This Day in History

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1565  The Turks land on Malta and commence a siege (fails Sept 11)

1748. Treaty of Abo: England brokers a peace between Russia and Sweden

1765  Great Fire of Montreal destroys a quarter of the town

1775. Col. Benedict Arnold captures a British sloop at St. Johns in Quebec, Canada and renames her Enterprise, the first of many famous ships with that name

1827. Navarino a combined British, French, and Russian fleet annihilated a Turkish-Egyptian one, in the last great battle of the age of sail, though it did just happened to occur in when these nations were all officially at peace.

1862         Josephus Daniels, SecNav (1913-1921), d. 1948
The Most Hated Document in the History of the U.S. Navy:
GENERAL ORDER NO. 99
NAVY DEPARTMENT,
Washington, D.C., June 1, 1914
CHANGE IN ARTICLE 827, NAVAL INSTRUCTIONS.
On July 1, 1914, Article 827, Naval Instructions, will be annulled and in its stead the following will be substituted:

"The use or introduction for drinking purposes of alcoholic liquors on board any naval vessel, or within any navy yard or station, is strictly prohibited, and commanding officers will be held directly responsible for the enforcement of this order."
JOSEPHUS DANIELS

1863  Siege of Vicksburg begins (to July 4)

1922  Sydney and Violet Schiff hold a dinner at the Hotel Majestic in Paris for Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Pablo Picasso, and Sergei Diaghilev to honor Igor Stravinsky

1942  excellent inn near Harrogate, in England, is named for Banastre Tarleton, the notorious Tory leader, claiming he was the only successful British general of the American Revolution, though at least one observer has commented that this is an “exaggeration for which the quality of their beer easily gains forgiveness.”

1944         The Polish II Corps stormed Monte Cassino :

For our freedom and yours,
We soldiers of Poland
     Gave
 Our soul to God,
Our life to the soil of Italy,
Our hearts to Poland."--   Polish Memorial, Monte Cassino

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318   BC   Phocion "the Good", c. 84, often victorious Strategos of Athens, executed in an political dispute

1536. Anne Boleyn, c. 30-35, Mrs. Henry VIII No. 2 (mother of Elizabeth I), beheaded on trumped up charges of treason, adultery, and incest

1588. Spanish Armada sets sail from Cadiz for Lisbon

1652. English fleer under Robert Blake fire on Maarten Tromp's Dutch fleet off Dover starting the First Anglo-Dutch War

1692. Start of Battle of Barfleur, and destruction of ships at La Hogue. A French fleet of 44 ships of the line, under Comte Anne Hilarion de Tourville, engaged an Anglo-Dutch fleet of 82 ships of the line, under Edward Russell.

1777 Declaring.  that "Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer, and the king does not believe that coffee drinking soldiers can be depended upon," Frederick the Great barred his troops from imbibing of the latter beverage.  This attitude may have resulted from Fred's youthful desire to read every book in a family library.  To use his time to the highest advantage, he would drink fifty cups of strong coffee a day.  By one account it took three years for his bowels to recover.

1871. Because the French used the Chassepot, the best infantry rifle of the age, but had obsolete muzzle loading artillery, while the Prussians used the obsolete Dryse “Needle Gun” but had superb Krupp breech-loading rifled cannon, during the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War approximately 70 percent of Prussian casualties were caused by infantry fire, while about the same proportion of French casualties were due to artillery.

1913  the German General Staff estimated that a European war would cost the Reich 10 to 11 billion marks a year, less than a quarter of what the 1914-1918 war actually cost

1935  T. E. Lawrence "of Arabia", 46, motorcycle accident

1944  During combat, the American "Combat Command" armored division during World War II consumed approximately six tons of petroleum products an hour.

1964       Over 40 "bugs" found in the U.S. embassy in Moscow

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1347   With papal help, Cola di Rienzo stages a coup against the barons at Rome and declares himself Tribune of a new "Roman Republic" (to Dec 15th)

1498  Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut, India

1815  Commodore Stephen Decatur sails with his flagship USS Guerriere and a squadron of nine ships for the Mediterranean to suppress piracy. Under strict negotiations, Decatur is able to secure a treaty with the Day of Algiers, His Highness Omar Bashaw, on July 3.

1855. The central event of the Crimean War was the protracted siege of Sebastopol (1854-1855) by a combined British, French, Sardinian, and Turkish army.  Actually more of a protracted blockade than a true siege, for most of the operation the two sides fought each from the dubious security of lines of entrenchment that stretched literally for miles, a harbinger of the horror that was to come during the Great War.
Naturally even when neither side attempted a full-scale effort to break the enemy lines, there was much fighting and skirmishing between the lines.
One night a particularly exposed British redoubt suddenly found itself the object of a strong Russian attack.  Although the British managed to hold the Russians, they were consuming ammunition at a prodigious rate.
Fearing that his position would soon be overrun, the officer commanding the post tore a leaf from a pocket note book.  On it he scrawled "In great danger.  Enemy pressing hotly. For Heaven's sake send us some ammunition," the officer signed his name, handed it to an orderly and sent the man to the rear.
The fighting grew more intense, and as ammunition began running low the officer awaited the return of his messenger.  Time passed, as the situation seemed to grow ever more desperate.  Then, almost as suddenly as it began, the Russian assault ebbed, even as the British troops were virtually down to their last rounds.
Just about then the orderly returned, bearing a message from the Ordnance officer.  One wonders what went through the officer's mind when he read, "All communications to this Department must be written on foolscap paper with a two-inch margin."

