April 1st ~ {continued...}

1970 – Captain Ernest Medina is formally charged with the murder of Vietnamese civilians by members of his company at Songmy. Medina, speaking to the media reveals that he is accused of the premeditated murder of 175 people and denies participation in any mass killing.

1971 – Vice-President Spiro Agnew refers to war critics as “home-front snipers” accusing anti-war activists of garnering disproportionate coverage, overbalancing, what he sees as the majority view, that US forces in Vietnam have acted patriotically.

1971 – The Poseidon (C-3) missile becomes operational when USS James Madison began her 3rd patrol carrying 16 tactical Poseidon missiles.

1972 – Following three days of the heaviest artillery and rocket bombardment of the war, between 12,000 and 15,000 soldiers of Hanoi’s 304th Division–supported by tanks, artillery, and antiaircraft units equipped with surface-to-air missiles–sweep across the Demilitarized Zone. They routed the South Vietnamese 3rd Division and drove them toward their rear bases.

This attack was the opening move of the North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive (later called the “Easter Offensive”), a massive invasion by North Vietnamese forces designed to strike the blow that would win them the war. The attacking force included 14 infantry divisions and 26 separate regiments, with more than 120,000 troops and approximately 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles. The main North Vietnamese objectives, in addition to Quang Tri in the north, were Kontum in the Central Highlands, and An Loc farther to the south. North Vietnam had a number of objectives in launching the offensive: impressing the communist world and its own people with its determination; capitalizing on U.S. antiwar sentiment and possibly hurting President Richard Nixon’s chances for re-election; proving that “Vietnamization” was a failure; damaging the South Vietnamese forces and government stability; gaining as much territory as possible before a possible truce; and accelerating negotiations on their own terms.

Initially, the South Vietnamese defenders were almost overwhelmed, particularly in the northernmost provinces, where they abandoned their positions in Quang Tri and fled south in the face of the enemy onslaught. At Kontum and An Loc, the South Vietnamese were more successful in defending against the attacks, but only after weeks of bitter fighting. Although the South Vietnamese suffered heavy casualties, they managed to hold their own with the aid of U.S. advisors and American airpower. Fighting continued all over South Vietnam into the summer months, but eventually the South Vietnamese forces prevailed against the invaders and retook Quang Tri in September.

With the communist invasion blunted, President Nixon declared that the South Vietnamese victory proved the viability of his Vietnamization program, instituted in 1969 to increase the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces.

1975 – More than half of South Vietnam’s territory is now controlled by the North. Communist forces begin the envelopment of Saigon, comming in from the south, threatening Highway 4, Saigon’s connection ot the Mekong Delta.

1979 – Iran proclaimed to be an Islamic Republic after the fall of the Shah.

April 1st ~ {continued...}

1982 – The U.S. transferred the Canal Zone to Panama.

1984 – The CGC Gallatin made the largest maritime cocaine seizure to date when it boarded and seized the 33-foot sailboat Chinook and her crew of two. A boarding team had discovered 1,800 pounds of cocaine stashed aboard the Chinook.

1986 – The U.S. submarine Nathaniel Green ran aground in the Irish Sea.

1992 – Battleship USS Missouri (on which, Japan surrendered) was decommissioned.

1992 – President Bush pledged the United States would help finance a $24 billion international aid fund for the former Soviet Union.

1994 – In Guatemala Judge Gonzalez Dubon was assassinated. He had recently signed an order to extradite to the US former Army Lt. Col. Carlos Ochoa Ruiz on drug trafficking charges.

1995 – U.N. peacekeepers officially took over from the U.S.-led multinational force in Haiti.

1995 – With U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry looking on, Ukraine began the process of dismantling its nuclear missiles.

1996 – In Spokane, Wa., a US Bank branch was robbed and bombed. In 1997 three members of an anti-government militia were convicted for this and another robbery and 3 bombings.

1996 – FBI officials in Jordan, Montana continued to guard a stronghold of Freemen, an anti-government group that does not recognize the legitimacy of US laws.

1999 – The United States branded as an illegal abduction the capture of three U.S. Army soldiers near the Macedonian-Yugoslav border; President Clinton demanded their immediate release.

1999 – Serbia planned to start criminal proceedings against the 3 US soldiers captured on the Macedonian border. Allied planes bombed the Danube bridge at Novi Sad.

2001 – A US Navy EP-3 surveillance plane with 24 aboard collided with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea and was forced to land on China’s Hainan island. The fighter jet crashed. Chinese pilot Wang Wei parachuted out of his F-8 jet but had not been found. Zhao Yu, a 2nd pilot, later blamed the US plane banked and hit Wei’s plane.

April 1st ~ {continued...}

2002 – A SF Court of Appeals ordered the US government to pay out millions of dollars in retroactive disability benefits to Vietnam veterans with prostate cancer, who were exposed to Agent Orange.

2002 – Eight Army soldiers and two Air Force para-rescuers are killed when an Army MH-47 Special Forces Chinook helicopter crashes in the southern Philippines, in the ocean waters just off the coast of the south-central city of Dumaguete.

2003 – In the 14th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom American soldiers on the road to Baghdad fought bloody street-to-street battles with militants loyal to Saddam Hussein. The US opened the assault on Karbala.

2003 – Pfc. Jessica Lynch (19), part of the 507th Maintenance Company captured on Mar 23, was rescued in a U.S. commando raid on an Iraqi hospital in Nasiriyah. 11 bodies were also recovered and 8 were identified as US personnel. It was later reported that Iraqi troops had already left the hospital. Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief, a former Iraqi lawyer, disclosed Lynch’s location to US forces and provided detailed information prior to her rescue.

2003 – In Jordan authorities said they had foiled two recent Iraqi terror plots, including one by Iraqi diplomats allegedly planning to contaminate water supplies to Jordanian and US troops on Jordan’s desert border with Iraq.

2004 – Afghanistan and its neighbors agreed to cooperate in stemming the country’s drug exports after donors pledged $8.2 billion in new reconstruction aid.

2009 – Croatia and Albania join NATO.

2009 – A Computer virus called Conficker was spread through millions of computers, getting onto their computers and destroying files, and sharing information. This was supposed to be an April Fools’ Day Joke.

2009 – The United States’ World War II motor ship City of Rayville is located near Australia. The SS City of Rayville was the first American vessel sunk during World War II, and was sunk by a German mine just off Cape Otway, Australia. This field of approximately 100 mines had already claimed the British steamer SS Cambridge, less than 24 hours previously off Wilsons Promontory.

2011 – After protests against the burning of the Quran turn violent, a mob attacks a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of thirteen people, including eight foreign workers.

April 2nd ~

1513 – Near present-day St. Augustine, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon comes ashore on the Florida coast, and claims the territory for the Spanish crown. Although other European navigators may have sighted the Florida peninsula before, Ponce de Leon is credited with the first recorded landing and the first detailed exploration of the Florida coast. The Spanish explorer was searching for the “Fountain of Youth,” a fabled water source that was said to bring eternal youth. Ponce de Leon named the peninsula he believed to be an island “La Florida” because his discovery came during the time of the Easter feast, or Pascua Florida.

In 1521, he returned to Florida in an effort to establish a Spanish colony on the island. However, hostile Native Americans attacked his expedition soon after landing, and the party retreated to Cuba, where Ponce de Leon died from a mortal wound suffered during the battle. Successful Spanish colonization of the peninsula finally began at St. Augustine in 1565, and in 1819 the territory passed into U.S. control under the terms of the Florida Purchase Treaty between Spain and the United States.

1781 – Frigate Alliance captures 2 British privateers, Mars and Minerva.

1792 – Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized establishment of the U.S. Mint. It established the US dollar defined in fixed weights of gold and silver. State chartered banks issued paper money convertible to gold or silver coins to ease business transactions. U.S. authorized $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle & 2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins & silver dollar, dollar, quarter, dime & half-dime. A dollar was defined as 371 4/16 grain (24.1 g) pure or 416 grain (27.0 g) standard silver. That quantity of silver at the end of 2014 was valued at about $16.

1814 – Henry Lewis “Old Rock” Benning, Brig General in Confederate Army, was born.

1827 – First Naval Hospital construction begun at Portsmouth, VA.

1863 – In Richmond, Va., a large crowd of hungry women from one of Richmond’s working-class neighborhoods demanded bread from Governor John Letcher. When the governor did not respond favorably to the rioters’ demands, the women marched down Main Street, shouting “Bread” as they made their way to the commissary, where they smashed store windows and grabbed food and anything else they could get their hands on. Not until the mob faced President Davis and his troops did the rampage end. Varina Howell Davis wrote an account of the riots after her husbands death in 1889.

