# This Day in US Military History



## mhansen2

This is an FYI thread showing important events in the US military, a few events extend beyond.  The lists are not all encompassing, major battles are mostly omitted.  Additions and comments are welcome. 

My primary source:

This Day in U.S. Military History

10 August

1776 – Word of the United States Declaration of Independence reaches London.

1821 – Missouri enters the Union as the 24th state–and the first located entirely west of the Mississippi River.

1846 – After a decade of debate about how best to spend a bequest left to America from an obscure English scientist, President James K. Polk signs the Smithsonian Institution Act into law.

1914 – France declares war on Austria-Hungary.

1916 – First Naval aircraft production contract, for N-9s.

1921 – Franklin D. Roosevelt (39) was stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello, New Brunswick.

1921 – Congress establishes the Bureau of Aeronautics under RADM William Moffett.

1943 - "Pearl Harbor, Aug. 10, (AP) - A Navy bomber crashed in the Pearl Harbor Navy yard during maneuvers today, killing three of its crew and injuring 17 persons, among them four civilian employees." The aircraft struck a loaded bus and eight civilians died, in addition to the three-plane crew.

1945 – Just a day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan submits its acquiescence to the Potsdam Conference terms of unconditional surrender, as President Harry S. Truman orders a halt to atomic bombing.

1949 – President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Bill, which establishes the Department of Defense.

1950 – The first Marine Corps helicopter rescue of a downed pilot was successfully made by VMO-6.

1955 - Two United States Air Force Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar transports of the 10th Troop Carrier Squadron, 60th Troop Carrier Group, collide over Edelweiler, Germany, near Stuttgart, shortly after takeoff for training mission from Stuttgart Army Airfield near Echterdingen. C-119G, 53-3222, c/n 11238, piloted by Robert T. Asher, and C-119G, 53-7841, c/n 11258, piloted by Eugene L. Pesci, both crash. In all, 66 died, 44 on one Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar, and 22 on the other. Troops aboard were of the Army's 499th Engineering Battalion.

1961 – First use in Vietnam War of the Agent Orange by the U.S. Army.

1961 – Test pilot Forest Petersen flew the X-15 to 23,835 meters (78,200 feet) and Mach 4.11.

1965 – Test pilot Joe Engle flew the X-15 to 82,601 meters (271,013 feet; 51.33 miles) and Mach 5.20.

1965 - A Virginia Air Guard Cessna L-19 Bird Dog crashes at Camp Pickett, Virginia, while flying a support mission for forces in summer field training, killing the crew. Pilot Capt. Laurence A. White and S/Sgt. Melvin D. Mangum, both of the “Richmond Howitzers,” are killed while flying (KWF) when the liaison aircraft comes down near the Nottoway River reservoir.

1988 – President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, a measure providing $20,000 payments to Japanese-Americans interned by the U.S. government during World War II.

1988 - US Navy Kaman SH-2F Seasprite, BuNo 161910, assigned to HSL-35 NAS North Island. Aircraft suffered tail structure failure and loss of directional control, crashed into ocean approximately 30 miles off Point Loma while returning from weapons training exercise at NALF San Celemente Island, the co-pilot (Lt. Walt Hogan) perished in the crash, the other 3 crew-members survived.

1993 - A McDonnell-Douglas AV-8B Harrier II, BuNo 162955, of VMA-231, crashed on the runway at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina as the pilot was doing "touch and go" landings. The aircraft's flaps jammed when moisture got into the flap controller causing it to short out. The pilot ejected before the aircraft hit the runway however his parachute descended into the fireball killing him.

2007 – Former USS Jouett (CG-29) was sunk as a target during Exercise Valiant Shield.

2011 – Former USS Arthur W. Radford (DD-968) was scuttled as an artificial reef at Del-Jersey-Land reef, New Jersey.


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## mhansen2

11 August

1812 – USS Constitution captures and destroys British brig Lady Warren.

1860 – The first US successful silver mill began operation near Virginia City, Nev.

1909 – The SOS distress signal was first used by an American ship, the Arapahoe, off Cape Hatteras, N.C.

1909 – Tug USS Nezinscot, in heavy weather off Rockport, Massachusetts, suffered a shift in cargo and capsized.

1921 – Carrier arresting gear first tested at Hampton Roads.

1923 – MCRD transferred from Mare Island to its present location at San Diego.

1926 - Second Lieutenant Eugene Hoy Barksdale is killed when the Douglas O-2 observation plane, 25–350, McCook Field project number P-441, he was testing went into an uncontrollable spin over McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio. His parachute snagged on the wingstruts preventing escape from the aircraft. Barksdale Field, later Barksdale Air Force Base, is named for him upon establishment at the Military Reservation, Bossier Parish, Louisiana on 2 February 1933.

1939 - Nine Army Air Corps crew are killed in the takeoff crash of Douglas B-18A Bolo, 37-488,[199] of the 21st Reconnaissance Squadron, at Langley Field, Virginia. An engine fails on liftoff and though the pilot tries to glide for the Back River, he stalls, falls short, crashes and burns.

1939 – Two U.S. Navy aviators are killed in the crash of their bomber during gunnery practice at Miramar Field, north of San Diego. Killed when the plane crashes and burns are Ens. T. R. Wood, USNR, 28, of Tacoma, Washington, and Radioman (1-C) V. P. Armstrong, 33, of Bristol, Pennsylvania. Wood's widow lives in Coronado, California, and his father, J. W. Wood Sr., in Tacoma. "The navy plane was attached to bombing squadron 3 of the navy aircraft carrier Saratoga (CV-3)." 

1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones and Wi-Fi.

1945 – US Secretary of State, James Byrnes, replies to the Japanese offer to surrender with a refusal to make any compromise on the demand for unconditional surrender. His note states that the Allies envisage an unconditional surrender as one where the emperor will be “subject to” the supreme commander of the Allied powers and the form of government will be decided by the “will of the Japanese people.”

1945 - "LISBON, A B-17 Flying Fortress en route to the United States from London via the Azores with 20 men crashed at sea 320 miles off Cape Finisterre (Spain) today."

1945 - North American TB-25J Mitchell, 44-31401, c/n 108-37376, built as B-25J-30/32-NC and converted, of the 3036th AAF Base Unit, Yuma Army Airfield, Arizona, piloted by Robert L. Laird, crashes into a mountain 25 miles SSW of Yucca Army Airfield, Arizona, this date, while on training flight from Yuma AAF. Crew of 5 killed. "YUMA, Ariz., Aug.15 (UP) - Twin brothers were among five Army men killed in the crash of their B-25 plane into Powell peak near Topock, Ariz., Saturday, officials of the Yuma Army airfield revealed today. The 20-year-old twin brothers were Second Lts. William G. Winter and John R. Winter, sons of William L. Winter, of Towanda, Pa. The twins were radar observers."

1948 – Former USS Skipjack (SS-184) was first sunk as a target vessel at the “Crossroads Baker” nuclear test at Bikini Atoll in July 1946. Later raised and towed to Mare Island, on this day she was again sunk as a target off the coast of California by aircraft rockets.

1956 – Former USS Armstrong County (LST-57) was sunk as a target.

1966 – USCGC Point Welcome (WPB-82329) was attacked in the pre-dawn hours by U.S. Air Force aircraft while on patrol in the waters near the mouth of the Cua Viet River, about three-quarters of a mile south of the Demilitarized Zone (the 17th Parallel) in South Vietnam. Her commanding officer, LTJG David Brostrom, along with one crewmen EN2 Jerry Phillips, were killed in this “friendly fire” incident.

1966 – Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 76,505 meters (251,013 feet) and Mach 5.21.

1972 – The last U.S. ground combat unit in South Vietnam, the Third Battalion, Twenty-First Infantry, departs for the United States.

1995 – President Clinton banned all US nuclear tests, calling his decision “the right step as we continue pulling back from the nuclear precipice.”


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## mhansen2

12 August

1658 – The 1st US police corps formed in New Amsterdam.

1812 – USS Constitution captures and destroys British brig Adeona.

1817 – The Revenue Cutter Active captured the pirate ship Margaret in Chesapeake Bay.

1862 - CSS Elmea was a Confederate armed sailing vessel that was wrecked in a channel of Nueces Bay, across from Corpus Christi, TX. The next day she was burned by Confederates to prevent capture by USS Arthur.

1867 – President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him as he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.

1898 – Hawaii was formally annexed to the United States.

1898 – The brief and one-sided Spanish-American War comes to an end when Spain formally agrees to a peace protocol on U.S. terms: the cession of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Manila in the Philippines to the United States pending a final peace treaty.

1914 – Great Britain declared war on Austria-Hungary.

1918 – SECNAV approves acceptance of women as yeoman (F) in U.S. Navy.

1918 – The Secretary of the Navy authorized the enlistment of women into the Marine Corps Reserve.

1920 - Lt. William Calvin Maxwell, 28, of the 3d Aero Squadron, Camp Stotsenberg in Luzon, Philippines, a native of Atmore, Alabama, is killed in an aviation crash in the Philippines. While on a flight from Camp Stotsenberg to Manila, engine trouble forced Lt. Maxwell to attempt to land his DH-4, AS-23587, in a sugarcane field.

Maneuvering to avoid a group of children playing below, he struck a flagpole hidden by the tall sugarcane and was killed instantly. On the recommendation of his former commanding officer, Maj. Roy C. Brown, Montgomery Air Intermediate Depot, Montgomery, Alabama, was renamed Maxwell Field on 8 November 1922.

1941 – The House passes an extension of the draft period from one year to thirty months (and a similar increase for service in the National Guard) after considerable debate.

1942 – USS Cleveland (CL-55) demonstrates the effectiveness of the radio-proximity fuze (VT-fuze) against aircraft by successfully destroying 3 drones with proximity bursts fired by her five-inch guns.

1944 – LT Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., USNR, the older brother of John F. Kennedy, was killed with his co-pilot in a mid-air explosion after taking off from England in a PB4Y from Special Attack Unit One (SAU-1). Following manual takeoff, they were supposed to parachute out over the English Channel while the radio-controlled explosive filled drone proceeded to attack a German V-2 missile-launching site. Possible causes include faulty wiring or FM signals from a nearby transmitter.

1946 - LST-814 was sunk as a target after colliding with LST-1005 the previous 30 December.

1953 - A US Navy Grumman AF-2 Guardian, 'SL', from Anti-submarine Squadron VS-22 crashes into the ocean immediately after launch from USS Block Island (CVE-106). The pilot, Ensign E.H. Barry, is recovered by a Piasecki HUP plane-guard helicopter.

1954 - Two US training planes were shot down over Czechoslovakia. The pilots were captured and held for several months.

1957 – In first test of Automatic Carrier Landing System, an F3D Skynight flown by LCDR Don Walker is landed aboard USS Antietam (CVS-36).

1958 – USS Nautilus (SSN-571) arrives Portland, England completing first submerged under ice cruise from Pacific to Atlantic Oceans.

1960 – Test pilot Robert White flew the X-15 to 41,605 meters (136,506 feet) and Mach 2.52.

1961 – In an effort to stem the tide of refugees attempting to leave East Berlin, the communist government of East Germany begins building the Berlin Wall to divide East and West Berlin.

1964 – Test pilot Milton Thompson flew the X-15 to 23,774 meters (78,000 feet) and Mach 5.24.

1966 – Test pilot Pete Knight flew the X-15 to 70,439 meters (231,110 feet) and Mach 5.02.

2015 - A U.S. Army Sikorsky MH-60L Black Hawk crashes during a training mission while landing aboard USNS Red Cloud (T-AKR-313) about 20 miles (30 kilometers) east of Okinawa, injuring seven people and damaging the aircraft, officials said. The injured were transported to a Navy hospital, the statement said. Their conditions were not immediately clear. The other 10 people aboard the helicopter were not hurt, said Japanese coast guard spokesman Shinya Terada.


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## mhansen2

13 August

1680 – War started when the Spanish were expelled from Santa Fe, New Mexico, by Indians under Chief Pope.

1779 – The Royal Navy defeats the Penobscot Expedition with the most significant loss of United States naval forces prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

1831 – Nat Turner sees a solar eclipse, which he believes is a sign from God. Eight days later he and 70 other slaves kill approximately 55 whites in Southampton County, Virginia, beginning the rebellion that bears his name.

1846 – The American flag was raised for the first time in Los Angeles as a joint expedition led by CDR Robert Stockton seizes the city.

1870 – Armed iron-screw tug USS Palos becomes first U.S. Navy ship to transit Suez Canal.

1912 - During air-ground maneuvers held by the U.S. Army at Stratford, Connecticut, Pvt. Beckwith Havens of the 1st Company, Signal Corps, New York National Guard, suffers engine failure in a Curtiss biplane at about 1000 ft (300 m) over a crowded parade ground, narrowly misses spectators and a cavalry troop as he swoops down, glides down the field and collides with a Burgess-Wright biplane that had just been flown by Lt. Benjamin Foulois, breaking off its tail. No injuries reported, and both aircraft are taken to hangars for repair. Havens, a pilot employed by pioneer aircraft builder Glenn H. Curtiss, had enlisted in the New York National Guard as a private in June 1912. At the National Guard maneuvers with the Army, he flew an aircraft that his employer had loaned him.

1918 – Opha M. Johnson enlisted at HQMC, becoming the first woman Marine.

1918 - Jarvis Jennes Offutt (1894–1918), becomes the first fatality among natives of Omaha, Nebraska in World War I, when his S.E.5 crashed during a training flight near Valheureux, France, and succumbs to his injuries. The Flying Field, Fort George Crook, Nebraska renamed Offutt Field, 6 May 1924.

1942 – Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, authorizes the construction of facilities that would house the “Development of Substitute Materials” project, better known as the Manhattan Project.

1943 - Naval Auxiliary Air Facility Lompoc, California, is commissioned as a blimp base on 8 August 1943. Five days later, as ground crews maneuver ship K-29 in the damp, foggy morning for launch from Circle #2, the blimp's tail pendants approach a high-voltage power line and 11,000 volts arcs through the ship. Four men holding the metal handling bars on the control car are electrocuted and a fifth is seriously burned. The power company was supposed to have moved this hazard but had not. These were the only fatalities at the Lompoc facility during both civilian and military use.

1945 – About 1600 American aircraft fly over Tokyo and other Japanese cities dropping millions of leaflets explaining the position reached in the surrender negotiations and the state of affairs in Japan. Japanese Sub-Lieutenant Saburo Sakai, the one-eyed fighter ace (with 64 victories), shoots down a B-29 near Tokyo during the night (August 13-14).

1948 – Responding to increasing Soviet pressure on western Berlin, U.S. and British planes airlift a record amount of supplies into sections of the city under American and British control.

This date was a particularly nasty day, with terrible weather compounding the crowded airspace and exhaustion of the pilots and crews. Nevertheless, over 700 British and American planes landed in western Berlin, bringing in nearly 5,000 tons of supplies. The joint British-American effort on what came to be known as “Black Friday” was an important victory for two reasons. First and foremost, it reassured the people of western Berlin that the two nations were not backing down from their promise to defend the city from the Soviets. Second, it was another signal that the Soviet blockade was not only unsuccessful but was also backfiring into a propaganda nightmare.

1950 – Pres. Truman gave military aid to the Vietnamese regime of Bao-Dai.

1951 - A Boeing B-50D-110-BO Superfortress, 49-0268, on test flight out of Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington after modifications, suffers problems immediately after take off, fails to gain altitude, comes down two miles (3 km) N of field, clipping roof of a brewery with the starboard wing, cartwheels into wooden Lester Apartments, wreckage and structure burns for hours. Six on bomber (three Air Force crew, three Boeing employees) and five on ground die.

1960 – The first two-way telephone conversation by satellite took place with the help of Echo 1, a balloon satellite.

1969 – The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine to enjoy a ticker tape parade in New York, New York. That evening, at a state dinner in Los Angeles, California, they are awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Richard Nixon.

2003 – Former USS Downes (FF-1070) Sunk as a target off the West Coast by Harpoon missiles launched from P-3 aircraft


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## mhansen2

14 August

1784 – On Kodiak Island, Grigory Shelikhov, a Russian fur trader, founds Three Saints Bay, the first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska.

1812 – Marines help to capture British sloop “Alert” during the War of 1812.

1813 – British warship Pelican attacked and captured US war brigantine Argus.

1842 – The Second Seminole War ended and the Seminoles were moved from Florida to Oklahoma.

1848 – The Oregon Territory was established.

1866 – SECNAV establishes Naval Gun Factory at Washington Navy Yard.

1900 – During the Boxer Rebellion, an international force featuring British, Russian, American, Japanese, French, and German troops relieves the Chinese capital of Peking after fighting its way 80 miles from the port of Tientsin.

1940 – Sir Henry Tizard heads a British scientific mission to the United States, carrying with him details of all of Britain’s most advanced thinking in several vital fields. There are ideas on jet engines, explosives, gun turrets and above all a little device called the cavity magnetron. This valve is vital for the development of more advanced types of radar, including the versions used in proximity fuses later and the types working on centimetric wavelengths which will be vital at sea in the U-boat war. The US Official History will later describe this collection as the “most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores.”

1941 – The Atlantic Charter was created in 1941. It was a joint declaration of peace aims and a statement of principles by US Pres. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill that renounced aggression.

1941 - USS PC-457 is accidentally sunk in collision with U.S. freighter Norluna, North of Puerto Rico. 2 crew were killed.

1942 - When Lt. Elza Shahn ferried his Lockheed P-38F Lightning to England, he spotted a German Focke-Wulf Fw 200C-3 Condor near Iceland. Lt. Shahn shot the Condor down, becoming the first American Army pilot to shoot down a German plane in World War II.

1943 - Curtiss XP-60E-CU, 42-79425, is damaged in a forced landing just before being released to the USAAF for official trials. Becomes XP-60C when it is retrofit with wings, landing gear, and other items from the Curtiss XP-60A-CU, 42-79423. Meanwhile, original Curtiss XP-60C-CU, 42-79424, becomes second XP-60E with removal of 2,000 hp (1,500 kW) R-2800-53 engine and contraprops, replaced with R-2800-10 engine and four-blade prop. Whole P-60 project is essentially a dead-end, being nothing more than Curtiss' attempt to stretch pre-war design that started out as the P-36, and the company's unwillingness or inability to start fresh with a new fighter design will force them out of the airframe business a few years after the war.

1943 – New draft regulations come into force. There is a revised list of reserved occupations and having dependents are now deciding factors in deferments.

1944 – The US federal government allowed the manufacture of certain domestic appliances, such as electric ranges and vacuum cleaners, to resume on a limited basis.1944 – The US federal government allowed the manufacture of certain domestic appliances, such as electric ranges and vacuum cleaners, to resume on a limited basis.

1945 – At a government meeting with Emperor Hirohito, the emperor states that the war should end. He records a radio message to the Japanese people saying that they must “bear the unbearable.” During the night, begining about 2300 hours, a group of army officers lead forces number over 1000 in an attempt to steal the recording and prevent it being broadcast but fail to overcome the guards at the Imperial Palace. Coup leader, Major Kenji Hatanaka, who killed the commander of the imperial guard, commits suicide after its failure. The Japanese decision to surrender is transmitted to the Allies.

1945 – In the last air raid of the war, during the night (August 14-15) US B-29 Superfortress bombers strike Kumagaya and Isezaki, northwest of Tokyo, and Akita-Aradi oil refinery.

1945 – The American War Production Board removes all restrictions on the production of automobiles in the United States. Meanwhile, General Douglas MacArthur is appointed supreme Allied commander to accept the Japanese surrender. An immediate suspension of hostilities is ordered and Japan is ordered to end fighting by all its forces on all fronts immediately.

1959 - Martin XSM-68-1-MA Titan I missile B-5, 57–2692, explodes on launchpad at Launch Complex 19 during sub-orbital flight, Cape Canaveral, Florida, when its tie-down bolts explode prematurely as the vehicle builds up thrust. An umbilical generates a "no-go" signal prompting an engine-kill signal from the flight controls and the Titan loses all thrust, falls back through the launcher ring and explodes. The umbilical tower is damaged in the ensuing fire.

1962 – Test pilot Joe Walker flew the X-15 to 59,009 meters (193,609 feet) and Mach 5.25.

1963 – Former USS Queenfish (SS-393) was sunk as a target by USS Swordfish (SSN-579)

1964 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 31,486 meters (103,300 feet) and Mach 5.23.

1964 - Lockheed U-2A, 56-6955, Article 395, was the fifth and last airframe of the USAF supplementary production, delivered to the USAF in March 1959. Assigned to the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, Laughlin AFB, Texas, it crashed near Boise, Idaho. ROCAF pilot successfully ejects.

1967 – Former USS Scurry (MSF-304) was sunk as a target off the Virginia Capes.

1968 – Former USS Devilfish (AGSS-292) was sunk as a target by  USS Wahoo (SS-565) off San Francisco, California as part of a MK 16 MOD 8 torpedo test in 2000 fathoms (12,000 feet or 3,700 meters) of water.

1974 – Congress authorized US citizens to own gold.

1978 - A U.S. Navy Douglas C-117D Skytrain departed NAS Agana, Guam, to fly to Ulithi, with 30 souls aboard, including two rear admirals, 13 members of the Navy Band, and four Department of the Interior officials, who were on a mission to visit the Trust Territories. About 130 miles out, the right engine's oil pressure dropped, and the pilots shut the engine down and turned back to Guam. Prior to takeoff they had not factored in heat and humidity to the airplane performance, and so were now too heavy to maintain altitude on one engine. In trying to maintain altitude, they slowed to 100 MPH, which made them sink even faster. They ditched 8 miles from the southern tip of Guam. The pilot failed to use flaps to lower his speed during landing, and landed with a 15 MPH tailwind, contributing to a hard landing, the aircraft nose tearing off, and two fatalities.

1995 – Shannon Faulkner officially became the first female cadet in the history of The Citadel, South Carolina’s state military college. She quit the school less than a week later, citing the stress of her court fight, and her isolation among the male cadets.

1997 – An unrepentant Timothy McVeigh was formally sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing.

2001 – Helios, a remote-controlled, solar powered NASA plane, reached a record 96,500 feet.


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## mhansen2

15 August

1824 – Freed American slaves formed the country of Liberia.

1863 – Submarine H. L. Hunley had arrived in Charleston on two covered railroad flat cars. Brigadier General Jordan advised Mr. B.A. Whitney that a reward of $100,000 dollars would he paid by John Fraser and Company for the destruction of U.S.S. New Ironsides and other ships.

1876 – US law removed Indians from Black Hills after gold find. Sioux leaders Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull led their warriors to protect their lands from invasion by prospectors following the discovery of gold.

1895 – Commissioning of U.S.S. Texas, the first American steel-hulled battleship. Texas served off Cuba during the Spanish-American War and took part in the naval battle of Santiago. Under the name of San Marcos, she was sunk in weapon effects tests in Chesapeake Bay in 1911.

1908 – First Navy post offices established in Navy ships.

1914 – The American-built waterway across the Isthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, is inaugurated with the passage of the U.S. vessel Ancon, a cargo and passenger ship.

1945 – World War II gasoline rationing in America ended on this day.

1945 – Celebrations mark the end of World War II — VJ Day. A two-day holiday is proclaimed for all federal employees.  V-J Day is also used to describe 2 September.

1945 – The recorded message of Emperor Hirohito is broadcast to the Japanese people. Many cannot at first accept what has happened. The tight control of the government has prevented civilians from knowing the full extent of the weakness of Japan’s position.

1948 – The Republic of Korea [South Korea] was proclaimed.

1956 – Former LST-17 was sunk by torpedo as a target.

1958 – Former USS Hillsborough County (LST-827) was sunk as a target in the Gulf of California.

1961 – Two days after sealing off free passage between East and West Berlin with barbed wire, East German authorities begin building a wall–the Berlin Wall–to permanently close off access to the West.

1975 - Lockheed U-2R, 68-10334, Article 056, sixth airframe of the first R-model order, first flown 18 May 1968, N814X allocated, delivered to 100th SRW, 10 June 1968. Crashes into the Gulf of Thailand ~50 miles S of U-Tapao, this date, when pilot Capt. Jon T. Little, 32, of Tucson, Arizona, ejects from the aircraft he was ferrying back to the U.S. from U-Tapao. Shortly after departing the Thai base in the company of another U-2R and a KC-135 on a very dark night, the autopilot develops problems and Little loses control as it overspeeds. The tail separates and the pilot ejects, being rescued by a fishing boat in the Gulf of Thailand the next morning. The fishing boat crew takes Little to the Thai village of Patani near the Malaysian border said a spokesman for Pacific Command. Although Little survives, he never flies a U-2 again, SAC tradition at the time. This is the second U-2R loss.

2001 – The Air Force gave the go-ahead to build its new F-22 fighter but said it would build fewer planes for more money than it had once planned.

2003 – Former USS Henry B. Wilson (DDG-7) was sunk as a target 250nm SSW of Los Angeles, California.

2004 - A US Marine Corps CH-53D Sea Stallion lost tail rotor authority on approach to MCAS Futenma on the island of Okinawa. This was due to improper maintenance. The failure to install a cotter pin resulted in vibrations forcing loose a bolt, thus causing separation of the tail boom from the aircraft. The aircraft proceeded to spin out of control striking a college building before hitting the ground and catching fire. The post maintenance test flight crew of 3 survived the crash with injuries.

2005 - A US Navy Grumman C-2A Greyhound, BuNo 162178, c/n 58, of VAW-120, makes successful belly landing at Chambers Field, Naval Air Station Norfolk, Virginia, after undercarriage refuses to extend. Aircraft had departed Norfolk for NAS Pensacola, Florida, when problems were detected. Aircraft circled for two hours to burn fuel before making successful landing. None of 25 on board were injured. Airframe struck off charge with Class A damage, as damaged beyond repair.

2007 - Lts. Ryan Betton, Cameron Hall and Jerry Smith were killed when their Grumman E-2C Hawkeye, BuNo 163696, 'AD', from Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 120 (VAW-120), based at the Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off North Carolina at ~2300 hrs. An investigation was unable to determine the cause of the crash, according to a copy of the Judge Advocate General final report — known as a JAGMAN — obtained by Navy Times. The aircraft catapulted off the deck of the carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) and crashed into the water moments later. The carrier never received any emergency radio transmissions or acknowledgment by the mishap crew, according to the report.


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## mhansen2

16 August

1691 – Yorktown, Va., was founded.

1812 – During the War of 1812, American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit and his army to the British without a fight.

1812 – USS Constitution recaptures American merchant brig Adeline.

1858 – A telegraphed message from Britain’s Queen Victoria to President Buchanan was transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable. The cable linked Ireland and Canada and failed after a few weeks.

1861 – President Lincoln prohibited the states of the Union from trading with the seceding states of the Confederacy.

1896 – Sometime prospector George Carmack stumbles across gold while salmon fishing along the Klondike River in the Yukon.

1942 – U.S. Navy L class blimp L-8, a former Goodyear advertising blimp, of ZP-32, departed Treasure Island, San Francisco, California, with crew of two officer-pilots. Five hours later the partially deflated L-8 is sighted drifting over Daly City, California where it touches down sans crew. Nothing is ever found of Lt. Ernest D. Cody and Ensign Charles E. Adams. It is assumed that they were lost over water but were never found. The control car from this blimp is now in the National Museum of Naval Aviation, NAS Pensacola,

1942 – Third firing of German V-2 guided missile.  The nose broke off after 45 seconds of flight.

1945 – The Emperor issues an Imperial Rescript (decree) at 1600 hours (local time) ordering all Japanese forces to cease fire. The Cabinet resigns. General Prince Higashikumi becomes the prime minister of Japan and forms a new government. He orders the Imperial Army to obey the Emperor’s call and lay down their arms.

1945 – Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, (captured by the Japanese on the island of Corregidor, in the Philippines), is freed by Russian forces from a POW camp in Manchuria, China.

1945 – Following the surrender of the Japanese, Ho Chi Minh and his ‘People’s Congress’ create a National liberation Committee of Vietnam to form a provisional government.

1946 - Captain Elmer Lee Belcher Jr. from Roanoke Alabama crashed to his death near Salinas Ecuador (Julio Moreno). He was stationed at France Field Canal Zone with the 20th Fighter Squadron of the Sixth Air Force. Flying a P-47D serial # 44-40191. He was flying by instruments in bad weather when he crashed.

1947 – The fate of the scuttled and never-completed ex-German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin is something of a mystery.  Some sources say she was sunk this date while under tow to Russia by either striking a mine or deliberately scuttled.  Other Soviet records claim the ship reached Russia and was later subjected to ordnance tests and eventually torpedoed and sunk.  The wreck was discovered 12 July 2006 in the Baltic Sea at 55° 31′ 3″ N, 18° 17′ 9″ E.

1956 - *The Battle of Palmdale* was the attempted shoot-down of a runaway Grumman F6F-5K Hellcat drone by United States Air Force interceptors in the skies over Southern California. The drone was launched at 1134 hrs. PDT from Point Mugu Naval Air Station and soon went out of control. Northrop F-89D Scorpion interceptor aircraft of the 437th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron took off from Oxnard Air Force Base and caught up to the drone, but were ultimately unable to bring it down, in spite of expending all of their 208 rockets.

After it ran out of fuel, the unmanned aircraft crashed in a sparsely populated tract of desert. During the incident over 1000 acres were scorched and a substantial amount of property was damaged or destroyed.

1960 – Air Force Col Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft.


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## mhansen2

17 August

1585 – A first group of colonists sent by Sir Walter Ralegh under the charge of Ralph Lane lands in the New World to create Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of present-day North Carolina.

1590 – John White, the leader of 117 colonists sent in 1587 to Roanoke Island (North Carolina) to establish a colony, returned from a trip to England to find the settlement deserted. No trace of the settlers was ever found.

1812 – Frigate President captures British schooner L’Adeline in North Atlantic.

1863 - USS Crocus was a Union screw steam tug of 122 tons, built in 1863 at Mystic, Conn. that was wrecked this date at Bodie Island with no loss of life.

1921 – German WW1 battlecruiser SMS Baden was scuttled by Germans in Scapa Flow in 1919 but refloated by the British Navy and used for a gunnery target.  After numerous large caliber hits, she was scuttled this date in Hurd Deep in the English Channel. 

1941 – The United States government presents a formal warning to the Japanese along the lines agreed at Placentia Bay.

1942 – The first bombing raid flown by a completely American squadron bombs Rouen in France.

1942 - Grumman XF6F-3 Hellcat, BuNo 02982, first flown 30 July 1942, suffers engine failure of Pratt & Whitney R-2800-10 on test flight out of Bethpage, New York, Grumman test pilot Bob Hall dead-sticks into a farmer's field on Long Island, survives unpowered landing but airframe heavily damaged.

1945 - Two Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers collide over Weatherford, Texas, during a night bomber training exercise. Eighteen crew members are killed, two manage to escape from the falling wreckage and parachute to safety. An Associated Press account stated that some crew that bailed out had their chutes set alight by fiery wreckage and subsequently fell to their deaths. Residents of the town were panicked by the collision high overhead. "The explosion shook Weatherford. The skies were full of pieces of burning planes. The glare was seen 20 miles away. Some had a first impression that the town had been hit by a Jap balloon bomb." Boeing B-29A-10-BN Superfortress, 42-93895, of the 234th Combat Crew Training Squadron, Clovis Army Air Field, New Mexico, and Boeing B-29B-40-MO Superfortress, 44-86276, (the last Block 40-MO airframe) of the 231st Combat Crew Training Squadron, Alamagordo Army Air Field, New Mexico, involved.

1945 – Ho Chi Minh begins the first of a series of eight letters to President Harry Truman. Because of his relations with the OSS, collaborating against the Japanese, he regards the US as the friend of all struggling peoples. He asks for US aid in gaining Vietnam’s independence from France. There is no record of any US official ever answering these appeals. The US government is in a quandary, not wanting to support French colonialism, but not wanting to turn Vietnam over to a Communist administration.

1953 - A T-6 Texan was shot down over the Korean demilitarized zone by North Korean ground fire. One crew member was killed and one survived.

1957 - A B-25 Mitchell medium bomber assigned to Vance Air Force Base, Enid, Oklahoma, crashes into a housing project near Palm Beach Air Force Base in Palm Beach, Florida at ~0300 hours just prior to landing on the final leg of a training flight. The four-man crew are KWF. The crew were 1st Lt. Robert E. DeTroye, of San Luis Obispo, California; 1st Lt. John Jones, 27, Muncie, Indiana; 1st Lt. James E. Brookman, Mount Vernon, Illinois; and 2nd Lt. James A. Ewalt, Northwoods, Missouri. All of the men were unmarried, it was announced.

1960 – American Francis Gary Powers pleaded guilty at his Moscow trial for spying over the Soviet Union in a U-2 plane.

1962 – Navy’s first hydrofoil patrol craft, USS High Point (PCH-1) launched at Seattle, WA.

1968 – Former USS Traw (DE-350) was sunk as a target by gunfire from USS Bausell (DD-845) during Operation StrikEx 3-68, off Baja California, Mexico.

1969 - A US Army OH-23 Raven of the 59th Aviation Company was shot down over the Korean demilitarized zone. The crew, Malcolm Loepke, Herman Hofstatter and one other, were captured by the North Koreans and released 108 days later.

1971 - USS Regulus (AF-57) ran aground and was wrecked at Kau Yi Chau, Honk Kong. She was later broken up at Junk Bay.

1982 - A United States Army Reserve Medevac UH-1H Crashed at Salt Lake City International Airport during an Auto-rotation exercise. Killing the pilot. Other crew members sustained serious injuries.

1987 – Rudolf Hess, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s former deputy, is found strangled to death in Spandau Prison in Berlin at the age of 93, apparently the victim of suicide.

1994 - US NAVY McDonnell Douglas T-45A Goshawk Mid-air collision between T-45 163629 and 163639 60 miles southwest of NAS Kingsville, Texas. Pilot - LTJG Brian S. DeHaan - did not eject and was killed.

1996 – An Air Force C-130 cargo plane carrying gear for President Clinton crashed and exploded shortly after takeoff from Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming; eight crew members and a Secret Service employee were killed.

1998 – It was reported that spy satellites had detected a secret underground complex in North Korea that was suspected of being involved in a nuclear weapons program.

2014 – For the first time, an unmanned plane took off and landed form a US Aircraft Carrier, alongside a manned aircraft. The X-47B UCAS participated in flight operations side by side with the Navy’s standard F/A/-18E Super Hornet fighter. The goal for the flight test on the USS Theodore Roosevelt was for the two aircraft to take off within 90 seconds of one another and then for both had to land within a minute and a half.


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## mhansen2

18 August

1812 – Returning from a cruise into Canadian waters Captain Isaac Hull’s USS Constitution encountered British Captain Richard Dacre’s HMS Guerriere about 750 miles out of Boston. After a frenzied 55-minute battle that left 101 dead, Guerriere rolled helplessly in the water, smashed beyond salvage. Dacre struck his colors and surrendered to Hull’s boarding party.

1838 – Six US Navy ships departed Hampton Roads, Va., led by Lt. Charles Wilkes on a 3-year mission called the US South Seas Exploring Expedition, the “U.S. Ex. Ex.” The mission proved Antarctica to be a continent.

1863 - CSS Oconee was a Confederate States side wheel paddle steamer used as a blockade runner. She was formerly the PSS Evergalde and later the CSS Savannah before being converted to a blockade runner. She foundered at sea in a gale/storm after leaving Savannah in bad weather.

1914 – President Wilson issued his Proclamation of Neutrality, aimed at keeping the United States out of World War I.

1914 – Germany declared war on Russia.

1920 – The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, is ratified by Tennessee, giving it the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it the law of the land.

1930 - Capt. Ira C. Eaker takes Boeing P-12B, 29-441, c/n 1189, of the AC Detachment, Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., up for tests to see how the ship handles with 70 lbs. of ballast – the weight of period radios and their battery – loaded behind the cockpit. After initiating a spin to the right from 7,000 feet, the fighter enters a flat spin which no control inputs can stop.

Eaker bails out at low altitude, skinning his nose and leg as he strikes the stabilizer, but his partially opened chute fetches up on the steep roof of a house with the pilot going over the other side, breaking his fall somewhat. He suffers an injured foot when he slams into a concrete stoop but survives. The P-12 destroys a henhouse and burns in an apple orchard.

1937 - Col. William Caldwell McChord (1881–1937), rated a junior military aviator in 1918, was killed while trying to force-land his Northrop A-17, 35–105, near Maidens, Virginia. At the time of his death, he was Chief of the Training and Operations Division in HQ Army Air Corps. Tacoma Field, Washington, was renamed McChord Field, 17 December 1937.

1945 - Last U.S. air combat casualty of World War II occurs during mission 230 A-8, when two Consolidated B-32 Dominators of the 386th Bomb Squadron, 312th Bomb Group, launch from Yontan Airfield, Okinawa, for a photo reconnaissance run over Tokyo, Japan. Both bombers are attacked by several Japanese fighters of both the 302nd Air Group at Atsugi and the Yokosuka Air Group that make 10 gunnery passes. Japanese aces Sadamu Komachi and Saburō Sakai are part of this attack. B-32 piloted by 1st Lt. John R. Anderson, is hit at 20,000 feet, cannon fire knocks out number two (port inner) engine, and three crew are injured, including Sgt. Anthony J. Marchione, 19, of the 20th Reconnaissance Squadron, who takes 20 mm hit to the chest, dying 30 minutes later. Tail gunner Sgt. John Houston destroys one attacker. Lead bomber, Consolidated B-32-20-CF Dominator, 42-108532, "Hobo Queen II", piloted by 1st Lt. James Klein, is not seriously damaged but second Consolidated B-32-35-CF Dominator, 42-108578, loses engine, has upper turret knocked out of action, and loses partial rudder control.

Both bombers land at Yontan Airfield just past ~1800 hrs. after surviving the last air combat of the Pacific war. The following day, propellers are removed from Japanese aircraft as part of surrender agreement. Marchione is buried on Okinawa on 19 August, his body being returned to his Pottstown, Pennsylvania home on 18 March 1949. He is interred in St. Aloysius Old Cemetery with full military honors. B-32, 42-108578, is scrapped at Kingman, Arizona after the war.

1951 - Boeing XB-47-BO Stratojet, 46-065, first prototype of two, stalls on landing, suffers major structural damage. No injuries. Another source cites date of 18 August 1950.

1955 - A US Air Force LT-6 utility/training aircraft was shot down by North Korean ground fire after the aircraft inadvertently overflew the DMZ into North Korea. The pilot was wounded and the observer was killed. The body of the observer and the pilot were returned by the North Koreans on August 23, 1955.

1956 – Test pilot Iven Kincheloe flew the X-2 to 21,336 meters (70,000 feet) despite premature engine shutdown.

1963 - Twin accidents aboard the USS Constellation (CV-64) kill three. First, a McDonnell F-4B Phantom II, BuNo 149436, of VF-143, snaps arresting cable during night landing, goes over the side, pilot LT Robert J. Craig, 31, of San Diego is lost with his unidentified Radar Intercept Officer, three deck crew injured by whipping cable. Then several hours later, in an unrelated accident, Missile Technician 2nd Class Robert William Negus, originally from Lompoc, California, is crushed by a missile, the Navy in San Diego reported.

1966 – First ship-to-shore satellite radio message sent from USS Annapolis in South China Sea to Pacific Fleet Headquarters at Pearl Harbor.

1971 - CH-47A helicopter, airframe 66-19023, was operated by the 4th Aviation Company, 15th Aviation Group. The helicopter was transporting 33 soldiers of the Heavy Mortar Platoon, 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, 56th Field Artillery Brigade from battalion headquarters in Ludwigsburg to Grafenwoehr for live fire training exercises.

Fatigue failure of the rear rotor blade led to its separation causing structural damage resulting in the crash and explosion that killed all 37 on board, including four crew members. A memorial plaque was placed near the crash site in the forest outside Pegnitz, but it was stolen in 2009.

1974 - Lockheed C-141A Starlifter, 65-0274, of the 437th MAW, Charleston AFB, South Carolina, hits Mount Potosi at the 19,000 foot level, ~17 miles from destination, John F. Kennedy International Airport, La Paz, Bolivia, killing seven crew.

1976 – Two U.S. Army officers were killed in Korea’s demilitarized zone as a group of North Korean soldiers wielding axes and metal pikes attacked U.S. and South Korean soldiers.

1990 - USS Reid (FFG-30) fired warning shots across the bow of an Iraqi oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman—apparently the first shots fired by the United States in the Persian Gulf crisis.


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## mhansen2

19 August

1782 – Battle of Blue Licks – the last major engagement of the War of Independence, almost ten months after the surrender of the British commander Charles Cornwallis following the Siege of Yorktown.

1812 – The USS Constitution vs HMS Guerriere, was a single ship action during the War of 1812, approximately 400 miles southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1818 – Capt James Biddle takes possession of Oregon Territory for U.S.

1854 – The First Sioux War begins when United States Army soldiers kill Lakota chief Conquering Bear and in return are massacred.

1905 – Roald Amundsen and his crew of 6 aboard Gjøe, a converted herring boat, made contact with the US Coast Guard cutter Bear which confirmed their crossing the Northwest Passage following a 26-month journey.

1935 - Martin B-12A, 33-167, of the 31st Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomb Group, Hamilton Field, California, piloted by William Ball, receives heavy damage when the landing gear collapses on landing at Medford Airport, Medford, Oregon.

1936 – Former USS R-8 (SS-85) was used as a target vessel for an aerial bombing test. Four near-misses with 100 lb (45 kg) bombs sank her 71 mi (114 km) off Cape Henry, Virginia.

1940 – First flight of the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber.

1943 – Italians have approached the Allies about negotiating a surrender. General Bedell Smith, General Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff, and General Strong, his chief of intelligence areeive to continue talks with approaches to the British ambassador, Sir Samuel Hoare.

1944 – Liberation of Paris – Paris, France rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.

1945 – Japanese representatives of the government arrive in Manila to conclude the surrender of the remaining Japanese troops and receive instructions on the plans for the occupation of Japan and the signing of the surrender documents.

1945 - Pilot 1st Lt. James K. Holt ferries captured Messerschmitt Me 262A, 500098, "Cookie VII", FE-4011, from Newark Army Air Base, New Jersey to Freeman Field, Indiana, with a refuelling stop at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at ~ 1600 hrs, as one of two Messerschmitts being sent for testing after arriving in the U.S. aboard escort carrier HMS Reaper (D82). Upon landing at Pittsburgh, he experiences complete brake failure, overruns the runway, goes down steep incline, hits opposite side of ditch, tearing engines and undercarriage off the jet and breaking the fuselage in half. Pilot is unhurt but airframe is a total loss.

1946 - Vladimir Vodopivec, flying a Yak-3 of the Yugoslav Air Force shot down a US Army Air Force C-47 transport over Northern Yugoslavia (Slovenia). The crew of Harold Schreiber, Glen Freestone, Richard Claeys, Matthew Comko and Chester L. Lower were all killed.

1948 – Second launch attempt of the V-2/Bumper two-stage rocket from White Sands, New Mexico.  The first stage engine cut out due to propellant flow interruption after the vehicle reached an altitude of only 13.4 km (approx. 44,000 feet).

1955 - Sixth of 13 North American X-10s, GM-19312, c/n 6, on Navaho X-10 flight number 16, out of Edwards AFB, California, demonstrates planned automated landing on first AFMTC flight, but drag chute does not deploy after landing. The vehicle overruns the skid strip, the nosewheel collapses in the sand in the overrun, the tanks rupture, and the vehicle burns.

1957 – The first balloon flight to exceed 100,000 feet took off from Crosby, Minnesota. US Major David Simons reached 30,933 m. in a balloon.

1960 – Test pilot Joe Walker flew the X-15 to 23,159 meters (75,980 feet) and Mach 3.13.

1963 - A U.S. Air Force Boeing QB-47E Stratojet, of the 3205th Drone Director Group, veers off course on touchdown at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, crashing onto Eglin Parkway parallel to runway 32/14. The QB-47 was used for Bomarc Surface to Air Missile Program tests, which normally operated from Auxiliary Field Three (Duke Field), approximately 15 miles from the main base, but was diverted to Eglin Main after thunderstorms built up over Duke.

1963 - Two Boeing B-47 Stratojets of the 40th Bombardment Wing (another source claims 310th Bombardment Wing) from Schilling AFB, Salina, Kansas, B-47E, 53-2365, and B-47E, 53-6206, collide in mid-air over Irwin, Iowa, during a nine-hour navigation, air-refuelling and radar bomb scoring mission. Bombers depart Schilling at 1125 hrs. and 1126 hrs., then collide in overcast shortly after 1230 hrs., coming down on two farms ~2 miles apart. Two crew DOA at Harlan Hospital, Irwin, Iowa, three treated for injuries, one located alive. SAC identifies three survivors as Capt. Richard M. Smiley, 29, of Arlington, Kansas, aircraft commander of one B-47; Capt. Allan M. Ramsey, Jr., 32, of Bainbridge, Georgia, Smiley's navigator; Capt. Richard M. Snowden, 29, navigator on second B-47. Listed as missing: Capt. Leonard A. Theis, 29, San Fernando, California, co-pilot on second B-47; dead is Capt. Peter J. Macchi, 29, Belleville, New Jersey, Smiley's co-pilot; second fatality not immediately identified. Smiley suffers head injuries, Ramsey, back injuries, and Snowden, burns and leg injuries. It is unclear which crew was on which airframe.

1966 – Test pilot Bill Dana flew the X-15 to 54,254 meters (178,000 feet) and Mach 5.20.

1981 – Two US Navy F-14A Tomcats, of VF-41, flown by Henry Kleeman (RIO David Venlet) and Lawrence Muczynski (RIO James Anderson), flying from the USS Nimitz (CVN-68), each shot down a Libyan Su-22 Fitter over the Gulf of Sidra.

2009 - A United States Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk from Fort Campbell, Kentucky the home base of the 101st Airborne, crashes while on a training exercise being carried-out by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne). The accident occurred 400 ft below the summit of the 14,421 feet high (4,268 m) Mount Massive in the Sawatch Range, Colorado leaving 2 crew dead, 1 injured and 1 crew member missing.

2010 – The last US combat brigades departed Iraq in the early morning.

2013 - A USAF Rockwell B-1B Lancer of the 28th Bomb Wing, from Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, crashed in a remote area near Broadus, Montana, in the southeastern part of the state. Two pilots and two weapons systems officers ejected, but with some injuries.


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## mhansen2

20 August

1619 – The 1st African slaves arrived in North America aboard a Dutch privateer. It docked in Jamestown, Virginia, with twenty human captives among its cargo.

1775 – The Spanish establish the Presidio San Augustin del Tucson in the town that became Tucson, Arizona.

1804 – Sergeant Charles Floyd dies three months into the voyage of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, becoming the only member of the Corps of Discovery to die during the journey.

1861 - PSS R. W. Powell was a Confederate side-wheel steamer of 349 tons, built in 1855 at New Albany, Ind. that snagged at Plaquemine, Louisiana.

1861 - T. W. Riley was a Union sloop that was scuttled near the sloop Jane Wright by the USS Yankee and USS Restless at Wades Bay, Potomac River, to prevent its use by Confederates.

1863 - SS William S. Bull was a Union steamer of 16 tons built in 1861 at Buffalo, Ny. She foundered this date about 40 miles from Erie, PA.

1864 - SV Roan was a Union Brig of 127 tons that was captured and burnt by the CSS TALLAHASSEE south of Halifax, Nova Scotia while in ballast to Cape Breton Island.

1908 – The American Great White Fleet arrived in Sydney, Australia, to a warm welcome.

1910 – The 1st shot fired from an airplane was during a test flight over Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay.

1936 - Prototype Vought XSB2U-1 Vindicator, BuNo 9725, first flown at Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Connecticut, on 5 January 1936, accepted by the U.S. Navy on 2 July 1936, crashes near Norfolk, Virginia. During stall tests at low altitude (1,000 feet), the aircraft spun into shallow water of Willoughby Bay, killing the two aboard, pilot Lt. Cmdr. Samuel Hyer Arthur, and Chance Vought observer Robert Witbeck. Testing had sufficiently advanced, however, that a contract was signed on 26 October 1936 for 54 aircraft. The aircraft made its first flight on 21 May 1937 and deliveries to operational units began in December 1937.

1940 – Radar was used for the first time, by the British during the Battle of Britain.

1941 – Adolf Hitler authorized the development of the V-2 missile.

1942 – Plutonium was first weighed. Glenn T. Seaborg was a co-discoverer of Plutonium.

1945 – The War Production Board removes most of its controls over manufacturing activity. These and many other measures help the US economy to convert quickly to a peacetime basis. The American economy is actually stronger and more productive now, than before the war, and the standard of living, unlike that of any of the other major participants in the war, has actually increased.

1946 – World War II civilian truck restrictions were lifted in the U.S. Truck restrictions were only the beginning of special regulations during the war.

1946 - A captured Messerschmitt Me 262A, Wrknr. 111711, FE-0107, 711, crashed Tuesday afternoon ~two miles S of Xenia, Ohio, near Route 68, test pilot Walter J. McAuley, Jr., of the Flight Performance Section, Flight Test Division, Wright Field, Ohio, successfully parachuting to safety. This brand new airframe had been surrendered on 31 March 1945 by Messerschmitt test pilot Hans Fay who defected during a functional check flight rather than fly it to an operational unit, landing at Rhein-Main, Frankfurt, the first Me 262 to fall into Allied hands.

1948 - A Boeing B-29-15-BA Superfortress, 42-63442, crashes near Rapid City, South Dakota shortly after take-off from Rapid City AFB, killing all 17 on board.

1953 – The Soviet Union publicly acknowledged it had tested a hydrogen bomb.

1962 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 27,097 meters (88,900 feet) and Mach 5.24.

1968 – In the face of rising anti-Soviet protests in Czechoslovakia, Soviet troops (backed by troops from other Warsaw Pact nations) intervene to crush the protest.

1974 – In the wake of Nixon’s resignation, Congress reduces military aid to South Vietnam from $1 billion to $700 million. This was one of several actions that signaled the North Vietnamese that the United States was backing away from its commitment to South Vietnam.

1975 – Viking 1, an unmanned U.S. planetary probe, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to soft-land on Mars.

1977 – The United States launched Voyager 2, an unmanned spacecraft to explore the outer solar system.

1998 – Pres. Clinton ordered cruise missile attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan 13 days after the deadly embassy bombings in East Africa. About 50 missiles were fired at the camp of Osama Bin Laden and some 25 missiles against a suspected chemical plant in Khartoum.


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## mhansen2

21 August

1680 – Pueblo Indians took possession of Santa Fe, N.M., after driving out the Spanish. They destroyed almost all of the Spanish churches in Taos and Santa Fe.

1800 – U.S. Marine Corps Band gave its first concert in Washington, D.C.

1831 – Believing himself chosen by God to lead his people out of slavery, Nat Turner launches a bloody slave insurrection in Southampton County, Virginia.

1862 – As the economy took a beating from the Civil War, the Treasury Department sprung into action by releasing fractional currency, alternately known as postage currency. The new 5, 10, 25, and 50-cent notes hit the streets on this day.

1863 – The vicious guerilla war in Missouri spills over into Kansas and precipitates one of the most appalling acts of violence during the war when 150 men in the abolitionist town of Lawrence are murdered in a raid by Southern partisans.

1863 – USS Bainbridge was a Union brig, 259 tons, launched in 1842 at Boston. She capsized and sank off Cape Hatteras, with all lost but a cook and one crewman, who climbed into a boat.

1883 – The first installation of electric lights in a US Navy warship took place during the summer of 1883.

1867 – After the Civil War settlers rushed to claim lands in the Great Plains. By the mid-1867 the native peoples in Kansas began resisting by attacking settlements, railroad workers and travelers heading west. To help meet this emergency the War Department authorized placing volunteer units on active duty to patrol and protect the settlements. They were soon joined by elements of the U.S. 10th Cavalry. This unit was one of four Regular Army African American regiments composed of all-black enlisted men but almost entirely commanded by white officers. These men are often referred to as the “Buffalo Soldiers”, a nick name given them by the Native American because their hair resembles that of the buffalo.

1920 – Radio station built by U.S. Navy and French Government transmits first wireless message heard around the world. At time it was the most powerful radio station in the world.

1941 - Twenty-four-year-old Lt. Eugene M. Bradley, of Antlers, Oklahoma, assigned to the 64th Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor), 57th Pursuit Group (Interceptor), is killed while engaged in a dogfight training drill with Frank Mears, commander of the 64th. Lt. Bradley's Curtiss P-40C, 41-13348, spins out of a tight turn and spirals into a grove of trees one mile W of Windsor Locks Army Air Base, Windsor Locks, Connecticut, the first fatality at the new base. Following his funeral in Hartford, Lt. Bradley's remains are interred at San Antonio National Cemetery in Texas. In January 1942, the War Department formally authorized the field's designation as Bradley Field, as a tribute to the flier's memory, so designated on 20 January. It is now Bradley International Airport.

1944 - Lieutenant John M. Armitage, USNR, is killed while conducting air firing tests of a Tiny Tim rocket at the Naval Ordnance Test Station at Inyokern, California. He flew into the ground from 1,500 ft (460 m) in a Curtiss SB2C-1C Helldiver, BuNo 018248 and was killed after the launching the rocket. Accident investigators discovered that the shock wave from the rocket's blast caused a jam in the SB2C's flight controls. Airfield dedicated 30 May 1945 in his honor as Armitage Field, now part of Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake, California.

1945 – President Harry S. Truman ended the Lend-Lease program that had shipped some $50 billion in aid to America’s Allies during World War II.

1945 – Japan appeals to Kamikaze pilots to cease operations. A joint statement by the Japanese Imperial headquarters and the government instructs the general public in Japan to go about its business calmly and, according to the official news agency, authorities have forbidden fraternization saying “there will be no direct contact between the general public and the Allied landing forces.”

1945 – Haroutune (Harry) Krikor Daghlian, Jr. (May 4, 1921 – September 15, 1945), an Armenian American physicist with the Manhattan Project, accidentally irradiated himself during a critical mass experiment at the remote Omega Site facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, resulting in his death 25 days later. Daghlian was irradiated as a result of a criticality accident that occurred when he accidentally dropped a tungsten carbide brick onto a 6.2 kg delta phase plutonium bomb core. This core, available at the close of World War II and later nicknamed the “Demon core”, also resulted in the death of Louis Slotin in a similar accident, and was used in the Able detonation, during the Crossroads series of nuclear weapon testing.

1947 – Former USS Tattnall (APD-19) was towed to Royston, British Columbia and beached as part of a breakwater.

1951 - A Lockheed T-33A-1-LO Shooting Star, 49-917, of the 5th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 52d Fighter-Interceptor Group, crashes on take-off from McGuire Air Force Base into a scrub pine forest at adjacent Fort Dix, New Jersey, killing the two crew and spraying burning fuel over a group of 54 U.S. Army soldiers assigned to B battery of the Ninth division's 26th Field Artillery Battalion, wrapping up an army communications exercise, killing 11 and injuring 20. The trainer, unable to gain altitude, clips trees at the edge of a clearing and impacts 50 feet (15 m) from an army six-by-six troop carrier vehicle upon which some soldiers had already boarded. Others were lined up in formation close by. Eight died almost instantly and three succumbed later in hospital. All Army fatalities were 22 or younger, all hailed from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and all had been in the army for less than five months. Also killed were pilot Capt. William H. Raub, (also reported as William H. Rauh, 31, of Seattle, and his passenger, Maj. Theodore Deakyne, 30, of Levittown, New York. "It was an unfortunate tragedy – a remarkable coincidence of circumstances which brought the plane to the spot where the men were on the verge of moving out. Thirty seconds later might have made a lot of difference," Lt. Bertram Brinley, Fort Dix public information officer, said.

1954 - Col. Einar Axel Malmstrom, vice wing commander at Great Falls Air Force Base, Montana, is killed in the crash of a Lockheed T-33A-1-LO Shooting Star trainer, 52-9630, c/n 7815, near the base. Local citizens then urge the renaming of the facility in his honor. The base was renamed on 15 June 1956.

1959 – The modern United States receives its crowning star when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a proclamation admitting Hawaii into the Union as the 50th state. The president also issued an order for an American flag featuring 50 stars arranged in staggered rows: five six-star rows and four five-star rows. The new flag became official July 4, 1960.

1965 – Launch of Gemini 5, crewed by COL Gordon Cooper and LCDR Charles Conrad Jr., USN, who completed 120 orbits in almost 8 days at an altitude of 349.8 km. Recovery was by helicopter from USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39).

1967 – Test Pilot Pete Knight flew the X-15 to 27,737 meters (91,000 feet) and Mach 4.94.

1968 – Test pilot Bill Dana flew the X-15 to 81,534 meters (267,513 feet) and Mach 4.79.

1968 – After 5 years Russia once again jammed Voice of America radio.

1980 – USS Truxtun (CGN-35) rescues 42 Vietnamese refugees and USS Merrill (DD-976) rescues 62 Vietnamese refugees, over 200 miles southeast of Saigon.

1984 - U.S. Navy LTV A-7E Corsair II, BuNo 157495, of attack squadron VA-56 Champions, suffers a fatal ramp strike on USS Midway (CV-41), airframe splitting in two aft the wing with a resultant fireball as fuel cells rupture.

1987 – Sgt. Clayton Lonetree, the first Marine ever court-martialed for spying, was convicted in Quantico, Va., of passing secrets to the KGB after becoming romantically involved with a Soviet woman while serving as a U.S. Embassy guard in Moscow. Lonetree ended up serving eight years in a military prison and was released in February 1996.

1988 – Former USS Tortuga (LSD-26) was scuttled about 20 miles off San Miguel Island, the westernmost of California's Channel Islands.

1993 – In a serious setback for NASA, engineers lost contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft on a $980 million mission. Its fate remains unknown.


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## mhansen2

22 August

1775 – England’s King George III proclaimed the American colonies in a state of open rebellion.

1846 – The United States annexed New Mexico.

1962 - PSS Kelloha was a Union side wheel paddle steamer of 396 tons built at Newport, Michigan in 1858. She ran aground and was lost on Lake Huron.

1863 - SS Georges Creek was a Union screw steamer of 448 tons, built in 1853 at Philadelphia. She foundered off Cape Hatteras.

1864 - PSS Courier was a Union stern-wheel steamer of 258 tons, built in 1857 at Wheeling, West Virginia. She burned on August 22nd, 1864, at the mouth of the Cache River between Cairo and Mound City, Ill., while putting stores on the steamer Volunteer.

1864 – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention, the first codified international treaty that covered the sick and wounded soldiers in the battlefield.

1865 - SS Ladonia was a U.S. Screw towboat steamer, 75 tons. Built in 1863 at Portsmouth, Ohio. She was lost this date, circumstances and location not documented.

1911 – President William Taft vetoed a joint resolution of Congress granting statehood to Arizona. Taft vetoed the resolution because he believed a provision in the state constitution authorizing the recall of judges was a blow at the independence of the judiciary. The offending clause was removed an Arizona was admitted to statehood on February 14, 1912. Afterward, the state restored the article in its constitution.

1945 – Conflict in Vietnam began when a group of Free French parachute into southern Indochina, in response to a successful coup by communist guerilla Ho Chi Minh.

1945 – The Japanese garrison on Mili Atoll capitulated in a ceremony aboard USS Levy (DE-162). This is the first time a Japanese force surrenders en masse.

1945 - A Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer, BuNo 59885, of VPB-197, operating from NAAS Camp Kearney, California, exploded in midair and crashed into the sea 20 miles southwest of San Diego.  Names of the crew of 10 were withheld. A Navy submarine tender witnessed the crash and launched a boat, but no survivors were found.

1946 – The eleventh launch of a V-2 rocket at White Sands, New Mexico.  A control failure lead to the cut-off signal being sent at 6.5 seconds into the flight.

1951 - Bell X-1D, 48-1386, suffers a fire/explosion internally while being carried aloft for its first flight and is jettisoned from mothership, Boeing B-29-96-BO Superfortress, 45-21800, impacting on Rogers Dry Lakebed, Edwards AFB, California.

1956 - While on a patrol mission from Iwakuni Japan, a US Navy P4M-1Q Mercator of VQ-1 (BuNo 124362) disappeared after a nighttime attack by People's Republic of China PLAAF pilot Zhongwen Song, 32 miles off the coast of Wenchow China and 180 miles north of Formosa. There were no survivors of the 16 crew members. The bodies of two crew members, James Ponsford and Albert Mattin, and some wreckage were recovered by the USS Dennis J. Buckley (DDR 808). The bodies of two other crew members, Jack Curtis and William Haskins, were recovered by the Chinese and returned to the US. The remains of the other crew members, Donald Barber, Warren Caron, James Deane, Francis Flood, William Humbert, Milton Hutchinson, Harold Lounsbury, Carl Messinger, Wallace Powell, Donald Sprinkle, Leonard Strykowsky and Lloyd Young, were never found.

1962 – NS Savannah, world’s 1st nuclear powered merchant ship made her maiden voyage from Yorktown, Va., to Savannah, Ga.

1963 – Test pilot Joe Walker flew the X-15 to its highest altitude of 107,960 meters (354,422 feet) and a speed of Mach 5.58.  *This altitude record stood until Space Shuttle Columbia’s first flight on 12 April 1981.*

1974 – Former USS Thorn (DD-647) was sunk as a target by aircraft from USS Saratoga (CV-60), approximately 75 miles (140 km) east of Jacksonville, Florida.

1990 – President Bush signed an order calling up reservists to bolster the US military buildup in the Persian Gulf.

1992 – Former USS Mullinnix (DD-944) was sunk as a target.

1994 – The Coast Guard Icebreaker Polar Sea (WAGB-11) and the CCGS Louis S. Ste Laurent became the first “North American surface ships” to reach the North Pole. An HH-65A from Aviation Training Center Mobile, detached to the Polar Sea, became the first U.S. (and Coast Guard) helicopter to reach the pole as well.

1996 – The US Army began operating an incinerator in Utah to destroy a 14,000 ton stockpile of chemical weapons over 7 years.

1997 - The crew of a USAF General Dynamics F-16B Fighting Falcon, 82-1037, of the 39th Flight Test Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base, "ET" tailcode, ejected over the Gulf of Mexico after their jet suffered separation of engine fourth stage about seven miles south of Destin, Florida. The airmen were rescued by the crew and passengers of “Top Gun,” a charter fishing boat out of Destin, who saw the crash. The airmen were members of the Eglin's Development Test Center's 39th Flight Test Squadron. The aircraft was returning to Eglin after flying as a chase aircraft in a mission with an Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle. Divers located the jet in 70 feet of water a week following the accident. A barge carried the wreckage to a hangar at Eglin.

2005 – Former USS Oldendorf (DD-972) was sunk as a target during a live-fire exercise off Hawaii by USS Russell (DDG-59).

2013 - USN Sikorsky MH-60S Knighthawk, 617, of HSC-6 "Indians", crashed in the Red Sea. Three crew members were rescued, two pilots presumed dead.


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## mhansen2

23 August

1861 - SV Aid was a confederate ship of 100 tons captured inside Mobile Bar on the 5th June 1861 by boats from the USS Niagara. She was sunk this date at the east end of Santa Rosa Island to block the entrance to the Confederate held Pensacola Harbor.

1862 - USS Adirondack was an Ossipee class wooden screw sloop built in 1861 at the New York Navy Yard. She ran aground on Little Bahama Bank just north of Grand Bahama Island.

1865 - USS Commodore McDonough was a Union side wheel paddle steamer built in 1862 at New York City. She foundered in the Atlantic Ocean while being towed from New York City to Port Royal, South Carolina.

1889 – The 1st ship-to-shore wireless message was received in US in SF.

1923 – Captain Lowell Smith and Lieutenant John P. Richter performed the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours.

1933 - Three USAAC bombers of the 11th Bombardment Squadron, March Field, California, make a practice flight over the San Bernardino Valley with orders to make landings and takeoffs from the 70-acre sod Shandin Hills Airport in San Bernardino and then return to base. The first two do so without incident but as Keystone B-4A, 32-130, piloted by Lt. Kenneth P. Gardner, with five enlisted crew aboard, approaches the boundary at 0830 hrs., an "air pocket" causes the bomber to drop suddenly and the undercarriage is shorn off as the plane strikes an embankment on the edge of the field. "The pilot 'gunned' his motors, lifting the ship back into the air momentarily, and then settled down for a landing on the fuselage and the lower wings. The plane slid along for 100 yards before it stopped, its nose in the sand. The bomber did not overturn, a fact which probably saved the pilot and his crew from injury. The propellers were bent and the fuselage damaged. An army crew dismantled the ship at the field." The airframe was transported back to March Field on trucks.

1939 – Lloyd’s of London advanced war-risk rates as the Nazis threatened to invade Poland and Europe braced itself for war. The Dow responded to the news with a 3.25 drop to close the day at 131.82.

1939 – Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact, stunning the world, given their diametrically opposed ideologies.

1942 – A Boeing B-17E-BO Flying Fortress, 41-9091, c/n 2563, of the 427th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bomb Group, operating out of Biggs Field, El Paso, Texas, suffers center fuselage failure in extremely bad weather 12 miles W of Las Cruces, New Mexico, only the radio operator and the engineering officer for the 427th Bomb Squadron, both in the radio room, survive by parachuting. Pilot was James E. Hudson. The 303rd BG was due to deploy overseas from Biggs on 24 August.

1943 - Lt. Harold Nicholson was killed in the crash of Bell P-39Q-1-BE Airacobra, 42-19593, of the 363d Fighter Squadron, 357th Fighter Group, two miles N of Oroville Army Air Field.

1944 - A B-24H-20-CF Liberator, 42-50291, "Classy Chassis II", crashes into a school at Freckleton, Lancashire, England at 1047 hrs. while on approach to Warton Aerodrome. Twenty adults, 38 children and the three-man crew are killed. In addition to a memorial in the village churchyard, a marker was placed at the site of the accident in 2007.

1949 - On the first flight test of the McDonnell XF-85 Goblin parasite fighter, 45–524, (the second of two prototypes), McDonnell test pilot Edwin F. Schoch successfully detaches from trapeze carried on Boeing EB-29B Superfortress, 44-84111, named "Monstro", but when he tries to hook up after free flight, the small fighter, buffeted in turbulence from the bomber, swings violently forward, smashes canopy against the trapeze, knocking the pilot's helmet off. Schoch successfully belly lands on dry lakebed at Muroc Air Force Base, California, suffering little damage.

1954 – First flight of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.

1958 – In Taiwan Straits Crisis, Units of 7th Fleet move into Taiwan area to support Taiwan against Chinese Communists. This massive concentration of the Pacific Fleet in Quemoy-Matsu area prevents invasion of islands by China.

1958 - USS Prestige (MSO-465) ran aground in Naruto Strait, Inland Sea, Japan, was abandoned and declared a total loss.

1975 - A Grumman A-6E Intruder, BuNo 149948, 'AJ-500', of VA-35, and a McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II from USS Nimitz (CVN-68) collide in midair over the Atlantic Ocean during a refueling maneuver ~600 miles SSW of Scotland. A spokesman said that the two crew of the A-6 were missing and presumed dead while the two Marine crew of the F-4J were recovered. Killed in the accident was the pilot of the A-6, Lt. Garwood Bacon of Riverton, New Jersey, as well as the navigator, Lt. Craig Renshaw of Middletown, Pennsylvania.

1979 - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17F, 002, of the USAF 4477th Test & Evaluation Squadron, Groom Lake, Nevada is lost due to pilot induced loss of control. Pilot Lt. M. Hugh Brown, USN, 31, of VX-4, "Bandit 12", originally of Roanoke, Virginia, enters spin while engaging adversary, U.S. Navy Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter, recovers, but enters second spin too close to ground, irrecoverable, impacts at steep angle near Tonopah airfield boundary, killed instantly. No bail-out attempted.

1990 – US began to call up of 46,000 reservists to the Persian Gulf.

1990 – East and West Germany announced that they would unite Oct 3.

1991 – Internaut’s day; Tim Berners-Lee opens the WWW, World Wide Web to new users.

1991 – In the wake of a failed coup by hard-liners in the Soviet Union, President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin acted to strip the Communist Party of its power and take control of the army and the KGB.

1996 – Osama bin Laden issues message entitled ‘A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places.’

2005 – Former USS Fife (DD-991) was sunk as a target about 50 miles NNW of Kauai Island, Hawaii.

2011 – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown after the National Transitional Council forces take control of Bab al-Azizia compound during the 2011 Libyan civil war.


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## mhansen2

24 August

1862 – The C.S.S. Alabama was commissioned at sea off Portugal’s Azore Islands, beginning a career that would see over 60 Union merchant vessels sunk or destroyed by the Confederate raider. The ship was built in secret in the Liverpool shipyards, and a diplomatic crisis between the US government and Britain ensued when the Union uncovered the ship’s birth place.

1894 – Congress passed the first graduated income tax law, which was declared unconstitutional the next year. It imposed a 2% tax on incomes over $4000.

1909 – Workers started pouring concrete for Panama Canal.

1918 - U.S. Army Maj. William Roy Ream, the first flying surgeon of the United States Army, becomes the first flight surgeon to die in an aircraft accident, at the Effingham, Illinois airport, out of Chanute Field, Illinois.  His aircraft stalls/spins and crashes.  Later in 1918, the Army renames the Aviation Field at Imperial Beach, California, originally opened in 1917, as Ream Field until its decommissioning shortly after World War II.  In 1951, it was re-commissioned as an Auxiliary Landing Field, and in 1955 was re-designated as Naval Auxiliary Air Station Imperial Beach.

1940 - USS Peacock (AM-46) collided with the Norwegian merchant ship SS Hindonger and sank.

1945 – The last Cadillac-built M-24 light tank was produced on this day, ending the company’s World War II effort.

1945 - Second (of two prototypes) McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom, BuNo 48236, is damaged in a belly landing.

1948 - Two separate accidents kill 13 U.S. airmen. Nine are killed aboard an Army Douglas C-117A-1-DK Skytrain, 45-2554, c/n 18557/34212, 45–2554, near Newton, New Jersey, after a mid-air collision with an Army North American B-25J-30-NC Mitchell, 44-86870. The bomber suffers damage to a wingtip but lands safely. In a separate accident, two C-47 Skytrains engaged in the Berlin Airlift collide in mid-air near Ravolzhausen, killing two crew on each airlifter. Killed in the C-47s were Maj. Edwin C. Diltz, Capt. William R. Howard, Capt. Joel M. DeVolentine, and 1st Lt. William T. Lucas. Capt. Howard was piloting C-47A-80-DL, 43-15116, while Capt. DeVolentine was flying C-47A-90-DL, 43-16036, c/n 20502.

1949 – The North Atlantic Treaty went into effect.

1950 - Two Douglas B-26 Invaders of the 729th Bombardment Squadron (Light), 452d Bombardment Group (Light), based at George AFB, California, collide in flight over El Mirage Dry Lake, 10 miles NW of Victorville, California. B-26B, 44-34174, piloted by Ouris H. Cuerton, and B-26B, 44-34677, piloted by Lyle N. Leavitt, both crash with crew fatalities during attempted bail-outs.

1954 – Congress passes the Communist Control Act in response to the growing anticommunist hysteria in the United States. Though full of ominous language, many found the purpose of the act unclear.

1954 - The pilot of a Republic F-84G Thunderjet dies at Eglin AFB following an ejection as the aircraft rolled to a stop after landing at Eglin Auxiliary Field 6.

1954 – Test pilot Arthur Murray flew the X-1A to 27,584 meters (90,500 feet).  This was the last USAF flight.  All subsequent flights were flown by NACA.

1968 – France became the world’s fifth thermonuclear power as it exploded a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific.

1969 – Former USS Bryant (DD-665) was sunk as a target off the California coast.

1990 - A fatal aircraft landing accident involving a U.S. Coast Guard Grumman E-2C Hawkeye, CG 3501, of CGAW-1, based at CGAS St. Augustine, Florida, while returning to the former Naval Station Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico where the mission originated, prompted the Coast Guard to discontinue flying E-2Cs and to return all of its eight remaining borrowed airframes to the U.S. Navy.  The Hawkeye's port engine caught fire and the aircraft crashed on short final in a cow pasture one quarter mile from the runway, all four crew KWF.

2002 – In the Canary Islands over a dozen beaked whales beached themselves following NATO exercises that involved a cluster of warships and submarines. Nine of the whales washed ashore dead and showed lesions in the brain and hearing system, consistent with acoustic impact.

2014 – The British Ambassador to the US apologizes after a British Embassy tweet: “Commemorating the 200th anniversary of the burning of the White House. Only sparkers this time!” The Twitter message was complete with a photo of a White House cake with the mentioned sparklers surrounding it.

https://thisdayinusmilhist.files.wordpress.com/2005/08/capture.jpg?w=600&h=548


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## mhansen2

25 August

1540 – Explorer Hernando de Alarcon traveled up the Colorado River.

1718 – Hundreds of French colonists arrived in Louisiana, with some of them settling in present-day New Orleans.

1814 – British forces destroyed the Library of Congress, containing some 3,000 books.

1829 – Pres. Jackson made an offer to buy Texas, but the Mexican government refused.

1843 – Steam frigate Missouri arrives at Gibralter completing first Trans-Atlantic crossing by U.S. steam powered ship.

1861 - PSS J. A. McClennan was a Union stern wheel paddle steamer built in 1860 at San Francisco. Its boiler blew up while on the Sacremento River killing 25 persons. She was later salvaged and rebuilt and renamed PSS Rainbow eventually being scrapped in 1873.

1863 - SV Golden Rod as a Union schooner that was seized by Confederate Lt. John Taylor Wood in the captured USS Satellite at the mouth of the Rappahannock River and burned at Urbanna, Virginia when the Union forces approached.

1883 – The signing of a Treaty of Protectorate formally ends Vietnam’s independence. The name ‘Vietnam’ is officially eliminated, and the French divide Vietnam into northern and southern protectorates (Tonkin and Annam, respectively), both tightly under French control, although Annam retains its imperial Vietnamese administration.

1901 – Clara Maass, army nurse, sacrificed her life to prove that the mosquito carries yellow fever.  To determine whether the tropical fever was caused by city filth or the bite of a mosquito, seven volunteers, including Maass, were bitten by the mosquitoes. Two men died, but she survived. Several months later she again volunteered to be bitten, this time suffering severe pain and fever. Maass died of yellow fever at the age of 25.

1921 – The Battle of Blair Mountain, one of the largest civil uprisings in United States history and the largest armed rebellion since the American Civil War, begins. For five days in late August and early September 1921, in Logan County, West Virginia, some 10,000 armed coal miners confronted 3,000 lawmen and strikebreakers, called the Logan Defenders, who were backed by coal mine operators during an attempt by the miners to unionize the southwestern West Virginia coalfields. The battle ended after approximately one million rounds were fired, and the United States Army intervened by presidential order.

1921 – The United States, which never ratified the Versailles Treaty ending World War I, finally signed a peace treaty with Germany.

1944 – After more than four years of Nazi occupation, Paris is liberated by the French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division.  Hitler had ordered Paris defended to the last man and demanded that the city not fall into Allied hands except as “a field of ruins.” German General Dietrich von Choltitz dutifully began laying explosives under Paris’ bridges and many of its landmarks but disobeyed an order to commence the destruction. He did not want to go down in history as the man who had destroyed the “City of Light”–Europe’s most celebrated city.

1945 - USCG Magnolia (WAGL-231) was rammed amidships by the cargo ship SS Marguerite Lehand off Mobile Bay. She sank in two minutes and one of her crew was killed. The other 49 were rescued. Those survivors cross-decked to the new tender CGC Salvia (WAGL-400) which then took her place.

1947 – Test pilot Marion Carl set a world speed record of 651 mph in the Douglas D-558-I Skystreak #2, BuNo 37971, at Muroc Field (later Edwards AFB), Ca.

1949 – Test pilot Frank Everest flew the XS-1 to 21,000 meters (68,900 feet).

1950 – President Truman ordered the Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads to avert a strike. The railroads were returned to their owners 2 years later.

1950 - USS Benevolence (AH-13) collided with the freighter SS Mary Luckenbach in heavy fog off San Francisco and sank within 15 minutes; 505 crew members were rescued and 23 lost their lives.

1955 - Vought F7U-3 Cutlass, BuNo 129585, of VF-124, suffers collapsed starboard main landing gear during a hard landing aboard USS Hancock (CVA-19) while she was operating in the vicinity of Hawaii.

1965 - First Curtiss-Wright X-19A prototype, 62-12197, was destroyed in a crash at the FAA's National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center, Caldwell, New Jersey, (formerly NAS Atlantic City), when gearbox fails followed by loss of propellers. Test pilot James V. Ryan and FAA copilot Hughes ejected in North American LW-2B seats as the now-ballistic airframe rolled inverted at 390 feet, chutes fully deployed in 2 seconds at ~230 feet. Elapsed time between prop separation and ejection was 2.5 seconds. Airframe impacted in dried out tidewater area after completing 3/4 of a roll. Crew suffers minor injuries from ejection through canopy. The program was subsequently cancelled. This will be the last airframe design from two of the most famous company names in aviation. Second prototype, reported in some sources to have been scrapped, survives at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland, and is recovered in 2007 by the National Museum of the United States Air Force for preservation.

1965 – Test pilot Milton Thompson flew the X-15 to 65,258 meters (214,112 feet) and Mach 5.11.

1966 - Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 78,486 meters (257,512 feet) and Mach 5.11.

1967 – Test pilot Mike Adams flew the X-15 to 25,725 meters (84,400 feet) and Mach 4.63.

1977 - A USAF McDonnell-Douglas RF-4C Phantom II, 66-0424, 'AR' tail code, of the 1st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, 10th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, from RAF Alconbury, crashed in a field at Thuine, Germany, 9 nm N of Rheine-Hopsten Air Base, from which it had just departed. Both crew members perished and Capt. Alan Aertker, WSO is credited with remaining with the aircraft rather than ejecting to avoid devastation of the village. No civilians were injured or killed in the crash and citizens of Thuine erected a monument near the crash site.

1983 – A Grumman EA-6B Prowler, BuNo 160704, c/n P-67, 'CY-11', of VMAQ-2, US Marine Corps, crashed at Morehead City, North Carolina after the aircraft caught fire and smoke in the cockpit forced the crew of four to eject, parachuting safely.

"Major Dennis K. Brooks, public affairs officer for the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing at Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station identified the crew as 1st Lt. James M. Stevenson, 26, of Palos Verdes, Calif.; Capt. Gordon B. Habbestad, 28, Spokane, Wash.; Capt. James J. Cuff Jr., 33, Cherry Hill, N.J., and Capt. David F. Tomaino, 30, Needham, Mass. Brooks said Tomaino was the pilot and Stevenson was the injured crewman. Robert Bryden, a resident of the neighborhood at Shepard and 18th streets where the crash occurred, said a major catastrophe was avoided because the plane fell almost straight down. 'If the plane had just angled down, it would have taken the whole block with it, but it didn't,' Bryden said. 'The plane just stalled out up there and dropped like a rock to the ground.'"  Clara Belle Daniels, a 72-year-old widow, was working in her yard when the jet spiraled down and received third degree burns from the impact. She died in hospital the next day.

2000 – Former USS Atakapa (ATF-149) was disposed of in support of a fleet training exercise and sunk as a target.

2005 – Former USS Briscoe (DD-977) was disposed of in support of a fleet training exercise and sunk as a target.

2005 – Former USS Deyo (DD 989) was disposed of in support of a fleet training exercise and sunk as a target.

2005 – Hurricane Katrina made landfall between Hallandale Beach and Aventura, Florida, as a Category 1 hurricane. Four days later it came ashore again near Empire, Buras and Boothville, Louisiana. The rescue and response effort was one of the largest in Coast Guard history, with 24,135 lives saved and 9,409 evacuations.

2012 – Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space becoming the first man-made object to do so.


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## mhansen2

26 August

1775 – Rhode Island Resolve: Rhode Island delegates to Continental Congress press for creation of Continental Navy to protect the colonies.

1839 – The slave ship Amistad was captured off Long Island. The U.S.S. Washington, a U.S. Navy brig, seized the Amistad and escorted it to New London, Connecticut.

1847 – Liberia was proclaimed an independent republic. Freed American slaves founded Liberia.

1862 - PSS Yorktown was a Confederate side wheel paddle steamer of 298 tons. She sprang a leak after clearing Mobile and foundered 72 miles SE of Ship Island.

1864 - PSS Emma Boyd was a Confederate States stern wheel paddle steamer built in 1863 at Wheeling, Va. She ran aground at Selma, Alabama and became a total wreck.

1865 – Civil War ends with Naval strength over 58,500 men and 600 ships.

1949 - USS Cochino (SS-345) foundered off Norway after a polar gale caused an electrical fire and two battery explosions. The entire crew was rescued by USS Tusk (SS-426), who lost 7 of her own crew in their efforts to assist.

1953 - U.S. Coast Guard Boeing PB-1G Flying Fortress, BuNo 77253, ex-44-85827, loses brakes while landing at NAS Sand Point, near Seattle, Washington, overruns runway, crushes nose as it ends up in Lake Washington. Retrieved and sold for salvage.

1954 - Top Korean War USAF ace Capt. Joseph C. McConnell (16 victories) is killed in crash of fifth production North American F-86H Sabre, 52-1981, at Edwards AFB, California.

1957 – Former USS Tarpon (SS-175) was being towed to the scrappers by tug Julia C. Moran.  As the two passed Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, Tarpon started taking on water in the stern. The bow rose up out of the water and she slid stern first to the bottom.

1957 – The Soviet Union announces that it has successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of being fired “into any part of the world.”  The R-7 ICBM had been successfully tested four days before.

1964 – Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 27,737 meters (91,000 feet) and Mach 5.65.

1965 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 73,030 meters (239,600 feet) and Mach 4.79.

1975 - LTV A-7D-12-CV Corsair II, 72-0172, of the 76th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 23rd Tactical Fighter Wing, England AFB, Louisiana, crashes on a test range on the eastern area of the Eglin AFB, Florida, reservation at ~2240 hrs. during a night training mission. The aircraft, part of a three-ship flight, had departed England AFB at ~2015 hrs. for a ground attack simulation at Eglin. The A-7D went down while orbiting the range with the other two aircraft of the flight. Pilot Capt. William N. Clark, 33, of Little Rock, Arkansas, is KWF.


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## mhansen2

27 August

1843 - USS Missouri, a 10‑gun side‑wheel frigate, one of the first steam warships in the Navy, was begun at New York Navy Yard in 1840; launched 7 January 1841; and commissioned very early in 1842 Capt. John Newton in command.

While at anchor in the harbor of Gibraltar on the night of 26 August, the engineer's yeoman accidentally broke a demijohn of turpentine in the storeroom which soon ignited. The flames spread so rapidly that the warship was abandoned, the crew barely escaping with their lives. At 03:20 the next morning, the forward powder magazine blew up, destroying the still burning skeleton of the ship.

1859 – Edwin Drake struck oil at 69 feet near Titusville, Pennsylvania–the world’s first successful oil well.

1918 - SC-209 served in the USS Patterson Group of submarine chasers, on the Atlantic coast of the U.S. On 27 August 1918, this chaser was mistaken for a submarine, shelled and sunk by the trawler Felix Taussig.

1926 - Commander John Rodgers, Naval Aviator No. 2, Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, on a flight from NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C., crashes in the Delaware River near the Naval Aircraft Factory dock, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when his aircraft suddenly nose-dives and receives injuries from which he dies on the same day.

1941 – Prince Fumimaro Konoye, prime minister of Japan, announces that he would like to enter into direct negotiations with President Roosevelt in order to prevent the Japanese conflict with China from expanding into world war.

1944 - One of the two Vought OS2U-3 Kingfishers assigned aboard USS New Jersey (BB-62), BuNo 5549, of VO-7, piloted by Ensign Allen R. Trecartin, crashes while trying to land ~2,000 yards off the vessel's starboard quarter while the battleship is transiting from Pearl Harbor, H.I., to Manus Island in the Admiralties. Pilot and rear seater are rescued by the destroyer USS Hickox (DD-673) and the OS2U sunk by destroyer gunfire.

1945 – President Truman says that the situation in the Pacific continues to have many elements of danger and urges Congress to continue conscription for a further two years.

1956 - Eighth of 13 North American X-10s, GM-52-1, c/n 8, on Navaho X-10 flight number 24, out of Cape Canaveral, Florida, a full-range test with final dive maneuver. Final flight of vehicle eight after three successful recovered missions. During takeoff the vehicle becomes airborne, then settles back to the runway with its brakes locked. The tires burst, the gear fails, the gear doors come in contact with the runway, carving grooves in the pavement as they retract. Then, astonishingly, the vehicle rises from the runway, completes a successful full-range supersonic flight with terminal dive into the waters off Grand Bahamas.

1959 – Off Cape Canaveral, FL, USS Observation Island (EAG-154) makes first shipboard launching of a Polaris missile.

1978 – Former USS Cree (AT-84) was sunk as a target.

1989 – The first U.S. commercial satellite rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., a Delta booster carrying a British communications satellite.

2014 - A Massachusetts Air National Guard McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle crashed near Deerfield, Virginia.  The pilot, Lt. Col. Morris "Moose" Fontenot Jr., who served with the 104th Fighter Wing as the full-time wing inspector general, never managed to eject from the aircraft.


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## mhansen2

28 August

1565 – St Augustine Fla, oldest city in the US, was established.

