April 24th ~ 1704 – The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, the News-Letter, is published in Boston, Massachusetts. 1778 – US Ranger Captain John Paul Jones captured the British ship Drake. 1862 – Flag Officer Farragut’s fleet ran past Forts Jackson and St. Philip and engaged the defending Confederate flotilla. At 2:00 a.m., U.S.S. Hartford had shown Farragut’s signal for the fleet to get underway in three divisions to steam through the breach in the obstructions which had been opened by U.S.S. Pinola and Itasca. A withering fire from the forts was answered by roaring broadsides from the ships. Hartford, grounded in the swift current near Fort St. Philip, was set afire by a Confederate fireraft. Farragut’s leadership and the disciplined training of the crew saved the flagship. U.S.S. Varuna was rammed by two Confederate ships and sunk In the ensuing melee, C.S.S. Warrior, Stonewall Jackson, General Lovell, and Breckinridge, tender Phoenix, steamers Star and Belle Algerine, and Louisiana gunboat General Quitman were destroyed. The armored ram C.S.S. Manassas was driven ashore by U.S.S. Mississippi and sunk. Steam tenders C.S.S. Landis and W. Burton surrendered; Resolute and Governor Moore were destroyed to prevent capture. ”The destruction of the Navy at New Orleans,” wrote Confederate Secretary of the Navy Mallory, “was a sad, sad blow . . . When the Union Navy passed the forts and disposed of the Confederate forces afloat, the fate of New Orleans was decided. Farragut had achieved a brilliant victory, one which gave true meaning to the Flag Officer’s own words: “The great man in our country must not only plan but execute. 1863 – The Union army issues General Orders No. 100, which provided a code of conduct for Federal soldiers and officers when dealing with Confederate prisoners and civilians. The code was borrowed by many European nations, and its influence can be seen on the Geneva Convention. The orders were the brainchild of Francis Lieber, a Prussian immigrant whose three sons had served during the Civil War. One son was mortally wounded while fighting for the Confederacy at the Battle of Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1862. Lieber’s other two sons fought for the Union. Lieber was a scholar of international law who took a keen interest in the treatment of combatants and civilians. He wrote many essays and newspaper articles on the subject early in the war, and he advised General Henry Halleck, general-in-chief of the Union armies, on how to treat guerilla fighters captured by Federal forces. Halleck appointed a committee of four generals and Lieber to draft rules of combat for the Civil War. The final document consisted of 157 articles written almost entirely by Lieber. The orders established policies for, among other things, the treatment of prisoners, exchanges, and flags of truce. There was no document like it in the world at the time, and other countries soon adopted the code. It became the standard for international military law, and the Germans adopted it by 1870. Lieber’s concepts are still very influential today.
April 24th ~ {continued...} 1865 – C.S.S. Webb, Lieutenant Read, dashed from the Red River under forced draft and entered the Mississippi at 8:30 at night in a heroic last-ditch effort to escape to sea. Before departing Alexandria, Louisiana, for his bold attempt, Read wrote Secretary Mallory: “I will have to stake everything upon speed and time.” The sudden appearance of the white-painted Webb in the Mississippi caught the Union blockaders (a monitor and two ironclads) at the mouth of the Red River by surprise. She was initially identified as a Federal ship; this mistake in identification gave Read a lead in the dash downstream. A running battle ensued in which Webb shook off the three Union pursuers. As Read proceeded down the Mississippi, other blockading ships took up the chase but were outdistanced by the fast moving Webb, which some observers claimed was making 25 knots. While churning with the current toward New Orleans, Read paused at one point to cut the telegraph wires along the bank. This proved futile as word of his escape and approach passed southward where it generated considerable excitement and a flurry of messages between the Army and Navy commanders who alerted shore batteries and ships to intercept him. About 10 miles above New Orleans Read hoisted the United States flag at half mast in mourning for Lincoln’s death and brought Webb’s steam pressure up to maximum. He passed the city at about midnight, 24 April, going full speed. Federal gunboats opened on him, whereupon Read broke the Confederate flag. Three hits were scored, the spar torpedo rigged at the steamer’s bow was damaged and had to be jettisoned, but the Webb continued on course toward the sea. Twenty-five miles below New Orleans Read’s luck ran out, for here Webb encountered U.S.S. Richmond. Thus trapped between Richmond and pursuing gunboats, Read’s audacious and well-executed plan came to an end. Webb was run aground and set on fire before her officers and men took to the swamps in an effort to escape. Read and his crew were apprehended within a few hours and taken under guard to New Orleans. They there suffered the indignity of being placed on public display but were subsequently paroled and ordered to their respective homes. Following the restoration of peace, Read became a pilot of the Southwest Pass, one of the mouths of the Mississippi River, and pursued that occupation until his death. 1877 – Federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans, ending the North’s post-Civil War rule in the South. 1884 – USS Thetis, Bear, and Alert sailed from New York to search for Greeley expedition lost in Arctic. 1898 – Spain declared war on the United States after rejecting America’s ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba. 1898 – US fleet under commodore Dewey steamed from Hong Kong to Philippines. 1917 – Destroyer squadron departs Boston for European service. 1923 – Colonel Jacob Schick patented Schick razors. 1941 – Roosevelt formally orders US warships to report the movements of German warships west of Iceland. This is happening unofficially already. The information is usually passed one way or another to the British. 1944 – The first B-29 arrived in China, over the Hump of the Himalayas.
April 24th ~ {continued...} 1944 – The US 8th Air Force raids factories and airfields in Friedrichshafen, near Munich. A total of 55 planes are lost, including 14 which land or crash in Switzerland. During the night, 250 RAF Lancaster bombers scatter “Flying Meteor” methane-petrol incendiary bombs over Munich causing devastation in the area between Central Station and the Isar River. 1944 – American forces reach Lake Sentani near Hollandia, New Guinea. To the east, Australian forces advancing from the Huon Peninsula capture Madang. 1945 – Dessau on the Elbe River is taken by US 1st Army. 1945 – Units of both US 5th Army and British 8th Army begin to cross the Po River at several points near Ferrara and to the west. Ferrara is captured. On the west coast, La Spezia falls to the US 92nd Division. German forces are incapable of stopping the Allied advance. 1945 – On Okinawa, Japanese forces defending the Shuri Line, in the south, begin tactical withdrawals. 1948 – The Berlin airlift began to relieve the surrounded city. 1950 – President Truman denied there were communists in US government. 1951 – U.S. Air Force Captain Joseph C. McConnell, 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, qualified as the sixth “double ace” (10 kills) of the war. 1957 – The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region. 1959 – Organization of American States asks U.S. to establish naval patrols off east coast of Panama to prevent invasion of Cuban forces. 1962 – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieved the first satellite relay of a television signal, between Camp Parks, Ca., and Westford, Mass. 1962 – Marine helicopters (Shufly) supported the 21st Army of the Republic of Vietnam Division during Operation Nightingale near Can Tho. 1965 – President Johnson issues an executive order designating Viertnam a ‘comabt area’ for income tax purposes, retroactive to 1 January 1964. 1967 – US B-52’s dropped 3,000 ton bombs at Cambodian boundary. 1967 – General Westmoreland sparks controversy by saying that the enemy had ‘gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily.’ 1967 – US Marines, of the 3rd Marine Regiment, defeat North Vietnamese troops on three hills near the airstrip at Khesan in Quangtin Province. The battle will rage for 12 days. 1970 – China sponsors a conference near Canton attended by Norodom Sihanouk; Prince Souphonouvong, leader of the Pathet Lao; Nguyen Huu Tho, President of the Provisional Revolutionary Governemtn of South Vietnam; and North Vietnamese Prime minister Pham Van Dong. They pledge joint action to expel US and other forces that oppose them in Indochina. Chinese Premier Chou En-lai attends the final session and gives his endorsement. 1971 – North Vietnamese troops hit Allied installations throughout South Vietnam. In the most devastating attack, the ammunition depot at Qui Nhon was blown up. On April 27, the aviation fuel tanks at Da Nang air base were attacked by communist gunners, resulting in explosions and a fire that destroyed a large proportion of the fuel stored there. In the following three days, 54 South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were reported killed, and 185 wounded. The United States reported seven dead and 60 wounded. 1974 – Naval forces begin minesweeping operations in the Suez Canal Zone.
