This Day in History

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1614. Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe

1795. Henry Havelock was born.
Havelocks. The small square of canvas or cotton seen hanging from the back of the kepis worn by many mid-nineteenth century soldiers. They were designed by Major-General Sir Henry Havelock to help keep the sun off the troops’ necks during the Indian Mutiny. The things were much despised by the troops, as they soiled very easily, but did prove useful for cleaning weapons, and they passed out of use in American service early in the Civil War (when they were distributed in the thousands by women, North and South, wishing to do their bit for the war effort), but lasted in the French Foreign Legion into the twentieth century.

1918. During World War II the United States shipped 12 tons of arms, equipment, and supporting materiel with every soldier, sailor, or marine who went overseas, and followed that up with an additional ton of rations, clothing, medicines, ammunition, and miscellaneous supplies each month service member was abroad.

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1400   BC   Theseus and the Athenian Youths and Maidens sail for Crete [Trad]

46 BC   Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica, Plaetorius Rustianus, L. Manlius Torquatus, Licinius Crassus Damasippus, & thousands of other Senatorials, plus a few Caesarians, kia, Battle of Thapsus

403. Pollentia  Stilicho's Romano-Alan army defeats Alaric's Visigoths.

1362         Battle of Brignais: French forces under Count Jacques De Bourbon are wiped out by the rebel Free Companies

1806. Boats of HMS Pallas(32), Cptn. Lord Cochrane, cut out Tapageuse (14) one of two French brig-corvettes lying in the river Gironde leading to Bordeaux.
While awaiting the return of her boats, Pallas drove on shore two French ship-corvettes, Garonne(20) and Gloire (20), and the brig-corvette Malicieuse (16).

1862. Among its other distinctions, the famed U.S.S. Monitor was the first warship to have flush toilets.

1909. Cmdr. Robert E. Peary reports reaching the North Pole, dropping a note in a glass bottle into a crevice in the ice that states: "I have this day hoisted the national ensign of the United States of America at this place, which my observations indicate to be the North Polar axis of the earth, and have formally taken possession of the entire region, and adjacent, for and in the name of the President of the United States of America."

1934         Nazis arrest 418 Lutheran ministers

1944. , Australia was crash-dived by an Aichi D3A “Val” dive-bomber, in a foretaste of the kamikaze campaign that would begin four days later.  The attack killed 30 of the ship’s company, including her captain, who died of wounds, and caused her to be sent to a rear area for nearly a month’s worth of repairs.

During the invasion of Luzon at Lingayen Gulf in January of 1945, Australia took a remarkable beating, absorbing five kamikaze in four days while providing gunfire support to the landings and operations ashore.

January 5, 1945:  The strike caused some casualties and damage to the ship’s anti-aircraft battery, but she was able to remain in action
January 6, 1945: Once again some casualties were inflicted and some AA pieces were put out of action, but the ship was otherwise not significantly injured.
January 8, 1945:  Two kamikaze struck the ship in quickly succession, but she remained operational.
January 9, 1945:  Yet another kamikaze, the fifth in four days, inflicted further damage.
The series of four kamikaze attacks over five days killed 44 and wounded 69 of the ship’s company, though she remained on the firing line until relieved.  Returning to Australia for repairs, the ship was back in service within about 45 days, and proceeded to the United States and then to Britain, for a major refit and modernization, which was not completed until after the war ended. Few ships had survived more punishment from kamikaze.

1992         Isaac Asimov, Boys' High alum, Army veteran, author, at 72

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1739         Richard "Dick" Turpin, c. 34,, English highwayman, who went to his hanging with great panache

1780         14-year old Andrew Jackson and his brother Robert were captured by British troops

1790. During the late eighteenth century, young boys accepted by London’s Marine Society for training to serve in the Royal Navy were each issued a copy of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.

1862         Battle of Shiloh, Day 2: Grant defeats the Confederates

1871         Wilhelm Freiherr von Tegetthoff, 67, Austrian admiral, victor of Helgoland & Lissa who single handedly introduced ramming into Ironclads.  Thus sending naval architects down a deadend in design  for over forty years.

1934. The frigate Constitution completes her 3-year tour of 76 port cities along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts and then returns to Boston, Mass. Prior to her journey that began July 1931, the 137-year-old frigate undergoes a refit and overhaul. Congress authorized the restoration of Constitution in March 1925.

