This Date in Military History:

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1951 – Operation RIPPER was launched in the central and eastern sectors as IX and X Corps crossed the Han River east of Seoul. Operation Ripper, also known as the Fourth Battle of Seoul, was a United Nations military operation conceived by the commander US Eighth Army, General Matthew Ridgway. The operation was intended to destroy as much as possible of the Chinese communist People’s Volunteer Army and North Korean military around Seoul and the towns of Hongch’on, 50 miles (80 km) east of Seoul, and Ch’unch’on, 15 miles (24 km) further north. The operation also aimed to bring UN troops to the 38th parallel. It followed upon the heels of Operation Killer, an eight day UN offensive that concluded February 28, to push Communist forces north of the Han River. The operation was launched by the US I Corps and IX Corps on the west near Seoul and Hoengsong and US X Corps and ROK III Corps in the east, to reach “Line Idaho”, an arc with its apex just south of the 38th Parallel in South Korea.

1952 – The U.S. signed a military aid pact with Cuba.

1956 – President Eisenhower turns down a request by Israel to purchase military arms from the United States. It comes after the Soviet Union has provided military equipment to Egypt.

1958 – Commissioning of USS Grayback, first submarine built from keel up with guided missile capability, to fire Regulus II missile.

1966 – In the heaviest air raids since the bombing began in February 1965, U.S. Air Force and Navy planes fly an estimated 200 sorties against North Vietnam. The objectives of the raids included an oil storage area 60 miles southeast of Dien Bien Phu and a staging area 60 miles northwest of Vinh.

1966 – Department of Navy reorganized into present structure under CNO.

1967 – PBRs assists Operation Overload II in Rung Sat Zone, Vietnam.

1968 – The Battle of Saigon, begun on the day of the Tet Offensive, ends in a resounding defeat for the communists.

1968 – Operation Coronado XII begins in Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

1971 – A thousand U.S. planes bombed Cambodia and Laos.

1972 – In the biggest air battle in Southeast Asia in three years, U.S. jets battle five North Vietnamese MiGs and shoot one down 170 miles north of the Demilitarized Zone. The 86 U.S. air raids over North Vietnam in the first two months of this year equaled the total for all of 1971.

1974 – The Civil War ironclad ship, Monitor, which sank in 1862, is discovered off the coast of Hatteras, North Carolina. For more than a century, the Monitor’s resting place in the “Graveyard of the Atlantic” remained a mystery, despite numerous searches. In 1973, an interdisciplinary team of scientists led by John G. Newton of the Duke University Marine Laboratory located the Monitor while testing geological survey equipment for underwater archaeological survey and assessment. Newton’s team determined the search area by re-plotting the track of the USS Rhode Island, a paddlewheel steamer that was towing the Monitor when she sank on New Year’s Eve, 1862.

The Rhode Island’s logbook recorded events and times as the two ships rounded treacherous Diamond Shoals off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. An 1857 coast survey chart helped refine the plotting of the search area. The scientists also developed sonar and visual configurations for the wreck with specific points of identification: the ship’s turret, armor belt, and nearly flat bottom. On August 27, 1973, after identifying twenty-one possible contacts, side-searching sonar found a long, amorphous echo. The first pass of the television camera revealed iron plates; a virtually flat, unobstructed surface (the bottom of the hull); a thick waist (the armor belt); and a circular structure (the turret).

With each successive series of camera passes, evidence mounted that the wreck was that of the Monitor, but it would take an intensive study of the visual evidence over the next five months to confirm it. A second visit to the site in April 1974 will positively identify the Monitor, lying in approximately 230 feet of water about 16 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras.

1979 – Voyager 1 reached Jupiter.

1980 – Demonstrations occur outside U.S. embassy in Tehran in protest of plan to turn American hostages over to Iranian Revolutionary Council; Foreign Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh reportedly taking charge of hostages tomorrow.

1981 – Anti-government guerrillas in Colombia executed kidnapped American Bible translator Chester Allen Bitterman, whom they accused of being a CIA agent.

1986 – Divers from the USS Preserver locate the crew cabin of the Space Shuttle Challenger on the ocean floor.

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1991 – Iraq continued to explode oil fields in Kuwait.

1994 – The U.S. Navy issued its first permanent orders assigning women to regular duty on a combat ship — in this case, the USS Eisenhower.

1996 – Three US servicemen were convicted in the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl and sentenced by a Japanese court to six and a-half to seven years in prison.

1996 – 1st surface photos of Pluto were photographed by Hubble Space Telescope.

1997 – The former Haiti police chief, Lt. Col. Michel Francois, was arrested in Honduras for helping to smuggle 33 tons of Columbian drugs through Haiti into the US. Francois had fled to the Dominican Republic in 1994.

1998 – Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, speaking in Rome, said the United States wouldn’t tolerate any more violence in Kosovo, which she blamed on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

2001 – In Serbia NATO soldiers moved into the Kosovo village of Mijak to stem the flow of arms to Albanian guerrillas in Macedonia.

2003 – The US and its allies moved to set March 17 as the final deadline for Saddam Hussein to prove he has given up his weapons of mass destruction.

2003 – Mohamed ElBaradei, UN chief nuclear weapons inspector, expressed frustration at the quality of US information on Iraqi weapons and charged that some documents may have been faked.

2004 – In Haiti U.S. Marines shot and killed one of the gunmen who fired at a huge demonstration of protesters celebrating the flight from Haiti of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. That raised the toll to six dead and more than 30 injured in the protest.

2007 – Three Jordanians go on trial for plotting to assassinate U.S. President George W. Bush.

2009 – The Kepler space observatory, designed to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars, is launched. Designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way to discover dozens of Earth-size extrasolar planets in or near the habitable zone and estimate how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets, Kepler’s sole instrument is a photometer that continually monitors the brightness of over 145,000 main sequence stars in a fixed field of view. This data is transmitted to Earth, then analyzed to detect periodic dimming caused by extrasolar planets that cross in front of their host star.

2011 – NATO decides to increase surveillance flights over Libya to a 24/7 basis.

2013 – Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, alleged spokesman for al-Qaeda and said to be the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, is captured in Jordan and faces criminal charges in the United States.

2013 – In the United States, Senator Rand Paul ends a 13-hour filibuster to block voting on the nomination of John O. Brennan as the Director of the CIA, questioning President Barack Obama and his administration’s use of drones, and the stated legal justification for hypothetical lethal use within the United States targeting against noncombatants. Attorney General Eric Holder states that combat drones would not be used to target and kill, without due process, Americans not engaged in combat on American soil.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken this Day

BLACK, WILLIAM P.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company K, 37th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Pea Ridge, Ark., 7 March 1862. Entered service at: Danville, Ill. Born: 11 November 1842, Woodford, Ky. Date of issue: 2 October 1893. Citation: Single-handedly confronted the enemy, firing a rifle at them and thus checking their advance within 100 yards of the lines.

CARR, EUGENE A.
Rank and organization: Colonel, 3d Illinois Cavalry. Place and date: At Pea Ridge, Ark., 7 March 1862. Entered service at: Hamburg, Erie County, N.Y. Born: 10 March 1830, Boston Corner, Erie County, N.Y. Date of issue: 16 January 1894. Citation: Directed the deployment of his command and held his ground, under a brisk fire of shot and shell in which he was several times wounded.

POWER, ALBERT
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 3d lowa Cavalry. Place and date: At Pea Ridge, Ark., 7 March 1862. Entered service at: Davis County, lowa. Birth: Guernsey County, Ohio. Date of issue: 6 March 1899. Citation: Under a heavy fire and at great personal risk went to the aid of a dismounted comrade who was surrounded by the enemy, took him up on his own horse, and carried him to a place of safety.

DANIELS, JAMES T.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company L, 4th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: Arizona, 7 March 1890. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Richland County, 111. Date of issue: 15 May 1890. Citation: Untirlng energy and cool gallantry under fire in an engagement with Apache Indians.

McBRYAR, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company K, 1 0th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: Arizona, 7 March 1890. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: 14 February 1861, Elizabethtown, N.C. Date of issue: 15 May 1890. Citation: Distinguished himself for coolness, bravery and marksmanship while his troop was in pursuit of hostile Apache Indians.

ROWDY
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, Indian Scouts. Place and date: Arizona, 7 March 1890. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Arizona. Date of issue: 15 May 1890. Citation: Bravery in action with Apache Indians.

CECIL, JOSEPHUS S.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, 19th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Bud-Dajo, Jolo, Philippine Islands, 7 March 1906. Entered service at: New River, Tenn. Birth: New River, Tenn. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: While at the head of the column about to assault the first cotta under a superior fire at short range personally carried to a sheltered position a wounded man and the body of one who was killed beside him.

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JOHNSTON, GORDON
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Signal Corps. Place and date: At Mount Bud Dajo, Jolo, Philippine Islands, 7 March 1906. Entered service at: Birmingham, Ala. Born: 25 May 1874, Charlotte, N.C. Date of issue: 7 November 1910. G.O. No.: 207. Citation: Voluntarily took part in and was dangerously wounded during an assault on the enemy’s works.

LEIMS, JOHN HAROLD
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. marine Corps Reserve, Company B, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, 3d Marine Division. Place and date: Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 7 march 1945. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill. Born: 8 June 1921, Chicago, Ill. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of Company B, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, 3d Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, 7 march 1945. Launching a surprise attack against the rock-imbedded fortification of a dominating Japanese hill position, 2d Lt. Leims spurred his company forward with indomitable determination and, skillfully directing his assault platoons against the cave-emplaced enemy troops and heavily fortified pillboxes, succeeded in capturing the objective in later afternoon.

When it became apparent that his assault platoons were cut off in this newly won position, approximately 400 yards forward of adjacent units and lacked all communication with the command post, he personally advanced and laid telephone lines across the isolating expanse of open fire-swept terrain. Ordered to withdraw his command after he had joined his forward platoons, he immediately complied, adroitly effecting the withdrawal of his troops without incident. Upon arriving at the rear, he was informed that several casualties had been left at the abandoned ridge position beyond the frontlines. Although suffering acutely from the strain and exhausting of battle, he instantly went forward despite darkness and the slashing fury of hostile machinegun fire, located and carried to safety 1 seriously wounded marine and then, running the gauntlet of enemy fire for the third time that night, again made his tortuous way into the bullet-riddled deathtrap and rescued another of his wounded men.

A dauntless leader, concerned at all time for the welfare of his men, 2d Lt. Leims soundly maintained the coordinated strength of his battle-wearied company under extremely difficult conditions and, by his bold tactics, sustained aggressiveness, and heroic disregard for all personal danger, contributed essentially to the success of his division’s operations against this vital Japanese base. His valiant conduct in the face of fanatic opposition sustains and enhances the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

*BRITTIN, NELSON V.
Rank and organization: Sergeant First Class, U.S. Army, Company I, 19th Infantry Regiment. Place and date: Vicinity of Yonggong-ni, Korea, 7 March 1951. Entered service at: Audubon, N.J. Birth: Audubon, N.J. G.O. No.: 12, 1 February 1952. Citation: Sfc. Brittin, a member of Company I, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action. Volunteering to lead his squad up a hill, with meager cover against murderous fire from the enemy, he ordered his squad to give him support and, in the face of withering fire and bursting shells, he tossed a grenade at the nearest enemy position. On returning to his squad, he was knocked down and wounded by an enemy grenade. Refusing medical attention, he replenished his supply of grenades and returned, hurling grenades into hostile positions and shooting the enemy as they fled.

When his weapon jammed, he leaped without hesitation into a foxhole and killed the occupants with his bayonet and the butt of his rifle. He continued to wipe out foxholes and, noting that his squad had been pinned down, he rushed to the rear of a machine gun position, threw a grenade into the nest, and ran around to its front, where he killed all 3 occupants with his rifle. Less than 100 yards up the hill, his squad again came under vicious fire from another camouflaged, sandbagged, machine gun nest well-flanked by supporting riflemen. Sfc. Brittin again charged this new position in an aggressive endeavor to silence this remaining obstacle and ran direct into a burst of automatic fire which killed him instantly. In his sustained and driving action, he had killed 20 enemy soldiers and destroyed 4 automatic weapons. The conspicuous courage, consummate valor, and noble self-sacrifice displayed by Sfc. Brittin enabled his inspired company to attain its objective and reflect the highest glory on himself and the heroic traditions of the military service.

KRAVITZ, LEONARD M.
Rank and Organization: Private First Class. U.S. Army. Company M, 3d Battalion. 5th Regiment. Place and Date: March 6-7, 1951, Yangpyong, Korea. Born: 1931, Brooklyn, NY . Departed: Yes (03/07/1951). Entered Service At: New York. G.O. Number: . Date of Issue: 03/18/2014. Accredited To: . Citation: Kravitz is being recognized for his actions in Yangpyong, Korea, March 6-7, 1951. While occupying defensive positions, Kravitz’s unit was overrun by enemy combatants and forced to withdraw. Kravitz voluntarily remained at a machine-gun position to provide suppressive fire for the retreating troops. This forced the enemy to concentrate their attack on his own position. Kravitz ultimately did not survive the attack, but his actions saved his entire platoon.

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8 March

1655 – John Casor becomes the first legally-recognized slave in England’s North American colonies where a crime was not committed. John Casor (surname also recorded as Cazara and Corsala), a servant in Northampton County in the Virginia Colony, in 1655 became the first person of African descent in Britain’s Thirteen Colonies to be declared as a slave for life as the result of a civil suit. In one of the earliest freedom suits, Casor argued that he was an indentured servant who had been forced by Johnson to serve past his term; he was freed and went to work for Robert Parker as an indentured servant. Johnson sued Parker for Casor’s services.

In ordering Casor returned to his master for life, Anthony Johnson, a free black, the court both declared Casor a slave and sustained the right of free blacks to own slaves. Slavery law hardened during Casor’s lifetime, though slavery is not considered restricted to people of African descent, as more than 500,000 Irish, as young as 10 years old were enslaved by England from 1610-1843, under the aims of King James I. In 1662, the Virginia colony passed a law incorporating the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, ruling that children of enslaved mothers would be born into slavery, regardless of their father’s race or status. This was in contradiction to English common law for English subjects, which based a child’s status on that of the father. In 1699 Virginia passed a law deporting all free blacks.

1690 – French and Algonquins destroy Schenectady, New York, killing 60 settlers, including ten women and at least twelve children.

1775 – An anonymous writer, thought by some to be Thomas Paine, publishes “African Slavery in America”, the first article in the American colonies calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery.

1777 – Regiments from Ansbach and Bayreuth, sent to support Great Britain in the American War of Independence, mutiny in the town of Ochsenfurt.

1782 – In Gnadenhutten, a Moravian missionary village in the Ohio territory, American militiamen massacre 96 Christian Delaware Indians in retaliation for raids executed by other tribes. The site of the village has been preserved. A reconstructed mission house and cooper’s house were built there, and a monument to the dead was erected. The burial mound is marked and has been maintained on the site. The village site has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

1785 – Congress appoints Henry Knox as secretary of war. The post has been vacant for two years since the resignation of General Benjamin Lincoln.

1790 – George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address.

1796 – Back in the tender days of the nation’s infancy, the Supreme Court handed down an early decision on taxation in the case of Hylton v. United States. The Court, which delivered its decision on this day in 1796, ruled that the carriage tax, the issue at the heart of the case, was an indirect tax. As such, the carriage tax was deemed constitutional, marking the first time in U.S. history that Court had weighed in on the constitutionality of legislation that had been passed by Congress.