April 24th ~ {continued...} 1980 – An ill-fated military operation to rescue the 52 American hostages held in Tehran ends with eight U.S. servicemen dead and no hostages rescued. With the Iran Hostage Crisis stretching into its sixth month and all diplomatic appeals to the Iranian government ending in failure, President Jimmy Carter ordered the military mission as a last ditch attempt to save the hostages. During the operation, three of eight helicopters failed, crippling the crucial airborne plans. The mission was then canceled at the staging area in Iran, but during the withdrawal one of the retreating helicopters collided with one of six C-130 transport planes, killing eight soldiers and injuring five. The next day, a somber Jimmy Carter gave a press conference in which he took full responsibility for the tragedy. The hostages were not released for another 270 days. On November 4, 1979, the crisis began when militant Iranian students, outraged that the U.S. government had allowed the ousted shah of Iran to travel to the U.S. for medical treatment, seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s political and religious leader, took over the hostage situation and agreed to release non-U.S. captives and female and minority Americans, citing these groups as among the people oppressed by the U.S. government. The remaining 52 captives remained at the mercy of the Ayatollah for the next 14 months. President Carter was unable to diplomatically resolve the crisis, and the April 1980 hostage attempt ended in disaster. Three months later, the former shah died of cancer in Egypt, but the crisis continued. In November, Carter lost the presidential election to Republican Ronald Reagan, and soon after, with the assistance of Algerian intermediaries, successful negotiations began between the United States and Iran. On the day of Reagan’s inauguration, January 20, 1981, the United States freed almost $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets, and the 52 hostages were released after 444 days. The next day, Jimmy Carter flew to West Germany to greet the Americans on their way home. 1981 – The IBM Personal Computer was introduced. It used software from a corporation called Microsoft. 1987 – Eighteen people, including 12 U.S. military personnel, were injured when a roadside bomb exploded in the Greek port of Piraeus; the guerrilla group November 17 claimed responsibility. 1988 – Three sailors were killed and 22 injured when fire broke out aboard the submarine USS Bonefish off the Florida coast. 1990 – The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope. It cost $2 billion. The orbital period of the telescope was 97 Minutes. 1990 – West and East Germany agreed to merge currency and economies on July 1st. 1994 – Bosnian Serbs, threatened with NATO air strikes, grudgingly gave up their three-week assault on Gorazde, burning houses and blowing up a water treatment plant as they withdrew.
April 24th ~ {continued...} 1994 – Iraq announces completion of a 65-mile canal through southern Iraq that would divert river waters away from marshlands inhabited primarily by Shiite Iraqis to desert lands. The project has long been the object of concern to human rights groups who charge that the primary reason for the project is to punish the Shiite population in this region for their support of anti-government rebels and to make rebel bases more accessible to government attack. 1995 – California Forestry Assoc. Pres. Gilbert P. Murray, 47, was killed by a mail bomb at his headquarters in Sacramento. The bomb was attributed to the Unabomber. Gilbert B. Murray, chief lobbyist for the wood products industry, was killed by a package bomb linked to the Unabomber. 1996 – In New York, the United Nations and Iraq end a third round of negotiations over Iraq’s possible sale of $1 billion of oil. While both sides have reached agreement on most of the key issues, chief Iraqi negotiator Abdul Amir al-Anbari says that the United States and the United Kingdom have fundamentally altered the text of a proposed agreement which he had received from the United Nations early in the third round. Al-Anbari states that the changes have postponed any possible deal. The U.N.-Iraq talks are scheduled to restart on May 10th. 1996 – In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law. 1997 – The US ratified the chemical weapons ban. The Senate voted 74-26 to approve the chemical weapons treaty, five days before the pact was to take effect. It was the 75th country to ratify the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention ban signed by 164 states. The signing obliges members to destroy all chemical weapons and production facilities by 2007. 1998 – In Columbia the FARC released kidnapped American Louise Augustine. Two other bird-watchers were released soon after. 1999 – It was reported that the details of US sorties flown in Yugoslavia were not being shared with NATO allies in order to prevent leaks from compromising the missions. 1999 – On the second day of a NATO summit, the alliance ran into objections from Russia and questions among its own members about enforcing an oil embargo against Yugoslavia by searching ships at sea. President Clinton urged Americans to be patient with the bombing strategy. 1999 – NATO approved a new strategic concept in Washington that allowed the use of military force to prevent the abuse of human rights anywhere in Europe. NATO also announced plans for an around-the-clock war along with Yugoslavia and an effort to choke off oil supplies from the Adriatic. Damage to Yugoslavia was estimated to have reached $100 billion. 2003 – Tariq Aziz (8 of spades), Iraqi deputy prime minister, surrendered to US forces. 2004 – Three small dhows, a boat often used in the Gulf, exploded in the Gulf waters off Iraq’s port of Umm Qasr when approached by teams sent to intercept them. Oil terminals at al-Basra and Khawr al-Amaya were targeted. The dhow near Khawr al-Amaya flipped over a U.S. Navy interception craft, killing 2 US sailors and wounding five others. Al Qaeda later claimed responsibility. 2004 – The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction. 2007 – The United States Department of Veterans Affairs allows the Wiccan pentagram to be used on the tombstones of deceased soldiers. 2012 – The Pentagon establishes the Defense Clandestine Service to focus on the challenges posed to U.S. interests by countries such as Iran, North Korea and China. 2013 – The FBI and the CIA admit that Russian intelligence had warned the U.S. intelligence agencies several times regarding the extremist connections of Tamerlan Tsarnaev prior to the Boston marathon bombings.
