This Date in Military History:

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1836 – Texans celebrate the first Texas Independence Day with the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence, officially broke Texas from Mexico, and creating the Republic of Texas.

1837 – US President Andrew Jackson and Congress recognized the Republic of Texas.

1839 – Congress directed that Revenue Captain Ezekial Jones, commanding the revenue cutter Washington in the Seminole War, be allowed the same pay as a lieutenant in the Navy would receive for like services.

1843 – US Congress appropriated $30,000 “to test the practicability of establishing a system of electro-magnetic telegraphs.”

1845 – For the first time, the U.S. Congress passed legislation on this day overriding a President’s veto. President John Tyler was in office at the time.

1845 – Congress authorized ocean mail contracts for foreign mail delivery.

1845 – Florida became the 27th state. Florida is a state in the southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Straits of Florida.

1849 – Congress created the Minnesota Territory. The Territory of Minnesota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed May 11, 1858, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Minnesota. The boundaries of the Minnesota Territory, as carved out of Iowa Territory, included the current Minnesota region and most of what later became Dakota Territory east of the Missouri River. Minnesota Territory also included portions of Wisconsin Territory that did not become part of Wisconsin, located between the Mississippi River and Wisconsin, including the Arrowhead Region.

1855 – Congress approved $30,000 to test camels for military use. Sec. of War Jefferson Davis sent agents to northern Africa to purchase a small herd of camels and sent them to New Mexico to transport goods to California.

1862 – The Siege of New Madrid, Missouri begins. With the surrender of Forts Henry and Donelson, Tennessee, and the evacuation of Columbus, Kentucky, Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, commander of the Confederate Army of the Mississippi, chose Island No. 10, about 60 river miles below Columbus, to be the strongpoint for defending the Mississippi River. Nearby was New Madrid, one of the weak points. Brig. Gen. John Pope, commander of the Union Army of the Mississippi, set out from Commerce, Missouri, to attack New Madrid, on February 28.

The force marched overland through swamps, lugging supplies and artillery, reached the New Madrid outskirts on March 3, and laid siege to the city. Brig. Gen. John P. McCown, the garrison commander, defended both New Madrid and Island No. 10 from the fortifications. He launched a sortie, under Brig. Gen. M. Jeff Thompson, Missouri State Guard, against the besiegers and brought up heavy artillery to bombard them. On the 13th, the Confederates bombarded the Yankees to no avail. Since it did not appear possible to defend New Madrid, the Confederate gunboats and troops evacuated to Island No. 10 and Tiptonville. On the 14th, Pope’s army discovered that New Madrid was deserted and moved in to occupy it. A U.S. Navy flotilla, under the command of Flag-Officer Andrew H. Foote, arrived March 15 upstream from Island No. 10. The ironclad Carondelet on the night of April 4 passed the Island No. 10 batteries and anchored off New Madrid. Pittsburgh followed on the night of April 6.

The ironclads helped to overawe the Confederate batteries and guns, enabling Pope’s men to cross the river and block the Confederate escape route. Brig. Gen. William W. Mackall, who replaced McCown, surrendered Island No. 10 on April 8. The Mississippi was now open down to Fort Pillow, Tennessee. 1863 – During the Civil War, the U.S. Congress passes a conscription act that produces the first wartime draft of U.S. citizens in American history. The act called for registration of all males between the ages of 20 and 45, including aliens with the intention of becoming citizens, by April 1. Exemptions from the draft could be bought for $300 or by finding a substitute draftee. This clause led to bloody draft riots in New York City, where protesters were outraged that exemptions were effectively granted only to the wealthiest U.S. citizens.

Although the Civil War saw the first compulsory conscription of U.S. citizens for wartime service, a 1792 act by Congress required that all able-bodied male citizens purchase a gun and join their local state militia. There was no penalty for noncompliance with this act. Congress also passed a conscription act during the War of 1812, but the war ended before it was enacted. During the Civil War, the government of the Confederate States of America also enacted a compulsory military draft. The U.S. enacted a military draft again during World War I, in 1940 to make the U.S. ready for its involvement World War II, and during the Korean War. The last U.S. military draft occurred during the Vietnam War.

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1863 – Abraham Lincoln approved a charter for National Academy of Sciences.

1863 – Ironclads U.S.S. Passaic, Nahant, and Patapsco, with three mortar boats and gunboats U.S.S. Seneca, Dawn, and Wissahickon, under Captain Drayton, again engaged Fort McAllister at Savannah for 6 hours. Rear Admiral Du Pont held that the series of engagements was vital ”before entering upon more important operations", the assault on Charleston, Du Pont wanted to subject the ironclads to the stresses and strains of battle, as well as give the crews additional gunnery practice.

1863 – Idaho Territory formed.

1865 – General Sherman’s large army, marching parallel to the coast from Columbia in order to keep sea support near at hand, steadily approached Fayetteville, N.C. The Navy continued to clear Cape Fear River of torpedoes and obstructions so as to provide him with a base at Wilmington for sea supply comparable to Savannah. As the river was cleared light draft gunboats bumped up the river to be ready to open communications.

1865 – A naval squadron consisting of twelve steamers and four schooners commanded by Commander R.W. Shufeldt joined with Army troops under Brigadier General John Newton in a joint expedition directed against St. Marks Fort below Tallahassee, Florida. Although the expedition was not successful, in part because shallow water prevented the naval guns from approaching the Fort, the ships did succeed in crossing the bar and blockading the mouth of the St. Marks River, thus effectively preventing access to the harbor.

1865 – President Lincoln signs a bill creating the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, this federal agency oversaw the difficult transition of blacks from slavery to freedom. The Freedman’s Bureau was born out of abolitionist concern for freed slaves during the war. Union General Oliver O. Howard served as commissioner for the entire seven years of the bureau’s existence. The bureau was given power to dispense relief to both white and black refugees in the South, to provide medical care and education, and to redistribute “abandoned” lands to former slaves. The latter task was probably the most effective measure to ensure the prosperity and security of the freedmen, but it was also extremely difficult to enact. Many factors stymied the bureau’s work.

White southerners were very hostile to the Yankee bureau members, and even more hostile to the freedmen. Terror organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan targeted both blacks and whites and intimidated those trying to improve the lives of the freedmen. The bureau lacked the necessary funds and personnel to carry out its programs, and the lenient policies of Andrew Johnson’s administration encouraged resistance. Most of the land confiscated from Confederates was eventually restored to the original owners, so there was little opportunity for black land ownership. Although the Freedman’s Bureau was not able to provide long-term protection for blacks, nor did it ensure any real measure of equality, it did signal the introduction of the federal government into issues of social welfare and labor relations.

1871 – Congress passed the Indian Appropriation Act, which revoked the sovereignty of Indian nations and made Native Americans wards of the American government. The act eliminated the necessity of treaty negotiating and established the policy that tribal affairs could be managed by the U.S. government without tribal consent.

1871 – Congress established the civil service system.

1871 – Navy Medical Corps established.

1873 – Signal Corps of the Army established a storm signal service for benefit of seafaring men, at several life-saving stations and constructed telegraph lines as a means of communication between the stations.

1879 – Congress establishes the United States Geological Survey, an organization that played a pivotal role in the exploration and development of the West. Although the rough geographical outlines of much of the American West were known by 1879, the government still had astonishingly little detailed knowledge of the land. Earlier federal exploratory missions under men like Ferdinand Hayden and John Wesley Powell had begun to fill in the map, yet much remained to be done. Congress decided to transform the earlier system of sporadic federal geological explorations into a permanent government agency, the United States Geological Survey (USGS). From the beginning, the USGS focused its efforts on practical geographical and geological investigations that might spur western economic development. Since the vast majority of the nation’s public land was in the West, the USGS became one of the federal government’s most important tools for encouraging the exploitation of western natural resources.

Congress appointed Clarence King, a brilliant young mining engineer and geologist, as the first director. King, who had previously done considerable work for western mining companies, viewed the USGS as a tool for aiding further mineral exploitation. As a result, the first major reports produced under King’s tenure concerned the economic geology of two important mining districts, Nevada’s Comstock Lode and Colorado’s Leadville silver district. King’s attempts to aid western mining won him praise from both mining companies and western congressmen, but King was eager to make his own fortune in the mining business. He resigned as director in 1881 to pursue what he hoped would be more lucrative opportunities.

John Wesley Powell, a bold geologist-explorer who had led the first American explorations of the Grand Canyon, succeeded King as director. Powell extended the work of the survey into new areas like paleontology and soon became controversial for his bold assertion that much of the arid West would remain unsettled without large-scale irrigation projects. The direct and plainspoken Powell was so closely associated with the USGS during his 14-year term as director that many people have mistakenly believed he was the first director of the agency. Despite his expansion of the survey’s mission, though, Powell never abandoned the practical economic emphasis established by King.

Subsequent directors of the USGS also remained true to King’s early focus on aiding the economic development of the West, providing topographical and geological maps that have continued to prove essential to the mineral, agricultural, and hydraulic development of the region to this day.

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1883 – Congress authorizes 4 modern ships of steel, “A,B,C, D Ships”; three cruisers, Atlanta, Boston and Chicago, and dispatch boat Dolphin.

1891 – Congress created the Office of Superintendent of Immigration (Treasury Department). 1895 – Matthew Ridgway, the son of Colonel Thomas Ridgway, an artillery officer, was born in Virginia. He attended the West Point Military Academy and graduated in 1917 (56/139) and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army. In 1918 he returned to West Point as an instructor in Spanish. After completing the officers course at the Infantry School at Fort Benning he was given command of the 15th Infantry in China. This was followed by a posting to Nicaragua where he helped supervise free elections in 1927. Considered to be an expert on foreign affairs, Ridgway sat on a commission that adjudicated on Bolivia and Paraguay before becoming a military adviser to the Governor General of the Philippines in 1930. He also attended the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas (1935-37).

General George Marshall was impressed with Ridgway and took him to Brazil on a special assignment and soon after the outbreak of the Second World War he was sent to the War Plans Division in Washington. In August 1942 Ridgway was promoted to brigadier general and given command of the 82nd Infantry Division, one of the Army’s two parachute divisions. In the spring of 1943 Ridgway helped to plan the airborne operation that was part of the invasion of Sicily that began on 10th July, 1943. This was the first time in history that the US Army had used paratroopers in battle. Ridgeway was also responsible for planning the airborne operation during the D-Day landings on 6th June 1944. This time Ridgeway jumped with his troops. The 82nd fought for 33 days in advancing to St-Sauveur-le-Vicomte.

In September 1944 Ridgway took command of the 18th Airborne Corps. He led his troops during the invasion of the Rhineland and Ardennes-Alsace and on 2nd May his troops joined up with the Red Army on the Baltic. On 4th June 1945 he was promoted to lieutenant general. After the war Ridgway was Commander in Chief of the Caribbean Command (1948-49) before becoming Chief of Staff to Joe L. Collins. In 1950 he was given command of the 8th Army in Korea. He launched the counter-offensive on 25th January 1951 and when General Douglas MacArthur was recalled in April he was promoted to full general and became Commander in Chief of the Far East Command.

Ridgway replaced General Dwight D. Eisenhower as the Supreme Allied Commander of Europe on 30th May 1952. His decision to surround himself with American personal staff upset other European military leaders and he was brought back to the United States in July 1953 to replace General Joe L. Collins as chief of staff of the United States Army. After retiring from the US Army in June 1955 he published his autobiography, The Memoirs of Matthew B. Ridgway (1956). Matthew Ridgway died in March 1993.

1905 – Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to acquire a suitable site in the state of Maryland upon which to establish a depot for the Revenue Cutter Service; this station eventually became the Coast Guard Yard.

1911 – The 1st US Federal Cemetery with Union and Rebel graves opened at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri.

1915 – National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a NASA forerunner, was created. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a U.S. federal agency founded to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved, and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NACA was pronounced as individual letters, rather than as an acronym. Among other advancements, NACA research and development produced the NACA duct, a type of air intake used in modern automotive applications, the NACA cowling and several series of NACA airfoils which are still used in aircraft manufacturing.

1915 – Congress creates Federal Naval Reserve. By the end of World War I, about 30,000 Naval Reserve Officers and 3,000,000 Naval Reserve enlisted people had served on active duty with regular Navy at a wide variety of duty stations. About 75 percent of the officers and enlisted men who served on active duty with the Navy in World War II were reservists. During the Korean conflict, about 25 percent of the Navy’s personnel on active duty were reservists. In 1961, 58 Naval Reserve ships and air squadrons were called to active duty for the Berlin crisis. There was no large-scale mobilization of naval reservists for service in Vietnam. However, Naval Reserve personnel served on active duty in Vietnam.

In 1968, eight mobile construction battalions (Seabees) and air squadrons were called to active duty for one year. Operations “Desert Shield” and “Desert Storm” (1990-1991) gave dramatic evidence that the Naval Reserve Force is a thoroughly effective and vital part of the overall operational capabilities of the Navy in an emergency scenario. More than 20,000 Naval Reservists were recalled for active duty. These “civilian” sailors responded and performed their jobs beyond all expectations. Naval Reservists and various squadrons / units also provide logistics support throughout the world while performing their two weeks of annual training (AT) with regular Navy forces.

1915 – The post of Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) was established by Act of Congress and Admiral William S. Benson was appointed as the first CNO. During World War II, Admiral Ernest J. King held the dual titles of CNO and Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, and directed the worldwide operations of the Navy in coordination with our allies. King was followed, shortly after the war ended, by Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, wartime commander of the Pacific Fleet. In 1955, President Eisenhower appointed Admiral Arleigh A. Burke to the first of what would be an unprecedented three 2-year terms as CNO. The CNO is the Navy’s senior flag officer, and takes precedence over all other officers in the naval service. He is the Navy representative on the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), keeps the Secretary of the Navy informed on JCS activities and decisions, and is responsible to the Secretary for the management of the Navy.

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1918 – Germany, Austria and Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ending Russia’s involvement in World War I, and leading to the independence of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

1923 – US Senate rejected membership in International Court of Justice, The Hague.

1924 – The thirteen-century-old Islamic caliphate is abolished when Caliph Abdul Mejid II of the Ottoman Empire is deposed. The last remnant of the old regime gives way to the reformed Turkey of Kemal Atatürk.

1931 – President Herbert Hoover signs a congressional act making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the official national anthem of the United States. On September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key composed the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner” after witnessing the massive overnight British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Maryland during the War of 1812. Key, an American lawyer, watched the siege while under detainment on a British ship and penned the famous words after observing with awe that Fort McHenry’s flag survived the 1,800-bomb assault.

After circulating as a handbill, the patriotic lyrics were published in a Baltimore newspaper on September 20, 1814. Key’s words were later set to the tune of “To Anacreon in Heaven,” a popular English song. Throughout the 19th century, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was regarded as the national anthem by most branches of the U.S. armed forces and other groups, but it was not until 1916, and the signing of an executive order by President Woodrow Wilson, that it was formally designated as such. In March 1931, Congress passed an act confirming Wilson’s presidential order, and on March 3 President Hoover signed it into law.

