The Hanscom Family Weblog

On this day…

1521 French king François I declares war on Spain
1529 Treaty of Saragosa Spain & Portugal divide eastern hemisphere
1648 English army claims king Charles I responsible for bloodshed
1674 Netherlands & Münster sign peace treaty
1676 Battle of Etna - Netherlands/Spain vs France, M de Ruyter fatally wounded
1677 Battle at Catania between French & Dutch fleet
1796 Napoleon defeats Piedmontese at Battle of Mondovi
1809 Battle at Eckmühl - Napoleon beats Austria arch duke Karl
1861 Robert E Lee named commander of Virginia Confederate forces
1893 Francis Dhanis army occupies Kasongo
1898 1st Spanish-American War action USS Nashville, takes enemy ship
1898 Congress passes Volunteer Army Act calling for a Volunteer Cavalry
1898 US President William McKinley orders blockade of Cuban harbors
1913 Montenegro troops march into Skoetari, North-Albania
1915: During World War I, German forces introduced the systematized use of chemical warfare when they released chlorine gas along a 4-mile (6-km) front at the Second Battle of Ypres.
1916 France battles at Fort Douaumont
1926 Persia, Turkey & Afghánistán sign treaties of security
1930 US, Britain & Japan sign London Naval Treaty to reduce naval forces
1931 Egypt & Iraq sign peace treaty
1940 Rear Admiral Joseph Taussig testifies before US Senate Naval Affairs Committee that war with Japan is inevitable (He was right)
1943 German counter attack in North-Tunisia
1943 RAF shoots down 14 German transport planes over Mediterranean Sea
1944 Allies land near Hollandia, New-Guinea
1944 Hitler & Mussolini meet at Salzburg
1945 Concentration Camp at Sachsenhausen liberated
1952 1st atomic explosion on network news, Nob NV
1954 Senate Army-McCarthy televised hearings began
1954 USSR joins UNESCO
1961 Uprising of French parachutist of General Salan/Challe in Algeria
1966 USSR performs underground nuclear test
1967 Martial Law goes into effect in Greece
1981 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1983 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1986 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1987 Sri Lanka Air Force bomb Tamil, 100s killed

On this day…

1420 Treaty of Saint Maartens Dike
1453 Turkish fleet sinks ships Golden Receiver in Constantinople
1477 Maximilian of Habsburg marries Maria of Bourgondië at proxy
1521 Battle at Villalar Emperor Charles I beats Communards
1526 Battle at Panipat Mogol Emperor Babur beats sultan Ibrahim Lodi
1572 France & England sign anti-Spanish military covenant
1526: Babur, the ruler of Kabul, led Mughal forces in victory against Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, establishing the Mughal dynasty in India.
1739 Spain & Naples-Austria sign peace accord
1794 NYC formally declares coast of Ellis Island publically owned, so they can build forts to protect NYC from British
1800: French forces under General Jean-Baptiste Kléber recaptured Cairo and initiated the brief French occupation of Egypt.
1836: General Sam Houston led 800 Texans to victory over a Mexican army of 1,500 under General Antonio López de Santa Anna in the Battle of San Jacinto, ensuring the Texans’ independence from Mexico.
1863 Declaration of Bahá’u’lláh; Bahá’í Feast of Ridván (Jalâl 13, 20)
1898 Spanish-American War begins
1914 US marines occupy Vera Cruz México, stay 6 months
1918: Manfred, Freiherr (baron) von Richthofen, Germany’s top flying ace in World War I, was shot down and killed during a battle near Amiens, France.
1941 Greece surrenders to Nazi-Germany
1945 Allied troops occupy German nuclear laboratory
1945 Russian army arrives at outskirts of Berlin
1945 US 7th Army occupies Neurenberg
1954 USAF flies French battalion to Vietnam
1961 French army revolts in Algeria
1961 USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to an altitude of 32,000 meters
1967 Military coup in Greece, Konstantinos Kollias becomes premier
1975 Last South Vietnam President Nguyen Van Thieu resigns after 10 years
1976 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1985 Bomb attack in NATO/AEG-Telefunken building in Brussels
1989 Thousands of Chinese crowd into Beijing’s Tiananmen Square cheering students demanding greater political freedom
1994 Serbian army bombs distress clinic in Goradze Bosnia, 28 killed

