This Day in History

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4977   BC   The Creation, according to Kepler

399   BC   Socrates, noted hoplite, stone cutter, busy-body, executed by poison, at c. 70

1773. British Parliament passes Tea Act, leading to the Boston Tea Party

1805. With naval bombardment from USS Nautilus, USS Hornet, and USS Argus, Lt. Presley OBannon leads his Marines to attack Derne, Tripoli, and raises the first U.S. flag over foreign soil. The Battle of Derna was the Marines' first battle on foreign soil, and is notably recalled in the first verse of the Marines Hymn.

1822. Ulysses S Grant, general, 1861-1869, president 1869-1877, memoirist, d.  1885.

1937. Sgt. Maj. Daniel Joseph Daly, iconic and eloquent U.S. Marine, with two Medals of Honor, at 63.  Daniel Joseph Daly (1873-1937), known as “Dan”, was a one of those unique characters that the U.S. Marines seem to produce from time to time.
Only about 5'6" tall and weighing in at 132 pounds, Daly, a lightweight boxer in his youth, joined the Marine Corps early in 1899.  He earned a Medal of Honor during the Boxer Rebellion on August 14, 1900, single-handedly holding an isolated position in the Legation Quarter at Peking overnight against enormous odds, while inflicting hundreds of casualties on the enemy.  In 1915, Daly won a second Medal of Honor  for helping to lead 35 marines to safety when they were ambushed by about 400 insurgents near Ft. Dipitie, Haiti, on October 24, 1915.  During the fight for Belleau Wood, in France (June 5-10, 1918), Daly again turned in such an outstanding performance that he was nominated for a third Medal of Honor, which was disapproved in favor of the Navy Cross and the offer of a commission.  Daly declined the commission, saying "To be a sergeant, you have to know your stuff.  I'd rather be an outstanding sergeant than just another officer."
Now during the fighting for Belleau Wood, Gunnery Sergeant Daniel Daly is famous for supposedly leading an attack with the cry, "Come on, you sons of bitches -- do you want to live forever?"
Often asked about this, Daly denied having uttered any such vulgarity, telling one reporter "You know a non-com would never use hard language.  I said, 'For goodness sake, you chaps, let us advance against the foe'."  On another occasion, however, he said that his words were "For Christ's sake, do you want to live forever," while he later also claimed to have said "Gracious, you chaps, do you want to live forever", not to mention “For Christ's sake men—come on! Do you want to live forever?"   
Whatever it was Daly said, the sentiment has certainly been expressed before.  While serving in the 61st New York Infantry during the Seven Day’s Battles in the Spring of 1862, Nelson A. Miles (later a distinguished Indian fighter and the Commanding General of the Army during the War with Spain) heard an unknown Confederate Colonel lead an attack with the cry, "Come on! Come on! Do you want to live forever?"
In addition to his two awards of the Medal of Honor and his Navy Cross, Daly held the Distinguished Service Cross, plus the French Medaille militaire and Croix de guerre avec palm, as well as two Letters of Commendation and two Wound Stripes, which in World War II would have been a Silver Star, with bronze device in lieu of second award, and the Purple Heart, with bronze device.
Daly retired from the Marine Corps in 1929, returned to New York City, where he worked as a bank guard, never spoke about his military experiences, and died in 1937.  He is buried in Cypress Hills National Cemetery, in Brooklyn.

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1545. Yi Sun-sin, Korea's greatest admiral, d/w, Battle of Noryang, 1598

1813  Prince Mikhail Illarionovich Golenischev-Kutuzov, 67, Russian field marshal who bested Bonaparte in 1812-1813 [Apr. 6, OS]

1937, Vernon Bartlett (1894-1983), a veteran of the trenches and a journalist for the British daily The News Chronicle, interviewed Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini (1883-1945).  Since Il Duce only agreed to interviews if a reporter would let him “review” any story, Bartlett submitted his draft report, rather than lose future access to the dictator.
When his draft came back, Bartlett was surprised to find that “The only alteration he made to my manuscript was significant.  Somewhere I had written, 'The Duce's laughter encouraged me to ask another indiscreet question.'  The word 'laughter' had been crossed out, and 'cordiality' stood in its place.  Apparently no dictator may laugh."
 
