March 3rd ~ {continued...}

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

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

1863 – Idaho Territory formed.

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

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

1865 – President Lincoln signs a bill creating the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. Known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, this federal agency oversaw the difficult transition of blacks from slavery to freedom.

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

1871 – Congress established the civil service system.

1871 – Navy Medical Corps established.

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

1879 – Congress establishes the United States Geological Survey, an organization that played a pivotal role in the exploration and development of the West. Although the rough geographical outlines of much of the American West were known by 1879, the government still had astonishingly little detailed knowledge of the land. Earlier federal exploratory missions under men like Ferdinand Hayden and John Wesley Powell had begun to fill in the map, yet much remained to be done. Congress decided to transform the earlier system of sporadic federal geological explorations into a permanent government agency, the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

March 3rd ~ {continued...}

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

1891 – Congress created the Office of Superintendent of Immigration (Treasury Department).

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

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

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

1915 – Congress creates Federal Naval Reserve. By the end of World War I, about 30,000 Naval Reserve Officers and 3,000,000 Naval Reserve enlisted people had served on active duty with regular Navy at a wide variety of duty stations. About 75 percent of the officers and enlisted men who served on active duty with the Navy in World War II were reservists. During the Korean conflict, about 25 percent of the Navy’s personnel on active duty were reservists.

In 1961, 58 Naval Reserve ships and air squadrons were called to active duty for the Berlin crisis. There was no large-scale mobilization of naval reservists for service in Vietnam. However, Naval Reserve personnel served on active duty in Vietnam. In 1968, eight mobile construction battalions (Seabees) and air squadrons were called to active duty for one year.

Operations “Desert Shield” and “Desert Storm” (1990-1991) gave dramatic evidence that the Naval Reserve Force is a thouroughly effective and vital part of the overall operational capabilities of the Navy in an emergency scenario. More than 20,000 Naval Reservists were recalled for active duty.

These “civillian” sailors responded and performed their jobs beyond all expectations. Naval Reservists and various sqaudrons/units also provide logistics support throughout the world while performing their two weeks of annual training (AT) with regular Navy forces.

1915 – The post of Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) was established by Act of Congress and Admiral William S. Benson was appointed as the first CNO. During World War II, Admiral Ernest J. King held the dual titles of CNO and Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, and directed the worldwide operations of the Navy in coordination with our allies. King was followed, shortly after the war ended, by Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, wartime commander of the Pacific Fleet.

In 1955, President Eisenhower appointed Admiral Arleigh A. Burke to the first of what would be an unprecendented three 2-year terms as CNO. The CNO is the Navy’s senior flag officer, and takes precedence over all other officers in the naval service. He is the Navy representative on the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), keeps the Secretary of the Navy informed on JCS activities and decisions, and is reponsible to the Secretary for the management of the Navy.

March 3rd ~ {continued...}

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

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

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

1931 – President Herbert Hoover signs a congressional act making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the official national anthem of the United States.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

March 3rd ~ {continued...}

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

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

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

1965 – More than 30 U.S. Air Force jets strike targets along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. In Havana, Premier Fidel Castro condemned the United States and promised that Cuba would aid North Vietnam. On March 4, about 2,000 students attacked the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. There was also a reaction in non-communist capitals. Prime Minister Lester Pearson of Canada expressed concern about the risk of escalation, but said that Canada understood the U.S. position.

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

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

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

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

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

Because her nuclear propulsion allowed her to remain submerged far longer than diesel-electric submarines, she broke many records in her first years of operation, and traveled to locations previously beyond the limits of submarines. The submarine has been preserved as a museum of submarine history in Groton, Connecticut, where the vessel receives some 250,000 visitors a year.

March 3rd ~ {continued...}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

March 4th ~

1747 – Tadeusz Kosciusko, patriot, American Revolution hero (built West Point), was born in Poland.

1777 – George Washington appoints Nathaniel Sackett as spymaster over what will become the Culper Ring of spies. During the American War of Independence the Culper ring was assigned to obtain intelligence on the plans of the British enemy forces in New York. His work involved the recruitment of agents and informers, behind the enemy lines, if necessary paid from a purse of $500 sanctioned by Washington. Nathaniel was recommended to General Washington by William Duer, a Continental Congressman, with whom Nathaniel served on the New York committee for detecting and defeating conspiracies.

Taking his instructions personally from Washington, Nathaniel set up an intelligence-gathering network in the New York area. He was soon reporting information gathered in the field to Duer and through him to Washington. The Culpers were extremely successful, the more so for having to develop tradecraft as they went, with an intricate arrangement of dead drops and codes.

1779 – John Paul Jones takes command of Bonhomme Richard. Bonhomme Richard, formerly Duc de Duras, was a warship in the Continental Navy. She was originally an East Indiaman, a merchant ship built in France for the French East India Company in 1765, for service between France and the Orient. She was placed at the disposal of John Paul Jones, who renamed the vessel in honor of Benjamin Franklin, by King Louis XVI of France as a result of a loan to the United States by French shipping magnate, Jacques-Donatien Le Ray.

1783 – Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United States of America.

1787 – In an attack on Shays’ insurgents at Petersham, Massachusetts, General Benjamin Lincoln captures 150 rebels and forces Shays to flee for Vermont. By the end of the month, the uprising has been completely suppressed. In March the Massachusetts legislature offers a pardon to all except Shays, Luke Day and two other leaders. Shays will be pardoned on 13 June, 1788.

This rebellion has the effect of causing the state legislature to avoid direct taxation, to lower court costs, and to exempt household necessities and workmen’s tools from the debt process. Shays’ Rebellion is also an important factor in influencing the creation of a new federal constitution, since the states have seen how essentially powerless they are to prevent such incidents of violence.