1609 – Henry Hudson discovered Delaware Bay.

1863 - PSS Sunbeam was a Union side wheel paddle steamer built in 1861 at Manitowoc. She was carrying a cargo of 112 barrels of whiskey and $10,000 in specie when she foundered in a storm on Lake Superior off Keweenaw Point, Michigan.

1867 – Captain William Reynolds of screw sloop-of-war USS Lackawanna raises U.S. flag over Midway Island and took formal possession of these islands for the U.S.

1883 – John Montgomery (d.1911 in a glider crash) made the first manned, controlled flight in the US in his “Gull” glider, whose design was inspired by watching birds.

1898 – Marines defended American interests in Valparaiso, Chile.

1919 – President Woodrow Wilson signed Executive Order 3160 which returned the Coast Guard to the administrative control of the Treasury Department from the Navy after World War I.

1945 – Goring, Ribbentrop, and 22 other former Nazi government officials are indicted as war criminals.

1945 – US forces under General George Marshall landed in Japan. This advance guard of 150 American technicians land at Atsugi airfield, near Yokohama. For the first time, the Allies set foot on Japanese soil. Their arrival has been delayed for 48 hours by the forecast of a typhoon.

1945 - Consolidated B-32-20-CF Dominator, 42-108528, of the 386th BS, 312th BG, crashed east of Amaro-O-Shima in the Ryukyu Islands after engine failure, 11 of 13 aboard survived. One of the last operational missions of World War II.

1945 - Consolidated B-32-20-CF Dominator, 42-108544, written off when it lost an engine on takeoff from Yontan Airfield, Okinawa. Skidded off runway, exploded, and burned. 13 KIA.

1952 – Units on USS Boxer (CV-21) launch explosive-filled drone which explodes against railroad bridge near Hungnam, Korea. First guided missile launched from ship during Korean Conflict.

1963 - Two Boeing KC-135A Stratotankers, 61-0319 and 61-0322, assigned with the 19th Bomb Wing, collide over the Atlantic between Bermuda and Nassau, all eleven crew aboard the two jets lost (6 on 0319 and 5 on 0322). Debris and oil slicks found ~750 miles ENE of Miami, Florida. Aircraft were returning to Homestead AFB, Florida after a mission to refuel two Boeing B-47 Stratojets from Schilling AFB, Kansas (both of which landed safely) when contact with them was lost. Search suspended Monday night, 2 September 1963, when wreckage recovered by the Air Rescue Service is positively identified as being from the missing tankers.

1965 – Former Project Mercury astronaut Navy CDR Scott Carpenter and 9 aquanauts enter SeaLab II, 205 ft. below Southern California’s waters to conduct underwater living and working tests.

1966 – It is reported in three Soviet newspapers that North Vietnamese pilots are undergoing training in a secret Soviet air base to fly supersonic interceptors against U.S. aircraft.

1972 – The U.S. Air Force gets its first ace since the Korean War. Captain Richard S. Ritchie, flying with his “backseater” (radar intercept officer), Captain Charles B. DeBellevue, in an F-4 out of Udorn Air Base in Thailand, shoots down his fifth MiG near Hanoi. Two weeks later, Captain DeBellvue, flying with Captain John A. Madden, Jr., shot down his fifth and sixth Migs. The U.S. Navy already had two aces, Lieutenants Randall Cunningham and Bill Driscoll.

1990 – Iraq declared occupied Kuwait the 19th province of Iraq, renamed Kuwait City Kadhima, and created a new district named after President Saddam Hussein.

2000 - Two People's Republic of China J-8 Finbacks intercepted a US Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft operating in international airspace at 28,000 feet over the East China Sea. The Chinese jets closed to within two miles of the American aircraft.

2009 - A United States Air Force Boeing E-3C Sentry, 83-0008, (AEW&C) while returning from the Red Flag Exercise 09-5 with the 552d Air Control Wing from Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, makes a landing at Nellis Air Force Base. Due to a fire the aircraft was damaged and the crew of 32 were safely evacuated and the fire extinguished by Nellis AFB emergency response crew.


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## mhansen2

29 August

1758 – The first American Indian Reservation is established, at Indian Mills, New Jersey.

1786 – Shay’s Rebellion began in Springfield, Mass. Daniel Shay led a rebellion in Massachusetts to protest the seizure of property for the non-payment of debt.

1863 – Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, Lieutenant Payne, sank in Charleston harbor for the first time.

1911 – Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California.

1915 – Navy salvage divers raise F-4 (SS-23), first U.S. submarine sunk in an accident.

1916 – Congress passes act for expansion of Navy, but most ships not completed until after World War I.

1916 – Congress created the US Naval reserve.

1916 – The Marine Corps Reserve was founded.

1916 - USS Memphis, armored cruiser No. 10, (ex-USS Tennessee) is driven ashore and totally wrecked by tidal wave at Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic; 41 killed and 204 injured.

1940 - A Grumman F3F-2, BuNo 0976, c/n 374, '2-MF-16', ditches off the coast of San Diego while attempting a landing aboard USS Saratoga (CV-3), when pilot, Marine 1st Lieutenant Robert E. Galer, a future general and Medal of Honor recipient, has fuel pump issues. The fighter is rediscovered by a navy submersible in June 1988 and recovered on 5 April 1991. It was restored at the San Diego Aerospace Museum.

1943 - Lockheed PV-1 Ventura, BuNo 34637, of VB-146, crashed on Mount Baker, Washington, but wreckage only discovered by a hiker in October 1997. There were six crew on board, all fatal.

1945 – USS Missouri (BB-63) anchors in Tokyo Bay.

1945 – Gen MacArthur was named the Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in Japan.

1945 – U.S. airborne troops landed in transport planes at Atsugi airfield, southwest of Tokyo, beginning the occupation of Japan.

1945 - Soviet pilot Zizevskii, flying a Yak-9 Frank, damaged a US Army Air Force B-29 Superfortress dropping supplies to a POW camp near Hamhung Korea and forced it to land. The crew of the B-29 was not injured in the attack.

1945 - The temperamental Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone powerplant, prone to overheating and fires, leads to loss of Boeing B-29-40-MO Superfortress, 44-86274, of the 421st AAF Base Unit, Muroc Army Airfield, California, flown by Julius H. Massen, when an engine burns; crew of eleven bails out, 20 miles SE of Muroc according to the Aviation Archeology database. "MUROC, Aug. 29 (AP) – A crewless B-29 plane headed for the Pacific Ocean today after its 11-man crew bailed out when one of the huge ship's engines caught fire, Muroc Army air field officers said. All members of the crew were reported to have landed safely near Lancaster."

1947 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager conducted the first powered flight of the XS-1 under USAF authority, reaching Mach 0.85.

1949 – The USSR successfully detonated its first atomic bomb at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. It was a copy of the Fat Man bomb and had a yield of 21 kilotons known as First Lightning or Joe 1.

1958 – Air Force Academy opened in Colorado Springs, Co.

1962 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 29,627 meters (97,200 feet) and Mach 5.12.

1962 – A US U-2 flight identified SAM launch pads in Cuba.

1984 - Second prototype Rockwell B-1A Lancer, 74-0159, of the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB, California, crashes 22 miles NE of the base, in the desert E of Boron, California, when control is lost during an aft center of gravity test. The flight commander, Rockwell test pilot Doug A. Benefield, is killed when escape pod parachutes fail to fully deploy, module impacting in a right nose low attitude. The Co-pilot and flight test engineer are badly injured.

1995 - Lockheed U-2R, 68-10338, Article 060, of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing flying under call sign Mooch 31, with sensor pod on pylon above spine, departs RAF Fairford at 0727 hrs. for intended Bosnian overflight Senior Span mission, but port underwing pogo fails to detach. The pilot, Captain David Hawkens, returns to airfield runway 27, attempts to shake loose the outrigger. Just after passing the runway's midpoint the aircraft enters a stall during which the left wing drops, hits the runway, breaking off the wingtip. The aircraft veers left towards the grass, strikes a power sub-station and crashes through the base's perimeter fence. As the aircraft bounces on a concrete taxiway pilot attempts ejection, but zero-zero seat is outside of parameters, pilot chute deploys but main canopy does not have time to fully inflate. Pilot comes to rest 150 feet E of airframe, which ends up in farmer's field. Nose breaks off, rest of U-2 fully engulfed in fire. Pilot is transported to Princess Margaret Hospital in Swindon by police helicopter where he dies at 0955 hrs.

2007 – United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident: six US cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads are flown without proper authorization from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base.

2012 - A USMC Bell UH-1Y of HMLA-469 crashed in Helamand province, Afghanistan killing two soldiers from the 2nd Australian Commando Regiment.


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## mhansen2

30 August

1780 – General Benedict Arnold betrayed the US when he promised secretly to surrender the fort at West Point to the British army. Arnold whose name has become synonymous with traitor fled to England after the botched conspiracy. His co-conspirator, British spy Major John Andre, was hanged.

1945 – A proclamation to the German people is signed today formally announcing the establishment of the Allied Control Council and its assumption of supreme authority in Germany.

1952 - As a pair of Northrop F-89 Scorpions of the 27th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, Griffiss AFB, New York, perform a flypast, Northrop F-89C-30-NO, 51-5781, disintegrates in flight during a display at the International Aviation Exposition at Detroit-Wayne Major Airport, Detroit, Michigan, killing the Scorpion pilot, Maj. Donald E. Adams, a Korean war jet ace (6.5 kills), radar operator Capt. Kelly, and one spectator. Cause was found to be from severe torsional aeroelastic problems that led to all F-89Cs being grounded and returned to the factory for wing structural redesign.

1955 – A Vought F7U-3 Cutlass, BuNo 129592, of VF-124, misses all the wires during a landing aboard USS Hancock (CVA-19), operating off of Hawaii, and hits the barrier. "Although reported to have suffered only slight damage, it was struck off charge and never flew again."

1966 – Test pilot Pete Knight flew the X-15 to 30,541 meters (100,200 feet) and Mach 5.21.

1984 - A United States Navy North American T-2C Buckeye crashes into the Chesapeake Bay shortly after take-off from NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, killing the student and seriously injuring the instructor.


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## mhansen2

31 August

1803 – Captain Meriwether Lewis left Pittsburgh to meet up with Captain William Clark and begin their trek to the Pacific Ocean.

1862 - PSS W. B. Terry was a Union stern-wheel transport steamer of 175 tons, used as an armed dispatch boat with two 6-pounder Parrotts. She was built in 1856 at Belle Vernon, Pa.

On August 21st, 1861 W. B. Terry was captured at Paducah, Ky. by the USS Lexington for trafficking with the Confederacy and flying a Confederate flag.

She was later captured by the Confederates and used to ferry troops across the Tennessee River.

On August 31st, 1862, W. B. Terry PSS ran aground 20 feet from shore at the foot of the Duck River Sucks while going up the Tennessee River. She was subsequently stripped of her furniture and burned.

1863 – Sumter was a Confederate troop transport of 212 tons, built in 1860 at New Albany, Ind.

In the night of August 31, 1863, while transporting over 600 troops to Charleston, Sumter was accidentally shelled and sunk by Confederate fire from Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg, mistaking her for a Union ship.

Sumter hit a shoal at the end of Fort Sumter and sank with at least forty killed, one wounded, and eight missing. More than 600 officers and men were saved by barges from Fort Sumter and nearby Confederate gunboats. Most of the Confederate equipment aboard was lost. The wreck was later used as a target practice.

1865 – The US Federal government estimated the American Civil War had cost about eight-billion dollars. Human costs have been estimated at more than one-million killed or wounded.

1921 - U.S. Navy airship D-6, A5972, with a C-type envelope built by Goodyear in 1920 and a special enclosed car built by the Naval Aircraft Factory, is destroyed in a Naval Air Station Rockaway hangar gasoline fire along with two small dirigibles, the C-10 and the Goodyear airship H-1, A5973, the sole H-model, a powered two-seat observation balloon built along the lines of the commercial Goodyear "Pony Blimp", and the kite balloon A-P.

1925 - U.S. Navy Naval Aircraft Factory PN-9, BuNo A-6878, '1', flying boat disappears on a flight from San Francisco to Hawaii with reported loss of crew. The PN-9 was not actually lost, it was just overdue. After staying in the air for 25 hours and covering 1,841 of the 2,400 miles to Pearl Harbor, it landed safely at sea, the crew under command of Commander John Rodgers, Naval Aviator No. 2, rigged sails from fabric from the lower wing and sailed the final 450 miles, reaching Kauai on 10 September. This stood as a seaplane distance flight record for several years. Aircraft is repaired and shipped to San Diego, California.

1939 – At noon, despite threats of British and French intervention, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler signs an order to attack Poland, and German forces move to the frontier.

1943 - Boeing B-17F-50-BO Flying Fortress, 42-5451, of the 582d Bomb Squadron, 393d Bomb Group, piloted by James A. McRaven, 
crashes two miles NE of Kearney Army Air Field, Nebraska, during a routine training flight, killing all eight crew.  The 393d was reassigned to Kearney AAF from Sioux City AAB, Iowa, this date.

1945 – General MacArthur establishes the supreme allied command at the main port of Tokyo, as the first foreigner to take charge of Japan in 1000 years.

1945 – The remaining Japanese troops in the Philippines formally surrender.

1945 – The Japanese garrison on Marcus Island surrenders to the American Admiral Whiting.

1949 – Six of the 16 surviving Union veterans of the Civil War attended the last-ever encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, held in Indianapolis, Indiana.

1951 – The former enemies of the world war reconvened in San Francisco to finalize negotiations on the peace treaty to formally end WW II.

1954 - Sole Cessna XL-19B Bird Dog, 52-1804, c/n 22780A, modified with Boeing XT-50-BO-1 210 shp turboprop engine, crashes 2 miles (3.2 km) W of Sedgwick, Kansas.

1954 – Under terms of the Geneva Agreement, a flow of almost one million refugees from North to South Vietnam begins.

1955 – Secretary of State John Foster Dulles supports South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem’s position regarding his refusal to hold “national and general elections” to reunify the two Vietnam states. Although these elections were called for by the Geneva Accords of July 1954, Diem and his supporters in the United States realized that if the elections were held, Ho Chi Minh and the more populous north would probably win, thereby reuniting Vietnam under the Communist banner. Accordingly, he refused to hold the elections and the separation of North and South soon became permanent.

1956 - Fourteenth Lockheed U-2A, 56-6687, Article 354, delivered to the Central Intelligence Agency 27 July 1956. Crashed at Groom Lake, Nevada this date during a night training flight, killing pilot Frank G. Grace, Jr. Pilot became disoriented by lights near the end of the runway and flew into a telephone pole.

1956 - Boeing WB-50D Superfortress, 49–315, c/n 16091, "The Golden Heart", (built as a B-50D-115-BO), of the 58th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, out of Eielson AFB, Alaska, crashed early in the morning this date on a sandy island in the Susitna River, 50 miles NW of Anchorage, Alaska, killing all 11 crew. The flight was last heard from at 0302 hrs., local time, when it was over Talkeetna, a check-in station 50 miles N of the ten-mile-long island. The wreckage was found about 5 1/2 hours later by a member of the 71st Air Rescue Squadron. "All that remained when helicopters landed at the crash scene was a smoking pile of rubble."

1957 – USAF Douglas C-124C Globemaster II, 52-1021, operated by the 1st Strategic Squadron, crashes while on an instrument approach to Biggs Air Force Base in El Paso, Texas, USA, in bad weather after a flight from Hunter AFB near Savannah, Georgia, USA. 5 aircrew are killed, 10 injured.

1961 – A concrete wall replaced the barbed wire fence that separated East and West Germany, it would be called the Berlin wall.

1962 – The last two ZPG-3W US Navy airships made a ceremonial last flight over Lakehurst — the base log noted, "This flight terminates operation of non-rigid airships at Lakehurst."

1963 - At a meeting of the National Security Council, Paul Kattenburg became the first known American official to propose withdrawal from Vietnam. He had traveled to South Vietnam many times on State Department business in the 1950s and early 1960s, and he became convinced that the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem would never survive and that the Vietcong would ultimately prevail. His recommendation was summarily rejected by Dean Rusk and Robert McNamara, and Kattenburg was promptly cut off from the advisory-decision-making process on Vietnam.

1990 – East & West Germany signed a treaty to reunite legally & politically.

1991 - A Tomahawk missile launched from a warship in the Gulf of Mexico to recover on a target on the test ranges at Eglin AFB, Florida, misses by ~100 miles, coming down eight miles E of Jackson, Alabama, ~60 miles N of Mobile. "Within minutes of the missile's falling near Jackson, a recovery team arrived by helicopter. Such teams are stationed along the missile's flight path during a test so they can get to a crash scene within 20 minutes no matter where the Tomahawk goes down."

Cause was found to be two incorrect screws used to assemble a tailfin, said Denny Kline, a Pentagon spokesman for the Navy Cruise Missile Project, on 13 December 1991. A screw, rubbing against an actuator coil disabled one of the missile's two fins. "Somebody during assembly put two screws in, which were moderately too long. Well, in fact, in this case extremely too long because it physically made contact with a coil. It was fine for the first one hour and 21 minutes, but over time it wore away the protective coating and got down to the wound part of the coil and shorted it out," said Kline. As a result, one fin worked properly but the other did not when the missile was to make a pre-planned turn causing it to crash in Alabama. The wrong screws were put in by General Dynamics Corp., said Susan Boyd, Pentagon spokeswoman for the missile program. Four Tomahawks have landed in civilian areas since the Navy began the gulf tests in 1985. There have been no injuries.


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## mhansen2

1 September

1781 – French fleet traps British fleet at Yorktown, VA.

1807 – Former U.S. vice president Aaron Burr is acquitted of plotting to annex parts of Louisiana and Spanish territory in Mexico to be used toward the establishment of an independent republic. He was acquitted on the grounds that, though he had conspired against the United States, he was not guilty of treason because he had not engaged in an “overt act,” a requirement of the law governing treason.

1821 – William Becknell led a group of traders from Independence, Mo., toward Santa Fe on what would become the Santa Fe Trail.

1849 – California Constitutional Convention was held in Monterey.

1864 - PSS William V. Gillum was a Union side wheel paddle steamer built in 1855 at New Albany, Indiana and was of 70 tons carrying a cargo of lumber from New Orleans to Matamoras, Mexico. She ran aground and was wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico on the 1st September 1864. Officers and crew were rescued by the Mexican schooner Cory.

1866 – Manuelito, the last Navaho chief, turned himself in at Fort Wingate, New Mexico.

1930 - Curtiss XF6C-6 racer, A-7147, crashes during the Thompson Trophy race in Chicago, Illinois, killing U.S. Marine Corps pilot Capt. Arthur H. Page. The only military entry, Page gained and increased an early lead but on the 17th of 20 laps, crashed to his death, a victim of carbon monoxide poisoning. The Marine flying field at Parris Island, South Carolina, is named Page Field in his honor.

1939 – At 0445 hours German forces invade Poland without a declaration of war.

1941 – U.S. assumes responsibility for trans-Atlantic convoys from Argentia, Canada to the meridian of Iceland. The US Atlantic Fleet announces the formation of the Denmark Strait Patrol. Two heavy cruisers and four destroyers are allocated for to the force. The US Navy is now permitted to escort convoys in the Atlantic containing American merchant vessels.

1942 – A federal judge in Sacramento, Calif., upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals.

1943 - "Great Falls, Mont., Sept. 2. (AP) - Ten crew members of a four-engined bomber from the Great Falls army air base, were killed early today when the ship crashed five miles east of Fort Benton, were identified tonight by Capt. John R. Lloyd, base public relations officer, as follows: Sergeant Robert H. Hall, Coldwater, Mich.; Sergeant John T. Huff, Cherokee, Kan.; Sergeant Carl E. Lower, Van Wert, Ohio; Sergeant Chester W. Peko, Throop, Pa.; Private First Class Paul Peterson, Colfax, Wis.; Sergeant Curio C. Thrementi, Vassar, Mich.; Lieutenant Harold L. Wonders, Waterloo, Iowa; Lieutenant Warren H. Maginn, Glendale, Los Angeles; Lieutenant Jack Y. Fisk, Los Angeles, and Lieutenant Arnold J. Gardiner, New York. The crash occurred during a routine training flight." Boeing B-17F-35-BO Flying Fortress, 42-5128, of the 612th Bomb Squadron, 401st Bomb Group, was flown by Lt. Maginn.

1945 – Americans received word of Japan’s formal surrender that ended World War II. Because of the time difference, it was Sept. 2 in Tokyo Bay, where the ceremony took place.

1950 – US Air Force Captain Iven C. Kincheloe, 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, claimed his fifth air-to-air victory in his F-86 Sabre “Ivan” to become the 10th ace of the Korean War. Kincheloe accounted for four MiGs in six days.

1951 – At the Presidio in San Francisco, the US, Australia, and New Zealand signed the ANZUS Pact, a joint security alliance to govern their relations.

1952 - Several tornados sweep across Carswell AFB, Texas destroying Convair B-36B Peacemaker, 44-92051, and damaging 82 others of the 11th Bomb Group, 7th Bomb Wing, including ten at the Convair plant on the other side of the Fort Worth base. Gen. Curtis LeMay is forced to remove the 19th Air Division from the war plan, and the base went on an 84-hour work week until repairs were made. 26 B-36s were returned to Convair for repairs, and the last aircraft deemed repairable was airborne again on 11 May 1953.

1961 – The Soviet Union ended a moratorium on atomic testing with an above-ground nuclear explosion in central Asia.

1970 - A Vought F-8J Crusader, BuNo 150329, of VF-24 suffers ramp strike on the USS Hancock (CVA-19) and explodes during night carrier qualifications, killing Lt. Darrell N. Eggert.

1974 – The SR-71 Blackbird sets (and holds) the record for flying from New York to London in the time of 1 hour, 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds at a speed of 1,435.587 miles per hour (2,310.353 km/h).

1974 - The Sikorsky S-67 Blackhawk company demonstrator N671SA crashed while attempting to recover from a roll at too low an altitude during its display at the Farnborough Air Show, United Kingdom, killing its two crew.

1982 – The United States Air Force Space Command is established.

1983 – A Korean Air Lines Boeing 747-230B (HL-7442, flight 007), was shot down over Sakhalin Island by AA-3 Anab missiles fired by a Soviet Su-15 Flagon piloted by Gennadi N. Osipovich. The aircraft was off-course, likely due to a navigation error and had already overflown the Kamchatka Pennisula. All 23 crew and 246 passengers (including US Congressman Lawrence McDonald from Georgia) were killed.

1985 - A U.S. Navy Boeing Vertol CH-46D Sea Knight, BuNo 151918, '72', crashed on takeoff due to an engine failure aboard the destroyer USS Fife (DD-991) in the Indian Ocean. The helicopter struck the Sea Sparrow launcher. Quick response of Fife´s damage control team extinguished the fires and secured the helicopter which was hanging from the side of the destroyer below the helicopter deck. All 16 crew and passengers aboard escaped without major injuries. The helicopter was assigned to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 11 (HC-11) Det. 6 aboard the combat stores ship USS Mars (AFS-1).

2012 - A USMC McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C Hornet crashed in a remote range area of the Fallon Range Training Complex. The pilot ejected from the aircraft safely.

2014 - A United States Marine Corps Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter crashed in the Gulf of Aden whilst attempting to land on USS Mesa Verde (LPD-19). All 25 people on board were rescued.


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## mhansen2

2 September

1789 – Although the United States Treasury Department was founded on September 2, 1789, its roots can be traced back to the American Revolution.

1859 – The solar storm of 1859 (also known as the Carrington Event) affects electrical telegraph service.

1862 - PSS Gypsy was a Union stern wheel paddle steamer of 113 tons. She ran aground and was wrecked in the Sacramento River, 20 miles south of Sacramento, California.

1863 - SS Rinaldo was a Confederate small steamer that was captured by the Union 17th Wis. Infantry Regiment under Col. A. G. Malloy and burned on September 2nd, 1863, at Trinity, Louisiana.

1864 - SS Scioto was a Union screw steamer of 389 tons, built in 1848 at Huron, Ohio that collided with the CSS Arctic on September 2nd, 1864 and sank at Dunkirk, New York.

1940 – Following the agreement made in July and later detailed negotiations, a deal is now ratified between Britain and the USA by which Britain gets 50 old destroyers, veterans of World War I, but desperately needed for escort work, in return for bases granted to the United States in the West Indies and Bermuda.

1943 - "Sioux City, Iowa, Sept. 3. (AP) - All 10 crew members of an army bomber from the Sioux City air base were killed when their plane crashed five miles from the base last night while on a routine training flight. The dead included Second Lieutenant Earl G. Adkinson, Portland, Ore., and Sergeant Robert Hunter, Eufaula, Okla." Consolidated B-24E-25-FO Liberator, 42-7237, c/n 261, of the 703d Bomb Squadron, 445th Bomb Group, flown by Lt. "Atkinson", according to the crash report, crashed one mile E of the base.

1943 - Boeing B-17F-40-VE Flying Fortress, 42-5977, of the 540th Bomb Squadron (Heavy), 383d Bomb Group (Heavy), Geiger Field, Washington, on a routine local flight with three aboard, piloted by Robert P. Ferguson, clips the tops of trees for several blocks, crashes into scrub pines two miles S of Geiger Field and burns. Only three were on the bomber, said a report by Lt. R. E. Reed, public relations officer at the field. Names were withheld pending notification of next of kin.

1944 – Navy pilot George Herbert Walker Bush was shot down by Japanese forces as he completed a bombing run over the Bonin Islands. Bush was rescued by the crew of USS Finback (SS-230); his two crew members, however, died.

1945 – Aboard the USS Missouri (BB-63) in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II.

1945 – Hours after Japan’s surrender, Ho Chi Minh declares the independence of Vietnam from France.

The proclamation paraphrased the U.S. Declaration of Independence in declaring, “All men are born equal: the Creator has given us inviolable rights, life, liberty, and happiness!” and was cheered by an enormous crowd gathered in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh Square. It would be 30 years, however, before Ho’s dream of a united Vietnam became reality.

1945 - "The Navy and the Marine Corps last night (7 September) disclosed that a Marine lieutenant flying a Hellcat pursuit plane has been missing in the Mojave Desert  since Sunday. Daily searches by Army, Navy and Marine planes have yielded no trace of the missing ship or its pilot, First Lt. Herbert L. Libbey of Tomaston, [sic] Maine. Lieutenant Libbey left Las Vegas, Nev., at 4:15 p.m. Sunday en route to the Marine Corps air base at Mojave. He was last seen flying over Searles Lake, near Trona. -The country between Searles lake and Mojave is sparsely inhabited and includes large tracts not reached by roads or trails. Persons with any clues to the whereabouts of the plane or pilot have been asked to telephone Mojave 140 collect; or Franklin 7321 at San Diego. The military search for Lieutenant Libbey has been carried out over a constantly-widening territory, much of it far off of the supposed line of flight. The Navy public information office of the eleventh naval district at San Diego indicated that points as far distant as the Inyo and Colorado deserts and various desert mountain ranges were being searched. No ground hunt has been made." Lt. Libbey had flown F6Fs with VMF-124 from USS Essex (CV-9). F6F-5, BuNo 71033, of VMF-255, wreck found 13 June 1957. 1st Lt. Herbert Lee Libbey lost his life when he crashed 20 miles N of Wildrose Ranger Station in the Panamint mountains.

1958 - A US Air Force C-130A Hercules (60-528) of the 7406 CSS, flying from Adana Turkey, was shot down near Sasnashen, Soviet Armenia, about 55 kilometers northwest of the Armenian capital of Yerevan by Soviet MiG-17 Fresco pilots Gavrilov, Ivanov, Kucheryaev and Viktor Lopatkov. The C-130 was a Sun Valley SIGINT aircraft. The remains of John E. Simpson, Rudy J. Swiestra, Edward J. Jeruss and Ricardo M. Vallareal were returned to the US on September 24, 1958. The remains of the other crew members, Paul E. Duncan, George P. Petrochilos, Arthur L. Mello, Leroy Price, Robert J. Oshinskie, Archie T. Bourg Jr., James E. Fergueson, Joel H. Fields, Harold T. Kamps, Gerald C. Maggiacomo, Clement O. Mankins, Gerald H. Medeiros and Robert H. Moore were recovered in 1998.

1965 – Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 73,091 meters (239,812 feet) and Mach 5.16.

1966 - A U.S. Navy Grumman F-11A Tiger, BuNo 141764, of the Blue Angels aerobatic team, Blue Angel 5, crashes on the shore of Lake Ontario during the International Air Exhibition at Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The pilot, Lieutenant Commander Richard "Dick" Oliver, 31 years old, of Fort Mill, South Carolina, is killed. Coming out of a knife edge pass, followed by a roll, 5 contacts the lake surface at ~500 mph and literally skis across the surface, striking a six-foot high sheet steel piling retaining wall on the edge of Toronto Island Airport and disintegrating. Wreckage (turbine) is thrown as far as 3,483.6 feet from point of initial impact.

1987 - A Schweizer RG-8A, 85-0048, c/n 4, ex-civil registration N3623C, modified Schweizer SGS 2-32 motor glider for U.S. Army Grisly Hunter reconnaissance project. Crashed at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, killing the two-man crew.

1991 – President Bush formally recognized the independence of the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

1993 – The United States and Russia formally ended decades of competition in space by agreeing to a joint venture to build a space station.

1996 – The US launched cruise missiles at selected air defense targets in Iraq to discourage Sadam Hussein’s military moves against a Kurd faction.

2004 – Former YTLX-318 was a US Navy tug that was used as a target 750nm SE of Hilo, Hawaii.

2015 - A U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter from Fort Carson Army base crashes during a training mission in a wooded area of Douglas County, Colorado. All four people aboard are rescued and transported for medical treatment.


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## mhansen2

3 September

1609 – Henry Hudson discovered the island of Manhattan.

1752 – The Gregorian Adjustment to the calendar was put into effect in Great Britain and the American colonies followed. At this point in time 11 days needed to be accounted for and Sept. 2 was selected to be followed by Sept. 14. People rioted thinking the government stole 11 days of their lives.

1777 – The American flag is flown in battle for the first time, during a Revolutionary War skirmish at Cooch’s Bridge, Maryland.

1782 – As a token of gratitude for French aid during American Revolution, the U.S. gives 74-gun ship-of-the-line America (first ship-of-the-line built by U.S.) to France to replace a French ship lost in Boston.

1783 – The Treaty of Paris between the United States and Great Britain officially ended the Revolutionary War.

1864 - SS Gillum a Union cargo ship, was on a voyage from New Orleans to Matamoros, Mexico, when wrecked at Sabine Pass, Port Arthur, Texas. The crew was rescued by USS Circassian and schooner Cora.

1826 – Sloop-of-war USS Vincennes left NY to become the first US Navy warship to circumnavigate the globe.

1908 – Orville Wright began two weeks of flight trials that impressed onlookers with his complete control of his new Type A Military Flyer. In addition to setting an altitude record of 310 feet and an endurance record of more than one hour, he had carried aloft the first military observer, Lieutenant Frank Lahm.

1925 - U.S. Navy airship, USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), crashed after encountering thunderstorms near Ava, Ohio after an in-flight break up due to “cloud suck” about 0445 hrs. Fourteen of 43 aboard are killed. The ship's commanding officer, Lt. Cdr. Zachery Lansdowne is killed on what was to have been his final flight before reassignment to sea duty.

1934 – A Fokker Y1O-27, 31-599, of the 12th Observation Squadron, Brooks Field, Texas, crashes 5 miles W of Danville, Louisiana, which community is four miles W of Hodge, after starboard engine loses power. Pilot Cadet Neil M. Caldwell and passenger Pvt. Betz Baker die in crash and fire, passenger Pvt. Virgil K. Martin, riding in rear cockpit, survives with minor injuries. This aircraft has previously ditched in San Diego Bay, California on 16 December 1932.

1939 – In response to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation declare war on Germany.

1943 – Italy surrendered. The Allied invasion of Italy begins on the same day that U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio sign the Armistice of Cassibile aboard the Royal Navy battleship HMS Nelson off Malta.

1944 – First combat employment of a missile guided by radio and television takes place when a Navy drone Liberator, controlled by Ensign James M. Simpson in a PV, flew to attack German submarine pens on Helgoland Island.

1945 – General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the Japanese commander of the Philippines, surrendered to Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright at Baguio.

1945 – Japanese surrender Wake Island in ceremony on board USS Levy (DE-162).

1948 - The only Silverplate Boeing B-29 Superfortress to be part of the strike package on both atomic missions over Japan, Boeing B-29-40-MO Superfortress, 44-27353, "The Great Artiste", of the 509th Composite Group, deployed to Goose Bay Air Base, Labrador for polar navigation training, aborts routine training flight due to an engine problem, makes downwind landing, touches down halfway down runway, overruns onto unfinished extension, ground loops to avoid tractor. Structural damage at wing joint so severe that Superfortress never flies again. Despite historic significance, airframe is scrapped at Goose Bay in September 1949.

1954 – U-505 begins its move from a specially constructed dock to its final site at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.

1954 – The US Espionage & Sabotage Act of 1954 signed.

1964 – Test pilot Milton Thompson flew the X-15 to 23,957 meters (78,600 feet) and Mach 5.35.

1975 - A USAF Boeing B-52G Stratofortress, 57-6493, of the 68th Bomb Wing, Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, crashed near Aiken, South Carolina, when the aircraft suffered major structural failure due to a major fuel leak with the right wing separating between the third and fourth engine nacelles, the wing then shearing off the horizontal stabilizer. The bomber rolled inverted and broke apart.

Witnesses described it as a "ball of fire" which then plunged into a wooded area. Wreckage was spread over a 10-mile area. Four crewmembers successfully ejected, three KWF. The aircraft was on a routine training mission and was carrying no weapons. The Federal Aviation Administration, which was monitoring the flight, said the bomber was last reported flying at an altitude of 28,000 feet. Killed were 1st Lt. Grady E. Rudolph, 26, of Lafayette, Indiana; 1st Lt. Melvin E. Bewley, Jr., 25, of Birmingham, Alabama; and Sgt. Ricky K. Griffith, 21, of Cedarville, New Jersey. Survivors were Capt. James A. Perry, 29, of Princeton, West Virginia; Capt. Donnell Exum, 27, Smithfield, North Carolina; Capt. Gregory A. Watts, 27, Morganton, North Carolina; and 2d Lt. Hector M. Marquez, 24, Brownsville, Texas. The four survivors were reported in good condition at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Fort Gordon, Georgia. The Department of Defense said that 67 B-52s have crashed, including 17 in the Vietnam War.

1979 - Two Convair F-106 Delta Darts of the 186th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 120th Fighter-Interceptor Group, Montana Air National Guard, out of Great Falls Airport, perform a pair of a flyovers in Dillon, Montana in conjunction with the town's Labor Day parade.

One Delta Dart, F-106A-70-CO, 57-2458, c/n 8-24-41, piloted by Capt. Joel Rude, clips a grain elevator with its port wing. The pilot unsuccessfully attempts to eject and is killed. Forty others are injured by debris and fire but Capt. Rude is the only fatality. On 7 September 2009, a commemorative plaque is dedicated in Dillon in the pilot's memory.


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## mhansen2

4 September

1781 – Mexican Provincial Governor, Felipe de Neve, founded Los Angeles.

1807 – Robert Fulton began operating his steamboat.

1861 - SV Colonel Long was a Confederate fishing schooner of 14 tons with a crew of eight. She was carrying a cargo of one barrel of whiskey and a few bags of arrowroot and a bag of sponges. She was captured by the USS Jamestown and scuttled off the Georgia coast.

1882 – Thomas Edison displayed the first practical electrical lighting system. He successfully turned on the lights in a one square mile area of New York City with the world’s 1st electricity generating plant.

1886 – Geronimo, the wiliest and most dangerous Apache warrior of his time, finally surrenders to General Nelson A. Miles in Skeleton Canyon, Arizona.

1888 – George Eastman received patent #388,850 for his roll-film camera and registered his trademark: “Kodak.” George Eastman introduced the box camera.

1913 - U.S. Army 11th Cavalry 1st Lt. Moss Lee Love becomes the 10th fatality in U.S. army aviation history when his Wright Model C biplane crashes near San Diego, California during practice for his Military Aviator Test. On 19 October 1917, the newly-opened Dallas Love Field in Dallas, Texas is named in his honor. Joe Baugher lists the fatal aircraft accident for this date as being Burgess Model J, Signal Corps 18, which dove into the ground killing its pilot.

1923 - Maiden flight of the first U.S. airship, the USS Shenandoah (ZR-1).

1941 - USS Greer (DD-145) is the first United States Navy ship fired on in World War 2.
USS Greer (DD-145) - Wikipedia
Some sources date the event in 1940.

1943 - All eight crew of Consolidated B-24E-25-CF Liberator, 41-29071, of the 701st Bomb Squadron, 445th Bomb Group, Sioux City Army Air Base, Iowa, piloted by Jack D. Hodges, are killed when the bomber crashes in a corn field four miles SW of Moville, Iowa.

1945 – Some 2,200 Japanese soldiers finally lay down their arms-on Wake Island.

1945 – The Coast Guard Cutter USCG 83434 became the first and only cutter to host an official surrender ceremony when Imperial Japanese Army Second Lieutenant Kinichi Yamada surrendered the garrison of Aguijan Island on board this Coast Guard 83-footer. Rear Admiral Marshall R. Greer, USN, accepted the surrender for the United States.

1946 - First prototype Bell XP-83, 44-84990, bailed back to Bell Aircraft Company by the USAAF as a ramjet testbed, and modified with an engineer's station in the fuselage in lieu of the rear fuel tank and pylon for test ramjet under starboard wing, suffers fire in ramjet on flight out of Niagara Falls Airport, New York. Flames spread to wing, forcing Bell test pilot "Slick" Goodlin and engineer Charles Fay to bail out, twin-jet fighter impacting at ~1020 hrs. on farm in Amhurst, New York, ~13 miles from Niagara Airport, creating ~25 foot crater.

1946 - USAT David Caldwell was a liberty ship owned at the time of loss by the US War Shipping Administration.  Passing through Hampton Roads, Virginia, she went aground during a storm and broke in two.

1947 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the XS-1 on a telemetry test flight to Mach 0.89.  There was a telemetry failure and the flight had to be repeated.

1948 - A U.S. Navy Vought F4U Corsair fighter from Naval Air Station New York crashes into a four-family home at 39–29 212th Street, Queens, New York, killing the pilot, 1st Lt. Roger Olsen, USMCR, 25, of New Rochelle, New York, and three civilian women, Mrs. Helen Raynor, Mrs Alice Cressmer, and Miss Louise Paul. The pilot, a 1943 Pensacola graduate, was on the first day of a two-week reserve training course.

1950 – The 1st helicopter rescue of American pilot behind enemy lines.
First Helicopter Rescue ‹ HistoricWings.com :: A Magazine for Aviators, Pilots and Adventurers

1950 - A US Navy F4U-4B Corsair of VF-53, piloted by Ensign Edward V. Laney, shot down a Soviet Naval Aviation Douglas A-20 Box over the Yellow Sea, southeast of the Soviet occupied Port Arthur Naval Base in China and west of the North Korean coast. Laney was one of a four-ship Combat Air Patrol from USS Valley Forge (CV-45), part of Task Force 77, which was protecting US Navy air activity against North Korea not long before the Inchon landings. The A-20 was one of two belonging to the Port Arthur-based 36th Mine-Torpedo Aviation Regiment of the Red Banner Pacific Fleet, apparently sent out on an armed reconnaissance mission.

A-20s had been supplied in quantity to the Soviets on Lend-Lease during World War 2, and this unit had had extensive experience during the war as torpedo bombers. The Corsairs encountered the two A-20s about 40 nautical miles from the Chinese coast. One A-20 turned back, but the other pressed on.

As the Corsairs descended, the top turret gunner on the A-20 was observed to open fire. Richard E. Downs led Laney on a firing pass, and Laney hit the A-20 with his 20mm cannon. The Soviet aircraft then crashed into the sea. The US recovered the body of one Soviet crewman, lateridentified as that of Genaddiy Mishin, the copilot. The other two bodies, those of Senior Lt. Karpol, the aircraft commander, and Sgt. A. Makaganov, the gunner, were never found. Mishin's body was returned to the Soviets in 1956.

1954 -A US Navy P2V-5 of VP-19, operating from NAS Atsugi Japan was attacked 40 miles off the coast of Siberia by two Soviet MiG-15 Fagots. The aircraft ditched and one crew member, Roger H. Reid was lost. The other crew members, John B. Wayne, John C. Fischer, William A. Bedard, Frank E. Petty, Anthony P. Granera, Texas R. Stone, Paul R. Mulmollem, Ernest L. Pinkevich and David A. Atwell were rescued by a US Air Force SA-16 Albatross.

1954 – Icebreakers, USS Burton Island (AGB-1) and USCG Northwind (WAGB-282), complete first transit of Northwest passage through McClure Strait.  They are accompanied by Canadian HMCS Labrador (AW 50).

1957 - Douglas C-124A Globemaster II, 51-5173, c/n 43583, en route from Larson AFB, Washington, crashed while attempting a landing at Binghamton Airport, Binghamton, New York. On final approach, just before touchdown, the airplane struck an embankment and crashed on the runway. The plane was delivering 20 tons of equipment for Link Aviation. The crew of 9 survived.

1958 - USS Makassar Strait (CVE-91) was sunk as a target off San Nicholas Island, California.

1969 – Radio Hanoi announces the death of Ho Chi Minh, proclaiming that the National Liberation Front will halt military operations in the South for three days, September 8-11, in mourning for Ho.


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## mhansen2

5 September

1664 – After days of negotiation, the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam surrendered to the British, who would rename it New York. The citizens of New Amsterdam petitioned Peter Stuyvesant to surrender to the English.

1774 – In response to the British Parliament’s enactment of the Coercive Acts in the American colonies, the first session of the Continental Congress convenes at Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia.

1781 – The Battle of the Chesapeake; a British fleet arrived off the Virginia Capes and found 26 French warships in three straggling lines.

1804 – In a daring night raid, American sailors under Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, boarded the captured USS Philadelphia and burned the ship to keep it out of the hands of the Barbary pirates who captured her.

1813 – Schooner USS Enterprise captures HM brig Boxer off Portland, ME.

1836 – Sam Houston was elected president of the Republic of Texas.

1850 - USS Yorktown was a 16-gun sloop laid down in 1838 in the Norfolk Navy Yard. And commission in 1840.  While on anti-slaving duties, she struck an uncharted reef off Maio, Cape Verde. Although the ship broke up in a very short time, not a life was lost in the wreck.

1863 – United States Foreign Minister to Great Britain, Charles Francis Adams, sends an angry letter to the British government warning that war between the two nations may erupt if it allows two powerful ironclad ships, designed to help the Confederates break the Union naval blockade, to set sail.

1877 – Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is fatally bayoneted by a U.S. soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson, Nebraska.

1905 – The Russo-Japanese War comes to an end as representatives of the two nations sign the Treaty of Portsmouth in New Hampshire.

1918 – USS Mount Vernon (ID-4508) was torpedoed by U-82 off France, but was able to make port.

1923 – U.S. Asiatic Fleet arrives at Yokohama, Japan, to provide medical assistance and supplies after Kondo Plain earthquake.

1923 – Former USS Virginia (BB-13) and USS New Jersey (BB-16) were towed to a point three miles off the Diamond Shoals lightship, off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, anchored there and sunk as targets by US Army horizontal bombers.

1939 – The United States proclaimed its neutrality in World War II.

1944 – Germany launched its first V-2 missile at Paris, France.

1945 – Iva Toguri D’Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist “Tokyo Rose,” was arrested in Yokohama.

1951 – Test pilot Scott Crossfield flew the X-1 to Mach 1.07 in fuselage pressure and stabilizer tests.

1953 – The 1st privately operated atomic reactor opened in Raleigh NC.

1953 - "TOKYO (AP) - Wild mountain country in Western Japan Saturday cloaked the fate of a U.S. jet pilot, one of six forced to crash or bail out when a sudden violent storm hid their bases until their jets ran out of fuel. The pilot unaccounted for was flying one of five F-86 Sabres Friday from Kisarazu maintenance base on the east side of Tokyo Bay to Tsuiki Air Base at Fukuoka, Kyushu's principal city.

Two crash-landed at or near Tsuiki. One pilot parachuted into the Pacific off Shikoku Island and was rescued by a fisherman. Another parachuted on a housetop. The fifth pilot disappeared in an area somewhat resembling America's mountainous Olympic Peninsula country. At the same time that tragedy beset the Sabres, an F-84 Thunderjet crash-landed near Itazuke Air Base near Fukuoka. The jet crashed into a barn, injuring the pilot. No names were released."

1963 - A North American AF-1E Fury, BuNo 143560, of VF-725, Naval Reserve, based at NAS Glenview, Illinois, suffers engine failure, pilot Lt. Don J. "Skip" Mellem ejects through canopy and survives.

1967 – Former USS Jack (SS-259) was loaned to the Greek Navy and renamed Amphitrite.  Returned to the US Navy, she was sunk as a target.

1969 – Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder in the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians at My Lai in March 1968.

1975 – In Sacramento, California, an assassination attempt against President Gerald Ford is foiled when a Secret Service agent wrests a semi-automatic .45-caliber pistol from Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a follower of incarcerated cult leader Charles Manson.

1978 – US Pres. Carter, Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt met at Camp David, Md.

1990 – USS Acadia (AD-42) departs San Diego for first war-time deployment of male-female crew on combat vessel.


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## mhansen2

6 September

1492 – Columbus’ fleet sailed from Gomera, Canary islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.

1620 – The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America.

1628 – Puritans settle Salem, which will later become part of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1776 – The Turtle, the 1st submarine invented by David Bushnell, attempted to secure a cask of gunpowder to the HMS Eagle, flagship of the British fleet, in the Bay of NY but got entangled with the Eagle’s rudder bar, lost ballast and surfaced before the charge was planted.

1862 – USS Picket was a Union army screw steam gunboat, converted from an iron barge. She was hit by shells and exploded in the Tar River at Washington, N.C.  Capt. Sylvester D. Nicoll and 19 men were killed. The ordnance and machinery were removed and the vessel was burned. The wreck was discovered by local divers in 1973. The iron hull is intact.

1901 – President William McKinley is shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley was greeting the crowd in the Temple of Music when Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, stepped forward and shot the president twice at point-blank range. McKinley lived for another week before finally succumbing to a gangrene infection on September 14.

1915 – The first tank prototype was completed and given its first test drive on this day, developed by William Foster & Company for the British army. Several European nations had been working on the development of a shielded, tracked vehicle that could cross the uneven terrain of World War I trenches, but Great Britain was the first to succeed.

1918 – Sailors fire the first of 5 14”-50 caliber railroad guns at Tergnier, a German rail head in the Comeigne Forest.

1944 - First prototype (and only one completed) McDonnell XP-67 “Moonbat,” 42-11677, suffers fire in starboard engine during functional test flight at 10,000 feet (3,000 m). Pilot E.E. Elliot manages to bring stricken airframe into Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri, flames gut the fuselage, engine nacelle and wheelwell before firefighters halt blaze. As jet engined project that will become the FD-1 Phantom is already on the horizon, project is cancelled.

1947 – “Operation Sandy,” the launching of a V-2 rocket from the flight deck of USS Midway (CVB-41).  The rocket’s flight path was erratic right from launch and it exploded at about 12,000 feet.  Three main pieces fell into the ocean some 5,000 yards from the ship.

1953 – The last American and Korean prisoners were exchanged in Operation Big Switch, the last official act of the Korean War.

1960 - A North American GAM-77 Hound Dog missile launched from a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress over the Eglin Air Force Base, Florida test range at ~2 p.m. goes astray, coming down on a farm near Samson, Alabama. The missile ignored repeated attempts by the range safety officer to self-destruct.

1963 – Former USS Balao (SS-285) was sunk as a target off Florida.

1966 – Former USS Foss (DE-59) was sunk as a target off California near San Diego by USS Sabalo (SS-302).

1976 – Soviet Air Force Lt. Viktor Belenko lands his MIG-25P Foxbat in Japan and asks for asylum in the United States.

1981 - A United States Air Force Northrop T-38A-75-NO Talon, 68-8182, '1', of the Thunderbirds display team crashed on take-off at Cleveland, Ohio, United States following a bird strike. The team leader, Lt. Col. David L. Smith, was killed and the team’s displays for the rest of the year are cancelled.


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## mhansen2

7 September

Poster’s note:  I’m noticing more errors in my primary source

This Day in U.S. Military History

I’m cutting back on this thread.

1918 - "By Associated Press to THE SUN - MATHER FIELD, Sacramento, Cal., Sept. 7. - Flying Cadets William G. Wilson, of Berkeley, California, and a son of J. Stitt Wilson, at one time a candidate for the socialist party for governor of California, and James H. Wilson of Pueblo, Colorado, met death today when their airplanes collided in the air. The accident occurred at the south end of the field. The three were not related. Civilians who witnessed the collision said the airplanes came together head on. One of the airplanes tumbled downward and crashed to the earth, while the other seemed to be descending for a landing, witnesses said. William G. Wilson was killed instantly. He suffered a fractured skull and internal injuries. James E. Wilson was removed to the base hospital where he died about 25 minutes after the accident. He suffered internal injuries and his thigh was injured. The bodies of the two cadets were taken to an undertaking establishment in Sacramento where they will remain pending instructions from the relatives. They were draped with American flags. The cadets were flying at an altitude of about 3,500 feet when the airplanes came together. The accident occurred near Walsh station, a short distance from the southern end of the field. The wrecked airplanes fell to earth at points about a half mile apart." Curtiss JN-4Ds AS-3673 and AS-3995 written off in this accident.

1930 - Capt. John Owen Donaldson, World War I ace (eight victories), after winning two races at an American Legion air meet in Philadelphia, is killed when his plane crashes during a stunt flying performance. He had shared the MacKay Gold Medal for taking first place in the Army's transcontinental air race in October 1919. Greenville Army Air Field, South Carolina, is later renamed Donaldson Air Force Base for the Greenville native.

1945 - "SAN DIEGO, Sept. 7, (UP) - A stunting naval fighter plane today struck a power line, crashed through a garage and slashed off a corner of a house in the east San Diego district, police reported. The pilot was killed instantly."

1956 – Test pilot Iven Kincheloe flew the X-2 to 39,491 meters (129,570 feet) and Mach 1.7.

1966 - Second (of five) Ling-Temco-Vought XC-142As, 62-5922, suffers failure of idler gear in number three engine gearbox during a preflight run-up at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Entire gearbox has to be replaced. Investigation reveals problem with inadequately supported aluminum pin that serves as an axle for this gear, making misalignment and eventual failure inevitable, so a fix is designed and the starboard gearboxes of all XC-142s are modified.

2007 - A Sikorsky MH-53M Pave Low IV, 69-05794, of the 20th Special Operations Squadron, Hurlburt Field, crashes near Duke Field, Eglin Auxiliary Field 3, two are injured.


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## mhansen2

8 September

1923 – Honda Point Disaster involving:
USS Chauncey (DD-296)
USS Delphy (DD-261)
USS Fuller (DD-297)
USS Nicholas (DD-311)
USS S. P. Lee (DD-310)
USS Woodbury (DD-309)
USS Young (DD-312)
A Naval Tragedy's Chain of Errors | U.S. Naval Institute

1944 - 2d Lt. John T. McCarthy, in Republic P-47D-6-RE Thunderbolt, 42-74782, of the 262d FPTS, on a combined interception training mission out of Bruning Army Air Field, Nebraska, at ~1540 hrs. CWT, at 16,000 feet altitude, makes a pursuit curve mock attack from the high port side of Boeing B-17G-35-DL Flying Fortress, 42-107159, terminating his attack from about 250 to 300 yards away from the bomber, but "mushes" into the B-17 while breaking away, hitting the port wing near the number one (port outer) engine. "Both planes burst into flames immediately, the B-17 exploding, disintegrating into several pieces, and crashing to the ground. The P-47 hit the ground in a tight spiral, exploding when it hit the ground." The collision occurs ~5 miles NE of Bruning AAF. The fighter pilot is KWF.

The B-17, of the 224th AAF Base Unit, out of Sioux City Army Air Base, Iowa, was part of a formation of bombers on a camera-gunnery mission, en route to Bruning AAF, which was flying in several elements. The fighter struck the wing man of the second element of the low formation. Only four crew of ten aboard the B-17 manage to bail out. Killed are 2d Lts. William F. Washburn, and Bernard I. Hall, pilot and co-pilot, F/O George A. Budovsky, Cpl. John E. Tuchols, and Pvt. Henry C. Sedberry. Surviving are Cpls. LeNoir A. Greer (minor injuries), and Walter A. Divan (major injuries), Pvt. Albert L. Mikels (minor injuries), and Pfc. Reuben L. Larson (minor injuries). "It is the opinion of the Aircraft Accident Investigating Committee that responsibility for the accident is 100% pilot error on the part of the pilot of the P-47, in that poor judgement and poor technique was used in 'breaking off'." A Nebraska historical marker for the accident was erected in 2010 by the Milligan Memorial Committee for the World War II Fatal Air Crashes near Milligan, Nebraska.

1958 - Two Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers collide over the town of Airway Heights near Fairchild AFB, Washington. B-52D, 56–661 and 56–681, both crash. Thirteen crew members are killed, while three survive. There were no casualties on the ground.

1960 - USAF Boeing WB-50D Superfortress crashes and burns in mountains six miles E of Ishikawa, Japan, early Thursday, killing at least nine of eleven on board instantly. Townspeople who hear the weather plane crash are foiled at rescue attempts by searing heat. Nine charred bodies are pulled from the wreckage. The plane, on a routine weather mission, had been aloft from Yokota Air Base for about an hour. B-50D-105-BO, 48-122, converted to WB-50D. Crashed with 56th WRS.

1966 – Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 22,311 meters (73,202 feet) and Mach 2.44.

1970 - US Marine Corps Capt. Patrick G. Carroll, 27, of El Toro, California, ejects safely Tuesday moments before his Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, BuNo 150089, crashes in a remote area 20 miles N of Big Bear, California in Lucerne Valley at 1528 hrs. The impact touches off a 30-acre brushfire in Lovelace Canyon, south and west of the Lucerne Valley, which was still burning the following day. Eight retardant-dropping fire bombers are diverted from another blaze near Devore, California in the Cajon Pass to help contain the burn. A total of 12 California Division of Forestry and other trucks are also dispatched to the site to fight the fire. The pilot, who was flying N over Big Bear Lake on a navigation training flight, suffered an undetermined malfunction, said a public information spokesman at MCAS El Toro, California. He was seen as he ejected by a gas company serviceman, James Kennedy, who picked him up and drove him to near-by Sky-High Ranch. Carroll, a Vietnam veteran, is picked up by a rescue helicopter from George Air Force Base, California, and was not injured. Firefighters were hindered by rough, rocky terrain and a truck that overturned on an access road, blocking the path for over an hour. Fire crew were lifted to the site by helicopter or had to walk in 1 1/2 miles from Highway 18 near the Lucerne Valley.


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## mhansen2

9 September

1862 – “Alert” was a Union barque carrying a cargo of 80 boxes of tobacco, clothes and other trade goods for sea elephant oil from New London, CT, for Navigators' Islands in the South Indian Ocean when she was captured by CSS Alabama between Corvo and Flores Islands in the Azores. Some of the cargo was removed and she was set on fire and sunk.

1862 – “Ocean Rover” was a Union whaling barque of 313 tons out of New Bedford, Mass. She was carrying 1,100 barrels of whale oil when captured by the CSS Alabama off Flores, Azores. She was burnt along with bargue “Alert” and the crews put in 6 boats and told to row for the Azores.

1864 – “Fawn” was a Union Steam mail boat from Norfolk. She was captured and burned by James B. Hopkins and 35 Confederate guerrillas and sailors from the ironclad CSS Albemarle at the Currituck Bridge in the Dismal Swamp Canal.

1928 - During events held during the National Air Races at Mines Field, Los Angeles, the program "was marred by the crash of Lieut. George E. Hasselman, U.S.Navy, of the VB-2B Squadron, who crashed 50 feet to the ground in a side slip and was seriously injured." VB-2B operated Boeing F2B-1s in 1928.

1945 - Consolidated B-32-20-CF Dominator, 42-108532, "Hobo Queen II", is damaged when the nose wheel accidentally retracts on the ground at Yontan Airfield, Okinawa. Two days later, a hoist lifting the B-32 drops it twice. Since the war has ended, it is not repaired but is disassembled at the airfield.

1950 - A Douglas R5D-3, BuNo 56496, c/n 10624, crashed shortly after take-off from Kwajalein atoll in the South Pacific Ocean en-route to Tokyo, Japan. A total of 26 U.S. Navy personnel, including 11 nurses were killed.

1953 - A USAF Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star attempting a landing at San Fernando Valley Airport comes down a half mile short, sweeps over an open lot and under powerlines, bounces on a street, and crashes into the front door of home in Van Nuys, California. The trainer tears through the center of the home, leaving a wing in the living room and a tank embedded in the kitchen wall, and comes to rest in the backyard. There is no fire. One victim in the house is killed.

The plane's crew, Capt. Samuel Fast, 34, of San Fernando, the pilot, and Capt. Howard Rhodes, 30, Santa Monica, step from the fuselage unaided with only minor cuts and bruises. "The plane was on a routine acceptance test flight when landing gear trouble was reported, the CAA said."

On Friday 11 September, nearly 200 women and children picket the Lockheed assembly plant at the Lockheed Air Terminal, to protest the testing of jet planes in the populous area.

1953 - A U.S. Navy Douglas AD-4 Skyraider crashes, explodes on impact, and burns on the middle of Owens Dry Lake near Olancha, ~60 miles N of Naval Ordnance Test Station Inyokern. The bodies of three crew were retrieved by afternoon. The bomber was on a routine training mission out of NAS North Island, California. Wreckage was strewn over a 200-yard radius. Occupants of a companion plane on the flight saw the plane crash and reported it to the Inyokern station, which dispatched a rescue team and security officers. The accident occurred at 11:38 a.m.

The Navy identified the dead the following day as: Ens. A. R. Stickney, North Hollywood; John C. Peckenpaugh, AOM 3-c, Hardinsburg, Kentucky; and Paul D. Pock, Altamont, Illinois.

1953 - "MERCED (AP) - A two-engine Navy plane from Monterey crashed near Castle Air Force Base Wednesday and was demolished by fire. Two of the four crewmen received major injuries, all four received second degree burns."

1955 – A Douglas B-66 Destroyer, from Hurlburt Field crashed near Alvin, Texas. Three crew members aboard the plane bailed out after their plane developed trouble at 37,000 feet. Capt. Arthur J. Manzo, radar observer-navigator, was critically injured and died of his injuries 11 September 1957. Other crew members included 1st Lt. David E. Moore, pilot, and S/Sgt. Robert J. Newland, gunner.

1965 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 29,627 meters (97,206 feet) and Mach 5.16.

1993 – Former USCG Cape Strait (WPB-95308) was sunk as an artificial reef off Cape May, New Jersey.


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## mhansen2

10 September

1846 - Schooner USS Shark ran aground on an uncharted shoal while trying to pass the Columbia River Bar and was subsequently washed ashore at the breakers and totally lost. There were no casualties.

1863 – “Arkansas” was a Confederate stern wheel paddle steamer of 233 tons built in 1860 at Pittsburgh, Pa. She was burned on the Arkansas River at Little Rock as General Frederick Steele's Union forces approached the city.

1863 – “Bracelet” was a Confederate cottonclad side wheel paddle steamer of 169 tons built at Louisville in 1857. She was burned by Confederate forces at Little Rock as General Frederick Steele's Union forces approached the city.

1863 – “Julia Roane” was a Confederate stern wheel paddle steamer built in 1859 at California, Pa. She was burned at Little Rock, AK.

1863 – “Little Rock” was a Confederate stern wheel paddle steamer of 183 tons built in 1858. She was burned by the Confederates at Little Rock on the Arkansas River as General Frederick Steele's Union army approached the capital.

1863 - CSS Pontchartrain was a 454-ton sidewheel paddleboat built at New Albany, Indiana, in 1859. She was set afire to avoid capture and sank at Little Rock, AK.

1863 – “St. Francis No.3” was a Confederate stern wheel cottonclad paddle steamer of 219 tons built at Jeffersonville, Indiana. She was burned on the Arkansas River at Little Rock as General Frederick Steele's Union army approached.

1863 – “Tahlequah” was a Confederate side wheel paddle steamer of 92 tons built at Brownsville, Pa. She was burnt by Confederate forces at Little Rock on the Arkansas River upon the approach of General Steele's Union Army.

1864 – “Florie” was a Confederate iron side-wheel steamer of 349 gross tons, built in 1863 at Glasgow, Scotland that was lost on the Cape Fear River Bar, NC, after running onto a wreck.

1928 - While performing aerobatics at the air races held at Mines Field, Los Angeles, Lt. John J. "Johnny" Williams, leader of the Three Musketeers Air Corps stunt trio, crashes in Boeing PW-9D, 28-29, c/n 1013, of the 95th Pursuit Squadron, out of Rockwell Field, California, and is killed "almost instantly. Despite their comrade's untimely death, Lieuts. Woodring and Cornelius carried on. Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh volunteered his services, and the show continued."

1947 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the X-1 to Mach 0.91 in a control and stability test.

1952 - A contractor-led team launches the first Boeing XF-99 Bomarc propulsion test vehicle from the Air Force Missile Test Center (AFMTC) Launch Complex 4 at Patrick AFB, Florida, on mission 621–1, but the test fails.

1952 - Six Grumman F9F-4 Panthers from VMF-115, part of a 21-plane flight returning from a mission and, diverting from K-3 to K-2, crash into Unman-san, a South Korean mountain, in foggy conditions, following lead aircraft navigational instrument failure. All six pilots killed. Lost are Maj. Raymond E. De Mers in BuNo 125168, 2d Lt. Richard L. Roth in BuNo 125170, 2d Lt. Carl R. La Fleur in BuNo 125173, Maj. Donald F. Givens in BuNo 125178, 1st Lt. Alvin R. Bourgeois in either BuNo 125181 or 125182, and 2d Lt. John W. Hill, Jr. in BuNo 125223. Another source cites crash date of 11 September 1952.

1956 - A US Air Force RB-50G Superfortress was lost over the Sea of Japan. The crew of 16, Lorin C. Disbrow, Raymond D. Johnson, Rodger A. Fees, Paul W. Swinehart, William J. McLauglin, Theodorus J. Trias, Pat P. Taylor, John E. Beisty, Peter J. Rahaniotes, William H. Ellis, Richard T. Kobayashi, Wayne J. Fair, Palmer D. Arrowood, Harry S. Maxwell Jr., Bobby R. Davis and Leo J. Sloan, were all presumed to be killed. It is suspected that the aircraft was lost due to a powerful storm, Typhoon Emma, which was in the area.

1956 - During first flight of North American F-107A at Edwards AFB, California, prototype 55-5118 experiences problem with engine gearbox differential pressure during a dive and North American test pilot Bob Baker lands on dry lakebed at just under 200 knots (370 km/h). After rolling about a mile, aircraft hits a depression in the lakebed and the nose gear collapses. Jet slides ~ three-tenths of a mile on its nose, but suffers limited damage, no fire. Total landing roll was 22,000 feet (6,700 m). Airframe repaired in under two weeks.

1960 – Test pilot Robert M. White flew the X-15 to 24,343 meters (79,869 feet) and Mach 3.23.

1962- A U.S. Air Force Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker, AF ser. No. 60-0352, assigned at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, crashes into a fog-shrouded ravine on 5,271-foot tall Mount Kit Carson, ~20 miles NE of Spokane, Washington, at ~1105 hrs. while on approach to Fairchild AFB, Washington, killing four crew and 40 passengers. Thirty-nine were members of the 28th Bomb Wing, being sent TDY to Fairchild while runways were being repaired at Ellsworth. One civilian was on board. The aircraft mowed through a 25 X 200 yard swath of evergreens before striking the terrain and exploding. Visibility was near zero. Col. Floyd R. Cressman, of Fairchild AFB, said that it appeared that the pilot tried to pull up at the last moment.

1975 - A U.S. Army Bell UH-1H Iroquois from Fort Rucker Army Base, Alabama, on a routine training flight crashes and burns three miles SE of Marianna Municipal Airport, Marianna, Florida, killing all three crew, an instructor pilot and two students, military officials said.


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## mhansen2

11 September

1862 – “Weather Gauge” was a Union whaler operating out of Providence Town, Mass when she was captured by CSS Alabama on the 9th September 1862 and burned two days later.

1936 - Sole Kellett YG-1 gyrocopter, 35-278, now assigned to the 16th Observation Squadron, is moderately damaged in a takeoff accident at Pope Army Airfield, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, its second at this field this year. Pilot was Hollingsworth F. Gregory.

1941 – As a result of public outrage over the Greer incident, the president announces that American warships will be able to “shoot on sight” to ensure the protection of waters “necessary for American defense.” This formalizes a situation which has been commonly occurring.

1942 – Wheeler Bryson Lipes (1921-2005), a US Navy pharmacist’s mate, saved the life of sailor Darrell Dean Rector (19) by operating, following a medical manual, in the officer’s mess aboard USS Seadragon (SS-194) below the surface of the South China Sea. George Weller (d.2002), war correspondent, won the Pulitzer in 1943 for his account of the operation.

1943 - North American B-25G Mitchell, misreported as 41-13240, a serial number belonging to a Curtiss P-40C, of the 472d Bomb Squadron, 334th Bomb Group, Greenville Army Air Base, South Carolina, piloted by Eugene E. Stocking, collides four miles NW of Spartanburg, South Carolina, with B-25G-5 42-65013, of the same units, flown by Solon E. Ellis. 65013 crashes, killing five crew, while the unidentified Mitchell lands safely.

1943 - The prototype Airborne and General MC-1, NX21757, prototype of the XCG-16 assault glider, begins tests at March Field, California, but on the second flight, inadequately secured ballast comes loose when the glider flies through the Lockheed C-60 glider tug's propwash, causing a catastrophic rearward shift in the center of gravity. The uncontrollable MC-1A releases from tow and enters a flat spin at 3,000 feet from which it does not recover, and crashes in a plowed field. Three of the crew and passengers bail out but only two survive the parachute jump. Paul G. Wells and Harry M. Pearl descend safely, but the parachute of Richard Chichester du Pont, 37, who won the national soaring championship five years in a row, serving as special assistant to Gen. Henry "Hap" Arnold, does not open in time and he is killed. Also killed in the wreck are Col. P. Ernest Gabel, another glider specialist, deputy director of the Army Air Forces glider program, on the staff of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Washington, D.C., C. C. Chandler, Tarzana, California, test pilot and thrice soaring champion, and test pilot Howard L. Morrison, San Fernando, California.

1945 – USS PC-815 was lost in a collision in dense fog with USS Laffey (DD-724) off San Diego.

1948 - USS Mahackemo (YTB-223) sank while under tow off Cape Hatteras, N.C., enroute to Newport, R.I. Naval Base.

1948 – Former USS Searaven (SS-196) was used as a target ship during the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946 and was lightly damaged. She was sunk as a target on this date.

1952 - Three Air Force crew and two civilians aboard a Beechcraft C-45F Expeditor on a routine flight from Bedford, Massachusetts, to Griffiss AFB, near Rome, New York, take to the silk and bail out at 2,500 feet at ~8:50 p.m. EST near Stittville after the aircraft's port engine loses power over central New York state ~50 miles from its destination. The lightened plane then flies onward on automatic pilot for more than an hour before crashing into Lake Ontario off of Oswego. A team of researchers from the Rochester area seeking historic shipwrecks in the lake's eastern end discover the "nearly intact" airframe in deep water on 27 June 2014 using side-scan sonar. The nose and twin fins are separated from the aircraft, but the rest is there.

The pilot was Lt. Col. Charles Callahan, 32, of Monticello, Mississippi. All on board were attached to the Air Development Center at Griffiss AFB. The others on board were 1st Lt. Sam Sharf, of New York City; Lt. Col. G. S. Lam, of Newport News, Virginia; William Bethke, a civilian technician who lives near Rome; and Joseph M. Eannario, who lives in Rome.

1953 - One North American F-86D Sabre crashes, and another is unaccounted for after a flight of four 62d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron fighters gets separated during a wind and rain storm over Northern Illinois on Friday night. Maj. Robert L. Thomas, at O'Hare Air Reserve Station, said that two aircraft apparently lost their bearings. One came down on a farm near the community of Wilton Center, ~35 miles SW of Chicago, the pilot safe after bailing out at 10,000 feet. "The second plane was reported to have crashed in Lake Michigan adjacent to Chicago, but Thomas said that report later was found incorrect."

1968 - Second prototype Grumman F-111B, BuNo 151971, c/n A2-02, crashes into the Pacific Ocean killing Hughes pilot Barton Warren and his RIO Anthony Byland.

1972 - General Dynamics F-111A, 65-5703, c/n A1-21, of the 6510th Test Wing, used in spin tests out of Edwards Air Force Base, California, crashes, impacting in the desert ~10 miles from the base in a near vertical dive at ~500 knots after the crew ejected in their escape capsule. The crew survives.

1982 - At an airshow in Mannheim, Germany, celebrating the 375th anniversary of that city, a United States Army Boeing-Vertol CH-47C Chinook, 74-22292, of the 295th Assault Support Helicopter Company—"Cyclones", located at Coleman Army Airfield, Coleman Barracks, near Mannheim, carrying parachutists crashed, killing 46 people. The crash was later found to be caused by an accumulation of ground walnut shells that had been used to clean the machinery.

2001 – “911”
September 11 attacks - Wikipedia

2003 - While landing aboard USS George Washington (CVN-73) operating off the Virginia Capes, a McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18D-32-MC Hornet (Lot 13), BuNo 164198, c/n 961/DO63, 'AD 432', of VFA-106, goes off the angle at ~1600 hrs. when the arresting cable parts, pilot ejects and is recovered. The broken cable, whipping back across the deck, injures eleven deck crew, the most serious of which are airlifted to shore medical facilities.
“Poster’s note:  While described as a two seat F/A-18D here and in the list of BuNos:
US Navy and US Marine Corps BuNos--Third Series (164196 to ??)
The aircraft shown in the video was clearly a single seater. 
“‘Tis a puzzlement.”

2012 – Islamic militants attacked the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith.


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## mhansen2

12 September

1926 - Curtiss XP-6, 25-423, the fourth Curtiss P-2 reengined with a Curtiss V-1570-1 Conqueror, suffers heavy damage in a landing that results in a ground loop at Selfridge Field, Mount Clemens, Michigan. Pilot was George C. Price. Repaired, the aircraft will finish second in the 1927 Pursuit Plane Race at the National Air Races, at 189.608 mph.

1943 - A U.S. Navy Grumman F4F Wildcat flown by Lieutenant John Lewis Morelle, USNR, 24, of Georgetown, Texas, strikes a suspension cable of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The wings and tail were sheared off and the plane fell burning into the bay 200 feet below. The pilot's body is not recovered. Portions of the wings and tail assembly rained down onto the roadway but no civilian was injured despite many vehicles on the span at the time. Six of seven strands of one suspension cable were snapped, but the safety of the bridge was not endangered. This was the first time a plane hit the span since its 12 November 1936 opening.

1945 - On first flight of Northrop XP-79B, 43-52437, out of Muroc Army Air Base, California, aircraft behaves normally for ~15 minutes, then at an altitude of ~7,000 feet begins a slow roll from which it fails to recover. Pilot Harry Crosby bails out at 2,000 feet but is struck by revolving aircraft and his chute does not deploy. Largely magnesium airframe is totally consumed by fire after impact on desert floor.

1945 - First Lt. Robert J. Anspach attempts to ferry captured Focke Wulf Fw 190F, FE-113, coded '10', from Newark Army Air Base, New Jersey, where it had been offloaded from HMS Reaper (D82) to Freeman Field, Indiana, for testing. While letting down for refueling stop at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a faulty electrical horizontal trim adjustment switch goes to full-up position and cannot be manually overridden. Pilot spots the small dirt strip, the Hollidaysburg Airport, S of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and makes an emergency landing. Upon applying brakes, right one fails immediately, the fighter pivots left, the landing gear collapses and the propeller rips away. Pilot uninjured, but the aircraft is hauled to Middletown Air Depot, Pennsylvania, and scrapped. Prop ends up on wall of local flying club.

1946 - USS YP-636 was groping about the barren cliffs south of the Golden Gate in a dense fog when she ran aground just south of Half Moon Bay. With the vessel badly holed the crew was forced to abandon ship. There was no attempt at salvage.

1947 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the X-1 to Mach 0.92 in a stabilizer and elevator buffet check.

1961 – Test pilot Joe Walker flew the X-15 to 34,839 meters (114,306 feet) and Mach 5.21.

1988 - A Grumman F-14A-95-GR Tomcat, BuNo 160409, of VF-143, (also reported as VF-124) suffers an all hydraulic system failure and crashes inverted into a hangar at Gillespie Field, a civil airport in El Cajon, California, San Diego County while attempting to return to NAS Miramar. The pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Jim Barnett, 36, a flight instructor with 10 years of experience flying F-14s, managed to point the crippled jet towards the landing strip to reduce civilian casualties, and both he and his backseater, Lt. (j.g.) Randy L. Furtado, 27, a radar intercept officer who was undergoing training, ejected, suffering injuries. The RIO landed in power lines and suffered a fatal broken neck. The crash injured 3 on the ground and destroyed or damaged 19 aircraft and 13 vehicles.

1994 – Frank Eugene Corder crashes a single-engine Cessna 150 into the White House’s south lawn, striking the West wing and killing himself.

2012 – Former USS Coronado (AGF-11) was sunk by a number of warships and now serves as an artificial reef for the Marianas region.

2013 – NASA announces the Voyager 1 space probe has left the solar system becoming the first man-made object to reach interstellar space.
Voyager - Mission Status


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## mhansen2

13 September

1946 - Major General Paul Bernard Wurtsmith (9 August 1906 – 13 September 1946), of Strategic Air Command, is killed when his North American TB-25J-27-NC Mitchell, 44-30227, of the 326th Base Unit, MacDill Field, Florida, crashes at ~1130 hrs. into Cold Mountain near Asheville, North Carolina. In February 1953, the United States Air Force named Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda Township, Michigan, in his honor.

1948 – Former LST-661 was heavily irradiated during the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests and considered not worth decontaminating.  She was sunk as a target at Kwajalein.

1955 - Six people were killed when a North American B-25 suffered engine failure on takeoff from Mitchel AFB, New York, and crashed into Greenfield Cemetery, Hempstead, New York, five minutes after departure. Three of the victims were crew members, and three were passengers. The names of the dead were withheld pending notification of next of kin. B-25J-35/37-NC, 45-8822, modified to TB-25N, then to VB-25N, was piloted by James D. Judy.

1968 – Test pilot Pete Knight flew the X-15 to 77,450 meters (254,113 feet) and Mach 5.37.

1977 – Former USS Palawan (ARG-10) was sold to the State of California Ship Reef Program on 1 November 1976 and sunk off Redondo Beach, CA.

1999 – Former USCG Red Oak (WLM-689) was scuttled at the Cape May Artificial Reef, New Jersey.


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## mhansen2

14 September

1814 – Francis Scott Key composes the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner” after witnessing the massive British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Maryland during the War of 1812.

1847 – During the Mexican-American War, U.S. forces under General Winfield Scott enter Mexico City and raise the American flag over the Hall of Montezuma, concluding a devastating advance that began with an amphibious landing at Vera Cruz six months earlier.

1872 – Britain paid US $15 million for damages during Civil War. The British government paid £3 million in damages to the United States in compensation for building the Confederate commerce-raider Alabama.

1901 – Twenty-fifth President of the United States William McKinley, Jr., dies today of an assassin’s bullet shot into him on September 6th.

1939 – In the 1930s Igor Sikorsky (d.1972) turned his attention again to helicopter design and on this day flew the VS-300 on its first tethered test flight.

1940 – Congress passed the Selective Service Act, providing for the first peacetime draft in U.S. history. It passed by one vote.

1944 - Douglas SBD-4 Dauntless, BuNo 10575, 'B-16', crashes off bow of USS Sable (IX-81) during flight operations on Lake Michigan at 1001 hrs. Pilot Ensign Albert Grey O'Dell, A-V(N), USNR, recovered by U.S. Coast Guard 83-foot Wooden Patrol Boat WPB-83476 at 1003, brought back aboard Sable at 1013. Pilot suffers minor contusion of right shoulder, "numerous jagged lacerations of the face, chin and forehead." Airframe rediscovered on 11 April 1989 by A&T Recovery of Chicago, Illinois, and recovered 26 August 1991 on behalf of the National Museum of Naval Aviation and brought initially to Crowley's Yacht Yard for disassembly and shipment for restoration. After restoration it is displayed for a time at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio, marked as a USAAF A-24 Banshee. It is now on display in Concourse C at Chicago Midway International Airport, marked as the SBD, 'B-3', flown by Ensign Frederick Thomas Weber (4 February 1916 – 4 June 1942) of VB-6, USS Enterprise, at the Battle of Midway.  Credited with a bomb hit on the Japanese carrier Hiryū, he was killed in action, and awarded the Navy Cross.

1945 - Hurricane Nine of the 1945 season destroys three wooden blimp hangars at NAS Richmond, Florida, southwest of Miami, with 140 mph winds. Roofs collapse, ruptured fuel tanks are ignited by shorted electrical lines, fire consumes twenty-five blimps (eleven deflated), 31 non-Navy U.S. government aircraft, 125 privately owned aircraft, and 212 Navy aircraft. Thirty-eight Navy personnel injured, civilian fire chief killed. Air operations are reduced to a minimum following this storm and NAS Richmond is closed two months later.

1955 - USAF Douglas A-26B-45-DL Invader, 44-34126, loses starboard engine on take-off from 5,142-foot-long runway 12/30, Mitchel AFB, New York, runs through perimeter fence on southeast side of field, comes to rest on the Hempstead Turnpike. Port undercarriage leg collapses, port prop blades bent. No injuries. Another source identifies this airframe as A-26B-66-DL, 44-34626, and the pilot as John E. Mervyn.

1965 – Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 72,847 meters (239,011 feet) and Mach 5.03.

1966 - Test pilot Bill Dana flew the X-15 to 77,480 meters (254,212 feet) and Mach 5.12.

1976 - While the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) is operating ~100 miles NW of Scapa Flow, Scotland, as part of a 100 ship NATO naval exercise, Teamwork 76, Press Day is marred by the loss of Grumman F-14A Tomcat, BuNo 159588, 'AB 221', of VF-32, over the side into the North Sea when its engines go inexplicably to full power while the fighter is being prepped for catapult 3. Steered to port away from other aircraft by the pilot as the locked brakes fail to keep the jet in place, the Tomcat's starboard wing strikes two other aircraft and as it tips off of the flight deck, pilot Lt. J. L. Kosich, and his radar intercept officer, Lt. (jg) L. E. Seymour, eject.

A Soviet cruiser shadowing the manoeuvers notes the loss of the Tomcat and its state-of-the-art Phoenix missile and AN/AWG-9 fire control radar, so the U.S. Navy is forced into an immediate recovery effort that takes eight weeks. The nuclear research submarine NR-1 eventually retrieves the missile from a depth of 1,650 feet, and two leased heavy trawlers snag and drag the Tomcat to shallower water where the heavily damaged airframe is salvaged and found to have all its sub-systems intact.

1977 - Boeing EC-135K, 62-3536, converted from KC-135A-BN Stratotanker, part of the 8th Tactical Deployment Control Squadron, based at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, on a joint training mission, departs Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, after a refuelling stop, makes right turn, crashes into steep terrain in the Manzano Mountains, two miles S of the Four Hills housing development, killing all 20 on board.

1991 - A Sikorsky MH-53 Sea Dragon, 163071, crashes into the Persian Gulf at 2105 hrs., shortly after taking off from the USS Peleliu (LHA-5), 40 miles N of Bahrain. All 6 service members on board were killed. The aircraft was part of squadron HM-15 based out of Naval Air Station Alameda, near San Francisco.

1997 - A USAF Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, 81-793, of the 7th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Wing, at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, lost its port wing at 1500 hrs. during a pass over Martin State Airport, Middle River, Maryland during the Chesapeake Air Show and crashed into a residential area of Bowley's Quarters, Maryland damaging several homes. Four people on the ground received minor injuries and the pilot, Maj. Bryan "B.K." Knight, 36, escaped with minor injuries after ejecting from the aircraft. A month-long Air Force investigation found that four of 39 fasteners for the wing's structural support assembly were apparently left off when the wings were removed and reinstalled in January 1996, according to a report released 12 December 1997.

2003 - Opposing Solo Pilot, Capt. Chris R. Stricklin, in Thunderbirds Number 6, a Lockheed Martin F-16C Block 32J Fighting Falcon, 87-0327, misjudges his altitude before beginning a Split-S takeoff maneuver at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, ejects in ACES II seat 8/10ths of a second before the aircraft impacts the runway. Stricklin survived with no injuries.

2004 - A US Navy McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18C Hornet, 164904, of VMFA-212 (another source says VMFA-121) crashes at Manbulloo Station about 10 M SW of RAAF Tindal, Australia, during a day approach to landing. The pilot ejects and is injured.

2006 - A US Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16CJ/D Block 50B Fighting Falcon, 91-0337, of the 22d Fighter Squadron, 52d Fighter Wing, based out of Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, crashes in the nearby village of Oberkail after a landing gear failure prevents it from making a controlled landing. The pilot, 1st Lt. Trevor Merrell, ejects safely after aiming his aircraft towards a vacant cow pasture, where it crashes, causing no injuries.


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## mhansen2

15 September

1863 – “Arabian” was a Canadian side-wheel steamer of 263 tons, built in 1851 at Niagara, Ontario. While exiting the Cape Fear River, NC, at night with a cargo of cotton, Arabian was chased back by the USS Iron Age and USS Shenandoah and ran aground north of Corncake Inlet (now New Inlet) at the entrance of the Cape Fear River, one mile below Fort Fisher at Kure Beach.

1923 - Major Edward L. Napier, a native of Union Springs, Alabama, is killed in the crash of a Fokker D.VII, AS-5382, at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, He had been a Medical Corps Officer in the Great War and had transferred to the Army Air Corps. He was receiving training as a flight surgeon at the time of his death. The official report states that he was piloting the aircraft himself and there was a structural failure of a wing. In 1941, the U.S. Army Air Corps will open Napier Field at Dothan, Alabama, named in his honor.

1924 - A Curtiss N-9 seaplane, equipped with radio control and without a human pilot aboard, was flown on a 40-minute flight at the Naval Proving Grounds, Dahlgren, Virginia. Although the aircraft sank from damage sustained while landing, this test demonstrated the practicability of radio control of aircraft.

1942 - Vultee XA-31B-VU Vengeance, 42-35824, piloted by H. H. Sargent Jr., out of Rentschler Field, Connecticut, overturns in a tobacco field while making forced landing near Windsor Locks, Connecticut, after engine failure. Initially built as a non-flying XA-31A engine-test airframe but later upgraded for operation.

1944 - A U.S. Army Air Force Consolidated TB-24J Liberator, 42-50890, (built as a B-24J-5-FO, and converted), of the 3007th AAF Base Unit, Kirtland Field, piloted by Warren E. Crowther, en route from Bakersfield, California, to Kirtland Field, New Mexico, and off-course, crashed into a boulder field near the top of Humphreys Peak, 10 miles N of Flagstaff, Arizona, at approx. 0330 hrs. All eight crew members were killed. The location is nearly inaccessible and has been left mostly as-is.

1945 - USAAF Douglas C-47B-45-DK Skytrain, 45-1011, c/n 17014/34277, of the 561st Base Unit, Ft. Dix AAF, New Jersey, piloted by James E. Wuest, crashes on take-off one mile W of Kansas City, Missouri, killing 23 of 24 aboard. "KANSAS CITY, Sept. 15 (AP) - Only one of 21 homeward-bound European war veterans, passengers aboard a military air transport plane which crashed early today remained alive tonight - and his condition was critical. A crew of three died in the craft which crashed and burned only a few seconds after it took off from Fairfax airport. Three of the veterans were alive when rescue parties reached the charred wreckage on the north bank of the Missouri river. Of these, Sgt. Bernard C. Tucker, Etna, California, and Cpl. Fred Ebert, Pasadena, died later at a local hospital. Sgt. Ora DeLong, whose papers indicated he had relatives at Fort Scott, Kan., Winfield, Kan., and San Bernardino, California, remained alive this afternoon but his condition was described as critical. The big Douglas C-47 plane had just left the runway at the local airport after refueling to continue its flight westward from Newark, N. J. Witnesses said one engine sputtered as the craft left the field. The ship made it across the Missouri River, immediately north of the field lost altitude rapidly and topped a tree on the bank of the river. One wing caught the embankment of the Burlington railroad tracks and the ship caught fire, falling in flames north of the track."

1948 – Major Richard L. Johnson, USAF, flies an F-86A Sabre to set the world aircraft speed record at 670.84 miles per hour (1,079.6 km/h) at Muroc Dry Lake, California.

1949 - First Convair B-36 Peacemaker loss occurs when B-36B 44-92079, of the 9th Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomb Wing, crashes into Lake Worth during a night "maximum effort" mission takeoff from Carswell AFB, Texas, killing five of 13 crew. Cause attributed to two propellers going into reverse pitch. Wreckage removed from lake and scrapped.

