1900 – US Congress passed a law granting citizenship to all persons who had been citizens of the Republic of Hawaii at the time of annexation.
1922 – Warren G. Harding became the first president heard on radio, as Baltimore station WEAR broadcast his speech dedicating the Francis Scott Key memorial at Fort McHenry.
1927 – President Porfirio Diaz of Nicaragua signed a treaty with the U.S. allowing American intervention in his country.
1932 – Representative Edward Eslick died on the floor of the House of Representatives while pleading for the passage of the bonus bill.
1940 – In German-occupied Poland the first inmates arrived at Auschwitz concentration camp. They were all Polish political prisoners. The Nazis opened their concentration camp at Auschwitz.
1941 – The CGC Duane rescued 46 survivors from the torpedoed SS Tresillian.
1941 – President Roosevelt freezes all German and Italian assets in the United States.
1942 – The first bazooka rocket gun, produced in Bridgeport, Ct., demolished a tank from its shoulder-held position.
1944 – The first raid by American B-29 Superfortress bombers is carried out. A total of 48 planes (of which 4 are lost) make an ineffective strike on the Yawata iron and steel works during the night from bases in China.
1944 – US naval forces conduct bombardments of Saipan and Tinian in preparation for landings on these islands. The two American naval groups, commanded by Admiral Ainsworth and Admiral Oldendorf, include 7 battleships and 11 cruisers as well as 8 escort carriers in support. The battleship USS California is hit by a Japanese shore battery. Extensive mine-sweeping operations are also conducted by American forces.
1944 – A third corps, the US 19th Corps, is becomes operational between the 5th and 7th Corps. Free French leader, General de Gaulle, visits the beachhead and takes steps to restoring French civilian government in captured territory.
1945 – Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was honored as a Companion of the Liberation by Gen. Charles de Gaulle.
1945 – On Okinawa, mopping up operations proceed on the Oroku peninsula. The troops of the US 3rd Amphibious Corps and the US 24th Corps continue to eliminate fortified caves held by Japanese forces on Kunishi Ridge and on Mount Yuza and Mount Yaegu. An American regiment of the US 96th Division reaches the summit of Mount Yaegu, while the US th Division extends its control of Hills 153 and 115.
1945 – On Luzon, American forces dislodge the Japanese blocking the Orioung Pass. Elements of the US 37th Division, formed into an armored column, advance as far as Echague. From Santiago, other units advance toward Cabanatuan and Cauayan.
1945 – The US Joint Chiefs of Staff issue a directive to General MacArthur, General Arnold and Admiral Nimitz to prepare plans for the immediate occupation of the Japanese islands in the event of a sudden capitulation. This order may have been given in light of recent progress on the production of an atomic bomb but this is not stated.
1951 – A single communist Polikarpov PO-2 biplane dropped bombs on Suwon Airfield and another PO-2 bombed a motor pool at Inchon. These attacks marked the beginning of enemy night harassing missions that soon became known as “Bedcheck Charley.”
1951 – The destroyer-minesweeper USS Thompson was hit by communist shore battery fire suffering three sailors killed and three wounded. Having sustained 13 hits, the Thompson barely managed to escape out of range of the North Korean guns.
1951 – U.S. Census Bureau dedicates UNIVAC, the world’s first commercially produced electronic digital computer. UNIVAC, which stood for Universal Automatic Computer, was developed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, makers of ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer. These giant computers, which used thousands of vacuum tubes for computation, were the forerunners of today’s digital computers. The search for mechanical devices to aid computation began in ancient times. The abacus, developed in various forms by the Babylonians, Chinese, and Romans, was by definition the first digital computer because it calculated values by using digits. A mechanical digital calculating machine was built in France in 1642, but a 19th century Englishman, Charles Babbage, is credited with devising most of the principles on which modern computers are based. His “Analytical Engine,” begun in the 1830s and never completed for lack of funds, was based on a mechanical loom and would have been the first programmable computer. By the 1920s, companies such as the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) were supplying governments and businesses with complex punch-card tabulating systems, but these mechanical devises had only a fraction of the calculating power of the first electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC). Completed by John Atanasoff of Iowa State in 1939, the ABC could by 1941 solve up to 29 simultaneous equations with 29 variables. Influenced by Atanasoff’s work, Presper Eckert and John Mauchly set about building the first general-purpose electronic digital computer in 1943. The sponsor was the U.S. Army Ordnance Department, which wanted a better way of calculating artillery firing tables, and the work was done at the University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC, which stood for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator, was completed in 1946 at a cost of nearly $500,000. It took up 15,000 feet, employed 17,000 vacuum tubes, and was programmed by plugging and replugging some 6,000 switches. It was first used in a calculation for Los Alamos Laboratories in December 1945, and in February 1946 it was formally dedicated. Following the success of ENIAC, Eckert and Mauchly decided to go into private business and founded the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation. They proved less able businessmen than they were engineers, and in 1950 their struggling company was acquired by Remington Rand, an office equipment company. On June 14, 1951, Remington Rand delivered its first computer, UNIVAC I, to the U.S. Census Bureau. It weighed 16,000 pounds, used 5,000 vacuum tubes, and could perform about 1,000 calculations per second. On November 4, 1952, the UNIVAC achieved national fame when it correctly predicted Dwight D. Eisenhower’s unexpected landslide victory in the presidential election after only a tiny percentage of the votes were in. UNIVAC and other first-generation computers were replaced by transistor computers of the late 1950s, which were smaller, used less power, and could perform nearly a thousand times more operations per second. These were, in turn, supplanted by the integrated-circuit machines of the mid-1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s, the development of the microprocessor made possible small, powerful computers such as the personal computer, and more recently the laptop and hand-held computers.