1938         Battle of Taierzhuang ended after 14 days of desperate Chinese resistance, as the Japanese retreated -- their first major defeat in the "China Incident"

1942  The Battle of the Coral Sea resumes as Task Force Seventeen (TF-17) intercepts the Japanese intending to invade Port Moresby, New Guinea marking the first naval battle where aircraft carriers engage each other out of sight from one another.

1945         Japanese BB 'Yamato' sunk off Okinawa by TF 58 a/c.

1966         US recovers lost H-bomb from sea off Palomares, Spain

1989         Soviet submarine 'K-278 Komsomolets' sinks after a fire in the Norwegian Sea, 42 die

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241 BC. During the First Punic War (264-241 BC), Roman losses may have amounted to as much as 17 percent of the citizen body, as the census of 264 BC counted 294,000 male citizens while that of 240 found only 260,000.

0   BC   the Roman festival of the Megalesia, celebrating the birth of Castor & Pollux

1143         Byzantine Emperor John II Komnenos (co-ruler 1092/sole 1118-1143), 55, accidental poisoning by one of his own arrows while boar hunting

1195         Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelus (1185-1195) is ousted & blinded by his brother Alexius III (1195-1203); will later be restored as Emperor (1203-1204)

1271         Krak de Chevaliers in Syria is captured from the Knights Hospitaler by Mamluk Sultan Baibars after a 36 day siege

1746. old tradition in the Worcestershire Regiment (now incorporated in the Mercian Regiment), requires that two officers, the Captain of the Week and the Subaltern of the Day, wear their swords at all times, even in the mess, to commemorate an attack by supposedly friendly Native Americans on the regiment's officers while dining.

1832         Count Alfred von Waldersee, Generalfeldmarschall and Chief of the Great General Staff (1888-1891), fired for criticizing the Kaiser's military prowess, d. 1904

1940         HM Destroyer 'Glowworm' sank in a gallant fight with the German heavy cruiser 'Admiral Hipper'

1950, during the filming of The Desert Fox, director Henry Hathaway decided to shoot the incident on which Erwin Rommel (played by James Mason) was wounded in a strafing run by a Canadian Spitfire on July 17, 1944, at the actual site in France, and in the process found the wreckage of the field marshal’s staff car.

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1271         Krak de Chevaliers in Syria is captured from the Knights Hospitaler by Mamluk Sultan Baibars after a 36 day siege

and they've been looking for alien artifacts underneath it ever since!

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1512      Died,   Gaston, Vicompte de Foix, Pretender to the throne of Navarra (22), plus most of his regimental commanders, and about 4,500 of his Franco-German-Italian troops, as well as all opposing Spanish regimental commanders and about 9,000 Spanish-Italian troops, killed in action at Ravenna

1568. military reformer of no mean abilities, Swedish King Eric XIV (1560-1568), proved an unsuccessful commander in the field, due primarily to his unwillingness to engage in battle with generals of lesser rank.

1612         Edward Wightman, c. 32, Anabaptist preacher, having the dubious honor of being the last person burned at the state for blasphemy in England

1809. Cptn. Thomas Cochrane leads fireship raid on the French fleet in the Aix roads

1814         the Treaty of Fontainebleau ended the War of the Sixth Coalition, forcing Napoleon to renounce the throne of France

1842, during the First Anglo-Chinese (Opium) War (1839-1842), the Royal Navy used steamers to tow two wooden-hulled sail ships-of-the-line 200 miles up the Yangtse to lend their firepower to an attack on Nanking, after which, on August 29th, a peace treaty was signed ending hostilities aboard the 74-gun HMS Cornwall.

1856. Although the fall of Sebastopol to the British and French in September of 1855 is generally regarded as the decisive action of the Crimean War (1853-1856), the Russian government was equally concerned with the fact that, although they had successfully beat off an Anglo-French naval assault on Helsinki, the Allies were preparing for a major effort against Kronstadt, which would have directly threatened St. Petersburg.

1935  The Stresa Conference: Britain, France, & Italy confer on what to do about Hitler, but when Mussolini calls for forceful action, his proposal is rejected

1944  Marlene Dietrich's USO show premiers in the Algiers Opera House, first of a series of performances that numbered as many as three a day, almost every day, until shortly after the end of the war.