1974 - On third day of Naval Preliminary Evaluation (NPE-1) testing, first prototype Sikorsky YCH-53E Sea Stallion, BuNo 159121, is destroyed at the Sikorsky plant at Stratford, Connecticut when it rolls onto its side and burns after one of the main rotor blades detaches during a ground run. It had first flown on 1 March 1974. Second prototype is grounded while accident is investigated, flight testing resuming on 24 January 1975.

1985 - A Texas Army National Guard AH-1G Cobra Tail number 67-15737 of D/1/124 CAV of 49th "Lone Star" Div. crashed shortly after take-off at 0820 hrs NW of Camp Merrill US Army Ranger TNG Camp AAF near Dahlonega, GA. Initial contact with team aircraft was made then contact was lost in a mountainous and heavily treed area. Post-crash investigation indicated N1 compressor section failure was the cause of the Class A Accident resulting in the loss of both pilots, 1LT Kevin M. Cardwell and co-pilot, 1LT Michael L. Pape Sr.


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## mhansen2

16 September

1620 – The Mayflower sails from Plymouth, England, bound for the New World with 102 passengers. The ship was headed for Virginia, where the colonists–half religious dissenters and half entrepreneurs–had been authorized to settle by the British crown.

1813 - USS Gun Boat no.164 sank in a squall at St. Mary´s, Georgia. 20 drowned.

1854 – CDR David G. Farragut takes possession of Mare Island, the first U.S. Navy Yard on the Pacific.

1862 – “Courser” was a Union whaling schooner burned off Flores Island in the Azores by CSS Alabama.

1893 – The largest land run in history begins with more than 100,000 people pouring into the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma to claim valuable land that had once belonged to Native Americans.

1918 – CGC Seneca’s crew attempted to bring the torpedoed British collier SS Wellington into Brest, France.  The attempt failed.  Five crewmen from Seneca and eleven from Wellington were killed.

1918 - USS Buenaventura was an American cargo steamer of 4,881grt that was requisitioned by the US Navy and assigned to Naval Overseas Transportation Services as No. 1335., in July 1918.  She was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine UB-129 when about 200 miles off NW Spain when on route from Le Verdon for Philadelphia in ballast.

1919 – The American Legion was incorporated by an act of Congress.

1940 – Under authority granted by Congress, President Franklin Roosevelt orders the Army to begin mobilizing the entire National Guard for one year’s training prompted by the worsening conditions in Europe.

1947 - Capt. Lawson L. Lipscomb, USAAF, of Houston, Texas, radioed that he was having difficulty with his P-80 Shooting Star and was returning to Eglin Field, Florida.  Emergency preparations were in place on the runways, but the fighter came down just west of the airfield and Capt. Lipscomb was killed.

1948 – Former YOG-83 was heavily irradiated by the atomic explosions during Operation Crossroads, considered not worth to decontaminate and scuttled at Kwajalein.

1951 - A damaged McDonnell F2H-2 Banshee jet fighter, BuNo 124968, of VF-172, returning to USS Essex (CV-9), on its first Korean War cruise, misses the recovery net and crashes into several planes parked on the ship's deck, killing seven and destroying four aircraft, two F2H-2s, BuNos. 124966 and 124968, both of VF-172. and two F9F-2 Panthers, BuNos. 125128 and 125131, of VF-51.

1958 – USS Grayback (SSG-574) fires first operational launch of Regulus II surface to surface guided missile off CA coast; Missile carries first U.S. mail sent by guided missile.

1958 - A Boeing B-52D Stratofortress, 55-065, crashes in the August Kahl farmyard at Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, near St. Paul, after losing its tail section in flight. Only the co-pilot, Capt. Jack D. Craft, 29, of Sturgis, Massachusetts, survived of the eight-man crew. Air Force officials said that he was in shock and unable to answer questions. The jet tore a hole 300 feet long by 15 feet deep in the farmyard. The plane exploded as it hit, setting fire to the farm buildings. Eight members of the Kahl family were injured, and three remain hospitalized. They lost all their possessions in the explosion and fire.

1959 - A Convair YB-58A-10-CF Hustler, 58-1017, c/n 24, of the 43rd Bomb Wing, is totally destroyed by fire following an aborted take-off from Carswell Air Force Base, Fort Worth, Texas. Two crewmen killed. The loss was directly attributed to tire failure, followed by disintegration of the wheel. Sturdier tires and new wheels will be retrofitted to the type to address this problem.

1969 – Former USS Trepang (AGSS-412) was sunk as a target off southern California during exercise Strike Ex 4-69 by USS Henderson (DD-785) and USS Fechteler (DD-870).

1974 – President Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War deserters and draft-evaders. Limited amnesty was offered to Vietnam-era draft resisters who would now swear allegiance to the United States and perform two years of public service.

1980 - As many as 15 Libyan fighters intercepted US Air Force RC-135U Combat Sent (64-14847) of the 55 Strategic Reconnaissance Wing over the Gulf of Sidra. Accounts differ as to whether the Libyan fighters open fire on the aircraft before being chased away by US Navy fighters.


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## mhansen2

17 September

1630 – The city of Boston, Massachusetts is founded.

1787 – The Constitution of the United States of America is signed by 38 of 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

1787 – The “College of Electors” (electoral college) was established at the Constitutional Convention with representatives to be chosen by the states. Pierce Butler of South Carolina first proposed the electoral college system.

1862 – The Allegheny Arsenal explosion results in the single largest civilian disaster during the Civil War.

1862 – “Virginia,” a Union whaler of 346 tons, was burned off Flores island, Azores, by CSS Alabama.

1864 – Gen. Grant approved Sheridan’s plan for Shenandoah Valley Campaign. “I want it so barren that a crow, flying down it, would need to pack rations.”

1908 – Army Signal Corps Wright Model A, Army Signal Corps serial number 1, piloted by Orville Wright, crashes at Fort Myer, Virginia, killing Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge. During the flight, which had begun soon after 5pm., a propeller broke and severed control wires. The trials continued the following year with a new smaller version of the Wright A which became the first military aircraft when purchased by the US Army. This aircraft served for two years and was retired on 4 May 1911. It is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C., after having been accepted for exhibition on 20 October 1911. Selfridge AFB, Michigan, was later named for the first U.S. military air crash victim. Wright was hospitalized until 31 October 1908 and spent several more weeks on crutches.

1917 - A kite balloon from USS Huntington (Armored Cruiser No. 5) was hit by a squall while being hauled down and struck the water so hard the observer, Lieutenant (jg) Henry W. Hoyt, was knocked out of the basket and caught underwater in the balloon rigging. As the balloon was pulled toward the ship, Patrick McGunigal, Ships Fitter First Class, (30 May 1876 – 19 January 1936) jumped overboard, cleared the tangle and put a line around Lieutenant Hoyt so that he could be hauled up on deck. For this act of heroism, McGunigal was later awarded the Medal of Honor, the first of the Great War. The Huntington was convoying six troopships across the Atlantic to France and the balloon observation was being made as it transited the war zone.

1942 – All atomic research is place under military control. General Leslie Groves is appointed head of the program. He has deep fears about security and a dislike of the British which leads to a policy of reluctant sharing of information concerning atomic weapon development with the British Allies.

1945 - "First Lt. Kenneth Robert Frost was killed early yesterday afternoon (17 September) when his P-38 Lightning crashed approximately 40 miles north of the Army Air field at Daggett, CA. Lt. Frost, attached to the 444th Army Air force bombardment unit, [sic] was the son of Percy O. and Louise Frost of Los Angeles. A qualified board of officers will be appointed to investigate the cause of the crash, Army officers said."

Lost was P-38L-1-LO, 44-24492, listed as of the 444th Combat Crew Training Squadron with crash site ~25 miles NE of Yermo, CA according to the Aviation Archeology database, or of the 444th AAF Base Unit with crash site at a range 30 miles NE of Daggett as listed by Joe Baugher.

1947 – James Forrestal (d.1949) was sworn in as first the U.S. Secretary of Defense as a new National Military Establishment unified America’s armed forces.

1950 – North Korean Air Force aircraft drop four bombs and slightly damaged USS Rochester (CA-124) at Inchon during the first enemy air attack of the war on a U.S. ship.  Three bombs missed and one struck the ship’s crane but didn’t detonate.  No casualties.

1956 - Boeing B-52B Stratofortress, 53–393, of the 93d Bombardment Wing (Heavy), crashes after an in-flight fire while returning to Castle AFB, California. Lost wing in subsequent dive, crashing near Highway 99, nine miles SE of Madera, California. Five crew killed, two bailed out safely.

1956 - Sixth Lockheed U-2A, Article 346, 56–6679, delivered to the CIA on 13 January 1956, crashes during climb-out from Wiesbaden Air Base, Germany, when the aircraft of Detachment A, stalls at 35,000 feet (11,000 m), killing Agency pilot Howard Carey. Cause of accident never satisfactorily determined.

1959 – Test pilot Scott Crossfield flew the X-15 on its first powered flight to 15,964 meters (52,378 feet) and Mach 2.11.

1961 – Former USS Dragonet (SS-293) was scuttled in explosive tests in Chesapeake Bay.

1976 – NASA publicly unveils its first space shuttle, the Enterprise, during a ceremony in Palmdale, California.

1978 – At the White House in Washington, D.C., Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin sign the Camp David Accords, laying the groundwork for a permanent peace agreement between Egypt and Israel after three decades of hostilities.

1981 - Near Sardinia, Italy, a USMC Sikorsky CH-53C Sea Stallion helicopter crashes while attempting to land aboard USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7) during training exercises, killing all five crewmen.

1981 – Strassberg, Germany; Mid-air collision with USAF Rockwell OV-10A Bronco (66-13553) and German Army Aviation Aérospatiale Alouette II Helicopter (75+29) during NATO exercise "Scharfe Klinge". Stuffz Andreas Heinze (25), Hptm Reinhard Ertl (31) and Capt. Donald Peter Keller (29) were killed.

1987 - McDonnell-Douglas KC-10A Extender, 82-0190, c/n 48212, written off in ramp fire after explosion while undergoing maintenance at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, killing crew chief.

1997 – Pres. Clinton announced that the US would not sign the int’l. treaty banning anti-personnel land mines after 89 nations rejected US demands to water down the accord. 89 nations endorsed the pact.

2003 – Former USS Richard L. James, a 134-foot long derelict LCU, was scuttled off Hawaii.


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## mhansen2

18 September

1793 – President George Washington laid the foundation stone for the U.S. Capitol on Jenkins Hill.

1861 – “Maid of the Mist” was a Union side-wheel steamer of 40 tons, built in 1859 at Evansville, Ind. She foundered there this date.

1862 – “Elisha Dunbar” was a Union Whaler of 257 tons out of New Bedford, Mass. carrying 1,100 barrels of whale oil. She was captured by CSS Alabama and burnt some 230 miles WNW of Flores Island in the Azores.

1931 – The Mukden Incident was initiated by the Japanese Kwangtung Army in Mukden.

1941 – U.S. Navy ships escort eastbound British trans-Atlantic convoy for first time (Convoy HX-150). Although the U.S. Navy ships joined HX-150, which left port escorted by British ships on 16th, on night of 17 September, the official escort duty began on 18th.

1945 - Consolidated TB-24J Liberator, built as B-24J-1-NT 42-78549, of the 425th AAF Base Unit, Gowen Field, Idaho, piloted by William P. Bordemer, suffers engine failure and crashes 38 miles N of Deeth, Nevada. "ELKO, Nev., Sept. 18 (AP) - One crewman and possibly three parachuted to safety from a Boise-based B-24 bomber which crashed today 30 miles north of Deeth, Nev., a search plane reported tonight. Lew Gourley, piloting a Piper cub, [sic] who first discovered the bomber's wreckage, said he saw one flier hanging unconscious in the harness of one 'chute and that two other 'chutes had been sighted. 'The man who was still in the 'chute harness in the morning has apparently come to,' Gourley said after a second flight to the scene. 'He was extricated from the 'chute and sat up and waved to us.'"

1947 – The U.S. Air Force was formed as a separate military service out of the old Army Air Corps.

1954 – The US, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, France, Thailand and the Philippines signed a treaty providing for the creation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), a collective defense pact. The organization was created in response to events in Korea and Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos). The pack formally ended in 1977.

1969 - A U.S. Air Force twin engine Douglas C-47 Skytrain crashed just after takeoff from McChord AFB in Tacoma, Washington. It came down in a wooded area just south of the runway. Five men died and seven other men were injured. Killed were Army 1st Lt. Joseph R. Baxter, assigned to Madigan General Hospital at neighboring Ft. Lewis, who died six hours after the crash; Lt. Col. Robert E. Walker, pilot and commander of a detachment of the 15th Weather Squadron at McChord; the co-pilot, Capt. Peter Cunningham of Tacoma; Air Force TSgt. Donald G. Love, the flight engineer, also assigned to McChord and an Army man, who was not immediately identified. The injured Air Force personnel were MSgt. William B. Johnston of McChord; Lt. Col. Jack S. McKinley of Virginia; Sgt. William D. Wallace of West Virginia; TSgt. Billy D. Byrd of Tucson, Arizona; and Sgt. Charles L. Andrews of Florida. Injured Navy personnel were P02 Charles B. Nichols and PO3 Darrell E. Calentine, both of California. Also injured was a retired Air Force MSgt. Granville Hicks of Missouri.

1970 – Former USS Soley (DD-707) was sunk as a target some 75 miles NNE of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

1984 – Retired Air Force Col. Joseph Kittinger completes the first solo gas balloon crossing of the Atlantic.


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## mhansen2

19 September

1863 – “Manhassett” was a Union schooner that ran aground with a cargo of coal in a storm 7 miles southwest of Sabine Pass, TX, where she broke up. The crew was captured by Confederate forces.

1881 – Eighty days after a failed office seeker shot him in Washington, D.C., President James A. Garfield dies of complications from his wounds.

1944 - Consolidated B-32-1-CF Dominator, 42-108472, first B-32 delivered, on this date, written off the very same day when nosewheel collapsed on landing.

1953 - A WB-29 Superfortress, 44-62277, en-route to Bermuda from Hunter AFB, Georgia. suffers an engine fire, drops the engine from the wing, then suffers collapse of the wing. Nine bail out and are rescued 150 miles off Charleston, South Carolina. The Coast Guard said there was little hope for the seven who were still on board when the plane hit the sea. The Coast Guard said that the steamship Nassau picked up four survivors, and the S.S. Seatrain Georgia, a railroad car-carrying vessel, rescued three more. Two other men found floating in lifejackets were picked up by unidentified surface craft. The first four recovered were on rafts, but the others spent the night in the water in lifejackets although they were able to climb onto rafts dropped to them before rescue. Flares visible on a clear night led search planes to where the survivors were clustered. One survivor was badly burned, Hunter AFB reported. Three were in good condition while the condition of the others was not known. A second disaster was averted when an Air Force rescue amphibian (SA-16) tore off a float while attempting to land to pick up survivors. Its crew of nine was also fished up by the SS Nassau.

1958 - Lockheed C-130A Hercules 56-0526, of the 314th Troop Carrier Wing, has a mid-air collision with a French Armée de l'Air Dassault Super Mystère over France.

1969 – Former USS Alvin C. Cockrell (DE-366) was sunk as a target off California.

1971 – Former USS Coates (DE-685) was sunk as a target.

1973 - U.S. Navy Grumman A-6A Intruder, BuNo 155721, 'NJ', of VA-128, out of NAS Whidbey Island, Washington, crashes in the Oregon desert, ~25 miles SE of Christmas Valley, Oregon, during a low level night training mission. The pilot Lt. Alan G. Koehler, 27, and navigator Lt. Cdr. Philip D. duHamel, 33, are killed while flying (KWF). On 14 June 2007, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) officially declares the crash scene a historic Federal government site at a Flag Day ceremony. An interpretive plaques was unveiled during this event reflecting this designation and depicting the historical significance of the location.

1990 - While flying a training mission in preparation for Operation Desert Storm over the Fallon, Nevada desert, Lieutenant Andrew G. "Andy" Baer a Weapons Systems Officer and Captain Ralph Miller a pilot with the Indiana Air National Guard's 181st Fighter Group, 113th Fighter Squadron, based at the Hulman International Airport in Terre Haute, IN were killed while flying their F-4 Phantom II during a high-speed, low-altitude turning maneuver. At the outset of the mishap, Lt. Baer initiated the dual-sequenced ejection seats however due to their low altitude and the aircraft's attitude the ejection attempt was unsuccessful and Lt. Andrew Baer and his pilot, Captain Ralph Miller (who were both natives of Terre Haute, Indiana) were unable to survive the incident.

2009 - A United States Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk crashed at Joint Base Balad, (formerly Al-Bakr Air Base), Balad, Iraq. The accident occurred during a storm including high winds and a sandstorm resulting in 12 crew injured and 1 fatality.


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## mhansen2

20 September

1797 – USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) was launched in Boston.

1800 – USS Insurgent was a frigate which departed Hampton Roads, VA on 8 Aug. 1800 for West Indies. She was never heard from again. Ship and crew of 340 presumed lost in severe West Indies storm.

1806 – After nearly two-and-a-half years spent exploring the western wilderness, the Corps of Discovery arrived at the frontier village of La Charette (about 60 miles up the Missouri River from St. Louis), the first white settlement they had seen since leaving behind the outposts of eastern civilization in 1804.

1814 – With the U.S. Capitol destroyed by the British, Marines protected Congress in a hotel.

1864 – “Philo Parsons” was a Union side wheel paddle steamer of 221 tons built in 1861 at Algonac, Michigan. She was on route from Detroit for Sandusky when she was captured by Confederate raiders. The Confederates scuttled the vessel at the dock at Sandwich, Ontario.

1881 – Chester A. Arthur was sworn in as the 21st president of the United States, succeeding James A. Garfield, who had been assassinated.

1914 - USCG Tahoma was a 1,215 ton, 191 foot U S Revenue Cutter steam ship which hit an uncharted reef and was lost in the Rat Islands of the Aleutians. The officers and crew escaped in life boats. Two of the life boats reached Agattu and Alaid Islands and the crews were picked up by the steamer Patterson. The captain’s lifeboat was picked up at sea by the steamer Cordova.

1926 - The Great Miami hurricane makes landfall for the second time near Perdido Beach, Alabama, at ~ 22:00 UTC with winds of 100 mph (160 km/h). At NAS Pensacola, Florida, the storm destroys 30 seaplanes, several hangars, "and other equipment for a total damage of about $1,000,000."

1942 - Lt. Burton W. Basten, pilot, of Placentia, California, is killed in the crash of Martin B-26A-1 Marauder, 41-7459, of the 474th Bomb Squadron, 335th Bomb Group, Barksdale Field, Louisiana, when the bomber suffers a stall/spin crash 4 miles W of Plain Dealing, Louisiana. Airframe condemned at Barksdale Field on 24 September.

1948 - First prototype USAF North American XB-45 Tornado, 45-59479, in a dive test at Muroc Air Force Base, California, to test design load factor, suffers engine explosion, tearing off cowling panels that shear several feet from the horizontal stabilizer, aircraft pitches up, and both wings tear off under negative g load. Crew has no ejection seats, and George Krebs and Nick Piccard are killed.

1952 - A US Navy PB4Y-2S Privateer, of VP-28, was attacked by two Chinese MiG-15 Fagots off the coast of the People's Republic of China. One of the PLAAF pilots was Zhongdao He. The USN aircraft was able to safely return to Naha, Okinawa.

1969 - An Air Vietnam Douglas C-54D-10-DC Skymaster, XV-NUG, c/n 10860, collides on approach to landing with an American U.S. Air Force McDonnell F-4 Phantom II near Da Nang, Vietnam. 77 died.

1990 – Both Germanys ratified reunification.

1995 - Just after making a supersonic pass close by the starboard side of the USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53), Grumman F-14A Tomcat, BuNo 161146, 'NH 112', of VF-213 from the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) explodes in flight from catastrophic compressor failure, both crew ejecting, suffering burns to the upper body. Crew recovered. Aircraft goes down in the Central Pacific, ~800 miles W of Guam, and 55 miles from the carrier. 

2010 – Former USS Acadia (AD-42) was sunk off Guam during the live fire training exercise Valiant Shield.

2011 – The United States military ends its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly for the first time.

2016 - U.S. Air Force Lockheed TU-2S, 80-1068, 'article 068', assigned to the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base crashes in a rural area near the Sutter Buttes in Sutter County, California while on a training mission.

While recovering from a stall as part of the training flight, the interviewing pilot accidentally puts the aircraft into a second stall. The aircraft rolls left and goes into a nose-low attitude. The instructor pilot realizes that the aircraft is out of control and nearly inverted, and orders ejection. Both pilots eject, but the instructor pilot and seat strike the right wing, killing him. The crash, combined with hot weather conditions and wind, resulted in a 250-acre wildfire, which was extinguished by firefighters.

2018 - *National POW/MIA Recognition Day* is observed across the nation on the third Friday of September each year (can fall on any date from the 14th to the 20th of a given year). Many Americans take the time to remember those who were prisoners of war (POW) and those who are missing in action (MIA), as well as their families.


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## mhansen2

21 September

1780 – General Benedict Arnold, American commander of West Point, met with British spy Major John André to hand over plans of the important Hudson River fort to the enemy.

1854 - Brig USS Porpoise disappeared, presumably sinking during a typhoon. At least 62 lost. Last seen between Formosa and China this date.

1858 – Navy Sloop Niagara departs Charleston, SC, for Liberia with African slaves rescued from slave ship.

1864 – “Gertrude” was a Union side wheel paddle steamer of 70 tons built in 1864 at New Orleans. She foundered at College Point (Queens, NY?) with the loss of 6 lives.

1923 - USS Gopher (IX-11) was built as the USS Fern. Renamed USS Gopher-Gunboat 27th December 1905. Designated Miscellaneous Auxiliary USS Gopher (IX-11) on the 17th July 1920. She was lost in a northwest gale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

1938 - Following the conclusion of its test program, the Hall XPTBH-2, BuNo 9721, was used for experimental duties at the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport, Rhode Island, participating in trials of aerial torpedoes. Its service at Newport came to an end on this date, when the XPTBH-2 was destroyed during the Great New England Hurricane. This was the last design by Hall Aluminum, which was bought out by Consolidated Aircraft in 1940.

1938 - USAAC Chief Maj. Gen. Oscar Westover is killed while on an inspection tour, on a return hop from Vultee Field at Downey, in the crash of Northrop A-17AS, 36-349, c/n 289, '1', assigned at Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., in a crosswind short of the runway at Lockheed Air Terminal in Burbank, California, now known as Bob Hope Airport. The single-engined attack design used as a highspeed staff transport, crashed into a house at 1007 Scott Road in Burbank. Also KWF is his mechanic T/Sgt Samuel Hymes, promoted just five days before. Another source identifies him as Sgt. Samuel Hyne. "The Lockheed field, though long, was narrow, set behind the aircraft factory. A crosswind was blowing and he flew over the field to check its direction. Then, with flaps down, he began his final approach. He had done it thousands of times before; the procedure was routine, and so was his pattern until he began his turn onto final. There was turbulence, tricky winds from off the nearby mountains, thermal currents rising from the sunbaked earth. Oscar Westover, at fifty-five, was not all that sharp a pilot. He stalled the plane in the turn and it whipped into a spin. When he saw he couldn't pull out, his last act was to shut off the power to prevent fire on impact."  Northeast Air Base, Massachusetts, renamed Westover Field on 1 December 1939, later Westover AFB on 13 January 1948.

1942 – First flight of the XB-29 Superfortress over Seattle, Washington.

1949 – In Germany the Allied Occupation Statute came into force. The functions of the military government were transferred to the Allied high commission. The Federal Republic of [West] Germany was created under the 3-power occupation.

1951 – Operation SUMMIT, the first helicopter landing of a combat unit in history, took place. It included the airlifting of a reinforced company of Marines and 17,772 pounds of cargo into the Punchbowl area.

1953 – North Korean pilot Lieutenant Ro Kim Suk landed his MIG-15 at Kimpo airfield outside Seoul.

1956 - Grumman test pilot Tom Attridge shoots himself down in a Grumman F11F Tiger, BuNo 138260, during a Mach 1.0 20 degree dive from 22,000 feet (6,700 m) to 7,000 feet (2,100 m). He fires two bursts from the fighter's 20 mm cannon during the descent and as he reaches 7,000 feet (2,100 m) the jet is struck multiple times, including one shell that is ingested by the engine, shredding the compressor blades. He limps the airframe back towards the Grumman airfield but comes down at almost the same spot where the first prototype impacted on 19 October: 1954. Pilot gets clear before jet burns, suffers only minor injuries – investigation shows that he had overtaken and passed through his own gunfire.

1963 - USS Grouse (MSCO-15) ran aground on the Little Salvages off Rockport, MA. She was destroyed by explosives as a navigation hazard on the 28th.

1964 – During delivery flight of North American XB-70A Valkyrie, 62-0001, from Palmdale, California to Edwards Air Force Base, California, on touchdown the brakes on the main gear lock up and the friction causes the eight tires and wheels to burn. The Valkyrie was otherwise undamaged.

1977 – A nuclear non-proliferation pact is signed by 15 countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union.


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## mhansen2

22 September

1711 – The Tuscarora Indian War began with a massacre of settlers in North Carolina, following white encroachment that included the enslaving of Indian children.

1776 – In New York City, Nathan Hale, a Connecticut schoolteacher and captain in the Continental Army, is executed by the British for spying.

1862 – Motivated by his growing concern for the inhumanity of slavery as well as practical political concerns, President Abraham Lincoln changes the course of the war and American history by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.

1893 – America’s first automobile.  Charles and Frank Duryea showed off their home invention on the streets of Springfield, the first successful run of an automobile in the U.S.

1945 – Gen. George S. Patton tells reporters that he does not see the need for “this denazification thing” and compares the controversy over Nazism to a “Democratic and Republican election fight.”

1945 - On first day of planned two-day exhibition of captured German aircraft at Freeman Field, Indiana, pilot Lt. William V. Haynes, 20, completes his flying routine in one of the eight remaining Focke Wulf Fw 190s at the base, (this being the same Fw 190D-9, Werke Nummer 211016, coded FE-119, that he had ferried from Newark, New Jersey, to Freeman on 13 September), when, as he prepares to land, at ~300 feet AGL, the aircraft pitches up and rolls over, bellying into the ground nose up. Aircraft destroyed, pilot killed. Although investigation cites "pilot error" (it was thought he may have attempted a wing-over at too low an altitude for recovery), this may well have been another example of the faulty electrical horizontal trim switch problem that caused the loss of the Fw 190 at Hollidaysburg Airport, Pennsylvania on 12 September. Recent excavations at the former Freeman Field have uncovered various aircraft components that were apparently buried to dispose of them when the base was being shut down in 1947–1948.

1947 – A Douglas C-54 Skymaster made the first automatic-pilot flight over the Atlantic.

1954 - A USAF North American EF-86D-5-NA Sabre, 50–516, crashes and burns on take-off from Eglin Air Force Base, Florida killing the pilot. After briefly becoming airborne, it settled back onto the runway's end, continues off the overrun area and comes to rest in a marshy stream bed ~1,000 feet (300 m) to the north.

1958 – USS Skate (SSN-578) remained a record 31 days under the North Pole.

1960 - USN/VCP-61 lost an aircraft 180 miles SE of Naha, Okinawa with the loss of 2 Marines (Flight Crew) and 13 USN personnel. Don't look for this one in military records, but is confirmed by USN Casualty Report #93353-A-23-21. By cross-referencing newspaper stories and "official" US Government records of both civilian and military air disasters, there are many air disasters in the Cold War Era that appear in the newspapers but NOT on Government records, particularly over the Pacific in a triangle defined as Guam, Manila, and Okinawa as the apexes. Aircraft lost was actually a USMC Douglas R5D-3 Skymaster, BuNo 56541, (ex-USAAF C-54D-15-DC, 43-17241), c/n 22191/DC642, en route from Atsugi, Japan, to NAS Cubi Point, Philippines, carrying three crew and 26 passengers all of whom were lost. It went down after "transmitting a message that the No. 3 engine was on fire and they were diverting to Okinawa. The fire in the No. 3 engine was extinguished but a residual fire continued in a tire until it ignited the fuel tank resulting in an explosion."

1963 - MATS Douglas C-133A Cargomaster, 56-2002, of the 1607th Air Transport Wing, with ten personnel of the 1st Air Transport 
Squadron on board, is lost in the Atlantic Ocean on a flight from Dover AFB, Delaware to the Azores when contact is lost some 57 minutes after a 0233 EDT take-off from Dover. Last reported position was ~30 miles off of Cape May, New Jersey.

1965 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 30,571 meters (100,303 feet) and Mach 5.18.

1978 - A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3B Orion, BuNo 152757 of VP-8 on flight out of Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine, at 1205 hrs. en route to Trenton, Ontario for display at an air show, explodes in the air eight-ten minutes later and comes down over Poland, Maine. Cause is thought to be failure of number one (port outer) engine nacelle due to "whirl-mode" in turbulence; engine separates along with 11 feet of outer port wing, strikes and shears off the port horizontal stabilizer. Aerodynamic forces then cause loss of other three engines, starboard wing fails at fuselage, which rolls inverted and impacts ground. Much of the debris comes down near the intersection of Route 11 and Megquier Hill Road, but pieces are scattered in a wide area around the site. No homes are hit, but the nearest residences to the wreckage are only a few hundred feet away. The blast blows out some of the windows in a nearby house. The eight crew are killed while flying (KWF): Lt. Commander Francis W. Dupont, Jr., Lt. j.g. Donald E. Merz, Aide-de-camp Larry R. Miller, Lt. j.g. George D. Nuttelman, Aviation ASW Operator 3rd Class Robert I. Phillips, Aviation ASW Operator 3rd Class James A. Piepkorn, Aviation ASW Operator Striker Paul.G. Schulz, and Lt. j.g. Ernest A. Smith.

1982 – Former USS Deperm (ADG-10) was a degaussing vessel that was sunk as a target some 65 miles west of San Clemente Island, California.

1987 - A U.S. Navy Grumman F-14A-70-GR Tomcat, BuNo 162707, of VF-74 out of NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia, operating from the USS Saratoga (CV-60), accidentally shoots down a USAF RF-4C-22-MC Phantom II, 69-0381, 'ZR' tailcode, of the 26th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, out of Zweibrücken Air Base, West Germany, at 1550 hrs. EDT over the Mediterranean during a NATO exercise, DISPLAY DETERMINATION. Both RF-4C crew eject, pilot Capt. Michael Ross of Portsmouth, Ohio, and WSO Lt. Randy Sprouse of Sumter, South Carolina, both of the 38th TRS, and are rescued by a helicopter from the Saratoga within 30 minutes suffering numerous injuries. A Navy spokesman said that the F-14 downed the RF-4C with an air-to-air missile. Recovery of the F-14 aboard Saratoga makes it obvious the missile was an AIM-9 Sidewinder. When told by the Saratoga's Admiral that they had been shot down, Sprouse remarks "I thought we were supposed to be on the same side?" to which the Admiral replies "We're sorry about this, but most of the time we are." The Tomcat pilot is duly disciplined and permanently removed from flying status.

1995 - A USAF Boeing E-3B Sentry 77-0354 callsign Yukla 27, of the 962d AACS, 552d ACW, crashes shortly after take-off from Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, when a flock of Canadian snow geese were ingested by its engines. All 24 crew members die, including 2 Canadian air crew members. This was the first loss of an E-3 since the type entered service in 1977.

2006 – The U.S. Navy officially retires the F-14 Tomcat having been supplanted by the Boeing F/A-18E and F Super Hornets.

2016 - A U.S. Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas AV-8B+(R)-25-MC Harrier II Plus 165354 (VMA-542) crashes off the coast of Okinawa, Japan. 33rd Rescue Squadron together with JSDF rescued the pilot.


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## mhansen2

23 September

1779 – During the American Revolution, the U.S. ship Bonhomme Richard, commanded by John Paul Jones, wins a hard-fought engagement against the British ships of war Serapis and Countess of Scarborough off the east coast of England.

1780 – British spy John Andre was captured along with papers revealing Benedict Arnold’s plot to surrender West Point to the British.

1806 – Amid much public excitement, American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark return to St. Louis, Missouri, from the first recorded overland journey from the Mississippi River to the Pacific coast and back.

1863 – “Alliance,” a Union wooden schooner on voyage to Port Royal with a cargo of sutler’s stores, was set on fire, after being captured by the Confederates and aground at Old Haven Creek (or Milford Haven), Virginia.

1863 – “Phantom” was a Confederate Steel screw steamer of 322 gross tons, built in 1863 at Liverpool, England.

While en route from Bermuda with a cargo of arms, 9 cases of whiskey, 2 cases of gin, 200 pigs of lead, 3 cannons, 50 cases of Austrian rifle muskets and other Confederate government stores, she was chased aground by the steamer USS Connecticut, 200–250 yards off New Topsail Inlet, South Carolina in 15 feet of water.  A strongbox with $45,000 in gold supposedly fell over the ship's side.

The vessel was set afire by her crew to prevent capture and was further shelled and destroyed by USS Connecticut after recovering 16 cases of rifle muskets and other goods. The Confederates also salvaged some of the goods.

The wreck later broke in half. Many treasure hunters have been diving this wreck and have recovered lead bars of 155 pounds. The wreck is parallel to the beach south of New Topsail Inlet. Only machinery is exposed, the rest lies in sand.

1864 - USS Antelope, a sternwheel steamer, ran aground and sank on the Mississippi River about 7 miles below New Orleans while trying to assist gunboat USS Meteor. Vessel was stripped and broken up.

1865 – USS Pink was a wooden screw steamer built in 1863 at Newburgh, NY. She ran aground in a gale off Dauphin Island, Alabama while trying to make the Sand Island Light. She was later raised and sold.

1922 - A Martin NBS-1 bomber, Air Service 68487, Raymond E. Davis, pilot, nose-dived and crashed from an estimated altitude of 500 feet on a residential street near Mitchel Field, Mineola, New York, killing the six military personnel on board. At the time, the aircraft was involved in a night time war game display that was lit by searchlights and watched by an estimated crowd of 25,000 spectators.

1924 - 1st Lts. Robert Stanford Olmsted and John W. Shoptaw enter U.S. Army balloon S-6 in international balloon race from Brussels, despite threatening weather which causes some competitors to drop out. S-6 collides with Belgian balloon, Ville de Bruxelles on launch, tearing that craft's netting and knocking it out of the race. Lightning strikes S-6 over Nistelrode, the Netherlands, killing Olmsted outright, and Shoptaw in the fall. Switzerland's Génève is also hit, burns, killing two on board, as is Spain's Polar, killing one crew immediately, second crewman jumps from 100 feet, breaking both legs. Three other balloons are also forced down. Middletown Air Depot, Pennsylvania, was renamed Olmsted AFB on 11 March 1948.

1925 - The U.S. Navy flies 23 Curtiss CS-1 floatplanes to Bay Shore Park on the Chesapeake Bay, 14 miles SE of Baltimore, Maryland, on a Friday with intention of an airshow demonstration before the 1925 Schneider Cup Race on Saturday, but that night gale force winds break three-inch mooring and anchor ropes on 17 of the biplanes and they are blown onto shore or dashed against seawalls, destroying seven and damaging ten. The next afternoon's Baltimore Evening Sun runs headline "Plane Disaster in Harbor Called Hard Blow to Navy" and quotes the ever-outspoken General William "Billy" Mitchell calling the loss of the CS-1s "staggering", and blaming it on Navy mismanagement of its aviation program.

1931 – LT Alfred Pride pilots Navy’s first rotary wing aircraft, XOP-1 autogiro, in landings and takeoffs on board USS Langley (CV-1) while underway.

1942 – At Auschwitz Nazis began experimental gassing executions.

1944 – USS West Virginia (BB-48) reaches Pearl Harbor and rejoins the Pacific Fleet, marking the end of the salvage and reconstruction of 18 ships damaged at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

1949 – In a surprisingly low-key and carefully worded statement, President Harry S. Truman informs the American people that the Soviets have exploded a nuclear bomb.

1960 – In his first flight aboard the X-15, test pilot Forest Peterson flew to 16,168 meters (53,047 feet) and Mach 1.68.

1968 - General Dynamics F-111A, 66-0040, c/n A1-58, crashes and is destroyed this date due to control system failure, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Crew ejected safely.

1994 - US Army Boeing CH-47D Chinook, 90-00220, of the 6–158th AVN, assigned for fire duty with the U.S. Forest Service, crashes at ~1750 hrs. on the Davis Ranch, 35 miles NE of McCall, Idaho, killing one of five on board. During a landing attempt in a clearing, the slope was misjudged, being ~11 degrees rather than the anticipated 2–3 degrees. After the front gear touched down, power was reduced to lower the tail, but the airframe rolled backward downslope until the front rotor made contact with the ground and then immediately impacted the fuselage, severing the driveshaft, flight control tubes and all electrical and hydraulic lines along the top of the cabin. The aft rotor, still under power, lifted the tail until the ship went over on its nose, the fuselage then rolling onto its starboard side. One Army crew killed, three others and a Forest Service passenger survived. The port engine continued to run for almost two hours after the accident, even though it was partially detached. Eventually a fuel valve was closed. Cause was insufficient reconnaissance of the proposed landing sight compounded by the crew's inability to perceive the slope from their observation angle. The loss was estimated at $13,770,360. Written off with 4007 flight hours.

1997 - Static test Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet airframe, ST56, being barricade tested at NAES Lakehurst, New Jersey by being powered down a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) track by a Pratt & Whitney J57-powered jet car, flips over and crashes into nearby woods when the steel cable linking the barrier with underground hydraulic engines fails.

1997 - A USN EP-3 Aries II (electronic warfare P-3C Orion variant, BUNO 157320) crashed in the early morning hours while landing at Souda Bay airfield near Chania, Greece. 24 crew members sustained minor injuries after the aircraft landed at high speed, drifted to the right, clipped side runway lights before making strong corrections towards centerline, and finally overran the runway. The aircraft's left wing and engine clipped a sand pile after it left the runway, before finally colliding and stopping upon impact with a pillbox. The nose was ground off and the left outboard ("Number 1") engine caught fire. Most crew members safely evacuated out of the starboard side over-wing hatch. A Navy spokesman said the three crewmen suffered minor cuts and abrasions, and a fourth sprained his ankle. No fatalities, aircraft destroyed.

2014 – The United States and its allies commence air strikes against Islamic State in Syria.


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## mhansen2

24 September

1780 – Benedict Arnold flees to British Army lines when the arrest of British Major John André exposes Arnold’s plot to surrender West Point.

1789 – The Judiciary Act of 1789 is passed by Congress and signed by President George Washington, establishing the Supreme Court of the United States as a tribunal made up of six justices who were to serve on the court until death or retirement.

1862 – “Phantom” was a Union Clipper carrying a cargo of $10 million in gold and silver ingots from California. She ran aground on the Tankan Shan Reefs off China and foundered.

1863 – “Elizabeth” was a Confederate wooden side-wheel steamer of 623 tons, built in 1852 at New York City. While carrying military cargo, she was wrecked and later burned at the east edge of Lockwood's Folly Inlet, North Carolina.

1918 – Ensign David S. Ingalls, USNR, in a Sopwith Camel, shoots down his fifth enemy aircraft, becoming the first U.S. Navy ace while flying with the British Royal Air Force.

1920 – Former USS Adder A-2 (SS-3) was designated for use as a target this date and sunk in mid-January 1922.

1920 – Former USS Cushing (Torpedo Boat No.1) was sunk as a target.

1920 – Former USS McKee (Torpedo Boat No.18) was ordered to be sunk near Craney Island, Virginia.  Orders were carried out later that fall.

1929 – U.S. Army pilot Lt. James H. Doolittle guided a Consolidated NY2 Biplane over Mitchel Field in New York in the first all-instrument flight.

1939 - Eight fliers are killed, four officers and four cadet bombardiers, when their two Beechcraft AT-11 Kansans bombing trainers collide over a target and burn during training out of Williams Field, Arizona. The Williams Field public relations office said that a commercial transport sighted and reported the wreckage. The bombing range was about six miles SE of Florence, Arizona. Victims of the accident were identified as Lt. William P. Owen, 24, Magnolia, Arkansas; Lt. Donald J. Gibson, 24, Valley City, North Dakota; Lt. Robert T. Ross, 20, Port Huron, Michigan; Lt. William B. Shea, 23, Kansas City; Cadets Robert E. Coate, 19, Woonsocket, Rhode Island; Mathew F. Farrell, 25, Lynn, Massachusetts; Wilbur C. Harter, 24, Delaware, Ohio; and John H. Cwik, 27, Johnstown, Pennsylvania. AT-11, 41-27630, piloted Lt. Shea, and AT-11, 41-27620, piloted by Lt. Gibson, both of the 537th School Squadron, were the airframes involved.

1941 – The Japanese consul in Hawaii is instructed to divide Pearl Harbor into five zones and calculate the number of battleships in each zone–and report the findings back to Japan.

1945 – Japanese Emperor Hirohito says that he did not want war and blames Tojo for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

1945 – General Jaques Philippe Leclerc, newly appointed as France’s military commander in Vietnam, arrives in Saigon to the general melee and a general strike called by the Vietminh. Leclerc declares, ‘We have come to reclaim our inheritance.’

1948 – Former USS Tuna (SS-203) survived the two atomic bomb tests of Operation Crossroads and was sunk as a target off the California coast.

1957 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect nine black students entering its newly integrated high school.

1957 - U. S. Air Force Major James Melancon, 36, of Dallas, Texas, is killed when the Douglas B-26 Invader he was piloting crashes in a residential area near Dayton, Ohio, at 1659 hrs. Coming down at 1843 Tuttle Avenue, the flight, out of Wright Field, strikes a home, killing the pilot, co-pilot Capt. Wilho R. Heikkinen, 31, and two on the ground, and injuring others. Mildred VanZant, 44, an assistant director of nursing at St. Elizabeth Hospital, was killed when the plane impacted her house. Her brother Walter Geisler, 53, was mowing the lawn behind the house when he was killed. Four houses were struck by wreckage and two were set alight. An investigation determined that a loose engine cowling moved forward into the propeller. The pilot's son, Mark E. Melancon, will die in the Thunderbirds demonstration team Diamond Crash in Nevada in 1982.

1958 - Twelfth of 13 North American X-10s, GM-52-5, c/n 12, was on X-10 Drone BOMARC target mission 1, out of Cape Canaveral, Florida. The remaining X-10s are expended as targets for Bomarc and Nike antiaircraft missiles. The X-10 flies out over the ocean, then accelerates toward the Cape at supersonic speed. A Bomarc A missile comes within lethal miss distance. The X-10 then autolands on the Skid Strip, but both the drag chute and landing barrier fail. The vehicle runs off the runway and explodes.

1959 - A Lockheed U-2C, 56-6693, Article 360, of the SAC's 4028th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (SRS), Detachment C, out of Atsugi Air Force Base, Japan, and clandestinely operated by the CIA, runs out of fuel and pilot Tom Crull makes an emergency landing at the civilian airfield at Fujisawa, damaging belly. The black-painted aircraft with no identity markings attracts curious locals, and officials and military police are quickly dispatched to cordon off the area. This they do at gunpoint, which attracts even more attention and pictures of the highly secret U-2C soon appear in the Japanese press. Factory repaired and assigned to Det. B, this is the airframe that pilot Francis Gary Powers will be shot down in on 1 May 1960. The 20th U-2 built, it was delivered to the CIA on 5 November 1956. Used for test and development work from 1957 to May 1959. Converted to U-2C by 18 August 1959.

1960 – USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) was launched at Newport News, Va.

1962 - A US Air Force RB-47H, piloted by John Drost, was intercepted over the Baltic Sea by a Soviet MiG-19 Farmer.

1968 - A Boeing KC-135A-BN Stratotanker, 55-3133, c/n 17249, of the 509th Air Refueling Squadron, 509th Bombardment Wing, assigned to Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire, crashes during an emergency landing at Wake Island, producing the first tanker casualty in the Southeast Asia war. The accident claims 11 of 52 Arc Light support personnel on board, assigned to the 509th Field Maintenance Squadron, redeploying from U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield, Thailand. After an in-flight engine failure, the undercarriage struck a seawall at the end of the runway — all the fatalities were in the rear fuselage.

1998 – Former USS Belknap (CG-26) was sunk as a target some 230 miles off Virginia Beach, Virginia.


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## mhansen2

25 September

1513 – Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Spanish explorer, crossed the Isthmus of Panama and claimed the Pacific Ocean for Spain.

1639 – The 1st printing press in America began operating.

1779 – Bonhomme Richard was the former French merchantman Duc de Duras that was placed at the disposal of John Paul Jones by King Louis XVI of France.  As such, she was part of a squadron in the Continental Navy commanded by Jones.  Off Flamborough Head, England, the American squadron encountered two British ships of war, Serapis (capt. Pearson) and the Countess of Scarborough, escorting a fleet of 41 merchantman.

John Paul Jones´ squadron comprised the Bonhomme Richard with 40 guns, the Alliance 36 guns, the Pallas with 32 guns, the Cerf with 18 guns and the Vengeance with 12 guns.

In the close battle HMS Serapis struck into the Bonhomme Richard, leaking badly, but Captain Pearson gave up his gallant defense and surrendered to the Bonhomme Richard.

Attempts to save Bonhomme Richard failed and the HMS Serapis set sail with Jones in command.

1780 – American General Benedict Arnold joined the British.

1789 – The first Congress of the United States approves 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and sends them to the states for ratification.  Of the two amendments not ratified, the first concerned the population system of representation, while the second prohibited laws varying the payment of congressional members from taking effect until an election intervened. The first of these two amendments was never ratified, while the second was finally ratified more than 200 years later, in 1992.

1861 – Secretary of US Navy authorized the enlistment of slaves.

1863 - CCS Grand Duke was a Confederate Cottonclad side wheel paddle steamer of 508 tons built in 1859 at Jeffersonville, Indiana. She was accidentally burnt at Shreveport.

1918 - Chief Machinist's Mate Francis E. Ormsbee went to the rescue of two men in a aircraft which had crashed in Pensacola Bay, Florida. He pulled out the gunner and held him above water until help arrived, then made repeated dives into the wreckage in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the pilot. For his heroism, Chief Ormsbee was awarded the Medal of Honor.

1925 - USS S-51 (SS-162) collided with SS City of Rome some 15 miles east of Block Island, Rhode Island while operating in good weather on the surface at night.  She sank with only three survivors.

1928 - Boeing PW-9D, 28-31, flown by Lt. Roger V. Williams, suffers mid-air collision with PW-9D, 28-36, piloted by Lt. William L. Cornelius, both of the 95th Pursuit Squadron, at Rockwell Field, San Diego, California. Williams bails out and survives but Cornelius is killed. Cornelius was one of the Three Musketeers Air Corps stunt trio pilots.

1931 - Douglas O-38B, 31-427, piloted by Lt. Robert Richard, collides in midair with another plane in a flight of three from March Field, Riverside, California, to Crissy Field, San Francisco. Richard and observer Pvt. Ralph Farrington bail out as the plane breaks up and are rescued by the other plane in the collision, undamaged, which lands safely 15 mi SE of Mendota, California. The remaining two planes reach San Francisco without incident.

1941 – In first successful U.S. Navy escort of convoys during World War II, Navy escort turn over HX-150 to British escorts at the Mid-Ocean Meeting Point. All ships reach port safely.

1942 – Camp Pendleton was dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1948 – Iva Toguri D’Aquino (b.1916), a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist “Tokyo Rose,” arrived in SF aboard the General Hodges and was taken away by FBI agents. On Sep 9, 1949, she was found guilty of speaking into a microphone concerning the loss of US ships. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. She was released in 1956 and pardoned by Pres. Ford in 1977.

1953 - The last Boeing B-29 Superfortress to be delivered, Boeing-Wichita-built B-29-100-BW, 45-21872, in September 1945, converted to a WB-29, was destroyed in a crash this date near Eielson AFB, Alaska, while assigned to the 58th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron (Medium), Weather.

1957 – Under escort from the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, nine black students enter all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

1958 - Boeing RB-47E Stratojet, 52–276, is written off when it veers off runway, landing gear collapses, port inner engine nacelle torn from mount, suffers fire.
HD Stock Video Footage - Officers and airmen examine crashed Boeing B-47 Stratojet.

1959 - A United States Navy Martin P5M-2 Marlin, BuNo 135540, SG tailcode, '6', of VP-50, out of NAS Whidbey Island, Washington on Puget Sound, is forced to ditch in the Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles (160 km) W of the Washington-Oregon border after fire in the port engine, loss of electrical power. Pilot was Lt. James D. Henson of Hot Springs, Arkansas. A Betty depth bomb casing is lost and never recovered, but it was not fitted with a nuclear core. The weapon was jettisoned immediately after ditching, in 1430 fathoms of water. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Yocona, out of Astoria, Oregon, rescues all ten crew after ten hours in a raft. A Coast Guard Grumman UF Albatross amphibian directed the vessel to the crew.


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## mhansen2

26 September

1777 – The British army launched a major offensive during the American Revolution, capturing Philadelphia.

1864 – “Mandamis” was a Union bark out of Baltimore with a crew of two officers and 12 sailors and in ballast when she was captured by the CSS Florida and burned in the South Atlantic.

1864 – “Mary Celestia” was a side paddlewheel steamer chartered by the Confederacy during America´s Civil War. She was utilized as a blockade runner, smuggling much needed guns, ammunition, supplies and food to the troops in the South.  She sank after hitting a reef close to the south shore of Bermuda. The wreck lies in 55 feet of water, with one of her paddlewheel frames standing upright like a miniature Ferris wheel. The other paddlewheel lies flat on the sand, along with other interesting artifacts such as the boilers, anchor and part of the bow.

1864 – “Lynx” was a British iron side-wheel steamer of 372 gross tons, built in 1864 at Liverpool, England. While carrying 600 cotton bales and $50,000 in Confederate government gold and bonds to Bermuda, she was chased aground near Half Moon Battery, 5 miles north of Fort Fisher, North Carolina and shelled by the USS Niphon, USS Governor Buckingham and USS Howquah. The ship was set afire by her crew.

1918 - USCG Tampa was a United States Coastguard Cutter that was probably torpedoed by German submarine U-53 off South Pembrokeshire/Bristol Channel and sunk.

1931 – Keel laying at Newport News, VA of USS Ranger (CV-4), first ship designed and constructed as an aircraft carrier.

1942 - A USAAF Martin B-26B Marauder, 41-17767, of the 437th Bomb Squadron, 319th Bomb Group, out of Baer Field, Fort Wayne, Indiana, explodes in mid-air and crashes to earth two miles N of Rimer, Ohio, killing its crew of seven. Public relations officers at Baer Field said that the victims were: 2d Lt.s Eugene L. Newton, Kansas City, Missouri, pilot, and Fred Bice, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, co-pilot; Tech/Sgt. A. J. Lamison, Three Springs, Pennsylvania; Staff Sgt. P. J. Nelligan, Santa Rosa, California; and Pvts. O. R. Colestock, Hecla, South Dakota; A. A. Wildt, Broadmead, Oregon; and R. D. Risepter, Radcliffe, Iowa.

1943 - A Vought OS2U-3 Kingfisher, BuNo 5767, of VS-34, from Naval Air Station New York, Floyd Bennett Field, crashes 7 miles S of Little Egg Inlet, near Atlantic City, New Jersey. Two survivors, pilot William K. Stevens, and radio operator-gunner Frank W. Talley, are picked up by Coast Guard 83-foot Wooden Patrol Boat WPB-83340.

1945 – President Truman announces that, under a decision at the recent Potsdam Conference, the surviving German naval vessels will be divided equally between the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. He notes also that no decision has been made on the disposal of the Imperial Japanese Fleet.

1950 - USAF Douglas C-54D-1-DC Skymaster medical aircraft, 42-72457, c/n 10562, of the 6th Troop Carrier Squadron, 374th Troop Carrier Wing, from Tachikawa Air Base, Japan, crashes in the Korea Strait, one mile from the end of the runway after taking off from Ashiya Air Base, Kyushu, killing 23 of 51 on board.

1950 – USS Brush (DD-745) struck a free-floating mine and 13 sailors were killed and 34 others seriously wounded. This was the first incident of a U.S. Navy ship hitting a mine during the war.

1957 - US Navy Douglas A3D-1 Skywarrior, BuNo 135417, 'AB 7', of Heavy Attack Squadron VAH-1 crashes on the deck of USS Forrestal (CVA-59) during Operation Strikeback in the Norwegian Sea. It was a day landing, second approach, CCA (first approach mode one without); 1.6 km visibility, low, ragged ceiling, intermittent rain showers.

After a low approach the aircraft settled at the ramp and the mainmounts and fuselage struck the ramp. The aircraft continued up deck in flames crashing off angle. Parts of the plane struck a parked Douglas AD-5N Skyraider. Only two helmets and one boot were later recovered. It was estimated that one possible contributing factor was that the rain caused the optical illusion of "high ball" (on the landing mirror), and low airspeed. The crew died: CDR Paul Wilson (71 total carrier landings); LTJG Joseph R. Juricic B/N; and ADC Percy Schafer, third crew member. As a high-altitude bomber, the A3D was not equipped with ejection seats.

1958 - USS Hampden County (LST-803) was sunk as a fleet practice target off the coast of California.

1963 – First steam-eject launch of Polaris missile at sea off Cape Canaveral, FL (now Cape Kennedy) from USS Observation Island (EAG-154).

1976 - A USAF Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker, 61-0296, c/n 18203, of the 46th Air Refueling Squadron, Strategic Air Command, on a routine tanker training mission en route from K.I. Sawyer AFB, Michigan, to Offutt AFB, Nebraska (two sources list Wurtsmith AFB, Michigan as its destination), crashes at 0830 hrs. EDT in a densely wooded swampy area near Alpena, Michigan, killing 15 of the 20 on board. Sole witness to the accident, Hubbard Lake farmer Elmer Liske, 48, saw the aircraft flying low over the treetops. "It suddenly started to go down", Liske said. "It blew up, and I saw a big ball of fire, and then it exploded several more times."

Capt. John Harrison, 33, of Ravenswood, West Virginia; Capt. Clifford Call, of Seattle, Washington; 1st Lt. Dwain E. Crane, 26, of Pine Bluff, Arkansas; and Capt. Frederick Anderson, 32, of Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, were transported to Brooke Army Medical Center burns unit in San Antonio, Texas. Airman Dale J. Solon of Lakewood, Ohio, escapes serious injury in the crash and explosion Sunday of the tanker. He is released 27 September from Alpena General Hospital, and the Air Force assigns him to the team investigating the disaster. Killed while flying (KWF) are Major Rederick Wrinkle; Major Daniel H. Craven; Capt. Charles R. Adam; Capt. Richard G. Dankey; Capt. Oscar W. Dugan; Capt. William H. Warren, Jr.; Capt. Jerry B. Richardson; Capt. Van T. Cook; Capt. Richard N. Smithwick; Capt. David A. Phelps; Capt. Jack A. Kuzanek; Lt. Ronald P. Roach; Lt. Robert S. Witt; Tech. Sgt. Gary L. Carlson; and Sgt. James M. Singleton. All the men except for Lt. Witt and Capt. Adam, who were from Kincheloe Air Force Base, were attached to Sawyer AFB. Possible cabin pressurization problem may have led to the accident.

1983 – Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov averts a likely worldwide nuclear war by correctly identifying a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike.


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## mhansen2

27 September

1861 – “Minnesota” was a Union paddle steamer of 749 tons built in 1851 at Maumee, Ohio. She ran aground and was wrecked at Green Bay, Wisconsin.

1864 - CSS North Carolina was a Confederate screw ironclad sloop of 600 tons, built in 1863 at Wilmington, N.C. The engines were from the Uncle Ben. She sank when her worm-eaten hull gave way, off Smithville, North Carolina, 3 miles up the Cape Fear River from the old inlet.

1921 - USS Alabama (BB-8) was used as a target for bombing trials in Chesapeake Bay. She sank in shallow water and her remains were sold for scrap in 1924.

1940 – The Axis powers are formed as Germany, Italy, and Japan become allies with the signing of the Tripartite Pact in Berlin.

1941 – Launch of first Liberty ship, SS Patrick Henry, in Baltimore, MD. 13 sister ships are launched the same day.

1942 – The S.S. Stephen Hopkins, a Liberty Ship with an all-San Francisco crew, engaged the German raider Stier and her tender, Tannenfels. It shelled and brought down the Stier and hit the Tannenfels before it was sunk. Of a crew of 58, only 15 survived. They reached the shore of Brazil after a 31-day voyage in an open lifeboat.

1942 – 1st Class Signalman Douglas A. Munro, U.S. Coast Guard, rescued Marines of 1/7 during Operation Pestilence on Guadalcanal. He is the only Medal of Honor recipient for the U.S. Coast Guard.

1956 – Test pilot Milburn Apt flew the X-2 to 31,946 meters (104,814 feet) and Mach 3.196. After powered flight, Apt slowly turned to head back to Edwards AFB.  The X-2 went out of control and Apt was killed. This was the last flight of the program.

1961 - A U.S. Air Force Boeing RB-47K Stratojet, 53-4279, of the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, loses number six engine during takeoff from Forbes AFB, Kansas, crashes, killing all four crew, aircraft commander Lt. Col. James G. Woolbright, copilot 1st Lt. Paul R. Greenwalt (also reported as Greenawalt), navigator Capt. Bruce Kowol, and crew chief S/Sgt. Myron Curtis. Cause was contaminated water-alcohol in assisted takeoff system.

1964 – The Warren Commission report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is released after a 10-month investigation, concluding that there was no conspiracy in the assassination, either domestic or international, and that Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin, acted alone.

1967 - A Lockheed SP-2H Neptune, BuNo 147946, of VP-30, collides with a US Navy Vought RF-8G Crusader, BuNo 146864, assigned to VFP-62, Detachment 38, NAS Cecil Field, Jacksonville, Florida, during a heavy rainstorm, near Jacksonville Beach, Florida, crashing on the swampy east bank of the Intracoastal Waterway. The Crusader, which was operating off of the USS Shangri-La (CVA-38), also impacts near Jacksonville Beach. The Neptune was carrying two officers and three enlisted men. The pilot was the only occupant of the jet. All aboard the two aircraft were KWF.

1977 - A United States Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas RF-4B Phantom II, BuNo 157344, c/n 3717, 'RF611', of VMFP-2, flown by a USMC crew based at Naval Air Facility Atsugi, en-route to USS Midway (CVA-41) in Sagami Bay, suffers a mechanical malfunction, the port engine catches fire, and crashes into a residential neighborhood, killing two boys, ages 1 and 3, and injuring seven others, several seriously. The two-man crew of the aircraft, Capt. J. E. Miller, of Mendota, Illinois, and 1st Lt. D. R. Durbin, of Natchitoches, Louisiana, eject and are not seriously injured. The crash destroys several houses. The boys' mother is also severely burned. Due to the fear that she may be adversely affected during her recovery by the shock, she is not told until 29 January 1979, that her sons have died. The mother dies in 1982, aged 31, of complications from her injuries.

1991 – President Bush announced in a nationally broadcast address that he was eliminating all U.S. battlefield nuclear weapons and called on the Soviet Union to match the gesture.


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## mhansen2

28 September

1542 – Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sails into present-day San Diego Bay during the course of his explorations of the northwest shores of Mexico on behalf of Spain.

1787 – Congress voted to send the just-completed Constitution of the United States to state legislatures for their approval.

1822 – Sloop-of-war Peacock captures 5 pirate vessels.

1850 – Flogging was abolished as a form of punishment in the U.S. Navy.

1861 – “M. H. Sheldon” was a Union schooner that was lost on Block Island, R.I. while carrying a cargo of coal.

1900 – Marines withdrew from Peking after the Boxer Rebellion.

1912 – Wright Model B, U.S. Army Signal Corps serial number 4, crashes at College Park Airport, Maryland, killing two crew, Lieutenant L. C. Rockwell and Corporal Frank S. Scott. On 20 July 1917, the Signal Corps Aviation School is named Rockwell Field in honor of 2nd Lt. Lewis C. Rockwell, killed in this crash, and Scott Field, Illinois is named for the first enlisted personnel killed in an aviation crash. Scott Air Force Base remains the only U.S. Air Force base named for an enlisted man.

1924 – Two U.S. Army planes landed in Seattle, Wash., having completed the first round-the-world flight in 175 days.

1940 – The first of the 50 old American destroyers given to Britain arrives in the UK.

1942 – Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold gives highest priority to the development of two exceptional aircraft–the B-35 Flying Wing and the B-36 Peacemaker–intended for bombing runs from bases in the United States to targets in Europe.

1947 – LCI-332 was irradiated during the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests and was considered not worth to decontaminate or simply 'too hot to handle.' The craft was scuttled at Kwajalein.

1954 - Fourth of 13 North American X-10s, GM-19310, c/n 4, on Navaho X-10 flight number 10, a structural test flight, successfully makes extreme manoeuvres at Mach 1.84. However automated landing system attempts to make landing flare 6 meters below the runway level at Edwards AFB, California. The vehicle impacts at high speed and is destroyed. The flight sets a speed record for a turbojet powered aircraft.

1961 – Test pilot Forest Petersen flew the X-15 to 31,029 meters (101,806 feet) and Mach 5.30.

1962 – Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 20,787 meters (68,202 feet) and Mach 4.22.

1964 – Test pilot Joe Engle flew the X-15 to 29,566 meters (97,006 feet) and Mach 5.59.

1965 - Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 90,099 meters (295,561 feet) and Mach 5.33.

1971 - A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion, on patrol over the Sea of Japan, is fired on by a Soviet Sverdlov class cruiser in international waters. The P-3 was checking a group of Soviet Navy ships cruising off the shore of Japan when crew members reported seeing tracer rounds fired well ahead of the Orion. Immediately following the incident, authorities recalled the P-3 to its base at MCAS Iwakuni, and all surveillance craft were pulled back five miles.

1972 – Weekly Vietnam casualty figures are released that contain no U.S. fatalities for the first time since March 1965.

1975 – A US bill authorized the admission of women to military academies.

1981 – (or 30 September, sources differ)  During a NAVAIR weapons release test over the Chesapeake Bay, a McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18A-3-MC Hornet, BuNo 160782, c/n 8, out of NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, drops a vertical ejector bomb rack with an inert Mk. 82 bomb from the port wing, which shears off the outer starboard wing of Douglas TA-4J Skyhawk camera chase aircraft, BuNo 156896, c/n 13989, which catches fire as it begins an uncontrolled spin. Two crew successfully eject before the Skyhawk impacts in the bay, the whole sequence caught on film from a second chase aircraft.

1987 - A USAF B-1B Lancer, 84-0052, c/n 12, of the 7th Bomb Wing, Dyess AFB, Texas, crashes near La Junta, Colorado, following impact with an American white pelican. Three crew members eject safely, one killed due to an ejection seat malfunction. Two additional crew members die due to lack of time and proper flight conditions to accomplish manual bailout. Aircraft destroyed on impact. "The Air Force, which said no weapons were aboard the aircraft, said the last radio transmission from the crew reported that two of the bomber's four engines were on fire. The F.A.A. said the aircraft was at 15,500 feet when the radio report came in, suggesting that the pilot had climbed after the collision in an effort to save the aircraft or give the crew time to parachute." The Air Force disclosed on 28 September "that the survivors of the crash were Capt. Joseph S. Butler, 33 years old, of Rocky Mount, N.C., a student defensive officer; Capt. Lawrence H. Haskell, 33, of Harrisburg, Pa., a student aircraft commander, and Maj. William H. Price, 42, of Yuma, Ariz., an instructor in offensive systems. They were said to be in good condition. The three who were killed were Maj. James T. Acklin, 37, of Champaign, Ill., an instructor pilot, First Lieut. Ricky M. Bean, 27, of Farmington, Me., a student pilot, and Maj, Wayne D. Whitlock, 39, of Johnson City, Tenn., an instructor in defensive systems."

2000 - A US Navy Beechcraft T-34C Turbo-Mentor of VT-10 crashes in a hayfield in Baldwin County near Silverhill, Alabama, killing both crew.

2008 – SpaceX launches the first private spacecraft, the Falcon 1 into orbit.


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## mhansen2

28 September addendum

2018 - USMC F-35B of VFMAT-501 crashed near MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina.  The pilot ejected safely and, at the time of this writing, was being evaluated.  Accident was under investigation.


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## mhansen2

29 September

*Feast Day of St. Michael the Archangel, Patron Saint of Soldiers, marines, Military Police, Aviation, and Airborne*: The name Michael signifies “Who is like to God?” and was the war cry of the good angels in the battle fought in heaven against Satan and his followers. Holy Scripture describes St. Michael as “one of the chief princes,” and leader of the forces of heaven in their triumph over the powers of hell. He has been especially honored and invoked as patron and protector by the Church from the time of the Apostles. Although he is always called “the Archangel,” the Greek Fathers and many others place him over all the angels – as Prince of the Seraphim.

1789 – The U.S. War Department established a regular U.S. army with a strength of several hundred men.

1829 - Brig USS Hornet was lost with all hands in a gale off Tampico, Mexico.

1861 – “Joseph Park” was a Union brig of 244 tons built at Maine. She was sailing in ballast and was out of Boston for Pernambuco, Brazil when she was captured by the CSS Sumter on the 28th September 1861. Her provisions, sails and cordage were removed and she was burned the following day after being used for target practice.

1899 – VFW established.

1921 - First Orenco D manufactured by Curtiss, 63281, McCook Project Number 'P163', loses entire leading edge of its upper wing, crashing at McCook Field, Ohio. An investigation by an officer of the flying test section of the USAAS Engineering Division reveals that the Orenco Ds are badly constructed, no fewer than 30 defects and faulty fittings being recorded in the published report, forcing the Air Service to withdraw all Orenco Ds from use (Joe Baugher cites date of 28 September).

1938 – Munich Agreement: Germany is given permission from France, Italy, and Great Britain to seize the territory of Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia. The meeting takes place in Munich, and leaders from neither the Soviet Union nor Czechoslovakia attend. 
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, “Peace in our time.”

1939 – Germany and the Soviet Union agree to divide control of occupied Poland roughly along the Bug River–the Germans taking everything west, the Soviets taking everything east.

1943 - A Douglas C-53D-DO Skytrooper, 42-68788, of the 93d Troop Carrier Squadron, 439th Troop Carrier Group, departs Alliance Army Airfield, Alliance, Nebraska, on a night training mission to practice communication with the Scottsbluff Radio Range, but crashes three miles S of the base for unknown reasons shortly thereafter, killing both crew members. Heavy fog hindered the search from the air, however, a rancher found the wreckage while checking his stock. KWF were 2d Lt. William Cardie, pilot, of Plainfield, New Jersey, and 2d Lt. Robert G. Bartels, co-pilot, of Blasdell, New York. The left wing had struck the ground.

1944 – USS Narwhal (SS-167) evacuates 81 Allied prisoners of war that survived sinking of Japanese Shinyo Maru from Sindangan Bay, Mindanao.

1945 - Silverplate Boeing B-29B-35-MO Superfortress, 44-27303, named "Jabit III", of the 509th Composite Group, Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, on cross-country training mission, strikes several objects on landing at Chicago Municipal Airport, Illinois, never flies again. Assigned to the 4200th Base Unit at the airport pending disposition decision, it is salvaged there in April 1946.

1945 – Former USS Tatoosh (YAG-1) was loaded with old ammunition and towed to a point 10 miles N of Adak, Alaska by ATR-32 where she was scuttled.

1946 - Blue Angels pilot Lt. (JG) Ros "Robby" Robinson is killed in Grumman F8F-1 Bearcat, BuNo 95986, Blue Angels No. 4, at NAS Jacksonville, Florida, when he fails to pull out of a dive during a Cuban Eight maneuver – wingtip broke off his fighter.

1946 – Lockheed P2V Neptune, Truculent Turtle, leaves Perth, Australia on long distance non-stop, non-refueling flight that ends October 1.

1950 - Landing aboard USS Philippine Sea (CV-47), which was operating as flagship of Task Force 77 in Korean waters, Grumman F9F-2 Panther, BuNo 123432, of VF-111, crashes through all barriers and hits eleven parked aircraft.

1964 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 29,809 meters (97,803 feet) and Mach 5.20.

1965 – Hanoi publishes the text of a letter it has written to the Red Cross claiming that since there is no formal state of war, U.S. pilots shot down over the North will not receive the rights of prisoners of war (POWs) and will be treated as war criminals. The U.S. State Department protested, but this had no impact on the way the American POWs were treated.

1971 - A U.S. Air Force Lockheed C-5A Galaxy of the 443d Military Airlift Wing, Altus AFB, Oklahoma, one of six used for training, had its number one (port outer) engine tear off the pylon while advancing take-off power before brake release, setting the wing on fire. The crew evacuated safely within 90 seconds and the fire was extinguished by emergency equipment. The engine had flown up and behind the Galaxy, landing some 250 yards to the rear. The Air Force subsequently grounded six other C-5s with similar flight hours and cycles. Further investigation found cracks in younger C-5s and the entire fleet was grounded.

1988 – The space shuttle Discovery (STS-26R) blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., marking America’s return to manned space flight following the Challenger disaster.

1990 – The YF-22, which would later become the F-22 Raptor, flies for the first time.

2010 – Germany makes the final payment of its World War I reparations.


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## mhansen2

30 September

1857 – Unable to obtain trading privileges in Vietnam through diplomacy, the French begin their campaign to take Vietnam.

1864 – “Ogdensburg” was a Union screw steamer of 352 tons built in 1852 at Ohio City, Ohio. She collided with the schooner Snow Bird, 5 miles off Fairport, Ohio and sank.

1899 – First Navy wireless message sent via Lighthouse Service Station at Highlands of Navesink, New Jersey.

1918 – USS Ticonderoga (Id. No. 1958) was a steamship in the United States Navy which served as a cargo ship. She was torpedoed, shelled and sunk after a 2hr battle with German submarine U-152 in the North Atlantic. 213 killed.

1942 - Two pilots are killed and two injured when Lockheed P-38G-5-LO Lightning, 42-12854, piloted by William C. McConnell, by one source, or William M. McConnell, by another, taking off from the Lockheed Air Terminal, Burbank, California, on a test flight, swerves out of control, plows through several parked training planes, ignites, and damages a hangar of the Pacific Airmotive Company. McConnell, of San Fernando, California, a Lockheed test pilot for about two years, is killed. "The other pilot killed was identified from papers on his body as Eddie C. Wike, of Sharon, Conn., student flier from Ryan Aeronautical school at Hemet, who was near the group of parked training planes when the accident occurred. The two injured men were John Waide, Ryan instructor from Hemet, and Harold Keefe of Hollywood, representative of an airplane engine company." Parked aircraft damaged or destroyed were Ryan PT-22s, 41-15341, 41-15610, 41-20852, and a fourth with an incorrectly recorded serial that ties up to an AT-6A-NT Texan rather than the reported PT-22.

1942 - "Hondo, Texas, Sept. 30 - Two officers and two enlisted men were killed in an airplane accident near the A.A.F. navigation school here. The dead included Capt. John G. Rafferty, 40, Monrovia, California." Lockheed A-28A-LO Hudson, 42-46980, of the 846th School Squadron, Hondo Army Airfield Navigation School, Texas, crashed 2.5 miles E - 1.5 mile N of the base due to a spin / stall after takeoff. Capt. Rafferty was the pilot.

1944 - Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat, BuNo. 42782, lost 125 miles (201 km) SE of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts during carrier qualifications. Pilot's name/fate unknown. Located by submarine DSV Alvin, 24 September 1968.

1949 – After 15 months and more than 250,000 flights, the Berlin Airlift officially comes to an end.

1954 – The USS Nautilus (SSN-571) is commissioned by the U.S. Navy.

1965 – Test pilot Pete Knight flew the X-15 to 23,348 meters (76,604 feet) and Mach 4.20.

1974 – Former USS Pettit (DE-253) was sunk as a target off Puerto Rico.

1990 - SH-60B, BuNo 162343 of HSL-43, crashed into sea off Oregon killing all three crew aboard while deployed with USS Crommelin (FFG-37) at the time, headed north along the western coast off Oregon during workups.

1996 - Air Force Academy Slingsby T-3A Firefly crashes 30 miles E of Colorado Springs, Colorado when the crew, who had been practicing a forced landing, suffer engine failure during the key part of the manoeuvre, the instructor and student both killed.


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## mhansen2

1 October

1880 – John Philip Sousa started his 12-year tour as director of the US Marine Band. He premiered many of his marches and produced the first commercial phonograph recordings.

1917 – Revenue Cutter Mohawk sank due to a collision with the British tanker S.S. Vennacher, while on patrol off Sandy Hook, NJ.

1918 - USS SC-60 was in a collision with the tanker Fred M. Weller, five miles south of Ambrose Channel lightship and 2 miles north of Shrewsbury Rock gas buoy, off New York. Two crewmen were killed.

1934 – Adolph Hitler expanded the German army and navy and created an air force, violating Treaty of Versailles.

1942 – Bell P-59 Airacomet, 1st US jet, made its maiden flight.

1942 – USS Grouper (SS-214) torpedoes Lisbon Maru not knowing she is carrying British PoWs from Hong Kong.

1942 - The Associated Press reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico, that a USAAF transport had crashed in the mountains NW of the town of Coamo, in southern Puerto Rico, killing all 22 on board. "Names of the dead were not announced immediately pending notification of relatives in the United States. Several civilians were known to have been aboard. The plane crashed shortly after its takeoff. It took hours for a searching party working afoot in the difficult mountain country to locate the wreckage." Douglas C-39, 38-524, c/n 2081, of the 20th Troop Carrier Squadron, assigned at Losey Field, Puerto Rico, piloted by Francis H. Durant, crashed 15 mi NW of Coamo.

1942 – “Visalia, CA”  Two Army aviation cadets and a civilian instructor were killed today in the mid-air collision of two primary training planes near Seville, five miles from their Sequoia field base. They were Cadets Mike Mumolo, 25, Los Angeles, and James Cameron Schwindt, 19, Santa Paul, and Instructor Edward Hedrick, 47, formerly of Ontario." Ryan PT-22s, 41-20658, flown by Schwindt, and 41-20661, flown by Mumolo, came down 7 mi E of Sequoia Field.

1946 – Eleven Nazi war criminals were sentenced to be hanged at Nuremberg trials– Hermann Goring, Alfred Jodl, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachin von Ribbentrop, Fritz Saukel, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Julius Streicher, and Alfred Rosenberg. Karl Donitz was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

1947 – First flight of the F-86 Sabre.

1951 – The all-African-American 24th Infantry Regiment and 159th Field Artillery Battalion, 25th Infantry Division, were disbanded and the personnel reassigned to formerly all-white units. Other formerly all-African-American units were infused with white soldiers, thus beginning racial integration in the Army.

1952 - U.S. Navy Grumman TBM-3S2 Avenger, BuNo 53439, of Air Anti-Submarine Squadron-23, NAS San Diego, California, on night radar bombing training flight strikes Pacific Ocean surface at 110 knots (200 km/h) ~2 1/2 miles W of Point Loma. Both crew survive the accidental ditching, with pilot Lt. Ross C. Genz, USNR, rescued after four hours in a life raft by a civilian ship, but radarman AN Harold B. Tenney, USN, apparently drowns after evacuating the bomber and is never seen again. Wreckage discovered in 1992 during underwater survey.

1953 - A USAF North American TB-25J, 44-86779A, built as a B-25J-30/32-NC, (Joe Baugher states that it was modified and redesignated to TB-25N status, but the official accident report refers to it as a TB-25J) attached to Andrews AFB, Maryland, crashes in fog and heavy overcast into the forested pinnacle of historic Pine Mountain, striking Dowdell's Knob at ~2130 hrs., near Warm Springs in western Georgia, killing five of six on board, said spokesmen at Lawson AFB. The bomber struck the 1,395-foot peak at the 1,340-foot level. It had departed from Eglin AFB, Florida, at 1930 hrs. for Andrews AFB. Two Eglin airmen were among those KWF.

The sole survivor, Richard Kendall Schmidt, 19, of Rumson, New Jersey, a Navy fireman assigned to the crash crew at NAS Whiting Field, Florida, who had hitch-hiked a ride on the aircraft, was found by two farmers who heard the crash and hiked to the spot from their mountainside homes "and found the sailor shouting for help as he lay in the midst of scattered wreckage and mutilated bodies.

They said [that] they found a second man alive but base officials said [that] he died before he could be given medical attention." First on the scene was Lee Wadsworth, of Manchester, Georgia, who, while visiting his father-in-law, Homer G. Swan, in Pine Mountain Valley, had heard and seen the Mitchell in level flight at very low altitude AGL on an easterly course moments before impact at ~2130 hrs. Immediately following the crash, Wadsworth, Swan, and Wadsworth's brother-in-law, Billy Colquitt, drove a truck to the knob, arriving there at 2145 hrs. After a short search, they smelled gasoline and heard the cries for help from Schmidt. They proceeded to render aid for two and a half hours until the first medical help arrived, in the person of Dr. Bates from Pine Mountain Valley. Schmidt was loaded into Dr. Bates' automobile and was driven east towards Columbus to meet the military ambulance dispatched from Martin Army hospital at Fort Benning. The semi-conscious man had died of his injuries some 35 minutes after the first responders got to him. The Air Police, and Sheriff and Coroner for Harris County arrived at ~0030 hrs., 2 October.

Tom Baxley, one of the farmers, said that the bodies of the dead, most of them torn by the collision, were flung about among the pine trees, and bits of the plane were hurled over a wide area. Schmidt was hospitalized with a possible hip fracture and cuts. Among the fatalities were two airmen assigned to Eglin AFB who had also hitch-hiked a ride and were on their way home on leave. The impact location is on the site of the proposed $40,000,000 Hall of History to mark a scenic point frequented by the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Killed were Capt. Stephen A. Clisham, pilot; Capt. Virgil G. Harris, co-pilot; T/Sgt. Othelier B. Hoke, flight engineer; and passengers A3C Robert W. Davidson, and A2C Benny J. Shepard. Shepard, riding in the waist section aft the bomb bay, as was Schmidt, survived the initial impact and was thrown from the wreckage, but died of his severe injuries before assistance arrived.

1953 - "An Air Force F-86 Sabre jet, its electric firing device out of order, sprayed this western Pennsylvania town (Farrell, Pennsylvania) with machine gun bullets for several terror-filled seconds. The whining .50 caliber slugs riddled 12 autos, setting two afire and tore into nearly 30 buildings and homes yesterday (1 October). No one was hurt although several persons had narrow escapes. 'Something happened to one of its machine guns,' Police Chief John J. Stosito said after a conference with Maj. A. F. Martin Jr. of the Vienna Air Force Base near Warren, Ohio. The plane was on a routine flight from the base. Name of the pilot was withheld. Witnesses said [that] the craft was several thousand feet up as it zoomed over the city. Martin, who came here to conduct an investigation, said [that] there is "only about one chance in a million" of such a thing happening and added [that] the Air Force would pay all damages."

1955 – Commissioning of USS Forrestal (CVA-59), first of postwar supercarriers.

1957 - Aborted takeoff at Homestead AFB, Florida, causes write-off of Boeing B-47B-50-BW Stratojet, 51-2317, of the 379th Bomb Wing. Gear collapses, aircraft burns, but base fire department is able to quench flames such that crew escapes – pilots blow canopy to get out, navigator egresses through his escape hatch.

1958 – Inauguration of NASA.

1961 – The United States Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is formed, becoming the country’s first centralized military espionage organization.

1970 - A US Army helicopter was fired on by North Korean gun positions along the Korean DMZ.

1970 – Former USS Atlanta (CL-104) was converted to a weapons effect target (IX-304) in 1964 but survived the test. She was again used as a target, being sunk off St. Clemente Island, CA.


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## mhansen2

2 October

1780 – British spy John Andre was hanged in Tappan, N.Y., for conspiring with Benedict Arnold.

1799 – Establishment of Washington Navy Yard. The Washington Navy Yard is the U.S. Navy’s oldest shore establishment, in operation since the first decade of the 19th century. It evolved from a shipbuilding center to an ordnance plant and then to the ceremonial and administrative center for the Navy. The yard is home to the Chief of Naval Operations and is headquarters for the Naval Historical Center, the Marine Corps Historical Center, and numerous naval commands.

1920 - U.S. Navy Lt. Cdr. William Merrill Corry, Jr. (5 October 1889 – 6 October 1920), of Quincy, Florida, designated Naval Aviator No. 23 in March 1916, while on a flight from Long Island, New York, with another pilot, the aircraft crashes, with Corry earning the Medal of Honor "for heroic service in attempting to rescue a brother officer from a flame-enveloped airplane near Hartford, Connecticut. On 2 October 1920, an airplane in which Lieutenant Commander Corry was a passenger crashed and burst into flames. He was thrown 30 feet clear of the aircraft and, though injured, rushed back to the burning machine and endeavored to release the pilot. In so doing he sustained serious burns, from which he died four days later." In 1923, Corry Field, a new satellite airfield for Naval Air Station Pensacola, is named in his honor. Three U.S. Navy destroyers have been named USS Corry, a Clemson-class in 1921 (DD-334), a Gleaves class in 1941 (DD-463) and a Gearing-class in 1945 (DD-817).

1939 – Foreign ministers of countries of the Western Hemisphere agree to establish a neutrality zone around the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North and South America to be enforced by the U. S. Navy. All belligerent actions by hostile powers are supposed to be forbidden in this zone.

1942 – Enrico Fermi and others demonstrated the 1st self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction under Stagg Field at the University of Chicago.

1944 - A B-25D Mitchell bomber, 41-30114, crashes in the Mojave Desert while on a pilot training mission. The plane stalls, spins and crashes into the ground, killing pilot 1st Lt George D. Rosado, copilot WASP Marie Michell Robinson, and crew chief S/Sgt Gordon L. Walker.

1945 - A U.S. Navy Martin PBM-5E Mariner flying boat, BuNo 59336, of VPB-205, carrying Rear Admiral William Sample, commander of Carrier Division 22, and eight others disappears near Wakayama, Japan while on a familiarization flight. The wreckage and their bodies will not be discovered until 19 November 1948.

1953 - A US Navy PBM-5 Mariner of VP-50 was intercepted by two People's Republic of China MiG-15 Fagots 30 miles east of Tsingtao. The MiGs made twelve firing passes, but only hit the PBM twice in the tail with 37mm cannon shells. The crew was not injured and the aircraft returned safely to base.

1963 – Defense Sec. Robert McNamara told Pres. Kennedy in a cabinet meeting that: “We need a way to get out of Vietnam.” McNamara proposed to replace the 16,000 US advisers with Canadian personnel.

1990 – Allies ceded any remaining rights as occupiers of Germany.

1997 - A USN Grumman F-14A Tomcat, BuNo 161425, converted to F-14A+, later redesignated F-14B, of VF-101, based at NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the North Carolina coast Thursday afternoon, moments after the two crew eject. "A Coast Guard helicopter later plucked the Tomcat's radar intercept officer from 4- to 5-foot seas, but rescuers were still searching for the jet's pilot after nightfall. The Navy declined to identify either of the crewmen...until their families were notified. The radar intercept officer was undergoing a medical examination at Oceana Thursday night, and was reportedly in good condition."

The U.S. Navy suspends search for the missing aviator on 5 October. The cause of the crash was not known, the Navy said in a statement. A failure of left horizontal stab linkage—while the trailing edge was down—threw the aircraft into violent right-hand rolls. When the pilot put in corrective stick, the aircraft would pitch down violently due to a stuck left-hand horizontal stab. This flight condition was unrecoverable. The RIO pulled the ejection handle at 7000 feet. The mishap pilot died when his ejection seat failed.

2003 – North Korea said it is using plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel rods to make atomic weapons.


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## mhansen2

4 October

1861 – The Union ship USS South Carolina captured two Confederate blockade runners outside of New Orleans, La.

1943 – Aircraft from USS Ranger (CV-4) sink 5 German ships and damage 3 in Operation Leader, the only U.S. Navy carrier operation in northern European waters during World War II.

1949 - Grumman XTB3F-2S Guardian, BuNo 90505, prototype of the ASW variant, undergoing propeller vibration tests by Grumman in New York, suffers prop failure and crashes on Long Island, killing the Hamilton Standard representative who was aboard in the rear fuselage. Pilot Mike Ritchie makes a high-speed, 200-foot altitude parachute escape, but lands on top of the wreckage and is hospitalized for many months.

1952 – Task Force 77 aircraft encounter MIG-15 aircraft for the first time.

1957 – The Space Age and “space race” began as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik (traveler), the first man-made space satellite.

1961 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 23,774 meters (78,002 feet) and Mach 4.30.

1962 - Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 34,199 meters (112,207 feet) and Mach 5.17.

1967 - Test pilot Bill Dana flew the X-15 to 76,535 meters (251,111 feet) and Mach 5.35.

1968 – Former USS Jaccard (DE-355) was sunk as a target.

1973 - A Soviet Tu-16 Badger overflew the USS John F. Kennedy (CVA-67) in the Norwegian Sea. While attempting to escort the bomber away from the area, a US Navy F-4 Phantom II collided with it. The Tu-16 safely returned to its base and the F-4 landed at Bodø, Norway.

1989 - U.S. Air Force, Boeing KC-135A-BN Stratotanker, 56-3592, from Loring AFB Maine, crashed on final approach near Carlingford, New Brunswick, Canada after a fuel pump ignited vapor in the main tank. The in-flight explosion rendered the aircraft uncontrollable. All 4 crewmembers were killed.


