9 June
1628 – Thomas Morton of Mass. became the 1st person deported from what is now US.
1732 – Royal charter for Georgia was granted to James Oglethorpe. Before settlement by Europeans, Georgia was inhabited by the mound building cultures. The British colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe on February 12, 1733 (February 1, 1732 O.S.). The colony was administered by the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America under a charter issued by (and named for) King George II. The Trustees implemented an elaborate plan for the colony’s settlement, known as the Oglethorpe Plan, which envisioned an agrarian society of yeoman farmers and prohibited slavery.
1772 – In an incident that some regard as the first naval engagement of the American Revolution, colonists board the Gaspee, a British vessel that ran aground off the coast of Rhode Island, and set it aflame. The Gaspee was pursuing the Hanna, an American smuggling ship, when it ran aground off Namquit Point in Providence’s Narragansett Bay on June 9. That evening, John Brown, an American merchant angered by high British taxes on his goods, rowed out to the Gaspee with a number of other colonists and seized control of the ship. After leading away its crew, the Americans set the Gaspee afire. When British officials attempted to prosecute the colonists involved in the so-called “Gaspee Affair,” they found no Americans willing to testify against their countrymen. This renewed the tension in British-American relations and inspired the Boston Patriots to found the “Committee of Correspondence,” a propaganda group that rallied Americans to their cause by publicizing all anti-British activity that occurred throughout the 13 colonies.
1862 – Battle of Port Republic, last of 5 battles in Jackson’s Valley campaign. The Battle of Port Republic was fought in Rockingham County, Virginia, as part of Confederate Army Maj. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s campaign through the Shenandoah Valley during the American Civil War. Port Republic was a fierce contest between two equally determined foes and was the most costly battle fought by Jackson’s Army of the Valley during its campaign. Together, the battles of Cross Keys (fought the previous day) and Port Republic were the decisive victories in Jackson’s Valley Campaign, forcing the Union armies to retreat and leaving Jackson free to reinforce Gen. Robert E. Lee for the Seven Days Battles outside Richmond, Virginia.
1862 – President Lincoln himself, after talking to pilots and studying charts, reconnoitered to the east¬ward of Sewell’s Point and found a suitably unfortified landing site near Willoughby Point. The troops embarked in transports that night. The next morning they landed near the site selected by the President. The latter, still afloat, from his “command ship” Miami ordered U.S.S. Monitor to reconnoiter Sewell’s Point to learn if the batteries were still manned. When he found the works abandoned, President Lincoln ordered Major General Wool’s troops to march on Norfolk, where they arrived late on the afternoon of the 10th.
1863 – Union mortar boats continued to bombard Vicksburg. From dawn until nearly noon, they poured 175 shells into the city as the Confederate position, cut off from supplies and relief, grew steadily more desperate. Heavy rains curtailed the mortar activity the next day, only some 75 shells being fired, but on the 11th the attack was stepped up once again and Ordnance Gunner Eugene Mack reported that 193 mortar shells fell on the river stronghold. Rear Admiral Porter wrote Secretary Welles: “The mortars keep constantly playing on the city and works, and the gunboats throw in their shell whenever they see any work going on at the batteries, or new batteries being put up. Not a soul is to be seen moving in the city, the soldiers lying in their trenches or pits, and the inhabitants being stowed in caves or holes dug out in the cliffs. If the city is not relieved by a much superior force from the outside, Vicksburg must fall without anything more being done to it. I only wonder it has held out so long. . .”