1789 – George Washington, the commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, is unanimously elected the first president of the United States by all 69 presidential electors. John Adams of Massachusetts, who received 34 votes, was elected vice president. The electors, who represented 10 of the 11 states that had ratified the U.S. Constitution, were chosen by popular vote, legislative appointment, or a combination of both four weeks before the election.

1822 – Free American Blacks settled Liberia, West Africa. The first group of colonists landed in Liberia and founded Monrovia, the colony’s capital city, named in honor of President James Monroe.

March 4th ~ {continued...}

1859 – U.S. signs “Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation” with Paraguay at Asuncion after the revenue cutter Harriet Lane, as part of a US Navy expedition, forces the opening of the Paraguay and Parana Rivers.

1861 – The Confederate State of America is open for business when the Provisional Congress convenes in Montgomery, Alabama. The official record read: “Be it remembered that on the fourth day of February, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and in the Capitol of the State of Alabama, in the city of Montgomery, at the hour of noon, there assembled certain deputies and delegates from the several independent South State of North America…” The first order of business was drafting a constitution. They used the U.S. Constitution as a model, and most of it was taken verbatim. It took just four days to hammer out a tentative document to govern the new nation. The president was limited to one six-year term.

Unlike the U.S. Constitution, the word “slave” was used and the institution protected in all states and any territories to be added later. Importation of slaves was prohibited, as this would alienate European nations and would detract from the profitable “internal slave trade” in the South. Other components of the constitution were designed to enhance the power of the states–governmental money for internal improvements was banned and the president was given a line-item veto on appropriations bills. The Congress then turned its attention to selecting a president. The delegates settled on Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate who was the U.S. Secretary of War in the 1850s and a senator from Mississippi.

1861 – The Apache Wars begin. A group of unidentified Indians stole cattle and kidnapped the stepson of the rancher John Ward near Sonoita, Arizona, Arizona. Ward sought redress from the nearby American army. Lieutenant George N. Bascom was dispatched and Ward accompanied the detail. Bascom set out to meet with Cochise near Apache Pass and the Butterfield Overland Stagecoach station to secure the cattle and Ward’s son. Cochise was unaware of the incident, but he offered to seek those responsible. Dissatisfied, Bascom accused Cochise of having been involved. He took Cochise and his group of family members under arrest in the negotiating tent. Angered, Cochise slashed his way from the tent and escaped. After further failed negotiations, Cochise took a member of the stage coach station hostage after an exchange of gunfire.

With Bascom unwilling to exchange prisoners, Cochise and his party killed the members of a passing Mexican wagon train. The Apache killed and ritually mutilated nine Mexicans, and took three whites captive, but killed them later. They were unsuccessful in attempting an ambush of a Butterfield Overland stagecoach. With negotiations between Cochise and Bascom at an impasse, Bascom sent for reinforcements. Cochise killed the remaining four captives from the Butterfield Station and abandoned negotiations. Upon the advice of military surgeon, Dr. Bernard Irwin, Bascom hanged the Apache hostages in his custody. The retaliatory executions became known as the Bascom Affair; they initiated another eleven years of open warfare between the varying groups of Apache and the United States settlers, the U.S. Army and the Confederate Army.

1865 – Belatedly, Robert E. Lee is named Commander in Chief of the Confederate Army. Lee knows as well as anyone that the cause is now hopeless.

1865 – A boat expedition under Lieutenant Commander Cushing, U.S.S. Monticello, proceeded up Little River, South Carolina, placing the small town of All Saints Parish under guard and capturing a number of Confederate soldiers. On the 5th Cushing destroyed some $15,000 worth of cotton.

1868 – Marines landed at Osaka, Japan, to protect foreign nationals.

1899 – After an exchange of gunfire, fighting broke out between American troops and Filipinos near Manila, sparking the Philippine-American War (also referred to as the Philippine Insurrection of 1899). American soldiers patrolling in Santa Mesa opened fire on Filipino soldiers near a bridge over the San Juan River.

March 4th ~ {continued...}

1915 – Germans decreed British waters part of war zone; all ships were to be sunk without warning.

1938 – Hitler seized control of German army and put Nazis in key posts.

1941 – The United Service Organization, a civilian agency, is founded. The organization was formed to offer support for U.S. service members and their families, and sent many actors, musicians, and other performers to entertain the troops. In 1948, the original USO was disbanded, but formed again the following year, and still exists today, providing recreation, entertainment, children’s programs and other services to U.S. military families. Bob Hope made annual trips to entertain overseas troops from World War II through Desert Storm in 1991.

1942 – Dutch and American ships attacking in the Makassar Straits are repelled by Japanese aircraft. Two American cruisers are damaged in the fighting.

1943 – On Guadalcanal, about 5000 more Japanese troops are evacuated by a squadron (led by Admiral Koyanagi) consisting of one cruiser and 22 destroyers. Four of the ships are damaged. Meanwhile, the US 147th Regiment advances west of Tassafaronga.

1944 – Organized Japanese resistance in the Kwajalein Atoll ends. Most of the 8700 Japanese garrison commanded by Admiral Akiyama have been killed. Only 265 are captured, many are Korean laborers or wounded. The Americans have deployed 41,000 troops of whom 370 have been killed in action and 1500 wounded.

1944 – At the Anzio beachhead, German attacks force the British 1st Division to fall back. Meanwhile, to the south, the forces of US 5th Army continue offensive operations. The US 34th Division gains ground near Point 593 and Point 445 as well as attacking Colle Sant’Angelo.

1944 – President Roosevelt authorized the Bronze Star Medal by Executive Order 9419, retroactive to 7 December 1941. This authorization was announced in War Department Bulletin No. 3, dated 10 February 1944. The Executive Order was amended by President Kennedy, per Executive Order 11046 dated 24 August 1962, to expand the authorization to include those serving with friendly forces.