1936 – Standard Oil of California struck oil at Damman No 7. Aramco made the first commercial oil find in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The English Arabist, H. St. John Philby, orchestrated the Aramco concession in Saudi Arabia.

1943 – The Japanese convoy carrying the troops of the 51st Division, is heavily attacked by Allied aircraft from the 5th Air Force.

1944 – On the Anzio beachhead, German forces attack the line held by the US 3rd Division, near Ponte Ricco, but fail to penetrate. The German 14th Army goes over to the defensive after this failure.

1944 – A night attack by the Japanese garrison on Los Negros is defeated by American forces.

1945 – Japanese resistance in Manila comes to an end after a month-long battle. Most of the 20,000 Japanese defenders have been killed and the town has been devastated. Troops from the Americal Division are landed on Ticao and Burias Islands to the west of the San Bernadino Strait.

1945 – On Iwo Jima, an area of the island which has become known as “the Mincer” is cleared by the marines of US 5th Amphibious Corps. The third airfield is completely occupied by the American.

1945 – Troops of Canadian 1st and US 9th Armies link up near Geldern. Farther south, units of the US 12th Corps from US 3rd Army capture a crossing over the KyllRiver. Meanwhile, elements of the US 7th Army take Forbach.

1949 – Secretary of Defense Forrestal resigned. He was worn out by his futile efforts to bring about the unification of the armed services. He was succeeded by Louis A. Johnson. Johnson proceeded to slash defense expenses. He retired all but 5 aircraft carriers and dismantled the first super carrier.

1951 – A new shipment of tarzon bombs arrived in the Far East, allowing Far East Air Forces to resume raids, suspended since January 17, with the large guided weapons.

1952 – Operation SATURATE was launched with the objective of destroying selected segments of the enemy’s rail lines with sustained round-the-clock bombing.

1959 – Pioneer 4, the 1st US probe to enter solar orbit, was launched.

1960 – The French cargo ship “La Coubre,” laden with Belgian weapons, exploded in Havana Harbor and killed 136 people. The blast was blamed on US agents.

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1960 – USS Sargo return to Hawaii from arctic cruise of 11,000 miles, 6,003 miles under the polar ice. On February 9 she had arrived under the North Pole. Making her first pass under the pole at 0934, the submarine began a clover leaf search for thin ice and at 1049 she surfaced, according to her log, 25 feet from the pole, through 36 inches of ice. Later the same day, the Hawaiian flag was raised at the pole; and on the morning of the 10th, USS SARGO submerged and departed the pole.

1965 – US performed a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1965 – More than 30 U.S. Air Force jets strike targets along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. Since such raids had become common knowledge and were being reported in the American media, the U.S. State Department felt compelled to announce that these controversial missions were authorized by the powers granted to President Johnson in the August 1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution. The Johnson administration came under increasing criticism at home and abroad because of the bombing raids.

Congressional opponents of the Johnson administration thought the president was escalating the war without authorization. Overseas, there was also an immediate response. Not surprisingly, the communists roundly criticized Johnson’s actions. In Havana, Premier Fidel Castro condemned the United States and promised that Cuba would aid North Vietnam. On March 4, about 2,000 students attacked the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. There was also a reaction in non-communist capitals. Prime Minister Lester Pearson of Canada expressed concern about the risk of escalation, but said that Canada understood the U.S. position.

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

1969 – The Apollo 9 mission was the first manned flight of all Apollo lunar hardware in Earth orbit and first manned flight of the lunar module. Lunar module pilot Russel L. Schweickart performed a 37 minute EVA. Human reactions to space and weightlessness were tested in 152 orbits over 10 days.

1971 – The U.S. Army’s 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) departs South Vietnam. The Special Forces were formed to organize and train guerrilla bands behind enemy lines. President John F. Kennedy, a strong believer in the potential of the Special Forces in counterinsurgency operations, had visited the Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg to review the program and authorized the Special Forces to wear the headgear that became their symbol, the Green Beret. The 5th Group was sent to Vietnam in October 1964 to assume control of all Special Forces operations in Vietnam.

Prior to this time, Green Berets had been assigned to Vietnam only on temporary duty. The primary function of the Green Berets in Vietnam was to organize the Civilian Irregular Defense Groups (CIDG) among South Vietnam’s Montagnard population. The Montagnards–“mountain people” or “mountaineers”–were a group of indigenous people from several tribes, such as the Rhade, Bru, and Jarai, who lived mainly in the highland areas of Vietnam. These tribes were recruited to guard camps in the mountainous border areas against North Vietnamese infiltration.

At the height of the war the Green Berets oversaw 84 CIDG camps with more than 42,000 CIDG strike forces and local militia units. The CIDG program ended in December 1970 with the transfer of troops and mission to the South Vietnamese Border Ranger Command. The Green Berets were withdrawn as part of the U.S. troop reductions in Vietnam.

1972 – Sculpted figures of Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee, and Stonewall Jackson were completed at Stone Mountain, Georgia.

1980 – The USS Nautilus is decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register. USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was the world’s first operational nuclear-powered submarine. The vessel was the first submarine to complete a submerged transit to the North Pole on 3 August 1958. Sharing names with the submarine in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and named after another USS Nautilus (SS-168) that served with distinction in World War II, Nautilus was authorized in 1951 and launched in 1954.

Because her nuclear propulsion allowed her to remain submerged far longer than diesel-electric submarines, she broke many records in her first years of operation, and traveled to locations previously beyond the limits of submarines. In operation, she revealed a number of limitations in her design and construction. This information was used to improve subsequent submarines. Nautilus was a component of SubRon Ten (Submarine Squadron Ten). Nautilus was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982. The submarine has been preserved as a museum of submarine history in Groton, Connecticut, where the vessel receives some 250,000 visitors a year.

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1988 – The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a package of $30 million in non-lethal aid for the Nicaraguan Contras.

1989 – Robert McFarlane got a $20,000 fine and 2 years probation for Iran-Contra.

1991 – American General H. Norman Schwarzkopf and Saudi Lt. Gen. Prince Khalid discussed cease-fire terms with Iraqi commanders Lt. Gen. Mohammed Abdez Rahman al-Dagitistani and Lt. Gen. Sabin Abdel-Aziz al Douri. The Iraqis’ astonishment at the disparity involved in the prisoner exchange demonstrated how ignorant they still were of the magnitude of their own defeat. Iraq accepts the terms of ceasefire.

1993 – In Somalia, a Special Forces member is KIA by a land mine.

1999 – Turkey called US raids on Iraq that cut off oil flow to Turkey unacceptable. The US planes were based in Turkey.

2001 – A US National Guard C-23 Sherpa plane carrying members of an engineering crew crashed in Georgia and 21 people were killed.

2002 – US military forces and 6 allied nations made air and ground assaults against al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in the Afghan Shah-e-Kot mountains of eastern Paktia province.

2003 – Iraq crushed 6 more Al Samoud 2 missiles with bulldozers and planned to hand over a report about its unilateral destruction of anthrax and VX nerve agent.

2003 – In Kenya US diplomats opened a new embassy in Nairobi, replacing the one destroyed 4 ½ years ago when terrorists launched attacks.

2003 – In Tanzania a new U.S. Embassy opened in Dar Es Salaam, replacing the one destroyed 4 ½ years ago when terrorists launched attacks.

2004 – Pakistani authorities detained at least 15 tribal leaders in a remote border region near Afghanistan for failing to turn over suspected al-Qaida fugitives.

2004 – In Yemen security forces arrested Abdul Raouf Naseeb, a leading al-Qaida member, along with other militants in the southern mountains.

2005 – President Bush visited CIA headquarters, where he promised agency employees they would retain an “incredibly vital” role in safeguarding the nation’s security despite the creation of a new post of national director of intelligence.

2005 – Steve Fossett’s GlobalFlyer touches down at Salina, Kansas, completing his nonstop around-the-world flight. Fossett had overcome earlier fuel problems to become the first person to achieve the flight solo.

2006 – After four years of legal efforts to get the names of about 490 Guantanamo Bay inmates released, the United States is forced by a federal judge’s ruling to release transcripts of hearings of 317 of them.

2010 – Master Sgt. Jeffrey Sarver, a US army bomb disposal expert sues for multi-millions the makers of The Hurt Locker. He claimed to be the main character in The Hurt Locker. Sarver’s case was dismissed, and under California law, was required to pay the defendants’ attorney fees of $187,000.

2011 – The United States Air Force starts preparation of evacuation flights to get Egyptian refugees out of Libya following an order from the President of United States Barack Obama.

2011 – President Obama calls on Colonel Gaddafi to stand down and advises that the United States is looking at “full range” of military options.

2011 – Harvard University welcomes the United States Reserve Officer Training Corps program back on campus following the lifting of the bans on gays in the military.

2013 – SpaceX CRS-2: The cargo ship SpaceX Dragon docks at the International Space Station after a brief delay.

2013 – NASA’s Curiosity rover is switched to a redundant onboard computer in response to an undefined memory issue on the active computer.

2015 – Former CIA director and U.S. Army officer David Petraeus pleads guilty in federal court to a charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified information.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken this Day

FOLLETT, JOSEPH L.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company G, 1st Missouri Light Artillery. Place and date: At New Madrid, Mo., 3 March 1862; at Stone River, Tenn., 31 December 1862. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo. Birth: Newark, N.J. Date of issue: 19 September 1890. Citation: At New Madrid, Mo., remained on duty though severely wounded. While procuring ammunition from the supply train at Stone River, Tenn., was captured, but made his escape, secured the ammunition, and in less than an hour from the time of his capture had the batteries supplied.

*BERRY, CHARLES JOSEPH
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 10 July 1923, Lorain, Ohio. Accredited to: Ohio. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as member of a machinegun crew, serving with the 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces during the seizure of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, on 3 March 1945. Stationed in the front lines, Cpl. Berry manned his weapon with alert readiness as he maintained a constant vigil with other members of his gun crew during the hazardous night hours. When infiltrating Japanese soldiers launched a surprise attack shortly after midnight in an attempt to overrun his position, he engaged in a pitched hand grenade duel, returning the dangerous weapons with prompt and deadly accuracy until an enemy grenade landed in the foxhole.

Determined to save his comrades, he unhesitatingly chose to sacrifice himself and immediately dived on the deadly missile, absorbing the shattering violence of the exploding charge in his own body and protecting the others from serious injury. Stouthearted and indomitable, Cpl. Berry fearlessly yielded his own life that his fellow marines might carry on the relentless battle against a ruthless enemy and his superb valor and unfaltering devotion to duty in the face of certain death reflect the highest credit upon himself and upon the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

*CADDY, WILLIAM ROBERT
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Born: 8 August 1925, Quincy, Mass. Accredited to: Massachusetts. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a rifleman with Company 1, 3d Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces during the seizure of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, 3 March 1945. Consistently aggressive, Pfc. Caddy boldly defied shattering Japanese machinegun and small arms fire to move forward with his platoon leader and another marine during the determined advance of his company through an isolated sector and, gaining the comparative safety of a shell hole, took temporary cover with his comrades. Immediately pinned down by deadly sniper fire from a well-concealed position, he made several unsuccessful attempts to again move forward and then, joined by his platoon leader, engaged the enemy in a fierce exchange of hand grenades until a Japanese grenade fell beyond reach in the shell hole.

Fearlessly disregarding all personal danger, Pfc. Caddy instantly dived on the deadly missile, absorbing the exploding charge in his own body and protecting the others from serious injury. Stouthearted and indomitable, he unhesitatingly yielded his own life that his fellow marines might carry on the relentless battle against a fanatic enemy. His dauntless courage and valiant spirit of self-sacrifice in the face of certain death reflect the highest credit upon Pfc. Caddy and upon the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his comrades.

HARRELL, WILLIAM GEORGE
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps, 1st Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division. Place and date: Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 3 March 1945. Entered service at: Mercedes, Tex. Born: 26 June 1922, Rio Grande City, Tex. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as leader of an assault group attached to the 1st Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division during hand-to-hand combat with enemy Japanese at Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, on 3 March 1945. Standing watch alternately with another marine in a terrain studded with caves and ravines, Sgt. Harrell was holding a position in a perimeter defense around the company command post when Japanese troops infiltrated our lines in the early hours of dawn. Awakened by a sudden attack, he quickly opened fire with his carbine and killed 2 of the enemy as they emerged from a ravine in the light of a star shell burst.

Unmindful of his danger as hostile grenades fell closer, he waged a fierce lone battle until an exploding missile tore off his left hand and fractured his thigh. He was vainly attempting to reload the carbine when his companion returned from the command post with another weapon. Wounded again by a Japanese who rushed the foxhole wielding a saber in the darkness, Sgt. Harrell succeeded in drawing his pistol and killing his opponent and then ordered his wounded companion to a place of safety.

Exhausted by profuse bleeding but still unbeaten, he fearlessly met the challenge of 2 more enemy troops who charged his position and placed a grenade near his head. Killing 1 man with his pistol, he grasped the sputtering grenade with his good right hand, and, pushing it painfully toward the crouching soldier, saw his remaining assailant destroyed but his own hand severed in the explosion. At dawn Sgt. Harrell was evacuated from a position hedged by the bodies of 12 dead Japanese, at least 5 of whom he had personally destroyed in his self-sacrificing defense of the command post. His grim fortitude, exceptional valor, and indomitable fighting spirit against almost insurmountable odds reflect the highest credit upon himself and enhance the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

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WAHLEN, GEORGE EDWARD
Rank and organization: Pharmacist’s Mate Second Class, U.S. Navy, serving with 2d Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division. Place and date: Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands group, 3 March 1945. Entered service at: Utah. Born: 8 August 1924, Ogden, Utah. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the 2d Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division, during action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima in the Volcano group on 3 March 1945. Painfully wounded in the bitter action on 26 February, Wahlen remained on the battlefield, advancing well forward of the frontlines to aid a wounded marine and carrying him back to safety despite a terrific concentration of fire. Tireless in his ministrations, he consistently disregarded all danger to attend his fighting comrades as they fell under the devastating rain of shrapnel and bullets, and rendered prompt assistance to various elements of his combat group as required.

