1770 March 5: The Boston Massacre: British soldiers fired on a taunting crowd, killing five people.
1773 Dec 16: Colonists dressed as Indians staged the Boston Tea Party in reaction to the prior Tea Act, dumping more than 300 chests of tea overboard in Boston Harbor.
1775 April 19: The American Revolutionary War began at the battles of Lexington & Concord.
1775 June 14: Founding of the Continental Army (forerunner of the U.S. Army).
1775 June 15: The Second Continental Congress voted unanimously to appoint George Washington head of the Continental Army.
1775 June 17: The Battle of Bunker Hill near Boston, Massachusetts (actually at Breed's Hill).
1775 Nov 10: Congress authorized organization of the U.S. Marines.
1776 July 8: The Declaration of Independence returned from the printer; the Liberty Bell rang to summon citizens of Philadelphia to the first public reading, by Col. John Nixon.
1781 Oct 19: British troops under Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia. Although the war lasted for another year, the British defeat at Yorktown effectively ended the war.
1782 Feb 27: Britain's Parliament voted against further war in America by 19 votes; the Rockingham Whigs came to power and opened negotiations for peace.
1782 Aug 7: Army General George Washington established the Order of the Purple Heart, honoring wounded soldiers.
1783 Feb 4: England's King George III declared hostilities with its former colonies in America at an end.
1783 April 11: America declared hostilities with Britain at an end.
1783 Dec 23: Gen. George Washington resigned as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia.
1784 Jan 14: The American Revolutionary War ended as the U.S. ratified the Treaty of Paris.
1787 Sept 17: The U.S. Constitution document was completed and signed by delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
1787 Sept 28: Congress voted to send the new Constitution to state legislatures for ratification.
1788 June 21: The U.S. Constitution went into effect as New Hampshire became the 9th state to ratify.
1789 Aug 7: Congress established the War Department.
1790 Aug 4: Establishment of the Revenue Cutter Service, forerunner of the U.S. Coast Guard.
1798 July 11: Congress formally re-established the U.S. Marine Corps and created the U.S. Marine Band.
1802 March 16: Congress established the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York; signed same day by President Jefferson.
1812 June 18: At the urging of President Madison, Congress declared war against Britain by a vote of 98-62; the conflict is known as The War of 1812.
1814 Dec 24: The War of 1812 officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, although fighting in the field continued thru February.
1846 April 25: Beginning of the U.S. War with Mexico.
1848 Feb 2: U.S. War with Mexico ended (Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo).
1850 Sept 28: The U.S. Navy abolished flogging as a form of punishment.
1856 May 21: A pro-slavery army led by U.S. Senator David Rice Atchison of Missouri shelled and sacked the abolitionist town of Lawrence, Kansas - considered the first skirmish in the War Between The States.
1861 Feb 4: Delegates from six southern states met in Montgomery, Alabama to form the Confederate States of America.
1861 Feb 8: The Montgomery convention announced the establishment of the Confederate States of America and declared itself the provisional Congress.
1861 April 12: U.S. Civil War began when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
1862 July 12: Congress passed and President Lincoln signed a bill authorizing the U.S. Medal of Honor.
1865 April 9: U.S. Civil War ended as Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.
1866 Aug 20: President Johnson formally declared the Civil War to be over.
1868 Dec 25: President Andrew Johnson granted a universal and unconditional 'full pardon and amnesty' to all participants in the Southern rebellion {the U.S. Civil War}.
1876 June 25: Battle of the Little Big Horn in Montana Territory: Sioux & Cheyenne warriors wiped out LtCol George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry troops.
