23 May

1788 – South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U. S. Constitution.
1850 – Navy sends USS Advance and USS Rescue to attempt rescue of Sir John Franklin’s expedition, lost in Arctic.
1861 – Virginia citizens voted 3 to 1 in favor of secession, becoming the last Confederate state.
1861 – Pro Union and pro Confederate forces clashed in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
1861 – U.S.S. Mississippi. Flag Officer William Mervine, was compelled to put back into Boston for repairs because of sabotage damage to her condensers.
1862 – Stonewall Jackson took Fort Royal, Virginia, in the Valley Campaign.

1865 – The American flag was flown at full staff over White House for the 1st time since Lincoln was shot. Union Army’s Grand Review began in Washington DC.
1881 – Kit Carson, frontiersman, died.
1899 – Marines arrived to secure Cavite Naval Base, Philippines.

1908 – Part of the Great White Fleet arrived in Puget Sound, Washington.
1930 – Lieutenant Commander Elmer F. Stone received a medal from Congress for extraordinary achievement in making the first successful trans-Atlantic flight in 1919. Stone was the pilot of the Navy’s NC-4.
1939 – The US submarine Squalus sank off the coast of New Hampshire. A diving bell designed by Charles “Swede” Momsen (d.1967) brought 33 survivors (26 perished) safely to the surface. This was the first successful undersea rescue operation to retrieve a sunken submarine crew
1944 – The US 6th Corps in the Anzio beachhead launches an attack on Cisterna. German resistance results in high Allied casualties. Meanwhile, the US 5th Army continues offensive operations. US 2nd Corps patrols reach Terracina. Both the French Expeditionary Corps and the Canadian 1st Corps penetrate the German-held Senger Line. The Canadians break through by the end of the day.
1944 – American forces encounter heavy resistance in their advance westward from Arare toward Sarmi. At Aitape, Japanese attacks continue to force the Americans to fall back.
1944 – US Task Group 58.2 (Admiral Montgomery) launches air raids on Japanese positions on Wake Island.
1945 – American attacks bring shipping at Yokohama to a halt.
1945 – On Okinawa, after occupying Naha, the US 6th Marine Division (part of US 3rd Amphibious Corps) encounters heavy Japanese resistance to attempts to advance further south.
1945 – At Flensburg, the successor government of the Third Reich, including Karl Donitz, the nominal Fuhrer, as well as the German military leadership, are all arrested on the orders of General Eisenhower. At Luneburg, Heinrich Himmler commits suicide while being examined by a doctor at the headquarters of the British 2nd Army. He had been stripped and searched but bit down on a hidden phial of cyanide when the doctor attempted to stick a finger in his mouth. At St. Johann, US troops uncover $4 million in mixed currencies believed to belong to Himmler. In Bavaria, the former leading Nazi anti-Semitic propagandist, Julius Streicher, is arrested by Americans.

1951 – Eighth Army advanced toward the Kansas and Wyoming Lines to the base of the Iron Triangle against stiffening enemy resistance. By the end of May, the communists had suffered 17,000 killed and an equal number were taken prisoner.
1962 – Launch of Aurora 7 (Mercury 7), piloted by LCDR Malcolm Scott Carpenter, USN, who completed 3 orbits in 4 hours, 56 minutes at an altitude up to 166.8 statute miles at 17,549 mph. He was picked up by HSS-2 helicopters from USS Intrepid (CVS-11). The capsule was recovered by USS John R. Pierce (DD-753).

1971 – North Vietnamese demolition experts infiltrate the major U.S. air base at Cam Ranh Bay, blowing up six tanks of aviation fuel, which resulted in the loss of about 1.5 million gallons. U.S. commander Creighton Abrams criticized the inadequate security.