1945 – The Yalta Conference begins. Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin and their senior military and political advisors meet to discuss the postwar order and the war with Japan. Yalta is a recently liberated Crimean resort. While a number of important agreements were reached at the conference, tensions over European issues-particularly the fate of Poland-foreshadowed the crumbling of the Grand Alliance that had developed between the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union during World War II and hinted at the Cold War to come. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin each arrived with their own agendas for the conference.

For Stalin, postwar economic assistance for Russia, and U.S. and British recognition of a Soviet sphere of influence in eastern Europe were the main objectives. Churchill had the protection of the British Empire foremost in his mind, but also wanted to clarify the postwar status of Germany. Roosevelt’s goals included consensus on establishment of the United Nations and gaining Soviet agreement to enter the war against Japan once Hitler had been defeated. None of them left Yalta completely satisfied.

1945 – The Allies announce that all German forces have been expelled from Belgium. US 1st and 3rd Army units are attacking toward the Roer River around Duren.

1945 – On Luzon, advance units of the US 1st Cavalry Division reach the outskirts of Manila from the north while units of 11th Airborne Division approach from the south. Yamashita has not ordered his forces to defend the city but the 20,000 Japanese troops under the local naval commander in the city are prepared to fight to the end.

March 4th ~ {continued...}

1959 – Keel laying of USS Enterprise, first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, Newport News, VA.

1962 – The first U.S. helicopter is shot down in Vietnam. It was one of 15 helicopters ferrying South Vietnamese Army troops into battle near the village of Hong My in the Mekong Delta. The first U.S. helicopter unit had arrived in South Vietnam aboard the ferry carrier USNS Core on December 11, 1961. This contingent included 33 Vertol H-21C Shawnee helicopters and 400 air and ground crewmen to operate and maintain them. Their assignment was to airlift South Vietnamese Army troops into combat.

1964 – The federal government put an end to one of the nation’s more shameful bits of legislation by authorizing the Twenty-fourth Amendment, which effectively outlawed the poll tax. The tax stemmed back to the 1880s, when members of the burgeoning Populist party began to build a potentially potent coalition of African American and lower class white voters in the South. Across the region, planters, merchants, and industrialists moved to preserve their power and pushed for the passage of a deliberately prohibitive poll tax. The legislation, adopted by a host of Southern states, proved all too effective, as scores of African-Americans, as well as the “poorer sort” of whites, simply could not afford to pay the tax and thus lost the right to vote.

1966 – Senate Foreign Relations Committee began televised hearings on the Vietnam War.

1967 – Lunar Orbiter 3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 13 on its mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft.

1969 – Al-Fatah-leader Yasser Arafat officially took over as chairman of PLO.

1971 – National Guard was mobilized to quell rioting in Wilmington, NC.

1971 – Moonwalk by CAPT Alan B. Shepherd, Jr. USN, Commander of Apollo 14 and CDR Edgar D. Mitchell, USN Lunar Module Pilot. During the 9 day mission, 94 lbs of lunar material was collected and Shepard became the first person to hit a golf ball on the moon.

1972 – A force of 824 soldiers, the last of Thailand’s 12,000 troops serving in South Vietnam, departs.

1974 – Patricia Hearst, the 19-year-old daughter of publishing billionaire William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped from her Berkeley, California, apartment. Stephen Weed, Hearst’s fiancý, was beaten unconscious by the two abductors. Soon, a ransom demand came from the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a radical activist group led by Donald DeFreeze. DeFreeze had formed the SLA in 1973 after he escaped from prison.

On November 6, 1973, the SLA shot and killed Marcus Foster, Oakland’s superintendent of schools, with bullets laced with cyanide. Less than a month before Hearst’s kidnapping, an SLA bomb-making factory was discovered by the police. The SLA instructed William Hearst to distribute $70 million in food to the poor in Oakland to have Patty released. The Black Muslims, Malcolm X’s former organization, were chosen to manage the food distribution, which turned into a riot when more than 10,000 people showed up and fought for the food. However, DeFreeze and the SLA did not release Patty.

The Hearst story took a strange and unexpected turn two months after the abduction, when the SLA robbed the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco. The surveillance cameras clearly showed that Patty Hearst was one of the machine gun-toting robbers. Soon after followed a taped message from the SLA in which Hearst claimed that she had voluntarily joined the SLA and was now to be known as “Tania.” On May 17, 1974, police were tipped that the SLA leaders were at a Los Angeles home. With 400 police and FBI agents outside the house, a tremendous gun battle broke out. The overwhelming firepower of the police eventually caused a fire to break out. DeFreeze and five other SLA members died in the fire. However, Hearst was not inside the house. She was not found until September 1975.

Patty Hearst was put on trial for armed robbery and convicted, despite her claim that she had been coerced, through repeated rape, isolation, and brainwashing, into joining the SLA. Prosecutors believed that she actually orchestrated her own kidnapping because of her prior involvement with one of the SLA members. Despite any real proof of this theory, she was convicted and sent to prison. President Carter commuted Hearst’s sentence after she had served two years. Hearst is currently seeking a pardon.

March 4th ~ {continued...}

1982 – President Reagan announced a plan to eliminate all medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe.

1982 – The Attorney General, William Smith, declared at a press conference that Operation Tiburon was “the most successful international marijuana interdiction effort to date.” The operation began in November, 1980, and accounted for the seizure of 95 vessels. It was a combined operation that included elements of the Coast Guard, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Customs Service and various state and local law enforcement agencies.

1991 – Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani offered to hold talks with Iraq and the United States in an attempt to mediate an end to the Gulf War.

