20,000 troops of the Eight Nation Alliance arrived at Beijing and the Battle of Peking commenced, and ended.
The Russian force attacked the Tung Pien Gate. The 9th and 14th American Infantry Regiment reached the 30-foot high Tartar Wall where volunteer Corporal Calvin Pearl Titus, a bugler and chaplain's assistant, scaled it and found it undefended. He'd receive the Medal of Honor, his citation reading:
Gallant and daring conduct in the presence of his colonel and other officers and enlisted men of his regiment; was first to scale the wall of the city.
By 2:45 the 55 day siege of the legations was over.
Titus had been in the Army since the Spanish American War, although that was only two years prior. His MoH allowed for him to enter West Point where he graduated in 1905. He tried to become a chaplain, but his denomination was not recognized, and so his request was not granted. He therefore became an Infantry officer and served in the Border War and US Army of Occupation post World War One. He retired a Lt. Col. in 1930 and died in 1966 at age 86.
The world's first six-masted ship, the George W. Wells, was launched from Camden, Maine.
It's odd to think that sailing ships were still a big deal in the early 20th Century, but they were. My mother had a painting of such ships that hung in my parents bedroom, and when I was a child, I often pondered it.
Increased trouble on the Texas/Mexico border was being noticed.
As was also noticed, Haiti had a new President, Philippe Sudré Dartiguenave who took over following the lynching of the previous president Vilbrun Guillaume Sam and the start of the United States occupation of Haiti.
The 5th Battalion of the British Royal Norfolk Regiment was completely wiped out in combat at Gallipoli.
Royal Navy Air Service pilot Charles Edmonds became the first pilot to launch a torpedo at a ship, the ship being an Ottoman resupply ship at Gallipoli.
Pierre Laval was brought to Paris to face trial, a crime that a huge percentage of the French population was itself guilty of, accomodating a far right government and turning a blind eye. . . just like many are doing now.
Laval started off for a career in zoology before diverting to law. Politically, he took a trip through Marxism. He evolved into a Socialist, and ultimately into a right wing nationalist.
Laval during his trial.
De Gaulle, who was of course on the opposite side of the World War Two contest, said of him:
Naturally inclined, accustomed by the regime, to approach matters from below, Laval held that, whatever happens, it is important to be in power, that a certain degree of astuteness always controls the situation, that there is no event that cannot be turned around, no men that cannot be handled. He had, in the cataclysm, felt the misfortune of the country but also the opportunity to take the reins and apply on a vast scale the capacity he had to deal with anything. But the victorious Reich was a partner who did not intend to compromise. For, despite everything [...] he had to embrace the disaster of France. He accepted the condition. He judged that it was possible to take advantage of the worst, to use even the point of servitude, to even associate oneself with the invader, to make oneself an asset of the most terrible repression. To carry out his policy, he renounced the honor of the country, the independence of the State, and national pride. Now, these elements reappeared alive and demanding as the enemy weakened. Laval had played. He had lost. He had the courage to admit that he was responsible for the consequences. No doubt, in his government, deploying all the resources of ruse, all the resources of obstinacy to support the unsustainable, he sought to serve his country. Let that be left to him!
If everyone who thought the way that Laval did during the war had suffered his fate, the Seine would have run red for years.
The new British parliament assembled. When Winston Churchill, somebody who never entertained the faults that Laval had, entered the House he was greeted by cheers and singing of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow". Laborites responded by singing "The Red Flag".
Probably not that one.
Singing The Red Flag was BS.
When Douglas Clifton Brown was re-elected Speaker he said he was not quite sure whether he was becoming chairman of the House of Commons or director of a musical show.
Mines brought Japanese shipping on the Yangtze to a halt.
Allied troops sealed off the Japanese on Bougainville, where fighting was ongoing, off at Buin.
US aircraft struck Japanese positions on Wake Island.
Toyama, Japan, on fire after nighttime raid.
New York Giant Mel Ott became the third member of the 500 home run club with a shot off Johnny Hutchings of the Boston Braves.
The current issue of Vogue was out with an issue on furs, showing how the war time economy was changing to a focus on luxury.
Vogue, posted as fair use.
Well sort of. Fur coast were a much more Middle Class thing than now imagined. And frankly, as one of the only renewable clothing sources, they still should be.
The USS Indianapolis was sunk by the submarine I-58. Secrecy due to its role in delivering the atomic bomb to Tinian would keep its sinking secrete for several days, leading to the greatest mass shark attack in history.
The 509th Composite Group of the United States Air Force received the order that would lead to the dropping of the first atomic bomb.
Melvin Mayfield performed the actions that resulted in his winning the Medal of Honor.
He displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while fighting in the Cordillera Mountains of Luzon, Philippine Islands. When 2 Filipino companies were pinned down under a torrent of enemy fire that converged on them from a circular ridge commanding their position, Cpl. Mayfield, in a gallant single-handed effort to aid them, rushed from shell hole to shell hole until he reached 4 enemy caves atop the barren fire-swept hill. With grenades and his carbine, he assaulted each of the caves while enemy fire pounded about him. However, before he annihilated the last hostile redoubt, a machinegun bullet destroyed his weapon and slashed his left hand. Disregarding his wound, he secured more grenades and dauntlessly charged again into the face of pointblank fire to help destroy a hostile observation post. By his gallant determination and heroic leadership, Cpl. Mayfield inspired the men to eliminate all remaining pockets of resistance in the area and to press the advance against the enemy.
You'll note that this occurred on Luzon, which the US had declared to be secured.
He survived the war and died in 1990 at age 71.
His action was the last action of the war to result in a Medal of Honor.
Henry Ford issued a statement declaring:
the nation and the world are on the threshold of a prosperity and standard of living that never before were considered possible.
