1944: As Adolf Hitler meets with officials at his “Wolf’s Lair” headquarters in East Prussia, a suitcase bomb planted by Col. Claus von Stauffenberg detonates, killing three German officers and wounding the Führer. Stauffenberg and several fellow “Operation Valkyrie” conspirators are shot by firing squad within 24 hours, and the Gestapo will arrest and execute several thousand Germans (some having no connection to the plot whatsoever) in coming months.
Attentat vom 20. Juli 1944 (Wolf’s Lair)
In the Marianas Islands, Naval Underwater Demolition Teams (the predecessor to today’s SEAL Teams) destroy obstacles on the beaches of Guam as aircraft and warships bombard enemy positions in preparation of the invasion.
1945: As the Manhattan Project scientists put the finishing touches on the atomic bomb, Army Air Force B-29 “Superfortress” crews begin flying multiple small-scale bombing raids against Japan, so the defenders would become accustomed to the sight of individual bombers.
Boeing B-29 Superfortress
1960: The ballistic missile submarine USS George Washington (SSBN-598) conducts the first submerged launch of a Polaris missile. The missile hits the target over 1,000 miles away. The nuclear-tipped Polaris is capable of accurately delivering three 200 kiloton warheads 2,500 nautical miles downrange.
USS George Washington (SSBN-598)
1969: (featured image) Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong – a U.S. Naval aviator who flew multiple combat missions over Korea, and was once shot down – takes “one small step,” becoming the first human in history to walk on the surface of the moon.
Armstrong, who serves as Apollo 11 mission commander, is accompanied on the historic voyage by command module pilot Michael Collins, a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot who will become a major general in 1978, and lunar module pilot Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin (also an Air Force fighter pilot), who shot down two MiG-15 fighters over Korea.
Apollo 11 Crew (left to right) Armstrong, Collins, Aldrin
1997: In honor of her 200th birthday, the USS Constitution – the world’s oldest ship remaining in active service – sets sail for the first time in 116 years. “Old Ironsides” was one of the United States’ original six frigates, and is the only warship in the U.S. Navy to have sunk an enemy vessel.
USS Constitution