1939  Hitler claims the 1934 German-Polish non-aggression pact is still in effect

1943. air movement of B-24s from the U.S. to Europe in 1943-1944, required 18 days, following a route from Florida to Trinidad, to northwestern Brazil, to Ascension Island, to the Gold Coast or Nigeria and thence across West Africa, making several stops, and then to Morocco, to begin the final leg to Britain, or to Egypt or Libya, if bound for Italy.

mid-1944 to the end of the Pacific War, U.S. aircraft carriers lost an average of four aircraft a month while not in flight due to accidents, mechanical breakdowns, or enemy action.

1950, second lieutenants in the U.S. Army were paid nearly $2,600 a year, which was just about median income for the average American household.

1942    Nightly "dim-out" belatedly initiated on the East Coast, greatly reduces sinking of merchant vessels by German submarines

1944. William Franklin "Frank" Knox, 70, sometime Rough Rider, Republican newspaper publisher and politician, FDR's SecNav (1940-1944)

German torpedo boats attack U.S. Navy LST convoy in Lyme Bay during Operation Tiger training for the Normandy Invasion. USS LST 507 and USS LST 531 are sunk at Portland Bill, England, and USS LST 289 is damaged, with 198 Sailors dead or missing and 551 Army dead or missing from later reports.

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711      Tariq ibn Ziyad’s Moorish army landed at Gibraltar, to overthrow the Visigothic Spain, initiating and a multigenerational conflict that ended in 1492.

1676. Dutch Adm. Michael Ruyter, cannonballed at 69, Naval Battle of Syracuse

1837..Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger, 54, French general, frustrated putchist, suicide in 1891, on the grave of his mistress

1873. Francis John William Harvey was born, Royal Marine who received a posthumous Victoria Cross at Jutland.  veteran major in the Royal Marines and a specialist in gunnery, commanded Q turret on HMS Lion. Early in the battle, as the battle cruisers were exchanging fire, Lion was hit by nine shells from SMS Lutzow, and at 16:00 one struck the turret, blowing off the roof and started a fire. Although mortally wounded, ordered the turret’s magazine to be flooded, preventing tons ammunition from exploding and destroying the ship, a deed which prompted Winston Churchill to comment: "In the long, rough, glorious history of the Royal Marines there is no name and no deed which in its character and consequences ranks above this". Harvey ‘s name is inscribed on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

1918         Gavrilo Princip, assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, in jail at 23 of TB

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37.  Roman governor Lucius Vitellius, successor to Pontius Pilate, arranged a sacrifice to "the God of the Jews" at the Temple of Jerusalem

535  Queen Amalasuntha of the Ostrogoths (516-534), 40, strangled by order of her husband Theodahad, who assumes the throne (534-536),


1305   Massacre of Adrianople: Byzantine Emperor Michael IX Palaiologos contrives the destruction of the Catalan Company

1492. Ferdinand & Isabella agree to bankroll Columbus

1797. HMS Indefatigable (44), Sir Edward Pellew,, midshipmen Horatio Hornblower, & others captured French privateer brig La Basque ( in the Channel

1828.  King Shaka zan Senzagakona of the Zulu (1816-1828), c. 41, murdered by his brothers

1863. one point during the siege of Vicksburg, while viewing Confederate lines from an observation tower, Union general James McPherson’s carelessness in exposing himself led a Reb to shout that if he didn’t duck he’d likely get his head shot off; whereupon the Reb’s officer reprimanded him for swearing at a superior officer.