1813 – President Madison names Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin and Delaware Senator James A. Bayard as special peace commissioners to join US minister to Russia John Quincy Adams in St. Petersburg at the invitation of Czar Alexander I, who has offered to mediate between Great Britain and the US in the War of 1812. Bayard and Gallatin will arrive in St. Petersburg 21 July.

1822 – President Monroe sends a special message to Congress proposing US recognition of the new Latin American republics that have recently achieved independence from Spain. Among them are Colombia, Peru, Argentina and Mexico. Henry Clay has been pressing for recognition since 1818, but Monroe delayed until after ratification of the US treaty with Spain and the cession of the formerly Spanish region of Florida to the US.

1847 – Commodore David Connor leads successful amphibious assault near Vera Cruz, Mexico.

1854 – US Commodore Matthew C. Perry landed at Yokohama on his 2nd trip to Japan. Within a month, he concluded a treaty with the Japanese.

1861 – St. Augustine, Florida, surrendered to Union armies.

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1862 – On the second day of the Battle of Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern) in Arkansas, Confederate forces, including some Indian troops, under General Earl Van Dorn surprised Union troops, but the Union troops won the battle. Pea Ridge Natl. Military Park, Arkansas, marked the site where Confederate commanders, Gen. Ben McCulloch and Gen. James McIntosh, were killed.

1862 – Ironclad C.S.S. Virginia, Captain Buchanan, destroyed wooden blockading ships U.S.S. Cumberland and U.S.S. Congress in Hampton Roads. Virginia, without trials or under way-training, headed directly for the Union squadron. She opened the engagement when less than a mile distant from Cumberland and the firing became general from blockaders and shore batteries. Virginia rammed Cumberland below the waterline and she sank rapidly, “gallantly fighting her guns,” Buchanan reported in tribute to a brave foe, “as long as they were above water. Buchanan next turned Virginia’s fury on Congress, hard aground, and set her ablaze with hot shot and incendiary shell. The day was Virginia’s but it was not without loss. Part of her ram was wrenched off and left imbedded in the side of stricken Cumberland, and Buchanan received a wound in the thigh which necessitated his turning over command to Lieutenant Catesby R. Jones.

Secretary of the Navy Mallory wrote to President Davis of the action: “The conduct of the Officers and men of the squadron . . . reflects unfading honor upon themselves and upon the Navy. The report will be read with deep interest, and its details will not fail to rouse the ardor and nerve the arms of our gallant seamen. It will be remembered that the Virginia was a novelty in naval architecture, wholly unlike any ship that ever floated; that her heaviest guns were equal novelties in ordnance; that her motive power and obedience to her helm were untried, and her officers and crew strangers, comparatively, to the ship and to each other; and yet, under all these disadvantages, the dashing courage and consummate professional ability of Flag Officer Buchanan and his associates achieved the most remarkable victory which naval annals record.” U.S.S. Monitor, Lieutenant Worden, arrived in Hampton Roads at night. The stage was set for the dramatic battle with C.S.S. Virginia the following day. ‘ Upon the untried endurances of the new Monitor and her timely arrival,” observed Captain Dahlgren, ”did depend the tide of events. . . ”

The C.S.S. Virginia was originally the U.S.S. Merrimack, a forty-gun frigate launched in 1855. The Merrimack served in the Caribbean and was the flagship of the Pacific fleet in the late 1850s. In early 1860, the ship was decommissioned for extensive repairs at the Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia. It was still there when the war began in April 1861, and Union sailors sank the ship as the yard was evacuated. Six weeks later, a salvage company raised the ship and the Confederates began rebuilding it. The project required $172,000 to build an ironclad upon the Merrimack’s hull. A new gun deck was added and an iron canopy was draped over the entire vessel. The most challenging part of the construction came in finding the iron plating. Richmond’s Tredegar Iron Works finally produced it, but the plant had to alter its operations to roll more than 300 tons of scrap iron for the two-inch thick plating.

1862 – Nat Gordon, one of the last pirates from England, was hanged in NYC for stealing 1,000 slaves.

1865 – Battle of Kingston, NC (Wilcox’s ridge, Wise’s Forks).

1874 – Millard Fillmore (b.1800), the 13th president of the United States (1850-1853), died in Buffalo, N.Y.

1880 – President Rutherford B. Hayes declared that the United States would have jurisdiction over any canal built across the isthmus of Panama.

1913 – Internal Revenue Service began to levy and collect income taxes.

1916 – US invaded Cuba for 3rd time. This time “to end corrupt Menocal regime.”

1917 – Riots, strikes, and mass demonstrations break out in Moscow. People are demonstrating against shortages of food and fuel, and the autocratic style of the government. The police use lethal force against the demonstrators, but the unrest continues over the following days.

1919 – Reports from Paris indicated that 6,000 American men had married French women in the past year.

1930 – William Howard Taft (72), 27th president of the United States (1909-1913), died in Washington. In addition to John F. Kennedy, William Howard Taft is the only other U.S. president buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Born in Cincinnati on September 15, 1857, Taft was the 27th president, serving from 1909 to 1913. He later served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1921 until illness forced him to resign in 1930.

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1933 – Anton J. Cermak (b.1873), Czech-born 35th mayor of Chicago, died following the Feb 15th assassination attempt in Miami by Guiseppe Zangara, who was trying to shoot FDR. Zangara was executed in the electric chair on March 21, 1933. Cermak became the 2nd US mayor to die in a political killing.

1934 – Edwin Hubble photo showed as many galaxies as Milky Way has stars.

1941 – The Lend-Lease Bill is passed by the Senate by 60 votes to 13.

1942 – Coast Guard plane located the lifeboats of SS Arubutan, which had been sunk by a Nazi submarine off the North Carolina coast, and directed CGC Calypso to them.

1943 – A change in the standard encoding machine used by the German U-boat fleet creates problems for Allied anti-submarine warfare. A fourth rotor is added to the Engima code machine to ensure secure communications. Allied cryptographers are able to decipher the German communication, after a brief delay.

1943 – US Ambassador to the USSR, Admiral W.M. Standley, claims that the Soviet leaders are not telling their people about all the aid the US is sending. On March 11, Soviet Ambassador to the US, Maxim Litvinov, thanks the US for its aid.

1944 – USAAF heavy bombers raid Berlin for a second time. About 10 percent of the force of 580 bombers is lost despite the escort of 800 fighters.

1944 – Japanese forces attack the American beachhead on Bougainville. The US airfields at Piva are shelled by the Japanese and some of the American bombers are withdrawn. Japanese infantry infiltrate the positions of the US 37th Division. The attacking troops are most from the Japanese 6th Division (General Hyakutake).

1944 – On New Britain, the attacks of US 1st Marine Division makes progress as does the American advance along the coast from Cape Gloucester.

1945 – Phyllis Mae Daley received a commission in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. She was the first African-American nurse to serve duty in World War II.

1945 – During the night, German forces from the garrisons in the occupied Channel Islands mount a raid on Granville on the west coast of the Cotentin Peninsula. One small US warship and 4 merchant ships are sunk. The raiders also free 67 German prisoners of war.

1945 – American efforts to reinforce the Remagen bridgehead continue. German bombers, including some jets, begin attacks on the bridge but fail to destroy it. To the north, units of the Canadian 2nd Corps (part of Canadian 1st Army) capture Xanten.

1945 – On Iwo Jima, the forces of US 5th Amphibious Corps continue pushing northward with heavy fire support. Japanese forces are now all within one mile of the north end of the island.

1950 – Marshall Voroshilov of USSR announced they had developed atomic bomb.

1954 – The U.S. signed a defense pact with Japan, offering them $100 million in aid within the next three months.

1958 – Battleship USS Wisconsin (BB-64) is decommissioned, leaving the Navy without an active battleship for the first time since 1895.

1961 – US nuclear submarine Patrick Henry arrived at Scottish naval base of Holy Loch from SC in a record under seas journey of 66 days 22 hrs.

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1965 – The USS Henrico, Union, and Vancouver, carrying the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade under Brig. Gen. Frederick J. Karch, take up stations 4,000 yards off Red Beach Two, north of Da Nang. First ashore was the Battalion Landing Team 3/9, which arrived on the beach at 8:15 a.m. Wearing full battle gear and carrying M-16s, the Marines were met by sightseers, South Vietnamese officers, Vietnamese girls with leis, and four American soldiers with a large sign stating: “Welcome, Gallant Marines.” Gen. William Westmoreland, senior U.S. military commander in Saigon, was reportedly “appalled” at the spectacle because he had hoped that the Marines could land without any fanfare.

Within two hours, Battalion Landing Team 1/3 began landing at Da Nang air base. The 3,500 Marines were deployed to secure the U.S. airbase, freeing South Vietnamese troops up for combat. On March 1, Ambassador Maxwell Taylor had informed South Vietnamese Premier Phan Huy Quat that the United States was preparing to send the 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, like Westmoreland, asked that the Marines be “brought ashore in the most inconspicuous way feasible.” These wishes were ignored and the Marines were given a hearty, conspicuous welcome when they arrived.

1968 – A Soviet submarine, code-named K129, sank in the Pacific at a depth of almost 20,000 feet. A US sub, the Halibut, found the Soviet vessel 6 months later and recovered 3 missiles with nuclear warheads, Soviet code books and an encryption machine. In 1974 the CIA attempted to recover the sub. A 100 foot section was pulled in by the Glomar Explorer with 2 nuclear tipped torpedoes and the bodies of 6 Russian sailors.

1970 – The Nixon administration disclosed the deaths of 27 Americans in Laos.

1971 – Radio Hanoi broadcast Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner.”

1973 – The first “Coast Guard-controlled drug seizure” took place when the cutter Dauntless seized the sport fishing vessel Big L which was carrying an illicit cargo: one ton of marijuana.

1975 – South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu orders the withdrawal of South Vietnamese forces from the Central Highlands. In late January 1975, just two years after the cease-fire had been established by the Paris Peace Accords, the North Vietnamese launched Campaign 275. The objective of this campaign was the capture of Ban Me Thuot in the Central Highlands. The battle began on March 4 and the North Vietnamese quickly encircled the city. As it became clear that the communists would take the city and probably the entire Darlac province, Thieu decided to withdraw his forces in order to protect the more critical populous areas.

Accordingly, he ordered his forces in the Central Highlands to pull back from their positions. Abandoning Pleiku and Kontum, the South Vietnamese forces began to move toward the sea, but what began as an orderly withdrawal soon turned into panic. The South Vietnamese forces rapidly fell apart. The North Vietnamese were successful in both the Central Highlands and further north at Quang Tri, Hue, and Da Nang. The South Vietnamese soon collapsed as a cogent fighting force and the North Vietnamese continued the attack all the way to Saigon. South Vietnam surrendered unconditionally on April 30th.

1977 – The U.S. Army announced that they had conducted 239 open-air tests of germ warfare.

1979 – Philips demonstrates the Compact Disc publicly for the first time.

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1982 – The United States government issues a public statement accusing the Soviet Union of using poison gas and chemical weapons in its war against rebel forces in Afghanistan. The accusation was part of the continuing U.S. criticism of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. Since sending troops into Afghanistan in 1979 in an attempt to prop up a pro-Soviet communist government, the Soviet Union had been on the receiving end of an unceasing string of criticism and diplomatic attacks from the United States government. First the Carter administration, and then the Reagan administration, condemned the Soviets for their intervention in a sovereign nation. Because of the issue, arms control talks had been tabled, the United States had boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, and diplomatic tension between America and Russia reached alarming proportions.

Reports that the Soviets were using poison gas and chemical weapons in Afghanistan only intensified the heightened tensions. The U.S. government’s official statement charged that over 3,000 Afghans had been killed by weapons, including “irritants, incapacitants, nerve agents, phosgene oxime and perhaps mycotoxins, mustard, lewisite and toxic smoke.” Evidence to support these charges was largely anecdotal and a number of U.S. scientists had serious doubts about the data put forward by the Reagan administration. Some critics charged that the accusations were a smokescreen behind which the United States could go forward with further development and stockpiling of its own chemical weapons arsenal. The U.S. attack must have seemed mildly ironic to the Soviets, who had pilloried America for the use of defoliants and other chemical weapons during its war in Vietnam. By 1982, many Americans were referring to Afghanistan as “Russia’s Vietnam.”

1983 – Pres Reagan called the USSR an “Evil Empire.”

1988 – Seventeen soldiers died when two Army helicopters from Fort Campbell, Ky., collided in midair.

1990 – Opening arguments were heard in the Iran-Contra trial of former national security adviser John M. Poindexter.

1991 – Planeload after planeload of US troops arrived home from the Persian Gulf to an emotional welcome from relatives. Iraq handed over 40 foreign journalists and two American soldiers whom it had captured.

1994 – The Defense Department announced a smoking ban for workplaces ranging from the Pentagon to battle tanks.

1995 – Two United States diplomats were killed, one injured, when their car was ambushed as they were driving to the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan.

1999 – The Clinton administration directed the firing of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory because of alleged security violations.

1999 – US warplanes dropped laser-guided bombs on northern and southern Iraq.

2001 – The space shuttle Discovery lifted off with supplies for the int’l. space station in a new Italian module named Leonardo. The 12-day mission also included a fresh crew of 3 for the station.

2001 – In Afghanistan the giant Buddha at Bamiyan was destroyed.

2002 – The Holy Land Foundation filed suit against the US Departments of Justice, Treasury and State for violation of its civil rights and putting it out of business as a suspected conduit for terrorist funds.

2003 – The first Afghan radio station programmed solely for women began broadcasting in Kabul. Daily broadcasts will increase to 2 hours next week and up to 4 hours in several months.

2003 – Iraq resumed the destruction of banned Al Samoud 2 missiles after taking a day off and called on the UN to lift sanctions after arms inspectors gave a positive assessment of Baghdad’s cooperation. Iraq also demanded that the UN strip Israel of weapons of mass destruction, require withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territory and that the UN brand the US and Britain as liars.

2003 – A report by UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to the Security Council says that he suspects Iraq might be trying to produce new missiles. He also says it will take months to disarm Iraq, even with its active cooperation. The Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed El Baradei, says there is no evidence Iraq has a nuclear weapons development program.

2004 – In Haiti a US Marines shot and killed the driver of a vehicle speeding up to a military checkpoint.

2004 – Iraq’s Governing Council signed a landmark interim constitution after resolving a political impasse sparked by objections from the country’s most powerful cleric.

2004 – Abu Abbas (56), the Palestinian who planned the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro passenger ship in which a wheelchair-bound American tourist was killed and thrown overboard, died of natural causes in Baghdad while in U.S. custody.

2005 – China unveiled a law authorizing an attack if Taiwan moves toward formal independence, increasing pressure on the self-ruled island while warning other countries not to interfere.

2013 – North Korea ends all peace pacts with South Korea and closes the main Panmunjom border crossing inside the Korean Demilitarized Zone. North Korean generals affirm they are aiming their long range missiles at the U.S. mainland in retaliation for the recently approved U.N. sanctions.

2014 – During an interview with French television channel France 24, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of openly funding ISIS.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken this Day

FITZ, JOSEPH
Rank and organization: Ordinary Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 24 May 1886, Austria. Accredited to: lowa. G.O. No.: 19, 1 May 1906. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Pampanga, Mount Dajo Jolo, Philippine Islands, 8 March 1906. Serving in the presence of the enemy on this date, Fitz displayed bravery and extraordinary heroism.

