Today is the starting date for authorization of the Mexican Service Medal.
United States Navy, Lt. Theodore G. "Spuds" Ellyson, became "Naval Aviator No. 1.
The U.S. Navy established its first foreign base, a coaling station at Pichilinque, Mexico, on Baja California.
The location has previously been used by the Navy during the Mexican War. Baja was otherwise unoccupied by the US during the war, interestingly enough, giving a view of the 19th Century mindset.
The US changed the design for paper currency, introducing a ten dollar bill with a spectacular engraving of a Bison and also featuring Lewis and Clark flanked by two young women with see through blouses.
Erotic and semi erotic engravings of women were common on currency and seals at the time. It's hard to know now why this was the case, but it was. Indeed, it created an early controversy in Wyoming over the state seal as an early governor backed a seal with an excessively erotic topless woman over the opposition of the legislature.
Last edition:
The April 1, 1946 Aleutian Islands earthquake occurred which resulted in an tsunami that devastated parts of Hawaii, most notably Hilo. Up to 173 people were killed, mostly in Hawaii.
Warnings were given but many ignored them, thinking them an April Fools Day joke. The event is responsible for a much improved warning system.
Bituminous coal miners went on strike in the U.S.
The U.S. Navy destroyed 24 Japanese submarines. Seems like a terrible waste really.
The UK made Singapore a Crown Colony and separated it and its mostly Chinese ethnic population from Malaya.
What does Russia want was a question that was posed (from more than one Reddit sub).
Last edition:
A Second World War, over Iran, was averted.
The Marine Corps, which insists on avoiding equipment adopted first by the Army, looked at the M7,and said, nah. . .
Chances are good, I'd rate them as overwhelming, that the USMC will be using M27s within a week or two in Iran. This will be the modified HK416's first major combat use, maybe its first use at all.
And there's now drone killing ammunition:
U.S. Military Unveils "Drone Killer" Rifle Cartridges | An Official Journal Of The NRA
The pelletized ammunition sort of resembles "snake shot" for pistols used by outdoorsmen in the summer months. It was developed by the Navy.
The signatories to the Boxer Protocol gave China an ultimatum for the commanders of the Taku Forts, who had just fired on the Japanese, to remove all mines placed at the mouth of the Pei River and to end their blockade of Tianjin by noon on Friday, March 19.
At least 12 ships from the U.S. Navy, the Royal Navy, the Imperial Japanese Navy, France and Italy were blocked from traveling into the Pei River to Tianjin. They were authorized to end the blockade by force if necessary.
A manhunt came to an end:
Last edition:
Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal lifted restrictions on assignments for Black sailors.
Republican Senator Arthur Vandenberg delivered his "What is Russia up to now" speech in which he criticized the Truman Administration's policy of cozying up to the Soviet Union.
Who would guess that 80 years later the GOP President would have the biggest crush possible on the leader of Russia? But then who would guess that the GOP would evolve into a party of sycophantic stooges?
Truman asked Herbert Hoover to help convince Americans to aid in worldwide famine relief.
Last edition:
Oddly enough, given the events that had happened ten years prior, Mexican rebels, under Colonel Manuel Núñez, opened fire on board a train traveling from Guadalajara to Mexico City, ultimately destroying it and making away with 300,000 pesos. Eleven people were killed.
The Navy League of the United States released a report finding the United States Navy to be unprepared for war and short of the tonnage limitation set by the Washington Naval Treaty.
It was a Saturday.
Last edition:
As Emperor, he had participated in an anti French rebellion while only 16 years old, an event which lead to the French removing him from his throne. He thereafter went into exile on Réunion Island, where he retained pro independence views. During World War Two he held anti Vichy views and entered the Free French Navy, and then Army, when the island was liberated from Vichy. DeGaulle, realizing how desperate the situation in French Indochina was, was having him returned to Vietnam where he would have been re-installed as Emperor, which would have amounted to deposing Boa Dai, who had sided with Vichy. His untimely death left the Communist dominated Viet Minh as the only real functioning anti colonial force in the region.
Still highly regarded in Vietnam, most Vietnamese cities have streets named after him. His remains were reinterred in Vietnam in 1987.
The Red Chinese won the Gaoyou–Shaobo Campaign in which the Nationalist troops were principally made up of units that had formerly collaborated with the Japanese.
Admiral of the Fleet Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron Keyes, who in spite of his age saw some service in World War Two, died at age 73.
Last edition:
Donald Trump, graduate of the Wharton School of Business, has no grasp of mathematics or history. He's become the poster boy for questioning the intellectual value of an Ivy League education.
And very clearly, one of the things he doesn't understand is shipbuilding and naval warfare.