April 25th ~ 1781 – General Nathanael Greene engaged British forces at Hobkirk’s Hill, South Carolina, and was forced to retreat. 1819 – The Revenue cutter Active captured the pirate vessel Irresistible in the Chesapeake Bay. 1846 – With the Thornton Affair, open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War. The Thornton Affair, also known as the Thornton Skirmish, Thornton’s Defeat, or Rancho Carricitos was a battle in 1846 between the military forces of the United States and Mexico twenty miles west along the Rio Grande from Zachary Taylor’s camp along the Rio Grande. The much larger Mexican force completely defeated the Americans in the opening of hostilities, and was the primary justification for U.S. President James K. Polk’s call to Congress to declare war. Although the United States had annexed Texas, both the US and Mexico claimed the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. Polk had ordered Taylor’s Army of Occupation to the Rio Grande early in 1846 soon after Mexican President Mariano Paredes declared in his inaugural address to uphold the integrity of Mexican territory to the Sabine River. Taylor received two reports on April 24th of Mexicans crossing the Rio Grande, the first crossing below his camp, the other a crossing upriver. Taylor ordered Captain Croghan Ker to investigate downriver and Captain Seth B. Thornton with two Dragoon companies to investigate upriver. Ker found nothing but Thornton rode into an ambush and his 80 man force was quickly overwhelmed by Torrejon’s 1600, resulting in the capture of those not immediately killed. Thornton’s guide brought news of the hostilities to Taylor and was followed by a cart from Torrejon containing the six wounded, Torrejon stating he could not care for them. Upon learning of the incident, President Polk asked for a Declaration of War before a joint session of the United States Congress, and summed up his justification for war by famously stating: “The cup of forbearance had been exhausted even before the recent information from the frontier of the Del Norte [Rio Grande]. But now, after reiterated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil. She has proclaimed that hostilities have commenced, and that the two nations are now at war.” On May 13th, 1846, Congress declared war on Mexico, despite the Mexican government’s position that Thornton had crossed the border into Mexican Texas, which Mexico maintained began south of the Nueces River (the historical border of the province of Texas). 1854 – The Gadsden Purchase was ratified in the US. 1862 – Flag Officer Farragut’s fleet, having silenced Confederate batteries at Chalmette en route, anchored before New Orleans. High water in the river allowed the ships’ guns to dominate the city over the levee top. Captain Bailey went ashore to demand the surrender. The Common Council of New Orleans resolved that: “. . . having been advised by the military authorities that the city is indefensible, [we] declare that no resistance will be made to the forces of the United States.” Loss of New Orleans, the largest and wealthiest seaport in the South, was a critical blow to the Confederacy. With the rapid capitulation of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the delta of the Mississippi was open to the water-borne movement of Union forces which were free to steam river to join those coming south in the great pincer which would sever the Confederacy. “Thus, reported Secretary of the Navy Welles, ”the great southern depot of the trade of the immense central valley of the Union was once more opened to commercial intercourse and the emporium of that wealthy region was restored to national authority; the mouth of the Mississippi was under our control and an outlet for the great West to the ocean was secured.”
April 25th ~ {continued...} 1864 – For the second time in a week, a Confederate force captures a Union wagon train trying to supply the Federal force at Camden, Arkansas. This time, the loss forced Union General Frederick Steele to withdraw back to Little Rock. Steele captured Camden on April 15 as he moved southwest towards Shreveport, Louisiana. This was part of a larger Union operation in the region. General Nathaniel Banks moved up the Red River into northwest Louisiana on a planned invasion of Texas, but he was turned back at the Battle of Mansfield on April 8th. Steele was to pinch Confederate forces around Shreveport with a move from central Arkansas. After taking Camden, Steele sent 1,100 men west to capture a store of corn. That force was badly defeated by a Confederate detachment at the Battle of Poison Springs on April 18. Now, with provisions dwindling, Steele sent another wagon train northeast from Camden towards Pine Bluff to fetch supplies. Lieutenant Colonel Francis Drake and 1,700 troops accompanied the 240 wagons that left Camden on April 22. Three hundred runaway slaves traveled along as well. Three days later, Confederate troops under General James Fagan pounced on Drake’s command near Mark’s Mills. They came from two sides, and Drake was wounded and captured early in the battle along with 1,400 of his troops. The Confederates lost 41 killed and 108 wounded, but they captured the entire wagon train. Tragically, the Rebels followed up their victory much as they had at Poison Springs on April 18, where they massacred captured black soldiers. At Mark’s Mills, at least half of the runaways were killed in cold blood. Even one of the Confederate officers admitted in his report that “No orders, threat, or commands could restrain the men from vengeance on the Negroes…” Steele’s army was now in dangerous territory. With Confederate forces lurking all around Camden and with supplies running low, Steele retreated to Little Rock, leaving southern Arkansas under Rebel control. Drake survived his wounds and later became governor of Iowa. Drake University in Des Moines now bears his name. 1864 – After facing defeat in the Red River Campaign, Union General Nathaniel Bank returned to Alexandria, Louisiana. 1865 – Four of the five Lincoln assassination suspects arrested on the 17th were imprisoned on the monitors U.S.S. Montauk and Saugus which had been prepared for this purpose on the 15th and were anchored off the Washington Navy Yard in the Anacostia River. Mrs. Mary E. Surratt was taken into custody at the boarding house she operated after it was learned that her son was a close friend of John Wilkes Booth and that the actor was a frequent visitor at the boarding house. Mrs. Surratt was jailed in the Carroll Annex of Old Capitol Prison. Lewis Paine was also taken into custody when he came to Mrs. Surratt’s house during her arrest. Edward Spangler, stagehand at the Ford Theater and Booth’s aide, along with Michael O’Laughlin and Samuel B. Arnold, close associates of Booth during the months leading up to the assassination, were also caught up in the dragnet. O’Laughlin and Paine, after overnight imprisonment in the Old Capitol Prison, were transferred to the monitors at the Navy Yard. They were joined by Arnold on the 19th and Spangler on the 24th. George A. Atzerodt, the would-be assassin of Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Ernest Hartman Richter, at whose home Atzerodt was captured, were brought on board the ships on the 20th. Joao Celestino, Portuguese sea captain who had been heard to say on the 14th that Seward ought to be assassinated, was transferred from Old Capitol Prison to Montauk on the 25th. The last of the eight conspiracy suspects to be incarcerated on board the monitors was David E. Herold. The prisoners were kept below decks under heavy guard and were manacled with both wrist and leg irons. In addition, their heads were covered with canvas hoods the interior of which were fitted with cotton pads that tightly covered the prisoners’ eyes and ears. The hoods contained two small openings to permit breathing and the consumption of food. An added security measure was taken with Paine by attaching a ball and chain to each ankle.
