1918 – Raoul Lufbery, one of the top-scoring US fighter pilots of the war with 17 victories, is killed during air combat. He had served with other American volunteers in the French Escadrille Lafayette (originally the Escadrille Americaine and credited with 38 air victories) before the United States’ entry into the war. Lufbery was the commander of the famed 94th “Hat in the Ring” Aero Squadron at the time of his death.
1921 – Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants entering the United States.
1927 – The 11th Marine Regiment arrived at Esteli, Nicaragua, for garrison duty.
1941 – Viet Minh, a communist coalition, formed at Cao Bằng Province, Vietnam.
1942 – In the aftermath of the Battle of the Coral Sea, Task Force 16 heads to Pearl Harbor.
1943 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set Monday, May 1, 1944 as the date for the Normandy landings (“D-Day”). It would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather.
1943 – On Attu, American forces advance along Clevesy Pass toward Chicagof.
1944 – Allied forces of US 5th Army continue to make advances. The US 2nd Corps captures Gasta Itri and Monte Grande. The French Expeditionary Corps nearly reaches Pico and battle for Campodimele. Meanwhile, British armor and infantry overrun the Aquino airfield, in the Liri Valley but German antitank guns repulse an attempt to seize the town.
1944 – American aircraft the carriers of Task Group 58.2 (Admiral Montgomery) conduct a raid on Marcus Island.
1945 – On Luzon, in the Ipoh dam area north of Manila, where the US 43rd Division of US 11th Corps is operating, Japanese resistance ends. The US 152nd Division is holding its positions near Woodpecker Ridge. The US 25th Division, part of US 1st Corps, begins mopping up in the area north and west of Santa Fe.
1945 – On Okinawa, the US 77th Division suffers heavy casualties while fighting for the Ishimmi ridge and withdraws.
1945 – Some 272 American B-29 Superfortress bombers strike Hamamatsu, 120 miles (192 km) from Tokyo. Bombs are dropped through the clouds from medium altitude.
1945 – The UN Charter committee met in Muir Woods. The meeting was planned by Roosevelt on a suggestion by Sec. of the Interior Ickes: one of the sessions “might be held among the giant redwoods in Muir Woods. Not only would this focus attention upon the nation’s interest in preserving these mighty trees for posterity, but in such a “temple of peace” the delegates would gain a perspective and sense of time that could be obtained nowhere better than in such a forest.”
1951 – The 2nd Infantry Division, with attached French and Dutch battalions, fought their way out of a Chinese trap in the mountains of central Korea, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. The 38th Field Artillery Battalion fired 12,000 rounds in a 24-hour period in support of the division.
1958 – The United States and Canada formally established the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).
1959 – The Peoples’ Army of Vietnam’s Military Transportation Group 559 formed on the 69th birthday of Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh. It ultimately resulted in the creation of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The trail was intended to facilitate the infiltrating of troops and transporting supplies from North Vietnam to support the revolution in South Vietnam.
1960 – USAF Maj. Robert M White took the X-15 to 33,222 m.
1964 – The State Department announced the U.S. embassy in Moscow had been bugged. A network of more than 40 microphones embedded in the walls had been found.
1964 – The United States initiates low-altitude target reconnaissance flights over southern Laos by U.S. Navy and Air Force aircraft. Two days later, similar flights were commenced over northern Laos. These flights were code-named Yankee Team and were meant to assist the Royal Lao forces in their fight against the communist Pathet Lao and their North Vietnamese and Viet Cong allies.
1965 – 30th Naval Construction Regiment activated at Danang, Vietnam.
1967 – The first U.S. air strike on central Hanoi was launched.
1967 – One of the first major treaties designed to limit the spread of nuclear weapons goes into effect as the Soviet Union ratifies an agreement banning nuclear weapons from outer space. The United States, Great Britain, and several dozen other nations had already signed and/or ratified the treaty. With the advent of the so-called “space race” between the United States and the Soviet Union, which had begun in 1957 when the Russians successfully launched the Sputnik satellite, some began to fear that outer space might be the next frontier for the expansion of nuclear weapons. To forestall that eventuality, an effort directed by the United Nations came to fruition in January 1967 when the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and dozens of other nations signed off on a treaty banning nuclear weapons from outer space. The agreement also banned nations from using the moon, other planets, or any other “celestial bodies” as military outposts or bases. The agreement was yet another step toward limiting nuclear weapons. In 1959, dozens of nations, including the United States and the Soviet Union, had agreed to ban nuclear weapons from Antarctica. In July 1963, the Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed, banning open-air and underwater nuclear tests. With the action taken in May 1967, outer space was also officially declared off-limits for nuclear weapons.
1972 – Units of South Vietnam’s 9th and 21st Divisions, along with several South Vietnamese airborne battalions, open new stretches of road south of An Loc and come within two miles of the besieged city. In the Central Highlands, North Vietnamese troops, preceded by heavy shelling, tried to break through the lines of South Vietnam’s 23rd Division defending Kontum, but the South Vietnamese troops held firm. These actions 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. Initially, the South Vietnamese defenders were almost overwhelmed, particularly in the northernmost provinces, where they abandoned their positions in Quang Tri and fled south in the face of the enemy onslaught. At Kontum and An Loc, the South Vietnamese were more successful in defending against the attacks, but only after weeks of bitter fighting. Although the defenders suffered heavy casualties, they managed to hold their own with the aid of U.S. advisors and American airpower. Fighting continued all over South Vietnam into the summer months, but eventually the South Vietnamese forces prevailed against the invaders and retook Quang Tri in September. With the communist invasion blunted, President Nixon declared that the South Vietnamese victory proved the viability of his Vietnamization program, which he had instituted in 1969 to increase the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces.
1970 – To commemorate Ho Chi Minh’s 80th birthday, Communist forces shell more than 60 allied positions.
1971 – Hanoi initiates three days of heavy rocket and mortar attacks on US positions along the DMZ.
1976 – The US Senate established congressional oversight over the CIA with the permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
1979 – R.C., “In The Navy” by Village People peaked at #3 on the pop singles chart.
1987 – President Reagan defended America’s presence in the Persian Gulf, two days after 37 American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. frigate Stark.
1990 – Secretary of State James A. Baker III concluded an agreement with the Soviet Union to destroy chemical weapons and settle longstanding disputes over limits on nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.
1995 – NASA’s administrator unveiled plans to slash thousands of aerospace jobs and to overhaul virtually every part of the agency.
1996 – The Endeavour Shuttle rocketed into orbit with six astronauts. One task was to deploy an experimental antennae that would inflate and swell to the size of a tennis court.
1999 – Ali A. Mohamed, a former US Army sergeant, was indicted for conspiring with Osama bin Laden to kill Americans abroad.
1999 – As NATO’s Operation Allied Force entered its ninth week, Russia’s special envoy to the Balkans called on both NATO and Yugoslavia to suspend hostilities.
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