When an adjacent platoon suffered heavy casualties, he defied the continuous pounding of heavy mortars and deadly fire of enemy rifles to care for the wounded, working rapidly in an area swept by constant fire and treating 14 casualties before returning to his own platoon. Wounded again on 2 March, he gallantly refused evacuation, moving out with his company the following day in a furious assault across 600 yards of open terrain and repeatedly rendering medical aid while exposed to the blasting fury of powerful Japanese guns. Stouthearted and indomitable, he persevered in his determined efforts as his unit waged fierce battle and, unable to walk after sustaining a third agonizing wound, resolutely crawled 50 yards to administer first aid to still another fallen fighter. By his dauntless fortitude and valor, Wahlen served as a constant inspiration and contributed vitally to the high morale of his company during critical phases of this strategically important engagement. His heroic spirit of self-sacrifice in the face of overwhelming enemy fire upheld the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

*WILLIAMS, JACK
Rank and organization: Pharmacist’s Mate Third Class, U.S. Naval Reserve. Born: 18 October 1924, Harrison, Ark. Accredited to: Arkansas. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the 3d Battalion 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division, during the occupation of Iwo Jima Volcano Islands, 3 March 1945. Gallantly going forward on the frontlines under intense enemy small-arms fire to assist a marine wounded in a fierce grenade battle, Williams dragged the man to a shallow depression and was kneeling, using his own body as a screen from the sustained fire as he administered first aid, when struck in the abdomen and groin 3 times by hostile rifle fire.

Momentarily stunned, he quickly recovered and completed his ministration before applying battle dressings to his own multiple wounds. Unmindful of his own urgent need for medical attention, he remained in the perilous fire-swept area to care for another marine casualty. Heroically completing his task despite pain and profuse bleeding, he then endeavored to make his way to the rear in search of adequate aid for himself when struck down by a Japanese sniper bullet which caused his collapse. Succumbing later as a result of his self-sacrificing service to others, Williams, by his courageous determination, unwavering fortitude and valiant performance of duty, served as an inspiring example of heroism, in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

*STONE, LESTER R., JR.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, 1st Platoon, Company B, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, 11th Infantry Brigade, 23d Infantry Division (Americal). Place and date: West of Landing Zone Liz, Republic of Vietnam, 3 March 1969. Entered service at: Syracuse N.Y. Born: 4 June 1947, Binghamton, N.Y. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Stone, distinguished himself while serving as squad leader of the 1st Platoon. The 1st Platoon was on a combat patrol mission just west of Landing Zone Liz when it came under intense automatic weapons and grenade fire from a well concealed company-size force of North Vietnamese regulars. Observing the platoon machinegunner fall critically wounded, Sgt. Stone remained in the exposed area to provide cover fire for the wounded soldier who was being pulled to safety by another member of the platoon.

With enemy fire impacting all around him, Sgt. Stone had a malfunction in the machinegun, preventing him from firing the weapon automatically. Displaying extraordinary courage under the most adverse conditions, Sgt. Stone repaired the weapon and continued to place on the enemy positions effective suppressive fire which enabled the rescue to be completed. In a desperate attempt to overrun his position, an enemy force left its cover and charged Sgt. Stone. Disregarding the danger involved, Sgt. Stone rose to his knees and began placing intense fire on the enemy at pointblank range, killing 6 of the enemy before falling mortally wounded. His actions of unsurpassed valor were a source of inspiration to his entire unit, and he was responsible for saving the lives of a number of his fellow soldiers. His actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military profession and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

*WILSON, ALFRED M.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, Company M, 3d Battalion, 9th Marines, 3d Marine Division. Place and date: Quang Tri Province, Republic of Vietnam, 3 March 1969. Entered service at: Abilene, Tex. Born: 13 January 1948, Olney, Ill. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a rifleman with Company M in action against hostile forces. While returning from a reconnaissance-in-force mission in the vicinity of Fire Support Base Cunningham, the 1st Platoon of Company M came under intense automatic weapons fire and a grenade attack from a well concealed enemy force. As the center of the column was pinned down, the leading squad moved to outflank the enemy. Pfc. Wilson, acting as squad leader of the rear squad, skillfully maneuvered his men to form a base of fire and act as a blocking force.

In the ensuing fire fight, both his machine gunner and assistant machine gunner were seriously wounded and unable to operate their weapons. Realizing the urgent need to bring the weapon into operation again, Pfc. Wilson, followed by another marine and with complete disregard for his safety, fearlessly dashed across the fire-swept terrain to recover the weapon. As they reached the machinegun, an enemy soldier stepped from behind a tree and threw a grenade toward the 2 marines. Observing the grenade fall between himself and the other marine, Pfc. Wilson, fully realizing the inevitable result of his actions, shouted to his companion and unhesitating threw himself on the grenade, absorbing the full force of the explosion with his own body. His heroic actions inspired his platoon members to maximum effort as they aggressively attacked and defeated the enemy. Pfc. Wilson’s indomitable courage, inspiring valor and selfless devotion to duty 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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4 March

1493 – Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal, aboard his ship Niña from his voyage to what is now The Bahamas and other islands in the Caribbean.

1628 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a Royal charter. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America (Massachusetts Bay) in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions of the U.S. states of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Territory claimed but never administered by the colonial government extended as far west as the Pacific Ocean. The colony was founded by the owners of the Massachusetts Bay Company, which included investors in the failed Dorchester Company, which had in 1623 established a short-lived settlement on Cape Ann.

The second attempt, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was successful, with about 20,000 people migrating to New England in the 1630s. The population was strongly Puritan, and its governance was dominated by a small group of leaders who were strongly influenced by Puritan religious leaders. Although its governors were elected, the electorate were limited to freemen, who had been examined for their religious views and formally admitted to their church. As a consequence, the colonial leadership exhibited intolerance to other religious views, including Anglican, Quaker, and Baptist theologies. Although the colonists initially had decent relationships with the local native populations, frictions arose over cultural differences, which were further exacerbated by Dutch colonial expansion.

These led first to the Pequot War (1636–1638), and then to King Philip’s War (1675–1678), after which most of the natives in southern New England had been pacified, killed, or driven away. The colony was economically successful, engaging in trade with England and the West Indies. A shortage of hard currency in the colony prompted it to establish a mint in 1652. Political differences with England after the English Restoration led to the revocation of the colonial charter in 1684. King James II established the Dominion of New England in 1686 to bring all of the New England colonies under firmer crown control.

The dominion collapsed after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 deposed James, and the colony reverted to rule under the revoked charter until 1692, when Sir William Phips arrived bearing the charter of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, which combined the Massachusetts Bay territories with those of the Plymouth Colony and proprietary holdings on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. The political and economic dominance of New England by the modern state of Massachusetts was made possible in part by the early dominance in these spheres by the Massachusetts Bay colonists.

1681 – The Quaker leader William Penn signed a peace treaty with Tammany, leader of the Delaware tribe, beginning a long period of friendly relations between the Quakers and the Indians. Additional treaties between Quakers and other tribes followed. Before the Commonwealth was settled by Europeans, the area was home to the Delaware, Susquehannock, Iroquois, Eriez, Shawnee, and other American Indian Nations. On February 28, 1681, Charles II granted a land charter to William Penn to repay a debt of £16,000 (around £2,100,000 in 2008, adjusting for retail inflation) owed to William’s father, Admiral William Penn. This was one of the largest land grants to an individual in history. It was called Pennsylvania.

William Penn, who wanted it called New Wales or Sylvania, was embarrassed at the change, fearing that people would think he had named it after himself, but King Charles would not rename the grant. Penn established a government with two innovations that were much copied in the New World: the county commission and freedom of religious conviction. What had been Upland on what became the Pennsylvania side of the Pennsylvania-Delaware Border was renamed as Chester County when Pennsylvania instituted their colonial governments on March 4, 1681. The treaty of William Penn was never violated.

1747 – Casimir Pulaski, American Revolutionary War general, is born. He was born into the middle gentry at Warka, Poland. His family was rich and had enhanced their fortune as clients of the Czartoryski family with whose nationalist policies it was identified. His education was typical of its time, he learned a smattering of languages and manners in the service of the Duke of Courland. It was here that young Pulaski first came into contact with the interference of foreign powers in Polish affairs, that lead to the first great act of his life. Joseph Pulaski, Casimir’s father impatient with the Russian interference precipitated an armed movement called the Confederation of Bar in 1768. Casimir was one of the founding members and on his father’s death in 1769, carried the burden of military command. His greatest success was in the taking and holding of Jasna Gora at Czestochowa, the holist place in Poland. His brilliant defense against the Russians thrilled all of Europe. Unfortunately soon afterward he was implicated in a plot to kill the Polish King and forced into exile.

Burdened by debts Pulaski was found in Paris by Benjamin Franklin and enlisted in for American cause. Pulaski joined George Washington’s army just before the battle of Brandywine. Acting under Washington’s orders without commission Pulaski lead the scouting party that discovered the British flanking movement and the American escape route. He then gathered all available cavalry to cover the retreat, leading a dashing charge that surprised the British and allowed the American army to escape. Congress rewarded Pulaski with a commission as brigadier general and command of all American cavalry. He spent the winter of 1777 -8 training and outfitting the cavalry units but in March, he gave way before the intrigues of his jealous officers. He requested and Washington approved the formation of an independent corp of cavalry and light infantry of foreign volunteers. Pulaski’s Legion became the training ground for American cavalry officers including “Light Horse” Harry Lee, the father of Robert E. Lee, and the model for Lee’s and Armand’s legions. Thirteen Polish officers served under Pulaski in the legion. The best assessment of Pulaski’s legion came from a British officer who called them simply “the best damned cavalry the rebels ever had”.

In 1779 Pulaski and his legion were sent south to the besieged city of Charleston where he immediately raised morale and assisted in breaking the siege. A joint operation with the French was planed to recapture the city of Savannah. Against Pulaski’s advice the French commander ordered an assault against the strongest point of the British defense, Seeing the allied troops falter Pulaski galloped forward to rally the men, when he was mortally wounded by British cannon shot. He died two days later and was buried at sea. Pulaski was the romantic embodiment of the flashing saber and the trumpets calling to the charge, and that is how history has remembered him. The larger -than -life aspect of his death has often obscured his steadier, quieter, and more lasting services. It was in the drudgery of forging a disciplined American cavalry that could shadow and report on British movements, in the long distance forage raids to feed and clothe the troops at Valley Forge, and the bitter hit and run rearguard actions that covered retreating American armies that slowed British pursuit, that gave Pulaski the title of “Father of the American cavalry”.

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1766 – The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, the cause of bitter and violent opposition in the colonies.

1776 – The Continental Army fortifies Dorchester Heights with cannon, leading the British troops to abandon the Siege of Boston.

1781 – At Clapp’s Mill North Carolina, Lt. Col. Henry Lee’s U.S. forces attempted to ambush Col. Banastre Tarleton’s British forces. Tarleton recovered and Lee was forced to retreat, losing 8 men, while the British lost 20.

1789 – The first session of the U.S. Congress is held in New York City as the U.S. Constitution takes effect. However, of the 22 senators and 59 representatives called to represent the 11 states who had ratified the document, only nine senators and 13 representatives showed up to begin negotiations for its amendment.

In 1786, defects in the Articles of Confederation became apparent, such as the lack of central authority over foreign and domestic commerce and the inability of Congress to levy taxes, leading Congress to endorse a plan to draft a new constitution. On September 17, 1787, at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the new U.S. Constitution, creating a strong federal government with an intricate system of checks and balances, was signed by 38 of 41 delegates to the convention. As dictated by Article VII, the document would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states.

The Constitution was thus sent to the state legislatures, and beginning on December 7, five states–Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut–ratified it in quick succession. However, other states, especially Massachusetts, opposed the document for its failure to reserve powers not delegated by the Constitution to the states and its lack of constitutional protection for such basic political rights as freedom of speech, religion, and the press, and the right to bear arms.

In February 1788, a compromise was reached in which Massachusetts and other states agreed to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would immediately be adopted. The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, making it binding, and government under the U.S. Constitution was scheduled to begin on March 4, 1789.

On September 25, 1789, after several months of debate, the first Congress of the United States adopted 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution–the Bill of Rights–and sent them to the states for ratification. This action led to the eventual ratification of the Constitution by the last of the 13 original colonies: North Carolina and Rhode Island.

1791 – President Washington called the US Senate into its 1st special session.

1791 – Vermont was admitted as the 14th state. It was the first addition to the original 13 colonies. Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Vermont is the 6th smallest in area of the 50 United States. It is the only New England state not bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Lake Champlain forms half of Vermont’s western border, which it shares with the state of New York. The Green Mountains are within the state. Vermont is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east across the Connecticut River, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north.

Originally inhabited by two major Native American tribes (the Algonquian-speaking Abenaki and the Iroquois), much of the territory that is now Vermont was claimed by France during its early colonial period. France ceded the territory to the Kingdom of Great Britain after being defeated in 1763 in the Seven Years’ War (in the United States, referred to as the French and Indian War). For many years, the nearby colonies, especially New Hampshire and New York, disputed control of the area (then called the New Hampshire Grants).

1793 – George Washington was inaugurated as President for the second time. His 2nd inauguration was the shortest with just 133 words. Since George Washington’s second term, Inauguration Day had been March 4 of the year following the election. That custom meant that defeated presidents and congressmen served four months after the election. In 1933, the so -called Lame Duck Amendment to the U.S. Constitution moved the inauguration of newly elected presidents and congressmen closer to Election Day. The 20th Amendment required the terms of the president and vice -president to begin at noon on January 20, while congressional terms begin on January 3rd.

1794 – The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is passed by the U.S. Congress. The Eleventh Amendment (Amendment XI) to the United States Constitution, which was ratified by the states on February 7, 1795. The amendment deals with each state’s sovereign immunity and was adopted in order to overrule the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 U.S. 419 (1793).

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1801 – Thomas Jefferson was the first President to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C. The Marine Band performed at a Presidential Inauguration for the first time.

1809 – Madison became 1st President inaugurated in American -made clothes.

1814 – Americans defeat British forces at the Battle of Longwoods between London, Ontario and Thamesville, near present-day Wardsville, Ontario. The Battle of Longwoods took place during the War of 1812. A mounted American raiding party defeated an attempt by British regulars, volunteers from the Canadian militia and Native Americans to intercept them near Wardsville, in present-day Southwest Middlesex, Ontario.

1837 – The Illinois state legislature granted a city charter to Chicago. Chicago is near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed, and experienced rapid growth in the mid-nineteenth century.

1849 – The US had no President. Polk’s term ended on a Sunday and Taylor couldn’t be sworn in. Senator David Atchison (pres pro tem) term had ended on March 3rd.

1861 – Confederate States adopted the “Stars and Bars” flag.

1862 – Union forces covered by Flag Officer Foote’s gunboat flotilla, now driving down the Mississippi, occupied strongly fortified Columbus, Kentucky, which the Confederates had been compelled to evacuate. Foote reported that the reconnaissance by U.S.S. Cincinnati and Louisville two days earlier had hastened the evacuation, the rebels leaving quite a number of guns and carriages, ammunition, and large quantity of shot and shell, a considerable number of anchors, and the remnant of chain lately stretched across the river, with a large number of torpedoes.” The powerful fort, thought by many to be impregnable, had fallen without a struggle. Brigadier General Cullum wrote: “Columbus, the Gibraltar of the West, is ours and Kentucky is free, thanks to the brilliant strategy of the campaign, by which the enemy’s center was pierced at Forts Henry and Donelson, his wings isolated from each other and turned, compelling thus the evacuation of his strongholds at Bowling Green first and now Columbus.”

