April 20th ~ {continued...} 1972 – The manned lunar module from Apollo 16 landed on the moon. Apollo 16 was the tenth manned mission in the United States Apollo space program, the fifth and penultimate to land on the Moon and the first to land in the lunar highlands. The second of the so-called “J missions,” it was crewed by Commander John Young, Lunar Module Pilot Charles Duke and Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly. John Young and Charles Duke spent 71 hours—just under three days—on the lunar surface, during which they conducted three extra-vehicular activities or moonwalks, totaling 20 hours and 14 minutes. The pair drove the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), the second produced and used on the Moon, 26.7 kilometers (16.6 mi). On the surface, Young and Duke collected 95.8 kilograms (211 lb) of lunar samples for return to Earth, while Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly orbited in the Command/Service Module (CSM) above to perform observations. Mattingly spent 126 hours and 64 revolutions in lunar orbit. After Young and Duke rejoined Mattingly in lunar orbit, the crew released a subsatellite from the Service Module (SM). Apollo 16’s landing spot in the highlands was chosen to allow the astronauts to gather geologically older lunar material than the samples obtained in the first four landings, which were in or near lunar maria. Samples from the Descartes Formation and the Cayley Formation disproved a hypothesis that the formations were volcanic in origin. 1972 – The Communist delegations in Paris formally propose resumption of the peace talks for 27 April, whether or not the US halts its bombing of North Vietnam. 1978 – Soviet aircraft force a Korean Air Lines passenger jet to land in the Soviet Union after the jet veers into Russian airspace. Two people were killed and several others injured when the jet made a rough landing on a frozen lake about 300 miles south of Murmansk. The jet was on a flight from Paris to Seoul when the incident occurred. Soviet officials claimed that the plane, which usually flew over the northern polar regions to reach Seoul, suddenly veered sharply to the east and penetrated Russian airspace. Soviet jets intercepted the passenger plane and ordered it to land. Instead of going to the airfield indicated by the Soviet jets, however, the KAL flight made a very rough landing on a frozen lake south of Murmansk. Two passengers were killed and several others were injured during the landing. A short time later, the Soviet Union allowed a civilian American aircraft to retrieve the survivors. U.S. officials were confused about what had gone wrong with the KAL flight, and Soviet officials were not extraordinarily helpful in clearing up matters. South Korea claimed that “navigational errors” were to blame for the plane flying so far off course. Aviation experts, however, doubted that “errors” of that magnitude would occur in such a sophisticated aircraft or that navigation problems could account for the plane’s wildly inaccurate flight pattern. All that could be said for certain was that the episode once again demonstrated the Soviet Union’s strict adherence to the protection of its airspace. Since the end of World War II a number of civilian and military aircraft had been driven away, forced to land, or shot down by the Soviet air force. The Russian policy would have even more tragic consequences on September 1st, 1983, when Soviet jets shot down KAL Flight 007 after it veered 300 miles off course and flew over the Soviet Union–nearly 270 people died in that crash.
April 20th ~ {continued...} 1987 – The United States deported Karl Linnas to the Soviet Union, where he had been convicted in absentia of Nazi war crimes and faced a death sentence. Linnas, who maintained his innocence, died of heart disease in Leningrad the following July. 1989 – The case of Oliver North went to the jury in his Iran-Contra trial. 1991 – US Marines landed in northern Iraq to begin building the first center for Kurdish refugees on Iraqi territory. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the US commander of Operation Desert Storm, left Saudi Arabia for home. 1993 – President Clinton said he accepted responsibility for the decision to try to end the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Texas, yet laid “ultimate responsibility” on David Koresh for the deaths that resulted. 1995 – In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, the FBI announced it was looking for two men suspected of renting the truck used to carry the explosive. Rescue teams suspended the search for survivors so that the remaining structure of the Alfred P. Murrah Building could be shored up. 1996 – Russia and the leaders of the world’s seven richest democracies agreed in Moscow to end nuclear tests by the fall and pledged new steps to keep nuclear materials out of the wrong hands. 1999 – NATO bombing continued in Yugoslavia. The UN refugee agency in Macedonia declared its camps full beyond capacity and left 2,000 to 3,000 refugees at the border. Another few thousand crossed the border to the hamlet of Milana. The border with Albania was again opened but only a few crossed over. 1999 – Bulgaria and Romania offered to let NATO use their airspace to bomb Yugoslavia. 2001 – President Bush attended his first international summit as leaders of the Western Hemisphere’s 34 democracies met in Quebec to advance plans to create the world’s largest free-trade zone. Police in riot gear clashed with protesters. Protestors pushed to interrupt the Summit of the Americas and held that the free trade efforts put corporate interests ahead of workers, human rights and the environment. 2001 – In Peru an air force jet shot down a Cessna 185 carrying US missionaries. Veronica Bowers (35) and her infant daughter, Charity, were killed when the plane crash landed in the Amazon River. The plane was identified by a US surveillance plane and was believed to be trafficking in narcotics. 2002 – A US Navy F-4 crashed during an air show at Ventura, Ca., and its 2 crew members were killed. 2003 – U.S. Army forces took control of Baghdad from the Marines in a changing of the guard that thinned the military presence in the capital. Celebrating Easter, the Reverend Emmanuel Delly, a longtime Iraqi bishop, pleaded for safeguards against the persecution of Christians in the new Iraq. 2003 – Jamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti (9 of clubs), son-in-law to Saddam Hussein and former deputy head of Iraq’s tribal affairs office, left Syria and surrendered to members of the Iraqi National Congress. 2004 – The NASA Gravity Probe B satellite, designed by Stanford researchers, was launched to test Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. 2004 – China urged North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to rethink his demands for a written U.S. pledge not to attack, saying only a softer line can ease the standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear program. 2004 – Authorities in southern Italy reported that they had seized about 7,500 Kalashnikov assault rifles and other combat-grade firearms from a Turkish-flagged ship headed for New York. The weapons were destined for a company in the U.S. state of Georgia. 2006 – Famous U.S. test pilot Scott Crossfield dies in an air crash of a Cessna 210. Albert Scott Crossfield (October 2, 1921 – April 19, 2006) was an American naval officer and test pilot. In 1953, he became the first pilot to fly at Mach 2, twice the speed of sound. 2007 – William Phillips with a handgun barricades himself in NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself. Police said Phillips was under review for poor job performance and he feared being dismissed. 2010 – The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill, leaking about 4,900,000 barrels of crude oil, that would last six months. The US Coast Guard will play a role in the containment, cleanup, and subsequent investigation.