1863 – As the Army of Northern Virginia, under the command of General Robert E. Lee, started moving northward to take the war to the Union (a move that would eventually end at Gettysburg, PA), General J.E.B. Stuart was tasked to use the Confederate cavalry to screen this movement from Union scouts. But the Federals soon learned of a large rebel presence in area around Culpeper Court House, near a train depot named “Brandy Station.” Two Union cavalry corps, numbering some 11,000 men were dispatched as a “reconnaissance in force” when it clashed with Stuart’s 9,000 man mounted force. This set the stage for the largest cavalry engagement ever fought on the North American continent. Perhaps the toughest fighting of the day occurred when the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry collided with 10th Virginia Cavalry. In a scene reminiscent of a movie there was a swirling, melee as sabers flashed and dust was kicked up by injured and frightened horses. The 10th Virginia was about to give way when the 9th Virginia Cavalry galloped into the fray and caused so much damage to the 6th PA that it pulled back to regroup. The type of combat experienced by these three units was repeated in numerous encounters over an area of several square miles as nearly 20,000 men and horses charged into each other much as waves clash onto a beach, only to recede to regroup and charge again. At the end of the day the Confederates held the ground but the Union cavalry, which up to this point in the war had proved ineffective against the rebels, held its own in most of the engagement. The number of Union dead was 852 while the Confederates lost 515 men. Thousands of horses were killed or injured and had to be destroyed. The 6th PA Cavalry was organized by Colonel Richard Rush in Philadelphia in July 1861, by raising new recruits and combining them with an existing mounted volunteer militia unit from Berks County. The men were issued ten foot lances then popular with European light cavalry. Known as “Rush’s Lancers” they were high-trained, which was enhanced by their assignment to a brigade of five Regular Army cavalry squadrons under the command of Brigadier General John Buford. By the time of the Battle of Brandy Station the Lancers had traded their lances for Sharps carbine rifles. However several veterans later regretted not having retained the lances as they would have been more effective in the melee than letting their opponent get close enough to use his saber.
1864 – Battle of Kenesaw Mountain, GA (Pine Mt, Pine Knob, Golgotha).
1870 – Pres Grant met with Sioux chief Red Cloud.
1883 – The 1st commercial electric railway line began operation Chicago.
1916 – Robert McNamara, American businessman and politician, 8th United States Secretary of Defense (d. 2009), was born.
1915 – William Jennings Bryan resigns as Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of State over a disagreement regarding the United States’ handling of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.
1918 – Under orders form General Erich Ludendorff, the deputy chief of the German General Staff, General Oskar von Hutier’s Eighteenth Army launches the fourth in a series of offensives. Ludendorff is aiming to unite two salient, carved out in previous attacks, in the Amiens and Aisne-Marne sectors. Hutier is to attack westward along the Matz River, a tributary of the Oise River, in the direction of Noyon and Montdidier. The commander of the Third French Army, however, General Georges Humbert, has been forewarned by deserters of the German attack and organizes his defenses accordingly. He initiates an artillery bombardment on the enemy assault troops shortly before their onslaught. This is still unable to prevent the Germans from gaining some 5 miles on the first day of their attack which is codenamed Gneisenau. French resistance intensifies over the following days and the attempted link-up between Hutier’s troops and the German Seventh Army under General Max von Boehn, which began an attack from Soissons on the 10th, fails. Meanwhile, French general Charles Mangin has organized a counterattacking force of three French and two US divisions. These strike the Eighteenth Army on the 12th, forcing Ludendorff to call off the operation the following day.
1931 – Robert H. Goddard patented a rocket-fueled aircraft design.
1942 – The Japanese high command announced that “The Midway Occupation operations have been temporarily postponed.”
1942 – First Navy photograhic interpretation unit set up in the Atlantic.
1942 – The British and Americans appoint Oliver Lyttleton and Donald Nelson as heads of the Combined Boards for Production and Food.
1943 – World War II prompted sweeping fiscal changes in the United States, as President Franklin Roosevelt and Congress geared the nation for the rigors of wartime production. Along with reallocating vast chunks of America’s work force to the task of manufacturing military items, Roosevelt helped establish tight controls on wages, prices, and consumption. While most of these initiatives were brought to a halt shortly after the declaration of peace in 1945, at least one wartime fiscal policy–the Current Tax Payment Act — has had some enduring impact. Indeed, the tax legislation, which hit the law books on this day in 1943, paved the path for withholding on income taxes. In particular, the bill, popularly known as the “Pay As You Go Tax,” allowed Americans to taxpayers to withhold federal income taxes before getting paid their wages or salaries.