1898 Feb 15: The U.S. battleship Maine mysteriously blew up in the harbor at Havana, Cuba; over 260 crewmen were killed.
1898 April 11: President McKinley asked Congress to authorize military intervention in Cuba.
1898 April 24: Spain declared war on the U.S. after America's ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.
1898 April 25: The U.S. declared war on Spain.
1898 Aug 12: Peace protocol was signed ending the Spanish-American War; fighting ended the next day.
1898 Dec 10: Spanish-American War officially ended (Treaty of Paris).
1899 April 11: The treaty ending the Spanish-American War was declared in effect.
1901 Nov 27: U.S. Army War College established in Washington, DC.
1907 Aug 1: Beginning of the U.S. Air Force, as the U.S. Army Signal Corps established an aeronautical division.
1909 July 27: Official test of the U.S. Army's first airplane at Fort Myer, Virginia; Orville Wright flew a passenger and himself for one hour and twelve minutes.
1910 Nov 14: Eugene B. Ely became the first aviator to take off from a ship; his Curtiss pusher aeroplane rolled off a sloping platform built on the bow of the light cruiser USS Birmingham at Hampton Roads, Virginia, lightly touched the surface of the water, then landed on a beach.
1911 Jan 18: Eugene B. Ely became the first aviator to land on a ship; his Curtiss pusher aeroplane flew from Tanforan Airfield in San Bruno, California and landed on a platform built on the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay.
1911 Sept 17: Calbraith P. Rodgers set off in a Wright biplane on the first East-West crossing of the continent; the trip from Sheepshead Bay, New York to Pasadena, California took 49 days and 69 stops.
1912 April 13: Founding of Britain's Royal Flying Corps, predecessor to the Royal Air Force.
1912 Aug 1: The first U.S. Marine Corps pilot Lt. Alfred A. Cunningham flew solo for the first time, in a Burgess/Curtis Hydroplane at Marblehead Harbor in Massachusetts.
1914 June 28: World War I was triggered when Austria's Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sofia were assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist.
1914 Aug 4: The United States proclaimed its neutrality in the war in Europe.
1915 Jan 28: Congress established the Coast Guard by merging the Life-Saving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service.
1916 March 9: Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa invaded the United States at Columbus, New Mexico; 500 Mexican soldiers killed eight U.S. Army soldiers and ten townspeople, burned part of the town, then retreated back across the border; about 80 Mexicans were killed in the attack.
1916 March 15: U.S. Army Major General John J. Pershing led an expeditionary force of 4,800 men into Mexico to capture Pancho Villa; the invasion of Mexico went 400 miles south of the border and various expeditions continued until February 1917.
1917 April 6: U.S. Congress approved declaration of war against Germany.
1917 June 5: All men in the United States between the ages of 21 and 31 were required to register for the draft.
1918 June 9: Congress established the Distinguished Service Medal.
1918 Nov 11: Cessation of hostilities at agreed-upon "eleventh hour of eleventh day of eleventh month". Commemorated as Armistice Day from 1919; name changed to Veterans Day in June 1954.
1919 June 28: World War I officially ended by the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in France.
1919 July 10: President Wilson personally delivered the Treaty of Versailles to the U.S. Senate and urged ratification; there were not enough votes (two-thirds of members required) to ratify the treaty.
1919 Nov 19: The U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of 55-39, short of the two-thirds required for ratification.
1922 Feb 21: Crash & explosion of Italy-built Roma semi-rigid hydrogen airship during U.S. Army testing at Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia; 34 crew members died, eleven on board miraculously survived.
1922 Oct 27: First celebration of the annual Navy Day in the U.S.
1926 July 2: Congress established the U.S. Army Air Corps.
1927 May 19-20: Aviator Charles Lindbergh made the first successful solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, traveling nonstop from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York to Paris, France in 33.5 hours.
1929 Nov 29: First airplane flight over the South Pole, with U.S. Navy Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd, pilot Bernt Balchen & photographer Ashley McKinney aboard.
1930 July 3: Congress established the U.S. Veterans Administration; signed into law by President Hoover on July 21.
1933 Jan 30: Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.
1933 July 22: American aviator Wiley Post completed the first solo flight around the world in seven days and 18-3/4 hours.