*WATSON, GEORGE
General Order: Citation: For extraordinary heroism in action on 8 March 1943. Private Watson was on board a ship which was attacked and hit by enemy bombers. When the ship was abandoned, Private Watson, instead of seeking to save himself, remained in the water assisting several soldiers who could not swim to reach the safety of the raft. This heroic action, which subsequently cost him his life, resulted in the saving of several of his comrades. Weakened by his exertions, he was dragged down by the suction of the sinking ship and was drowned. Private Watson’s extraordinarily valorous actions, daring leadership, and self-sacrificing devotion to his fellow-man exemplify the finest traditions of military service.

*LA BELLE, JAMES DENNIS
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Born: 22 November 1925, Columbia Heights, Minn. Accredited to: Minnesota. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while attached to the 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces during the seizure of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, 8 March 1945. Filling a gap in the front lines during a critical phase of the battle, Pfc. LaBelle had dug into a foxhole with 2 other marines and, grimly aware of the enemy’s persistent attempts to blast a way through our lines with hand grenades, applied himself with steady concentration to maintaining a sharply vigilant watch during the hazardous night hours. Suddenly a hostile grenade landed beyond reach in his foxhole.

Quickly estimating the situation, he determined to save the others if possible, shouted a warning, and instantly dived on the deadly missile, absorbing the exploding charge in his own body and thereby protecting his comrades from serious injury. Stouthearted and indomitable, he had unhesitatingly relinquished his own chance of survival that his fellow marines might carry on the relentless fight against a fanatic enemy His dauntless courage, cool decision and valiant spirit of self-sacrifice in the face of certain death reflect the highest credit upon Pfc. LaBelle and upon the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country.

*LUMMUS, JACK
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Born: 22 October 1915, Ennie, Tex. Appointed from: Texas. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as leader of a Rifle Platoon attached to the 2d Battalion, 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, 8 March 1945. Resuming his assault tactics with bold decision after fighting without respite for 2 days and nights, 1st Lt. Lummus slowly advanced his platoon against an enemy deeply entrenched in a network of mutually supporting positions. Suddenly halted by a terrific concentration of hostile fire, he unhesitatingly moved forward of his front lines in an effort to neutralize the Japanese position. Although knocked to the ground when an enemy grenade exploded close by, he immediately recovered himself and, again moving forward despite the intensified barrage, quickly located, attacked, and destroyed the occupied emplacement.

Instantly taken under fire by the garrison of a supporting pillbox and further assailed by the slashing fury of hostile rifle fire, he fell under the impact of a second enemy grenade but, courageously disregarding painful shoulder wounds, staunchly continued his heroic 1-man assault and charged the second pillbox, annihilating all the occupants. Subsequently returning to his platoon position, he fearlessly traversed his lines under fire, encouraging his men to advance and directing the fire of supporting tanks against other stubbornly holding Japanese emplacements. Held up again by a devastating barrage, he again moved into the open, rushed a third heavily fortified installation and killed the defending troops. Determined to crush all resistance, he led his men indomitably, personally attacking foxholes and spider traps with his carbine and systematically reducing the fanatic opposition until, stepping on a land mine, he sustained fatal wounds. By his outstanding valor, skilled tactics, and tenacious perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds, 1st Lt. Lummus had inspired his stouthearted marines to continue the relentless drive northward, thereby contributing materially to the success of his regimental mission. His dauntless leadership and unwavering devotion to duty throughout sustain and enhance the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country.

*MATHIS, JACK W. (Air Mission)
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Corps, 359th Bomber Squadron, 303d Bomber Group. Place and date: Over Vegesack, Germany, 18 March 1943. Entered service at: San Angelo, Tex. Born: 25 September 1921, San Angelo, Tex. G.O. No.: 38, 12 July 1943. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy over Vegesack, Germany, on 18 March 1943. 1st Lt. Mathis, as leading bombardier of his squadron, flying through intense and accurate antiaircraft fire, was just starting his bomb run, upon which the entire squadron depended for accurate bombing, when he was hit by the enemy antiaircraft fire.

His right arm was shattered above the elbow, a large wound was torn in his side and abdomen, and he was knocked from his bomb sight to the rear of the bombardier’s compartment. Realizing that the success of the mission depended upon him, 1st Lt. Mathis, by sheer determination and willpower, though mortally wounded, dragged himself back to his sights, released his bombs, then died at his post of duty. As the result of this action the airplanes of his bombardment squadron placed their bombs directly upon the assigned target for a perfect attack against the enemy. 1st Lt. Mathis’ undaunted bravery has been a great inspiration to the officers and men of his unit.

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9 March

1451 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian navigator, was born.

1728 – During the course of the Anglo-Spanish War, a military force of English settlers from the South Carolina colony conducts an expedition deep into Spanish controlled Florida to destroy a Yamassee Indian village close to the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine.

1781 – The siege of Pensacola Florida begins. The Spaniard, Gov. Gen. Bernardo Galvez y Gallardo, conde de Galvez, had just completed a very successful campaign against the English in New Orleans, Natchez, and Baton Rouge. Indeed, this leader showed his brilliance from the outset of this campaign. As Galvez had his 14 ships ready to attack at Baton Rouge (1779), a great storm struck sinking most of his ships and destroying their provisions. Undaunted, he recovered cannon from the sunken ships, built a shore battery, and attacked the fort. He succeeded where lesser leaders would have confessed failure. At Pensacola the English general had made a weak attempt to help the troops on the Louisiana coast, but he sent so few of his own troops with such weak instructions they were quickly dispatched. Even as the Spanish fleet massed off Santa Rosa Island the English general did not believe they would attack. He failed to grasp the importance of Pensacola as the key to Naval supremacy in the Gulf of Mexico. Galvezhad a firm grasp of this key fact. When Galvez landed his troops on Santa Rosa Island 1400 troops were landed onto Santa Rosa Island.

When Galvez’s ships first massed for the entrance into the harbor, a hurricane struck. Great skill in fleet handling and, pre-planning for such, took the large number of ships out to sea for protection and then quickly back on station still ready to “run the guns” of the Royal Navy Redoubt (fort) at Red Cliffs (about 7 miles SW of Pensacola) with minimal losses. Galvez personally took command of a small ship (the brig Galveztown) and led the others under the guns by first going through alone. In doing so he had exposed a flaw in the design of the batteries on the Red Cliffs fort. Although some 140 heavy shot had been fired from the fort the fleet suffered little damage. The big guns could not be lowered enough to hit ships very near them. The English General had miscalculated. Galvez’s ship soon fired on the small Fort Half Moon and struck the powder magazine. His men captured several English sloops, 2 small warships and a frigate, the Port Royal (the English burned the frigate Mentor to avoid it’s capture!). With all these ships in skirmishing actions, some have written of the Naval victory at Pensacola. It was strictly a land victory with the Navy there in large numbers to protect against English reinforcements from the sea. This marks the beginning of the siege of Pensacola that will continue until 9 May.

1788 – Connecticut became the 5th state.

1793 – Jean Pierre Blanchard made the first balloon flight in North America. President George Washington watched aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard make the first aerial voyage in the New World.

1798 – Dr. George Balfour became 1st naval surgeon in the US Navy.

1820 – Congress passed the Land Act, paving the way for westward expansion.

1839 – Felix Huston Robertson (d.1928), Brig General (Confederate Army), was born.

1841 – At the end of a historic case, the U.S. Supreme Court rules, with only one dissent, that the African slaves who seized control of the Amistad slave ship had been illegally forced into slavery, and thus are free under American law. In 1807, the U.S. Congress joined with Great Britain in abolishing the African slave trade, although the trading of slaves within the U.S. was not prohibited. Despite the international ban on the importation of African slaves, Cuba continued to transport captive Africans to its sugar plantations until the 1860s, and Brazil to its coffee plantations until the 1850s. On June 28, 1839, 53 slaves recently captured in Africa left Havana, Cuba, aboard the Amistad schooner for a life of slavery on a sugar plantation at Puerto Prýncipe, Cuba. Three days later, Sengbe Pieh, a Membe African known as Cinque, freed himself and the other slaves and planned a mutiny.

Early in the morning of July 2, in the midst of a storm, the Africans rose up against their captors and, using sugar-cane knives found in the hold, killed the captain of the vessel and a crewmember. Two other crewmembers were either thrown overboard or escaped, and Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montes, the two Cubans who had purchased the slaves, were captured. Cinque ordered the Cubans to sail the Amistad east back to Africa. During the day, Ruiz and Montes complied, but at night they would turn the vessel in a northerly direction, toward U.S. waters. After almost nearly two difficult months at sea, during which time more than a dozen Africans perished, what became known as the “black schooner” was first spotted by American vessels. On August 26, the USS Washington, a U.S. Navy brig, seized the Amistad off the coast of Long Island and escorted it to New London, Connecticut. Ruiz and Montes were freed, and the Africans were imprisoned pending an investigation of the Amistad revolt. The two Cubans demanded the return of their supposedly Cuban-born slaves, while the Spanish government called for the Africans’ extradition to Cuba to stand trial for piracy and murder. In opposition to both groups, American abolitionists advocated the return of the illegally bought slaves to Africa.

The story of the Amistad mutiny garnered widespread attention, and U.S. abolitionists succeeded in winning a trial in a U.S. court. Before a federal district court in Connecticut, Cinque, who was taught English by his new American friends, testified on his own behalf. On January 13, 1840, Judge Andrew Judson ruled that the Africans were illegally enslaved, that they would not be returned to Cuba to stand trial for piracy and murder, and that they should be granted free passage back to Africa. The Spanish authorities and U.S. President Martin Van Buren appealed the decision, but another federal district court upheld Judson’s findings. President Van Buren, in opposition to the abolitionist faction in Congress, appealed the decision again. On February 22, 1841, the U.S. Supreme Court began hearing the Amistad case. U.S. Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, who served as the sixth president of the United States from 1825 to 1829, joined the Africans’ defense team. In Congress, Adams had been an eloquent opponent of slavery, and before the nation’s highest court he presented a coherent argument for the release of Cinque and the 34 other survivors of the Amistad.

On March 9, 1841, the Supreme Court ruled that the Africans had been illegally enslaved and had thus exercised a natural right to fight for their freedom. In November, with the financial assistance of their abolitionist allies, the Amistad Africans departed America aboard the Gentleman on a voyage back to West Africa. Some of the Africans helped establish a Christian mission in Sierra Leone, but most, like Cinque, returned to their homelands in the African interior. One of the survivors, who was a child when taken aboard the Amistad as a slave, eventually returned to the United States. Originally named Margru, she studied at Ohio’s integrated and coeducational Oberlin College in the late 1840s, before returning to Sierra Leone as evangelical missionary Sara Margru Kinson.

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1847 – During the Mexican-American War, U.S. forces under General Winfield Scott invade Mexico three miles south of Vera Cruz. Encountering little resistance from the Mexicans massed in the fortified city of Vera Cruz, by nightfall the last of Scott’s 10,000 men came ashore without the loss of a single life. It was the largest amphibious landing in U.S. history and not surpassed until World War II. The Mexican-American War began with a dispute over the U.S. government’s 1845 annexation of Texas. In January 1846, President James K. Polk, a strong advocate of westward expansion, ordered General Zachary Taylor to occupy disputed territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers. Mexican troops attacked Taylor’s forces, and on May 13, 1846, Congress approved a declaration of war against Mexico.

In March 1847, General Scott’s forces landed near Vera Cruz, and by March 29, with very few casualties, the Americans had taken the fortified city and its massive fortress, San Juan de Ulua. In April, Scott began his devastating march to Mexico City, which ended on September 14, when U.S. forces entered the Mexican capital and raised the American flag over the Hall of Montezuma. In February 1848, representatives from the United States and Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, formally ending the Mexican War, recognizing Texas as part of the United States and extending the boundaries of the United States west to the Pacific Ocean.

1861 – First hostile act of the Civil War occurred when Star of the West fires on Sumter, S.C.

1862 – Engagement lasting four hours took Place between U.S.S. Monitor, Lieutenant Worden, and C.S.S. Virginia, Lieutenant Jones, mostly at close range in Hampton Roads. Although neither side could claim clear victory, this historic first combat between ironclads ushered in a new era of war at sea. The blockade continued intact, but Virginia remained as a powerful defender of the Norfolk area and a barrier to the use of the rivers for the movement of Union forces. Severe damage inflicted on wooden-hulled U.S.S. Minnesota by Virginia during an interlude in the fight with Monitor underscored the plight of a wooden ship confronted by an ironclad.

The broad impact of the Monitor-Virginia battle on naval thinking was summarized by Captain Levin M. Powell of U.S.S. Potomac writing later from Vera Cruz: ”The news of the fight between the Monitor and the Merrimack has created the most profound sensation amongst the professional men in the allied fleet here. They recognize the fact, as much by silence as words, that the face of naval warfare looks the other way now and the superb frigates and ships of the line. . . supposed capable a month ago, to destroy anything afloat in half an hour . . . are very much diminished in their proportions, and the confidence once reposed in them fully shaken in the presence of these astounding facts.” And as Captain Dahlgren phrased it: ”Now comes the reign of iron and cased sloops are to take the place of wooden ships.”

1862 – Naval force under Commander Godon, consisting of U.S.S. Mohican, Pocahontas, and Potomska, took possession of St. Simon’s and Jekyl Islands and landed at Brunswick, Georgia. All locations were found to be abandoned in keeping with the general Confederate withdrawal from the seacoast and coastal islands.

1862 – Landing party from U.S.S. Anacostia and Yankee of the Potomac Flotilla, Lieutenant Wyman, destroyed abandoned Confederate batteries at Cockpit Point and Evansport, Virginia, and found C.S.S. Page blown up.

1863 – U.S. Grant was appointed commander-in-chief of the Union forces.

1864 – President Abraham Lincoln officially commissioned Ulysses S. Grant the first lieutenant general in the U.S. Army since George Washington. After leading Union victories in the West in 1862-63, Lincoln gave Grant supreme command of the Union forces with the revived rank of lieutenant general.

1893 – President Cleveland withdraws the Hawaiian Annexation Treaty pending an investigation of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in January.

1898 – Congress unanimously appropriates $50,000,000 “for national defense and each and every purpose connected therewith.” The Navy is already well prepared, but the Army is scandalously disorganized.

1914 – Test of wind tunnel at Washington Navy Yard.

1916 – In the early morning of March 9, 1917, several hundred Mexican guerrillas under the command of Francisco “Pancho” Villa cross the U.S.-Mexican border and attack the small border town of Columbus, New Mexico. Seventeen Americans were killed in the raid, and the center of town was burned. It was unclear whether Villa personally participated in the attack, but President Woodrow Wilson ordered the U.S. Army into Mexico to capture the rebel leader dead or alive. Before he invaded the United States, Pancho Villa was already known to Americans for his exploits during the Mexican Revolution. He led the famous Division del Norte, with its brilliant cavalry, Los Dorados, and won control of northern Mexico after a series of audacious attacks. In 1914, following the resignation of Mexican leader Victoriano Huerta, Pancho Villa and his former revolutionary ally Venustiano Carranza battled each other in a struggle for succession. By the end of 1915, Villa had been driven north into the mountains, and the U.S. government recognized General Carranza as the president of Mexico. In January 1916, to protest President Woodrow Wilson’s support for Carranza, Villa executed 16 U.S. citizens at Santa Isabel in northern Mexico.