1865 – Confederate President Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va. Grant broke Lee’s line at Petersburg. President Jefferson Davis moved his government headquarters to Danville, Va., when its previous capital, Richmond, became engulfed in flames. Though it would have been safer to secure a location further south, Danville was naturally protected by the Dan and Staunton rivers, and it was in close proximity to Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army to the north and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s army to the south. The Piedmont Railroad connected Danville and Greensboro, N.C. and offered easy access to supplies.

April 2nd ~ {continued...}

1865 – Confederate Secretary of the Navy Mallory ordered the destruction of the James River Squadron and directed its officers and men to join General Lee’s troops then in the process of evacuating Richmond and retreating westward toward Danville.

1865 – US Maj Gen James H Wilson’s cavalry captures Selma, AL.

1865 – After a ten-month siege, Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, and Confederate General Robert E. Lee leads his troops on a desperate retreat westward. The ragged Confederate troops could no longer maintain the 40-mile network of defenses that ran from southwest of Petersburg to north of Richmond, the Rebel capital 25 miles north of Petersburg.

Through the winter, desertion and attrition melted Lee’s army down to less than 60,000, while Grant’s army swelled to over 120,000. Grant attacked Five Forks southwest of Petersburg on April 1, scoring a huge victory that cut Lee’s supply line and inflicted 5,000 casualties. The next day, Lee wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, “I think it absolutely necessary that we should abandon our position tonight…” Grant’s men attacked all along the Petersburg front. In the predawn hours, hundreds of Federal cannon roared to life as the Yankees bombarded the Rebel fortifications. Said one soldier, “the shells screamed through the air in a semi-circle of flame.”

At 5:00 in the morning, Union troops silently crawled toward the Confederates, shrouded in darkness. Confederate pickets alerted the troops, and the Yankees were raked by heavy fire, but the determined troops poured forth and began overrunning the trenches. Four thousand Union troops were killed or wounded, but a northern officer wrote, “It was a great relief, a positive lifting of a load of misery to be at last let at them.” Confederate General Ambrose Powell Hill, a corps commander in the Army of Northern Virginia and one of Lee’s most trusted lieutenants, rode to the front to rally his men. As he approached some trees with his aide, two Union soldiers emerged and fired, killing Hill instantly. Hill had survived four years of war and dozens of battles only to die during the final days of the Confederacy.

When Lee received the news, he quietly said “He is at rest now, and we who are left are the ones to suffer.” By nightfall, President Davis and the Confederate government were in flight and Richmond was on fire. Retreating Rebel troops set ablaze several huge warehouses to prevent them from being captured by the Federals and the fires soon spread. With the army and government officials gone, bands of thugs roamed the streets looting what was left.

1866 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson declares war to be over.

1877 – The 1st Easter egg roll was held on White House lawn. President Rutherford B. Hayes and his wife Lucy made it an official event the following year. The egg roll has been held every year since except during the war years of WWI and WWII until 1953 when Ike made the egg roll tradition again.

1898 – Adoption of U.S. Naval Academy coat of arms.

1900 – The United States Congress passes the Foraker Act, giving Puerto Rico limited self-rule.

April 2nd ~ {continued...}

1917 – President Woodrow Wilson addresses Congress concerning the country’s deteriorating relationship with Germany. Wilson states, “I advise that the Congress declares the recent course of the Imperial German government to be in fact nothing less than war against the government and people of the United States…[and] to exert all its power and employ all its resources to bring the government of the German Empire to terms and to end the war.”

1924 – Congress appropriated ($13,000,000) to the Cutter Revenue Service for ten air stations and equipment. Congress first authorized the stations on 29 August 1916 but did not provide for sufficient funding until this date.

1935 – Sir Watson-Watt patented RADAR.

1941 – USS Hornet with Jimmy Doolittle’s B-25s departed from San Francisco.

1941 – Roosevelt orders the transfer of 10 coastguard cutters to the Royal Navy. These are very useful vessels for escort work, having a long range and good sea keeping qualities. They will be in Royal Navy service by June.

1942 – Glenn Miller and his orchestra recorded “American Patrol” at the RCA Victor studios in Hollywood.

1942 – US bombers from India attack Japanese shipping in the Andaman Islands.

1943 – American aircraft conduct 8 raids on Kiska and one on Attut in the Aleutians.

1944 – The 22nd Marine Regiment secured Majit Island in the Marshall Islands.

1944 – Merrill’s Marauders heavily engaged at Nhpum Ga, Burma.

1945 – On Okinawa, forces of the US 10th Army easily advance across the island to the east coast and make some progress to the north and south. At sea, in addition to the bombardment and air support missions performed by the US naval forces, there are attacks by the British carriers on Skashima Gunto Island. In Japanese Kamikaze attacks four US transports are badly damaged with many casualties among the troops aboard.

1945 – Part of the US 163rd Regiment is landed on Tawitawi, in the Philippines Sulu Archipelago.

1947 – UN places former Japanese mandated islands under U.S. trusteeship.

1951 – First Navy use of jet aircraft as a bomber, launched from a carrier, USS Princeton.

1951 – Far East Air Force flew 1,245 sorties in the third highest daily total in the war.

1958 – National Advisory Council on Aeronautics was renamed NASA.

1967 – Per a new South Vietnamese constitution elections are held in 948 villages, some 5 million people, for local People’s Councils.

1968 – Public criticism of continuing heavy air strikes in North Vietnam prompts the administration to explain that such attacks are limited north of the 20th parallel. This area contians 90 percent of the population and 75% of it’s territory.

1969 – A South Vietnamese spokesperson announces that the Vetcong have assassinated 201 civilins in teh last week of March, bringing the total for the quarter of 1969 to 1,955.

April 2nd ~ {continued...}

1972 – Soldiers of Hanoi’s 304th Division, supported by Soviet-made tanks and heavy artillery, take the northern half of the Quang Tri province. This left only Quang Tri City (the combat base on the outskirts of the city) and Dong Ha in South Vietnamese hands. South Vietnam’s 3rd Division commander Brig. Gen. Vu Van Giai moved his staff out of the Quang Tri combat base to the citadel at Quang Tri City, the apparent North Vietnamese objective. This attack was the opening move of the North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive (later called the “Easter Offensive”), a massive invasion by North Vietnamese forces designed to strike the blow that would win them the war.

The attacking force included 14 infantry divisions and 26 separate regiments, with more than 120,000 troops and approximately 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles. The main North Vietnamese objectives, in addition to Quang Tri in the north, were Kontum in the Central Highlands, and An Loc farther to the south. Initially, the South Vietnamese defenders were almost overwhelmed, particularly in the northernmost provinces, where they abandoned their positions in Quang Tri and fled south in the face of the enemy onslaught. At Kontum and An Loc, the South Vietnamese were more successful in defending against the attacks, but only after weeks of bitter fighting.

Although the South Vietnamese suffered heavy casualties, they managed to hold their own with the aid of U.S. advisors and American airpower. Fighting continued all over South Vietnam into the summer months, but eventually the South Vietnamese forces prevailed against the invaders and retook Quang Tri in September. With the communist invasion blunted, President Nixon declared that the South Vietnamese victory proved the viability of his Vietnamization program, instituted in 1969 to increase the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces.

1973 – ITT pleaded guilty to asking CIA to “influence” Chilean presidential elections.

1973 – Presidents Nixon and Thieu end a two day visti with a an expression of “full consensus” and a US promise of continuing economic aid. Thieu says he wil never ask ht e US to send troops back to Vietnam.

1975 – As North Vietnamese tanks and infantry continue to push the remnants of South Vietnam’s 22nd Division and waves of civilian refugees from the Quang Ngai Province, the South Vietnamese Navy begins to evacuate soldiers and civilians by sea from Qui Nhon. Shortly thereafter, the South Vietnamese abandoned Tuy Hoa and Nha Trang, leaving the North Vietnamese in control of more than half of South Vietnam’s territory.

1976 – US officials express concerns that the North Vietnamese may be brainwashing US prisoners of war in order to elicit propaganda statements from them.

1978 – Velcro was 1st put on the market.

1980 – Terrorists holding Dominican embassy in Bogota release five hostages, four waiters and a doctor; U.S. ambassador and other diplomats still held captive.

1982 – The newest addition to the Coast Guard’s air fleet, the HU-25A Guardian, was dedicated and christened at Aviation Training Center Mobile.

1983 – The State Department forwards a request for assistance from the United Arab Emirates to help prepare for an oil spill cleanup in the Persian Gulf. The spill occurred after combat operations during the Iran/Iraq war left many oil wells burning and leaking oil. Four Coast Guard pollution experts respond to the request.

1986 – Four American passengers were killed when a bomb exploded aboard a TWA jetliner en route from Rome to Athens, Greece.

April 2nd ~ {continued...}

1989 – General Prosper Avril, Haiti’s military leader, survived a coup attempt. The attempt was apparently provoked by Avril’s U.S.-backed efforts to fight drug trafficking.

