1905 – An Executive Order extended the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service to the noncontiguous territory of Guam Island.
1928 – Marines participated in the Battle of Coco River in Nicaragua. A Marine-Guardia patrol under Captain Robert S. Hunter collided with an aggressive band of rebels. Apparently neither side was expecting an encounter. While pushing through a ravine, Captain Hunter’s point met a part of the enemy advance guard. Once this small group had been driven off, the Marines again pushed forward; but the rebels had gained time to deploy along the trail. The enemy opened fire with everything he had. Captain Hunter was seriously wounded, and command devolved upon 2d Lieutenant Earl S. Piper. The attackers pulled back before sunset, which enabled the young lieutenant to establish a perimeter defense. After dawn of 14 May, Lieutenant Piper sent a patrol to reconnoiter the positions which the enemy had abandoned. When it encountered no resistance, he concluded correctly that the rebels had divided their force to block the trail in either direction from his defensive perimeter. Concern for his wounded left him no alternative but to try to break through to the south toward La Flor and Quilali. Piper’s route of withdrawal carried him between two hills, Cinco and Ocho; and here the enemy lay in wait. Forty-five minutes of bitter fighting followed. The patrol reached La Flor coffee plantation on 15 May, and established a strong defensive position. All in all, Piper’s men had come through their ordeal in excellent condition. As soon as reinforcements arrived, they would be able to move northward once more; but help was slow in coming. Not until 22 May did a column commanded by Major K. M. Rockey arrive at the plantation.
1939 – The first commercial FM radio station in the United States is launched in Bloomfield, Connecticut. The station later becomes WDRC-FM.
1942 – A helicopter made its 1st cross-country flight.
1943 – US forces now outnumber the Japanese defenders on Attu Island by 4 to 1. However, the Americans are unable to extend their front beyond the landing areas. Bad weather and the terrain hinder progress.
1944 – Forces of the US 5th Army continue to attack. The Polish 2nd Corps suffers heavy losses in unsuccessful attacks against the German 1st Parachute Division holding Cassino. The French Expeditionary Corps, however, captures Castelforte as well as Monte Maio and advance to the Liri River at Sant’Appollinaire. The US 2nd Corps and British 13th Corps make limited advances during the day.
1944 – An American escort destroyer sinks the Japanese submarine I-501 (formerly U-1224) off the Azores. The submarine had been presented to the Japanese by the German Kriegsmarine.
1945 – On Okinawa, fierce fighting continues along the Shuri Line. The US 6th Marine Division suffers heavy losses but completes the capture of Dakeshi Ridge. On the east coast, elements of the US 96th Division penetrate the strip east of the Shuri line and take part of Conical Hill.
1945 – In Czechoslovakia, German forces continue to attempt to evade capture by Soviet forces and seek to surrender to American forces instead. Active resistance ends.
1945 – After more heavy fighting on Mindanao, the Del Monte airfield is captured by units of the US 40th Division. The US 24th Division advances northwards along the Talomo track in the river valley. On Luzon, the force of the US 1st Corps complete the occupation of the Balete Pass, clearing the way into the Cagayan valley. The US 43rd Division, part of US 11th Corps, comes within sight of the Ipoh dam.
1946 – US condemned 58 camp guards of Mauthausen concentration camp to death.
1952 – The Coast Guard announced the establishment of an Organized Reserve Training Program, the first in U.S. Coast Guard history. Morton G. Lessans was sworn in as the first member of the Organized Air Reserve on 12 December 1951.
1952 – Naval Task Force 77 began Operation INSOMNIA – a series of abbreviated night attacks.
1953 – General Clark authorized the mobilization of four more ROK divisions.
1953 – The Air Force’s 58th Fighter-Bomber Wing attacked Toksan Dam in North Korea and destroyed this major irrigation system.
1958 – The trademark Velcro is registered.
1960 – The 1st US launch of the Delta satellite launching vehicle failed.
1965 – President Johnson in a nationally televised address, accuses Communist China of opposing a political solution that could be in the best interests of North Vietnam, because China’s goal is to dominate ‘all of Asia.’
1965 – The US begins a five day suspension of air raids on North Vietnam, claiming, at first, operational reasons, but it is soon clear that the US hopes to give North Vietnam a chance to call for peace negotiations. North Vietnam and China will charge that the United States did not, in fact, stop the raids.
1968 – Peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam began in Paris.