1952 – The USS Nautilus, the first atomic submarine, was dedicated in Groton, Connecticut.
1954 – Over 12 million Americans “die” in a mock nuclear attack, as the United States goes through its first nationwide civil defense drill. Though American officials were satisfied with the results of the drill, the event stood as a stark reminder that the United States–and the world-was now living under a nuclear shadow. The June 1954 civil defense drill was organized and evaluated by the Civil Defense Administration, and included operations in 54 cities in the United States, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Alaska, and Hawaii. Canada also participated in the exercise. The basic premise of the drill was that the United States was under massive nuclear assault from both aircraft and submarines, and that most major urban areas had been targeted. At 10 a.m., alarms were sounded in selected cities, at which time all citizens were supposed to get off the streets, seek shelter, and prepare for the onslaught. Each citizen was supposed to know where the closest fallout shelter was located; these included the basements of government buildings and schools, underground subway tunnels, and private shelters. Even President Dwight D. Eisenhower took part in the show, heading to an underground bunker in Washington, D.C. The entire drill lasted only about 10 minutes, at which time an all-clear signal was broadcast and life returned to normal. Civil Defense Administration officials estimated that New York City would suffer the most in such an attack, losing over 2 million people. Other cities, including Washington, D.C., would also endure massive loss of life. In all, it was estimated that over 12 million Americans would die in an attack. Despite those rather mind-numbing figures, government officials pronounced themselves very pleased with the drill. Minor problems in communication occurred, and one woman in New York City managed to create a massive traffic jam by simply stopping her car in the middle of the road, leaping out, and running for cover. In most cities, however, the streets were deserted just moments after the alarms sounded and there were no signs of panic or criminal behavior. A more cautious assessment came from a retired military officer, who observed that the recent development of the hydrogen bomb by the Soviet Union had “outstripped the progress made in our civil defense strides to defend against it.”
1954 – President Eisenhower signed an order adding the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
1964 – General Westmoreland is in Malaysia to study the methods used by the British to defeat the Communist guerrillas there.
1964 – The US military allows its own pilots operating out of Thailand to hit targets of opportunity in Laos.
1967 – The space probe Mariner 5 was launched from Cape Kennedy on a flight that took it past Venus.
1968 – A Federal District Court jury in Boston convicts Dr. Benjamin Spock of conspiring to aid draft registrants in violating the Selective Service Law.
1969 – The U.S. announces that three combat units will be withdrawn from Vietnam. They were the 1st and 2nd Brigades of the U.S. Army 9th Infantry Division and Regimental Landing Team 9 of the 3rd Marine Division–a total of about 13,000 to 14,000 men. These troops were part of the first U.S. troop withdrawal, which had been announced on June 8 by President Richard Nixon at the Midway conference with South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu. Nixon had promised that 25,000 troops would be withdrawn by the end of the year, and more support troops were later sent home in addition to the aforementioned combat forces in order to meet that number.
1972 – US planes flying a record number of strikes over North Vietnam, 340, sever the main railway line between Hanoi and Haiphong.
1985 – TWA Flight 847 from Athens to Rome is hijacked by Shiite Hezbollah terrorists who immediately demand to know the identity of ”those with Jewish-sounding names.” Two of the Lebanese terrorists armed with grenades, axes, and a 9-mm. pistol then forced the plane to land at the Beirut Airport in Lebanon. Once on the ground, the hijackers called for passengers with Israeli passports, but there were none. Nor were there any diplomats on board. They then focused their attention on the several U.S. Navy construction divers aboard the plane. Soon after landing, the terrorists killed Navy diver Robert Stethem, and dumped his body on the runway. TWA employee Uli Dickerson was largely successful in protecting the few Jewish passengers aboard by refusing to identify them. Most of the passengers were released in the early hours of what turned out to be a 17-day ordeal, but five men were singled out and separated from the rest of the hostages. Of these five, only Richard Herzberg, an American, was Jewish. Luckily, he had told his wife early on in the attack to get rid of a ring bearing a Hebrew inscription. During the next two weeks, Herzberg maintained to his attackers that he was a Lutheran of German and Greek ancestry. Along with the others, he was taken to a roach-infested holding cell somewhere in Beirut, where other Lebanese prisoners were being held and tortured in the makeshift prison. Fortunately, however, the TWA hostages were treated fairly well-they were even given a birthday cake on one occasion. On June 30, after careful negotiations, the hostages were released unharmed. Since the terrorists were effectively outside the law’s reach in Lebanon, it appeared as though the terrorists would go free from punishment. Yet, Mohammed Ali Hamadi, who was wanted for his role in TWA Flight 847 attack, was arrested nearly two years later at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, with explosives. Within days of his arrest, two German citizens were kidnapped while in Lebanon in a successful attempt to discourage Germany from extraditing Hamadi to the United States for prosecution. Germany decided to try Hamadi instead, and he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, the maximum penalty under German law. Although both German hostages had already been released by this time, three additional German citizens were kidnapped on the day of the verdict.
1991 – The space shuttle “Columbia” returned from a medical research mission.
1999 – About 15,000 NATO peacekeepers spread out across Kosovo, including a convoy of about 1200 US Marines.
https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2005/06/14/june-14/