1991 – Iraqi state media reported that only a few more days were needed to stamp out fighting with Kurdish rebels, who reported renewed skirmishes around the strategic oil center of Kirkuk.

1992 – The space shuttle Atlantis returned from a nine-day mission.

1997 – An Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt jet with four 500- pound bombs was lost over the Colorado Rockies. It was piloted by Capt. Craig Button (32). Wreckage of the plane was found April 20th on the sheer face of New York Mountain [Gold Dust Peak], 15 miles from Vail. It was later suspected that he committed suicide due to a possible revelation of homosexuality. A 1998 official report cited unrequited love for a former girlfriend and his mother’s Christian pacifist faith.

1998 – In Columbia Thomas Fiore (43), one of the hostages captured Mar 27, escaped captivity by the FARC rebel group.

1999 – Allied forces conduct air strikes on Basra, in southern Iraq. The attacks strike a communications facility and a radio relay station, which is used, in part, as one of three relay stations controlling the flow of crude oil from Iraq’s southern oil fields to the port of Mina al-Bakr.

1999 – Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson ordered the computer systems at Los Alamos laboratory to be shut down due to security leaks.

2001 – President Bush demanded that the Chinese release the US Navy crew and spy plane that had made an emergency landing on China’s Hainan Island after colliding with a Chinese fighter.

2003 – In the 15th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom American forces crossed the Tigris River in the drive toward the Iraqi capital and destroyed the Baghdad Division of Iraq’s Republican Guard. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, supported the war plan along with Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld against criticism. US Marines took Numaniya, a city of 80,000.

2003 – A Navy F/A-18C Hornet after his fighter jet went down during a bombing run over Karbala. 7 US Army soldiers were killed when their Black Hawk helicopter was shot down.

2003 – Polish troops fighting with the US-led coalition in Iraq reported encountering many Iraqi combatants in civilian clothes.

2003 – PFC Jessica Lynch is rescued from the Hussein Hospital in Nasiryah where she has been held since March 23rd. This is the first POW rescue by the US military since WWII.

2004 – Washington announced plans to fingerprint and photograph millions of travelers to the United States. The measure, which will take effect by Sept. 30, affected citizens in 27 countries who had been allowed to travel within the US without a visa for up to 90 days.

2004 – The Pentagon said it released 15 people held as terrorism suspects at a U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, reducing the number confined there to 595.

2004 – In Brussels an official ceremony welcomed Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO alliance.

2005 – The Battle of Abu Ghraib was an attack on United States forces at Abu Ghraib prison, which consisted of heavy mortar and rocket fire, under which armed insurgents attacked with grenades, small arms, and two vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED). The U.S. Military’s munitions ran so low that orders to fix bayonets were given in preparation for hand-to-hand fighting. An estimated 80–120 armed insurgents launched a massive coordinated assault on the U.S. military facility and internment camp at Abu Ghraib, Iraq. It was considered to be the largest coordinated assault on a US base since the Vietnam War.

2006 – After about three months captivity as a hostage in Iraq, Jill Carroll, an American former journalist (now working as a firefighter), returns to American soil in Boston, Massachusetts. Carroll was a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor at the time of her kidnapping.
2009 – United States Federal Judge John D. Bates rules that enemy combatants incarcerated at the U.S. Air Base in Bagram, Afghanistan, have rights to legal trials.

2014 – A spree shooting occurs at the Fort Hood Army Base near the town of Killeen, Texas, with four people dead, including the gunman, and 16 others sustaining injuries. The shooter, 34-year-old, Army Specialist Ivan Lopez, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

April 3rd ~

1776 – George Washington received an honorary doctor of law degree from Harvard College.

1797 – CAPT Thomas Truxtun issued first known American signal book using numerary system.

1817 – The “Peace Establishment Act” reduced the Marine Corps to 50 officers and 942 enlisted.

1847 – Marines and Sailors from the USS Portsmouth landed and captured San Lycas, Mexico.

1860 – The first Pony Express mail simultaneously leaves St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, carried by Henry Wallace riding west and John Roff riding east. During the 1,800-mile journey, the riders changed horses dozens of times, and on April 13 the westbound packet arrived in Sacramento, beating the eastbound packet’s arrival in St. Joseph by two days. Operating on a semiweekly basis for nearly two years, the route followed a pioneer trail across the present-day states of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada to California, carrying mail as well as some small freight for the young Wells Fargo Company.

The Pony Express Company, a private enterprise, charged $5 for every half-ounce of mail. Although short-lived and unprofitable, the mail service captivated the American imagination and helped win federal aid for a more economical overland mail service. The Pony Express also contributed to the economy of the towns on its route and served the mail-service needs of the American West in the days before the telegraph or an efficient transcontinental railroad. Pony Express mail service was discontinued in October 1861.

1865 – The Rebel capital of Richmond falls to the Union, the most significant sign that the Confederacy is nearing its final days. For ten months, General Ulysses S. Grant had tried unsuccessfully to infiltrate the city. After Lee made a desperate attack against Fort Stedman along the Union line on March 25, Grant prepared for a major offensive. He struck at Five Forks on April 1, crushing the end of Lee’s line southwest of Petersburg. On April 2, the Yankees struck all along the Petersburg line, and the Confederates collapsed. On the evening of April 2, the Confederate government fled the city with the army right behind. Now, on the morning of April 3, blue-coated troops entered the capital.

Richmond was the holy grail of the Union war effort, the object of four years of campaigning. Tens of thousands of Yankee lives were lost trying to get it, and nearly as many Confederate lives lost trying to defend it. Now, the Yankees came to take possession of their prize. One resident, Mary Fontaine, wrote, “I saw them unfurl a tiny flag, and I sank on my knees, and the bitter, bitter tears came in a torrent.” As the Federals rode in, another wrote that the city’s black residents were “completely crazed, they danced and shouted, men hugged each other, and women kissed.” Among the first forces into the capital were black troopers from the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry, and the next day President Abraham Lincoln visited the city. For the residents of Richmond, these were symbols of a world turned upside down. It was, one reporter noted, “…too awful to remember, if it were possible to be erased, but that cannot be.”

1865 – Battle at Namozine Church, Virginia (Appomattox Campaign).

1865 – Fifty of the sixty Midshipmen at the Confederate Naval Academy, under the command of Lieutenant William H. Parker, escorted the archives of the government and the specie and bullion of the treasury from Richmond to Danville.

April 3rd ~ {continued...}

1926 – Virgil Grissom (d.1967), Lt. Col. USAF, astronaut (Mercury 4, Gemini 3), was born in Mitchell, Ind. He was the Mercury and Gemini astronaut who was killed in a fire while preparing for the first Apollo flight.

1926 – Robert Goddard launched his 2nd flight of a liquid-fueled rocket.

1933 – The dirigible Akron crashed into the Atlantic off of New Jersey and killed 73 0f the 76 men aboard.

1942 – The Japanese infantry stage a major offensive against Allied troops in Bataan, the peninsula guarding Manila Bay of the Philippine Islands. The invasion of the Japanese 14th Army, which began in December 1941 and was led by General Masaharu Homma, had already forced General Douglas MacArthur’s troops from Manila, the Philippine capital, into Bataan, in part because of poor strategizing on MacArthur’s part.

By March, after MacArthur had left for Australia on President Roosevelt’s orders and been replaced by Major General Edward P. King Jr., the American Luzon Force and its Filipino allies were half-starved and suffering from malnutrition, malaria, beriberi, dysentery, and hookworm. Homma, helped by reinforcements and an increase in artillery and aircraft activity, took advantage of the U.S. and Filipinos’ weakened condition. The Japanese attack signaled the beginning of the end and would result, six days later, in the surrender of the largest number of U.S. troops in U.S. military history.

1942 – ADM Nimitz named Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, a joint command, and retained his other title, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet.

1943 – Attacks by American General Patton’s 2nd Corps around El Guettar are held by the Axis defenders.

1944 – The B-17 and B-24 bombers of the US 15th Air Force drop 1100 tons of bombs on rail and industrial targets in Budapest. During the night, RAF Liberator and Wellington bombers carry out a follow-up raid. The attacks necessitate the closure of all the railway stations in the city.

1945 – On Okinawa, Marines of the III Amphibious Corps continued to make good progress all along their front, clearing Zampa Misaki and seizing the Katchin Peninsula, thus effectively cutting the island in two. By this date (D+2), III AC elements had reached objectives thought originally to require 11 days to take. In Kamikaze attacks by Japanese planes, one escort carrier and other ships are hit. American artillery spotter planes begin operating from Kadena airfield.

1945 – Part of the US 40th Division lands on Masbate to assist Filipino guerrillas who have controlled part of it for several days.

1946 – Lt. General Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander responsible for the Bataan Death March, was executed outside Manila in the Philippines.

