Military History Anniversaries 16 DEC thru 15 JAN
Significant events in U.S. Military History for the next 30 days are:
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Dec 16 1917 – USS F–1 (SS–20) sunk after collision with USS F 3 (SS–22) off San Diego,
California. 19 died
Dec 16 1945 – Occupation of Japan: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished
as the state religion of Japan.
Dec 16 1950 – Korea: President Harry Truman declares a state of National Emergency as Chinese
communists invade deeper into South Korea.
Dec 16 1998 – Iraq: The United States launches a missile attack on Iraq for failing to comply with
United Nations weapons inspectors.
Dec 17 1777 – American Revolution: France recognized American independence.
Dec 17 1812 – War of 1812: U.S. forces attack Lenape and Miami Indian villages in the Battle of
the Mississinewa which was considered the first American victory of the war. Casualties and
losses: US 56 – Indians 80.
Dec 17 1862 – Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews
from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
Dec 17 1939 – WW2: Battle of the River Plate – The Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by Captain
Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo.
Dec 17 1941 – WW2: Japanese forces land in Northern Borneo.
Dec 17 1943 – WW2: U.S. forces invade Japanese held New Britain Island in New Guinea.
Dec 17 1944 – WW2: The German Army renews the attack on the Belgian town of
Losheimergraben against the defending Americans during the Battle of the Bulge. Within 5 days
the 101st Airborne Division is surrounded at Bastogne Belgium.
Dec 17 1944 – WW2: Battle of the Bulge Malmedy massacre – 90 American 285th Field
Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper.
Dec 17 1944 – WW2: U.S. approves end to internment of Japanese Americans.
Dec 17 1950 – The F–86 Sabre's first mission over Korea.
Dec 17 1969 – The U.S. Air Force ended its "Project Blue Book" and concluded that there was no
evidence of extraterrestrial activity behind UFO sightings.
Dec 18 1916 – WWI: The 10 month Battle of Verdun (the longest engagement of the war) ends
when German forces are defeated by the French. Casualties and losses: France 442k to 540k
with 362k KIA – Germany 355k to 435k with 336k KIA.
Dec 18 1941 – WW2: Defended by 610 fighting men, the American held island of Guam falls to
more than 5,000 Japanese invaders in a 3 hour battle. Casualties and losses: US 458 – Japan 7
Dec 18 1944 – WW2: 77 B–29's and 200 other aircraft of U.S. 14th Air Force bomb Hankow,
China, a Japanese supply base.
Dec 18 1944 – WW2: The Supreme Court upheld the wartime internment of Japanese–
Americans.
Dec 18 1972 – Vietnam: The Paris Peace talks temporarily fail and President Nixon orders a
resumption of full scale bombing of targets in North Vietnam (i.e. Operation Linebacker 2). By
21 DEC eight B–52 bombers and several fighter–bombers were lost which included at least 43
flyers captured or killed.
Dec 19 1777 – American Revolution: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter
quarters at Valley Forge PA.
Dec 19 1946 – Vietnam: Start of the First Indochina War.
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Dec 20 1941 – WW2: The Flying Tigers, American pilots in China, enter combat for the first
time against the Japanese over Kunming.
Dec 20 1989 – Operation Just Cause, the invasion of Panama, begins to oust General Manuel
Noriega and replace him with Guillermo Endara.
Dec 21 1861 – Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal
of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.
Dec 21 2004 – Iraq War: A suicide bomber kills 22 at the forward operating base next to the main
U.S. military airfield at Mosul, the single deadliest suicide attack on American soldiers to date.
Dec 22 1944 – WW2: Battle of the Bulge – German troops demand the surrender of United States
troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony
McAuliffe: "Nuts!"
Dec 22 2010 – The repeal of the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, the 17 year old policy ban on
homosexuals serving openly in the United States military, is signed into law by President Barack
Obama.
Dec 23 1783 – George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the
Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.
Dec 22 1864 – Civil War: Savannah, Georgia falls to General William Tecumseh Sherman,
concluding his "March to the Sea".
Dec 22 1944 – WW2: The People's Army of Vietnam is formed to resist Japanese occupation of
Indo–China, now Vietnam.
Dec 22 1989 – Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the
division of East and West Germany.
Dec 23 1941 – WW2: Despite throwing back an earlier Japanese amphibious assault, the U.S.
Marines and Navy defenders on Wake Island capitulate to a second Japanese invasion.
Dec 23 1968 – The 82 sailors from the USS Pueblo are released after eleven months of
internment in North Korea.
Dec 23 2002 – Iraq War: A MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25, making it the first
time in history that an aircraft and an unmanned drone had engaged in combat.