1863 – Battle of Thompson’s Station, Tennessee.

1865 – Lieutenant Moreau Forrest, in his flagship U.S.S. General Burnside and accompained by U.S.S. General Thomas, Master Gilbert Morton, led a Tennessee River expedition which followed the course of that river across the state of Alabama. At Mussel Shoals the naval force attacked and dispersed the encampment of Confederate General Philip D. Roddey and captured horses, military equipment and cotton. Forrest then proceeded to Lamb’s Ferry where he destroyed Confederate communications and transportation facilities. He also destroyed numerous barges, boats and scows encountered along the course of the river. Finally, Forrest penetrated the Elk River, deep into the state of Tennessee, where he “found a rich and populous country” in which “a great deal of loyal sentiment was displayed”.

1865 – Confederate congress approved the final design of “official flag.”

1876 – US Congress decided to impeach Secretary of War (under Ulysses S. Grant) William Worth Belknap (1829 -1890) of malfeasance in office for accepting over $24,000 in bribes from a post trader seeking immunity from removal. It is not clear whether he was aware of the arrangement or whether his wife had made the bargain and accepted the payoffs. Nevertheless, he was impeached by a unanimous vote of the United States Senate, though at his formal trial the Senate fell short of the number of votes required to convict. By then he had resigned, which doubtless accounted for his acquittal. He died in Washington, D.C. on October 13, 1890 and was buried in Section 1 of Arlington National Cemetery.

1907 – Congress appropriated $30,000 for installing wireless telegraph on not more than 12 revenue cutters.

1909 – U.S. President William Taft used what became known as a Saxbe fix, a mechanism to avoid the restriction of the U.S. Constitution’s Ineligibility Clause, to appoint Philander C. Knox as U.S. Secretary of State. The procedure was named “Saxbe fix” after Senator William Saxbe, who was confirmed as Attorney General in 1973 after Congress reduced the office’s salary to the level it had been before Saxbe’s term commenced. The Saxbe fix has subsequently become relevant as a successful—though not universally accepted—solution for appointments by presidents of both parties of sitting members of the United States Congress to the United States Cabinet. Members of Congress have been appointed to federal judgeships without any fix being enacted; court challenges to such appointments have failed.

1911 – Appropriation of first funds for experiments in naval aviation.

1915 – Secretary of the Treasury was authorized by Congress to detail cutters to enforce anchorage regulations in all harbors, rivers, bays and other navigable waters of United States.

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1918 – The USS Cyclops departs from Barbados and is never seen again, presumably lost with all hands in the Bermuda Triangle. USS Cyclops (AC-4) was one of four Proteus-class colliers built for the United States Navy several years before World War I. Named for the Cyclops, a primordial race of giants from Greek mythology, she was the second U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name. Its loss remains the single largest loss of life in U.S. Naval history not directly involving combat.

1925 – President Calvin Coolidge’s inauguration was broadcast live on 21 radio stations coast -to -coast.

1925 – Swain’s Island (near American Samoa) was annexed by US.

1925 – Congress authorizes restoration of USS Constitution.

1929 – Congress appropriated $144,000 for seaplanes and equipment for Coast Guard.

1942 – US China headquarters is established by General Stillwell at Chunking.

1942 – American Admiral Halsey’s naval force attacks Marcus Island. At Marcus Island, 760 miles west -northwest of Wake, and 990 miles southeast of Yokohama, Admiral Halsey’s forces executed a successful air attack just before dawn on the 4th dropping flares to illuminate objectives. No enemy aircraft or ships were present. Heavy antiaircraft fire was encountered while planes dropped 96 bombs on the small island, resulting in considerable damage to hangars, fuel and ammunition storages, radio installations and aircraft runways. Loss in this engagement was one aircraft.

1943 – The Japanese convoy carrying troops of the 51st Division is again struck by Allied planes from the 5th Air Force. PT -boats join the at attacks. Over the course of the three days, all the Japanese transport, as well as 4 destroyers are sunk and at least 3500 troops are lost. Australian and American air forces have shot down 25 planes for the loss of 5 of their own. This is considered a serious defeat by the Japanese and a setback for their defense of New Guinea.

1944 – US Task Force 74 (Adm Crutchley) shells Japanese batteries on Hauwei and Ndrilo. These guns have hampered American access to Seeadler Bay.

1944 – The U.S. Eighth Air Force launches the first American bombing raid against the German capital. The British Royal Air Force (RAF) had been conducting night raids against Berlin and other German cities since November 1943, suffering losses at increasingly heavy rates. While the British inflicted significant damage against their targets, the German defenses proved quite effective: The RAF flew 35 major raids between November 1943 and March 1944 and lost 1,047 aircraft, with an even greater number damaged. Having already suffered heavy losses during day raids of various German industrial centers, the Americans had been cautious in pursuing night raids.

But in March, with the RAF exhausted, the U.S. Eighth Air Force finally pursued night bombing and made Berlin its primary target. Fourteen U.S. bomber wings took off for Germany from England on the evening of March 4; only one plane reached Berlin (the rest dropped their loads elsewhere; few planes were lost to German defenses). In retrospect, the initial American attack was considered “none too successful” (as recorded in the official history of U.S. Army Air Force). Subsequent attacks in March were more effective.

1945 – US 1st and 9th Armies continue their advance to the Rhine River. The US 7th Corps from US 1st Army reaches the Rhine just north of Cologne.

1945 – On the captured island of Iwo Jima, the first damaged B-29 uses the landing field.

1951 – U.S. Marines advanced to within nine miles of Hongchon.

1952 – North Korea accused the U.N. of using germ warfare.

1952 – An air detachment consisting of three helicopters and necessary personnel, established as the first unit of its type on a test basis at the air station, Brooklyn, New York, began operating in support of port security operations.

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1954 – Speaking before the 10th Inter-American Conference, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles warns that “international communism” is making inroads in the Western Hemisphere and asks the nations of Latin America to condemn this danger. Dulles’s speech was part of a series of actions designed to put pressure on the leftist government of Guatemala, a nation in which U.S. policymakers feared communism had established a beachhead. Dulles was stern and direct as he declared that there was not “a single country in this hemisphere which has not been penetrated by the apparatus of international communism acting under orders from Moscow.”

Communism, he continued, was an “alien despotism,” and he asked the nations of Latin America to “deny it the right to prey upon our hemisphere.” “There is no place here,” he concluded, “for political institutions which serve alien masters.” Though he did not mention it by name, it was clear to most observers that Dulles was targeting Guatemala. The United States had been concerned about political developments in Guatemala since 1944, when a leftist revolution overthrew long -time dictator Jorge Ubico.

In the years since, U.S. policymakers were increasingly fearful that communist elements were growing in power in Guatemala and deeply troubled by government policies that seemed to threaten U.S. business interests that nation. By 1954, Dulles and President Dwight D. Eisenhower were convinced that international communism had established a power base in the Western Hemisphere that needed to be eliminated. As evidence, they pointed to Guatemala’s expropriation of foreign -owned lands and industries, its “socialistic” labor legislation, and vague allegations about Guatemala’s assistance to revolutionary movements in other Latin American nations. Dulles’s speech did get some results. The Latin American representatives at the meeting passed a resolution condemning “international communism.” As Dulles was to discover, however, the Latin American governments would go no further.

In May, Dulles requested that the Organization of American States (OAS) consider taking direct action against Guatemala. The OAS was established in 1948 by the nations of Latin America and the United States to help in settling hemispheric disputes. Dulles’s request fell on deaf ears, however. Despite their condemnation of “international communism,” the other nations of Latin America were reluctant to sanction direct intervention in another country’s internal affairs. At that point, Eisenhower unleashed the Central Intelligence Agency. Through a combination of propaganda, covert bombings, and the establishment of a mercenary force of “counter -revolutionaries” in neighboring Nicaragua and Honduras, the CIA was able to destabilize the Guatemalan government, which fell from power in June 1954. An anti -communist dictatorship led by Carlos Castillo Armas replaced it.

1955 – 1st radio facsimile transmission (fax) was sent across the continent.

1959 – US Pioneer IV missed the Moon and became a 2nd (US 1st) artificial planet.

1962 – AEC announced 1st atomic power plant in Antarctica in operation.

1968 – Orbiting Geophysical Observatory 5 was launched.

1968 – In a draft memorandum to the president, the Ad Hoc Task Force on Vietnam advises that the administration send 22,000 more troops to Vietnam, but make deployment of the additional 185,000 men previously requested by Gen. William Westmoreland (senior U.S. commander in Vietnam) contingent on future developments. The Task Force was a group of senior policy advisors including Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford; Central Intelligence Agency Director Richard Helms; General Maxwell Taylor; Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs William Bundy; and Paul Warnke, head of the Pentagon’s politico -military policy office.

President Johnson requested that the Task Force study a request by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and General Westmoreland for more than 200,000 additional troops to augment U.S. forces in Vietnam and to strengthen U.S. security in other parts of the world. President Johnson asked that the memorandum be sent to General Westmoreland, who, in a reply four days later, welcomed the additional 22,000 troops, but insisted that he still needed the full requested reinforcements by year’s end. Ultimately, President Johnson and his advisers, seeking a way to disengage from the war, refused Westmoreland’s request for more troops.

1971 – “City Command” kidnapped 4 US military men at Ankara, Turkey.

1977 – ENS Janna Lambine, USCG, graduated from naval aviation training at NAS Whiting Field, Milton, Florida. She was the Coast Guard’s first female pilot.

1979 – US launched Voyager I photo revealed Giant Gas Planet Jupiter’s rings.

1982 – NASA launched Intelsat V.

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1987 – President Reagan addressed the nation on the Iran-Contra affair. He took full responsibility for the affair acknowledging his overtures to Iran had “deteriorated” into an arms-for-hostages deal. Michale Ledeen, Pentagon employee, later authored “Perilous Statecraft: An Insider’s Account of the Iran-Contra Affair.”

1990 – US 65th manned space mission STS 36 (Atlantis 6) returned from space.

1991 – 2:05 p.m., The Army’s 37th Engineer Battalion blew up 33 Iraqi bunkers in the Iraqi desert. The Pentagon later acknowledged that one of the bunkers probably contained shells of sarin, a nerve agent, and mustard gas.

1991 – Iraq released ten allied prisoners-of-war. A second group was freed the following day.

1993 – Authorities announced the arrest of Mohammad Salameh, a suspect in the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City. Salameh was later convicted of playing a key role.

1994 – In New York, four extremists were convicted of the World Trade Center bombing that killed six people and injured more than a thousand.

1994 – The space shuttle STS -62 (Columbia 16) blasted off on a two -week mission.

1998 – The US House approved a special referendum in Puerto Rico that would allow voters to choose one of 3 options: continued commonwealth status, statehood or independence.

1999 – In North Carolina a military jury acquitted Captain Richard J. Ashby of all charges in the 1998 death of 20 people, who died when his jet cut the cable of their ski gondola in the Italian Alps. Italian authorities were outraged.

1999 – Manuel Noriega’s sentence was reduced from 40 years to 30 by a federal judge in Florida. He would be eligible for parole in 2007.

1999 – In Venezuela the bodies of 3 Americans, who were kidnapped Feb 25 in Colombia, were found shot to death. Ingrid Washinawatok (41), Lahe’ena’e Gay (39) and Terence Freitas (24) were coordinating a campaign for the U’wa Indians when they were abducted. Raul Reyes, senior commander of FARC, later said that local commander Gildardo and 3 rebels seized and executed the 3 Americans without authorization. In Dec. German Briceno, a FARC officer, was indicted in absentia on murder charges along with Gustavo Bogota, a member of the U’wa Indian tribe. In 2000 Nelson Vargas was captured in Saravena and identified as the guerrilla commander responsible for the kidnap -slayings. Police later said Gildardo Gomez was the commander suspected in the killings, but still held Vargas on suspicion of rebel membership.

2001 – President George W. Bush dedicated a $4 billion aircraft carrier in honor of former President Reagan. Nancy Reagan christened the ship. It was commissioned in 2003.

2001 – The US Coast Guard found a record 13 (8) tons of cocaine aboard a 152 -foot fishing vessel, the Svesda Maru, in a Belize -flagged vessel 1,500 miles south of San Diego. The ship’s crew were from Russia and Ukraine.

2002 – The Battle of Takur Ghar was a short but intense military engagement between United States special operations forces and al Qaeda insurgents fought in March 2002, atop Takur Ghar mountain, Afghanistan. For the U.S. side, the battle proved the deadliest entanglement of Operation Anaconda, an effort early in the war in Afghanistan to rout al Qaeda forces from the Shahi-Kot Valley and Arma Mountains. The battle saw three helicopter landings by the U.S. on the mountain top, each greeted by direct assault from al Qaeda forces. Although Takur Ghar was eventually taken, seven U.S. service members were killed and many wounded. In honor of the first casualty of the battle, Navy SEAL Neil C. Roberts, the battle is also known as the Battle of Roberts Ridge.

2003 – The Army’s oldest armored division, “Old Ironsides,” got orders to head for the Persian Gulf as the total of U.S. land, sea and air forces arrayed against Iraq or preparing to go neared 300,000.

2004 – Ukrainian authorities pulled a private station off the air, four days after it began broadcasting U.S. -funded Radio Liberty’s shortwave programming.

2005 – American troops fired on a car, that had failed to respond to checkpoint indications and warnings, which was taking Giuliana Sgrena, a recently released hostage and Italian journalist, to Baghdad’s airport and wounded her. Nicola Calipari, the Italian intelligence officer who negotiated her freedom, was kille by the gunfire. Sgrena returned to Italy the next day.

2007 – At least 12 civilians were killed and 33 were injured by U.S. Marines in Shinwar district in Nangrahar province of Afghanistan as the Americans reacted to a bomb ambush. The event has become known as the Shinwar Massacre. The 120 member Marine unit responsible for the attack was asked to leave the country because the incident damaged the unit’s relations with the local Afghan population.

2007 – U.S. and Iraqi forces entered Sadr City, the primary stronghold of the Mahdi Army.

2010 – The Committee on Foreign Affairs of the United States House of Representatives accepts a resolution describing the Armenian Genocide as “genocide”, prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador and threatening Turkey–United States relations.

2011 – NASA’s attempt to launch the Glory satellite aboard a Taurus XL rocket fails. The Glory satellite was a planned NASA satellite mission that would have collected data on the chemical, micro-physical and optical properties—and the spatial and temporal distributions—of sulfate and other aerosols, and would have collected solar irradiance data for the long-term climate record. The science focus areas served by Glory included: atmospheric composition; carbon cycle, ecosystems, and biogeochemistry; climate variability and change; and water and energy cycles.