Then, in early March, he ordered the raid on Columbus. Cavalry from the nearby Camp Furlong U.S. Army outpost pursued the Mexicans, killing several dozen rebels on U.S. soil and in Mexico before turning back. On March 15, under orders from President Wilson, U.S. Brigadier General John J. Pershing launched a punitive expedition into Mexico to capture Villa and disperse his rebels. The expedition eventually involved some 10,000 U.S. troops and personnel. It was the first U.S. military operation to employ mechanized vehicles, including automobiles and airplanes. For 11 months, Pershing failed to capture the elusive revolutionary, who was aided by his intimate knowledge of the terrain of northern Mexico and his popular support from the people there. Meanwhile, resentment over the U.S. intrusion into Mexican territory led to a diplomatic crisis with the government in Mexico City.

On June 21, the crisis escalated into violence when Mexican government troops attacked a detachment of the 10th Cavalry at Carrizal, Mexico, leaving 12 Americans dead, 10 wounded, and 24 captured. The Mexicans suffered more than 30 dead. If not for the critical situation in Europe, war might have been declared. In January 1917, having failed in their mission to capture Villa, and under continued pressure from the Mexican government, the Americans were ordered home. Villa continued his guerrilla activities in northern Mexico until Adolfo de la Huerta took power over the government and drafted a reformist constitution. Villa entered into an amicable agreement with Huerta and agreed to retire from politics. In 1920, the government pardoned Villa, but three years later he was assassinated at his ranch in Parral.

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1942 – Admiral Ghormley is relieved by Admiral Hard Stark as commander US naval forces in European waters.

1944 – The Coast Guard-manned destroyer escort USS Leopold (DE-319) was torpedoed off Iceland by the U-255. The attack was one of the first times the Germans used their newly developed acoustic torpedo successfully. All 13 officers and 148 (out of 186) enlisted men on board were lost. The 28 survivors were rescued by the USS Joyce (DE-317), another Coast Guard-manned destroyer escort.

1944 – On Bougainville, Japanese counter attacks on the US 37th Division fail to make substantial gains. The American airfields at Piva and Torokina are shelled.

1944 – The first American planes begin operating from Momote airfield in the Admiralty Islands.

1945 – U.S. warplanes launch a new bombing offensive against Japan, dropping 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo. Almost 16 square miles in and around the Japanese capital were incinerated, and between 80,000 and 130,000 Japanese civilians were killed in the worst single firestorm in recorded history. Early on March 9, Air Force crews met on the Mariana Islands of Tinian and Saipan for a military briefing. They were planning a low-level bombing attack on Tokyo that would begin that evening, but with a twist: Their planes would be stripped of all guns except for the tail turret. The decrease in weight would increase the speed of each Superfortress bomber-and would also increase its bomb load capacity by 65 percent, making each plane able to carry more than seven tons.

Speed would be crucial, and the crews were warned that if they were shot down, all haste was to be made for the water, which would increase their chances of being picked up by American rescue crews. Should they land within Japanese territory, they could only expect the very worst treatment by civilians, as the mission that night was going to entail the deaths of tens of thousands of those very same civilians. “You’re going to deliver the biggest firecracker the Japanese have ever seen,” said U.S. Gen. Curtis LeMay. The cluster bombing of the downtown Tokyo suburb of Shitamachi had been approved only a few hours earlier. Shitamachi was composed of roughly 750,000 people living in cramped quarters in wooden-frame buildings. Setting ablaze this “paper city” was a kind of experiment in the effects of firebombing; it would also destroy the light industries, called “shadow factories,” that produced prefabricated war materials destined for Japanese aircraft factories.

The denizens of Shitamachi never had a chance of defending themselves. Their fire brigades were hopelessly undermanned, poorly trained, and poorly equipped. At 5:34 p.m., Superfortress B-29 bombers took off from Saipan and Tinian, reaching their target at 12:15 a.m. on March 10. Three hundred and thirty-four bombers, flying at a mere 500 feet, dropped their loads, creating a giant bonfire fanned by 30-knot winds that helped raze Shitamachi and spread the flames throughout Tokyo. Masses of panicked and terrified Japanese civilians scrambled to escape the inferno, most unsuccessfully.

The human carnage was so great that the blood-red mists and stench of burning flesh that wafted up sickened the bomber pilots, forcing them to grab oxygen masks to keep from vomiting. The raid lasted slightly longer than three hours. “In the black Sumida River, countless bodies were floating, clothed bodies, naked bodies, all black as charcoal. It was unreal,” recorded one doctor at the scene. Only 243 American airmen were lost.

1945 – Bonn and Godesberg are captured by units of US 1st Army while others continue to expand the bridgehead over the Rhine River, at Remagen, where Erpel is captured. Farther south, toward Koblenz, US 3rd Army units reach the Rhine at Andernach.

1945 – Alarmed by growing insurgent activity, the Japanese grant independence to Vietnam under Japanese protection and reinstall Bao Dai as head of state. Bao Dai is never able to gain much support for what is clearly a puppet government. He will abdicate on 23 August.

1946 – The Coast Guard-manned LST-767 was damaged in a hurricane near Okinawa. She was later declared a total loss and was decommissioned.

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1953 – U.S. vs. Reynolds was a landmark ruling that formally established the government’s “state secrets” privilege. Privilege that has enabled federal agencies to conceal certain conduct, withhold documents and block litigation where such actions might reveal the “sources and methods” of US intelligence.

1953 – Responding to press reports that U.S. pilots routinely pursued communist jets across the Manchurian border, Commander in Chief Far East asserted that UN pilots broke off engagements at the Yalu River boundary, enabling many damaged MiGs to escape, although some border violations might have occurred in the heat of combat. Informing the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff that air operations in Korea were conducted strictly within limitations established by appropriate authority, he also directed Far East Air Forces to comply with directives concerning violation of the Manchurian border.

1954 – CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow critically reviewed Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy’s anti-Communism campaign on “See It Now.”

1954 – Senate Republicans level criticism at fellow Republican Joseph McCarthy and take action to limit his power. The criticism and actions were indications that McCarthy’s glory days as the most famous investigator of communist activity in the United States were coming to an end. A Republican senator from Wisconsin, McCarthy had risen to fame in early 1950 when he stated in a speech that there were over 200 known communists operating in the U.S. Department of State. Various other charges and accusations issued forth from McCarthy in the months and years that followed. Although he was notably unsuccessful in discovering communists at work in the United States, his wild charges and sensational Senate investigations grabbed headlines and his name became one of the most famous in America.

Republicans at first embraced McCarthy and his devastating attacks on the Democratic administration of President Harry S. Truman. However, when McCarthy kept up with his charges about communists in the government after the election of Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952, the party turned against him. Eisenhower himself was particularly disturbed by McCarthy’s accusations about communists in the U.S. Army. On March 9, 1954, Republican Senator Ralph Flanders (Vermont) verbally blasted McCarthy, charging that he was a “one-man party” intent on “doing his best to shatter that party whose label he wears.” Flanders sarcastically declared, “The junior Senator from Wisconsin interests us all, no doubt about that, but also he puzzles some of us. To what party does he belong? Is he a hidden satellite of the Democratic Party, to which he is furnishing so much material for quiet mirth?”

In addition to Flanders’ speech, Senate Republicans acted to limit McCarthy’s ability to conduct hearings and to derail his investigation of the U.S. Army. McCarthy’s days as a political force were indeed numbered. During his televised hearings into the U.S. Army later in 1954, the American people got their first look at how McCarthy bullied witnesses and ignored procedure to suit his purposes. By late 1954, the Senate censured him, but he remained in office until his death in 1957. His legacy was immense: during his years in the spotlight, he destroyed careers, created a good deal of hysteria, and helped spread fear of political debate and dissent in the United States.

1962 – US “advisors” in South-Vietnam joined the fight.

1964 – The US Supreme Court, in its New York Times v. Sullivan decision, ruled that public officials who charged libel could not recover damages for defamatory statements related to their official duties unless they proved actual malice on the part of the news organization.

1964 – A group of 5 Lakota (Sioux) Native Americans occupied Alcatraz Island in a peaceful protest. They declared that it should be a Native American cultural center and university.

1966 – CGC Point White, on duty with Coast Guard Squadron One, Division 13, in Vietnam, captured a Vietcong junk after a running firefight. Point White was in Vietnam only a month when she started conducting patrols on a VC-controlled area of the Soi Rap River. Point White used a plan of steaming out of the patrol area and covertly returning. On 9 March she spotted a junk crossing the river and attempted to stop it.

The junk opened fire with small arms, including automatic weapons. Point White returned the fire and rammed the junk, throwing the occupants into the water. The cutter’s commanding officer, LTJG Eugene J. Hickey, rescued a survivor who turned out to be a key VC leader of the Rung Sat Secret Zone. During March, three WPBs of Division 13 killed twenty-seven VC in action, captured seven more, and confiscated considerable contraband.

1967 – Svetlana Alliluyeva (Allilueva), Josef Stalin’s daughter defected to the U.S.

1968 – General William Westmoreland asked for 206,000 more troops in Vietnam.

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1970 – The U.S. Marines turn over control of the five northernmost provinces in South Vietnam to the U.S. Army. The Marines had been responsible for this area since they first arrived in South Vietnam in 1965. The change in responsibility for this area was part of President Richard Nixon’s initiative to reduce U.S. troop levels as the South Vietnamese accepted more responsibility for the fighting. After the departure of the 3rd Marine Division from Vietnam in late 1969, the 1st Marine Division was the only marine division left operating in South Vietnam.

1974 – Last Japanese soldier, a guerrilla operating in Philippines, surrendered, 29 years after World War II ended.

1976 – The 1st female cadets were accepted to West Point Military Academy.

1977 – About a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington D.C., killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. The siege ended two days later. They took 149 hostages and killed a radio journalist. After a 39-hour standoff, the gunmen surrendered and all hostages were released from the District Building (the city hall; now called the John A. Wilson Building), B’nai B’rith headquarters, and the Islamic Center of Washington.

1986 – Navy divers found the crew compartment of the space shuttle Challenger along with the remains of the astronauts.

1996 – The first “all-Coast Guard” Ceremonial Honor Guard carried out a wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

1998 – An arms embargo was imposed on Yugoslavia by the US, Britain and other powers.

1999 – Pres. Clinton visited Honduras and paid tribute to US military efforts in rebuilding roads, bridges, schools and clinics following Hurricane Mitch.

1999 – Energy Secretary Bill Richardson fired Wen Ho Lee, a Los Alamos weapons designer, who was under suspicion of handing nuclear secrets to China in 1988.

2001 – In Afghanistan the smaller giant Buddha at Bamiyan was destroyed.

2002 – A Marine Corps helicopter from Beaufort, SC, crashed in the Atlantic Ocean during a rescue operation from a downed civilian helicopter. 2 people were killed.

2004 – In Chad 2 days of fighting broke out as the army battled Islamic militants near a remote village on the country’s western border with Niger, killing 43 “terrorists” of a group suspected of links with al-Qaida.

2005 – Colombia extradited to the United States a top member of the South American country’s main rebel group, a woman known by the nom de guerre of Sonia and accused of running the insurgents’ drug trafficking business.

2006 – Astronomers announce that the Cassini-Huygens probe has detected possible geysers of water on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, perhaps the first example of naturally occurring liquid water beyond Earth.

2007 – The United States Coast Guard stages an exercise in Florida in preparation for a possible mass exodus from Cuba in the event of the death of Cuban leader Fidel Castro. During the drill 40 Cuban exiles reach the United States.

2010 – Following several decades of “official denial”, Japan confirms it permitted nuclear-armed United States vessels to pass through its ports using its Cold War “secret treaties”.

2011 – Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights and 149 million miles. NASA offered Discovery to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum for public display and preservation, after a month-long decontamination process, as part of the national collection. Discovery replaced Enterprise in the Smithsonian’s display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. Discovery was transported to Washington Dulles International Airport on April 17, 2012, and was transferred to the Udvar-Hazy on April 19 where a welcome ceremony was held. Afterwards, at around 5: 30 pm, Discovery was rolled to its “final wheels stop” in the Udvar Hazy Center.

2013 – NASA’s MRO spacecraft provides images allowing scientists for the first time to create a 3D reconstruction of ancient water channels below the Martian surface.

2015 – U.S. President Barack Obama signs an executive order declaring Venezuela a national security threat to the U.S.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken this Day

CLUTE, GEORGE W.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company I, 14th Michigan Infantry. Place and date: At Bentonville, N.C., 19 March 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Marathon, Mich. Date of issue: 26 August 1898. Citation: In a charge, captured the flag of the 40th North Carolina (C.S.A.), the flag being taken in a personal encounter with an officer who carried and defended it.

WILLIAMS, PETER
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1831, Norway, Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No.: 11, 3 April 1863. Citation: Serving on board the U.S.S. Ironclad Steamer Monitor, Hampton Roads, 9 March 1862. During the engagement between the U.S.S. Monitor and the C.S.S. Merrimack, Williams gallantly served throughout the engagement as quartermaster, piloting the Monitor throughout the battle in which the Merrimack, after being damaged, retired from the scene of the battle.

*JULIAN, JOSEPH RODOLPH
Rank and organization: Platoon Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Born: 3 April 1918, Sturbridge, Mass. Accredited to: Massachusetts. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a P/Sgt. serving with the 1st Battalion, 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces during the seizure of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, 9 March 1945. Determined to force a breakthrough when Japanese troops occupying trenches and fortified positions on the left front laid down a terrific machinegun and mortar barrage in a desperate effort to halt his company’s advance, P/Sgt. Julian quickly established his platoon’s guns in strategic supporting positions, andthen, acting on his own initiative, fearlessly moved forward to execute a 1-man assault on the nearest pillbox. Advancing alone, he hurled deadly demolition and white phosphorus grenades into the emplacement, killing 2 of the enemy and driving the remaining 5 out into the adjoining trench system.

Seizing a discarded rifle, he jumped into the trench and dispatched the 5 before they could make an escape. Intent on wiping out all resistance, he obtained more explosives and, accompanied by another marine, again charged the hostile fortifications and knocked out 2 more cave positions. Immediately thereafter, he launched a bazooka attack unassisted, firing 4 rounds into the 1 remaining pillbox and completely destroying it before he fell, mortally wounded by a vicious burst of enemy fire. Stouthearted and indomitable, P/Sgt. Julian consistently disregarded all personal danger and, by his bold decision, daring tactics, and relentless fighting spirit during a critical phase of the battle, contributed materially to the continued advance of his company and to the success of his division’s operations in the sustained drive toward the conquest of this fiercely defended outpost of the Japanese Empire. His outstanding valor and unfaltering spirit of self-sacrifice throughout the bitter conflict sustained and enhanced the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

HARVEY, RAYMOND
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army, Company C, 17th Infantry Regiment. Place and date: Vicinity of Taemi-Dong, Korea, 9 March 1951. Entered service at: Pasadena, Calif. Born: 1 March 1920 Ford City, Pa. G.O. No.: 67, 2 August 1951. Citation: Capt. Harvey Company C, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action. When his company was pinned down by a barrage of automatic weapons fire from numerous well-entrenched emplacements, imperiling accomplishment of its mission, Capt. Harvey braved a hail of fire and exploding grenades to advance to the first enemy machine gun nest, killing its crew with grenades. Rushing to the edge of the next emplacement, he killed its crew with carbine fire. He then moved the 1st Platoon forward until it was again halted by a curtain of automatic fire from well fortified hostile positions.

