June 16th

1940: In the West, German forces, supported by heavy artillery and Stuka dive bombers, continue their assault on the Maginot Line on a broad front. Units of IXX.Panzerkorps (Guderian) reach Besancon on the Swiss border. The French government of Paul Reynaud resigns and is replaced by one led by Marshal Petain. 57,000 British troops are evacuated from Nantes and St. Nazaire. U-101 (Kptlt. Frauenheim) sinks the British merchant ship Wellington Star in the Bay of Biscay. In the Baltic, the Red Army occupies Latvia and Estonia. Tens of thousands of "hostile' natives and their families are rounded up and deported separated from one another to NKVD prison camps in the Soviet Union.
1941: The US State Department orders the closing by July 10 of all German consular offices and tourist agencies in the United States.
1942: The British light cruiser Hermione is sunk by U-205 (Kptlt. Reschke) South of Crete in the Mediterranean.
1944: Another 244 V-1s are launched against London. In Italy, the British Eighth Army (Alexander) approaches Perugia.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1942: HMAS Nestor sunk - The HMAS Nestor was in the Mediterranean, north of Tobruk, when she was bombed and sunk.
1948: Malayan Emergency declared - Lasting 13 years, involvement in the Malayan Emergency was the longest continuing military commitment in Australia's history. Fifty-one Australian servicemen died in Malaya (although only 15 of these deaths occurred as a result of operations) and 27 were wounded, the majority of whom were in the army.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1487 - Battle of Stoke Field, the last dying breath of the Wars of the Roses.
1745 - British troops take Cape Breton Island, which is now part of Nova Scotia, Canada.
1745 - Sir William Pepperell captures the FrenchFortress Louisbourg in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia during the War of the Austrian Succession.
1746 - War of Austrian Succession: Austria and Sardinia defeat a Franco-Spanish army at the Battle of Piacenza.
1755 - French and Indian War: French surrender Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians.
1779 - Spain declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the siege of Gibraltar begins.
1815 - Battle of Ligny and Battle of Quatre Bras, two days before Waterloo.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June 16

1862: Battle of Secessionville - A Union attempt to capture Charleston, South Carolina, is thwarted when the Confederates turn back an attack at Secessionville, just south of the city on James Island. In November 1861, Union ships captured Port Royal, which lay about halfway between Charleston and Savannah. This gave the Federals an important base from which to mount operations along the southern coast.
1918: Battle of the Piave River rages on the Italian front, marking the last major attack by the Austro-Hungarian army in Italy of World War I.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?

1940: The British submarine Grampus is sunk by four Italian torpedo boats off Syracuse, Sicily. U-101 sinks the British merchant ship Wellington Star in the Bay of Biscay. The Red Army occupies Latvia. Tens of thousands of "hostile' natives and their families are rounded up and deported to NKVD prison camps around the Soviet Union. Estonia is also occupied by the Soviet Union. French front cracking as the Germans break through in Champagne to Dijon, with units of 19th Panzer Korps reaching Besancon on the Swiss border. German forces, supported by heavy artillery and Stuka dive bombers, continue their assault against the Maginot Line on a broad front. The French government of Paul Reynaud resigns and is replaced by one led by Marshal Petain who immediately appoints Weygand as Minister of National Defence. 57,000 British troops are evacuated from Nantes and St. Nazaire.
1941: The British attempt to continue their offensive to relieve Australian held Tobruk, but suffer heavy tank losses to German 88mm Flak guns.
1942: Lieutenant General Ritchie gives General Norrie permission to withdraw XXX Corps past Tobruk and as far as Mersa Matruh to re-equip. General Gott's XIII is ordered to take up defensive positions on the Egyptian frontier. This left the city exposed to another siege, for which its defenses were inadequate, having been allowed to deteriorate during the winter.
1943: 93 out of 94 Japanese planes are destroyed during a massive attack on allied shipping round Guadalcanal.
1944: U.S. Marines repulse the Japanese counter-attacks on Saipan. The real flying bomb offensive on Britain begins as 95 V1's cross the coast before 6am and a total of 244 reaching England that day. The German press calls it the ‘beginning of the day of vengeance’. The Eighth Army captures Foligno and Spoleto, east of Orvieto and approach Perugia.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