April 3rd ~ {continued...}

1948 – President Harry S. Truman signs off on legislation establishing the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948, more popularly known as the Marshall Plan. The act eventually provided over $12 billion of assistance to aid in the economic recovery of Western Europe.

1951 – Eighth Army, led by the 1st Cavalry Division, crossed the 38th parallel.

1951 – U.S. Air Force Captain Robert H. Moore, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, shot down his fifth enemy plane and became the ninth ace of the Korean War.

1965 – Three days of combined US/South Vietnam air raids begin against bridges and roads in the North. Particular targets are the Hamrong and Dongphong bridges, major rail links to Hanoi. Four Russian built MiG fighters engage the raiders in the first reported combat by the North Vietnamese Air Force.

1966 – Three-thousand South Vietnamese Army troops led a protest against the Ky regime in Saigon.

1968 – North Vietnam agreed to meet with U.S. representatives to set up preliminary peace talks though Hanoi first denounces bombing limitations as a “perfidious trick.” In its regular radio broadcasts they characterize the meeting to discuss “the unconditional cessation of the US bombing raids and all other acts of war against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam so that talks may start.” President Johnson ignores the rhetoric and simply announces the intent to “establish contact with the representatives of North Vietnam.”

1969 – Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States is moving to “Vietnamize” the war as rapidly as possible. By this, he meant that the responsibility for the fighting would be gradually transferred to the South Vietnamese as they became more combat capable. However, Laird emphasized that it would not serve the United States’ purpose to discuss troop withdrawals while the North Vietnamese continued to conduct offensive operations in South Vietnam. Despite Laird’s protestations to the contrary, Nixon’s “Vietnamization” program, as he would announce it in June, did include a series of scheduled U.S. troop withdrawals, the first of the war.

1969 – U.S. military headquarters in Saigon announce that combat deaths for the last week of March have pushed the total number of Americans killed during eight years of U.S. involvement in Vietnam to 33,641. This was 12 more deaths than during the Korean War. By the end of the war, 47,244 Americans had been killed in action in Vietnam. An additional 10,446 died as a result of non-hostile causes like disease and accidents.

1970 – US troops pursuing a Communist battalion toward the Cambodian border meet heavy resistance.

1972 – The United States prepares hundreds of B-52s and fighter-bombers for possible air strikes to blunt the recently launched North Vietnamese invasion. The aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk was sent from the Philippines to join the carriers already off the coast of Vietnam and provide additional air support. This attack was the opening move of the North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive (later called the “Easter Offensive”), a massive invasion by North Vietnamese forces designed to strike the blow that would win them the war.

1973 – Martin Cooper of Motorola makes the first handheld mobile phone call to Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs, though it took ten years for the DynaTAC 8000X to become the first such phone to be commercially released.

1974 – A tape from the SLA announced Patty Hearst’s decision to “stay and fight” with the SLA.

April 3rd ~ {continued...}

1974 – The Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation of the Congress reported that $476,531 in back taxes and interest was owed by President Richard Nixon. Responding to charges of fraud, Nixon requested the committee investigation of his taxes and, upon its report, agreed to pay. The report made no conclusion regarding fraud.

1981 – The Osborne 1, the first successful portable computer, is unveiled at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.

1991 – U.N. Security Council Resolution 687 specifies the cease-fire conditions. The Resolution mandates that Iraq respect the sovereignty of Kuwait and declare and destroy, remove, or render harmless all ballistic missile systems with a range of more than 150 kilometres. It also confirms that Iraq must repatriate all Kuwaiti and third-state nationals and extend complete cooperation to the Red Cross in these efforts; and create a compensation fund, financed by Iraq, to meet its liability for losses, damages, and injuries related to its unlawful occupation of Kuwait.

1992 – First five coed recruit companies from Orlando, FL Naval Training Center granduate.

1996 – At his small wilderness cabin near Lincoln, Montana, Theodore John Kaczynski is arrested by FBI agents and accused of being the Unabomber, the elusive terrorist blamed for 16 mail bombs that killed three people and injured 23 during an 18-year period. Kaczynski, born in Chicago in 1942, won a scholarship to study mathematics at Harvard University at age 16. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, he became a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Although celebrated as a brilliant mathematician, he suffered from persistent social and emotional problems, and in 1969 abruptly ended his promising career at Berkeley. Disillusioned with the world around him, he tried to buy land in the Canadian wilderness but in 1971 settled for a 1.4-acre plot near his brother’s home in Montana.

For the next 25 years, Kaczynski lived as a hermit, occasionally working odd jobs and traveling but mostly living off his land. He developed a philosophy of radical environmentalism and militant opposition to modern technology, and tried to get academic essays on the subjects published. It was the rejection of one of his papers by two Chicago-area universities in 1978 that may have prompted him to manufacture and deliver his first mail bomb. The package was addressed to the University of Illinois from Northwestern University, but was returned to Northwestern, where a security guard was seriously wounded while opening the suspicious package.

In 1979, Kaczynski struck again at Northwestern, injuring a student at the Technological Institute. Later that year, his third bomb exploded on an American Airlines flight, causing injuries from smoke inhalation. In 1980, a bomb mailed to the home of Percy Wood, the president of United Airlines, injured Wood when he tried to open it. As Kaczynski seemed to be targeting universities and airlines, federal investigators began calling their suspect the Unabomber, an acronym of sorts for university, airline, and bomber.

From 1981 to 1985, there were seven more bombs, four at universities, one at a professor’s home, one at the Boeing Company in Auburn, Wash., and one at a computer store in Sacramento. Six people were injured, and in 1985 the owner of the computer store was killed–the Unabomber’s first murder. In 1987, a woman saw a man wearing aviator glasses and a hooded sweatshirt placing what turned out to be a bomb outside a computer store in Salt Lake City. The sketch of the suspect that emerged became the first representation of the Unabomber, and Kaczynski, fearing capture, halted his terrorist campaign for six years.

In June 1993, a lethal mail bomb severely injured a University of California geneticist at his home, and two days later a computer science professor at Yale was badly injured by a similar bomb. Various federal departments established the UNABOM Task Force, which launched an intensive search for a Unabomber suspect. In 1994, a mail bomb killed an advertising executive at his home in New Jersey. Kaczynski had mistakenly thought that the man worked for a firm that repaired the Exxon Company’s public relations after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. In April 1995, a bomb killed the president of a timber-industry lobbying group. It was the Unabomber’s last attack. Soon after, Kaczynski sent a manifesto to The New York Times and The Washington Post, saying he would stop the killing if it were published.

In 1995, The Washington Post published the so-called “Unabomber’s Manifesto,” a 35,000-word thesis on what Kaczynski perceived to be the problems with America’s industrial and technological society. Kaczynski’s brother, David, read the essay and recognized his brother’s ideas and language; he informed the FBI in February 1996 that he suspected that his brother was the Unabomber.

On April 3, Ted Kaczynski was arrested at his cabin in Montana, and extensive evidence–including a live bomb and an original copy of the manifesto–was discovered at the site. Indicted on more than a dozen federal charges, he appeared briefly in court in 1996 to plead not guilty to all charges. During the next year and a half, Kaczynski wrangled with his defense attorneys, who wanted to issue an insanity plea against his wishes. Kaczynski wanted to defend what he saw as legitimate political motives in carrying out the attacks, but at the start of the Unabomber trial in January 1998 the judge rejected his requests acquire a new defense team and represent himself.

On January 22, Kaczynski pleaded guilty on all counts and was spared the death penalty. He showed no remorse for his crimes and in May was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years.

April 3rd ~ {continued...}

1996 – Ronald H. Brown, the U.S. secretary of commerce, is killed along with 32 other Americans when their U.S. Air Force plane crashes into a mountain near Dubrovnik, Croatia. Brown was leading a delegation of business executives to the former Yugoslavia to explore business opportunities that might help rebuild the war-torn region.

1998 – Douglas Fred Groat, a disgruntled spy fired by the CIA, was charged with espionage and extortion. Groat later pleaded guilty to extortion, and was sentenced to five years in prison.

1999 – NATO missiles struck downtown Belgrade for the first time, destroying the headquarters of security forces accused of waging a campaign against Kosovo Albanians. NATO bombs struck the Serbian Internal Ministry buildings near the Sava River.

1999 – The Iraqi port of Mina al-Bakr, export terminal for roughly half of all Iraqi oil exports under the United Nations oil-for-food program, is reopened.

2000 – US defense chief Cohen said that the US would join an int’l. force in south Lebanon when Israel pulls out.

2000 – In Bosnia NATO troops arrested Momcilo Krajisnik, former speaker of the Bosnian Serb assembly, for war crimes and flew him to the Netherlands to stand trial.

2001 – President Bush warned China it risked damaging relations with the United States unless it quickly released the American crew of a damaged Navy spy plane. The plane had made an emergency landing in China after colliding with a Chinese fighter.

