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From: "Sally Rolls Pavia" <>
Subject: Today in History, May 15
Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 11:18:12 -0700
Subject: Today in History, May 15
1756 ~~ The Seven Years War Begins
The Seven Years War, a global conflict known in America as the
French and
Indian War, officially begins when England declares war on France. However,
fighting and skirmishes between England and France had been going on in
North America for years.
In the early 1750s, French expansion into the Ohio River valley
repeatedly
brought France into armed conflict with the British colonies. In 1756--the
first official year of fighting in the Seven Years War--the British suffered
a series of defeats against the French and their broad network of Native
American alliances. However, in 1757, British Prime Minister William Pitt
(the older) recognized the potential of imperial expansion that would come
out of victory against the French and borrowed heavily to fund an expanded
war effort. Pitt financed Prussia's struggle against France and her allies
in Europe and reimbursed the colonies for the raising of armies in North
America.
By 1760, the French had been expelled from Canada, and by 1763 all
of France
s allies in Europe had either made a separate peace with Prussia or had been
defeated. In addition, Spanish attempts to aid France in the Americas had
failed, and France also suffered defeats against British forces in India.
The Seven Years War ended with the signing of the treaties of
Hubertusburg
and Paris in February 1763. In the Treaty of Paris, France lost all claims
to Canada and gave Louisiana to Spain, while Britain received Spanish
Florida, Upper Canada, and various French holdings overseas. The treaty
ensured the colonial and maritime supremacy of Britain and strengthened the
13 American colonies by removing their European rivals to the north and the
south. Fifteen years later, French bitterness over the loss of most of their
colonial empire contributed to their intervention in the American Revolution
on the side of the Patriots.
1781 ~~ Continentals capture Fort Granby, South Carolina
On this day in 1781, a 352-man-strong Loyalist force commanded by
Major
Andrew Maxwell surrenders a fortified frame building, named Fort Granby,
to a Patriot force in South Carolina.
Maxwell is better remembered for gathering plunder than any
conspicuous
military ability. When a Patriot force commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Henry
Lee assaulted his position at Fort Granby, Maxwell agreed to surrender,
provided he was allowed to maintain possession of his plunder. After some
haggling, Lee accepted the proposition, and Maxwell departed the fort with
two wagon-loads of personal loot. The Loyalists then traveled to Charleston,
South Carolina, where they were to be exchanged for Patriot prisoners of war
A valuable position, with ammunition and provisions, fell to the
Continentals without the loss of a man.
Lee continued to fight in every major battle of the Southern
Campaign of
1781, ending with the victory at Yorktown in October. The native Virginian,
a 1773 graduate of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and
1779 winner of the Congressional Gold Medal for his bravery during the
battle at Paulus Hook, New Jersey, retired from military life in 1782, but
argued in favor of the federal Constitution in Virginia and served as that
states governor from 1791 to 1794. He returned to military command in 1794,
when President George Washington sent him and 15,000 men to quash the
Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania.
Lees most famous son, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, was born
in 1807.
By 1812, the elder Lee landed in debtors prison; in 1813, he moved to the
West Indies. He attempted to return to Virginia when the climate of the
islands proved detrimental to his health, but died en route on Cumberland
Island, Georgia, in 1818.
1916 ~~ Austrians launch massive offensive on Trentino Front
On this day in 1916, the Austrian army launches a major offensive
operation
against their Italian enemies on the Trentino front, in northern Italy.
After considering their options carefully, and weighing offers from both
sides, Italy had accepted considerable promises of post-war territory from
the Allies and declared war on Austria-Hungary (but not on Germany) on May
23, 1915. This opened up a new front in World War I, stretching 600
kilometersmost of them mountainousalong Italys much-contested border with
Austria-Hungary in the Trentino region. Upon declaring war, the relatively
ill-equipped Italian army immediately advanced into the South Tyrol region
and to the Isonzo River, where Austro-Hungarian troops met them with a stiff
defense. The snowy and treacherous terrain made the region poorly suited for
offensive operations, and after several quick Italian successes, combat
settled into a stalemate.
The Austrian offensive of May 15, 1916, began with an opening
bombardment of
the Italian positions by nearly 400 guns. Though they resisted gamely, the
Italians were driven off the mountain peaks and forced to retreat south of
the town of Rovereto. Nine days after the offensive began, a heavy snow fell
Putting a halt to the Austrian advance before they could capture the 4
000-foot peak of Mount Pasubio. Within a week, however, the offensive
resumed, and the Austrians continued their resolute advance through the
mountain peaks and passes. By the final day of May, thoroughly exhausted but
triumphant, they had captured 30,000 Italian prisoners and gained a total of
12 miles of territory since the start of the offensive.