1988 – The V-22 Osprey, the world’s first production tilt-rotor aircraft, made its debut during rollout ceremonies at Bell Helicopter Textron’s Arlington, Texas, facility. More than 1,000 representatives from the military, industry, and media, gathered to hear various speakers, including Gen Alfred Gray, Commandant of the Marine Corps, praise the versatile rotor craft designed to meet the needs of 21st Century battlefields.
1992 – Pres. Bush ordered the Coast Guard to intercept boats with Haitian refugees.
1992 – The United States and four former Soviet republics signed an agreement in Lisbon, Portugal, to implement the START missile-reduction treaty that had been agreed to by the Soviet Union prior to its dissolution.
1995 – The nine-story hulk of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was demolished. That day, James Nichols, whose brother and a friend were charged in the Oklahoma bombing, was released from federal custody.
1999 – In Iraq US planes bombed Iraqi defense systems.
2001 – Iraq threatens to halt oil exports if a British-US proposed Security Council resolution on a new sanctions regime is enacted.
2002 – The Pentagon reported that the Defense Dept. sprayed live nerve and biological agents over Navy ships in 6 six tests between 1964-1968. The Project shipboard Hazard and Defense (SHAD) experiments included the use of sarin and VX nerve gases and the staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB).
2002 – The UN voted to extend the mandate for an int’l. force in Afghanistan for 6 months but with no expansion of troops or presence beyond Kabul.
2003 – The Iraqi Army is disbanded.
2004 – In Iraq US troops battled fighters loyal to a radical Muslim cleric in his stronghold of Kufa, and at least 32 insurgents were killed. Gunmen killed a police captain and a university student who were headed by car to Baghdad from Baqouba. Insurants loyal to al-Sadr gave up control of central Karbala.

22 May

1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially began as the Corps of Discovery departed from St. Charles, Missouri.
1807 – The treason trial of former VP Aaron Burr began in Richmond, Va.

1863 – The US War Dept. established the Bureau of Colored Troops.
1863 – U.S. Grant’s second attack on Vicksburg, Miss., failed and a siege began.
1864 – Battle of North Anna River, VA.
1872 – The Amnesty Act restored civil rights to Southerners.
1882 – Commodore Shufeldt signs commerce treaty opening Korea to U.S. trade.
1912 – First Lieutenant Alfred A. Cunningham, the first Marine officer to be assigned to “duty in connection with aviation” by Major General Commandant William P. Biddle. Cunningham reported for aviation training at the Naval Aviation Camp at Annapolis, Maryland, and Marine aviation had its official beginning.

1942 – President Roosevelt orders the Selective Service registration of all male Americans residents who reach the age of 18 or 19 before June 30th or has reached the age of 20 since December 31, 1941. This fifth registration will generate 3.1 million new names. The same day he warns against a flood of optimism (in the wake of the Doolittle Raid of April 18th) and says it will be a long war.
1943 – Admiral Dontiz orders all U-boat patrols in the north Atlantic to break off operations against the convoys. The submarine losses have grown too high. This decision effectively ends the battle of the Atlantic with an Allied victory. Some boats are moved south to the Caribbean and to waters off the Azores.
1944 – US 5th Army forces continue to advance. The US 2nd Corps (Keyes) advances north along the coast and Route 7. The French Expeditionary Corps captures Pico. There is continued heavy German resistance in the Liri Valley.
1944 – An American submarine detects the concentration of the Japanese fleet around Tawitawi.
1944 – Japanese forces attack US positions around Aitape. American forces make some withdrawals.
1944 – U.S. and British aircraft begin a systematic bombing raid on railroads in Germany and other parts of northern Europe, called Operation Chattanooga Choo-Choo. The operation is a success; Germany is forced to scramble for laborers, including foreign slave laborers, to repair the widespread damage exacted on its railway network.
1945 – Heinrich Himmler, the Reichsfuhrer SS, is captured by a British patrol at Bremervorde, near Hamburg. He initially claimed to be a rural policeman named Heinrich Hitzinger but under interrogation he removed the black eye patch he was wearing and put on his familiar glasses before admitting his true identity.
1945 – President Truman reports to Congress on the Lend-Lease program. He announces that up to March 1945, Britain had received supplies worth $12,775,000,000 and the Soviets $8,409,000,000. Reverse Lend-Lease, mostly from Britain has been worth almost $5,000,000,000 in the same period.
1945 – On Okinawa, American forces enter Yonabaru and capture Conical Hill. Heavy rains begin that hamper offensive operations for the coming weeks.
1945 – Elements of the US 24th Division reach Tambongan on Mindanao.
1947 – The Truman Doctrine brought aid to Turkey and Greece. President Harry S. Truman relied heavily on Dean Acheson for his most significant foreign policy achievements.
1947 – The 1st US ballistic missile was fired.
1952 – Major General William K. Harrison succeeded Admiral C. Turner Joy as Senior U.N. Command Delegate for armistice negotiations.
1958 – Naval aircraft F4D-1 Sky Ray sets five world speed-to-climb records.
1959 – Two US Air Force jets collided near Ocean Station ECHO, patrolled at that time by the CGC Mendota. A U.S. Air Force weather plane spotted both pilots in the water and, within two hours of collision, the Mendota rescued them.