Dec 24 1814 – War of 1812: Treaty of Ghent signed, ending the War of 1812 between the United
States and England.
Dec 24 1914 – WWI: The 'Christmas truce' begins. It lasts through Xmas Day and as long as
New Years Day in some areas of the front.
Dec 24 1955 – NORAD Tracks Santa for the first time in what will become an annual Christmas
Eve tradition.
Dec 24 1964 – Vietnam: Viet Cong operatives bomb the Brinks Hotel in Saigon to demonstrate
they can strike an American installation in the heavily guarded capital.
Dec 25 1837 – Seminole Wars: Battle of Lake Okeechobee. Casualties and losses: US 138 –
Seminoles 25
Dec 25 1868 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War
Confederate soldiers
Dec 25 1991 – Cold War: The USSR is declared officially dissolved marking the end of the Cold
War.
Dec 26 1776 – American Revolution: In the Battle of Trenton, the Continental Army attacks and
successfully defeats a garrison of Hessian mercenaries. Casualties and losses: US 7 –
GB/Hessians 1001
Dec 26 1861 – Civil War: The Trent Affair: Confederate diplomatic envoys James M. Mason and
John Slidell are freed by the United States government, thus heading off a possible war between
the United States and United Kingdom.
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Dec 26 1862 – Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou begins. It ends on 29 DEC with a
Confederate victory. Casualties and losses: US 1777 – CSA 217
Dec 26 1862 – Indian Wars: The largest mass–hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato,
Minnesota, 38 Native Americans (Dakota) die.
Dec 26 1944 – WW2: Patton's Third Army breaks the encirclement of surrounded U.S. forces at
Bastogne, Belgium.
Dec 26 1972 – Vietnam: As part of Operation Linebacker II, 120 American B-52 Stratofortress
bombers attacked Hanoi, including 78 launched from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the
largest single combat launch in Strategic Air Command
Dec 27 1814 – War of 1812: The American schooner USS Carolina is destroyed. It was the last
of Commodore Daniel Patterson's makeshift fleet that fought a series of delaying actions that
contributed to Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans.
Dec 27 1944 – WW2: General George S. Patton’s Third Army, spearheaded by the 4th Armored
Division, relieves the surrounded city of Bastogne.
Dec 28 1835 – Osceola leads his Seminole warriors in Florida into the Second Seminole War
against the United States Army. It lasts for 10 years.
Dec 28 1972 – Vietnam: South Vietnamese troops retake Binh Gia in a costly battle which ended
1 Jan. Casualties and losses: ARVN 461 – VC 32
Dec 28 1972 – Vietnam: After 11 days of Operation Linebacker 2 heavy bombing raids North
Vietnam agrees to return to the Paris peace talks.
President Nixon halts the air offensive and agrees to resume peace negotiations with Hanoi
representative Le Duc Tho.
Dec 29 1778 – American Revolution: British soldiers (3,000) under the command of Lieutenant
Colonel Archibald Campbell capture Savannah, Georgia.
Dec 29 1812 – War of 1812: The USS Constitution under the command of Captain William
Bainbridge, captures the HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three hour battle.
Dec 29 1813 – War of 1812: The two day Battle of Buffalo (a.k.a. Battle of Black Rock) begins
with an ensuing rout of American forces and a British victory. Casualties and losses: US 169 –
Brit. 112.
Dec 29 1835 – Indian Wars: The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the
Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States.
Dec 29 1890 – The last major conflict of the Indian wars takes place at Wounded Knee Creek in
South Dakota after Colonel James W. Forsyth of the 7th Cavalry tries to disarm Chief Big Foot
and his followers. U.S. soldiers kill more than 200 Oglala Lakota people with four Hotchkiss
guns. Casualties and losses: US 64 – Sioux about 300.
A Hotchkiss 42 mm gun
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Dec 29 1934 – Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval
Treaty of 1930.
Dec 30 1813 – War of 1812: British soldiers and Indians sack Buffalo NY and burn down all but
4 of its buildings. They also destroy the navy yard, three armed schooners, and one sloop. They
then move on to the independent municipality of Black Rock and burn all but one of its buildings.
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Dec 30 1862 – Civil War: The USS Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
Dec 30 1972 – Vietnam: President Nixon halts the air offensive and agrees to resume peace
negotiations with Hanoi representative Le Duc Tho.
Dec 31 1775 – American Revolution: Battle of Quebec: British forces repulse an attack by
Continental Army General Richard Montgomery. Casualties and losses: Colonies & 1st Canadian
Rgmt 515 – GB & QP 19.