2002 – The CIA believed that it killed a top al Qaeda official with a Hellfire missile, Predator aerial drone, near Zawar Kili, Afghanistan. 7 al Qaeda members were killed.

2002 – In Afghanistan northern militia factions agreed to withdraw from Mazar-e-Sharif and create a new joint security force.

2003 – Pres. Bush visited the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he led a tribute to the lost crew of the shuttle Columbia and rededicated the nation to space travel.

2003 – A rare television interview with Saddam Hussein aired in which the Iraqi leader charged that US claims of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in his country were a pretext to seize Iraq’s oil fields.

2003 – The North Atlantic Council decided to extend Operation Active Endeavour to include escorting non-military ships traveling through the Strait of Gibraltar to maintain security in the area and to secure the safe transit of designated Allied ships.

2005 – The UN vowed to discipline two officials implicated in a report that detailed conflicts of interest and flawed management in the U.N. oil-for-food program. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will discipline Benon Sevan and another UN official, Joseph Stephanides, who may have “tainted” bidding for an oil-for-food contract.

2005 – Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz announced that 15,000 U.S. troops whose tours of duty had been extended in order to provide election security would be pulled out of Iraq by the next month.

2008 – United States district court judge Florence-Marie Cooper rules that President George W. Bush cannot exempt the United States Navy from complying with environmental laws banning sonar training. Later in the year, the US Supreme Court overturns this ruling.

2012 – The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan estimates that civilian deaths in the war in Afghanistan rose to a record level in 2011 of 3021 with insurgents responsible for most of the deaths.

March 5th ~

1631 – Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island and an important American religious leader, arrives in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England. Williams, a Puritan, worked as a teacher before serving briefly as a colorful pastor at Plymouth and then at Salem. Within a few years of his arrival, he alarmed the Puritan oligarchy of Massachusetts by speaking out against the right of civil authorities to punish religious dissension and to confiscate Indian land.

In October 1635, he was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony by the General Court. After leaving Massachusetts, Williams, with the assistance of the Narragansett tribe, established a settlement at the junction of two rivers near Narragansett Bay, located in present-day Rhode Island. He declared the settlement open to all those seeking freedom of conscience and the removal of the church from civil matters, and many dissatisfied Puritans came.

Taking the success of the venture as a sign from God, Williams named the community “Providence.” Among those who found a haven in the religious and political refuge of the Rhode Island Colony were Anne Hutchinson–like Williams, exiled from Massachusetts for religious reasons–some of the first Jews to settle in North America, and the Quakers. In Providence, Roger Williams also founded the first Baptist church in America and edited the first dictionary of Native American languages.

1778 – South Carolina becomes the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.

1723 – John Witherspoon, Declaration of Independence signer, was born.

1783 – Sweden recognized the independence of the United States.

1840 – Hiram Stevens Maxim (d.1916), inventor of the automatic single-barrel rifle, was born in Sangerville, Maine. He invented the hair-curling iron, and patented such items as a mousetrap, a locomotive headlight, a method of manufacturing carbon filaments for lamps, and an automatic sprinkling system.

1847 – General Taylor has growing disagreements with President Polk and believes he must protect himself politically and militarily. He defends his views and actions in a New York newspaper on January 22nd and then disobeys orders to communicate with General Scott and moves west.

1864 – Federal forces occupied Jackson, Mississippi.

1865 – Union and Confederate forces around Petersburg, Virginia, begin a three-day battle that produces 3,000 casualties but ends with no significant advantage for either side. Dabney’s Mill was another attempt by Union General Ulysses S. Grant to break the siege of Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia.

In 1864, Grant and Confederate General Robert E. Lee pounded each other as they wheeled south around the cities. After a month of heavy battling that produced the highest casualty rates of the war, Grant and Lee settled into trenches around Petersburg. These lines eventually stretched 25 miles to Richmond, and the stalemate continued for 10 months.

March 5th ~ {continued...}

1900 – The United States and Great Britain signed the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, giving the United States the right to build a canal in Nicaragua but not to fortify it.

1904 – The American occupation of Cuba ended.

1917 – With more than a two-thirds majority, Congress overrides President Woodrow Wilson’s veto of the previous week and passes the Immigration Act. The law required a literacy test for immigrants and barred Asiatic laborers, except for those from countries with special treaties or agreements with the United States, such as the Philippines.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the United States received a majority of the world’s immigrants, with 1.3 million immigrants passing through New York’s Ellis Island in 1907 alone. Various restrictions had been applied against immigrants since the 1890s, but most of those seeking entrance into the United States were accepted.

However, in 1894, the Immigration Restriction League was founded in Boston and subsequently petitioned the U.S. government to legislate that immigrants be required to demonstrate literacy in some language before being accepted. The organization hoped to quell the recent surge of lower-class immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe.

1918 – The 1st Marine Replacement Battalion sailed for France in WW I.

1918 – Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane. It is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military. His unit, the 1st Aero Squadron had not yet begun combat operations. Thompson visited a French unit with a fellow member of the 1st Aero Squadron and both were invited to fly as gunner-bombardiers with the French on a bombing raid over Saarbrücken, Germany.

After they had dropped their bombs, the squadron was attacked by Albatros D.III fighters. Thompson shot down one of them. This was the first aerial victory by any member of the U.S. military. He was awarded the Croix de guerre with Palm for the action.

1918 – SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.

1940 – The US Maritime Commission announces that Britain and France are buying 113,000 tons of old American cargo ships.

1942 – The United States declares war on Thailand.

1942 – The British RAF drops 1.4 million copies of 2 American leaflets, describing scale of the US arms program, over 8 French cities and towns.

