This day in military history..

April 18
US Naval History
1848 - U.S. Navy expedition to explore the Dead Sea and the River Jordan, commanded by LT William F. Lynch, reaches the Dead Sea.
1906 - Navy assists in relief operations during San Francisco earthquake and fire
1942 - USS Hornet launches Doolittle's Army bombers for first attack on Japan
1988 - Navy destroys 2 Iranian surveillance platforms, sinks one frigate and one patrol ships, and severely damages a second frigate in retaliation for attack on USS Samuel B. Roberts
 
April 19
1775 Battles of Lexington & Concord
1809 Battle of Raszyn. Battle of Tuegen Hauser
1861 US announces a blockade of southern ports
1862 Battle of New Orleans Bombardment of Confederate Forts continue. Return fire sinks mortar boat USS Maria J Carlton.
1863 Battle of Plymouth, N.C. CSS Albemarle sinks USS Southfield by ramming & drives off USS Miami
1961 Bay of Pigs invaders surrender
1989 Turrent explosion USS Iowa
 
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April 19
US Naval History
1783 - George Washington proclaims end of hostilities
1861 - President Lincoln orders blockade of Southern ports from SC to Texas
1955 - USS Albany and USS William Wood begin to provide disaster relief to citizens of Volos, Greece, ending 21 April
 
April 20
1453 Last Byzentine naval action. 3 galleys & a transport fight through Ottoman blackade into Constantinople
1657 English destroy Spanish treasure fleet @ Santa Cruz De Tenerife
1689 Deposed King James II lays siege to Derry
1775 Siege of Boston begins
1792 France declares War on Austria
1809 Battle of Abenberg
1862 Battle of New Orleans Bombardment continues
1864 CSS Albemarle inflicts heavy damage to Ft. Williams causing the garrison to surrender, ending the Battle of Plymouth
1978 Soviets shoot down KAL flight 902
 
April 20
US Naval History
1796 - Congress authorizes completion of 3 frigates
1861 - Norfolk Navy Yard abandoned and burned by Union forces.
1914 - In first call to action of naval aviators, detachment on USS Birmingham sailed to Tampico, Mexico.
1915 - First Navy contract for lighter-than-air craft awarded.
1942 - USS Wasp (CV-7) launches 47 British aircraft to reinforce Malta
1947 - CAPT L.O. Fox, USN, supported by 80 Marines, accepted the surrender of LT Yamaguchi and 26 Japanese soldiers and sailors, two and one half years after the occupation of Peleliu and nearly 20 months after the surrender of Japan.
1953 - USS New Jersey shells Wonsan, Korea from inside the harbor.
1964 - USS Henry Clay (SSBN-625) launches a Polaris A-2 missile from the surface in first demonstration that Polaris submarines could launch missiles from the surface as well as from beneath the ocean. 30 minutes later the submarine launched another Polaris missile while submerged.
 
April 21
US Naval History
1861 - USS Saratoga captures slaver, Nightingale.
1898 - U.S. at war against Spain.
1906 - Commander Robert Peary discovered supposed Arctic Continent did not exist.
1972 - Moonwalk in the Descartes Highlands by CAPT John W. Young, USN Commander of Apollo 16. He was the ninth man to walk on the moon. LCDR Thomas K. Mattingly II, USN was the Command Module Pilot. During the 11 day, 1 hour and 51 minute mission, 213 lbs. of lunar material was collected. Recovery by HC-1 helicopters from USS Ticonderoga (CVS-14)
 
Apr 21
43 B.C. Battle of Mutina
1519 Spain invades the Aztec Empire, Cortez lands @ Vera Cruz
1809 Battle of Eckmuhl, 1st day
1836 Battle of San Jacinto Texans defeat Mexicans
1862 Battle of New Orleans Bombardment of forts continues
1899 Norwegian Army adopts the Krag-Jorgensen rifle
1918 Red Baron shot down & killed
 
Apr 20
1809 Battle of Eckmuhl, 2nd day
1836 Texas troops capture Gen. Santa Anna
1862 Battle of New Orleans. Bombardment of forts continues. 2 US ships remove floating boom that obstructed navigation of the Miss. River
1863 US supply convoy runs past the Vicksburg batteries, losing 1 transport & 6 barges
1944 US troops leapfrog & land @ Hollandia, New Guinea
 
April 22
US Naval History
1778 - Captain John Paul Jones of Ranger led landing party raid on Whitehaven, England
1898 - U.S. warships begin blockade of Cuba
1987 - U.S. Navy ordered to provide assistance to neutral vessels under Iranian attack outside the exclusion zone and that requested help.
 