1967 – New York City reaches agreement to purchase Brooklyn Navy Yard, ending 166 years of construction and repair of naval vessels.
1968 – USS Scorpion (SSN-589) lost with all hands.
1969 – The lunar module of Apollo 10 separated from the command module and flew to within nine miles of the moon’s surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing.

1973 – President Nixon confessed his role in the Watergate cover-up.
1985 – US sailor Michael L. Walker (22), member of Walker family spy ring, was arrested for spying for USSR.
1990 – Microsoft released Windows 3.0.

1994 – A worldwide trade embargo against Haiti went into effect to punish Haiti’s military rulers for not reinstating the country’s ousted elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
1996 – Iraq reached an agreement with the UN to sell $2 billion in oil for 180 days to buy food and medicine.
1996 – Amnesty International reported that Iraqi doctors were forced to cut off the ears of alleged deserters and that Kenyan doctors were pressured to ignore evidence of torture.
1997 – Kelly Flinn, the Air Force’s first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepted a general discharge, thereby avoiding court-martial on charges of lying, adultery and disobeying an order.
1998 – A joint peacekeeping force was set up by 7 European nations to maintain peace in Kosovo. Deputy defense ministers of Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, Romania and Turkey signed on after meeting in Tirana. Slovenia and the US signed on as observers.
2001 – Ethnic Albanian rebels in southern Serbia began laying aside their weapons for collection by NATO.
2003 – NASA released the 1st photo of Earth taken from Mars, 86 million miles away. The record distance was a 1990 shot by Voyager 1 from 4 billion miles.
2003 – The UN Security Council overwhelmingly approved an end to 13-year-old sanctions against Iraq and gave the United States and Britain a mandate to run and rebuild the country.

21 May

1850 – Washington Navy Yard begins work on first castings for the Dahlgren guns.

1864 – Gen. David Hunter took command of Dept. of West Virginia.
1864 – Gunfire from ironclad steamer U.S.S. Atlanta, Acting Lieutenant Thomas J. Woodward, and U.S.S. Dawn, Acting Lieutenant John W. Simmons, dispersed Confederate cavalry attacking Fort Powhatan on the James River, Virginia. Dawn, a wooden steamer, remained above the fort during the night to prevent another attack.

1917 – USS Ericsson fires first US torpedo of World War I.
1940 – Nazis surrounded the British Army at Dunkirk.
1941 – The first U.S. ship, the SS Robin Moor, was sunk by a U-boat. Roosevelt describes the sinking of the Robin Moor as “an act of intimidation” to which “we do not propose to yield.”
1944 - A small American force lands at Sperlonga, having embarked at Gaeta. Meanwhile, forces of the US 5th Army continue attacking. The US 2nd Corps captures Fondi while the French Expeditionary Corps takes Campodimele. German resistance in the Liri Valley and around Pico prevents significant gains in these areas.
1944 – The American beachhead at Arare is reinforces and the airfield at Wadke is repaired.
1944 – The Coast Guard-manned USS LST-69 exploded at Pearl Harbor. None of her crew were killed but 13 were seriously injured.
1945 – On Okinawa, US 3rd Amphibious Corps reports advances near the Horseshoe, Half Moon and Wana positions, on the western flank. On the east-side, US 7th and 96th Divisions (parts of US 24th Corps) attack near Yonabaru. Japanese forces begin to pull out of the Shuri Line.
1945 – Hermann Goring, former Reichsmarshal of the Luftwaffe, is transferred from the prisoner of war camp at Augsburg to the Palace Hotel at Mondorf where he joins other senior Nazi officials awaiting Allied interrogation.
1945 – The Japanese supply base at Malaybalay on Mindanao is captured by elements of the US 31st Division.
1951 – The U.S. Eighth Army counterattacked to drive the Communist Chinese and North Koreans out of South Korea.
1951 – The Coast Guard announced the formation, within the Washington, DC area, of a new Organized Reserve Training Unit (Vessel Augmentation). The mission of this new unit was to develop a force of experienced personnel, well-trained in all shipboard billets, with particular emphasis on anti-submarine warfare, and the use of radar, radio, and other branches of electronics. Training was to be directed towards readying personnel of the unit for immediate assignment to ships of the Coast Guard and Navy in the event of mobilization.
1956 – The first known airborne US hydrogen bomb was tested over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
1961 – Governor Patterson declared martial law in Montgomery, Alabama.
1964 – The Navy initiates a the standing carrier presence at “Yankee Station” in the South China Sea.
1968 – The nuclear-powered U.S. submarine Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, was last heard from. The remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
1970 – The National Guard was mobilized to quell disturbances at Ohio State University.

