to persuade Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban to reverse its decision to destroy a pair of giant, ancient statues of Buddha and other Buddhist relics that the regime considered idolatrous.

2002 – U.S. and Afghan forces launched an offensive, Operation Anaconda, on al-Qaeda and Taliban forces entrenched in the mountains of Shahi-Kot southeast of Gardez. The Mujahideen forces, who used small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortars, were entrenched into caves and bunkers in the hillsides at an altitude that was largely above 10,000 feet (3,000 m). They used “hit and run” tactics, opening fire on the U.S. and Afghan forces and then retreating back into their caves and bunkers to weather the return fire and persistent U.S. bombing raids. To compound the situation for the coalition troops, U.S. commanders initially underestimated the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces as a last isolated pocket numbering fewer than 200. It turned out that the guerrillas numbered between 1,000–5,000 according to some estimates and that they were receiving reinforcements.

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2003 – UN weapons inspectors returned to an Iraqi military compound to supervise the disposal of more outlawed Al Samoud 2 rockets.

2003 – North Korea deployed 4 MiGs to intercept a US RC-135S spy plane some 150 miles off its coast.

2003 – The United Arab Emirates won support from Kuwait and Bahrain in its call for Saddam Hussein to quit power to avert a war.

2003 – US officials say that US warplanes patrolling the southern no-fly zone in Iraq have attacked four military communications facilities and one air defence facility after Iraqi forces fired at US and British planes.

2004 – NASA scientists reported that the Mars rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that water was once present on the surface.

2005 – President Bush demanded in blunt terms that Syria get out of Lebanon.

2005 – In Florida dozens of dolphins beached on the Florida Keys. Sonar from a US submarine was later suspected.

2005 – Pakistani police arrested a man wanted in the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and already sentenced to death in absentia for a hotel bombing that killed 11 French engineers.

2006 – Just two days before U.S. President George W. Bush is scheduled to visit Pakistan, a car bomb exploded in the Marriott Hotel Karachi parking lot adjacent to a United States consulate in Karachi, killing at least four people including a US diplomat and his driver and injuring at least fifty others.

2007 – The Bush administration selects a design from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for a new generation of nuclear warheads scheduled to replace the Trident missile on submarines by 2012.

2007 – The United States Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey resigns over poor conditions at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. President Bush later orders a full review of health care available to returning soldiers.

2011 – Two United States Air Force personnel are killed and two others injured after a gunman opens fire at Frankfurt Airport in Germany.

2011 – The United States military files new charges against Private Bradley Manning in relation to the leak of the WikiLeaks cables.

2011 – Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of US politician Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, is denied parole again in California.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

ANDERSON, CHARLES W.
Rank and organization: Private, Company K, 1st New York (Lincoln) Cavalry. Place and date: At Waynesboro, Va., 2 March 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: New Orleans, La. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Capture of unknown Confederate flag.

BICKFORD, HENRY H.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company E, 8th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Waynesboro, Va., 2 March 1865. Entered service at: Hartland, Niagara County, N.Y. Birth: Michigan. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Recapture of flag.

BRUTON ( BRATON ), CHRISTOPHER C.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company C, 22d New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Waynesboro, Va., 2 March 1865. Entered service at: Riga, Monroe County, N.Y. Birth:——. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Capture of Gen. Early’s headquarters flag. Confederate national standard.

CARMAN, WARREN
Rank and organization: Private, Company H, 1st New York (Lincoln) Cavalry. Place and date: At Waynesboro, Va., 2 March 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Seneca County, N.Y. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Capture of flag and several prisoners.

COMPSON, HARTWELL B.
Rank and organization: Major, 8th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Waynesboro, Va., 2 March 1865. Entered service at: Seneca Falls, N.Y. Birth: Seneca Falls, N.Y. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Capture of flag belonging to Gen. Early’s headquarters.