June 17th

1940: In the West, German troops cross the Loire near Orleans. The French premier, Marshal Petain, requests Germany's and Italy's terms for an armistice.
1942: Leaving behind a garrison of some 30,000 troops, the British Eighth Army withdraws from Tobruk.
1943: The British battleships Valiant and Warspite are transferred from Scapa Flow to Oran and Alexandria in North Africa in preparation for Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily.
1944: German troops evacuate the island of Elba off the west coast of Italy.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1945: Australians land at Weston, North Borneo - The Australian landings on Borneo were aimed at denying the Japanese oil and establishing bases for naval operations. The value of these operations has been subject to continuing debate.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1755: Saint John New Brunswick - Robert Monckton 1726-1782 takes Fort Gaspereau without firing a shot; French abandon garrison at mouth of Saint John River; last French forts in Acadia gone.
1776: Quebec - End of the American invasion of Quebec as the last troops of the Army of the Continental Congress start leaving the province.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Jun&day=17

1833 - USS Delaware enters drydock at Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, VA, the first warship to enter a public drydock in the United States
1870 - USS Mohican burns Mexican pirate ship Forward
1898 - Navy Hospital Corps established
1940 - Chief of Naval Operations asks Congress for money to build two-ocean Navy
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

1775: The British take Bunker Hill outside of Boston, after a costly battle.
1913: U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American interests in Mexico.
1944: French troops land on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
1965: 27 B-52s hit Viet Cong outposts, but lose two planes in South Vietnam.
source: http://www.historynet.com/today_in_h...Day=17&tdih=GO

1863 - Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War.
1876: Battle of the Rosebud - 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.
1877: Battle of White Bird Canyon - the Nez Perce defeat the US Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory.
1940 - World War II: the British Army's 11th Hussars assault and take Fort Capuzzo in Libya, Africa from Italian forces.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_17

June 18th

1940: In the West, German troops capture Le Mans and Cherbourg; the garrisons of Belfort, Metz and Dijon surrender. General de Gaulle forms the French National Committee at London and vows to continue the war on the side of Britain.
1941: Germany and Turkey sign a ten-year nonaggression pact. Free French troops occupy Damascus in Syria.
1942: In the East, infantry units of 11. Armee (von Manstein) break into the outer defenses of the fortress of Sevastopol in the Crimea. In Libya, the British Eighth Army evacuates Sidi Rezegh and El Adem.
1944: In Normandy, the US First Army (Bradley) cuts off and isolates the German forces defending Cherbourg. In Italy, the US Fifth Army (Clark) captures Prugia.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1943: Australian government announces that Australia is no longer threatened with invasion By 1943 it was clear that the Japanese no longer had the capacity to threaten Australia with invasion, though it seems that such an invasion was never planned by the Japanese.
1953: Australian prisoners of war of the Korean War released at Panmunjon. Twenty-nine Australians were taken prisoner in Korea. One prisoner died while in captivity.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1429 - French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc crush the main English army under SirJohn Fastolf at the Battle of Patay. This turns the tide of the Hundred Years' War.
1778 - American Revolutionary War: British troops abandon Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1812 - War of 1812: The U.S. Congress declares war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1815 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Waterloo leads to Napoleon Bonaparte abdicating the throne of France for a second and final time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_18

1940: England - RAF's 242 'Canadian' Squadron withdraws from France.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jun&day=18

1815: At the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon is defeated by an international army under the Duke of Wellington.
1918: Allied forces on the Western Front begin their largest counter-attack yet against the German army.
1944: The U.S. First Army breaks through the German lines on the Cotentin Peninsula and cuts off the German-held port of Cherbourg.
1945: Organized Japanese resistance ends on the island of Mindanao.
1951: General Vo Nguyen Giap ends his Red River Campaign against the French in Indochina.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0618.htm

