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1775: An expedition of 700 British regulars under the command of Lt. Col. Frances Smith departs Boston to seize and destroy military stores of the Massachusetts Militia in Concord. At dawn, 70 militia members led by Capt. John Parker meet the British at Lexington, and the two sides briefly skirmish. The Americans withdraw and regroup, attacking the redcoats again at North Bridge with a much larger force, forcing the British to turn back towards Boston. The American Revolution has begun. 1861: 86 years to the day after the “shot heard round the world,” Massachusetts volunteers headed for Washington, D.C. are...

On this day in 1923, a newly built Yankee Stadium – nicknamed “The House that Ruth Built” hosted its first game. Over 74,000 fans packed the stands to watch the New York Yankees defeat the Boston Red Sox 4-1. Taking the field were several military veterans of World War I. Red Sox leftfielder Joe Harris fought in France with the 320th Infantry Regiment (alongside future Pittsburgh Pirates teammate Johnny “Big Serb” Miljus) and was gassed. Boston shortstop Chick Fewster, who went 0-3 but reached first after being hit by a pitch, served in the Merchant Marine during World War I....

1775: Paul Revere and William Dawes begin their famous “midnight ride” from Boston to Lexington, Mass., where they link-up with Samuel Prescott, who rides on to Concord. All three are sounding the alarm – warning town leaders and alerting the militia – that nearly 1,000 British infantrymen, grenadiers, and Royal Marines are advancing from Boston. 1942: At 7:38 a.m. a Japanese patrol vessel spots the task force bearing Lt. Col. James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle and his raiders 650 miles east of Japan. The ship is sunk, but not before her crew can report the position of the American aircraft carriers....

1918: 1st Aero Squadron pilots, equipped with the French Spad biplanes, perform the first American reconnaissance flight over enemy lines during World War I. 1945: At 3:15 p.m. a detachment of soldiers from the 9th Armored Infantry Battalion reach the front gates of Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany. The emaciated prisoners give their American liberators a hero’s welcome. The Nazis incarcerated over a quarter million people in one of Germany’s first and largest camps, leading to some 56,000 deaths. The SS manages to evacuate many of Buchenwald’s prisoners before Patton’s Third Army can reach the site. The prisoners left...

1778: The sloop-of-war USS Ranger sets sail from the port of Brest, France for action along the British and Irish coasts. Under command of her legendary captain John Paul Jones, the crew of Ranger raid ports and capture several prizes before returning to France. 1865: A day after surrendering his Army of Northern Virginia, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee issues General Order No. 9 - his farewell address to his troops. Lee writes, "You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to...

1865: The war lost, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee concludes, “There is nothing left for me to do, but to go and see Gen. [Ulysses S.] Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths.” Lee formally surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at the home of Wilmer McLean in the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Still-operating Confederate forces will surrender within months. 1918: The famed 94th “Hat in the Ring” Aero Squadron moves up to the Croix de Metz Aerodrome in France, becoming the first American aviation outfit to enter combat. In May, Lt. Douglas Campbell...

While vacationing at Holden Beach in North Carolina last week, 42-year-old Brent Garlington spotted what is thought to be a wrecked Civil War-era steamer. Garlington, of Fayetteville, flew a drone over the Lockwood Folly Inlet, which is located between Holden Beach and Oak Island. The tide was low because of the full moon, Garlington told Fox News on Tuesday. This prompted him to take a walk on the beach sandbar and ultimately capture the footage using a drone. While Garlington didn’t discover the vessel, he believes "this is the first time it has been seen from this perspective." (snip) A...

As we celebrate Easter Sunday and the Jewish Passover, we should keep in our prayers and remembrances the many Americans who fought and sacrificed during that same time 73 years ago in the Battle of Okinawa. The event was Operation Iceberg. It was the bloodiest battle and the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, the Navy’s Fifth Fleet under Admiral Raymond Spruance attacked the Japanese-held island. They were joined by a British, Canadian, New Zealand, and Australian naval task force and more than 180,000 Army soldiers and Marines. This...

An expedition in the South Pacific ocean funded by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen has discovered the wreckage of a famous US warship that was attacked by the Japanese during the second world war, claiming more than 600 lives. The billionaire’s personal search team located the remains of the USS Juneau off the coast of the Solomon Islands on St Patrick’s Day. The Juneau was sunk by Japanese torpedoes in November 1942, claiming the lives of 687 men, including five brothers known as the Sullivans from Waterloo, Iowa. The men became navy heroes and had a destroyer named after...

The wreck of a US aircraft carrier that was sunk during World War Two has been found off the coast of Australia. The USS Lexington was found 3km (2 miles) underwater in the Coral Sea, about 800km off Australia's east coast. The ship was lost in the Battle of the Coral Sea, fought with Japan from 4-8 May 1942. More than 200 crew members died in the fighting. The US Navy confirmed the ship had been discovered by a search team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

The wreckage of a United States aircraft carrier, named USS Lexington that was sunk by the Japanese during World War II, was found on the floor of the Coral Sea more than 500 miles off the eastern coast of Australia. The carrier was discovered by a team of explorers led by billionaire Paul Allen, the U.S. Navy confirmed Monday. The ship, which was part of the Battle of the Coral Sea from May 4-8, 1942, was found in a remarkably well-preserved condition. Microsoft co-founder Allen released a statement Monday along with photos and a video of the carrier. ​

Photographer Joe Rosenthal admitted that when he took a shot of five Marines and one Navy corpsman raising the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima’s Mt. Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945, he had no idea that he had captured something extraordinary. He was setting up for a different shot when he spotted the group of men planting the flag and quickly took a snap without even looking through the viewfinder. The chance photo would become iconic overnight and go on to win the Pulitzer Prize.