CROWLEY, MICHAEL
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 22d New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Waynesboro, Va., 2 March 1865. Entered service at: Rochester, N.Y. Birth: Rochester, N.Y. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

DUNCAN, JAMES K. L.
Rank and organization: Ordinary Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1845, Frankfort, Pa. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No.: 32, 16 April 1864. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Fort Hindman during the engagement near Harrisonburg, La., 2 March 1864. Following a shellburst at one of the guns which started a fire at the cartridge tie, Duncan immediately seized the burning cartridge, took it from the gun and threw it overboard, despite the immediate danger to himself. Carrying out his duties through the entire engagement, Duncan served courageously during this action in which the Fort Hindman was raked severely with shot and shell from the enemy guns.

GOHEEN, CHARLES A.
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company G, 8th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Waynesboro, Va., 2 March 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Groveland, N.Y. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

HARVEY, HARRY
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company A, 22d New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Waynesboro, Va., 2 March 1865. Entered service at: Rochester, N.Y. Birth: England. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Capture of flag and bearer, with two other prisoners.

JOHNSTON, WILLIAM P.
Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill. Birth: Chicago, Ill. G.O. No.: 32, 16 April 1864. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Fort Hindman during the engagement near Harrisonburg, La., 2 March 1864. Badly wounded in the hand during the action, Johnston, despite his wound, took the place of another man to sponge and lead one of the guns throughout the entire action in which the Fort Hindman was raked severely with shot and shell from the enemy guns.

KELLY, DANIEL
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company G, 8th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Waynesboro, Va., 2 March 1865. Entered service at:——. Birth: Groveland, N.Y. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

KUDER, ANDREW
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, Company G, 8th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Waynesboro, Va., 2 March 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Groveland, N.Y. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

LADD, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Private, Company H, 22d New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Waynesboro, Va., 2 March 1865. Entered service at: Carmillus, Onondaga County, N.Y. Birth: Carmillus, N.Y. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Captured a standard bearer, his flag, horse and equipment.

MADISON, JAMES
Rank and organization. Sergeant, Company E, 8th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Waynesboro, Va., 2 March 1865. Entered service at: Fairport, N.Y. Birth: Niagara, N.Y. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Recapture of Gen. Crook’s headquarters flag.

MILLER, JOHN
Rank and organization: Private, Company H, 8th New York Cavalry Place and date: At Waynesboro, Va., 2 March 1865. Entered service at. Rochester, N.Y. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

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MOLLOY, HUGH
Rank and organization: Ordinary Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1832, Illinois. Accredited to: Illinois. G.O. No.: 32, 16 April 1864. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Fort Hindman during the engagement near Harrisonburg, La., 2 March 1864. Following a shellburst which mortally wounded the first sponger, who dropped the sponge out of the forecastle port, Molloy jumped out of the port to the forecastle, recovered the sponge and sponged and loaded the gun for the remainder of the action from his exposed position, despite the extreme danger to his person from the raking fire of enemy musketry.

NIVEN, ROBERT
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, Company H, 8th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Waynesboro, Va., 2 March 1865. Entered service at: Rochester, N.Y. Born: 18 December 1833, Harlem, N.Y. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Capture of 2 flags.

O’BRIEN, PETER
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 1st New York (Lincoln) Cavalry. Place and date: At Waynesboro, Va., 2 March 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Capture of flag and of a Confederate officer with his horse and equipment.

*CUTINHA, NICHOLAS J.
Rank and organization: Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army, Company C, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Gia Dinh, Republic of Vietnam, 2 March 1968. Entered service at: Coral Gables, Fla. Born: 13 January 1945, Fernandina Beach, Fla. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. While serving as a machine gunner with Company C, Sp4c. Cutinha accompanied his unit on a combat mission near Gia Dinh. Suddenly his company came under small arms, automatic weapons, mortar and rocket propelled grenade fire, from a battalion size enemy unit.

During the initial hostile attack, communication with the battalion was lost and the company commander and numerous members of the company became casualties. When Sp4c. Cutinha observed that his company was pinned down and disorganized, he moved to the front with complete disregard for his safety, firing his machine gun at the charging enemy. As he moved forward he drew fire on his own position and was seriously wounded in the leg. As the hostile fire intensified and half of the company was killed or wounded, Sp4c. Cutinha assumed command of all the survivors in his area and initiated a withdrawal while providing covering fire for the evacuation of the wounded. He killed several enemy soldiers but sustained another leg wound when his machine gun was destroyed by incoming rounds.