April 23
1014 Battle of Clontarf
1229 Fredinan III takes Caceres
1521 Battle of Villalar
1635 Border dispute between Virginia & Maryland results in brief naval scirmish
1862 Battle of New Orleans Bombardment of forts continues
1948 Israel captures Haifa
1975 President Ford declares the Vietnam War over.
 
April 23
US Naval History
1918 - USS Stewart destroys German submarine off France
1945 - In only U.S. use of guided missiles in WW II, 2 BAT missiles release at Balikiapan, Borneo
1956 - Project Vanguard, earth satellite launching program, assigned to DCNO (Air)
 
April 24
1862 Battle of New Orleans At 03:30 the US fleet steams up river & fights its way past the forts & engages the Confederate squadron, destroying the 8-12 ships in it.
1877 Russia declares War on the Ottoman Empire
1918 1st tank vs tank battle, 3 British Mk IVs vs 3 German A7Vs.
 
April 25
1607 Dutch fleet destroys Spanish fleet @ Gibraltar
1707 Battle of Almansa
1862 Battle of New Orleans. City of New Orleans surrenders to Com. Ferragut
Ft. Macon in N.C. captured by Union troops
1898 Formal Declaration of War on Spain by U.S.
1915 Gallipoli landings
1945 U.S. & Soviet troops meet in Germany, German troops in northern Italy surrender, & German troops evavcuate Finnish territory
1975 NVA takes Kontum. Australia closes Saigon embassy.
 
April 25
US Naval History
1862 - Union naval forces occupy New Orleans, LA
1898 - Congress declares war existed with Spain since 21 April
1914 - First combat observation mission by Navy plane, at Veracruz, Mexico.
1917 - Naval Armed Guard crew on board SS Mongolia engage and damage a German U-boat. This was the first engagement of U.S. naval personnel against the enemy in World War I.
1959 - USS Eversole rescues 14 Chinese Nationalist fishermen from their sinking fishing trawler in the Formosa Strait.
 
April 26
US Naval History
1869 - The Good Conduct Medal was authorized
1921 - U.S. Naval Detachment left Yugoslavia after administering area around Spalato for 2 years to guarantee transfer of area from Austria to new country
1952 - USS Hobson sinks after colliding with USS Wasp; 176 lives lost.
 
April 26
1864 Red River Campaign USS Eastport destroyed to prevent capture, USS Cricket heavily damaged & USS Champion No. 3 destroyed when a shell explodes her boiler.
1865 Confederate Army of Tennessee surrenders @ Durham Station, N.C.
1937 Guernica Spain bombed
1945 Battle of Bautzen
 
April 27
US Naval History
1861 - President Lincoln extended blockade of Confederacy to VA and NC ports
1865 - Body of John Wilkes Booth brought to Washington Navy Yard
 
April 27
1296 Battle of Dunbar
1521 Battle of Mactan, Magellan killed in the Phillipines
1650 Battle of Carbisdale
1777 Battle of Ridgefield, Ct
1805 US forces including US Marines, capture Derna in Tripoli. "The shores of Tripoli."
1813 US troops capture York, Canada
1862 Battle of New Orleans 4 forts north of New Orleans are evacuated by the Confederates
1865 Riverboat Sultana destroyed by boiler explosion, killing 1200-1700 former Union POWs being transported up the Mississippi River
1941 German troops enter Athens, Greece
1945 Mussolini captured in northern Italy by Partizans.
 
April 28
US Naval History
1962 - Naval forces capture Forts Jackson and St. Philip, LA
1965 - Dominican Republic intervention began
1944 - U.S. LSTs attacked during Operation Tiger
1993 - SECDEF memo orders Armed Forces to train and assign women on combat aircraft and most combat ships, but not to ground combat positions.
 
April 28
1503 Battle of Cerigola
1789 mutiny on the HMS Bounty
1945 Mussolini executed
1965 US troops land in the Dominican Republic
 
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