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## mhansen2

5 October

1914 - First aerial combat kill in history recorded when a Voisin III pusher of Escadrille VB24, French Air Service, flown by Sgt. Joseph Frantz and Cpl. Louis Quénault, downed a German two-seater Aviatik B.II, 114/14, of FFA 18, flown by Feldwebel Willhelm Schlichting with Oberleutnant Fritz von Zangen as observer, over Jonchery, Reims, using what is believed to have been a Hotchkiss machine gun.

1915 – Germany issued an apology and promises for payment for the 128 American passengers killed in the sinking of the British ship Lusitania.

1916 – Corporal Adolf Hitler was wounded in WW I.

1948 – Former USS Skate (SS-305) was sunk as a target off the Southern California Coast.

1966 - Ryan XV-5A Vertifan, 62-4506, crashes at Edwards Air Force Base, California, killing Air Force test pilot Maj. David Tittle. During hover, the aircraft began uncontrolled roll to left, pilot ejected at 50 feet (15.24 m), but chute failed to deploy.

1967 - NASA astronaut Clifton Williams, U.S. Marine Corps, suffers control failure in Northrop T-38A-65-NO Talon, 66-8354, N922NA, he was flying while en-route from Cape Canaveral, Florida to Mobile, Alabama to see his father who was dying of cancer. Jet went into an uncontrollable aileron roll, Williams ejected but he was traveling too fast and was at too low an altitude, comes down near Tallahassee, Florida. Williams served on the backup crew for Gemini X and had been assigned to the back-up crew for what would be the Apollo 9 mission. This crew placement would have most likely led to an assignment as Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 12. The Apollo 12 mission patch has four stars on it – one each for the three astronauts who flew the mission, and one for Williams.

1969 – A Cuban defector entered US air space undetected and landed his Soviet made MiG-17 at Homestead Air Force Base near Miami, Florida, where the presidential aircraft Air Force One was waiting to return President Richard M. Nixon to DC.

1980 - Lockheed U-2R, 68-10340, Article 062, last of twelve R-model airframes in initial order, allocated N820X, first flown 26 November 1968, delivered to 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing 19 December 1968 and to 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing 1976. Crashes in Korea this date, pilot Capt. Cleve Wallace survives.

1990 – NASA astronaut and Coast Guard CDR Bruce Melnick made his first space flight when he served as a Mission Specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery on Space Shuttle Mission STS -41, which flew from 6 to 10 October 1990. Discovery deployed the Ulysses spacecraft for its five -year mission to explore the polar regions of the sun. CDR Melnick was the first Coast Guardsman selected by NASA for astronaut training.


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## mhansen2

6 October

1683 – German Quaker and Mennonite families found Germantown in the colony of Pennsylvania, marking the first major immigration of German people to America.

1781 – Americans and French began the siege of Cornwallis at Yorktown, the last battle of Revolutionary War. They began digging the first parallel trenches, a distance of 500 to 600 yards from the enemy’s works. A French wagon train arrived at the siege site.

1861 – USS Flag, Commander Louis C. Sartori, captured Confederate blockade running schooner Alert near Charleston.

1864 - CSS Constance Decima was a side-wheel steamer, 345 bulk tons, 163 registered tons, 140 tons. Length 201 feet 5 inches, beam 20 feet 2 inches, depth 9 feet 5 inches, draft 6 feet. Crew of twenty-nine. Cargo of weapons and possibly some gold to buy cotton.

While en-route from Nova Scotia for Charleston, South Carolina, Constance Decima hit the wreck of Confederate blockade runner Georgiana and sank a mile out and 2 miles east of Breach Inlet in 15 feet of water. The wreck was discovered in 1967.

1884 – Department of the Navy establishes the Naval War College at Newport, RI. Secretary of the Navy William E. Chandler signed General Order 325, which began by simply stating: “A college is hereby established for an advanced course of professional study for naval officers, to be known as the Naval War College.”

1942 – An additional Lend -lease agreement is signed in Washington by representatives of the USA and the USSR. Between this date and July 1943 it is planned to deliver 4,400,000 tons of supplies to the Soviet Union, 75 percent by sea, the rest though Iran.

1947 – Former USS Crittenden (APA-77) took part in the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll, then was towed to San Francisco and sunk in an explosives test off California either off the Farallone Islands or San Clemente Island (sources differ).

1958 – USS Seawolf (SSN-578) remained a record 60 days under the north polar ice.

1961 – JFK advised Americans to build fallout shelters from atomic fallout in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union.

1966 – Test pilot Mike Adams flew the X-15 to 22,982 meters (75,404 feet) and Mach 3.00.

1981 – Egyptian Pres. Anwar Sadat was killed by an assassin at the parade ground of Nasser City by Islamic fundamentalists during a ceremony commemorating the Egyptian crossing of the Suez Canal during the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

2008 – Former USS O'Bannon (DD-987) was sunk as a target off Virginia by aircraft from USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69).


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## mhansen2

7 October

1862 – “Dunkirk” was a Union Brig of 293 tons carrying a cargo of Flour and Portuguese Bibles on route from New York City for Lisbon, Portugal. She was captured and burned off Nova Scotia by CSS Alabama.

1862 – “Francis Elmor” (aka Frances Elmore) was a Union schooner.  With a cargo of hay, she was captured and burned off Popes Creek, Virginia, in the Potomac River by a Confederate boarding party led by Lt. John Taylor Wood. The crew of 7 was later released.

1862 – “Wave Crest” was a Union bark of 409 tons carrying a cargo of grain out of New York City for Cardiff, Wales when she was captured, used for target practice and then burned southeast of Nova Scotia by CSS Alabama.

1862 – “Blanche” was a British side wheel paddle steamer of 750 tons built in 1857 at Wilmington, Delaware. as merchantman PSS General Rusk. She was seized by the state of Texas and converted to a blockade runner and renamed PSS Blanche.

While on route to Havana, Cuba she was chased by wooden screw steamer USS Montgomery to Maiano Beach, Cuba. She was then burned either by the crew of Montgomery or her own crew.

Strong protests were made by Britain & Spain over violation of neutral water by the Union Navy. Reparations were paid to Spain by the United States and Cdr. Charles Hunter captain of the USS Montgomery was court martialed, convicted of violating Spanish territorial jurisdiction and dismissed from the US Navy.

1863 – “Robert Fulton” was a Confederate side-wheel steamer of 158 tons, built in 1860 at California, Pa that was captured with a cargo of stores, along with steamer Argus (see below) near the mouth of Red River, Louisiana, by the USS Osage. She was burned when the Union crew could not pass a shoal to get into the Mississippi River.

1863 – “Argus” was a Confederate steamer that was captured and burned together with Robert Fulton (see above) by USS Osage while at anchor in Red River.

1863 – “Pushmataha” was a British flagged sloop used for Confederate commercial interests. While in company with another schooner, she was chased ashore by gunboat USS Cayuga at the mouth of the Mermentau River, Louisiana, 0.75 miles from the beach.

Pushmataha was carrying a cargo of rum, claret and French gunpowder.  She was stripped of all but two kegs of gunpowder and blown up by a Union boarding party.

1863 – “Argus” was a Confederate States steamer used for transportation. She was captured and burned by monitor USS Osage while at anchor on the Red River in Louisiana.

1864 – USS Wachusett, a screw sloop-of-war of 1,032 tons, illegally captures the CSS Florida Confederate raider while in port in Bahia, Brazil in violation of Brazilian neutrality.

1949 - USS Chehalis (AOG-48) lay alongside the navy dock at Tutuila, American Samoa, when one of her gasoline tanks exploded, killing six of her 75-man crew. The ship burst into flames, capsized, and sank in 45 feet of water. She later slid off the ledge, atop of which she had originally sunk, into 150 feet of water. She was stricken from the Naval Register on the 27th October 1949.

1952 - A US Air Force RB-29 Superfortress “_Sunbonnet King_” (44-61815) of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron was shot down over the Kurile Islands, between Yuri Island and Akiyuri Island, by two Soviet La-11 Fang fighters, flown by Alekseyevich Zhiryakov and Lesnov.

The crew of eight, Eugene M. English, John R. Dunham, Paul E. Brock, Samuel A. Colgan, John A Hirsch, Thomas G. Shipp, Fred G. Kendrick and Frank E. Neail III, were all listed as missing, presumed dead. Soviet search and rescue units recovered the body of one crewman, John R. Dunham. His remains were initially buried on Yuri Island in the Kurile chain, but were returned to the US in the 1994.

1953 - Second Lt. G. A. Thomas, of the 18th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, based at Saint Paul, Minnesota, departs from Yuma, Arizona, on a gunnery training flight, in an F-86A Sabre, but has an emergency and attempts to bail out. The pilot's body is found Wednesday 7 October, 25 miles S of the Mexican-American border. March AFB officials said that the downed fighter was located on Thursday, four miles N of the border.

1958 – The U.S. manned space-flight project is renamed Project Mercury. Originally it was called Project Astronaut, but President Dwight Eisenhower thought that it gave too much attention to the pilot. Instead, the name Mercury was chosen from Greco-Roman mythology, which already lent names to rockets like the Atlas and Jupiter. It absorbed military projects with the same aim such as the Air Force Man-in-Space-Soonest.

1963 – President Kennedy signed the documents of ratification for a limited nuclear test ban treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union. Testing was outlawed in the atmosphere, underwater and in outer space.

1963 - -Test pilot Joe Engle flew the X-15 to 23,713 meters (77,802 feet) and Mach 4.20.

1964 – Former USS Barbero (SS-317) was sunk as a target off Pearl Harbor.

1975 – President Gerald Ford signs law allowing admission of women into service academies (Public Law 94 -106).

1985 – The United States announced it would no longer automatically comply with World Court decisions. This was in response to a June 25, 1985, World Court ruling that U.S. involvement in Nicaragua violated international law. The ruling stemmed from a suit brought in April 1984 after revelations that the CIA had directed the mining of Nicaraguan ports. The U.S. later vetoed two U.N. resolutions calling for compliance to the World Court ruling.

1985 – Four Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean and demanded the release of 50 Palestinians held by Israel. 413 people were held hostage for 2 days in the seizure that was masterminded by Mohammed Abul Abbas. American Leon Klinghoffer was shot while sitting in his wheelchair and thrown overboard.


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## mhansen2

8 October

1775 – Officers decided to bar slaves and free blacks from Continental Army. This decision will be formalized by the Continental Congress in November.

1812 – Boat party under Lt. Jesse D. Elliott captures HMS Detroit and Caledonia in Niagara River. Adams-a newly constructed 200-ton brig-was purchased during the summer of 1812 by General William Hull, the Army commander at Detroit (now in Michigan) to add to the defenses of that forward outpost. However, before the ship could be armed Hull sur rendered her along with Detroit on 16 August 1812. The British armed the prize and commissioned her as HMS Detroit. She and HMS Caledonia gave the British undisputed control of Lake Erie. All changed early in the morning when a boat expedition commanded by Lt. Jesse D. Elliott captured the two vessels right under the muzzles of the guns at Fort Erie. Caledonia made it safely to the temporary American base at Black Rock, but Detroit, owing to light wind, was swept away by the Niagara River’s strong current and was forced to anchor within range of British guns. An artillery duel ensued.

Elliott brought all his guns to his engaged side and continued the cannonade until his supply of ammunition was exhausted. Thereupon, he cut the cable; and the brig drifted down the river. She grounded on Squaw Island within range of both British and: American batteries. Elliott and his men abandoned her, and almost immediately, some two score British soldiers took brief possession of the brig. American guns soon drove them out with great loss, and both sides began pounding her with gunfire. The Americans finally set fire to and destroyed the battered hulk.

1842 – Commodore Lawrence Kearny in USS Constitution addresses a letter to the Viceroy of China, urging that American merchants in China be granted the same treaty privileges as the British. His negotiations are successful.

1864 - USS Aster (ex-Alice) was a Union wooden screw steam tug of 285 tons, built in 1864 at Wilmington, Del.

She grounded while chasing the blockade-runner, steamer Annie. The tug USS Berberry tried to pull Aster off but failed. To avoid capture, she was burned on the North Carolina Shoals off New Inlet.

1864 - USS Picket Boat No.2 was a Union screw steam 'torpedo' boat, built at Boston. While en-route from Baltimore to Hampton Roads to join Lt. William Barker Cushing's expedition against the CSS Albemarle, her engine broke down and she anchored in the Great Wicomico Bay near the mouth of Reason Creek.

On this date the vessel was attacked and captured by Confederate guerrillas under Capt. S. Covington when it ran aground on Potomac River oyster beds.

USS Commodore Read, formerly the ferryboat Atlantic, and tug USS Mercury later shelled the USS Picket Boat No.2 and the Confederates scuttled it after salvaging her 12-pounder howitzer.

1918 – Sgt. Alvin C. York almost single-handedly killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 in the Argonne Forest in France.

1942 - "Long Beach, Oct. 8 - Capt. Don E. Brown, 25, son of Actor Joe E. Brown, was killed in the crash of an army bomber near Palm Springs this afternoon. An announcement from ferrying command said 'Capt. Brown was on a routine flight from the Long Beach air base to Utah when the crash occurred nine miles north of Palm Springs. Brown was flying alone.'”  Douglas A-20B-DL Havoc, 41-3295, of the 1st Ferrying Squadron, 6th Ferrying Group, Long Beach AAF, crashed after takeoff due to engine failure.

1943 - First (of two) Northrop XP-56 tailless flying wing fighters, 42-1786, suffers blown left main tire during ~130 mph (210 km/h) taxi across Muroc Dry Lake, Muroc Air Base, California. Aircraft tumbles, goes airborne, throws pilot John Myers clear before crashing inverted, airframe destroyed. Pilot, wearing a polo helmet for protection, suffers only minor injuries.

1945 - YMS-478 ran aground at Wakanoura, Japan this date; Hulk destroyed 24 October 1945.

1947 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the X-1 to Mach 0.925 in an instrumentation calibration flight.

1952 – Test pilot Jean Ziegler flew the X-2 on its first glide flight.

1952 - A US Air Force Boeing B-29A-75-BN Superfortress, 44-62320, of the 1st Bomb Squadron, 9th Bomb Wing, 15th Air Force, Travis AFB, California, and a Lockheed F-94A-5-LO, 49-2574, of the 318th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 4704th Defense Wing, McChord AFB, Washington, collide 1.5 miles N of Wilsonville, Oregon. The B-29 was making a simulated attack on Portland, Oregon, when it was struck by the F-94, making a simulated gunnery pass. Fighter landed at the Aurora State Airport, but the B-29 was lost with all 11 crew killed.

1952 - A US Air Force C-47 was fired on near Berlin Germany.

1952 – Operation RED COW, a joint Navy -Air Force mission against enemy positions near Kaesong, was conducted with Navy F2H Banshee fighter jets from Task Force 77 providing fighter escort for Air Force B-29 Super Fortress bombers. This was one of only two instances in the war in which Navy fighters escorted Air Force bombers.

1953 - "Three Air Force fliers died in the blazing wreckage of their jet bomber which crashed Thursday at 4:55 p.m., 15 miles southeast of Riverside while on a test flight. An Air Force spokesman said the plane was a jet B45 Tornado, stationed temporarily at Norton Air Force Base, San Bernardino, while undergoing repairs. He said the plane left Norton on a routine test flight at 4:18 p.m., carrying a crew consisting of a major and two first lieutenants. According to the Air Force spokesmen, the three officers were making final test runs with the plane before returning to their home base, which was unknown at the time. Names of the fliers are being withheld pending notification of relatives. The bodies were taken to Preston Funeral Home in Riverside." At 4:56 p.m., the Riverside sheriff's office received a call from an unidentified woman that a plane had crashed about seven miles SE of March Air Force Base, near Lakewood. The victims' bodies were badly charred as the wreckage burned for four hours. Reports that the plane exploded in air were disbelieved by investigators as the wreckage was concentrated in a small area. A board of Air Force officers will be appointed to investigate the accident, said Floyd K. Smith, civilian public information officer at Norton.

1953 - "PALM SPRINGS - Disaster to an Air Force C-47 and the plane's load of 28 was narrowly averted in Palm Springs. Merton Haskell, who with his brother Malcolm operates the Palm Springs Municipal Airport, said the carrier plane was reported in difficulties around 2 a.m. by the Civilian Aeronautics Authority [sic] station at Thermal, with one motor out of commission. Haskell commented, "we can thank the good Lord we have been keeping the lights on all night. The situation could have been bad." The plane's origin and destination have not been revealed, but it was reported that the passengers aboard were all Air Force jet pilots being transferred from one base to another. A crash landing was expected and police emergency patrol cars and fire station equipment rushed to the scene while Wiefels and Sons Palm Springs ambulance stood by. While spectators watched tensely, the pilot of the C-47 succeeded in making his emergency landing with only one motor of the twin-engine craft in operation."

1957 - USNS Mission San Miguel (T-AO-129)  was on a voyage from Apra, Guam to Seattle, Washington when she ran aground on Maro Reef in the Hawaiian Islands while running at full speed and in ballast. When she began to go down by the stern, USNS LST-664 took off Mission San Miguel's crew despite darkness, 8-foot seas, and numerous reefs. Declared unfit for further naval service and salvage, she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 20 December 1957.

1959 - A USAF Boeing B-47E-65-BW Stratojet, 51-5248, of the 307th Bomb Wing at Lincoln AFB, Nebraska, crashes during RATO take-off, killing instructor pilot Maj. Paul R. Ecelbarger, aircraft commander 1st Lt. Joseph R. Morrisey, and navigators Capt. Lucian W. Nowlin and Capt. Theodore Tallmadge.

1966 - Lockheed U-2C, 56-6690, of the 349th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, develops technical problems while on high-altitude reconnaissance flight over North Vietnam, attempts to recover to base but crashes near Bien Hoa, South Vietnam. Pilot Maj. Leo J. Stewart ejects and survives. This is the only U.S. Air Force U-2 loss in theatre during the War in Southeast Asia.

1969 – Former USS Barton (DD-722) was sunk as a target off Virginia.

2014 - United States Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-15D-41-MC Eagle, 86-0182, c/n 0994/D062, of the 493d Fighter Squadron, 48th Fighter Wing, 'LN' tail code, crashed in a field at Broadgate, Weston Hills, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. The pilot ejected and survived with minor injuries. He was taken by a HH-60G Pave Hawk from the resident 56th Rescue Squadron for evaluation at the RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk base hospital.


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## mhansen2

9 October

1781 – The bombardment of the British forces at Yorktown begins. Among the American guns there were three twenty-four pounders, three eighteen pounders, two eight-inch (203 mm) howitzers and six mortars.

1814 – Sloop-of-war USS Wasp vanished at sea. On this date, she informed the Swedish brig Adonis that she was “standing for the Spanish Main.” She was never seen again, and all hands were lost.”

1862 – “Eliza” was a Confederate sloop that was captured by steamship USS Kensington when carrying a cargo of 15 Hogshead of sugar. She was burned near Calcasieu, Louisiana.

1863 – “Bold Hunter” was a Union cargo ship carrying a cargo of 1025 tons of coal, from Dundee, Scotland for Calcutta, India. She was captured at sea, west of Africa, this date by screw steamer CSS Georgia and burned the next day.

1864 – “Roanoke” was a Union mail steamer of 1,071 tons built in 1851 at New York City. She was on route from Havana, Cuba for New York City with 50 crew and 35 passengers when she was captured 12 miles off Cuba by 2 or 3 Confederates posing as passengers. Reinforced from another ship, the Confederates planned to run the blockade but abandoned the plan and burned the Roanoke off Bermuda.

1867 – The Russians formally transferred Alaska to the US. The U.S. had bought Alaska for $7.2 million in gold.

1873 – LT Charles Belknap calls a meeting at the Naval Academy to establish the U.S. Naval Institute for the purpose of disseminating scientific and professional knowledge throughout the Navy.

1888 – The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public.

1919 - Continuing the transcontinental reliability and endurance test (see 8 October), a DH-4B hits the side of a mountain W of Cheyenne, Wyoming, killing 1st Lt. Edwin V. Vales and badly injuring 2nd Lt. William C. Goldsborough.] Lt. A. M. Roberts and his observer survive a close call when, in an effort to make up for lost time, Roberts chooses the direct route, over Lake Erie, between Buffalo and Cleveland. His engine fails, and he has to ditch in the lake. Luckily, a passing freighter sees the crash and picks up the two men.

1931 - U.S. Navy Keystone PK-1 flying boat, BuNo A-8516, is forced down in heavy seas and sinks.

1933 - Prototype Martin XB-10, 33–157, assigned to the 59th Service Squadron, Langley Field, Virginia, is lost when landing gear will not extend during routine flight, Lt. E. A. Hilary parachutes from bomber, which is destroyed with only 132 flight hours.

1941 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested congressional approval for arming U.S. merchant ships.

1945 – The following ships were lost this date in typhoon Louise at or near Okinawa:

USS Dorsey (DD-117)
USS Greene (DD-266)
USS Snowbell (AN-52)
LSM-15
PC-590
PC-814
PC-1238
PC-1558 (PGM-27)
SC-636
SC-999

1949 - Douglas C-47A-90-DL Skytrain, 43-16062, c/n 20528, of the 6th Rescue Squadron, Air Rescue Service, MATS, based at Goose Bay, Labrador, fails to gain sufficient airspeed on takeoff from primitive Isachsen airstrip, abandoned Isachsen weather station, Ellef Ringnes Island, Northwest Territory, Canada, at 1800 hrs. Zulu, lifting off twice before landing gear/skis contacted rising terrain and collapsed. Cause was icing and overload conditions. Four crew and six passengers suffer only minor injuries. Airframe abandoned in place.

1957 - Boeing DB-47B-35-BW Stratojet, 51-2177A, of the 447th Bomb Squadron, 321st Bomb Wing, taking part in a practice demonstration at Pinecastle Air Force Base suffers wing-failure during the annual Strategic Air Command Bombing Navigation and Reconnaissance Competition. The aircraft comes down north of downtown Orlando killing pilot Colonel Michael N. W. McCoy, commander of the 321st Bombardment Wing, Group Captain John Woodroffe of the Royal Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Joyce, and Major Vernon Stuff. Pinecastle AFB is renamed McCoy Air Force Base in McCoy's honor on 7 May 1958. Details of the accident remained classified for five decades, presumably because they would reveal flaws in the aircraft, but an FOIA request resulted in the release that showed that the investigation laid the blame on pilot McCoy.

1962 – Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 39,685 meters (130,206 feet) and Mach 5.46.

1967 - Second (of five) Ling-Temco-Vought XC-142As, 62-5922, suffers major landing gear and fuselage damage during STOL landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, following a 28-minute functional check flight after incorporation of modified control system components. Crew uninjured. This was the 488th test flight of the XC-142 program, and it turns out to be the last one before the program is cancelled. Airframe not repaired.

1969 - A U.S. Air Force Boeing B-52F Stratofortress, 57-0172, of the 329th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 93d Bombardment Wing (Heavy) crashes about 1,000 feet beyond end of runway while doing night time touch-and-goes at Castle AFB, California. The plane exploded on impact, killing the six man crew.

1991 - Four members of a Sikorsky SH-3H Sea King crew operating from the Norfolk, Virginia-based USS America (CV-66) were presumed lost after the aircraft crashed during a training mission near Bermuda, the Navy said Friday. The helicopter was assigned to the Anti-Submarine Squadron 11 at the Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida. The crewmen were identified as: Lt. Richard D. Calderon, 26, of Jacksonville, Florida; Lt. Cmdr. Karl J. Wiegand, 35, of Orange Park, Florida; aviation anti-submarine warfare operator Karl J. Wicklund, 23, of Clear Lake, Minnesota; and aviation anti-submarine warfare operator Vincent W. Bostwick, 20, of Orange Park, Florida.

1999 – The last flight of the SR-71 Blackbird (AF Ser. No. 61-7980/NASA 844). 

2002 – Former USS Towers (DDG-9) was sunk by USS Sides (FFG-14) in a Sink Ex off the coast of California.


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## mhansen2

10 October

680 – Imam Hussein, grandson of prophet Mohammed, was beheaded. He was killed by rival Muslim forces on the Karbala plain in modern day Iraq. He then became a saint to Shiite Muslims. Traditionalists and radical guerrillas alike commemorate his martyrdom as the ceremony of Ashura. The 10-day mourning period during the holy month of Muharram commemorates the deaths of Caliph Ali’s male relatives by Sunnis from Iraq.

732 – At Tours, France, Charles Martel killed Abd el-Rahman and halted the Muslim invasion of Europe. Islam’s westward spread was stopped by the Franks at Poitiers.

1845 – In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opens with 50 midshipman students and seven professors.

1864 – “Leighton” was a Union sailing bark that capsized in Rio de Janeiro harbor during a hurricane.

1919 - On third day of the transcontinental reliability and endurance test (see above), an east-bound DH-4B, piloted by Maj. Albert Sneed, almost out of gas, makes fast landing at Buffalo, New York. Passenger Sgt. Worth C. McClure undoes his seatbelt and slides onto the rear fuselage to weight down the tail for a quicker stop. Plane bounces on landing, smashes nose-first into the ground, and McClure is thrown off and killed.

1923 – First American-built rigid airship, Shenandoah (ZR-1), is christened.

1924 - U.S. Army blimp TC-2 explodes over Newport News, Virginia, when a bomb it is carrying detonates. Two of five crew killed.
"WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 - Lieutenant Bruce Martin of San Francisco was seriously injured with four other army men when the army blimp TC-2 was forced to the ground by the explosion of one of its bombs at Langley Field, Virginia."
"NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Oct. 10 - Lieutenant Bruce H. Martin died at midnight as a result of injuries sustained at Langley Field this morning when a bomb carried by the U. S. Army blimp TC2 prematurely exploded, wrecking the craft and injuring the five members of its crew."

1924 - The rear section of USS Shenandoah (ZR-1) is damaged while making a landing in windy conditions at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California, after completing the second leg of a cross-country flight from Fort Worth, Texas. "Slight damage was done to the Shenandoah when the airship was brought to the ground last night. Officers at North Island this morning stated that one of the rear gondolas struck the ground slightly, but with sufficient force to strain two of the girders in the aft portion. The damage, it was said, is not serious, but on account of the mountains to be flown over on the flight to Camp Lewis, it was deemed best to make thorough tests to avoid any possibility of accident. The work of repairing the strained girders continued all day yesterday (13 October)."

1933 - Fokker Y1O-27, 31-602, '3', of 30th Bombardment Squadron, Rockwell Field, California, en route from Burbank, California to Crissy Field, California, lands at Crissy with landing gear retracted. Both light and buzzer in cockpit that are supposed to activate when the throttles are retarded fail to function. Only serious damage is to the propellers but airframe is surveyed and dropped from inventory with 115 hours, 15 minutes flying time. Pilot 2nd Lt. Theodore B. Anderson uninjured.

1944 - First Fisher P-75A-GC Eagle, 44-44549, crashes on flight test out of Eglin Field, Florida, when propellers apparently run out of oil, pilot Maj. Harold Bolster attempts dead-stick landing but crashes short on approach, dies.

1947 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the X-1 to Mach 0.997 in a stability and control test.

1950 - USS Pledge (AM-227) was sunk by a mine off Wonsan, Korea.

1953 – A Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and the Republic of Korea is concluded in Washington, D.C.

1956 - A United States Navy Douglas R6D-1 Liftmaster, BuNo 131588, c/n 43691/321, of Air Transport Squadron 6 (VR-6), assigned to the Military Air Transport Service, disappears over the Atlantic Ocean about 150 miles (240 km) north of the Azores. All 59 aboard – 50 U.S. Air Force passengers from Lincoln Air Force Base and the crew of nine U.S. Navy personnel – died. Another source cites 11 October: as crash date.

1956 - Two U.S. Air Force F-86 Sabres collided over Lake Michigan. The Lake freighter S/S Ernest T. Weir, Captain Ray R. Redecker, rescued one of the pilots (Lt. Kenneth R. Hughes) after he spent three hours in the water. Several other ships in the area participated in an unsuccessful attempt to locate the second pilot.

1958 - Thunderbirds support aircraft, Fairchild C-123B Provider, 55-4521, en route from Hill AFB, Utah to McChord AFB, Washington, with five flight crew and 14 maintenance personnel, flies through a flock of birds, crashes into a hillside six miles (10 km) E of Payette, Idaho, just before 1830 hrs., killing all on board.

1961 – Former USS Guardfish (SS-217) was sunk as a target off Block Island, Rhode Island.

1967 – Former USS Harveson (DER-316) was sunk as a target off the California coast.

1967 – The Outer Space Treaty, signed on January 27 by more than sixty nations, comes into force. The Outer Space Treaty, formally the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, is a treaty that forms the basis of international space law.

1968 - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7977, Article 2028, lost at end of runway, Beale Air Force Base, California after tire explosion and runway abort. Pilot Maj. Gabriel A. Kardong rode airframe to a standstill. RSO James A. Kogler ejected safely. Both survived.

1972 - Douglas A-3B Skywarrior, BuNo 138968, of VAQ-33, crashes 1.6 statute miles NW of Holland, Virginia on old Highway 58 in Nansemond (Suffolk, Virginia), off Glen Haven Drive. The crew is killed.

1973 – Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew resigns after being charged with evasion of federal income tax.

1980 – Former USS Mindanao (ARG-3) was scuttled as an artificial reef off Daytona Beach, Florida.

1984 - The first of three Northrop F-20 Tigersharks, 82-0062, c/n GG1001, N4416T, during a world sales tour, crashes at Suwon Air Base, South Korea, killing Northrop chief test pilot Darrell Cornell. During the last manoeuvre of the final demonstration flight at Suwon, the aircraft stalled at the top of an erratic vertical climb and dove into the ground from 1,800 feet. High-G pilot incapacitation was suspected as the cause, as the investigation found no evidence of airframe failure.

1985 – F-14s from USS Saratoga (CV-60) forced an Egyptian plane carrying the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro to land in Italy, where the gunmen were taken into custody.

2002 – The US Congress gave Pres. Bush authorization to use armed forces against Iraq. The House voted 296-133 in favor.

2009 – United States President Barack Obama announces he will end the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy against homosexuals serving in the U.S. military.


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## mhansen2

11 October

1776 – USS Philadelphia was a gunboat sunk during the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain.  The wreck was raised in 1935 and is now on display at the National Museum of American History, in Washington, D.C.

1776 - USS Royal Savage was a British built two-masted schooner sunk and then raised by colonial soldiers.  During the Battle of Valcour Island, she ran aground and had to be abandoned.  The ship was ultimately set afire by a British boarding party.

1861 – “Martha Washington” was a Confederate schooner that was burned at Dumfries, Virginia by steamers USS Rescue, USS Resolute and USS Satellite.

1862 – “Manchester” was a Union sailing ship of 1,062 tons carrying a cargo of grain from New York City for Liverpool, England. She was captured and burned by commerce raider CSS Alabama SE of Nova Scotia, Canada.

1863 – “Douro” was a Confederate iron screw steamer of 180 tons. While carrying a cargo of 20 tierces of tobacco, 279 boxes of tobacco, 550 cotton bales, turpentine, and rosin, she was chased aground by sidewheel steamer USS Nansemond, above Fort Fisher, North Carolina.  Douro was boarded by Union sailors who captured two officers, two crewmen, and one passenger. With little of the cargo salvaged, she was subsequently burned.

1910 – Former President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane. He flew for four minutes with Arch Hoxsey in a plane built by the Wright brothers at Kinloch Field (Lambert–St. Louis International Airport), St. Louis, Missouri.

1924 - "PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 11 - Flying in excess of 150 miles an hour, the United States navy racing seaplane FTW fell 100 feet into the Delaware river [sic] today and was completely wrecked. The pilot, badly injured, extricated himself."

This was actually the Wright F2W-2, A7644, which suffered from poor handling characteristics, the tremendous torque of its huge Wright T-3 Tornado liquid-cooled engine flipping the racer onto its back on landing during its first and only flight.

1939 – The famous Einstein – Szilard letter to FDR about the scientific feasibility of atomic weapons was delivered.  This ultimately led to the creation of the Manhattan Project.

1942 - Consolidated B-24D-1-CO Liberator, 41-23647, c/n 442, the eighth block 1 airframe, of the 469th Bomb Squadron, 333d Bomb Group, based at Topeka Army Airfield, Kansas, piloted by Ralph M. Dienst, suffers engine failure and crashes into a hillside three miles W of the base, killing eight and critically injuring one. "The plane was on a routine flight, army officers reported. Lt. H. R. Rubin of the Topeka base said the dead included: Lieut. Ralph M. Dienst, 26, Pasadena, California; Second Lieut. James H. Edwards, 24, Berkeley, California, and Second Lieut. James L. Holmes, 24, Fort Bragg, California."

1953 - U.S. Air Force spokesmen at Hamilton AFB, California, report that an Air Force Reserve pilot, 1st Lt. Frederick H. Reed, 32, Berkeley, California, was killed when his F-51 Mustang crashed into San Pablo Bay, a half mile from the base.

1957 - On takeoff shortly after 0000 hrs. from Homestead AFB, Florida, a Boeing B-47B-35-BW Stratojet, 51-2139, c/n 450192, of the 379th Bomb Wing, participating in exercise Dark Night, suffers port-rear wheel casing failure at 30 kts. The bomber's tail hits the runway and a fuel tank ruptures, crashing in an uninhabited area approximately 3,800 feet from the end of the runway, four crew KWF. The aircraft burns for seven hours after the firecrew evacuates the area, ten minutes after the crash.

The aircraft was carrying an unarmed nuclear weapon in the bomb bay and fuel capsule in a carrying case in the cabin. "Two low order detonations occurred during the burning." The nuclear capsule and its carrying case were recovered intact and only slightly damaged by heat. Approximately one-half of the weapon remained. All major components were damaged but were identifiable and accounted for.

1961 – Test pilot Robert White flew the X-15 to 66,142 meters (217,012 feet) and Mach 5.21.

1968 - Fifth prototype U.S. Navy Grumman F-111B, BuNo 151974, c/n A2-05, crash landed at Point Mugu, California. Scrapped. Both houses of Congress refuse to fund production order in May 1968 and Navy abandons the F-111B program completely.

1988 - Boeing KC-135A-BN refueling tanker, 60-0317, c/n 18092, crashes on landing at Wurtsmith AFB, Michigan; aircraft is destroyed and six of 17 on board are killed.

1991 - The crash of a Beechcraft T-34C Turbo-Mentor in Baldwin County, Alabama, kills Navy Cmdr. Duane S. Cutter, 44, from Newfield, New York, and his student, Marine 2nd Lt. Thomas J. Gaffney, 24, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, while on a routine training mission out of NAS Whiting Field, Florida, said Lt. Cmdr. Diane Hooker, a Navy spokeswoman at Whiting Field. Hooker couldn't immediately say what techniques the two were practicing when the T-34 went down.


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## mhansen2

12 October

1492 – Christopher Columbus sited land, an island of the Bahamas which he named San Salvador, but which was called Guanahani by the local Taino people.

1776 – Gunboat USS Providence took part in the battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain.  She retreated with the rest of the American squadron to Crown Point. Pursued by the British and damaged, Providence was stranded and burned by her crew at Schuyler Island.

1776 – Gunboat USS Spitfire suffered the same fate as USS Providence (see above).

1863 – “Columbia” was a Confederate schooner, used for smuggling and raiding. She was burned by a Union small boat expedition at Ape's Hole near the head of Pocomoke Sound, Maryland

1863 – “Jane” was a British schooner, on voyage from New Providence, Bahamas that was destroyed by her crew to prevent capture by side wheel steamer USS Tennessee off the Brazos River, Texas.

1863 - USS Madgie was a Union wooden screw steamer of 218 tons, built in 1858 at Philadelphia. While being towed by the USS Fahkee, she took on water and sank in 18 fathoms, 12 miles southeast of Frying Pan Shoals, North Carolina.

1914 – USS Jupiter (AC-3) is first Navy ship to complete transit of Panama Canal from west to east.

1917 – The 1st Marine Aviation Squadron and 1st Marine Aeronautic Company formed at Philadelphia.

1933 - USCG CG-256 ran aground in Spanish Bay, California during a gale

1942 – During World War II, Attorney General Francis Biddle announced that Italian nationals in the United States would no longer be considered enemy aliens.

1942 - "Los Angeles, Oct. 12. - Four barrage balloons of the army's coastal defense system broke from their moorings today, one falling in flames after its metal trailing cable struck a high-tension wire. Two were later recaptured and the fourth continued to soar."

1945 - USAAF Curtiss C-46F-1-CU Commando, 44-78591, was on approach to Nanyuan Airport, China, en-route from Hankou when it struck a radio antenna and crashed near Beijing, killing all 59 passengers and crew on board. The crash is the worst-ever involving the C-46.

1950 - USS Pirate (AM-275) was sunk by a mine off Pusan, Korea.

1954 - USAF North American F-100A-1-NA Super Sabre, 52-5764, c/n 192–9, crashes at Edwards Air Force Base, California, at 1100 hrs., killing North American test-pilot Lt. George Welch, a veteran of the Japanese Navy attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.  During terminal velocity dive test from 45,000 feet (14,000 m), aircraft yaws to starboard, then begins roll. Airframe breaks up under 8 G strain, pilot falls clear, chute opens, but he sustains fatal injuries, dying shortly after reaching the ground.

1954 - A US Navy Lockheed P2V Neptune undergoing test cycles by the Air Force Operational Test Center at Eglin AFB suffers a structural failure on landing at Auxiliary Field Number 8 which causes the starboard engine to break loose and burn in a Tuesday morning accident. The crew of two escape injury.

1965 – Test pilot Pete Knight flew the X-15 to 28,773 meters (94,404 feet) and Mach 4.62.

1966 - Two North American F-100 Super Sabres of the USAF Thunderbirds demonstration team collide during practice for a show at Sheppard AFB, Texas, at Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field, Nevada, killing two of the three pilots. The jets were performing opposing half Cuban Eights when witnesses said that the two jets scraped each other at the top of a loop. The pilot of the F-100F, Capt. Robert H. Morgan, 32, of Pendleton, South Carolina, ejected but his chute did not have time to deploy and he died when he struck the ground still strapped to his seat, while team member, Maj. Frank E. Liethen, Jr., 36, Appleton, Wisconsin, riding in the second seat, died when the Super Sabre struck the desert floor. The fighter impact left a crater almost twelve feet deep. "Liethen, executive officer of the Thunderbirds, was riding with Morgan on an orientation flight. He had been with the group since last December, but ordinarily did not take part in formation flying. However, he had been scheduled to take over soon as commander and would have flown at the head of the group's diamond formation." Capt. Robert D. Beckel, 29, of Walla Walla, Washington, was able to land his F-100D at Nellis AFB, Nevada.

"The Air Force said it was a 'tribute to his flying skill' that Beckel was able to land his plane, damaged in a wing. The red, white and blue jets cost a reported $650,000." Both Liethan and Morgan leave a widow and four children. "A Thunderbird spokesman said a show Saturday in Wichita Falls, Tex., would go on despite the crash – but maybe with five planes instead of six because there was no one trained to replace Morgan."

1966 - Lockheed C-130E-LM Hercules, 63-7886, c/n 3957, of the 516th Troop Carrier Wing, Dyess AFB, Texas, flies into ground at night circa 30 kilometers north-northwest of Aspermont, Texas. It impacts in a brushy pasture on the 6666 Ranch, 75 miles NW of Abilene near U.S. 83. Only one of the crew of six survives, a loadmaster, who is pulled from the wreckage by a passing truck driver, Carroll Brezee. He was in critical condition. The fuselage and tail section lay near the center of a burned area about 50 X 200 yards, with parts scattered along a half mile stretch. Sheriff E. W. Hollar, of Guthrie, nine miles N of the crash site, said that persons first reaching the scene found two bodies. A ground party from Dyess AFB found the other three in a search through heavy mesquite brush. Authorities said that these were the first fatalities in the 516th Troop Carrier Wing since it was formed at Dyess in December 1958.

1972 – Forty six sailors are injured in a race riot involving more than 100 sailors aboard USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) en-route to her station in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam.

1979 – Former USS Alfred A. Cunningham (DD-752) was sunk as a target, being struck by five laser guided bombs off Southern California.

1986 – The superpower meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, ended in stalemate, with President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev unable to agree on arms control or a date for a full-fledged summit in the United States.

2000 – USS Cole (DDG-67), refueling in Yemen suffered an enormous explosion in a terrorist attack killing 17 sailors, injuring 39 others, and damaging the ship.


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## mhansen2

13 October

1775 – Navy founded.  The Continental Congress voted to fit out two sailing vessels, armed with ten carriage guns, as well as swivel guns, and manned by crews of eighty, and to send them out on a cruise of three months to intercept transports carrying munitions and stores to the British army in America. This was the original legislation out of which the Continental Navy grew and as such constitutes the birth certificate of the Navy.

1776 – The following US Navy ships participated in the battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain. Forced to retreat, they were in danger of being overtaken by British forces, so were burned.
Gunboat USS Boston
Gunboat USS Connecticut
Gunboat USS New Haven
Row galley USS Congress

1860 – The 1st US aerial photo was taken from a balloon over Boston.

1884 – Greenwich was established as universal time meridian of longitude.

1914 – Garrett Morgan invented and patented the gas mask.

1922 – Pilot Billy Mitchell sets a world speed record of 222.88 MPH (358.836 KPH) in a Curtiss R6 racer at Detroit.

1933 - Douglas B-7, 32-310, c/n 1110[200] of the 11th Bombardment Squadron, departs March Field, California, piloted by Lt. Kenneth P. Gardner. A few minutes into the flight, a gasoline fire begins in the port engine carburetor and as it spreads, Lt. Gardner orders Sgt. James E. Carter and Pvt. D. Russell to bail out. The pilot attempts to stay with the plane to keep it from crashing into a populous area but when the blaze spreads, he, too, takes to his parachute. The burning bomber comes down at Azusa, California, and is destroyed. Carter is slightly bruised upon landing but the other two are unhurt.

1943 – During World War II, Italy declared war on Germany, its one-time Axis partner.

1953 - Boeing B-47B-30-BW Stratojet, 51-2096, of the 33d Bomb Squadron, 22d Bomb Wing crashes and explodes at 1925 hrs., shortly after takeoff from March Air Force Base, California, during a touch-and-go, killing three crew. The crash scatters wreckage over five acres of open brushland near Alessandro Boulevard and Highway 395 in the Moreno Valley, two miles W of the base. Aircraft commander was Capt. Byron M. Steel. Two other victims were Capt. Charles W. Brosius, of the 33d BS, 22d BW, and Capt. Earl F. Poytress, Headquarters, 12th Air Division. This was the first loss of a March B-47 since they arrived at the base on 30 January 1953.

1955 - Boeing B-47B-40-BW Stratojet, 51-2231, of the 320th Bombardment Wing, crashes while taking off from March Air Force Base, California, coming down in what is now the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park, NW of the base. Capt. Edward Anthony O'Brien Jr., pilot, Capt. David James Clare, co-pilot, Major Thomas Francis Mulligan, navigator, and Capt. Joseph M. Graeber, chaplain, are all killed. Crew chief Albert Meyer, of Westchester, California, was not flying with his aircraft that day because he had already exceeded his flight hours.

1987 – The US Navy made the 1st military use of trained dolphins in the Persian Gulf.

1999 – The US Senate rejected the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban treaty 51-48.


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## mhansen2

14 October

1863 – “Lady Jackson” was a Union stern wheel paddle steamer of 207 tons built in 1860 at Cincinnati. She ran aground and was wrecked on the White River in Arkansas.

1912 – Theodore Roosevelt, former president and the Bull Moose Party candidate, was shot at close range by anarchist William Schrenk while greeting the public in front of the Hotel Gilpatrick in Milwaukee while campaigning for the presidency. He was saved by the papers in his breast pocket and still managed to give a 90 minute address in Milwaukee after requesting his audience to be quiet because “there is a bullet in my body.” Schrenk was captured and uttered the now famous words “any man looking for a third term ought to be shot.”

1917 - USS Rehoboth (SP-384) was a fishing vessel requisitioned by the U.S. Navy and used as a patrol craft during the war. While escorting a convoy off the coast of France, she suffered an uncontrollable leak and the crew had to abandon the ship, which was sunk by gunfire from light cruiser HMS Castor.

1918 – Naval Aviators of Marine Day Squadron 9 make first raid-in-force for the Northern Bombing Group in World War I when they bombed German railroad at Thielt Rivy, Belgium.

1922 - The Navy-Wright NW-1, BuNo A-6543, a racer designed and built in a mere three months, flew for the first time on 11 October 1922, just days before it was entered in the 14 October 1922 Pulitzer air race at Selfridge Field, Michigan. Entered at the last minute, the press dubbed the new entry, the Mystery Racer. Assigned to the second of three heats, and wearing race number 9, the close-fitting cowling over the Wright T-2 engine retained heat and caused the oil temperature to exceed its operating limit. Streaming smoke around the race course, the pilot was over Lake St. Clair, near Detroit when the red-hot engine failed. "The extreme low position of the lower wing was not conducive to ditching and the "Mystery Racer" flipped over and sank in the mud. The aircraft was written-off but the pilot emerged unscathed."

1931 – Former USS Essex (IX-10) was an armed naval sloop built between 1874 and 1876 at East Boston, Mass. The ship was finally sold for scrap in Nov. 1930 and taken to the beach outside Duluth harbor where the ship was burned to the waterline. The remains of U.S.S. Essex were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

1942 - The apparent mid-air explosion and crash of Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan, 41-27447, of the 383d School Squadron, out of Kirtland Field, four miles W of Belen, New Mexico, kills three crew. "The dead, as released by the Albuquerque air base: Second Lieut. Boyd C. Knetsar, the pilot, of Houston, Texas, and Aviation Cadets John Joseph Fischer, Detroit, and Earl William Ferris, St. Louis."

1947 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the X-1 to 13,115 meters (43,030 feet) and Mach 1.06, becoming the first man to officially exceed the speed of sound.

1950 – Nine Chinese armies, totaling over 300,000 men, began to cross the Yalu River. By traveling at night and hiding during the day, the largely foot-mobile Communist Chinese Forces avoided detection by U.N. aerial surveillance.

1953 - Second of two Bell X-5 swing-wing testbeds, 50-1839, gets into irrecoverable spin condition at Edwards AFB, California during aggravated stall test, crashes in desert, killing test pilot Maj. Raymond Popson on his first flight in the type. On the same date, the nose gear of the XF-92 collapses, ending use by NACA.

1955 - A Strategic Air Command Boeing B-47E-90-BW Stratojet, 52–500, crashes while attempting landing on 3,400-foot (1,000 m) runway 27 at NAS Atlanta, Georgia, shearing off tail and coming to rest beside runway. This facility is now DeKalb-Peachtree Airport.

1962 – A U.S. Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane and its pilot fly over the island of Cuba and take photographs of Soviet missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads being installed and erected in Cuba. Major Richard Heyser took 928 pictures on a path selected by DIA analysts, capturing images of what turned out to be an SS-4 construction site at San Cristóbal, Pinar del Río Province (now in Artemisa Province), in western Cuba.

1964 - Boeing KB-50K Superfortress, 48-065, of the 421st Air Refueling Squadron, Takhli RTAFB, crashed in Thailand shortly after takeoff on training mission while supporting Yankee missions over Laos. Corrosion found in wreckage led to early retirement of the KB-50 fleet and its replacement with Boeing KC-135s.

1965 – Test pilot Joseph Engle flew the X-15 to 81,229 meters (266,512 feet) and Mach 5.08.

1969 – Former USS Madison (DD-425) was sunk as a target off Southeastern Florida.

1975 - USAF McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle, 73-0088, of the 555th TFTS, 58th TFTW, crashes W of Minersville, Utah, due to electrical smoke/fire from generator failure; pilot ejects safely. This was the first F-15 crash.

1987 - Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk, 83-815, of the 4450th Tactical Group, piloted by Maj. Michael C. Stewart, callsign BURNR ("burner") 54, crashes at 2033 hrs., ~100 miles N of Nellis AFB, just E of Tonopah. Stewart was just 40 minutes into a routine single-ship sortie when his aircraft crashed into the gently sloping terrain 60 miles E of Alamo, Nevada, pilot KWF. Cause is thought to be spatial disorientation – pilot made no attempt to eject.

2012 – Felix Baumgartner set a world speed record of 844 MPH (1,358 KPH) for the fastest unpowered descent of a human when he jumped from a helium filled balloon at 39,045 meters (128,100 feet).


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## mhansen2

15 October

1862 – “Lamplighter” was a Union Bark of 365 tons carrying a cargo of tobacco and on route from New York City for Gibraltar. She was captured and burned by screw sloop-of-war CSS Alabama off the coast of Nova Scotia.

1862 – “Lone Star” was a Confederate schooner that was burned by boats from wooden schooner USS Rachel Seaman and steamship USS Kensington in Taylor's Bayou, Texas.

1862 – “Stonewall” was a Confederate schooner that suffered the same fate as “Lone Star” (see above).

1863 – For the second time, the Confederate submarine H L Hunley sank during a practice dive in Charleston Harbor, S.C, this time drowning its inventor along with seven crew members.

1892 – US government convinced the Crow Indians to give up 1.8 million acres of their reservation (in the mountainous area of western Montana) for 50 cents per acre. Presidential proclamation opened this land to settlers.

1917 – USS Cassin (DD-43) torpedoed by German submarine U-61 off coast of Ireland. In trying to save the ship, Gunner’s Mate Osmond Kelly Ingram becomes first American sailor killed in World War I and later is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism. He becomes the first enlisted man to have a ship named for him, USS Osmond Ingram (DD-255/AVD–9/APD-35).

1919 - Two more fatalities are recorded in the transcontinental endurance test when 2nd Lts. French Kirby and Stanley C. Miller die in an emergency landing in their DH-4 near the Wyoming–Utah border when they suffer engine failure near Evanston, Wyoming. During the two-week test, 54 accidents wreck or damage planes. Twenty-nine result from motor trouble, 16 from bad landings, 5 from poor weather, 2 when pilots lose their way, 1 in take-off, and 1 by fire. In 42 cases the accident meant the end of the race for the pilot. Seven fatalities occur during the race, one in a de Havilland DH-4B, the others in DH-4s. Lt. John Owen Donaldson was awarded the Mackay Gold Medal for taking first place in the Army's only transcontinental air race. Donaldson Air Force Base, South Carolina, would be eventually named for the Great War ace (eight credited victories).

1929 - Martin XT5M-1 dive bomber, BuNo A-8051, during terminal dive test at 350 IAS at 8,000 feet, lower starboard wing caves in, ripping extensive hole. NACA test pilot Bill H. McAvoy staggers aircraft back to the Martin field north of Baltimore, Maryland, landing at 110 mph with full-left stick input. Aircraft will go into production as the Martin BM-1.

1942 - Douglas C-49E-DO Skytrain, 42-43619, DST-114, c/n 1494, ex-American Airlines Douglas Sleeper Transport NC14988, A115 "Texas", first flown as X14988 on 17 December 1935; sold to TWA, 14 March 1942, as line number 361; commandeered by USAAF, 31 March 1942; assigned to the 24th Troop Carrier Squadron, crashed this date in bad weather at Knob Noster, Missouri. Another source gives crash location as 2.5 mi SW of Chicago Municipal Airport, Illinois. An Associated Press item states that the transport crashed and burned on a prairie about two miles W of the municipal airport on Chicago's southwest side, the public relations office for the Sixth Service Command announced. The two crew and seven passengers were all killed.

1942 - Nine men are killed when Boeing B-17E-BO Flying Fortress, 41-9161, of the 459th Bomb Squadron, 330th Bombardment Group, Alamagordo, New Mexico, piloted by John R. Pratt, crashes into Magdalena Peak, 6 miles SE of Magdalena, New Mexico.

1943 - USCG Dow (W-353) foundered in a gale, near Puerto Rico. Crew abandoned ship & and 30 were rescued by USCGC Marion (WSC-145).  Another source says 14 October.

1946 – Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering poisoned himself hours before he was to have been executed.

1948 – First women officers on active duty sworn in as commissioned officers in regular Navy under Women’s Service Integration Act of June 1948 by Secretary of the Navy John L. Sullivan: CAPT Joy B. Hancock, USN; LCDR Winifred R. Quick, USN; LCDR Anne King, USN; LCDR Frances L. Willoughby, MC, USN; LT Ellen Ford, SC, USN; LT Doris Cranmore, MSC, USN; LTJG Doris A. Defenderfer, USN; and LTJG Betty Rae Tennant, USN.

1951 - Convair B-36D-35-CF Peacemaker, 49-2664, c/n 127, '664', triangle 'J' tail markings, of the 436th Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomb Wing, Carswell AFB, Texas, experiences main gear extension failure, pilot Maj. Leslie W. Brockwell bellies it in at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, with just the nose gear extended, doing such a deft job that this is the only B-36 ever crash landed that was returned to flight.

1952 - A B-47 photo reconnaissance flight, authorized by President Truman and staged out of Eielson AFB, was flown over the Chukotsky Peninsula. It confirmed that the Soviets were developing Arctic staging bases on the peninsula from which their bombers could easily reach targets on the North American continent.

1955 - A Lockheed T-33A-1-LO Shooting Star trainer, 51-9227, crashes into Santa Monica Bay. Pilot Richard Martin Theiler, 28, and copilot Paul Dale Smith departed Los Angeles International Airport at 0215 PST aboard the T-33A, bound for Yuma, Arizona. This was an IFR departure, with instructions to report 2,000 feet (610 m) on top of overcast. The Los Angeles weather at the time was 1,200 feet (370 m) overcast, 4 miles (6.4 km) visibility, in haze and smoke. After they were given clearance for takeoff they were never seen nor heard from again. Plane was found in 2009  by aviation archaeologist G. Pat Macha and a group of volunteers, in 100 feet of water.

1958 - A USAF Fairchild C-123B-6-FA Provider, 54-0614, c/n 20063, en route from Dobbins AFB, Georgia, to Mitchel Field, Long Island, New York, runs out of fuel, comes down on the Southern State Parkway on Long Island while attempting emergency landing at Zahn's Airport at North Amityville, one-half mile short, injuring five, and killing one motorist. The transport skids several hundred feet, passes through an underpass, and strikes three cars. Harold J. Schneider, West Islip, New York, dies of head injuries shortly after the accident. Three Air Force men and two women motorists suffer minor injuries. They are identified as Mrs. Mary Rehm, Islip Terrace, and Mrs. Frank Calabrese, West Islip. The injured Air Force men are identified as Capt. John Florio, Sgt. Wallett A. Carman and Sgt. Edgar H. Williamson. The pilot was Lt. Gary L. Moolson. The aircraft, with a 119 foot wingspan, passed through a 50-foot wide underpass, shearing both outer wings, the port engine, and the vertical fin, before coming to a stop on fire.

1959 - USAF Boeing B-52F Stratofortress, 57-036, collides with Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker, 57-1513, over Hardinsberg, Kentucky, crashes with two nuclear weapons on board, killing four of eight on the bomber and all four tanker crew. One bomb partially burned in fire, but both are recovered intact. Bombs moved to the AEC's Clarksville, Tennessee storage site for inspection and dismantlement. Both aircraft deployed from Columbus AFB, Mississippi.

1960 – USS Patrick Henry (SSBN-599) begins successful firing of four Polaris test vehicles under operational rather than test conditions. Tests are completed on 18 October.

1962 - Eighty two days after the failure of the Bluegill Prime test in Operation Fishbowl, under Operation Dominic, a third attempt is made, Bluegill Double Prime. Launched from rebuilt facilities on Johnston Island, damaged in the last attempt, at ~2330 hrs., local time (16 October UTC), the SM-75 Thor missile, 58-2267, vehicle number 156, malfunctions and begins tumbling out of control about 85 seconds after liftoff, and the range safety officer orders the destruction of the missile and its nuclear warhead about 95 seconds after launch. Although, by definition, this qualifies as a Broken Arrow incident, this test is rarely included in lists of such mishaps.

1964 – Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 25,878 meters (84,906 feet) and Mach 4.56.

1976 – Former USS George K. MacKenzie (DD-836) was sunk as a target off California.

1989 - U.S. Air Force General Dynamics F-16D Block 32F Fighting Falcon, 87-0369, c/n 5D-63, from Luke AFB, Arizona, crashed in the middle of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress parking ramp at Carswell AFB, Texas, during a simulated airfield attack for an Operational Readiness Inspection for the 301st Tactical Fighter Wing (AFRES). The two pilots aboard the F-16D were both killed. Three B-52H aircraft parked nearby suffered minor damage.

2000 – Former USS Ashtabula (AO-51) was sunk as a target by British, French and American Navies 200 nautical miles southwest of San Diego CA. In all, Ashtabula was subjected to eight Harpoon missiles, two standard (SM-2) missiles, three Sea Skua missiles, four bombs from S-3 Vikings, and over 100 rounds of gunfire from 3", 100mm, and 5" guns.

2009 - United States Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16C Fighting Falcon, 91-0365, is lost while flying on a routine night flying exercise from the 77th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Wing, based at the Shaw Air Force Base, Sumter, South Carolina when it collides mid-air with F-16C 91-0364. The two aircraft from the 20th Fighter Wing were training with night vision equipment and practicing combat tactics when the accident occurred 40 miles (64 km) east of Folly Beach, South Carolina at ~2030 hrs. The United States Coast Guard commenced a search for a missing aircraft in the North Atlantic of the coast of South Carolina while the second aircraft, piloted by Capt. Lee Bryant, despite damage was able to land at Charleston Air Force Base. On 16 October, Coast Guard searchers found crash debris in the Atlantic Ocean believed to belong to the missing F-16. "The Coast Guard has found some debris in the ocean that is apparently from our missing F-16", said Robert Sexton, the Shaw Air Force Base Public Affairs chief in Sumter, South Carolina. The other pilot, Capt. Nicholas Giglio, is missing. "They have not yet found any sign of the pilot and the search continues", Mr. Sexton said. No one witnessed what happened to Captain Giglio after the collision.


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## mhansen2

17 October

1781 – Cornwallis was defeated at Yorktown. Cornwallis’ options had been running out. He had even tried sending blacks infected with smallpox over enemy lines in an attempt to infect the American and French troops. After a futile counterattack, Cornwallis offered to surrender.

1862 – “Economy” was a Union stern-wheel steamer of 200 tons, built in 1857 at Shousetown, Pa lost this date.  No details available.

1922 – LCDR Virgil C. Griffin in Vought VE-7SF makes first takeoff from USS Langley (CV-1) anchored in York River, Virginia.

1922 - U.S. Army's largest blimp, C-2, catches fire shortly after being removed from its hangar at Brooks Field, San Antonio, Texas for a flight. Seven of eight crew aboard are injured, mostly in jumping from the craft. This accident was made the occasion for official announcement by the Army and the Navy that the use of hydrogen would be abandoned "as speedily as possible." On 14 September 1922, the C-2 had made the first transcontinental airship flight, from Langley Field, Virginia, to Ross Field, Arcadia, California, under the command of Maj H. A. Strauss. The ship arrived at Ross Field on 23 September.

1933 – Due to rising anti-Semitism and anti-intellectualism in Hitler’s Germany, Albert Einstein immigrated to the United States. He made his new home in Princeton, N.J.

1941 – USS Kearney (DD-432) was damaged by a torpedo from U-568 off Iceland; 11 crewmen were killed.

1941 – General Hideki Tojo (1885-1948) became Premier and Minister of War in Japan. There no longer was a chance of avoiding war with Britain and the United States.

1943 – The last operational German auxiliary cruiser, Michel, is sunk by USS Tarpon (SS-175) off the Japanese coast. The German raider has sunk 17 ships during its cruise.

1945 – Iva Toguri D’Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist “Tokyo Rose,” was arrested by 3 CIC officers in her Tokyo apartment.

1953 - Richart R. Galt, pilot of a Republic F-84F-1-RE Thunderstreak, 51-1354, is killed in an accident at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

1959 – Test pilot Scott Crossfield flew the X-15 on its third powered flight to 18,831 meters (61,784 feet) and Mach 2.15.

1961 – Test pilot Joe Walker flew the X-15 to 33,101 meters (108,604 feet) and Mach 5.74.

1966 - Lockheed U-2D, 56-6951, Article 391, first airframe of the USAF supplementary production, and assigned to the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, Laughlin AFB, Texas, crashes this date at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, in a non-fatal accident. Pilot was Maj. Leslie White, who stalled on approach on his first flight. "The pilot survived, but the airplane was washed out," noted Kelly Johnson.

1967 – Test pilot Pete Knight flew the X-15 to 85,496 meters (280,051 feet) and Mach 5.53.

1997 – The US Army used a Miracl (medium infra-red advanced chemical laser developed by TRW) laser beam to hit the MISTI-3 satellite in orbit. The laser test was prohibited by Congress in 1985, but the ban expired in 1995. The test failed to be recorded by sensors on the satellite.

2000 - Two Russian aircraft, a Su-24 Fencer and a Su-27 Flanker overflew USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) at about 200 feet of altitude. At the time, the Kitty Hawk was in the midst of an underway replenishment in the northern Sea of Japan, between the island of Hokkaido and the Russian mainland. Following the overflight, the Russian pilots e-mailed pictures of their overflight to the Kitty Hawk's web site. Russian aircraft also overflew the Kitty Hawk on October 12th and November 9th.

2009 - A United States Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas F/A-18D Hornet (164729) from the Marine All Weather Fighter Attack Squadron No. 224 VMFA(AW)-224 based at the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, Beaufort, South Carolina experiences a heavy landing at Jacksonville International Airport, Duval County, Florida. The aircraft with two other Marine F/A-18 Hornet aircraft were landing at Jacksonville Airport in preparation for a flyover at the nearby NFL Jacksonville Jaguars game when the aircraft experiences an airborne technical fault and the port landing-gear collapses causing the aircraft to land only on the nose-wheel, starboard undercarriage and the exposed port-side external fuel-tank. The F/A-18 Hornet skidded down the runway with most damage occurring to the grounded external fuel-tank and the 2 Marine crew were uninjured.


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## mhansen2

18 October

1775 – The Burning of Falmouth (now Portland, Maine) prompts the Continental Congress to establish the Continental Navy.

1812 – Sloop of war USS Wasp captures brig HMS Frolic.

1859 – U.S. Marines reach Harper’s Ferry, VA and assault the arsenal seized by John Brown and his followers. Colonel Robert E. Lee has Lieutenant JEB Stuart carry a note to Brown demanding his surrender. Brown refuses and closes and bars the doors of the Engine House. Stuart waves his hat up and down as a signal to begin the assault. The Marines attack the doors with sledgehammers, but to no effect. They find a heavy ladder and use that as a battering ram. In two blows, they create a small opening in the right hand door which is split, and they storm into the building. Lieutenant Israel Green, who leads the assault, attacks Brown with the dress sword he brought by mistake from Washington. The sword, which was never meant for combat, bends on Brown’s leather belt. Green grasps the sword by the ruined blade and hits Brown over the head with it, knocking him unconscious. The raid is over.

1861 – Sailing vessel “Frolic” was a Union tender that started taking on water and drifted aground at Southwest Pass in the Mississippi River delta after losing her sails. She was stripped and burned by screw steamer gunboat USS South Carolina.

1862 – “General Taylor” was a Union screw steamer of 462 tons, built in 1848 at Buffalo, N.Y. She stranded at Sleeping Bear Point, Michigan.

1867 – United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.

1922 – Pilot Billy Mitchell bested his own world speed record of 13 October by attaining 224.28 MPH (360.93 KPH) in a Curtiss R6 racer.

1939 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt banned foreign war submarines from U.S. ports and waters.

1940 - First Bell YP-39 Airacobra, 40-027, crashes near Buffalo, New York on eighth flight when only one main landing gear extends. Bell test pilot Bob Stanley bails out at 7,000 feet (2,100 m) rather than try a wheels-up landing, suffering only minor injuries when he lands in a tree. Examination of the wreckage shows that universal joints attached to the torque tubes driving the main gear struts had failed, as had limit switches placed in the retraction mechanism to shut off the electric motors.

1944 - A United States Army Air Forces Consolidated B-24H-20-CF Liberator, 42-50347, broke up in mid-air over the town of Birkenhead, England. The aircraft was on a flight from New York to Liverpool and the accident killed all 24 airmen on board the aircraft.

1945 – The first German War Crimes Trial began.

1945 – The USSR’s nuclear program receives plans for the United States plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

1947 – The Soviet Union conducted its first test flight of a captured V-2 rocket.  The vehicle disintegrated upon reentry.

1948 - A USAF Douglas C-54D-10-DC Skymaster, 42-72688, c/n 10793, participating in the Berlin Airlift, crashes near Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany, killing three crew, Capt. James A. Vaughn, 1st Lt. Eugene Erickson and Sgt. Richard Winter.

1953 - U.S. Navy Lockheed P2V Neptune, BuNo 124901, of VP-18, crashes into the sea nine miles off Iceland with nine crew aboard. Hours later the Icelandic Life Saving Association says that only bits of wreckage floated at the site. A search, which continues through at least 19 October involves American planes and surface ships, a Royal Navy vessel, and Iceland Coast Guard vessels.

1956 - A Lockheed P2V-2N Neptune, of Squadron VX-6, crashes in a storm at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, during Operation Deep Freeze II. Captain Rayburn Hudman, USMC; Lieutenant David W. Carey, USNR; Aviation Electronics Technician 1 Charles S. Miller, USN; and Aviation Machinist’s Mate 1 Marian O. Marze, USN, are KWF.

1958 - NAVY SQUADRON AEWRON FIFTEEN (VW-15) AIRCRAFT: Lockheed WV-2 Warning Star, BuNo 141294, LOCATION: NAS Argentia, Newfoundland. EVENT: Crashed into Placentia Bay 1000 feet short of runway during CGA landing trying to get under weather; flight from Pax to Arg. U.S. Naval Aviation Safety Center, Accident Brief No. 10, May 1960: "The ceiling was reported indefinite 200 feet, visibility 2 miles in drizzle and fog. A precision approach was commenced to the duty runway. The approach was within tolerances and normal until after passing through GCA minimums, at which time the aircraft went below glide path and the pilot was instructed to take a waveoff. The waveoff was not executed until after the aircraft had actually made contact with the runway.

After climbout, GCA was contacted and a second approach was requested to commence with no delay. The pilot advised GCA that the runway was in sight just before GCA gave him a waveoff on the first approach. The second approach was again normal until the final controller gave the instructions, "Approaching GCA minimums." The aircraft immediately commenced dropping below glide path. An emergency pullup was given, but the aircraft collided with the water [Placentia Bay] and came to rest 2050 feet east of the approach end of the runway. It sank in 26 feet of water and 11 persons lost their lives." LOSS: 11 of 29-man crew & passengers killed: CREW: LT Donald A. Becker, PPC, CDR Raymond L. Klassy, VW-13, ENS Donald E. Mulligan, Lyle W. Foster, American Red Cross, A. S. Corrado, Robert N. Elliot, AN, R. J. Emerson, Clarence J. Shea, J. E. Strange, William Jerome Taylor, AD3 (body never recovered), and D. D. Wilson.

1978 – Former USS Mackerel (SST-1) was sunk as a target off Puerto Rico.

1997 – A $21.5 million memorial to honor the military service of US women was dedicated at entrance to Arlington National Cemetery.

2002 - Two Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornets collide during air combat maneuvering off the Southern California coast and crash into Pacific 80 mi SW of Monterey, California. All four crew (two Pilots and two WSOs) are killed while flying (KWF).

2005 – Saddam Hussein’s trial begins.


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## mhansen2

19 October

1739 – England declared war on Spain over borderlines in Florida. The War is known as the War of Jenkins’ Ear because a Member of Parliament waved a dried ear and demanded revenge for alleged mistreatment of British sailors. British seaman Robert Jenkins had his ear amputated following a 1731 barroom brawl with a Spanish Customs guard in Havana and saved the ear in his sea chest.

1781 – Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis, surrounded at Yorktown, Va., by American and French regiments numbering 17,600 men, surrendered to George Washington and Count de Rochambeau.

1818 – US and Chickasaw Indians signed a treaty. Andrew Jackson and Isaac Shelby represented American interests. The Chickasaws ceded their claims to lands in Tennessee.

1861 – “Harvey Birch” was a Union Clipper ship of 1,482 tons in ballast and on route from Le Havre, France for New York City when she was captured and burned by brig-rigged, side-paddle-wheel passenger steamer CSS Nashville in the Atlantic Ocean.

1864 – The northernmost action of the American Civil War took place in the Vermont town of St. Albans. Some 25 escaped Confederate POWs led by Kentuckian Bennett Young (21) raided the town near the Canadian border with the intent of robbing three banks and burning the town. While they managed to leave town and hide out in Canada with more than $200,000, their attempts to burn down the town failed. Most of the raiders were captured and imprisoned in Canada and later released after a court ruled the robberies in St. Albans were acts of war.

1915 – Establishment of Submarine Base at New London, Connecticut. In 1868, Connecticut gave the Navy land and, in 1872, two brick buildings and a “T” shaped pier were built and officially declared a Navy Yard.

1926 – John C. Garand patented a semi-automatic rifle. Civil Service employee John Garand was in a class all by himself, much like the weapons he created. Garand was Chief Civilian Engineer at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts. Garand invented a semiautomatic .30 caliber rifle, known as the M-1 or “the Garand,” US Rifle, Caliber .30 M1.

1931 – The sole Lockheed-Detroit YP-24, 32–320, crashes during tests at Wright Field, Ohio. During evaluation flight, landing gear extension system fails with gear only partly deployed when in-cockpit crank handle breaks off. Through a series of violent maneuvers, test pilot Lt. Harrison Crocker managed to get the gear retracted and was planning to attempt a belly-landing, but upon orders from the ground, sent aloft written on the sides of Boeing P-12D And Douglas O-25C aircraft, he bails out. Four Y1P-24 pre-production models cancelled due to Detroit Aircraft's shaky financial situation. Two will be built as Consolidated Y1P-25s after Detroit's chief designer Robert Wood joins that firm. Second Y1P-25 completed with a supercharger as Y1A-11.

1933 - Fokker Y1O-27, 31-601, '22', of the 32d Bombardment Squadron, Rockwell Field, California, during ferry flight from Rockwell to Brooks Field, Texas, pilot Capt. Albert F. Hegenberger, on leg between Tucson, Arizona and Midland, Texas, loses Prestone coolant out of starboard engine, engine temperature rises so he shuts it down. Forced down five miles short of Midland Airport, pilot does not get the landing gear completely locked down, collapses on touch down. Aircraft repaired.

1944 - En route to the Gulf of Paria, off Trinidad, Ensign T. J. Connors, A-V(N), USNR, of VF-67, crashes in a Grumman F6F Hellcat, astern of USS Bennington (CV-20), while making a strafing run on a towed target sled. "Search results were negative." This was the Bennington's shakedown cruise.

1944 - Two Grumman F6F-5N Hellcats, of the Night Fighter Training Unit, depart Naval Auxiliary Air Station Charlestown, Rhode Island, for a night pursuit training mission, piloted by Ensign George K. Kraus, 22, of Wisconsin and Ensign Merle H. Longnecker, 20, of North Dakota. "Longnecker was the pursuing plane, and sent the radio message 'Splash,' indicating he was close enough to Kraus' plane for an attack. That was the last message heard, as the planes apparently collided over the Laurel Hill section of Norwich and crashed about a quarter mile apart in the woods of the Norwich State Hospital property. Fire and rescue crews raced to the scene, where the crash sparked a small forest fire. The archaeologists' report said this was the third accident in a week's time in night fighter training exercises out of Charlestown, indicating the dangerous nature of the drills.

1944 – The Navy announced that black women would be allowed into Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES).

1948 - A US Navy plane crashed near Tsingtao China. Two crew members are held prisoner by the Communists for 19 months.

1950 – The People’s Republic of China joins the Korean War by sending thousands of troops across the Yalu River to fight United Nations forces.

1953 - "HAMILTON, Bermuda (AP) - A U.S. Navy two-engined patrol bomber from Quonset Point, R.I., with ten crewmen aboard crashed with a terrific explosion in St. Georges Harbor [sic] Monday night. The Navy said six of the crewmen were rescued and taken to a hospital at the U.S. Air Force's Kindley Field. The plane was on a training flight and intended to remain over night at Kindley Field before proceeding to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Eyewitnesses said the plane passed over Kindley with its right engine ablaze. They said the pilot pulled up and was apparently trying to gain altitude when the plane stalled and crashed tail first."

1954 - First flying prototype Grumman XF9F-9 Tiger, BuNo 138604, suffers flame-out, the pilot, Lt. Cdr. W. H. Livingston, was able to put it down on the edge of a wood near the Grumman company runway at Bethpage, Long Island, New York, escaping with minor injuries. Airframe written-off. Production models will be redesignated F11F.

1965 - Second (of five) Ling-Temco-Vought XC-142As, 62-5922, suffers second accident when the number one main propeller pitch actuator suffers a hydraulic fluid blow-by problem just prior to touchdown at the Vought facility at NAS Dallas, Texas. A ground loop results with substantial damage to the landing gear and wing. In 1966 the damaged wing is replaced with an undamaged unit from XC-142A No. 3, 62–5923, out-of-service since its own landing accident on 3 January 1966. 62-5922 returns to flight status on 23 July 1966.

1968 – Former USS Archerfish (SS-311) was sunk by USS Snook (SSN-592). Archerfish survived the first two torpedoes until sunk by a WWII-era Mk 14-5.

1971 - Grumman E-2B Hawkeye BuNo 151721, c/n 41, 'NF 013', of VAW-115, and LTV A-7B-4-CV Corsair II, BuNo 154539, c/n B-179, both from USS Midway (CVA-41) collide over the Sea of Japan while both were preparing to land aboard, with E-2 crashing near the stern of the carrier, all five crew lost. A-7 pilot ejected safely, picked up by helicopter from MCAS Iwakuni in good condition.

1972 - A USAF Convair F-106B-55-CO Delta Dart, 57-2538, c/n 8-27-32, of the Air Defense Weapons Center, Tyndall AFB, Florida, is lost in a crash, pilot KWF.

1978 - A USAF Boeing B-52D Stratofortress, 56-0594, of the 22d Bomb Wing, crashes at 0730 hrs. in light fog in a plowed field ~2.5 miles SE of March AFB, near the rural community of Sunnymead, California, shortly after take-off. Five crew killed, but one is able to escape the burning wreckage and was reported in stable condition at the base hospital.

2007 – Four United States Air Force officers are relieved of command following an investigation of an incident where live nuclear warheads were carried on a B-52 bomber from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.


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## mhansen2

20 October

1786 – Harvard University organized the 1st astronomical expedition in US.

1803 – The US Senate voted to ratify Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase.

1818 – The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settles the Canada–United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.

1820 – Spain sold a part of Florida to US for $5 million.

1824 – U.S. Schooner Porpoise captures four pirate ships off Cuba.

1863 - The blockade-runner “Mars” ran aground on the northern coast of North Carolina.

1903 – The Joint Commission, set up on January 24 by Great Britain and the United States to arbitrate the disputed Alaskan boundary, ruled in favor of the United States. The deciding vote was Britain’s, which embittered Canada. The United States gained ports on the panhandle coast of Alaska.

1939 – The German government warns that neutral merchant ships joining Allied convoys will be sunk without warning.

1942 – The United States Congress passes the largest tax bill in the country’s history. It will raise $6,881,000,000 in tax revenue.

1944 - Lockheed YP-80A-LO Shooting Star, 44-83025, c/n 080-1004, crashes at Burbank, California, coming down one mile W of the Lockheed terminal, after main fuel pump failure, killing Lockheed test pilot Milo Burcham.

1947 – The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) of the U.S. Congress opens its investigation into communist infiltration of the American movie industry.

1947 – The Soviet Union conducted a second launch of its captured V-2 rockets.  The vehicle flew the full distance but missed its target by 181 kilometers (112 miles).

1952 – USS Lewis (DE-535) was hit by shore fire off the West Coast of Korea. Seven sailors were killed and one wounded.

1953 - Northrop YF-89D Scorpion, 49-2463, crashes at Edwards AFB, California, killing Northrop test pilot Walter P. Jones and Northrop radar operator Jack Collingsworth.

1960 – Test pilot Forest Peterson flew the X-15 to 16,398 meters (53,801 feet) and Mach 1.94.

1973 – Arab oil-producing nations banned oil exports to the United States, following the outbreak of Arab-Israeli war.

1973 – “Saturday Night Massacre”: United States President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.

1978 – USCG Cuyahoga (WIX-157) sank after colliding with MV Santa Cruz II near the mouth of the Potomac River, killing 11 crewmen.  She was raised on 29 October, then sunk off the coast of Virginia as an artificial reef on 26 November.

1988 - USAF LTV A-7D-4-CV Corsair II, 69-6207, of the 4450th Tactical Group, Nellis AFB, Nevada, loses all power 15 miles S of Indianapolis, Indiana, at 31,000 feet while en-route from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Tinker AFB, Oklahoma. Pilot tries to dead-stick into Indianapolis International Airport but receives poor direction from air traffic controllers and crashes at ~0915 hrs. during late turn after aiming aircraft at a baseball field but fighter veers, striking bank branch roof and hitting center of Ramada Inn across the street, killing nine employees, injuring five others (one of whom died later as a result of the injuries sustained). Pilot Maj. Bruce L. Teagarden, 35, ejected, suffering bruises and muscle strain. He lands in parking lot of Ace Supply Company, four blocks from the hotel. Air Force pays out $50,427 in property claims damages, according to The New York Times on 26 October. This A-7D was part of the unit then secretly operating Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk stealth aircraft but this was successfully kept out of the media for several years.


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## mhansen2

21 October

1774 - First display of the word “Liberty” on a flag, raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts in defiance of British rule in Colonial America. The Sons of Liberty were in the habit of meeting under a large tree (most village greens had one), which was called the “Liberty Tree”.

1797 - The 44-gun 204-foot U.S. Navy frigate USS Constitution, also known as Old Ironsides, was launched in Boston’s harbor. It was never defeated in 42 battles. 216 crew members set sail again in 1997 for its 200th birthday.

1837 – Under a flag of truce during peace talks, U.S. troops sieged the Indian Seminole Chief Osceola in Florida. Osceola, who was sick with malaria, knew the Indians could fight no more. He went to the General’s fort at St. Augustine with a white flag. When Osceola went to General Jesup the General had his men surround Osceola. They threw the white flag to the ground and put chains on his hands and feet. The Seminoles were so angry with Osceola’s capture that they continued to fight for the next five years.

1862 – “Pilot” was a Confederate schooner that was captured and burned by steamer gunboat USS E. B. Hale of the coast of Florida.

1864 – “Emma L. Hall” was a Union bark of 492 tons. While carrying a cargo of sugar and molasses from Cardenas, Cuba to New York City, she was captured and burned by blockade runner CSS Chickamauga within 50 miles of New York City.

1867 – Many leaders of the Kiowa, Comanche and Kiowa-Apache signed peace treaties at Medicine Lodge, Kan. Comanche Chief Quanah Parker refused to accept the treaty terms. The Medicine Lodge Treaty is the overall name for three treaties signed between the United States government and southern Plains Indian tribes, intended to bring peace to the area by relocating the Native Americans to reservations in Indian Territory and away from European-American settlement.

1916 – US Army formed Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC).

1918 - Burgess-built Hispano-Suiza-powered Curtiss N-9, A2468, is written off ("crashed to complete wreck") in Pensacola Bay, Florida, but with no injuries.

1942 - Boeing B-17D Flying Fortress, 40-3089, of the 5th Bomb Group/11th Bombardment Group Heavy (H), with Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, America's top-scoring World War I ace (26 kills), aboard on a secret mission, is lost at sea in the central Pacific Ocean when the bomber goes off-course. After 24 days afloat, Rickenbackker and surviving crew are rescued by the U.S. Navy after having been given up for lost and discovered by a Vought-Sikorsky OS2U Kingfisher crew.

1943 - USS Murphy (DD-603) is cut in two when she is accidentally rammed by U.S. tanker Bulkoil, 265 miles east-southeast of Ambrose Lightship, New York. Murphy's forward section sinks.

1947 – First flight of the Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing.

1958 – Former USS Chittenden County (LST-561) was sunk as a target off Diamond Head, Oahu, Hawaii by USS Sargo (SSN-583).

1959 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA. By the late 1960s their rockets were taking men to the moon.

1961 - Vought F8U-1 Crusader, BuNo 145357, of VF-11, arrestor hook and right landing gear broke during heavy landing on USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42), with aircraft catching alight and going over port side. A series of nine photographs taken by Photographer's Mate L.J. Cera showed the crash sequence with pilot Lt. J.G Kryway ejecting in Martin-Baker Mk. F-5 seat just as the fighter leaves the deck. These images were widely distributed in the Navy to assure pilots that the seat could save them. Kryway escapes with minor injuries, being picked up by helicopter ten minutes later. Joe Baugher notes that date of 21 August 1961 has also been reported.

1967 - During a Laughlin AFB, Texas, airshow, USAF Thunderbirds No. 6, a North American F-100D-20-NA Super Sabre, 55-3520, piloted by Capt. Merrill A. "Tony" McPeak, crashes, but he succeeds in ejecting as the plane broke up. As McPeak pulls up to begin a series of vertical rolls, the wing center box fails at ~6.5 Gs, and the engine catches fire as the center fuel tank ruptures, dumping fuel into the engine bay. Pilot ejects and lands near to the crowd. This crash limited flying on all USAF Super Sabres to 4G. This was the first Thunderbird crash during a performance.

1970 - A US Air Force U-8 was lost over the USSR (Armenia). The crew of 4 were all rescued.

1972 – US Sec. of State Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam reached a cease-fire agreement. It was signed Jan 27, 1973.

1983 – The United States sent a ten-ship task force to Grenada, one of the smallest independent nations in the Western Hemisphere and one of the southernmost Caribbean islands in the Windward chain.

1994 – United States and North Korea signed an agreement requiring the communist nation to halt its nuclear program and agree to inspections.


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## mhansen2

23 October

4004 BC– According to 17th century divine James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, and Dr. John Lightfoot of Cambridge, the world was created on this day, a Sunday, at 9 a.m. (Is that GMT?)

1775 – Continental Congress approved a resolution barring blacks from army.

1783 – Virginia emancipated slaves who fought for independence during the Revolutionary War.

1861 – President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C. for all military-related cases.

1862 – “Lafayette” was a Union bark of 945 tons carrying a cargo of corn, wheat, pipe staves and lard and was on route from New York City for Belfast, Ireland when she was captured and burned by screw sloop-of-war CSS Alabama.

1918 – President Wilson felt satisfied that the Germans were accepting his armistice terms and agreed to transmit their request for an armistice to the Allies. The Germans had agreed to suspend submarine warfare, cease inhumane practices such as the use of poison gas, and withdraw troops back into Germany.

1921 – Four unknown soldiers from the cemeteries of Asine-Marne, Meuse-Argonne, Somme, and St. Mihiel were brought to the Hotel de Ville in France for final selection to commemorate the sacrifice of the 77,000 American servicemen who died during World War I. the US military selected bodies of unknown soldiers who died in France. One was chosen to be brought to Arlington National Cemetery. The chosen soldier would represent just one of many who would never be identified. The military service record describes the selection of the first unknown soldier out of a group of four: “The original records showing the internment of these bodies were searched and the four bodies selected represented the remains of soldiers of which there was absolutely no indication as to name, rank, organization or date of death.”

1939 – North of Murmansk, a German prize crew steers the US ship City of Flint into Kola Bay. The steamer was seized as contraband by a German cruiser. SS City of Flint, a freighter of the United States Merchant Marine, was the first American ship captured by the Germans during World War II. Under the command of Captain Joseph H. Gainard, City of Flint first became involved in the war when she rescued 200 survivors of the torpedoed British passenger liner SS Athenia in early September 1939. On October 9, City of Flint was carrying 4000 tons of lubricating oil from New York to Great Britain. (Panzerschiff) Deutschland seized her some 1200 miles out from New York, declaring her cargo to be contraband and the ship a prize of war. A German prize crew painted out all US insignia and hoisted the German ensign.

1942 - Mid-air collision at 9,000 feet (2,700 m) altitude between American Airlines Douglas DC-3, NC16017, "Flagship Connecticut", flying out of Lockheed Air Terminal (now Burbank Airport) en route to Phoenix, Arizona and New York City, and USAAF Lockheed B-34 Ventura II bomber, 41-38116, on a ferry flight from Long Beach Army Air Base to Palm Springs Army Air Field. Pilot of B-34, Lt. William N. Wilson and copilot Staff Sergeant Robert Leicht, were able to make emergency landing at Palm Springs, but DC-3, carrying nine passengers and a crew of three, its tail splintered and its rudder shorn off by B-34's right engine, went into a flat spin, clipped a rocky ledge in Chino Canyon, California below San Jacinto Peak, and exploded in desert, killing all on board. Among the passengers killed was Academy Award-winning Hollywood composer Ralph Rainger, 41, who had written or collaborated on such hit songs as "Louise", "Love in Bloom" (comedian Jack Benny's theme song), "Faithful Forever", "June in January", "Blue Hawaii" and "Thanks for the Memory", which entertainer Bob Hope adopted as his signature song. Initial report by Ventura crew was that they had lost sight of the airliner due to smoke from a forest fire, but closed-door Congressional investigation revealed that bomber pilot knew the first officer on the DC-3, Louis Frederick Reppert, and had attempted to wave to him in mid-air rendezvous. However, Wilson misjudged the distance between the two aircraft and triggered the fatal collision when, in pulling his B-34 up and away from the DC-3, its right propeller sliced through the airliner's tail. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) placed the blame directly on the "reckless and irresponsible conduct of Lieutenant William N. Wilson in deliberately maneuvering a bomber in dangerous proximity to an airliner in an unjustifiable attempt to attract the attention of the first officer (copilot) of the latter plane." Lt. Wilson subsequently faced manslaughter charges by the U.S. Army but about a month after the accident a court martial trial board acquitted him of blame. In a separate legal development, a lawsuit seeking $227,637 was filed against American Airlines on behalf of crash victim Ralph Rainger's wife, Elizabeth, who was left widowed with three small children. In June 1943 a jury awarded her $77,637. The Ventura, repaired, and eventually modified to a RB-34A-4 target-tug, would crash at Wolf Hill near Smithfield, Rhode Island after engine failure on 5 August 1943, killing all three crew.