March 5th ~ {continued...}

1945 – The German pocket near Colmar is cut in two by a link between French units and part of the US 21st Corps. Farther north, US 1st Army extends its attacks, led by US 5th Corps, toward the Roer aiming to take the Schwammenauel Dam.

1945 – The US forces close in tighter around Manila. The US 11th Corps has completed its attack across the Bataan Peninsula.

1947 – The Soviet Union and Great Britain rejected terms for an American trusteeship over Japanese Pacific Isles.

1951 – Operation ROUNDUP, an advance by X Corps, began. This attack in the central front was directed against the enemy’s II and V Corps with friendly forces converging on Hongchon from the east and west.

1953 – The American Iron and Steel Institution announced that U.S. steel concerns had produced 117,500,000 short tons of steel during the past year. The years following World War II were a heady time for the American steel industry. Long suffering from the effects of the Great Depression, the industry was revived by the war, as the nation’s factories were given the responsibility of building the “great arsenal of democracy.”

Although the close of the World War II seemingly threatened the industry’s resurgence, the government, motivated by the emergence of the Cold War as well as economic concerns, decided to maintain full-scale military production. The manufacturing sector, including the steel industry, steamed ahead at full-pace, churning out items at a record clip. The steel industry kept rolling through the early 1950s.

1958 – In the Tybee Island B-47 crash the United States Air Force lost a 7,600-pound (3,400 kg) Mark 15 nuclear bomb in the waters off Tybee Island near Savannah, Georgia, United States. During a practice exercise, the B-47 bomber carrying the bomb collided in midair with an F-86 fighter plane. To protect the aircrew from a possible detonation in the event of a crash, the bomb was jettisoned. Following several unsuccessful searches, the bomb was presumed lost somewhere in Wassaw Sound off the shores of Tybee Island.

1960 – The South Vietnamese government requests that Washington double U.S. Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG-Vietnam) strength from 342 to 685. The advisory group was formed on November 1, 1955 to provide military assistance to South Vietnam.

March 5th ~ {continued...}

1968 – U.S. troops divided Viet Cong at Hue while the Saigon government claimed they would arm loyal citizens.

1971 – Moonwalk by CAPT Alan B. Shepherd, Jr. USN, Commander of Apollo 14 and CDR Edgar D. Mitchell, USN Lunar Module Pilot. During the 9 day mission, 94 lbs of lunar material was collected and Shepard became the first person to hit a golf ball on the moon.

1972 – It was reported that the United States had agreed to sell 42 F-4 Phantom jets to Israel.

1972 – US airlines began mandatory inspection of passengers and baggage.

1973 – Services were held at Arlington National Cemetery for Army Lt. Col. William B. Nolde, the last American soldier killed before the Vietnam cease-fire.

1974 – Patty Hearst was kidnapped at gunpoint by a white woman and two black men.

1975 – North Vietnamese Gen. Van Tien Dung departs for South Vietnam to take command of communist forces in preparation for a new offensive. In December 1974, the North Vietnamese 7th Division and the newly formed 3rd Division attacked Phuoc Long Province, north of Saigon. This attack represented an escalation in the “cease-fire war” that started shortly after the Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973.

The North Vietnamese wanted to see how Saigon and Washington would react to a major attack so close to Saigon. President Richard Nixon and his successor, Gerald Ford, had promised to come to the aid of South Vietnam if the North Vietnamese launched a major new offensive. With Nixon’s Watergate resignation and Ford facing an increasingly hostile Congress, Hanoi was essentially conducting a “test” attack to see if the United States would honor its commitment to Saigon.

The attack was much more successful than the North Vietnamese anticipated: the South Vietnamese soldiers fought poorly and the United States did nothing. Emboldened by their success, the North Vietnamese decided to launch a major offensive against the South Vietnamese. “Campaign 275” began on March 1, 1975. The North Vietnamese forces quickly overran the South Vietnamese and the United States failed to provide the promised support. Saigon fell on April 30 and the South Vietnamese government officially surrendered.

1976 – An outbreak of Swine Flu begins at Ft. Dix, NJ. David Lewis, an Army private said he felt tired and weak, then left his sick bed to go on a forced run, collapsed, was revived by his Sergeant only to die a few days later and four of his fellow soldiers were additionally hospitalized. Two weeks after his death, health officials announced that swine flu was the cause of death and that this strain of flu appeared to be closely related to the strain involved in the 1918 flu pandemic.

Alarmed public-health officials decided that action must be taken to head off another major pandemic, and they urged President Gerald Ford that every person in the U.S. be vaccinated for the disease’ despite prior knowledge that one version of the vaccine could cause neurological damage. The vaccination program, enacted at a cost of $135 million, was plagued by delays and public relations problems.

However, Centers for Disease Control vaccination efforts achieved unprecedented distribution results, with more than 40 million Americans immunized between October and December that year. The first vaccinations were given on approximately October 1, the government suspended the immunization program on December 16 after reports of at least 54 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome across ten states. Approximately 24% of the population had been vaccinated by the time the program was canceled.

March 5th ~ {continued...}

1981 – A military jury in North Carolina convicted Marine Pvt. 1st Class Robert Garwood of collaborating with the enemy while a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

1983 – Former Nazi Gestapo official Klaus Barbie (d.1991), expelled from Bolivia, was brought to trial in Lyon, France. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

1988 – Two federal grand juries in Florida announce indictments of Panama military strongman General Manuel Antonio Noriega and 16 associates on drug smuggling and money laundering charges. Noriega, the de facto dictator of Panama since 1983, was charged with smuggling marijuana into the United States, laundering millions of U.S. dollars, and assisting Colombia’s Medellin drug cartel in trafficking cocaine to America. The Panamanian leader denied the charges and threatened expulsion of the 10,000 U.S. service personnel and their families stationed around the Panama Canal.