2002 – The US-financed Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty began broadcasting in the North Caucasus region that included Chechnya. The Kremlin viewed the broadcasts as interference with internal affairs.

2002 – Afghan security officials reported the arrests of hundreds of political opponents who planned a conspiracy and bombing campaign that was linked to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. 140 men were released the next day, while 160 remained under detention.

2003 – Moving with a sense of wartime urgency, the House and Senate separately agreed to give President Bush nearly $80 billion to carry out the battle against Iraq and meet the threat of terrorism.

2003 – In the 16th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom US Marines and infantry moved with surprising speed toward Baghdad. Central Command said there was “increasing evidence” that Saddam Hussein’s regime had lost control of its fighting forces. US troop casualty totaled: 51 dead, 16 missing and 7 captured. A power blackout in Baghdad coincided with heavy artillery fire. US forces attacked Saddam Int’l. Airport.

2003 – US Sec. of State Colin Powell assured NATO allies and the EU that the Bush administration seeks a partnership with the United Nations for the reconstruction of post-war Iraq.

2003 – Afghan militia soldiers and 2-day blistering airstrikes by US-led coalition planes killed eight suspected Taliban fighters in the southern mountains.

2004 – A U.S.-led multinational force trying to bring stability to Haiti helped detain Jean Robert, a rebel sympathizer and gang leader accused of terrorizing supporters of Aristide.

2004 – In Spain Sarhane Abdelmajid Fakhet (35), a Tunisian national and the alleged ringleader of last month’s train bombings in Madrid, was among 5 suspects who blew themselves up as police raided their apartment.

April 4th ~

1776 – The first Columbus, a 24-gun armed ship, was built at Philadelphia in 1774 as Sally; purchased for the Continental Navy in November 1775, Captain Abraham Whipple in command. Between 17 February and 8 April 1776, in company with the other ships of Commodore Esek Hopkins’ squadron, Columbus took part in the expedition to New Providence, Bahamas, where the first Navy-Marine amphibious operation seized essential military supplies. On the return passage, the squadron captured the British schooner, Hawk.

1788 – Last of the Federalist essays was published. The series of 85 letters were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay urging ratification of the US Constitution. Defects in the Articles of Confederation became apparent, such as the lack of central authority over foreign and domestic commerce and the inability of Congress to levy taxes, leading Congress to endorse a plan to draft a new constitution.

1790 – Congress establishes the Revenue Marine Service, a forerunner of the Coast guard.

1812 – The territory of Orleans became the 18th state and later became known as Louisiana.

1812 – President James Madison fired an economic salvo at the British government and enacted a ninety-day embargo on trade with England. Madison’s embargo was the last in a steady succession of putatively peaceful trade measures; like its predecessors, the embargo was designed to protect America’s embattled merchant ships from continued attacks by the British and French (American ships had been under siege since 1807). But, the non-violent nature of Madison’s response barely masked his readiness to lead America into battle, especially against the British.

Indeed, in November of 1811, the President had urged Congress to cloak the country in “an armor and an attitude demanded by the crisis.” Madison’s rhetoric was perhaps a bit disingenuous: his willingness to do battle stemmed as much from his desire to usurp British territory in Canada, Spanish Florida and what would become the American West. While expansionists, including Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun, licked their chops in anticipation of war, moderate legislators still hoped to forge a more peaceful solution. Though the embargo may have temporarily appeased the moderates, it did little to forestall war: the British refused to cease harassing American ships, prompting Madison to lead America into the War of 1812.

1818 – Congress decided the flag of the United States would consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state of the Union.

1841 – Only 31 days after assuming office, William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, dies of pneumonia at the White House. Born in Charles County, Virginia, in 1773, Harrison served in the U.S. Army in the old Northwest Territory and in 1800 was made governor of the Indian Territory, where he proved an able administrator.

In 1811, he led U.S. forces against an Indian confederation organized by Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, and victory at the Battle of Tippecanoe brought an end to Tecumseh’s hopes for a united Indian front against U.S. expansion. In the War of 1812, Harrison gained his greatest fame as a military commander, recapturing Detroit from the British and defeating a combined force of British and Native Americans at the Battle of the Thames. In 1816, he was elected to the House of Representatives and in 1825 to the Senate. Gaining the Whig presidential nomination in 1840, he and his running mate, John Tyler, ran a successful campaign under the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too.”

At the inauguration of America’s first Whig president, on March 4, 1841, a bitterly cold day, Harrison declined to wear a jacket or hat, made a two-hour speech, and attended three inauguration balls. Soon afterward, he developed pneumonia. On April 4, President Harrison died in Washington, and Vice President John Tyler ascended to the presidency, becoming the first individual in U.S. history to reach the office through the death of a president.

1850 – The city of Los Angeles was incorporated.

April 4th ~ {continued...}

1854 – Chinese Imperial Troops under the command of General Keih were stationed near the western edge of the International Settlement of Shanghai. On the 3rd April 1854 a Western couple were assaulted by some of the Imperial troops whilst the couple were walking in a park, and as a result a message was sent to General Kieh ordering him to move his troops by 4 p.m on 4th April. This message was ignored by General Kieh. At 16.00 hours a force led by Captain O’Callahan of HMS Encounter, and Lieutenant Roderick Dew, and consisting of 200 men from HMS Encounter, 75 men from USS Plymouth, 30 men from US merchant ships, and 75 Shanghai Volunteers, marched to the Chinese camp near an area known as Defence Creek. The area was marshy and deep in water and mud. A short battle ensued in which the Chinese Imperial Troops were routed. The Imperial Troops lost about 50 men, whilst the Allied Force lost just four men.

1859 – At Mechanics Hall in New York, Daniel Emmett introduced “I Wish I was in Dixie’s Land.” About two years later the song became the Civil War song of the Confederacy. [From the Richmond Dispatch, March 19, 1893.]

1862 – U.S.S. Carondelet,. Commander Walke, shrouded by a heavy storm at night, successfully ran past Island No. 10, Mississippi River, and reached Major General John Pope’s army at New Madrid. For his heroic dash through flaming Confederate batteries, Walke strengthened Carondelet with cord-wood piled around the boilers, extra deck planking, and anchor chain for added armor protection. “The passage of the Carondelet,” wrote A. T. Mahan, “was not only one of the most daring and dramatic events of the war; it was also the death blow to the Confederate defense of this position.” With the support of the gunboats, the Union troops could now safely plan to cross the river and take the Confederate defenses from the rear.

1865 – President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital a day after Union forces capture it. Lincoln had been in the area for nearly two weeks. He left Washington at the invitation of general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant to visit Grant’s headquarters at City Point, near the lines at Petersburg south of Richmond. The trip was exhilarating for the exhausted president.

Worn out by four years of war and stifled by the pressures of Washington, Lincoln enjoyed himself immensely. He conferred with Grant and General William T. Sherman, who took a break from his campaign in North Carolina. He visited soldiers, and even picked up an axe to chop logs in front of the troops. He stayed at City Point, sensing that the final push was near. Grant’s forces overran the Petersburg line on April 2, and the Confederate government fled the capital later that day.

Union forces occupied Richmond on April 3, and Lincoln sailed up the James River to see the spoils of war. His ship could not pass some obstructions that had been placed in the river by the Confederates so 12 soldiers rowed him to shore. He landed without fanfare but was soon recognized by some black workmen who ran to him and bowed. The modest Lincoln told them to “…kneel to God only, and thank him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy.”

Lincoln, accompanied by a small group of soldiers and a growing entourage of freed slaves, walked to the Confederate White House and sat in President Jefferson Davis’s chair. He walked to the Virginia statehouse and saw the chambers of the Confederate Congress. Lincoln even visited Libby Prison, where thousands of Union officers were held during the war. Lincoln remained a few more days in hopes that Robert E. Lee’s army would surrender, but on April 8 he headed back to Washington. Six days later, Lincoln was shot as he watched a play at Ford’s Theater.

1912 – President Taft recommended abolishing Revenue Cutter Service. His actions led to the creation of the Coast Guard by merging the Revenue Cutter Service and the Life-Saving Service on January 28th, 1915.

1917 – U.S. Senate voted 90-6 to enter World War I on Allied side.

April 4th ~ {continued...}

1918 – During World War I, the Second Battle of the Somme, the first major German offensive in more than a year, ends on the western front. On March 21, 1918, a major offensive against Allied positions in the Somme River region of France began with five hours of bombardment from more than 9,000 pieces of German artillery. The poorly prepared British Fifth Army was rapidly overwhelmed and forced into retreat. For a week, the Germans pushed toward Paris, shelling the city from a distance of 80 miles with their “Big Bertha” cannons. However, the poorly supplied German troops soon became exhausted, and the Allies halted the German advance as French artillery knocked out the German guns besieging Paris.