2015 – Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and his team of researchers find the Musashi, one of Japan’s biggest and most famous battleships which was sunk by American forces in 1944, on the floor of the Sibuyan Sea.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken this Day

RYAN, RICHARD
Rank and organization: Ordinary Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1851, Connecticut. Accredited to: Connecticut. G.O. No.: 207, 23 March 1876. Citation: Serving on board the U.S.S. Hartford, Ryan displayed gallant conduct in jumping overboard at Norfolk, Va., and rescuing from drowning one of the crew of that vessel, 4 March 1876.

WALLACE, GEORGE W.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, 9th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Tinuba, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 4 March 1900. Entered service at: Denver, Colo. Birth: Fort Riley, Kans. Date of issue: 25 June 1900. Citation: With another officer and a native Filipino, was shot at from an ambush, the other officer falling severely wounded. 2d Lt. Wallace fired in the direction of the enemy, put them to rout, removed the wounded officer from the path, returned to the town, a mile distant, and summoned assistance from his command.

*McGlLL, TROY A.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Troop G, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. Place and date: Los Negros Islands, Admiralty Group, 4 March 1944. Entered service at: Ada, Okla. Birth: Knoxville, Tenn. G.O. No.: 74, 11 September 1944. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy at Los Negros Island, Admiralty Group, on 4 March 1944. In the early morning hours Sgt. McGill, with a squad of 8 men, occupied a revetment which bore the brunt of a furious attack by approximately 200 drink crazed enemy troops. Although covered by crossfire from machineguns on the right and left flank he could receive no support from the remainder of our troops stationed at his rear.

All members of the squad were killed or wounded except Sgt. McGill and another man, whom he ordered to return to the next revetment. Courageously resolved to hold his position at all cost, he fired his weapon until it ceased to function. Then, with the enemy only 5 yards away, he charged from his foxhole in the face of certain death and clubbed the enemy with his rifle in hand to hand combat until he was killed. At dawn 105 enemy dead were found around his position. Sgt. McGill’s intrepid stand was an inspiration to his comrades and a decisive factor in the defeat of a fanatical enemy.

GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE
* * * By virtue of an act of Congress approved 4 March 1921, the Medal of Honor, emblem of highest ideals and virtues, is bestowed in the name of the Congress of the United States upon the unknown, unidentified British soldier and French soldier buried, respectively, in Westminster Abbey and Arc de Triomphe.

Whereas: Great Britain and France, two of the Allies of the United States in the World War, have lately done honor to the unknown dead of their armies by placing with fitting ceremony the body of an unknown, unidentified soldier, respectively, in Westminster Abbey and in the Arc de Triomphe; and

Whereas: animated by the same spirit of comradeship in which we of the American forces fought alongside these Allies, we desire to add whatever we can to the imperishable glory won by the deeds of our Allies and commemorated in part by this tribute to their unknown dead: Now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States of America be, and he hereby is, authorized to bestow with appropriate ceremonies, military and civil, the Congressional Medal of Honor upon the unknown, unidentified British soldier buried in Westminster Abbey, London, England, and upon the unknown, unidentified French soldier buried in the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, France.

(A.G. 220.523) (War Department General Orders, No. 52, 1 Dec. 1922, Sec. II).

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5 March

1624 – Class-based legislation was passed in the colony of Virginia, exempting the upper class from punishment by whipping.

1766 – Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans.

1770 – Five Americans, including Crispus Attucks, are fatally shot by British troops in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the American War of Independence five years later. In the cold, snowy night, a mob of American colonists gathers at the Customs House in Boston and begins taunting the British soldiers guarding the building. The protesters, who called themselves Patriots, were protesting the occupation of their city by British troops, who were sent to Boston in 1768 to enforce unpopular taxation measures passed by a British parliament that lacked American representation.

British Captain Thomas Preston, the commanding officer at the Customs House, ordered his men to fix their bayonets and join the guard outside the building. The colonists responded by throwing snowballs and other objects at the British regulars, and Private Hugh Montgomery was hit, leading him to discharge his rifle at the crowd. The other soldiers began firing a moment later, and when the smoke cleared, five colonists were dead or dying – Crispus Attucks, Patrick Carr, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, and James Caldwell – and three more were injured.

Although it is unclear whether Crispus Attucks, an African American, was the first to fall as is commonly believed, the deaths of the five men are regarded by some historians as the first fatalities in the American Revolutionary War. The British soldiers were put on trial, and patriots John Adams and Josiah Quincy agreed to defend the soldiers in a show of support of the colonial justice system. When the trial ended in December 1770, two British soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter and had their thumbs branded with an “M” for murder as punishment.

The Sons of Liberty, a Patriot group formed in 1765 to oppose the Stamp Act, advertised the “Boston Massacre” as a battle for American liberty and just cause for the removal of British troops from Boston. Patriot Paul Revere made a provocative engraving of the incident, depicting the British soldiers lining up like an organized army to suppress an idealized representation of the colonist uprising. Copies of the engraving were distributed throughout the colonies and helped reinforce negative American sentiments about British rule.

In April 1775, the American Revolution began when British troops from Boston skirmished with American militiamen at the battles of Lexington and Concord. The British troops were under orders to capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington and to confiscate the Patriot arsenal at Concord. Neither missions were accomplished because of Paul Revere and William Dawes, who rode ahead of the British, warning Adams and Hancock and rousing the Patriot minutemen.

Eleven months later, in March 1776, British forces had to evacuate Boston following American General George Washington’s successful placement of fortifications and cannons on Dorchester Heights. This bloodless liberation of Boston brought an end to the hated eight-year British occupation of the city. For the victory, General Washington, commander of the Continental Army, was presented with the first medal ever awarded by the Continental Congress. It would be more than five years before the Revolutionary War came to an end with British General Charles Cornwallis’ surrender to Washington at Yorktown, Virginia.

1776 – General Howe orders the evacuation of Boston. On the 4th, the General had noticed how many cannon The Colonials had pointed at him and his troops from Dorchester Heights, South of Boston, he couldn’t believe how much work they had done in, what he believed to be, just one night. “The rebels have done more in one night than my whole army could do in months.” He didn’t realize it took two nights, because the Continentals hid the evidence of their first night’s work.

General Washington and his troops had put their guns on Dorchester Heights where they could command Boston, threaten the British Army, and made the Boston Harbor unsafe for any British ship. First General Howe planned to attack to recapture Dorchester Heights. Then he decided to leave Boston and move his troops to New York, which was more important to both armies since it would control the traffic to and from Canada. A big storm came up that night giving the General an excuse for the evacuation.

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1836 – Samuel Colt manufactured the 1st pistol, a .34 caliber “Texas” model. Samuel Colt patented a revolver mechanism that led to the widespread use of the revolver. According to Samuel Colt, he came up with the idea for the revolver while at sea, inspired by the capstan, which had a ratchet and pawl mechanism on it, a version of which was used in his guns to rotate the cylinder. Revolvers proliferated largely due to Colt’s ability as a salesman. But his influence spread in other ways as well; the build quality of his company’s guns became famous, and its armories in America and England trained several seminal generations of toolmakers and other machinists, who had great influence in other manufacturing efforts of the next half century.

1864 – Commander John Taylor Wood, CSN, led an early morning raid on the Union-held telegraph station at Cherrystone Point, Virginia. After crossing Chesapeake Bay at night with some 15 men in open barges, Wood landed and seized the station. Small Union Army steamers Aeolus and Titan, unaware that the station was in enemy hands, put into shore and each was captured by the daring Southerners. Wood then destroyed the telegraph station and surrounding warehouses, and disabled and bonded Aeolus before boarding Titan and steaming up the Piankatank River as far as possible. A joint Army-Navy expedition to recapture her was quickly organized, but Wood evaded U.S.S. Currituck and Tulip in the still early morning haze. A force of five gunboats under Commander F.A. Parker followed the Confederates up the river on the 7th, where Titan was found destroyed by Wood, “together with a number of large boats prepared for a raid.”

1864 – Acting Master Thomas McElroy, commanding U.S.S. Petrel, reported a Confederate attack on Yazoo City. Heavy gunfire support by Petrel and U.S.S. Marmora, Acting Master Thomas Gibson, helped drive the Confederate troops off. In addition, McElroy wrote, I am proud to say that the Navy was well represented [ashore] by 3 sailors, who . . . stood by their guns through the whole action, fighting hand to hand to save the gun and the reputation of the Navy. The sailors are highly spoken of by the army officers.

1864 – General John C. Breckinridge takes control of Confederate forces in the Appalachian Mountains of western Virginia. The Kentuckian was a former senator and had been the vice president of the country and the runner-up to Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election. Breckinridge took over the obscure Western Department of Virginia, where he managed forces until he was elevated to the Confederacy’s Secretary of War in the closing weeks of the conflict. Born in 1821, Breckinridge graduated from college when he was 17 years old. He served in the military during the Mexican War and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives at age 30.

In 1856, Breckinridge became the youngest vice president when he was elected with James Buchanan at age 35. In 1860, he represented the southern wing of the Democratic Party, which had split during the convention over the issue of slavery. He finished third in the popular vote behind Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, who represented the northern Democrats, but he received 72 electoral votes to finish second behind Lincoln. Although he lost the White House, his state legislature selected him as senator shortly after the election.

During the summer of 1861, Breckinridge remained in the senate, supporting secessionists views as the war escalated. In September, Kentucky declared itself a Union state. Having literally become a man without a country, Breckinridge fled to the Confederacy and joined the army. He was made commander of the Orphan Brigade, a collection of Kentucky regiments with soldiers who found themselves geographically cut off from their native state. His unit suffered 34 percent casualties at the Battle of Shiloh, but went on to fight at most of the battles in the western theater. After taking control of the Western Department of Virginia, Breckinridge led forces at the Battle of New Market in May 1864, where his army routed a Union force.

In October, troops in his department were victorious at the Battle of Saltville, but the victory was tarnished when the Confederates began massacring black soldiers during the Union retreat. Breckinridge also served during Jubal Early’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign. On February 6, 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis tapped Breckinridge to be Secretary of War. He showed great ability in that capacity, but the Confederate cause had become hopeless.

Breckinridge oversaw the evacuation of Richmond in March and fled southward with Davis. Unlike Davis, however, Breckinridge successfully escaped the country through Florida and into Cuba. Joined by his family, Breckinridge stayed for four years in Europe before a presidential pardon allowed him to return to Kentucky. He worked as a lawyer until his death in 1875.

1868 – The Senate was organized into a court of impeachment to decide charges against President Andrew Johnson.

1872 – George Westinghouse patents the air brake.

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1906 – The United States Army troops bring overwhelming force against the native Moros in the First Battle of Bud Dajo, leaving only six survivors. The First Battle of Bud Dajo, also known as the Battle of Mt. Dajo, was a counter insurgency action fought by the United States Army against native Moros in March 1906, during the Moro Rebellion phase of the Philippine–American War. While fighting was limited to ground action on Jolo Island in the Sulu Archipelago, use of naval gunfire contributed significantly to the overwhelming firepower brought to bear against the Muslim insurgents, who were mostly armed with melee weapons. The description of the engagement as a battle is disputed because of both the overwhelming firepower of the attackers and the lopsided casualties.

The conflict, especially the final phase of the battle, is also known as the Moro Crater Massacre. During this battle, 790 men and officers, under the command of Colonel J.W. Duncan, assaulted the volcanic crater of Bud Dajo, which was populated by 800 to 1000 Moro villagers, including women and children. Although the battle was a victory for the American forces, it was also an unmitigated public relations disaster. It was the bloodiest of any engagement of the Moro Rebellion, with only six of the hundreds of Moro coming out of the battle alive. Estimates of American casualties range from fifteen killed to twenty-one killed and seventy-five wounded.

1927 – Some 1,000 US marines landed in China to “protect American property.”

1933 – When Franklin Roosevelt started his first term in the White House in 1933, he inherited a nation in the depths of the Depression. A record 13 million Americans were unemployed and businesses were drowning in red ink. Perhaps even more pressing was the head-spinning string of bank failures which had triggered a frantic run on the nation’s savings vaults. The wave of withdrawals by panic-stricken depositors further dried up banks’ already-depleted supply of liquid assets and pushed the nation’s banking system to the brink of disaster.

On March 5–the day after being sworn into office–Roosevelt stepped into the breach and declared a “bank holiday,” which, for four days forced the closure of the nation’s banks and halted all financial transactions. The “holiday” not only helped stem the frantic run on banks, but gave Roosevelt time to push the Emergency Banking Act through the legislative chain. Passed by Congress on March 9, the act handed the president a far-reaching grip over bank dealings and “foreign transactions.” The legislation also paved the path for solvent banks to resume business as early as March 10. Three short days later nearly 1,000 banks were up and running again.

1933 – Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party receives 43.9% at the Reichstag elections. This later allows the Nazis to pass the Enabling Act and establish a dictatorship.

1942 – Name “Seabees” and insignia officially authorized.

1943 – USS Bogue begins first anti-submarine operations by escort carrier.

1944 – Two battalions of the US 126th Infantry Regiment land at Yalau Plantation, 30 miles west of Saidor. There is almost no Japanese opposition.

1944 – On Los Negros the forces of the US 5th Cavalry Regiment move into the northern half of the island. Destroyers escorting a further 1400 American reinforcements provide fire support for the advance.

1945 – Units of the US 8th Corps (part of US 1st Army) enter Cologne from the south and the east. The Allied advance continues along the entire line.

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1946 – In one of the most famous orations of the Cold War period, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemns the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe and declares, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Churchill’s speech is considered one of the opening volleys announcing the beginning of the Cold War. Churchill, who had been defeated for re-election as prime minister in 1945, was invited to Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri where he gave this speech. President Harry S. Truman joined Churchill on the platform and listened intently to his speech. Churchill began by praising the United States, which he declared stood “at the pinnacle of world power.”

It soon became clear that a primary purpose of his talk was to argue for an even closer “special relationship” between the United States and Great Britain-the great powers of the “English-speaking world”-in organizing and policing the postwar world. In particular, he warned against the expansionistic policies of the Soviet Union. In addition to the “iron curtain” that had descended across Eastern Europe, Churchill spoke of “communist fifth columns” that were operating throughout western and southern Europe. Drawing parallels with the disastrous appeasement of Hitler prior to World War II, Churchill advised that in dealing with the Soviets there was “nothing which they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for military weakness.” Truman and many other U.S. officials warmly received the speech.

Already they had decided that the Soviet Union was bent on expansion and only a tough stance would deter the Russians. Churchill’s “iron curtain” phrase immediately entered the official vocabulary of the Cold War. U.S. officials were less enthusiastic about Churchill’s call for a “special relationship” between the United States and Great Britain. While they viewed the English as valuable allies in the Cold War, they were also well aware that Britain’s power was on the wane and had no intention of being used as pawns to help support the crumbling British empire.