April 21st ~ 1649 – The Maryland Toleration Act, which provided for freedom of worship for all Christians, was passed by the Maryland assembly. 1828 – Noah Webster published the first American dictionary. [see Apr 14] It took grammarian and editor Noah Webster nearly 20 years to complete his two-volume dictionary of more than 35,000 entries. 1832 – Abraham Lincoln (23) assembled with his New Salem neighbors for the Black Hawk War on the Western frontier. Illinois Governor John Reynolds had called for volunteers to beat back a new Indian threat. Black Hawk, chief of the Sac and Fox Indians, had returned to his homeland at the head of a band of 450 warriors, intent on forcibly reversing the treaty he had signed 28 years earlier that ceded control of the tribe’s ancestral home in northwestern Illinois to the U.S. government. 1836 – During the Texan War for Independence, the Texas militia under Sam Houston launches a surprise attack against the forces of Mexican General Santa Anna along the San Jacinto River. The Mexicans were thoroughly routed, and hundreds were taken prisoner, including General Santa Anna himself. After gaining independence from Spain in the 1820s, Mexico welcomed foreign settlers to sparsely populated Texas, and a large group of Americans led by Stephen F. Austin settled along the Brazos River. The Americans soon outnumbered the resident Mexicans, and by the 1830s attempts by the Mexican government to regulate these semi-autonomous American communities led to rebellion. In March 1836, in the midst of armed conflict with the Mexican government, Texas declared its independence from Mexico. The Texas volunteers initially suffered defeat against the forces of Santa Anna–Sam Houston’s troops were forced into an eastward retreat, and the Alamo fell. However, in late April, Houston’s army surprised a Mexican force at San Jacinto, and Santa Anna was captured, bringing an end to Mexico’s effort to subdue Texas. In exchange for his freedom, Santa Anna recognized Texas’s independence; although the treaty was later abrogated and tensions built up along the Texas-Mexico border. The citizens of the so-called Lone Star Republic elected Sam Houston as president and endorsed the entrance of Texas into the United States. However, the likelihood of Texas joining the Union as a slave state delayed any formal action by the U.S. Congress for more than a decade. Finally, in 1845, President John Tyler orchestrated a compromise in which Texas would join the United States as a slave state. On December 29, 1845, Texas entered the United States as the 28th state, broadening the irrepressible differences in the U.S. over the issue of slavery and igniting the Mexican-American War. 1855 – The 1st train crossed the Mississippi River’s 1st bridge. 1861 – U.S.S. Saratoga, Commander Alfred Taylor, captured slave shipNightingale with 961 slaves on board. 1861 – Colonel Charles F. Smith. USA, reported to Secretary of the Navy Welles he had seized and placed under guard steamers Baltimore, Mount Vernon, Philadelphia. and Powhatan near Washington, D.C. Steamers plied between Aquia Creek and Washington; these were ordered to be outfitted at Washington Navy Yard for defense of the Capital. Aquia Creek, terminal point of railroad connection with Richmond, was the first location on the Potomac where Confederate naval officers erected batteries.
April 21st ~ {continued...} 1863 – Union Colonel Abel Streight begins a raid into northern Alabama and Georgia with the goal of cutting the Western and Atlantic Railroad between Chattanooga and Atlanta. The raid ended when Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest captured Streight’s entire command near Rome, Georgia. The plan called for Streight and General Greenville Dodge to move from central Tennessee into northwestern Alabama. Dodge would lead a diversionary attack on Tuscumbia, Alabama, while Streight would take nearly 2,000 troopers across northern Alabama and into Georgia. Streight outfitted his men with mules instead of horses, as he felt they were better adapted to the rugged terrain of the southern Appalachians. The expedition ran into trouble almost immediately when the mules arrived at Nashville in poor condition. A Confederate cavalry detachment swooped in and caused the mules to stampede, and it took two days to round them up. The first part of the expedition went well. Dodge captured Tuscumbia, and Streight continued east toward Georgia. But on April 29, Streight’s command was attacked by part of General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry. Streight’s men set a trap for the pursuing Rebels, and it worked well. The Confederate cavalry detachment, led by Captain William Forrest, brother of Nathan Bedford, found itself under fire from two sides. William Forrest was wounded, and the Federals continued on their mission. But now General Forrest was on Steight’s trail, and he would not let up. The Yankees were in hostile territory, and several times the Rebels received important information from local residents that allowed them to gain the upper hand. Finally, Forrest confronted the exhausted Union troops. Under a flag of truce, they discussed terms of surrender on May 3. Forrest had just 600 men, less than half of what Streight now possessed. But Forrest spread his men around the woods. As he met with Streight, couriers from nonexistent units rode up with reports. Streight took the bait, and agreed to surrender. When the Confederates finally emerged to gather the Yankee’s weaponry, the Union colonel realized that he had been had by the crafty Forrest. 1863 – Confederate guns at Vicksburg opened fire on Union Army steamers attempting a night passage of the batteries. Tigress was sunk and Empire City was totally disabled; Moderator was badly damaged, but J. W. Cheeseman, Anglo Saxon, and Horizon passed safely. 1864 – U.S.S. Petrel, Acting Master McElroy, U.S.S. Prairie Bird, Acting Ensign John W. Chambers, and transport Freestone steamed up the Yazoo River to operate with Union troops attacking Yazoo City. Coming abreast the city, Petrel was fired upon by a Confederate battery and sharp shooters. The river was too narrow to come about, so Petrel steamed past the batteries to avoid the direct line of fire. The 170-ton Prairie Bird, however dropped downriver out of range of the batteries. McElroy made preparation to join her, but on April 22nd, was again taken under attack by rifle and artillery fire and disabled. McElroy attempted to destroy Petrel to prevent her being taken as a prize, but was captured before he could successfully put his small wooden gunboat to the torch. Reporting the capture, Confederate General Wirt Adams wrote: I removed her fine armament of eight 24-pounder guns and the most valuable stores and had her burned to the water’s edge.” 1864 – Boat crews from U.S.S. Howquah, Fort Jackson, and Niphon, commanded by Acting Lieutenant Joseph B. Breck, destroyed Confederate salt works on Masonboro Sound, North Carolina. The sailors landed under cover of darkness at 9 p.m. without being detected and rapidly demolished the works while taking some 160 prisoners. Breck then returned to the ships, which were stand-ing by to cover the operation with gunfire if necessary. Major General W.H.C. Whiting, CSA, noted that the incident demonstrated the necessity of maintaining a guard to protect “these points”, and that henceforth there would be no salt works constructed at Masonboro Inlet. The Union Navy conducted a regular campaign against Southern salt works as the need for salt was critical in the Confederacy.
April 21st ~ {continued...} 1864 – Boat crews from U.S.S. Ethan Allan, Acting Master Isaac A. Pennell, landed at Cane Patch, near Murrell’s Inlet, South Carolina, and destroyed a salt work which Pennell, who led the expedition himself, described as “much more extensive than I expected After mixing most of the 2,000 bushels of salt into the sand of the beach, the Union sailors fired the four salt works as well as some 30 buildings in the surrounding area. The next day, off Wither’s Swash, Pennell sent Acting Master William H. Winslow and Acting Ensign James H. Bunting ashore with two boat crews to destroy a smaller salt work. 1864 – Boat expedition commanded by Acting Master John K. Crosby from U.S.S. Cimarron destroyed a rice mill and 5,000 bushels of rice stored at Winyah Bay, South Carolina. The blockaded South could ill afford to lose such food stuffs. 1898 – The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congress issued a declaration of war on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from this date. The U.S. North Atlantic Fleet, under the command of Rear Admiral William T. Sampson, was ordered to begin the blockade of Cuba on April 21, 1898. The fleet with the armored cruiser New York steamed out of Key West, Fla., at 6:30 a.m. the next morning. The fleet had hardly left port when it pursued and captured a Spanish merchant vessel, Buenaventura. The Spanish-American War had begun. 1914 – U.S. marines occupied Vera Cruz, Mexico. They stayed for six months. 1914 – A German arms shipment to Mexico is intercepted by the U.S. Navy near Veracruz, Veracruz. The Ypiranga Incident occurred on April 21, 1914, at the port of Veracruz in Mexico. The SS Ypiranga was a German steamer that was commissioned to transport arms and munitions to the Mexican federal government under Victoriano Huerta. The United States had placed Mexico under an arms embargo to stifle the flow of weaponry to the war-torn state, then in the throes of civil war, forcing the Mexican government to look to Europe for aid. The Ypiranga tried to enter the harbor at Veracruz to unload on the first day of the US occupation but was detained by US troops who were ordered by President of the United States Woodrow Wilson to enforce the arms embargo he had placed on Mexico. There was neither a declaration of war on Mexico by the United States nor a formal blockade on its ports, thus the detention of the Ypiranga was not legal and it was released. It proceeded to a port where the US military was absent, Puerto México (modern-day Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz), and was able to offload its cargo to Huerta’s officials. The arms on the Ypiranga required “three trains of ten cars each” to unload.
