Penobscot Expedition

                                                  19 JULY-17 AUGUST 1779                                         PENOBSCOT EXPEDITION The land stretching northeast from the Kennebec River in modern Maine (location of Augusta) to New Brunswick was contested by France and England for a century.  Then with the British victory in the French Read More

USS BEAGLE and GREYHOUND (cont. from 11 JUL)

                                                   200th ANNIVERSARY                                                  21-22 JULY 1823                     USS BEAGLE AND GREYHOUND (cont. from 11 JUL) The demise of Diabolito ten days earlier did not bring piracy along the coast of Spanish Cuba to an end.  Far from it.  Piracy remained rampant Read More

Shimonoseki Incident

                                                         16 JULY 1863                                         SHIMONOSEKI INCIDENT Negotiated by Commodore Matthew C. Perry in 1854, the Treaty of Kanagawa opened Japan to commerce with the western world.  It also polarized traditionalist Japanese factions who wished a return to economic isolationism.  One of Read More

The Death of Diabolito

                                            200th ANNIVERSARY                           11 JULY 1823                      THE DEATH OF DIABOLITO Frank piracy reemerged in the Caribbean in the early 1800s with the sanctioning of privateering by newly independent former Spanish colonies.  One of the more notorious of such pirate cut-throats Read More

(James) Farragut Birthday

                                                              5 JULY 1801                   DAVID (JAMES) GLASGOW FARRAGUT BIRTHDAY Jordi Farragut Mesquida was a Minorcan-born sea captain sailing Spanish merchant ships between Vera Cruz, New Orleans, and Havana in the 1770s.  With the outbreak of our Revolutionary War, Mesquida anglicized his Read More

“Pathfinder of the Seas”

                                                            29 JUNE 1842                                      “PATHFINDER OF THE SEAS” Matthew Fontaine Maury was born in a woodland cabin near Chancellorsville, Virginia, on 14 January 1806.  At age 5 his family moved to Franklin, Tennessee, where Matthew attended the Harpeth Academy for teachers.  Read More

Bombship EAGLE

                                                             25 JUNE 1813                                               BOMBSHIP EAGLE Smarting from the British blockade of American seaports during the War of 1812, Congress turned for help to our private citizens.  Legislation was passed in March 1813 allowing a bounty equal to one-half the value Read More

LTJG Ralph Rich

                                                               18 JUNE 1942                                               LTJG RALPH RICH With Hitler’s 1 September 1939 invasion of Poland, the citizenry of the United States remained divided over whether or not we should become involved.  However, enlistments in our military went up as men prepared Read More

Hijacking of TWA 847

                                                     14-30 JUNE 1985                                          HIJACKING OF TWA 847 At 1000 on Friday June 14th, TWA Flight 847 began rolling down the runway at Athens, Greece.  The Boeing 727 was bound for Rome on a flight that had originated in Cairo and Read More

The Fight to Save GLENNON

                                                                           8-10 JUNE 1944                                    THE FIGHT TO SAVE GLENNON USS GLENNON (DD-620), JEFFERS (DD-621), and BUTLER (DD-636) spent June 7th close inshore against “Utah” beach, the former expending 430 five-inch rounds against enemy pillboxes and machine gun nests from which American Read More