I'm not a fan of Ford's, but he was correct, perhaps beyond his wildest imagination.
The British 8th Army, the Desert Rats, was disbanded.
Japanese Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki gave a response to the Potsdam Declaration stating that Japan would "take no notice" of the Potsdam Declaration.
A B-25 flying in heavy fog struck the Empire State Building.
B-29s bombed Aomori.
Japanese battleships Haruna and Ise and,the aircraft carrier Amagi, the old cruiser Izumo, the light cruiser Oyodo and a destroyer were sunk by aircraft.
The USS Callaghan was sunk by a Yokosuka K5Y kamikaze attack off Okinawa.
The Japanese 28th Army attempted to withdraw across the Sittang River in Burma, suffering over 13,000 killed and drowned in the attempt.
The Potsdam Conference resulmeds with the appearance of Prime Minister Attlee.
The Senate ratified the Charter of the United Nations.
Jim Davis, the creator of the Garfield comic strip,was born in Marion, Indiana.
Truman told Stalin that the US had a new and very powerful weapon that was going to be deployed against Japan, but did not provide the specifics.
Stalin, thanks to deep penetration of the US government by Soviet intelligence, already knew about the Manhattan Project and what it was about, so this was not that much of a surprise. Stalin had actually known about the Manhattan Project three years prior to Truman knowing about it.
The Navy began to bombard Kure, Japan.
Japanese freighter hit from carrier-based aircraft near Tsugaru-Kaikyo, east of Hokkaido, Japan.
North American P-51C-11-NT of the 311th FG, 14th AF, escorting C-47s over China on July 24, 1945.
Private Clarence V. Bertucci murdered nine German POWs at the POW camp at Salina, Utah. He fired a Browning M1917 into their lodgings, only stopping when he ran out of ammunition.
Nineteen were wounded.
Bertucci, who had a previous court martial from his time in the UK, did not deny the killing and was court martialed and found insane. The New Orleans native died in New Orleans in 1969 at age 48.
Australian troops landed at Penajam, Borneo.
From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—July 8, 1940 & 1945: 80 Years Ago—July 8, 1945: Only international sub-to-sub rescue in history: USS Cod rescues crew of stranded Dutch submarine O-19 in the South China Sea.
Facing a lack of ammunition, Aremenial militiamen engaged Ottoman troops hand to hand.
They lost, and the Ottomans entered the fort and killed the women and children inside.
The HMS Lightning struck a mine in the Thames Estuary of England and sank. The German submarine SM UC-2 struck a mine in the North Sea and sank.
French commander Henri Gouraud was wounded at Gallipoli and replaced by his divisional commander, Maurice Bailloud.
A telegram was sent to the Secretary of State from El Paso.
Collector Cobb to the Secretary of State.
[Telegram.]
El Paso, June 30, 1915.
Trial Huerta and others postponed until July 12. When Huerta left Federal building there was repetition of scene of June 27; he was given an ovation by his partisans who are assembled in El Paso.
Under Secretary of the Navy Ralph Bard suggested giving Japan a warning about the atomic bomb.
US forces completed the occupation of Luzon's Cagayan Valley. The island is accordingly nearly fully under US control.
The I-165 was sunk east of Saipan by a US PV-2 Harpoon.
The USS Bunker Hill was struck by a kamikaze resulting in the death of 373 men.
Dr. Emil Hacha, age 73, the former president of the German sponsored "Bohemia-Moravia Protectorate," died in the Prague prison hospital while awaiting trial.
Edward Stettinius resigned as Secretary of State to take up the post of ambassador to the United Nations.
Today in World War II History—June 21, 1940 & 1945: 80 Years Ago—June 21, 1945: US Rangers link with Filipino guerrillas in Aparri, Luzon. US Tenth Army takes Hill 89, the last Japanese stronghold on Okinawa.
Sarah Sundin's blog.
The USS Barry was sunk off of Okinawa by kamikazes.
The Battle of Tarakan ended in an Allied victory on Borneo.
Twelve Polish Home Army officers were convicted of "underground activities" by the USSR.
Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. was killed by Japanese artillery on Okinawa. He was 58 years old, making him one of the older U.S. Generals of the Second World War.
The artillery projectile was of the flat shooting rifle type, and the projectile had actually ricocheted off of a coral reef, and then hit Buckner.
Prior to World War Two, Buckner had principally been involved in the education and training of troops. He had seen overseas duty, however, in the Philippines in 1908.
His father, the senior Simon Bolivar Buckner, had been an American Army officer during the Mexican War, and a Confederate general during the Civil war.
Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki informed the Japanese Supreme Council of Emperor Hirohito's intention to seek peace with the Allies as soon as possible.
The USS Bonefish was sunk in Toyama Bay.
The Chinese Army took Wenchow.
The Soviets put sixteen officers of the Polish Home Army on trial for fighting the Soviets.
William Joyce, Lord Haw Haw, was put on trial for treason.
Sarah Sundin's blog. It was, we'd note, a largescale operation.
The also landed at Labuan and Muara.
The Battle of Porten Plantation ended in a Japanese victory.
US and Philippine forces prevailed at Davao.
The USS William D. Porter was sunk off of Okinawa by kamikazes.
"A guncrew of the 383rd Inf. Regt. loads a shell into the new 57mm recoiless rifle to fire against Jap pillboxes and caves on Okinawa. 10 June, 1945. 383rd Infantry Regiment, 96th Infantry Division." This is the first photograph of a recoiless rifle being used in World War Two that I've seen. It's sometimes debated if they saw action in the war at all, but clearly they did.
The Chinese Army took Wenchow..
Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki is granted dictatorial powers by the Imperial Diet.
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