This Day in History

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496 BC. Roman Festival of the Refugium, celebrating the expulsion of the Tarquins and the foundation of the Republic

1525         Francis Duke of Lorraine, Prince Louis de la Tremouille of Talmont, Marshal Jacques de la Palice, & Richard de la Pole, Yorkist Pretender to the Throne of England, kia, Pavia, in French service

1582         Pope Gregory XIII introduced the reformed "Gregorian" calendar, which Catholics adopted, but Protestants took much longer, & the Orthodox even longer, messing up chronology

1885 – Chester Nimitz is born. During World War II, he was in charge of assembling the Pacific force of two million men and 1,000 ships that drove the Japanese back to their homeland. When Admiral Nimitz took over the Pacific Fleet on Dec. 31, 1941, many of its ships lay at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, sunk by the Japanese in the surprise attack of Dec. 7 on Hawaii. Without haste–Admiral Nimitz always proceeded with care–he directed the deployment of such carriers and cruises as were left, to hold the line until that moment perhaps two years away, when new battleships could be ready. Eight months after announcing on New Year’s Day that 1945 would be a sad year for the Japanese, Admiral Nimitz sat at a table on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri on Sept. 2 to sign the Japanese capitulation. Chester William Nimitz was born in a gingerbread hotel in Fredericksburg, Tex., built by his grandfather, Charles Nimitz, a retired sea captain. The captain had equipped his hotel with a ship’s bridge and a pilot house from which he could scan the hills and prairies. Young Chester’s father died five months before he was born. In his young years, while staying on occasions with his grandfather, the future admiral heard many tall tales about the sea. But he dreamed of being a soldier, not a sailor, and while in high school tried for an appointment to West Point. When none was available he took a competitive examination for Annapolis, and was accepted when he was only 15 years old. He left high school to enter the Naval Academy and was not awarded his high school diploma until many years later, when he had retired from active Navy duty. He probably was the only person ever to graduate from high school in the uniform of a fleet admiral. At the Naval Academy, Chester Nimitz excelled in mathematics and in physical exercise. After the two years’ sea duty required by law, he became an ensign. He said later that he was not overly enthusiastic at his first experience with the sea. “I got frightfully seasick, and must confess to some chilling of enthusiasm for the sea,” he said. Ensign Nimitz was a handsome, self-assured young officer, who saw to it that he knew the technical phases of his profession. In his early days in the Navy he commanded an assortment of obsolete minor vessels, and was much pleased when he received command of the old destroyer Stephen Decatur. During a storm, the engineer of the destroyer telephoned from the engine room that the vessel was taking on water rapidly and soon would sink. Lieutenant Nimitz replied soothingly: “Just look on page 84 of ‘Barton’s Engineering Manual.’ It will tell you what to do.” The vessel was saved. In 1912, Lieutenant Nimitz was awarded the Navy’s Silver Life Saving Medal for saving a shipmate from drowning. He wore this medal throughout the remainder of his career, along with the five Distinguished Service Medal awards for wartime exploits. In 1913, Lieutenant Nimitz wrote a friend: “On April 9, I had the good sense to marry Catherine Vance Freeman of Wollaston, Mass.” Miss Freeman was the daughter of a shipping broker. By way of a honeymoon, the young officer was assigned to study diesel engines in Germany and Belgium for a year. On his return to the United States, he built the Navy’s first diesel engine at the New York Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn. While he was demonstrating the engine his left hand was caught in the mechanism, and one of his fingers was severed. During World War I, Lieutenant Commander Nimitz served as Chief of Staff to Rear Admiral Samuel S. Robinson, commander of the submarine division of the Atlantic Fleet. He saw no battle action. Submarines at that time, he said, were still regarded “as a cross between a Jules Verne fantasy and a whale.” From 1926 to 1929, he was assigned to the University of California to establish the first Naval Reserve Officers’ training unit. The between-wars period included service on battleships and as a cruiser commander as well as study at various advanced naval schools. By 1938 he was a rear admiral. In 1940, Admiral Nimitz’s name was one of two submitted for the post of Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet. The other was that of Adm. Husband E. Kimmel, who got the assignment. Admiral Nimitz was in his home in Washington listening to a symphony on the radio when he heard the news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. He picked up his hat and went down to the office of the Chief of Naval Operations for orders. A few days later, Admiral Kimmel was relieved and Admiral Nimitz was on his way to Pearl Harbor. Admiral Nimitz made the train trip to the West Coast in civilian clothes under an assumed name. Mrs. Nimitz missed her sewing bag, and it was not until many months later that she learned that her husband had used it to carry secret documents dealing with the extent of damage to the fleet in the Pearl Harbor attack. The 65 million square miles of the Pacific became well known to Admiral Nimitz as he contemplated the operations charts that were to carry the story of defeat and victory in the next few years. While waiting for United States yards to turn out the ships he needed, Admiral Nimitz built up his combat teams. These were commanded by Admirals William F. Halsey, Mare A. Mitschner, Richmond K. Turner, Raymond A. Spruance, and Thomas C. Kincaid. He flew to Australia to call on General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, to avoid any protocol friction. When he took over command of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Nimitz was quick to see that a great weakness lay in the lack of forward repair stations and maintenance squadrons. When those squadrons came into being at his insistence, the Navy was prepared to take the fight to the Japanese. During the first half of 1944, Admiral Nimitz employed the main fighting strength of the Pacific Navy in the central Pacific. The bloody victory at Tarawa was followed by the “great turkey shoot” in the Marianas, where United States aviators downed 402 out of 545 Japanese planes sighted. At his headquarters at Pearl Harbor, Admiral Nimitz set an example to his staff by keeping in the peak of physical condition. He swam and took long walks, his pet schnauzer dog trotting along with him. Sometimes at night, he took a drink of bourbon whisky to relax. While waiting for news of a Navy engagement, he would go to the firing range and grimly fire his pistol, or stand in his kitchen and make jelly from prickly pears he grew outside his quarters. Subordinates dutifully tasted the jelly, which he made by a recipe from his boyhood days. In November, 1945, with the war over, Admiral Nimitz became one of the senior naval officers elevated to the newly created rank of Admiral of the Fleet, a rank equivalent to that of General of the Army, or Field Marshal in the service of other countries.