April 21st ~ {continued...} 1918 – Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the leading air ace of the war with 80 confirmed kills is shot down and killed. His command is taken by German ace, Hermann Goering. 1924 – Navy vessels authorized transferred to Coast Guard for law enforcement purposes. The Coast Guard was authorized to commission temporary officers. 1925 – The Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals is published in Il Mondo, establishing the political and ideological foundations of Italian Fascism. 1934 – Moe Berg, Senators catcher (and later US spy), played an AL record 117th consecutive, errorless game. In 1934, five years before he retired as a player, Berg made a trip to Japan as part of a traveling major league All-Star team. One might wonder what the seldom-used catcher, a .251 hitter that season, was doing playing with the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Berg, who spoke Japanese, took home movies of the Tokyo skyline that were used in the planning of General Jimmy Doolittle’s 1942 bombing raids on the Japanese capital. The U.S. government wrote a letter to Berg, thanking him for the movies. 1943 – President Roosevelt announced that several Doolittle pilots were executed by Japanese. 1943 – Admiral Koga is appointed to succeed Yamamoto as Commander in Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet. 1944 – US Task Force 58 (Admiral Mitscher) attacks Wakde Island, Sawar, Sarmi and Hollandia. The American force includes 12 carriers and cruisers. Aircraft strike during the day and cruisers bombard the Japanese positions at night. 1944 – Marshal Badoglio forms a coalition government in liberated Italy. 1945 – A mutual assistance treaty is concluded between the Soviet government and the Provisional Government of Poland, based on the Lublin Committee. The further recognition bestowed on the communist Poles, at a time when the London based Polish government in exile continues to receive western recognition, becomes an issue in postwar period. 1945 – Bologna is captured by units of the Polish 2nd Corps (part of British 8th Army). Units of US 2nd Corps (part of US 5th Army) enter the town a few hours later. US 5th Army forces have now cleared the Appenines and advancing rapidly on the Lombard Plain. East of Bologna, British 8th Army is advancing rapidly. 1945 – The heavy fighting near Baguio is continuing, with the attacks of the US 37th Division making some gains near the Irisan River and the 33rd Division advancing to the west of the city. 1945 – The US 77th Infantry Division completes the occupation of Ie Shima. The island and its airfield have been secured after six days of heavy fighting during which about 5000 Japanese troops have been killed. The division is ferried to Okinawa to join in the battle in the south. 1951 – Carrier-based Marine planes downed three Yaks in the first air-to-air contact of Marine air with the North Korean Air Force. 1951 – U.S. Air Force Captain Robert J. Love, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, scored his fifth and sixth aerial victories in his F-86 Sabre “Bernie’s Bo” to become the 11th ace of the Korean War. 1952 – A tremendous internal blast from turret one rocked the cruiser USS Saint Paul, killing 30 sailors. This gunpowder fire of unknown origin caused the U.S. Navy’s greatest single loss of life during the war.
April 21st ~ {continued...} 1953 – Roy Cohn and David Schine, two of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s chief aides, return to the United States after a controversial investigation of United States Information Service (USIS) posts in Europe. Upon their recommendation, thousands of books were removed from USIS libraries in several Western European countries. Cohn and Schine had risen to fame on the coattails of Senator McCarthy as he conducted his well-publicized hunt for subversives and communists in the United States. Cohn became chief counsel to the McCarthy Senate subcommittee devoted to investigating communism in the U.S. government, and Schine, one of Cohn’s close friends, became a “special consultant.” In the spring of 1953, Cohn and Schine departed for a seven-nation tour of Western Europe. Their primary task was to investigate the workings of the USIS posts, foreign offices of the United States Information Agency that had recently been established to serve as propaganda centers. The posts hosted speakers, showed movies, and set up libraries containing what were considered to be representative pieces of American literature. Cohn and Schine were appalled by the authors they found on the USIS bookshelves. The two men reported that over 30,000 books in the libraries were by “pro-communist” writers and demanded their removal. The authors they targeted included crime novelist Dashiell Hammett, African-American intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois, Herman Melville, John Steinbeck, and Henry Thoreau. The State Department, which oversaw the operations of USIS, immediately ordered thousands of books removed from the libraries. The irony of the situation did not escape commentators of the time. With the Nazi book burnings of World War II still fresh in the collective memory, many felt it was questionable that America had joined the ranks of nations that censored literature. In the fight against communism, even Moby Dick was dispensable. 1954 – USAF flew a French battalion to Vietnam. 1964 – Republican leaders of the Senate, Everett Dirksen (IL) and the House, Charles Halleck (IN), hold a joint news conference in Washington DC and charge that the Johnson administration is concealing the extent of US involvement in the war. 1964 – A US Navy Transit-5bn satellite fails to reach orbit after launch; as it re-enters the atmosphere, 2.1 pounds (0.95 kg) of radioactive plutonium in its SNAP RTG power source is widely dispersed. 1965 – The Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency report a “most ominous” development: a regiment of the People’s Army of Vietnam–the regular army of North Vietnam–division is now operating with the Viet Cong in South Vietnam. Prior to this, it was believed that South Vietnam was dealing with an internal insurgency by the Viet Cong; the report detailed that, in fact, the Viet Cong forces were being joined in the war against the Saigon government by North Vietnamese army units. In short, the report revealed that South Vietnam was now involved in a much larger war than originally believed. The situation far outstripped the combat capability of the South Vietnamese forces. In order to stabilize the situation, President Lyndon B. Johnson would have to commit U.S. ground combat units, leading to a much greater American involvement in the war. Indeed, eventually over 500,000 U.S. troops were stationed in South Vietnam. 1966 – Operation GEORGIA southwest of DaNang started (21 Apr – 10 May).