On April 2, U.S. General John J. Pershing sent American troops down into the trenches to help defend Paris and repulse the German offensive. It was the first major deployment of U.S. troops in World War I. Several thousand American troops fought alongside the British and French in the Second Battle of Somme. By the time the Somme offensive ended on April 4, the Germans had advanced almost 40 miles, inflicted some 200,000 casualties, and captured 70,000 prisoners and more than 1,000 Allied guns. However, the Germans suffered nearly as many casualties as their enemies and lacked the fresh reserves and supply boost the Allies enjoyed following the American entrance into the fighting.

1921 – The US Navy Department completes the first helium production plant in Fort Worth, Texas.

1933 – Navy airship USS Akron crashed off the Barnegat Lightship, off the New Jersey coast. The search employed over 20 Coast Guard vessels under Navy supervision. USS Akron (ZRS-4) was a helium-filled rigid airship of the U.S. Navy that was destroyed in a thunderstorm killing 73 of the 76 crewmen and passengers. This accident was the greatest loss of life in any known airship crash. During its accident-prone 18-month term of service, the Akron also served as a flying aircraft carrier for launching and recovering F9C Sparrow Hawk fighter planes.

With lengths of 785 ft (239 m), 20 ft (6.1 m) shorter than the German commercial airship Hindenburg, which was destroyed in 1937, the Akron and its sister airship the Macon were among the largest flying objects in the world. Although the Hindenburg was longer, it was filled with hydrogen, so the two U.S. airships still hold the world record for helium-filled airships.

1941 – Roosevelt agrees to allow Royal Navy warships to be repaired in the US. Among the first ships to benefit from this order are the battleships Malaya and Resolution. RN warships are also to be allowed to refuel in the US when on combat missions.

1944 – The Bucharest marshaling yards are bombed by heavily escorted bombers of the US 15th Air Force. A total of 20 aircraft are lost. Civilian casualties are reported to amount to 2942 killed and 2126 injured.

1945 – US 9th Army units have reached the river Weser opposite Hameln. Troops from US 3rd Army capture Kassel while other units take Gotha and advance near Erfurt. French units take Karlsruhe. The Nazi gold reserves are captured in the salt mine at Merkers.

1945 – American troops liberate Ohrdruf forced labor camp in Germany. It was part of the Buchenwald concentration camp network and the first Nazi concentration camp liberated by U.S. troops.

1945 – On Okinawa, the forces of US 10th Army begin to meet the first real Japanese resistance on the ground. Troops of US 24th Corps are brought to a halt on a line just south of Kuba while the forces of 3rd Amphibious Corps have reached the Ishikawa Isthmus. A storm damages many landing craft and hampers further reinforcement.

April 4th ~ {continued...}

1949 – The United States and 11 other nations establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense pact aimed at containing possible Soviet aggression against Western Europe. NATO stood as the main U.S.-led military alliance against the Soviet Union throughout the duration of the Cold War. Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union began to deteriorate rapidly in 1948. There were heated disagreements over the postwar status of Germany, with the Americans insisting on German recovery and eventual rearmament and the Soviets steadfastly opposing such actions.

In June 1948, the Soviets blocked all ground travel to the American occupation zone in West Berlin, and only a massive U.S. airlift of food and other necessities sustained the population of the zone until the Soviets relented and lifted the blockade in May 1949. In January 1949, President Harry S. Truman warned in his State of the Union Address that the forces of democracy and communism were locked in a dangerous struggle, and he called for a defensive alliance of nations in the North Atlantic–NATO was the result.

In April 1949, representatives from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal joined the United States in signing the NATO agreement. The signatories agreed, “An armed attack against one or more of them … shall be considered an attack against them all.” President Truman welcomed the organization as “a shield against aggression.” Not all Americans embraced NATO. Isolationists such as Senator Robert A. Taft declared that NATO was “not a peace program; it is a war program.”

Most, however, saw the organization as a necessary response to the communist threat. The U. S. Senate ratified the treaty by a wide margin in June 1949. During the next few years, Greece, Turkey, and West Germany also joined. The Soviet Union condemned NATO as a warmongering alliance and responded by setting up the Warsaw Pact (a military alliance between the Soviet Union and its Eastern Europe satellites) in 1955. NATO lasted throughout the course of the Cold War, and continues to play an important role in post-Cold War Europe. In recent years, for example, NATO forces were active in trying to bring an end to the civil war in Bosnia.

1951 – Far East Air Forces aircraft racked up 1,000 sorties hitting enemy frontline positions and supply areas.

1951 – Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Powers in Europe (SHAPE) is established with General Dwight D. Eisenhower in command.

1966 – US F-4C Phantom bombers hit the main supply route between North Vietnam and Naning, China, striking the Phulangthong bridge, among others.

1967 – “CHINOOK II” ended in Vietnam (17 Feb – 4 Apr).

1967 – The U.S. lost its 500th plane over Vietnam.

1967 – Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. indicates that a link is forming between the civil rights movement and the peace movement. King proposes that the US stop all bombing in Vietnam, declare a unilateral truce in hopes of fostering peace talks, setting a date for the withdrawal of all troops from Vietnam, and include the National Liberation Front in any resulting negotiations.

April 4th ~ {continued...}

1968 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 6. Apollo 6 was the second A type mission of the United States Apollo program, an unmanned test of the Saturn V launch vehicle. It was also the final unmanned Apollo test mission. Objectives were to demonstrate trans-lunar injection capability of the Saturn V with a simulated payload equal to about 80% of a full Apollo spacecraft, and to repeat demonstration of the Command Module’s (CM) heat shield capability to withstand a lunar re-entry.

The flight plan called for following trans-lunar injection with a direct return abort using the Command/Service Module’s (CSM) main engine, with a total flight time of about 10 hours. A phenomenon known as pogo oscillation damaged some of the Rocketdyne J-2 engines in the second and third stages by rupturing internal fuel lines, causing two second-stage engines to shut down early. The vehicle’s onboard guidance system was able to compensate by burning the second and third stages longer, though the resulting parking orbit was more elliptical than planned. The damaged third stage engine also failed to restart for trans-lunar injection.

Flight controllers elected to repeat the flight profile of the previous Apollo 4 test, achieving a high orbit and high-speed return using the Service Module (SM) engine. Despite the engine failures, the flight provided NASA with enough confidence to use the Saturn V for manned launches. Since Apollo 4 had already demonstrated S-IVB restart and tested the heat shield at full lunar re-entry velocity, a potential third unmanned flight was cancelled.

1970 – About 15,000 people stage a rally at the Washington monument to support “victory over the Communists in Vietnam.”

1970 – The heaviest fighting in five months involving US troops occurs along the DMZ and new clashes in Cambodia where South Vietnamese battalions move 10 miles into Cambodia.

1971 – Veterans stadium in Philadelphia, PA, was dedicated.

1973 – A Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, dubbed the Hanoi Taxi, makes the last flight of Operation Homecoming. Operation Homecoming was a series of diplomatic negotiations that in January 1973 made possible the return of 591 American prisoners of war held by North Vietnam. On Feb. 12, 1973, three C-141 transports flew to Hanoi, North Vietnam, and one C-9A aircraft was sent to Saigon, South Vietnam to pick up released prisoners of war. The first flight of 40 U.S. prisoners of war left Hanoi in a C-141A, later known as the “Hanoi Taxi” and now in a museum.

1975 – The first group of boat people from Vietnam began arriving in Malaysia. More than 1 million people fled from the close of the war to the early 1980s.

1975 – A major U.S. airlift of South Vietnamese orphans begins with disaster when an Air Force cargo jet crashes shortly after departing from Tan Son Nhut airbase in Saigon. More than 138 passengers, mostly children, were killed. Operation Baby Lift was designed to bring 2,000 South Vietnamese orphans to the United States for adoption by American parents.

Baby Lift lasted for 10 days and was carried out during the final, desperate phase of the war, as North Vietnamese forces closed in on Saigon. Although this first flight ended in tragedy, all subsequent flights were completed safely, and Baby Lift aircraft brought orphans across the Pacific until the mission’s conclusion on April 14, only 16 days before the fall of Saigon and the end of the war.

1977 – The Coast Guard designated its first female Coast Guard aviator, Janna Lambine. She was Coast Guard Aviator #1812.

April 4th ~ {continued...}

1983 – The space shuttle Challenger roared into orbit on its maiden voyage and the first US female into space was Sally Ride. Space Shuttle Challenger (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-099) was the second orbiter of NASA’s space shuttle program to be put into service following Columbia. The shuttle was built by Rockwell International’s Space Transportation Systems Division in Downey, California.

It launched and landed nine times before breaking apart 73 seconds into its tenth mission, STS-51-L, on January 28, 1986, resulting in the death of all seven crew members. It was the first of two shuttles to be destroyed. The accident led to a two-and-a-half year grounding of the shuttle fleet; flights resumed in 1988 with STS-26 flown by Discovery. Challenger itself was replaced by Endeavour which was built using structural spares ordered by NASA as part of the construction contracts for Discovery and Atlantis. Endeavour launched for the first time in May 1992.