April 25th ~ {continued...} 1898 – The United States formally declared war on Spain. The US House passed the declaration 311 to 6. After the Maine was destroyed on 15 February, newspaper publishers Hearst and Pulitzer decided that the Spanish were to blame, and they publicized this theory as fact in their New York City papers using sensationalistic and astonishing accounts of “atrocities” committed by the Spanish in Cuba by using headlines in their newspapers, such as “Spanish Murderers” and “Remember The Maine”. Their press exaggerated what was happening and how the Spanish were treating the Cuban prisoners. The stories were based on factual accounts, but most of the time, the articles that were published were embellished and written with incendiary language causing emotional and often heated responses among readers. A common myth states, that Randolph Hurst responding to the opinion of his illustrator, Frederic Remington, that conditions in Cuba were not bad enough to warrant hostilities, said: “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” This new “yellow journalism” was, however, uncommon outside New York City, and historians no longer consider it the major force shaping the national mood. Public opinion nationwide did demand immediate action, overwhelming the efforts of President McKinley, Speaker of the House Thomas Brackett Reed, and the business community to find a negotiated solution. A speech delivered by Republican Senator Redfield Proctor of Vermont on March 17, 1898 thoroughly analyzed the situation, concluding that war was the only answer. The speech helped provide one final push for the United States to declare war. Many in the business and religious communities which had until then opposed war, switched sides, leaving McKinley and Speaker Reed almost alone in their resistance to a war. On April 11, McKinley ended his resistance and asked Congress for authority to send American troops to Cuba to end the civil war there, knowing that Congress would force a war. On April 19, while Congress was considering joint resolutions supporting Cuban independence, Republican Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado proposed the Teller Amendment to ensure that the U.S. would not establish permanent control over Cuba after the war. The amendment, disclaiming any intention to annex Cuba, passed the Senate 42 to 35; the House concurred the same day, 311 to 6. The amended resolution demanded Spanish withdrawal and authorized the President to use as much military force as he thought necessary to help Cuba gain independence from Spain. President McKinley signed the joint resolution on April 20, 1898, and the ultimatum was sent to Spain. In response, Spain severed diplomatic relations with the United States on April 21st. On the same day, the U.S. Navy began a blockade of Cuba. Spain declared war on April 23rd. On April 25, Congress declared that a state of war between the U.S. and Spain had existed since April 21st, the day the blockade of Cuba had begun. The Navy was ready, but the Army was not well-prepared for the war and made radical changes in plans and quickly purchased supplies. In the spring of 1898, the strength of the Regular U.S. Army was just 28,000 men. The Army wanted 50,000 new men but received over 220,000, through volunteers and the mobilization of state National Guard units. 1913 – The formal charter of the Marine Corps Association was established. 1914 – First combat observation mission by Navy plane, at Veracruz, Mexico.
April 25th ~ {continued...} 1898 – The United States formally declared war on Spain. The US House passed the declaration 311 to 6. After the Maine was destroyed on 15 February, newspaper publishers Hearst and Pulitzer decided that the Spanish were to blame, and they publicized this theory as fact in their New York City papers using sensationalistic and astonishing accounts of “atrocities” committed by the Spanish in Cuba by using headlines in their newspapers, such as “Spanish Murderers” and “Remember The Maine”. Their press exaggerated what was happening and how the Spanish were treating the Cuban prisoners. The stories were based on factual accounts, but most of the time, the articles that were published were embellished and written with incendiary language causing emotional and often heated responses among readers. A common myth states, that Randolph Hurst responding to the opinion of his illustrator, Frederic Remington, that conditions in Cuba were not bad enough to warrant hostilities, said: “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” This new “yellow journalism” was, however, uncommon outside New York City, and historians no longer consider it the major force shaping the national mood. Public opinion nationwide did demand immediate action, overwhelming the efforts of President McKinley, Speaker of the House Thomas Brackett Reed, and the business community to find a negotiated solution. A speech delivered by Republican Senator Redfield Proctor of Vermont on March 17, 1898 thoroughly analyzed the situation, concluding that war was the only answer. The speech helped provide one final push for the United States to declare war. Many in the business and religious communities which had until then opposed war, switched sides, leaving McKinley and Speaker Reed almost alone in their resistance to a war. On April 11, McKinley ended his resistance and asked Congress for authority to send American troops to Cuba to end the civil war there, knowing that Congress would force a war. On April 19, while Congress was considering joint resolutions supporting Cuban independence, Republican Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado proposed the Teller Amendment to ensure that the U.S. would not establish permanent control over Cuba after the war. The amendment, disclaiming any intention to annex Cuba, passed the Senate 42 to 35; the House concurred the same day, 311 to 6. The amended resolution demanded Spanish withdrawal and authorized the President to use as much military force as he thought necessary to help Cuba gain independence from Spain. President McKinley signed the joint resolution on April 20, 1898, and the ultimatum was sent to Spain. In response, Spain severed diplomatic relations with the United States on April 21st. On the same day, the U.S. Navy began a blockade of Cuba. Spain declared war on April 23rd. On April 25, Congress declared that a state of war between the U.S. and Spain had existed since April 21st, the day the blockade of Cuba had begun. The Navy was ready, but the Army was not well-prepared for the war and made radical changes in plans and quickly purchased supplies. In the spring of 1898, the strength of the Regular U.S. Army was just 28,000 men. The Army wanted 50,000 new men but received over 220,000, through volunteers and the mobilization of state National Guard units. 1913 – The formal charter of the Marine Corps Association was established. 1914 – First combat observation mission by Navy plane, at Veracruz, Mexico.
April 25th ~ {continued...} 1943 – American bombers raid an airfield around Bari, Italy in the south. 1945 – Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops meet in Torgau along the River Elbe, cutting the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in two, a milestone in the approaching end of World War II in Europe. 1945 – Liberation Day (Italy): The Nazi occupation army surrenders and leaves Northern Italy after a general partisan insurrection by the Italian resistance movement. The puppet fascist regime dissolves and Benito Mussolini is captured after trying to escape. This day was set as a public holiday to celebrate the Liberation of Italy. 1945 – Delegates from some 50 countries met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations. Charles Easton Rothwell (d.1987) headed the 500-member group that helped establish the UN Charter. 1945 – Soviet forces complete the encirclement of Berlin near Ketzin. The 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian froms continue to attack, from the east and south, into the city. South of the capital, elements of 1st Ukrainian Front advancing toward the Elbe River, link up with American units at Torgau. Meanwhile, in East Prussia, Pillau is taken. (Since early in the year, about 140,000 wounded and 40,000 refugees have been evacuated to the west from Pillau.) A few German troops continue to hold out at the tip of the Samland Peninsula. US 3rd Army crosses the Danube near Regensburg and assault the city. 1945 – American planes strike Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, nominally the Skoda Works. 1945 – Clandestine Radio 1212, used to hoax Nazi Germany, made its final transmission. 1951 – Eighth Army was pushed back 20 miles. The volunteer battalion from Belgium and Luxembourg was cut off but fought its way to safety after a 20-hour siege. Members of the battalion had high praise for the support provided by U.S. Marine Corsairs. 1953 – Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid” describing the double helix structure of DNA. 1954 – The first practical solar cell is publicly demonstrated by Bell Telephone Laboratories. 1954 – UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill rejects the US proposed Radford Plan, initially conceived of as a nuclear strike but negotiated down to a massive US air strike against the Viet Minh in response to the fall of Dienbienphu. Churchill states, “What we are being asked to do is assist in misleading the Congress into approving a military operation which would be in itself ineffective, and might well bring the world to the verge of a major war.” 1957 – The 1st experimental sodium nuclear reactor operated.
