https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/09/30/september-30/30 September
1541 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto and his forces enter Tula territory in present-day western Arkansas, encountering fierce resistance. The Tula were possibly a Caddoan people, but this is not certain. Based on the descriptions of the various chroniclers, “Tula Province”, or their homeland, may have been at the headwaters of the Ouachita, Caddo, Little Missouri, Saline, and Cossatot Rivers in Arkansas. They are also thought to have lived in the northern Ouachita Mountains in the Petit Jean and Fourche valleys.
1777 – The Congress of the United States, forced to flee in the face of advancing British forces, moved to York, Pennsylvania.
1800 – U.S. concludes treaty of peace with France, ending Quasi War with France.
1857 – Unable to obtain trading privileges in Vietnam through diplomacy, the French begin their campaign to take Vietnam. They attack Danang and take the city in early 1958. This fails to foment the uprising of oppressed Christians that they had expected. Decimated by disease, they push south to take Saigon by 1861. Vietnam is divided by a strong popular rebellion in the north, and under the weak Emperor Tu Duc, regional risings against the French are never coordinated successfully. Hanoi falls in 1883.
1864 – Confederate troops failed to retake Fort Harrison from the Union forces during the siege of Petersburg.
1864 – In an attempt to cut the last rail line into Petersburg, Virginia, Union troops attack the Confederate defense around the besieged city. Although initially successful, the attack ground to a halt when Confederate reinforcements were rushed into place from other sections of the Petersburg line. This battle came after more than three months of trench warfare. Union commander General Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate commander General Robert E. Lee had fought a costly and fast-moving campaign in the spring, but by June they had settled into trenches around Petersburg. The lines extended all the way to Richmond, 25 miles north of Petersburg. Grant had made sporadic attacks to break the stalemate, and this battle was yet another attempt to drive Lee’s men from the trenches. The attack coincided with a Federal assault at New Market Heights, near Richmond. The day before, Union forces had captured two strongholds in the Richmond defense system, but were unable to penetrate any further. A Confederate counterattack on September 30 failed to recapture the positions. Grant hoped that launching a strike around the same time at the other end of the line would keep Lee from sending reinforcements to both locations. On September 30, four divisions from Generals Gouvernor K. Warren’s and John G. Parke’s corps struck a Rebel redoubt (an earthen fortress) at Poplar Springs Church that was easily captured along with a section of trenches. But Confederate General Ambrose P. Hill, in charge of the Petersburg defenses, was able to bring two divisions from other parts of his line to stop the Yankees, and a counterattack prevented the loss of any more territory. The Yankees would try again on October 1, but would be unsuccessful. The Union lost 2,800 troops, including nearly 1,300 captured during the Confederate counterattack. Lee’s army suffered only 1,300 casualties, but they were much harder for him to replace. The Southside Railroad, the object of the attack, was still in Confederate hands, and the armies settled back into their trenches.
1899 – First Navy wireless message sent via Lighthouse Service Station at Highlands of Navesink, New Jersey.
1924 – Allies stopped checking on the German navy.
1932 – “Chesty” Puller won second Navy Cross.
1938 – Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, French Premier Edouard Daladier, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sign the Munich Pact, which seals the fate of Czechoslovakia, virtually handing it over to Germany in the name of peace. Upon return to Britain, Chamberlain would declare that the meeting had achieved “peace in our time.” Although the agreement was to give into Hitler’s hands only the Sudentenland, that part of Czechoslovakia where 3 million ethnic Germans lived, it also handed over to the Nazi war machine 66 percent of Czechoslovakia’s coal, 70 percent of its iron and steel, and 70 percent of its electrical power. It also left the Czech nation open to complete domination by Germany. In short, the Munich Pact sacrificed the autonomy of Czechoslovakia on the altar of short-term peace-very short term. The terrorized Czech government was eventually forced to surrender the western provinces of Bohemia and Moravia (which became a protectorate of Germany) and finally Slovakia and the Carpathian Ukraine. In each of these partitioned regions, Germany set up puppet, pro-Nazi regimes that served the military and political ends of Adolf Hitler. By the time of the invasion of Poland in September 1939, the nation called “Czechoslovakia” no longer existed. It was Neville Chamberlain who would be best remembered as the champion of the Munich Pact, having met privately with Hitler at Berchtesgaden, the dictator’s mountaintop retreat, before the Munich conference. Chamberlain, convinced that Hitler’s territorial demands were not unreasonable (and that Hitler was a “gentleman”), persuaded the French to join him in pressuring Czechoslovakia to submit to the Fuhrer’s demands. Upon Hitler’s invasion of Poland a year later, Chamberlain was put in the embarrassing situation of announcing that a “state of war” existed between Germany and Britain. By the time Hitler occupied Norway and Denmark, Chamberlain was finished as a credible leader. “Depart, I say, and let us have done with you!” one member of Parliament said to him, quoting Oliver Cromwell. Winston Churchill would succeed him as prime minister soon afterwards.