1944 – In the Philippines the Battle of Leyte Gulf began.

1946 – The United Nations General Assembly convened in New York for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing Meadow.

1950 – Communist troops massacred 68 American POWs in the Sunchon tunnel. A 1st Cavalry Division force under the command of Brigadier General Frank A. Allen rescued 21 survivors.

1954 – In Paris, an agreement was signed providing for West German sovereignty and permitting West Germany to rearm and enter NATO and the Western European Union. Britain, England, France and USSR agreed to end occupation of Germany.

1962 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 40,996 meters (134,508 feet) and Mach 5.47.

1962 - A U.S. Air Force Boeing C-135B Stratolifter, AF Ser. No. 62-4136, of the Military Air Transport Service, delivering a load of ammunition from McGuire AFB, New Jersey, to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of the military response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, stalls and crashes short of the runway, killing all seven crew. This was the first cargo C-135 hull loss.

1983 – A truck filled with explosives, driven by a Moslem suicide terrorist, crashed into the U.S. Marine barracks near the Beirut International Airport in Lebanon. The bomb killed 241 Marines and sailors and injured 80. Almost simultaneously, a similar incident occurred at French military headquarters, where 58 died and 15 were injured.

1983 – Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada, West Indies) begins. The State Department sent Ambassador Francis J. McNeill to meet with representatives of the OECS, Jamaica, and Barbados in Bridgetown, Barbados, and assess their countries’ willingness to join peacekeeping operations. Admiral McDonald flew to Washington late in the evening to brief the JCS on the plan. Titled “Evacuation of US Citizens from Grenada,” it reflected the missions added to the estimate: restoration of a democratic government in concert with the OECS, Jamaica, and Barbados; logistical support for US allies; and deterrence of Cuban intervention.

1992 – President Bush announced that Vietnam had agreed to turn over all materials in its possession related to U.S. personnel in the Vietnam War.


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## mhansen2

24 October

1861 – West Virginia seceded from Virginia. Residents of thirty-nine counties in western Virginia approved the formation of a new Unionist state. The accuracy of these election results have been questioned, since Union troops were stationed at many of the polls to prevent Confederate sympathizers from voting.

1915 – The Marine Corps Recruit Depot was moved from Norfolk and established at Parris Island, South Carolina.

1929 – Black Thursday—the first day of the stock market crash which began the Great Depression. Dow Jones was down 12.8%. Stock values collapsed and 13 million shares changed hands as small investors frantically tried to sell off their holdings, a new record; 4 million was the average of the day.

1932 - "PENSACOLA, Fla., - Lieut. John Wehle, marine corps student flier and son-in-law of Major-Gen. Smedley D. Butler, joined the 'caterpillar club' today by leaping safely in a parachute after his airplane went out of control. Wehle, who was practicing barrel rolling when he lost control, landed in a bayou. The plane crashed on the edge of Pensacola bay [sic]."

1943 - Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, of VB-8, coded '8-B-24', suffers major damage in a barrier crash aboard USS Intrepid (CV-11) during shakedown cruise in the Caribbean, engine breaking loose from mounts and dropping down towards the deck adjacent to the island.

1944 - Crew of U.S. Navy Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer, BuNo 59394, of VPB-106, out of NAAS Camp Kearney, California, on a long-range training mission, becomes lost in bad weather, runs out of fuel, and ditches in the Gulf of California, eleven crew, two female Marines, and the squadron canine mascot all evacuating the bomber as it rapidly sinks.
"SAN DIEGO, Oct. 30 (AP) - How two women marines and 11 crew members of a Navy Liberator bomber which crashed at sea existed for four days in Robinson Crusoe style on a deserted island near the eastern coast of Baja California before being rescued by Mexican fishermen was disclosed today by the Navy. The bomber sank almost immediately after making a crash landing late Tuesday night, but the crew was able to salvage a small six-man life raft. So crowded was the raft that some of the men were forced to swim to give more room for the two women - Pfc. Helen L. Breckel, 21, Cincinnati, and Pfc. Edna H. Shaughnessy, 28, Manchester, N. H. The party existed on clams and raw fish while on the island, 330 miles southeast of here. A fishing boat sighted them Saturday and took them to Bahia de Los Angeles and a Coast Guard plane returned them here yesterday."

1944 – Navy “Ace of Aces” Commander David McCampbell (1910-1996) shoots down nine Japanese planes and his wingman Ensign Roy Rushing shoots down another seven.

1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space. Launched from the White Sands Missile Range in White Sands, New Mexico, the rocket reached a maximum altitude of 107.5 miles (173 km), well above the commonly accepted boundary of space at 100 kilometres.
The first photograph of Earth taken from space | Cosmos

1951 – Dr. Albert W. Bellamy, chief of Radiological Services for the California State Civil Defense, held a press conference to assure state residents that there would be no ill effects from the atomic test explosions near Las Vegas.

1951 – The largest air battle of the Korean War occurs at 150 MiGs attack a formation of B-29s escorted by 55 F-84 Thunderjets. Four of the bombers were destroyed and three others seriously damaged and one F-84 was lost. Eight MiGs were destroyed (an additional two probably destroyed) and 10 others heavily damaged.

1955 - Eleventh of 13 North American X-10s, GM-52-4, c/n 11, on Navaho X-10 flight number 17, out of Cape Canaveral, Florida, an engine problem results in a mission abort. After auto-landing, the nose wheel develops a shimmy, the vehicle runs off the skid strip, catches fire, and is destroyed.

1956 - Midair collision involving USAF T-33A and civil Cessna 170 occurred over Midland, Tx. Seven fatalities. Accident occurred over a Southwest Midland neighborhood, one house burned, seven others damaged. No fatalities or injuries on ground. Dead included 2 USAF aircrew, 5 civilian- all from 1 family. One aircrewman ejected from the USAF trainer, based out of Webb AFB, Texas, but his parachute failed to open.

1957 – The USAF starts the X-20 Dyna-Soar program to develop a spaceplane that could be used for a variety of military missions, including reconnaissance, bombing, space rescue, satellite maintenance, and sabotage of enemy satellites. The program ran to 10 December 1963, cost US$660 million ($5.08 billion today), and was cancelled just after spacecraft construction had begun.

1962 – Former USS Amesbury (DE-66) was being towed by Alexander Marine Salvage off Key West to be sunk as an artificial reef when she grounded. Before she could be refloated a storm broke up her hull. Locally known as Alexander’s Wreck.

1962 – The U.S. blockade of Cuba during the missile crisis officially began under a proclamation signed by President Kennedy. Atlantic Fleet begins quarantine operations to force Soviet Union to agree to remove ballistic missiles and long-range bombers from Cuba.

1968 – Test pilot Bill Dana flew the X-15 on its 199th and last mission to 77,742 meters (255,012 feet) and Mach 5.38.

1972 – Henry Kissinger in secret unauthorized talks in Paris proposed to end the war in Vietnam by this date, but was urged by Pres. Nixon to stretch the timing a few months so as to insure re-election in Nov. The peace agreement allowed North Vietnam to keep its army in the South.

1988 – The crew of USS Vincennes (CG-49) received an emotional homecoming in San Diego, nearly four months after the cruiser downed an Iranian jetliner in the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.

1994 - US Navy Grumman F-14A Tomcat, BuNo 160390, 'NH 103', of VF-213, crashed on approach to the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), operating 40 miles (65 km.) off the Southern California coast, killing Lt. Kara Hultgreen, the first female Tomcat-qualified pilot in the Navy. The RIO, Lieutenant Matthew Klemish, initiated ejection as it became apparent that the flight envelope was being exceeded, his seat firing first. He was rescued. Due to low-speed rolling turn, the ejections were on the edge of the seat capabilities, and Hultgreen's, firing 0.4 seconds later, did not have time to fully sequence as the airframe had rolled past 90 degrees and she was ejected downward into the water, killing her instantly. Her body was recovered by a Navy salvage team on 12 November, still strapped into her seat, less than 100 yards (90 m.) from her F-14 on the seabed. The aircraft involved was used to shoot down a Libyan Air Force Su-22 Fitter during the 1981 Gulf of Sidra incident.


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## mhansen2

25 October

1812 – U.S. frigate United States captured British vessel Macedonian during the War of 1812.

1825 – Erie Canal opened, linking Great Lakes and Atlantic Ocean.

1923 – The Teapot Dome scandal came to public attention as Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana, subcommittee chairman, revealed the findings of the past 18 months of investigation. His case would result in the conviction of Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil, and later Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall, the first cabinet member in American history to go to jail. The scandal, named for the Teapot Dome oil reserves in Wyoming, involved Fall secretly leasing naval oil reserve lands to private companies.

1924 – Airship, USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), completes round trip transcontinental cruise that began on 7 October.

1936 - Major Charles H. Howard, winner of the 1932 Mackay Trophy, and Sgt. Edward Gibson are killed in the crash of their Martin B-10B, 34–83, just outside Bryans Mill, Texas.

1943 - Four Consolidated B-24H Liberators of the 724th Bomb Squadron (Heavy), 451st Bomb Group (Heavy), from Fairmont Army Air Field, Nebraska, were flying in a diamond formation. At ~1600 hrs. CWT, one bomber broke formation and the pilot of a second, as trained, moved toward the vacated position. When the first bomber returned to its position, the two planes collided. At an altitude of 20,000 feet, this was the highest fatal World War II training accident in Nebraska. One bomber crashed in the adjoining farm fields of Frank Hromadka Sr. and Anna Matejka, 2 miles N and ½ mile E of Milligan, Nebraska. The other crashed in the farmyard of Mike and Fred Stech, 3 miles N and 2 miles E of Milligan. Killed were 2d Lt. James H. Williams, 2d Lt. William E. Herzog, 2d Lt. Kenneth S. Ordway, 2d Lt. Charles L. Brown, 2d Lt. Clyde H. Frye, Sgt. James H. Bobbitt, Sgt. William D. Watkins, Sgt. William G. Williams, Sgt. Wilbur H. Chamberlin, Sgt. Edward O. Boucher, Sgt. Ursulo Galindo Jr., Sgt. William C. Wilson, Sgt. Albert R. Mogavero, Sgt. Arthur O. Doria, Sgt. Eugene A. Hubbell, F/O Achille P. Augelli, and Pfc. Andrew G. Bivona. All eight crew died aboard B-24H-1-FO, 42-7657, piloted by 2d Lt. Brown, while the sole survivor of ten on B-24H-1-FO, 42-7673, flown by 2d Lt. Williams, was 2d Lt. Melvin Klein, who was thrown free of the wreckage and managed to deploy his parachute. A Nebraska historical marker was erected about the accident in 2010 by the Milligan Memorial Committee for the World War II Fatal Air Crashes near Milligan, Nebraska.

1944 – USS Tang (SS-306) under Richard O’Kane (the top American submarine captain of World War II) is sunk by the ship’s own malfunctioning torpedo. Some sources say 24 October.

1950 – U.N. forces approached to within 34 miles of the Yalu River, the Chinese Manchurian border, as the Chinese Communist Forces launched their First Phase Offensive around this date. UNC intelligence agencies remained ignorant of Chinese intentions and the extent of their commitment to intervening in the war.

1955 – Test pilot Frank Everest flew the X-2 on what was to be its first powered flight.  A nitrogen leak developed and the mission was completed as a glide flight.

1955 - Boeing WB-29A-35-BN Superfortress, 44-61600, c/n 11077, of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, out of RAF Burtonwood, experiences multiple problems including failed fuel feed pump, head winds, while returning from "Falcon" mission to polar region; pilot orders bail out of crew shortly before midnight as fuel exhaustion becomes critical, all eleven survive, with only one minor injury. Aircraft comes down near Kirkby Lonsdale, Lancashire, England, burns, only rear fuselage and tail remaining intact.

1956 - First (of two) Bell XV-3s, 54–147, first flown 11 August 1955, crashes this date when pilot Dick Stansbury blacks out due to extremely high cockpit vibrations when the rotor shafts are moved 17 degrees forward from vertical. Pilot is seriously injured and airframe is damaged beyond repair. Cause was dynamic instability, also known as air resonance. Design was initially designated XH-33.

1962 – U.S. ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson presented photographic evidence of Soviet missile bases in Cuba to the U.N. Security Council.

1969 - Two United States Air Force Academy faculty members are killed when their Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star crashes and burned in a meadow near the main runway while landing at Peterson Field, Colorado. Pilot was Maj. Donald J. Usry, 32, of the academy faculty, and back-seater was Capt. Martin Bezyack, of the academy's athletic department.

1976 - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7965, Article 2016, lost near Lovelock, Nevada during night training sortie following INS platform failure. Pilot St. Martin and RSO Carnochan eject safely.

1982 – Former USS Savage (DE-386) was sunk as a target off the California coast.

1985 – CGC Polar Sea arrived home to Seattle after a voyage through the Northwest Passage by way of the Panama Canal, the east coast, and then Greenland, sparking an international incident with Canada by navigating the Northwest Passage from Greenland to Alaska without authorization from the Canadian government. She completed the first solo circumnavigation of the North American continent by a U.S. vessel and the first trip by a Polar-Class icebreaker. She also captured the record for the fastest transit of the historic northern route. She had departed Seattle to begin the voyage on 6 June 1985.

2002 – Two F-16s collide over Utah.
F-16C Block 40E, 89-2006, “Destroyed in a mid-air collision with F-16C (#89-2111). Capt. David Rosmann, ejected safely. The mishap was caused by the failure of both pilots to properly deconflict their flight paths during a tactical turn. Other contributing factors included: loss of situational awareness, misinterpretation of closure and visual cues, task misprioritization and channelization, and expectancy.”

F-16C Block 40G, 89-2111, “Destroyed in a mid-air collision with F-16C (89-2006). First Lieutenant, Jorma D. Huhtala, was killed in the mid-air. The mishap was caused by the failure of both pilots to properly deconflict their flight paths during a tactical turn. Other contributing factors included: loss of situational awareness, misinterpretation of closure and visual cues, task misprioritization and channelization, and expectancy."

2011 – The last of the United States’ nine-megaton B53 warheads, formerly the most powerful nuclear weapons in the country’s nuclear arsenal, is disassembled near Amarillo, Texas, having been in service since 1962.


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## mhansen2

26 October

1775 – King George III of Great Britain went before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion and authorized a military response to quell the American Revolution.

1776 – Benjamin Franklin departs from America for France on a mission to seek French support for the American Revolution.

1795 – Pinckney’s Treaty (Treaty of San Lorenzo) between Spain and US was signed. Spain recognized U.S. borders at the Mississippi and the 31st parallel (the northern border of Florida, a Spanish possession) and granted Americans the right to deposit goods for transshipment at New Orleans.

1861 – The Pony Express ended after 18 months of operation. Financially, the owners spent $700,000 on the Pony Express and had a $200,000 deficit. The company failed to get the million dollar government contract because of political pressures and the outbreak of the Civil War. Improved communication between east and west. Proved the central route could be traveled all winter. Supported the central route for the transcontinental railroad. Kept communication open to California at the beginning of the Civil War. Provided the fastest communication between east and west until the telegraph. Captured the hearts and the imagination of people all over the world.

1862 – “Crenshaw” was a Union schooner of 279 tons carrying a cargo of grain from New York City for Glasgow. She was captured and burned by sloop-of-war CSS Alabama.

1864 – “Kenosha” was a Union screw steamer of 645 tons built in 1856 at Cleveland, Ohio. She was burned at Sarnia, Ontario.

1864 – “Sophie McLane” (Sophie McLean) was a Union side wheel paddle steamer built in 1858 or 1859 at San Francisco. At Suisan Bay Wharf the boiler expoded leaving 13 dead. The vessel was later salvaged.

1921 – In first successful test, a compressed air, turntable catapult, launches an N-9 seaplane. This type of catapult was later installed on battleships, replacing turret-mounted platforms for launching aircraft.

1922 – LCDR Godfrey deC. Chevalier makes first landing aboard a carrier (USS Langley) while underway off Cape Henry, Virginia.

1940 – The P-51 Mustang makes its maiden flight.

1944 - WASP pilot Gertrude Tompkins Silver of the 601st Ferrying Squadron, 5th Ferrying Group, Love Field, Dallas, Texas, departs Mines Field, Los Angeles, California, in North American P-51D-15-NA Mustang, 44-15669, at 1600 hrs PWT, headed for the East Coast. She took off into the wind, into an offshore fog bank, and was expected that night at Palm Springs. She never arrived. Due to a paperwork foul-up, a search did not get under way for several days, and while the eventual search of land and sea was massive, it failed to find a trace of Silver or her plane. She is the only missing WASP pilot.

1952 - Boeing WB-29 Superfortress, 44-69770, "Typhoon Goon II", (built as B-29-60-BW), of the 54th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, Guam, is lost during a low-level penetration of Typhoon Wilma, a Category 5 storm, ~300 miles E of Leyte, Philippines, 10 crew killed. Lost are: Maj. Sterling L. Harrell, Capt. Donald M. Baird, Capt. Frank J. Pollack, 1st Lt. William D. Burchell, 1st Lt. Clifton R. Knickmeyer, M/Sgt. Edward H. Fontaine, A1C. Alton B. Brewton, A1C. William Colgan, A1C. Anthony J. Fasullo, and A3C. Rodney E. Verrill. No wreckage is found.

1953 - A Douglas B-26 Invader target-towing plane on a gunnery training mission crashes at Indian Springs AFB, Nevada, killing the pilot and two crewmen. The Invader was based at Nellis AFB, Nevada. The victim’s names were withheld pending notification of next of kin.

1956 - A USAF Fairchild C-119G-FA Flying Boxcar, 51-8026A, c/n 10769, of the 61st Troop Carrier Squadron, 314th Troop Carrier Wing, Tactical Air Command, Sewart Air Force Base, Tennessee, on a cargo airlift mission to Olmsted Air Force Base, Pennsylvania, crashes 7 miles N of Newport, Perry County, Pennsylvania at ~1515 hrs. ET, killing four crew. The weather at Olmsted was fluctuating rapidly with rain and fog, and at 1400 hrs. the pilot reported a missed approach to the field. After being cleared to altitude over the Lancaster beacon the conditions at Olmsted improved to above minimums and the pilot requested another approach. At 1506 ET, he was cleared for a straight-in approach from New Kingston Fan Marker to Olmsted. At 1509 he reported leaving the New Kingston Fan Marker inbound and at 1511 he reported leaving 3,000 feet. The aircraft crashed in mountainous terrain 22.5 nm W of the Kingston Fan Marker. KWF are 1st Lt. Robert Siegfried Hantsch, pilot, Walter Beverly Gordon, Jr., co-pilot, T/Sgt. Marvin W. Seigler, engineer, and 1st Lt. Gracye E. Young, of the 4457th USAF Hospital, Sewart AFB. The Perry County Times reported that the aircraft struck the side of the mountain in Toboyne Township in the Three Square Hollow of the Tuscarora State Forest, "one of the most desolate in Central Pennsylvania." Some 150 rescuers had to battle heavy underbrush as well as fog and rain to get to the crash site and did not reach the scene until about 2100 hrs. In 2006, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources erected a plaque near the site in memory of those killed.

1958 - North American F-86L Sabre, 53-0569, of the 330th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, Stewart AFB, New York, crashes W of that base while on approach in a snow storm, killing pilot Lt. Gary W. Crane.

1962 – At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, second-in-command Vasilli Arkhipov of the Soviet submarine B-59 refused to agree with his Captain’s order to launch nuclear torpedos against US warships and setting off what might well have been a terminal superpower nuclear war.  The US had been dropping depth charges near the submarine in an attempt to force it to surface, unaware it was carrying nuclear arms. The Soviet officers, who had lost radio contact with Moscow, concluded that World War 3 had begun, and 2 of the officers agreed to ‘blast the warships out of the water’. Arkhipov refused to agree – unanimous consent of 3 officers was required – and thanks to him, we are here to talk about it.

1966 – A fire in a flare locker in Hangar Bay One of USS Oriskany (CVA-34) beginning at 0728 hrs. spreads through the hangar deck and to the flight deck. Before the fires are extinguished two Kaman SH-2 Seasprite helicopters are lost, Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, BuNo 151075, is destroyed, and three others are damaged, as are Hangar Bays One and Two, the forward officer quarters and catapults, and 44 crew are killed.

1978 - A USAF LTV A-7D Corsair II, 69-6240, of the 355th TFW, on a flight from Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, crashes on approach to its home station, Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, coming down on Highland Avenue between a University of Arizona athletic practice field and Mansfield Junior High School in Tucson. Two University of Arizona students, Leticia Felix Humphrey, 21, a business education major, and her sister, Clarissa Felix, 20, majoring in early education, were driving down Highland in Leticia's car when the plane hit and engulfed it in flames. Leticia died there at the scene of the crash and Clarissa died shortly after. At least five other civilians were less seriously injured. The pilot, Capt. Frederick Ashler, 28, ejected safely after aiming his jet at the practice field. His ejection resulted in the plane veering tragically to the right and striking the road and car.

2016 - USMC F/A-18C crashed near 29 Palms. The pilot ejects and survives.


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## mhansen2

27 October

1682 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is founded.

1838 – Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be exterminated.

1864 – LT William Cushing, USN, sinks Confederate ram Albemarle with a spar torpedo attached to the bow of his launch.

1873 – Farmer Joseph F. Glidden applied for a patent on barbed wire.

1922 – Navy League of U.S. sponsors first annual celebration of Navy Day to focus public attention on the importance of the U.S. Navy. That date was selected because it was Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday.

1930 – Ratifications exchanged in London for the first London Naval Treaty, signed in April modifying the 1925 Washington Naval Treaty and the arms limitation treaty’s modified provisions, go into effect immediately, further limiting the expensive naval arms race among its five signatories.

1932 - "SAN DIEGO, Oct. 27 - A stirring and unique air drama was played out in an impenetrable fog here tonight after 22 navy airplanes had been stranded with dwindling gasoline supplies in the sky, and at its conclusion every aviator involved was safe. As a result of the long series of emergencies which developed as the fuel ran dangerously low in the planes, one at a time, one plane was demolished, another was badly damaged, one caught fire and several others turned over and were slightly damaged. At 8 o'clock only two planes remained aloft, and they circled aimlessly about over the city watching for a break in the fog. They carried no radios and could not be told that the navy's call upon the citizens of San Diego for assistance had sent scores of motorists rushing to Camp Kearny mesa to light up with the headlights of their cars an unused airport there. The United Airlines night mail plane, piloted by C. F. Sullivan, was en route from Los Angeles to San Diego. It carried a radio-telephone. At the request of the navy, Sullivan was asked to fly around above the fog, locate the two planes and lead them to Camp Kearny. He circled the town several times, picked up the first one and then the other of the planes and by flashing three dots and a dash with his cabin light informed them they were to follow him. The three in this strange cavalcade reached the abandoned army camp and landed there in safety amidst cheers of several hundreds of persons."

1943 – First women Marines report for duty at Camp Pendleton, California.

1950 - North American AJ-1 Savage, BuNo 124163, of VC-5, fails to climb out on launch from the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42) and goes into the water directly off the bow, reportedly off Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Plane Commander was LCDR Dave Purdon, the B/N was LTJG Ed Decker, and the Third Crewman was Chief Edward R. Barrett. Only Decker escapes from the wreckage with minor injuries to be rescued by the plane guard helicopter. Cause was possibly accidental engagement of the flight control gust locks.

1954 – Pres. Eisenhower offered aid to S. Vietnam Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem.

1959 - Convair YB-58 Hustler, 55-0669, crashes 7 miles (11 km) W of Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Convair pilot Everett L. Wheeler, and Convair flight engineer Michael F. Keller survive; Convair flight engineer Harry N. Blosser killed. Accident cause was loss of control during normal flight.

1962 – Negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union finally result in a plan to end the two-week-old Cuban Missile Crisis.

1962 – Major Rudolf Anderson, a Greenville, South Carolina native and 1948 graduate from Clemson University's cadet corps and pilot with the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing is tasked with an overflight of Cuba on mission 3128, in a CIA Lockheed U-2F spyplane, remarked with U.S. Air Force insignia, to take photos of the Soviet SS-N-4 medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) and SS-N-5 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBMs) build-ups. Anderson had first qualified on the U-2 type on 3 September 1957. This would be his sixth Cuban overflight. He departed McCoy AFB, Florida at 0909 hrs ET. Contrary to Moscow orders to not engage reconnaissance flights, a single Soviet-manned SA-2 missile battery at Banes fired at Anderson's high-flying U-2F, AF Ser. No. 56-6676, (Article 343), at 1021 hrs, Havana time (1121 hrs. ET). Although not a direct hit, several pieces of shrapnel punctured the canopy and the pilot's partial pressure suit and helmet, resulting in Anderson's immediate death. A censored Central Intelligence Agency document dated 28 October 1962, 0200 hours, states "The loss of the U-2 over Banes was probably caused by intercept by an SA-2 from the Banes site, or pilot hypoxia, with the former appearing more likely on the basis of present information." Actually, it was both.

1962 - A U.S. Air Force Boeing RB-47H Stratojet, AF Ser No. 53-6248, of the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, experienced loss of thrust and crashed at Kindley AFB, Bermuda, killing all four crew: aircraft commander Major William A. Britton, copilot 1st Lieutenant Holt J. Rasmussen, navigator Captain Robert A. Constable, and observer Captain Robert C. Dennis. Cause was contaminated water-alcohol. This aircraft had spotted the Soviet freighter Grozny with missiles bound for Cuba on its deck on 26 September.

1965 – Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 72,207 meters (236,911 feet) and Mach 5.06.

1970 – Former USS Parle (DE-708) was sunk as a target off Florida.

1976 - General Dynamics F-111E, 67-0116, c/n A1-161 / E-2, of the 3246th Test Wing, Armament Development and Test Center, one of two assigned to the base, crashed at Eglin AFB, Florida, upon return from a test mission. Crew, pilot Capt. Douglas A. Joyce, and Capt. Richard Mullane, deployed crew escape module safely and were uninjured.


1988 – President Reagan decides to tear down the new U.S. Embassy in Moscow because of Soviet listening devices in the building structure.

1999 – Former USS Mesopelea (ATF-158) was an Abnaki Class Fleet Ocean Tug, sunk as a target 250nm East of Norfolk, Virginia.


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## mhansen2

28 October

1492 – Christopher Columbus discovered Cuba on his first voyage to the New World.

1824 - Schooner USS Wildcat lost with all hands in a gale while sailing between Cuba and Thompson´s Island, West Indies. Approximately 31 drowned.

1862 – “Lauraetta” was a Union bark carrying a cargo of 1,424 barrels of flour, pipe staves, 225 kegs of nails and 290 boxes of herrings. She was captured and burned by sloop-of-war CSS Alabama south of Halifax at St. Georges Bank.

1918 - USS Tarantula (SP-124) sank in a collision with the Royal Holland Lloyd Line SS Frisia, eight miles from the Fire Island light vessel. There was no loss of life.

1942 – The Alaska Highway (Alcan Highway) is completed through Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska.

1944 – The first B-29 Superfortress bomber mission flew from the airfields in the Mariana Islands in a strike against the Japanese base at Truk.

1960 – John McKay flew the X-15 to 15,453 meters (50,701 feet) and Mach 2.02.

1985 – The leader of the so-called “Walker family spy ring,” John Walker, pleaded guilty to giving U-S Navy secrets to the Soviet Union.

1999 – Blue Angels pilot Lt. Cmdr. Kieron O'Connor, flying in the front seat of a two-seat Hornet, and recently selected demonstration pilot Lt. Kevin Colling (in the back seat) struck the ground during circle and arrival maneuvers in Valdosta, Georgia. Neither pilot survived.

2007 – USS Porter (DDG-78) opened fire on pirates who had captured a freighter and with other vessels blockaded a port the pirates attempted to take refuge in.


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## mhansen2

29 October

1814 – Launching of the first American steam powered warship, at New York City. The ship was designed by Robert Fulton. While never formally named, Fulton referred to it as Demologos.

1862 - The American wooden bark Alleghanian (Alleghany), on voyage from Baltimore to London with guano, was captured by Confederates and set on fire, 5 to 2 miles outside of the mouth of the Rappahannock River in Virginia off Gwun's Island (Gwynn Island?) in 30 fathoms.

1864 – “Mazeppa” was a Union stern-wheel steamer transport of 184 tons, built in 1864 at Cincinnati. While towing two barges with 700 tons of freight, including flour, shoes, blankets, arms, hardtack, clothing, and other goods, Mazeppa was shelled by Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's batteries at Paris Landing, upstream from Fort Heiman, Ky., on the Tennessee River.

The damaged ship was abandoned on the west bank of the river and most of the guns and ammunition were removed and taken away in wagons.

When Union gunboats approached that night, the Mazeppa and the barges were burned, 2 miles above and across from Fort Henry.

1870 - USS Saginaw was a side wheel steamer, the first vessel built at Mare Island naval ship yard and the first warship built on the West Coast.

Her final cruise involved supporting an attempt to develop a coal depot at Midway Island, which had been claimed by the U.S. in 1867. The Saginaw was transporting the team of Boston hardhat divers from Midway back to San Francisco following a six-month effort the clear a channel into the lagoon. She wrecked at Kure Atoll. Survivors spent two months on Ocean (Green) Island, while five volunteers made a perilous open boat voyage to the main Hawaiian Islands for rescue. After a month at sea and their provisions all spoiled, the small crew was virtually incapacitated by the time they reached the main Hawaiian Islands some 1,200 miles to the southeast.

Four died in the rough surf landing on Kauai. The fifth, coxswain William Halford, made his way to Honolulu and the Hawaiian steamer Kilauea soon brought the crew back from the distant atoll.

1910 – In New York City, pilot Alfred Leblanc set a new air speed record in his Bleriot XI of 68.171 MPH (109.756 KPH).

1940 – The first draftees are selected by lottery from the Selective Service registrations. In New York, the first person chosen is Yuen Chong Chan. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson drew the first number.

1953 – At the Salton Sea, California, test pilot Frank Everest flew a F-100A Super Saber to set a world’s air speed record of 755.1 MPH (1,215.3 KPH).

1954 - Boeing RB-47E-30-BW Stratojet, 52–770, of the 90th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing based at Forbes AFB, Kansas, goes out of control at ~10,000 feet and plunges vertically to the ground SW of Olathe, Kansas, killing three of four crew. The pilot, Capt. Norman Palmer, 32, of Rochester, Indiana, ejected and survived, although with injuries. He suffered fractures of the right arm and shoulder after parachuting from low altitude. "A witness, Dr. Jack Flickinger of Baldwin, Kansas, said the burning craft went into a vertical dive at 1,000 to 2,000 feet and plunged straight into the ground." He said that a hole 40 feet deep was blasted on impact with wreckage thrown 500 yards in all directions. Dead were Capt. Hassel O. Green, 32, instructor-pilot, of Newsite, Mississippi; Capt. George H. Miller, 33, co-pilot, of Burbank, California; and Capt. Arthur F. Bouton, Jr., 31, observer, of Little Rock, Arkansas. Lt. Allen Oppegard, Air Information Services officer at the Naval Air Station Olathe, said the pilot told medical personnel from the base that the plane went out of control at about 10,000 feet but that he did not know why. The pilot said he did not recall how he got out of the aircraft.

1956 – Israeli armed forces push into Egypt toward the Suez Canal, initiating the Suez Crisis. They would soon be joined by French and British forces, creating a serious Cold War problem in the Middle East. The catalyst for the joint Israeli-British-French attack on Egypt was the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egyptian leader General Gamal Abdel Nasser in July 1956.

1957 - Boeing KC-97G-27-BO Stratofreighter, 52-2711, c/n 16742, of the 509th Bomb Wing, out of Walker AFB, New Mexico, crashes 35 miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona, while on nine-hour low-level survey flight to determine minimum altitude restrictions for B-47 training routes. Aircraft was seen over Gray Mountain, Arizona, at altitude of 60 feet shortly after 0830 hrs., and then heard striking a cloud shrouded cliff face, killing 16 crew and strewing wreckage for 200 yards along mountainside.

1966 - A burning North American F-86H Sabre fighter of the 174th Tactical Fighter Group, New York Air National Guard, based at Syracuse, New York, crashes into two house trailers in a trailer park next to Route 28, Poland, New York, NE of Utica, critically burning Mrs. Alberta Eaton, a 19-year-old pregnant woman, in one dwelling, who is blown 15 feet from the structure by the impact blast. She is transported to hospital with first and second-degree burns, state police reported. The second trailer was unoccupied at the time of the crash. The Sabre pilot, Capt. William R. Kershlis, Jr., 34, of Ithaca, who ejected safely, landing NE of Poland, telephoned his base at Syracuse to report that he seemed to be alright.

1970 - The crash of U.S. Army Beechcraft U-8F Seminole, 62-3865, c/n LF.63, at Tri-State Airport, Kenova, West Virginia, kills General Edwin H. Burba, two warrant officers, and seriously injures Burba's aide. Burba was en route to Morehead, Kentucky, and Morehead State University, to participate in ceremonies honoring that institution's Army Reserve Officer Training Corps Program and to present the Outstanding Service Civilian Award, the Army's highest civilian award, to his friend and the school's president, Dr. Adron Doran. Traffic controllers at the southwestern West Virginia airport, located near the Ohio and Kentucky borders, said that one of the co-pilots radioed that they had an engine out and were attempting to land on instruments. Moments later the twin-engined aircraft crashed into trees in heavy rain and fog, coming down three-quarters of a mile west of the airport's main runway. Burba, 58, died in the accident as did CW2 Paul R. Burt and CW3 Maynard R. Reisinger. Aide Capt. James B. Bickerton was listed in critical condition in hospital where he was admitted to surgery. "General Burba became deputy commander of the First Army in 1968. He served in Africa and Europe during World War II and was wounded in Tunisia in 1943. He served twice in Korea. His medals include the Silver Star, Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster, Legion of Merit with three oak leaf clusters, and the Purple Heart." Kelly Pool at Fort George Meade, Maryland, was renamed Burba Lake in his honor during a dedication ceremony on Memorial Day, 31 May 1971. Crash cause was determined to be due to a fatal design flaw in the fuel cross-feed system.

1971 - A U.S. Air Force Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star crashes near Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, both crew ejecting before the airframe impacted in a sugar cane field; one seriously injured, one with minor injuries.

1980 - A USAF Lockheed YMC-130H Hercules, 74-1683, c/n 4658, outfitted with experimental JATO rockets for Operation Credible Sport, a planned second attempt to rescue American hostages held by Iran, is destroyed when the rockets misfire during a test landing at Wagner Field, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, USA. All crew members survive, but the rescue operation is deemed excessively risky and is cancelled.

1981 - United States Navy Grumman EA-6B Prowler, BuNo 159582, 'AC-604', of VAQ-138, from NAS Whidbey Island, Washington, crashes at 0850 hrs. in a rural field near Virginia Beach, Virginia, killing three crew. Wreckage sprayed onto nearby houses, a barn and a stable with 35 horses, but no fires were sparked and there were no ground injuries. The Prowler had departed NAS Norfolk with three other aircraft at 0832 hrs., bound for the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), off the Virginia coast before crashing three miles from NAS Oceana. Navy officials said they did not know if the pilot was trying for Oceana.

1985 - USMC Douglas A-4M Skyhawk, BuNo 160242, of VMA-223, one of three en route from NAS Memphis, Tennessee, to MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, crashed S of Boiling Springs, South Carolina, 10 miles N of Spartanburg, at ~1800 hrs., leaving a crater estimated to be 15 feet deep and 35 to 45 feet across. The pilot, 1st Lt. Robin Franklin Helton, (13 September 1955 – 29 October 1985) was not immediately found and it was thought that he may have ejected. He did not and died in the crash. "Official reports after the crash pointed to a failure in the plane's oxygen and communications system as a possible cause." On 29 October 2010, "Helton's family, including his widow Connie Helton Mastrangelo, daughter Robyn Helton (who was just 7 months old when her father died), parents Don and Kathryn Helton, and others also returned [to Boiling Springs] for a short memorial and to unveil a new monument that will alert all passers-by to the ultimate sacrifice by a young Marine, husband and father."

1989 - U.S. Navy North American T-2C Buckeye, BuNo 158876, of VT-19, crashes into Vultures' Row on the island of training carrier USS Lexington (CVT-16) during a wave-off approach, operating in the Gulf of Mexico 22 miles S of NAS Pensacola, Florida, killing five and injuring 20. Killed were the student pilot, three seamen, and a civilian employee of the Navy. This was the last aviation accident on the Lady Lex before her retirement to a museum ship at Corpus Christi, Texas. Killed in the crash were the pilot, Ensign Steven E. Pontell, 23, Columbia, Maryland, who was alone in the two-seat trainer; Lexington crewmen Petty Officer 3rd Class Burnett Kilgore Jr., 19, Holly Springs, Mississippi; Petty Officer 3rd Class Timmy L. Garroutte, 30, Memphis, Tennessee; Airman Lisa L. Mayo, 25, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and a civilian employee of DynCorp who had the contract to maintain Navy aircraft, Byron Gervis Courvelle, 32, Meridian, Mississippi.

1992 - A United States Air Force Sikorsky MH-60G Pave Hawk crashed near Antelope Island, Utah, killing five US Army Rangers and seven Air Force Special Operations Airmen. Only the commanding pilot survived.

1998 – The shuttle Discovery (STS-95) blasted off with 6 crew mates including John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.  At 77 years of age, Glenn was the oldest human ever to travel in space. During the nine-day mission, he served as part of a NASA study on health problems associated with aging.

2009 - A United States Coast Guard Lockheed HC-130H-7 Hercules, USCG 1705, from Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento, California, collides with a United States Marine Corps Bell AH-1W SuperCobra Attack Helicopter, BuNo 164596, of HMLA-469, 15 miles (24 km) E of San Clemente Island, off of the coast of Southern California, killing all seven Coast Guard aircrew and both Marine aircrew.


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## mhansen2

30 October

1775 – Congress authorizes four, by adding two to the pair authorized on 13 October, vessels for the defense of the United Colonies one to carry twenty guns, the other thirty-six, and increasing the membership of the Marine Committee to eleven.

1861 – “Daniel Trowbridge” was a Union packet schooner carrying a cargo of provisions, including lobster, beef, pork, hams, bread, crackers, cheese, flour, milk, fruit and preserved meats. She was on route from New Haven, Conn. for Demerara, British Guinea when she was captured by screw steam cruiser CSS Sumter and burned. The provisions were welcomed by the crew of Sumter.

1862 – Dr. Richard Gatling patented a machine gun. The Gatling Gun consisted of six barrels mounted in a revolving frame. A later version with ten barrels, fired 320 rounds a minute. The United States Army purchased these guns in 1865 and over the next few years most major armies in Europe purchased the gun.

1964 – “Alina” was a Union bark of 574 tons carrying a cargo of railroad iron. She was on her maiden voyage and was out of Searsport, Maine when she was captured and scuttled by auxiliary steam powered, sailing ship CSS Shenandoah due south of the Azores and west of Dakar, Africa.

1864 – “Anna” was a Union side-wheel steamer of 110 tons, built in 1860 at Cincinnati. She was shelled and sunk by Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's batteries at Paris Landing on the Tennessee River, before reaching Paducah, Ky.

1864 – “Mark L. Potter” was a Union bark of 389 tons with a crew of 13 persons carrying a cargo of lime bricks and lumber out of Bangor, Maine for Key West, Fl. She was captured and burned by screw steamer CSS Chickamauga north of Wilmington, North Carolina.

1935 - Prototype Boeing Model 299, NX13372, 'X13372', c/n 1963, the future Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, crashes on take-off from Wright Field, Ohio, due to locked control surfaces, killing early military aviator and test pilot Maj. Ployer Peter Hill. Other engineers taken to hospital with injuries. Boeing test pilot and observer Les Tower died later. Ogden Air Depot, Utah, renamed Hill Field, (later Hill Air Force Base), on 1 December 1939. As the prototype was owned by Boeing, it had no USAAC serial.

1941 – President Roosevelt, determined to keep the United States out of the war while helping those allies already mired in it, approves $1 billion in Lend-Lease loans to the Soviet Union.

1943 - U.S. Navy Goodyear ZNP-K airship K-94, BuNo 33486, probably assigned at NAS Richmond, Florida, on a ferry trip from Guantanamo, Cuba, to San Juan, Puerto Rico, is lost. After the 13th hourly position report at 2200, nothing more is heard from the flight and it disappears abruptly from the shore radar-tracking screen. Eyewitnesses on surface craft report seeing a small flaming object similar to a flare dropping from the airship. Almost immediately afterward, a bright colored flame was noticed, increasing in size until the entire airship was engulfed in flames on its descent into the Caribbean Sea. Eight crew lost.

A B-25G-10 Mitchell, 42-65118, of the 417th Bomb Squadron, 25th Bomb Group, piloted by Jaspar J. Kraynick, searching for survivors of K-94, also disappears ~3.5 hours later at approximately the same position, 15 miles NW of Borinquen Field.

1953 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves National Security Council Paper No. 162/2 (NSC 162/2). The top secret document made clear that America’s nuclear arsenal must be maintained and expanded to meet the communist threat.

1954 – US Armed Forces ended segregation of races. The Truman desegregation order of 1948 is finally, fully implemented.

1961 – The most powerful nuclear weapon the world has seen was detonated by the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Weapons Program - The Tsar Bomba

1964 – Test pilot Milton Thompson flew the X-15 to 25,786 meters (84,604 feet) and Mach 4.66.

1981 - A United States Air Force Boeing B-52D Stratofortress, 55-078, of the 22d Bomb Wing, March AFB, California, crashes on the eastern Colorado prairie near La Junta at 0630 hrs. while on a low-level (400 foot altitude) training mission, killing all eight crew. No weapons were on board.


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## mhansen2

31 October

1803 – Congress ratified the purchase of the entire Louisiana area in North America, which added territory to the United States for 13 subsequent states.

1861 – “Peerless” was a Union transport steamer of 690 tons. While carrying a cargo of stores and cattle for the Port Royal invasion, she sank in a storm along the Hatteras coast. Steam sloop-of-war USS Mohican rescued the crew.

1863 - “Kate” was a Union schooner that was lost at Brazos Pass (Texas?).

1864 – “Aphrodite” was a Union chartered screw steamer of 1098 tons and was built in 1864 at Mystic, Conn. While carrying 510 Union navy recruits from New York to join the Atlantic and Gulf Squadrons, the she was wrecked on a shoal in Core Sound, 12 miles north northeast of Cape Lookout.

Sidewheel steamer USS Keystone State and USS Sholokon rescued the crew and sailors and removed the cargo on November 4th, 1864. The ship broke later in two pieces and her anchors, cables and other parts were salvaged.

1864 – “David Hughes” was a steamer chartered by the Union army that was carrying government supplies and a barge. She was captured and burned by the Confederates about 15 miles above Clarksville on the Cumberland River.

1864 – “Shooting Star” was a Union cargo ship carrying 1,500 tons of coal from New York City to Havana, Cuba when she was captured by steamer CSS Chickamauga off the NE coast off the USA.

1864 – Anxious to have support of the Republican-dominated Nevada Territory for President Abraham Lincoln’s reelection, the U.S. Congress quickly admits Nevada as the 36th state in the Union.

1913 – Dedication of the Lincoln Highway, the first automobile highway across United States.

1918 – In the worst global epidemic of the century, influenza (an acute, contagious respiratory viral infection) had been spreading around the world since May.

1941 – USS Reuben James (DD-245), while escorting 42-ship convoy HX 156, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-552 off western Iceland, 115 men are killed. No merchantmen in HX 156 are attacked. Despite the heavy oil slick in the vicinity and the need to investigate sound contacts, USS Niblack (DD-424) rescues 36 men (one of whom dies of wounds on 2 November).

Hilary P. Jones (DD-427) picks up 10. The loss of Reuben James, the first U.S. naval vessel to be lost to enemy action in World War II, proves a temporary detriment to Navy recruiting efforts.

1943 – LT Hugh D. O’Neill of VF(N)-75 flying a F4U-2 Corsair destroys a Japanese aircraft during night attack off Vella Lavella in first kill by a radar-equipped night fighter of the Pacific Fleet.

1952 – The United States exploded the first hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.
Operation Ivy

1956 – Rear Admiral G.J. Dufek became the first person to land an airplane at the South Pole. Navy men land in R4D Skytrain on the ice at the South Pole. RADM George Dufek, CAPT Douglas Cordiner, CAPT William Hawkes, LCDR Conrad Shinn, LT John Swadener, AD2 J. P. Strider and AD2 William Cumbie are the first men to stand on the South Pole since Captain Robert F. Scott in 1912.

1958 - A US Air Force RB-47 Stratojet was attacked by Soviet fighters over the Black Sea. The crew of three were not injured and the aircraft returned safely to base.

1961 – End of Lighter than Air in U.S. Navy with disestablishment of Fleet Airship Wing One and ZP-1 and ZP-3, the last operating units in LTA branch of Naval Aviation, at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

1964 - NASA astronaut Theodore Freeman is killed when a goose smashes through the cockpit canopy of his Northrop T-38A Talon jet trainer, 63-8188, at Ellington AFB, Texas. Flying shards of Plexiglas enter the jet engine intake, causing the engine to flameout. Freeman ejects but is too close to the ground for his parachute to open properly. He is posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.

2014 – One person is dead and another injured after Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo explodes and crashes in California’s Mojave Desert during a test flight of the spaceplane.


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## mhansen2

1 November

1765 – The Stamp Act went into effect, prompting stiff resistance from American colonists.

1783 – Continental Army dissolved and George Washington made his “Farewell Address.”

1800 – John and Abigail Adams moved into “the President’s House” in Washington DC. It became known as the White House during the Theodore Roosevelt administration.

1841 – “Mosquito Fleet” commanded by LCDR J. T. McLaughlin, USN, carries 750 Sailors and Marines into the Everglades to fight the Seminole Indians.

1864 – “Empress Theresa” was a Union bark of 312 tons that was captured and burned by screw steamer CSS Olustee off the Delaware Capes.

1864 – “Goodspeed” was a Union schooner of 283 tons (of Philadelphia) that was captured and burned by screw steamer CSS Chickamauga off Block Island, Rhode Island. Along with Goodspeed, also schooner Otter Rock (91 tons) was sunk.

1864 – “Otter Rock” was a Union schooner of 91 tons that was captured and scuttled by screw steamer CSS Chickamauga while carrying a cargo of potatoes, off Block Island, Rhode Island. Along with Otter Rock, also schooner Goodspeed (283 tons) was sunk.

1864 – “Winslow” was a Union screw steamer of 265 tons built in 1862 at Cleveland, Ohio. She collided with another vessel at Cleveland and sank.

1915 – Parris Island is officially designated a United States Marine Corps Recruit Depot.

1920 - Coast Battleship No.1 (ex-USS Indiana, BB-1) was sunk during tests off Tangier Island, Maryland, in shallow water. The tests were a response to claims from Billy Mitchell—at the time assistant to the Chief of Air Service—who stated to Congress that the Air Service could sink any battleship. Hulk sold 19 March 1924 and broken up for scrap.

1932 – Werner von Braun was named head of German liquid-fuel rocket program.

1939 – 1st jet plane, a Heinkel He 178, was demonstrated to German Air Ministry.

1941 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8929 transferred the Coast Guard to Navy Department control.

1944 – The first of some 9000 paper balloons, carrying bombs intended to be dropped over North American land, are released near Tokyo.

1944 – The US B-29 Superfortress “Tokyo Rose” of the 3rd Photo Reconnaissance Squadron makes the first American flight over Tokyo since 1942.

1945 - First prototype McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom, BuNo 48235 crashes as a result of aileron failure killing McDonnell's chief test pilot Woodward Burke.

1949 - A Lockheed P-38L Lightning, NX26297 flown by Bolivian Air Force pilot Erick Rios Bridoux, collides in midair with Eastern Airlines Flight 537, a Douglas DC-4 airliner, N88727, on its final approach to National Airport (now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport). All 55 people on board the Douglas DC-4 die; the P-38 pilot survived with injuries. Bridoux was considered one of Bolivia's most experienced pilots. Among the dead were Congressman George J. Bates and former Congressman Michael J. Kennedy. DC-4 wreckage comes down on Virginia shoreline of the Potomac River, north of Mount Vernon. It was (at the time) the worst plane crash in the history of civil aviation. The P-38 pilot was accused of causing the accident, later tried and cleared of the charges, which now is believed to have been an ATC error.

1950 – Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate President Harry S. Truman at the Blair House in Washington, D.C.

1950 – MiG-15 jet fighters made their first appearance during the Korean War as they flew along the Yalu River to contest the Fifth Air Force’s then complete dominance of the skies over North Korea.

1951 – Operation Buster–Jangle: Six thousand five hundred American soldiers are exposed to ‘Desert Rock’ atomic explosions for training purposes in Nevada. Participation is not voluntary.

1952 - A USAF F-84G of 1211th Test Squadron piloted by Capt. Jimmy Priestly Robinson during atomic testing Operation Ivy is lost at sea and neither Robinson nor his aircraft are ever found.

1966 – Test pilot Bill Dana flew the X-15 to 93,543 meters (306,914 feet) and Mach 5.46.


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## mhansen2

2 November

1811 – Battle of Tippecanoe: Gen William Henry Harrison routed Indians. Following the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in summer 1795, relative peace prevailed between the white settlers and the natives of the Old Northwest. The Washington and Adams administrations at least paid lip service to the terms of the treaty, but Jefferson sought additional lands for American farmers through a series of purchases from the tribes. Not all the frontiersmen bothered with the niceties of treaties and simply occupied Indian lands illegally. Not without reason, resentment among the tribes ran high. In 1808, Tecumseh, a Shawnee chieftain, and his brother Tenskwatawa (known to the Americans as The Prophet) launched a reform movement among their people. They attempted to end the sale of additional lands to the whites and to resist alcohol and other troublesome temptations of the competing culture.

1824 – Popular presidential vote was 1st recorded; Andrew Jackson beat John Quincy Adams.

1861 – “Union” was a Union side-wheel transport steamer of 149 tons, built in 1861 at Augusta, Maine that ran onto a beach in a storm and broke in two 8 miles east of Bogue Inlet and 16 miles from Fort Macon, North Carolina.

The crew and 15 horses were captured by Confederates along with some supplies. Union was carrying a cargo of rifle muskets, horses, gun carriages and musket powder for the Port Royal invasion.

1862 – “Levi Starbuck” was a Union whaling ship of 376 tons out of New Bedford, Mass. She was on route to the Pacific Ocean whaling grounds when she was captured and burned by screw sloop-of-war CSS Alabama some 240 miles NNW of Bermuda after the stores were removed.

1889 – North Dakota was made the 39th state.

1889 – South Dakota was made the 40th state.

1899 – USS Charleston (C-2) grounded on an uncharted reef near Camiguin Island north of Luzon. Wrecked beyond salvage, she was abandoned by all her crew, who made camp on a nearby island, later moving on to Camiguin while the ship´s sailing launch was sent for help. On 12 November, USS Helena (PG-9) arrived to rescue the shipwrecked men.

1923 – Lt. Harold J. Brow, US Navy, set new world speed record in Mineola, New York, of 259.16 MPH (417.07 KPH) in a Curtiss R2C-1 racer.

1931 – VS-14M on USS Saratoga (CV-3) and VS-15M on USS Lexington (CV-2) were the first Marine carrier-based squadrons.

1941 - Wisconsin-native Lieutenant Thomas "Bud" L. Truax is killed, along with his wingman, Lt. Russell E. Speckman, in a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk training accident during poor weather in San Anselmo, California. In the late afternoon, San Anselmo residents are startled when two low-flying Curtiss P-40C Warhawks, 41-13375 and 41-13454, roar up the valley at just above roof level and crash into the east side of Bald Hill just shy of the peak at 1740 hrs. It was almost dark, was misty and they were under a low cloud ceiling. They were critically low on fuel and part of a larger training group that had gotten separated. They were under the wintertime marine layer of low clouds that are common in the Marin County area, searching for nearby Hamilton Field to land. Madison Army Air Field, Wisconsin, is named Truax Field in his honor in 1942. A third pilot, Lt. Walter V. "Ramblin" Radovich, flying 41-13392, had left the formation over San Rafael, almost hit the city courthouse on 4th Street, circled the Forbes Hill radio beacon (37°58'44.73"N, 122°32'50.78"W), clipped a tree and then turned northeast, towards Hamilton Field. Unsure of what the oncoming terrain might be and critically low on fuel, he decides to climb up though the typically thin marine cloud layer to 2500 ft, trim the airplane for straight and level flight and bail out.

According to USAAF accident reports, his left leg was broken when exiting the plane and he parachuted down, landing near Highway 101 in Lucas Valley reportedly near where Fireman's Fund / Marin Commons is currently located (38° 1'10.66"N, 122°32'29.36"W). Ironically, after Lt. Radovich bailed out, the airplane slowly descended back down through the clouds and made a relatively smooth "gear up" landing. All aircraft were of the 57th Pursuit Group (Interceptor), on a cross-country flight from Windsor Locks Army Air Field, Windsor Locks, Connecticut, to McChord Field, Washington.

1942 - A Boeing B-17C Flying Fortress, 40-2047, c/n 2117, breaks apart in the air near Tells Peak, California, while en route to Sacramento for an overhaul of the number 3 (starboard inner) engine. Pilot 1st Lieutenant Leo M. H. Walker dies, but the other eight crew members survive.

1943 – The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay in Bougainville ended in U.S. Navy victory over Japan. US Task Force 39 detects the approach of the Japanese cruiser squadron led by Admiral Omori (steaming from Rabaul in New Britain Island to Bougainville), shortly after midnight. In the engagement that follows the Japanese lose 1 cruiser and 1 destroyer and most of the other ships are damaged. The Americans suffer damage to 2 cruisers and 2 destroyers. However, the Japanese force abandons its mission.

1953 - First prototype Convair YF-102 Delta Dagger, 52-7994, suffers engine failure due to fuel injection system problem during test flight, lands wheels up, severely injuring pilot Richard L. Johnson, airframe written off.

1955 - Air Force Douglas B-26C-45-DT Invader, 44-35737, crashed into houses on Barbara Drive in East Meadow, Long Island, New York. An aerial photograph of the crash scene, "Bomber Crashes in Street", by George Mattson, of the New York Daily News, earned him, and 25 of his newspaper colleagues, the 1956 Pulitzer Prize Photography Award. KWF are Captain Clayton Elwood and Sergeant Charles Slater.
B-26 bomber crashes in Long Island, 1955 - Photos - Daily News' most iconic images

1957 – The Levelland UFO Case in Levelland, Texas, generates national publicity. The Levelland UFO Case occurred in and around the small town of Levelland, Texas. Levelland, which in 1957 had a population of about 10,000, is located west of Lubbock on the flat prairie of the Texas panhandle. The case is considered by ufologists to be one of the most impressive in UFO history, mainly because of the large number of witnesses involved over a relatively short period of time. However, both the US Air Force and UFO skeptics have labeled the incident as being caused by either ball lightning or a severe electrical storm.

1981 - McDonnell-Douglas F-15A-14-MC Eagle. 75-0051, of the 59th TFS, 33d TFW, based at Eglin AFB, crashes near Panama City, Florida after mid-air collision with McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle, 76-0048, during night refuelling. Pilot killed. Second F-15 lands okay.

1986 - U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky HH-3F Pelican 1473, c/n 61-635, out of CGAS Kodiak, on medical evacuation mission, strikes high cliff and falls to the beach below on Ugak Island, off Kodiak, Alaska; burns. KWF were LT Michael Clement Dollahite (CG Aviator #2148), LT Robert L. Carson, Jr., CDR David Meurice Rockmore, USPHS, ASM2 Kevin M. McCraken, AT3 William G. Kemp, HS3 Ralph D. King.

1992 - A United States Navy Grumman EA-6B Prowler crashes in field near NAS El Centro, California. The three crewmen ejected at a very low altitude while inverted, and all were killed. Crew included Lt. Charles Robert Gurley (USN), Lt. Peter Limoge (USMC), and Ltjg. Dave Roberts (USN).

1999 – Former USS Schofield (DEG-3/FFG-3) was sunk as a target some 23 miles SW of Point Conception, California.

2000 – Expedition One Commander William M. (Bill) Shepherd of NASA and cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko of Roscosmos arrived at the International Space Station in the Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft marking the start of an uninterrupted human presence on the orbiting laboratory. The trio landed on 21 March 2001 at the Kennedy Space Center aboard Space Shuttle STS-102.

2006 – Former USS Valley Forge (CG-50) was sunk as a target some 60 miles NNW of Kauai Island, Hawaii.


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## mhansen2

3 November

1853 – USS Constitution seizes suspected slaver H. N. Gambrill.

1861 – “Governor” was a Union side-wheel steamer of 644 tons, built in 1846 at New York City. While carrying Maj. John G. Reynolds and the Union Marine Battalion of 385 men (among 650 passengers) and 19.000 rounds of ammunition, Governor was overwhelmed by a storm and lost steering control. She sank while being towed by screw steamer USS Isaac Smith.  Most passengers were saved, but 6 lost their lives.

1861 – “Brilliant” was a Union sailing vessel carrying a cargo of flour and grain from New York City for London. She was captured and burned by screw sloop-of-war CSS Alabama on the Newfoundland Banks.

1864 – The following Union ships were captured and burned by steamer CSS Olustee off the Delaware Capes:

Arcole (full-rigged ship)
E. F. Lewis (schooner)
T. D. Wagner (brig)
Vapor (schooner)

1864 - During Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s raid at Johnsonville, Tennessee, the following Union ships were lost:

Arcola (stern-wheel steamer 203 tons)
Aurora (screw steamer 331 tons)
Celeste (barge)
Chickamauga (barge)
Doan No.2 (stern-wheel steamer 250 tons)
Eagle Coal Co. (barge)
USS Elfin (tinclad gunboat 192 tons)
Goody Friends (Stern-wheel steamer, 195 tons)
J. B. Ford (steamer, 197 tons)
J. H. Doane (barge)
Josephine (barge)
J. W. Cheeseman (stern-wheel steamer, 215 tons)
Kentucky (barge)
USS Key West No.3 (stern-wheel tinclad)
Mountaineer (stern-wheel steamer, 211 tons)
USS Tawah (side-wheel steam tinclad)
T. H. U. S. 57 (barge)
U.S. No.22 (barge)
U.S. No.44 (barge)
Venus (stern-wheel steamer 235 tons)
Whale No.8 (barge)
Most of them were burned to prevent capture by the enemy. The Union supply depot and docks were also torched.

1883 – U.S. Supreme Court declared American Indians to be “dependent aliens.”

1903 – With the support of the U.S. government, Panama issues a declaration of independence from Colombia. The revolution was engineered by a Panamanian faction backed by the Panama Canal Company, a French-U.S. corporation that hoped to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans with a waterway across the Isthmus of Panama. In 1903, the Hay-Herrýn Treaty was signed with Colombia, granting the United States use of the Isthmus of Panama in exchange for financial compensation. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty, but the Colombian Senate, fearing a loss of sovereignty, refused. In response, President Theodore Roosevelt gave tacit approval to a rebellion by Panamanian nationalists, which began on November 3, 1903.

1918 – There was a mutiny of the German fleet at Kiel. This was the first act leading to Germany’s capitulation in World War I.

1931 – Dirigible USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) makes a ten-hour flight out of NAS Lakehurst, NJ, carrying 207 persons, establishing a new record for the number of passengers carried into the air by a single craft.

1933 - First fatal accident involving a Fokker YO-27 occurs when pilot Lt. Lloyd E. Hunting with Sgt. John J. Cunningham aboard, departs Olmsted Field, Middletown Air Depot, Pennsylvania, in 31-589 of the 30th Bombardment Squadron at 1800 hrs. after darkness had fallen. Pilot had apparently not observed a mountain ridge, 400 to 800 feet (120 to 240 m) high, one mile from the airfield, when he landed during the afternoon, and upon departure did not see it in the dark, crashing head-on into the ridge, aircraft burned, both crew KWF.

1941 – The Combined Japanese Fleet receive Top-Secret Order No. 1: In 34 days-time, Pearl Harbor is to be bombed, along with Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, and the Philippines.

1943 – USS Oklahoma (BB-37), sunk at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, is refloated.

1945 - Consolidated LB-30/Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express, AL-640, assigned to the 1504th AAF Base Unit, Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base, piloted by Norman C. Fisher, runs out of fuel 500 miles NE of Honolulu while en route to Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base, California, and ditches in the Pacific at 0740 hrs. more than four hours after it departed Hawaii, at approximately 149-50W/25-25N. It went down about 50 miles from regular patrol routes. Eighteen lives are lost with eight survivors. Surface vessels rescued those saved from life rafts. Twenty-one passengers and six crew were aboard, including two women, one a civilian and one a WAC.

One of the women was rescued. Bodies of seven were recovered. Seven ships, including aircraft carriers, were involved in the search. On 11 January 1946, headquarters of the commanding general of the Pacific division in Honolulu announces the conviction of John R. Patrick, 27, of Tulare, California, on a charge of involuntary manslaughter after being accused of failing to "determine positively" whether the plane had been refueled before takeoff. Public relations officers said that the general court-martial that tried Patrick also convicted him of destruction of government property through "wrongful neglect". Patrick, a civilian, was one of the eight survivors. His defense, according to the public relations office, was that he did take precautions. He was sentenced to six months confinement and fined $2,000.

1948 - Boeing RB-29A Superfortress, 44-61999, "Overexposed", of the 16th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 91st Reconnaissance Group, 311th Air Division, Strategic Air Command, USAF, crashes on Shelf Moor, Bleaklow, in between Manchester and Sheffield, Derbyshire, while descending through cloud. All 13 crew KWF. It is doubtful they ever saw the ground. The time was estimated from one of the crew members wrist watch. The plane, piloted by Captain L. P. Tanner, was on a short flight, carrying mail and the payroll for American service personnel based at USAF Burtonwood. The flight was from Scampton near Lincoln to Burtonwood near Warrington, a flight of less than an hour. Low cloud hung over much of England, which meant the flight had to be flown on instruments. The crew descended after having flown for the time the crew believed it should have taken them to cross the hill. Unfortunately the aircraft had not quite passed the hills and struck the ground near Higher Shelf Stones, being destroyed by fire.

1957 – The Soviet Union launches the first animal into space–a dog name Laika–aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft. Laika, part Siberian husky, lived as a stray on the Moscow streets before being enlisted into the Soviet space program. Laika survived for several days as a passenger in the USSR’s second artificial Earth satellite, kept alive by a sophisticated life-support system. Electrodes attached to her body provided scientists on the ground with important information about the biological effects of space travel. She died after the batteries of her life-support system ran down.

1965 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 21,519 meters (70,603 feet) and Mach 2.31.  This was the first test of external fuel tanks, which were empty on this flight.

1979 – Sixty-three Americans were taken hostage at the US Embassy in Teheran, Iran. The overthrow of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi of Iran by an Islamic revolutionary government earlier in the year had led to a steady deterioration in Iran-U.S. relations.

1986 – The Lebanese magazine Ash Shiraa reports that the United States has been secretly selling arms to Iran in an effort to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon. The revelation, confirmed by U.S. intelligence sources on November 6, came as a shock to officials outside President Ronald Reagan’s inner circle and went against the stated policy of the administration. In addition to violating the U.S. arms embargo against Iran, the arms sales contradicted President Reagan’s vow never to negotiate with terrorists.

2002 - An McDonnell-Douglas FA-18C Hornet from VFA-34 failed to return to USS George Washington (CVN-73) from a night at sea bombing mission and crashed into Adriatic Sea. Pilot was killed.

2004 – A National Guard F-16 fighter plane mistakenly fired off 25 rounds of ammunition at the Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School in South New Jersey on this night.

2014 – One World Trade Center officially opens, replacing its predecessor 13 years after the September 11 attacks.


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## mhansen2

4 November

1798 – Congress agreed to pay a yearly tribute to Tripoli, considering it the only way to protect U.S. shipping. The US has no appreciable Navy as yet. This is the most expedient and assured way to protect American shipping in the Mediterranean.

1923 – Lt. Alford J. Williams, USN, sets a new world’s speed record of 266.59 MPH (429.02 KPH) in Mineola, New York in a Curtiss R2C-1 racer.

1927 - US Army Air Corps Capt. Hawthorne C. Gray succeeds in setting new altitude record in a silk, rubberized, and aluminum-coated balloon out of Scott Field, Illinois, reaching 42,270 feet, but dies when he fails to keep track of his time on oxygen, and exhausts his supply. The record is recognized by National Aeronautical Association, but not by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale because the dead aeronaut "was not in personal possession of his instruments." Gray is posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his three ascents on 9 March, 4 May and 4 November.

1941 - Tail section of Lockheed YP-38 Lightning, 39–689, separates in flight over Glendale, California, Lockheed Lightning crashes inverted on house at 1147 Elm Street, killing Lockheed test pilot Ralph Virden. Home owner survives, indeed, sleeps right through the crash.

1944 – British Gen. John Dill dies in Washington, D.C., and is buried in Arlington Cemetery, the only foreigner to be so honored.

1947 - A USAF pilot and co-pilot successfully belly-land burning Boeing B-29-70-BW Superfortress, 44-69989, of the 98th Bomb Group, in a wheat stubblefield S of Wilbur, Washington, after ordering five crew to bail out. The bomber was on a flight from Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, to Spokane Air Force Base when an engine caught fire. Residents of Wilbur saw it circling with an engine afire as the pilot sought a place to put it down. First communications to Spokane Field that it was in trouble came about 1500 hrs. Those who jumped received various injuries, but the pilot and co-pilot were uninjured.

1954 - Convair YF2Y-1 Sea Dart, BuNo 135762, disintegrated in mid-air over San Diego Bay, California, during a demonstration for Navy officials and the press, killing Convair test pilot, Charles E. Richbourg. Pilot inadvertently exceeded airframe limitations.
File:Convair XF2Y-1 disintegrates over San Diego Bay 1954.jpg - Wikipedia

1954 - A USAF Convair T-29A-CO, 50–189, on a routine training flight departs Tucson Municipal Airport, Arizona, after refueling for return leg to Ellington AFB, Texas. Shortly after departure, the pilot radios that he has mechanical problems and requests emergency return to Tucson. Aircraft strikes power lines on final approach and crashes into a perimeter fence short of the runway. All crew are KWF.

1955 - While operating in the Pacific with the 7th Fleet, USS Hancock (CVA-19) flies aboard Vought F7U-3 Cutlass, BuNo 129586, 'D', of VF-124, but tailhook floats over all wires, jet hits barrier, and ejection seat is jarred into firing when nose gear collapses. Pilot LTJG George Barrett Milliard, in his seat, is thrown 200 feet down the deck and suffers fatal injuries when he strikes the tail of an AD Skyraider. Airframe written off.

1956 – Following nearly two weeks of protest and political instability in Hungary, Soviet tanks and troops viciously crush the protests.

1958 - A United States Air Force Boeing B-47E-56-BW Stratojet, 51-2391, of the 12th Bomb Squadron, 341st Bomb Wing (M), catches fire during take-off from Dyess AFB, Texas, crashes from 1,500 feet (460 m) altitude. Three crew eject, okay: Capt. Don E. Youngmark, 37, aircraft commander; Capt. John M. Gerding, 27, pilot; and Capt. John M. Dowling, 30, observer and navigator. The crew chief was killed – no bail out attempted.

One sealed pit nuclear weapon containing no plutonium and some tritium was aboard the plane; the resultant detonation of its primary HE made a crater 35 feet in diameter and six feet deep. There was some local tritium contamination. The weapon secondary was recovered intact but damaged near the crash site; the weapon case was destroyed. The tritium reservoir was found intact but leaking. The impact crater contained many small fragments of bomb casing, but no HE, which was believed to have been consumed by either explosion or fire.

1960 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 14,905 meters (48,903 feet) and Mach 1.95.

1962 – In a test of the Nike Hercules air defense missile, Shot Tightrope of Operation Fishbowl is successfully detonated 69,000 feet above Johnston Atoll. It would also be the last atmospheric nuclear test conducted by the United States.

1962 - A Russian-flown MiG-21 Fishbed intercepted two US Air Force F-104C Starfighters from the 479th Tactical Fighter Wing on a reconnaissance sortie near Santa Clara, Cuba, but the F-104s disengaged and retired northward.

1965 – Test pilot Bill Dans flew the X-15 to 24,445 meters (80,204 feet) and Mach 4.22.

1969 – Former USS Bailey (DD-492) was sunk as a target off Florida.

1971 – USS Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636) launches a Poseidon C-3 missile in first surface launch of Poseidon missile.

1984 – CGC Northwind (WAGB-282) seizes the P/C Alexi I off Jamaica for carrying 20 tons of marijuana, becoming the first icebreaker to make a narcotics seizure.


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## mhansen2

5 November

1863 – “Curlew” was a Union screw steamer of 343 tons, built in 1856 at Newtown, N.Y. she collided with steamer USS Louisiana and sank near Point Lookout, Maryland.

1863 – “Nassau” was a Union chartered steam tug of 518 tons, built in 1851 at New York that was sunk at Brazos Pass, Texas.

1863 – “Patridge” was a Union schooner that was lost at Brazos Pass, Texas.

1864 – “R. H. Barnum” was a Union stern wheel paddle steamer of 30 tons built in 1862 at Warren, Ohio. She was captured and burned by Lt. Col. A. Witcher and the 34th Virginia Cavalry Battalion in Buffalo Shoals near Louisa, Kentucky.

1864 – “Fawn” was a Union steamer of 25 tons built at Pittsburgh, Pa. She was captured and burned by Lt. Col. A. Witcher and the 34th Virginia Cavalry Battalion in Buffalo Shoals.

1864 – CSS Spray was a Confederate steam gunboat of 105 tons armed with two guns and thought to be built at Wilmington in 1852. She was sunk by Confederates on the St. Mary’s River, Georgia to avoid capture by Union forces.

1864 - CSS Run'Her was a steamer built in England in 1863 that was part of a group of four blockade runners carrying equipment and materials for the manufacturing and laying of mines. After departing London, the vessel sank in Angra Bay, São Miguel Island (Azores) during a stopover on her way to the Confederation due to a maneuver error ordered by her captain.

1909 - The United States Army Wright Military Flyer, serial 1, piloted by Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm with 2nd Lieutenant Frederick E. Humphreys as passenger crashes into the ground at College Park Airport, Maryland, while executing a sharp right turn. The aircraft had lost altitude due to engine misfiring and the aircrew had not taken account of their proximity to the ground when banking the aircraft to the right. Both officers were unhurt but the aircraft required repairs. The skids and the right wing had to be replaced.

1915 – At Pensacola Bay, FL., LCDR Henry C. Mustin launched himself from USS North Carolina (ACR-12) via catapult in a Curtiss Model AB-2 seaplane, recording both the world's first catapulting of an aircraft from a ship and the first takeoff from a ship underway.

1917 – USS Alcedo (SP-166) was torpedoed and sunk by UC-71 (Ernst Steindorff), off Penmarch, France. There were 21 casualties.

1923 – Tests designed to prove the feasibility of launching a small seaplane from a submarine occur at Hampton Roads Naval Base. A Martin MS-1, stored disassembled in a tank on board USS S-1, was removed and assembled. Then the submarine submerged allowing the plane to float free and take off.

1934 - Pioneer Air Service aviator Col. Horace Meek Hickam, (1885–1934), dies when his Curtiss A-12 Shrike, 33–250, of the 60th Service Squadron, strikes an obstruction during night landing practice on the unlighted field at Fort Crockett, Texas, and overturns.

"The field at Fort Crockett, Texas, home of the 3rd Attack Group, was too short. Because of its smallness and the roughness of its southern end, planes landing to the south, even against a light wind, made it a point to touch down between its boundary lights-the field's only lights just beyond the shallow embankment of its northern threshold. On the evening of November 5, Air Reserve Second Lieutenants Harry N. Renshaw and Andrew N. Wynne were standing on the porch of Group Operations talking to Captain Charles C. Chauncey, the Operations Officer, watching Uncle Horace Hickam shooting night landings in his Curtiss A-12. It was close to eight o'clock as they observed the Colonel coming in for his second touchdown. They realized he was low and was going to undershoot, so did Hickam. He applied power to correct the error and then chopped it off too soon. The watchers saw the A-12's wheels hit the embankment just below its top, saw the plane flipped on its nose, skidding along the ground, the weight of its engine tearing up the turf, and then saw it snap over on its back, slewing completely around. The three men were running toward the aircraft before the sound had died. Wynne arrived first, yelling, ‘Colonel, are you hurt? Can you hear me?’ There was no answer. The cockpit rim was flat on the ground. A group of enlisted men came charging up, followed by the crash truck and an ambulance. Even after Renshaw had driven the cab of the ambulance under the broken tail fin, with the men holding up the fuselage, they could not get Hickam free of the cockpit. It was necessary to dig a trench to do that. By the time Renshaw and Wynne had managed to get the Colonel out of his parachute and onto a litter, Captain Byrnes, the base doctor, had arrived. While the ambulance raced to the Marine Hospital, Byrnes did what he could, but it was too late. Renshaw believed his CO was dead before they had managed to free him from the cockpit." Hickam Field, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands, was named for him 21 May 1935.

1941 – The Japanese government decides to attempt to negotiate a settlement with the United States, setting a deadline of the end of November. The US rejects the offer because the Japanese will not repudiate the Tripartite Agreement with Italy and Germany and because the Japanese wish to maintain bases in China. The US code breaking service continues to intercept all Japanese diplomatic communication.

1945 – Ensign J. C. West (VF-41) took off from USS Wake Island (CVE-65) in a Ryan FR-1 Fireball, a combination prop-jet design, and soon experienced problems with the Wright R-1820-72W Cyclone radial piston engine. Before the reciprocating powerplant failed completely, he started the General Electric I-16 jet engine and returned to the ship, thus making the first ever landing by jet power alone on a carrier.

1948 - Boeing DB-17G Flying Fortress, 44-83678 returning to Eglin AFB, Florida from Fort Wayne, Indiana, crashes and burns NE of the runway at Eglin main base early Friday. All five on board are KWF, including Lt. Col. Frederick W. Eley, 43, of Shalimar, Florida, Maj. Bydie J. Nettles, 29, who lived in Shalimar, Florida, Capt. Robert LeMar, 31, Ben's Lake, Eglin AFB, test pilot with the 3203rd; crew chief M/Sgt. Carl LeMieux, 31, of Milton, Florida; and Sgt. William E. Bazer, 36, assistant engineer, Destin, Florida.

1959 – Test pilot Scott Crossfield flew the X-15 to 13,857 meters (45,464 feet) and Mach 1.00 before an engine fire forced an emergency landing.  Despite the narration in the following video, not all the fuel was jettisoned and the plane landed heavy, resulting in fuselage structural failure.

1986 – USS Rentz (FFG-46), Reeves (CG-24) and Oldendorf (DD-972) visit Qingdao (Tsing Tao) China – the first US Naval visit to China since 1949.

2009 – US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan kills 13 and wounds 29 at Fort Hood, Texas in the deadliest mass shooting at a US military installation.


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## mhansen2

6 November

1861 – Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America.

1861 - Confederate States schooner Ada, on a voyage from Baltimore with a cargo of wood, was wrecked 5–6 miles from the mouth of the Curatona Branch, Rappahannock River or on Corrotoman Creek, 26 miles from the mouth of the Rappahannock River, Virginia. The Ada was subsequently attacked and set on fire by a Union party from steamer USS Rescue.

1861 – CSS Huntress was a Confederate ship that was sunk together with CSS Lady Davis by Confederates to block Skull Creek, South Carolina.

1861 - CSS Lady Davis (CSS Gray, James Gray) was a Confederate screw steamer, built in 1858 at Philadelphia. She was sunk together with CSS Huntress and other light boats to block Skull Creek, SC.

1863 – “Amanda” was a Union bark of 598 tons carrying a cargo of hemp and sugar from Bangor, Maine or Boston and on route from Manila, Philippines for Queenstown, Ireland. She was captured and burned in the East Indies or Indian Ocean by sloop-of-war CSS Alabama.

1865 - USS Jacob Bell was a Union side wheel paddle gunboat of 229 tons built in 1842 at New York. She was decommissioned on the 13th May 1865 and foundered at sea when on route to New York City while under the tow by steamship USS Banshee.

1917 – Bolshevik “October Revolution” (October 25 on the old Russian calendar), led by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, seized power in Petrograd. Led by Bolshevik Party leader Vladimir Lenin, leftist revolutionaries launch a nearly bloodless coup d’ýtat against Russia’s ineffectual Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks and their allies occupied government buildings and other strategic locations in the Russian capital of Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) and within two days had formed a new government with Lenin as its head. Bolshevik Russia, later renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was the world’s first Marxist state.

1942 - Grumman UC-103, 42-97044, former civilian Grumman G-32 Gulfhawk III, ex-NC1051, built for the Gulf Oil Refining Company, delivered 6 May 1938 and impressed by the USAAF in November 1942, used as VIP ferry aircraft, 427th Air Base Squadron, Homestead Army Air Field, force-lands in the southern Florida Everglades with engine failure: written off.

1944 - U.S. Navy Douglas R4D-5, BuNo 39063, c/n 9941, built as a USAAF C-47A-40-DL, 42-24079, and transferred to the Navy, collides with Goodyear FG-1A Corsair, BuNo 13334, and crashes into the St. Johns River near NAS Jacksonville, Florida. All 18 on both planes killed.

1944 – Plutonium is first produced at the Hanford Atomic Facility and subsequently used in the Fat Man atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.

1947 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the X-1 to 14,823 meters (48,634 feet) and Mach 1.35.  First-ever aircraft flight to exceed July 6, 1944, flight speed record (702 mph/1,130 km/h) of Heini Dittmar in Me 163B V18 prototype.

1950 - A US Navy bomber with twelve crew members on board was reported to have failed to return from a combat patrol over the Strait of Formosa. Its fate was never learned.

1951 - While conducting an intelligence gathering mission, later claimed to be a "weather reconnaissance mission under United Nations command", a US Navy P2V-3W Neptune (BuNo 124283 - not 124284 as listed in some sources) of VP-6 was shot down over the Sea of Japan, near Vladivostok, by Soviet La-11 Fangs flown by I. Ya. Lukashyev and M.K. Shchukin. The Soviet pilots reported that they intercepted the aircraft in the area of Cape Ostrovnoy approximately 7-8 miles from the shore. After they fired on the aircraft, it fell, burning, into the water and exploded 18 miles from the shore. The crew of Judd C. Hodgson, Sam Rosenfeld, Donald E. Smith, Reuben S. Baggett, Paul R. Foster, Erwin D. Raglin, Paul G. Juric, William S. Meyer, Ralph A. Wigert Jr. and Jack Lively were reported as missing.

1956 - A Boeing B-47E-60-BW Stratojet, 51-2421, c/n 450474, of the 96th Bombardment Wing, Altus AFB, Oklahoma, suffers engine trouble while on a routine training mission late Tuesday, crashing on a farm near Hobart, Oklahoma, killing four crew. According to Ranson Hancock, publisher of the Hobart Democrat Chief, the bomber hit the ground about 320 yards W of a barn owned by Charles C. Harris, skidded into the barn and exploded. Officials identified the victims as Maj. Joseph E. Wilford, aircraft commander, Capt. Francis P. Bouschard, pilot, Capt. Lee D. Ellis, Jr., instructor-aircraft observer, all having families at Altus, and 1st Lt. Andrew J. Toalson, observer, Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

1971 – The US Atomic Energy Commission exploded a 5-megaton bomb beneath Amchitka Island, Alaska, (shot Cannikin of Operation Grommet) just 87 miles from the Petropavlovsk Russian naval base. It was a test of the Spartan ABM warhead and registered as a magnitude 7 earthquake.

1990 - Crew of a US Navy Grumman A-6E Intruder, '506', of VA-176, suffering engine fire, aim bomber away from Virginia Beach, Virginia oceanfront before ejecting just after take-off from NAS Oceana, Virginia's Runway 5. Bomber comes down at 2215 hrs. in the Atlantic Ocean ~.75 miles offshore, after just clearing the Station One Hotel, on-shore breeze carries crew inland about three blocks from the beach, one landing in a tree, the other in a courtyard of a condominium, suffering only cuts and bruises. Aircraft, on routine training mission, was unarmed. Officials did not identify the crew, but said the pilot was a 29-year-old lieutenant, and the bombardier-navigator was a 34-year-old lieutenant commander, both assigned to VA-176.

2014 - A United States Army Boeing AH-64D Apache crashed close to Gowen Field, Idaho in the United States, two crew killed.

2014 - A United States Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16C Fighting Falcon of the 82d Aerial Targets Squadron, 53d Weapons Evaluation Group, on a routine training mission out of Tyndall AFB, crashed into the Gulf of Mexico 57 miles (92 km) south of Panama City, Florida, when the base lost contact with it at ~0915 hrs. Civilian pilot Matthew LaCourse killed, body recovered later that day. LaCourse was a former USAF pilot who retired in 2000 as a lieutenant colonel after 22 years of service with over 2,000 flight hours in the F-4 Phantom II and 1,500 hours in other types, including the F-16C. He was formerly the commander of the 82d ATRS, said Lena Lopez, spokesperson for the 53d WEG. From 1 January to 12 December 2014, civilians flew 337 of the 526 sorties in QF-16s and QF-4s, or 64 percent, flown by the 82d. Civilians make up 60 percent of the 82d pilots, active duty military pilots comprise the other 40 percent.


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## mhansen2

7 November

1805 – Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean. Their survival over the ‘04-’05 winter was attributed to the help of the Nez Perce Indians.

1861 - CSS Winslow was a Confederate side-wheel steamer of 207 tons, built in 1846 at New York City. She hit a submerged wreck while trying to help the French corvette Prony at the entrance to Ocracoke Inlet, NC. The ship was set afire by the crew to avoid capture.

1862 - SS J. P. Smith was a blockade runner steamer reported as "wrotten" when captured by steamers USS Kinsman and Seger. She was run hard aground and burned at Bayou Cheval about 9 miles from Grand Lake, LA (?).

1862 - SV Thomas B. Wales was a Union East India Trader of 599 tons. She was carrying a cargo of jute, linseed and 1,700 bags of saltpeter from Calcutta, India for Boston when she was captured and burned off New England by sloop-of-war CSS Alabama.

1864 - Union sloop Buckskin was burned on Chopawamsic Creek, VA. after being recaptured by steamer USS Anacostia from the Confederates.

1915 – The Austrian submarine U-38 shells and then torpedoes the liner, Ancona bound for New York from Italy. Among the 208 dead are 25 US citizens. The Austrian response to the protests of the US government is considered inadequate.

1948 - Second prototype Republic XR-12 Rainbow, 44-91003, crashes at 1300 hrs. while returning to Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The number 2 (port inner) engine exploded as the aircraft was returning from a photographic suitability test flight. The pilot was unable to maintain control due to violent buffeting, and he ordered the crew to bail out. Five of the seven crew escaped safely, including pilot Lynn Hendrix, rescued by Eglin crash boats and helicopters. Airframe impacts two miles S of the base, in the Choctawhatchee Bay. Sgt. Vernon B. Palmer, 20, and M/Sgt. Victor C. Riberdy, 30, who lived at Auxiliary Field 5, but were from Hartford, Connecticut, are KWF.

1953 - People's Republic of China PLAAF pilot Xicai Lin claimed to have shot down a US Navy PBM-5A Mariner at Qianlidao in Qingdao. This might have been BuNo 58152, reported lost over the Yellow Sea on November 10th with a crew of 14.

1954 - A US Air Force RB-29 Superfortress reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by Soviet fighters, flown by Kostin and Seberyakov, near Hokkaido Island in northern Japan. The plane carrying a crew of eleven was conducting routine photographic reconnaissance near Hokkaido and the southern most of the disputed Kuril Islands. The plane was attacked and seriously damaged, forcing the crew to bail out. Ten crewmen were successfully rescued after landing in the sea; however, the eleventh man drowned when he became entangled in his parachute lines after landing.

1957 – The final report from a special committee called by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to review the nation’s defense readiness indicates that the United States is falling far behind the Soviets in missile capabilities and urges a vigorous campaign to build fallout shelters to protect American citizens.

Headed by Ford Foundation Chairman H. Rowan Gaither, the committee concluded that the United States was in danger of losing a war against the Soviets. President Eisenhower was less impressed. Intelligence provided by U-2 spy plane flights over Russia indicated that the Soviets were not the mortal threat suggested by the Gaither Report. Eisenhower, a fiscal conservative, was also reluctant to commit to the tremendously increased military budget called for by the committee.

