1783: Although Congress had granted him what amounted to dictatorial powers during the war, George Washington resigns his position as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.
1814: One day before a peace treaty is signed which ends the War of 1812, a force of 2,000 Regular Army and militia, commanded by Maj. Gen. (and future president) Andrew Jackson, attacks and overruns 1,500 British troops on Villere’s Plantation, Louisiana. The British are so disorganized that they are unable to launch their attack on New Orleans for several days. And when they do, it becomes one of the most lopsided victories in U.S. military history.
1941: After being repulsed by the American defenders during their first assault on Wake Atoll, Japanese air and land forces return and assault Wake, Wilkes, and Peale islands. After having endured 15 days of attacks and 12 hours of desperate fighting, U.S. forces finally surrender – but not until after they inflict heavy casualties on the landing force.
Also on this date, the C-47 “Skytrain” makes its first flight. Douglas Aircraft will stamp out 10,000 of the versatile “Gooney Birds” which will serve the U.S. Armed Forces for three decades: towing gliders and delivering paratroopers at Normandy, dropping supplies during the Berlin Airlift, and providing close air support over Vietnam.
C-47 “Skytrain”
1968: 82 crewmembers of the captured USS Pueblo walk across the “Bridge of No Return,” ending 11 months of brutal captivity in North Korea.
The USS Pueblo, the American reconnaissance ship captured by North Korea in 1968. It now sits anchored on the Taedong River in Pyongyang.
2002: (Featured Image) A General Atomics MQ-1 “Predator” drone and an Iraqi MiG-25 “Foxbat” engage each other in Iraq’s “no-fly zone.” The aircraft trade missiles, and the Iraqi fighter shoots down the Predator in the first-ever drone-versus-conventional- aircraft dogfight.
A U.S. military search team discovers a MiG-25 Foxbat buried beneath the sands at al-Taqqadum air field west of Baghdad.