June 19th

1940: German troops capture Brest, Toul and Strassburg.
1943: The RAF carries out a raid on the Schneider armaments works at Le Creusot.
1944: A violent storm in the English Channel wrecks the Allied artificial 'Mulberry' harbors at Omaha Beach and Arromanches.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1952:Jamestown Line, Korea - The 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, relieved the 1st Battalion, the Leicestershire Regiment on the Jamestown line, Korea.
19 June - 6 July 1941:Lieutenant A.R. Cutler, VC - Lieutenant A.R. Cutler, 2/5th Field Regiment, 7th Division, originally of Manly, New South Wales, wins the Victoria Cross for a series of actions at Merdjayoun and in the Damour area, Lebanon.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1179 - The NorwegianBattle of Kalvskinnet outside Nidaros. EarlErling Skakke is killed, and the battle changes the tide of the civil wars.
1306 - The Earl of Pembroke's defeat Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven.
1807 - AdmiralDmitry Senyavin destroys the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Athos.
1816 - Battle of Seven Oaks between Northwest Company and Hudson Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
1821 - Decisive defeat of the Philikí Etaireía by the Ottomans at Drăgăşani (in Wallachia).
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_19

1864: CSS ALABAMA SUNK OFF FRANCE - Off the coast of Cherbourg, France, the Confederate raider CSS Alabama loses a ship-to-ship duel with the USS Kearsarge and sinks to the floor of the Atlantic, ending an illustrious career that saw some 68 Union merchant vessels destroyed or captured by the Confederate raider.
1944: United States scores major victory against Japanese in Battle of the Philippine Sea - in what would become known as the "Marianas Turkey Shoot," U.S. carrier-based fighters decimate the Japanese Fleet with only a minimum of losses in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The security of the Marianas Islands, in the western Pacific, were vital to Japan, which had air bases on Saipan, Tinian, and Guam. U.S. troops were already battling the Japanese on Saipan, having landed there on the 15th. Any further intrusion would leave the Philippine Islands, and Japan itself, vulnerable to U.S. attack. The U.S. Fifth Fleet, commanded by Admiral Raymond Spruance, was on its way west from the Marshall Islands as backup for the invasion of Saipan and the rest of the Marianas. But Japanese Admiral Ozawa Jisaburo decided to challenge the American fleet, ordering 430 of his planes, launched from aircraft carriers, to attack. In what became the greatest carrier battle of the war, the United States, having already picked up the Japanese craft on radar, proceeded to shoot down more than 300 aircraft and sink two Japanese aircraft carriers, losing only 29 of their own planes in the process. It was a described in the aftermath as a "turkey shoot."
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp

1940: More than 100 German bombers make raids over Britain. The Germans invite the French to send a representative to discuss armistice terms as their troops reach River Loire, advance on Lyons, capture Strasbourg, Brest and Tours. Rommel takes Cherbourg.
1941: The Russians order a black-out of all major cities and towns near the border. However, they still do not allow their troops to take up battle positions, in spite of information given by two German deserters of an imminent attack.
1942: Rommel launches a surprise attack from the southeast against Tobruk. This throw's the garrison into confusion which allows German troops to breach the outer defenses. Plans for the offensive in to the Caucasus are captured by the Russians when a staff officer from the 23rd Panzer Division is shot down. Against all order, he was carrying the plans on his person. 40th Panzer Corps commander, General Stumme and his chief of staff are immediately sacked and imprisoned on Hitlers express orders. No changes were made to the plan as although the Russians considered them authentic, they believed that it was only a subsidiary thrust and that the main objective was still Moscow, which suited the Germans.
1943: RAF carries out a raid on the Schneider armaments works at Le Creusot.
1944: The Air Ministry release the first official details of the V1's (range 150 miles, speed 300-350 mph, 2,000lb bomb) as AA gunners start calling them ‘Doodlebugs’. 20 allied divisions now oppose 16 German in Normandy.
1945: The Australians are now in control of both sides of the Brunei Bay entrance.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1917: France - Arthur William Currie succeeds Englishman Julian Byng as commander of the Canadian Corps.
1918: France - Canadian air ace Billy Bishop shoots down five German planes in his last dogfight, bringing his total enemy kills to 72.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jun&day=19