For decades now military theorist have wondered if the pride of the US Navy, the supercarrier, is actually obsolete. The speculation began as early as the 1970s when really good long range air to surface and surface to surface anti shipping missiles appeared on the scene. The viability of such missiles was proven during the Falklands War when Exocet missiles in Argentine hands sank the HMS Sheffield and the cargo ship Atlantic Conveyor and severely damaged the HMS Glamorgan. The Exocet went into production in 1975, and while still around, it's undoubtedly the case that it's improved over the last 50 years and there are other missiles around that are just as good or better. The U.S. Navy started worrying about such missiles just as soon as they were produced, but the Navy's large supercarriers have never had to encounter them.
That is, in part, because we have not fought a peer to peer conflict since World War Two. In spite of that, it's worth noting that the U.S. military has not exactly shown itself invincible in wars less than that. The North Koreans and Chinese, the former of which only had an army from around 1946 or so, and the latter of which had just come out of a largescale civil war and which chose to deploy, to no small degree, troops who were conscripted out of the losing side of that war, fought us and our UN allies to a standstill in Korea. Starting about a decade later we fought and ultimately were defeated by an Army that was quite primitive in comparison to our own, although a lot of that defeat was a morale issue. Since that time we've fought and beat Iraq twice, but we were never able to prevail in Afghanistan, in no small part due to a major strategic miscalculation by Donald Rumsfeld, and our current Oval Office occupant ended up surrendering to the Taliban.
Now, of course, there's been very little naval action in anything that I've mentioned, but that shouldn't really give us any comfort. What naval action that has occured since 1945 shows that long distance anti ship warfare had improved remarkably since 1945. The Argentines, not wanting to be exposed to it, didn't evey deploy an aircraft carrier it had during the Falklands War.
Now, of course, people are pointing out that the awkwardly named Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has the most combat ships in the world, although its not regarded as the most powerful. That would be the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy, with its supercarriers, holds that title, and it should. But it can't be ignored that Ukraine has proven that sinking ships is now pretty possible with air and sea drones.
That's where the future of naval warfare is, not with vanity "battleships".
Indeed, that was proven in 1941.
_burning_after_the_Japanese_attack_on_Pearl_Harbor_-_NARA_195617_-_Edit.jpg)
The Navy knows that, but senior military officers right now know that if they want to keep their jobs they have to feed the demented monkey in Trump's brain. And that brain isn't pegging out on the smarts meter by any means. Statements by Donald Trump show him to be in the full grasp of dementia and raise questions on whether he was every very sharp.
He's also incredibly vain.
And more than a little scared.
Being vain and scared, he's quite easy to manipulate. Given the chance to name something after himself, and believe that it will be around after his body is rotting in its grave, which will be quite soon, he'll take the bait. And hence the Trump Class of "battleship".
It'll never happen.
It takes at least two year to design a warship, and often multiples of that. And then it takes another two to five years to build it. Trump no doubt plans on being living at age 90, but he won't be, and his demented brain will be reduced to complete mush should he live that long. The Navy knows that, but the Navy likes to have money and ship projects bring in money. Every since World War Two the U.S. military has engaged in acquisitions of things it didn't need for one reason or another, and the Army has proven that even a simple project like designing an assault rifle can take so long that a person who entered the overall task early in his career can retire before its done.
And hence António de Oliveira Salazar.
_%E2%80%93_Lisboa.jpg)
Salazar was the Portuguese dictator who came into power in 1932 and who fell into ill health and suffered a stroke in 1968. The Portuguese government replaced him and he died 1970. But they never told him. He was simply given glowing reports on how well everything was going and assured he was still running the show.
I'm pretty convinced that's more or less what's going on with Trump right now.
The Navy is simply going to slow roll this project. Glowing reports are going to be given to the Demented Dear Leader. The entire project will go swimmingly. Meanwhile, others will report the same on the White House Ballroom. Neither will ever be built.
Indeed, already the palace intrigue is on. J.D. Vance is gathering allies. Mike Pence is scooping up Heritage Foundation defectors. Congressmen and Senators who are too tainted with the stench of MAGA, or who don't want to be there when Trump falls and takes MAGA out with it, are abandoning their offices to go on to new pursuits, readying themselves to reemerge cleansed from the inevitable bunker scenes that are already beginning to happen.
The legendary aviation mystery of Flight 19 occurred when five Grumman TBFs disappeared in a training flight between Florida and Bermuda, together with a PBM Mariner that was sent to look for the missing aircraft.
The PBM is believed to have exploded.
No doubt because none of the aircraft have ever been found, the mystery remains an enduring and popular one, and it is part of the Bermuda Triangle set of myths.
The French government nationalized five banks.
Last edition:
Resolved, That two Battalions of marines be raised, consisting of one Colonel, two Lieutenant Colonels, two Majors, and other officers as usual in other regiments; and that they consist of an equal number of privates with other battalions; that particular care be taken, that no persons be appointed to office, or enlisted into said Battalions, but such as are good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve to advantage by sea when required...