1934 June 15: President Roosevelt signed an act making the National Guard part of the U.S. Army in the event of war or national emergency.
1937 May 6: Crash in Lakehurst, New Jersey of the hydrogen-filled German dirigible airship Hindenburg; one ground crewman died, 35 of 97 on board died.
1939 Sept 1: World War II began as Nazi Germany invaded Poland.
1940 Sept 14: Congress passed the Selective Service Act, establishing the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history; signed into law by President Roosevelt next day.
1940 Oct 29: The United States began its first peacetime draft for military service.
1941 July 7: Delivery to U.S. Army of Willys MA 4x4 vehicle, later named the Jeep.
1941 Sept 11: Groundbreaking ceremony for the Pentagon building in Washington, DC.
1941 Dec 7: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawai'i, plus attacks in Hong Kong, Wake Island, Guam, the Philippine Islands, and Malaya.
1941 Dec 8: U.S. Congress declared war on Japan.
1941 Dec 11: Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, who responded in kind.
1942 March 18: President Roosevelt signed Executive Order #9102 authorizing the War Relocation Authority and the internment of Japanese-Americans.
1942 July 20: Congress established the U.S. Legion of Merit, which is awarded to U.S. military personnel or to military and civilian personnel of foreign governments.
1942 Nov 13: President Roosevelt signed a law lowering the draft age from 21 to 18 years of age.
1943 Jan 15: Completion of construction of the Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia, headquarters of the U.S. Department of War.
1943 Feb 13: Founding of the United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve.
1943 Dec 24: President Roosevelt appointed Gen. Eisenhower as supreme commander of the Allied forces.
1944 June 6: 'Operation Overlord', the WWII invasion of Normandy's beaches, began; the event is referred to as 'D-Day', and was the delivery of 160,000 troops across the English Channel using 5,000 boats with aircover and support by 13,000 aircraft.
1944 June 22: President Roosevelt signed the G.I. Bill of Rights, officially known as the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944.
1945 May 7: Germany surrendered unconditionally.
1945 May 8: "V-E Day" proclaimed for celebration of victory by Allies in Europe.
1945 July 6: President Truman signed an executive order establishing the Medal of Freedom.
1945 Aug 6: Atomic bomb (rated at 16 kilotons) dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, killing an estimated 140,000 people.
1945 Aug 9: Atomic bomb (rated at 20 kilotons) dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, killing an estimated 74,000 people.
1945 Aug 14: President Truman announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, ending World War II.
1945 Aug 15: "V-J Day" proclaimed for celebration of victory by Allies over Japan.
1945 Sept 2: Communist leader Ho Chi Minh [1890-1969] declared VietNam an independent republic.
1946 Dec 31: President Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.
1947 July 26: President Truman signed the National Security Act, establishing the National Military Establishment (renamed Department of Defense in 1949), the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
1948 July 26: President Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which abolished racial discrimination in the United States Armed Forces.
1949 Aug 10: The U.S. military was renamed the Department of Defense.
1950 June 25: Korean War began as forces from communist North Korea invaded democratic South Korea.
1950 June 26: President Truman authorized the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy to enter the Korean conflict.
1953 July 27: Korean War ended with the signing of the armistice at Panmunjom.
1954 Jan 21: Launch of the first nuclear submarine U.S.S. Nautilus in Groton, Connecticut.
1954 Nov 10: President Eisenhower dedicated the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington, Virginia which depicts the raising of the American flag over Iwo Jima in 1945.
1957 July 31: Operation began of the North American Distant Early Warning System, a U.S.-built string of radar stations across northern Canada meant to detect approaching Soviet missiles.
1957 Aug 1: The United States and Canada agreed in principle to create the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD); the organization was formally founded in May 1958, and the treaty renewed in May 2006.
1957 Oct 4: The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 1 artificial satellite into orbit, which began the Space Race.