1939 – Germany and Russia agreed to partition Poland.
1943 – The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps became the Women’s Army Corps, a regular contingent of the U.S. Army with the same status as other army service corps.
1943 – The US 5th Army continues to advance. Elements of the British 10th Corps reach the outskirts of Naples as elements of US 6th Corps capture Avellino.
1944 – Admiral Fort takes command of US operations in this island group. He announces that Peleliu, Angaur, Ngesebus and Kongauru have been completely occupied. Japanese resistance continues, however.
1944 – Calais was reoccupied by Allies.
1944 – USS Nautilus (SS-168) lands supplies and evacuates some people from Panay, Philipppine Islands.
1945 – American Marines of the US 3rd Amphibious Corps start landing at Tientsin, in the north, to disarm 630,000 Japanese.
1946 – U.S. Government announces that U.S. Navy units would be permanently stationed in the Mediterranean to carry out American policy and diplomacy.
1946 – An international military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, found 22 top Nazi leaders guilty of war crimes. Ribbentrop and Goering were sentenced to death. American psychiatrist Leon Goldensohn interviewed many of the participants and in 2004 the interviews were published as “The Nuremberg Interviews: An American Psychiatrist’s Conversations with the Defendants and Witnesses.”
1949 – After 15 months and more than 250,000 flights, the Berlin Airlift officially comes to an end. The airlift was one of the greatest logistical feats in modern history and was one of the crucial events of the early Cold War. In June 1948, the Soviet Union suddenly blocked all ground traffic into West Berlin, which was located entirely within the Russian zone of occupation in Germany. It was an obvious effort to force the United States, Great Britain, and France (the other occupying powers in Germany) to accept Soviet demands concerning the postwar fate of Germany. As a result of the Soviet blockade, the people of West Berlin were left without food, clothing, or medical supplies. Some U.S. officials pushed for an aggressive response to the Soviet provocation, but cooler heads prevailed and a plan for an airlift of supplies to West Berlin was developed. It was a daunting task: supplying the daily wants and needs of so many civilians would require tons of food and other goods each and every day. On June 26, 1948, the Berlin Airlift began with U.S. pilots and planes carrying the lion’s share of the burden. During the next 15 months, 277,264 aircraft landed in West Berlin bringing over 2 million tons of supplies. On September 30, 1949, the last plane–an American C-54–landed in Berlin and unloaded over two tons of coal. Even though the Soviet blockade officially ended in May 1949, it took several more months for the West Berlin economy to recover and the necessary stockpiles of food, medicine, and fuel to be replenished. The Berlin Airlift was a tremendous Cold War victory for the United States. Without firing a shot, the Americans foiled the Soviet plan to hold West Berlin hostage, while simultaneously demonstrating to the world the “Yankee ingenuity” for which their nation was famous. For the Soviets, the Berlin crisis was an unmitigated disaster. The United States, France, and Great Britain merely hardened their resolve on issues related to Germany, and the world came to see the Russians as international bullies, trying to starve innocent citizens.
1949 – The rank of commodore, established in 1943 as a wartime measure, was terminated by the President under the provisions of an Act of Congress approved 24 July 1941.
1950 – U.N. forces crossed the 38th parallel separating North and South Korea as they pursued the retreating North Korean Army.
1953 – Eisenhower approves $385,000,000 over he $400,000,000 already budgeted for military aid for Vietnam. by April 1954 aid to Indochina reaches $1,133,000,000 out of a total foreign aid budget of $3,497,000,000.
1954 – The USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear submarine, is commissioned by the U.S. Navy. The Nautilus was constructed under the direction of U.S. Navy Captain Hyman G. Rickover, a brilliant Russian-born engineer who joined the U.S. atomic program in 1946. In 1947, he was put in charge of the navy’s nuclear-propulsion program and began work on an atomic submarine. Regarded as a fanatic by his detractors, Rickover succeeded in developing and delivering the world’s first nuclear submarine years ahead of schedule. In 1952, the Nautilus’ keel was laid by President Harry S. Truman, and on January 21, 1954, first lady Mamie Eisenhower broke a bottle of champagne across its bow as it was launched into the Thames River at Groton, Connecticut. Commissioned on September 30, 1954, it first ran under nuclear power on the morning of January 17, 1955. Much larger than the diesel-electric submarines that preceded it, the Nautilus stretched 319 feet and displaced 3,180 tons. It could remain submerged for almost unlimited periods because its atomic engine needed no air and only a very small quantity of nuclear fuel. The uranium-powered nuclear reactor produced steam that drove propulsion turbines, allowing the Nautilus to travel underwater at speeds in excess of 20 knots. In its early years of service, the USS Nautilus broke numerous submarine travel records and in August 1958 accomplished the first voyage under the geographic North Pole. After a career spanning 25 years and almost 500,000 miles steamed, the Nautilus was decommissioned on March 3, 1980. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982, the world’s first nuclear submarine went on exhibit in 1986 as the Historic Ship Nautilus at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut.