Adolf Hitler reviewing troops on the Eastern Front, 1939.
Heinrich Hoffmann, Munich

1505 Jews are expelled from Orange Burgundy by Philibert of Luxembourg
1657 Battle in Santa Cruz Bay, Tenerife English fleet under Robert Blake sinks Spanish silver fleet
1775 British begin siege of Boston
1792 France declares war on Austria, Prussia & Sardinia
1799 Napoleon issues a decree calling for establishing Jerusalem for Jews
1809 Napoleon I defeats Austria at Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria
1861 Battle of Norfolk VA
1861 Colonel Robert E Lee resigns from Union army
1871 3rd Enforcement Act (President can suspend writ of habeas corpus)
1914 33 killed by soldiers during mine strike in Ludlow CO
1916 German-British sea battle off Belgian coast
1919 Polish Army captures Vilno, Lithuania from Soviet Army. In an ongoing dispute over the possession of Vilnius, Polish forces drove out Russia’s Red Army—which had previously ousted the newly established Lithuanian government—and occupied the city.1934 Heinrich Himmler becomes inspector Prussian secret state police
1936 Jews repel an Arab attack in Petach Tikvah Palestine
1941 100 German bombers attack Athens
1942 German occupiers forbid Dutch access to their beach
1942 Heavy German assault on Malta
1944 Dutch Communist Party-resistance fighter John Postma sentence to death
1945 Soviet troops enter Berlin
1945 US 7th Army & allies forces capture Nuremberg & Stuttgart in Germany
1945 German occupiers flood Beemster & Fencer
1945 US forces conquer Motobu peninsula on Okinawa
1951 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak Atoll
1962 NASA civilian pilot Neil A Armstrong takes X-15 to an altitude of 63,250 meters
1965 People’s Republic China offers North Vietnam military aid
1967 US planes bomb Haiphong for 1st time during the Vietnam War
1967 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1984 Russian offensive in Panshirvallei Afghánistán
1986 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1987 US deports Karl Linnas, charged with nazi war crimes, to USSR
1994 Serbian army bombs hospital in Goradze Bosnia, 47 killed

On this day…

1552 Mauritius of Saksen captures Karel
1587 Sir Frances Drake sails into Cadiz Spain & sinks Spanish fleet
1591 Chartres surrenders to king Henri IV in France
1775 Minutemen Captain John Parker orders not to fire unless fired upon
1775: American Revolution begun. Launched this day in 1775 with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the American Revolution was an effort by 13 British colonies in North America (with help from France, Spain, and the Netherlands) to win their independence. Revolution begins-Lexington Common, shot “heard round the world”
1782 Netherlands recognizes US
1839 Treaty of London constitutes Belgium an independent kingdom and Luxembourg a Grand Duchy
1861 Baltimore riots - 4 soldiers, 9 civilians killed
1861 Lincoln orders blockade of Confederate ports (Civil War)
1863 Union troops/fleet occupy Fort Huger VA
1864 Naval Engagement at Cherbourg, FR USS Kearsage vs CSS Alabama
1874 Barracks on Alcatraz Island destroyed in fire
1896 Herzl’s “The Jewish State” is published
1906 Belgian naval education ship Comte The Stain de Naeyer sets sail
1916 Italians troops conquer Colonel di Lana at Merano
1923 New Egyptian law allows suffrage for men, except soldiers
1928 Japanese troops occupies Sjantung-schiereiland
1936 Anti-Jewish riots break out in Palestine
1940 Dutch prime minister De Geer declares state of siege
1941 Bulgarian troops invade Macedonia
1941 Milk rationed in Holland
1943: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, an act of resistance by Polish Jews under Nazi occupation, began this day and was quelled four weeks later, on May 16.
1944 Allied fleet attack Sabang Sumatra
1945 US aircraft carrier Franklin is heavily damaged in Japanese air raid
1948 Chiang Kai-shek elected President of Nationalist China
1951 General Douglas MacArthur ends his military career
1962 NASA civilian pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 to an altitude of 6,900 meter
1972 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1973 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1983 France performs nuclear test
1985 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1987 USSR performs underground nuclear test
1989 Gun turret explodes on USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors

On this day…

1552 Mauritius of Saksen occupies Linz
1663 Osman declares war on Austria
1666 Peace of Kleef Netherlands & bishop Von Galen of Münster
1676 Sudbury MA attacked by Indians
1775: The midnight ride of Paul Revere. Paul Revere, a renowned silversmith, is better remembered as a folk hero of the American Revolution who this night in 1775 made a dramatic ride on horseback to warn Boston-area residents of an imminent British attack. Paul Revere & William Dawes warn “the British are coming!”
1861 Colonel Robert E Lee turns down offer to command Union armies
1861 Battle of Harpers Ferry WV
1862 Battles of Fort Jackson, Fort St Philip & New Orleans LA
1864 Battle of Poison Springs AR (Camden Expedition)
1865 Confederate General Johnson surrendered to General Sherman in North Carolina
1945: During the U.S. invasion of the Japanese island of Okinawa in World War II, American war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed on nearby Ie Island by Japanese gunfire.
1980: Zimbabwe achieved its independence from the United Kingdom.
2002: After 29 years in exile, the former king of Afghanistan, Mohammad Zahir Shah, returned to the capital city of Kabul in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of the country and toppling of the Taliban government.

On this day…

1194: Richard I (the Lion-Heart) was crowned king of England for the second time, after earlier surrendering his kingdom to the Holy Roman emperor Henry VI.
1555 Siena surrenders for Spanish troops
1596 Arch duke Albrecht of Austria occupies Calais
1747 French troops occupy Zeeuws-Flanders, Netherlands
1793 Battle of Warsaw
1808 Bayonne Decree by Napoleon I of France orders seizure of US ships
1853 US Marine Hospital at Presidio (San Francisco) established
1861 Virginia become 8th state to secede
1861 Indianola TX-“Star of West” taken by Confederacy
1863 Grierson’s Raid La Grange TN to Baton Rouge LA
1864 Battle of Plymouth NC
1864 Bread revolt in Savannah GA
1864 Grant suspends prisoner-of-war exchanges
1895: The Treaty of Shimonoseki concluded the first Sino-Japanese War, which ended in China’s defeat.
1900 7 high chiefs of American Samoa sign Instrument of Cession
1939 Stalin signs British-France-Russian anti-nazi pact
1941 Office of Price Administration established (to handle rationing)
1941 British troop land in Iraq/Yugoslavia; surrender to Nazi’s
1942 12 Lancasters bombs MAN-factory in Augsburg
1942 Operations begin to destroy Sobibor Concentration Camp
1943 Admiral Yamamoto flies from Truk to Rabaul
1943 SS-Lieutenant-General Jürgen Stoop arrives in Warsaw
1945 8th Air Force bombs Dresden
1945 German occupiers flood Wieringermeer Netherlands
1945 Mussolini flees from Salò to Milan
1945 US troops lands in Mindanao
1946 Last French troops leave Syria (National Day)
1946 Syria declares independence from French administration
1961: Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s forces repelled the Bay of Pigs invasion, which was led by recent Cuban exiles and financed by the U.S. government during the Cold War.
1974 Moslem fundamentalists assault military academy in Heliopolis Egypt
1975: Cambodia’s ruling Lon Nol government collapsed, and the communist forces of the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, entered Phnom Penh and forcibly dispersed its citizenry into rural areas.
1982 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1987 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR

On this day…

1509 French army under Louis XII enters Alps
1632 Albrecht von Wallenstein appointed supreme commander
1746: An English army defeated a Scottish force under Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) at the Battle of Culloden, ending the Jacobite effort to restore the Stuarts to England’s throne.
1777 Battle of Bennington-New England’s Green Mountain Boys rout British
1838: French forces occupied the Mexican city of Veracruz during the Pastry War.
1861 US President Abraham Lincoln outlaws business with confederate states
1862 Confederate President Jefferson Davis approves conscription act for white males between 18-35
1862 Slavery abolished in District of Columbia
1865 Battle of Columbus & West Point GA (Fort Tyler)
1871 German Empire ends all anti-Jewish civil restrictions
1917 Lenin returns to Russia to start Bolshevik Revolution
1922 German-Russia treaty signed in Italy, Soviet Union recognized
1938 Great-Britain recognizes Italian annexation of Abyssinia
1939 Stalin requests British, French & Russian anti-nazi pact
1942 Japanese occupying army on Java installs film censorship
1943 40 New Zealand bombers attack Haarlem Netherlands (85 killed)
1945 German troops in Groningen surrender
1945 Red Army begins Battle of Berlin
1945 US troops land on He Shima Okinawa
1951 British submarine Affray sank in English Channel, killing 75
1957 USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test
1965 Test flight of heavy Saturn S-1C-rocket
1974 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1975 Cambodian Red Khmer occupy Phnom Penh
1979 Failed Palestinian attack on Zaventem Airport in Belgium
1980 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

On this day…

0069 Battle at Bedriacum, North-Italy
1205 Battle at Adrianople Bulgaria beats Emperor Boudouin of Constantinople
1858 Battle of Azimghur, Mexicans defeat Spanish loyalists
1861 Federal army (75,000 volunteers) mobilized by President Abraham Lincoln
1864 General Steeles’ Union troops occupies Camden AR
1927 Switzerland & USSR agree to diplomatic relations
1940 British troops land at Narvik Norway
1941 1st helicopter flight of 1 hour duration, Stratford CT
1942 George VI awards the George Cross to the people of Malta
1945 British & Canadian troops liberate Nazi camp of Bergen-Belsen
1945 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Communium interpretes dolorum
1945 US troops occupy concentration camp Colditz
1947 Operations begin at Radio Netherlands World radio
1948 1st Jewish-Arab military battle, Arabs defeated
1952 1st B-52 prototype test flight
1952 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1955 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1969 North Korea shoots at US airplane above Japanese sea
1974 Military coup in Niger, President Diori Hamani deposed
1984 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1986 US air raids Libya, responding to La Belle disco, Berlin bombing
2003: U.S. President George W. Bush declared that the government of Saddam Hussein in Iraq had fallen as a result of the Iraq War and the following day asked the United Nations to lift sanctions against Iraq.