In the Soviet Union, Russian leader Joseph Stalin denounced the speech as “war mongering,” and referred to Churchill’s comments about the “English-speaking world” as imperialist “racism.” The British, Americans, and Russians-allies against Hitler less than a year before the speech-were drawing the battle lines of the Cold War.

1947 – The 7th Marine Regiment disbanded at Camp Pendleton following their return from China. Personnel and equipment were transferred to the 3rd Marine Brigade.

1951 – The U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, including the French Battalion, seized communist positions in the Pangnum area.

1953 – Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union since 1924, dies in Moscow. Like his right-wing counterpart, Hitler, who was born in Austria, Joseph Stalin was not a native of the country he ruled with an iron fist. Isoeb Dzhugashvili was born in 1889 in Georgia, then part of the old Russian empire. The son of a drunk who beat him mercilessly and a pious washerwoman mother, Stalin learned Russian, which he spoke with a heavy accent all his life, in an Orthodox Church-run school. While studying to be a priest at Tiflis Theological Seminary, he began secretly reading Karl Marx and other left-wing revolutionary thinkers. The “official” communist story is that he was expelled from the seminary for this intellectual rebellion; in reality, it may have been because of poor health.

In 1900, Stalin became active in revolutionary political activism, taking part in labor demonstrations and strikes. Stalin joined the more militant wing of the Marxist Social Democratic movement, the Bolsheviks, and became a student of its leader, Vladimir Ilich Lenin. Stalin was arrested seven times between 1902 and 1913, and subjected to prison and exile. Stalin’s first big break came in 1912, when Lenin, in exile in Switzerland, named him to serve on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party-now a separate entity from the Social Democrats. The following year, Stalin (finally dropping Dzugashvili and taking the new name Stalin, from the Russian word for “steel”) published a signal article on the role of Marxism in the destiny of Russia.

In 1917, escaping from an exile in Siberia, he linked up with Lenin and his coup against the middle-class democratic government that had supplanted the czar’s rule. Stalin continued to move up the party ladder, from commissar for nationalities to secretary general of the Central Committee-a role that would provide the center of his dictatorial takeover and control of the party and the new USSR. In fact, upon Lenin’s death in 1924, Stalin began the consolidation of his power base, conducting show trials to purge enemies and rivals, even having Leon Trotsky assassinated during his exile in Mexico. Stalin also abandoned Lenin’s New Economic Policy, which would have meant some decentralization of industry. Stalin demanded-and got-absolute state control of the economy, as well as greater swaths of Soviet life, until his totalitarian grip on the new Russian empire was absolute.

The outbreak of World War II saw Stalin attempt an alliance with Adolf Hitler for purely self-interested reasons, and despite the political fallout of a communist signing an alliance with a fascist, they signed a nonaggression pact that allowed each dictator free reign in their respective spheres of influence. Stalin then proceeded to annex parts of Poland, Romania, and Finland, and occupy Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. In May 1941, he made himself chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars; he was now the official head of the government and no longer merely head of the party.

One month later, Germany invaded the USSR, making significant early inroads. As German troops approached, Stalin remained in the capital, directing a scorched-earth defensive policy and exercising personal control over the strategies of the Red Army. As the war progressed, Stalin sat in on the major Allied conferences, including those in Tehran (1943) and Yalta (1945). His iron will and deft political skills enabled him to play the loyal ally while never abandoning his vision of an expanded postwar Soviet Empire. In fact, after Germany’s surrender in April 1945, Stalin oversaw the continued occupation and domination of much of Eastern Europe, despite “promises” of free elections in those countries.

Stalin did not mellow with age; he prosecuted a reign of terror, purges, executions, exiles to the Gulag Archipelago (a system of forced-labor camps in the frozen north), and persecution in the postwar USSR, suppressing all dissent and anything that smacked of foreign, especially Western European, influence. To the great relief of many, he died of a massive heart attack on March 5, 1953. He is remembered to this day as the man who helped save his nation from Nazi domination-and as the mass murderer of the century, having overseen the deaths of between 8 million and 10 million of his own people.

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1953 – Good weather permitted Fifth Air Force to complete 700 sorties. Sixteen F-84 ThunderJets attacked in northeastern Korea an industrial area at Chongjin, just sixty-three miles from the Siberian border, destroying buildings and two rail and two road bridges, damaging seven rail cars, and inflicting several rail and road cuts. Fighter-bombers flying ground support missions reported damage or destruction to fifty-six bunkers and gun positions, fourteen personnel shelters, and ten supply stacks.

1960 – Elvis Presley is discharged from the army after a two-year stint.

1964 – The Joint Chiefs of Staff order a U.S. Air Force air commando training advisory team to Thailand to train Lao pilots in counterinsurgency tactics. Laos had won its independence from French control in July 1949 but the country quickly became a battleground as various factions vied for control of the government. One of the factions was the Neo Lao Hak Sat (Lao Liberation Front), communist insurgents more popularly known as the Pathet Lao. President Dwight Eisenhower believed that Laos was “the key to the entire area of Southeast Asia” and was concerned that the government would fall to the communists. The situation was defused somewhat when a conference in Geneva in July 1952 set up a coalition government for Laos and officially proclaimed the neutrality of the country.

This eventually proved to be a farce when the North Vietnamese Army moved 80,000 soldiers into Laos to assist the Pathet Lao. The United States then increased its support to the Royal Lao government. The mission of the American air commandos was to train the Laotian pilots in the conduct of close air support for the Royal Lao ground forces. Since Laos was officially neutral, the training efforts were conducted in Thailand with that government’s permission. The training did not result in sufficient numbers of trained Laotian pilots, so in December 1964, U.S. pilots in American planes began flying support missions for the Laotian ground troops as part of Operation Barrel Roll. The mission continued until February 1973.

1965 – Reports are surfacing from US Servicemen regarding shortages of ammunition and equipment while some of this material is being sold on the black market.

1965 – A 500-yard zone is being cleared around the Danang Airbase, and an 8 mile deep special military sector is being established. These are considered indications that US Marines are to be sent to Vietnam.

1969 – Communist forces fire at least 7 rockets into Saigon killing at least 22 civilians and wounding scores more.

1970 – The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty goes into effect after ratification by 43 nations.

1970 – SDS Weathermen terrorist group bombed 18 West 11th St. in NYC.

1971 – The U.S. 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, less its 2nd Squadron, withdraws from Vietnam. The “Blackhorse Regiment” (named for the black horse on the regimental shoulder patch) first arrived in Vietnam in September 1966 and consisted of three squadrons, each with three armored cavalry troops, a tank troop and a howitzer battery, making it a formidable fighting force. Upon arriving in Vietnam, the regiment had 51 tanks, 296 armored personnel carriers, 18 self-propelled 155-mm howitzers, nine flamethrower vehicles, and 18 helicopters. While in Vietnam, Blackhorse conducted combat operations in the 11 provinces surrounding Saigon and participated in the Cambodian incursion in 1970. During its combat service in Vietnam, Blackhorse suffered 635 troopers killed in action and 5,521 wounded in action. Three of its troopers won the Medal of Honor for bravery on the battlefield.

Upon its departure from Vietnam, the group was sent to Europe where it was assigned to guard the frontier in West Germany. The regiment’s 2nd Squadron remained in Vietnam until March 1972, when it departed to join the rest of the regiment in Germany. Also on this day: Premier Chou En-lai of the People’s Republic of China visits Hanoi. After lengthy consultations, Chou and North Vietnamese Premier Pham Van Dong issued a joint communique on March 10, which vowed continued Chinese support for the North Vietnamese struggle against the United States. This support was instrumental in providing the North Vietnamese with weapons and equipment needed for the major offensive they launched in the spring of 1972.

1975 – First meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club. The Homebrew Computer Club was an early computer hobbyist group in Silicon Valley which met until December 1986. Several very high-profile hackers and computer entrepreneurs emerged from its ranks. The open exchange of ideas that went on at its biweekly meetings, and the club newsletter, launched the personal computer revolution. The Homebrew Computer Club has been called “the crucible for an entire industry.”

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1978 – The Landsat 3 is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Landsat program is the longest running enterprise for acquisition of satellite imagery of Earth. On July 23, 1972 the Earth Resources Technology Satellite was launched. This was eventually renamed to Landsat. The most recent, Landsat 8, was launched on February 11, 2013. The instruments on the Landsat satellites have acquired millions of images. The images, archived in the United States and at Landsat receiving stations around the world, are a unique resource for global change research and applications in agriculture, cartography, geology, forestry, regional planning, surveillance and education, and can be viewed through the USGS ‘Earth Explorer’ website.

1979 – Voyager I’s closest approach to Jupiter (172,000 miles). Voyager 1 is a 722-kilogram (1,592 lb) space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, to study the outer Solar System. Operating for 37 years, 1 month and 12 days as of October 17, 2014, the spacecraft communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and return data. At a distance of about 129.18 AU (1.933×1010 km) (approximately 12 billion miles) from Earth as of September 2014, it is the farthest spacecraft from Earth.

1984 – US accused Iraq of using poison gas.

1991 – Iraq repealed its annexation of Kuwait. The Iraqis turned over 35 prisoners of war, including 15 Americans, to the Red Cross. An anti-Saddam Hussein uprising was reported sweeping city after city in Iraq.

1993 – The White House sought new ways to inflict what a spokesman called “real pain and real price” on Serb aggressors in Bosnia by tightening the U.N. blockade on supplies and money to the region.

1997 – The United Nations approves the 36th contract for the sale of Iraqi oil and announces that the $1.07 billion limit for the first 90 day period of Iraq’s oil-for-food program has been “more or less” met. The $1.07 billion includes $70 million in pipeline fees to Turkey.

1998 – NASA officials announced that the Lunar Prospector probe found the presence of water on the moon at the north and south poles. As much as 100 million tons of water was estimated. They said that the water frozen in the loose soil of the moon might support a lunar base and a human colony.

2000 – NATO peacekeeping troops arrested Dragoljub Prcac, a Bosnian Serb, for war crimes committed at the Omarska prison camp in 1992, where he served as deputy commander.

2000 – In Mozambique some 600 US troops arrived to help deliver food and medical supplies where flooding left an estimated 1 million people homeless.

2000 – In Russia acting Pres. Putin said that Russia would consider joining NATO if it were treated as an equal partner.

2003 – The foreign ministers of France, Germany and Russia said they will block any attempt to get UN approval for war against Iraq.

2003 – A Kuwaiti policeman was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 2002 attack that wounded two U.S. soldiers on a Kuwaiti desert highway.

2004 – U.S. special operations forces killed nine suspected Taliban rebels in a firefight in eastern Afghanistan after the militants tried to sneak by their position.

2004 – In Haiti some 3 thousand supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide marched on the U.S. and French embassies, shouting their anger at his ouster. A seven-member council met for the first time to help form a transitional government.

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2007 – The United States and North Korea commence talks in New York City to establish diplomatic relations following another temporary abandonment of the North Korean nuclear weapons program.

2011 – Alan Phillip Gross (born May 2, 1949),a U.S. international development professional, was found guilty of crimes against the state of Cuba supposedly for setting up illegal Internet connections. In December 2009 he was arrested while in Cuba working as a U.S. government subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of a program funded under the 1996 Helms-Burton Act. He was prosecuted in 2011 after being accused of bringing satellite phones and computer equipment (to members of Cuba’s Jewish community) without the permit required under Cuban law. After being accused of working for American intelligence services in January 2010, he was ultimately convicted for “acts against the independence or the territorial integrity of the state” and is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba.

2014 – UN Envoy Robert Serry is ordered to leave Crimea at gunpoint after being threatened by 10–15 armed men.

2015 – A knife-wielding assailant injures the American ambassador to South Korea, Mark Lippert, in the South Korean capital city of Seoul. Authorities report that the injuries on his face and wrist are not life-threatening.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken this Day

BOURY, RICHARD Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company C, 1st West Virginia Cavalry. Place and date: At Charlottesville, Va., 5 March 1865. Entered service at: Wirt Courthouse, W. Va. Birth: Monroe County, Ohio. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

FRANKS, WILLIAM J. Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1830, Chatham County, N.C. Entered service at: Duvalls Bluff, Ark. G.O. No.: 32, 16 April 1864. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Marmora off Yazoo City, Miss., 5 March 1864. Embarking from the Marmora with a 12-pound howitzer mounted on a field carriage, Franks landed with the gun and crew in the midst of heated battle and, bravely standing by his gun despite enemy rifle fire which cut the gun carriage and rammer contributed to the turning back of the enemy during the fierce engagement.

LAFFEY, BARTLETT Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1841, Ireland. Accredited to: Massachusetts. G.O. No.: 32, 16 April 1864. Citation. Off Yazoo City, Miss., 5 March 1864, embarking from the Marmora with a 12-pound howitzer mounted on a field carriage, Laffey landed with the gun and crew in the midst of heated battle and, bravely standing by his gun despite enemy rifle fire which cut the gun carriage and rammer, contributed to the turning back of the enemy during the fierce engagement.

STODDARD, JAMES Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1838, North Carolina. Accredited to: North Carolina. G.O. No.: 32, 16 April 1864. Citation: Off Yazoo City, Miss., 5 March 1864. Embarking from the Marmora with a 12_pound howitzer mounted on a field carriage, Stoddard landed with the gun and crew in the midst of heated battle and, bravely standing by his gun despite enemy rifle fire which cut the gun carriage and rammer, contributed to the turning back of the enemy during the fierce engagement.

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*HIBBS, ROBERT JOHN Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Company B, 2d Battalion, 28th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division. Place and date: Don Dien Lo Ke, Republic of Vietnam, 5 March 1966. Entered service at: Des Moines, Iowa. Born: 21 April 1943, Omaha, Nebr. G.O. No.: 8, 24 February 1967. Citations: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. 2d Lt. Hibbs was in command of a 15-man ambush patrol of the 2d Battalion, when his unit observed a company of Viet Cong advancing along the road toward the 2d Battalion’s position. Informing his command post by radio of the impending attack, he prepared his men for the oncoming Viet Cong, emplaced 2 mines in their path and, when the insurgents were within 20 feet of the patrol’s position, he fired the 2 antipersonnel mines, wounding or killing half of the enemy company. Then, to cover the withdrawal of his patrol, he threw hand grenades, stepped onto the open road, and opened fire on the remainder of the Viet Cong force of approximately 50 men. Having rejoined his men, he was leading them toward the battalion perimeter when the patrol encountered the rear elements of another Viet Cong company deployed to attack the battalion.

With the advantage of surprise, he directed a charge against the Viet Cong, which carried the patrol through the insurgent force, completely disrupting its attack. Learning that a wounded patrol member was wandering in the area between the 2 opposing forces and although moments from safety and wounded in the leg himself, he and a sergeant went back to the battlefield to recover the stricken man. After they maneuvered through the withering fire of 2 Viet Cong machine guns, the sergeant grabbed the dazed soldier and dragged him back toward the friendly lines while 2d Lt. Hibbs remained behind to provide covering fire. Armed with only an M-16 rifle and a pistol, but determined to destroy the enemy positions, he then charged the 2 machine gun emplacements and was struck down.

