1920 – The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.
1943 – Two US cruisers and four destroyers bombard the Aleutian island of Attu.
1946 – Staged jointly by the USCG and USN, the first public demonstration of LORAN was held at Floyd Bennett Field in New York. Loran was originally developed to provide radionavigation service for U.S. coastal waters and was later expanded to include complete coverage of the continental U.S. as well as most of Alaska. Today twenty-four U.S. Loran-C stations work in partnership with Canadian and Russian stations to provide coverage in Canadian waters and in the Bering Sea. Loran-C provides better than 0.25 nautical mile absolute accuracy for suitably equipped users within the published areas.
1946 – General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals. Also known as the Tokyo Trials, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, or simply the Tribunal, was convened on April 29, 1946, to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of war crimes. “Class A” crimes were reserved for those who participated in a joint conspiracy to start and wage war, and were brought against those in the highest decision-making bodies; “Class B” crimes were reserved for those who committed “conventional” atrocities or crimes against humanity; “Class C” crimes were reserved for those in “the planning, ordering, authorization, or failure to prevent such transgressions at higher levels in the command structure”. Twenty-eight Japanese military and political leaders were charged with Class A crimes, and more than 5,700 Japanese nationals were charged with Class B and C crimes, mostly entailing prisoner abuse. China held 13 tribunals of its own, resulting in 504 convictions and 149 executions.
1951 – Far East Air Forces launched a thirteen-day intensive air campaign, by fighters, light bombers, and medium bombers, to restrict to a trickle the supplies and reinforcements reaching enemy forces in the field.
1952 – The U.S. Navy hospital ship Repose departed Korean waters after the longest tour of duty for any such vessel during the Korean War — nearly one and one-half years.
1960 – The US signs a mutual defense treaty with Japan. Protests in Tokyo cause President Eisenhower to cancel a planned trip to Japan.
1961 -Outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower cautions incoming President John F. Kennedy that Laos is “the key to the entire area of Southeast Asia,” and might even require the direct intervention of U.S. combat troops. Fearing that the fall of Laos to the communist Pathet Lao forces might have a domino effect in Southeast Asia, President Kennedy sent a carrier task force to the Gulf of Siam in April 1961. However, he decided not to intervene in Laos with U.S. troops and in June 1961, he sent representatives to Geneva to work out a solution to the crisis. In 1962, an agreement was signed that called for the neutrality of Laos and set up a coalition government to run the country. By this time, Kennedy had turned his attention to South Vietnam, where a growing insurgency threatened to topple the pro-western government of Ngo Dinh Diem. Kennedy had already sent combat advisers to the South Vietnamese army and this commitment expanded over time. By the time Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, he had overseen the assignment of over 17,000 U.S. advisers to South Vietnam.
1968 – Cambodia charges that the United States and South Vietnam have crossed the border and killed three Cambodians.
1968 – “Sky Soldiers” from the 173rd Airborne Brigade begin Operation McLain with a reconnaissance-in-force operation in the Central Highlands. The purpose of this operation was to find and destroy the communist base camps in the area in order to promote better security for the province. The operation ended on January 31, 1970, with 1,042 enemy casualties.
1977 – President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D’Aquino (a.k.a. “Tokyo Rose”).
1980 – President Jimmy Carter announces the United States boycott of the Summer Olympics in Moscow.
1981 – The United States and Iran signed an agreement in Algiers paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months.
1986 – The first IBM PC computer virus is released into the wild. A boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain, it was created by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter piracy of the software they had written.
1991 – During the Gulf War, Israel’s anti-missile force was boosted by additional Patriot missile batteries and U-S crews. A second Iraqi missile attack caused 29 injuries in Tel Aviv. Allied forces began bombarding Iraq’s elite Republican Guard.
1993 – The first American combat troops flew home from their humanitarian mission in Somalia.
1993 – Iraq agrees to allow UNSCOM flights in Iraq. Iraq had refused to allow UNSCOM to use its own aircraft in Iraq. Also, Iraq began incursions into the demilitarized zone with Kuwait, and increases its military activity in the no-fly zones. The U.N. Security Council states that Iraq’s actions were an “unacceptable and material” breach of Resolution 687 and warns Iraq of “serious consequences.” Shortly thereafter, the United States, UK, and France launch air raids on southern Iraq.
1998 – The US and China signed an accord designed to avoid naval and air conflicts at sea.
1999 – In Serbia Gen’l. Wesley Clark and Gen’l. Klaus Naumann met with Pres. Milosevic and threatened him with NATO airstrikes due to the massacre of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/january-19/