1778: General George Washington’s troops finally leave Valley Forge after a winter of training.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0619.htm

June 20th

1940: German troops capture Lyons. The German heavy cruiser Gneisenau is damaged by a torpedo from the British submarine Clyde.
1941: President Roosevelt, in a message to Congress, denounces the sinking of the American merchant ship Robin Moor by U-69 (Kptlt. Metzler) as 'an act of piracy'.
1944: In the East, the Red Army captures Viipuri on the Soviet-Finnish border.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1864: Australians in action at Te Ranga, New Zealand - More than 2,500 men from the Australian colonies crossed the Tasman to fight in the New Zealand Wars. Most joined the Waikato militia regiments and became involved in patrolling and garrison duties.
1943: Darwin bombed - Darwin was bombed by Japanese aircraft 64 times during the Second World War.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

451 - According to some sources, this was the date of the Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' victory over Attila the Hun.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_20

1402: Battle of Angora (Ankara)-Tatars defeat Turkish Army
1779:Battle of Stone Ferry
source: http://academiccalendar.info/june/20.html

1964: Westmoreland becomes Commander of MACV - Gen. William Westmoreland succeeds Gen. Paul Harkins as head of U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV). Westmoreland had previously been Harkins' deputy. Westmoreland's initial task was to provide military advice and assistance to the government of South Vietnam. However, he soon found himself in command of American armed forces in combat as the war rapidly escalated and U.S. combat forces were committed to the war.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp

1940: The RAF bomb Rouen airfield. German troops capture Lyons and the vital port of Brest in Brittany. French envoys drive behind German lines to receive armistice terms. Italian forces begins an offensive along the Riviera coast into France.
1942: Fort Lenin in Sevastopol falls to the Germans.
1943: The British announce a five-day U-boat attack on the Atlantic convoys and claim that 97% of ships survived. The RAF institutes ‘shuttle bombing’ runs, with planes leaving England, bombing Germany, reloading in North Africa, bombing Italy and the returning to England begin, with 60 RAF bombers attacking the radar works at Friedrichshafen.
1944: The Japanese retreat from Imphal in Manipur towards the Burmese frontier. Eighth Army take Perugia as its advance North continues. U.S. troops attack the outer defenses of Cherbourg.
1945: Australians troops land at Lutong on Sarawak and gain 25 miles to the Seria oilfields.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1898: On the way to the Philippines to fight the Spanish, the U.S. Navy seizes the island of Guam.
1941: The U.S. Army Air Force is established, replacing the Army Air Corps.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0620.htm

1813 - Fifteen U.S. gunboats engage 3 British ships in Hampton Roads, VA
1815 - Trials of Fulton I, built by Robert Fulton, are completed in New York. This ship would become the Navy's first steam-driven warship.
1898 - U.S. forces occupied Guam, which became first colony of U.S. in the Pacific.
1913 - First fatal accident in Naval Aviation, ENS W. D. Billingsley killed at Annapolis, MD
1934 - Commander in Chief, Asiatic Fleet Admiral Frank Upham reports to CNO that based on analyses of Japanese radio traffic, "any attack by (Japan) would be made without previous declaration of war or intentional warning."
1944 - Battle of Philippine Sea ends with Japanese losing 2 aircraft carriers and hundreds of aircraft.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

June 21st

1940: Franco-German armistice negotiations begin at Compiegne in the same railroad car of Marshal Foch where the German delegates received the Allied armistice terms in November, 1918. Hitler issues a proclamation announcing the end of the war in the West, and orders flags to be flown throughout Germany for ten days.
1941: General Auchinleck replaces General Wavell as C-in-C of the British Eighth Army in Libya.
1942: The Afrikakorps captures Tobruk, taking 33,000 British prisoners. In the East, German infantry and combat engineers of 11. Armee (von Manstein) are gaining ground in their assault on Sevastopol. The Luftwaffe carries out a night raid on Southampton.
1943: The RAF launches a heavy raid on Krefeld in the Ruhr (44 aircraft lost).
1944: The US 8th Air Force carries out raids on Berlin and the synthetic fuel plants at Leuna-Merseburg.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1941: Damascus occupied - Damascus was a secondary objective for the Allies during the five-week Syrian campaign, in which the capture of coastal towns of Damour and Beirut and the inland town of Merdjayoun were more important to the outcome.
1951: 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, awarded United States Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation - United States Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation awarded to 3RAR for "extraordinary heroism and outstanding performance" at the battle of Kapyong, Korea.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

