Military Milestones from Golden Hill to Desert Storm
From W. Thomas Smith, Jr.’s This Week in American Military History Series:
Jan. 17, 1991: Two-hundred-ten years to the day after the Battle of Cowpens (see last week); American, British, and French forces — this time all three on the same team — kick off what Iraqi Pres. Saddam Hussein predicted would be “the Mother of all Battles” with a series of blistering air attacks aimed at destroying the Iraqi Air Force, Iraq’s air-defense forces and overall command and control. It is day one of Operation Desert Storm.
Jan. 18, 1911: Flying over San Francisco Bay in his Curtiss Pusher Model “D” aircraft, pioneer aviator Eugene B. Ely approaches the anchored cruiser USS Pennsylvania and manages to land onto a special platform fitted with a makeshift tailhook system aboard the ship. Upon landing, he purportedly says, “It was easy enough. I think the trick could be successfully turned nine times out of ten.”
Ely’s landing is the first-ever airplane landing aboard a ship. Ely already had become the first man to take off from a ship in November. In July, he will be commissioned a second lieutenant in the California National Guard. In October, he will be killed in a crash during an aerobatic demonstration in Macon, Georgia.
Jan. 19-20, 1770: The little-known but historically significant Battle of Golden Hill erupts in New York City between a group of angry Manhattan patriots and a contingent of British soldiers.
The clash begins when members of the patriot organization “Sons of Liberty” snatch a few of the King’s men, who are cutting down wooden “liberty poles” (symbols of resistance against British rule) which had been erected by the “Sons.” The redcoats also were reportedly posting bills condemning the Sons of Liberty as “the real enemies of society.” A struggle ensues. Redcoats from the nearby barracks respond, and a bayonet charge is ordered. Several are wounded on both sides, and one civilian is killed.
Less than seven weeks before the Boston Massacre, the Battle of Golden Hill is considered by some historians as the first armed clash of the American Revolution.
In: Military History · Tagged with: American Revolution, Desert Storm, W. Thomas Smith Jr., World War II