1958 May 12: The United States and Canada officially founded the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD); the treaty was renewed in May 2006.
1958 May 30: Unidentified American service members killed in World War II and in the Korean War were interred in the Tomb of The Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
1958 July 29: President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics & Space Act, creating N.A.S.A.
1960 Sept 24: Launch of the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise at Newport News, Virginia; the vessel was retired in December 2012.
1961 Dec 11: The U.S.N.S. Core Navy ferry carrier delivered an Army helicopter unit of 400 men and 33 Shawnee aircraft to Saigon, VietNam – the first direct military support for South VietNam against Communist guerrillas.
1964 Aug 4: Alleged attack on U.S. Navy destroyers Maddox and C. Turner Joy off the coast of North Vietnam, in the Gulf of Tonkin.
1964 Aug 7: U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the official beginning of the VietNam War.
1964 Aug 10: The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was signed into law by President Johnson. (The resolution was repealed in 1971.)
1965 March 8: First U.S. combat troops landed in South VietNam: 3,500 Marines assigned to defend the air base at Da Nang.
1968 Jan 30: Beginning of the VietCong's Tet (Holiday) Offensive.
1968 March 16: The 'My Lai Massacre' in VietNam was carried out by U.S. troops under the command of Army Lt. William L. Calley, Jr.; death toll estimates vary from 350 to 500 civilians.
1969 Nov 12: Investigative reporter Seymour Hersch revealed the 'My Lai Massacre' that took place March 1968 in VietNam.
1969 Dec 1: The U.S. government held its first military draft lottery since World War II.
1971 June 12: The New York Times published the first installment of the secret 'Pentagon Papers', provided to them by Daniel Ellsberg.
1972 Nov 11: The U.S. Army turned over its base at Long Binh outside Saigon to the South Vietnamese as a symbol of the end of United States involvement in the VietNam War.
1973 Jan 15: President Nixon announced the suspension of all U.S. offensive military action in North VietNam, based on progress in peace negotiations.
1973 Jan 27: VietNam War peace accords signed in Paris, France.
1973 Jan 28: Official cease fire went into effect in the VietNam War.
1973 Mar 29: VietNam War hostilities ended as the last U.S. combat troops left VietNam.
1975 April 30: The end of the VietNam War as South VietNam surrendered to North Vietnam in Saigon.
1980 July 21: Draft registration began in the U.S. for 19- and 20-year-old men.
1982 Nov 10: The VietNam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC was opened to visitors.
1983 Oct 25: U.S.-led military forces invaded the island nation of Grenada on the order of President Reagan 'to protect U.S. citizens there'; the more likely reason is removal of the Cuba-backed Marxist revolutionaries who had executed a bloody military coup the week before.
1989 Dec 20: U.S. sent troops into Panama under Operation Just Cause to topple the government of military dictator Gen. Manuel Noriega.
1990 Jan 3: Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. troops and was immediately extradited to the United States (based on two-year-old indictments for drug trafficking).
1990 Aug 2: Iraq invaded Kuwait, the start of the Persian Gulf War.
1991 Jan 16-17: Persian Gulf War 'Operation Desert Storm' began with air strikes, to drive invading Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.
1991 Feb 27: President George H.W. Bush declared that the Persian Gulf War was ended with the liberation of Kuwait.
1991 March 3: Iraq agreed to terms of cease-fire.
1991 April 11: Official cease-fire of the Persian Gulf War, aka 'Operation Desert Storm'; the official death toll was 190 Coalition troops killed in combat, 44 by friendly fire, and 145 in accidents; 776 Coalition troops were wounded in combat, including 458 Americans.
2000 Oct 12: Two terrorist members of al-Qaeda in a small boat full of explosives rammed the destroyer U.S.S. Cole off the coast of Yemen, killing 17 American sailors & injuring 39.