In 1968, Noriega, then a first lieutenant in the Panamanian National Guard, played an important part in a coup that ousted President Arnulfo Arias and brought General Omar Torrijos to power. Early the next year, Torrijos rewarded Noriega for his loyalty by promoting him to lieutenant colonel and appointing him chief of military intelligence. In 1970, Noriega, who had first been approached by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) while a promising military student in the early 1960s, went on the payroll of the CIA. The United States used Noriega as a check against the left-leaning Torrijos and as an informer on Central American revolutionaries, the Colombian drug cartels, and communist Cuba, which Torrijos, though not a Marxist himself, admired and visited.

Noriega, meanwhile, developed his G-2 intelligence agency into a feared secret police force and became involved in the drug trade. The U.S. government was aware of his drug trafficking, and in 1977 he was removed from the CIA payroll. However, in 1981, the United States organized and financed the anti-Sandinista Contras in Nicaragua, and Noriega was brought back into the CIA fold. For a salary of close to $200,000 a year, Noriega provided intelligence about the Sandinistas and Cubans to the Americans and aided the Contras in their drug-trafficking efforts.

In July 1981, Omar Torrijos was killed in a plane crash, and Colonel Noriega became chief of staff to General Rubýn Darýo Paredes, head of the National Guard. For two years, military and civilian leader struggled to gain the upper hand. In 1983, Paredes resigned and control of the military and the country passed to Noriega. Noriega unified the armed forces into the Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF), promoted himself to the rank of general, and consolidated his rule. Under his regime, political repression and corruption became widespread.

In 1984, he held a presidential election, but when Arnulfo Arias won another apparent victory, Noriega tampered with the returns and gave the election to Nicolýs Ardito Barletta, who became a puppet president. Still, Noriega enjoyed the continued support of the Reagan administration, which valued his aid in its efforts to overthrow Nicaragua’s Sandinista government.

In 1986, just months before the outbreak of the Iran-Contra affair, allegations arose concerning Noriega’s history as a drug trafficker, money launderer, and CIA employee. Most shocking, however, were reports that Noriega had acted as a double agent for Cuba’s intelligence agency and the Sandinistas. The U.S. government disowned Noriega, and his supporters staged protests against the American presence in Panama. Meanwhile, the dictator cracked down on growing political opposition in Panama.

In February 1988, Noriega was indicted by federal grand juries in Tampa and Miami, and Panamanian President Eric Arturo Delvalle attempted to dismiss Noriega. Delvalle was himself dismissed by the Noriega-led National Assembly. In March 1988, the United States froze all Panamanian assets in U.S. banks and imposed sanctions, and the same month an attempted coup by a handful of anti-Noriega PDF officers was crushed by loyal PDF soldiers. During the next year, tensions between Americans and Noriega supporters in Panama continued to grow, and the United States increased its economic sanctions.

In May 1989, Noriega annulled a presidential election that would have made Guillermo Endara president, and demonstrators protesting the fraud were attacked by the Noriega-subsidized Dignity Battalions. In response, U.S. President George Bush ordered additional U.S. troops to the Panama Canal Zone and urged U.S. civilians to return to the United States. In October, another coup attempt by anti-Noriega PDF soldiers failed, and on December 15 the Noriega-led assembly declared the dictator the official chief executive while recognizing that a state of war existed with the United States.

The next day, an off-duty U.S. Marine officer was shot to death at a PDF roadblock. U.S. forces in Panama were put on high alert, and on December 17 President Bush authorized Operation Just Cause–the U.S. invasion of Panama to overthrow Noriega. On December 20, 9,000 U.S. troops joined the 12,000 U.S. military personnel already in Panama and were met with scattered resistance from the PDF. By December 24, the PDF was crushed, the United States held most of the country, and Noriega sought asylum with the Vatican nuncio in Panama City. Meanwhile, Endara had been made president by U.S. forces, and he ordered the PDF dissolved.

On January 3, Noriega surrendered and was taken to Howard Air Force Base, where he was arrested by U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials for his grand jury indictments. On January 4, he arrived in Florida to await his trial. The U.S. invasion of Panama cost the lives of only 23 U.S. soldiers and three U.S. civilians. Some 150 PDF soldiers were killed along with an estimated 500 Panamanian civilians. The Organization of American States and the European Parliament both formally protested the invasion, which they condemned as a flagrant violation of international law. Noriega’s criminal trial began in 1991, and he pleaded innocent.

On April 9, 1992, he was found guilty on eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering, marking the first time in history that a U.S. jury had convicted a foreign leader of criminal charges. He was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.

March 5th ~ {continued...}

1989 – In an important move signaling the close of the nearly decade-long Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan, the last Russian troops withdraw from the capital city of Kabul. Less than two weeks later, all Soviet troops departed Afghanistan entirely, ending what many observers referred to as Russia’s “Vietnam.” Soviet armed forces entered Afghanistan in December 1979 to support that nation’s pro-Soviet communist government in its battles with Muslim rebels.

Almost immediately, the Soviet Union found itself mired in a rapidly escalating conflict. Afghan rebels put up unexpectedly stiff resistance to the Russian intervention. Soon, thousands of Soviet troops were fighting a bloody, costly, and ultimately frustrating battle to end the Afghan resistance. By the time the Soviets started to withdraw in early 1989, over 13,000 Russian soldiers were dead and over 22,000 had been wounded.

1991 – President Bush announced he was sending Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and General Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the Gulf war zone to assess how the US-led offensive was progressing.

1992 – The House of Representatives authorized an investigation into whether the 1980 Reagan-Bush campaign conspired with Iran to delay release of the American hostages. The task force investigating the “October Surprise” allegations later said it found no credible evidence of such a conspiracy.