1941 ~~ First Allied Jet Flies
On May 15, 1941, the jet-propelled Gloster-Whittle E 28/39 aircraft flies
successfully over Cranwell, England, in the first test of an Allied aircraft
using jet propulsion. The aircraft's turbojet engine, which produced a
powerful thrust of hot air, was devised by Frank Whittle, an English
aviation
engineer and pilot generally regarded as the father of the jet engine
Whittle, born
in Coventry in 1907, was the son of a mechanic. At the age of 16, he joined
the
Royal Air Force (RAF) as an aircraft apprentice at Cranwell and in 1926
passed a medical exam to become a pilot and joined the RAF College. He won a
reputation as a daredevil flier and in 1928 wrote a senior thesis entitled
Future
Developments in Aircraft Design, which discussed the possibilities of rocket
propulsion.From the first Wright brothers flight in 1903 to the first jet
flight in 1939, most airplanes were propeller driven. In 1910, the French
inventor
Henri Coanda built a jet-propelled bi-plane, but it crashed on its maiden
flight and never flew again. Coanda's aircraft attracted little notice, and
engineers stuck with propeller technology; even though they realized early
on that
propellers would never overcome certain inherent limitations, especially in
regard to speed.After graduating from the RAF college, he was posted to a
fighter squadron, and in his spare time he worked out the essentials of the
modern turbojet engine. A flying instructor, impressed with his propulsion
ideas, introduced him to the Air Ministry and a private turbine engineering
firm, but both ridiculed Whittle's ideas as impractical. In 1930, he
patented his jet engine concept and in 1936 formed the company Power Jets
Ltd. to
build and test his invention. In 1937, he tested his first jet engine on the
ground. He still received only limited funding and support, and on August 27
1939,
the German Heinkel He 178, designed by Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain, made
the
first jet flight in history. The German prototype jet was developed
independently
of Whittle's efforts.One week after the flight of the He 178, World War II
Broke out in Europe, and Whittle's project got a further lease of life. The
Air
Ministry commissioned a new jet engine from Power Jets and asked the Gloster
Aircraft Company to build an experimental aircraft to accommodate it,
Specified as E 28/39. On May 15, 1941, the jet-propelled Gloster-Whittle E
28/39 flew,
beating out a jet prototype being developed by the same British turbine
company that earlier balked at his ideas. In its initial tests, Whittle's
aircraft--flown by the test pilot Gerry Sayer--achieved a top speed of 370
mph at 25,000 feet, faster than the Spitfire or any other conventional
propeller-driven machine.As the Gloster Aircraft Company worked on an
operational turbojet aircraft for combat, Whittle aided the Americans in
their successful development of a jet prototype. With Whittle's blessing,
the British government took over Power Jets Ltd. in 1944. By this time,
Britain's Gloster Meteor jet aircraft were in service with the RAF, going up
against Germany's jet-powered Messerschmitt Me 262s in the skies over Europe
Whittle retired from the RAF in 1948 with the rank of air commodore. That
year, he was awarded }100,000 by the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors
and was knighted. His book Jet: The Story of a Pioneer was published in 1953
In 1977, he became a research professor at the United States Naval Academy
in Annapolis, Maryland. He died in Columbia, Maryland, in 1996.
1942 ~~ Legislation creating the Women's Army Corps becomes law
On this day in 1942, a bill establishing a women's corps in the U.S.
Army
becomes law, creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAACs) and granting
women official military status.
In May 1941, Representative Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts,
the first
congresswoman ever from New England, introduced legislation that would
enable women to serve in the Army in noncombat positions. Rogers was well
suited for such a task; during her husband John J. Rogers' term as
congressman, Rogers was active as a volunteer for the Red Cross, the Women's
Overseas League, and military hospitals. Because of her work inspecting
field and base hospitals, President Warren G. Harding, in 1922, appointed
her as his personal representative for inspections and visits to veterans'
hospitals throughout the country. She was eventually appointed to the
Committee on Veterans' Affairs, as chairwoman in the 80th and 83rd
Congresses.
The bill to create a Women's Auxiliary Army Corps would not be
passed into
law for a year after it was introduced (the bombing of Pearl Harbor was a
great incentive). But finally, the WAACs gained official status and
salary-but still not all the benefits accorded to men. Thousands of women
enlisted in light of this new legislation, and in July 1942, the "auxiliary"
was dropped from the name, and the Women's Army Corps, or WACs, received
full Army benefits in keeping with their male counterparts.
The WACs performed a wide variety of jobs, "releasing a man for
combat," as
the Army, sensitive to public misgivings about women in the military, touted
But those jobs ranged from clerk to radio operator, electrician to
air-traffic controller. Women served in virtually every theater of
engagement, from North Africa to Asia.
It would take until 1978 before the Army would become sexually
integrated,
and women participating as merely an "auxiliary arm" in the military would
be history. And it would not be until 1980 that 16,000 women who had joined
the earlier WAACs would receive veterans' benefits.
[NOTE: My aunt was in the WACs during the War, stationed in England.
She came home on the Queen Mary, the one thats now tied up
In Long Beach, CA ~~ Sally]
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