1968 – Three additional Air Guard units are mobilized to join the 11 called up in January in response to the growing tensions in Korea and increased operational tempo in Vietnam. None of these three units deployed overseas. However, also mobilized on this date were 34 Army Guard units, including two infantry brigades; the 29th in HI and the 69th in KS/IA. This was the only involuntary call up of Army Guard personnel during the Vietnam War. Eight Army Guard units, composed of about 2,700 Guardsmen, saw combat in Vietnam; they were: 107th Signal Co. (RI), 116th Engineer BN (ID), 126th Service & Supply Co. (IL), 131st Engineer Co. (VT), 2nd Battalion, 138th Artillery (KY), Company D, 151st Infantry, Rangers (IN), 3rd Battalion, 197th Artillery (NH) and the 650th Medical Detachment (AL). In addition, over 4,300 Army Guardsmen mobilized in units which did not deploy, were levied and saw service in Vietnam as individual replacements. The first Army Guard unit to deploy to Vietnam, the 650th Medical Detachment (Dental Service), arrived just three months after being mobilized on this date. Shown is Captain Sidney T. Kellon, DDS, being observed working on a patient by the unit’s commander, Colonel Daniel T. Meadows, DDS. Of the eight Army Guard units deployed to Vietnam, at least six had African American Guard members in their ranks.
1971 – Still deadlocked, the Vietnam peace talks in Paris enter their fourth year. The talks had begun with much fanfare in May 1968, but almost immediately were plagued by procedural questions that impeded any meaningful progress. Even the seating arrangement was disputed: South Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Cao Ky refused to consent to any permanent seating plan that would appear to place the National Liberation Front (NLF) on an equal footing with Saigon. North Vietnam and the NLF likewise balked at any arrangement that would effectively recognize the Saigon as the legitimate government of South Vietnam. After much argument and debate, chief U.S. negotiator W. Averell Harriman proposed an arrangement whereby NLF representatives could join the North Vietnamese team but without having to be acknowledged by Saigon’s delegates; similarly, South Vietnamese negotiators could sit with their American allies without having to be acknowledged by the North Vietnamese and the NLF representatives. Such seemingly insignificant matters became fodder for many arguments between the delegations at the negotiations and nothing meaningful came from this particular round of the ongoing peace negotiations.
1972 – There was a burglary at the Chilean Embassy in Washington DC. Two members of Pres. Nixon’s secret White House team, known as the plumbers, were involved. Nixon later blamed the robbery on White House counsel John Dean.
1972 – Seventeen U.S. helicopters land 1,000 South Vietnamese marines and their six U.S. advisors behind North Vietnamese lines southeast of Quang Tri City in the first South Vietnamese counterattack since the beginning of the communist Nguyen Hue Offensive. The marines reportedly killed more than 300 North Vietnamese before returning to South Vietnamese-controlled territory the next day. Farther to the south, North Vietnamese tanks and troops continued their attacks in the Kontum area. On May 1, North Vietnamese troops had captured Quang Tri City, the first provincial capital taken during their ongoing offensive. The fall of the city effectively gave the North Vietnamese control of the entire province of Quang Tri. Farther south along the coast, three districts of Binh Dinh Province also fell, leaving about one-third of that province under communist control. These attacks were part of the North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive (later called the “Easter Offensive”), a massive invasion by North Vietnamese forces on March 30 to strike the blow that would win them the war. The attacking force included 14 infantry divisions and 26 separate regiments, with more than 120,000 troops and approximately 1,200 tanks and other armored vehicles. The main North Vietnamese objectives, in addition to Quang Tri in the north and Kontum in the Central Highlands, included An Loc farther to the south. The situation at Quang Tri would not be rectified until President Nguyen Van Thieu relieved the I Corps commander and replaced him with Maj. Gen. Ngo Quang Truong, whom Gen. Bruce Palmer, Jr., later described as “probably the best field commander in South Vietnam.” Truong effectively stopped the ongoing rout of South Vietnamese forces, established a stubborn defense, and eventually launched a successful counterattack against the North Vietnamese, retaking Quang Tri in September.
1979 – Shah and his family was sentenced to death in Teheran.
1986 – CGC Manitou stopped the 125-foot Sun Bird in 7th District waters and her boarding team discovered 40,000 pounds of marijuana hidden aboard. The boarding team then located the vessel’s builder’s plate and learned that the Sun Bird was the decommissioned “buck-and-a-quarter” cutter Crawford. The former cutter and her 14-man crew were taken into custody. A newspaper article describing the incident noted: “If Crawford was a person, Miami would have probably seen it blush . . . The ex-Coast Guard cutter received more publicity for smuggling the drugs than for its 20-year Coast Guard career.”
1987 – President Reagan said his personal diary confirmed that he’d talked with Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd about Saudi help for the Nicaraguan Contras at a time when Congress banned military aid, but Reagan said he did not solicit secret contributions.
1988 – The U.S. Senate voted 83-6 to order the U.S. military to enter the war against illegal drug trafficking, approving a plan to give the Navy the power to stop drug boats on the high seas and make arrests.
1989 – In unusually strong language, President Bush called on the people of Panama and the country’s defense forces to overthrow their military leader, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega.
1992 – A trio of astronauts from the space shuttle Endeavour captured a wayward Intelsat-6 communications satellite during the first-ever three-person spacewalk.
1996 – Britain’s last Polaris submarine, the HMS Repulse, came home for good. The Polaris subs have been replaced by the US Trident nuclear subs.
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