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1634         Albrecht von Wallenstein, German military entrepreneur, murdered at 50 by imperial order

1863 – Confederates worked feverishly to raise ex-U.S.S. Indianola. C.S.S. Queen of the West was sent up river to Vicksburg to obtain a pump and other materials, but soon was seen returning below Warrenton. She brought news of a large Union “gunboat” passing the Vicksburg batteries and approaching the small Confederate squadron. According to Colonel Wirt Adams, CSA, “All the vessels at once got underway in a panic, and proceeded down the river, abandoning without a word the working party and fieldpieces on the wreck.” He continued: “The Federal vessel did not approach nearer than 2,’2 miles, and appeared very apprehensive of attack.” After making further fruitless efforts to free Indianola of water, the next evening the working patty fired the heavy 11-inch Dahlgren guns into each other and burned her to the water line. The Union ruse had worked. The “gunboat” was a barge, camouflaged to give the appearance of a formidable vessel of war, that Rear Admiral Porter had floated down river. A Con-federate paper reported bitterly: “The Yankee barge sent down the river last week was reported to be an ironclad gunboat. The authorities, thinking that this monster would retake the India-nola, immediately issued an order to blow her up. . . . It would really seem we had no use for gunboats on the Mississippi, as a coal barge is magnified into a monster, and our authorities immediately order a boat that would have been worth a small army to us-to be blown up.