Disregarding the hail of fire, he personally charged and neutralized a third emplacement. Miraculously escaping death from intense crossfire, Capt. Harvey continued to lead the assault. Spotting an enemy pillbox well camouflaged by logs, he moved close enough to sweep the emplacement with carbine fire and throw grenades through the openings, annihilating its 5 occupants. Though wounded he then turned to order the company forward, and, suffering agonizing pain, he continued to direct the reduction of the remaining hostile positions, refusing evacuation until assured that the mission would be accomplished. Capt. Harvey’s valorous and intrepid actions served as an inspiration to his company, reflecting the utmost glory upon himself and upholding the heroic traditions of the military service.

JACOBS, JACK H.
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army, U.S. Army Element, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Republic of Vietnam. Place and date: Kien Phong Province, Republic of Vietnam, 9 March 1968. Entered service at: Trenton, N.J. Born: 2 August 1945, Brooklyn, N.Y. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Capt. Jacobs (then 1st Lt.), Infantry, distinguished himself while serving as assistant battalion advisor, 2d Battalion, 16th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division, Army of the Republic of Vietnam. The 2d Battalion was advancing to contact when it came under intense heavy machine gun and mortar fire from a Viet Cong battalion positioned in well fortified bunkers. As the 2d Battalion deployed into attack formation its advance was halted by devastating fire. Capt. Jacobs, with the command element of the lead company, called for and directed air strikes on the enemy positions to facilitate a renewed attack. Due to the intensity of the enemy fire and heavy casualties to the command group, including the company commander, the attack stopped and the friendly troops became disorganized.

Although wounded by mortar fragments, Capt. Jacobs assumed command of the allied company, ordered a withdrawal from the exposed position and established a defensive perimeter. Despite profuse bleeding from head wounds which impaired his vision, Capt. Jacobs, with complete disregard for his safety, returned under intense fire to evacuate a seriously wounded advisor to the safety of a wooded area where he administered lifesaving first aid. He then returned through heavy automatic weapons fire to evacuate the wounded company commander. Capt. Jacobs made repeated trips across the fire-swept open rice paddies evacuating wounded and their weapons. On 3 separate occasions, Capt. Jacobs contacted and drove off Viet Cong squads who were searching for allied wounded and weapons, single-handedly killing 3 and wounding several others. His gallant actions and extraordinary heroism saved the lives of 1 U.S. advisor and 13 allied soldiers. Through his effort the allied company was restored to an effective fighting unit and prevented defeat of the friendly forces by a strong and determined enemy. Capt. Jacobs, by his gallantry and bravery in action in the highest traditions of the military service, has reflected great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

ADKINS, BENNIE G.
Rank and Organization: Sergeant First Class. U.S. Army, Detachment A-102, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces. Place and Date: Camp A Shau, Republic of Vietnam, March 9-12, 1966. Entered Service At: Waurika, Oklahoma. Born: 1 February 1934, Waurika, Okla. Departed: No. G.O. Number:. Date of Issue: 09/15/2014. Accredited To:. Citation: Sergeant First Class Adkins distinguished himself during the period 9 March 1966 to 12 March 1966 during combat operations at Camp A Shau, Republic of Vietnam. When the camp was attacked by a large Viet Cong force, Sergeant First Class Adkins rushed through intense hostile fire and manned a mortar position. Although he was wounded, he ran through exploding mortar rounds and dragged several of his comrades to safety. When the hostile fire subsided, Sergeant First Class Adkins exposed himself to sporadic sniper fire and carried his wounded comrades to the camp dispensary. During the evacuation of a seriously wounded American, Sergeant First Class Adkins maneuvered outside the camp walls to draw fire and successfully covered the rescue.

During the early morning hours of 10 March 1966, a Viet Cong regiment launched their main attack. Within two hours, Sergeant First Class Adkins was the only man firing a mortar weapon. Although he was painfully wounded and most of his crew was killed or wounded, he fought off the fanatical waves of attacking Viet Cong. After withdrawing to a communications bunker where several Americans were attempting to fight off a company of Viet Cong, Sergeant First Class Adkins killed numerous insurgents with his suppressive fire. Running extremely low on ammunition, he returned to the mortar pit, gathered the vital ammunition, and ran through intense fire back to the communications bunker. After being ordered to evacuate the camp, all signal equipment and classified documents were destroyed. Sergeant First Class Adkins and a small group of men fought their way out of the camp and evaded the Viet Cong for two days until they were rescued by a helicopter. Sergeant First Class Adkins’ extraordinary heroism in close combat against a numerically superior hostile force was in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

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10 March

1656 – In the colony of Virginia, suffrage was extended to all free men regardless of their religion.

1681 – English Quaker William Penn received a charter from Charles II, making him sole proprietor of colonial American territory of Pennsylvania.

1769 – Philadelphia merchants finally agree among themselves to support an intercolonial nonimportation movement. Effective 1 April, they ban the import of nearly all British trade goods until the Townshend Acts are repealed.

1775 – The Transylvania Company sends Daniel Boone and 30 woodchoppers to cut the Wilderness Road from Fort Wautauga to the mouth of the Kentucky River.

1776 – “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine was published.

1783 – USS Alliance (CAPT John Barry) defeats HMS Sybil in final naval action of Revolution in West Indies waters. Barry, in defense of a companion ship, the Duc de Lauzun which was carrying gold to fund the US war effort, maneuvered her between Sybil and Duc De Lauzun to demand the full attention of the former so that the latter might slip away to safety. Sybil then turned her fire toward Alliance and managed to send one shot from her bow chaser into the American frigate’s cabin, mortally wounding a junior officer and scattering many splinters. Yet, Barry held Alliance’s fire until she was within a stone’s throw of her opponent. At that point, a broadside from the American warship opened some 40 minutes of close-in fighting which finally forced Sybil to flee.

1783 – An anonymous address is circulated among the officers of Washington’s main camp at Newburgh, New York. Actually written by Major John Armstrong, the first “Newburgh Address” rebukes Congress for the failure to honor its promises to Continental Army soldiers and exhorts the veterans to defy Congress if accounts are not settled equitably. A meeting of officers is called for the next day.

1785 – Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin. 1848 – The Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the war with Mexico.

1804 – Louisiana Purchase: In St. Louis, Missouri, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.

1848 – The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by the United States Senate, ending the Mexican–American War.

1849 – A riot erupts in New York where a British actor named Macready is performing at the Astor Place Opera House. Crowds are angry because of the theater’s snobbish dress requirements and because Macready makes scornful comments on the vulgarity of Americans. Twenty-two people are killed and thirty-six injured when troops are called in.

1862 – First U.S. paper money was issued in denominations of $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500 & $1000.

1864 – Ulysses S. Grant became commander of the Union armies in the Civil War.

1865 – Battle of Monroe’s Crossroads, NC.

1865 – Confederate General William Henry Chase Whiting dies in prison from wounds suffered during the fall of Fort Fisher, North Carolina.

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell made what was, in effect, the first telephone call. He found a way of converting words into electrical current and back again and sent his first message using his new variable-liquid resistance transmitter. Bell’s telephone caused the current to vary smoothly in proportion to the pressure created on a microphone by human speech and got a patent. His assistant, in an adjoining room in Boston, heard Bell say over the experimental device: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” On a page from his notebook, dated March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell described the first successful experiment with the telephone. Bell wrote: “I then shouted into M (the mouthpiece) the following sentence: ‘Mr. Watson—come here—I want to see you.’ To my delight he came and declared that he had heard and understood what I said.”

1880 – The Salvation Army arrived in the United States from England. The organization had been founded in Britain in 1865 by William Booth, a street preacher. It drew on revivalism and attention-getting tactics.

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1917 – On a third day of riots and demonstrations in Moscow, Russia, an estimated 25,000 workers are on strike. Army units are called in to deal with the growing unrest, but they refuse to fire on the demonstrators. These vents become known as the ‘February Revolution’–the Russian (Julian) calendar of the time was 11 days behind the western one.

1919 – In Schenk v United States, the Supreme Court finds that the Espionage Act does not violate the First Amendment. In this case Oliver Wendel Holmes agrees with the majority that in war there exists a “clear and present danger.” In any case, he adds, free speech is always under restraint. Under this ruling Eugene V. Debs is sentenced to ten years for interfering with the draft. He will serve three.

1940 – U.S. Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles, after a meeting with Adolf Hitler in Berlin, visits London to discuss a peacemaking proposal with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to prevent a widening of the European war. Sumner Welles, a diplomat and expert on Latin America, spent his early professional life promoting the United States’ “Good Neighbor” foreign policy as attache to the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires, chief of Latin American affairs of the State Department, and commissioner to the Dominican Republic. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him assistant secretary of state, sending him to Cuba, where Welles successfully mediated opposing groups attempting to overthrow the government of Gerardo Machado. He was promoted to undersecretary of state in 1937, serving as a delegate to several Pan-American conferences.

But in 1940, the stakes were raised for Welles. War had broken out in Europe with the German invasion of Poland, and Welles was sent on a fact-finding tour of Berlin, Rome, Paris, and London, in the hopes of keeping the war contained, at the very least, and ideally brought to an end. After a trip to Rome to chat with Benito Mussolini, Welles met with Hitler on March 1-3. Hitler feared that Welles would try to drive a wedge between himself and Axis partner Italy by convincing Mussolini to keep out of the conflict completely. As a result, the Fuhrer bombarded Welles with a propagandistic interpretation of recent events, putting the blame for the European conflict on England and France.

Welles informed Hitler that he and Mussolini had engaged in a “long, constructive, and helpful” conversation, and that the Duce believed “there was still a possibility of bringing about a firm and lasting peace.” Hitler agreed that there would be peace-after a German victory in Europe. Welles left Berlin and arrived in London on March 10. He briefed British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on Hitler’s intransigence, arguing that the only hope for a lasting peace was the progressive disarmament of the belligerents, primarily Germany. Chamberlain’s foreign ministers were less than impressed with the suggestion, believing that even a “disarmed” Germany could still invade a smaller, weaker nation. In short, Welles’ trip accomplished nothing.

1942 – American aircraft launched from the American carriers Lexington and Yorktown attack Japanese vessels near Lae, New Guinea.

1943 – Chennault is promoted and his command in China is to be enlarged and named the 14th Air Force.

1944 – On New Britain, American forces capture Talasea.

1944 – On Bougainville, Japanese forces capture Hill 260 but lose ground to American counterattacks in other areas.

1945 – Patton’s 3rd Army made contact with Hodge’s 1st Army. They link up near Andernach completing the Allied hold on the west bank of the Rhine everywhere north of Koblenz. Field Marshal Kesselring arrives from Italy to take command of the German armies in the west.

1945 – Germany blew up the Wessel Bridge on the Rhine.

1945 – 300 American bombers drop almost 2,000 tons of incendiaries on Tokyo, Japan, destroying large portions of the Japanese capital and killing 100,000 civilians. As a result of the attack, 10 square miles of eastern Tokyo were entirely obliterated, and an estimated 250,000 buildings were destroyed. During the next nine days, U.S. bombers flew similar missions against Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe. In August, U.S. atomic attacks against Hiroshima and Nagasaki finally forced Japan’s hand.

1945 – Most of the US 41st Infantry Division is landed at the southwest of Mindanao near Zamboanga. General Doe commands the troops and Admiral Barbey the naval support. On Luzon fighting continues south of Laguna de Bay where the US forces are still trying to break through to the east. Organized Japanese resistance on the island of Palawan comes to an end.

1945 – In the Philippines Pfc. Thomas Eugene Atkins (d. 1999 at 78) repulsed a Japanese attack while wounded and killed 14 enemy soldiers in northern Luzon.

1945 – Navy and civilian nurses interned at Los Banos, Philippines flown back to U.S. Navy nurses awarded Bronze Star.

1945 – Roosevelt informs Spanish representatives that no American aid will be forthcoming so long as the Franco dictatorship continues.1947 – The Big Four met in Moscow to discuss Germany.

1948 – First use of jets assigned to operational squadron (VF-5A) on board a carrier (Boxer).

1948 – The communist-controlled government of Czechoslovakia reports that Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk has committed suicide are greeted with suspicion by the West.

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1949 – Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as “Axis Sally,” was convicted in Washington D.C. of treason. She served 12 years in prison.

1951 – The United Nations Command gained one to two miles per day to capture Line Albany; enemy opposition began to fade.

1953 – North Korean gunners at Wonsan fired on the USS Missouri, the ship responds by firing 998 rounds at the enemy position.

1954 – President Eisenhower called Sen. Joseph McCarthy a peril to the Republican Party.

1955 – President Eisenhower indicates that in the event of war, the US would use nuclear weapons.

1966 – The North Vietnamese captured a Green Beret camp at Ashau Valley.

1968 – Battle of Lima Site 85, concluding the 11th with largest single ground combat loss of United States Air Force members (12) during the Vietnam War. Also called Battle of Phou Pha Thi, was fought as part of a military campaign waged during the Vietnam War and Laotian Civil War by the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) (then known as NVA) and the Pathet Lao, against airmen of the United States Air Force 1st Combat Evaluation Group, elements of the Royal Laos Army, Royal Thai Border Patrol Police, and the Central Intelligence Agency-led Hmong Clandestine Army. The battle was fought on Phou Pha Thi mountain in Houaphanh Province, Laos, on 10 March 1968, and derives its name from the mountaintop where it was fought or from the designation of a 700 feet (210 m) landing strip in the valley below.

1970 – The U.S. Army accuses Capt. Ernest Medina and four other soldiers of committing crimes at My Lai in March 1968. The charges ranged from premeditated murder to rape and the “maiming” of a suspect under interrogation. Medina was the company commander of Lt. William Calley and other soldiers charged with murder and numerous crimes at My Lai 4 in Song My village. The My Lai massacre became the most publicized war atrocity committed by U.S. troops in Vietnam. Allegedly, a platoon had slaughtered between 200 and 500 unarmed villagers at My Lai 4, a cluster of hamlets in the coastal lowlands of I Corps Tactical Zone. This was a heavily mined region where Viet Cong guerrillas were firmly entrenched and numerous members of the participating platoon had been killed or maimed during the preceding month. The company had been conducting a search-and-destroy mission.

In search of the 48th Viet Cong (VC) Local Force Battalion, the unit entered My Lai but found only women, children, and old men. Frustrated by unanswered losses due to snipers and mines, the soldiers took out their anger on the villagers. During the attack, several old men were bayoneted, some women and children praying outside the local temple were shot in the back of the head, and at least one girl was raped before being killed. Many villagers were systematically rounded up and led to a nearby ditch where they were executed. Reportedly, the killing was only stopped when Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, an aero-scout helicopter pilot, landed his helicopter between the Americans and the fleeing South Vietnamese, confronting the soldiers and blocking them from further action against the villagers.

The incident was subsequently covered up, but eventually came to light a year later. An Army board of inquiry headed by Lt. Gen. William Peers investigated the massacre and produced a list of 30 people who knew of the atrocity. Only 14, including Calley and Medina, were eventually charged with crimes. All eventually had their charges dismissed or were acquitted by courts-martial except Calley, who was found guilty of murdering 22 civilians. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but his sentence was reduced to 20 years by the Court of Military Appeals and further reduced later to 10 years by the Secretary of the Army. Proclaimed by much of the public as a “scapegoat,” Calley was paroled in 1974 after having served about three years.

1975 – The North Vietnamese surround and attack the city of Ban Me Thuot, as heavy fighting erupts in the Central Highlands. This action, initiated in late January 1975, just two years after a cease-fire was established by the Paris Peace Accords, was part of what the North Vietnamese called Campaign 275. The battle for Ban Me Thuot began on March 4, when North Vietnamese encircled the city with five main force divisions and effectively cut it off from outside support. The South Vietnamese 23rd Division was vastly outnumbered and quickly succumbed to the communists. As it became clear that the communists would take the city and probably the entire province, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu decided to withdraw his forces in order to protect the more critical populous areas.