524 - Godomar, King of the Burgundians defeats the Franks at the Battle of Vezerone.
1798 - Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at Battle of Vinegar Hill
1813 - Peninsular War: Battle of Vitoria
1813 - Laura Secord sets out to warn British forces of an impending U.S. attack on Queenston, Ontario during the War of 1812.
1824 - Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces capture Psara in the Aegean Sea.
1826 - Maniots defeat Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas
1854 - First Victoria Cross won during bombardment of Bomarsund in the Aland Islands.
1864 - Maori Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ends.
1942 - World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the U.S. mainland.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_21

1916: U.S. soldiers attacked by Mexican government troops - With World War I entering its third year, a controversial U.S. military expedition against Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa brings the neutral United States closer to war itself, when Mexican government troops attack U.S. Brigadier General John J. Pershing's force at Carrizal, Mexico.
1969: Communists storm U.S. base near Tay Ninh - Approximately 600 communist soldiers storm a U.S. base near Tay Ninh, 50 miles northwest of Saigon and 12 miles from the Cambodian border. The North Vietnamese had been shelling the base for two days, followed by six attacks on the city itself and the surrounding villages. Ten Americans were killed and 32 were wounded. Total communist losses around Tay Ninh during the two-day battle were put at 194 killed.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?

1940: The isolated German troops at Narvik are now close to exhaustion and will be unable to hold out for very much longer. Franco-German armistice negotiations begin at Compiegne, during which Hitler informs the French representatives of his terms in the same railway carriage as the German surrender was signed in 1918. Hitler issues a proclamation announcing the end of the war in the West and orders flags to be flown throughout Germany for ten days.
1942: The Luftwaffe carries out a night raid against Southampton. German infantry and combat engineers of 11th Army are gaining ground slowly in their assault on Sevastopol, but the ferocious Russian defense at Sevastopol forces Adolf Hitler to do something he doesn't like to do, namely delay the German Summer offensive.
1944: A further Russians assault against the Finns opens in eastern Karelia. The Red Army begins an offensive between lakes Ladoga and Onega on the northern front.
1945: Organised resistance on Okinawa ends after 82 days of the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific, during which 98,654 Japanese have been killed and 6,922 captured. U.S. loses were 6,990 killed and 29,598 wounded.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1915: Germany uses poison gas for the first time in warfare in the Argonne Forest.
1919: Germans scuttle their own fleet at Scapa Flow, Scotland.
1963: France announces it will withdraw from the NATO fleet in the North Atlantic.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0621.htm