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1548         Lorenzino de' Medici, 33, author, murderer of his kinsman Duke Alessandro "il Moro" de' Medici of Florence (1530-1537), murdered by his kinsman Duke Cosimo I de' Medici of Florence

1752         James Winchester, American soldier, Brig. Gen., d. 1826  At one point during the War of 1812 Brig. Gen. James Winchester, who had served with some distinction during the Revolutionary War, was placed in command of a brigade of Kentucky militiamen. This created some problems, since the general was from Tennessee.
Aside from mistrusting Winchester because he was "a stranger," as Pvt. Elias Darnall observed, the Kentuckians considered the general supercilious, officious, and conceited. In short, he was "generally disliked."
As a result, the general soon became the object of numerous practical jokes. Being rude frontiersmen, some of the jokes were rather earthy.
While the brigade was camped in the wilderness, Winchester reserved for himself a certain log which he preferred to use when relieving himself. One particular night some of the Kentuckians covered the general's favorite log with a porcupine skin, which caused him some discomfort for a time. But worse was to come.
One night some of the militiamen carefully sawed the general's log almost through. As Pvt. Darnall put it, when the general "went to use it in the night, it broke in two and let his generalship, uniform and all, fall backwards in no very decent place."

1815. Napoleon Escaped from Elba

1936. The February 26th Incident: Attempted coup by ultra-nationalist Japanese officers; suppressed with considerable bloodshed, by the 29th.  Viscount Saitô Makoto, 77, Retired Admiral & Prime Minister of Japan, murdered by ultra-nationalists, most prominent victim of the "February 26th Incident" Unlike earlier examples of political violence by young officers, the coup attempt had severe consequences. After a series of closed trials, 19 of the uprising’s leaders were executed for mutiny and another 40 imprisoned. The radical Kōdō-ha faction lost its influence within the army, the period of “government by assassination” came to a close, and the military increased its control over the civilian government.

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1782 – In England, the House of Commons votes against waging any further war in America. On 5 March, Parliament enacts legislation empowering the English Crown to negotiate peace with the United States.

1852         HMS 'Birkenhead' was wrecked off South Africa, troops stood fast as women & children were rescued -- "to stand an' be still to the Birken'ead drill is a damn tough bullet to chew," Kipling

1862 – Delayed one day by a lack of ammunition for her guns, U.S.S. Monitor, Lieutenant Worden, departed the New York Navy Yard for sea, but was compelled to turn back to the Yard because of steering failure. The same day at Norfolk, Flag Officer Forrest, CSN, commanding the Navy Yard, reported that want of gun powder, too, was delaying the readiness of Virginia to begin operations against the Union blockading ships

2002. Spike Milligan, Royal Artilleryman, humorist ("Adolph Hitler: My Part in His Downfall"), b. 1918.

2015  Leonard Nimoy, 83, sometime soldier, actor (“Mr. Spock”)

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752   BC   Romulus celebrated the first Roman triumph, for the defeat of Caenina

1504 – Christopher Columbus, stranded in Jamaica during his fourth voyage to the West, used a correctly predicted lunar eclipse to frighten hostile natives into providing food for his crew.

1864 – President Lincoln nominates Ulysses S. Grant for the newly revived rank of lieutenant general. At the time, George Washington was the only other man to have held that rank. Winfield Scott also attained the title but by brevet only; he did not actually command with it. The promotion carried Grant to the supreme command of Union forces and capped one of the most remarkable success stories of the war.

1942   Action South of Java: Supported by dive bombers, Japanese battleships 'Hiei' & 'Kirishima' & their escorts sink USS 'Edsall' (DD-219), after a fight of nearly three hours
Battle of Bali Strait: US destroyers 'Ford', 'Paul Jones', 'Edwards', & 'Alden' escape a Japanese DesDiv
in the Sunda Strait the cruisers USS 'Houston' & HMAS 'Perth', and destroyer HNMS 'Evertsen' went down fighting supeior Japanese forces around 0100
Battle off Borneo: HMS 'Exeter' & destroyers HMS 'Encounter' and USS 'Pope' sunk by Japanese heavy cruisers

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500 BC. The Kalends of March! March was originally the 1st month of the Roman year, becoming the 3rd month sometime after 153BC.
On this day, the sacred fire of Rome was renewed.  It marked the start of the farming, military campaigning and sailing season and was named after the God of War, Mars.  As such, it was the Feriae Marti (holiday for Mars) to mark his birthday and also the Matronalia, in honour of Juno Lucina, the mother of Mars.