Accordingly, he ordered his forces in the Central Highlands to pull back from their positions. Abandoning Pleiku and Kontum, the South Vietnamese forces began to move toward the sea, but what started out as an orderly withdrawal soon turned into panic and the South Vietnamese forces rapidly fell apart. The North Vietnamese were successful in both the Central Highlands and further north at Quang Tri, Hue, and Da Nang. The South Vietnamese soon collapsed as a cogent fighting force and the North Vietnamese continued the attack all the way to Saigon. South Vietnam surrendered unconditionally on April 30th.

1980 – Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, lent his support to the militants holding the American hostages in Tehran. He intervenes to arrange meeting between UN commission members and hostages.

1982 – Pres Reagan proclaims economic sanctions against Libya and banned Libyan oil imports, because of the continued support of terrorism.

1983 – The Coast Guard retired the last operational HU-16E Albatross, ending the “era of seaplanes” for the service.

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1993 – Authorities announced the arrest of Nidal Ayyad, a second suspect in the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City.

1996 – Secretary of State Warren Christopher, accusing China of “reckless” provocations against Taiwan, said on NBC that US warships would move closer to Taiwan.

1997 – The White House and the FBI clashed in a rare public quarrel after President Clinton said he should have been alerted when the bureau told national security officials that the Chinese government might be trying to influence U.S. elections.

1997 – Vietnam agreed to repay the US millions of dollars in debts incurred by the former South Vietnam. The debts were currently worth $140 million.

1998 – U.S. Air Force and Navy personnel in the Persian Gulf received vaccinations against anthrax.

1998 – In South Carolina the FBI received a videotape made by Daniel Rudolph, brother of abortion clinic bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph, in which he amputated his left hand with a circular saw.

1999 – In Serbia Pres. Milosevic met with Richard Holbrooke and stood firm against NATO troops in his country.

2002 – Operation Anaconda continues. In Afghanistan, U.S. troops have been working to reduce a pocket of al-Qaeda resistance for the past 24 hours. No senior al Qaeda leaders have been captured at this point.

2003 – Facing almost certain defeat, the United States and Britain delayed a vote in the U.N. Security Council to give Saddam Hussein an ultimatum to disarm.

2003 – The US military says US and British warplanes have attacked several communications sites in Iraq after Iraqi forces fired a missile at coalition aircraft.

2004 – U.S. Marines shot and killed at least two Haitians in overnight gun battles.

2005 – Iraq’s main Shiite party and a Kurdish bloc reached a deal that sets the stage for a new government to be formed when the National Assembly convenes next week.

2005 – Pakistan’s information minister acknowledged that Abdul Qadeer Khan, a rogue scientist at the heart of an international nuclear black market investigation, gave centrifuges to Iran, but insisted the government had nothing to do with the transfer.

2006 – The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives at Mars. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a multipurpose spacecraft designed to conduct reconnaissance and exploration of Mars from orbit. The US$720 million spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin under the supervision of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The mission is managed by the JPL, at California Institute of Technology, La Cañada Flintridge, California, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. It was launched August 12, 2005, and attained Martian orbit on March 10, 2006. In November 2006, after five months of aerobraking, it entered its final science orbit and began its primary science phase.

As MRO entered orbit it joined five other active spacecraft which were either in orbit or on the planet surface: Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Express, Mars Odyssey, and two Mars Exploration Rovers; at the time a record for the most operational spacecraft in the immediate vicinity of Mars. MRO contains a host of scientific instruments such as cameras, spectrometers, and radar, which are used to analyze the landforms, stratigraphy, minerals, and ice of Mars. It paves the way for future spacecraft by monitoring Mars’ daily weather and surface conditions, studying potential landing sites, and hosting a new telecommunications system. MRO’s telecommunications system will transfer more data back to Earth than all previous interplanetary missions combined, and MRO will serve as a highly capable relay satellite for future missions.

2015 – The Wikimedia Foundation and eight other organizations file a lawsuit in the state of Maryland, US against the National Security Agency and the United States Department of Justice regarding the NSA’s mass surveillance program. The Wikimedia Foundation is the owner and parent company of Wikipedia.

2015 – An Army helicopter crashed during a foggy night training exercise at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle leaving seven Marines and four United States Army soldiers dead.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

ATKINS, THOMAS E.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company A, 127th Infantry, 32d Infantry Division. Place and date: Villa Verde Trail, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 10 March 1945. Entered service at: Campobello, S.C. Birth: Campobello, S.C. G.O. No.: 95, 30 October 1945. Citation: He fought gallantly on the Villa Verde Trail, Luzon, Philippine Islands. With 2 companions he occupied a position on a ridge outside the perimeter defense established by the 1st Platoon on a high hill. At about 3 a.m., 2 companies of Japanese attacked with rifle and machinegun fire, grenades, TNT charges, and land mines, severely wounding Pfc. Atkins and killing his 2 companions. Despite the intense hostile fire and pain from his deep wound, he held his ground and returned heavy fire. After the attack was repulsed, he remained in his precarious position to repel any subsequent assaults instead of returning to the American lines for medical treatment. An enemy machinegun, set up within 20 yards of his foxhole, vainly attempted to drive him off or silence his gun.

The Japanese repeatedly made fierce attacks, but for 4 hours, Pfc. Atkins determinedly remained in his fox hole, bearing the brunt of each assault and maintaining steady and accurate fire until each charge was repulsed. At 7 a.m., 13 enemy dead lay in front of his position; he had fired 400 rounds, all he and his 2 dead companions possessed, and had used 3 rifles until each had jammed too badly for further operation. He withdrew during a lull to secure a rifle and more ammunition, and was persuaded to remain for medical treatment. While waiting, he saw a Japanese within the perimeter and, seizing a nearby rifle, killed him. A few minutes later, while lying on a litter, he discovered an enemy group moving up behind the platoon’s lines. Despite his severe wound, he sat up, delivered heavy rifle fire against the group and forced them to withdraw. Pfc. Atkins’ superb bravery and his fearless determination to hold his post against the main force of repeated enemy attacks, even though painfully wounded, were major factors in enabling his comrades to maintain their lines against a numerically superior enemy force.

DETHLEFSEN, MERLYN HANS
Rank and organization: Major (then Capt.), U.S. Air Force. Place and date: In the air over North Vietnam, 10 March 1967. Entered service at: Royal, Iowa. Born: 29 June 1934, Greenville, Iowa. Citation: Maj. Dethlefsen was 1 of a flight of F-105 aircraft engaged in a fire suppression mission designed to destroy a key antiaircraft defensive complex containing surface-to-air missiles (SAM), an exceptionally heavy concentration of antiaircraft artillery, and other automatic weapons. The defensive network was situated to dominate the approach and provide protection to an important North Vietnam industrial center that was scheduled to be attacked by fighter bombers immediately after the strike by Maj. Dethlefsen’s flight. In the initial attack on the defensive complex the lead aircraft was crippled, and Maj. Dethlefsen’s aircraft was extensively damaged by the intense enemy fire.

Realizing that the success of the impending fighter bomber attack on the center now depended on his ability to effectively suppress the defensive fire, Maj. Dethlefsen ignored the enemy’s overwhelming firepower and the damage to his aircraft and pressed his attack. Despite a continuing hail of antiaircraft fire, deadly surface-to-air missiles, and counterattacks by MIG interceptors, Maj. Dethlefsen flew repeated close range strikes to silence the enemy defensive positions with bombs and cannon fire. His action in rendering ineffective the defensive SAM and antiaircraft artillery sites enabled the ensuing fighter bombers to strike successfully the important industrial target without loss or damage to their aircraft, thereby appreciably reducing the enemy’s ability to provide essential war material. Maj. Dethlefsen’s consummate skill and selfless dedication to this significant mission were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

FISHER, BERNARD FRANCIS
Rank and organization: Major, U.S. Air Force, 1st Air Commandos. Place and date: Bien Hoa and Pleiku, Vietnam, 10 March 1966. Entered service at: Kuna, Idaho. Born: 11 January 1927, San Bernardino, Calif. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. On that date, the special forces camp at A Shau was under attack by 2,000 North Vietnamese Army regulars. Hostile troops had positioned themselves between the airstrip and the camp. Other hostile troops had surrounded the camp and were continuously raking it with automatic weapons fire from the surrounding hills. The tops of the 1,500-foot hills were obscured by an 800 foot ceiling, limiting aircraft maneuverability and forcing pilots to operate within range of hostile gun positions, which often were able to fire down on the attacking aircraft.

During the battle, Maj. Fisher observed a fellow airman crash land on the battle-torn airstrip. In the belief that the downed pilot was seriously injured and in imminent danger of capture, Maj. Fisher announced his intention to land on the airstrip to effect a rescue. Although aware of the extreme danger and likely failure of such an attempt, he elected to continue. Directing his own air cover, he landed his aircraft and taxied almost the full length of the runway, which was littered with battle debris and parts of an exploded aircraft. While effecting a successful rescue of the downed pilot, heavy ground fire was observed, with 19 bullets striking his aircraft. In the face of the withering ground fire, he applied power and gained enough speed to lift-off at the overrun of the airstrip. Maj. Fisher’s profound concern for his fellow airman, and at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

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11 March

1731 – Robert Treat Paine, Declaration of Independence signer, was born. Robert Treat Paine (March 11, 1731 – May 11, 1814) was a Massachusetts lawyer and politician, and a representative of Massachusetts to the Continental Congress. He served as the state’s first attorney general, and served as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s highest court.

1778 – Marines participated the action when the Continental Navy frigate BOSTON, enroute to France, sighted, engaged, and captured the British merchant ship MARTHA. As the drum of the BOSTON beat to arms, John Adams seized a musket and joined the Marines on deck until the frigate’s captain, Samuel Tucker, sent him below for safety.

1783 – George Washington forbids the unauthorized meeting of officers called for in the anonymous Newburgh Address and suggests a regular meeting of officers to discuss grievances to be held 15 March.

1811 – Ned Ludd led a group of workers in a wild protest against mechanization. Members of the organized bands of craftsmen who rioted against automation in 19th century England were known as Luddites and also “Ludds.” The movement, reputedly named after Ned Ludd, began near Nottingham as craftsman destroyed textile machinery that was eliminating their jobs. By the following year, Luddites were active in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire and Leicestershire.

Although the Luddites opposed violence towards people (a position which allowed for a modicum of public support), government crackdowns included mass shootings, hangings and deportation to the colonies. It took 14,000 British soldiers to quell the rebellion. The movement effectively died in 1813 apart from a brief resurgence of Luddite sentiment in 1816 following the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

1813 – President Madison formally accepts the offer of Czar Alexander to mediate between Great Britain and the United States. The British, however, reject the Czar’s offer.

1824 – The U.S. War Department created the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A lifelong friend and trusted aide of Ulysses S. Grant, Ely Parker rose to the top in two worlds, that of his native Seneca Indian tribe and the white man’s world at large. He went on to become the first Indian to lead the Bureau.

1853 – Marines from the USS Cyane landed at San Juan del Norte, Nicaragua to protect American lives and interests during political disturbances. Cornelius Vanderbilt, the North American millionaire, recognizing the potential value of a canal route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, felt that the best site for such a canal was across Nicaragua. He began transporting people (especially those prospecting for gold in the western U.S.) across Nicaragua using stagecoach and boats in 1851.

1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas adopt the Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States of America. The constitution resembled the Constitution of the United States, even repeating much of its language, but was actually more comparable to the Articles of Confederation–the initial post-Revolutionary War U.S. constitution–in its delegation of extensive powers to the states. The constitution also contained substantial differences from the U.S. Constitution in its protection of slavery, which was “recognized and protected” in slave states and territories. However, in congruence with U.S. policy since the beginning of the 19th century, the foreign slave trade was prohibited.

The constitution provided for six-year terms for the president and vice president, and the president was ineligible for successive terms. Although a presidential item veto was granted, the power of the central Confederate government was sharply limited by its dependence on state consent for the use of any funds and resources. Although Britain and France both briefly considered entering the Civil War on the side of the South, the Confederate States of America, which survived until April 1865, never won foreign recognition as an independent government.

1862 – Landing party from U.S.S. Wabash, Commander C. R. P. Rodgers, occupied St. Augustine, Florida, which had been evacuated by Confederate troops in the face of the naval threat.

1862 – Two Confederate gunboats under construction at the head of Pensacola Bay were burned by Confederate military authorities to prevent their falling into Northern hands in the event of the anticipated move against Pensacola by Union naval forces.

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1862 – President Lincoln issues War Order No. 3, a measure making several changes at the top of the Union command structure. He created three departments, placing Henry Halleck in charge of the west, John C. Fremont in command of troops in the Appalachian region, and George McClellan in the east. The most significant change in the order removed McClellan from his post as General-in-Chief of all Union armies, though McClellan retained command of the Army of the Potomac, the most important Union force. He had assumed leadership of that army after it was defeated at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. He quickly installed an efficient command structure and began training an effective fighting force.

Three months later, Lincoln elevated McClellan to General-in-Chief. The relationship between Lincoln and his commanding officer, however, was strained at best and contentious at worst. The arrogant McClellan was contemptuous of the president and he often ignored Lincoln’s communications or kept information from him. McClellan was stretched thin as General-in-Chief, and even he recognized this fact. He was bothered by the demotion, but he wrote to Lincoln that he would “work just as cheerfully as ever before, and…no consideration of self will in any manner interfere with the discharge of my public duties.”

For McClellan, this was a rare show of grace and deference towards Lincoln. The move allowed McClellan to spend more time planning his upcoming campaign against the Confederate capital at Richmond. For a time, there was no General-in-Chief, and the three regional commanders reported to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The post did not stay empty for long, though, as Halleck was elevated to General-in-Chief five months later.

1863 – Union troops under General Ulysses S. Grant gave up their preparations to take Vicksburg after failing to pass Fort Pemberton, north of Vicksburg.

1863 – A naval engagement occurred between the CSS Alabama and the USS Hatteras. CSS Alabama was a screw sloop-of-war built for the Confederacy in 1862 by John Laird Sons and Company, Liverpool, England. Launched as Enrica, it was fitted out as a cruiser and commissioned 24 August 1862 as CSS Alabama. Under Captain Raphael Semmes, Alabama spent the next two months capturing and burning ships in the North Atlantic and intercepting American grain ships bound for Europe. Continuing the path of destruction through the West Indies, Alabama sank USS Hatteras along the Texas coast and captured her crew.

1865 – General Sherman and his forces occupied Fayetteville, N.C. The Civil War was in its final weeks when a strong 60,000-man force, under the command of Union General William T. Sherman, marched in through the Carolinas, capturing town after town. They overcame the Confederate soldiers led by General Joseph E. Johnston. The Union Army captured and destroyed the Confederate arsenal, a building where weapons were made and stored, in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

1865 – Lieutenant Commander George W. Young, senior officer present off Wilmington, led a naval force consisting of U.S.S. Eolus and boat crews from U.S.S. Maratanza, Lenapee, and Nyack up the Cape Fear River to Fayetteville. The expedition rendezvoused with General Sherman’s army.

