1911: Legendary aviation pioneer – and future five-star general – Henry H. “Hap” Arnold overcomes his fear of flight and receives his pilot’s license, becoming one of the world’s first military aviators.
1944: A month after the Normandy Invasion, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton finally arrives in France. The Germans held Patton in such high regard that they kept their 15th Army in Calais, thinking that would be the site where Patton’s “phantom army” would be landing – the result of a successful Allied deception campaign. Patton’s Third Army will form the extreme right flank of the march across France.
That same day in the United States, 2nd Lt. Jackie Robinson – famous for breaking Major League Baseball’s “color barrier” in 1947 – refuses to move to the back of a bus. Military police meet Robinson at his stop, and investigators recommend a court martial. Although his commanding officer refuses to press charges, Robinson is transferred to another unit whose commander does pursue a court martial. His former unit, the 761st “Black Panther” tank battalion is sent to Europe, and Robinson will receive an honorable discharge.
Army Lieutenant John Robinson (baseball legend Jackie Robinson), one of the 761st “Black Panther” Tank Battalion’s few African-American officers, refuses orders to sit in the back of a military bus at Fort Hood.
1945: Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Keller E. Rockey, commanding the Third Amphibious Corps, accepts the surrender of 50,000 Japanese soldiers in northern China.
Maj. Gen. Keller E. Rockey
1947: (featured image) Mikhail Kalashnikov’s iconic AK-47 assault rifle goes into production in the Soviet Union. Seven decades later, the rugged AK-47 remains the weapon of choice for communist governments and paramilitary forces worldwide.
1951: Joseph Stalin announces that the Soviet Union has developed an atomic bomb.
Joseph Stalin
1961: American president John F. Kennedy advises Americans to construct fallout shelters in case of nuclear war between the United States and Soviet Union.
1962: USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25), America’s first nuclear-powered frigate, is commissioned. In two years, Bainbridge will join the nuclear-powered vessels, USS Enterprise and USS Long Beach for a two-month un-refueled cruise around the world.
USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25) underway off the coast of Long Beach