1775         Benedict Arnold was elected captain of the newly formed Second Company, Governor’s Foot Guard of Connecticut

1943 – U.S. and Australian land-based planes begin an offensive against a convoy of Japanese ships in the Bismarck Sea, in the western Pacific. On March 1, U.S. reconnaissance planes spotted 16 Japanese ships en route to Lae and Salamaua in New Guinea. The Japanese were attempting to keep from losing the island and their garrisons there by sending 7,000 reinforcements and aircraft fuel and supplies. But a U.S. bombing campaign, beginning March 2 and lasting until the March 4, consisting of 137 American bombers supported by U.S. and Australian fighters, destroyed eight Japanese troop transports and four Japanese destroyers. More than 3,000 Japanese troops and sailors drowned as a consequence, and the supplies sunk with their ships. Of 150 Japanese fighter planes that attempted to engage the American bombers, 102 were shot down. It was an utter disaster for the Japanese–the U.S. 5th Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force dropped a total of 213 tons of bombs on the Japanese convoy. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill chose March 4, the official end of the battle, to congratulate President Franklin D. Roosevelt, since that day was also the 10th anniversary of the president’s first inauguration. “Accept my warmest congratulations on your brilliant victory in the Pacific, which fitly salutes the end of your first 10 years.”

1950 – Silly Putty was introduced as a toy. Silly Putty was accidentally invented by Earl Warrick, a Dow scientist, while searching for a silicone-based rubber substance during WW II.

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1493. Columbus arrives at Lisbon aboard the 'Nina', concluding his first voyage to the "New World"

1665. Count Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, Swedish soldier-of-fortune, lover of Sophia Dorothea, wife to Duke George Louis of Brunswick (later George I of England), who had him murdered in 1694

1789. U.S. Constitution goes into effect

1862 – The Siege of New Madrid, Missouri begins. With the surrender of Forts Henry and Donelson, Tennessee, and the evacuation of Columbus, Kentucky, Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, commander of the Confederate Army of the Mississippi, chose Island No. 10, about 60 river miles below Columbus, to be the strongpoint for defending the Mississippi River. Nearby was New Madrid, one of the weak points. Brig. Gen. John Pope, commander of the Union Army of the Mississippi, set out from Commerce, Missouri, to attack New Madrid, on February 28. The force marched overland through swamps, lugging supplies and artillery, reached the New Madrid outskirts on March 3, and laid siege to the city. Brig. Gen. John P. McCown, the garrison commander, defended both New Madrid and Island No. 10 from the fortifications. He launched a sortie, under Brig. Gen. M. Jeff Thompson, Missouri State Guard, against the besiegers and brought up heavy artillery to bombard them. On the 13th, the Confederates bombarded the Yankees to no avail. Since it did not appear possible to defend New Madrid, the Confederate gunboats and troops evacuated to Island No. 10 and Tiptonville. On the 14th, Pope’s army discovered that New Madrid was deserted and moved in to occupy it. A U.S. Navy flotilla, under the command of Flag-Officer Andrew H. Foote, arrived March 15 upstream from Island No. 10. The ironclad Carondelet on the night of April 4 passed the Island No. 10 batteries and anchored off New Madrid. Pittsburgh followed on the night of April 6. The ironclads helped to overawe the Confederate batteries and guns, enabling Pope’s men to cross the river and block the Confederate escape route. Brig. Gen. William W. Mackall, who replaced McCown, surrendered Island No. 10 on April 8. The Mississippi was now open down to Fort Pillow, Tennessee

1853. Adm. Thomas Bladen Capel, one of Nelson's "Band of Brothers," at 76 - May of 1813, HMS Hogue, a 74-gun ship-of-the-line, under Capt. Thomas Bladen Capel, a veteran of over eight years of command at sea, took an American merchant ship off the English coast. When, despite his claims to posses one, her master failed to produce the requisite license, Capel promptly burned the vessel. Alas, when Capel returned home, he discovered himself the object of a lawsuit by the ship’s owners, who asserted that they did possess a license, and that thus the burning of their ship had been illegal. 
The case dragged on for two years, until well after peace had been patched together. And in 1815 the High Court of Admiralty ruled that the owners had indeed possessed the claimed license (though why the captain did not have a copy was not explained). As a result, Capt. Capel was found liable to pay £4,000 to compensate the owners for their loss, a sum equal to over 300 times his annual salary, but one fortunately paid out of a special fund established by the Royal Navy to cover just such eventualities.