April 25th ~ {continued...} 1960 – First submerged circumnavigation of the Earth was completed by a Triton submarine. Operation Sandblast was the code name for the first submerged circumnavigation of the world executed by the United States Navy nuclear-powered radar picket submarine USS Triton (SSRN-586) in 1960 while under the command of Captain Edward L. Beach, USN. The New York Times described Triton ’s submerged circumnavigation of the Earth as “a triumph of human prowess and engineering skill, a feat which the United States Navy can rank as one of its bright victories in man’s ultimate conquest of the seas.” The actual circumnavigation took place between 24 February and 25 April 1960, covering 26,723 nautical miles (49,491 km; 30,752 mi) over 60 days and 21 hours. Operation Sandblast used the St. Peter and Paul Rocks, located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean near the Equator, as the starting point and terminus for the circumnavigation. During the course of the circumnavigation, Triton crossed the Equator four times while maintaining an average speed of advance (SOA) of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Triton ’s overall navigational track during Operation Sandblast generally followed the same course for the first circumnavigation of the world led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan between 1519-1522. The initial impetus for Operation Sandblast was to enhance American technological and scientific prestige prior to the May 1960 Paris Summit between U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Additionally, Operation Sandblast provided a high-profile public demonstration of the capability of U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarines to carry out long-range submerged operations independent of external support and undetected by hostile forces, presaging the initial deployment of the U.S Navy’s Polaris ballistic missile submarines later in 1960. Finally, Operation Sandblast gathered extensive oceanographic, hydrographic, gravimetric, geophysical, and psychological data during Triton ’s circumnavigation. Although official celebrations for Operation Sandblast were cancelled following the diplomatic furor arising from the shooting down of a CIA U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union in early May 1960, the Triton did receive the Presidential Unit Citation with a special clasp in the form of a golden replica of the globe in recognition of the successful completion of its mission, and Captain Beach received the Legion of Merit for his role as Triton ’s commanding officer. In 1961, Beach received the Magellanic Premium, the United States’ oldest and most prestigious scientific award, from the American Philosophical Society in “recognition of his navigation of the U.S. submarine Triton around the globe.” 1961 – Robert Noyce patented the integrated circuit. 1961 – Mercury-Atlas rocket lifted off with an electronic mannequin. An unmanned Mercury test exploded on launch pad. 1962 – U.S. Ranger spacecraft crash landed on the Moon. 1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson announces that Gen. William Westmoreland will replace Gen. Paul Harkins as head of U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) as of June 20. The assignment would put Westmoreland in charge of all American military forces in Vietnam. One of the war’s most controversial figures, General Westmoreland was given many honors when the fighting was going well, but when the war turned sour, many Americans saw him as a cause of U.S. problems in Vietnam. Negative feeling about Westmoreland grew particularly strong following the Tet Offensive of 1968, when he had requested a large number of additional troops for deployment to Vietnam. On March 22, 1968, President Johnson announced that Westmoreland would depart South Vietnam to take on the post of Army Chief of Staff; Gen. Creighton Abrams replaced him as the senior U.S. commander in South Vietnam.
April 25th ~ {continued...} 1972 – Hanoi’s 320th Division drives 5,000 South Vietnamese troops into retreat and traps about 2,500 others in a border outpost northwest of Kontum in the Central Highlands. This was part of the ongoing North Vietnamese Nguyen Hue Offensive, also known as the “Easter Offensive,” which included an invasion by 120,000 North Vietnamese troops. The offensive was based on three objectives: Quang Tri in the north, Kontum in the Central Highlands, and An Loc in the south–just 65 miles north of Saigon. If successful, the attack at Kontum would effectively cut South Vietnam in two across the Central Highlands, giving North Vietnam control of the northern half of South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese defenders were able to hold out and prevent this from happening. 1975 – Fearing impending coup, President Thieu flees Saigon following his resignation and transfer of authority to Vice President Tran Van Huong. 1976 – All-Vietnam elections are held for a new National Assembly. 249 deputies are elected from the North and 243 from the South with 6 seats of the total 492 reserved for minorities. 1982 – In accordance with Camp David agreements, Israel completed the Sinai withdrawal. Ariel Sharon, as defense minister, directed the dismantling of Israeli settlements in the Sinai Peninsula. Nearly 5,000 residents and many more sympathizers were dragged off roofs and bundled onto buses. 1983 – The Pioneer 10 spacecraft crossed Pluto’s orbit, speeding on its endless voyage through the Milky Way. 1988 – NASA launched space vehicle S-211. 1990 – The crew of the U.S. space shuttle Discovery places the Hubble Space Telescope, a long-term space-based observatory, into a low orbit around Earth. The space telescope, conceived in the 1940s, designed in the 1970s, and built in the 1980s, was designed to give astronomers an unparalleled view of the solar system, the galaxy, and the universe. Initially, Hubble’s operators suffered a setback when a lens aberration was discovered, but a repair mission by space-walking astronauts in December 1993 successfully fixed the problem, and Hubble began sending back its first breathtaking images of the universe. Free of atmospheric distortions, Hubble has a resolution 10 times that of ground-based observatories. About the size of a bus, the telescope is solar-powered and orbits Earth once every 97 minutes. Among its many astronomical achievements, Hubble has been used to record a comet’s collision with Jupiter, provide a direct look at the surface of Pluto, view distant galaxies, gas clouds, and black holes, and see billions of years into the universe’s past. 1991 – The White House threatened to “take whatever steps are necessary” should Iraq fail to meet a deadline for withdrawing its security forces from the refugee zone in northern Iraq. 1999 – On the third and final day of their Washington summit, NATO leaders promised military protection and economic aid to Yugoslavia’s neighbors for standing with the West against Slobodan Milosevic. Pres. Yeltsin called Pres. Clinton to search for a solution to Kosovo. 1999 – NATO airstrikes in Yugoslavia destroyed the last bridge in Novi Sad along with other targets in northern and central Serbia. The KLA staged a new conference in Kukes and pleaded anew for a battlefield alliance with NATO. 1999 – In Iraq US warplanes struck air defense sites in the northern no fly zone after being threatened by radar. 2000 – Royal Dutch Shell agrees to pay a $2 million fine for transporting smuggled Iraqi oil aboard a Russian tanker. Defence Department spokesman Kenneth Bacon states that Shell appeared to have acquired the Iraqi oil unwittingly, and would therefore be allowed to keep the cargo. The fine will go into a United Nations fund for the enforcement of sanctions. 2001 – In unusually blunt terms, President Bush warned China that an attack on Taiwan could provoke a U.S. military response. 2003 – Nuclear talks in Beijing ended after U.S. officials said North Korea claimed to have nuclear weapons and might test, export or use them. 2003 – Farouk Hijazi, who once helped run Saddam Hussein’s intelligence service and was linked to al-Qaida, was delivered by Syria to US forces.