1984 – President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.

1992 – His campaign acknowledged that Bill Clinton had received an induction notice in April 1969 while attending college in Oxford, England; Clinton said the notice arrived after he was due to report, and that his local draft board had told him he could complete the school term.

1992 – Jury deliberations began in the Noriega case in Florida.

1993 – President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin wrapped up their two-day summit in Vancouver, B.C. Clinton extended $1.6 billion in aid; Yeltsin proclaimed the two countries “partners and future allies.”

1995 – Francisco Martin Duran, who had raked the White House with semiautomatic rifle fire in October 1994, was convicted in Washington of trying to assassinate President Clinton. Duran was later sentenced to 40 years in prison.

1996 – US intelligence indicated the Libya was building a chemical weapons plant at Tarhunah, 40 miles southeast of Tripoli. The plant was reportedly designed to replace a plant a Rabta, 55 miles SW of Tripoli, where Libya insists that only pharmaceuticals are produced.

1996 – In Afghanistan Mohammed Omar unsealed a shrine in Kandahar that held a cloak believed to have belonged to the prophet Mohammed. He placed the cloak over his shoulders and declared himself Caliph, the commander of the faithful and leader of all Islam.

1996 – Comet Hyakutake is imaged by the USA Asteroid Orbiter Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous.

1997 – Space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on what was supposed to have been a 16-day mission. However, a defective power generator forced the shuttle’s return four days later.

1998 – Richard Butler, chief arms inspector in Iraq, refused to certify the Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction have been destroyed.

April 4th ~ {continued...}

1999 – NATO dropped more bombs on downtown Belgrade and said that it would send some 8,000 troops into Albania to help Kosovo refugees. The Freedom Bridge over the Danube at Novi Sad was destroyed. The US announced that it would send 24 Apache helicopter gunships to attack Serbian troops and tanks in Kosovo. Some 30,000 refugees crossed into Albania in the last 24-hour period. Shipping on the Danube was not fully restored until 2002.

1999 – Several NATO countries announced they would take in refugees being forced out of Kosovo by Serbian forces.

2000 – In Iraq US and British warplanes bombed military sites in the south.

2001 – US diplomats met with 24 US crew members held by the Chinese military on Hainan island. Colin Powell issued a statement of regret over the loss of the Chinese pilot involved in the incident. Powell also sent a letter to China’s chief foreign policy official outlining ways of settlement.

2001 – The US Pentagon reportedly destroyed its last canister of napalm, a jellied gasoline used extensively during the Vietnam war. It was developed in 1942 by Harvard and Army chemists who combined naphthene and palmitate. It was made by Dow Chemical from 1965-1969.

2001 – Chinese President Jiang Zemin demanded the United States apologize for the collision between a U.S. Navy spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet; the Bush administration offered a chorus of regrets, but no apology.

2002 – Pres. Bush responded to British TV journalist Trevor McDonald’s question “Have you made up your mind that Iraq must be attacked?” by saying: “I made up my mind that Hussein needs to go.”

2002 – An Iraqi defector tells Vanity Fair that Iraq is developing a long-range ballistic missile system that could carry weapons of mass destruction up to 700 miles.

2002 – Yasser Esam Hamdi (22), a prisoner in Cuba, was reported to be a US citizen born in Louisiana. Hamdi was transferred to a jail in Virginia Apr 5. In 2004 Hamdi, held without charge since his 2001 capture, gave up his US citizenship and was released to Saudi Arabia.

2002 – Afghan officials reported that poppy farmers would be offered $500 per acre to destroy their crops. Refusal would still result in crop destruction.

2002 – It was reported that Saddam Hussein of Iraq had raised financial payments to the relatives of suicide bombers from $10k to $25k.

2003 – In the 17th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom thousands of Iraqis fled Baghdad as US forces seized the international airport to the west and armored convoys pressed in from the south.

2003 – A Marine unit found concentrations of cyanide and mustard-gas agents in the Euphrates River near Nasiriyah.

2004 – Muqtada al-Sadr issued a call to his followers to “terrorize your enemy.” Gunmen opened fire on the Spanish garrison in the holy city of Najaf during a huge demonstration by followers of al-Sadr, an anti-American Shiite Muslim cleric.

2008 – The United States Department of State renews the contract of Blackwater Worldwide to provide security in Iraq despite a number of ongoing investigations.

2012 – As part of the Obama Administration’s new Pivot to Asia, the first deployment of US Marines arrives in the Australian city of Darwin, Northern Territory.

2013 – Uganda’s military orders army units hunting for Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army in the Central African Republic to return to their bases, following political instability in the CAR. Meanwhile the United States has offered a $5 million bounty for information leading to his capture.

April 5th ~

1614 – American Indian princess Pocahontas married English Jamestown colonist John Rolfe in Virginia. Their marriage brought a temporary peace between the English settlers and the Algonquians. In 1616, the couple sailed to England. The “Indian Princess” was popular with the English gentry. She died and is buried in England in 1617.

1621 – The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, Mass., on a return trip to England.

1792 – George Washington cast the first presidential veto, rejecting a congressional measure for apportioning representatives among the states.

1861 – Gideon Wells, the Secretary of the Navy, issued official orders for the relief of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, S.C. U.S.S. Powhatan, Pawnee, Pocahontas, and Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane were ordered to provision Fort Sumter; squadron commander was Captain Samuel Mercer in Powhatan.

1861 – Federals abandoned Ft. Quitman, Texas.

1862 – Union forces under General George McClellan arrive at Yorktown, Virginia, and establish siege lines instead of directly attacking the Confederate defenders. This was the opening of McClellan’s Peninsular campaign. He sailed his massive Army of the Potomac down Chesapeake Bay and landed on the James Peninsula southeast of the Confederate capital of Richmond. He reasoned that this would bring him closer to Richmond, and the Confederates would have a difficult time gathering their scattered forces to the peninsula.

The first resistance came at Yorktown, the site of George Washington’s decisive victory over Lord Cornwallis to end the American Revolution 91 years earlier. McClellan was discouraged by what he thought was a substantial force resting inside of strong and well-armed fortifications. The Confederates he saw were actually 11,000 troops under General John B. Magruder. Although vastly outnumbered, Magruder staged an elaborate ruse to fool McClellan. He ordered logs painted black, called “Quaker Guns,” placed in redoubts to give the appearance of numerous artillery pieces. Magruder marched his men back and forth to enhance the illusion.

The performance worked, as McClellan was convinced that he could not make a frontal assault. He opted to lay siege instead. Not until May 4 did Magruder’s troops finally abandon Yorktown, giving the Confederates valuable time to gather their troops near Richmond. The campaign climaxed in late June when McClellan was driven away from the gates of Richmond in the Seven Days’ battles.

1865 – Confederate General Robert E. Lee pulls his troops from Amelia Court House and begins a desperate race west to escape pursuing Yankee troops. On April 2, Lee’s men were forced to evacuate Richmond and Petersburg after a ten-month siege. The hungry army arrived at Amelia Court House expecting to find rations, but only ammunition and canons had been delivered. Lee was distraught, and he sent his troops out to the countryside to find food. They found little, however, and were forced to move on with empty stomachs.

1869 – Daniel Bakeman, the last surviving soldier of the U.S. Revolutionary War, died at the age of 109.

April 5th ~ {continued...}

1933 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs two executive orders: 6101 to establish the Civilian Conservation Corps, and 6102 “forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates” by U.S. citizens.

1937 – Colin Powell, U.S. Army general, was born in Bronx New York. He later became the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Persian Gulf War and first African American to serve in the position. In 2000 President elect Bush appointed him to be Secretary of State.

EDUCATION: Bachelor of science in geology, City College of New York, 1958; master’s in business administration, George Washington University, 1971.

EXPERIENCE: Secretary of state; founder and chairman, America’s Promise, a nonprofit organization for youth; chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1989-1993; national security adviser to President Reagan, 1987-89; veteran of 35 years in the Army.

AWARDS: Military awards include Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Army Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Bronze Star, Purple Heart. Civilian awards include two Presidential Medals of Freedom, the President’s Citizens Medal, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Secretary of State Distinguished Service Medal.

BOOK: “My American Journey,” 1995.

FAMILY: Wife, Alma; three children, Michael, Linda and Annemarie; two grandsons, Jeffrey and Bryan.

1942 – The Japanese offensive down the Bataan peninsula continues. In fierce fighting, at Mount Samat, the US 21st Division takes heavy losses as the Japanese take the position. Elsewhere, Japanese forces leave Luzon for Cebu Island.

1942 – US naval forces (Task Force 39) arrive to reinforce the British naval position at Scapa Flow, with the aircraft carrier, USS Wasp and the battleship, USS Washington. The British are in need the assistance as ships have been drawn for Operation Ironclad which is directed against Madagascar.

