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This Day in U.S. Military History
3 May
1783 – The 2nd Continental Light Dragoons and the 5th Connecticut
Regiment, Continental Line, left the Continental Cantonment at New
Windsor and reported to the nearby headquarters of Washington at the
Hasbrouck House in Newburgh.
1821 – The Richmond [Virginia] Light Artillery was organized.
1861 – Lincoln asked for 42,000 Army Volunteers and another 18,000
seamen.
1863 – Stonewall Jackson’s arm was amputated and buried.
1863 – General Joseph Hooker and the Army of the Potomac abandon a
key hill on the Chancellorsville battlefield.
1863 – Having paved the way for a final assault on Grand Gulf with the
attack of 29 April, Rear Admiral Porter once again moved his gunboats
against the strong Confederate batteries.
1885 – The US Navy transferred the USS Bear to the Revenue Cutter
Service. The Bear became one of the most famous cutters to sail under the
Revenue Cutter & Coast Guard ensigns. 1898 – Lt Dion Williams and
Marines from the USS Baltimore raised the American flag over Cavite,
Philippines.
1923 – The 1st non-stop flight across the US was made. Army lieutenants
Kelly and Macready flew from New York to San Diego.
1926 – U.S. marines landed in Nicaragua and remained until 1933.
1942 – Executive Order 9066, signed by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt,
was issued by Lt. Gen’l. John DeWitt from his headquarters in the SF
Presidio.
1942 – The first day of the first modern naval engagement in history,
called the Battle of the Coral Sea, a Japanese invasion force succeeds in
occupying Tulagi of the Solomon Islands in an expansion of Japan’s
defensive perimeter.
1943 – US General Devers is appointed to Commander in Chief of the
American European Theater Command after General Andrews is killed in an
airplane accident.
1943 – In Tunisia, the US 1st Division break out of “Mousetrap Valley” and
capture Mateur. An improvised Axis defensive line prevents further
progress.
1944 – Wartime rationing of most grades of meats ended in the United
States.
1944 – An acoustic torpedo fired by the U-371 hit and destroyed the
stern of the Coast Guard-manned destroyer escort USS Menges while
she was escorting a convoy in the Mediterranean, killing thirty-one of
her crew. The Menges was later repaired and returned to service. She
assisted in the sinking of the U-866 on 19 March 1945.
1944 – Japanese Admiral Toyoda is designated Commander in Chief of the
Combined Fleet. He replaces Admiral Koga who was killed on March 31st.
1945 – Allies arrested German nuclear physicist Werner Heisenberg.
1945 – Soviet forces have now reached the Elbe west of Berlin and made
contact with US 1st and 9th Armies and in the north with the British 2nd
Army. Fighting in Berlin ends.
1945 – In Austria, Innsbruck falls to the US 7th Army while other units
advance near Salzburg.
1945 – American naval forces commanded by Admiral Noble land 1000
troops near Santa Cruz in the Gulf of Davao, on Mindanao. Davao City is
taken by US 24th Division units.
1945 – On Okinawa, Japanese forces launch a counteroffensive from
positions in the south, during the night (May 3-4), but fail to break through
the American lines. Japanese artillery batteries, that have remained silent
until now to avoid American retaliation, support the assaults.
1946 – In Tokyo, Japan, the International Military Tribunals for the
Far East begins hearing the case against 28 Japanese military and
government officials accused of committing war crimes and crimes
against humanity during World War II.
1947 – Japan’s postwar constitution goes into effect.
1949 – First Navy firing of a high altitude Viking rocket at White Sands,
NM.
1951 – The U.S. Navy’s Air Group 19 conducted an air strike on the
Hwachon Dam with 12 flack-suppressing F4U Corsairs and eight AD3
Skyraiders armed with Mark-13 aerial torpedoes. This was the first use of
these weapons since World War II.
1951 – The Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees,
meeting in closed session, begin their hearings into the dismissal of Gen.
Douglas MacArthur by President Harry S. Truman.
1952 – A ski-modified U.S. Air Force C-47 piloted by Lieutenant
Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher of Oklahoma and Lieutenant Colonel
William P. Benedict of California becomes the first aircraft to land on
the North Pole.
1952 – Air Force Captain Robert T. Latshaw, Jr., 4th Fighter-Interceptor
Wing, and Major Donald E. Adams, 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, became
the 13th and 14th jet aces of the Korean War, shooting down five enemy
aircraft each.
1959 – Former President Harry S Truman, who was a Guard captain
commanding Battery D, 129th Field Artillery from Missouri during
World War I, is the honored guest at the dedication of the new National
Guard Association “Memorial” on Capital Hill.
1965 – The lead element of the 173rd Airborne Brigade (“Sky
Soldiers”), stationed in Okinawa, departs for South Vietnam.
1968 – After three days of battle, the U.S. Marines retook Dai Do complex
in Vietnam, only to find the North Vietnamese had evacuated the area.
1968 – At Phan Rang Air Base, Vietnam, Colorado’s 120th Tactical
Fighter Squadron becomes the first Air Guard unit to arrive in
Vietnam, less than four months after mobilization..
1968 – After 34 days of discussions to select a site, the United States and
North Vietnam agree to begin formal negotiations in Paris on May 10,
or shortly thereafter.
1992 – In Los Angeles, soldiers continued to patrol streets and guard firegutted and ransacked stores in the wake of rioting that erupted following the
Rodney King-taped beating acquittals.
1993 – American sailor Terry M. Helvey confessed to stomping to death
Allen Schindler, a homosexual shipmate, but told his court-martial in Japan
that he was drunk and did not plan the killing. Helvey was later sentenced to
life in prison.
1996 – A weak compromise treaty was passed in Geneva that aimed to
phase out non-detectable plastic mines, and introduced rules to limit the
lifespan of anti-personnel mines planted outside marked fields to 3
months.
1999 – US jets attacked Iraqi air defense sites. Iraqi news reported 2
civilians killed and 12 injured north of Mosul.
1999 – The Justice and Treasury departments agreed to unfreeze the assets
of Saleh Idris, the owner of the Sudanese factory that was bombed by US
cruise missiles Aug. 20, 1998.
1999 – NATO jets hit a bus in Kosovo and killed about 20 people.
2000 – Gen. Wesley Clark left his post as NATO’s supreme allied
commander. He was replaced by Gen. Joseph Ralston.
2002 – UNMOVIC and Iraqi officials hold talks. The United Nations
Secretary-General, Kofi Annan says these are the first talks to take place at a
technical level since December 1998.
2003 – In Baghdad, Iraq, schools re-opened for the 1st time since the start of
war.
2004 – Militiamen pounded a U.S. base in the most intense attacks yet on
U.S. troops in the Shiite city of Najaf. US troops killed 20 Shiite militiamen
in Najaf. Insurgents opened fire in the Baghdad, killing one American
soldier and wounding two others.