April 21st ~ {continued...} 1966 – South Vietnam expels a group of six US pacifists for seeking to stage anti-war demonstrations in Saigon. 1967 – Josef Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, defected to the US. 1968 – An NVA defector reveals enemy plans for a second wave of attacks on Saigon to begin April 22nd. 1972 – Moonwalk in the Descartes Highlands by CAPT John W. Young, USN Commander of Apollo 16 and Charles Duke, Lunar Module Pilot. Young was the ninth man to walk on the moon. LCDR Thomas K. Mattingly II, USN was the Command Module Pilot. During the 11 day, 1 hour and 51 minute mission, 213 lbs. of lunar material was collected. Recovery by HC-1 helicopters from USS Ticonderoga (CVS-14) 1975 – Members of the SLA robbed the Carmichael Bank in suburban Sacramento, Ca. Myrna Opsahl, a mother (42) of four, was shot dead. Patty Hearst drove the getaway car. Emily Harris shot Opsahl with a 12-gauge shotgun. 4 SLA members were arrested for the murder of Opsahl in 2002. Michael Bortin, William Harris, Sara Jane Olson and Emily Montague all pleaded guilty. Fugitive James Kilgore was arrested in South Africa Nov 8, 2002. In 2003 Montague was sentenced to 8 years, Harris to 7 years, Olson and Bortin to 6 years. In 2004 Kilgore was sentenced to 4 ½ years. 1975 – Xuan Loc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls to the communists. The North Vietnamese had launched a major offensive in March to capture the provincial capital of Ban Me Thuot in the Central Highlands. The South Vietnamese defenders fought very poorly and were quickly overwhelmed by the North Vietnamese attackers. Despite previous promises to provide support to the South Vietnamese if the communists violated the provisions of the cease-fire, the United States did nothing. In an attempt to reposition his forces for a better defense, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu ordered his forces in the Highlands to withdraw to more defensible positions to the south. What started out as a reasonably orderly withdrawal soon degenerated into a panic that spread throughout the South Vietnamese armed forces. They abandoned Pleiku and Kontum in the Highlands with very little fighting and the North Vietnamese pressed the attack from the west and north. In quick succession, Quang Tri, Hue, and Da Nang in the north fell to the communist onslaught. The North Vietnamese continued to attack south along the coast, defeating the South Vietnamese forces at each encounter. As the North Vietnamese forces closed on the approaches to Saigon, the politburo in Hanoi issued an order to Gen. Van Tien Dung to launch the “Ho Chi Minh Campaign,” the final assault on Saigon itself. Dung began to move his forces into position for the final battle. The South Vietnamese 18th Division made a valiant final stand at Xuan Loc, 40 miles northeast of Saigon, and the South Vietnamese soldiers destroyed three of Dung’s divisions. However, the South Vietnamese succumbed to the superior North Vietnamese numbers. With the fall of Xuan Loc, President Nguyen Van Thieu resigned and transferred authority to Vice-President Tran Van Huong. Thieu then fled Saigon, flying to Taiwan on April 25 and eventually on to Great Britain, where he now resides. By April 27, the North Vietnamese had completely encircled Saigon and began to maneuver for their final assault. By the morning of April 30, the war was over. When the North Vietnamese tanks broke through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, the South Vietnamese surrendered and the Vietnam War came to an end. 1980 – Boats with Cuban migrants on board began departing Mariel, Cuba. The first two boats arrive in Miami the same day, marking the largest Cuban migration to the U.S. to date. Cuban leader Fidel Castro then declared the port of Mariel “open”, increasing the number of boats involved in the exodus and giving the exodus its name. This becomes the largest Coast Guard operation ever undertaken to date since World War II. 1981 – US furnished $1 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia.
April 21st ~ {continued...} 1987 – The Senate panel investigating the Iran-Contra affair voted to grant limited immunity to President Reagan’s former national security adviser, Rear Adm. John M. Poindexter. 1989 – Six days after the death of Hu Yaobang, the deposed reform-minded leader of the Chinese Communist Party, some 100,000 students gather at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to commemorate Hu and voice their discontent with China’s authoritative communist government. The next day, an official memorial service for Hu Yaobang was held in Tiananmen’s Great Hall of the People, and student representatives carried a petition to the steps of the Great Hall, demanding to meet with Premier Li Peng. The Chinese government refused such a meeting, leading to a general boycott of Chinese universities across the country and widespread calls for democratic reforms. Ignoring government warnings of violent suppression of any mass demonstration, students from more than 40 universities began a march to Tiananmen on April 27th. The students were joined by workers, intellectuals, and civil servants, and by mid-May more than a million people filled the square, the site of communist leader’s Mao Zedong’s proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. On May 20th, the government formally declared martial law in Beijing, and troops and tanks were called in to disperse the dissidents. However, large numbers of students and citizens blocked the army’s advance, and by May 23rd government forces had pulled back to the outskirts of Beijing. On June 3rd, with negotiations to end the protests stalled and calls for democratic reforms escalating, the troops received orders from the Chinese government to reclaim Tiananmen at all costs. By the end of the next day, Chinese troops had forcibly cleared Tiananmen Square and Beijing’s streets, killing hundreds of demonstrators and arresting thousands of protesters and other suspected dissidents. In the weeks after the government crackdown, an unknown number of dissidents were executed, and communist hard-liners took firm control of the country. The international community was outraged at the incident, and economic sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries sent China’s economy into decline. However, by late 1990, international trade had resumed, thanks in part to China’s release of several hundred imprisoned dissidents. 1991 – US Marines in northern Iraq began building the first safe-haven settlement for Kurdish refugees. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf arrived at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida to a hero’s welcome. 1995 – The FBI arrested former soldier Timothy McVeigh at an Oklahoma jail where he had spent two days on minor traffic and weapons charges; he was charged in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing two days earlier in which over 200 people were killed by a truck bomb that exploded in front of a Federal building. 1998 – US and Britain had begun a secretive removal of nuclear materials near Tbilisi. Britain volunteered to accept the material and had already taken 270 pounds. The unused highly enriched uranium was to be processed by a Scottish plant. 1999 – NATO and the US agreed to renew planning for ground troops in Kosovo as leaders converged on Washington to begin summit talks. 1999 – NATO warplanes hit a Serbian refugee camp near Djakovica. 4 Serbs were reported killed in the camp where 200-300 Serb refugees from the Krajina region lived. A NATO spokesman said NATO planes were not operating in that area. NATO bombs hit transmitters for radio and TV along with other business and party offices of people close to Milosevic.
April 21st ~ {continued...} 2000 – In Bosnia NATO troops arrested Dragan Nikolic (42) for war crimes at the Susica detention camp in 1992. 2000 – In Russia the lower house of parliament ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which the US Senate rejected in 1999. It would oblige Russia to end all nuclear test explosions. 2001 – Western hemisphere leaders meeting in Quebec ratified a plan barring undemocratic nations from a massive free trade zone they hoped would expand prosperity across their 34 nations. For a second day, protesters clashed with nightstick-wielding police who fired water cannons and rubber bullets. 2003 – The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was established as the temporary governing body of Iraq. Retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, Pres. Bush’s appointed post-war administrator, arrived in Baghdad. His priority was to restore basic services such as water and electricity. 2003 – Muhammad Hamza al-Zubaydi (queen of spades), was captured by the Iraqi opposition. He was known as Saddam’s “Shiite Thug” for his role in Iraq’s bloody suppression of the Shiite Muslim uprising of 1991. 2004 – U.S. forces battled Taliban holdouts in a forbidding mountain range in southern Afghanistan, killing two fighters and arresting two others. 2004 – U.S Marines backed by tanks and helicopter gunships battled insurgents in northern Fallujah. 2005 – American, French and Israeli naval forces rescue three Syrian and Egyptian sailors from a North Korean ship that sank in international waters off the coast of Nahariya, Israel. 2005 – U.S. Army Sergeant Hassan Akbar is found guilty by a military jury of the murder of two fellow officers in Kuwait, just prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. 2005 – Five American Muslims sue the Department of Homeland Security for racial profiling after they were detained for hours on the Canadian border while returning from a religious conference. 2006 – An aircraft of the United States Navy’s Blue Angels precision flight team crashes during an air show in Beaufort, South Carolina, killing the pilot and injuring eight people on the ground. 2013 – NASA’s The Antares rocket makes its maiden flight, successfully carrying a mockup Cygnus spacecraft into orbit.