Undaunted, he crawled through a hail of enemy fire to an operable machine gun in order to continue the defense of his injured comrades who were being administered medical treatment. Sp4c. Cutinha maintained this position, refused assistance, and provided defensive fire for his comrades until he fell mortally wounded. He was solely responsible for killing 15 enemy soldiers while saving the lives of at least 9 members of his own unit. Sp4c. Cutinha’s gallantry and extraordinary heroism were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

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3 March

1747 – Kasimir Pulaski, US General (Revolutionary War), was born.

1776 – First amphibious landing operation. Continental naval squadron under Commodore Esek Hopkins lands Sailors and Marines, commanded by Captain Samuel Nicholas, on New Providence Island in the Bahamas, capturing urgently-needed ordnance and gunpowder. The Battle of Nassau (March 3–4, 1776) was a naval action and amphibious assault by American forces against the British port of Nassau, Bahamas, during the American War of Independence. It is considered the first cruise and one of the first engagements of the newly established Continental Navy and the Continental Marines, the progenitors of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The action was also the Marines’ first amphibious landing. It is sometimes known as the Raid of Nassau.

Departing from Cape Henlopen, Delaware, on February 17, 1776, the fleet arrived in the Bahamas on March 1, with the objective of seizing gunpowder and munitions that were known to be stored there. Two days later the marines went ashore and seized Fort Montagu at the eastern end of the Nassau harbor, but did not advance to the town, where the gunpowder was stored. That night, Nassau’s governor had most of the gunpowder loaded aboard ships that then sailed for St. Augustine. On March 4, the colonial marines advanced and took control of the poorly defended town. The colonial forces remained at Nassau for two weeks, and took away all the remaining gunpowder and munitions they could.

1779 – The Battle of Brier Creek was an American Revolutionary War battle fought near the confluence of Brier Creek with the Savannah River in eastern Georgia. A Patriot force consisting principally of militia from North Carolina and Georgia was surprised, suffering significant casualties.

1791 – Congress established the U.S. Mint.

1791 – The 1st Internal Revenue Act taxed distilled spirits and carriages.

1805 – Louisiana-Missouri Territory formed.

1809 – Five-year enlistments in the Marine Corps replaced the previous three-year terms.

1812 – US Congress passed its 1st foreign aid bill providing aid to Venezuela earthquake victims.

1813 – Office of Surgeon General of the US Army was established.

1817 – Mississippi Territory was divided into Alabama Territory and Mississippi.

1817 – The first commercial steamboat route from Louisville to New Orleans was opened.

1819 – Congress authorized the revenue cutters to protect merchant vessels of United States against piracy and to seize vessels engaged in slave trade. The cutters Louisiana and Alabama were built shortly thereafter to assist in the government’s efforts against piracy.

1820 – After months of bitter debate, Congress passes the Missouri Compromise, a bill that temporarily resolves the first serious political clash between slavery and antislavery interests in U.S. history. In February 1819, Representative James Tallmadge of New York introduced a bill that would admit Missouri into the Union as a state where slavery was prohibited. At the time, there were 11 free states and 10 slave states. Southern congressmen feared that the entrance of Missouri as a free state would upset the balance of power between North and South, as the North far outdistanced the South in population, and thus, U.S. representatives. Opponents to the bill also questioned the congressional precedent of prohibiting the expansion of slavery into a territory where slave status was favored. Even after Alabama was granted statehood in December 1819 with no prohibition on its practice of slavery, Congress remained deadlocked on the issue of Missouri. Finally, a compromise was reached.

On March 3, 1820, Congress passed a bill granting Missouri statehood as a slave state under the condition that slavery was to be forever prohibited in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36th parallel, which runs approximately along the southern border of Missouri. In addition, Maine, formerly part of Massachusetts, was admitted as a free state, thus preserving the balance between Northern and Southern senators. The Missouri Compromise, although criticized by many on both sides of the slavery debate, succeeded in keeping the Union together for more than 30 years. In 1854, it was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which dictated that slave or free status was to be decided by popular vote in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska; though both were north of the 36th parallel.

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