1998 – Pres. Clinton ordered 2,000 Marines to the Persian Gulf and met with PM Tony Blair of Britain to discuss the possible use of force against Iraq.

2001 – Four disciples of Osama bin Laden went on trial in New York in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa. The four were convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

2002 – A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., indicted John Walker Lindh on 10 charges, alleging he was trained by Osama bin Laden’s network and then conspired with the Taliban to kill Americans.

2002 – In Pakistan 2 men associated with the kidnapping of journalist Daniel Pearl were arrested in a Karachi suburb. Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (28), Islamic militant, turned himself in to Ejah Shah, the home secretary in Punjab province.

2003 – Secretary of State Colin Powell, made his case that Iraq had defied all demands that it disarm. He presented tape recordings, satellite photos and statements from informants that he said was “irrefutable and undeniable” evidence that Saddam Hussein is concealing weapons of mass destruction.

2003 – North Korea said that it had reactivated its nuclear facilities and is going ahead with their operation “on a normal footing.”

2003 – US military officials say that the USS Abraham Lincoln arrived in the Arabian Sea on the weekend, putting a third US aircraft carrier battle group within striking distance of Iraq.

2004 – CIA Director George Tenet acknowledged that US spy agencies may have over-estimated Iraq’s illicit weapons capabilities.

2004 – NASA restored communications with the Mars Spirit rover.

2004 – U.S. and Iraqi forces captured more than 100 suspected guerrillas in raids across the country, arresting one of Saddam Hussein’s intelligence chiefs and another Iraqi believed involved in a suicide bombing last month, a U.S.

2004 – Pakistan’s Pres. Musharraf pardoned Abdul Qadeer Khan after Kahn absolved Islamabad of selling nuclear secrets to Iran.

2007 – Space Shuttle astronaut and Navy Commander Lisa Nowak is arrested in Florida for attempted kidnapping of U.S. Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman, who was romantically involved with astronaut William Oefelein. Nowak was released on bail, and initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, which included attempted kidnapping, burglary with assault, and battery. Her assignment to the space agency as an astronaut was terminated by NASA effective March 8, 2007. On November 10, 2009, Nowak agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to charges of felony burglary of a car and misdemeanor battery.

March 6th ~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1836 – The Alamo fell after fighting for 13 days. Angered by a new Mexican constitution that removed much of their autonomy, Texans seized the Alamo in San Antonio in December 1835. Mexican president General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna marched into Texas to put down the rebellion. By late February, 1836, 182 Texans, led by Colonel William Travis, held the former mission complex against Santa Anna’s 6,000 troops.

At 4 a.m. on March 6, after fighting for 13 days, Santa Anna’s troops charged. In the battle that followed, all the Alamo defenders were killed while the Mexicans suffered about 2,000 casualties. Santa Anna dismissed the Alamo conquest as “a small affair,” but the time bought by the Alamo defenders’ lives permitted General Sam Houston to forge an army that would win the Battle of San Jacinto and, ultimately, Texas’ independence. Mexican Lt. Col. Pena later wrote a memoir: “With Santa Anna in Texas: Diary of Jose Enrique de la Pena,” that described the capture and execution of Davy Crockett (49) and 6 other Alamo defenders.

In 1975 a translation of the diary by Carmen Perry was published. Apparently, only one Texan combatant survived Jose María Guerrero, who persuaded his captors he had been forced to fight. Women, children, and a black slave, were spared.

March 6th ~ {continued...}

1857 – The United States Supreme Court issues a decision in the Dred Scott case, one of the most important cases in the court’s history. In the ruling, the court affirmed the right of slave owners to take their slaves into the western territories, negating the doctrine of popular sovereignty and severely undermining the platform of the newly created Republican Party. At the heart of the case was the most important question of the 1850s: Should slavery be allowed in the West?

As part of the Compromise of 1850, residents of newly created territories could decide the issue of slavery by vote, a process known as popular sovereignty. When popular sovereignty was applied in Kansas in 1854, however, violence erupted. Americans hoped that the Supreme Court could settle the issue that had eluded a Congressional solution.

Dred Scott was a slave whose owner, an army doctor, had spent time in Illinois, a free state, and Wisconsin, a free territory at the time of Scott’s residence. The Supreme Court was stacked in favor of the slave states. Five of the nine justices were from the South while another, Robert Grier of Pennsylvania, was staunchly pro-slavery. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote the majority decision, which was issued on March 6.

The court held that Scott was not free based on his residence in either Illinois or Wisconsin because Scott was not considered a person under the Constitution–in the opinion of the justices, black people were not considered citizens when the Constitution was drafted in 1787. According to Taney, Dred Scott was the property of his owner, and property could not be taken from a person without due process of law.

In fact, there were free black citizens of the United States in 1787, but Taney and the other justices were attempting to halt further debate on the issue of slavery in the territories. The decision inflamed regional tensions, which burned for another four years before exploding into the Civil War.

1861 – Provisionary Confederate Congress established Confederate Army.1862 – USS Monitor departed New York for Hampton Roads, VA.

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

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

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

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

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

March 6th ~ {continued...}

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

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

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

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

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

1951 – The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins in New York Southern District federal court. Judge Irving R. Kaufman presides over the espionage prosecution of the couple accused of selling nuclear secrets to the Russians (treason could not be charged because the United States was not at war with the Soviet Union). The Rosenbergs, and co-defendant, Morton Sobell, were defended by the father and son team of Emanuel and Alexander Bloch. The prosecution includes the infamous Roy Cohn, best known for his association with Senator Joseph McCarthy.