1980 – Ensign Jean Marie Butler became the first woman to graduate from a U.S. service academy as she accepted her degree and commission from the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.
1987 – In the wake of the Iraqi attack on the U.S. frigate Stark that claimed 37 lives, the Senate approved a proposal requiring President Reagan to send Congress a report detailing the threat to U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf.
1992 – The Coast Guard announced that high-seas interdiction of Haitian refugees was being drastically scaled back because refugee camps at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba, were filled.
1997 – The space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the Russian Mir space station.
2002 – The Bush administration announced that it would resume economic aid to Yugoslavia because it had met requirements to cooperate with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
2003 – In Iraq US forces captured Aziz Saleh Numan, former Baath regional command chairman for west Baghdad. He was No. 8 on the most wanted list.
2003 – NATO’s 19 nations agreed unanimously to start planning to help Poland lead a multinational peacekeeping force in Iraq.
2004 – American AC-130 gunships and tanks bombarded militia positions near two shrines in the holy city of Karbala, killing 18 fighters loyal to a rebel cleric.

20 May

1639 – Dorchester, Mass., formed the 1st school funded by local taxes.
1774 – The British Parliament passed the Coercive Acts to punish the colonists for their increasingly anti-British behavior. The acts closed the port of Boston. [see Mar 28]
1775 – North Carolina became the first colony to declare its independence. Citizens of Mecklenburg County, NC, declared independence from Britain.
1801 – Four warships sent to Mediterranean to protect American commerce form Barbary pirates.
1815 – Commodore Stephen Decatur ( Frigate Guerriere) sails with 10 ships to suppress Mediterranean pirates’ raids on U.S. shipping.
1844 – USS Constitution sails from New York on round the world cruise.
1861 – North Carolina voted to secede from the Union and became the 11th and last state to do so.
1861 – The capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, Ala., to Richmond, Va.

1902 – The United States ended its three-year military presence in Cuba as the Republic of Cuba was established under its first elected president, Tomas Estrada Palma. Theodore Roosevelt had criticized the government’s sluggish withdrawal of disease-stricken US troops from Cuba.
1918 – The 1st electrically propelled warship (New Mexico).
1930 – The first airplane, piloted by Charles Nicholson, was catapulted from a dirigible.
1939 – Regular trans-Atlantic air service began as a Pan American Airways plane, the Yankee Clipper, took off from Port Washington, N.Y., bound for Marseilles, France.
1942 – US Navy 1st permitted black recruits to serve.
1943 – Establishment of Tenth Fleet in Washington, DC, under command of ADM King to coordinate U.S. antisubmarine operations in Atlantic.
1943 – On Attu, fighting continues in the Clevesy Pass. Japanese forces hold the high ground and offer determined resistance to the American attacks.
1944 – A V2, on a test flight, lands near the Bug River about 80 miles east of Warsaw. Polish resistance workers hide the rocket before German forces arrive to recover it.
1944 – Forces of the US 5th Army assault the German-held Senger Line. The French Expeditionary Corps attacks Pico; the Canadian 1st Corps attacks Pontecorvo; and the Polish 2nd Corps attacks Piedimonte San Germano.
1944 – American forces have eliminated the Japanese garrison on Wadke. On the mainland, nearby, Japanese forces conduct weak attacks near Arare.
1944 – American aircraft the carriers of Task Group 58.2 (Admiral Montgomery) conduct a raid.
1944 – US Communist Party dissolved.
1945 – On Okinawa, American troops secure Chocolate Drop Hill after fighting in the interconnecting tunnels. Elements of the 1st Marine Division, part of US 3rd Amphibious Corps, capture Wana Ridge. Elements of the US 6th Marine Division, part of the same corps, begin mopping up operations in the Japanese held caves of the Horseshoe and Half Moon positions. They use flame-throwers and hollow-charge weapons and seal off some Japanese troops. Japanese forces counterattack on the Horseshoe position suffering an estimated 200 killed. To the east, the US 7th and 96th Divisions, of US 24th Corps, continue to be engaged in the capture of Yonabaru.
1945 – On Mindanao, the US 31st Division, part of US 10th Corps, advances northward and occupies positions near the town of Malaybalay and encounter Japanese artillery fire. Other units advance north of Davao and resist nighttime counterattacks.
1951 – Air Force Captain James Jabara, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, became the first Korean War ace and the first jet ace in aviation history after downing his fifth MiG. He accomplished this feat in an F-86 Sabre with one hung drop tank.
1951 – North of Kansong on the east coast, the flagship of the U.S. 7th Fleet, the battleship USS New Jersey, fired for the first time in the Korean War.
1953 – The U.S. National Security Council decided that if “conditions arise,” air and ground operations would be extended to China and ground operations in Korea would be intensified.
1954 – Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek became president of Nationalist China.