April 26th ~ 1607 – Ships under the command of Capt. Christopher Newport sought shelter in Chesapeake Bay. The forced landing led to the founding of Jamestown on the James River, the first English settlement. An expedition of English colonists, including Capt. John Smith, went ashore at Cape Henry, Va., to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere. 1655 – Dutch West Indies Co. denied Peter Stuyvesant’s desire to exclude Jews from New Amsterdam. 1718 – Esek Hopkins, first U.S. commander-in-chief, was born. 1777 – Sybil Ludington (16) rode from NY to Ct rallying her father’s militia. 1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines captured Derne under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon and former Consul to Tunis, William Eaton. The Battle of Derne was the decisive victory of a mercenary army led by a detachment of United States Marines and United States Army soldiers against the forces of Ottoman Tripolitania during the First Barbary War. It was the first recorded land battle the United States fought overseas. U.S. forces and mercenaries marched for 600 miles (970 km) through the desert to attack Derne. 1827 – Charles Edward Hovey, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers), was born. 1856 – Some 20 settlers of Honey Lake Valley, California, met at the cabin of Isaac Roop and formed “the independent Territory of Nataqua.” They named the cabin Fort Defiance, chose Peter Lassen as their surveyor and selected Susanville, named after Roop’s daughter, as the territorial capital. 1862 – Fort Macon, North Carolina, surrendered to combined land-sea forces under Commander Lock¬wood and Brigadier General John G. Parke. U.S.S. Daylight, State of Georgia, Chippewa, and Gemsbok heavily bombarded the fort; blockade runners Alliance and Gondar were captured after the fort’s surrender. 1865 – Confederate General Joseph Johnston officially surrenders his army to General William T. Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina. After the surrender of General Robert E. Lee’s force on April 9th, Johnston’s army was the last hope of the Confederacy. 1865 – John Wilkes Booth is killed when Union soldiers track him down to a Virginia farm 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Booth and his accomplice, David Herold, made their way across the Anacostia River and headed toward southern Maryland. The pair stopped at Dr. Samuel Mudd’s home, and Mudd treated Booth’s leg. This earned Mudd a life sentence in prison when he was implicated as part of the conspiracy, but the sentence was later commuted. Booth found refuge for several days at the home of Thomas A. Jones, a Confederate agent, before securing a boat to row across the Potomac to Virginia. After receiving aid from several Confederate sympathizers, Booth’s luck finally ran out. The countryside was swarming with military units looking for Booth, although few shared information since there was a $20,000 reward. While staying at the farm of Richard Garrett, Federal troops arrived on their search but soon rode on. The unsuspecting Garrett allowed his suspicious guests to sleep in his barn, but he instructed his son to lock the barn from the outside to prevent the strangers from stealing his horses. A tip led the Union soldiers back to the Garrett farm, where they discovered Booth and Herold in the barn. Herold came out, but Booth refused. The building was set on fire to flush Booth, but he was shot while still inside. He lived for three hours before gazing at his hands, muttering “Useless, useless,” as he died. He was secretly buried in the floor of the Old Penitentiary in Washington.
April 26th ~ {continued...} 1898 – Morrill, Hudson, and Hamilton, formerly Revenue Cutters and recently armed for service in the Mosquito Fleet, passed through Hampton Roads and after asking formal permission of the Commodore, proceeded to Key West. From that point they joint the Cuban blockading fleet. 1915 – The government of Italy agrees to side with the Entente against it’s former ally Austria-Hungary and has been promised substantial territorial gains in the event of victory. Austria-Hungary rapidly moves to reinforce it’s border with Italy from the Eastern Front and Serbia. 1921 – The first weather news was aired by station WEW in St. Louis, Mo. 1937 – During the Spanish Civil War, the German military tests its powerful new air force, the Luftwaffe, and the principles of Blitzkreig, on the Basque town of Guernica in northern Spain. Although the independence-minded Basque region opposed General Francisco Franco’s Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, Guernica itself was a small rural city of only 5,000 inhabitants that declared non-belligerence in the conflict. With Franco’s approval, the cutting-edge German aircraft began their unprovoked attack at 4:30 p.m., the busiest hour of the market day in Guernica. For three hours, the German planes poured down a continuous and unopposed rain of bombs and gunfire on the town and surrounding countryside. One-third of Guernica’s 5,000 inhabitants were killed or wounded, and fires engulfed the city and burned for days. The indiscriminate killing of civilians at Guernica aroused world opinion and became a symbol of fascist brutality. Unfortunately, by 1942, all major participants in World War II had adopted the bombing innovations developed by the Nazis at Guernica, and by the war’s end, in 1945, millions of innocent civilians had perished under Allied and Axis air raids. 1943 – An American squadron under the command of Admiral McMorris bombards the Japanese held harbors on Attu Island. 1943 – New plans are approved for the Solomon Islands operatoins (code named “Cartwheel”). Admiral Halsey’s South Pacific Area forces are to advance through New Georgia and Bougainville. MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific Area is to continue its advance northwest along the coast of New Guinea until he and Halsey can link up to isolate the Japanese bases at Rabaul and Kavieng. 1944 – The American beachheads at Tanahmerah Bay and Humboldt Bay are linked up. Australian forces, to the east, capture Alexishafen, west of Madang. 1945 – US 3rd Army units take Regensburg while other elements enter Austria. In the south, the French 1st Army reaches Lake Constance. 1945 – US 5th Army units head north from Verona toward the Brenner Pass and west toward Milan. The British 8th Army has crossed the Adige River and moves northeast toward Venice and Trieste. 1945 – There is a further American landing on Negros, this time by units of the Americal Division in the southwest of the island. The troops advance well inland before encountering Japanese resistance. 1945 – On Okinawa, the US 24th Corps attacks the along the Japanese held Maeda Escarpment (Shuri Line). American armor reaches the reverse slope. 1945 – Filipino troops of the 66th Infantry Regiment, Philippine Commonwealth Army, USAFIP-NL and the American troops of the 33rd and 37th Infantry Division, United States Army are liberated in Baguio City and they fight against the Japanese forces under General Tomoyuki Yamashita.
April 26th ~ {continued...} 1952 – US minesweeper “Hobson” rammed the aircraft carrier “Wasp,” and 176 were killed when the minesweeper sank. 1952 – Air Force Major William H. Wescott, 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, scored his fifth aerial victory to become the 12th ace of the Korean War. His F-86 Sabre “Lady Francis/Michigan Center” was also used by Colonel “Gabby” Gabreski for one of his victories. 1954 – In an effort to resolve several problems in Asia, including the war between the French and Vietnamese nationalists in Indochina, representatives from the world’s powers meet in Geneva. The conference marked a turning point in the United States’ involvement in Vietnam. Representatives from the United States, the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, France, and Great Britain came together in April 1954 to try to resolve several problems related to Asia. One of the most troubling concerns was the long and bloody battle between Vietnamese nationalist forces, under the leadership of the communist Ho Chi Minh, and the French, who were intent on continuing colonial control over Vietnam. Since 1946 the two sides had been hammering away at each other. By 1954, however, the French were tiring of the long and inclusive war that was draining both the national treasury and public patience. The United States had been supporting the French out of concern that a victory for Ho’s forces would be the first step in communist expansion throughout Southeast Asia. When America refused France’s requests for more direct intervention in the war, the French announced that they were including the Vietnam question in the agenda for the Geneva Conference. Discussions on the Vietnam issue started at the conference just as France suffered its worst military defeat of the war, when Vietnamese forces captured the French base at Dien Bien Phu. In July 1954, the Geneva Agreements were signed. As part of the agreement, the French agreed to withdraw their troops from northern Vietnam. Vietnam would be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel, pending elections within two years to choose a president and reunite the country. During that two-year period, no foreign troops could enter Vietnam. Ho reluctantly signed off on the agreement though he believed that it cheated him out of the spoils of his victory. The non-communist puppet government set up by the French in southern Vietnam refused to sign, but without French support this was of little concern at the time. The United States also refused to sign, but did commit itself to abide by the agreement. Privately, U.S. officials felt that the Geneva Agreements, if allowed to be put into action, were a disaster. They were convinced that national elections in Vietnam would result in an overwhelming victory for Ho, the man who had defeated the French colonialists. The U.S. government scrambled to develop a policy that would, at the least, save southern Vietnam from the communists. Within a year, the United States had helped establish a new anti-communist government in South Vietnam and began giving it financial and military assistance, the first fateful steps toward even greater U.S. involvement in Vietnam. 1961 – President Kennedy meets with the National Security Council to decide whether to send troops into Laos. Deputy Secretary of Defense, Roswell L. Gilpatric recommends quick expansion of Vietnam’s forces by 40,000 to prevent an invasion of South Vietnam from Laos, as well as an increase of two 1600 man US trainers and 400 Special Forces troops with a counterinsurgency tasking. 1962 – NASA’s Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon. Ranger 4 was a spacecraft of the Ranger program designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to crashing upon the Moon, to rough-land a seismometer capsule on the Moon, to collect gamma-ray data in flight, to study radar reflectivity of the lunar surface, and to continue testing of the Ranger program for development of lunar and interplanetary spacecraft. An onboard computer failure caused failure of the deployment of the solar panels and navigation systems; as a result the spacecraft crashed on the far side of the Moon without returning any scientific data. It was the first U.S. spacecraft to reach another celestial body. 1965 – Secretary McNamara reports that although the air raids against North Vietnam have ‘slowed down the movement of men and materiel…infiltration of both arms and personnel into South Vietnam has increased. McNamara, however, refuses to answer questions on increasing troop strength. The war is now costing the nation about $1.5 billion per year.