April 22nd ~ 1526 – The 1st American slave revolt occurred at San Miguel de Guadelupe, SC. The Spanish settlers had brought a group of Africans to labor at the mission, to clear ground and erect the buildings. This was the first time that Spanish colonists had used African slaves on the North American continent. During a period of internal political disputes among the settlers, the slaves rebelled and fled to the interior. They presumably settled with Native Americans if they survived. 1778 – Captain John Paul Jones of Ranger led landing party raid on Whitehaven, England. Whitehaven was an English seaport on the Irish Sea. The decision to raid it was not made because of its strategic value, for the ships in its harbor were mostly coastal fishing vessels, containing little of value to the English war cause. John Paul Jones’ original idea was to capture an important person in the course of the raid and hold the unfortunate prisoner hostage until the British ministry released American sailors from prison. By this time, the Revolutionary War had been going on for three years. Soldiers taken prisoner during land engagements were frequently exchanged as prisoners of war. But the English still treated anyone found on an American armed vessel as a pirate. This was a sore point with sailors in the Continental Navy, and especially with Jones. He hoped his raid might free some of the American seamen languishing in English prisons. In addition, he may also have known that the British ministry intended to make the burning of American seaports part of its military policy. He chose Whitehall because it was the English seaport he knew best, having departed from there at age thirteen when he first went to sea. His first voyage had carried him to Virginia, and he later wrote that he fell in love with America at first sight. Going ashore near daybreak, Jones and his men spiked the guns in the two batteries in Whitehaven Harbor, then proceeded to light a collier (coal ship) on fire. One of Jones’ crew, however-an Irishman who had enlisted only to get home-began shouting warnings and banging on the doors of citizens. Soon a crowd of townsfolk swarmed down to the water’s edge. Jones coolly posted sentinels until the collier was beyond rescue, but decided to abandon the 150 remaining vessels and return to, the Ranger, waiting offshore. The destruction caused by the Whitehaven raid was paltry, but its effectiveness as propaganda was electrifying. No raid had been made on an English seaport since 1667, thanks to Britain’s dominance of the seas. Englishmen wondered uneasily where the mighty Royal Navy had been in Whitehaven’s time of need, and Jones appeared, not for the last time, in English newspapers as a swashbuckling pirate. The effects of the Continental Navy’s daring exploits upon English commerce helped arouse distaste among the British people for continuing the Revolutionary War. 1790 – Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, submitted a bill to Congress to create a “system of cutters” to enforce tariff and customs laws along the nation’s coastline. Congress passed his bill on 4 August of the same year. This would be the nascent Coast Guard. 1792 – President Washington proclaimed American neutrality in the war in Europe. 1836 – A day after the Battle of San Jacinto, forces under Texas General Sam Houston identify Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna among the captives of the battle when one of his fellow captives mistakenly gives away his identity. 1861 – Robert E. Lee was named commander of Virginia Confederate forces.
April 22nd ~ {continued...} 1861 – Captain Franklin Buchanan, Commandant Washington Navy Yard, submitted his resignation and was relieved by Commander John A. Dahlgren; Buchanan joined the Confederate Navy and was promoted to Admiral, CSN. on 26 August 1862. Dahlgren spurred the buildup of Union ordnance and operation of ships for the defense of Washington and Potomac River. 1863 – Colonel Benjamin Grierson’s troops bring destruction to central Mississippi on a two-week raid along the entire length of the state. This action was a diversion in General Ulysses S. Grant’s campaign to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi, the last remaining Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. Grant had his army on the western shore of the river, but he was planning to cross the mighty river south of Vicksburg, and move against Vicksburg from the west. Grierson’s orders were to destroy enemy supplies, telegraph lines, and railroads in Mississippi. Grierson crafted a brilliant campaign. He left La Grange, Tennessee, on April 17 with 1,700 cavalry troopers and began traveling down the eastern side of the state. Whenever Confederate cavalry approached, Grierson sent out a diversionary force to draw them away. The diversionary units then rode back to La Grange, while the main force continued south. On April 22nd, he dispatched Company B of the 7th Illinois regiment to destroy telegraph lines at Macon, Mississippi, while Grierson rode to Newton Station. Here, Grierson could inflict damage on the Southern Mississippi Railroad, the one specific target identified by Grant. On April 24th, his men tore up the tracks and destroyed two trainloads of ammunition bound for Vicksburg. On May 2nd, Grierson and his men rode into Union occupied Baton Rouge, Louisiana, ending one of the most spectacular raids of the war. The Yankees killed about 100 Confederates, took 500 prisoners, destroyed 50 miles of rail line, and destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars of supplies and property. Grierson lost just 3 men killed, 7 wounded, 14 missing. More important, the raiders drew the attention of Confederate troops in Mississippi and weakened the forces at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, Louisiana. Both strongholds fell to the Union in July 1863. For his efforts, Grierson was promoted to brigadier general. 1870 – Vladimir Ilyitch Lenin (d.1924), also known as Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov, Russian revolutionary leader and first communist leader of USSR, was born. It was later learned that he was a hereditary noble and that he had a French mistress named Inessa Armand. 1889 – At precisely high noon, thousands of would-be settlers make a mad dash into the newly opened Oklahoma Territory to claim cheap land. The nearly two million acres of land opened up to white settlement was located in Indian Territory, a large area that once encompassed much of modern-day Oklahoma. Initially considered unsuitable for white colonization, Indian Territory was thought to be an ideal place to relocate Native Americans who were removed from their traditional lands to make way for white settlement. The relocations began in 1817, and by the 1880s, Indian Territory was a new home to a variety of tribes, including the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, Cheyenne, Commanche, and Apache. At 11:50 a.m., soldiers called for everyone to form a line. When the hands of the clock reached noon, the cannon of the fort boomed, and the soldiers signaled the settlers to start. With the crack of hundreds of whips, thousands of Boomers streamed into the territory in wagons, on horseback, and on foot. All told, from 50,000 to 60,000 settlers entered the territory that day. By nightfall, they had staked thousands of claims either on town lots or quarter section farm plots. Towns like Norman, Oklahoma City, Kingfisher, and Guthrie sprang into being almost overnight. An extraordinary display of both the pioneer spirit and the American lust for land, the first Oklahoma land rush was also plagued by greed and fraud. Cases involving “Sooners”–people who had entered the territory before the legal date and time–overloaded courts for years to come. The government attempted to operate subsequent runs with more controls, eventually adopting a lottery system to designate claims. By 1905, white Americans owned most of the land in Indian Territory. Two years later, the area once known as Indian Territory entered the Union as a part of the new state of Oklahoma.