1945. battery of two British 15-inch Mark I naval rifles installed at Wanstone, in southeastern England, in June of 1942, fired so often at German positions on the other side of the Strait of Dover that they had to be retubed four times before the war ended.

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117  During Trajan’s triumph for the defeat of the Parthians (held in late A.D. 117 or early 118), the victor’s chariot was occupied by a lifelike statue of the Emperor, he having died on August 8th

1649         Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham (40), James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton (43), & Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland (c. 60), beheaded by the Puritans, the Old Palace Yard, London

1885. Although the Masai are among the great warrior peoples of Africa, they never had any serious conflicts with the British who colonized much of the region, because the settlers didn’t have any cattle worth stealing.

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1204         King Philip II of France captured Chateau Gaillard, on the lower Seine, from the English after a six month winter siege..
In 1197 Richard the Lionhearted decided to block a potential French invasion route into Normandy down the Seine by constructing an enormous castle which has come to be known as Chateau Gaillard. Since Richard was having a lot of trouble with his "dear cousin" Philip Augustus II of France, he decided that the castle had to be built in a hurry. Naturally, this upped the cost considerably.
Cost to Construct Chateau Gaillard, 1197-1198
                Purchase   Transport   Labor   Total
Cartage   -                .........1,010   2,442   3,442
Stone           2,030          425              650   3,105
Timber            1,005           251.          838            2,094
Masonry Supplies *   395   -           1,002   1,397
Metalwork & Cordage   160   -               113       273
Manpower**   -              ..     -          10,892   10,892
Total             3,590         1,676   15,927   21,203
Note: "Masonry Supplies" refers to sand, mortar, and plaster. "Manpower" refers to construction workers, miners, porters, guards, and so forth, to the exclusion of personnel involved in the manufacture or transportation of supplies
As can be seen, then as now, the principal expense in a construction project was manpower rather than materials.
Considering that Richard's normal "annual income" was probably no more than 50,000-75,000, his enormous investment in Chateau Gaillard was not well repaid. Just as he could raise a great castle in quick time by ponying up lots of cash, so too could his enemies. Although virtually impregnable to a traditional siege, Chateau Gaillard could be blockaded and forced to surrender if someone could afford to pay enough troops long enough to starve the garrison.
In September, 1203, an army in the pay of King Philip Augustus II of France sat down outside Chateau Gaillard. They erected siege works, prevented the entry of supplies, and even stormed the outer walls. As a result, at the time of the final French assault on March 6, 1204, the combined effects of combat, hunger, and disease had reduced the defenders to no more than 140 able-bodied men.
Taking Chateau-Gaillard cost Philip Augustus a pretty penny, precisely how much no one knows, but it was probably as much as the place had cost Richard to build. Despite this tremendous outlay, it money well spent, for not only did the castle control traffic on the Seine, it also covered Rouen, the capital of Normandy, then in English hands. Three months after Chateau-Gaillard fell, Rouen was French again, and the rest of Normandy soon followed.