April 26th ~ {continued...} 1965 – A Lou Harris poll shows that about 57% of Americans support Johnson’s handling of the war. 1965 – 20,000 Cambodian students attack the US Embassy there and tear down the US flag in protest. 1967 – US planes from Thailand attack a five-span bridge four miles north of Hanoi to sever rail links to Communist China. 1968 – The United States exploded beneath the Nevada desert a one-megaton nuclear device called “Boxcar.” 1971 – The U.S. command in Saigon announces that the U.S. force level in Vietnam is 281,400 men, the lowest since July 1966. These figures were a direct result of President Richard Nixon’s new “Vietnamization” strategy, which he had announced at the Midway Conference in June 1969. This strategy was a three-pronged program to disengage the United States from the war in Vietnam. The program required that efforts be increased to improve the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces so that they could assume responsibility for the war against the North Vietnamese. Then, as the South Vietnamese became more capable, U.S. forces would be withdrawn from South Vietnam. At the same time, U.S. negotiators would continue to try to reach a negotiated settlement to the war with the communists at the Paris peace talks. The announcement represented a significant change in the nature of the U.S. commitment to the war. The first U.S. soldiers were withdrawn in the fall of 1969 and the withdrawals continued periodically through 1972. Simultaneously, the U.S. increased the advisory effort and provided massive amounts of new equipment and weapons to the South Vietnamese. When the North Vietnamese launched the massive “Easter Offensive” invasion in spring 1972, the South Vietnamese wavered, but eventually rallied with U.S. support and prevailed over the North Vietnamese. Nixon proclaimed that the South Vietnamese victory validated his strategy. 1971 – In Washington D.C., heretofore peaceful anti-war protests of the past five days, change character as militant leaders from Vietnam Veterans Against the War take over. Tactics change to aggressive ‘people’s lobbying,’ with the avowed purpose of ‘shutting down the government,’ primarily by clogging traffic. 5000 Washington police, backed by 12000 troops outmaneuver them.
April 26th ~ {continued...} 1972 – President Nixon, despite the ongoing communist offensive, announces that another 20,000 U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Vietnam in May and June, reducing authorized troop strength to 49,000. Nixon emphasized that while U.S. ground troops were being withdrawn, sea and air support for the South Vietnamese would continue. In fact, the U.S. Navy doubled the number of its fighting ships off Vietnam. 1980 – Following an unsuccessful attempt by the United States to rescue U.S. Embassy hostages in Iran, the Tehran government announced that captives were being scattered to thwart any future effort. 1999 – President Milosevic met with Red Cross Pres. Cornelio Sommuraga and said the Red Cross may return to Kosovo and “go anywhere.” Sommuraga met briefly with the 3 captive Americans and said they were ok. 2001 – A US federal judge ruled that military exercises could resume on Vieques Island. Puerto Ricans mobilized for mass demonstrations. 2001 – A group led by Larry Silverstein, a NYC developer, and Westfield America Inc., signed a 99-year lease on the 11-million square-foot WTC complex from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. 2003 – In Iraq attackers fired into an ammunition dump guarded by Americans on Baghdad’s southeastern outskirts, setting off thunderous explosions that killed at least six Iraqis and wounded four. As many as 40 were thought killed. 2003 – Russia launched a Soyuz rocket with a 2-man crew, American astronaut Edward Lu and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, to keep the space station operating while Shuttle flights are suspended. 2004 – In Baghdad, Iraq, an explosion leveled part of a building as American troops searched it for suspected production of “chemical munitions.” 2 soldiers were killed and 5 wounded in the blast. In a Fallujah suburb 1 Marine was killed along with 8 insurgents. 2010 – Former dictator of Panama, Manuel Noriega is extradited from the United States to France.
April 27th ~ 1677 – Colonel Jeffreys became the governor of Virginia. 1773 – The British Parliament passes the Tea Act, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and thus granting it a monopoly on the American tea trade. The low tax allowed the East India Company to undercut even tea smuggled into America by Dutch traders, and many colonists viewed the act as another example of taxation tyranny. When three tea ships, the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver, arrived in Boston Harbor, the colonists demanded that the tea be returned to England. After Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused, Patriot leader Samuel Adams organized the so-called Boston Tea Party with about 60 members of the radical Sons of Liberty. On December 16th, 1773, the Patriots boarded the British ships disguised as Mohawk Indians and dumped the tea chests, valued at ₤18,000, into the water. Parliament, outraged by the Boston Tea Party and other blatant acts of destruction of British property, enacted the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts, in the following year. The Coercive Acts closed Boston to merchant shipping, established formal British military rule in Massachusetts, made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in America, and required colonists to quarter British troops. The colonists subsequently called the first Continental Congress to consider a united American resistance to the British. 1777 – At the Battle of Ridgefield, a British invasion force engages and defeats Continental Army regulars and militia irregulars at Ridgefield, Connecticut. The Battle of Ridgefield was a battle and a series of skirmishes between American and British forces during the American Revolutionary War. The main battle was fought in the village and more skirmishing occurred the next day between Ridgefield and the coastline near modern Westport, Connecticut. On April 25th, 1777 a British force under the command of the Royal Governor of the Province of New York, Major General William Tryon landed between Fairfield and Norwalk (in what is now Westport), and marched from there to Danbury. There they destroyed Continental Army supplies after chasing off a small garrison of troops. When word of the British troop movements spread, Connecticut militia leaders sprang into action. Major General David Wooster, Brigadier General Gold S. Silliman, and Brigadier General Benedict Arnold raised a combined force of roughly 700 Continental Army regular and irregular local militia forces to oppose the British, but could not reach Danbury in time to prevent the destruction of the supplies. Instead, they set out to harass the British on their return to the coast. The company led by General Wooster twice attacked Tryon’s rear guard during their march south on April 27. In the second encounter, Wooster was mortally wounded; he died five days later. The main encounter then took place at Ridgefield, where several hundred militia under Arnold’s command confronted the British and were driven away in a running battle down the town’s main street, but not before inflicting casualties on the British. Additional militia forces arrived, and the next day they continued to harass the British as they returned to Compo Beach, where the fleet awaited them. Arnold regrouped the militia and some artillery to make a stand against the British near their landing site, but his position was flanked and his force scattered by artillery fire and a bayonet charge. The expedition was a tactical success for the British forces, but their actions in pursuing the raid galvanized Patriot support in Connecticut. While the British again made raids on Connecticut’s coastal communities (including a second raiding expedition by Tryon in 1779 and a 1781 raid led by Arnold after his defection to the British side), they made no more raids that penetrated far into the countryside.