Dec 31 1862 – Civil War: The three day Battle of Stones River begins near Murfreesboro,
Tennessee. Casualties and losses: US 12,906 – CSA 11,759
Dec 31 1942 – WW2: After five months of battle, Emperor Hirohito allows the Japanese
commanders at Guadalcanal to retreat. Casualties and losses: US 7,104 – Japan 32,000.
Dec 31 1946 – President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War
II.
Dec 31 1968 – Vietnam: The bloodiest year of the war. At year's end, 536,040 American
servicemen were stationed in Vietnam. Estimates indicated that 181,150 Viet Cong and North
Vietnamese were killed during the year. Allied losses were 43,463 KIA. Since January 1961,
more than 31,000 U.S. servicemen had been killed in Vietnam and over 200,000 U.S. personnel
had been wounded.
Jan 00 1944 – WW2: USS Scorpion (SS–278). Date of sinking unknown. Most likely a Japanese
mine in Yellow or East China Sea. 77 killed
Jan 00 1945 – WW2: USS Swordfish (SS–193) missing. Possibly sunk by Japanese Coast
Defense Vessel No. 4 on 5 January or sunk by a mine off Okinawa on 9 January. 89 killed
Jan 01 1945 – WW2: In Operation Bodenplatte, German planes attack American forward air
bases in Europe. This is the last major offensive of the Luftwaffe.
Jan 02 1777 – American Revolution: American forces under the command of George Washington
repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.
Casualties and losses: US 7 to 100 - GB 55 to 365.
Jan 02 1791 – Big Bottom massacre (11 killed) in the Ohio Country, marking the beginning of the
Northwest Indian War.
Jan 02 1904 – Latin America Interventions: U.S. Marines are sent to Santo Domingo to aid the
government against rebel forces.
Jan 02 1942 – WW2: In the Philippines, the city of Manila and the U.S. Naval base at Cavite fall
to Japanese forces.
Jan 02 1945 - WW2: Nuremberg, Germany is 90% destroyed by Allied bombers. 1,800 residents
killed and roughly 100,000 displaced.
Jan 02 1963 - Vietnam: The Viet Cong wins its first major victory in the Battle of Ap Bac.
Casualties and losses: NLF 57 - US & ARVN 194
Jan 02 1966 – Vietnam: American forces move into the Mekong Delta for the first time.
Jan 03 1777 – American Revolution: American general George Washington defeats British
general Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton. Casualties and losses: US 55 to 84 - GB
240 to 450.
Jan 03 1920 – WWI: The last of the U.S. troops depart France.
Jan 03 1944 – WW2: Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Corsair by
Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero.
Jan 03 1945 – WW2: Admiral Chester W Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces
in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan.
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Jan 04 1944 – WW2: Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to
resistance fighters in Europe, begins.
Jan 04 1951 – Korea: Chinese communist forces recapture Seoul from United Nations troops.
Jan 04 1989 – Second Gulf of Sidra incident: a pair of Libyan MiG-23 "Floggers" are shot down
by a pair of US Navy F-14 Tomcats during an air-to-air confrontation.
Jan 05 1781 – American Revolution: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by
Benedict Arnold.
Jan 05 1904 – American Marines arrive in Seoul, Korea, to guard the U.S. legation there.
Jan 05 1942 – WW2: U.S. and Filipino troops complete their withdrawal to a new defensive line
along the base of the Bataan peninsula.
Jan 05 1951 – Korea: Inchon, South Korea, the sight of General Douglas MacArthur’s
amphibious flanking maneuver, is abandoned by U.N. force to the advancing Chinese Army.
Jan 06 1941 – WW2: President Franklin D. Roosevelt asks Congress to support the Lend–lease
Bill to help supply the Allies.
Jan 06 1967 – Vietnam: United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch 'Operation
Deckhouse Five' in the Mekong River delta. Casualties and losses: (KIA) US 7 - Vietcong 21
Jan 06, 1975 – Vietnam: Battle of Phuoc Long - Phuoc Binh falls to the North Vietnamese.
Casualties and losses: ARVN 5604 - NVA & VC 1300
Jan 08 1967 – Vietnam: Operation Cedar Falls . Over 16,000 U.S. and 14,000 Vietnamese troops
start their biggest attack on the Iron Triangle, northwest of Saigon. Casualties and losses:
US/ARVN 428 - NVA/VC 1030 (US Claim)
Jan 07 1942 – WW2: The siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.
Jan 07 1944 – WW2: The U.S. Air Force announces the production of the first jet–fighter, Bell P–
59 Airacomet.
Jan 07 1945 - WW2: British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he
claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge.