1943 – American bomber aircraft accidentally cause more than 900 civilian deaths, including 209 children, and 1,300 wounded among the civilian population of the Belgian town of Mortsel. Their target was the Erla factory one kilometer from the residential area hit.

1943 – The Axis defenses on the Wadi Akarit Line have been improved over the course of the past few days. The line is occupied, mostly, by Italian troops. The German 15th Panzer and 90th Light Divisions are held in reserve behind the line. Most of the Axis armor is further north, engaging the US 2nd Corps around El Guettar. In the evening the British 4th Indian Division begins a night advance against the Djebel Fatnassa position. Good progress is achieved.

April 5th ~ {continued...}

1944 – The Ploesti oil installations and rail sidings are attacked by B-17 and B-24 bombers of the US 15th Air Force, with a strong fighter escort. A total of 12 planes are lost. Determined German, Romanian and Bulgarian fighter opposition is encountered as well as heavy flak over the target. A reported 262 civilians are killed and 361 are injured.

1945 – On the Italian west coast, American units from US 5th Army begin to attack north near Massa, south of La Spezia.

1945 – On Luzon, south and west of Manila, the US forces on either side of Laguna de Bay are beginning to make significant gains in their attacks. In Manila Bay, on Caballo Island, American troops pour thousands of gallons of a diesel/gasoline mixture into Fort Hughes and set it on fire but fail to entirely eliminate Japanese resistance.

1945 – The battleship, USS Nevada, is damaged by Japanese fire from a shore battery.

1945 – It is announced that General MacArthur will take control of all army forces in the Pacific theater of operations and Admiral Nimitz will command all naval forces in preparation for the invasion of Japan.

1946 – USS Missouri arrives in Turkey to return the body of Turkish ambassador, Mehmet Munir
Ertegun, who had died in Washington, DC, in November 1944, to the U.S. and to show U.S. support and willingness to defend Turkey.

1947 – Five Marine guards were killed and eight wounded when attacked by Communist Chinese raiders near the Hsin Ho ammunition depot in Northern China. This last major clash between Marines of the 1st Marine Division and Communist forces occurred shortly after withdrawal and redeployment plans from China were issued for the 1st Division and 1st Marine Aircraft Wing on April 1st.

1950 – Coast Guard announced that former enlisted women of the Coast Guard Reserve could apply for enlistment in the Women’s Volunteer Reserve SPARS. Enlistments would be for a three-year period with written agreement to serve on active duty in time of war or national emergency.

1951 – At the end of a highly publicized espionage case, death sentences are imposed against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, one week after the couple were found guilty of conspiring to transmit atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.

The trial occurred at the height of the “red scare” in the early 1950s, and critics of the case argued that the political climate of the time made a fair trial impossible. Others questioned whether the Rosenbergs deserved execution, especially as the only seriously incriminating evidence came from a confessed spy who was given a reduced sentence to testify against them.

In one of her last letters before being executed, Ethel Rosenberg wrote, “My husband and I must be vindicated by history; we are the first victims of American Fascism.” During their trial, the Rosenbergs maintained their innocence, though Greenglass, who had pleaded guilty, agreed to testify against them.

At the trial’s end in the spring of 1951, David Greenglass was sentenced to 15 years in prison, Harry Gold was sentenced to a 30 years, and the Rosenbergs were sentenced to death. Despite court appeals and pleas for executive clemency, the Rosenbergs, the first U.S. civilians to be given the death penalty in an espionage trial, were executed by electrocution on June 19, 1953.

April 5th ~ {continued...}

1951 – Operation RUGGED, a general advance to the Kansas Line north of the 38th parallel began. With Eighth Army now very much in fighting trim, and the CCF and NK forces showing weakness and lack of resolution in meeting our advances, General Ridgway now moved to assault to the 38th parallel, to reach and establish the Kansas-Wyoming Lines mostly just above the 38th Parallel.

The Truman administration was making overtures to China for possible Cease-Fire talks, and General MacArthur had months earlier indicated the general area of Kansas-Wyoming as a theoretical cease-fire line in anticipation of Truman’s actions. Truman summarily relieved General of the Army MacArthur on April 10, nominally for insubordination because of his public disagreements with Truman’s prosecution of the War. Whether or not this dramatic action was justified remains for history to decide, but at the time MacArthur was very much in agreement with Ridgway on the military moves being taken, and the disposition of our forces across Korea in the event cease-fire talks began.

In the event, Ridgway’s continuation of the series of counter-attacks did successfully establish Line Kansas, and passed forward beyond it towards Line Wyoming and the so-called “Iron Triangle”. Many KW veterans feel that Truman’s dismissal of MacArthur was primarily political, with little justification or effect on the progress of the war. One new action General Ridgway did take, though, with which almost all KW vets agreed. On April 16 Ridgway appointed General Hickey Chief of Staff in relief of General Almond.

1951 – General MacArthur’s letter of March 20 to House minority leader Joseph W. Martin criticizing President Truman’s strategy and the concept of limited war was made public. In the letter MacArthur advocated using Chinese Nationalist troops to open a second front against Communist China.

1956 – Fidel Castro declares himself at war with Cuban President Fulgencio Batista.

1962 – NASA civilian pilot Neil A. Armstrong took the X-15 to 54,600 miles.

1964 – Army General Douglas MacArthur died in Washington, D.C., at age 84. William Manchester wrote his biography: “American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur.”

1964 – In South Vietnam a new draft law authorizes conscription into the Civil Guard and the Self Defense Corps, the two paramilitary forces that bear the brunt of fighting with the Vietcong. Both forces have been at a lack for volunteers and have experienced rising desertions.

1965 – A three day battle in the Mekong Delta begins that leaves six US troops dead and a reported 276 Vietcong fatalities.

1967 – The 4th Marines began a multi-battalion operation named Big Horn in Thua Thien Province.

1968 – In Vietnam the siege of Khe Sahn ended after 76 days.

1971 – US Lt. William Calley was sentenced to life for the My Lai Massacre.

April 5th ~ {continued...}

1972 – Moving out of eastern Cambodia, North Vietnamese troops open the second front of their offensive with a drive into Binh Long Province, attacking Loc Ninh, a border town 75 miles north of Saigon on Highway 13.

At the same time, additional North Vietnamese cut the highway between An Loc, the provincial capital, and Saigon to the south, effectively isolating An Loc from outside support. This attack was the southernmost thrust of the three-pronged Nguyen Hue Offensive (later known as the “Easter Offensive”), a massive invasion by North Vietnamese forces designed to strike the blow that would win them the war. The attacking force included 14 infantry divisions and 26 separate regiments, with more than 120,000 troops and approximately 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles.

The main North Vietnamese objectives, in addition to An Loc in the south, were Quang Tri in the north, and Kontum in the Central Highlands. Initially, the South Vietnamese defenders in each case were almost overwhelmed, particularly in the northernmost provinces where government forces abandoned their positions in Quang Tri and fled south in the face of the enemy onslaught.

In Binh Long, the North Vietnamese forces crossed into South Vietnam from Cambodia to strike first at Loc Ninh, then quickly encircled An Loc, holding it under siege for almost three months while they made repeated attempts to take the city. The defenders suffered heavy casualties, including 2,300 dead or missing, but with the aid of U.S. advisors and American airpower, they managed to hold An Loc against vastly superior odds until the siege was lifted on June 18.

Fighting continued all over South Vietnam into the summer months, but eventually the South Vietnamese forces prevailed against the invaders and they retook Quang Tri in September. With the communist invasion blunted, President Nixon declared that the South Vietnamese victory proved the viability of his Vietnamization program, which he had instituted in 1969 to increase the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces.

1972 – US planes destroyed Benhai bride on the DMZ, the only road link between North and South Vietnam.

1974 – The World Trade Center, the tallest building in the world at 110 stories, opened.

1985 – A bomb explodes outside Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut killing 80 people. CIA backed Lebanese Christian Milita are blamed.

1986 – A Berlin nightclub was bombed and 2 US soldiers and a woman were killed and 230 injured. Palestinian Yasser Shraydi (Chraidi) was suspected of playing a lead role in the bombing of the La Belle discotheque. In 1996 he was extradited from Lebanon to face charges in Germany. In 1996 Andrea Hasler was arrested in Greece and extradited to Germany. Also a woman named Verena Chanaa, suspected of planting the bomb, and her former husband named Ali Chanaa were arrested in Berlin.

In 1997 Musbah Abulghasen Eter was arrested by Italian police in Rome in connection with the bombing. In 2001 V. Chanaa was sentenced to 14 years, A. Chanaa and Eter were sentenced to 12 years, and Chraidi was sentenced to 14 years. Libya was implicated and in 2004 agreed to pay $35 million in compensation.