April 27th ~ {continued...} 1805 – After marching 500 miles from Egypt, U.S. agent William Eaton leads a small force of U.S. Marines and Berber mercenaries against the Tripolitan port city of Derna. The Marines and Berbers were on a mission to depose Yusuf Karamanli, the ruling pasha of Tripoli, who had seized power from his brother, Hamet Karamanli, a pasha who was sympathetic to the United States. The First Barbary War had begun four years earlier, when U.S. President Thomas Jefferson ordered U.S. Navy vessels to the Mediterranean Sea in protest of continuing raids against U.S. ships by pirates from the Barbary states–Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripolitania. American sailors were often abducted along with the captured booty and ransomed back to the United States at an exorbitant price. After two years of minor confrontations, sustained action began in June 1803, when a small U.S. expeditionary force attacked Tripoli harbor in present-day Libya. In April 1805, a major American victory came during the Derna campaign, which was undertaken by U.S. land forces in North Africa. Supported by the heavy guns of the USS Argus and the USS Hornet, Marines and Arab mercenaries under William Eaton captured Derna and deposed Yusuf Karamanli. Lieutenant Presley O’ Bannon, commanding the Marines, performed so heroically in the battle that Hamet Karamanli presented him with an elaborately designed sword that now serves as the pattern for the swords carried by Marine officers. The phrase “to the shores of Tripoli,” from the official song of the U.S. Marine Corps, also has its origins in the Derna campaign. 1813 – After surviving two dangerous exploratory expeditions into uncharted areas of the West, Zebulon Pike dies during a battle in the War of 1812. By the time he became a general in 1812, Pike had already faced many perilous situations. He joined the army when he was 15, and eventually took various military posts on the American frontier. In 1805, General James Wilkinson ordered Pike to lead 20 soldiers on a reconnaissance of the upper Mississippi River. Expecting to return before the rivers froze, Pike and his small band departed up the Mississippi in a 70-foot keelboat in early August. Slow progress, however, meant Pike and his men spent a hard winter near present-day Little Falls, Minnesota, before returning the following spring. Less than three months later, Wilkinson ordered Pike to head west again. This time, Pike and his men explored the headwaters of the Arkansas River, a route that took them into Colorado. There, Pike saw the towering peak that now bears his name, and he made an ill-advised attempt to climb it. Grossly underestimating the height of the mountain and dressed only in thin cotton uniforms, Pike and his men struggled with deep snow and sub-zero temperatures before finally abandoning the ascent. During this second expedition, Pike also became lost and wandered into Spanish-controlled territory. A Spanish patrol arrested him and took him into custody. Although Pike had indisputably lost his way, he had also hoped the Spanish would capture him so he could see more of their territory. This risky strategy paid off. Failing to recognize they were providing Pike with a golden opportunity to spy on the territory, the Spanish obligingly moved their prisoner first to Santa Fe and then to Chihuahua, before finally releasing him near the U.S. boundary at Louisiana. Impressed with his daring and his reputation as an efficient officer, the military promoted Pike to brigadier general during the War of 1812. Having survived two perilous journeys into the Far West, Pike was killed on this day in 1813 while leading an attack on British troops in Toronto. He was 34 years old.
April 27th ~ {continued...} 1813 – American troops capture the capital of Upper Canada in the Battle of York (present day Toronto, Canada). The Battle of York was fought in York (present-day Toronto), the capital of the province of Upper Canada (present-day Ontario), between United States forces and the British defenders of York during the War of 1812. U.S. forces under Zebulon Pike were able to defeat the defenders of York, comprising a British-led force under the command of Roger Hale Sheaffe, combined with a small group of Ojibway allies. An American force supported by a naval flotilla landed on the lake shore to the west, defeated the defending British force and captured the fort, town and dockyard. The Americans themselves suffered heavy casualties, including Brigadier General Zebulon Pike who was leading the troops, when the retreating British blew up the fort’s magazine. The American forces subsequently carried out several acts of arson and looting in the town before withdrawing. Though the Americans won a clear victory, it did not have decisive strategic results as York was a less important objective in military terms than Kingston, where the British armed vessels on Lake Ontario were based. 1822 – Ulysses S. Grant, general and 18th U.S. president (1869-1877), was born in Point Pleasant [Hiram], Ohio. 1860 – Thomas J Jackson (the future “Stonewall”) was assigned to command Harpers Ferry. 1861 – President Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus. 1861 – West Virginia seceded from Virginia after Virginia seceded from the Union. 1861 – President Lincoln extended blockade of Confederacy to VA and NC ports. 1861 – US Secretary of the Navy Welles issued order for Union ships to seize Confederate privateers upon the high seas. 1862 – Fort Livingston, Bastian Bay, Louisiana, surrendered to the Navy Boat crew from U.S.S. Kittatinny who raised the United States flag over the fort. 1863 – Battle of Streight’s raid: Tuscumbia to Cedar Bluff, Alabama. 1863 – The Army of the Potomac began marching on Chancellorsville. 1864 – Attempting to reach Alexandria, Union gunboats under Rear Admiral Porter fought a running engagement with Confederate troops and artillery along the Red River. Wooden gunboats U.S.S. Fort Hindman, Acting Lieutenant John Pearce, U.S.S. Cricket, Acting Master Henry Gorringe, U.S.S. Juliet, Acting Master J. S. Watson, and two pump steamers were attacked by a large force while making final preparations to blow up U.S.S. Eastport. The Confederates charged Cricket in an attempt to carry her by boarding, but were driven back by a heavy volley of grape and canister from the gunboats. Later in the day, near the mouth of the Cane River at Deloach’s Bluff, Louisiana, Southern troops, this time with artillery as well as muskets, again struck Porter’s ships, wreaking havoc. Cricket, the Admiral’s flagship, was hit repeatedly by the batteries, but finally succeeded in rounding a bend in the river downstream and out of range. Pump Steamer Champion No. 3 took a direct hit in her boiler, drifted out of control, and was captured. Juliet’s engine was disabled by Confederate shot, but Champion No. 5, though badly hit, succeeded in towing her upstream out of range. Fort Hindman covered the withdrawal of the disabled vessels, and the night of April 26th was spent in making urgent repairs. Confederate Major General Richard Taylor, commanding forces along the river, described his plans as follows: ‘My dispositions for the day are to . . . keep up a constant fight with the gunboats, following them with sharpshooters and killing every man who exposes himself.” On 27 April the ships made a second attempt to pass the batteries. Fort Hindman took a shot which partially disabled her steering, and she drifted past the Confederate guns. Champion No. 5 was so damaged that she grounded, was abandoned, and burned. Juliet succeeded in getting through, but was severely damaged. Ironclad U.S.S. Neosho, Acting Lieutenant Samuel Howard, attempting to assist the embattled gunboats, arrived after the riddled ships had passed the batteries, having endured what Porter later described as “the heaviest fire I ever witnessed.” By day’s end on the 27th, Porter had reassembled his squadron at Alexandria and began to plan means to pass the Red River rapids.