1958 - A US Air Force RB-47 Stratojet was attacked by Soviet fighters east of Gotland Island over the Baltic Sea. The crew of three were not injured and the aircraft returned safely to base.

1963 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 25,085 meters (82,304 feet) and Mach 4.40.

1969 – Former USS Bream (AGSS-243) was sunk as a target by USS Sculpin (SSN-590).

1971 - A U.S. Air Force McDonnell F-4D-27-MC Phantom II, 65-0653, c/n 1657, 'HO' tailcode, of the 7th TFS, 49th TFW, based at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, and a U.S. Air Force Convair F-106A-130-CO Delta Dart, 59-0125, of the 84th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, Hamilton AFB, California, suffer mid-air collision and crash in isolated areas near Nellis AFB, Nevada. All three crew eject and survive. The F-4 crew comprise Maj. Henry J. Viccellio and Maj. James A. Robertson. The Phantom comes down 35 miles from Caliente, Nevada, the Delta Dart attempts recovery to Nellis but pilot Maj. Clifford L. Lowrey ejects eight miles NE of base.

1973 – Congress overrode President Nixon’s veto of the War Powers Act, which limits a chief executive’s power to wage war without congressional approval. The act requires the president to inform Congress within forty-eight hours of military action in a hostile area. Forces must be removed within sixty to ninety days unless Congress approves of the action or declares war.

1978 - USN Douglas A-4F Skyhawk Blue Angel, BuNo 155056, crashes during pre-show exhibition at NAS Miramar, San Diego, California. Pilot, Lt. Mike Curtin, dead on impact, no ejection.

1998 – The shuttle Discovery (STS-95) landed in Cape Canaveral, FL after 9 days in space.  The crew included 77-year-old John Glenn who was visibly weak but elated after the mission.

2003 – The US and Russia signed an agreement under which Russia would retrieve, within the next 5 to 10 years, uranium from research reactors in 17 countries.


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## mhansen2

8 November

1864 – “D. Godfrey” was a Union bark that was carrying a cargo of beef and pork. She was captured in mid-Atlantic by sailing ship CSS Shenandoah and set on fire after the removal of the cargo.

1889 – Montana became the 41st state. The state’s name is derived from the Spanish word montaña (mountain). Montana has several nicknames, although none official, including “Big Sky Country” and “The Treasure State.”  (YAY!  My home state.)

1898 – The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, the only instance of an attempted coup d’état in American history. The Wilmington Coup d’Etat of 1898, also known as the Wilmington Massacre of 1898 or the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898, occurred in Wilmington, North Carolina starting on November 10, 1898 and continued for several days.

1916 – “SS Columbian” was an American cargo steamer of 8,580 grt that was captured and sunk with explosives by German submarine U-49 when 50 miles NW of Cape Ortegal, Spain and en route from New York & Boston via St. Nazaire for Genoa with a general cargo and steel plate.

1916 - Lieutenant Clarence K. Bronson, Naval Aviator No. 15, and Lieutenant Luther Welsh, on an experimental bomb test flight at Naval Proving Ground, Indian Head, Maryland, were instantly killed by the premature explosion of a bomb in their plane.

1923 – Adolf Hitler, president of the far-right Nazi Party, launches the Beer Hall Putsch, his first attempt at seizing control of the German government. After World War I, the victorious allies demanded billions of dollars in war reparations from Germany. Efforts by Germany’s democratic government to comply hurt the country’s economy and led to severe inflation. The German mark, which at the beginning of 1921 was valued at five marks per dollar, fell to a disastrous four billion marks per dollar in 1923. Meanwhile, the ranks of the nationalist Nazi Party swelled with resentful Germans who sympathized with the party’s bitter hatred of the democratic government, leftist politics, and German Jews.

1938 - Col. Leslie MacDill, commissioned in the Coast Artillery in 1912, became a military pilot in 1914, and commanded an aerial gunnery school in St. Jean de Monte, France in World War I, is killed this date in the crash of his North American BC-1, 37–670, of the 1st Staff Squadron, at 1807 13th Street, SE, Anacostia, D.C. after take-off from Bolling Field. Southeast Air Base, Tampa, Florida, is renamed MacDill Field on 1 December 1939. Also killed is Private Joseph G. Gloxner. Two other sources give date of 9 November for accident.

1943 - Boeing B-17F-75-DL Flying Fortress 42-3553, c/n 8489, 'QJ-H', "Sad Sack", of the 339th Bomb Squadron, 96th Bomb Group, crashes at Middle Farm, West Harling, Norfolk, United Kingdom shortly after taking off from RAF Snetterton Heath with the loss of all ten crew.

1944 – 1st Lt. Edward R. “Buddy” Haydon, in his P-51D Mustang of the 357th Fighter Group killed Major Walter Nowotny, commander of Kommando Nowotny, flying the Me-262 jet fighter. This event almost caused Hitler to kill the jet fighter program.

1945 – Former USS Hogan (DD-178/DMS-6/AG-105) was sunk as a target in bombing tests off San Diego.

1950 – During the Korean conflict the first all-jet air combat took place over Korea as U.S. Air Force Lieut. Russell J. Brown, piloting an F-80 Shooting Star, shot down two North Korean MiG-15s. It lasted about 30 seconds.

1950 - Boeing SB-17G Flying Fortress, 43-39364, of the 3d Air Rescue Squadron, is heavily damaged while parked when struck by SB-17G, 43-39365, of the same unit, at Ashiya Air Base, Japan, when its hydraulics failed. The noses of both are wrecked and both are written off.

1953 - Eight U.S. Marine Corps pilots avoid disaster when their fighters run low on fuel during a flight from Puerto Rico to a Marine Corps base near Miami, Florida. Three pilots, Capt. William H. Johnson, of Miami, Lt. Thomas D. White, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Lt. Forest G. Dawson, of Tucson, Arizona, are forced to ditch in the ocean due to fuel exhaustion but are rescued by nearby ships in a short time. Five other planes are forced down at Homestead AFB, Florida, S of Miami, where one, flown by Capt. Donald Edwards, of Opa-locka, Florida, overshoots the field, ending up in a canal.

1956 – Navy Stratolab balloon (LCDRs Malcolm D. Ross and M. Lee Lewis) better world height record soaring to 76,000 feet over Black Hills, SD, on flight to gather meteorological, cosmic ray, and other scientific data.

1982 - A United States Air Force in Europe F-4 crashed near Hannover, West Germany, both crew killed.

1998 – Lockheed S-3B Viking, BuNo 159733, of VS-22 lands on the deck of USS Enterprise (CVN-65) at 1918 hrs. during night landing requalifications off the Virginia coast. At 1920 hrs. an EA-6B Prowler, BuNo 163885, of VAQ-130 receives a wave-off due to the deck still being fouled, but its starboard wing strikes the Viking. The Prowler continues over the side as all four crew eject, as well as two crew from the S-3. The Viking crew are recovered, but the Prowler crew are all casualties with only one body recovered. Deck fire is brought under control in seven minutes. The damaged S-3B is also jettisoned.

2007 - A US Army UH-60 Black Hawk, operating from Aviano Air Base, Italy, crashes at 1217 hrs. near the Piave River, killing all seven on board, a mixed crew of Army and Air Force personnel. KWF are Air Force Capt. Cartize Durnham, Staff Sgt. Robert Rogers, Staff Sgt. Mark Spence, Senior Airman Kenneth Hauprich, Army Capt. Christian Skoglund and Chief Warrant Officer Two Davidangelo Alvarez. One year later, on the anniversary of the accident, members of the Aviano Air Base and Santa Lucia di Piave communities joined to unveil a special memorial honoring those U.S. military members who lost their lives in the crash and to remember those Italian World War I heroes of Piave.


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## mhansen2

9 November

1620 – Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower sight land at Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

1822 – The Action of 9 November 1822 between schooner USS Alligator and a squadron of pirate schooners off the coast of Cuba. Fifteen leagues from Matanzas, Cuba, a large band of pirates captured several vessels and held them for ransom. Upon hearing of the pirate attacks, the Alligator under Lieutenant William Howard Allen rushed to the scene to rescue the vessels and seize the pirates. Upon arriving at the bay where the pirates were said to be, USS Alligator dispatched boats to engage the enemy vessels, as the water was too shallow for the American warship to engage them herself. With Allen personally commanding one of the boats, the Americans assaulted the piratical schooner Revenge. Although the Americans were able to force the pirates into abandoning Revenge, the buccaneers managed to fight their way out of the bay and inflict heavy casualties among the Americans, including Allen. With their commander mortally wounded, the Americans ceased pursuit of the pirates but managed to recover the vessels that had been held in the bay.

1862 – General US Grant issued orders to bar Jews from serving under him. The order was quickly rescinded.

1862 – “Osprey” was a Confederate steamer that was captured and burned along with the J. P. Smith by sidewheel steamer USS Kinsman in Bayou Cheval, about 9 miles from Grand Lake, LA.

1875 – Indian Inspector E.C. Watkins submits a report to Washington, D.C., stating that hundreds of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians associated with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse are hostile to the United States. In so doing, Watkins set into motion a series of events that led to the Battle of the Little Big Born in Montana the following year. Seven years before the Watkins report, a portion of the Teton Sioux, who lived with Chief Red Cloud, made peace with the U.S. in exchange for a large reservation in the Black Hills of the Dakotas. However, some Sioux refused the offer of confinement on a reservation, and instead united around Chief Sitting Bull and his leading warrior, Crazy Horse. The wisdom of their resistance seemed confirmed in 1874 when the discovery of gold in the Black Hills set off an invasion of Anglo miners into the Sioux reservation. When the U.S. did nothing to stop this illegal violation of lands promised to the Sioux by treaty, more Indians left the reservation in disgust and joined Sitting Bull to hunt buffalo on the plains of Wyoming and Montana. In November 1875, Watkins reported that the free-roaming Indians were hostile. The government responded by ordering that the Indians “be informed that they must remove to a reservation before the 31st of January 1876,” and promised that if they refused, “they would be turned over to the War Department for punishment.” However, by the time couriers carried the message to the Sioux it was already winter and traveling 200 miles to the reservation across frozen ground with no grass for their ponies or food for themselves was an impossible request. When, as expected, the Sioux missed the deadline, the matter was turned over to the War Department. In March 1876, the former Civil War hero General Phillip Sheridan ordered a large force of soldiers to trap the Sioux and force them back to the reservations. Among the officers leading the force was George Armstrong Custer, who later that year lead his famous “last stand” against Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

1918 - USS Saetia (ID-2317), on a voyage from Bordeaux to Philadelphia in ballast, was sunk by a mine from the German submarine U-117 (Otto Dröscher), 25 miles off Ocean City, MD. There were no casualties.

1949 - A US Navy Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer on a training flight crash landed south of Mikkalo, Oregon, after all four engines "froze up" in flight. One fatality.

1950 - Boeing RB-29A Superfortress, 44-61813, c/n 11290, built as a B-29A-50-MO, modified to F-13A, redesignated RB-29A, Circle X tailcode, of the 31st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, damaged by MiG-15s, during touch-down at Johnson Air Base, Japan, lands too hot and with too much nose-down attitude, overshoots runway, ends up in a cabbage patch, airframe breaks into five major portions. Small fire extinguished quickly but it is written off. Five crew died.

1950 – Task Force 77 makes first attack on the Yalu River bridges. In his F9F Panther, LCDR William T. Amen, of VF-111 off USS Philippine Sea (CV-47), shoots down a MIG-15 and becomes first Navy pilot to shoot down a jet aircraft.

1950 – Corporal Harry J. LaVene, a tail gunner on an RB-29 over Sinuiju, became the first aerial gunner to shoot down a MiG-15.

1954 - North American F-100A-5-NA Super Sabre, 52-5771, c/n 192–16, crashes in Nevada, after control is lost during a gunnery test sortie. Pilot Maj. Frank N. Emory, of Mount Vernon, Washington, ejects, receiving only minor injuries. The Air Force grounds the new fighter on 10 November after this, the fifth loss of the type in just a few months. At this point, the USAF had about 70 of the aircraft. Instability problems are found to be largely due to insufficient tail area which is then increased and the design modified. The F-100 grounding order is lifted in early February 1955.

1956 - Second prototype Martin XP6M-1 Seamaster, BuNo 138822, c/n XP-2, first flown 18 May 1956, crashes at 1536 hrs. near Odessa, Delaware, due to faulty elevator jack. As seaplane noses up at ~21,000 feet (6,400 m) and fails to respond to control inputs, crew of 4 ejects, pilot Robert S. Turner, co-pilot William Cunningham, and two crew all parachuting to safety. Airframe breaks up after falling to 6,000 feet (1,800 m) before impact.

1957 - A Convair RB-36H-10-CF Peacemaker, 51-5745, of the 71st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, is destroyed by an explosion and groundfire at Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico, all crew members survive. This is the 32nd B-36 written-off in an accident of 385 built and will be the last operational loss before the type is retired.

1961 – Test pilot Robert White flew the X-15 to 30,968 meters (101,606 feet) and Mach 6.04.

1962 - Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 16,444 meters (53,952 feet) and Mach 1.49. Following the launch from the B-52, McKay started the rocket engine only to discover that it produced just 30 percent of its maximum thrust. He had to make a high-speed emergency landing on Mud Lake, NV, without flaps but with a significant amount of fuel still in the aircraft. As the X-15 slid across the lakebed, the left skid collapsed; the aircraft turned sideways and flipped onto its back. McKay suffered back injuries but was eventually able to resume X-15 pilot duties, making 22 more flights. The X-15 was sent back to North American Aviation and rebuilt into the X-15A-2.

1979 – In a nuclear false alarm, the NORAD computers and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland detected purported massive Soviet nuclear strike. After reviewing the raw data from satellites and checking the early-warning radars, the alert is cancelled.

1989 – East German officials today opened the Berlin Wall, allowing travel from East to West Berlin. The following day, celebrating Germans began to tear the wall down. One of the ugliest and most infamous symbols of the Cold War was soon reduced to rubble that was quickly snatched up by souvenir hunters.

1989 - A U.S. Navy LTV A-7E Corsair II of VA-205, preparing to land at Naval Air Station Atlanta, Dobbins Air Force Base, Georgia, piloted by LCDR Robert Conlyn, Jr., crashes into the Pine Village North apartment complex in Smyrna, Georgia, and bursts into flames. Two civilians killed and four injured. Conlyn, call sign Cougar, stayed with the aircraft until the last possible moment. Conlyn suffered serious injuries but survived.

2004 - A U.S. Navy McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18C Block 51 Hornet, 165226, of VFA-131 crashed 15 miles E of Nellis AFB, Nevada, after in-flight fire and becoming uncontrollable shortly after takeoff. Pilot ejects safely.

2016 – Two F/A-18A-20-MC Hornets of VMFA-314, 163102 and 163137, collided in midair off the coast of California. The pilot of 163102 ejected and was rescued, 163137 recovered to NAS North Island, CA.


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## mhansen2

10 November

1775 – During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress passes a resolution stating that “two Battalions of Marines be raised” for service as landing forces for the recently formed Continental Navy. The resolution, drafted by future U.S. president John Adams and adopted in Philadelphia, created the Continental Marines and is now observed as the birth date of the United States Marine Corps.

1782 – In the last battle of the American Revolution, George Rodgers Clark attacked Indians and Loyalists at Chillicothe, in Ohio Territory.

1808 – In a decision that would eventually make them one of the wealthiest surviving Indian nations, the Osage Indians agree to abandon their lands in Missouri and Arkansas in exchange for a reservation in Oklahoma. The Osage proved unusually successful in adapting to the demands of living in a world dominated by Anglo-Americans, thanks in part to the fortunate presence of large reserves of oil and gas on their Oklahoma reservation. In concert with their effective management of grazing contracts to Anglos, the Osage amassed enormous wealth during the twentieth century from their oil and gas deposits, eventually becoming the wealthiest tribe in North America.

1863 – “Winged Racer” was a Union Clipper of 1,768 tons carrying a cargo of sugar, china, camphor, hides and 5,180 bales of Mainla hemp. She was out of New York City and on route from Manila, Philippines for New York City when she was captured and burned by sloop-of-war CSS Alabama.

1864 – “Susan” was a Union cargo ship carrying a cargo of coal. She was captured and scuttled by steamer CSS Shenandoah SW of the Cape Verde Islands.

1865 – “Patroon” (ex-USS Patroon) was a Union screw steamer of 237 tons, built in 1859 at Philadelphia for the Union Navy. USS Patroon was decommissioned on end 1862 and sold to the War Department end 1863 (?). Patroon was sunk at Brazos, Texas.

1865 – Henry Wirz, a Swiss immigrant and the commander of Andersonville prison in Georgia, is hanged for the murder of soldiers incarcerated at his prison.

1879 – Little Bighorn participant Major Marcus Reno was caught window-peeping at the daughter of his commanding officer–an offense for which he would be court-martialed. (chuckle)

1918 – The Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, receives a top-secret coded message from Europe (that would be sent to Ottawa and Washington, D.C.) that said on November 11, 1918, all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air.

1936 - U.S. Navy Aviation Cadet William H. Jones, in a Grumman F3F-1, BuNo 221 on approach to USS Ranger (CV-4) operating in the Pacific, accidentally flies into the foremast of plane guard destroyer. Plane and body sink in 4,600 feet of water.

1940 - Three die in the crash of North American O-47A, 37–320, of the 1st Observation Squadron, based at Marshall Field, Fort Riley, Kansas, when it strikes a hillside 10 miles S of Centerville, Alabama, in a rainstorm and burns. Piloted by Lt. Richard R. Wilson, assigned at Fort Riley, the other victims are Lt. Benjamin F. Avery, of Aurora, New York, and Pvt. G. A. Catlin, assigned at Maxwell Field, Alabama. The flight left Candler Field at Atlanta at 1545 hrs. bound for Maxwell Field at Montgomery. "N. B. Poe, who lives two miles from the crash scene, pulled the three bodies from the burning wreckage and called air corps officials at Maxwell Field, Ala."

1943 - Boeing B-17G-15-DL Flying Fortress, 42-37831, c/n 8517, suffered a hydraulics and brakes failure at RAF Snetterton Heath and was written off.

1943 - U.S. Navy Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat, BuNo 25974, '30', of VF-2, on a routine training exercise off of USS Enterprise (CV-6) en route to Makin Atoll, piloted by Ensign (later Lieutenant) Byron Milton Johnson of Potter, Nebraska, suffers engine problems, makes emergency landing, catches 3 wire on his third attempt, slams into deck and ends up with port landing gear leg in the port catwalk near 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns. Airframe rests on belly tank, which begins to leak, propeller blades turning against deck edge emit sparks which set fuel alight. Hard landing jams canopy, retaining pin sheared. One of the Pacific war's iconic images is caught as Lieutenant (later Lieutenant Commander) Walter Lewis Chewning of Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, Enterprise’s new catapult officer, rescues Johnson, stepping on the burning tank to reach the cockpit. While waiting for '30' to be cleared from the deck, Ensign S. S. Osbourne in F6F-3, BuNo 25985, has to ditch. USS Brown (DD-546) picks Osbourne up. Both Hellcats written off. "Chewning was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his actions. The commander of VF-2's Air Group, famed fighter pilot Edward "Butch" O'Hare (March 13, 1914 – November 26, 1943) recommended that night that all pilots drop their external tank before landing to prevent such an accident repeating."
File:EnterpriseBurningHellcat.jpg - Wikipedia

1944 – USS Mount Hood (AE-11) is destroyed by accidental ammunition explosion in Seeadler Harbor, Manus, Admiralty Islands.

The cataclysmic blast damages nearby escort carriers Petrof Bay (CVE-80) and Saginaw Bay (CVE-82), destroyer Young (DD-580), destroyer escorts Kyne (DE-744), Lyman (DE-302), Walter C. Wann (DE-412), and Oberrender (DE-344), high speed transport Talbot (APD-7), destroyer tender Piedmont (AD-17), miscellaneous auxiliary Argonne (AG-31), cargo ship Aries (AK-51), attack cargo ship Alhena (AKA-9), oiler Cacapon (AO-52), internal combustion engine repair ships Cebu (ARG-6) and Mindanao (ARG-3), repair ship Preserver, fleet tug Potawatomi (ATF-109), motor minesweepers YMS-1, YMS-39, YMS-49, YMS-52, YMS-71, YMS-81, YMS-140, YMS-238, YMS-243, YMS-286, YMS-293, YMS-319, YMS-335, YMS-340, YMS-341, and YMS-342, unclassified auxiliary Abarenda (IX-131), covered lighter YF-681, fuel oil barge YO-77

Mount Hood has an estimated 3,000 tons of explosives on board, and except for a working party from the ship that is ashore at the time, her entire ship´s company perishes.
http://www.jag.navy.mil/library/investigations/MT HOOD EXPLOSION 10 NOV 44.pdf

1944 - "Clovis, N. M., Nov. 12 (UP) - Six officers and nine enlisted men were killed Friday night when a four-engined bomber crashed and burned about 25 miles southeast of the Clovis Army air field." Boeing B-29A-1-BN Superfortress, 42-93832, c/n 7329, delivered to the USAAF 15 April 1944, assigned to the Combat Crew Training Squadron, 234th Army Air Force Base Unit, Clovis AAF, piloted by Thomas R. Opie, is listed by two sources as having crashed approximately 25 miles NE of the airfield, at variance with the initial United Press report.

1948 – Former USS Pensacola (CA-24) survived the two atomic bomb tests of Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll.  After the tests, her hulk was turned over to the custody of Joint Task Force One for radiological and structural studies. On completion of these studies, she was sunk as a target off the Washington coast.

1950 - A USAF Boeing B-50 Superfortress of the 43d Bomb Wing on a routine weapons ferrying flight between Goose Bay, Labrador and its home base at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, loses two of four engines. To maintain altitude, it jettisons empty Mark 4 nuclear bomb casing just before 1600 hrs. at 10,500 feet (3,200 m) above the St. Lawrence River near the town of St. Alexandre-de-Kamouraska about 90 miles (140 km) northeast of Quebec, Canada. HE in the casing observed detonating upon impact in the middle of the twelve-mile (19 km)-wide river, blast felt for 25 miles (40 km). Official Air Force explanation at the time is that the Superfortress released three conventional 500-pound HE bombs.

1959 - The combination of a blizzard and a blocked runway at Malmstrom AFB, Great Falls, Montana leads to the loss of three Northrop F-89 Scorpions. During a blizzard the runway was unusable due to a Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star which had sheared its landing gear on touch down. The Scorpions and an undisclosed number of other aircraft were returning to the base low on fuel and in near zero visibility. Four were lost in two of the crashed planes while the two-man crew of the third parachuted to safety. No one was injured in the T-33 incident.

1963 - SAC Boeing WB-47E Stratojet, 51-2420, built as B-47E-60-BW and modified to weather reconnaissance variant, making emergency landing at Lajes Air Base, Azores, skids into parking ramp, strikes Boeing C-97C Stratofreighter, 50-0690, loses port inner engine nacelle (numbers 2 and 3), starboard outer nacelle (number 6) and starboard wingtip. Fire damages port inner wing above lost nacelle. Crew survives.

1975 – *(Civilian ship loss)* SS Edmund Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin on the afternoon of November 9, 1975 under Captain Ernest M. McSorley. She was en-route to the steel mill on Zug Island, near Detroit, Michigan, with a full cargo of taconite. A second freighter, Arthur M. Anderson, destined for Gary, Indiana out of Two Harbors, Minnesota, joined up with Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, being the faster ship, took the lead while Anderson trailed not far behind.

Crossing Lake Superior at about 13 knots (15 mph/24 km/h), the boats encountered a massive winter storm, reporting winds in excess of 50 knots (58 mph/93 km/h) and waves as high as 35 feet (10 m). Because of the storm, the Soo Locks were closed. The freighters altered their courses northward, seeking shelter along the Canadian coast. Later, they would cross to Whitefish Bay and approach the Sault Ste. Marie locks.

On the afternoon of November 10, the Fitzgerald reported a minor list developing and top-side damage including the loss of radar, but did not indicate a serious problem. She slowed to come within range of receiving Anderson´s radar data and for a time Anderson guided the Fitzgerald toward the relative safety of Whitefish Bay. The last communication from the boat came at approximately 19:10 (7:10 PM), when Anderson notified Fitzgerald of being hit by rogue waves or perhaps seiche waves large enough to be caught on radar, that were heading Fitzgerald´s way and asked how she was doing. McSorley reported, "We are holding our own." A few minutes later, she suddenly sank – no distress signal was received. A short ten minutes later Anderson could neither raise Fitzgerald nor detect her on radar. At 20:32, Anderson informed the U.S. Coast Guard of their concern for the boat.

Once Anderson noted the loss of Fitzgerald, a search was launched for survivors. The initial search consisted of Anderson, and a second freighter, SS William Clay Ford. The efforts of a third freighter, the Canadian vessel Hilda Marjanne, were foiled by the weather. The U.S. Coast Guard launched three aircraft, but could not mobilize any ships. A Coast Guard buoy tender, Woodrush, was able to launch within two and a half hours, but took a day to arrive. The search recovered debris, including lifeboats and rafts, but no survivors.


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## mhansen2

11 November

1861 – Thaddeus Lowe made balloon observation of Confederate forces from Balloon- Boat G.W. Parke Custis anchored in Potomac River. G. W. Parke Custis was procured for $150 and readied for the service at the Washington Navy Yard.

Lowe reported: “I left the navy-yard early Sunday morning, the 10th instant– . . . towed out by the steamer Coeur de Lion, having on board competent assistant aeronauts, together with my new gas generating apparatus, which, though used for the first time, worked admirably. We located at the mouth of Mattawoman Creek, about three miles from the opposite or Virginia shore. [11 November] proceeded to make observations accompanied in my ascensions by General Sickles and others. We had a fine view of the enemy’s camp-fires during the evening, and saw the rebels constructing new batteries at Freestone Point.”

1863 – “Contest” was a Union Clipper of 1,098 tons built in 1863 at New York City. She was on route from Yokohama, Japan for New York City when she was captured and burned by sloop-of-war CSS Alabama off the Gaspar Strait connecting the Java Sea to the South China Sea.

1864 - USS Tulip was a Union screw steam gunboat of 240 tons, built in 1862 at Brooklyn, N.Y., intended as the lighthouse tender Chi Kiang for use in China. She was purchased by the Union Navy in 1863 and converted to a gunboat.

A defective boiler blew up with the ship off Piney Point near Ragged Point, Va. and she sank in about 60 feet of water in three minutes. Forty-nine were killed. The Union army tug Hudson brought ten survivors ashore.

1909 – Construction began on the naval base at Pearl Harbor.

1918 – At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends. At 5 a.m. that morning, Germany, bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiýgne, France.

1921 – Washington Naval Conference begins. More formally known as the International Conference on Naval Limitation, this disarmament effort was occasioned by the hugely expensive naval construction rivalry that existed among Britain, Japan and the United States.

1921 – Exactly three years after the end of World War I, the Tomb of the Unknowns is dedicated at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia during an Armistice Day ceremony presided over by President Warren G. Harding. Two days before, an unknown American soldier, who had fallen somewhere on a World War I battlefield, arrived at the nation’s capital from a military cemetery in France. On Armistice Day, in the presence of President Harding and other government, military, and international dignitaries, the unknown soldier was buried with highest honors beside the Memorial Amphitheater. As the soldier was lowered to his final resting place, a two-inch layer of soil brought from France was placed below his coffin so that he might rest forever atop the earth on which he died. The Tomb of the Unknowns is considered the most hallowed grave at Arlington Cemetery, America’s most sacred military cemetery. The tombstone itself, designed by sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones, was not completed until 1932, when it was unveiled bearing the description “Here Rests in Honored Glory an American Soldier Known but to God.”

1922 - 1st Lt. Frank B. Tyndall is the second U.S. Army Air Service pilot to utilize a parachute in a life-saving effort when the Boeing-built MB-3A, (probably AS-68380) he is testing at Seattle, Washington sheds its wings in flight almost directly over the Boeing factory. He would later perish on 15 July 1930 in the crash of Curtiss P-1F Hawk, 28–61, near Mooresville, North Carolina. Tyndall Air Force Base is named in his honor.

1940 – Willys unveiled the “Jeep.” The invitation to submit bids was sent to 135 U.S. automobile manufacturers to produce 70 vehicles; the small Bantam company managed to meet the deadline delivering the pilot model in September 23, 1940. Although it was 730 lbs. overweight it was judged good. Willys-Overland submitted crude sketches of their vehicle and underbid Bantam, although they could not meet the 75-day delivery period; after adding penalties for this the Bantam proposal was lower and this company received an order to produce 70 Model 60 or MKII. Willys Overland submitted two units of its pilot model, the Quad, on this day; this had many of the features from the Bantam as did another prototype from Ford, who delivered two of its Pigmy in November 23. Both Willys-Overland and Ford were given free access to Bantam’s prototype and blueprints, which goes a long way to explain the similarities. With all three prototypes satisfactory, the Army decided to order 1500 of each for field evaluation, with deliveries to begin in early 1941; each of the prototypes should suffer alterations to remedy deficiencies brought out by the testing. The modified versions were the Bantam 40 BRC, the Willys MA and the Ford GP (G for Government, P for 80″ wheelbase). In July 1941 the War Department decided to adopt one single model; Willys was selected because it bid lower than the others but the MA had to be redesigned in view of the experience gained with the tests. The redesigned model was named MB by Willys but the contracts to manufacture the vehicle went both to Willys and Ford, where it was named GPW (the W was added to refer to the Willys motor).

1942 – Congress approves lowering the draft age to 18 and raising the upper limit to age 37.

1943 - "Los Angeles, Nov. 12 (AP) - Sheriff's deputies and Army rescuers climbed rain-sodden, mountainous terrain tonight endeavoring to reach the wreckage of an Army twin-engine cargo plane which crashed late last night against Strawberry peak, in the Mt. Wilson area. Army officials said 13 persons, all military personnel, were aboard. The plane, en route from St. Joseph, Mo., to Mines field here, last reported by radio to Bakersfield about 8 p.m. yesterday. Flight officer Earl L. Olson of the air transport command's sixth ferrying group sighted the wreckage today. An Army spokesman said it had not been determined if any of the passengers survived." Douglas C-47B-1-DL Skytrain, 43-16143, c/n 20609, assigned to the 561st Base Unit, Rosecrans Field, Missouri, was piloted by Rae C. Kelly. Joe Baugher states that the aircraft was en route from Hamilton Field, San Rafael, California, when it crashed in Wildcat Gulch, in heavy clouds. Twelve killed, one survived. Follow-up coverage by the Associated Press, noted that two injured men were rescued from the site, PM 3/c Buford Chism, and Cpl. Kenneth Bedford, home towns not listed, who were taken to the Pasadena area Army hospital. "Not all the 11 victims died instantly when the plane struck the peak, rebounded and disintegrated, scattering bodies and wreckage in Wildcat canyon in the Mt. Wilson area. 'We heard one man, somewhere down in the canyon, crying for help during the night,' rescuers quoted the sailor. 'We tried to locate and help him, but in our condition, we couldn't get down there. We heard him dying.' Deputies said the sailor had disregarded his own injuries to minister to the Negro soldier, more seriously hurt. The dead, they added, included three Majors and several Navy men." An Army nurse was among the victims.

1944 – Private Eddie Slovik was convicted of desertion and sentenced to death for refusing to join his unit in the European Theater of Operations.

1950 - A Fairchild C-82A-FA Packet, 45-57739, c/n 10109, of the 375th Troop Carrier Wing (Medium), en route from Maxwell AFB, Alabama, and due to land at Greenville AFB, South Carolina, at 2230 hrs., crashes near Pickens, South Carolina, ~40 miles W of the destination, shortly after 2200 hrs.  On approach to Greenville, the aircraft strikes Bully Mountain in northern Pickens County, killing three crew and one passenger. KWF are Capt. John Miles Stuckrath, pilot; 1st Lt. Robert P. Schmitt, co-pilot; and S/Sgt. John Davis Bloomer; all were attached to Greenville AFB and were part of a Pittsburgh reserve wing called to active duty on 15 October 1950. The passenger was S/Sgt. Walter O. Lott, of Pensacola, Florida. He was a member of a Maxwell AFB unit. "The plane apparently began to plunge after it sheared off tree tops. It cut a cyclonic gap through the immense trees for about 100 yards and plowed into the 2,500-foot mountain near its peak. The impact of the crash sent one motor hurling 800 feet down one side of the mountain, and the other motor landed 500 feet down the opposite side." A post-crash fire burned two acres of forest land. The aircraft had just been overhauled at McChord Air Force Base, Washington, and had refueled at Maxwell AFB before transiting to its new assignment at Greenville AFB.

1962 - A U.S. Air Force Boeing RB-47H Stratojet, AF Ser. No. 53-4297, of the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, crashes at MacDill AFB, Florida, when the Stratojet loses power on an outboard engine, rolls, and crashes within the confines of the base. All three crew KWF – aircraft commander Captain William E. Wyatt, copilot Captain William C. Maxwell, and navigator 1st Lieutenant Rawl.

1966 - A U.S. Air Force Lockheed EC-121H-LO Warning Star of the 551st AEWCW, out of Otis AFB, Massachusetts, crashes in the North Atlantic ~125 miles E of Nantucket, Massachusetts by unexplained circumstances, approximately the same general area as the one lost 11 July 1965. All 19 crew members are KWF, bodies never recovered.

1966 - Republic F-84F Thunderstreak of the 104th Tactical Fighter Group, Massachusetts Air National Guard out of Barnes Municipal Airport, Westfield, Massachusetts, goes into flat spin during simulated combat over Porter, Maine and crashes on Colcord Pond Road in Freedom, New Hampshire. Capt. Edward S. Mansfield has minor injuries; plane is destroyed.

1970 - A U.S. Air Force McDonnell F-4C-24-MC Phantom II, 64-0863, c/n 1238, 'WS' tailcode, of the 91st Tactical Fighter Squadron, 81st Tactical Fighter Wing, crashes in the North Sea after an engine fire. Both crew members eject. Capt. Johnny Jones, 28, of Snow Hill, North Carolina, and Capt. David Allen, 27, of Darien, Connecticut are rescued by helicopter, officials at Ruislip, England said.

1978 – Veteran’s Day, originally known as Armistice Day, became a national holiday in 1938. It was changed back by Congress in this year to this day rather than the 4th Monday of October, which had been set in 1968.

1978 – Former USS Dionysus (AR-21) was sunk as an artificial reef off Oregon Inlet, by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries for that state’s Artificial Reefs Program.

1992 – By letter, Russian President Boris Yeltsin told U.S. senators that Americans had been held in prison camps after World War II and some were “summarily executed,” but that others were still living in his country voluntarily.

1993 – A bronze statue honoring the more than 11,000 American women who had served in the Vietnam War was dedicated in Washington, D.C.


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## mhansen2

12 November

1922 - "HARTFORD, Conn., Nov. 12. - Lieut. John Blaney, army flier, from Mitchel Field, Long Island, was instantly killed this afternoon at Brainard Municipal field here while taking part in an airplane relay in the Hartford aviation meet. His plane struck a tree and crashed when about to land. Lieutenant Blaney was completing the third of the race and flew close to the ground. He was flying about 140 miles an hour when the plane hit the tree. He was instantly killed." He was flying Atlantic DH.4M-2, AS-63626, of the 5th Observation Squadron.

1922 - Lt. Cdr. Godfrey DeCourcelles Chevalier, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1910, who was appointed a Naval Air Pilot No. 7 on 7 November 1915 and a Naval Aviator No. 7 on 7 November 1918, crashes in a Vought VE-7 while en route from NAS Norfolk to Yorktown, Virginia, dying in Portsmouth Naval Hospital on 14 November as a result of his injuries. On 26 October 1922 Lieutenant Commander Chevalier made the first landing on board USS Langley (CV-1) in an Aeromarine 39-B, A-606.

1944 - Douglas C-54A-1-DO Skymaster, 42-107427, c/n 7446/DO 54, of Air Transport Command, strikes the side of a mountain near Cape St. George on the southwestern tip of Port au Port Peninsula, Newfoundland, ~30 miles W of Ernest Harmon Field where it was due to land.
"HARMON FIELD, Newfoundland, Nov. 14 (AP) - Army officials announced today that nine persons were killed and nine others injured in a crash Sunday of an army transport plane against the side of a mountain 30 miles west of the air transport command base here. Army officials said the plane was en route overseas and had left La Guardia Field, N. Y., late Saturday night. It was operated by a commercial airline under contract to the army. E. C. Watkins, pilot, of Long Island, N. Y., was killed, as were four others of the civilian crew of six. Four of the dead and all the injured were servicemen. The crash occurred shortly after 1:28 a. m. Sunday morning after the plane had reported by radio to the Harmon field tower preparatory to landing. The plane was discovered about five hours later by searching planes near the tip of the Port au Port peninsula. The army announcement said operations officers reported visibility was good at the time of the crash but added that a heavy southeasterly wind was blowing." The Aviation Archeology site lists the pilot as Edwin C. Watkins.

1973 - U.S. Navy Ling-Temco-Vought A-7A-4c-CV Corsair II, BuNo 153256, 'NF', of VA-93, assigned to USS Midway (CV-41), crashes into Mount Fuji during a night training flight out of NAF Atsugi, killing Lt. Richard L. "Sparky" Pierson. According to fellow aviator Ens. George Zolla, of VF-161, Pierson "thought he was cleared to a lower altitude than he really was." This airframe saw combat in 1968 with VA-82.

1983 - McDonnell-Douglas F-15A-16-MC Eagle, 76-076, c/n 0265/A228, of the 71st Tactical Fighter Squadron, 1st Tactical Fighter Wing, jumps chocks during an engine run at Langley AFB, Virginia, and collides with F-15, 76–071, c/n 0259/A223, of the same units. Both are repaired. 76-076 is later placed on display in park near DeBary, Florida, marked as 85-0125, in memory of an airman killed in the Khobar Towers terrorist bombing.

2013 - An unarmed New York Air National Guard (NYANG) UAV crashed into Lake Ontario during a training exercise. The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper of NYANG 174th Fighter Wing took off from the Wheeler Sack Army Airfield at Fort Drum, New York, as part of a mission training pilots for the USAF, NYANG Colonel Greg Semmel said.


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## mhansen2

13 November

1863 – “Sunnyside” was a Union side-wheel steamer of 330 tons, built in 1860 at Brownsville, Pa that was burned at Pomeroy, Ohio, near Island No.16. There were 30 to 40 casualties. She was carrying a cargo of 1,130 bales of cotton.

1864 – “Lizzie M. Stacey” was a Union schooner carrying a cargo of pine salt and iron from Boston to Honolulu when she was captured and burned by steamer CSS Shenandoah near the equator.

1900 – USS Yosemite was an auxiliary cruiser built as “El Sud” in 1892 and acquired by the Navy on 6 April 1898. She was blown from her anchorage in Apra Harbor, Guam by a particularly violent hurricane—first ashore and then out to sea. For two days, her crew fought to save their ship, but she took on water badly and, due to a damaged screw, made only two knots headway even after the storm passed. Finally, after the weather abated completely, her crew was taken off by collier USS Justin and Yosemite was scuttled.

1932 - "SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Nov. 14 - Lt. Walter Andrew Oglesby, 23, eighth attack squadron, was instantly killed yesterday when the landing gear of his airplane caught on a high-tension wire as he flew near Randolph Field here. The plane was demolished. Oglesby's home is in Charlotte, S.C." Curtiss A-3B Falcon, 30-14, out of Fort Crockett, Texas, crashed 10 miles E of San Antonio.

1944 - Douglas C-47-DL Skytrain, 41-7834, c/n 4333, crashes three miles NW of Casper Army Air Base, Wyoming, shortly after takeoff, killing four Army officers, two Marines, a sailor, a WAVE, and three soldiers. Airframe SOC on 14 November 1944. The Aviation Archaeological Investigation and Research website lists the pilot as Sig O. Owens, and the aircraft as assigned to the 7th Ferrying Squadron, at Gore Field, Montana; however, that unit and base assignment ended when the 7th Ferrying Squadron disbanded on 1 April 1944.

1944 - "March Field, California, Nov. 13 (UP) - Six crew men were killed here today when a twin-engined medium bomber crashed near the barracks area, narrowly missing two dormitory buildings which were slightly damaged when the plane burst into flame. Occupants of the barracks escaped injury. The plane had last taken off from Coolidge field, Ariz., Col. Leroy A. Walthall, base commandant, said, but he was unable to disclose its home base." North American B-25J-20/22-NC Mitchell, 44-29665, of the 5053d AAF Base Unit, Mather Field, California, piloted by George F. Tobola, spun in.

1947 - Boeing B-29A-60-BN Superfortress, 44-62063, of the 98th Bomb Group, Spokane Air Force Base, Washington, crashes and burns one mile W of Bald Knob on Mount Spokane alongside Dead Man Creek Road, killing five crew and leaving two seriously injured. The bomber cut a swath through trees and brush as it neared the ground. It was one of three flying in formation on a local training mission. The other aircraft circled the crash scene and radioed news of the incident back to base. The flying conditions were poor with a snowstorm accompanied by fog. Shortly after the crash the weather cleared. The last victim's body was recovered on Sunday morning 16 November.

1951 - A USAF Fairchild C-82A-FA Packet, 45-57801, c/n 10171, 'CQ-801', of the 11th Troop Carrier Squadron, 60th Troop Carrier Group, en route from Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany to Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport, France, goes off-course due to wind drift, compounded with having received weather briefings for 8,000 feet (2,400 m), but flew at 6,000 feet (1,800 m), hits the side of Mt. Dore in poor weather at ~1300 hrs., 20 miles (32 km) SW of Clermont-Ferrand, France. Six crew and 30 passengers all killed. It was transporting US Army postal workers to set up a military post office at Bordeaux, France. This remains the worst all-time C-82 accident in terms of human loss.

1957 – Former USS LSFF-788 (LC(FF)-788/LCI(L)-788?) and
former USS LSFF-1081 (LC(FF)-1081/LCI(L)-1081?) were sunk some 50 miles off the mouth of the Columbia River, WA.  Reasons unknown.

1958 - Seventh of 13 North American X-10s, GM-19313, c/n 7, on X-10 Drone BOMARC target mission 2, out of Cape Canaveral, Florida. The X-10 flies out over the ocean, then accelerates toward the Cape. However, the Bomarc A fails to launch. Autoland is successful, but again the drag chute and landing barrier both fail, and the vehicle burns after overrunning the runway.

1969 – Former USS Charles J. Kimmel (DE-584) was sunk as a target off California.

2004 – Former USS Conserver (ARS-39) was sunk as a target 60nm NW of Kauai, Hawaii.

2004 – Former USS Hayler (DD-997) was sunk as a target 375 nm East of Norfolk, Virginia.


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## mhansen2

14 November

1861 – “Hanging Rock” was a Confederate stern wheel paddle steamer of 96 tons built in 1859 at Portsmouth, Ohio. She ran aground and was stranded at Cannelton, Kentucky. The engine was salvaged.

1862 – “Victoria” was a Confederate side-wheel steamer of 487 tons, built in 1859 at Mystic, Conn. She was a sister ship to the USS Arizona. While carrying ammunition, Victoria was run into Atchafalaya Bay, Louisiana, set afire and blown up, off Last Island.

1913 - Wright Model C, Signal Corps 12, stalls and crashes into Manila Bay, the Philippines, killing the pilot. One source identifies him as Loren Call, while another gives his name as Lt. Perry Rich. The Almanac and Year-Book for 1914 gives his name as Lt. C. Perry Rich.

1929 - U.S. Navy Naval Aircraft Factory PN-11, BuNo A-7527, delivered 26 October 1929, catches fire at NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C., and is destroyed after only 13:06 flight hours.

1938 - Private Ben Fliegelman, U.S. Army Air Corps mechanic, of Brooklyn, New York, "borrows" an Air Corps Douglas B-18 Bolo bomber at Honolulu and takes it on an unauthorized five-mile flight before it makes a forced landing in a cane field. Fliegelman is slightly injured. On 31 January 1939, he will be found guilty at court martial of "misappropriating and causing to be damaged a B-18 airplane" and receives a dishonorable discharge and a five-year sentence at hard labor at Governor's Island, New York.

1963 – Test pilot Joe Engle flew the X-15 to 27,676 meters (90,805 feet) and Mach 4.75.

1967 - A USMC Bell UH-1E Iroquois, BuNo. 153757, of VMO-3, callsign Scarface 1-0, departs Phú Bài, South Vietnam, at 1040 hrs. with three crew, pilot Capt. Milton George Kelsey, co-pilot 1st Lt. Thomas Anthony Carter, and crew chief Cpl. Ronald Joseph Phelps. At 1145 they pick up Major General Bruno Arthur Hochmuth, CG 3rd MARDIV, his aide Maj. Robert Andrew Crabtree and Liaison Maj. Nguyễn Ngọc Chương to visit ARVN Brig. Gen. Ngô Quang Trưởng in Huế, departing the hospital pad at Huế Citadel at 1145. En route to Đông Hà, the helicopter is chased by an HMM-364 UH-34 Choctaw piloted by Capt. J. A. Chancey. At 1150, the UH-1 is flying NW over Highway 1 at ~1500 feet. At YD672266, Capt. Chancey sees the aircraft's nose yaw to the right twice and at the same instant the aft/engine section explodes in an orange fireball. The fuselage separates from the rotor and the aircraft falls in pieces. The fuselage lands inverted in a flooded rice paddy; the tail cone a short distance away. All on board are apparently killed on impact. Hochmuth was the only Marine Corps officer of General rank to die in Vietnam. Although many theories were postulated for the crash, from enemy gunfire, to ARVN gunfire, to U.S. "friendly fire", to sabotage, the most likely reason was the failure of the tail rotor gearbox and the official findings on the incident, submitted by Brig. Gen. Robert Keller in November 1967, states "there is no evidence to indicate this mishap was caused either by hostile action or inadvertent friendly fire."

1967 - Two McDonnell F-101B Voodoos of the 60th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, out of Otis AFB, Massachusetts, collide over Maine during a cross-country formation flight. Aircraft 57-376 is destroyed crashing on Mount Abraham after the two-man crew ejects with minor injuries. The uninjured crew of moderately damaged aircraft 57-378 makes an emergency landing at Dow AFB, Maine.

1967 – Former USS Guavina (SS-362) was sunk as a target by USS Cubera (SS-347) off Cape Henry, Virginia, with a MK 16-1 warshot.

1971 – Former USS Samuel B. Roberts (DD-823) was sunk as a target by a Grumman A-6 Intruder of attack squadron VA-34 Blue Blasters assigned to Carrier Air Wing 1 (CVW-1) aboard USS John F. Kennedy (CVA-67).


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## mhansen2

15 November

1863 – “Aquila” was a Union fully rigged sailing ship that was sunk in a storm or by Confederate agents or in a collision with another ship at Hathaway's Wharf, San Francisco in 37 to 39 feet of water.  Some sources list the date as 1864.

1913 – Former USS Wilkes (Torpedo Boat #35) was sunk as a target.  Another source says “summer or fall of 1914.”

1932 - On first flight of United States Navy Hall XP2H-1 four-engine flying boat, BuNo A-8729, it noses straight up on take-off due to incorrectly rigged stabilizer, test pilot Bill McAvoy and aircraft's designer Charles Ward Hall, Sr., manage to chop throttles, plane settles back, suffering only minor damage. Incident occurred at NAS Anacostia, Washington, D.C. This sole prototype was the largest four-engine biplane the U.S. Navy ever procured, with a wingspan of 112 feet.

1943 - First of three prototypes of the Curtiss XP-55 Ascender, 42-78845, on test flight out of Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri, crashes when pilot is unable to recover from a stall, engine then quits, Curtiss test pilot J. Harvey Gray _divorces airframe_ (bails out) after 16,000-foot (4,900 m) plummet, landing safely, fighter impacts inverted in an open field.

1945 - While on a routine patrol mission, a US Navy PBM-5 Mariner was attacked by a Soviet Fighter 25 miles south of Dairen (Port Arthur) Manchuria. No damage was inflicted. The PBM-5 was investigating six Soviet transport ships and a beached seaplane in the Gulf of Chihli in the Yellow Sea. Some sources state that this happened on 15 October.

1952 - A United States Air Force Fairchild C-119C-23-FA Flying Boxcar, 51-2570, c/n 10528, disappears on a flight from Elmendorf AFB to Kodiak Naval Air Station with 20 on board.

1954 – (14 – 15 November) The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have a very bad day, losing three aircraft and four crew in three accidents. A Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon, with five aboard, en route from Miami to Washington, D.C., develops engine trouble at 7,000 feet and ditches after dark in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina. The airframe breaks in two and sinks within 15 seconds, although four of the five crew escape. The fifth is lost with the plane. The survivors spend the night on a raft and are picked up by a Coast Guard amphibious search plane and conveyed to CGAS Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and thence to Portsmouth Naval Hospital, near Norfolk, for treatment of injuries. The lost crewman was Richard Zigmund Garlenski, seaman apprentice, of Washington, D.C.
A Marine Corps Douglas F3D Skyknight, out of MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, is diverted from a routine flight to search for the Harpoon. The jet radios at 2100 hours that it has sighted two flares while flying at 300 feet, and that it is descending to 200 feet for a better look. This is the last heard from the Skyknight, no trace of which or its two crew being found during a day-long search by 75 aircraft and 40 ships.
In a third incident, a Grumman S2F Tracker goes into the Atlantic Ocean at 0500 hours, immediately after launch from USS Antietam (CVS-36). The four crew are recovered by USS Putnam (DD-757) shortly afterward, but one of them, Lt. Cdr. Willard A. Pollard, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, dies aboard the Putnam shortly after his rescue.

1957 - USAF Boeing TB-29-75-BW Superfortress, 44-70039, c/n 10871, of the 5040th Radar Evaluation Flight, 5040th Consolidation Maintenance Group, Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, crashed 39 miles (63 km) SE of Talkeetna, Alaska at ~1822 hrs. Mission departed Elmendorf on a ground radar calibration mission at 0954 under instrument flight rules on flight path to the Aircraft Control and Warning radar stations at Campion near Galena and then Murphy Dome, N of Fairbanks. Flight covered 1,800 nmi (3,300 km). with ~ten hours in the air. Superfortress had fourteen hours' fuel and a crew of eight plus an instructor pilot. On final leg of approach to Elmendorf, bomber came down on glacier now known as "Bomber Glacier", three crew with major injuries and one with a minor injury later upgraded to major, others KWF.

1960 – Test pilot Scott Crossfield flew the X-15 to 24,750 meters (81,205 feet) and Mach 2.97.

1967 – Test pilot Mike Adams flew the X-15 to 81,077 meters (266,014 feet) and Mach 5.20. Near the apex of his flight, the aircraft went out of control and crashed, killing the pilot.  This was the only fatality in the X-15 program.
https://history.nasa.gov/x15/adams.html

1970 - US Navy Grumman S-2 Tracker crashes at Fort Dix, New Jersey killing four. Wreckage found on 16 November in wooded area off Range Road. Killed were pilot Navy Lt. J.G. James K. Larson, 24, of Milltown, New Jersey, co-pilot 1st Lt. (USMC) Carleton C. Perine, 25, of Orange, New Jersey, and passengers Navy Airman Apprentice Robert Suttle, 20, of Bricktown, New Jersey, and Navy Airman Apprentice Gary B. Warner, 19, of Central Bridge, New York.

1971 - A U.S. Navy Grumman A-6A Intruder, BuNo. 151563, of VA-42, on a maintenance test flight out of NAS Oceana, Virginia, suffers failure of the drogue chute gun in the pilot's ejection seat, pulling the two ejection seat cables and ejecting Lt. Dalton C. Wright. The bombardier-navigator, Lt. John W. Adair, with no pilot in the aircraft, is forced to eject. Jet comes down 15 miles from Oceana. The Navy investigation later determines that five or six flight accidents and one hangar accident may have been caused by the same problem. One source cites date of 15 October.

1973 – Former USS Fitch (DD-462) was sunk as a target off Florida.

1981 – Former USS Charles R. Ware (DD-865) was sunk as a target in the Caribbean.

1985 - A U.S. Air Force Convair C-131H Samaritan, 54-2817, of VR-48, Naval Air Facility, Washington, D.C., crashes shortly after take-off from Napier Field, Dothan, Alabama, killing two pilots of the Navy's Fleet Logistic Support Squadron, Andrews AFB, Maryland, and a flight engineer, also of Andrews AFB.

2003 - Two US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters collide near Mosul, Iraq. Twenty-two soldiers were on both aircraft and 17 were killed.

2004 - A US Navy EP-3E Aries II was detected 6 miles off the Russian Black Sea coast at an altitude of 6,500 feet. The aircraft was intercepted by a Su-27 Flanker of the Russian 4th Air Force. When the Su-27 approached, the EP-3E turned and flew away from the area.

2012 - Lockheed Martin F-22A-10-LM Raptor, 00-4013, 'TY' tailcode, c/n 645-4013, of the 43d Fighter Squadron, crashed during a training mission E of Tyndall AFB, Florida. The pilot ejected safely and no injuries were reported on the ground. The investigation determines that a "chafed" electrical wire ignited the fluid in a hydraulic line, causing a fire that damaged the flight controls.


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## mhansen2

16 November

1949 - A USAF B-29 on a flight from March Air Force Base, California, to England via Bermuda goes down at sea when fuel exhausted; of 20 crew aboard two are missing but 18 are rescued on 19 November, 385 miles NE of Bermuda.

1962 – Former USS Aspro (SS-309) was sunk as a target off San Diego.

1970 - A U.S. Navy McDonnell Douglas F-4J-42-MC Phantom II, BuNo 155903 of VF-101, crashed in the Atlantic Ocean 30 miles E of the Virginia Capes shortly after launch from USS Forrestal (CVA-59). Two crew, out of NAS Oceana, Virginia, are lost, the Navy reported 17 November. Pilot was Lt.j.g. John Dale O'Connor, and RSO was Lt.j.g. Thomas F. Hanagan, both of Virginia Beach, Virginia.

1971 - Republic F-84F-25-GK Thunderstreak, 51-9371, of the 170th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 183d Tactical Fighter Group, Illinois Air National Guard, loses a wing during exercises at the Hardwood Air-to-Ground Weapons Range (R-6904) near Finley, Wisconsin, under the control of Volk Field Air National Guard Base, Wisconsin, caused by the failure of the "milkbone" joining bolt in the main wing, weakened by years of flying. Pilot killed. "The Guard still had 56 F-84Fs in November 1971 when [this] serious accident occurred due to structural corrosion. The 183rd Tactical Fighter Group, Springfield, Ill., the only ANG unit still equipped with F-84Fs, was programmed for F-4C aircraft, and over 90 percent of the grounded F-84Fs showed signs of stress corrosion. Hence no repairs were made. In February 1972, however, the Air Force used two ANG F-84Fs in developing repair procedures that would be offered to the many allied nations using the elderly aircraft." Some 25–30 of the 183d Thunderstreaks were ferried to Eglin AFB, Florida in February 1972, for use as targets on the test ranges although one airframe was later retrieved for the infant Air Force Armament Museum.

1972 – Former USS McNulty (DE-581) was sunk as a target off California.

1973 - While on reserve station south of Crete, a U.S. Marine Corps Boeing-Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight from USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7) loses engine power during a routine flight while hovering above USS Barry (DD-933). The helicopter, with crewmen aboard, crashes into the destroyer's ASROC deck, rolls over the starboard side, and almost immediately sinks. While no one on Barry was injured, only two of the three helicopter crew were rescued by the ship's Motor Whale Boat.

2004 – An unmanned NASA X-43A scramjet attained Mach 9.6 approximately at about 110,000 feet.

2010 - USAF Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor, 06-4125, of the 525th Fighter Squadron, 3d Wing, crashes in Alaska near Susitna Lodge, killing pilot Capt. Jeffrey Haney, from Clarklake, Michigan.


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## mhansen2

17 November

1862 – “J. W. PINDAR” was a schooner that was forced ashore by gunboat USS CAMBRIDGE, 12 miles northeast of Fort Fisher, just below Masonboro Inlet, North Carolina. She was carrying a cargo of salt. Subsequently set on fire. A Union boarding party was captured by the Confederates.

1941 - Northrop A-17, 35-112, from Albuquerque Army Air Base, NM crashed in Bear Canyon, Sandia Mountains. Killed were Geldon T Miller, 2nd Lt, and Howard L Edwards S/Sgt, 38th Reconnaissance Squadron.

1941 - Gregory Boyington, checking out in Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk, P-8102, of the American Volunteer Group, at Kyedaw, Burma, overrevs the engine while recovering from a potential ground-loop upon landing, doing unsuspected internal damage to the Allison V-1710 engine. When pilot Jim Cross takes it up later in the morning, the engine throws a rod and begins burning, and he force lands in a clearing. The P-40 is written off and used for spare parts.

1945 - A USAAF Republic P-47N-15-RE Thunderbolt, 44-88938, crashes between two houses on Windsor Parkway in Hempstead, New York shortly after take-off from Mitchel Field, setting both structures on fire. Morning accident kills pilot, 1st Lt. Daniel D. A. Duncan, 24, of New Iberia, Louisiana.

1947 - "DANVILLE, Ark., Nov. 18 (AP) - Six charred and crushed bodies of army airmen were brought to a funeral home today from Arkansas' highest peak, Mount Magazine, where a B-25 crashed and burned last night during a heavy rainstorm. Maj. N. R. Johnson, flying safety officer at Barksdale field, La., expressed belief the plane bound from Chicago to Barksdale on an administration hop, might have escaped tragedy had it been flying 75 feet higher. Wreckage of the two-engine bomber was scattered over a 75-square yard area."
"Havana, Ark., Nov. 19. -- (UP) -- Six army airmen killed when their B-25 bomber crashed into nearby Mt. Magazine Monday night were identified today by Army authorities.
They were:
Capt. William F. Wilson, 29, Strong City, Kan.
Lt. Albert G. Frese, Jr., 27, Brunswick, Ga.
1st Lt. Robert H. Pabst, 24, Milwaukee Wis.
2nd Lt. Ed D. Ward, 27, Chicago.
Pfc. James H. Miersma, 20, Grand Rapids, Mich.
Pfc. William E. Wesley, 21, Muskegon, Mich.
The plane was en route from Chicago to its base at Barksdale Field when it rammed into the mountain in a heavy fog. This crash was initially reported to involve a B-29 Superfortress.
"SHREVEPORT, La., Nov. 21. (AP) - A strong east wind which blew the plane off its course was blamed today by an army investigating board for the crash of an army B-25 bomber which crashed into Mount Magazine, Ark., Monday killing six crewmen. The board, in a report to Col. A. C. Strickland, base commander at Barksdale field, said the plane was 70 miles off its course at the time of the crash. The board's report indicated the crash was not caused by failure of the plane's engines or any other equipment. It said a heavy overcast, which obscured the moon, probably prevented the pilot from seeing the mountain."

1952 - On the first launch attempt of the Martin B-61A Matador, GM-11042, the JATO booster malfunctions and penetrates the rocket which then crashes 400 feet from the launch point.

1953 - USAF Fairchild C-119F-KM Flying Boxcar, 51-8163, crashed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, during a joint airborne operation. One of 12 C-119s on a troop drop, it lost an engine, dropped out of formation, hit and killed ten troopers in their chutes that had been dropped from other aircraft, that in addition to four crew members and one medical officer that went down with the plane.

1954 - Lt. Col. John Brooke England (1923–1954) is killed in a crash near Toul-Rosieres Air Base, France when he banks away from a barracks area while landing his North American F-86F Sabre in a dense fog. His engine flamed out. He was on a rotational tour from Alexandria AFB, Louisiana, with the 389th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, which he commanded. He was a leading and much-decorated North American P-51 Mustang ace during World War II. Col. England flew 108 missions and scored 19 aerial victories-including 4 on one mission. England also served as a combat pilot in the Korean War. Alexandria Air Force Base is renamed England Air Force Base in his honor on 23 June 1955.

1955 - Douglas MC-54M Skymaster, 44-9068A, c/n 27294/DO240, tail number O-49068, built as a C-54E-5-DO and later converted to an MC-54M, attached to the 57th Air Transport Squadron, 1700th Air Transport Group, of the Military Air Transport Service, at Kelly AFB, Texas, piloted by 1st Lt. George Manuel Pappas, Jr., 27, and co-piloted by 2d Lt. Paul E. Winham, 24, crashes into Mount Charleston, ~20 miles WNW of Las Vegas, Nevada, at~0819 hours, while on a routine flight with technical personnel from the Lockheed "Skunk Works" at Burbank, California where it had picked up passengers after departing Norton Air Force Base, California. Aboard were a mixture of military staffers and civilian subcontractors, engineers and technicians. It was en route to Groom Lake, Nevada, the secret Area 51, when it was blown off course by a severe storm, killing all 14 on board, nine civilians and five military. A 60-knot crosswind had pushed the C-54 into a canyon towards the mountain. The aircraft was climbing, using rated military power, with 10–15 degrees of flaps to get on top of the overcast, when it impacted, skipped about 60 feet, and slid another 20 feet before partially burning, coming to rest almost at the crest of the ridge. Because of the secrecy involved with the Lockheed U-2 project, the C-54 crew was never in contact with Air Traffic Control, and, off course and lost in clouds, an error in plotting the position of the Skymaster in relation to the Spring Mountains range resulted in the crash only 50 feet below the crest of an 11,300-foot ridge leading to the peak of Mount Charleston. Military guards prevented newsmen from approaching the crash area, and a cover story was issued that this was a business flight to the Atomic Energy Commission's Nevada Test Site. Lockheed subsequently assumes responsibility for the flights to "Watertown", using a company-owned C-47. Pappas had logged 1,383 hours flying C-54s, and copilot Paul Winham, 682 hours. Pappas was posthumously promoted to the grade of Captain, USAF, effective 15 September 1955, as announced in Department of the Air Force Letter Orders dated 2 December 1955. Also KWF were Flight Engineer Tech S/Sgt. Clayton D. Farris, 26; and Flight Attendant Guy R. Fasolas, and ten others: S/Sgt. John Hamilton Gaines, USAF, 1007th Air Intelligence Service Group, 23; Harold Silent, 59, of the Hycon Manufacturing Company that produced the U-2 camera; Fred Hanks, USAF, 35, of Hycon Mfg. Co.; Rodney Kreimendahl, 38, Lockheed Company; Richard Hruda, 37, Lockheed; James Francis Bray, 48, of the Central Intelligence Agency; Terence O’Donnell, 22, CIA Security Officer; James William Brown, 23, CIA Security Officer; Edwin Urolatis, 27, CIA Security Officer; and William Henderson "Bill" Marr, 37, CIA Security Officer.

1955 - One of the pilots of two USMC Grumman F9F Panther fighters (of VMA-323 ?) that collided over the Mojave Desert near Lancaster, California, was killed this date. The dead pilot was identified as Lt. Donald R. Roland, formerly of Itasca, Illinois. The pilot of the other plane, Lt. Robert F. Heinecken, of Riverside, California, made an emergency landing and was uninjured. The planes were from MCAS El Toro, California.

1960 - Vought F8U-1 Crusader, BuNo 145374, of VF-211, 'NP' tail code, on a WestPac deployment, suffers ramp strike aboard USS Lexington (CVA-16), shears port main gear, punctures main fuel cell; pilot CDR H. C. Lovegrove ejects and is recovered.

1958 - A US Air Force RB-47 Stratojet was attacked over the Sea of Japan by Soviet fighters. The crew of three were not injured and the aircraft returned safely to base.

1960 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 16,688 meters (54,753 feet) and Mach 1.90.

1970 - A US Air Force KC-135R Briar Patch, piloted by James W. Jones, was intercepted by Soviet MiG-17 Frescos, while conducted a SIGINT flight over international waters near Vaygach Island. One of the MiG-17s fired warning shots, but the KC-135R ignored them and continued its mission. The MiGs continued to escort the KC-135R, but did not fire on it again.

1970 – Former USS Ericsson (DD-440) was sunk as a target off the Atlantic Coast.

1981 - United States Navy Lockheed S-3 Viking from the USS Nimitz (CVN-68), is lost near Sardinia with all four aviators killed.


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## mhansen2

18 November

1862 - KATE was a Confederate schooner, chased ashore in the surf zone by wooden screw steamer USS MOUNT VERNON and bark USS FERNANDINA on April 2, 1862. She was refloated but hit a snag on the Cape Fear River Bar, North Carolina this date and sank.

1863 – Cargo ship USS BAGLEY, built in 1854, foundered at Aransas Pass, Texas.

1923 - The first aerial refueling-related fatality occurs during an air show at Kelly Field, Texas, when the fuel hose becomes entangled in the right wings of the refueler and the receiver aircraft. The Army Air Service pilot of the refueler, Lt. P. T. Wagner, is killed in the ensuing crash of DH-4B, 23-444.

1924 - "LAGUNA BEACH, Nov. 19. - Rescued from rough seas by two men in a rowboat when their seaplane landed 100 yards off the rocky shores here, Lieutenants Douglas Powell and Charles Haltline of USS New Mexico (BB-40) are recovering from exposure and shock. One of the rescuers, who arose from a sick bed to aid the officers, is seriously ill, suffering from a relapse and exposure."
The Associated Press reported: "SAN DIEGO, Nov. 18. - Lieutenants Douglas Powell and Charles G. Halpine, naval aviators, were rescued this evening off Laguna Beach, according to telephone messages from that place. The aviators left this city late today to fly to the battleship New Mexico at San Pedro. Off Laguna Beach Lieutenant Powell's machine, just repaired at North Island, developed engine trouble and Powell was forced to descend to the ocean. Lieutenant Halpine came down to aid him and managed to get a tow line to him. Darkness, however, set in and the two officers, not knowing exactly where they were, were forced to stop when they neared the breakers. There they shouted for help and the shout was heard by residents of the beach who assembled a battery of automobiles on a bluff and trained headlights on the aviators while two beach residents went out in a lifeboat and got the officers to shore." They were probably flying Vought UO-1 observation planes, which replaced other types aboard catapult equipped cruisers and battleships from 1923.

1938 - Douglas B-18A Bolo, 37-468, of the 99th Bomb Squadron, on a flight from Mitchel Field, Hempstead, Long Island, New York, to Maxwell Field, Alabama, crashes 7 miles NE of Lagrange, Georgia, in a night accident in rainy weather that blanketed most of the Southeast. Five of six crew, and two military passengers, were killed when the plane struck trees, possibly due to a downdraft. A dying member of the crew provided details of the crash before he expired. Pvt. Joseph Nanartowich said "We were flying low to get under the ceiling. It was raining. Suddenly we hit a rough spot and bounced. Next thing I knew we were plowing through the trees. There were no mechanical defects so far as I could tell." When rescuers reached the burning wreckage, they found Nanartowich and Lt. John D. Madre alive. Madre was still clinging to life, but unconscious the following day. Killed were pilot Robert K. Black, of Meridian, Georgia, Lt. Robert R. McKechnie, of Cleveland, Ohio, Lt. Allen M. Howery, of Russellville, Tennessee, and Sgt. Harry T. Jones, of Hempstead, New York. The passengers were Lt. James W. Stewart, of East Orange, New Jersey, who was returning to his station at Randolph Field, Texas, and Corp. J. E. Galloway, of Sulphur Springs, Texas, who was returning to his station in Dallas. The bomber had been heard circling Lagrange about 2300 hrs. and it was thought that the pilot was seeking an emergency landing field. "Nearly two hours later a colored share cropper made his way through the mud into town and told of the crash near his home.

1942 - In a typical wartime training accident, a Beechcraft AT-7 Navigator, 41-21079, c/n 1094, of the 341st School Squadron, crashes in the Mendel Glacier (one source says Darwin Glacier) in California's Kings Canyon National Park. The four-member training flight left Mather Field in Sacramento, California, and was never heard from again. On 24 September 1947, a hiker discovered wreckage of the plane on a glacier in Kings Canyon. On 16 October 2005, a climber on the Mendel Glacier discovered a body believed to be one of the crew members. He was later identified as Leo M. Mustonen, 22, of Brainerd, Minnesota. The others were John M. Mortenson, 25, of Moscow, Idaho; William R. Gamber, 23, of Fayette, Ohio; and Ernest G. Munn of St. Clairsville, Ohio. A second body was found under receding snow in 2007 and was identified Ernest G. Munn.

1951 - A US Air Force C-47 transport, with a crew of four, flying from Munich to Belgrade, became lost over Yugoslavia and entered Hungarian and then Romanian airspace. It was fired on by Hungarian and Romanian border guards and finally forced down by a MiG-15 Fagot piloted by Kalugin, near the Yugoslav frontier. One crew member, John J. Swift survived and was released shortly thereafter by the Romanians.

1952 – Pilot J. Slade Nash flew a F-86D Sabre to a new jet world speed record of 698.505 MPH (1,124.13 KPH) over the Salton Sea, California.

1953 - A US Navy PBM-5 Mariner (BuNo 84747) of VP-50 picked up an unexpected tail wind while approaching Shanghai. The airplane got close to the coast of the People's Republic of China before the crew determined their position. After the aircraft turned away from the coast, it was jumped by 2 MiG-15 Fagots. Three firing passes were made but the PBM wasn't hit.

1955 – Test pilot Frank Everest flew the X-2 to 10,675 meters (35,024 feet) and Mach 0.992 in its first powered flight. Only the 5,000 lbf (22 kN) thrust chamber was ignited. There was a small engine fire.

1966 – Test pilot Pete Knight flew the X-15 to 30,145 meters (98,906 feet) and Mach 6.33.

1971 - Lockheed U-2A, 56-6952, Article 392, second airframe of the USAF supplementary production, was delivered in January 1958, and assigned to the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, Laughlin AFB, Texas and converted to U-2C by November 1966. Assigned to training flights at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, in 1969. Destroyed this date at Davis-Monthan, in a fatal landing accident. Pilot was Capt. John Cunney, who lands heavily, wing low, attempts go-around but stalls and crashes onto the runway.

1988 - B-1B Lancer strategic bomber, "85-0076", crashes on landing at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota; aircraft is destroyed all four crewmembers survived.

2003 – Former USS Yosemite (AD-19) was sunk as a target some 300 miles off the Outer Banks of North Carolina.


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## mhansen2

19 November

1917 - USS Chauncey (DD-3) was about 110 miles west of Gibraltar on escort duty, when she was rammed by the British merchantman SS Rose as both ships steamed in war-imposed darkness. At 0317 Chauncey sank in 1500 fathoms, taking to their death 21 men including her captain. Seventy survivors were picked up by Rose and carried to port.

1940 - First Republic YP-43 Lancer, 39–704, caught fire in air over Farmingdale, Long Island, New York, pilot bailed out.

1941 - North American P-64, 41-19086, assigned to the 66th Air Base Squadron, Luke Field, Arizona, one of six NA-68s ordered by the Royal Thai Air Force which were seized before export by the US government in 1941, after the Franco-Thai War and growing ties between Thailand and the Empire of Japan, crashes and burns 20 miles NW of Luke Field after a stall/spin, killing pilot Charles C. Ball. These aircraft, designated P-64s, were used by the USAAC as unarmed fighter trainers.

1947 - Only accident of the Martin XB-48 test program occurs when pilot E. R. "Dutch" Gelvin tries to abort takeoff in first prototype, 45-59585, from NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, when fire warning light comes on as engines reach full power. He retards throttle and applies brakes, but bomber does not slow. As he runs out of runway and as the brake pressure bleeds off, he has a choice of running into the Chesapeake Bay or heading for the mudflats – he opts for the latter. He turns off the runway, tries to retract the undercarriage, runs across a ditch, a road, another ditch, left outrigger gear collapses and jet slides to stop leaning to port, just 50 feet short of a Navy doctor's home. Damage is minimal, limited to gear doors, outrigger, and flaps. Cause was the emergency fuel system, designed to maintain engine power at 94 percent, regardless of throttle position. This will be eliminated in second prototype.

1951 - A Boeing B-47B-5-BW Stratojet, 50-006, crashes shortly after an afternoon take-off at Edwards Air Force Base, California, killing three crew. The bomber comes down a quarter mile W of the runway and explodes. Officials at the base said the bomber was beginning a routine test flight. Killed are Captain Joseph E. Wolfe, Jr., the pilot, Chattanooga, Tennessee; Major Robert A. Mortland, 30, co-pilot, of Clarion, Pennsylvania, and Sergeant Christy N. Spiro, 32, of Worcester, Massachusetts.

1954 - A North American B-25J converted to navigation trainer, on an "unauthorized flight" from Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, crashes 400 yd (370 m) off shore into the Mississippi Sound, exploding near the Biloxi lighthouse. The Air Force "said Saturday it appeared that only one man was aboard. The identity of the man was not known. There was no indication whether he was a member of the air force or a civilian. An air force spokesman said the body was recovered during the morning by salvage crews going through the wreckage in two feet of water about 400 yards off a resort beach. The plane exploded and the wreckage was scattered over a half mile area near the Biloxi lighthouse."

1954 - Two North American F-86 Sabres are lost in separate incidents near Niagara Falls, New York, during a Friday night practice mission, killing one pilot, with the other ejecting. "The dead pilot was Maj. William M. Coleman, 36, a native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The pilot who escaped was Lt. Col. Rufus Woody, jr., 32." Maj. Coleman's F-86D, reported as 52-9686 (but that serial ties up to a T-33A-1-LO) comes down 14 miles NE of Niagara Falls. Lt. Col. Woody's F-86D-40-NA, 52-3639, c/n 190–35, impacts at Amherst, New York.

1969 – Former USS Burrfish (SS-312) was sunk as a target off San Clemente Island, California.

1970 – Former USS John W. Weeks (DD-701) was sunk as a target off Virginia.

1974 – Former USS Cockrill (DE-398) was sunk as a target off Florida.

1975 - First of three Boeing-Vertol YUH-61 helicopters completed, 73-21656, crashes and is moderately damaged during testing, but two company pilots escape injury. Cause is found to be failure of tail rotor drive shaft after the main rotor oversped during an autorotational recovery. Airframe is repaired. Now preserved at the Army Aviation Museum, Fort Rucker, Alabama. Type loses competition to Sikorsky UH-60 and airframes four and five are not completed.

1987 - EA-6B Prowler BuNo. 162226/NF-606 of VAQ-136, US Navy. Missing on operations November 19, 1987: Loss occurred during a night Emcon departure from the USS Midway (CVA-41) while rounding the tip of India heading into the North Arabian Sea. Cause of the accident was unknown. Search by helicopters that night and fixed wing aircraft the next day found no trace of wreckage or the four crew. All four crew were killed – LT John Carter (pilot), Commander Justin (Noel) Greene (Commanding Officer of VAQ-136) Lt Doug Hora and Lt Dave Gibson – were all posted initially as "missing". This was later changed to KIAS/lost at sea (body not recovered). The landing was to be Commander Greene's 1000th trap, so there was cake awaiting in the ready room.


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## mhansen2

20 November

1820 – ESSEX was an American whaler from Nantucket, Massachusetts. The ship, captained by George Pollard, was widely known for being attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean on this date. The incident served as inspiration for Herman Melville's 1851 novel, Moby-Dick.
After the ESSEX was sunk, 3 boats (aka Chase boat, aka Hendrick boat and aka Pollard boat) reached Henderson Island on December 20th. Having largely exhausted the island's resources, they concluded that they would starve if they remained much longer. On Christmas 26th, the crew sailed for Easter Island, save 3, who remained on land. The Chase boat, with only 3 survivors left, was rescued by the British whaleship INDIAN, on February 18th. Hendricks's boat, last seen on January 28th with only 3 surviving crew, was never seen again. Pollard's boat, with only 2 survivors, was rescued by whaleship DAUPHIN, on February 23rd. All men resorted to cannibalism in order to survive. On Pollard's boat, his 17-year old cousin, still alive, was lotted to be sacrificed for the others to survive. In total, the corpses of seven fellow sailors had been consumed.

1862 - EMMA TUTTLE was a schooner that was burned by wooden screw steamer USS MOUNT VERNON, 7 miles southeast of Fort Fisher, North Carolina. She was carrying a cargo of rosin.

1862 - PEARL was a schooner that was en route from Wilmington to Nassau, Bahamas with a cargo of turpentine, rosin, and shingles that was captured by gunboat USS CHOCURA at latitude 33°38'N 78°19'W, some 19 miles off present day Ocean Isle Beach, NC on November 19th, 1862. She was abandoned the next day due to taking on water. Wooden screw steamer USS MOUNT VERNON later found the floating PEARL, tried to tow her, but she capsized and sank.

1931 – Former USS O-12 (SS-73) was towed three miles down the Byfjorden (a Norwegian fjord just outside Bergen) and scuttled in 1,138 feet (347 m) of water. In 1981 Norwegian divers found her wreck.  Another source sets the date as 30 November.

1940 - Prototype North American NA-73X Mustang, NX19998, c/n 73-3097, first flown 26 October 1940 by test pilot Vance Breese, crashes this date, on its fifth flight. According to P-51 designer Edgar Schmued, the NA-73 was lost because test pilot Paul Balfour refused, before a high-speed test run, to go through the takeoff and flight test procedure with Schmued while the aircraft was on the ground, claiming "one airplane was like another." After making two high speed passes over Mines Field (now LAX), he forgot to put the fuel valve on "reserve" and during third pass ran out of fuel. Emergency landing in a freshly plowed field caused wheels to dig in, aircraft flipped over, airframe was not rebuilt, the second aircraft being used for subsequent testing.

1963 - Tenth Lockheed U-2A, Article 350, 56–6683, delivered to the CIA on 24 April 1956, converted to U-2F by spring 1963; loaned to SAC for Cuba overflight missions, crashes into the Gulf of Mexico 40 miles (64 km) NW of Key West, Florida, killing pilot Capt. Joe Hyde, Jr. Pilot was returning from a Brass Knob mission and was hand-flying the aircraft back to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, at 69,000 feet (21,000 m) after failure of autopilot when it entered a flat spin and impacted in the Gulf. Wreckage retrieved from shallow water near Florida coast but ejection seat, seat pack and parachute missing – pilot never found.

2011 - Two people were taken to Pensacola Naval Hospital for evaluation after landing a USAF Beechcraft T-6 Texan II with the landing gear up. The names of the two crew members were not released after the 1300 hrs. incident, Pensacola Naval Air Station Public Affairs Officer Harry White said. Both people safely exited the plane, which landed at Forrest Sherman Field at the air station, White said. The aircraft and crew are assigned to the U.S. Air Force's 455th Flying Training Squadron at NAS Pensacola.


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## mhansen2

21 November

1916 - SS Britannic was built for White Star Line’s trans-Atlantic service and was launched in February 1914. Before she was completed, she was taken over by the Admiralty for use as hospital ship HMHS Britannic and was never employed for her original purpose.

On November 21st, 1916, she was sailing to Salonika to take on board wounded when she struck a mine in the Zea Channel in the Aegean Sea. She sank in a very short time, taking with her 21 members of the crew and medical staff. At the time of the disaster she had on board 1,125 persons, of whom 625 were crew and 500 medical officers, nurses and Royal Army Medical Corps personnel. In addition to those drowned 28 were injured.

The mines had been laid in the channel only an hour previously by the U-73, Lt. Cdr. Siehs, who had brought his submarine from Cuxhaven to the Mediterranean.

1947 - "Williams Field, Ariz., Nov. 21. (AP) - Two Williams Field officers escaped death today when their planes collided 7000 feet above the ground about four miles northwest of the field. First Lt. Thomas P. Demos, 30, of Forest Park, Ill., bailed out of his AT-6 but was injured. He was taken to the field hospital for observation. First Lt. Jack C. Langston, 26, of Medford, Ore., flew his crippled P-51 Mustang back to the field and landed unhurt. Escape from a collision of this type is rare."

1947 - "SAN DIEGO, Calif., Nov. 21 (AP) - A navy Martin Mariner patrol bomber is overdue on a flight from Alameda, Calif. naval air station to San Diego, the 11th naval district reported today. The plane, due here at 2:45 p. m., was last heard from at 1:45 p. m. when it radioed the naval air station here and gave its position as 20 miles west of Bakersfield, Calif., the navy said. The number aboard the plane was not known. San Diego police, at the request of the navy, broadcast bulletin advising the state division of forestry border patrol and other police agencies to be on the lookout for the plane."

1947 - "SAN DIEGO, Calif., Nov. 22 (AP) - Identity of nine navy officers and enlisted men lost at sea yesterday (21 November) when their Lockheed Neptune patrol bomber crashed 100 miles west of San Diego during maneuvers with the first task fleet was announced today at 11th naval district headquarters."

1953 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the X-1A to Mach 1.15 on his first familiarization flight.


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## mhansen2

22 November

HAPPY THANKSGIVING   


1864 - KATIE was a Union stern-wheel steamer of 180 tons, built in 1864 at Elizabeth, Pa. that collided with the DES MOINES at Diamond Island (TN, KY, NY?) and sank in nine minutes, with one killed.

1865 – MARY HILL was a side-wheel steamer of 234 tons that was armed with 1 x 24-pounder and 1 x 12-pounder and built in 1859 at Smithfield, Texas. She was used as a Confederate cottonclad gunboat, transport, and guard ship during the Civil War and was lost by snagging in the Trinity River, TX.

1917 - A Tellier T.3 seaplane piloted by U.S. Navy Ensign Kenneth R. Smith, with Electrician's Mate Wilkinson and Machinist's Mate Brady on board, was forced down at sea on a flight out of NAS LeCroisic, France, to investigate the reported presence of German submarines south of Belle Isle. Two days later, and only minutes before their damaged aircraft sank, they were rescued by a French destroyer. It was the first armed patrol by a U.S. Naval Aviator in European waters. Smith was Naval Aviator No. 87.

1944 - Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer, BuNo 59544, on pre-delivery test flight by company crew out of Lindbergh Field, San Diego, California, takes off at 1223 hrs., loses port outer wing on climb-out, crashes one quarter mile further on in ravine in undeveloped area of Loma Portal near the Navy Training Center, less than two miles (3 km) from point of lift-off. All crew killed, including pilot Marvin R. Weller, co-pilot Conrad C. Cappe, flight engineers Frank D. Sands and Clifford P. Bengston, radio operator Robert B. Skala, and Consolidated Vultee field operations employee Ray Estes. Wing panel comes down on home at 3121 Kingsley Street in Loma Portal.
Cause is found to be 98 missing bolts, the wing was only attached with four spar bolts. Four employees who either were responsible for installation, or who had been inspectors who signed off on the undone work, are fired two days later. San Diego coroner's jury finds Consolidated Vultee guilty of "gross negligence" by vote of 11–1 on 5 January 1945, Bureau of Aeronautics reduces contract by one at a cost to firm of $155,000. Consolidated Vultee pays out $130,484 to families of six dead crew.

1950 - First official test flight of the U.S. Navy Vought XSSM-N-8 Regulus I, FTV-1, (Flight Test Vehicle), '1', from Rogers Dry Lake, Edwards AFB, California, goes badly when, after reaching an altitude of several hundred feet after lift-off, the J33 jet-powered missile rolls violently right and crashes. Had it rolled to the left, it would likely have struck the USN Lockheed TV-2 Seastar chase plane piloted by Chuck Miller with Roy Pearson on board as missile controller. Cause is found to be a broken brass pin in the port elevator pump assembly that allowed the elevator to deploy, the pin having been worn out during months of ground test runs. Brass is subsequently replaced by steel pins, and problem is solved.

1952 - A United States Air Force Douglas C-124A Globemaster II, 51-0107, c/n 43441, on approach to Elmendorf AFB, Anchorage, Alaska, United States crashes into a remote glacier. The wreckage was found several days later on the South side of Mount Gannett. There were no survivors killing all 52 aboard. [41 Army and Air Force passengers and 11 crewmen.] This was the fourth worst accident involving a Douglas C-124. Debris from the crash was again found in June 2012.
1952 Mount Gannett C-124 crash - Wikipedia

1960 – Test pilot Scott Crossfield flew the X-15 to 18,867 meters (61,902 feet) and Mach 2.51.

1961 – Lt. Col. Robert B. Robinson, USMC, flew a YF4H-1 Phantom II, 1,606.342 MPH (about Mach 2.4 at altitude) at Edwards AFB, CA. setting a new world speed record for jet powered aircraft.

1963 - President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

1972 - The United States loses its first B-52 of the Vietnam War. The bomber was shot down by a SAM near Vinh.

1981 - United States Navy LTV A-7E-11-CV Corsair II, BuNo 158678, 'AJ-310', of VA-82 from the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) air wing and based at Cecil Field, Florida, crashed at 1200 hrs. ~120 miles NW of Sardinia. Aircraft was returning to the ship after routine mission.

1991 – Former USS Algol (LKA-54) was given to the state of New Jersey and sunk as an artificial reef some 19 miles off Spring Lake, NJ.


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## mhansen2

23 November

1822 - The third USS ALLIGATOR was a schooner in the United States Navy.  She was laid down on 26 June 1820 by the Boston Navy Yard; launched on 2 November 1820; and commissioned in March 1821—probably on the 26th—Lieutenant Robert F. Stockton in command. The ship departed Matanzas, Cuba escorting a convoy. Before dawn the following morning, she ran hard aground on Carysford Reef off the coast of Florida. After working desperately to refloat their ship, officers and crewmen gave up on a hopeless task. After removing all useful equipment, they set fire to ALLIGATOR and the young but battle-tested warship soon blew up. ALLIGATOR REEF and lighthouse honor the ship.

