1823: U.S. Navy Midshipman and acting-lieutenant (future admiral) David Glasgow Farragut leads a raiding party of cutlass-armed sailors and Marines against a pirate base on Cape Cruz, Cuba. Farragut’s men attack and destroy the pirate stronghold.
1861: In what the Union hoped, and generally believed, would be an overwhelming Union victory that would end the rebellion before it got started, Confederate Army forces under the command of Brig. Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard defeat and rout Union Army forces under Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell during the First Battle of Bull Run, known to many Southerners as First Manassas. When the Confederates begin to waver under a heavy Union assault, the soon-to-be famous Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson arrives with reinforcements, and on this day will earn the legendary nickname, “Stonewall.”
Brig. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson
1921: Army and Navy aircraft attack the former German battleship Ostfriesland, sinking the massive vessel and giving support to famed World War I aviator Brig. Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell’s theory that dreadnought battleships could be easily sunk by planes and are taking up too much of the military budget.
German battleship Ostfriesland
1944: The 3rd Marine Division and 1st Provisional Marine Brigade storm the beaches of Guam, seeking to reclaim the American territory after its capture nearly three years ago. The Japanese defenders inflict heavy casualties, but the Marines secure the beachheads and are several thousand feet inland by nightfall. Soldiers from the 77th Infantry Division will wade ashore under heavy fire after the Marines. 18,000 Japanese soldiers are killed, and the island is declared secure on August 9.
1946: (featured image) Lt. Cmdr. James Davidson, piloting the McDonnell XFD-1 “Phantom” aircraft, performs a series of takeoffs and landings on the deck of USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42) – the first carrier flight operations of a jet aircraft.
McDonnell XFD-1 “Phantom”
1961: Former Air Force pilot and Korean War veteran Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom blasts off aboard his Redstone Rocket, becoming the second American in space. The astronaut’s “Liberty Bell 7” capsule soars to a height of 100 nautical miles and flies for 15 minutes before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.
Astronaut Grissom, entering Mercury-Redstone Capsule, Liberty bell 7, Assisted by Astronaut Glenn, July 21, 1961.