On this day…

0754 Pact of Quierzy between Pope Stephen II, [III] & Pippin the Korte
1471: The deposed and exiled king of England, Edward IV, defeated King Henry VI’s forces at the Battle of Barnet, near London, enabling him to retake the throne. Battle of Barnet-King Edward IV vs Earl of Warwick
1544 Battle at Carignano French troops under Earl d’Enghien beat Swiss
1574 Battle of Mookerhei-D’Avila beats Louis of Nassau
1629 England & France sign Peace of Susa
1671 Cosaks capture Russian boer leader Stenka Razin
1792 France declares war on Austria, starting French Revolutionary Wars
1799 Napoleon called for establishing Jerusalem for Jews
1809 Napoleon defeated Austria in the Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria
1814 Napoleon abdicated & was banished to Elba
1818 US Medical Corp forms
1847 Persia & Osmaanse sign 2nd Treaty of Erzurum
1853 Harriet Tubman began her Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape
1861 Formal Union surrender of Fort Sumter
1861 Robert E Lee resigns from Union army
1862 Battle of Fort Pillow TN
1865 President Abraham Lincoln shot in Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth
1900 Veteran’s Hospital at Fort Miley is established
1915 Dutch merchant navy ship Katwijk sunk by Germany torpedo
1922 Republic rebels occupies 4 government courts in Dublin
1940 Allied troops land in Norway
1941 1st massive German raid in Paris France, 3,600 Jews rounded up
1943 Generals Alexander/Eisenhower/Anderson/Bradley discuss assault on Tunis
1944 1st Jews transported from Athens arrive at Auschwitz
1944 General Eisenhower becomes head commander of allied air fleet
1945 Arnhem/Zwolle freed from Nazis
1945 US forces conquer Motobu peninsula on Okinawa
1945 US marines attack Yae Take on Okinawa
1948 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
1949 International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg’s last judgment
1953 Viet-Minh offensive in Laos
1960 1st underwater launching of Polaris missile
1961 Cuban-American invasion army departs Nicaragua
1965 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1967 In the Vietnam War, US planes bomb Haiphong for 1st time
1971 Fort Point, San Francisco dedicated as a national historic site
1978 Korean Air Lines Boeing 707, fired on by Soviets, crashes in Russia
1986: A force of U.S. warplanes based in Britain bombed several sites in Libya, killing or wounding several of Muammar al-Qaddafi’s children and narrowly missing Qaddafi himself.
1988 USSR, US, Pakistan & Afghánistán sign Afghánistán treaty
1989 In the Iran-Contra trial, Oliver North’s case goes to the jury
1992 UN-imposed embargo against Libya takes effect
1994 US F-15 accidentally shoots 2 US helicopters down over Iraq, 26 die

0989 Battle at Abydos Byzantine emperor Basilius II beats Bardas Phocas
1204 Crusaders occupy Constantinople
1241 Battle at Theiss Mongols beat Hungarian King Béla IV
1367 Battle at Nájera Spain Castilië & England beat Aragón & France
1517 Osmaanse army occupies Cairo
1741 Royal Military Academy forms at Woolwich
1759 French beat European Allies in Battle of Bergen
1796 Battle at Millesimo Italy Napoleon beats Austrians
1861 After 34 hours of bombardment, Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederates
1863 Battle of Irish Bend LA (Fort Bisland)
1865 Battle of Raleigh NC
1882 Anti-Semitic League forms in Prussia
1895: Alfred Dreyfus imprisoned on Devils Island. Accused of selling military secrets to Germany and convicted in an irregular trial against a backdrop of anti-Semitism, French officer Alfred Dreyfus was imprisoned this day in 1895 on Devils Island, off French Guiana.
1904 Battle at Oviumbo Africa Herero’s chase away German army
1906 Mutiny on Portuguese battleships Dom Carlos & Vasco da Gama
1912 Royal Flying Corps forms (later RAF)
1919 Amritsar Massacre - British Army fires on hundreds of Indian Nationalist rioters in India
1940 2nd battle of Narvik-8 German destroyers, destroyed
1941 Heavy German assault on Tobruk
1941: Japan concluded a neutrality pact with the Soviet Union in World War II. Russian-Japan no-attack treaty goes into effect
1943 Nazi’s discover mass grave of Polish officers near Katyn
1944 Transport nr 71 departs with French Jews to Nazi-Germany
1945 Allies occupy Wien (Vienna)
1945 Canadian army liberates Teuge & Assen Netherlands from Nazi’s
1945 US marines conquer Minna Shima off Okinawa
1959 USAF launches Discoverer II into polar orbit
1960 France becomes the 4th nuclear nation exploding an A-Bomb in Sahara
1960 Transit 1B, 1st navigational satellite, placed in Earth orbit
1975 Chad military coup by General Odingar
1975 Christian Falange kills 27 Palestinians, begins Lebanese civil war
1979 Christian Turks occupy St Jansbasiliek
1983 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1985 Atlantis ferried to Kennedy Space Center via Ellington AFB, Texas
2002: The military coup that a day before had installed businessman Pedro Carmona Estanga as interim president of Venezuela collapsed this day, and the following morning Hugo Chávez was restored to the presidency.