April 22nd ~ {continued...} 1898 – The Volunteer Army Act was passed to circumvent the question about the legality of sending the militia (National Guard) abroad. When war did break out with Spain, the Regular Army’s 28,000 men were scattered throughout the country at many different posts and the National Guard numbered around 100,000 men and was composed mostly of infantry units of widely varying degrees of readiness. The act was so framed that National Guard forces could serve as state volunteer units with the approval of the respective governors. 1898 – With the United States and Spain on the verge of formally declaring war, the U.S. Navy began blockading Cuban ports under orders from President McKinley. In the first Spanish-American War action the USS Nashville captured a Spanish merchant ship, the Buenaventura, off Key West, Fla. Also, Congress authorized creation of the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, popularly known as the “Rough Riders.” 1915 – The Second battle of Ypres begins with the first use of poison chlorine gas on the Western Front. The Germans use 4000 gas cylinders to open their attack. Targeted units had no defense and many panicked and fled leaving 5 mile wide gap in the front line. 1930 – The United States, Britain and Japan signed the London Naval Treaty, which regulated submarine warfare and limited shipbuilding. The London Naval Conference met in Europe and agreed to shrink the world’s navies. 1940 – Rear Admiral Joseph Taussig testified before US Senate Naval Affairs Committee that war with Japan is inevitable. 1942 – British troops including the 7th Armored Division assume position around Meiktia to stem the Japanese advance. Chinese troops from the 200th Division are sent as reinforcements. However, the refusal of another division to withdraw under orders from General Stilwell makes the position of these troops vulnerable. 1943 – A series of Allied attacks are launched against the Axis positions in the Tunisian hills. The US 2nd Corps (now commanded by General Bradley) attacks Hill 609 in “Mousetrap Valley,” with the objective of advancing to Mateur. The British 5th Corps attacks “Longstop” and “Peter’s Corner” and the British 9th Corps attacks between Boubellat and Bou Arada. Montgomery has been ordered to cease his attacks along the coast. Meanwhile, another Axis air supply effort results in 30 transports being shot down. 1944 – The Landing at Aitape (Operation Persecution) was a battle of the Western New Guinea campaign of World War II. American and Allied forces undertook an amphibious landing at Aitape on northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The amphibious landing was undertaken simultaneously with the amphibious landings of Battle of Hollandia at Hollandia to isolate the Japanese 18th Army at Wewak. The invasion force was commanded by Brigadier General Jens A. Doe and was built around the US 163rd Infantry Regiment of the 41st Infantry Division (ORARNG). The Japanese defenders numbered less than 1,000 in the area. The landings were planned at “Blue Beach”. Obscured by heavy smoke from fires from the beach head, the landing took place at Wapil. The 163rd Regimental Combat Team landed and opposition was light, with most Japanese defenders fleeing into the hills as the overwhelming force continued to arrive. One landing force transport was badly damaged by a Japanese torpedo bomber. No. 62 Works Wing of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) went ashore that morning to help secure and repair Tadji Airfield. General Douglas MacArthur watched the landings from a light cruiser, then went ashore in a landing boat. The airfield was secured by 13:00, and the fighter strip was made operational by the RAAF No. 62 Works Wing within 48 hours after working nonstop. Twenty-five P-40s from the No. 78 Wing of the RAAF landed on the field on 24 April, with the rest of the wing arriving the next day to provide support to the Aitape and Hollandia landings. 1944 – US forces occupy Ungelap Island, in the Marshalls, completing the campaign.
April 22nd ~ {continued...} 1944 – The 1st Air Commando Group, led by Lt. Col. Clinton B. Gaty, using Sikorsky R-4 helicopters stage the first use of helicopters in combat with combat search and rescue operations in the China-Burma-India theater. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, amidst the Quebec Conference in August 1943, had been impressed by Brigadier Orde Wingate’s account of what could be accomplished in Burma with proper air support. To comply with Roosevelt’s proposed air support for British long range penetration operations in Burma, the United States Army Air Forces created the 5318th Air Unit to support the Chindits. In March 1944, they were designated the 1st Air Commando Group by USAAF Commander General Hap Arnold. Arnold chose Colonel John R. Alison and Colonel Philip Cochran as co-commanders of the unit. 1945 – The US 31st Infantry Division is landed at Moro Gulf. The US 24th Division is already advancing inland and has nearly reached Kabakan. Meanwhile, on Jolo, the last Japanese resistance comes to an end as their final strong-points fall to the US forces. Scattered individual Japanese soldiers remain at large. 1945 – Adolf Hitler, learning from one of his generals that no German defense was offered to the Russian assault at Eberswalde, admits to all in his underground bunker that the war is lost and that suicide is his only recourse. Almost as confirmation of Hitler’s assessment, a Soviet mechanized corps reaches Treuenbrietzen, 40 miles southwest of Berlin, liberates a POW camp and releases, among others, Norwegian Commander in Chief Otto Ruge. 1945 – Himmler meets Count Bernadotte of the Swedish Red Cross and gives him a message to pass to the western Allies, offering a German surrender to the British and Americans but not to the Soviets. The message is passed to the Allies on the 24th. 1945 – US 7th Army units cross the Danube at Dillingen and Baldingen. 1945 – Units of 2nd and 4th US Corps (parts of US 5th Army) reach the Penaro River in their advance to the Po River. On the left flank Modena is taken. 1951 – There was a ticker-tape parade for General MacArthur in NYC. 1951 – The Chinese launched their spring offensive with a heavy artillery barrage northeast of Yonchon. The Battle of the Imjin River began. 1952 – An atomic test conducted at Yucca Flat, Nevada, became the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television. 1954 – Senator Joseph McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army, which he charges with being “soft” on communism. These televised hearings gave the American public their first view of McCarthy in action, and his recklessness, indignant bluster, and bullying tactics quickly resulted in his fall from prominence. 1962 – Twenty-nine US helicopters airlift about 600 Vietnamese troops to the Mekong Delta in Kein Phong Province (about 80 miles south of Saigon) to double the number of troops used in a mopping up operation there. 1965 – USCG and US Navy agree on the deployment of 82-foot patrol and 40-foot utility boats to support Operation Market Time in Vietnam.
April 22nd ~ {continued...} 1968 – In a news conference, Defense Secretary Clark Clifford declares that the South Vietnamese have “acquired the capacity to begin to insure their own security [and] they are going to take over more and more of the fighting.” Clifford, who had succeeded Robert McNamara, had taken office with more than a little skepticism about the way the United States was conducting the war in Vietnam. This skepticism increased after the communists launched their massive offensive during the Tet (Chinese New Year) holiday earlier in 1968. Clifford set up a Vietnam task force to reassess the situation. He learned that U.S. military leaders could offer no plan for victory or assurance of success. Accordingly, he told President Lyndon B. Johnson that victory was probably impossible and recommended that the president initiate a bombing halt of North Vietnam and try to negotiate an end to the war. Clifford’s comments about the combat capabilities of the South Vietnamese were part of his effort to set the stage for U.S. disengagement from the war. Johnson would follow Clifford’s advice on the bombing halt in October 1968 when he called an end to Operation Rolling Thunder, the bombing campaign against North Vietnam that had been ongoing since March 1965. Clifford left office in 1969 with the rest of the Johnson administration. The next president, Richard M. Nixon, instituted a new policy that echoed many of the things that Clifford had recommended. In June 1969, Nixon announced his “Vietnamization” policy, a strategy built around two main objectives: increasing South Vietnamese combat capability and withdrawing U.S. troops. 1971 – Former US Navy Lieutenant John Kerry (27) testified before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and talked about alleged war crimes and atrocities committed in Vietnam by US forces. 1977 – Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic. 1987 – U.S. Navy ordered to provide assistance to neutral vessels under Iranian attack outside the exclusion zone and that requested help. 1990 – Pro-Iranian kidnappers in Lebanon freed American hostage Robert Polhill after nearly 39 months of captivity. 1991 – Intel released 486SX processor chip. 1993 – The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in Washington, D.C., to honor the victims of Nazi extermination. 1994 – Richard M. Nixon (81), the 37th president of the United States (1969-1975), died at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, four days after suffering a stroke. 1999 – In Kentucky an Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed during training at Fort Campbell and 7 people were killed and 4 injured. 1999 – The NATO summit began in Washington. 1999 – An early morning missile hit the home of Pres. Milosevic at 15 Uzicke St. in Belgrade. NATO bombs also hit the Serbian TV station in Belgrade and killed 15 people. Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin after meeting with Pres. Milosevic in Belgrade said Milosevic would accept an int’l. presence in Kosovo.