1944 – On the right flank of the invasion beaches, elements of the US 7th Corps capture Azeville in its northward drive toward Cherbourg. Other elements are moving west toward Carentan. The US 5th Corps, from Omaha beach, capture Trevieres. The British and Canadian forces of the British 2nd Army are heavily engaged by growing German reserves around Caen. Allied aircraft are now operating from forward landing strips in France.
1944 – Forces of the US 5th Army capture Tarquinia, Viterbo and Vetrella. Elements of British 8th Army advance toward Terni and Orvieto. A small amphibious force lands at Santo Stefano. Meanwhile, there is a substantial reorganization of Allied forces. Elements of British 10th and 13th Corps are regrouped while elements of the US 6th Corps, mostly, are withdrawn from the line for the invasion of southern France.
1944 – Marshal Badoglio resigns and Ivanoe Bonomi forms a new government. The cabinet includes Count Sforza, Professor Croce and Togliatti, the Communist Party leader.
1945 – On Okinawa, the Japanese forces defending the Oroku peninsula are cut off and surrounded by forces of the US 6th Marine Division. The US 1st Marine Division advance southward to Kunishi Ridge, one of the last Japanese strong points.
1945 – On Luzon, the US 37th Division captures Bagabag. The American forces attempt to block the routes into the Cagayan valley in order to isolate the Japanese forces concentrated in the Sierra Madre, in the northeast. On Mindanao, elements of the US 24th Division take Mandog, the last major strong point in the Japanese defenses.
1945 – Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki declared that Japan will fight to the last rather than accept unconditional surrender.
1948 – Israel became a state and was immediately attacked by her Arab neighbors. About 150,000 Arabs remained in Israel after the founding. Most others fled or were forced out.
1951 – Eighth Army commander Lieutenant General James A. Van Fleet insisted that his forces occupy suitable ground in the event of a cease-fire.
1954 – In a dramatic confrontation, Joseph Welch, special counsel for the U.S. Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during hearings on whether communism has infiltrated the U.S. armed forces. Welch’s verbal assault marked the end of McCarthy’s power during the anticommunist hysteria of the Red Scare in America. Senator McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) experienced a meteoric rise to fame and power in the U.S. Senate when he charged in February 1950 that “hundreds” of “known communists” were in the Department of State. In the years that followed, McCarthy became the acknowledged leader of the so-called Red Scare, a time when millions of Americans became convinced that communists had infiltrated every aspect of American life. Behind closed-door hearings, McCarthy bullied, lied, and smeared his way to power, destroying many careers and lives in the process. Prior to 1953, the Republican Party tolerated his antics because his attacks were directed against the Democratic administration of Harry S. Truman. When Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower entered the White House in 1953, however, McCarthy’s recklessness and increasingly erratic behavior became unacceptable and the senator saw his clout slowly ebbing away. In a last-ditch effort to revitalize his anticommunist crusade, McCarthy made a crucial mistake. He charged in early 1954 that the U.S. Army was “soft” on communism. As Chairman of the Senate Government Operations Committee, McCarthy opened hearings into the Army. Joseph N. Welch, a soft-spoken lawyer with an incisive wit and intelligence, represented the Army. During the course of weeks of hearings, Welch blunted every one of McCarthy’s charges. The senator, in turn, became increasingly enraged, bellowing “point of order, point of order,” screaming at witnesses, and declaring that one highly decorated general was a “disgrace” to his uniform. On June 9, 1954, McCarthy again became agitated at Welch’s steady destruction of each of his arguments and witnesses. In response, McCarthy charged that Frederick G. Fisher, a young associate in Welch’s law firm, had been a long-time member of an organization that was a “legal arm of the Communist Party.” Welch was stunned. As he struggled to maintain his composure, he looked at McCarthy and declared, “Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.” It was then McCarthy’s turn to be stunned into silence, as Welch asked, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?” The audience of citizens and newspaper and television reporters burst into wild applause. Just a week later, the hearings into the Army came to a close. McCarthy, exposed as a reckless bully, was officially condemned by the U.S. Senate for contempt against his colleagues in December 1954. During the next two-and-a-half years McCarthy spiraled into alcoholism. Still in office, he died in 1957.