1867 – Acquiescing to the will of Congress, President Andrew Johnson appoints commanders for the five military districts carved out by the First Reconstruction Act; 20,000 troops, including black militia, are sent South. Under their protection over 70,000 blacks and 6,000 whites are registered to vote. Many of the whites are landless people who have been prevented from voting in previous years. Coalitions of blacks and southern whites, “scalawags” as they are called, elect representatives sensitive to their needs. With the army also come thousands of northerners , some to help and some to help themselves. These become know as “carpetbaggers” since many seem to have all of their possession in large cheap bags, often made of carpet. In spite of corruption that plays a large part in the post-war years, much food, shelter and technical help will be provided.

1916 – USS Nevada (BB-36) is commissioned as the first US Navy “super-dreadnought”. USS Nevada (BB-36), the second United States Navy ship to be named after the 36th state, was the lead ship of the two Nevada-class battleships; her sister ship was Oklahoma. Launched in 1914, the Nevada was a leap forward in dreadnought technology; four of her new features would be included on almost every subsequent US battleship: triple gun turrets, oil in place of coal for fuel, geared steam turbines for greater range, and the “all or nothing” armor principle. These features made Nevada the first US Navy “super-dreadnought”. Nevada served in both World Wars: during the last few months of World War I, Nevada was based in Bantry Bay, Ireland, to protect the supply convoys that were sailing to and from Great Britain.

In World War II, she was one of the battleships trapped when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. She was the only battleship to get underway during the attack, making the ship “the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal and depressing morning” for the United States. Still, she was hit by one torpedo and at least six bombs while steaming away from Battleship Row, forcing her to be beached. Subsequently salvaged and modernized at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Nevada served as a convoy escort in the Atlantic and as a fire-support ship in four amphibious assaults: the Normandy Landings and the invasions of Southern France, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.

At the end of World War II, the Navy decided that Nevada was too old to be retained, so they assigned her to be a target ship in the atomic experiments that were going to be conducted at Bikini Atoll in July 1946 (Operation Crossroads). After being hit by the blast from the first atomic bomb, Able, she was still afloat but heavily damaged and radioactive. She was decommissioned on 29 August 1946 and sunk during naval gunfire practice on 31 July 1948.

1918 – The first case of Spanish flu occurs, the start of a devastating worldwide pandemic.

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1940 – The government lifts its arms embargo to allow Britain and France to buy some P40 fighter planes.

1941 – The Lend-Lease Bill becomes law when signed by President Roosevelt. Important amendments have been made by Congress. A time limit has been placed on the operation of the act — until June 1943 — but a motion originally passed in the House forbidding US warships to give convoy protection to foreign ships has been defeated. Also to be allowed are transfers of ships to other countries solely on the presidential authority without reference to Congress. Lend-Lease is not an entirely disinterested act. Britain is compelled to go on paying cash for as long as this is possible (meaning British assets in the US must be sold below their true value) and it is forbidden to export anything containing materials supplied under Lend-Lease, nor can items wholly produced in Britain be exported if equivalent items are being supplied under Lend-Lease.

By early 1941, the Germans had made significant inroads in their campaign to conquer Europe, which put U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt in something of a bind. Although he increasingly wanted to aid Great Britain in the war effort against what he perceived as the “unholy alliance” of the Axis powers, Roosevelts actions were constrained by public opinion. Sizable pockets of the country considered the nation’s involvement in World War I to have been a mistake, and thus hewed to the belief that the U.S. should stay neutral in the face of the mounting crisis in Europe. Roosevelt devised a fiscal and barter-based solution to this problem, which he laid out in a fireside chat in 1940; the U.S. would serve as “the great arsenal of democracy” and thus provide Great Britain with the money and military machinery necessary to battle back the Axis.

Roosevelt called on Congress to rapidly pass lend-lease legislation that would sanction this system. Legislators heeded the president’s words and shot the bill through the Senate and House. On March 11, Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Act into law, paving the way for an initial aid package worth roughly $7 billion. Although the U.S. soon chucked its neutral stance and entered the war, the Lend-Lease program kept pumping until 1946. All told, the U.S. funneled $50.6 billion worth of Lend-Lease aid to the Allies during the war, the majority of which went to Britain and the U.S.S.R. After the war, the Lend-Lease program morphed into the Marshall Plan, which allocated funds for the revitalization of “friendly” democratic nations-even if they were former enemies.

1941 – Lend-Lease and the Coast Guard: All 10 Lake-class cutters were transferred to the Royal Navy under the program. Two were lost in action against German forces. These 250-foot cutters had been designed by the Coast Guard and featured a slightly raked stem and a cruiser stern. Their innovative turbine-electric drive power plant was developed by Coast Guard Captain Quincy B. Newman. These were the first ships to have alternating current, synchronous motor for propulsion–the whole ship ran off the main turbine. The auxiliary generators were tied into the main generator electrically, after sufficient speed was attained. At that point, no steam was required to drive the turbines on the auxiliary generators. The propulsion plant achieved remarkable efficiency.

1942 – After struggling against great odds to save the Philippines from Japanese conquest, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur abandons the island fortress of Corregidor under orders from President Franklin Roosevelt. Left behind at Corregidor and on the Bataan Peninsula were 90,000 American and Filipino troops, who, lacking food, supplies, and support, would soon succumb to the Japanese offensive. After leaving Corregidor, MacArthur and his family traveled by boat 560 miles to the Philippine island of Mindanao, braving mines, rough seas, and the Japanese Navy. At the end of the hair-raising 35-hour journey, MacArthur told the boat commander, John D. Bulkeley, “You’ve taken me out of the jaws of death, and I won’t forget it.”

On March 17, the general and his family boarded a B-17 Flying Fortress for Northern Australia. He then took another aircraft and a long train ride down to Melbourne. During this journey, he was informed that there were far fewer Allied troops in Australia than he had hoped. Relief of his forces trapped in the Philippines would not be forthcoming. Deeply disappointed, he issued a statement to the press in which he promised his men and the people of the Philippines, “I shall return.” The promise would become his mantra during the next two and a half years, and he would repeat it often in public appearances. For his valiant defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and celebrated as “America’s First Soldier.”

Put in command of Allied forces in the Southwestern Pacific, his first duty was conducting the defense of Australia. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, Bataan fell in April, and the 70,000 American and Filipino soldiers captured there were forced to undertake a death march in which at least 7,000 perished. Then, in May, Corregidor surrendered, and 15,000 more Americans and Filipinos were captured. The Philippines–MacArthur’s adopted home–were lost, and the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff had no immediate plans for their liberation. After the U.S. victory at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, most Allied resources in the Pacific went to U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz, who as commander of the Pacific Fleet planned a more direct route to Japan than via the Philippines.

Unperturbed, MacArthur launched a major offensive in New Guinea, winning a string of victories with his limited forces. By September 1944, he was poised to launch an invasion of the Philippines, but he needed the support of Nimitz’s Pacific Fleet. After a period of indecision about whether to invade the Philippines or Formosa, the Joint Chiefs put their support behind MacArthur’s plan, which logistically could be carried out sooner than a Formosa invasion.

On October 20, 1944, a few hours after his troops landed, MacArthur waded ashore onto the Philippine island of Leyte. That day, he made a radio broadcast in which he declared, “People of the Philippines, I have returned!” In January 1945, his forces invaded the main Philippine island of Luzon. In February, Japanese forces at Bataan were cut off, and Corregidor was captured. Manila, the Philippine capital, fell in March, and in June MacArthur announced his offensive operations on Luzon to be at an end; although scattered Japanese resistance continued until the end of the war in August.

Only one-third of the men MacArthur left behind on March 11, 1942, survived to see his return. “I’m a little late,” he told them, “but we finally came.”

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1942 – 1st deportation train left Paris for the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

1942 – American General Stillwell takes command of the Chinese 5th and 6th Armies (actually size of European army divisions). His first action is to concentrate forces around Mandalay and in the Shan States.

1943 – The Americans extend the Lend-Lease agreements by one year. The value of the agreements, up to the end of February 1943, is reported to be $9,632,000,000.

1944 – In central Burma, Chindit forces are disrupting Japanese communications with their forces facing American General Stilwell’s Sino-American forces.

1944 – Reconnaissance forces land on Manus Island and Butjo Luo, where the Japanese garrison resists.

1945 – The American carrier, Randolph, is damaged in a Japanese Kamikaze attack on the Pacific Fleet base at Ulithi Atoll.

1951 – The first 51 U.S. Korean War dead left Yokohama for burial in the United States.

1953 – F.M. Adams became the 1st US commissioned woman army doctor.

1954 – The U.S. Army charged that Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy and his subcommittee’s chief counsel, Roy Cohn, had exerted pressure to obtain favored treatment for Pvt. G. David Schine, a former consultant to the subcommittee. The confrontation culminated in the famous Senate Army-McCarthy hearings.

1958 – A B-47 bomber accidentally drops a nuclear weapon over Mars Bluff, South Carolina. The conventional explosive trigger detonates, leaving a crater 75 feet wide and 35 feet deep.

1960 – Pioneer 5 was launched into solar orbit between Earth & Venus.

1965 – Market Time patrols begin off South Vietnam coast. The American navy began inspecting Vietnamese junks in hopes of ending arms smuggling to the South.

1967 – U.S. 1st Infantry Division troops engage in one of the heaviest battles of Operation Junction City. The fierce fighting resulted in 210 reported North Vietnamese casualties. Operation Junction City was an effort to smash the communist stronghold in Tay Ninh Province and surrounding areas along the Cambodian border northwest of Saigon. The purpose of the operation was to drive the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops away from populated areas and into the open, where superior American firepower could be more effectively used.

Junction City was the largest operation of the war to date, involving more than 25,000 troops. The first day’s operation was supported by 575 aircraft sorties, a record number for a single day in South Vietnam. The operation was marked by one of the largest airmobile assaults in history when 240 troop-carrying helicopters descended on the battlefield. In one of the few airborne operations of the war, 778 “Sky Soldiers” parachuted into the Junction City area of operations 28 miles north of Tay Ninh City. There were 2,728 enemy casualties by the end of the operation on March 17th.

1973 – An FBI agent was shot at Wounded Knee standoff in South Dakota.

1977 – More than 130 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims were freed after ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined the negotiations.

1980 – UN commission leaves Iran without having seen US hostages.

1982 – Protesting his innocence, Senator Harrison A. Williams Jr., D-N.J., resigned after 23 years in the Senate, rather than face expulsion in the wake of his ABSCAM conviction.

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1992 – Members of the U.N. Security Council accused Iraq of playing a game of “cheat and retreat” from its promises to disarm and respect its people’s human rights. Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz lashed back, saying his country was complying with Gulf War cease-fire resolutions.

1993 – North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in a harsh rebuff of Western demands to open suspected nuclear weapons development sites for inspection. It later suspended its withdrawal.

1999 – The US Rodman naval base in Panama was transferred to Panama.

1999 – The House voted 219-191 to conditionally support President Clinton’s plan to send U.S. troops to Kosovo if a peace agreement was reached.

2002 – President Bush outlines a “second stage of the war on terror” in an address that marked the 6-months since the Sep 11 terrorist attacks.

2002 – It was reported that the US CIA and State Dept. was interviewing former Iraqi generals for a possible overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

2003 – A US Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Fort Drum, NY, and 11 of 13 soldiers were killed.

2003 – Kofi Annan said military action against Iraq without support of the UN security council would be out of conformity with the UN charter. The US and Britain considered a short extension past March 17, but rejected a 45-day deadline backed by 6 council members.

2003 – UN observers leave positions in Iraq’s demilitarized zone near Kuwait.

2003 – The US military reports that US warplanes have bombed a mobile radar for a surface-to-air missile system in Iraq’s western desert.

2003 – Iraq destroyed more Al Samoud 2 missiles raising the total destroyed to 52 of some 100.

2004 – In Madrid, Spain, a series of bombs hidden in backpacks exploded in quick succession at 3 stations, blowing apart four commuter trains and killing 202 people and wounding over 1,450. Spanish leaders were quick to accuse Basque terrorists but a shadowy group claimed responsibility in the name of al-Qaida. The toll was later adjusted to 190 dead.

2008 – Admiral William Fallon resigns as Commander of the U.S. Central Command due to reports in Esquire Magazine of disagreement with President George W. Bush over the administration’s policy with Iran.

2008 – The Space Shuttle Endeavour launches from Kennedy Space Center carrying the crew of STS-123, the Japanese Experiment Module, and Dextre. The ship will rendezvous with the International Space Station.

2012 – United States Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales murdered sixteen civilians and wounded six others in the Panjwayi District of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. Nine of his victims were children, and eleven of the dead were from the same family. Some of the corpses were partially burned. Bales was taken into custody later that morning when he told authorities, “I did it”. On August 23, 2013, a jury at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Fort Lewis, Washington sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

KELLOGG, ALLAN JAY, JR.
Rank and organization: Gunnery Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps (then S/Sgt.), Company G, 2d Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. place and date: Quang Nam province, Republic of Vietnam, 11 March 1970. Entered service at: Bridgeport, Conn. Born: 1 October 1943, Bethel, Conn. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a platoon sergeant with Company G, in connection with combat operations against the enemy on the night of 11 March 1970. Under the leadership of G/Sgt. Kellogg, a small unit from Company G was evacuating a fallen comrade when the unit came under a heavy volume of small arms and automatic weapons fire from a numerically superior enemy force occupying well-concealed emplacements in the surrounding jungle.

During the ensuing fierce engagement, an enemy soldier managed to maneuver through the dense foliage to a position near the marines, and hurled a hand grenade into their midst which glanced off the chest of G/Sgt. Kellogg. Quick to act, he forced the grenade into the mud in which he was standing, threw himself over the lethal weapon and absorbed the full effects of its detonation with his body thereby preventing serious injury or possible death to several of his fellow marines. Although suffering multiple injuries to his chest and his right shoulder and arm, G/Sgt. Kellogg resolutely continued to direct the efforts of his men until all were able to maneuver to the relative safety of the company perimeter. By his heroic and decisive action in risking his life to save the lives of his comrades, G/Sgt. Kellogg reflected the highest credit upon himself and upheld the finest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service.

*ETCHBERGER, RICHARD L.
Rank: Chief Master Sergeant, Organization: U.S. Air Force, Company: Detachment 1, Division: 1043d Radar Evaluation Squadron, Born: 5 March 1933, Departed: Yes (03/11/1968), Entered Service At: Hamburg, Pennsylvania, G.O. Number: , Date of Issue: 09/21/2010, Accredited To: Pennsylvania, Place / Date: Phou Pha Thi, Laos, 11 March 1968. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Chief Etchberger and his team of technicians were manning a top secret defensive position at Lima Site 85 when the base was overrun by an enemy ground force. Receiving sustained and withering heavy artillery attacks directly upon his unit’s position, Chief Etchberger’s entire crew lay dead or severely wounded.

Despite having received little or no combat training, Chief Etchberger single-handedly held off the enemy with an M-16, while simultaneously directing air strikes into the area and calling for air rescue. Because of his fierce defense and heroic and selfless actions, he was able to deny the enemy access to his position and save the lives of his remaining crew. With the arrival of the rescue aircraft, Chief Etchberger, without hesitation, repeatedly and deliberately risked his own life, exposing himself to heavy enemy fire in order to place three surviving wounded comrades into rescue slings hanging from the hovering helicopter waiting to airlift them to safety. With his remaining crew safely aboard, Chief Etchberger finally climbed into an evacuation sling himself, only to be fatally wounded by enemy ground fire as he was being raised into the aircraft.