April 22nd ~ {continued...} 2001 – Two spacewalking astronauts, including Canadian Chris Hadfield, installed a massive Canadian-built robot arm on the international space station. 2001 – In Quebec City, Canada, 34 Western leaders affirmed the creation of a free trade zone by 2005. They agreed that only democratic nations could join and to penalize any country that strayed from the path of democracy. 2001 – Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani, an Iraqi diplomat, was expelled from the Czech Republic. He was later reported to have met with Mohamed Atta and planned an attack on Radio Free Europe. 2002 – Zacarias Moussaoui (33), charged in connection with the Sep 11 terrorism, made a 50 minute statement and asked that his court-appointed attorneys be replaced by a Muslim legal consultant. 2003 – American soldiers in Baghdad found $112 million sealed inside 7 animal kennels. 2003 – France proposed that the UN suspend economic sanctions against Iraq, but continue to operate the oil-for-food program. 2004 – Pat Tillman former safety for the Arizona Cardinals, was killed in an ambush in Afghanistan. He had walked away from millions of dollars to join the Army Rangers and serve his country. 2004 – Algerian officials said the Salafists, a rebel group linked to al Qaeda, were in surrender talks to end a 12-year Islamic insurgency. 2004 – Spain has agreed to a U.S. request to leave its intelligence agents in Iraq and not withdraw them along with its 1,300 troops. 2006 – Nuri al-Maliki is selected as the first Iraqi Prime Minister under the permanent government. 2008 – The United States Air Force retires the remaining F-117 Nighthawk aircraft in service. 2008 – Ben-ami Kaddish, a former U.S. Army mechanical engineer, is arrested on charges of disclosing national defense information to Israel.
April 23rd ~ 1662 – Connecticut was chartered as an English colony. 1778 – US Captain John Paul Jones attempted to kidnap the Earl of Selkirk, but he only got Lady Selkirk’s silverware. 1789 – President-elect Washington and his wife moved into the first executive mansion, the Franklin House, in New York. George Washington was inaugurated at Federal Hall and lived at 3 Cherry Street in New York City. In 1790, with construction on the new federal capital underway, the government was moved temporarily to Philadelphia, where Washington served out his two terms. He is the only president who never resided in the White House. 1790 – Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton asked Congress for authorization to build a “system of [10] cutters” for “securing the collection of the revenue.” Congress approved his request on 4 August 1790. The President was authorized to appoint collectors of customs and establish ports of entry. 1791 – James Buchanan, was born in Franklin County, Pa. He was the fifteenth U.S. president (1857-1861) and the only president not to marry. 1860 – The Pony Express rider missed the boat at Benicia, Ca. Thomas Bedford, a 34-year-old stable keeper, was hired on the spot and boarded the ferry Carquinez with his horse. His discovered that his horse had lost a shoe and borrowed a horse from Martinez blacksmith Casemoro Briones and delivered the mail to the ferry at Oakland. The mail reached SF 9 hours and 15 minutes from the time it left Sacramento. 1861 – Arkansas troops seized Fort Smith. 1861 – Battle of San Antonio, TX. 1864 – Battle of Cane River, LA (Red River Expedition, Monett’s Ferry). 1865 – Union cavalry units continued to skirmish with Confederate forces in Henderson, North Carolina and Munsford Station, Alabama. 1865 – Confederate President Jefferson Davis writes to his wife, Varina, of the desperate situating facing the Confederates. “Panic has seized the country,” he wrote to his wife in Georgia. Davis was in Charlotte, North Carolina, on his flight away from Yankee troops. It was three weeks since Davis had fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, as Union troops were overrunning the trenches nearby. Davis and his government headed west to Danville, Virginia, in hopes of reestablishing offices there. When General Robert E. Lee was forced to surrender his army at Appomattox Court House on April 9th, Davis and his officials traveled south in hopes of connecting with the last major Confederate army, the force of General Joseph Johnston. Johnston, then in North Carolina, was himself in dire straits, as General William T. Sherman’s massive force was bearing down. Davis continued to his wife, “The issue is one which it is very painful for me to meet. On one hand is the long night of oppression which will follow the return of our people to the ‘Union’; on the other, the suffering of the women and children, and carnage among the few brave patriots who would still oppose the invader.” The Davis’ were reunited a few days later as the president continued to flee and continue the fight. Two weeks later, Union troops finally captured the Confederate president in northern Georgia.
April 23rd ~ {continued...} 1908 – Congress passed legislation that created the Medical Reserve Corps, the Army’s first federal reserve force. From this pool of trained medical professionals, the secretary of War was able to order Reserve officers to active duty during time of emergency. In June 1908, the first 160 Reserve medical officers received their commissions. This number grew to about 360 by 1909, to 1,900 by 1916, and to 9,223 by 1917. The concept of bringing civilian professionals into the Army in a disciplined and quickly-accessible manner soon expanded beyond the medical profession and beyond officers, becoming the modern US Army Reserve. 1914 – The 3rd Marine Regiment joined in a show of force at Vera Cruz, Mexico, after an insult to the American flag. 1915 – ACA becomes National Advisory Council on Aeronautics (NACA), the forerunner of NASA. 1918 – USS Stewart destroys German submarine off France. 1924 – The U.S. Senate passes Soldiers Bonus Bill. 1926 – Virgil I (Gus) Grissom, was born. He was the Mercury and Gemini astronaut who was killed in a fire while preparing for the first Apollo flight. 1934 – In first Navy movement through Panama Canal over 100 ships transited. 1944 – Advancing US forces capture Hollandia, New Guinea, without a fight; Tadji airfield is also taken. The advance inland encounters resistance near the village of Sabron. There is congestion on the beachheads. 1945 – Advance units of both US 5th and British 8th Armies reach the Po River. US 5th Army units manage to cross the river south of Mantua. 1945 – Adolf Hitler’s designated successor Hermann Göring sends him a telegram asking permission to take leadership of the Third Reich, which causes Hitler to replace him with Joseph Goebbels and Karl Dönitz. Hitler is infuriated and orders Goring arrested. 1945 – On Okinawa, the attacks of US 24th Corps begin to achieve some gains, notably by US 96th Division. 1945 – Units of US 37th Division reach the outskirts of Baguio. 1945 – In only U.S. use of guided missiles in WW II, 2 BAT missiles release at Balikiapan, Borneo. 1945 – Less than two weeks after taking over as president after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman gives a tongue-lashing to Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov. The incident indicated that Truman was determined to take a “tougher” stance with the Soviets than his predecessor had. On April 23rd, 1945, Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov arrived at the White House for a meeting with the new president. Truman immediately lashed out at Molotov, “in words of one syllable,” as the president later recalled. As Molotov listened incredulously, Truman charged that the Soviets were breaking their agreements and that Stalin needed to keep his word. At the end of Truman’s tirade, Molotov indignantly declared that he had never been talked to in such a manner. Truman, not to be outdone, replied that if Molotov had kept his promises, he would not need to be talked to like that. Molotov stormed out of the meeting. Truman was delighted with his own performance, telling one friend that he gave the Soviet official “the straight one-two to the jaw.” The president was convinced that a tough stance was the only way to deal with the communists, a policy that came to dominate America’s early Cold War policies toward the Soviets.