1959 – Launching of USS George Washington (SSBN-598), first nuclear powered fleet ballistic missile submarine, at Groton, CT.
1961 – Diem requests US assistance in increasing the South Vietnamese Army by 100,000 men. In August, Washington agrees to finance a 30,000 man increase, but continues to postpone the buildup of US advisors, Diem also requested.
1963 – JFK named Winston Churchill a US honorary citizen.
1964 – In reply to a formal question submitted by President Lyndon B. Johnson–“Would the rest of Southeast Asia necessarily fall if Laos and South Vietnam came under North Vietnamese control?”–the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) submits a memo that effectively challenges the “domino theory” backbone of the Johnson administration policies. This theory contended that if South Vietnam fell to the communists, the rest of Southeast Asia would also fall “like dominoes,” and the theory had been used to justify much of the Vietnam War effort. The CIA concluded that Cambodia was probably the only nation in the area that would immediately fall. “Furthermore,” the report said, “a continuation of the spread of communism in the area would not be inexorable, and any spread which did occur would take time–time in which the total situation might change in any number of ways unfavorable to the communist cause.” The CIA report concluded that if South Vietnam and Laos also fell, it “would be profoundly damaging to the U.S. position in the Far East,” but Pacific bases and allies such as the Philippines and Japan would still wield enough power to deter China and North Vietnam from any further aggression or expansion. President Johnson appears to have ignored the CIA analysis–he eventually committed over 500,000 American troops to the war in an effort to block the spread of communism to South Vietnam.
1969 – President Thieu, in a televised news conference in Saigon, attempts to counter the gloom following his meeting with President Nixon by saying ‘this is a replacement, not a withdrawal. Withdrawal is a defeatist and misleading term.’
1972 – In Military Region II, senior US advisor John Paul Vann is killed in a helicopter crash.
1972 – Under President Nixon, the number of USAF fighter bombers in Southeast Asia has tripled, the number of aircraft carriers has tripled and will quadruple (2 to 8), and B-52s are being quadrupled.
1972 – Part of a relief column composed mainly of South Vietnamese 21st Division troops finally arrives in the outskirts of An Loc. The division had been trying to reach the besieged city since April 9, when it had been moved from its normal station in the Mekong Delta and ordered to attack up Highway 13 from Lai Khe to open the route to An Loc. The South Vietnamese forces had been locked in a desperate battle with a North Vietnamese division that had been blocking the highway since the very beginning of the siege. As the 21st Division tried to open the road, the defenders inside An Loc fought off repeated attacks by two North Vietnamese divisions that had surrounded the city early in April. This was the southernmost thrust of the North Vietnamese invasion that had begun on March 30; the other main objectives were Quang Tri in the north and Kontum in the Central Highlands. Although the lead elements of the 21st Division reached the outskirts of the city on this day, they did not represent significant reinforcements for An Loc, having suffered tremendous casualties in their fight up the highway and the two-month siege was not lifted. It would not be lifted until large numbers of fresh reinforcements were flown in to a position south of the city from which they then successfully attacked the North Vietnamese forces that surrounded the city. By the end of the month, most of the communist troops within the city had been eliminated, but the North Vietnamese forces still blocked Route 13 and continued to shell An Loc.