1945     Lt. Raqymjan Qoshqarbaev raised the Red Banner over the Reichstag Building in Berlin
     .1945         Col. William O. Darby, of "Darby's Rangers," kia at 34 near Lake Garda, while serving as Assistant Commander, 10th Mountain Div

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305         Roman Emperor Diocletian (284-305) retires to grow cabbages at Spoletum, while his partner Maximian (286-305) retires too, under protest.

1308         Holy Roman Emperor Albrecht I von Hapsburg (1298-1308), c. 53, assassinated by his nephew

1675 finally that the French Army firmly established the principle that an officer's bureaucratic rank, not his aristocratic rank, determined precedence in command, which was one reason why Louis XIV's forces began doing much better than most other armies.

1769. Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, d. 1852.
The phrase “duke it out”, meaning “fight”, appears to derive ultimately from a nickname of one of the Great Captains, the Duke of Wellington (1769-1852).
It seems that the Duke had a rather prominent nose, so distinctive, in fact, that his troops often referred to him as "Old Nosey". So the word “duke” soon became a synonym for “nose” in working class English slang, attested during Wellington’s own lifetime. That, in turn, led to the rise of the threat “bust your duke”, meaning “punch your nose”, and thus to “duke buster” as slang for “fist”, which was soon shortened to “duke”.
By further evolution, the phrase “put up your dukes” developed as an invitation to fight and “duke it out” became slang for “fight”.
While some etymologists apparently do not agree with this derivation, it’s worth noting that there is in London a mini-monument to the ducal proboscis, suggesting how notable it was.


1811. HMS Pomone (38), Cptn. Robert Barrie, HMS  Unite (40), Cptn. Chamberlayne, and HMS Scout (18), Cptn. Alex. Renton Sharpe, destroyed Giraffe (26) and Nourrise (14) and an armed merchantman in the Bay of Sagone, Corsica. The two French warships blew up and their burning timbers destroyed a Martello tower and caused a shore battery to blow up.

HMS Guerriere (38), Cptn. Samuel John Pechell, stopped the brig USS Spitfire off Sandy Hook in New Jersey and impressed Maine citizen John Diggio.

1862. David Farragut captures New Orleans

1863. Battle of Chancellorsville begins (ends on the 4th)

1961. Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba

1934. Lt. Frank Akers makes a hooded landing in an OJ-2 at College Park, Maryland, in the first blind landing system intended for an aircraft carrier.

1943, Capt. Harold L. Meadows of the escort carrier Natoma Bay, then operating in tropical climes in support of operations against Japanese forces, called up the ship's "GSO" (General Services Officer). When the laundry officer answered, the Captain roared, "Who put the itching powder in my underwear?"
The startled officer expressed doubts that anyone would have the temerity to do so, but the Captain emphasized that such was indeed the case, and ordered the man to apprehend the malefactor immediately.
The GSO promptly headed for the ship's laundry. Lining up the men, he demanded, "Who put the itching powder in the Captain's underwear?"
The assembled men were silent. Then, just as the officer was about to repeat his question, a man in the rear of the assembled laundry workers spoke up, "Do you suppose that's where the fiberglass curtain went?"
Everyone looked at the man in surprise. There was a missing curtain, one of many which had been supplied by the Navy in lieu of more expensive doors. The curtain had become mixed up with the regular laundry. Unfortunately, it was not supposed to be washed using the same water temperature, soap, and bleach used to wash the men's cottons. As a result it had disintegrated, leaving behind a fine, abrasive dust, which was now all over not just the Captain's underwear, but that of the entire crew; the Captain had just had the misfortune to have his laundry delivered before anyone else's.
It took two additional washings before the men of Natoma Bay were able to rid themselves of the itchy fiberglass in their skivvies.

1944 during her third war patrol, the USS Angler (SS 240) sank a Japanese tanker in the Sunda strait despite widespread gastrointestinal Illness throughout the crew caused by an inadvertent addition of a can of carbon tetrachloride, a cleaning agent, to the water supply.

[Sir Slash]

Thusly giving the Japanese the shits also.