1954 – NATO nations agreed to arm and admit West Germany.
1958 – Marines leave Lebanon.
1959 – Last flight of airshps assigned to the Naval Air Reserve at Lakehurst, NJ takes place.
1961 – A bill for the 1773 Boston Tea Party was paid by Mayor Snyder of Oregon. He wrote a check for $196, the total cost of all tea lost.
1962 – In Oxford, Mississippi, James H. Meredith, an African American, is escorted onto the University of Mississippi campus by U.S. Marshals, setting off a deadly riot. Two men were killed before the racial violence was quelled by more than 3,000 federal soldiers. The next day, Meredith successfully enrolled and began to attend classes amid continuing disruption. A former serviceman in the U.S. Air Force, Meredith applied and was accepted to the University of Mississippi in 1962, but his admission was revoked when the registrar learned of his race. A federal court ordered “Ole Miss” to admit him, but when he tried to register on September 20, 1962, he found the entrance to the office blocked by Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett. On September 28, the governor was found guilty of civil contempt and was ordered to cease his interference with desegregation at the university or face arrest and a fine of $10,000 a day. Two days later, Meredith was escorted onto the Ole Miss campus by U.S. Marshals. Turned back by violence, he returned the next day and began classes. Meredith, who was a transfer student from all-black Jackson State College, graduated with a degree in political science in 1963. In 1966, Meredith returned to the public eye when he began a lone civil rights march in an attempt to encourage voter registration by African Americans in the South. During this March Against Fear, Meredith intended to walk from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi. However, on June 6, just two days into the march, he was sent to a hospital by a sniper’s bullet. Other civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr., and Stokely Carmichael, arrived to continue the march on his behalf. It was during the March Against Fear that Carmichael, who was leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, first spoke publicly of “Black Power”–his concept of militant African American nationalism. James Meredith later recovered and rejoined the march he had originated, and on June 26 the marchers successfully reached Jackson, Mississippi.
1965 – The Lockheed L-100, the civilian version of the C-130 Hercules, is introduced.
1968 – USS New Jersey, the world’s only active battleship, arrives in Vietnamese waters and begins bombarding the Demilitarized Zone from her station off the Vietnamese coast.
1969 – Nazi war criminals Albert Speer, the German minister of armaments, and Baldur von Schirach, the founder of the Hitler Youth, were freed at midnight from Spandau prison after serving twenty-year prison sentences.
1975 – The Hughes (later McDonnell Douglas, now Boeing) AH-64 Apache makes its first flight. The Boeing AH-64 Apache is a four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopter with a tailwheel-type landing gear arrangement, and a tandem cockpit for a two-man crew. It features a nose-mounted sensor suite for target acquisition and night vision systems. It is armed with a 30 mm (1.18 in) M230 Chain Gun carried between the main landing gear, under the aircraft’s forward fuselage. It has four hardpoints mounted on stub-wing pylons, typically carrying a mixture of AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and Hydra 70 rocket pods. The AH-64 has a large amount of systems redundancy to improve combat survivability. The Apache originally started as the Model 77 developed by Hughes Helicopters for the United States Army’s Advanced Attack Helicopter program to replace the AH-1 Cobra. The prototype was designated YAH-64. The U.S. Army selected the YAH-64 over the Bell YAH-63 in 1976, and later approved full production in 1982. After purchasing Hughes Helicopters in 1984, McDonnell Douglas continued AH-64 production and development. The helicopter was introduced to U.S. Army service in April 1986. The first production AH-64D Apache Longbow, an upgraded Apache variant, was delivered to the Army in March 1997. Production has been continued by Boeing Defense, Space & Security; over 2,000 AH-64s have been produced to date. The U.S. Army is the primary operator of the AH-64; it has also become the primary attack helicopter of multiple nations, including Greece, Japan, Israel, the Netherlands and Singapore; as well as being produced under license in the United Kingdom as the AgustaWestland Apache. U.S. AH-64s have served in conflicts in Panama, the Persian Gulf, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Israel used the Apache in its military conflicts in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip; British and Dutch Apaches have seen deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq.