1959 – Japanese-Americans regained their citizenship.

1985 – US began broadcasts to Cuba on Radio Marti.
1985 – FBI arrested John A. Walker. US Navy Chief Petty Officer Walker began spying for the Soviet Union in 1968 for $1,000 per week. Walker’s ex-wife turned him into the FBI.
1987 – The commander of the U.S. frigate Stark, who lost 37 of his sailors in an Iraqi missile attack, broke his silence. Captain Glenn Brindel said he was warned only seconds before the missiles struck, and that he’d had no time to activate the ship’s defense system.
1989 – China declared martial law in Beijing. During the pro-democracy protests, Beijing officials ordered CBS and CNN to end their live on-scene reports.
1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first photographs.

1997 – Marine Corporal Clemente Banuelos shot and killed the goat herder Esequiel Hernandez on the Mexican border at El Paso while on border patrol. The marine claimed self-defense after Hernandez fired 2 shots from a .22-caliber rifle. A grand jury later declined to indict Banuelos.
1999 – The CGC Bear arrived in Rota, Spain. She was deployed to the Adriatic Sea in support of “Operation Allied Force” and “Operation Noble Anvil”, NATO’s military campaign against the forces of the former Republic of Yugoslavia. Bear served in the USS Theodore Roosevelt Battle Group providing surface surveillance and SAR response for the Sea Combat Commander, and force protection for the Amphibious Ready Group operating near Albania. Bear provided combat escort for U.S. Army vessel’s transporting military cargo between Italy and Albania. This escort operation took Bear up to the Albanian coastline, well within enemy surface-to-surface missile range.
2000 – The 5 nuclear powers of the UN Security Council agreed to eliminate their nuclear arsenals over time as part of a new disarmament agenda approved by 187 countries.
2003 – The Bush administration raised the terrorism alert level to orange on and called for increased security nationwide.
2003 – Afghan governors signed an agreement with President Hamid Karzai to pay vital customs revenues to the central government. Karzai had threatened to resign due to lack of revenue payments.
2004 – Iraqi police backed by American soldiers raided the home and offices of Ahmad Chalabi, a prominent Iraqi politician.

19 May

1643 – Delegates from four New England colonies, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Harbor, met in Boston to form a confederation: the United Colonies of New England.

1796 – A game protection law was passed by Congress to restrict encroachment by whites on Indian hunting grounds.
1846 – Secretary of Treasury Walker assigned Revenue Captain John A. Webster, USRCS, to control movements of vessels assigned to Army and to cooperate with the Navy in the War with Mexico.

1848 – Texas was awarded to the U.S.A. by Mexico thus ending the war.

1862 – Homestead Act became law and provided cheap land for settlement of West.