1862 - BROWN DICK was a Union stern-wheel steamer of 55 tons, built in 1855 at McKeesport, PA.  She was burned at Wheeling, WV, while being dismantled. She floated downstream and her machinery was salvaged and used on the W. H. HARRISON.

1952 - A US Navy PB4Y-2S Privateer, of VP-28, was attacked, but not damaged, by a Chinese MiG-15 Fagot off of Shanghai, People's Republic of China.

1953 - USAF pilot 1st Lt. Felix Moncla and radar operator 2nd Lt. Robert L. Wilson take off in Northrop F-89C-40-NO Scorpion, 51-5853A, from Kinross Air Force Base, Kincheloe, Michigan, investigating an unusual target on radar operators. Wilson had problems tracking the object on the Scorpion's radar, so ground radar operators gave Moncla directions towards the object as he flew. Flying at some 500 miles per hour, Moncla eventually closed in on the object at about 8000 feet in altitude. Ground radar showed both the unidentified craft and the Scorpion suddenly disappearing from screen after intersecting. It is presumed the Scorpion crashed into Lake Superior, though no confirmed traces of the craft or Moncla and Wilson have been found.

1983 – Former USS Curb (ARS-21) was sunk as an artificial reef off Key West, Florida.

2004 – Former USS Schenectady (LST-1185) was used as a target and hit with seven 2,000 JADAM during exercise Resultant Fury at the Pacific Missile Range Facility, 60nm NW of Kauai, Hawaii.

2015 - US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, 87-24651, c/n 701193, of the 291st Aviation Regiment, crashes at Fort Hood after the crew performed a turn that was too steep, killing all four on board.

2015 - US Army Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow, 08-05562, crashes in Wonju County, Gangwon Province, South Korea, killing both pilots.


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## mhansen2

24 November

1862 - USS ELLIS was a Union armed side-wheel steamer of 100 tons. Originally purchased in 1861 for the Confederacy, she was captured by the Union Navy in February 1862.
She ran aground at a location called the 'Rock', 40 miles southwest of Beaufort, NC and 5 miles north of the New Inlet River during an attack on Jacksonville. The next day, the crew saved one 12-pounder, small arms, ammunition and valuables in a captured schooner and blew up ELLIS. The Confederates later salvaged some ammunition, small arms and the other howitzer.

1864 - Schooner LOUISA was chased ashore by gunboat USS CHOCURA on a bar off the San Bernard River off the coast of Texas, where a heavy gale completely destroyed her before Union forces could board her.

1864 - Union steamer USS SHRAPNEL, on voyage to Norfolk, foundered in a canal in Virginia on her way to be repaired. Most probably lifted.

1877 - USS HURON, a 1020-ton Alert class screw steam gunboat built at Chester, Pennsylvania, was commissioned in November 1875. Until mid-1877, she cruised in the Caribbean area, calling on ports in Central America, northern South America and the West Indies. Following repairs at New York, HURON departed Hampton Roads, Virginia, on a voyage to collect scientific information in the area of Cuba. However, while en route she was wrecked in a storm near Nag´s Head, North Carolina. Nearly a hundred of her officers and men were lost.

1913 - Lts. Eric Lamar Ellington, chief instructor, and Hugh M. Kelly of the 1st Aero Squadron, United States Army Aviation Corps, are killed this date in a fall of about eighty feet in a Wright Model C, Signal Corps 14. The accident occurred at ~0758 hrs. across the bay from San Diego, California on the grounds of the army school on North Island. On impact, the engine broke free, crushing the two aviators. These were the eleventh and twelfth Army aviation casualties.
"The front page of the San Diego Union was devoted to the details of the Ellington/Kelly crash, under the headline 'Intrepid Navigators of Air Crushed, Mangled to Death in Fall of Government Biplane,' with charges that the aviators were 'slaughtered' by a parsimonious government using antiquated machines." Ellington Field, Texas, which opens on 1 November 1917, is named for Lt. Ellington.

1964 – Former USS SEA DEVIL (AGSS-400) was sunk by USS VOLADOR (SS-490) during a weapons test off Southern California with a MK-37-1 wire-guided torpedo.

1952 - The second Boeing EB-50A Superfortress, 46-003, which spends most of its operational career used for testing, first by Boeing, and later by the Air Research and Development Command, and Air Material Command, primarily at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, is involved in a fatal accident at Aberdeen, Maryland, this date. Four crew killed when it crashes in the Bush River near Edgewood, Maryland.

1953 - A USAF North American F-86D Sabre crashes near Marianna, Florida. The pilot ejects but is killed when his chute fails to deploy, his fighter coming down ~10 miles N of Graham Air Base. Col. Lewis H. Norley, commanding officer of the base, said that due to "unknown circumstances" the chute failed to function. Rescue planes from Maxwell Field at Montgomery, Alabama, and Tyndall Air Force Base, Panama City, Florida, discovered the pilot's body. Norley said that the pilot's identity will not be released until notification of the next of kin.

1956 - A Boeing B-47E-60-BW Stratojet, 51-5233, c/n 450518, of the 341st Bomb Wing, runs off runway upon landing at Dyess AFB, Texas, tearing away the port inboard engine nacelle. Aircraft may have been also attempting a go-around. All crew survives.

1972 - U.S. Air Force McDonnell RF-4C-24-MC Phantom II, 65-0825, c/n 1227, and McDonnell RF-4C-32-MC Phantom II, 66-0471, c/n 2651, of the 62d Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, Shaw AFB, South Carolina, suffer a mid-air collision over the Atlantic Ocean about 30 miles off of Pawley's Island at ~1450 hrs, during a defensive combat maneuvering mission. Two crew from 0471, Capt. B. W. Stechlein and Capt. R. L. Jaeger eject, and are recovered 27 miles out to sea by Bell UH-1N Huey, Save 53, of Detachment 8, 44th ARRSq, out of Myrtle Beach AFB, and taken to the base hospital, but two others aboard 0825, including one officer of HQ 9th Air Force, Shaw AFB, Lt. Col. Edward Cole, Jr., are lost. The second casualty was Maj. Edward W. Tate.


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## mhansen2

25 November

1863 – NELLIE MOORE was a Union stern wheel paddle steamer of 226 tons built in 1863 at Cincinnati. She ran aground at Cumberland Island, Kentucky and was lost.

1864 - FRANCIS SKIDDY was a Union side-wheel steamer of 1183 tons, built in 1851 at New York City. She was wrecked on a ledge 4 miles south of Albany on the Hudson River, near Staats Landing (Staat's Dock). The engine was removed and put in the new steamer DEAN RICHMOND.

1924 - The incomplete USS WASHINGTON (BB-47) was towed some 60 miles off Virginia to be used as a gunnery target.
On the first day of testing, the ship was hit by two 400-pound torpedoes and three 1-ton near-miss bombs with minor damage and a list of three degrees. On that day, the ship had 400 pounds of TNT detonated onboard, but she remained afloat. Two days later, the ship was hit by fourteen 14 in shells dropped from 4,000 feet, but only one penetrated. The ship was finally sunk by USS TEXAS (BB-35) and USS NEW YORK (BB-34) with 14-in shells. After the test, it was decided that the existing deck armor on battleships was inadequate, and that future battleships should be fitted with triple bottoms.


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## mhansen2

26 November

1861 - ARCADE was a Union schooner with a cargo of staves en route from Portland, Maine for Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadalupe to exchange for rum & sugar. She was captured and burned by steamer CSS SUMTER.

1863 - Confederate schooner MARY ANN, on voyage from Calcasieu Parish, LA. to Tampico, Mexico, with a cargo of cotton and leaking badly, was captured by gunboat USS ANTONA and destroyed after seizing her cargo.

1945 - "TACOMA, Wash., Nov. 26 (UP) - Coast Guard aircraft and small Navy boats tonight began a search of the ocean off Florence, Ore., for six crewmen who parachuted during a gale from a C-46 transport plane enroute from California to McChord field, Wash."

1958 – At Chennault AFB, near Lake Charles, Louisiana, a B-47 loaded with a sealed-pit nuclear weapon containing no plutonium and some tritium caught fire on the ground after the accidental discharge of assisted take-off (ATO) bottles during the pilot's acceptance check. Discharge of the JATO units propelled the aircraft off the runway, where it collided with a towing vehicle and caught fire. The nuclear weapon case and all other components, with the exception of a few small pieces of high explosives, were destroyed by the fire; however, even in spite of one minor explosion, the secondary remained intact and the tritium reservoir was recovered. Contamination was limited to the immediate vicinity of the weapon residue within the aircraft wreckage.

2004 - United States Marine Corps Bell-Boeing MV-22B Osprey, BuNo 165838, loses a 20 × 4 inch piece of a prop-rotor blade during test flight in Nova Scotia, Canada, but is able to make safe precautionary landing at CFB Shearwater despite severe airframe vibration. The blade failed after apparently being hit by ice which broke off from another part of the aircraft.


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## mhansen2

27 November

1862 – LONE STAR was a Union steamer carrying a cargo of sugar and 2 passengers when she was captured by Confederates below Plaquemine, LA. They brought the vessel 10 miles down the Mississippi River to a bluff where it was burned.

1864 – USS GREYHOUND was a Union side-wheel steamer, built in 1863 in England and used during the civil war as Gen. Benjamin Butler's headquarters. GREYHOUND, while steaming 5 or 6 miles upstream the James River from Bermuda Hundred, VA., was blown up by a Confederate bomb disguised as a lump of coal (aka 'coal torpedo') in the coal bunkers. She was beached and there were no human casualties, but Butler lost his horses and GREYHOUND was totally destroyed.

1942 - Douglas O-46A, 35–179, of the 81st Air Base Squadron, piloted by Gordon H. Fleisch, lands downwind at Brooks Field, Harlingen, Texas, runs out of runway, overturns. Written off, it is abandoned in place. More than twenty years later it is discovered by the Antique Airplane Association with trees growing through its wings, and in 1967 it is rescued and hauled to Ottumwa, Iowa.
Restoration turns out to beyond the organization's capability, and in September 1970 it is traded to the National Museum of the United States Air Force for a flyable C-47. The (then) Air Force Museum has it restored at Purdue University and places it on display in 1974, the sole survivor of the 91 O-46s built.

1944 - During a 3,000-mile out-and-back navigation training mission from Great Bend Army Airfield, (now Great Bend Municipal Airport) Kansas, to Batista Army Airfield, (now San Antonio de los Baños Airfield) Cuba, Boeing B-29-25-BW Superfortress, 42-24447, coded '35', of the 28th Bombardment Squadron (Very Heavy), 19th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy), suffers fire in number 1 (port outer) engine. Aircraft commander, 1st Lt. Eugene Hammond, orders crew bail-out 37 miles S of Biloxi, Mississippi. After all but the pilot have departed, the burning engine nacelle drops off of the wing, Lt. Hammond returns to controls, brings the bomber into Keesler Field, Mississippi for emergency landing. Only four recovered from the Gulf of Mexico, one dead, three injured.

1945 - Douglas C-47B-1-DL Skytrain, 43-16261, c/n 20727, of Air Transport Command, piloted by 1st Lt. William H. Myers, disappears during flight from Singapore to Butterworth, British Malaya. Wreckage found on mountain slope in the forest reserve area of Bukit Bubu, near Beruas, Perak, Malaysia. Crew remains recovered in August 2015. Also killed were Flight Officer Judson Baskett and PFC Donald Jones.

1963 – Test pilot Milton Thompson flew the X-15 to 27,371 meters (89,804 feet) and Mach 4.94.

1964 - A Lockheed SP-2H Neptune, BuNo 135610, coded "YC 12", of VP-2, out of NAS Kodiak, crashes into a mountain near the tip of Cape Newenham, Alaska. Twelve crew members killed.

1987 – Former USCG Bibb (WPG-31) was sunk as an artificial reef just outside the coral reef tract, about six miles (10 km) southeast of Key Largo, FL.

1987 – Former USCG Duane (WPG-33) was sunk as an artificial reef located a mile south of Molasses Reef, FL., some 0.4 miles south southwest of the USCG Bibb wreck.


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## mhansen2

28 November

1864 – Sloop-of-war CSS FLORIDA was allegedly sunk in an accidental ramming with US Army Transport ALLIANCE.  In reality, she was scuttled off Thorofore Island, Newport News, VA.

1864 - CHARLIE POTWAN was a Union stern-wheel steamer of 52 tons, built at Zanesville, Ohio. En route from Coalport for Ashland, Ky., swells from the Diamond and Coal Hill caused the vessel to fill and turn over at Eight Mile Island above Point Pleasant, WV. The cabin separated from the hull and floated downstream. There was no loss of life. The vessel was carrying a cargo of slack coal.

1864 - DOANE (DOAN NO.2) was a Union stern wheel paddle steamer built in 1863 at Cincinnati. She ran aground and broke in two parts sinking in 6 feet of water about 20 miles above Dardanelle, AR. and 18 miles East of Clarksville, AR. Vessel’s cargo was saved.

1941 - First prototype Grumman XTBF-1 Avenger, BuNo 2539, suffers fire in bomb bay during test flight out of Long Island, New York factory airfield, forcing pilot Hobart Cook and engineer Gordon Israel to bail out. (Joe Mizrahi source cites date of accident as 28 August 1941.)

1947 - A USAF Douglas C-47B-6-DK, 43-48736, c/n 14552/25997, of the 15th Troop Carrier Squadron, 61st Troop Carrier Group, piloted by Wesley B. Fleming, en route from Pisa to Frankfurt-Rhein-Main AFB, thirty miles off-course, crashes in the Italian Alps near Trappa, Italy. All five crew and 15 passengers KWF. Futile search involving hundreds of aircraft from several countries is given up on 11 December. Wreckage discovered eight months later.

1953 - The first aircraft accident since arrival of the 463d Troop Carrier Wing at Ardmore Air Force Base, Oklahoma, occurred early Saturday morning, this date. Captain Francis N. Satterlee, Public Information Officer, and three passengers received various minor injuries as Beechcraft AT-11, 42-36830, went out of control as it became airborne, crashing 75 yards off the runway. "Captain Satterlee, pilot, was the most seriously injured of those aboard, receiving a compound fracture of the left leg below the knee plus lacerations of the right leg, right arm and face. The passengers included Lt. James R. Quiggle of the base legal department; A2/c Carl L. Taylor, crew chief of the aircraft, Headquarters Squadron, 463rd Air Base Group and Pvt. James R. Carver, U. S. Army, stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington.
The aircraft was headed for Fort Sill, Lawton, Oklahoma. Pvt. Carver, on leave at Ardmore, his hometown, was hoping to catch a military aircraft flight from Lawton to McChord Air Force Base, a short distance north of Ft. Lewis. Lt. Quiggle, Airman Taylor and Pvt. Carver received minor injuries not requiring hospitalization and received first aid at the base hospital. It was not in full operation at the time and Satterlee, with serious injuries, was transported to the Ardmore Sanitarium and Hospital where he stayed until he returned to duty."

1957 - Lockheed U-2A, 56-6704, Article 371, eleventh airframe of first USAF order, delivered April 1957, moved to 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, Laughlin AFB, Texas, June 1957, crashes at night this date. Capt. Benny Lacombe killed when he unsuccessfully attempts to bail out of crippled aircraft 13 miles SE of Laughlin. Ejection seats had not yet been fitted to U-2s at this point.


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## mhansen2

29 November

1944 - Douglas A-26 Invader, A-26B-10-DT 43-22298 and A-26B-15-DT 43-22336 both of 641st Squadron USAF collided during formation after take-off from Warton Aerodrome, Lancashire. All crew were killed. Both aircraft remained on Freckleton Marsh and were partially recovered as part of a UK Channel 4 Time Team Programme in 2005.

1952 - A Civil Air Transport C-47 flying from Seoul, South Korea, on a mission to pick up agent Li Chun-ying, was shot down in Jilin province, People's Republic of China. CAT pilots Robert Snoddy and Norman Schwartz were killed. CIA agents Richard Fectau and John Downey were captured and held in China until December 12, 1971 and March 12, 1973, respectively. In July 2002, the Chinese government allowed a US government team to search for Snoddy and Schwartz's bodies. This expedition brought back sufficient airplane remains to prompt a more in-depth archaeological dig in July 2004.

1966 – Test pilot Mike Adams flew the X-15 to 28,042 meters (92,005 feet) and Mach 4.65.

1982 - Shortly after completing a training mission, a USAF Boeing B-52G Stratofortress, 59-4766, suffered hydraulics fire in nose gear, exploded at the end of the runway at Castle AFB, California, but crew of nine escaped before it was fully engulfed. Aircraft commander ordered evacuation as soon as he learned of the wheel fire.

1984 – Former USCG George W. Campbell (WPG-32) was sunk as a target with a Harpoon missile some 52 miles NW of Kauai, Hawaii.

2004 - A U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk, crashes shortly after taking off from Fort Hood, Texas, when it strikes guy-wires supporting the television antenna of KSWO-TV, near Waco, Texas, killing all seven soldiers aboard. Conditions were foggy and the warning lights on the tower were not lit, in violation of both Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) regulations. Victims included Brigadier General Charles B. Allen of Lawton, Oklahoma; Specialist Richard L. Brown of Stonewall, Louisiana; Chief Warrant Officer Todd T. Christmas of Wagon Mound, New Mexico; Chief Warrant Officer Doug Clapp of Greensboro, North Carolina; Chief Warrant Officer Mark W. Evans of Killeen, Texas; Chief Warrant Officer David H. Garner of Mason City, Iowa; and Colonel James M. Moore of Peabody, Massachusetts.


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## mhansen2

30 November

1861 - NORMAN was a Union schooner that was lost on Block Island, R.I., while carrying coal.

1861 - Confederate schooner E. J. WATERMAN, while carrying a cargo of coffee, ran aground on Tybee Island, Georgia, and was captured by the sloop-of-war USS SAVANNAH.

1862 - The 136-ton Union bark PARKER COOK, while carrying a cargo of pork, beef, butter, cheese, and bread to Aux Cayes Haiti, was captured and burned off Cape Rafael, Santo Domingo, by the screw sloop-of-war CSS ALABAMA.

1931 – Former USS NAUTILUS, (ex-O-12 (SS-73)) was towed three miles down the Byfjorden (a Norwegian fjord just outside Bergen) and scuttled in 1,138 feet (347 m) of water. In 1981 Norwegian divers found her wreck.  Another source sets the date as 20 November.

1944 - Two B-24 Liberator bombers, flying out of Davis-Monthan Army Air Base, collide at 0740 hrs. over the desert NE of Tucson, Arizona. The planes were on a training mission and all eighteen airmen died. The location of this crash was over a major natural drainage canal known as the Pantano Wash, at a point half-way between present day East Broadway and East Speedway. Aircraft involved were both B-24J-35-CO Liberators, 42-73344 and 42-73357, of the 233d Combat Crew Training Squadron. Harold D. Ballard piloted 344, while 357 was flown by Theodore V. Glock.

1947 - TOKYO, Dec. 1. (AP) - The wreckage of a plane believed to be an air transport command C-47 missing with two aboard since Sunday morning has been located 5000 feet up the snowclad slopes of Mount Fuji, the First cavalry division said today. The missing plane, carrying only a pilot and copilot, left Haneda airfield near Tokyo on a flight to Itami airbase near Osaka. The United States Far East air force said no radio contact was established with the plane after its takeoff."

1953 - A USAF C-119 Flying Boxcar crashes in flames while on approach to Orly Airport, Paris, France, killing all six crew. "French officials said the plane appeared to explode in air moments after it had been given a clearance for its approach to the field. They said [that] six bodies had been recovered from the wreckage. Air Force sources said the plane was manned by a ferry crew from Dover Field, Del. The bodies of five men were pulled from the charred wreckage. A sixth crewmen was found dead in a clump of trees after he had tried unsuccessfully to bail out from about 700 feet. His partially-opened parachute was tangled in branches 40 yards from the crash site."

1953 - USAF Lt. Ben E. Short, of Fontana, California, steps out of his burning North American F-86D-35-NA Sabre, 51-6172, and parachutes safely near Courtland, California, while on a flight out of Hamilton AFB, California. The burning plane lands in a field near Dixon, 20 miles from where the pilot descends. "Short, who was uninjured, telephoned his base from a farm house and was returned to Hamilton Field by helicopter an hour later." The accident occurred at 1000 hrs. A helicopter of the 41st Air Rescue Squadron flew him back to base. His F-86 crashed 35 miles E of Travis AFB.

1960 – In his first familiarization flight, test pilot Neil Armstrong flew the X-15 to 14,886 meters (48,840 feet) and Mach 1.75.

1964 – Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 26,579 meters (87,206 feet) and Mach 4.66.

1967 – Former USS NEUENDORF (DE-200) was sunk as a target off California.

1989 - A Douglas A-4F Skyhawk—Bureau Number 152101, tail number '2101', c/n 13489, assigned to the US Navy Top Gun school, crashed short of the runway at NAS Miramar, north of San Diego, California. The cause of the crash was loss of power to the engine. The pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Stanley R. O'Connor, an instructor in the Top Gun school, ejected safely. This airframe had been ordered as the final A-4E but was delivered as the first A-4F model.

1991 - During routine training mission, pilot Lt. Michael Young, 28, bailed out of his disabled USAF LTV A-7D-9-CV Corsair II 70-1054 of the 180th Tactical Fighter Group, Ohio Air National Guard, based at Toledo Express Airport, Swanton, Ohio, over the coast of Michigan's Thumb area. He landed in Lake Huron and was dragged 12 miles in his parachute by winds before being lost and presumed drowned. The jet impacted in a wooded area near Port Hope, Michigan. Rescuers were unable to reach pilot at the speed he was being dragged, and survival was unlikely in the 38-degree water.

1992 - On 29 November 1992, four Lockheed C-141 Starlifters, of the 62d Airlift Wing, deployed from McChord AFB, Washington, to Malmstrom AFB, Montana, to take part in what was supposed to be a routine local air refueling/airdrop mission, with a KC-135 Stratotanker of the 141st Air Refueling Wing, Washington Air National Guard, out of Fairchild AFB, Washington. Two Starlifters collided over Harlem, in north central Montana, at 2020 hrs., this date, while involved in a refueling training exercise at between 24,000 and 27,000 feet, killing all 13 aboard the two jets, said Mike O'Connor of the Federal Aviation Administration. C-141Bs 65-0255 and 66-0142 came down a mile apart. Wreckage was scattered over 16 square miles 12 miles north of Harlem, a town of 1,100 near the Canada–US border. There were six people on one of the aircraft and seven on the other. Eleven of the men were from the 36th Airlift Squadron, one from the 8th Airlift Squadron, and one from the 4th Airlift Squadron. Neither aircraft was carrying any cargo on the training mission, indications they had finished part of the refueling and one of the aircraft was moving back into formation when the collision occurred.

1992 - Rockwell B-1B Lancer, 86-0106, "Lone Wolf", of 337th Bomb Squadron, 96th Bomb Wing, flies into a mountain, 300 feet below a 6,500-foot ridge line approximately 36 miles SSW of Van Horn, Texas, when the pilot interrupted the terrain-following radar. 4 fatalities. The Air Force attributed the crash to pilot error. Aircraft had collided with a KC-135R over Nebraska on 24 Mar 1992, but was repaired.


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## mhansen2

1 December

1863 - COLONNA was a Union stern-wheel steamer of 102 tons, built in 1859 at Brownsville, Pa.  She was burned at Newburg, IN.

1863 - TECUMSEH was a Union side-wheel steamer of 418 tons, built in 1852 at Cincinnati that was lost at West Baton Rouge, LA.

1864 - NYMPH was a Union stern-wheel steamer of 35 tons, built in 1862 at Portsmouth, Ohio that was wrecked at Louisville, KY.

1952 - A USAF Douglas C-47B-50-DK Skytrain, 45-1124, crashes in the San Bernardino Mountains with 13 aboard "during a lashing storm while ferrying personnel from its home base, Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, Nebraska to March Air Force Base near here." Search parties fly out of Norton Air Force Base, San Bernardino, California, and search snow-covered 8,000-foot (2,400 m) level near Big Bear Lake, where a sheriff's deputy reported seeing a fire on Monday night. The aircraft was last heard from at 2151 hrs. PST. Wreck found on 22 December at ~11,485-foot (3,501 m) level of Mount San Gorgonio, buried twelve feet in the snow. All 13 killed while flying (KWF). One source gives crash date as 28 November.

1953 - A Navy trainer and an Air Force Douglas C-54 Skymaster hospital plane collide over the San Joaquin Delta but both make safe landings although badly damaged. The Navy men, logging flying time for credits, were Lt. J. L. Scoggins, pilot, and Lt. R. Taylor, of Berkeley. They recovered to NAS Alameda. The damaged C-54, which was believed to be en route to Kelly Field, Texas, was escorted back to its base at Travis AFB by a plane of the 41st Air Rescue Squadron, from Hamilton AFB. The C-54 pilot dealt with sticking landing gear but finally got it extended for a safe landing. It was not known how many were aboard the transport. The collision took place at 6,000 feet, between Stockton and Sacramento.

1961 - A U.S. Air Force North American F-100C Super Sabre of the 136th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 107th Tactical Fighter Group, New York Air National Guard, departs Niagara Falls Air Force Base, New York, on a training flight to Erie, Pennsylvania, but pilot Lt. Edward Metlot, of New York City, is informed by his wingman that his plane is on fire. He steers the fighter towards the Niagara River Gorge to avoid populated areas, ejecting at the last moment, the plane narrowly missing forty workmen on the Queenston-Lewiston Steel Arch Bridge. He lands along the American shoreline, the jet impacting on the riverbank and exploding below Niagara Falls.

1966 – Former USS Pheasant (MSF-61/AM-61) was sunk as a target.

1977 - US Coast Guard Boat 56022 sank in a storm. The boat was located by shipwreck explorers, Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville. While on route from Oswego to Niagara, NY, the 56-foot Coast Guard cable boat experienced 6-foot waves and winds of 50 mph as it approached Nine Mile Point on Lake Ontario. The boat, a converted landing craft (LCM) with an open deck, was taking water over the gunwale faster than the 3-man crew could pump it out.
The Charlotte Coast Guard Station dispatched its motor lifeboat to the scene where it found the 50-ton cable boat listing to its port side. They removed the crew and took the boat in tow, but a wave parted the line and the cable boat sank some seven miles west of Pultneyville, NY., and about a mile offshore.

1985 – Former USS Thuban (AKA-19) was under two from Hampton Roads, VA to Vigo, Spain for breaking up.  She sank in mid-Atlantic when the tow line parted during heavy weather.

1989 - A leased CASA 212-300 Aviocar, 88–320, N296CA, c/n 296, operated by the US Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) for testing duties, crashes at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. The crew had been conducting tests of tracking equipment during the short flight from Davison AAF at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Aircraft crashed and sank into the water ~ 50 yards off shore, in 45 feet water, reportedly because the flight crew inadvertently selected "beta range" on the propellers at 800 feet, stalled and crashed into the river. Pilot CW4 Gaylord M. Bishop, copilot CW4 Howard E. Morton, SPC Peter Rivera-Santos, PFC Mark C. Elkins, and CIV Ronald N. Whiteley Jr. KWF.


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## mhansen2

2 December

1946 – (1 or 2 December)  A US Army Air Force A-26 Invader piloted by George A. Curry of the US Army Air Force 45th Reconnaissance Squadron, Furth, Germany, became lost in heavy, unfavorable weather while on a mission to Amsterdam, Netherlands, and eventually landed near the village of Egyek, northeast of Budapest, Hungary. The other crewman on board was Donald G. Gelnett. The landed safely and the aircraft was flyable, but very low on fuel. The local townspeople welcomed the Americans. Soviet Air Force officers questioned the crew and were satisfied once Curry let them develop the on-board film and they saw nothing of consequence (he had kept his classified maps and town plans hidden). On 6 December an American officer arrived from Budapest with enough fuel to get the A-26 out of the field, and on the 7th they flew over to the regular Budapest airfield. After an adequate refueling there, but hampered by weather delays, the crew and aircraft returned to their home base on 12 December via Vienna, Austria.

1959 - A USAF Douglas VC-47D Skytrain, 43-49024, c/n 14840/26285, built as C-47B-10-DK, crashes and burns in woods 10 miles (16 km) N of Oslo, Norway, killing all four on board. There was fog in the area at the time of the accident.

1964 - SAC Boeing B-47E Stratojet, 53-2398, of the 380th Bomb Wing, suffers collapse of forward main gear unit, skids off right side of runway at Plattsburgh AFB, New York, crew escapes safely. Airframe struck off charge 13 January 1965.

1966 - A U.S. Navy Beechcraft T-34C Turbo Mentor crashes at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, killing the instructor and his student navigator from Italy. The pair, flying out of NAS Pensacola, Florida, were practicing maneuvers.

1967 – Former USS Cecil J. Doyle (DE-368) was sunk as a target off the California coast.

2004 - The pilot of a Blue Angels McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, BuNo 161956, ejects approximately one mile off Perdido Key, Florida, after reporting mechanical problems and loss of power. Lt. Ted Steelman suffered minor injuries and fully recovered.

2010 - USN McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C Hornet, BuNo 165184, 'AD-351', suffered port undercarriage collapse on landing at NAF El Centro, California, at 1615 hrs., and departs runway. The pilot ejects safely.


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## mhansen2

3 December

1861 – Union vessel VIGILANT was en route in ballast from New York City to Sombrero in the West Indies, where her crew intended to collect guano.  The 1,100-ton armed full-rigged ship was captured and burned in the North Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles southeast of Bermuda by merchant raider CSS SUMTER.

1864 - The Confederate 634-gross ton sidewheel paddle Steamer ELLA, a blockade runner with a cargo of Holland gin, munitions, and rifle-muskets, was forced aground near the lighthouse at Bald Head Point off Fort Holmes on the coast of North Carolina near the mouth of the Cape Fear River southeast of Cape Fear by the armed screw steamer USS EMMA and gunboat USS PEQUOT. Six ships of the US Navy’s South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and Confederate artillery shelled ELLA for two days, hitting her at least 40 times, before a U.S. Navy boat party boarded and burned her on 5 December.

1928 - The prototype Curtiss XF8C-2, BuNo A7673, crashes during a terminal-velocity dive, just days after its first flight. Another source cites the loss date as 23 December 1928.

1951 - A Boeing B-29A-45-BN Superfortress, 44-61797, of the 3417th AMS, 3415th AMG, Lowry AFB, Colorado, piloted by James W. Shanks, trying to reach Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado, with one motor not working crashed into a row of residential homes, killing eight airmen. At least one civilian and five airmen were injured. Five houses were damaged—four of them demolished.

1953 - Air Force cadet Orrin W. Vail, 21, Riverside, California, is killed when his Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star crashes five miles from James Connally Air Force Base, Waco, Texas.

1953 - Boeing B-47E-60-BW Stratojet, 51-2440, of the 303d Bomb Wing, on a training flight explodes in flight late Thursday and crashes into mountainous terrain NE of Tucson, Arizona. Officials at Davis-Monthan AFB identify the four dead as: Lt. Col. Douglas H. Bratcher, Dallas, Texas; Maj. Heyward W. McEver, Teaneck, New Jersey; Capt. Jesse G. Williams, Kenedy, Texas, all pilots; and A1C William L. Child, Nevada, Iowa, a crew chief. A ground crew dispatched to the scene recovered all four bodies from the blackened wreckage.

1960 - A fully fueled Martin XSM-68-3-MA Titan I ICBM, 58-2254, a Lot V missile, V-2, being lowered into a silo at the Operational System Test Facility, Vandenberg AFB, California, following pre-launch tests, the ninth attempt at completing this test, drops to the bottom of the underground launch tube when the elevator fails. The missile explodes, wrecking the silo, which is never repaired. There were no injuries.

1961 - A USAF Douglas C-47 Skytrain departs Aviano Air Base, Italy, on a routine practice flight, and less than a half hour later crashes into a 4,000-foot fog-shrouded Alpine mountain, killing all four crew. The Associated Press reports from Udine, Italy, that the plane was a mere 15 feet short of clearing the peak. Rescue teams working their way up the mountainside are guided by the flaming wreckage.

1970 – Former USS Bluegill (SS/SSK/AGSS-242) was sunk and moored to the bottom as a salvage trainer about two kilometers off Lahaina, Hawaii in 40 metres (130 ft) of water. For the next 13 years, her hull was used for underwater rescue training. In November 1984, after a month of preparatory work, the twin Edenton-class salvage and rescue ships Beaufort (ATS-2) and Brunswick (ATS-3) raised ex-Bluegill and towed her to deep water where she was sunk with military honors.

1985 - A U.S. Navy aviator is killed at Naval Air Station Miramar, California, when, upon landing at 0910 hrs. on a slick runway after a flight from NAS Point Mugu, California, his F/A-18A-15-MC Hornet (Lot 7), BuNo 162435, skids ~5,000 feet down the 12,000 foot runway, then overturns, trapping the pilot underneath the inverted airframe. "A Miramar crash crew worked feverishly for about 30 minutes to free the strapped-in pilot from the cockpit. The crew eventually brought in a crane to lift the front of the jet fighter high enough to pull him out. Despite spilling its fuel, the aircraft did not burn. The injured pilot was airlifted by Life Flight helicopter to UC San Diego Medical Center, where he died at 10:25 a.m. Officials would not divulge the cause of death."
Lt. John Semcken, public affairs spokesman at Miramar, identified the pilot as Capt. Henry M. Kleemann, 42, Commanding Officer of VX-4. Kleemann, who was married and had four children, was one of two Navy pilots assigned to USS Nimitz (CVN-68) who shot down two Libyan fighters in the Gulf of Sirte on 19 August 1981, after the Libyans fired at the U.S. aircraft. Kleemann was stationed at Point Mugu Naval Air Station near Oxnard, Semcken said. Miramar officials said the aircraft did not deploy a drag chute when it landed, and it appeared that Kleemann was relying solely on the brakes. Navy officials are also trying to determine why the aircraft's canopy landed several feet away from the aircraft, and if Kleemann could have been trying to eject before the craft rolled over. "All of this is just speculation at this point. We have no real clue as to what could have caused the crash. It's under investigation," Semcken said. He said the aircraft has computerized landing and takeoff systems and a computerized anti-skidding system. "We're looking at the landing gear and aircraft's wheels to see what went wrong. The investigators are looking to see if the anti-skidding system failed."
Autopsy surgeons determined that the pilot died almost immediately after the crash from a severed spinal cord. Kleemann had nearly 4,000 flight hours, but fewer than 43 in the F/A-18. The Hornet was a nearly new airframe with only 327 flying hours being used in the operational testing of the design. Investigators pinpointed the planing link on the undercarriage whose task is to guide the gear components' complex manoeuvers during retraction as a probable cause. If damaged during retraction after departing Point Mugu, the link may have caused the starboard wheel to be slightly out of line. As the fighter's weight settled onto the gear leg, the airframe may have swerved so sharply that the pilot was unable to maintain control. Repaired, this airframe is struck off charge on 27 June 2007, and is now displayed at Patriots Point, Charleston, South Carolina.


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## mhansen2

4 December

1864 - The 274-ton Union whaler EDWARD, a bark, was captured and burned in the South Atlantic Ocean off Tristan da Cunha by merchant raider CSS SHENANDOAH.

1908 – USS YANKEE was conducting a training exercise when she ran aground on Spindle Rock near Hen and Chickens lightship, MA. She remained there until refloated on the 4th December. Her reprieve however, was short-lived. While being towed to New Bedford, she sank in Buzzards Bay.

1929 - Curtiss B-2 Condor, 29-28, assigned to the 96th Bomb Squadron, Langley Field, Virginia, crashes at Goodwater, Alabama, with 69 total flight hours on airframe. Pilots 2nd Lt. James M. Gillespie and Ernest G. Schmidt KWF. This was the second of four crashes of the 13 total B-2s the USAAC acquired.

1945 - USS Osamekin (YTB-191) sank south of Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska, cause unknown.

1953 - "SAN DIEGO (AP) - Death of Lt. Dean Converse of Long Beach, in the crash of his A2F Grumman Guardian 50 miles off Long Beach was announced by Pacific Fleet air headquarters here Friday."

1953 - "CHERRY POINT N.C. (AP) - A search for a jet training plane with two pilots aboard uncovered no clues Sunday, a Cherry Point Marine spokesman reported. The plane, a silver-colored trainer, has been missing since Friday. The Cherry Point public information office said Saturday the pilots were 1st Lt. Duke Williams Jr., 27, of Yazoo City, Miss., a former prisoner of the Chinese Communists in Korea, and Capt. John H. Barclay, 34, of Santa Monica, Calif."

1959 - On Friday, December 4, 1959, Ensign Albert Joe Hickman was practicing aircraft carrier landings as part of a training mission conducted from Naval Air Station Miramar, California. When his McDonnell F3H Demon suddenly stalled, Hickman was still 2,000 feet (610 m) above ground. He could easily have ejected from the cockpit in time to save his own life. Below him, however, and directly in the path of the crippled plane was Hawthorne Elementary School, where more than 700 children were playing in the schoolyard.
Hickman chose to remain in the cockpit. He somehow maneuvered the descending plane away from the school, assuring the safety and probably saving the lives – of several hundred people. Now at an altitude of only 60 feet (18 m), he no longer had the option to eject. The plane crashed into a nearby canyon, exploding on impact and Albert J. Hickman was killed. A school in the San Diego community of Mira Mesa was later named after him. American Legion Post 460 in San Diego, Department of California, is named the Albert J. Hickman Post.

1962 - A USAF Lockheed C-121G Super Constellation, 54-4066, c/n 4146, operated by MATS, crashes and burns during a landing attempt at Naval Air Station Agana, Guam. Five crew survive, three are presumed dead. No passengers were thought aboard. Names of the crew, all from NAS Moffett Field, California, were not immediately available. The plane, carrying a load of aircraft parts to Guam, left Travis Air Force Base on Friday.

1973 – Former USS Frankford (DD-497) was sunk as a target off Puerto Rico.

1989 - USCG Mesquite (WLB 305) grounded on a reef off of the Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan, in Lake Superior after replacing the summer navigational buoy that warned about that very reef. After several hours of trying to free the vessel, the crew reluctantly abandoned ship.  Deemed beyond repair, the ship was sunk just off the peninsula in 110 feet of water.

1994 – Former USS Raleigh (LPD-1) was sunk as a target some 60 nm SE of Puerto Rico.

2002 – Former USS Caron (DD-970) was sunk 75nm S. of Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico during explosive tests. She was intended to survive these tests and scheduled to be sunk as a target later in 2003, but secondary explosions caused her to sink.

2011 - A US Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), conducting covert military surveillance is allegedly "brought down with minimum damage" near the city of Kashmar in northeastern Iran. The Iranian government claims that the UAV was shot down or hacked into by its electronic warfare unit.


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## mhansen2

5 December

1861 – Former whaler USS PHOENIX was scuttled as part of the "Stone Fleet" to form a breakwater off Tybee Island, Georgia.

1862 – Confederate schooner ALICIA was captured and destroyed in Jupiter Inlet off Florida by gunboat USS SAGAMORE.

1862 - Howitzer boats from armed sidewheel paddle steamers USS GENERAL PUTNAM and USS MAHASKA destroyed a schooner, two sloops, and several boats in branches of the Severn River in Virginia.

1864 - While at anchor, Union tug LIZZIE FREEMAN was captured and destroyed on the James River off Pagan Creek near Smithfield, Virginia, by a Confederate States Navy boarding party.

1864 – While carrying a cargo of sutler′s goods, an unidentified Union schooner was captured and burned on the James River off Pagan Creek near Smithfield, Virginia, by a Confederate States Navy boarding party.

1945 - *Flight 19*, a training flight of 5 Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bombers, manned by 14 US Navy and Marine personnel from Ft Lauderdale Naval Air Station, Florida, USA, vanishes over the “Bermuda Triangle” under mysterious circumstances. Avengers were four TBM-1Cs, BuNo 45714, 'FT3', BuNo 46094, 'FT36', BuNo 46325, 'FT81', BuNo 73209, 'FT117', and TBM-3, BuNo 23307, 'FT28'. A US Navy Martin PBM-5 Mariner, BuNo 59225, carrying 13 sailors departs NAS Banana River, Florida, to search for the missing planes, also disappears after a large mid-air explosion is seen near its last reported position.

1947 – Former USS LST-559 was sold to Bosey, Philippines, where her hulk was sunk to extend the breakwater in Subic Bay.

1953 - "LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) - Four Air National Guard Thunderjet pilots making a weekend instrument flight crashed to their deaths near here Saturday night. Officials at Dobbins Air Force Base in nearby Marietta said the F-84s were returning from Miami and preparing to land when they fell from about 11,500 feet. One of the falling Thunderjets struck and demolished a small unoccupied house. The other three fighters fell nearby. All four pilots were members of the 116th Fighter Bomber Wing, Georgia National Guard.
They were identified as: Capt. Idon M. Hodge Jr., 30, of Atlanta, the flight leader. 1st Lt. Elwood C. Kent, 28, of East Point, Ga. 1st Lt. Samuel P. Dixon, of Chamblee, Ga. 2nd Lt. William A. Tennent, 25, of Atlanta. Maj. W. J. Gay, of the Dobbins base operations office said Capt. Hodge radioed the Atlanta Naval Air Station, a checkpoint for planes landing at Dobbins, that the formation was starting its descent from 27,000 feet and would report again at 11,500. The fliers were not heard from again. Gay said the crash occurred about 25 miles northeast of Atlanta. The planes fell about four miles west of Lawrenceville. Dobbins officials said all the men were experienced jet pilots and they knew of no reason for the crashes. An investigation is under way. Three of the pilots - Kent, Dixon and Tennent - made up a stunt team specializing in close formation and acrobatic flying. Hodge and Kent were veterans of World War II and Hodge was a combat pilot in Korea."

1956 - A Northrop XSM-62 Snark, 53-8172, N-69D test model, fitted with new 24-hour stellar inertial guidance system, launches from Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex, Florida.  It wanders off-course, ignores destruct command and disappears over Brazil. It is found by a farmer in January 1983.

1961 - US Air Force F-102s out of Galena Alaska made the first intercept of a Soviet aircraft in Alaskan air space, a Soviet Tu-16 Badger.

1963 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 30,785 meters (101,006 feet) and Mach 6.06.

1964 - An LGM-30B Minuteman I missile is on strategic alert at Launch Facility (LF) L-02, Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, when two airmen are dispatched to the LF to repair the inner zone (IZ) security system. In the midst of their checkout of the IZ system, one retrorocket in the spacer below the Reentry Vehicle (RV) fires, causing the RV to fall about 75 feet to the floor of the silo. When the RV strikes bottom, the arming and fusing/altitude control subsystem containing the batteries are torn loose, thus removing all sources of power from the RV. The RV structure receives considerable damage. All safety devices operate properly in that they do not sense the proper sequence of events to allow arming the warhead. There is no detonation or radioactive contamination.

1965 - Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, BuNo 151022, of VA-56 on nuclear alert status, armed with one Mark 43 TN nuclear weapon, rolls off an elevator of USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14), in the Pacific Ocean. The Skyhawk was being rolled from the number 2 hangar bay to the number 2 elevator when it was lost. Airframe, pilot Lt. D.M. Webster, and bomb are lost in 16,000 feet of water 80 miles from one of the Ryukyu Islands in Okinawa. No public mention was made of the incident at the time and it would not come to light until a 1981 Pentagon report revealed that a one-megaton bomb had been lost. Japan then asks for details of the incident.

1972 - During an Aerospace Defense Command night training mission, Convair F-102A-80-CO Delta Dagger, 56-1517, of the 157th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, South Carolina Air National Guard, McEntire Air National Guard Base, South Carolina, collides with Lockheed C-130E Hercules, 64-0558, of the 318th Special Operations Squadron, out of Pope AFB, North Carolina, during a simulated interception, over the Bayboro area of Horry County, east of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. One is killed in the Delta Dagger and all twelve on board the Hercules perish. Some press reports list Conway, South Carolina, west of the crash site, as the location.

1988 - A U.S. Navy Grumman EA-6B Prowler, BuNo 163044, 'NG', of VAQ-139, goes missing over the Pacific Ocean during training exercise 900 miles off San Diego. Search fails to find any sign of the four crew.

1994 - A U.S. Navy pilot from Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, is killed when he loses control of his Beechcraft T-34C Turbo Mentor near Robertsdale, Alabama.

2004 – Former USS Inchon (LPH/MCS-12) was sunk as a target some 210 nm east of Virginia Beach, VA.


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## mhansen2

6 December

1863 – Monitor USS Weehawken lay anchored about 1.5 miles off shore of Morris Island, Charleston Harbor, SC., during a moderate gale.  Suddenly, the ironclad signaled for assistance and appeared to observers ashore to be sinking. Attempts to beach the vessel failed, and she sank bow first five minutes later in 30 ft (9.1 m) of water. A court of inquiry found that Weehawken had recently taken on a considerable amount of heavy ammunition in her forward compartments.
This change excessively reduced her forward freeboard, causing water to rush down an open hawse pipe and hatch during the storm. As the bow sank, and the stern rose, water could not flow aft to the pumps and the vessel foundered. Four officers and 27 enlisted men drowned aboard Weehawken.

1863 - ISAAC NEWTON was a Union side-wheel steamer of 1332 tons, built in 1846 at New York City that exploded on the Potomac River at Fort Washington, MD., with nine killed.

1864 – Confederate schooner Alabama (not to be confused with sloop-of-war CSS Alabama) was forced aground on the coast of Texas near San Luis Pass by cruiser USS Princess Royal. A boarding party from Princess Royal captured and refloated her.

1917 - USS Jacob Jones (DD-61) was torpedoed and sunk 30 miles (48 km) south of the Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom by U-53. Sixty-six of the crew were killed, two were taken prisoner.

1922 - "NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Dec. 6. - Major Guy L. Gearhart, of Leavenworth, Kan., Captain Benton A. Doyle, of St. Louis, and four enlisted men were killed today in a collision between a Martin bomber and a Fokker scout plane, 250 feet above the Hampton Normal School farm, which adjoins Langley field. The machines burst into flames and were destroyed, and several men who attempted to rescue the men pinned beneath the wreckage were severely burned. The bomber, piloted by Captain Doyle, took the air to lead a formation of six planes and was 'banking' when the scout machine, in charge of Major Gearhart, rose swiftly and hit it in the rear. The other machines already in the air maneuvered out of the way and effected safe landings. It was announced tonight that a board of inquiry would investigate the accident." Fokker D.VII, AS-7795, ex-German FF7795/18, hit Martin NBS-1, AS-68491.

1943 - USAAF Douglas A-20G-20-DO Havoc, 42-86782, of the 649th Bomb Squadron, 411th Bombardment Group (Light), out of Florence Army Airfield, South Carolina, crashed near Woodruff, Spartanburg County, South Carolina, three miles E of Switzer. Pilot 2nd Lt. Hampton P. Worrell, 26, (b. 27 September 1917 in South Carolina), gunners Sgt. Harry G. Barnes, 19, (b. 22 September 1924 in New York) and Sgt. John D. Hickman, 21, (b. 31 December 1923 in California), all killed.

1944 - Lockheed XF-14 Shooting Star, 44-83024, c/n 080-1003, originally YP-80A No 2, redesignated during production, of the 4144th Base Unit, destroyed in mid-air collision with B-25J-20-NC, 44-29120, of the 421st Base Unit, near Muroc Army Air Base, California. All crew on both planes killed, coming down 7 miles SSW of Randsburg, California. XF-14 pilot was Perry B. Claypool, while Henry M. Phillips flew the B-25.

1957 - The first launch attempt of the first all-up three-stage Vanguard rocket, Vanguard TV3, developed by the Naval Research Laboratory, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 18, Florida, fails as the vehicle reaches an apogee of ~four feet (1.2 meters), then suffers a loss of thrust, fails back onto the pad, the fuel tanks rupture and explode, destroying the rocket and severely damaging the launchpad. The 1.36 kilogram satellite is thrown clear, landing near the pad, whereupon it begins transmitting a signal. No exact cause for the failure is determined, but the commonly accepted explanation is that low fuel tank pressure during the start procedure allowed some of the burning fuel in the combustion chamber to leak into the fuel system through the injector head before full propellant pressure was obtained from the turbopump. The press dubs the failed attempt "Kaputnik". The satellite is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.

1960 – Test pilot Scott Crossfield flew the X-15 to 16,268 meters (53,375 feet) and Mach 2.85.

1988 - A USAF Boeing B-52H-150-BW Stratofortress, 60-0040, crashed on the runway at 0115 hrs. EST at K.I. Sawyer AFB, Michigan, while doing touch-and-goes after a seven-hour training flight. No weapons were aboard the bomber, which broke into three parts. All crew survived, crawling or being helped from the nose section, without sustaining burns.


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## mhansen2

7 December

1861 - MESSENGER was a Union steamer of 254 tons, built in 1855 at Belle Vernon, PA. that was wrecked at Rochester, PA.

1864 - Screw steamer USS Narcissus struck a Confederate mine in Mobile Bay off Mobile, Alabama, during a heavy storm and sank without loss of life. She was raised, repaired, and returned to service.

1922 - DH-4B, AS-63780, departs Rockwell Field, San Diego, California at 0905 hrs. bound for Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Piloted by 1st Lt. Charles L. Webber, Col. Francis C. Marshall, attached to the staff of the chief of cavalry in Washington, D.C., is aboard for an inspection trip of cavalry posts and camps. When the aircraft never arrives, one of the largest man-hunts in Air Service history is mounted but when search is finally given up on 23 February 1923 nothing had been found. Wreckage is eventually discovered 12 May 1923 by a man hunting stray cattle in the mountains. Flight apparently hit Cuyamaca Peak just a few miles east of San Diego in fog within thirty minutes of departure.

1936 - First Boeing Y1B-17, 36–149, c/n 1973, first flown 2 December, makes rough landing at Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington, on third flight, when Army pilot Major Stanley Umstead touches down with locked brakes, airframe ends up on nose after short skid. Pilot had used heavy brake applications before take-off, then immediately retracted the overheated undercarriage instead of letting air stream cool it, whereupon the bi-metal brakes fused. Repaired, Flying Fortress departs for Wright Field on 11 January 1937.

1937 - USS Koka (AT-31) ran aground on the Northwest of San Clemente Island, California.

1941 – Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brings US into World War Two.

1943 - During a joint U.S. Navy–U.S. Marine simulated close air support exercise near Pauwela, Maui, Territory of Hawaii, the pilot of a U.S. Navy Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless, BuNo 36045 of squadron VB-10, initiates a slight right-hand turn and deploys dive brakes in preparation for a bomb run, but his aircraft is struck by a second VB-10 SBD-5, 36099, that did not have dive brakes deployed. Both aircraft crash, and a bomb knocked loose from 36045 falls among a group of marines and detonates, killing 20 and seriously injuring 24. Both SBD pilots parachute to safety, but both SBD gunners die, one after an unsuccessful bailout attempt.
The collision is attributed to poor judgment and flying technique by both pilots. Aviation Archaeology Investigation & Research gives the date of this accident as 6 December.

1944 - The sole Northrop JB-1A Bat, unofficially known as the "Thunderbug" due to the improvised General Electric B-1 turbojets' "peculiar squeal", a jet-propelled flying wing spanning 28 feet 4 inches (8.64 m) to carry 2,000 lb (910 kg). bombs in pods close to the engines, makes its first powered, but unmanned, flight from Santa Rosa Island, Eglin Field, Florida, launching from a pair of rails laid across the sand dunes. It climbs rapidly, stalls, and crashes 400 yards from the launch point.

1951 - The 6555th Guided Missile Squadron at Cape Canaveral, Florida, launches Martin B-61 Matador, GM-547. Lift-off and flight were normal, but the missile did not respond properly to guidance signals, and it finally went out of control and fell into the Atlantic 15 minutes and 20 seconds after launch. The flight covered 105 miles.

1955 - First prototype Martin XP6M-1 Seamaster, BuNo 138821, c/n XP-1, first flown July 14, 1955, disintegrates in flight at 5,000 feet (1,500 m) due to horizontal tail going to full up in control malfunction, subjecting airframe to 9 G stress as it began an outside loop, crashing into Potomac River near junction of St. Mary's River, killing four crew, pilot Navy Lieutenant Commander Utgoff, and Martin employees, Morris Bernhard, assistant pilot, Herbert Scudder, flight engineer, and H.B. Coulon, flight test engineer.

1966 - US Army Grumman OV-1B Mohawk, 62-5894, of the 122nd Aviation Company, on photo mission out of Fleigerhorst AAF, Hanau, Germany, is written off after engine failure then fire. Pilot Capt. Bill Ebert and crewman SP4 Ken Bakos eject. Aircraft crashes in a small forest outside the town of Volkartshain.

1968 - USCG White Adler (WAGL-541) collided with M/V Helena, a 455-foot Taiwanese freighter in the Mississippi River at mile 195.3 above Head of Passes near White Castle, Louisiana and sank in 75-feet of water. Three of the crew of twenty were rescued, the other seventeen perished. Divers recovered the bodies of three of the crew but river sediment buried the cutter so quickly that continued recovery and salvage operations proved impractical. The Coast Guard decided to leave the remaining 14 crewmen entombed in the sunken cutter which to this day remains buried in the bottom of the Mississippi River.

1977 - Lockheed U-2R, 68-10330, Article 052, was the second airframe of first R-model order, originally registered N809X and delivered to the 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, 25 July 1968. It was the testbed for Senior Lance and U.S. Navy EP-X trials, then delivered to the 9th SRW in 1976.
Said aircraft crashed this date at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus, (Operating Area OH) [Operating Location 'Olive Harvest'], pilot Capt. Robert Henderson killed when he crashes into the Met Office next to the control tower on take-off. Also killed are British duty forecaster Jack Flawn and four locally employed Cypriot staff, as well as 14 other injuries. Fires burn for three hours. The Met Office staff were the first to be killed on duty in peacetime since M. A. Giblett died on the R101 in October 1930.

2016 - USMC single-seat F/A-18C Hornet piloted by Capt. Jake Fredrick crashed in the Pacific Ocean, about 120 miles southeast of Iwakuni, Japan. The pilot escapes but dies after ejecting out of the plane. His body is found and identified next day.


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## mhansen2

8 December

1846 - USS Somers, a 259-ton Bainbridge class brig, was built at the New York Navy Yard and commissioned in 1842. While commanded by Lieutenant Raphael Semmes, Somers was chasing a blockade runner off Vera Cruz, Mexico, when she was caught in a sudden storm. Capsized by the heavy winds, she quickly sank with the loss of more than thirty of her crew. In recent years, her wreck has been discovered and explored by divers.

1861 - The following ships were beached at Tybee Island, Georgia, to form a wharf.
USS Cossack
USS Peter Demill
USS South America

1861 – Bark and whaler Ebenezer Dodge was sailing from New Bedford, Massachusetts, to the Pacific Ocean with a crew of 22.  The whaler, a bark, was captured and burned in the mid-Atlantic by merchant raider CSS Sumter.

1862 - Arkansas was a Confederate side wheel paddle steamer built in 1832 at Cincinnati. She was trapped at low water in the Arkansas River above Lee's Creek Bluff. Part of the vessel’s cargo was unloaded and she was then burned on Maj. General Thomas C. Hindmans orders to prevent capture by Maj. General James G. Blunt's advancing Union forces.

1862 - The 171-ton sternwheel paddle steamer Lake City was burned by Confederate guerrillas on the Mississippi River at Carson's Landing, Arkansas.

1863 - Attempting to run the Union blockade and reach Fernandina, Florida, British schooner Antoinette was forced aground on Cumberland Island on the coast of Georgia by bark USS Braziliera.

1864 - The sloop Mary Ann, a blockade runner with a cargo of cotton, was forced aground and destroyed by the gunboat USS Itasca on the coast of Texas at Pass Cavallo.

1927 - Prototype Curtiss XB-2 Condor, 26-211, assigned to Wright Field, Ohio in October 1927, crashes at Buffalo, New York after having logged only 58 hours, 55 minutes flying time.

1953 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the X-1A to 18,300 meters (60,042 feet) and Mach 1.9.

1964 - U.S. Air Force Convair B-58A Hustler, 60-1116, of the 305th Bomb Wing, taxiing for take-off on icy taxiway at Bunker Hill AFB, Indiana, is blown off the pavement by exhaust of another departing Convair B-58 Hustler, strikes a concrete manhole box adjacent to the runway, landing gear collapses, burns. Navigator killed in failed ejection, two other crew okay. Four B43 nuclear bombs and either a W39 or W53 warhead are on board the weapons pod, but no explosion takes place and contamination is limited to crash site.

1967 - NASA astronaut Maj. Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr., is killed in the crash of a Lockheed F-104D Starfighter, 57-1327, of the 6515th Organizational Maintenance Squadron, while practicing zoom landings with Maj. Harvey Royer at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Lawrence was flying backseat on the mission as the instructor pilot for a flight test trainee learning the steep-descent glide technique intended for the cancelled Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar program. The pilot of the aircraft successfully ejected and survived the accident, but with major injuries. The F-104 they were flying came in too low and hit the runway. Royer ejected, but Lawrence was killed.

1968 - Lunar Landing Research Vehicle No. 1 crashes at Ellington Air Force Base, Texas. NASA Manned Spacecraft Center test pilot Joseph Algranti ejects safely.

1968 – Former USS Jesse Rutherford (DE-347) was sunk as a target off the California coast.

1988 - A USAF Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II crashes into the West German town of Remscheid. The pilot and five residents are killed and a further 50 people injured.


2006 – Former USS Spruance (DD-963) was sunk as a target of the Virginia Capes.

2008 - A USMC McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18D Hornet, BuNo 164017, crashed into the neighborhood of University City, coming down two miles (3 km) west of MCAS Miramar, California, just after the Marine pilot, Lieutenant Dan Neubauer, from VMFAT-101, ejected. Four fatalities on the ground. The Hornet was being flown from the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). The commander of the fighter squadron involved in the crash, its top maintenance officer and two others have been relieved of duty as a result of the crash investigation. The pilot has been grounded pending a further review, Maj. Gen. Randolph Alles announced in March 2009.


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## mhansen2

9 December

1864 – Gunboat USS Otsego struck two torpedoes (mines) in quick succession and sank on the Roanoke Rivernear Jamesville, North Carolina. Tug USS Bazely coming to help, also ran into a mine and sank right next to her.

1864 - Tug USS Bazely sank instantly with the loss of two lives after striking a Confederate mine in the Roanoke River near Jamesville, North Carolina, while coming to the aid of the gunboat USS Otsego. Her wreck was destroyed on 25 December to prevent its capture by Confederate forces.

1864 – Union schooner Robert B. Howlett was wrecked on North Bar or Charleston Bar, SC., during a hurricane. One survivor was rescued by the Eliza Hancox and two men died.

1864 - Confederate Gen. Hylan B. Lyon's brigade captured and burned 4 steamers and 2 barges at Cumberland City, 20 miles below Nashville on the Cumberland River. The steamers were:
Paddle Steamship Ben South (176 tons)
Paddle Steamship Echo (100 tons)
Paddle Steamship Thomas E. Tutt (351 tons)
And one unnamed.

1925 - The 111th Observation Squadron, Texas National Guard, suffers its first casualties when Capt. Emil Wagner and Lt. Luke McLaughlin put a Curtiss JN-6H, 38105, into a steep dive whereupon the port wing collapses and the airframe plummets to the ground at Ellington Field, Texas. Both crew members survive the impact but die later in a Houston hospital.

1943 - Boeing B-17G-20-BO Flying Fortress, 42-31468, "The Galley Uncle", force landed during ferry flight from Gander in a field adjacent to Graan Monastery, near Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. One crew died and five were saved by local monks.

1946 – Test pilot Chalmers Goodlin flew the X-1 #2 on its first powered flight reaching 10,675 meters (35,024 feet) and Mach 0.79.  Minor engine fire.

1955 - A USAF Republic F-84F-45-RE Thunderstreak, 52-6692, based at RAF Sculthorpe, suffers flame-out and after several failed attempts at a relight, the pilot, Lt. Roy G. Evans, 24, ejects at 3,500 feet. The fighter comes down on the Lodge Moor Infectious Diseases Hospital on the outskirts of Sheffield at 1700 hrs., striking two wards, killing one patient, Mrs. Elsie Murdock, 46, of South Road, Sheffield, and injuring seven others. Fires are under control by 1930 hrs.

1958 - U.S. Army Major General Bogardus Snowden "Bugs" Cairns, a key proponent of the concept of armed helicopters, was killed instantly when his Bell H-13 Sioux helicopter crashed minutes after take-off in dense woods northwest of Fort Rucker, Alabama headquarters. The aircraft was taking off from field site when it hit a wire extended between two tents causing pilot to lose control and fly into trees.
He was en route to Matteson Range to observe a firepower rehearsal in preparation for a full-scale armed helicopter display. He was commander of the Aviation Center and Commandant of the Aviation School. Ozark Army Airfield at Fort Rucker was subsequently renamed Cairns Army Airfield in his honor in January 1959.

1958 - Boeing B-52E Stratofortress, 56-0633, of the 11th Bomb Wing, crashes near Altus AFB, Oklahoma, due to improper use of stabilizer trim during an overshoot. Returning from a routine night training mission, aircraft makes a GCA approach, requests climb to altitude for another penetration, experiences stab trim problems, crashes ~four miles from base at 2345 hrs. Pilot Major Byard F. Baker, 39, of Azle, Texas, ejects; eight other crew die.

1960 – Test pilot Neil Armstrong flew the X-15 to 15,269 meters (50,097 feet) and Mach 1.80.

1964 - Test pilot Milton Thompson flew the X-15 to 28,164 meters (92,406 feet) and Mach 5.42.

1968 - A Northrop F-89J Scorpion of the 124th Fighter Squadron, Iowa Air National Guard, crashes into a farm home near Story City, Iowa, while on a routine bomber interceptor training mission, killing both crew members. Six members of the Peter Tjernagel family escaped the burning home without serious injury which was destroyed as was a corn crib. "The body of one of the plane's crewmen was found near the blazing wreckage. Story county Sheriff J. I. Shalley said the second crewman parachuted and was taken to a hospital. Authorities said later he also was dead." Air National Guard officials identified the pilot as Capt. John Rooks, of Eldora, and his radar interceptor as Lt. Larry Thomas of Ogden. "The crash two miles northeast of here hurled wreckage over an area of over a quarter of a mile. Some of the debris fell on nearby Interstate highway 35, closing the highway for a time." The Guard F-89Js were replaced in the summer of 1969 with F-84F Thunderstreaks.


1999 - During a USN "Fast Rope" training exercise, a Boeing-Vertol CH-46D Sea Knight, BuNo 154790, c/n 2397, helicopter of HMM-166 departs USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) and approaches the fantail landing pad of USNS Pecos (T-AO-197), cruising ~15 miles (24 km) WSW of Point Loma, California at 1316 hrs. The port rear landing gear leg of the helicopter snags a safety net on the deck edge and the chopper tips backwards into the Pacific, sinking within five seconds. Eleven of 18 on board escape and are picked up by Navy SEALS following USNS Pecos in zodiac boats. The bodies of six U.S. Marines and one U.S. Navy corpsman, from the 1st Force Recon, 5th Platoon, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at Camp Pendleton, California, are recovered from a depth of 3,600 feet.

2003 – In Iraq, an OH-58 Kiowa helicopter is hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, forcing a crash landing. Both crew members survive.


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## mhansen2

10 December

1861 - American steamer Annie Taylor was wrecked at Sabine Pass, Texas. The crew was captured by the Confederates.

1862 - Carrying 500 soldiers of the 156th New York Infantry Regiment, the 905-ton steamer Menemon Sanford (or Memnorium Sanford) was wrecked without loss of life on Carysfort Reef off the Florida Keys 1.5 nautical miles (2.8 kilometres) south by west of Carysfort Reef Light. Blackstone (flag unknown) and the bark USS Gemsbok rescued everyone on board.

1863 – The following two ships were burned by Confederate States Army troops on Bayou Lacomb in Louisiana.
Schooner Josephine Truxillo
Barge Stephany (or Stepheny)

1864 - The 77-ton sidewheel paddle steamer CSS Ida was captured and burned by a detachment of the 150th New York Infantry Regiment near Argyle Island, Georgia.

1864 - Torpedo boat USS Picket Boat No. 5 sank in the James River opposite Jamestown, Virginia. She was raised, repaired, and returned to service.

1946 - A Curtiss R5C-1 Commando military transport plane, BuNo 39528, c/n 26715/CU355, (ex-USAAF 42-3582), of VMR-152, crashed into Mount Rainier's South Tahoma Glacier near the 9,500-foot level, killing 32 U.S. Marines. Wreckage not found until 22 July 1947. "Capt. A. O. Rule, commanding officer of Sand Point naval air station, said that the transport flew directly into the side of a sheer 3,000-foot cliff, exploded and threw parts and personnel over a wide area. 'In view of the nature of the glacier at the foot of this mountainside,' he said, 'little hope is entertained for the recovery of the bodies.' The ice and deep crevasses of Tahoma glacier high on Mount Rainier may have claimed forever the bodies of 32 Marines who died when their transport plane flew into the mountain last Dec. 10, it was indicated today (27 July) by the Navy and by searchers back from a second climb on the glacier. The climbers said they recovered additional evidence of the identity of the plane and saw much more wreckage that could not be reached but failed to locate a single body."

1947 - "WESTOVER FIELD, Mass., Dec. 11. (AP) - Six American soldiers were found still alive today beside the wreckage of a big transport plane which carried 23 others to death in a midnight crash Tuesday in the sub-Arctic wastelands of Labrador. Rescuers – moved overland by dogsleds and through the air by helicopter - reached the survivors, trapped in icy wilderness eight miles north of the R. C. A. F. airfield at Goose Bay. Air transport command headquarters here said meager reports from the scene gave no indication as to the condition of the survivors. Three doctors were flown in to the scene through a snow and sleet storm to give emergency treatment before the men are evacuated by helicopter to Goose Bay. The rough, rocky terrain made it impossible to bring the six survivors by land and preparations were being made to fly them out to a hospital in Goose Bay. One helicopter - sent to Labrador when the crash was first reported - has been making relay hops during the day. A B-17 dropped medical supplies and food. Visibility was only fair and fears were expressed that bad weather, preventing further flights, might close in before the men could be evacuated. A space has been cleared within a half-mile of the scattered, charred wreckage to allow a helicopter to land and a second helicopter is being sent to Westover field to assist in the rescue. The hilly, forested countryside - although within a few flight minutes of the Green Bay airfield -makes it impossible to use a larger plane." Douglas C-54D-5-DC Skymaster, 42-72572, c/n 10677, was destroyed.

1963 - Test pilot USAF Colonel Chuck Yeager out of Edwards Air Force Base, California, zoom climbs Lockheed NF-104A Starfighter, AF Ser. No. 56-0762, modified with rocket engine in tail unit, to 106,300 feet (32,400 m), but aircraft enters flat spin when directional jets in nose run out of propellant, forcing him to eject. He suffers injuries when his helmet collides with the ejection seat. This mission was very loosely depicted in the film The Right Stuff. Aircraft was originally built as Lockheed F-104A-10-LO.
The Crash of Yeager's NF-104

1964 – Test pilot Joseph Engle flew the X-15 to 34,503 meters (113,204 feet) and Mach 5.35.

1999 - A United States Air Force Lockheed C-130E Hercules, 63-7854, of 61st Airlift Squadron, 463d Airlift Group, crashes during landing at Ahmed Al Jaber air base, Kuwait City, Kuwait, killing three of the 94 people on board. The investigation report, released 31 March 2000, blamed crew complacency and failure to follow governing directives during approach to the runway, failing to monitor instruments, a critical function for night flying in reduced visibility.

2007 – Former USS Cruise (AM/MSF-215) was purchased by Beaufort Fisheries, Inc., Beaufort, North Carolina, and converted to a menhaden fisherman and renamed Gregory Poole, official number 558835. The ship was scuttled some 29.5 miles due east of South Bethany, DE., to help form an artificial reef.


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## mhansen2

11 December

1861 - Pizaaro was a Confederate steamer of 419 tons that went missing in the Gulf of Mexico after clearing the New Orleans Custom House.

1862 – An unidentified schooner was driven ashore on the coast of Florida at the St. Johns River by the sidewheel paddle steamer USS Bienville.

1863 - Bound for England with a cargo of cotton, turpentine, and possibly gold, the 824-ton Confederate screw steamer General Beauregard ran aground on the coast of North Carolina at Carolina Beach and was burned by the Confederates to prevent her capture by Union forces.

1863 - The following two ships were burned by Confederate Army troops on Bayou Bonfouca in Louisiana.
Union barge Helena 0f 33 tons
Union schooner Sarah Bladen of 43 tons

1937 - Consolidated PB-2A, 35–50, of Headquarters Squadron, 8th Pursuit Group, crashes at Langley Field, Virginia, during low formation pass, killing Army Air Corps Major Alfred J. Waller, a distinguished World War I combat pilot. Waller Army Airfield, activated in Trinidad on 1 September 1941, (later Waller Air Force Base), is named in his honor. Observer, Sergeant John Johnston, is seriously injured. Mass flight operations celebrated Langley Field's 20th anniversary.

1941 - American John Gillespie Magee, Jr., serving with newly formed No. 412 Squadron RCAF at RAF Digby on 30 June 1941, is killed at the age of 19, while flying Supermarine Spitfire AD291 'VZ-H', in a mid-air collision with an Airspeed Oxford trainer from RAF Cranwell, flown by Leading Aircraftman Ernest Aubrey. The aircraft collided in cloud cover at about 400 feet (120 m) AGL, at 1130 hrs. over the village of Roxholm which lies between RAF Cranwell and RAF Digby, in Lincolnshire. Magee was descending at the time. At the inquiry afterwards, a farmer testified that he saw the Spitfire pilot struggling to push back the canopy. The pilot stood up to jump from the plane but was too close to the ground for his parachute to open and died on impact. Magee is buried at Holy Cross, Scopwick Cemetery in Lincolnshire, England. On his grave are inscribed the first and last lines from his poem High Flight.

1944 - The sole Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrocket, BuNo 1442, is written off after a gear-up landing.

1947 - USAF Douglas C-47B-28-DK Skytrain, 44-76366, c/n 32698/15950, of the 608th Base Unit, Aberdeen Army Air Base, Maryland, en route from Biggs Air Force Base, Texas, crashes five miles from Memphis Municipal Airport, Memphis, Tennessee, killing four crew and 16 passengers. The plane came down three miles S of the Memphis radio range. "The Atlanta CAA reported there was a ceiling of 1700 feet at 7:30 p. m. shortly after the crash." The plane was returning to Aberdeen Proving Ground. The pilot was H. J. Schofield.

1948 – 8 or 11 December.  US Navy Douglas R5D-3 Skymaster, BuNo 56502, c/n 10643, returning from the Berlin Airlift, crashes in the Taunus mountains near Frankfurt-am-Main S of Königstein, Germany. One crew of six aboard killed: AMM3 Harry R. Crites, Jr.

1949 - North American F-51D-25-NT Mustang, 45-11353, of the 192d Fighter Squadron, Nevada Air National Guard, crashes at Reno Air Force Base, Nevada, during a mock dogfight killing Reno native 1st Lt. Croston K. Stead (19 March 1922 – 11 December 1949) during training mission. Base is subsequently named Stead Air Force Base in January 1951 in his honor.

1953 - A USAF Convair B-36D Peacemaker, 44-92071, upgraded from a B-36B-5-CF, crashed into the Franklin Mountains in El Paso, Texas, at 14:37 MST (2137 GMT), during conditions of light snow and low ceilings. The crash report points to pilot error as the primary cause, but confusing instructions from GCA might also have contributed. All eight of the crew were killed: Lt. Col. Herman Gerick, Aircraft Commander; Major George C. Morford, Pilot; Major Douglas P. Miner, Navigator; 1st Lt. Cary B. Fant, Flight Engineer; M Sgt Royal Freeman, Radio Operator; A/1c Edwin D. Howe, Gunner; A/2c Frank Silvestri, Gunner; 1st Lt James M. Harvey, Jr., 492nd Bomb Squadron Staff Flight Engineer. Also killed was a passenger 1st Sgt Dewey Taliaferro. Lt. Col. Herman Gerick, Major Douglas P. Miner and A/2c Frank Silvestri had parachuted to safety in the 7 February 1953 missed-approaches crash of B-36H-25-CF, 51-5719, in the Nethermore Woods of Wiltshire County, England, UK.
B-36 Crash – Franklin Mountains 1953

2000 - The 18th Bell-Boeing MV-22B Osprey, BuNo 165440, of VMMT-204, with only 157.7 flight hours, crashes in a remote wooded area ~10 miles from MCAS New River, Jacksonville, North Carolina, killing all four crew members.


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## mhansen2

12 December

1816 – Brig USS Chippewa sailed from Boston to the Gulf of Mexico and ran aground on a reef not listed near Providenciales Island (Turk and Caicos) and sank. Wreck discovered by NOAA in 2008.

1862 – Gunboat USS Cairo struck a Confederate naval mine in the Yazoo River in Mississippi and sank. The wreck was raised in 1964 and put on display at Vicksburg National Military Park at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1864 - Under heavy fire by the 1st New York Artillery Regiment on the Savannah River in Georgia, the armed tug CSS Resolute was disabled in a collision with the gunboat CSS Macon and ran aground on Argyle Island, near Port Wentworth, where she was captured and burned later in the day by a detachment of the 3rd Wisconsin Veteran Infantry Regiment.

1917 - USS Elizabeth (SP-972) collided with the American steamship SS Northland and sank with the loss of two lives, but she was raised, repaired, and resumed her patrol duties for the rest of World War I and into 1919.

1937 - USS Panay (PR-5) was bombed in the Yangtze River upstream from Nanking by Japanese naval aircraft bombed the river gunboat until she sank. Three sailors were killed, with 43 others and five civilian passengers wounded. The Japanese government accepted responsibility and a large indemnity was paid in 1938 (approximately $33,021,277 in 2010 dollars).

1941 – US Army Major General Herbert A. Dargue, the first recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, en route to Hawaii to assume command of the Hawaiian Department from Lieutenant General Walter Short, is killed when his Douglas B-18 Bolo, 36–306, of the 31st Air Base Group, crashes in the Sierra Mountains, S of Bishop, California, in worsening weather conditions. One account states the wreckage not found until March 1942. (Joe Baugher cites discovery date of 5 July 1942.) Besides the general, seven are KWF, his staff, including Colonel Charles W. Bundy, Chief of the War Plans Division, and crew chiefs, critically needed in the Pacific.
Actual discovery date is 7 May 1942, when George B. Burns, a civilian from Spokane, WA., succeeds in locating the downed ship on Kidd Mountain which his son, Lt. Homer C. Burns, was co-piloting. Lt, Burns was commanding officer of the 18th Transport Squadron, March Field, California. Wirephoto shows aircraft was still wearing the red-centered star roundel. The body of Pvt. Samuel J. Van Hamme, radio operator, of Twin Falls, Idaho, is recovered on 10 May and taken to Big Pine, California, and onto March Field the next day. That is the only body immediately recovered, search efforts hampered by snow pack, and the evidence that the bomber struck initially a quarter mile from where the wreckage comes to rest. Lt. Burns' body, recovered in June, is cremated in California, with memorial services in Spokane on 18 June. A Liberty ship converted as an aircraft repair ship will be named Major General Herbert A Dargue.

1950 - A U.S. Navy Douglas AD-4 Skyraider of Attack Squadron 115 "Arabs", CVG-11, bursts into flame as the engine breaks off upon landing aboard USS Philippine Sea (CV-47). The Skyraider had been hit by enemy flak over Korea.

1953 - Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the X-1A to 15,250 meters (50,035 feet) and Mach 2.44. Encountered severe instability above Mach 2.3. Inverted spin from apogee down to 7,624 meters (25,014 feet) before regaining control.

1957 - A U.S. Air Force Boeing B-52D Stratofortress, 56-0597 of the 92d Bomb Wing, crashes at either ~1602 hrs. PDT or 1700 hrs. on takeoff at Fairchild AFB near Spokane, Washington. All crew members are killed except the tail gunner. The incident is caused by trim motors that were hooked up backwards. The aircraft climbed straight up, stalled, fell over backwards and nosed straight down. Among the dead crewmen was the commanding officer of the SAC 92d Bomb Wing to which the aircraft was assigned, Col. Clarence Arthur Neely, 42, of Rockford, Illinois. The tail section broke away in the crash and the gunner, T/Sgt. Gene I. Graye, 25, Augusta, Kansas, survived a low-level ejection, relatively unscathed. All eight others on board perished, although four attempted ejection. Wreckage was strewn over a radius of more than 1,000 feet (300 m) in a stubble field about a mile west of the airbase.
One source states that the crash site was "in a field between the runway (05) and the hospital". Although the Air Force has never indicated whether or not nuclear weapons were aboard the aircraft, this crash was cited in a February 1991 EPA report as having involved nuclear materials. This was the seventh B-52 to be lost, and the first that was not serving with a training wing. Also KWF were: Maj. Ralph Romaine Alworth, 38, Oilton, Oklahoma; Capt. Douglas Earl Gray, 33, Guthrie, Kentucky; 1st Lt. James Dennis Mann, 33, Mountain View, California; Capt. Thomas N. Peebles, 33, Carson, Virginia; Capt. Douglas Franklin Schwartz, 37, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Capt. Herbert Henry Spiller, Jr., 32, Lowell, Arkansas; and 1st Lt. Jack Joseph Vainisi, 26, of Oakhill, Illinois.

1965 - While off Norfolk, a catapult launch off USS Independence (CVA-62) ruptured a McDonnell F-4B Phantom II's detachable fuel tank, spilling and igniting 4,000 gallons of jet fuel. Fire destroyed another Phantom and spread into aviation stores compartment before being extinguished. 16 sailors burned or injured.

1979 - USAF General Dynamics F-111E, 68-0045, of the 79th TFS, 20th TFW, based at RAF Upper Heyford, crashed in the sea off Wainfleet Range, UK, during night bombing practice, range staff witnessing it dive into the water before the crew could eject. Pilot Capt. R.P. Gaspard and Maj. F.B. Slusher killed while flying (KWF). Gale force conditions prevented discovery of any wreckage for two days.

1985 – Arrow Air Flight 1285, a chartered Douglas DC-8-63CF, N950JW, crashes just after take-off from Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, killing 256 people, of whom 248 were soldiers in the United States Army 101st Airborne Division returning from overseas duty in the Sinai desert, Egypt. This remains the greatest peacetime loss of military personnel in US history.
Arrow Air Flight 1285 - Wikipedia


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## mhansen2

13 December

1864 - The armed screw steamer USS Daylight destroyed a large flat-bottomed boat and a skiff in the James River area of Virginia.

1935 - A U.S. Army Air Corps officer, Major Arthur K. Ladd, is killed "instantly" in the ~1400 hrs. crash of a Boeing P-12F, 32–100, c.n. 1676, '60', the 24th of 25 of the model built, of the 36th Pursuit Squadron, into a swamp near the Wimbee River on Heyward Island, ~3 miles E of Dale, South Carolina, in Beaufort County, while en route from Langley Field, Virginia, to Miami, Florida, for the eighth annual All American air maneuvers, an air race and exhibition held 13–15 December. "Major Ladd's body was badly mangled. Authorities from Parris Island removed the body about 5:30 this afternoon and carried it to Parris Island to await instructions. Major Ladd appeared to be between 40 and 55 years of age." (He was 45.) "Parris Island officers who visited the scene said they could not tell what caused the crash; neither did they know what Major Ladd's destination was, nor where he had come from. Fairbanks Air Base, Fairbanks, Alaska, is renamed Ladd Field on 1 December 1939.

1968 - U.S. Air Force Martin B-57E Canberra 54-4284 of the 8th Tactical Bombardment Squadron, 35th Tactical Fighter Wing, has mid-air collision with Fairchild C-123B-5-FA Provider 54-0600 over Xieng Khovang, southern Laos, all three crew of the B-57 KWF, pilot of C-123 survives bail-out, lands in tree, rescued by an HH-3, but six others are KWF.

1973 – Former USS Hammann (DE-131) was sunk as a target off Jacksonville, Florida.

1993 - USAF Lockheed U-2R, 68-10339, Article 061, of the 9th SRW goes out of control on take-off from Beale AFB, California, experienced U-2 Instructor Pilot but does not survive.

2016 - USMC MV-22B Osprey crashes on Tuesday in shallow water off Camp Schwab, Okinawa, Japan. All five crew members aboard the Osprey were rescued by the USAF 33d Rescue Squadron at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.


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## mhansen2

14 December

1953 - The crash of a Northrop F-89 Scorpion shortly after takeoff from Ontario International Airport, Ontario, California, kills the Northrop test pilot instantly and fatally injures the radar intercept officer.

1959 - Boeing KC-97G Stratofreighter, 53-0231, of the 384th Air Refueling Squadron, out of Westover AFB, Massachusetts, collides with a B-52 during a refueling mission at an altitude of ~15,000 feet. The aircraft loses the whole left horizontal stabilizer and elevator, the rudder, and the upper quarter of the vertical stabilizer. Crew makes a no-flap, electrical power off landing at night at Dow AFB, Maine, seven crew okay. "Spokesmen at Dow Air Force, Bangor, said the B52 [sic] apparently 'crowded too close' and rammed a fuel boom into the tail of a 4 engined KC95 [sic] tanker plane."  Aircraft stricken as beyond economical repair. Two crew on the B-52 eject, parachute safely, and are recovered by helicopters in a snow-covered wilderness area. The bomber and remaining eight crew members continue to Westover AFB, where a safe landing is made.

1962 – Test pilot Robert White flew the X-15 to 43,099 meters (141,408 feet) and Mach 5.65.

1965 - A US Air Force RB-57F of the 7407 Support Squadron at Wiesbaden West Germany, was lost over the Black Sea, near Odessa. Pilot Lester L. Lackey and crew member Robert Yates were presumed killed. Recent investigations indicate that there might not have been any Soviet activity related to this loss. The crew probably perished from an oxygen system failure, since it took over an hour for the aircraft to spiral down from altitude and fall into the Black Sea. After 7 or 8 days spent searching for the aircraft, only small bits and pieces of wreckage were ever found.


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## mhansen2

15 December

1861 – While carrying general cargo including coffee, salt, shoes, and sugar, the 128-ton Confederate schooner Charity was wrecked at Hatteras Inlet on the coast of North Carolina while being pursued by the screw gunboat USS Stars and Stripes.

1864 - A boat expedition from the armed sidewheel paddle steamers USS Coeur de Lion and USS Mercury burned two scows and 31 boats on the Coan River in Virginia.

1970 - U.S. Navy Grumman C-2A Greyhound, BuNo 155120, of VRC-50, out of NAS Atsugi, crashes on takeoff from USS Ranger (CVA-61) in the Gulf of Tonkin. Stalled after catapult launch with a probable load shift of the cargo, reaches extreme nose-up attitude, goes into a hammerhead stall, and crashes off the carrier's port bow, 9 killed, 7 missing.


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## mhansen2

16 December

1864 – Confederate schooner G. O. Bigelow, in ballast, was captured and burned by the screw steamer USS Mount Vernon at Bear Inlet, North Carolina.

1916 – USS H-3 (SS-30) ran aground in Humboldt Bay, California. She was salvaged and returned to service, then decommissioned in 1922.

1932 - During a routine practice flight, Capt. J. L. Grisham flying Fokker Y1O-27, 31-599, '2', of the 30th Bombardment Squadron, is unable to get the port main undercarriage leg to extend more than one-quarter down, makes emergency landing in San Diego Bay off NAS San Diego, California. He and Sgt. Clarence J. King survive, aircraft salvaged, repaired and returned to service.

1935 - "Miami, Dec. 16 – U.P.: Second Lieutenant Robert L. Carver, [service number O-18890], twenty-eight, Barksdale Field , Shreveport, La., was instantly killed today when his 230-mile-an-hour P-26 army pursuit plane crashed in swamps twelve miles south of here. Carver was a former West Point football backfield star. He was attached to the fifty-fifth pursuit squadron that came here last week to participate in the general headquarters air force war games and the All-American air maneuvers."
This airframe was P-26A, 33–87, and it came down ½ mi NE of Chapman Field, Florida. The Aviation Archeological Investigation & Research website lists the P-26 as being assigned to the 79th Pursuit Squadron, 20th Pursuit Group, at Barksdale Field, and that the aircraft stalled and spun in with fatal results. It also cites the accident date as 15 December 1935. The 20th PG will fly P-26s until January 1938.

1940 - The Grumman XF4F-3 Wildcat prototype, BuNo 0383, c/n 356, modified from XF4F-2, is lost at Norfolk, Virginia under circumstances that suggested that the pilot may have been confused by poor lay-out of fuel valves and flap controls and inadvertently turned the fuel valve to "off" immediately after takeoff rather than selecting flaps "up". This was the first fatality in the type.

1945 - Second of two prototypes of the Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster, 43-50225, on routine flight out of Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., suffers in short order, a landing gear extension problem, failure of the port engine, and as coolant temperatures rose, failure of starboard engine. Maj. Hayduck bails out at 1,200 feet, Lt. Col. Haney at 800 feet, and pilot Lt. Col. (later Major General) Fred J. Ascani, after crawling aft to jettison pusher propellers, at 400 feet – all three survive. Aircraft impacts at Oxen Hill, Maryland. Secret jettisonable props caused a problem for authorities in explaining what witnesses on ground thought was the aircraft exploding. Possible fuel management problem speculated, but no proof.