Before succumbing to his mortal wounds, he destroyed the starlight telescopic sight attached to his rifle to prevent its capture and use by the Viet Cong. 2d Lt. Hibb’s profound concern for his fellow soldiers, and his intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

*JENKINS, ROBERT H., JR. Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, 3d Reconnaissance Battalion, 3d Marine Division (Rein), FMF. Place and date: Fire Support Base Argonne, Republic of Vietnam, 5 March 1969. Entered service at: Jacksonville, Fla. Born: 1 June 1948, Interlachen, Fla. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a machine gunner with Company C, 3d Reconnaissance Battalion, in connection with operations against enemy forces. Early in the morning Pfc. Jenkins’ 12-man reconnaissance team was occupying a defensive position at Fire Support Base Argonne south of the Demilitarized Zone. Suddenly, the marines were assaulted by a North Vietnamese Army platoon employing mortars, automatic weapons, and hand grenades.

Reacting instantly, Pfc. Jenkins and another marine quickly moved into a 2-man fighting emplacement, and as they boldly delivered accurate machine gun fire against the enemy, a North Vietnamese soldier threw a hand grenade into the friendly emplacement. Fully realizing the inevitable results of his actions, Pfc. Jenkins quickly seized his comrade, and pushing the man to the ground, he leaped on top of the marine to shield him from the explosion. Absorbing the full impact of the detonation, Pfc. Jenkins was seriously injured and subsequently succumbed to his wounds. His courage, inspiring valor and selfless devotion to duty saved a fellow marine from serious injury or possible death and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

*JOHNSON, RALPH H. Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, Company A, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division (Rein), FMF. Place and date: Near the Quan Duc Valley, Republic of Vietnam, 5 March 1968. Entered service at: Oakland, Calif. Born: 11 January 1949, Charleston, S.C. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a reconnaissance scout with Company A, in action against the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong forces. In the early morning hours during Operation ROCK, Pfc. Johnson was a member of a 15-man reconnaissance patrol manning an observation post on Hill 146 overlooking the Quan Duc Valley deep in enemy controlled territory. They were attacked by a platoon-size hostile force employing automatic weapons, satchel charges and hand grenades.

Suddenly, a hand grenade landed in the 3-man fighting hole occupied by Pfc. Johnson and 2 fellow marines. Realizing the inherent danger to his 2 comrades, he shouted a warning and unhesitatingly hurled himself upon the explosive device. When the grenade exploded, Pfc. Johnson absorbed the tremendous impact of the blast and was killed instantly. His prompt and heroic act saved the life of 1 marine at the cost of his life and undoubtedly prevented the enemy from penetrating his sector of the patrol’s perimeter. Pfc. Johnson’s courage, inspiring valor and selfless devotion to duty were in keeping with 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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6 March

1521 – Ferdinand Magellan discovered Guam. The Chamorros, Guam’s indigenous people, first inhabited the island approximately 4,000 years ago. The island has a long history of European colonialism, beginning with Ferdinand Magellan’s Spanish expedition. The first colony was established in 1668 by Spain with the arrival of settlers including Padre San Vitores, a Catholic missionary. For more than two centuries Guam was an important stopover for the Spanish Manila Galleons that crossed the Pacific annually. The island was controlled by Spain until 1898, when it was surrendered to the United States during the Spanish–American War and later formally ceded as part of the Treaty of Paris.

1779 – The US Congress declared that only the federal government, and not individual states, had the power to determine the legality of captures on the high seas. This was the basis for the 1st test case of the US Constitution in 1808.

1820 – The Missouri Compromise, enacted by Congress, was signed by President James Monroe. This compromise provided for the admission of Missouri into the Union as a slave state, but prohibited slavery in the rest of the northern Louisiana Purchase territory. The compromise was invalidated in the 1856 Scott vs. Sanford case.

1822 – USS Enterprise captures four pirate ships in Gulf of Mexico.

1831 – Philip Henry Sheridan, Union Army General and hero of the Battle of Cedar Creek, was born.

1831 – Edgar Allan Poe failed out of West Point. He was discharged from West Point for “gross neglect of duty.” His parade uniform was supposedly incorrect.

1835 – Charles Ewing (d.1883), Brig General (Union volunteers), was born.

1836 – The Alamo fell after fighting for 13 days. Angered by a new Mexican constitution that removed much of their autonomy, Texans seized the Alamo in San Antonio in December 1835. Mexican president General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna marched into Texas to put down the rebellion. By late February, 1836, 182 Texans, led by Colonel William Travis, held the former mission complex against Santa Anna’s 6,000 troops. At 4 a.m. on March 6, after fighting for 13 days, Santa Anna’s troops charged. In the battle that followed, all the Alamo defenders were killed while the Mexicans suffered about 2,000 casualties.

Santa Anna dismissed the Alamo conquest as “a small affair,” but the time bought by the Alamo defenders’ lives permitted General Sam Houston to forge an army that would win the Battle of San Jacinto and, ultimately, Texas’ independence. Mexican Lt. Col. Pena later wrote a memoir: “With Santa Anna in Texas: Diary of Jose Enrique de la Pena,” that described the capture and execution of Davy Crockett (49) and 6 other Alamo defenders. In 1975 a translation of the diary by Carmen Perry (d.1999) was published. Apparently, only one Texan combatant survived Jose María Guerrero, who persuaded his captors he had been forced to fight. Women, children, and a black slave, were also spared.

1857 – The United States Supreme Court issues a decision in the Dred Scott case, one of the most important cases in the court’s history. In the ruling, the court affirmed the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the western territories, negating the doctrine of popular sovereignty and severely undermining the platform of the newly created Republican Party. At the heart of the case was the most important question of the 1850s: Should slavery be allowed in the West? As part of the Compromise of 1850, residents of newly created territories could decide the issue of slavery by vote, a process known as popular sovereignty. When popular sovereignty was applied in Kansas in 1854, however, violence erupted. Americans hoped that the Supreme Court could settle the issue that had eluded a Congressional solution.

Dred Scott was a slave whose owner, an army doctor, had spent time in Illinois, a free state, and Wisconsin, a free territory at the time of Scott’s residence. The Supreme Court was stacked in favor of the slave states. Five of the nine justices were from the South while another, Robert Grier of Pennsylvania, was staunchly pro-slavery. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote the majority decision, which was issued on March 6. The court held that Scott was not free based on his residence in either Illinois or Wisconsin because Scott was not considered a person under the Constitution–in the opinion of the justices, black people were not considered citizens when the Constitution was drafted in 1787.

According to Taney, Dred Scott was the property of his owner, and property could not be taken from a person without due process of law. In fact, there were free black citizens of the United States in 1787, but Taney and the other justices were attempting to halt further debate on the issue of slavery in the territories. The decision inflamed regional tensions, which burned for another four years before exploding into the Civil War.

1861 – Provisionary Confederate Congress established Confederate Army.

1862 – USS Monitor departed New York for Hampton Roads, VA.

1865 – The last Confederate victory of the Civil War occurred at Natural Bridge crossing near Tallahassee, Fla., when the forces of Union General John Newton were routed by entrenched southerners.

1886 – The 1st US alternating current power plant started in Great Barrington, MA.

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1918 – US naval boat “Cyclops” disappeared in “Bermuda Triangle.”

1927 – Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr. (d.2004), USAF astronaut (Mercury 9, Gemini 5), was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma.

1932 – Marine Band leader John Philip Sousa died at age 79 in Reading, Pennsylvania.

1943 – Three American cruisers and seven destroyers bombard Japanese airfields at Munda and Vila. Little damage is done. Two Japanese destroyers, however, are sunk in an encounter engagement.

1944 – US heavy bombers raid Berlin for the first time. A force of 660 bombers is sent and 69 are lost.

1944 – On New Britain, the US 1st Marine Division is sent to land on the east side of Willaumez Peninsula with the objective of capturing Talasea. Japanese resistance is weak but the terrain is difficult, so the advance inland is slow.

1945 – The US 9th Army has reached the Rhine all along its front. To the south, US 1st Army is fighting in Cologne and driving toward Remagen farther south — the US 9th Armored Division leads the advance. Farther south, units of US 3rd Army are making a rapid advance toward the Rhine at Koblenz.

1946 – Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with the French which recognizes the Democratic republic of Vietnam as a free state within the (as yet unformed) Indochinese Federation and the French Union. The new state is not precisely defined and the French leave details to be decided by future agreement. French forces are permitted to land in the north. Bao Dai, to eliminated his becoming a rallying point for opposing nationalist groups, departs on a ‘goodwill’ mission to China. Criticized by some Vietnamese for compromising, Ho Chi minh supposedly retorted, ‘It is better to sniff French dung for a while than to eat China’s all our lives.’

1951 – The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins in New York Southern District federal court. Judge Irving R. Kaufman presides over the espionage prosecution of the couple accused of selling nuclear secrets to the Russians (treason could not be charged because the United States was not at war with the Soviet Union). The Rosenbergs, and co-defendant, Morton Sobell, were defended by the father and son team of Emanuel and Alexander Bloch. The prosecution includes the infamous Roy Cohn, best known for his association with Senator Joseph McCarthy. David Greenglass was a machinist at Los Alamos, where America developed the atomic bomb. Julius Rosenberg, his brother-in-law, was a member of the American Communist Party and was fired from his government job during the Red Scare.

According to Greengalass, Rosenberg asked him to pass highly confidential instruction on making atomic weapons to the Soviet Union. These materials were transferred to the Russians by Harry Gold, an acquaintance of Greenglass. The Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb (and effectively started the Cold War) in September 1949 based on information, including that from Greenglass, they had obtained from spies. The only direct evidence of the Rosenberg’s involvement was the confession of Greenglass. The left-wing community believed that the Rosenbergs were prosecuted because of their membership in the Communist Party.

Their case became the cause celebre of leftists throughout the nation. The trial lasted nearly a month, finally ending on April 4 with convictions for all the defendants. The Rosenbergs were sentenced to death row on April 6 to death row. Sobell received a thirty-year sentence. Greenglass got fifteen years for his cooperation. Reportedly, the Rosenbergs were offered a deal in which their death sentences would be commuted in return for an admission of their guilt. They refused and were executed.

1958 – Form letters from Pres. Eisenhower to 6 civilians appointees provided for them to take office in the event of a national emergency. The group met in 1960 with the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization to discuss staffing for their agencies. Pres. Kennedy relieved the group of its duties in 1961.

1962 – US promised Thailand assistance against “communist” aggression.

1965 – The White House confirms reports that, at the request of South Vietnam, the United States is sending two battalions of U.S. Marines for security work at the Da Nang air base, which will hopefully free South Vietnamese troops for combat. On March 1, Ambassador Maxwell Taylor informed South Vietnamese Premier Phan Huy Quat that the United States was preparing to send 3,500 U.S. Marines to Vietnam. 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.” The Marines began landing near Da Nang on March 8th.

1967 – Lyndon B. Johnson announced his plan to establish a draft lottery.

1967 – Muhammad Ali was ordered by selective service to be inducted.

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1971 – Operation Lam Son 719 continues as reinforced South Vietnamese forces push into Tchepone, a major enemy supply center located on Route 9 in Laos. The base was deserted and almost completely destroyed as a result of American bombing raids. The operation, begun on February 8, included a limited incursion by South Vietnamese forces into Laos to disrupt the communist supply and infiltration network in Laos along Route 9, adjacent to the two northern provinces of South Vietnam. The operation was supported by U.S. airpower (aviation and airlift) and artillery (firing across the border from firebases inside South Vietnam).

Observers described the drive on North Vietnam’s supply routes and depots in Laos as some of the “bloodiest fighting” of the war. Enemy resistance was light at first as a 12,000-man spearhead of the South Vietnamese army thrust its way across the border into the communists’ deepest jungle stronghold toward Tchepone. However, resistance stiffened in the second week of February as the North Vietnamese rushed reinforcements to the area. On February 23, the big push bogged down around 16 miles from the border after bloody fighting in which the communist troops overran two South Vietnamese battalions. The fierce fighting continued into March and the South Vietnamese finally reached Tchepone.

However, fighting near the Vietnam border intensified and in the second week of March, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu gave the order for his troops to withdraw as casualties soared on both sides. However, withdrawing the ground task force under heavy North Vietnamese pressure was a difficult task. The South Vietnamese fought for two weeks to get back inside their own border and losses were heavy. The South Vietnamese suffered some 9,000 casualties, almost 50 percent of the force. In supporting the South Vietnamese, the U.S. sustained 1,462 casualties and lost 168 helicopters.

1973 – President Richard Nixon imposed price controls on oil and gas.

1980 – Islamic militants in Tehran said that they would turn over the American hostages to the Revolutionary Council.

1985 – Mexican authorities found the body of US drug agent Enrique C. Salazar.

1990 – Ed Yielding and Joseph T. Vida set the transcontinental speed record flying a SR-71 Blackbird from Los Angeles to Virginia in 64 minutes, averaging 2,124 mph.

1991 – Following Iraq’s capitulation in the Persian Gulf conflict, President Bush told a cheering joint session of Congress that “aggression is defeated. The war is over.”

1998 – The Army honored three Americans who risked their lives and turned their weapons on fellow soldiers to stop the slaughter of Vietnamese villagers at My Lai in 1968.

1998 – It was reported that Panama hired a Canadian Indian tribe, the Tsuu T’ina, to clean out unexploded bombs and shells from an area of Empire Range, which US military forces abandoned.

2002 – US commanders in Afghanistan committed an additional 300 troops to the battle zone in the Shah-I-Kot mountains.
Taliban and al-Qaeda forces were reported to have swollen by as many as 500 fighters.

2002 – Astronauts successfully replaced a power-control unit on the Hubble space telescope.

2003 – President Bush held a new conference and warned that he was prepared to go to war soon in Iraq with or without UN backing.

2003 – The United States ratified a treaty on cutting active U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear warheads by two-thirds.

2003 – The US military announces that US-British warplanes have fired at a mobile surface-to-air missile system and an anti-aircraft artillery site in southern Iraq in response to hostile fire.

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2006 – Five United States Army soldiers of the 502nd Infantry Regiment, raped the 14-year-old Iraqi girl Abeer Hamza al-Janabi, and then murdered her, her father, her mother Fakhriya Taha Muhasen and her six-year-old sister. The soldiers then set fire to the girl’s body to conceal evidence of the crime. Four of the soldiers were convicted of rape and murder and the fifth was convicted of lesser crimes for the involvement in the war crime, that became known as the Mahmudiyah killings.