Jan 07 1948 - Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell crashes while in pursuit of a
supposed UFO.
Jan 07 1975 – Vietnam: Vietnamese troops take Phuoc Binh in new full–scale offensive.
Jan 08 1815 – War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans – A rag–tag army under Andrew Jackson
defeats the British on the fields of Chalmette in the Battle of New Orleans. Casualties and losses:
US 333 - UK 2,459.
Jan 08 1863 – Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield ends with a Confederate withdrawal.
Casualties and losses: US 231 CSA ~290.
Jan 08 1877 – Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry
at Wolf Mountain (Montana Territory).
Jan 08 1918 – President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of
World War I.
Jan 09 1861 – Civil War: The "Star of the West" incident occurs near Charleston, South Carolina.
It is considered by some historians to be the "First Shots of the War".
Jan 09 1863 – Civil War: The 3 day Battle of Fort Hindman begins in Arkansas. Casualties and
losses: US 1,061 - CSA ~5,000
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Jan 09 1918 – Indian Wars: Battle of Bear Valley - The last battle of the American Indian Wars.
Casualties and losses: US 0 - Yaqui 10
Jan 09 1945 – WW2: U.S. troops land on Luzon, in the Philippines, 107 miles from Manila.
Jan 10 1847 – Mexican War: General Stephen Kearny and Commodore Robert Stockton retake
Los Angeles in the last California battle of the war.
Jan 10 1920 – WWI: The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending World War I.
Jan 10 1923 – WWI: The United States withdraws its last troops from Germany.
Jan 10 1943 – WW2: USS Argonaut (APS–1) sunk by aircraft (582d Kokutai) and Japanese
destroyers Isokaze and Maikaze southeast of New Britain in Solomon Sea. 104 killed
Jan 11 1863 – Civil War: The Battle of Fort Hindman (i.e. Arkansas Post) Arkansas ends with a
Union victory and capture of the Arkansas River. Casualties and losses: US 1,061 - CSA ~5,500
Jan 11 1863 – Civil War: CSS Alabama encountered and sank the USS Hatteras (1861) off
Galveston Lighthouse in Texas. Casualties and losses: US 125 CSA 2.
Jan 11 1940 – Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., becomes the U.S. Army’s first black general, his son
would later become a general as well.
Jan 11 1967 – Vietnam: Operation Deckhouse Five, a combined USMC and ARVN troop effort
in the Mekong River delta ends in failure.
Jan 12 1991 – Gulf War: An act of the U.S. Congress authorizes the use of military force to drive
Iraq out of Kuwait.
Jan 12 1846 – Mexican War: President James Polk dispatches General Zachary Taylor and 4,000
troops to the Texas Border as war with Mexico looms.
Jan 12 1962 – Vietnam: Operation Chopper, the first American combat mission in the war, takes
place. Casualties and losses: US none - NLF 6.
Jan 12 1962 – Vietnam: Operation Ranch Hand initiated which lasted until 1972. It involved
spraying an estimated 20 million gallons of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South
Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Vietnamese people of food and vegetation cover.
Jan 12 1991 – Gulf War: An act of the U.S. Congress authorizes the use of military force to drive
Iraq out of Kuwait.
Jan 13 1815 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only
battle of the war to take place in the state.
Jan 13 1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California.
Jan 13 1893 – U.S. Marines land in Honolulu from the U.S.S. Boston to prevent the queen from
abrogating the Bayonet Constitution
Jan 13 1968 – Vietnam: U.S. reports shifting most air targets from North Vietnam to Laos.
Jan 14 1911 – The USS Arkansas, the largest U.S. battleship, is launched from the yards of the
New York Shipbuilding Company.
Jan 14 1943 – WW2: Operation Ke, the successful Japanese operation to evacuate their forces
from Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal campaign, begins.
Jan 14 1943 – WW2: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill begin the Casablanca
Conference to discuss strategy and study the next phase of the war.
Jan 14 1969 – An accidental explosion aboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) near Hawaii kills 27
people.
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Jan 15 1815 – War of 1812: American frigate USS President, commanded by Commodore
Stephen Decatur, is captured by a squadron of four British frigates.
 Jan 15 1865 – Civil War: Fort Fisher North Carolina falls to the Union, thus cutting off the last
major seaport of the Confederacy. Casualties and losses: US 1,341 - CSA ~1,500
 Jan 15 1944 – WW2: The U.S. Fifth Army successfully breaks the German Winter Line in Italy
with the capture of Mount Trocchio.
 Jan 15 1973 – Vietnam: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon
announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.
[Source: Various Dec 2013 ++]
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