This day in military history..

Mar 17
45 Battle of Munda
624 Battle of Badr
1776 British evacuate Boston, Ma.
1860 New Zealand 1st Toranaki War begins
1865 Mobile, Al Campaign begins
1939 Battle of Nanchang
1988 Battle of Afabet
 
March 17
US Navy History
1898 - USS Holland, first practical submarine, launched
1942 - United States Naval Forces Europe established to plan joint operations with British
1958 - Navy Vanguard rocket launches 3.25 pound sphere from Cape Canaveral
1959 - USS Skate (SSN-578) surfaces at North Pole
 
Mar 18
1241 Mongols sack Krakow
1865 Battle of Bentonville, N.C. 1st day
1915 Gallipoli campaign Attempt by British/french fleet to force the Dardenelles result in the loss of 3 battleships.
1937 Battle of Guadalajara, Spain
 
March 18
US Navy History
1945 - Carriers begin 3 month Okinawa Campaign by destroying aircraft on Kyushu, Japan
1974 - Navy sent to sweep mines from Suez Canal

 
March 19
US Navy History
1898 - USS Oregon departs San Francisco for 14,000 mile trip around South America to join U.S. Squadron off Cuba
1917 - Navy Department authorizes enrollment of women in Naval Reserve with ratings of yeoman, radio electrician, or other essential ratings.
1942 - SecNav gave Civil Engineering Corps command of Seabees
2003 - Operation Iraqi Freedom begins with Tomahawk strikes from Navy ships and submarines.
 
Mar 19
1279 Battle of Yaman Mongols take China
1861 1st Taranaki War ends
1863 USS Hartford & USS Albatross run Confederate batteries @ Grand Gulf & arrive below Vicksburg, Ms
1865 Battle of Bentonville, 2nd day
1945 USS Franklin heavily damaged by Kamakazes
 
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March 20
US Navy History
1833 - CDR Geisinger of Peacock negotiates first commercial treaty with King of Siam
1922 -USS Jupiter recommissioned as Langley, Navy's first aircraft carrier
1939 - Naval Research Lab recommends financing research program to obtain power from uranium.
2003 - U.S. began Operation Iraqi Freedom by launching cruise missiles from Navy ships in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.

 
Mar 21
717 Battle of Vincy
1801 Battle of Alexandria, Egypt
1865 Battle of Bentonville 4th day. Off the Azores USS Sacramento & USS Niagra refuse a fight with the ironclad CSS Stonewall.
1918 Operation Micheal, the German Spring Offensive, begins.
1945 British liberate Mandalay, Burma
1968 Battle of Karameh
 
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March 21
US Navy History
1917 - Loretta Walsh becomes first woman Navy petty officer when sworn in as Chief Yeoman.
1919 - Navy installs and tests Sperry gyrocompass, in first instance of test of aircraft gyrocompass
1945 - Bureau of Aeronautics initiates rocket-powered surface-to-air guided missile development by awarding contract to Fairchild

 
Mar 22
1849 Battle of Novara
1862 Opening skirmishing of Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign
1942 naval battle 2nd Battle of Sirte
 
March 22
US Navy History
1820 - Commodore Stephen Decatur dies after duel with Capt. James Barron
1915 - "Naval Aviator" replaces former "Navy Air Pilot" for officers qualified as aviators
1929 - Navy ships protect Americans and their property during Mexican revolution
1946 - USS Missouri departs U.S. to return body of deceased Turkish ambassador to the U.S. back to Turkey for burial. Missouri arrived in Istanbul on 5 April.

 
Mar 23
1821 Battle of Kalamata
1862 1st Battle of Kernstown
1863 USS Hartford & USS Albatross shell CS positions @ Warrenton, Miss. on the Mississippi River
1942 Japanese capture the Andaman Islands
 
March 23
US Navy History
1815 - USS Hornet captures HMS Penguin in battle lasting 22 minutes
1882 - SECNAV Hunt issues General Order No. 292 creating Office of Naval Intelligence.
1917 - Launching of USS New Mexico, first dreadnought with turboelectric drive
1945 - Carriers begin pre-assault strikes on Okinawa, kamikaze attacks follow
1958 - First launching of simulated Polaris missile from submerged tactical launcher facility off CA.
1965 - LCDR John W. Young, USN, Pilot of Gemini 3 completed 3 orbits in 4 hours., 53 minutes at an altitude of 224 km. Recovery was by helicopters from USS Intrepid (CVS-11).

 
Mar 24
1401 Mongols sack Damascus
1862 Union troops begin siege of Ft. Macon in N. Carolina
1878 HMS Eurydice, frigate, sinks with a loss of over 300.
1944 "The Great Escape" 76 men break out of Stalag Luft III
1999 NATO attacks Yugoslavia
 
March 24
US Navy History
1903 - George Dewey commissioned Admiral of the Navy with the date of rank, 2 March 1899. He was the only person to hold this rank
 
March 25
US Naval History
1813 - USS Essex takes Neryeda, first capture by U.S. Navy in Pacific
1898 - Assist. SECNAV Theodore Roosevelt proposes Navy investigate military application of Samuel Langley's flying machine, beginning naval aviation
 
Mar 25
1863 USS Lancaster & USS Switzerland attacked by CS field artillery, in Black Bayou, Miss. Lancaster destroyed & Switzerland damaged
1865 Confederate Army of Northern Virginia launches its final offensive briefly capturing Ft. Stedman near Petersburg, Va. Union counterattack recaptures the position.
1941 Yugoslavia joins the Axis
 
Mar 26
1793 Holy Roman Empire declares War on France
1862 US & CS troops clash near Denver, Colorado Territory & Apache Canyon, New Mexico Territory
1913 Balkan war Bulgerian troops capture Adrianople
1917 1st Battle of Gaza
1945 Iwo Jima declared secure
 
Mar 27
1794 US Navy est. by Congress & orders construction of Frigates
1814 Battle of Horseshoe Bend
1836 Goliad Massacre Mexican Army kills surrendered Texas troops
1854 Crimean War UK declares War on Russia
1886 Geronimo surrenders, for the most part ending the Indian Wars
1938 Battle of Tuierzhuang, China
1941 Yugoslavian Air Force Officers overthrow pro Axis Govt. in a coup
1943 Battle of the Komandorski Islands
1994 1st Flight of the Eurofighter
1999 F-117 shot down over Yugoslavia
 
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