June 22nd

1940: An armistice between France and Germany is signed at Compiegne. Its terms, read out loud to the French delegation by Generaloberst Keitel, provide for the occupation of the entire Channel and Atlantic coastlines, all major industrial areas, Alsace-Lorraine (to be returned to Germany). Most of southern France will remain unoccupied, with a French administrative center at Vichy; the French Army and Navy is to be demobilized and disarmed; France is to bear the cost of the German occupation, and all French prisoners of war are to remain in Germany until a peace treaty is signed.
1941: Beginning of OPERATION BARBAROSSA, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. At 3:15 a.m. CET, German, Rumanian and Finnish forces comprising 183 divisions (3,500,000 men), 3,350 tanks, 7,184 guns and 1,945 aircraft launch the biggest military operation in history on an 1,800-mile front from 'Finland to the Black Sea' (title of the German Army campaign song). Three army groups supported by powerful Panzer armies and Luftwaffe bomber fleets, Heeresgruppe Süd (von Rundstedt) with Panzergruppe 1 (von Kleist), Heeresgruppe Mitte (von Bock) with Panzergruppen 2 (Guderian) and 3 (Hoth), and Heeresgruppe Nord (von Leeb) with Panzergruppe 4 (Hoepner) go into action against 132 Soviet divisions (2,500,000 men), 20,000 tanks and 7,700 aircraft. The overall objective of the campaign is to destroy the Soviet forces in western Russia by fall and to occupy the European part of the Soviet Union up to the line Archangelsk - Urals - Volga - Astrachan. In the first few hours of the attack, the Luftwaffe destroys 1,500 Soviet aircraft on the ground at 60 airfields and 300 in the air. The Red Army forces along the border seem unprepared for the assault and offer only limited resistance. At London, Winston Churchill announces Britain's support for the Soviet Union, thus making the Bolshevik state her much-needed ally.
1944: On the central front in the East, the Soviet 1st Baltic and 3rd Belorussian Fronts (Vassilevsky) and the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts (Zhukov) begin Operation Bagraton, a massive offensive against Heeresgruppe Mitte (Busch) on a 300-mile front between Polotsk and Bobruysk. The German forces of 63 divisions, 900 tanks and 10,000 guns are facing vastly superior Soviet forces of 124 divisions, 5,200 tanks, 30.000 guns and 6,000 aircraft. The Luftwaffe launches a surprise night raid (60 aircraft) on the US 8th Air Force's shuttle base at Poltava in the Ukraine, destroying 44 B-17s and 500,000 gals. of fuel. In the West, US bombers carry out a saturation on besieged Cherbourg. President Roosevelt signs the GI Bill of Rights which promises generous benefits for returning US servicemen.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1807 - HMS Leopard attacks USS Chesapeake
1865 - Confederate raider Shenandoah fires last shot of Civil War in Bering Strait
1884 - Navy relief expedition under CDR Winfield S. Schley rescues LT A.W. Greely, USA, and 6 others from Ellesmere Island, where they were marooned for 3 years on Arctic island.
1898 - ADM Sampson begins amphibious landing near Santiago, Cuba.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

1807: British seamen board the USS Chesapeake, a provocation leading to the War of 1812.
1915: Austro-German forces occupy Lemberg on the Eastern Front as the Russians retreat.
1942: A Japanese submarine shells Fort Stevens at the mouth of the Columbia River.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0622.htm

1945: Beaufort, Borneo occupied - The Australian occupation of Brunei was aimed at permitting the establishment of an advanced fleet base to protect Brunei's oil and rubber resources.
1945: Japanese resistance on Tarakan ends - Codenamed Oboe 1, the landings at Tarakan were primarily aimed at establishing a fighter airfield, though in the end this was not done. source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1971: In a major engagement near the Demilitarized Zone, some 1,500 North Vietnamese attack the 500-man South Vietnamese garrison at Fire Base Fuller. Despite U.S. B-52 raids dropping 60 tons of bombs on June 21 and a 1,000-man reinforcement on June 24, the South Vietnamese had to abandon the base since a North Vietnamese bombardment had destroyed 80 percent of their bunkers. In an attempt to clear the surrounding area of enemy mortar and rocket sites, South Vietnamese forces swept the region on June 25. On June 28, a Saigon spokesman announced that 120 South Vietnamese had reoccupied Fire Base Fuller, but would not rebuild the fortifications. Casualty figures were reported at nearly 500 North Vietnamese dead, with 135 wounded. On July 1, fighting again flared up around the base, as 300 communists were pushed back with the help of U.S. and South Vietnamese air power and with 150 additional South Vietnamese troops.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