1947 - "Norfolk, Va., Dec. 16 (AP) - Seven naval airmen were killed today when a Corsair fighter plane and a patrol bomber carrying a crew of seven collided in the air and crashed at the Norfolk naval air station. Naval spokesmen said the Corsair, attached to the carrier Coral Sea (CVB-43), collided at a 100-foot altitude with the right wing of the bomber, attached to amphibious group 3. The Corsair caught fire and its pilot burned to death. Sole survivor was a crewman aboard the bomber who was thrown from a gun blister when the plane crashed in swampy ground 300 yards from the Corsair. He escaped with cuts and bruises. Six bodies were recovered from the bombing plane."

1953 - A U.S. Navy Consolidated PB4Y-2S Privateer, BuNo 59716, of VW-3, COMFAIRGUAM, NAS Agana, Guam, makes a low-level (200–300 feet) penetration into the eye of Super Typhoon Doris, but while radioing a report at 2245 hours Zulu, the transmission is interrupted and attempts to reach the operator fail. A nine-day search turns up no trace of the aircraft or its nine crew:
Pilot J. W. Newhall, 39; Co-pilot S. B. Marsden, 29; Lt. Cmdr. D. Zimmerman Jr., 35; Ltjg. F. Troescher Jr., 26; AL1 F. R. Barnett, 26; AD1 J. N. Clark, 32; AD3 E. L. Myer, 20; AL2 N. J. Stephens, 23; and AO3 A. J. Stott, 23.

1955 - Republic YF-105A-1-RE Thunderchief, 54-0098, the first prototype, crash lands at Edwards AFB, California. Republic test pilot Russell M. "Rusty" Roth was forced to make an emergency landing after the right main landing gear had been torn away after having been inadvertently extended during high speed flight. Pilot uninjured. Although the airframe was returned to the factory, it was deemed too costly to repair.

1958 - Convair RB-58A Hustler, 58-1008 accepted and delivered to the 6592nd Test Squadron, 43rd Bomb Wing, for pod and suitability testing during October 1958. Crashed this date, the first B-58 accident, 38 nautical miles (70 km) NNE of Cannon AFB, New Mexico, due to loss of control during normal flight when auto trim and ratio changer were rendered inoperative due to an electrical system failure. Air Force pilot Maj. Richard Smith killed; AF Nav/bombardier Lt. Col. George Gradel, AF DSO Capt. Daniel Holland, both survive.

1969 - U.S. Navy Vought RF-8G Crusader, BuNo 145611, of Detachment 19, VFP-63, crashes into the Gulf of Tonkin ~60 miles E of Đồng Hới, killing pilot Lt. Victor Patrick Buckley of Falls Church, Virginia, while returning to USS Hancock (CVA-19) from a photographic reconnaissance mission. Cause of loss thought to be accidental.

1971 – Former USS Cronin (DE-704) was sunk as a target off Florida.

1982 - 57-6482, a B-52G, crashed after take-off from Mather AFB, nine killed.

1985 - McDonnell-Douglas F-15D-37-MC Eagle, 84-0042, c/n 0909/D050, of the 3246th Test Wing, Armament Development and Test Center, Eglin AFB, Florida, crashes in the Gulf of Mexico, 53 miles SE of Eglin. The Armament Division commander, Col. Timothy F. O'Keefe, Jr., and Maj. Eugene F. Arnold, an instructor pilot with the 3247th Test Squadron at Eglin, eject safely.


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## mhansen2

17 December

1917 - USS Carp (F-1 / SS-20) collided with USS Pickerel (F-3 / SS-22) while maneuvering in exercises off Point Loma, San Diego, California.  Carp sank in 10 seconds, her port side torn forward of the engine room. Nineteen of her men were lost, while three others were rescued by the submarines with whom she was operating.

1927 - USS S-4 (SS-109) was sunk while surfacing off Cape Cod near Provincetown, Massachusetts, by being accidentally rammed by USCGC Paulding (CG-17) with the loss of all hands. The submarine was raised and restored to service until stricken in 1936.

1931 - Boeing P-12C, 31-164, of the 17th Pursuit Squadron, Selfridge Field, Michigan, has midair collision with Consolidated PT-3A, 29–115, of the same unit, 2 miles W of New Baltimore, Michigan, this date. Lawrence W. Koons in the P-12 and Charles M. Wilson in the PT-3 are both KWF. The trainer had previously been assigned at Wright Field, Ohio, as the sole XPT-8A, project number 'P-564', converted with a 220 h.p. Packard DR-980 diesel engine, but was restored to PT-3A configuration.

1953 - A USAF Boeing B-29MR Superfortress, 44-87741, built as a B-29-90-BW, making an emergency landing at Andersen AFB, Guam, fails to reach the runway and crashes into an officers housing area at the base, demolishing ten homes and damaging three more. Nine of sixteen crew were killed, as were seven on the ground – an officer, his wife, and five children. This aircraft had been searching for the PB4Y-2S lost on 16 December in Typhoon Doris when it suffered an engine failure.

1953 - A United Press report out of Reykjavik, Iceland, stated that a Lockheed P2V Neptune with nine crew aboard was reported missing and presumed down in the stormy North Atlantic this date. Wreckage of the patrol bomber was sighted on Myrdalsjokull Glacier with at least three survivors on 18 December. The plane had departed from Keflavik Airport. The 53d Air Rescue Squadron flies in an Icelandic ground rescue party, including expert skiers, to an airfield at the foot of the glacier. The wreckage was at the 4,000-foot level. Efforts to reach the crash site are hampered for several days by blizzards and high winds. When the site is reached on 21 December, all nine crew are dead and supplies dropped within 100 yards of the wreckage four days before are untouched.

1960 - A United States Air Force (USAF) Convair C-131D Samaritan, 55-291, of the 7500th Air Base Group, on take-off from Munich-Riem Airport for a flight to RAF Northolt, United Kingdom, comes down at 1410 hrs. in Munich, Germany, hits a tramcar at Bayerstraße/Martin-Greif-Straße. Fifty-three died in the Munich Convair crash.

1976 - A Boeing Vertol CH-46D Seaknight helicopter BUNO 153337 from a detachment of Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Six (HC-6) embarked with USS San Diego (AFS-6) flying a night vertical replenishment (VERTREP) mission loses an engine on takeoff from USS Milwaukee (AOR-2) and lands in the Mediterranean Sea. While the crew is attempting to restart the engine, the aircraft rolls inverted and sinks 125 km E of Cagliari, Sardinia. Two pilots and one aircrewman are rescued. A second aircrewman is lost with the aircraft.

1994 - A US Army OH-58A Kiowa (71-20796), on a training flight near the Korean DMZ, strayed off-course and was shot down over North Korea. One crew member, David Hilemon, was killed. The North Koreans turned over his body to U.S. authorities five days after the shoot-down at the Panmunjom truce village. The other crew member, Bobby W. Hall II, was taken captive by the North Koreans and released 13 days later.


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## whitehall

12/16/44 the German Ardennes offensive aka the Battle of the Bulge which lasted through January 1945.


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## mhansen2

18 December

1936 - The sole Kreider-Reisner XC-31, 34-26, assigned at Wright Field, Ohio, receives moderate damage in a landing accident resulting in a ground loop, at Pittsburgh-Allegheny County Airport, Pennsylvania. Pilot was Joseph B. Zimmerman.

1940 - Boeing Y1B-17 Flying Fortress, 36–157, c/n 1981, formerly of the 2d Bomb Group, Langley Field, Virginia, transferred to the 93d Bomb Squadron, 19th Bomb Group, March Field, California, in October 1940, crashed E of San Jacinto, California, 3.5 miles NNW of Idyllwild, while en route to March Field. Pilot was John H. Turner. "Six officers and men of the army's 93rd bombardment pursuit squadron [sic], March Field, were killed yesterday when their 22-ton B-17 four-motored bomber crashed and burned at the 6,700-foot snow line of Marion mountain in the San Jacinto range. Four bodies were hurled from the giant flying fortress as it plunged into the boulder-strewn, heavily-wooded mountain slope, three miles northeast of Idyllwild, in the San Bernardino National Forest. The victims:
First Lieut. Harold J. Turner, pilot, Riverside, formerly of Corning, Iowa.
First Lieut. Donald T. Ward, co-pilot, Riverside, formerly of West Los Angeles.
First Lieut. Vernon McCauley, navigator, Riverside.
Staff Sgt. Thomas F. Sweet, engineer, Riverside.
Corp. Frank J. Jirak, assistant engineer, Salem, Ore.
Pvt. James C. Sessions, radioman, Bisbee, Ariz.

At 10:45 a.m. yesterday the plane appeared to encounter mechanical trouble. Ground witnesses at the Idyllwild inn and at Pine Cove, nearby, reported that it circled several times, its engines seemingly missing. Clouds closed in on the bomber at 8,000 feet, and in a few minutes, it roared earthward at full throttle. A rescue party arrived 20 minutes later from Pine Cove to find the plane a mass of red-hot, fused metal. Two bodies were in the smashed fuselage. The 105-foot wing had sheared through a big pine tree. Residents of the two resort towns said they had heard a loud explosion, indicating that the gasoline tanks ignited with the impact. The noise was heard as far as six miles. The crash occurred approximately 400 yards from the Banning-Idyllwild highway. It was the first accident to one of the new Boeing four-motored bombers since the army air corps adopted them as standard equipment, although the original model smashed up at Dayton, Ohio, in 1935. Members of an Army board of inquiry said at least two, and possibly three or all of the four motors were cut out at the time of the crash, although there was no apparent indication that any of the occupants had attempted to bail out. They expressed the theory that pilot Turner was attempting to shift gasoline tanks when he ran into a cloud bank that concealed the side of the mountain. Fliers in the squadron described the wrecked bomber as a ship which had caused difficulty in stalled motors twice in flights when it was stationed at Langley Field, Virginia. Lieutenant Turner was an army air corps reserve veteran with six years experience and was on a practice flight with the B-17. March Field operates 36 of these bombers. With a full load, they can climb to 30,000 feet.

1944 – 17-18 December:  While U.S. Navy Task Force 38 attempts to refuel in the eastern half of the Philippine Sea between operations against Japanese airfields on Luzon, Third Fleet encounters a newly-formed, deceptively small, but extremely violent typhoon, of which it has virtually no warning. TF 38 is operating with seven Essex-class carriers and six light carriers, while the refueling group has five escort carriers with replacement planes. By 1500 on 17 December it becomes too rough for the escort carriers to recover CAP and in two fighters, waved off from their respective decks, the pilots are directed to bail out with rescue by a destroyer. In the storm the fleet carriers lose no planes, although seas are so heavy that the flight deck of USS Hancock (CV-19), 57 feet above waterline, scoops up green water. On the light carriers, plane lashings part on hangar decks and padeyes are pulled out of flight decks.
"Planes went adrift, collided and burst into flames. USS Monterey (CVL-26) caught fire at 0911 (18 December) and lost steerageway a few minutes later. The fire, miraculously, was brought under control at 0945, and the C.O., Captain Stuart H. Ingersoll, wisely decided to let his ship lie dead in the water until temporary repairs could be affected. She lost 18 aircraft burned in the hangar deck or blown overboard and 16 seriously damaged, together with three 20-mm guns and suffered extensive rupturing of her ventilation system. USS Cowpens (CVL-25) lost 7 planes overboard and caught fire from one that broke loose at 1051, but the fire was brought under control promptly; Langley rolled through 70 degrees; San Jacinto (CVL-30) reported a fighter plane adrift on the hangar deck which wrecked seven other aircraft. She also suffered damage from salt water that entered through punctures in the ventilating ducts.
"Captain [Jasper T.] Acuff's replenishment escort carriers did pretty well. Flames broke out on the flight deck of Cape Esperance (CVE-88) at 1228 but were overcome; Kwajalein (CVE-98) made a maximum roll of 39 degrees to port when hoveto with wind abeam. Her port catwalks scooped up green water, but she lost only three planes which were jettisoned from the flight deck; it took one hour to get them over the side. Three other escort carriers lost in all 86 aircraft but came through without much material damage." Total aircraft losses in the Fleet, including those blown overboard or jettisoned from the battleships and cruisers, amounted to 146. Three destroyers, unfueled and unballasted, were lost – USS Hull (DD-350), Monaghan (DD-354) and Spence (DD-512).

1953 - USAF Boeing TB-29 Superfortress, formerly Silverplate Boeing B-29-55-MO, 44-86382, of the 7th Radar Calibration Squadron, Sioux City Air Force Base, Iowa, destroyed by post-crash fire when pilot and co-pilot mistake Ogden Municipal Airport, Utah, for nearby Hill Air Force Base, put down on much shorter runway, overrun threshold, bounce across deep ditch, where it loses a wing and part of the undercarriage, a 10-foot-wide (3.0 m) canal, crosses a state highway, ground-loops, and comes to rest in pieces, followed by immediate fire as the shattered landing gear puncture fuel tanks.
One fatality on crew, Capt. B. D. Wilson, 31, Chester, Pennsylvania, the co-pilot; two others injured. Pilot Maj. James Gewrick sustains severe cuts. "The survivors, in addition to Gewrick, were navigator Capt. W.D. Spicer, crew chief M. Sgt. G. L. Easterbrook, T. Sgt. W. E. Cracup, and S. Sgt. D. T. Price, radio operator Sgt. V. A. Clegg and J. L. Cater, a sailor who had hitched a ride from Kansas.

1953 - A North American F-86F Sabre crashes on takeoff at Los Angeles International Airport when the pilot fails to get fully airborne. It crashes through a fence and dissolves into "a flash of flame". Officials at North American Aviation, Inc. said that the jet had been accepted by the Air Force and was on its delivery flight. The pilot was identified as 1st Lt. Fred L. Hughes, 25. F-86F-30-NA Sabre, 52-5128, written off.

1964 or 1965 - A CIA operated P-3 Orion (149669, 149673 or 149678) is rumored to have shot down a MiG over the People's Republic of China with an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile. These three P-3s conducted low-level nocturnal intelligence gathering missions over the PRoC.

1966 – Former USS Colahan (DD-658) was sunk as a target off California.

1969 - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7953, Article 2004, crashes near Shoshone, California during a test flight out of Edwards Air Force Base, California, while operating as mission callsign "Dutch 68". Test force director and pilot Lt. Col. Joe Rogers and RSO Lt. Col. Gary Heidelbaugh eject safely after the craft enters a deep stall as afterburners are engaged. Airframe breaks into three pieces as it comes down. It was fitted with the Optical Bar Camera (OBC) nose assembly for the first time on this flight. This SR-71 had accrued 290.2 flight hours.

1981 - USAF F-4E Phantom II crashed into the Atlantic, off Wilmington, NC. Lt. Michael Mattson, pilot, MIA. Lt Thomas Tiller, navigator, ejected and rescued from life raft 6 days later. Catastrophic electrical failure.

2006 - The Lockheed Martin Polecat UAV aircraft crashes due to an "irreversible unintentional failure in the flight termination ground equipment, which caused the aircraft's automatic fail-safe flight termination mode to activate", cited by Lockheed Martin.


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## mhansen2

19 December

1862 – A Confederate sloop and nine boats were burned at the head of Queen's Creek in Virginia by the gunboat USS General Putnam and the crew of a howitzer boat from the armed sidewheel paddle steamer USS Mahaska.

1864 - CSS Water Witch, a sidewheel gunboat was burned at White Bluff, Georgia, to prevent her capture by Union forces.

1944 - 2nd Lt. Robin C. Pennington of VMF-914 out of MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, is killed in the crash of Brewster F3A-1 Corsair, BuNo 04634, 'L69', while on a GCI training mission to intercept a North American PBJ Mitchell, his fighter coming down in a swampy area 1/4 mile E of Great Lakes, North Carolina, striking the ground left wing low. Privately recovered in 1990, there then follows a legal battle with the National Museum of Naval Aviation in 1994 which tries to lay claim to the rare Brewster-produced model (only 735 versus the 12,571 built by Vought) which is only finally resolved in the private individual's favor by an Act of the U.S. Congress in 2005.

1950 - First prototype Douglas XA2D-1 Skyshark, BuNo 122988, c/n 7045, crashes at Edwards AFB, California, on its 15th flight. Taken up by Navy Lt. Cdr. Hugh Wood for dive tests, the first was initiated from 30,000 feet. During the 5 g pullout from the second dive, begun at 20,000 feet, vapor begins trailing from the airframe, soon enveloping it, but stops when the ventral dive brakes are retracted. While turning back for a visual inspection from the ground, the XA2D begins losing altitude rapidly. Pilot attempts to land on the dry lakebed but is unable to flare properly and the dive angle is too steep. With the undercarriage in the down position, the airframe strikes the ground at high speed at a 30-degree angle, shearing off the gear, the prototype then sliding several hundred yards before burning, killing the pilot. Investigation finds that the starboard power section of the coupled Allison XT40A turboprop engine had failed and did not declutch, allowing the Skyshark to fly on the power of the opposite section, nor did the propellers feather. As the wings' lift disappeared, a fatal sink rate was induced. Additional instrumentation and an automatic decoupler are added to the second prototype, but by the time it is ready to fly on 3 April 1952, sixteen months have passed, and with all-jet designs being developed, the A2D program is essentially dead. Total flight time on the lost airframe was barely 20 hours.

1953 - The U.S. Air Force suffers its third B-29 loss in three days and second in the Pacific, when a search and rescue plane, returning from a mission with one engine out, aborts one landing attempt, only to drag a wingtip on the second try, resulting in the bomber cartwheeling and exploding N of Nagoya. Two crew die, and six injured, three seriously, in the Saturday night crash.

1956 - Seventeenth Lockheed U-2A, 56-6690, Article 357, delivered to the Central Intelligence Agency 21 September 1956, crashes in Arizona this date, Detachment C pilot Bob Ericson successfully bailing out after losing control due to hypoxia caused by a faulty oxygen feed.

1981 - United States Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcat, BuNo 159623, NG-205, of US Navy Fighter Squadron 24, VF-24, is lost during a carrier landing mishap aboard USS Constellation (CV-64), deployed in the Indian Ocean. Aircraft caught the #4 arresting cable, which was set for the wrong aircraft weight. Pilot and RIO ejected successfully and were rescued by an SH-3 flown by HS-8 (now HSC-8). The Tomcat sank after floating a few minutes.


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## mhansen2

20 December

19 – 20 December 1861 – Many Union ships were filled with stone and scuttled as blockships, in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet." 
Stone Fleet - Wikipedia

1862 – An unidentified Confederate schooner, in ballast, was burned on the Piankatank River in Virginia to prevent her capture by the approaching gunboat USS Currituck, armed sidewheel paddle steamer USS Ella, and armed tug USS Anacostia.

1862 – Unidentified Confederate vessels, a 30-ton sloop, a scow, and eight boats were destroyed on Fillbates Creek in Virginia by the armed sidewheel paddle steamer USS Mahaska.

1863 - The British 563-ton sidewheel paddle steamer Antonica attempted to run the Union blockade by passing inshore of the armed sidewheel paddle steamers USS Connecticut and USS State of Georgia and the hermaphrodite brig USS Governor Buckingham and reach Wilmington, North Carolina.  She carried a cargo of clothing, cotton, dry goods, general provisions, liquor and $1,200 in cash and ran aground on the western side of Frying Pan Shoals off Cape Fear, North Carolina. Her crew abandoned ship in her boats, and boat crews from Governor Buckingham captured 42 of her crew. Union forces could not refloat her, and she was abandoned. She broke up a few days later, becoming a total loss.

1863 - The British sidewheel paddle steamer Powerful was abandoned by her crew and captured at the mouth of the Suwannee River on the coast of Florida by the schooner USS Fox. Fox′s crew destroyed Powerful when they could not stop a serious leak aboard the British vessel.

1863 - Quincy was a Union screw steamer of 396 tons, built in 1857 at Buffalo, N.Y. that foundered at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, with the loss of 16 hands.

1864 - CSS Isondiga was a Confederate cottonclad gunboat that was set on fire and blown up above a pontoon bridge near Savannah, Georgia, on the Black River to prevent its capture by Union forces.

1952 - A United States Air Force Douglas C-124A Globemaster II, 50-0100, c/n 43238, crashed on takeoff from Larson AFB, Moses Lake, Washington, United States. 115 on board (105 Passengers, 10 Crew); 87 killed (82 Passengers, 5 Crew). This was the highest confirmed death toll of any disaster in aviation history at the time.

1953 - A U.S. Navy Douglas R4D-8 Skytrain, BuNo 17179, c/n 43346 (converted from ex-USAAF C-47A-15-DK, 42-108892, c/n 
12768), from NAS Agana, Guam, searching for the Navy PB4Y-2S lost 16 December in Typhoon Doris, crashes in the cone of an extinct 3,166-foot-tall volcano on Agrihan Island in the Northern Marianas, killing all ten on board. The aircraft was last reported seen at 1000 hrs. in the Pagan Island area, N of Guam.

1954 - Grumman AF-2S Guardian, BuNo 124785, of VS-39, 'SN' tail code, suffers a forced landing in a field at East Killingly, Connecticut and is burned out in post-landing fire.

1961 – Test pilot Neil Armstrong flew the X-15 to 24,689 meters (81,004 feet) and Mach 3.76.

1962 – Test pilot Joseph Walker flew the X-15 to 48,890 meters (160,408 feet) and Mach 5.73.

1962 - NASA research pilot Milton O. Thompson, after making an X-15 weather evaluation flight for an impending launch in NASA Lockheed JF-104A-10-LO Starfighter, AF Ser. No. 56-0749, c/n 183-1037, makes simulated X-15 approach at Rogers Dry Lake, Edwards Air Force Base, California, experiences asymmetric flap condition that results in uncommanded roll. Unable to resolve problem by repeatedly cycling the roll and yaw dampers, flap-selector switch and speed brakes, he ejects inverted at 18,000 feet after the airframe makes four complete rolls. Fighter impacts nose first on Edwards bombing range. Pilot descends safely and walks to near-by road where NASA Flight Operations chief Joe Vensel, speeding to the crash site expecting the worst as Thompson had not radioed that he was ejecting, finds him waiting uninjured. Investigation finds that the crash had most likely been the result of an electrical malfunction in the left trailing-edge flap.

1967 – Former USS Fessenden (DE-142) was sunk as a target off Pearl Harbor.

2004 - Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, 00-4014, c/n 4014, tailcode 'OT', of the 422d Test and Evaluation Squadron, crashes on takeoff at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, prompting the U.S. Air Force to ground most of its other F-22s. The pilot ejected safely from the Lockheed Martin-built jet, which smashed into the runway it was trying to leave at about 1545 hrs. local time and burned.


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## mhansen2

21 December

1861 – Two unidentified Confederate flatboats were captured and destroyed on the Rappahannock River in Virginia by the armed sidewheel paddle steamer USS Coeur de Lion.

1864 – The following Confederate vessels were burned at Savannah, Georgia, to prevent capture by Union forces:

CSS Firefly was an armed tender and sidewheel paddle steamer.

CSS Georgia was an ironclad warship, serving as a floating battery.

CSS Milledgeville was an incomplete ironclad.

CSS Savannah was casemate ironclad.

Swan was a 316-ton screw steamer that was later raised in July 1865, refitted, and returned to service.

1941 - Curtiss XSB2C-1 Helldiver, BuNo 1758, destroyed after suffering a structural failure in the starboard wing and tail collapse while pulling out of a dive from 22,000 ft. Pilot Baron T. Hulse bails out. Airframe had previously crashed on 8 February 1941 due to engine failure during approach. Sustained damage to fuselage but was repaired.

1953 - "HONG KONG (AP) - A United States Navy plane on a holiday trip crashed and burned at Hong Kong's Airport Tuesday but most and probably all aboard were saved. A quick check among survivors indicated there were 14 aboard and all had escaped."


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## mhansen2

22 December

1861 – Confederate schooner Mary Willis was holed below the waterline by Union artillery fire during a voyage with a cargo of wood and run aground on the mudflats at Boyd's Hole on the Virginia shore of the Potomac River.

1943 - Lt. Col. William Edwin Dyess (1916–1943) is killed when the Lockheed P-38G-10-LO Lightning, 42-13441, of the 337th Fighter Squadron, 329d Fighter Group, he is undergoing retraining in catches fire in flight near Burbank, California. He refuses to bail out over a populated area and dies when his Lightning impacts in a vacant lot at 109 Myers St, Burbank, saving countless civilians on the ground. Dyess had been captured on Bataan in April 1942 by the Japanese but escaped in April 1943 and fought with guerilla forces on Mindanao until evacuated by USS Trout (SS-202) in July 1943. Abilene Air Force Base, Texas, is named for him on 1 December 1956.

1946 – Former USS Prinz Eugen (IX-300) sank at Kwajalein Atoll.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_cruiser_Prinz_Eugen#Service_with_the_US_Navy

1949 - USAF Boeing B-50A-30-BO Superfortress, 47–110, c/n 15794, of the 2d Bombardment Group, crashes into swamp land on the banks of the Savannah River ~7 miles above Savannah, Georgia, five minutes after take off at 2112 hrs. from Chatham AFB, 4 Miles ENE of the airfield. The bomber was on a training flight to Biggs AFB, El Paso, Texas. All eleven on board KWF. The crash site was less than two miles from U.S. Highway 17, which crosses the river just above Savannah, but it could only be reached by small boats guided by boatmen who knew the river. The Air Force waited until dawn to send a large crash boat with a score or more men, armed with shovels and ropes, to try to remove the bodies. They had to transfer to small, flat-bottomed swamp boats to get to the wreckage.
Capt. E. S. Harrison, public information officer, said the wreckage would cover a football field. Salvage workers sank up to their armpits in the mire. The men aboard the plane were identified as: Capt. George V. Scaringen, pilot, and aircraft commander, Columbia, South Carolina; 
Capt. Andrew G. Walker, pilot, Norfolk, Virginia; Lt. Rogers Hornsby, Jr., 29, son of Rogers Hornsby of baseball fame; 1st Lt. Robert W. Beckman, bombardier, Birmingham, Alabama; Capt. Anthony C. Colandro, radar navigator, Baltimore, Maryland; 1st Lt. James W. Johnson, Jr., flight engineer, Wells, West Virginia; T/Sgt. Leonard B. Hughes, flight engineer, Denison, Texas; S/Sgt. Fred W. Cunningham, radio operator and gunner, New Orleans, Louisiana; S/Sgt. Manson L. Gregg, gunner, Meadow, Texas; S/Sgt. Garnell W. Myers, gunner, Franklin, Indiana; and S/Sgt. Billy C. Bristol, gunner, Tucson, Arizona.

1953 - Pilot on a routine training mission from Eglin Air Force Base survives a crash landing in a Republic F-84 Thunderjet at Lee, Florida.

1954 - Capt. Richard J. Harer, test pilot with the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB, California, belly lands a Lockheed F-94C-1-LO Starfire, 50-962, c/n 880-8007, on Rogers Dry Lake following engine problems, becomes trapped in the cockpit as the aircraft burns. Capt. Milburn "Mel" Apt, flying chase in another fighter, lands beside the failing F-94 and succeeds in pulling Harer from the burning jet, saving his life. Harer suffers a broken back, third degree burns and compound fractures of both legs that result in their amputation.  Apt was awarded the Soldier's Medal for saving Harer’s life.

1960 - Three Navy men, none of them fliers, take a Beechcraft T-34 Mentor on an unauthorized flight from Naval Air Station New Iberia, Louisiana, ~75 miles to near Lake Charles, where they end up overturned in a ditch. None are injured. Authorities at NAS New Iberia identify the three as Airman Terry W, Stevens, South Norwalk, Connecticut; Mechanic C. W. Little, Stephenville, Texas; and Aviation Metalsmith John T. Ellerman, Hobart, Indiana. The T-34 comes to grief five miles E of Chennault Air Force Base.

1964 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 24,750 meters (81,204 feet) and Mach 5.55.

1969 - A U.S. Navy Vought F-8J Crusader, BuNo 150879, of VF-194, crashes into Hangar 1 at NAS Miramar, California, during emergency landing, killing 14 and injuring 30. Pilot Lt. C. M. Riddell ejects safely. Five other fighters, including two McDonnell F-4 Phantom IIs (F-4J-31-MC, BuNo 153863, of VF-92; F-4J-34-MC, BuNo 155771 of VF-96), are damaged in the repair facility fire that ensues. Helicopters and military and civilian ambulances were used to transport the injured to Balboa Naval Hospital, San Diego.

1969 - A U.S. Air Force General Dynamics F-111A, 67-0049, c/n A1-94, crashes near Nellis AFB, Nevada, killing both crew.  The starboard wing fails in flight, wing carry-through box failure, resulting in the fifth grounding order since the type entered service. Fifteen F-111s had crashed previously.


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## mhansen2

23 December

1947 - A Boeing B-29 Superfortress on a long-range navigation training flight over northern Alaska with eight on board fails to return to Ladd Air Force Base at Fairbanks at the expected arrival time of 2200 hrs. Tuesday night. Search planes are launched on 24 December but are hampered by poor weather and the short hours of arctic daylight. Hopes dim for the missing crew as search planes have no success in locating the downed bomber N of the Arctic circle on the second day of the attempt.

1950 - U.S. Navy Lockheed P2V-3W Neptune, BuNo 124357, of VP-931, NAS Whidbey Island, crashes on McCreight Mountain, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Wreckage found 21 September 1961, according to Joe Baugher. Pilot Lt. Lalonde M. Pinne and ten crew KWF. Another source cites crash date of 18 December 1950. Yet another source lists discovery date as 21 October 1951, found by a Canadian aircraft that was off-course.

1957 - A T-33, with one crew member on board, was lost over Albania.

1975 - LTV A-7D Corsair II, 67-14586, while assigned to Eglin AFB, Florida's 3246th Test Wing, Air Development & Test Center for mission support, suffers engine failure on take-off from Tallahassee Municipal Airport, Florida and makes forced landing, coming down largely intact. Airframe is hauled back to Eglin AFB on a truck, where it is either scrapped or becomes a target hulk.

1975 - General Dynamics FB-111A, 68–290, crashes in the area of the Ashland forest in Maine, ~45 minutes after take-off from Loring AFB, Maine.

2002 - USAF RQ-1 Predator vs. IRAF MiG-25 – In what was the last aerial victory for the Iraqi Air Force before Operation Iraqi Freedom, an Iraqi MiG-25 destroyed an American UAV RQ-1 Predator after the drone opened fire on the Iraqi aircraft with a Stinger missile.


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## mhansen2

24 December

1861 – British schooner Prince of Wales, a blockade runner with a cargo of salt, fruit, and sundries, was set afire by her crew at the north end of North Island off Georgetown, South Carolina. Boats from the bark USS Gem of the Sea and the armed sidewheel paddle steamer USS James Adger capture her, but the boat crews burned her when Confederate rifle fire drove them off.

1863 - The British 799-ton bark Texan Star, carrying a cargo of rice and bound for Singapore, was captured and burned in the Strait of Malacca by the screw sloop-of-war CSS Alabama.

1864 - The floating battery CSS Arctic was scuttled as a blockship in the Cape Fear River off Fort Fisher, North Carolina.

1864 - The screw steamer USS Louisiana, packed with gunpowder, was deliberately blown up near Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in an attempt to reduce the fort. The clock mechanism intended to detonate the gunpowder failed, but a fire deliberately started aboard the ship detonated it instead. The explosion had no appreciable effect on the fort.

1864 – 22 or 24 December - During a voyage under charter to the United States Department of War, carrying 225 sick and wounded Union Army soldiers from New Orleans, Louisiana, to New York City, the 1,061-ton screw steamer North America foundered in the North Atlantic Ocean east of Georgia at 31°10′N 78°40′W with the loss of 197 lives.

1944 – The crash of Douglas A-26B-10-DT Invader, 43-22273, c/n 18420, of the 381st CCTS, Marianna Army Airfield, Florida, piloted by Benjamin F. Schoenfield, five miles S of Sardinia, Ohio, kills three crew and injures one.

1947 - Boeing B-17G-95-DL Flying Fortress, 44-83790, of the 1385th Base Unit, Bluie West One, Greenland, delivering presents and mail to isolated outposts on Baffin Bay, runs out of fuel on Christmas Eve and pilot Chester M. Karney makes a forced landing on snow-laden frozen Dyke Lake in Labrador. None of the nine aboard are injured and they are picked up on 26 December by a ski and JATO-equipped Douglas C-47. Officers at Atlantic Division headquarters of Air Transport Command, Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts, said that a snowstorm earlier in the day delayed one flight by the C-47 to fetch the seven crew and two passengers off the ice and that they had prepared to spend a third night in the sub-zero temperatures. But a successful rescue was achieved and the marooned flown 275 miles to Goose Bay. Fortress abandoned and sinks to the bottom of lake. Aircraft located in July 1998; recovered from the lake on 9 September 2004. Now under restoration to fly at Douglas, Georgia.

1957 - A US Air Force RB-57 was shot down over the Black Sea by Soviet fighters.

1968 –
_"I watched this live and although I was never religious, the emotion of the moment was overwhelming.  Still is"
_


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## mhansen2

25 December

1944 - Ten die and 17 are injured as Douglas C-47A-10-DL Skytrain, 42-23360, c/n 9222, hits fog-shrouded Roundtop mountain, five miles SE of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The fire department from New Cumberland, called by a local resident who reports a fire in the woods, arrives shortly after 0500 hrs., and has to cut survivors out of the wreckage with an ax. Some bodies had been thrown clear. "Fifteen of the injured, suffering fractures and burns, were brought to the Harrisburg General hospital, and the other two were taken to a New Cumberland army hospital."

1944 - The crash of a U.S. Navy Douglas R4D-6 Skytrain of VRF-3, Naval Air Station Olathe, Kansas, piloted by W. H. Beck, in an Indianapolis, Indiana, suburb kills five and injures two. "The plane was bound for Columbus, O., after being turned back at St. Louis, Mo., on a flight to Olathe, Kas., naval air base. Everett Maxwell, Marion county deputy sheriff, said five bodies were removed from the wreckage. He reported the craft was apparently attempting to land at the municipal airport and overshot the field in a fog. It struck a tree as the pilot tried to pull up, Maxwell said. Three of the men killed in the crash were navy personnel attached to naval air transport squadron 3 with headquarters at the Olathe base. Others involved were army personnel."


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## mhansen2

26 December

1863 - During voyages from Singapore to British Burma, the 707-ton full-rigged ship Sonora and the 1,049 or 1,050-ton (sources differ) clipper Highlander were captured and burned at the western entrance of the Strait of Malacca by the screw sloop-of-war CSS Alabama.

1942 – “Eight men aboard an army medium bomber went missing last Saturday night on a flight from Barksdale field, near Shreveport, La., to its base at Walterboro, S. C." B-25C Mitchell, 41-12630, of the 489th Bomb Squadron (Medium), 340th Bomb Group (Medium), from Walterboro Army Airfield, piloted by Fred M. Hampton, crashes in Lafourche Swamp, Louisiana.

1943 – Sinking of German armored cruiser Sharnhorst.
The Scharnhorst: A Cursed Warship?

1950 - Two Soviet MiG-15 Fagots, flown by S.A. Bakhev and N. Kotov shared in the downing of a US Air Force RB-29 Superfortress.

1952 - A U.S. Navy Martin PBM-5 Mariner aircraft of Patrol Squadron 47 (VP-47), based at MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, crashes in the Sea of Japan 50 miles E of Kosong, North Korea, whilst on anti-submarine patrol, killing ten members of the crew of fourteen. The Navy in Tokyo announces on 29 December that two bodies had been recovered, and that four injured crew were rescued by USS Renshaw (DDE-499).


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## mhansen2

27 December

1862 – Two Confederate sternwheel paddle steamers, the 169-ton Key West and the 89-ton Violet, were burned on the Arkansas River at Van Buren, Arkansas, after their capture by Union forces.

1862 – (27 – 28 December) Confederate sternwheel paddle steamer Era No.6 (Era) was built in 1860 at Pittsburgh, Pa. She was burned after her cargo was removed under the orders of Major. General Thomas C. Hindman on the Arkansas River above Van Buren to prevent capture by Union troops.

1864 – The armed screw steamer USS Monticello forced the British 350-ton sidewheel paddle steamer Agnes E. Fry ashore on the coast of North Carolina about 4 miles (6.4 km) from Fort Campbell and about 2 miles (3.2 km) southeast of Fort Caswell. 

1864 - At Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, USS Monticello forced ashore and burned an unidentified Confederate schooner.

1992 – An IRAF MiG-25 crossed into an Iraqi no-fly zone and was shot down by a USAF F-16D with an AIM-120 AMRAAM missile. It is the first kill with an AIM-120 and the first USAF F-16 kill.


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## mhansen2

28 December

1862 – Confederate side wheel paddle steamer Frederick Notrebe (Notre) was built in 1860 at Cincinnati. She ran aground in the Arkansas river one mile below Van Buren. She was captured by Union raiders and shelled by Confederates. Burned by Union forces the next day, she may have been raised and put back into Union service.

1862 - The Confederate 115-ton sidewheel paddle steamer Arkansas was burned in the Arkansas River above Lee's Creek Bluff in Arkansas to prevent her capture by Union forces.

1862 - The Union 170-ton sidewheel paddle steamer Blue Wing No. 2 was shelled by Confederate artillery and captured by Southern forces on the Mississippi River eight miles (13 km) below Napoleon, Arkansas. She was then, towed away and burned.

1864 – An unidentified sloop was forced ashore and destroyed by gunboat USS Kanawha on the coast of Texas near Caney Creek.

1918 – Transport USS Tenadores, after a voyage from New York, ran aground in fog on the north shore of Ile d´Yeu, 3 miles from Les Cheins Perrins Light, about 10 miles from Brest, France. Though all on board were rescued, the ship could not be saved and was soon broken up by the sea.

1921 - Second Lieutenant Samuel Howard Davis (1896–1921) is killed in the crash of Curtiss JN-6HG-1 (possibly USAAS serial 44796, seen wrecked at Carlstrom AAF, date unknown) in which he was a passenger, at Carlstrom Field, Arcadia, Florida. Davis-Monthan Landing Field, later Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona, is named in part for him, 1 November 1925.

1942 - Martin B-26B-4 Marauder, 41-18101, of the 496th Bomb Squadron, 344th Bomb Group, Drane Field, Lakeland Army Air Base #2, Lakeland, Florida, piloted by William A. Booth, with six on board, departs Tampa for San Antonio, Texas, and vanishes over the Gulf of Mexico. Aboard as passengers are Women's Army Auxiliary Corps Third Officer Eleanor C. Nate, 36, and her husband, Maj. Joseph C. Nate.

1944 - At 1151 hours, FM-2 Wildcat, BuNo. 57039, out of NAS Glenview, Illinois, crashes into Lake Michigan in about 200 feet of water. The pilot was Ensign William E. Forbes. Ensign Forbes was in the process of making his third take-off of his aircraft carrier qualification off USS Sable (IX-81). Apparently, the engine checked out okay, however, on the take-off roll the engine began to "pop" and then "quit completely." The fighter rolled off the bow of the ship and sank. The accident was determined to be 100 percent material (engine failure). The National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola planned to recover the airframe in December 2012.

1948 - The pilot is killed when his Lockheed F-80A-1-LO Shooting Star, 44-85282, crashes at the village of Jeddo, Michigan. Papers on the body identify him as Lt. Joseph R. Thomis, of Paducah, Kentucky, assigned at Selfridge Field, Michigan.

1948 - Michigan Air National Guard Douglas B-26B-30-DL Invader, 41-39350, on "a routine navigational flight from McDill Field, Fla.", crashes three miles E of Willow Run Airport, near Ypsilanti, Michigan, killing four crew and, possibly, two civilian passengers, picked up at MacDill Field. Col. Donald W. Armstrong, commander of the Michigan air wing, said that he "believed" passengers were aboard. Names of victims were not immediately released.

1965 - CIA pilot Mele Vojvodich, Jr. takes Lockheed A-12, 60–6929, Article 126, for a functional check flight (FCF) after a period of deep maintenance, but seconds after take-off from Groom Dry Lake, Nevada, the aircraft yaws uncontrollably, pilot ejecting at 100 feet (30 m) after six seconds of flight, escaping serious injury. Investigation finds that the pitch stability augmentation system (SAS) had been connected to the yaw SAS actuators, and vice versa. SAS connectors are changed to make such wiring mistake impossible. Said Kelly Johnson in a history of the Oxcart program, "It was perfectly evident from movies taken of the takeoff, and from the pilot's description, that there were some miswired gyros in the aircraft. This turned out to be exactly what happened. Despite color coding and every other normal precaution, the pitch and yaw gyro connections were interchanged in rigging."

1989 - McDonnell-Douglas F-15C-41-MC Eagle. 86-0153, c/n 1000/C381, of the 59th TFS, 33rd TFW, based at Eglin AFB, crashes in the Gulf of Mexico, 40 miles SE of Apalachicola, Florida, pilot killed. The pilot was identified as Capt. Bartle M. Jackson, 31, Towson, Maryland. At the time of the crash, Jackson and three other pilots—a second F-15 pilot from Eglin and two Lockheed Martin F-16 pilots from Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, were taking part in a training mission the Air Force calls a 2v2, which pits two F-15s against two F-16s in a mock dogfight. It was not known whether the pilot had been able to bail out over the Gulf of Mexico. Other pilots in the area had not seen a parachute.


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## mhansen2

29 December

1861 – An unidentified Confederate gunboat, a former lightvessel, was destroyed in the Atlantic Ocean off Wilmington, North Carolina, by boat crews from the armed screw steamer USS Mount Vernon.

1862 - Captured by Union Army raiders the previous day while carrying a cargo of corn, molasses, and sugar, the Confederate 123-ton sternwheel paddle steamer Rose Douglas was shelled by Confederate artillery and then burned by Union forces on the Arkansas River at Van Buren, Arkansas, to prevent her recapture by the Confederates.

1863 - The Confederate schooner Caroline Gertrude, a blockade runner carrying a cargo of cotton to Havana, Cuba, ran aground on a bar just inside the mouth of the Ocklockonee River on the Gulf Coast of Florida.  She was boarded and burned by boat crews from the screw steamer USS Stars and Stripes.

1864 - The 750-ton Union bark Delphine, proceeding in ballast from London, England, to Akyab in British Burma, was captured and burned in the South Pacific Ocean by the merchant raider CSS Shenandoah.

1930 - "On Dec. 29th, the word was received that Lieut. W.H. Sherwood of this squadron, (16th Reconnaissance Squadron) who was on an extended cross-country to his home in Pennsylvania, crashed and was killed near Waterford, PA., about a quarter of a mile from his parents' home. Lieut. Sherwood was a graduate of Kelly Field, Texas, with the July 1929 class." Lt. William H. Sherwood, assigned at Marshall Field, Fort Riley, Kansas, had departed Rodgers Field, Pittsburgh's first municipal airport, in Douglas O-25A, 30-186.

1942 - "Pensacola, Fla., December 30, (AP) - Two Pensacola pilots are presumed to have been killed Tuesday night, it was announced by naval officials here tonight. They were Ensign Sylvain Bouche of New Orleans, La., and Cadet John T. Greer of Tamaqua, Pa."

1943 - 1st Lt Robert L. Duke is killed in the crash of Curtiss A-25A-20-CS Shrike, 42-79823, near Spencer, Tennessee, this date. He was assigned as Assistant A-3 of Eglin Field, Florida. Eglin Auxiliary Field 3 is later named Duke Field in his honor.

1943 - Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress, 42-97493 of the 2nd Ferrying Group out of Dover Army Airfield, crashes 2 miles SW of Gander, Newfoundland shortly after takeoff. KWF was pilot, 1LT Bruce E. Ryan of Short Hills, NJ, and all crew and passengers. Aircraft was completely consumed by fire pursuant to the crash and no cause was ever determined.

1945 - USS Minivet (AM-371) was an Auk Class Minesweeper. During her first month in the area, escort trips to Pusan, Korea, and from Okinawa left little time to stream her minesweeping gear. After a brief availability period AM-371 departed Sasebo on 23 December in company with eight Japanese vessels to complete the sweeping of the Tsushima Straits. Following in the wake of the second pass of the day on 29 December she struck a mine and in a matter of minutes rolled over and sank.
Despite the discipline and courageous action of her crew and the bravery of American and Japanese rescuers, Minivet suffered 31 men killed or missing. She became the first American minesweeper lost during these hazardous operations that had destroyed 20,000 mines since the end of the war.

1947 - "NAPLES, Italy, Dec. 29. (AP) - Three United States Navy men were killed when a helicopter from USS Midway (CVB-41) lost its rotor and fell into a scrap iron pile in the port of Naples today. Two were listed as Naval Officers Lamm and Jack Peter. Their addresses and the name of the third victim were not available. Witnesses said the helicopter took off from the carrier, anchored in Naples harbor, a few minutes before the crash. The accident occurred a few hundred yards from the Friendship Train food ship Exiria." USS Midway operated Sikorsky HO3S helicopters in 1947.

1947 - A US Marine Corps plane crashed in China and the four-man crew was captured by Communist forces. They were released in July 1948.

1980 - A U.S. Navy pilot ejects from stricken Douglas TA-4J Skyhawk, BuNo. 154626, 'JH', of VC-10, on a flight from NAS Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after engine failure and fire, spends 30 hours in the water before rescue shortly after midnight on Wednesday, 31 December, from the Atlantic ~45 miles S of Bahamian island of Mayaguana by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter. Two Skyhawks departed Gitmo on routine training mission at 1500 hrs. on Monday, second pilot sees pilot Cmdr. Frank Riordan successfully eject from his burning aircraft with a good canopy ~240 miles NE of Guantanamo. Observer aboard U.S. Navy P-3 Orion out of NAS Jacksonville, Florida, spots strobelight on pilot's life jacket on Tuesday night, 28 December. Riordan recovered in good condition "except for a slight case of exposure", said a Coast Guard spokesman in Miami, Florida.


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## mhansen2

30 December

1862 - Carrying a cargo of coffee, salt, and other goods, the 3½-ton sloop Ann was destroyed at Jupiter Inlet on the coast of Florida by the bark USS Gem of the Sea.

1863 - During a blockade-running voyage from Glasgow, Scotland, with a cargo of dry goods, the 607-gross ton British sidewheel paddle steamer Nola was driven onto a reef and wrecked in the Western Blue Cut area off Ireland Island, 7 nautical miles (13 km) northwest of Bermuda.

1864 - Schooner USS Annie departed Key West, Florida, to resume blockade duties in the Gulf of Mexico along Florida's west coast off Charlotte Harbor but was not heard from again. On 5 February 1865, the screw steamer USS Hendrick Hudson found her wreck submerged in 36 feet (11 meters) of water south of Cape Romano, Florida, apparently the victim of an explosion. No sign of her crew was found.

1864 - During a heavy gale, paddle steamer USS Rattler parted her mooring cables on the Mississippi River near Grand Gulf, Mississippi, ran ashore, struck a snag and sank. She was stripped and abandoned, and Confederate forces later burned her wreck.

1941 - Nine Martin B-26 Marauder bombers of the 33d Bombardment Squadron, 22d Bombardment Group, depart Muroc Army Air Field for March Field, California, but only eight arrive. In bad weather, B-26, 40–1475, snags a pine tree and crashes on Keller Peak in the San Bernardino Mountains, killing nine. Wreckage not found until 14 January 1942. Late the next day, a recovery team of sheriff officers and members of the 33rd Squadron reaches the site after a four-mile trek with toboggans from Snow Valley. All of the crew had been thrown from the plane except for one, whose body was trapped beneath the fuselage. A plaque was installed on a rock near the crash site in August 1995 commemorating the lost crew. Two of the other Marauders in this flight were deployed onto Midway Island and saw action in the Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942 in a torpedo attack on the IJN Akagi. One was shot down.

1942 - North American B-25D-1 Mitchell, 41-29855, of the 498th Bomb Squadron, 345th Bomb Group, flown by Frank E. Mason, crashes 1½ miles from Columbia Army Air Base, South Carolina. Three officers and two enlisted men are killed in the late Wednesday takeoff accident.

1942 - A flying instructor and two cadets are killed in the collision of two Vultee BT-13A Valiants shortly after their takeoffs from Waco Army Air Field, Texas. BT-13A, 41-21734, of the 470th Basic Flight Training Squadron, flown by cadet Paul G. Shudick, and BT-13A, 41-22734, of the 468th Basic Flight Training Squadron, piloted by Lt. James A. Abney, crash killing Abney of Shreveport, Louisiana, cadet Shudick of Gary, Indiana, and cadet William H. Turner of Burton, Texas.

1942 - A U.S. Navy patrol bomber on a routine training flight crashes Sunday afternoon in the north end of the Salton Sea in the Imperial Valley, California, killing seven crew and injuring two. The Eleventh Naval District at San Diego identifies the dead as: Lt. William O. Carlson, plane commander, Seattle, Washington; Lt. Jack E. Brenner, pilot, Coronado, California; Ens. J. Douglas Simmons III, pilot, Cleveland, Mississippi; W. A. Morgan, aviation machinist's mate, San Diego; Louis J. Hanlon, aviation machinist's mate first class, Coronado; J. W. Jones, aviation ordnanceman second class, Utica, New York; J. J. O'Connor, aviation radioman third class, Denver, Colorado. "All bodies were recovered. No other details were made public."

1942 - Boeing B-17F-35-BO Flying Fortress, 42-5123, of the 20th Bomb Squadron, 2d Bomb Group, Great Falls Army Air Base, Montana, piloted by Edward T. Layfield, crashes near Musselshell, Montana. Capt. John Lloyd, public relations officer at the Great Falls base, said that eleven aboard were killed.

1942 - "San Francisco, December 30 - Four army fighter planes crashed within a 12-hour span in the San Francisco bay area today. Three of the pilots were believed killed. Two of the ships plunged to earth near Hamilton field, one ten miles north of Napa and the other just south of the field. Another crashed and exploded in a salt pond near Newark in southern Alameda county and the fourth crashed in Lake Chabot in the east Oakland foothills. Hamilton field, which announced all four mishaps, said the victim of the crash nearest the field was Second Lieut. Lloyd E. Blythe, 24, of Oakland. Second Lieut. Howard B. Stivers (home address not given) rode his plane to earth as it fell in Lake Chabot and was rescued uninjured. The pilots of the other two single-seaters were not identified immediately."
Blythe (also reported with middle initial G) was killed flying Bell P-39D-1-BE Airacobra, 41-28302, of the 326th Fighter Squadron, 328th Fighter Group, Hamilton Field.

1946 - A U.S. Navy Martin PBM-5 Mariner flying boat, BuNo 59098, supporting Operation Highjump, departs from seaplane tender USS Pine Island (AV-12) on a prolonged reconnaissance flight, crashes during a blizzard in Antarctica. Three crew members are killed and six others were stranded 13 days before being rescued. The three who died, Ensign Maxwell A. Lopez, ARM1 Wendell K. Henderson, and ARM1 Frederick W. Williams, were buried at the crash site and their remains have not been recovered.

1956 - A United States Air Force Lockheed C-121C, 54–165, of the 1608th Transport Wing, based at Charleston AFB, South Carolina, crashes on approach to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, while flying UN troops into the Suez Canal zone. It was also slated to carry Hungarian refugees back to Charleston AFB, South Carolina. 12 of 38 onboard killed. Air Force headquarters at Wiesbaden, Germany, said that a manifest showed 38 persons – 27 passengers and only 11 crewmen – were aboard the aircraft. Amongst the fatalities were Major Clyde W. Ellis, aircraft commander; Master Sergeant Frank A. Lorch, flight engineer; 1st Lieutenant La Verne W. Alitz, first pilot; and Sergeant Frank A. Rodgers, flight engineer. All three were residents of North Charleston, South Carolina. As of 1 January, the names of three others reported dead on arrival at the Dharan hospital had not been released. "Seven crew members are listed among the survivors. Their conditions and that of a foreign observer are:" 1st Lieutenant Robert F. Wearley, of Charleston Heights, South Carolina, co-pilot, critical; 1st Lieutenant Peter Goch, of Jersey City, New Jersey, navigator, critical; 1st Lieutenant Thomas W. Heenan, of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, navigator, critical. "The condition of the following was listed as fair to good:" 2d Lieutenant Robert L. Saylors, of Ninety Six, South Carolina, navigator; Airman 2d Class (WAF) Florence A. Hogan, of Stanford, Connecticut, flight attendant; Staff Sergeant Robert D. Proctor, of Charleston, flight attendant; Staff Sergeant Robert J. Sanders, of Charleston, flight attendant; and Lieutenant Colonel Ali A. Raft, a transportation observer of MATS operations, from Iran. "The Charleston Air Base public information officer said the aircraft was on a regular transport mission to the U.S. Air Force Base at Dhahran, which is leased from Saudi Arabia and is one of the global chain of strategic bases." It was one of three flying into Dhahran from Tripoli, Libya, an eleven-hour flight. The other two aircraft landed at Muharraq Airport on Bahrain Island, in the Persian Gulf, a short distance from the crash site. The C-121 "is reported to have crashed into sand and burned about 1,000 yards from the runway while attempting to land during heavy fog." Captain Irving H. Breslauer, the public information officer at Charleston AFB, said that the aircraft left Charleston on Thursday 27 December with 12 crew members for Dhahran, by way of McGuire AFB, New Jersey, Lajes Field in the Azores, and Tripoli. Colonel Clinton C. Wasem, commander of the 1608th Transport Wing, left Charleston for Dhahran on 31 December to conduct an investigation into the cause of the crash.

1970 - Prototype Tomcat, Grumman F-14-01-GR Tomcat, 157980, suffers hydraulic fluid leak on second flight, crew attempts return to Grumman plant at Calverton, New York, but loses flight controls just before crossing airfield threshold, both crew members eject as airframe plunges into woods short of runway.


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## mhansen2

31 December

1861 – An unidentified Confederate gunboat, a former lightvessel, was destroyed in the Atlantic Ocean off Wilmington, North Carolina, by boat crews from the armed screw steamer USS Mount Vernon.

Unknown Dates December 1861

The full-rigged ship USS Lewis, a former whaler slated for use as a blockship in the "Stone Fleet," ran aground and broke open her bilge near Tybee Island, Georgia.

Ship USS Maria Theresa was scuttled as a blockship in Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, about four miles south southeast of Fort Sumter and three miles east-southeast of the lighthouse on Morris Island as part of the "Stone Fleet."

Ship USS Robin Hood, the former East Indiaman, was scuttled as a blockship in the main channel of Charleston Harbor off Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet."

1862 - The Confederate ship Frying Pan Shoals was destroyed in the Cape Fear River in North Carolina near Fort Caswell by men aboard a cutter and a gig from the armed screw steamer USS Mount Vernon.

1862 – USS Monitor foundered in a heavy storm in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, with the loss of 16 crew while under tow by the sidewheel paddle steamer USS Rhode Island.
The USS Monitor Center - At The Mariners' Museum & Park

Unknown Date December 1862

The British steamer Kelpie, a blockade runner, sank while entering the harbor at Nassau in the Bahamas.

Unknown Dates December 1863

The 200-ton sidewheel cottonclad gunboat CSS John F. Carr was driven ashore on the Matagorda Peninsula on the coast of Texas by a severe gale and was burned to prevent her capture by Union forces on 30 or 31 December. Sources differ on her fate, claiming that the fire destroyed her or that Union forces pulled her onto a bank at Lynchburg, Texas, to prevent her from sinking in deep water and that she apparently was recaptured by the Confederates and returned to Confederate States Navy service.

Confederate schooner Rosalie (or Rosa Lee) burned (or was burned?) in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Texas.

1864 - The Union 120-ton sternwheel paddle steamer Venango was burned at Pilcher's Point in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana.

Unknown Dates December 1864

The armed steamer Kate L. Bruce was sunk as a blockship in the Chattahoochee River.

1975 - USCG Zinnia (WAGL-255) was an American Coast Guard buoy tender vessel that was sunk as an artificial reef on the Gulf Coast of Florida, some 30 miles SW of Cape San Blas.


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## mhansen2

1 January

1862 - The Confederate fishing schooner Advocate was scuttled as a blockship by Union forces in the Petit Bois Channel on the coast of Mississippi. She had been captured by the screw steamer USS New London on 1 December 1861.

1863 – During the Battle of Galveston, Confederate Army armed cottonclad tug CS Neptune (or CSS Neptune Camp) was sunk by United States Navy warships in Galveston Harbor when a shell passed through her hull. She suffered eight killed and 20 wounded, and three of the wounded later died of their injuries.

1863 – During the Battle of Galveston, armed sidewheel paddle teamer USS Westfield, serving as flagship of the naval squadron blockading Galveston, Texas, ran aground on a sandbar in Galveston Harbor while in action with Confederate Army gunboat CS Bayou City and the armed tugboat CS Neptune. She was blown up to prevent her capture by Confederate forces, killing the fleet commander, Commander William B. Renshaw, and several members of her crew when the explosives detonated sooner than they expected.

1864 – US Army tug John B. White was sunk by a Confederate mine in the waters off Virginia.

1864 – British schooner Sylvanus, a blockade runner with a cargo of salt, liquor, and cordage, was hit at the waterline with an 11-inch (279-mm) shell and driven ashore in Doboy Sound, Georgia, by gunboat USS Huron. The tide then covered her.

1865 – An early steamship, USS San Jacinto, veteran of China’s second opium war, sank in the Abacos Islands, Bahamas while she was on blockade duty during the Civil War. Once 234-feet long, the wreck is now completely scattered across the bottom in 40 feet of water.

1915 – Pre-Dreadnought battleship HMS Formidable was sunk about 25 miles off Portland by the German submarine U-24 whose captain was Kapitanleutnant Rudolph Schneider. He fired two torpedoes, the first hit the starboard side and the second, fired about 50 minutes later, hit the port side.
Formidable was part of the 5th Battle Squadron, which consisted of eight battleships and two cruisers, which had been steaming along the south coast of England in the English Channel from the east. 547 men lost their lives, 233 survived.

1937 - Lt. Col. Fredrick Irving Eglin (1891–1937), first rated as a military aviator in 1917 and helped train other flyers during World War I, is killed while assigned to General Headquarters, Air Force, Langley Field, Virginia, in the crash of his Northrop A-17 pursuit aircraft, 35–97, at Chesa Mountain, Alabama in bad weather during flight from Langley to Maxwell Field, Alabama. The Valparaiso Bombing and Gunnery Base was renamed Eglin Field 4 August 1937, later Eglin Air Force Base on 24 June 1948.

1943 - The sole Lockheed XP-49, 40-3055, a development of the P-38 Lightning, first flown 11 November 1942, suffers a crash landing at Burbank, California when the port landing gear fails to lock down due to a combined hydraulic and electrical problem. Pilot was Joe C. Towle. Repaired, it returns to flight on 16 February 1943, and is sent to Wright Field, Ohio, for further testing. Despite slight improved performance over the P-38, difficulties with the new engines, as well as the success of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and the P-51 Mustang, leads to no additional orders or production.

1945 - Lockheed P-38G-10-LO Lightning, 42-13400, c/n 222-7834, suffers crash landing on Attu Island in the Aleutians, 2,000 miles W of Anchorage, Alaska, whilst on a training mission, pilot 2nd Lt. Robert Nesmith unhurt. Airframe suffers propellers torn off, broken horizontal stabilizer, buckled left nacelle. After simple parts salvage, it is abandoned in place. Recovered June 1999, it is transported by helicopter to the U.S. Coast Guard station at Attu, then flown to Anchorage in an Alaska Air National Guard Lockheed C-130 Hercules. Registered as N55929 but not taken up. Restored at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, it is placed on display at McCloud Memorial Park, Elmendorf AFB, in April 2000.

1946 - Budd RB-1 Conestoga, NC45347, c/n 003, ex-BuNo 39294, one of twelve purchased from the War Assets Administration by National Skyway Freight Corp., former AVG members, for $28,642 each at a time when new C-47s go for ~$100,000, belly-lands this date on a golf course at Bluefield, Virginia during an attempted forced landing after running low on fuel. The new company immediately sold four RB-1 aircraft to other buyers, which paid for the entire WAA contract.


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## mhansen2

2 January

1864 - The 178-register ton Confederate sidewheel paddle steamer Benigo, a blockade runner, ran aground on the coast of North Carolina west of Lockwood Folly Inlet. Her crew set fire to her and abandoned her. Screw steamer USS Fahkee discovered her aground, partially burned, and with 7 feet (2.1 meters) of water in her hold the next day. She was destroyed by gunfire by Fahkee, sidewheel paddle steamer USS Fort Jackson, and screw steamers USS Daylight, USS Iron Age, and USS Montgomery.

1865 – The British schooner Celia, a blockade runner carrying a cargo of turpentine, was shelled, then boarded by a landing party from gunboat USS Nipsic and burned at Murrell's Inlet on the coast of South Carolina.

1944 - "Hornick, Iowa, Jan. 2 (AP) - Nine crew members of a Flying Fortress based at Sioux City, were killed when the plane crashed and burned on a farm near here late today. Persons within a radius of several miles said they saw the plane explode and crash." B-17F-40-VE, 42-6013, of the 393d CCTS, piloted by Frank R. Hilford, appears to be the airframe involved.

1944 - "Sacramento, Calif., Jan. 2 (AP) - Thirteen army flyers were killed today when a B-17 Flying Fortress, headed for Los Angeles from McChord Field, Tacoma, Wash., exploded in flight over McClellan field and plunged 3000 feet to the ground in flames. Thousands of Sacramentans, startled by a terrific explosion, looked skyward and saw the crippled and burning four-motored bomber emerge from the overcast sky and fall. Only one member of the plane's crew of 14 escaped the flaming wreckage, parachuting to safety before the crash. He was Maj. James H. Wergen of Kingman Field, Ariz., the bomber's home base. The plane went to pieces in the air as it fell, scattering a wingtip, one of its motors and other parts over a vast area. McClellan Field authorities said medical officers were attempting to identify the dead, but that names would be withheld pending notification of next of kin." The B-17G was piloted by Frederick M. Klopfenstein.

1948 - A North American P-51D-25-NT Mustang, 45-11535 crashes 40 miles N of Roswell, New Mexico, shortly after noon this date, killing the pilot. Maj. Charles Beck, public information officer at Roswell Army Airfield, said that the plane's home base had not been determined.

1964 - A U.S. Air Force Douglas C-124C Globemaster II, 52-968, of the 28th Air Transport Squadron, en route from Tachikawa Air Force Base near Tokyo, Japan, to Hickam Air Force Base, Honolulu, Hawaii with nine on board and 11 tons of cargo, disappears over the Pacific Ocean after making a fuel stop at Wake Island. Due at Hickam at 0539 hrs. EST, the Globemaster II is last heard from at 0159 hrs. EST. Fuel exhaustion would have been at 1000 hrs. EST and the aircraft is presumed down at sea. An automatic SOS signal is detected emanating from an aircraft-type radio with a constant carrier frequency of 4728 kHz, issuing an automatically keyed distress message, and a dozen aircraft of the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard are sent to search from Hickam and from Guam, Midway, and Johnston Island.
Poor weather and limited visibility hampers search efforts. The U.S. Navy's USS Lansing (DE-388) also participates in the search. The eight missing Air Force crew and one U.S. Navy man escorting a body back to the U. S. are officially declared dead on 21 January. This was the first C-124 accident since May 1962.

1968 - Col. Henry Brown and Lt. Col. Joe B. Jordan became the first U.S. Air Force pilots to use a General Dynamics F-111A's emergency escape module when their aircraft, 65-5701, c/n A1-19, of the Air Force Test Center, crashed near Edwards Air Force Base, California, due to a weapons bay fire.

1975 - U.S. Navy Grumman F-14A-70-GR Tomcat, BuNo 158982, 'NK107', of VF-1, the first of the Pacific Fleet F-14 squadrons to form, deployed aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65), crashes into the sea off Cubi Point, Philippines, after an inflight engine explosion. Both crew members successfully eject. This is one of two squadron losses during the 1974–75 deployment that signaled the fan-blade containment problems which plagued early versions of the TF30 turbofan engine.

1976 - USMC McDonnell-Douglas F-4J Phantom II, BuNo 155506, of VMFA-333, crashes on approach to NAS Oceana, Virginia. Both crew eject safely.

1986 - A McDonnell Douglas F-15C-28-MC Eagle (s/n 80-0037; c/n 0692/C186) from the 57th FIS based at NAS Keflavik, Iceland, crashed into the northern Atlantic Ocean off the southeastern coast of Iceland. The pilot, Capt Steve Nelson, was killed when his aircraft struck the water at high speed after failing to safely complete a "split-S" maneuver during a low-altitude step-down training (LASDT) sortie. The instructor had planned the maneuver based on his own previous experience in training weapons school students at Nellis AFB in comparatively lightweight F-15As; however, the F-15C, with nearly full Conformal Fuel Tanks, was much heavier and could not physically complete the split-S despite starting the maneuver at 10,000'. The aircraft was never recovered.

2004 - OH-58D Kiowa 90-0370 from 1–82 Aviation Brigade, 1–17 Cavalry Regiment shot down near Fallujah, killing a pilot.


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## mhansen2

3 January

1943 - Boeing B-17F-27-BO Flying Fortress, 41-24620, c/n 3305, "snap! crackle! pop!", 'PU-O', of the 360th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bomb Group, on daylight raid over Saint-Nazaire, France, loses wing due to flak, goes into spiral. Ball turret gunner Alan Eugene Magee (13 January 1919 – 20 December 2003), though suffering 27 shrapnel wounds, bails out (or is thrown from wreckage) without his chute at ~20,000 feet (6,100 m), loses consciousness due to altitude, freefall plunges through glass roof of the Gare de Saint-Nazaire and is found alive but with serious injuries on floor of depo.  He’s saved by German medical care, spends rest of war in prison camp. On 3 January 1993, the people of St. Nazaire honored Magee and the crew of his bomber by erecting a 6-foot-tall (1.8 m) memorial to them.
Alan Magee Story

1944 - CDR. Frank A. Erickson, U.S. Coast Guard, receives an official commendation after he pilots a Sikorsky HNS-1 helicopter with two cases of blood plasma lashed to its floats from New York City to Sandy Hook, New Jersey, for treatment of U.S. Navy crewmen from USS Turner (DD-648), which had exploded, burned, and sunk off New York harbor, this date. In this heroic deed, in violent winds and snow that grounded all other aircraft, Erickson became the first pilot in the world to fly a helicopter under such conditions as well as making the first "lifesaving flight" ever performed by a "chopper". Without the plasma, many of the severely injured survivors of the Turner would have died.
Destroyer Photo Index DD-648 USS TURNER

1944 - The crash of Cessna AT-17B Bobcat, 42-38897, c/n 3106, of the 986th SEFTS, Douglas Army Airfield, Arizona, kills Aviation Cadets Loris Gale, 20, of Walla Walla, Washington, and James C. Gallagher, 20, of Lima, Ohio. The twin-engined trainer came down three miles S of the Cochise Ranger Station, Arizona, said the Douglas Field public relations officer.

1954 - A U.S. Air Force Curtiss C-46 Commando attempting a forced landing in Southern Japan hits trees, killing all four crew.

1954 - A Douglas B-26C Invader crashes and explodes in heavily wooded mountains 9 miles NE of Carrizozo, New Mexico, after two crew bail out Sunday night. Col. Frank E. Sharp, commander of Holloman AFB, New Mexico, states that the men were found Monday "in good physical condition." They received only minor bruises and scratches despite jumping into pitch darkness over the rugged Sacramento Mountain range. They were identified as Capt. Frederick M. Werth, Bristol, Virginia, and S/Sgt. Willie E. Woods, of Sunflower, Mississippi. B-26C-35-DT Invader, 44-35429, is written off.

1966 - Third (of five) Ling-Temco-Vought XC-142As, 62-5923, suffers major landing gear and fuselage damage during landing on 14th Cat II flight at Edwards Air Force Base, California, having logged only 14:12 hrs. Cat II flight time. Air Force decides to use wing from this airframe to repair XC-142A No. 2, 62–5922, which suffers major damage on 19 October 1965, other useful items are salvaged from airframe no. 3, and the cannibalized fuselage is scrapped in the summer of 1966.

1989 - Oregon Air National Guard McDonnell-Douglas F-4C Phantom II, 63-7626 (?), of 123rd FIS/Oregon ANG from Portland, Oregon, crashes on a training mission ~30 miles off Tillamook Bay, injuring both crew, who were plucked from the Pacific Ocean, authorities said.

2006 - A United States Army Sikorsky Aircraft UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashes near Tal Afar, Ninawa Governorate, Iraq. The aircraft, part of a two-Black Hawk helicopter team, was travelling between military bases when the accident occurred, resulting in 12 fatalities.


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## mhansen2

4 January

1865 - Knickerbocker was a Union side-wheel steamer of 858 tons, built in 1843 at New York City.  She was wrecked in a storm off the Southern coast of Long Island, NY., near Mastic Beach in about 9 feet of water. Several Confederate attacks resulted in the burning of the ship on February 15th, 1865.

1865 - While trying to run the Union blockade and enter Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, the 529-gross ton British screw steamer Rattlesnake was forced aground on the coast of South Carolina just east of Breach Inlet by armed schooner USS Potomska and gunboat USS Wamsutta. She was burned and abandoned.

1866 – Tug USS Narcissus ran aground 1-1/2 miles west of Egmont Key off Tampa Bay, FL., during one of the severe winter storms during a cold front moving through the area. When the cold seawater came in contact with the hot steam boiler, she exploded, killing the entire crew of 29. Federal troops from nearby Egmont Key salvaged the ship's guns, but no signs of survivors were ever found.

1944 - Boeing B-17G-10-BO Flying Fortress, 42-31257, flying in formation with other B-17s, catches fire near Alamo, Nevada, while en route between Indian Springs Army Airfield and Las Vegas Army Airfield, Nevada, and twelve of thirteen aboard bail out. One is killed when his chute fails to open in time, and one aboard the bomber dies in the crash 67 miles NNE of Las Vegas AAF. Other planes circled the spot where the plane went down and radioed the base news of the crash. "Eleven of their number were brought to the airfield hospital last night (5 January), suffering from minor injuries and exposure after having spent the intervening time in heavy snow on a high mountain plateau."

1949 - Douglas VC-47D Skytrain. 43-48405, c/n 25666/14221, crashes and burns in a night accident, coming down in mountainous terrain about eight miles NE of Colfax, California. The Placer County coroner said there are seven fatalities. The flight was believed to be between Reno and McClellan Air Force Base, California. The crash site is near the American River and highway U.S. 40.

1954 - A US Navy P2V-5 Neptune (BuNo 127752) of VP-2 departed NAS Iwakuni in Japan and headed toward the west coast of Korea. The flight continued north across the Korean DMZ, then along the North Korean coast to the coast of China before turning south. After reporting engine difficulties, the aircraft head towards the K-13 base at Suwan. The engine difficulties might have been a result of a hostile attack on the Neptune. The aircraft reached the vicinity of K-13 before crashing, possibly the result of an additional attack by a US Navy AD-4B Skyraider on night patrol. The crew of Jesse Beasley, Fredric Prael, Rex Claussen, Gordon Spicklemier, Lloyd Rensink, Bruce Berger, James Hand, Robert Archbold, Stanley Mulford and Paul Morelli were all killed.

1959 - Single-engine de Havilland Canada UC-1A Otter cargo aircraft, BuNo 144673, c/n 163, from VX-6, participating in Operation Deep Freeze IV, crashed during takeoff at Marble Point, Antarctica, about 50 miles from McMurdo Station. "As the aircraft departed the Marble Point runway it made a very steep left turn and the left wing hit a small knoll. The aircraft cart-wheeled and crashed." Lieutenant Harvey E. Gardner and Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Lawrence J. Farrell died. Joe Baugher lists crash date as 1 April 1959.

1960 - Three United States Army de Havilland Canada U-1A Otters, of the 329th Engineer Detachment, fly from Wheelus Air Base to Bengazi, Libya, but 55-2974 disappears over the Gulf of Sirte in the Mediterranean in a storm. Aircraft never found. Search suspended 8 January at 2030 hrs. One crew and nine passengers presumed dead. Lost are:
1st Lt. Walter Jefferson, Jr., pilot of the aircraft, Tulsa, OK.
2d Lt. Graydon W. Goss, Franklinville, NY.
Pfc Albert L. Callais, Plaquemine, LA.
Sp5 Donnald R. Fletcher, Salinas, CA.
Sp4 Henry Harvey, Bradenton, FL.
Sp4 George W. Hightower, Waskum, TX.
Pfc Stephen T. Novak, Massena, NY.
Sp4 William C. Riley, North Adams, MA.
Sfc Kenneth E. Spaulding, The Bronx, NY.
Pfc Henry J. Weyer, Jr., Chicago., IL.

1961 - During Minimum Interval Takeoff (MITO) from Pease AFB, New Hampshire, Boeing B-47E Stratojet, 53-4244, of the 100th Bomb Wing, number 2 in a three-ship cell, loses control, crashes into trees, burns. Killed are aircraft commander, Capt. Thomas C. Weller, co-pilot 1st Lt. Ronald Chapo, navigator 1st Lt. J. A. Wether, and crew chief S/Sgt. Stephen J. Merva.

1964 - USAF Martin NRB-57D Canberra, 53-3973, of the Wright Air Development Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, suffers structural failure of both wings at 50,000 feet (15240 m), comes down in schoolyard at Dayton, Ohio, crew bails out. The U.S. Air Force subsequently grounds all W/RB-57D aircraft.

1989 - US Navy F-14A Tomcats, of VF-32, flown by Joseph Connelly (RIO Leo Enwright) and Hermon Cook (RIO Steven Collins), flying from the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), each shot down a Libyan MiG-23 Flogger over the Gulf of Sidra.

1989 - A female U.S. Navy airman of VA-42, was struck and killed by a Grumman A-6 Intruder being towed from a hangar at NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, Virginia. The airman, whose name was withheld pending notification of family, was walking beside a wing of the attack bomber as it was being towed by a small tractor from the hangar to the flight-line, a Navy spokesman said.


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## mhansen2

5 January

1949 - As five U.S. Navy Grumman F8F Bearcats make firing runs on a gunnery target sleeve towed by another aircraft, two fighters collide at 7,000 feet and plunge into the Pacific Ocean off San Francisco. Both pilots, Ens. Peter J. McHugh, of Alameda, and Lt. William R. Cecil, of Oakland, are feared lost.

1949 - A Douglas AD Skyraider, expected to return to NAS Alameda at 1150 hrs. after a routine two-hour flight, is declared missing shortly before 1400 hrs. when its fuel would be exhausted.

1949 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager performed the only ground take-off in a Bell X-1.  With 50% fuel, he reached 23,000 feet (7,010 meters) and Mach 1.03.

1950 - A Boeing B-50A Superfortress, 46-021, c/n 15741 of the 3200th Proof Test Group out of Eglin AFB, crash lands in the Choctawhatchee Bay, northwest Florida, killing two of the 11 crew. Nine escape from the downed aircraft following the forced landing. The airframe settles in eight to ten feet of mud at a depth of 38 feet (12 m). Divers recover the body of flight engineer M/Sgt. Claude Dorman, 27, of Kingston, New Hampshire, from the nose of the bomber on Monday, 8 January. The body of S/Sgt. William Thomas Bell, 21, aerial photographer, who lived in Mayo, Florida, is recovered on Tuesday, 9 January, outside the plane from beneath the tail. The Eglin base public information officer identified the surviving crew as 1st Lt. Park R. Bidwell, instructor pilot; 1st Lt. Vere Short, pilot; 1st Lt. James S. Wigg, co-pilot; Maj. William C. McLaughlin, bombardier; and S/Sgt. Clifford J. Gallipo, M/Sgt. Alton Howard, M/Sgt. William J. Almand, T/Sgt. Samuel G. Broke, and Cpl. William F. Fitzpatrick, crewmen.

1955 - Two Boeing B-47E Stratojets of the 44th Bomb Wing from Lake Charles AFB, Louisiana, collide over the Gulf of Mexico during refuelling Wednesday night, causing one to crash and the other to limp home to base with damage, sans its observer who bailed out over the Gulf. Air-sea rescue teams began a search of the Gulf in an area some 30 miles SE of Cameron, Louisiana, on the Gulf coast. B-47E-5-DT, 52-029, is lost with all three crew. Observer who bailed out is never found. The pilot of the recovered bomber stated that the lost plane apparently smashed down on his aircraft from above, "leaving wheel tracks on the cabin before it spun off to crash in Gulf waters. Capt. Morris E. Shiver, 29, of Albany, Ga., said 'we never knew what hit us' as the two six-jet bombers crashed together Wednesday night about 30 miles southeast of Cameron, La. An armada of planes and ships searched Thursday for the four airmen missing after the crash. Three of them were aboard the B47 which plunged into the Gulf, while the fourth, 1st Lt. Matthew Gemery, of Lakewood, Ohio, an observer, could have returned on his limping plane had he waited another minute before ejecting himself. They identified Maj. Sterling T. Carroll, 33, of Port Arthur, Tex., as the commander of the plane that returned, and Shiver as the pilot. The other three missing airmen were Maj. Jean S. Pierson, of Danville, Ind., aircraft commander; Capt. David O. Crump, of Albermarle, N.C. [sic], copilot, and father of six children, and 1st Lt. Rodney P. Egelston of Levelland, Tex., observer-bombardier."

1956 - Sole Piasecki YH-16A Turbo Transporter helicopter prototype, 50-1270, breaks up in flight at ~1555 hrs. and crashes near Swedesboro, New Jersey, near the Delaware River, while returning to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from a test flight over New Jersey. The cause of the crash was later determined to be the aft slip ring, which carried flight data from the instrumented rotor blades to the data recorders in the cabin. The slip ring bearings seized, and the resultant torque load severed the instrumentation standpipe inside the aft rotor shaft. A segment of this steel standpipe tilted over and came into contact with the interior of the aluminum rotor shaft, scribing a deepening groove into it. The rotor shaft eventually failed in flight, which in turn led to the aft blades and forward blades desynchronizing and colliding. The aircraft was a total loss, the two test pilots, Harold Peterson and George Callaghan, were killed. This led to the cancellation not only of the YH-16, but also the planned sixty-nine-passenger YH-16B version.

1962 - Three crew killed in crash of U.S. Air Force Boeing B-47E Stratojet, AF Ser. No. 52-0615, of the 22d Bomb Wing, at March AFB, California. This would be the last fatal crash at that base until 19 October 1978. Pilot was Major Clarence Weldon Garrett.

1967 - Lockheed A-12, 60–6928, Article 125, lost during training/test flight. CIA pilot Walter Ray successfully ejects but is killed upon impact with terrain due to failed seat-separation sequence. The Air Force-issue seatbelt failed to release properly. The aircraft had run out of fuel for a variety of reasons.

1967 - Martin MGM-13 Mace, launched from Site A-15, Santa Rosa Island, Hurlburt Field, Florida, by the 4751st Air Defense Missile Squadron at ~1021 hrs., fails to circle over Gulf of Mexico for test mission with two Eglin AFB McDonnell F-4 Phantom IIs, but heads south for Cuba. Third F-4 overtakes it, fires two test AAMs with limited success, then damages unarmed drone with cannon fire. Mace overflies western tip of Cuba before crashing in Caribbean 100 miles south of the island. International incident narrowly avoided. To forestall the possibility, the United States State Department asks the Swiss Ambassador in Havana to explain the circumstances of the wayward drone to the Cuban government. The Mace had been equipped with an "improved guidance system known as 'ASTRAN' which is considered unjammable." (This was apparently a typo for ATRAN – Automatic Terrain Recognition And Navigation terrain-matching radar navigation.)

1999 - A group of four Iraqi MiG-25s crossed the no-fly zones over Iraq and sparked a dogfight with two patrolling F-15Cs and two patrolling F-14Ds. A total of six missiles were fired at the MiGs, none of which hit. The MiGs then bugged out.

2011 – Former USS Kittiwake (ASR-13) was sunk as a reef off Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman, in Marine Park.


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## mhansen2

17 January

1865 - Confederate forces scuttled the screw transport Cape Fear and the steamer Pelteway in the Cape Fear River near Smithfield, North Carolina, to prevent their capture by Union forces.

1865 - The Union steamer Chippewa grounded on the south shore of the Arkansas River at Ivey's Ford, 14 miles (22.5 km) above Clarksville, Arkansas. Confederate forces captured her and her crew and passengers, removed her cargo, and burned the ship.

1955 - U.S. Navy Lockheed C-121J Super Constellation, BuNo 131639, c/n 4140, departs Harmon AFB, Newfoundland, at 0422 hrs. for a "routine transport flight" to its home-station, NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. At 0500, while over Prince Edward Island, two engines fail. The flight attempts to return to Harmon and a Boeing B-29 is dispatched to escort the crippled C-121, rendezvousing with it at 0504 over Cabot Strait, between Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Twelve minutes later, the Constellation shut off its lights and other electrical equipment to facilitate the dumping of excess fuel. Within minutes the bomber lost radar contact with the transport and it vanished.
The Constellation went into a stormy sea amidst clouds and fog. The B-29 circled the area and finally spotted five life rafts and life jackets amidst wreckage at 0645 hrs., but no survivors. The six crew and seven passengers, twelve men and one woman, were lost. The plane's pilot was identified as Lt. Cdr. L. R. Fullmer, Jr., of Little Rock, Arkansas. The woman aboard was identified as Seaman Jeanette W. Elmer, 22, of Syracuse, New York.

1957 - During the second bomber stream of training mission, "WEDDING BRAVO", by 30 Convair B-36 Peacemaker bombers of the 7th Bomb Wing, out of Carswell AFB, Texas, a jet engine explosion results in one B-36 landing at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, on fire. There was no further damage to the aircraft and no injuries to the crew, commanded by Capt. Robert L. Lewis.

1957 - A Boeing WB-50D Superfortress, 48-093, c/n 15902, (built as B-50D-95-BO) of the 58th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, fully loaded with fuel for a 3,700-mile weather reconnaissance flight, crashes two minutes after a pre-dawn takeoff from Eielson AFB, Alaska, with the wreckage and fuel burning in an inferno 200 yards long and 50 yards wide on the flat land three miles N of the base. All twelve crew are killed.

1957 - "HONOLULU (UP) – A Navy pilot, Lt. (JG) Kenneth R. West Jr., 24, of Burlingame, Calif., was killed when his FJ-3 Fury crashed in the ocean shortly after takeoff from Kaneohe Air Station."

1957 - The crash of Martin B-57E-MA Canberra, 55-4283, c/n 385, at Biggs AFB, Texas, kills two and injures a third. Killed are 1st Lt. Russell E. Hanson, 24, Cudahy, Wisconsin, and 1st Lt. Thomas H. Higgins, 24, Walled Lake, Michigan.

1966 - A Boeing B-52G Stratofortress, 58-0256, of the 68th Bomb Wing out of Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, collides with a KC-135A-BN Stratotanker, 61-0273, c/n 18180, flying boom during aerial refueling near Palomares, Almería in the 1966 Palomares B-52 crash, breaking bomber's back. Seven crew members are killed in the crash, two eject safely, and two of the B-52's Mark 28 nuclear bombs rupture, scattering radioactive material over the countryside. One bomb lands intact near the town, and another is lost at sea. It is later recovered intact 5 miles (8 km) offshore in deep trench. Two of the recovered weapons are exhibited at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

1966 - The two-man crew of a Republic F-105F Thunderchief based at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, escape injury when the engine of the fighter-bomber in which they are engaged in a photo-chase mission catches fire, forcing them to eject. The airframe impacts in East Bay, near Tyndall AFB, Florida at 1008 hrs. Pilot Capt. James D. Clendenen and photographer S/Sgt. J. G. Cain are recovered from the water by a Tyndall base helicopter.

1966 - A Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star on a night mission crashes and burns in a wooded area 11 miles NW of Eglin AFB, killing both crew members. According to the base information officer, the wreckage was in a densely wooded area which made the approach of rescue vehicles difficult. Killed while flying (KWF) were Capt. Robert D. Freeman, 30, of Lindsey, Oklahoma, and 2nd Lt. Roger A. Carr, 26, of Ames, Iowa. Both were residents of Fort Walton Beach, Florida and were assigned to the Air Proving Ground Center.

1993 - A USAF F-16C shoots down a MiG-23 when the MiG locks up the F-16.

1993 – Two IRAF Su-22 "Fitters" open fire on two USAF F-16s in protest of the no-fly zones. No aircraft are damaged in the encounter.

2003 - A US Marine Corps McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18D Hornet crashes into the Pacific Ocean off of MCAS Miramar, California, due to a material failure during a functional check flight with one engine shut down. Both crew eject safely and are recovered.

2013 - USS Guardian (MCM-5) ran hard aground upon the Tubbatabha Reef in the Sulu Sea. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) admitted that the coastal scale Digital Nautical Chart (DNC) supplied to Guardian was flawed due to human error on the part of the NGA. This was an error that mislocated the Tubbataha Reef by 7.8 nautical miles east-southeast of its actual location. NGA was aware of this error in 2011 and updated a smaller scale electronic chart. NGA failed to publish a correction for the larger scale chart the ship was using when she ran aground.


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## mhansen2

My thread on ships sunk by the US Navy in WW2 has been closed by the moderator since it is a series of cut and paste articles. Whatever needed to be said about the thread was stated in the first post. Since this thread is of the same type, I am ending it now. I feel I have been shown the door and am leaving the forum.  Thank you to all those who found this thread interesting.


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