1945         a US Pershing tank dueled with a German Panther in front of Cologne Cathedral

1951 – The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins in New York Southern District federal court. Judge Irving R. Kaufman presides over the espionage prosecution of the couple accused of selling nuclear secrets to the Russians (treason could not be charged because the United States was not at war with the Soviet Union). The Rosenbergs, and co-defendant, Morton Sobell, were defended by the father and son team of Emanuel and Alexander Bloch. The prosecution includes the infamous Roy Cohn, best known for his association with Senator Joseph McCarthy. David Greenglass was a machinist at Los Alamos, where America developed the atomic bomb. Julius Rosenberg, his brother-in-law, was a member of the American Communist Party and was fired from his government job during the Red Scare. According to Greengalass, Rosenberg asked him to pass highly confidential instruction on making atomic weapons to the Soviet Union. These materials were transferred to the Russians by Harry Gold, an acquaintance of Greenglass. The Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb (and effectively started the Cold War) in September 1949 based on information, including that from Greenglass, they had obtained from spies. The only direct evidence of the Rosenberg’s involvement was the confession of Greenglass. The left-wing community believed that the Rosenbergs were prosecuted because of their membership in the Communist Party. Their case became the cause celebre of leftists throughout the nation. The trial lasted nearly a month, finally ending on April 4 with convictions for all the defendants. The Rosenbergs were sentenced to death row on April 6 to death row. Sobell received a thirty-year sentence. Greenglass got fifteen years for his cooperation. Reportedly, the Rosenbergs were offered a deal in which their death sentences would be commuted in return for an admission of their guilt. They refused and were executed.  In the face of criticism over the verdict, the Venona decrypts were made public.

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1604         Duel between master samurai Yoshioka Seijuro and Miyamoto Musashi, who slays his opponent on the first blow

1813 Complaining that the cavalry was not doing well during the retreat from Moscow in 1812, Marshal Murat demanded an explanation from General of Division Etienne-Marie-Antoine Champion de Nansouty, who replied, “. . . the horses possess no patriotism. Our soldiers fight pretty well, even when they are without bread, but the horses will absolutely do nothing unless they get their oats."

1828 Irked at Wellington’s imperious manner, George IV (1820-1830) often referred to him in private conversation as “King Arthur,” a nickname that found some popularity among the Duke’s political opponents.

1862 – Union forces under General Samuel Curtis defeat the army of General Earl Van Dorn at Pea Ridge, located in an extreme northwestern section of Arkansas. Pea Ridge was part of a larger campaign for control of Missouri. Seven months earlier, the Confederates defeated a Union force at Wilson’s Creek, some 70 miles northeast of Pea Ridge. General Henry Halleck, the Federal commander in Missouri, now organized an expedition to drive the Confederates from southwestern Missouri. In February 1862, General Samuel Curtis led the 12,000-man army toward Springfield, Missouri. Confederate General Sterling Price retreated from the city with 8,000 troops in the face of the Union advance. Price withdrew into Arkansas, and Curtis followed him. Price hooked up with another Rebel force led by General Ben McCulloch, and their combined army was placed under the leadership of General Earl Van Dorn, recently appointed commander of Confederates forces in the trans-Mississippi area. Van Dorn joined Price and McCulloch on March 2 and ordered an advance on Curtis’ army. Curtis received word of the approaching Confederates and concentrated his force around Elkhorn Tavern. Van Dorn sent part of his army on a march around the Yankees. On March 7, McCulloch slammed into the rear of the Union force, but Curtis anticipated the move and turned his men towards the attack. McCulloch was killed during the battle, and the Confederate attack withered. Meanwhile, the other part of Van Dorn’s army attacked the front of Curtis’ command. Through bitter fighting the Union troops held their ground. Curtis, suspecting that the Confederates were low on ammunition, attacked the divided Rebel army the following morning. Van Dorn realized he was in danger and ordered a retreat, ending the battle. The Yankees suffered 1,384 men killed, wounded, or captured out of 10,000 engaged; the Confederates suffered a loss of about 2,000 out of 14,000 engaged. The Union won a decisive victory that also helped them clear the upper Mississippi Valley region on the way to securing control of the Mississippi River by mid-1863.

1945 During World War II the LCT (R) or “landing craft, tank (rocket),” often seen in films of amphibious landings, could fire 729 projectiles in a few seconds, which, according to an estimate by the Royal Navy, was the equivalent of 80 cruisers or 200 destroyers firing simultaneously.