1985 – Thomas Sutherland (born May 3, 1931), former Dean of Agriculture at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon was kidnapped by Islamic Jihad members near his Beirut home. He was released on November 18, 1991 at the same time as Terry Waite, having been held hostage for 2353 days. Sutherland earned a degree in Agriculture from Glasgow University, and moved to the United States in the 1950s. He was awarded a master’s degree and PhD in animal breeding from Iowa State University, then taught animal science at Colorado State University for 26 years. He moved to Beirut in 1983 for a three-year term as dean of the faculty of agriculture and food science in the American University in Beirut. Despite the assassination of University President Malcolm Kerr and the kidnapping of Professor Frank Reiger in 1984, and despite being warned repeatedly by the State Department to leave, Sutherland remained at the University. Two weeks after David P. Jacobsen was abducted, Sutherland was also kidnapped while using the limousine of University President Calvin Plimpton. Upon his release, Sutherland claimed that the kidnappers mistook him for Plimpton. He was the second-longest held captive after Terry Anderson. His memories of the experience were published in a book co-authored by his wife Jean, At Your Own Risk (ISBN 1555912559). He claims to have attempted suicide a number of times and to have spent a substantial amount of time in solitary confinement. In June 2001, the Sutherland family won a $323 million verdict in a lawsuit against the frozen assets of the government of Iran, because of evidence that Iran had directed terrorists to kidnap Americans in Lebanon. In accordance with Section 2002 of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, Pub.L. 106–385, Sutherland and his family received $35,041,877.36 (including interest) and the lien for the rest of the original settlement is now held by the US Government.
1986 – The Rogers Commission released its report on the “Challenger” disaster, criticizing NASA and rocket-builder Morton Thiokol for management problems leading to the explosion that claimed the lives of seven astronauts. The Space Shuttle Challenger blew up as a result of a failure in a solid rocket booster joint.
1987 – In a second day of testimony before the Iran-Contra congressional committees, secretary Fawn Hall said she had spirited secret documents from the White House because she feared they would fall into the wrong hands.
1994 – In a bipartisan slap at President Clinton, the House of Representatives voted 244-178 for the United States to defy the international arms embargo on Bosnia.
1995 – One week after being shot down over Bosnia by a Bosnian Serb missile, and a day after being rescued, US Air Force Captain Scott O’Grady was warmly welcomed by his comrades at Aviano Air Base in Italy.
1997 – Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston gave up his fight to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, his candidacy doomed by the clamor over his admission that he’d had an adulterous affair years ago.
1999 – Germany sent $18 million to the US Treasury for distribution to the survivors of the WW II concentration camps.
1999 – Yugoslav and Western generals signed a military agreement to end the 78-day NATO air war against Yugoslavia based on a demonstrable withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo and a complete pullout in 11 days.
2002 – U.S. military officials reported that traces of nerve agents and mustard gas were found in three locations at a U.S. base in Uzbekistan. Later tests reported no contamination.
2002 – Iraq and Qatar signed a free-trade agreement to drop customs duties and ease the flow of goods between the two Arab countries, further mending relations damaged by the 1990-91 Gulf War.
2003 – As rebels bore down on the capital of Liberia, French helicopters rescued more than 500 Americans, Europeans and other foreigners.
2004 – G-8 Summit leaders at Sea Island Resort near Savannah, Georgia, called for Middle East reform and a broader role for NATO in Iraq.
2004 – An Afghan commander said that Afghan and U.S. forces killed more than 70 Taliban rebels in a seven-day operation in a mountainous southern district, including at least 20 militants who died in a single clash.
2004 – At least 20 militants were killed in a gunbattle with the Pakistani army in a tense border region where hundreds of al-Qaida militants are suspected to be hiding.
2014 – Following its large-scale offensives in Iraq, ISIS had seized control of most of Mosul, the second most populous city in Iraq, a large part of the surrounding Nineveh province, and the city of Fallujah. ISIS also took control of Tikrit, the administrative center of the Salah ad Din Governorate, with the ultimate goal of capturing Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. The militants seized control of government offices, the airport and police stations. Militants also looted the Central Bank in Mosul, reportedly absconding with US$429 million. More than 500,000 people fled Mosul to escape ISIS. Mosul is a strategic city as it is at a crossroad between Syria and Iraq, and poses the threat of ISIS seizing control of oil production.
Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2005/06/09/june-9/