Chief Etchberger’s bravery and determination in the face of persistent enemy fire and overwhelming odds are in keeping with the highest standards of performance and traditions of military service. Chief Etchberger’s gallantry, self-sacrifice, and profound concern for his fellow men at risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, reflect the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

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12 March

1664 – The Duke of York obtains a grant that gives him authority over all lands between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers. This land grant includes all Dutch holdings in North America.

1676 – Indians attack Plymouth, Massachusetts.

1690 – In the face of the French and Indian threat, the New Hampshire colony votes to re-annex itself to Massachusetts.

1755 – The 1st steam engine in America was installed to pump water from a mine.

1773 – Following the example of Massachusetts, the Virginia House of Burgesses delegates an 11-member correspondence committee. The committee included Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and Richard Henry Lee and was to oversee communication with the other colonies in the common expression of their grievances with England.

1777 – Since George Washington has effectively cleared all but easternmost New Jersey of British forces, the Continental Congress returns to Philadelphia from Baltimore, where it reconvenes.

1783 – Major John Armstrong issues the second anonymous Newburgh Address, which suggests that Washington himself supports the claims of the discontented officers.

1808 – The Third Embargo Act is passed by Congress, reinforcing the earlier two Embargo Acts. By the end of 1808, contrary to President Jefferson’s expectations, the Embargo Acts will nearly destroy the US shipping industry, as well as impose severe economic hardships on the New England states, which depend on trade in large amounts of perishable goods and manufactured goods. The Embargo Acts also lead to the virtual demise of small New England ports such as Newburyport, MA and New Haven, CT. The Southern states are not as seriously affected because their staple exports; cotton, wheat, and tobacco, can be stored for long periods of time. Nor does the embargo achieve its ultimate goal of causing the British to cease their policy of harassing US commercial shipping.

1824 – Marines of the Boston Barracks quelled a Massachusetts State Prison riot. Inmates rioted and holed up in the mess hall with a guard as hostage, Marines from the Boston barracks came to help. Major RD Wainwright led 30 Marines into the mess hall to confront 283 armed and determined prisoners. Wainwright ordered his men to cock and level their muskets. “You must leave this hall,” he told the inmates. “I give you three minutes to decide. If at the end of that time a man remains, he will be shot dead. I speak no more.” In two and a half minutes, “the hall was cleared as if by magic.”

1860 – US Congress accepted the Pre-emption Bill. It provided free land in West for colonists.

1862 – Landing party under Lieutenant Thomas H. Stevens of U.S.S. Ottawa occupied Jacksonville, Florida, without opposition.

1862 – Union troops occupy Winchester, Virginia, after its evacuation by the Confederates commanded by Stonewall Jackson. Winchester will change hands 54 times during the course of the war.

1863 – President Jefferson Davis delivered his State of the Confederacy address.

1863 – The Battle of Raymond, Miss., was fought.

1864 – One of the biggest military fiascos of the war begins as a combined Union force of infantry and riverboats begins moving up the Red River in Louisiana. The month-long campaign was poorly managed and achieved none of the objectives set forth by Union commanders. The campaign had several strategic goals. The Union hoped to capture everything along the Red River in Louisiana and continue into Texas. President Lincoln hoped to send a symbolic warning to France, which had set up a puppet government in Mexico and seemed to have designs on territorial expansion. Finally, the expedition could also capture cotton-producing regions, a product in short supply in the North. The plan called for Admiral David Dixon Porter to take a flotilla of 20 gunboats up the Red River while General Nathaniel Banks led 27,000 men along the western shore of the river. Porter’s squadron entered the river on March 12th.

Two days later, Fort Derussy fell to the Yankees and the ships moved upriver and captured Alexandria. So far, the expedition was going well, but Banks was moving too slowly. He arrived two weeks after Porter took Alexandria, and he continued to plod towards Shreveport. Banks traveled nearly 20 miles from the Red River, too far for the gunboats to offer any protection. On April 8, Banks’ command was attacked and routed by General Richard Taylor, son of former president Zachary Taylor. They fought again the next day, but this time the Yankees held off the Rebel pursuit. The intimidated Banks elected to retreat back down the river before reaching Shreveport. Porter’s ships followed, but the Red River was unusually low and the ships were stuck above some rapids near Alexandria.

It appeared that the ships would have to be destroyed to keep them from falling into Confederate hands, but Lt. Colonel Joseph Bailey of Wisconsin, an engineer with a logging background, supervised several thousand soldiers in constructing a series of wing dams that raised the water level enough for the ships to pass. The expedition was deemed a failure–it drew Union strength away from other parts of the South and the group never reached Texas.

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1865 – At the request of Brigadier General Schofield, Acting Master H. Walton Grinnell, leading a detachment of four sailors, succeeded in delivering important Army dispatches to General Sherman near Fayetteville. Grinnell and his men began their trip on the 4th in a dugout from Wilmington. About 12 miles up the Cape Fear River, after passing through the Confederate pickets undetected, the men left the boat and commenced a tedious and difficult march towards Fayetteville. Near Whiteville, Grinnell impressed horses and led a daring dash through the Confederate lines. Shortly thereafter, the group made contact with the rear scouts of Sherman’s forces, successfully completing what Grinnell termed “this rather novel naval scout.” Naval support, no matter what form it took, was essential to General Sherman’s movements.

1912 – Juliette Gordon Low organized the Girl Guides, the first Girl Scouts troop in America, at the 1848 Andrew Low House in Savannah, Ga. The US Congress chartered the Girl Scouts in 1950.

1912 – Capt. Albert Berry performed the 1st parachute jump from an airplane.

1917 – The US merchant ship Algonquin is sunk without warning. All American merchant ships are to be armed in war zones.

1918 – WW I Marines landed at Scapa Flow, Great Britain.

1922 – Jack Kerouac is born in Lowell, Massachusetts. Kerouac was the son of French-Canadian parents and learned English as a second language. In high school, Kerouac was a star football player and won a scholarship to Columbia University. In World War II, he served in the Navy but was expelled for severe personality problems that may have been symptoms of mental illness. He became a merchant seaman. In the late 1940s, he wandered the U.S. and Mexico and wrote his first novel, The Town and the City. It was not until 1957, when he published On the Road, an autobiographical tale of his wanderings, that he became famous as a seminal figure of the Beat Generation. His tale of a subculture of poets, folk singers, and eccentrics who smoked marijuana and rejected conformist society was written in just three weeks. The book is filled with other Beat figures, including Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs. Kerouac wrote five more books before his death in 1967 in St. Petersburg, Florida. However, none gained the mythic status of On the Road.

1933 – Eight days after his inauguration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives his first “fireside chat,” or national radio address. The subject of the broadcast was the reopening of the banks, closed by presidential order the week before to stop a recent surge in mass withdrawal of U.S. savings. Journalist Robert Trout coined the phrase “fireside chat” to describe Roosevelt’s frequent radio broadcasts, invoking an image of the president sitting by a fire in a living room, speaking earnestly to the American people. Roosevelt’s down-to-earth broadcasts served as a great reassurance to the many Americans who felt alienated from the U.S. government during the hard times of the Great Depression. They also contributed to President Roosevelt’s tremendous popularity among ordinary Americans, leading to his record three reelections despite the often fervent opposition to his policies from the business community and other quarters.

1938 – German troops march into Austria to annex the German-speaking nation for the Third Reich. In early 1938, Austrian Nazis conspired for the second time in four years to seize the Austrian government by force and unite their nation with Nazi Germany. Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg, learning of the conspiracy, met with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the hopes of reasserting his country’s independence but was instead bullied into naming several top Austrian Nazis to his cabinet. On March 9, Schuschnigg called a national vote to resolve the question of Anschluss, or “annexation,” once and for all.

Before the plebiscite could take place, however, Schuschnigg gave in to pressure from Hitler and resigned on March 11. In his resignation address, under coercion from the Nazis, he pleaded with Austrian forces not to resist a German “advance” into the country. The next day, March 12, Hitler accompanied German troops into Austria, where enthusiastic crowds met them. Hitler appointed a new Nazi government, and on March 13 the Anschluss was proclaimed. Austria existed as a federal state of Germany until the end of World War II, when the Allied powers declared the Anschluss void and reestablished an independent Austria. Schuschnigg, who had been imprisoned soon after resigning, was released in 1945.

1941 – President Roosevelt presents an Appropriations Bill for Lend-Lease to Congress for $7,000,000,000.

1942 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt designates Admiral Ernest J. King to serve as the Chief of Naval Operations, as well as the Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet to which he was appointed on 30 December 1941.

1942 – On New Caledonia, American troops land to garrison the island. These forces include the first operational “Seabees.”

1944 – On Bougainville, Japanese attacks continue. US forces continue to hold.

1944 – A small American force lands on Hauwei Island. The Japanese garrison, led by Colonel Ezaki, resists.

1944 – Americans occupy Wotho Atoll. There is no Japanese garrison.

1945 – There is heavy fighting in the Remagen bridgehead where elements of the German 7th Army are counterattacking.

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1947 – In a dramatic speech to a joint session of Congress, President Harry S. Truman asks for U.S. assistance for Greece and Turkey to forestall communist domination of the two nations. Historians have often cited Truman’s address, which came to be known as the Truman Doctrine, as the official declaration of the Cold War. In February 1947, the British government informed the United States that it could no longer furnish the economic and military assistance it had been providing to Greece and Turkey since the end of World War II. The Truman administration believed that both nations were threatened by communism and it jumped at the chance to take a tough stance against the Soviet Union. In Greece, leftist forces had been battling the Greek royal government since the end of World War II. In Turkey, the Soviets were demanding some manner of control over the Dardanelles, territory from which Turkey was able to dominate the strategic waterway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.

On March 12, 1947, Truman appeared before a joint session of Congress to make his case. The world, he declared, faced a choice in the years to come. Nations could adopt a way of life “based upon the will of the majority” and governments that provided “guarantees of individual liberty” or they could face a way of life “based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority.” This latter regime, he indicated, relied upon “terror and oppression.” “The foreign policy and the national security of this country,” he claimed, were involved in the situations confronting Greece and Turkey. Greece, he argued, was “threatened by the terrorist activities of several thousand armed men, led by communists.” It was incumbent upon the United States to support Greece so that it could “become a self-supporting and self-respecting democracy.” The “freedom-loving” people of Turkey also needed U.S. aid, which was “necessary for the maintenance of its national integrity.”

The president declared that “it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” Truman requested $400 million in assistance for the two nations. Congress approved his request two months later. The Truman Doctrine was a de facto declaration of the Cold War. Truman’s address outlined the broad parameters of U.S. Cold War foreign policy: the Soviet Union was the center of all communist activity and movements throughout the world; communism could attack through outside invasion or internal subversion; and the United States needed to provide military and economic assistance to protect nations from communist aggression.

Not everyone embraced Truman’s logic. Some realized that the insurgency in Greece was supported not by the Soviet Union, but by Yugoslavia’s Tito, who broke with the Soviet communists within a year. Additionally, the Soviets were not demanding control of the Dardanelles, but only assurances that this strategic waterway would not be used by Russia’s enemies-as the Nazis had used it during World War II. And whether U.S. assistance would result in democracy in Greece or Turkey was unclear. Indeed, both nations established repressive right-wing regimes in the years following the Truman Doctrine. Yet, the Truman Doctrine successfully convinced many that the United States was locked in a life-or-death struggle with the Soviet Union, and it set the guidelines for over 40 years of U.S.-Soviet relations.

1951 – Communist troops were driven out of Seoul.

1952 – Ten B-29s struck the Sinchang-ni choke point, ten miles east of Sunchon, with ninety-one tons of high explosives, rendering the point unpassable.

1955 – Effective this date, all foreign and domestic ships were required to give 24-hour advance notice to the local U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port before entering U.S. ports. This order was designed to improve the U .S. Coast Guard’s port security program without “material inconvenience” to shipping.

1956 – In first overseas deployment of Navy missile squadron, VA-83 left on USS Intrepid.

1959 – The House joined the Senate in approving the statehood of Hawaii.

1963 – US House granted former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill honorary U.S. citizenship.

1965 – The beginning of the US Navy’s Operation Market Time to interdict resupply of Communist forces in South Vietnam by river and coastal routes. The initiation of this campaign led to the Navy’s request for USCG vessels and crews to participate in riverine and coastal patrols during the Vietnam War.

1968 – A Miami-bound flight was commandeered to Cuba.

1970 – US lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.

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1972 – The last remnants of the First Australian Task Force withdraw from Vietnam. The Australian government had first sent troops to Vietnam in 1964 with a small aviation detachment and an engineer civic action team. In May 1965, the Australians increased their commitment with the deployment of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (RAR). The formation of the First Australian Task Force in 1966 established an Australian base of operations near Ba Ria in Phuoc Tuy province. The task force included an additional infantry battalion, a medium tank squadron, and a helicopter squadron, as well as signal, engineer, and other support forces.

By 1969, Australian forces in Vietnam totaled an estimated 6,600 personnel. The Australian contingent was part of the Free World Military Forces, an effort by President Lyndon B. Johnson to enlist allies for the United States and South Vietnam. By securing support from other nations, Johnson hoped to build an international consensus behind his policies in Vietnam. The effort was also known as the “many flags” program. Australia began to withdraw its troops in 1970, following the lead of the United States as it drastically reduced its troop commitment to South Vietnam.

1980 – Greek TV airs films of American hostages in Tehran recently undergoing medical exams. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski tells National Press Club the U.S. has right to take alternative action if peaceful negotiations with Iran fail.

1982 – PLO chief Yasser Arafat appeared on US TV show “Nightline.”

1990 – Vice President Quayle met in Santiago, Chile, with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who promised to peacefully relinquish power to Violeta Chamorro, the U.S.-backed candidate who had won Nicaragua’s presidential election.

1992 – The U.N. Security Council stood firm in its demand that Iraq comply totally with Gulf War cease-fire resolutions, rebuffing an appeal for leniency from Saddam Hussein’s special envoy, deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz.

1998 – Serbian leaders proposed talks for autonomy in Kosovo, but residents dismissed the offer.

1999 – Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic formally joined NATO in a ceremony at Independence, Mo., where Pres. Truman announced in 1949 the formation of the Atlantic alliance for defense against the Soviet bloc.

2001 – A US Navy fighter dropped an errant 500-pound bomb in Kuwait that hit an observation post and killed five Americans and one New Zealander. Cmdr. David Zimmerman was later reprimanded and relieved of command.

2001 – Yugoslavia and Nato agreed to use their forces to squeeze Albanian rebels from separate flanks as the rebels signed a cease-fire.

2002 – The Bush administration announced a 5-color code system to alert Americans on the danger level posed by terrorists.

2003 – In Afghanistan an ambush on a US convoy prompted aircraft fire that killed 5 enemy fighters.

2003 – The US Air Force tests for the first time its Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) a 9,450kg munition which is the biggest conventional bomb in the US arsenal.

2003 – A Kurdish official says that US special forces have helped to repair runways in Iraqi Kurdistan.

2003 – A spokesman for the UN weapons inspectors tells reporters that Iraq has destroyed three more al-Samoud missiles.

2003 – Coalition aircraft enforcing a no-fly zone over southern Iraq bombed three underground military communication sites and a mobile radar for a surface-to-air missile system.

2003 – The British government puts forward six tests that the Iraqi president will have to pass to avoid war.

2007 – Lieutenant General Kevin Kiley resigns as the Surgeon General of the United States Army over the Walter Reed Medical Center scandal.

2011 – United States aid worker Alan Gross is sentenced to 15 years in a Cuban jail, ostensibly for working to undermine the Government of Cuba.

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