1996         Lt Col John "Mad Jack" or "Fighting Jack" Churchill, DSO, MC, who fought WW II with a longbow, claymore, & bagpipes, died at 89

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1449         Guillaume de Flavy, c. 52, French soldier of fortune, who captured Joan of Arc for the English, assassinated

1862 – Engagement lasting four hours took Place between U.S.S. Monitor, Lieutenant Worden, and C.S.S. Virginia, Lieutenant Jones, mostly at close range in Hampton Roads. Although neither side could claim clear victory, this historic first combat between ironclads ushered in a new era of war at sea. The blockade continued intact, but Virginia remained as a powerful defender of the Norfolk area and a barrier to the use of the rivers for the movement of Union forces. Severe damage inflicted on wooden-hulled U.S.S. Minnesota by Virginia during an interlude in the fight with Monitor underscored the plight of a wooden ship confronted by an ironclad. The broad impact of the Monitor-Virginia battle on naval thinking was summarized by Captain Levin M. Powell of U.S.S. Potomac writing later from Vera Cruz: ”The news of the fight between the Monitor and the Merrimack has created the most profound sensation amongst the professional men in the allied fleet here. They recognize the fact, as much by silence as words, that the face of naval warfare looks the other way now and the superb frigates and ships of the line. . . supposed capable a month ago, to destroy anything afloat in half an hour . . . are very much diminished in their proportions, and the confidence once reposed in them fully shaken in the presence of these astounding facts.” And as Captain Dahlgren phrased it: ”Now comes the reign of iron and cased sloops are to take the place of wooden ships.”

1949         Maj. Gen. Walter Short, sometime Commander, Hawaiian Department, who didn't understand the words "war warning", at 68. early 1941 the Commanding General of the Hawaiian Department was Major General Charles D. Herron (1877-1977). Having been in the post since October of 1937, Herron was scheduled to be relieved by Maj. Gen. Walter Short on February 7, 1941. But let's let Maj. Gen. Herron explain what happened, in a deposition he made as part of the Pearl Harbor investigation.
When arrangements had been made for General Short to relieve me as Commanding General, Hawaiian Department . . . I desired to acquaint him as fully as I could with my experience and knowledge of affairs pertaining thereto. Since he was to arrive and I was to depart on the same ship, there was only a limited time in which to do this by personal conferences, namely, two and one-half days. Accordingly, in order that he might be prepared for his conferences with me, I sent to San Francisco for delivery to him there certain papers and material relating to the command, for his preliminary review on the ship's journey of five days. These papers and material comprised in effect an agenda and exhibits. Upon my meeting General Short when he arrived at Hawaii, I asked him whether he had received the data at San Francisco and whether he had read the papers and material. He replied that they had been received by him at San Francisco but that he had not given them much time while en route.
When Herron inquired as to what had prevented Short from reading the "papers and materials" actually several hundred pages of intelligence reports, planning documents, and position papers that had sent for his perusal, Short replied that he had instead read Oliver Wiswell, a popular novel.

2005         Redmond A. Simonsen, innovative wargamer, S&T art director, at 62

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241   BC   BC the Roman fleet defeated the Carthaginians in Naval Battle of the Aegates Island, to win the First Punic War

1849         Lincoln applies for a patent for a technique to lift grounded barges; he remains the only president to hold a patent