2001 Sept 11: Muslim terrorists commandeered four airliners: two crashed into the World Trade Center in Manhattan (2,823 deaths); Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia (189 deaths); and Flight 93 crash-landed in rural Pennsylvania (44 deaths). [next-day newspaper headlines, in a new window]
2001 Oct 7: Beginning of the war in Afghanistan, as U.S. and British forces launched air attacks against military and al Qaeda targets. (The war is still going 16 years later.)
2003 March 19: Beginning of George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. [Due to time zone differences, the bombardment of Iraq began March 20th, local time.]
2003 April 9: Baghdad fell to U.S.-British forces.
2003 May 1: President Bush declared 'end of major hostilities in Iraq' on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of California; a total of 138 U.S. soldiers died during the Mini-War.
2007 Feb 18: The Washington Post exposed the terrible conditions at Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland being provided to veterans and to soldiers returning from service in Iraq & Afghanistan.
2007 Sept 26: U.S. Senate approved the Bush plan to invade Iran; the vote was 76 to 22.
2010 Aug 7: The United States handed over Iraq combat operations to the local government, with a planned reduction to 50,000 U.S. support troops by September 1st - and leaving as many as 11,000 U.S.-paid mercenaries in-country.
2010 Dec 18: Repeal by Congress of the anti-LGBT "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy of the U.S. military; President Obama signed the bill into law on December 22nd.
2012 March 29: President Obama established National Vietnam War Veterans Day.
Things got kinda quiet after 2010, but not really: deployments to Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen continue – they just aren't newsworthy.
"America's Armed Forces: A History" [9/1995] by James M. Morris Professor Emeritus
http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Armed-Forces-History-2nd/dp/0133107809/
"America's Top Military Careers: Official Guide to Occupations in the Armed Forces" [11/2003]
by U.S. Department of Defense
http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Top-Military-Careers-Occupations/dp/1593570015/
"History of the U.S. Armed Forces" [2004] by James M. Morris
http://www.amazon.com/History-Armed-Forces-James-Morris/dp/1572153873/
"I Want You!: The Evolution of the All-Volunteer Force" [5/2006] by Bernard D. Rostker & Melvin R. Laird
http://www.amazon.com/Want-You-Evolution-All-Volunteer-Force/dp/0833038966/
"A Civilian's Guide to the U.S. Military: A comprehensive reference to the customs, language and structure of the Armed Forces"
[12/2006] by Barbara & Richard Schading
http://www.amazon.com/Civilians-Guide-U-S-Military-comprehensive/dp/158297408X/
"U.S. Military History For Dummies" [11/2007] by John C. McManus
http://www.amazon.com/U-S-Military-History-Dummies-McManus/dp/0470165022/
"A Family's Guide to the Military For Dummies" [10/2008] by Sheryl Garrett & Sue Hoppin
http://www.amazon.com/Familys-Guide-Military-Dummies/dp/0470386975/
"Courage Under Fire: True Stories of Bravery from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines" [9/2014]
by Adam Miller & Steven Otfinoski
http://www.amazon.com/Courage-Under-Fire-Stories-Bravery/dp/1491410655/
works about the U.S. Marines The U.S. Marine Corps was formally re-established by Congress on 11 July 1798, which bill also created the U.S. Marine Band.
[ Coming Soon ] **
A one-hour forty-minute documentary honoring the service of military personnel that weaves together stories of fifteen veterans, from the terrible impact of the Civil War to modern-day conflicts in the Middle East Co-produced & written by Patrick Woodard; directed by John C.P. Goheen
DVD/Blu-ray not available credits at IMDb
official movie site {gone} aired Nov 2012 on Rocky Mountain P.B.S preceded with interview of producers
watch broadcast [1:56:02] online
Visiting this webpage from outside the U.S.A.? It is possible to make purchases from these coded Amazon (USA) links via other Amazon sites: just follow
these instructions.
![Postage stamp issued 30 June 2004]](images/USSconstellation2004stamp.jpg){kind=link}