1864 – Battle of Port Walthall Junction, VA (Bermuda Hundred).
1864 – U.S.S. General Price, Acting Lieutenant Richardson, engaged a Confederate battery on the banks of the Mississippi River at Tunica Bend, Louisiana. The Southerners, who had been attempting to destroy transport steamer Superior, were forced to evacuate their river position. Richardson put ashore a landing party which burned a group of buildings used by the Confederates as a headquarters from which attacks against river shipping were launched.
1865 – President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union Cavalry in Georgia.
1882 – Commodore Shufeldt (USS Swatara) lands in Korea to negotiate first treaty between Korea and Western power.
1890 – Ho Chi Minh, revolutionist and leader of North Vietnam (1946-1969), was born. He fought the Japanese, French and United States to gain independence for his country.
1921 – Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants entering the United States.
1927 – The 11th Marine Regiment arrived at Esteli, Nicaragua, for garrison duty.
1943 – On Attu, American forces advance along Clevesy Pass toward Chicagof.
1944 – Allied forces of US 5th Army continue to make advances. The US 2nd Corps captures Gasta Itri and Monte Grande. The French Expeditionary Corps nearly reaches Pico and battle for Campodimele. Meanwhile, British armor and infantry overrun the Aquino airfield, in the Liri Valley but German antitank guns repulse an attempt to seize the town.
1944 – American aircraft the carriers of Task Group 58.2 (Admiral Montgomery) conduct a raid on Marcus Island.
1945 – On Luzon, in the Ipoh dam area north of Manila, where the US 43rd Division of US 11th Corps is operating, Japanese resistance ends. The US 152nd Division is holding its positions near Woodpecker Ridge. The US 25th Division, part of US 1st Corps, begins mopping up in the area north and west of Santa Fe.
1945 – On Okinawa, the US 77th Division suffers heavy casualties while fighting for the Ishimmi ridge and withdraws.
1945 – Some 272 American B-29 Superfortress bombers strike Hamamatsu, 120 miles (192 km) from Tokyo. Bombs are dropped through the clouds from medium altitude.
1945 – The UN Charter committee met in Muir Woods. The meeting was planned by Roosevelt on a suggestion by Sec. of the Interior Ickes: one of the sessions “might be held among the giant redwoods in Muir Woods. Not only would this focus attention upon the nation’s interest in preserving these mighty trees for posterity, but in such a “temple of peace” the delegates would gain a perspective and sense of time that could be obtained nowhere better than in such a forest.”
1951 – The 2nd Infantry Division, with attached French and Dutch battalions, fought their way out of a Chinese trap in the mountains of central Korea, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. The 38th Field Artillery Battalion fired 12,000 rounds in a 24-hour period in support of the division.
1958 – The United States and Canada formally established the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).

1960 – USAF Maj. Robert M White took the X-15 to 33,222 m.
1964 – The State Department announced the U.S. embassy in Moscow had been bugged. A network of more than 40 microphones embedded in the walls had been found.
1964 – The United States initiates low-altitude target reconnaissance flights over southern Laos by U.S. Navy and Air Force aircraft. Two days later, similar flights were commenced over northern Laos. These flights were code-named Yankee Team and were meant to assist the Royal Lao forces in their fight against the communist Pathet Lao and their North Vietnamese and Viet Cong allies.
1965 – 30th Naval Construction Regiment activated at Danang, Vietnam.
1967 – The first U.S. air strike on central Hanoi was launched.

1976 – The US Senate established congressional oversight over the CIA with the permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
1979 – R.C., “In The Navy” by Village People peaked at #3 on the pop singles chart.
1987 – President Reagan defended America’s presence in the Persian Gulf, two days after 37 American sailors were killed when an Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. frigate Stark.
1990 – Secretary of State James A. Baker III concluded an agreement with the Soviet Union to destroy chemical weapons and settle longstanding disputes over limits on nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.
1995 – NASA’s administrator unveiled plans to slash thousands of aerospace jobs and to overhaul virtually every part of the agency.
1996 – The Endeavour Shuttle rocketed into orbit with six astronauts. One task was to deploy an experimental antennae that would inflate and swell to the size of a tennis court.
1999 – Ali A. Mohamed, a former US Army sergeant, was indicted for conspiring with Osama bin Laden to kill Americans abroad.
1999 – As NATO’s Operation Allied Force entered its ninth week, Russia’s special envoy to the Balkans called on both NATO and Yugoslavia to suspend hostilities.
2000 – The shuttle Atlantis lifted off with 7 astronauts on a mission to fix the Int’l. Space Station.
2000 – Nine countries banded together to petition entry into NATO in 2002. They included Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
2002 – In Afghanistan, Operation Mountain Lion began in an attempt to seal off the border.
2002 – A team of 50 US Green Berets landed in Tbilisi for a 2-year training program for Georgia’s army.
2003 – In central Iraq 4 US Marines on a resupply mission were killed when their Ch-46 Sea-Knight helicopter crashed into a canal and a fifth drowned trying to save them.
2004 – US Army Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits received the maximum penalty, one year in prison, reduction in rank and a bad conduct discharge, in the first court-martial stemming from mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.