1948 – The communist-controlled government of Czechoslovakia reports that Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk has committed suicide are greeted with suspicion by the West. The story of the noncommunist Masaryk’s death was greeted with skepticism in the West. Masaryk was born in 1886, the son of Czechoslovakia’s first president. After World War I, he served as foreign minister in the new Czech government. Later he served as the Czech ambassador to Great Britain. During World War II, he once again took the position of foreign minister, this time with the Czech government-in-exile in London. After the war, Masaryk returned to Czechoslovakia to serve as foreign minister under President Eduard Benes. It was a tense time in Masaryk’s native country. The Soviet Union had occupied the nation during World War II and there were fears that the Soviets would try to install a communist government in Czechoslovakia, as it had in Poland, East Germany, and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Masaryk, however, was skillful in dealing with the Soviets, assuring them that a democratic Czechoslovakia posed no security threat to Russia. In 1947, though, Masaryk made a fatal mistake. When the United States unveiled the Marshall Plan-the multimillion-dollar aid program for postwar Europe-Masaryk indicated Czechoslovakia’s interest in participating. When he informed the Soviets, they absolutely refused to give their approval. This was quickly followed, in February 1948, by a communist coup in Czechoslovakia. President Benes was forced to accept a communist-dominated government. Masaryk was one of the few non-communists left in place. On March 10, 1948, the Czech government reported that Masaryk had committed suicide by jumping out of a third-story window at the Foreign Ministry. The reaction in the West was characterized by deep suspicion. Secretary of State George Marshall stated that Czechoslovakia was under a “reign of terror,” and that Masaryk’s “suicide” indicated “very plainly what is going on.” Despite suspicions that the communists had murdered Masaryk, nothing has been proven definitively and his death remains one of the great mysteries of the Cold War era.
Defenestration remains a viable tactic in Eastern Europe.

[Martok]

Defenestration

I was going to say it if you weren't.   

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1302         Fr. Laurence marries Romeo & Juliet

1811 – Ned Ludd led a group of workers in a wild protest against mechanization. Members of the organized bands of craftsmen who rioted against automation in 19th century England were known as Luddites and also “Ludds.” The movement, reputedly named after Ned Ludd, began near Nottingham as craftsman destroyed textile machinery that was eliminating their jobs. By the following year, Luddites were active in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire and Leicestershire. Although the Luddites opposed violence towards people (a position which allowed for a modicum of public support), government crackdowns included mass shootings, hangings and deportation to the colonies. It took 14,000 British soldiers to quell the rebellion. The movement effectively died in 1813 apart from a brief resurgence of Luddite sentiment in 1816 following the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

1917         the British captured Baghdad from the Ottomans -During the opening stages of the British campaign against the Turks in what is now Iraq,  during World War I, Arab irregulars were quite active in harassing the invaders, especially at night.
It was not uncommon for raiders to sneak into camps, evading sentries and making their way among sleeping soldiers, to steal whatever they could find, such as boots, rifles, and blankets, and then getting away, usually without waking anyone.  One night in January of 1915, a raider managed to make off with a yellow flag from the camp of the 2nd Battalion, the Norfolk Regiment, shortly after which a Turkish spokesman reported the capture of “an enemy flag.”
Since flags have historically been among the most treasured of war trophies, the raider was probably well-rewarded for his efforts.  Naturally, other Arabs sought to emulate his achievement.  Soon thefts of the yellow flags became rather common.  To stop them, the British set booby-traps, and several raiders were killed trying to make off with the flags.
At the time of the first theft, Captain Alfred J. Shakeshaft of the Norfolks wrote in his diary, “We wondered if this would be hung up in the military museum at Constantinople.”  One wonders even now, particularly since yellow flags were the British Army’s standard markers for latrines.

1958 – A B-47 bomber accidentally drops a nuclear weapon over Mars Bluff, South Carolina. The conventional explosive trigger detonates, leaving a crater 75 feet wide and 35 feet deep.

[besilarius]

551   BC   Completion of the Temple of Jerusalem after the Babylonian Captivity

1755 – The 1st steam engine in America was installed to pump water from a mine.

1942 – In a Motor Patrol (PT) boat, Lt. Cmdr. John Bulkeley leaves the Philippines to take Gen. Douglas MacArthur to Australia.

1947. President Harry S. Truman, in an address to a joint session of Congress requesting financial aid be provided for the governments of Turkey and Greece to thwart Communist incursions, outlines what becomes known as the Truman Doctrine, calling for America to support all free people resisting outside forces attempting to subjugate them. Combined with the publication of the famous “X article” by foreign service officer George F. Kennan in the July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs, which calls for a policy of containment against inevitable Soviet expansion, the Truman Doctrine forms a basis for U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War.