David Greenglass was a machinist at Los Alamos, where America developed the atomic bomb. Julius Rosenberg, his brother-in-law, was a member of the American Communist Party and was fired from his government job during the Red Scare. According to Greengalass, Rosenberg asked him to pass highly confidential instruction on making atomic weapons to the Soviet Union. These materials were transferred to the Russians by Harry Gold, an acquaintance of Greenglass. The Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb (and effectively started the Cold War) in September 1949 based on information, including that from Greenglass, they had obtained from spies. The only direct evidence of the Rosenberg’s involvement was the confession of Greenglass.

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

March 6th ~ {continued...}

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

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

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

Three days later, a formal request was submitted by the U.S. Embassy, asking the South Vietnamese government to “invite” the United States to send the Marines. Premier Quat, a mere figurehead, had to obtain approval from the real power, Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu, chief of the Armed Forces Council. Thieu approved, but asked that the Marines be “brought ashore in the most inconspicuous way feasible.” The Marines began landing near Da Nang on March 8th.

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

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

1971 – Operation Lam Son 719 continues as reinforced South Vietnamese forces push into Tchepone, a major enemy supply center located on Route 9 in Laos. The base was deserted and almost completely destroyed as a result of American bombing raids.

1973 – President Richard Nixon imposed price controls on oil and gas. 1980 – Islamic militants in Tehran said that they would turn over the American hostages to the Revolutionary Council.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

March 6th ~ {continued...}

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

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

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

2007 – NATO-led forces launch Operation Achilles against the Taliban in Helmand province. Operation Achilles was a NATO operation, part of the war in Afghanistan. Its objective was to clear Helmand province of the Taliban. The operation began on March 6, 2007. The offensive is the largest NATO-based operation in Afghanistan to date. NATO officials reported that, contrary to previous operations, Taliban fighters were avoiding direct confrontation in favor of guerilla tactics.

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

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

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

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

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

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

March 7th ~

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

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

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

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

1774 – A 2nd Boston tea party regarding import taxes was held.

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

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

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

1862 – Union forces under General Samuel Curtis defeat the army of General Earl Van Dorn at Pea Ridge, located in an extreme northwestern section of Arkansas. Pea Ridge was part of a larger campaign for control of Missouri. Seven months earlier, the Confederates defeated a Union force at Wilson’s Creek, some 70 miles northeast of Pea Ridge. General Henry Halleck, the Federal commander in Missouri, now organized an expedition to drive the Confederates from southwestern Missouri.

In February 1862, General Samuel Curtis led the 12,000-man army toward Springfield, Missouri. Confederate General Sterling Price retreated from the city with 8,000 troops in the face of the Union advance. Price withdrew into Arkansas, and Curtis followed him. Price hooked up with another Rebel force led by General Ben McCulloch, and their combined army was placed under the leadership of General Earl Van Dorn, recently appointed commander of Confederates forces in the trans-Mississippi area. Van Dorn joined Price and McCulloch on March 2nd and ordered an advance on Curtis’ army. Curtis received word of the approaching Confederates and concentrated his force around Elkhorn Tavern. Van Dorn sent part of his army on a march around the Yankees.

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

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

1865 – Battles were fought around Kingston, NC.

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1865 – Lieutenant Commander Hooker, commanding a naval squadron consisting of U.S.S. Commodore Read, Yankee, Delaware, and Heliotrope, joined with an Army unit in conducting a raid at Hamilton’s Crossing on the Rappahannock River six miles below Fredericksburg. Hooker reported that the expedition succeeded in “burning and destroying the railroad bridge, the depot, and a portion of the track….; also the telegraph line was cut and the telegraphic apparatus brought away.

A train of twenty-eight cars, eighteen of them being principally loaded with tobacco, and an army wagon train were also captured and burned. A considerable number of mules were captured and some thirty or forty prisoners taken. A mail containing a quantity of valuable information was secured.” Throughout the war, rivers were avenues of strength for the North, highways of destruction to the South, which enabled warships and joint expeditions to thrust deep into the Confederacy.

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

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

1918 – President Wilson authorized the Army’s Distinguished Service Medal. The Distinguished Service Medal is awarded to any person who while serving in any capacity with the U.S. Army, has distinguished himself or herself by exceptionally meritorious service to the Government in a duty of great responsibility. The performance must be such as to merit recognition for service which is clearly exceptional. Exceptional performance of normal duty will not alone justify an award of this decoration. For service not related to actual war, the term “duty of great responsibility” applies to a narrower range of positions than in time of war and requires evidence of conspicuously significant achievement.

However, justification of the award may accrue by virtue of exceptionally meritorious service in a succession of high positions of great importance. Awards may be made to persons other than members of the Armed Forces of the United States for wartime services only, and then only under exceptional circumstances with the express approval of the President in each case.

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

As dictated by the Treaty of Versailles, Germany’s military forces were reduced to insignificance and the Rhineland was to be demilitarized. In 1925, at the conclusion of a European peace conference held in Switzerland, the Locarno Pact was signed, reaffirming the national boundaries decided by the Treaty of Versailles and approving the German entry into the League of Nations. The so-called “spirit of Locarno” symbolized hopes for an era of European peace and goodwill, and by 1930 German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann had negotiated the removal of the last Allied troops in the demilitarized Rhineland. However, just four years later, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party seized full power in Germany, promising vengeance against the Allied nations that had forced the Treaty of Versailles on the German people.

In 1935, Hitler unilaterally canceled the military clauses of the treaty and in March 1936 denounced the Locarno Pact and began remilitarizing of the Rhineland. Two years later, Nazi Germany burst out of its territories, absorbing Austria and portions of Czechoslovakia. In 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, leading to the outbreak of World War II in Europe.

1942 – Tuskegee flying school graduated its first cadets.

1943 – General George S. Patton arrived in Djebel Kouif, Tunisia.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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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 ( Patrol Boat River ) 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 replotting 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.