1977 – Because of US budget cuts and dwindling power reserves, the Apollo program’s ALSEP experiment packages left on the Moon are shut down. The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) comprised a set of scientific instruments placed by the astronauts at the landing site of each of the five Apollo missions to land on the Moon following Apollo 11 (Apollos 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17). Apollo 11 left a smaller package called the Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package, or EASEP.
1980 – Ethernet specifications are published by Xerox working with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation. Ethernet /ˈiːθərnɛt/ is a family of computer networking technologies for local area (LAN) and larger networks. It was first standardized in 1983 as IEEE 802.3, and has since been refined to support higher bit rates and longer link distances. Over time, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies such as token ring, FDDI, and ARCNET. The primary alternative for contemporary LANs is not a wired standard, but instead a variety of IEEE 802.11 standards also known as Wi-Fi.
1989 – Thousands of East Germans who had sought refuge in West German embassies in Czechoslovakia and Poland began emigrating under an accord between Soviet bloc and NATO nations.
1992 – Congress approved a bill requiring the release of nearly all government files concerning the assassination of President Kennedy.
1992 – Marine Barracks, Subic Bay, Philippines, was disestablished. The Naval Base had been used by Americans for many years.
1993 – MS Dos 6.2 was released.
1994 – The space shuttle Endeavour and its six astronauts roared into orbit on an 11-day mission.
1994 – The crew of Coast Guard LORAN Station Marcus Island decommissioned their station and turned it over to the Japanese Maritime Safety Agency. This was the last station in the Northwest Pacific LORAN chain to be decommissioned and turned over to the Japanese under a 1992 agreement between the U.S. and Japan.
1995 – US envoy Richard Holbrooke, trying to negotiate a Bosnian cease-fire, ended inconclusive talks with the Sarajevo government and headed for Belgrade to try his luck with the Serbs.
1996 – The United States Congress passes the Lautenburg Amendment that bars the possession of firearms for people who were convicted of domestic violence, even misdemeanor level.
1999 – Defense Secretary William Cohen ordered a top-level investigation of accounts of mass killings of Korean civilians by US soldiers at No Gun Ri in 1950.
2001 – Leaders of the Taliban said they had Osama bin Laden “under our control,” but would release him to the US only if shown proof that he plotted the Sep 11 attacks. Pres. Bush said he would not negotiate.
2004 – Three bombs exploded at a neighborhood celebration in western Baghdad, killing 35 children and seven adults. Across Iraq insurgent attacks left 51 dead.
2004 – The Arab news network Al-Jazeera showed video of 10 new hostages seized in Iraq by militants.
2004 – The AIM-54 Phoenix, the primary missile for the F-14 Tomcat, is retired from service. Almost two years later, the Tomcat is retired.
2005 – New York Times journalist Judith Miller testifies before a federal grand jury and identifies Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, as her confidential source for a non-published story about the unmasking of a CIA agent in 2003.
2010 – A convoy of at least 27 fuel tankers headed for NATO forces in Afghanistan is attacked in Pakistan’s Sindh province.
2010 – China and the United States officially resume military ties after a 10-month break following US arms sales to Taiwan, with the two countries emphasizing the importance of a close military dialogue.
2011 – In a US drone strike, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader and U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki is reported killed in Yemen
2014 – A case of Ebola Virus is being treated in the American city of Dallas, Texas.
Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken this Day
BLODGETT, WELIS H.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company D, 37th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Newtonia, Mo., 30 September 1862. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill. Born: 29 January 1839, Downers Grove, Ill. Date of issue: 15 February 1894. Citation: With a single orderly, captured an armed picket of 8 men and marched them in prisoners.
HADLEY, OSGOOD T.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company E, 6th New Hampshire Veteran Infantry. Place and date: Near Pegram House, Va., 30 September 1864. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Nashua, N.H. Date of issue: 27 July 1896. Citation: As color bearer of his regiment he defended his colors with great personal gallantry and brought them safely out of the action.
HUBBELL, WILLIAM S.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company A, 21st Connecticut Infantry. Place and date: At Fort Harrison, Va., 30 September 1864. Entered service at: North Stonington, Conn. Born: 19 April 1837, Wolcottville, Conn. Date of issue: 13 June 1894. Citation: Led out a small flanking party and by a clash and at great risk captured a large number of prisoners.