2007 – NATO-led forces launch Operation Achilles against the Taliban in Helmand province. Operation Achilles was a NATO operation, part of the war in Afghanistan. Its objective was to clear Helmand province of the Taliban. The operation began on March 6, 2007. The offensive is the largest NATO-based operation in Afghanistan to date. NATO officials reported that, contrary to previous operations, Taliban fighters were avoiding direct confrontation in favor of guerilla tactics. It was led by British ISAF forces and focused on the Kajakai Dam and the towns in the area, which is a major power source for Afghanistan that had not been functioning for a number of years. One part of the mission was Operation Volcano, where British Royal Marines successfully cleared a large Taliban complex near the Kajakai Dam, as well as Operation Kryptonite which actually saw the clearing of the dam by allied forces.

2008 – A bomb causes minor damage to the door of a U.S. military recruiting center in Times Square, New York City. An unknown individual placed a small bomb in front of a United States armed forces recruiting station in Times Square, located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. There were no injuries. A security camera shows the bomber riding a bicycle as he approaches the station, dismounting the bike and planting the bomb, and then speeding off shortly before the blast. New York City police has yet to identify the bomber. Because of their similarities, investigators have suggested the bombing may be linked to two prior and one subsequent New York City bombings done in front of the Mexican Consulate in 2007, the British Consulate in 2005.

2011 – United States Navy commandos from the destroyer USS Bulkeley capture four Somali pirates who boarded the Japanese oil tanker, the MV Guanabara. The tanker was attacked by 4 armed Somali pirates, 3 PM 5 March, 2011. The crew of 24 hid in a safe room, and summoned help from the USS Bulkeley and the Turkish TCG Giresun. The pirates were captured without a fight. Three of the pirates were indicted in Japan, the fourth was turned over to juvenile authorities, as it was determined that he was a minor.

2012 – Law enforcement agencies in the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland arrest alleged senior members of the computer hacking group Lulz Sec, including a member of the FBI.

2015 – The United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency arrests a man as a suspected hacker in western England in connection with a June 15, 2014 cyber attack on the messaging service used by employees at the U.S. Department of Defense.

2015 – Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John O. Brennan announces plans for a major restructuring and reorganization, including a focus on digital espionage (through the creation of the CIA Directorate of Digital Innovation). The plan will end some longstanding divisions, and create ten new centers that team analysts with operators, fostering collaboration and focus on a range of new security issues and threats, and replacing geographic division offices with hybrid mission centers modeled on the CIA Counterterrorism Center.

2015 – NASA’s Dawn spacecraft enters orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken this Day

LANN, JOHN S.
Rank and organization: Landsman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1842 Rochester, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 59, 22 June 1865. Citation: As landsman on board the U.S.S. Magnolia, St. Marks, Fla., 5 and 6 March, Lann served with the Army in charge of Navy howitzers during the attack on St. Marks and throughout this fierce engagement made remarkable efforts in ass1sting transport of the gun. His coolness and determination in standing by his gun while under the fire of the enemy were a credit to the service to which he belonged.

MACK, JOHN
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1843, Maine. Accredited to: Maine. G.O. No.: 59, 22 June 1865. Citation: As seaman on board the U.S.S. Hendrick Hudson, St. Marks, Fla., 5 and 6 March 1865, Mack served with the Army in charge of Navy howitzers during the attack on St. Marks and, throughout this fierce engagement, made remarkable efforts in assisting transport of the gun. His coolness and determination in courageously standing by his gun while under the fire of the enemy were a credit to the service to which he belonged.

PYNE, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1841, England. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 59, 22 June 1865. Citation: As seaman on board the U.S.S. Magnolia, St. Marks, Fla., 5 and 6 March 1865. Serving with the Army in charge of Navy howitzers during the attack on St. Marks and throughout this fierce engagement, Pyne, although wounded, made remarkable efforts in assisting transport of the gun, and his coolness and determination in courageously standing by his gun while under the fire of the enemy were a credit to the service to which he belonged.

READ, CHARLES
Rank and organization: Ordinary Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1840 Cambridge, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No. 59, 22 June 1865. Citation: As seaman on board the U.S.S. Magnolia, St. Marks, Fla., 5 and 6 March 1865. Serving with the Army in charge of Navy howitzers during the attack on St. Marks and throughout this fierce engagement, Read made remarkable efforts in assisting transport of the gun, and his coolness and determination in courageously standing by his gun while under the fire of the enemy were a credit to the service to which he belonged.

SCHUTT, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 1833, Ireland. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 59, 22 June 1865. Citation: As coxswain on board the U.S.S. Hendrick Hudson, St. Marks, Fla., 5 and 6 March 1865. Serving with the army in charge of Navy howitzers during the attack on St. Marks and throughout the fierce engagement, Schutt made remarkable efforts in assisting transport of the gun, and his coolness and determination in courageously remaining by his gun while under the heavy fire of the enemy were a credit to the service to which he belonged.

SMITH, THOMAS
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1838, England. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.. 59, 22 June 1865. Citation: As seaman on board the U.S.S. Magnolia, St. Marks, Fla., 5 and 6 March 1865. Serving with the Army in charge of Navy howitzers during the attack on St. Marks and throughout this fierce engagement, Smith made remarkable efforts in assisting transport of the gun, and his coolness and determination in courageously standing by his gun while under the fire of the enemy were a credit to the service to which he belonged.

*OUELLET, DAVID G.
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy, River Squadron 5, My Tho Detachment 532. Place and date: Mekong River, Republic of Vietnam, 6 March 1967. Entered service at: Boston, Mass. Born: 13 June, 1944, Newton, Mass. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. As the forward machine gunner on River Patrol Boat (PBR) 124, which was on patrol during the early evening hours, Seaman Ouellet observed suspicious activity near the river bank, alerted his boat captain, and recommended movement of the boat to the area to investigate. While the PBR was making a high-speed run along the river bank, Seaman Ouellet spotted an incoming enemy grenade falling toward the boat. He immediately left the protected position of his gun mount and ran aft for the full length of the speeding boat, shouting to his fellow crewmembers to take cover.

Observing the boat captain standing unprotected on the boat, Seaman Ouellet bounded on to the engine compartment cover, and pushed the boat captain down to safety. In the split second that followed the grenade’s landing, and in the face of certain death, Seaman Ouellet fearlessly placed himself between the deadly missile and his shipmates, courageously absorbing most of the blast fragments with his body in order to protect his shipmates from injury and death. His extraordinary heroism and his selfless and courageous actions on behalf of his comrades at the expense of his life were in the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

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7 March

1644 – Massachusetts established 1st 2-chamber legislature in colonies.

1654 – Massachusetts colonists seek to widen their power over the recently annexed Maine territory. Supported by a grant from Parliament, Plymouth colonist Thomas Prince travels to the Kenebec River to organize the settlement.

1707 – Stephen Hopkins, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born.

1774 – The British close the port of Boston to all commerce. The Boston Port Bill was intended to close down completely the Port of Boston until the East India Company was paid for their tea lost in the Boston Tea Party and Parliament was paid the tax due on the tea.

1774 – A 2nd Boston tea party was held.

1776 – Lead by General William Howe, the British evacuate Boston. Howe’s army and a group of 1000 loyalists will set sail for Halifax, Nova Scotia on 17 March.

1778 – Capt. James Cook 1st sighted the Oregon coast at Yaquina Bay.

1847 – U.S. General Scott occupied Veracruz, Mexico. Pres. Polk decided to attack the heart of Mexico. He sent Gen. Winfield Scott, who landed at Veracruz and with his troops hacked their way to Mexico City.

1862 – Union forces under General Samuel Curtis defeat the army of General Earl Van Dorn at Pea Ridge, located in an extreme northwestern section of Arkansas. Pea Ridge was part of a larger campaign for control of Missouri. Seven months earlier, the Confederates defeated a Union force at Wilson’s Creek, some 70 miles northeast of Pea Ridge. General Henry Halleck, the Federal commander in Missouri, now organized an expedition to drive the Confederates from southwestern Missouri. In February 1862, General Samuel Curtis led the 12,000-man army toward Springfield, Missouri. Confederate General Sterling Price retreated from the city with 8,000 troops in the face of the Union advance.

Price withdrew into Arkansas, and Curtis followed him. Price hooked up with another Rebel force led by General Ben McCulloch, and their combined army was placed under the leadership of General Earl Van Dorn, recently appointed commander of Confederates forces in the trans-Mississippi area. Van Dorn joined Price and McCulloch on March 2 and ordered an advance on Curtis’ army. Curtis received word of the approaching Confederates and concentrated his force around Elkhorn Tavern. Van Dorn sent part of his army on a march around the Yankees.

On March 7, McCulloch slammed into the rear of the Union force, but Curtis anticipated the move and turned his men towards the attack. McCulloch was killed during the battle, and the Confederate attack withered. Meanwhile, the other part of Van Dorn’s army attacked the front of Curtis’ command. Through bitter fighting the Union troops held their ground. Curtis, suspecting that the Confederates were low on ammunition, attacked the divided Rebel army the following morning. Van Dorn realized he was in danger and ordered a retreat, ending the battle.

The Yankees suffered 1,384 men killed, wounded, or captured out of 10,000 engaged; the Confederates suffered a loss of about 2,000 out of 14,000 engaged. The Union won a decisive victory that also helped them clear the upper Mississippi Valley region on the way to securing control of the Mississippi River by mid-1863.

1865 – Battles were fought around Kingston, NC.

1865 – Lieutenant Commander Hooker, commanding a naval squadron consisting of U.S.S. Commodore Read, Yankee, Delaware, and Heliotrope, joined with an Army unit in conducting a raid at Hamilton’s Crossing on the Rappahannock River six miles below Fredericksburg. Hooker reported that the expedition succeeded in “burning and destroying the railroad bridge, the depot, and a portion of the track….; also the telegraph line was cut and the telegraphic apparatus brought away. A train of twenty-eight cars, eighteen of them being principally loaded with tobacco, and an army wagon train were also captured and burned. A considerable number of mules were captured and some thirty or forty prisoners taken. A mail containing a quantity of valuable information was secured.” Throughout the war, rivers were avenues of strength for the North, highways of destruction to the South, which enabled warships and joint expeditions to thrust deep into the Confederacy.

1876 – Patent #174,465 was issued to Alexander Graham Bell for his telephone.

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1911 – Twenty thousand US troops are sent to the Mexican border as the Mexican Revolution continues.

1918 – President Wilson authorized the Army’s Distinguished Service Medal. The Distinguished Service Medal is awarded to any person who while serving in any capacity with the U.S. Army, has distinguished himself or herself by exceptionally meritorious service to the Government in a duty of great responsibility. The performance must be such as to merit recognition for service which is clearly exceptional. Exceptional performance of normal duty will not alone justify an award of this decoration.

For service not related to actual war, the term “duty of great responsibility” applies to a narrower range of positions than in time of war and requires evidence of conspicuously significant achievement. However, justification of the award may accrue by virtue of exceptionally meritorious service in a succession of high positions of great importance. Awards may be made to persons other than members of the Armed Forces of the United States for wartime services only, and then only under exceptional circumstances with the express approval of the President in each case.

1936 – Nazi leader Adolf Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact by sending German military forces into the Rhineland, a demilitarized zone along the Rhine River in western Germany. The Treaty of Versailles, signed in July 1919–eight months after the guns fell silent in World War I–called for stiff war reparation payments and other punishing peace terms for defeated Germany. Having been forced to sign the treaty, the German delegation to the peace conference indicated its attitude by breaking the ceremonial pen. As dictated by the Treaty of Versailles, Germany’s military forces were reduced to insignificance and the Rhineland was to be demilitarized.

In 1925, at the conclusion of a European peace conference held in Switzerland, the Locarno Pact was signed, reaffirming the national boundaries decided by the Treaty of Versailles and approving the German entry into the League of Nations. The so-called “spirit of Locarno” symbolized hopes for an era of European peace and goodwill, and by 1930 German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann had negotiated the removal of the last Allied troops in the demilitarized Rhineland.

However, just four years later, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party seized full power in Germany, promising vengeance against the Allied nations that had forced the Treaty of Versailles on the German people. In 1935, Hitler unilaterally canceled the military clauses of the treaty and in March 1936 denounced the Locarno Pact and began remilitarizing of the Rhineland. Two years later, Nazi Germany burst out of its territories, absorbing Austria and portions of Czechoslovakia. In 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, leading to the outbreak of World War II in Europe.

1942 – Tuskegee flying school graduated its first Negro cadets.

1943 – General Patton arrived in Djebel Kouif Tunisia.

1944 – On Bougainville the Japanese are preparing to assault the American beachhead. On the Green Islands Allied forces have completed construction of an airfield.

1944 – US Task Force 74 (Admiral Crutchley) bombards Japanese batteries on Hauwei and Ndrilo. There are 3 cruisers and 4 destroyers involved.

1945 – The leading tanks of US 3rd Corps (part of US 1st Army) reach the Rhine River opposite Remagen and find the Ludendorff Bridge there damaged but still standing. Troops are immediately rushed across and a bridgehead is firmly established during the day. Other elements of the US 1st Army complete the capture of Cologne. Units US 12th Corps from US 3rd Army continue to advance rapidly.

1945 – Hitler relieves Field Marshal Rundstedt from his post as Commander in Chief of the German armies in the west because of the American capture of the bridge at Remagen. Field Marshal Kesselring is appointed to replace him.

1945 – Forces of the US 1st Corps are engaged south of San Fernando. South of Manila, the US 14th Corps is fighting near Balayan Bay and Batangas against the defense lines of the south Luzon Shimbu Group of the Japanese forces.

1950 – Just one week after British physicist Klaus Fuchs was sentenced to 14 years in prison for his role in passing information on the atomic bomb to the Russians, the Soviet Union issues a terse statement denying any knowledge of Fuchs or his activities. Despite the Russian disclaimer, Fuchs’ arrest and conviction led to the uncovering of a network of individuals in the United States and Great Britain who had allegedly engaged in spying activities for the Soviet Union during World War II. Fuchs worked on developing the atomic bomb during World War II, both in Great Britain and as part of the super-secret Manhattan Project in the United States.

In February 1950, British officials arrested him and charged him with passing information concerning the atomic bomb to the Soviets. After his arrest, Fuchs implicated an American, Harry Gold, as someone who served as a courier between himself and Soviet agents. Gold fingered David Greenglass, who also worked on the Manhattan Project, and Greenglass informed on his brother-in-law and sister, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Eventually, Gold and Greenglass were sentenced to jail terms for their roles. The Rosenbergs were convicted and sentenced to death; they were executed in 1953. The Soviets consistently denied any part in the spy ring.

In a statement released on March 7, 1950, the Russians declared that any confession by Fuchs indicating that he was working for the Soviet Union was a “gross fabrication since Fuchs is unknown to the Soviet Government and no ‘agents’ of the Soviet Union had any connection with Fuchs.” The exact level of Soviet spying, as well as the value of any information it succeeded in digging up as a result of such activity, has never been precisely determined. Fuchs was released from prison in 1959 and spent his remaining years living with his father in East Germany.

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