This Day in U.S. Military History

7 August SHEMIN, WILLIAM Rank and Organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company: Company G, 47th Infantry Division: 4th Division, American Expeditionary Force, Born: 14 October 1896, Bayonne, New Jersey, Departed: Yes (08/15/1973), Entered Service At: Syracuse,…

29 December 1778 – 3,000 British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell capture Savannah, Georgia. The Capture of Savannah, or sometimes the First Battle of Savannah (because of a siege in 1779),…

27 December 1777 – Floating mines intended for use against British Fleet found in Delaware River. 1814 – Destruction of schooner Carolina, the last of Commodore Daniel Patterson’s make-shift fleet that fought a series of…

26 December 1776 – The British suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the Revolutionary War. After crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey, George Washington led an attack on Hessian mercenaries…

MERRY CHRISTMAS 25 December 274 – Emperor Aurelian imported into Rome the cult of Sol Invictus and made its Dec 25 festival a national holiday. 336 – The first recorded celebration of Christmas on this…

24 December 1724 – Benjamin Franklin arrived in London. 1809 – Christopher Houston “Kit” Carson, one of the most celebrated heroes of the American West, is born in Richmond, Kentucky. Shortly after Carson was born,…

23 December 1620 – One week after the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth harbor in present-day Massachusetts, construction of the first permanent European settlement in New England begins. On September 16, the Mayflower departed Plymouth, England,…

22 December 1775 – Congress commissions first naval officers: Esek Hopkins, Commander in Chief of the Fleet, Captains Dudley Saltonstall, Abraham Whipple, Nicolas Biddle, and John Hopkins. Lieutenants included John Paul Jones. 1783 – Washington…