JAMES, MILES
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company B, 36th U.S. Colored Troops. Place and date: At Chapins Farm, Va., 30 September 1864. Entered service at: Norfolk, Va. Birth: Princess Anne County, Va. Date of issue: 6 April 1865. Citation: Having had his arm mutilated, making immediate amputation necessary, he loaded and discharged his piece with one hand and urged his men forward; this within 30 yards of the enemy’s works.
JOHNDRO, FRANKLIN
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 118th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Chapins Farm, Va., 30 September 1864. Entered service at:——. Birth: Highgate Falls, Vt. Date of issue: 6 April 1865. Citation: Capture of 40 prisoners.
MURPHY, THOMAS
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company K, 158th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Chapins Farm, Va., 30 September 1864. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: New York, N.Y. Date of issue: 15 October 1864. Citation: Capture of flag.
BAIRD, GEORGE W.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant and Adjutant, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Bear Paw Mountain, Mont., 30 September 1877. Entered service at: Milford, Conn. Birth: Connecticut. Date of issue: 27 November 1894. Citation: Most distinguished gallantry in action with the Nez Perce Indians.
CARTER, MASON
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Bear Paw Mountain, Mont., 30 September 1877. Entered service at: Augusta, Ga. Birth: Augusta, Ga. Date of issue: 27 November 1894. Citation: Led a charge under a galling fire, in which he inflicted great loss upon the enemy.
GODFREY, EDWARD S.
Rank and organization: Captain, 7th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Bear Paw Mountain, Mont., 30 September 1877. Entered service at: Ottawa, Putnam County, Ohio. Born: 9 October 1843, Ottawa, Ohio. Date of issue: 27 November 1894. Citation: Led his command into action when he was severely wounded.
HOGAN, HENRY
SECOND AWARD
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company G, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Bear Paw Mountain, Mont., 30 September 1877. Citation: Carried Lt. Romeyn, who was severely wounded, off the field of battle under heavy fire.
LONG, OSCAR F.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Bear Paw Mountain, Mont., 30 September 1877. Entered service at: Utica, N.Y. Born: 16 June 1852, Utica, N.Y. Date of issue: 22 March 1895. Citation: Having been directed to order a troop of cavalry to advance, and finding both its officers killed, he voluntarily assumed command, and under a heavy fire from the Indians advanced the troop to its proper position.
McCLERNAND, EDWARD J.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, 2d U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Bear Paw Mountain, Mont., 30 September 1877. Entered service at: Springfield, 111. Birth: Jacksonville, 111. Date of issue: 27 November 1894. Citation: Gallantly attacked a band of hostiles and conducted the combat with excellent skill and boldness.
MOYLAN, MYLES
Rank and organization: Captain, 7th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Bear Paw Mountain, Mont., 30 September 1877. Entered service at: Essex, Mass. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 27 November 1894. Citation: Gallantly led his command in action against Nez Perce Indians until he was severely wounded.
ROMEYN, HENRY
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Bear Paw Mountain, Mont., 30 September 1877. Entered service at: Michigan. Birth: Galen, N.Y. Date of issue: 27 November 1894. Citation: Led his command into close range of the enemy, there maintained his position, and vigorously prosecuted the fight until he was severely wounded.
TILTON, HENRY R.
Rank and organization: Major and Surgeon, U.S. Army. Place and date: At Bear Paw Mountain, Mont., 30 September 1877. Entered service at: Jersey City, N.J. Birth: Barnegat, N.J. Date of issue: 22 March 1895. Citation: Fearlessly risked his life and displayed great gallantry in rescuing and protecting the wounded men.
ROBB, GEORGE S.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 369th Infantry, 93d Division. Place and date: Near Sechault, France, 29-30 September 1918. Entered service at: Salina, Kans. Born: 18 May 1887, Assaria, Kans. G.O. No.: 16, W.D., 1919. Citation: While leading his platoon in the assault 1st Lt. Robb was severely wounded by machinegun fire, but rather than go to the rear for proper treatment he remained with his platoon until ordered to the dressing station by his commanding officer. Returning within 45 minutes, he remained on duty throughout the entire night, inspecting his lines and establishing outposts. Early the next morning he was again wounded, once again displaying his remarkable devotion to duty by remaining in command of his platoon. Later the same day a bursting shell added 2 more wounds, the same shell killing his commanding officer and 2 officers of his company. He then assumed command of the company and organized its position in the trenches. Displaying wonderful courage and tenacity at the critical times, he was the only officer of his battalion who advanced beyond the town, and by clearing machinegun and sniping posts contributed largely to the aid of his battalion in holding their objective. His example of bravery and fortitude and his eagerness to continue with his mission despite severe wounds set before the enlisted men of his command a most wonderful standard of morale and self-sacrifice.
