1864: After two months of flanking maneuvers, driving Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederate Army of Tennessee some 70 miles rearward, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman launches a frontal assault at Kennesaw Mountain (near Marietta, Ga.). Casualties are heavy on both sides: 3,000 Union soldiers and 1,000 Confederates. Although Sherman’s assault was unsuccessful, Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield’s successful attack on Johnston’s left flank forces the Confederates to withdraw again towards Atlanta.
1942: Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold presents 23 “Doolittle Raiders” with the Distinguished Flying Cross at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.’s Bolling Field. A week later, another three crewmembers are awarded their medals at Walter Reed Army Hospital.
Japan, Tokyo Raid, 1942, “Doolittle Raiders”
Japan, Tokyo Raid, 1942, B-25 Bombers, Doolittle
That same day, the FBI announces it has captured all eight of the German military intelligence operatives that had landed in New York and Florida to sabotage American strategic targets. Six are tried by military tribunal and executed by electric chair while the two agents that cooperated with investigators are eventually released by President Harry S. Truman in 1948.
1950: Two days after the communist invasion of South Korea by the Soviet-backed North, the United Nations Security Council approves a resolution to “repel the armed attack and to restore international peace and security in the area.” Although 21 nations will provide support, the United States will send the vast majority of troops to the conflict. On this day, President Truman authorizes Naval and air operations south of the 38th Parallel and dispatches the 7th Fleet to Taiwan to prevent hostilities from spreading elsewhere in Asia.
President Truman delivering his radio speech to the nation
Meanwhile, F-82 “Twin Mustang” fighters (featured image) score three kills against North Korean fighters attempting to intercept a flight of C-54 “Skymaster” aircraft evacuating personnel from Gimpo Air Field – the first air battle of the Korean War. And F-80C “Shooting Star” fighter-bombers knock four more Korean fighters out of the sky in the Air Force’s first combat victory for a jet-powered aircraft.
USAF C-54 Skymaster
F-80C’s 8th FBS over Korea c1950
1993: After a foiled assassination attempt on former President George H.W. Bush in Kuwait, the cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG-62) and destroyer USS Peterson (DD-969) launch 23 cruise missiles at the Iraqi Intelligence Service’s command and control complex in Baghdad.
The guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville (CG 62)
A port view of the destroyer USS Peterson (DD-969).