April 23rd ~ {continued...} 1950 – Chaing Kai-shek evacuates Hainan, leaving mainland China to Mao Zedong and the communists. 1951 – The Battle of Kapyong took place with the 27th British Commonwealth Infantry Brigade holding out against the brunt of the communist spring offensive. The 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment; 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry; and A Company, 72nd U.S. Tank Battalion all received the U.S. Distinguished Unit Citation (today known as the Presidential Unit Citation) for Kapyong. North of Uijongbu, the 1st Battalion of the Gloucester Regiment and the 170th Heavy Mortar Battery, both of the British 29th Independent Brigade Group, earned the U.S. Distinguished Unit Citation for the action at “Gloucester Hill” where the battalion was virtually annihilated standing against the assault of 80,000 Chinese. A tank-infantry force including the Philippine Battalion suffered heavy casualties attempting to relieve the Gloucesters. 1951 – American journalist William N. Oatis is arrested for espionage by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. Oatis was working as the AP bureau chief in Prague, Czechoslovakia when he was arrested. Deprived of sleep and subjected to continuous interrogation for 42 hours, Oatis signed a statement confessing to the charge of espionage. The case made international headlines, as well as leading to trade and travel embargos against Czechoslovakia. On July 4th, 1951, a Czechoslovak court sentenced Oatis to ten years in prison. He was released May 16th, 1953, shortly after the death of Joseph Stalin and after an angry letter from President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the Czechoslovak government. The Czechoslovak government said it had been moved to pardon Oatis by a poignant plea from Oatis’ wife, Laurabelle. A Czechoslovak court cleared him of all charges in 1959, but the decision was reversed in 1968 after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. In 1990, after Czechoslovakia’s “Velvet Revolution” the previous year, he was cleared again. The Voice of America called Oatis “the first American martyr to press freedom behind the Iron Curtain.” The United States Department of State denounced the Czechoslovak verdict as a ludicrous travesty and the U.S. press said Oatis was condemned for no more than doing his job as a reporter. The case’s Orwellian overtones were highlighted by the prosecution’s assertion at the show trial that Oatis, a careful reporter, was “particularly dangerous because of his discretion and insistence on obtaining only accurate, correct, verified information.” Oatis contracted tuberculosis during his imprisonment and sought treatment shortly after his release. 1956 – Project Vanguard, earth satellite launching program, assigned to DCNO (Air). 1966 – In an air battle over North Vietnam, USAF F-4C Phantom jets shoot down two MiG-17s. 1975 – At a speech at Tulane University, President Gerald Ford says the Vietnam War is finished as far as America is concerned. “Today, Americans can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by re-fighting a war.” This was devastating news to the South Vietnamese, who were desperately pleading for U.S. support as the North Vietnamese surrounded Saigon for the final assault on the capital city. With the fall of Xuan Loc on April 21st and Ford’s statement at Tulane, it was apparent that the North Vietnamese would be victorious. President Thieu resigned and transferred authority to Vice President Tran Van Huong before fleeing Saigon on April 25th. By April 27th, the North Vietnamese had completely encircled Saigon and began to maneuver for their final assault. By the morning of April 30th, it was all over. When the North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, the South Vietnamese surrendered and the Vietnam War was officially over.
April 23rd ~ {continued...} 1982 – The Unabomber mailed a pipe bomb from Provo, Utah, to Penn state Univ. It was forwarded to Vanderbilt Univ. scientist Patrick C. Fisher. It was later attributed to the Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski. 1982 – Key West, Fla., under Mayor Dennis Wardlow declared that it was seceding from the US and would rename itself the Conch Republic. The move was in response to a state roadblock and inspection on all cars heading out of the Florida Keys. 1990 – Freed American hostage Robert Polhill, released in Lebanon the day before, enjoyed his first full day of freedom in nearly 39 months at the U.S. Air Force hospital in Wiesbaden, West Germany. 1991 – President Bush welcomed General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the just-returned Gulf War commander, at the White House. 1991 – NASA scrubbed the launch of the space shuttle “Discovery” after a sensor on one of the main engines failed during fueling. 1991 – USSR granted republics the right to secede under certain conditions. 1993 – President Clinton said he was giving “serious consideration” to limited U.S. air strikes against Bosnian Serb positions. 1997 – The military confirmed that two pieces of wreckage found on a snowy Rocky Mountain peak were from the Air Force warplane that vanished on a training mission over Arizona. 1997 – N. Korean defector, Hwang Jang Yop, claimed that North Korea has nuclear weapons and that the 1.2 million man army was prepared for war. 1999 – On the first day of a 50th anniversary NATO summit in Washington, Western leaders pledged to intensify military strikes against Yugoslavia and vowed “no compromise” on demands that Slobodan Milosevic withdraw his troops from Kosovo. 1999 – NATO forces bombed Nis and a broad swath of Yugoslavia on the 31st day of attacks. 1999 – The United Nations temporarily waives the requirement under the Iraq oil-for-food program that more than half of Iraqi oil exports must go through the pipeline to Turkey. As Iraq’s oil production has increased, capacity through the Iraq/Turkey pipeline has not kept pace. So far, only about 45% of Iraqi oil exports are going through the pipeline into Turkey. 2001 – President Bush decided to sell Taiwan older ships and planes, but not the advanced Aegis radar system. 2001 – USS Greeneville Cmdr. Scott Waddle was given a letter of reprimand as punishment for the submarine collision that killed nine people aboard a Japanese fishing vessel off Hawaii. 2001 – A US robot spy plane completed the 1st unmanned trans-Pacific flight from California to Australia. 2003 – US forces captured 4 more former Iraqi government officials, including 3 on the top wanted list: Muzahim Sa’b Hassan al-Tikriti (queen of diamonds), Gen. Zuhayr Talib Abd al-Sattar al-Naqib (7 of hearts), and Muhammad Mahdi al-Salih (6 of hearts). 2004 – Paul Bremmer, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, announced an easing of the ban on members of Saddam Hussein’s disbanded party, a move that will allow thousands of former Baathists to return to their positions in the military and government bureaucracy. 2007 – The Intelligence Specialist (IS) rating was launched with a special ceremony at Coast Guard Headquarters. ADM Thad Allen, USCG Commandant, and Mr. James Sloan, Assistant Commandant for Intelligence and Criminal Investigations, presided over the ceremony. 2007 – VA allows Wiccan symbols on headstones. 2007 – The United States’ 391st National Park Unit, Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, is formally established. 2007 – NASA releases the first 3D images of the Sun acquired by the STEREO spacecraft. 2014 – By this date, at least 40 veterans died while waiting for appointments to see a doctor at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system. The patients were on a secret list designed to hide lengthy delays from VA officials in Washington, according to a recently retired VA doctor and several high-level sources.