June 23rd
1940: Hitler makes a brief sightseeing visit to Paris; motoring through nearly empty streets, he makes a special point of viewing Napoleon's tomb, ending his tour at the Eiffel tower.
1941: In the East, German forces of Heeresgruppe Süd cross the river Bug in southern Poland and capture Brest-Litovsk. Slovakia declares war on the Soviet Union.
1942: The Afrikakorps reaches the Egyptian border near El Alamein.
1944: Generaloberst Dietl, C-in-C of 20. Gebirgsarmee on the Arctic front in northern Finland, is killed in an air crash.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1915: exactly one month after Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, the Italian army attacks Austro-Hungarian positions near the Isonzo River, in the eastern section of the Italian front; it will become the first of twelve Battles of the Isonzo fought during World War I.
1969: North Vietnamese encircle Ben Het - Ben Het, a U.S. Special Forces camp located 288 miles northeast of Saigon and six miles from the junction of the Cambodian, Laotian and South Vietnamese borders, is besieged and cut off by 2,000 North Vietnamese troops using artillery and mortars. The base was defended by 250 U.S. soldiers and 750 South Vietnamese Montagnard tribesmen. The siege lasted until July 2 when the defenders were reinforced by an allied relief column.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1933 - Commissioning of USS Macon, Navy's last dirigible
1961 - Navy's first major low frequency radio station commissioned at Cutler, ME
1972 - Navy helicopter squadron aids flood-stricken residents in Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, and Pittstown area of PA
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

1885: Sudan contingent disembarks - The New South Wales contingent spent a little over two months in the Sudan without seeing any serious action. Upon their return they spent some time at the North Head Quarantine Station.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1944: Normandy France - Canadian army goes into action for the first time, as a separate unit, not under Montgomery's British command.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jun&day=23

1757 - Battle of Plassey - 3,000 British troops under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000 strong Indian army under Siraj Ud Daulah at Plassey.
1758 - Seven Years' War: Battle of Krefeld - British forces defeat French troops at Krefeld in Germany.
1760 - Seven Years' War: Battle of Landeshut - Austria defeats Prussia.
1942: Germany's latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf FW190 is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales.
1943: The British destroyers Eclipse and Laforey sink the ItaliansubmarineAscianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoes the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.
1945: The Battle of Okinawa ends when organised resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapses in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_23

1884: Chinese Army defeats the French at Bacle, Indochina.
1944: In one of the largest air strikes of the war, the U.S. Fifteenth Air Force sends 761 bombers against the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania.
1952: The U.S. Air Force bombs power plants on Yalu River, Korea.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0623.htm

June 24th

1940: An armistice is signed between France and Italy at Villa Indusa near Rome.
1941: In the East, German troops of Heeresgruppe Nord capture Kaunas and Vilna in Lithuania. Hungary breaks off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
1942: In Yugoslavia, beginning of an offensive by German, Italian and Croatian forces against Tito's partisan army.
1943: The RAF launches a heavy raid on Elberfeld in the Ruhr.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1927:Opening of the Menin Gate Memorial Ypres, Belgium - The Menin Gate Memorial to the missing records the names of over 56,000 Allied soldiers, among them 6,176 Australians missing in the battles near Ypres in the First World War.
1942: Afrika Korps attacks Egypt - Afrika Korps attacks Egypt, forcing Allied forces back to El Alamein, where one of the pivotal battles of the war was fought later in the year.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1314 - End of the Battle of Bannockburn. Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce defeat Edward II of England. Scotland regains its independence.
1812 - Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon'sGrande Armée crosses the Neman River beginning his invasion of Russia.
1910 - Japan invades Korea.
1932 - A military coup ends the absolute power of the king of Siam (Thailand).
1940 - France and Italy sign an armistice.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_24

1915: First operational flight of new German fighter plane - Young Oswald Boelcke, one of the earliest and best German fighter pilots of World War I, makes the first operational flight of the Fokker Eindecker plane. The years of the First World War, saw a staggering improvement not only in aircraft production, but also in technology, on both sides of the conflict. The war began just a decade after Orville and Wilbur Wright made their historic 12-second flight at Kittyhawk, Maryland; by 1918, fighter airplanes had been developed that could serve purposes of observation and reconnaissance, tactical and strategic bombing, direct attack on ground and air targets and use in naval warfare.
1945: British bombers destroy the "Bridge Over the River Kwai." Thousands of British and Allied prisoners of war, forced into slave labor by their Japanese captors, had built a bridge, under the most grueling conditions, over the River Kwai, linking parts of the Burma-Siam (now Thailand) railway and enabling the Japanese to transport soldiers and supplies through this area. British aircraft bombed the bridge to prevent this link between Bangkok and Moulein, Burma.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?