1912  Battlecruiser SMS 'Moltke' reaches Hampton Roads, on the only visit to the US by a German capital ship

1936  Neptunus Rex initiated 29,751 USN polliwogs into the Order of Shellbacks.  U.S. Fleet sortied from San Diego, bound for Panama, where Fleet Problem XVII was to be held. In command was Adm. James Mason Reeves. Now Reeves was first aviation officer to be promoted to admiral in the U.S. Navy, and the first aviator to become Command-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet. A staunch advocate of aviation and the aggressive use of aircraft carriers, Reeves was a thoroughly innovative thinker. But he was also very dedicated to the traditions of the service.
Having held senior posts in the Navy for a good many years, Reeves was aware that it had been some time since the fleet had last crossed the equator. This meant that most of the men in the fleet were not truly sailors, but mere pollywogs and tadpoles, never having been initiated into the true mysteries of the deep. So in the middle of the Fleet Problem, after elaborate exercises in the Gulf of Panama but before the fleet returned to San Diego, Reeves took it on a cruise to the Equator.
And on May 19, 1936, the admiral issued a special order to the fleet.

From: CINCUS, U.S.F.
To: All Hands
The senior shellback of the United States Fleet, the Commander-in-Chief, has reported to His Imperial Highness, Neptunus Rex, High Ruler of all the Seas, that he is approaching the headquarters of the Royal Domain with the largest number of pollywogs and tadpoles ever to be brought at a single time to pay homage to His Highness and to seek admission into the Loyal Order of Shellbacks.
There has just been received by seaweed communication in kelp code, information that Davy Jones, Peg-Leg, and the Royal Scribe are being dispatched by His Gracious Majesty Neptunus Rex via Sea Horse squadrons to board each vessel and to serve notice on all slimy fish to be prepared at 0830 tomorrow, Wednesday, to appear before the Royal Court ready to forswear their uncertain standing as amateur sailors and prepare to achieve the August and Glorious status as loyal subjects in the Order of Shellbacks.
Tomorrow, at 0830, King Neptune will board the fleet. All ships will fire a three-gun salute and stop, on signal, for five minutes. Display the Royal Flag of King Neptune at the mast truck for thirty minutes and render full honors as befits the occasion. The Loyal Order of Shellbacks will then proceed with the thorough initiation of all pollywogs on board.
/S/ James Mason Reeves, Admiral, U.S.N
Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet
Thus it was that on May 20, 1936, King Neptune and his entourage boarded the ships of the fleet and, following the hoary traditions of the sea, turned 29,751 pollywogs in shellbacks, including a vice-admiral, setting a world record that seems still to stand. And in appreciation of Reeves' thoughtfulness in seeing that all those amateur sailors were properly initiated into the Order of Shellbacks, King Neptune personally decorated the admiral.

1941. Max Schmeling and thousands of other German paratroopers invade Crete

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427   BC   Plato, wrestler, hoplite, philosopher, d. 348-347 BC

52. The Roman soldier and scholar Gaius Plinius Secundus – a.k.a. Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79) reported that he decided to write his now lost history of the German campaigns of Nero Claudius Drusus (38-9 BC) after the general’s ghost appeared to him in a dream; a spiritual visitation that occurred, perhaps not coincidentally, during the reign of the late commander’s son, the Emperor Claudius (r. A.D. 41-54)

878         besiged for eight months, Syracuse, capital of Byzantine Sicily, surrendered to Muslim invaders, who enslaved everyone they didn't massacre, and razed every church

1471         King Henry VI of England (1422-61, 70-71), of France (1422-1453), 49, beheaded in the Tower by his cousin Edward IV

1650         James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose (1612-1650), 37, Royalist commander, hanged by the Convenanters in Edinburgh

1762         HM frigate 'Active' & sloop 'Favourite' captured the Spanish ship 'Hermione' off Cadiz, realizing prize of £519,705 10s, perhaps £1.1 billion today During the Seven Years’ War Sir Edward Hawke commanded the Royal Navy’s blockade of the Spanish coast. On May 21, 1762, two of Hawke’s ships, the frigate Active and the sloop Favourite, patrolling off Cadiz, captured the Spanish ship Hermione out of Peru
Hermione was carrying an immense treasure. After appropriate admiralty charges were deducted, the prize value of the ship was declared to be £519,705 10s, perhaps £400 million, in money of 2008 using the “average earnings” scale.
Naturally, this haul was divided up according to the prevailing prize rules. As a result, Hawke, who wasn’t even present but was the commanding officer, came away with £64,964, the same sum awarded each of the captains of the two British ships, while lieutenants received £13,000 each, and so on down through the ranks to common seamen and marine privates, who each received £485, and “boys,” who got half that; so even the boys came away with what would today be about £180,000, a tidy sum indeed. The yield was probably the most impressive in the history of the age of sail, and for generations afterwards seagoing men spoke of the chance of encountering another “Golden Hermione,” a term that is preserved today for a breed of British rose.

1809. Napoleon engages Austria's Archduke Charles on the first day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling Day

1942 senior Allied political and military leaders feared a Japanese invasion of Australia, the Imperial Army General Staff had concluded such an undertaking would require 12 divisions and 1.5 million tons of shipping, which could not be secured without impeding the overall war

1993         Maj. Gen. John Frost, CB, DSO & Bar, MC who held the "Bridge Too Far" in 1944, at 80