1804: The “Corps of Discovery,” a group of about four dozen Army volunteers led by Capt. Meriwether Lewis and 2nd Lt. William Clark, departs St. Charles, Mo. and heads west along the Missouri River, marking the official start of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Altogether, the company will travel some 8,000 miles as they map and explore the recently acquired Louisiana Purchase and find a route to the Pacific Ocean for President Thomas Jefferson.
Lewis and Clark Routes
1863: (Featured image) During the Siege of Vicksburg (Miss.), Gen. Ulysses S. Grant orders an assault against the formidable Confederate heights. Although the Union soldiers knew there would be little chance of surviving the mission, twice as many volunteers (which had to be single) stepped forward than what was asked for. Following a massive four-hour bombardment by hundreds of artillery pieces, the men of the so-called “Forlorn Hope Detachment” charged forward with planks and ladders, hoping to defeat the moat and embankment wall.
The 150 volunteers are annihilated; half are killed in the four-hour battle. In all, 502 Union soldiers are killed during Grant’s assault on the Confederate positions, with another 2,550 wounded, and 147 missing with marginal losses to the defenders. 89 of the surviving “forlorn” storming party are awarded the Medal of Honor.
1912: The aviation arm of the U.S. Marine Corps is born with the arrival of 1st Lt. Alfred A. Cunningham at the Naval Aviation Camp, Annapolis, Maryland. There, Cunningham will begin his flight training, and with less than three hours of instruction, he will solo in a Wright Model B-1 biplane.
1944: With the Allies in the final preparation stages for the invasion of Normandy, the U.S. Eighth and Ninth Air Forces, supported by Royal Air Force warplanes and French resistance fighters begin Operation CHATANOOGA CHOO CHOO – a series of massive air attacks against Axis rail infrastructure. Over the next few days, the French skies were full of bombers which hammered the German railroads, marshaling yards, and vital bridges while fighter-bombers attacked rolling stock and destroyed hundreds of the irreplaceable locomotives.
The attacks devastated Nazi Germany’s logistics in northern France and prove to the point that it takes several weeks to move units from Calais to defensive positions – far too late to stop the invasion force.
1945: As the threat of Cold War with the Soviets begins to materialize following the end the war in Europe, the U.S. military begins recruitment and evacuation of valuable German rocket scientists and their families. Some 1,600 scientists, technicians, and engineers begin work for the United States, most notably Wernher von Braun – the father of American rocket technology and space science.
Wernher von Braun
1947: Two years to the day after Operation PAPERCLIP begins, the United States launches its first ballistic missile. The dismally inaccurate Corporal E, a primitive (by today’s standards) guided missile, is capable of hitting targets 75 miles away with a conventional or tactical nuclear device and will not be fielded until 1955. It will also become the first U.S. missile system marketed to foreign militaries and remains in service for U.S. troops stationed in Western Europe until 1964.
1968: The fast-attack submarine USS Scorpion (SSN-589) is mysteriously lost at sea several hundred miles off the Azores. All hands – 99 sailors – perish. Scorpion is the second American nuclear sub to sink, after USS Thresher (SSN-593) goes down in 1963.