1940: British commandos make their first raid against France at Le Touquet, although this is aborted without casualties.
1941: Army Group North sweeps into Lithuania and White Russia, taking Vilna and Kaunas. Hungary breaks off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
1942: The Germans advance into Egypt as the British retreat continues. Sollum and Sidi Barrani are evacuated by the Eighth Army. The Luftwaffe launches the first in a series of night raids against Birmingham. Major General Eisenhower is appointed commander of all US troops in Europe.
1944: The Russians report major advances against Army Group Centre. Hitler orders all but one of the five German divisions of the 53rd Korps that are encircled at Vitebsk to fight their way out.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1813: Niagara Ontario - Force of 440 British Iroquois attack and harass Col. Charles Boerstler and 570 Americans as they move through wooded country to attack the British outpost at Beaver Dam; Lt. James Fitzgibbon was already warned of their approach by the Iroquois and Laura Secord; to escape being massacred, Boerstler surrenders with 462 men to Fitzgibbon and his 50 British regulars; Americans forced back across Niagara River in this Iroquois victory in defence of Canada.
1944: Shetland Islands Scotland - RCAF Flight Lieutenant David Ernest Hornell 1910-1944 and crew on anti-submarine patrol in amphibious plane when they tangle with a German U-Boat; sink it with depth charges, but have to ditch their plane in rough seas; crew take turns in life raft, and rescued the next day, but Hornell dies from hypothermia; awarded Victoria Cross posthumously
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jun&day=24

1833 - USS Constitution enters drydock at Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, MA, for overhaul. The ship was saved from scrapping after public support rallied to save the ship following publication of Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem, "Old Ironsides."
1926 - Office of Assistant SecNav set up to foster naval aeronautics; aircraft building increased
1948 - Berlin airlift initiated to offset the Soviet Union's blockade access of U.S., France, and Great Britain to their sectors of Berlin.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

June 25th

1940: At 1:35 a.m. CET, all acts of war between the French and German armed forces cease officially.
1941: German armored forces of Panzergruppe 1 (von Kleist) capture Lutsk and Dubno in eastern Poland (USSR territory).
1942: The Afrikakorps captures Sidi Barrani, Sollum and Halfaya Pass in Libya. The RAF launches a 1,000-bomber raid on Bremen which causes heavy damage to the Focke-Wulf plant and devastates 27 acres of the inner city (49 aircraft lost). Major-General Eisenhower is appointed C-in-C of US forces in Europe.
1944: In Normandy, the British Second Army (Dempsey) begins a major offensive in the area of Caen (Operation Epsom). In the East, 40,000 troops of Heeresgruppe Mitte are surrounded by the Red Army in the area of Vitebsk. General Koenid is appointed C-in-C of the Free French forces.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/june.html

1916: Private J.W.A. Jackson, VC - Private J.W.A. Jackson, 17th Battalion, originally from Gunbar, New South Wales, wins the Victoria Cross south-east of Bois Grenier, near Armentières, France.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1940: Atlantic - Canadian destroyer Fraser sunk in collision off France.
1942: Bremen Germany - RCAF joins RAF in thousand-bomb raid on port of Bremen; Second World War.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jun&day=25

1917 - Navy convoy of troopships carrying American Expeditionary Forces arrives in France
1950 - North Korea invades South Korea beginning Korean Conflict
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesjun.htm

1876: General George A. Custer and over 260 men of the Seventh Cavalry are wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians at Little Big Horn in Montana.
source: http://www.historynet.com/tdih0625.htm

1969: The U.S. Navy turns 64 river patrol gunboats valued at $18.2 million over to the South Vietnamese Navy in what is described as the largest single transfer of military equipment in the war thus far. The transfer raised the total number of boats in the South Vietnamese Navy to more than 600. This was part of the "Vietnamization" program, which President Richard Nixon initiated to increase the fighting capability of the Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces (to include the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps) so that they could assume more responsibility for the war. Vietnamization included the provision of new equipment and weapons and an intensified advisory effort.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-h...rticle&id=1929