1777: A force of militiamen from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Vermont – led by Gen. John Stark – clash with a detachment of British General John Burgoyne’s army in the Battle of Bennington (near present-day Bennington, Vt.). The Americans rout the British, and the amount of supplies captured during the engagement leads to Burgoyne’s forthcoming defeat at Saratoga – which convinces the French to join the war.
1780: Following his successful campaign in the south, Lord Cornwallis engages Gen. Horatio Gates’ force in Camden, S.C.. The Americans are annihilated, taking nearly 2,000 casualties in just one hour. The infamous cavalry commander Col. Banastre Tarleton wrote that “rout and slaughter ensued in every quarter.” Gates’ defeat is so severe that the “Hero of Saratoga” will never again command troops in battle.
Surrender of General Burgoyne by John Trumbull. Gen. Gates is in the center, refusing Gen. Burgoyne’s sword.
1918: 600 miles north of Moscow, American troops (Along with British, Australian, Canadian, and French allies) assist in capturing Archangel from Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik forces. The war will end before the “Polar Bear Brigade” can reach the rear of the German lines and some 200 Americans never return from the little-known Russian expedition.
1940: At Fort Benning, Ga., Brig. Gen. William Lee and 48 volunteers from the 27th Infantry Regiment perform the Army’s first official parachute jump, demonstrating the use of airplanes to drop soldiers behind enemy lines. It will be two years before the U.S. military uses paratroopers in combat when the 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment jumps into North Africa.
1942: (featured image) Two years to the day after the first parachute jump, the Army stands up the 101st “Screaming Eagles” Airborne Division, commanded by Gen. Lee – the “Father of the U.S. Airborne.” Lee declares that “the 101st has no history, but it has a rendezvous with destiny.”
1950: 98 B-29 bombers drop 800 tons of bombs on enemy troops concentrating near Waegwan, South Korea. This marks the largest use of bombers against ground forces since the Normandy invasion.
1954: Following the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu and the subsequent partitioning of French Indochina into North and South Vietnam, the U.S. Navy begins transporting hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and French citizens fleeing the communist North to refugee centers in the South.
1960: After riding a balloon to an altitude of 102,800 feet, Capt. Joseph W. Kittinger, Jr. (USAF) steps out of the gondola and begins a four-and-a-half minute free-fall. Kittinger reached 714 miles per hour before his main chute opened at 17,00 feet, setting records for speed and altitude on a parachute jump that stand for 52 years until Felix Baumgartner’s jump in 2012 (Kittinger was his capsule communicator).
An automatic camera captures Capt. Kittinger exiting the gondola on his record-setting skydive.
Kittinger served three tours in Vietnam, flying 483 combat missions. He was shot down just four days before he was supposed to go home and spent the next 11 months as a prisoner of war.
Kittinger and his Excelsior gondola. The plate reads “THIS IS THE HIGHEST STEP IN THE WORLD”
1972: U.S. fighter-bombers fly 664 air strikes against targets in North and South Vietnam while B-52s fly 35 missions in the busiest day of the year for American pilots and crew in Southeast Asia.