On this day in 1776, General George Washington wins the Battle of Trenton. 1776 had been a difficult year! The victory provided a much-needed morale boost. As discussed in yesterday’s post, the first weeks in December found Washington and British General William Howe on opposite sides of the Delaware River. As the weather deteriorated, Howe had decided to go into winter quarters. Washington, instead, decided to make a difficult crossing across the Delaware. His plan was to arrive at Trenton at 5 a.m., well before sunrise, so he could launch a surprise attack. Instead, Washington’s men arrived at Trenton at...

“The Battle of Chosin INSURMOUNTABLE ODDS. UNFORGIVING CONDITIONS. UNYIELDING COURAGE. Film Description On Thanksgiving Day 1950, American-led United Nations troops were on the march in North Korea. U.S. Marine and Air Force pilots distributed holiday meals, even to those on the front lines. Hopes were high that everyone would be home by Christmas. But soon after that peaceful celebration, American military leaders, including General Douglas MacArthur, were caught off guard by the entrance of the People's Republic of China, led by Mao Zedong, into the five-month-old Korean War. Twelve thousand men of the First Marine Division, along with a few...

On Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, Vice Adm. Chuichi Nagumo’s 1st Air Fleet begins their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Two waves of aircraft strike the U.S. Pacific Fleet at anchor, as well as bases across Hawaii. Five of the eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships are either sunk or severely damaged. By day’s end, 2,718 American sailors, 582 soldiers (including Army Air Forces personnel), 178 Marines, and 103 civilians are dead, dying or wounded. In a day full of countless acts of American bravery and sacrifice, 15 men and officers of the U.S. Navy earned the Medal of...

1817: The First Seminole War begins when Gen. (and future president) Andrew Jackson leads forces into Spanish-held Florida to reclaim escaped slaves from Seminole tribal areas. 1943: USS Nautilus (SS-168) surfaces and disembarks Capt. James L. Jones and his Marine Amphibious Reconnaissance Company off the beaches of Abemama Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. The raiders board rubber rafts and paddle ashore under cover of darkness, spending the next several days wiping out the defenders and capturing the islands along with fire support from the sub. The Marine Corps' modern-day Force Reconnaissance companies trace their roots to Jones' team. 1947: Grumman's...

1864: In a daring nighttime commando raid, Lt. William B. Cushing, piloting a torpedo-armed steam launch, slips past a Confederate schooner guarding the ironclad CSS Albemarle. Cushing detonates the spar torpedo, blowing a massive hole in the warship, which had been dominating the Roanoke River. Although several of his crew are drowned and captured, Cushing and another sailor escape, leaving behind a destroyed ironclad. 1942: After several days of intense fighting, a shattered Japanese military abandons their offensive on Guadalcanal's Henderson Field. The Japanese will evacuate the island in February, and the Americans will turn Guadalcanal into a major base...

1909: U.S. Army Lt. (future brig. gen.) Frederick Erastus Humphreys​ becomes the first Army aviator to solo in a heavier-than-air craft – the Wright Flyer​ – following three hours of instruction by Wilbur Wright​. 1922: Off Cape Henry, Va., Lt. Commander Godfrey Chevalier becomes the first aviator to land on a moving ship when his Aeromarine 39B biplane touches down on the deck of USS Langley. 1942: Japanese carrier-based aircraft sink the carrier USS Hornet, leaving only one operational American carrier in the Pacific. The Battle of Santa Cruz is a pyrrhic victory for the Japanese, however, as their carrier...

1812: The frigate USS United States under the command of Capt. (future commodore) Stephen Decatur – hero of Tripoli and said to be the U.S. Navy’s own Lord Nelson​ – captures the Royal Navy frigate HMS Macedonian under the command of Capt. John Carden in a brisk fight several hundred miles off the Azores. 1925: The court martial of Col. William "Billy" Mitchell, America's chief aviation officer during World War I and considered to be the "Father of the U.S. Air Force", begins in Washington, D.C.. The outspoken Mitchell is charged with multiple counts of insubordination due to his criticism...

1742: After poor leadership and disease claim all but 600 of the 3,500-man 61st Regiment of Foot, the American expeditionary force is disbanded and returns to the colonies. "Gooch's Regiment", named after regimental commander - also the Governor of Virginia - Lt. Col. William Gooch, had been part of the ill-fated British expedition to capture the Spanish colony of Cartagena (present-day Colombia). 1944: On day two of the Battle of Leyte Gulf - the largest naval engagement of World War II - U.S. aircraft attack the Japanese fleet, sinking the battleship Musashi and damaging four others. A single Japanese dive...