On This Day ... in 1857 & Others
During an Indian Mutiny action, Gunner Connolly of the Bengal Horse Artillery was hit in the leg by a musket ball. Despite his wound, he stayed in action, driving his gun team forward to a new firing point. He was wounded again, but continued to help load the gun until a third wound rendered him unconscious. He was awarded the Victoria Cross.
Elsewhere, at Lucknow, Lieutenant Lawrence led an attack on an enemy held building from which it was feared a mine was being dug forward under the British positions. He also received the VC.
1846: Commodore John D. Sloat USN landed at Monterey and claimed California for US
1858: Frederick N. Gisbourne started laying underwater telegraph cable from Ireland to Newfoundland
1865: Four people were hanged Washington DC for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Lincoln
1898: The USA annexed Hawaii
1917: In Belgium, intelligence was received that a German raid was planned on British positions held by the Durham Light Infantry. Although wounded, Second Lieutenant Youens immediately set about organising a Lewis Gun team to repel the attack. Whilst so doing, a German grenade landed amongst the men. Youens immediately picked it up and threw it safely aware. However, a second grenade followed, and when Youens picked this up, it exploded in his hand, fatally wounding him. He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
1940: French Admiral Godefroy agreed to allow his ships to be demobilized in British controlled Egypt. The battleship Lorraine, 4 cruisers, 3 destroyers and a submarine surrendered themselves.
While this was going on the Alexandria, Admiral Cunningham sailed from the same port with HMS Warspite, HMS Malaya, HMS Royal Sovereign, HMS Eagle, cruisers and destroyers to cover convoys from Malta to Alexandria and to challenge the Italians to action
Meanwhile, the French battleship Richelieu was attacked in Dakar by British forces and damaged.
1941: As part of the continuing campaign against enemy shipping conducted by Coastal Command, reinforced by 2 Group of Bomber Command, Blenheims of 105 and 139 Squadrons attacked at very low-level a heavily defended convoy off the Dutch coast. Two ships were sunk, for the loss of three of the Blenheims.
The anti-shipping missions of the period proved some of the most dangerous that RAF pilots undertook during the war: attacks were pressed home at below mast height without fighter escort in the face of special flak-ships and Luftwaffe fighters. Loss rates amongst the attackers often reached 25%. The campaign took its toll, however, of ships supplying Germany with vital commodities which could only come by sea, such as iron ore from Sweden and fish products from Norway.
That night, during a raid on Munster, Sergeant Ward, Royal New Zealand Air Force, of 75 (NZ) Squadron RAF, crawled out on the wing of a Wellington bomber over Germany to extinguish a fire in the starboard engine. He had to punch holes in the wing's fabric to hold onto in a 150mph slipstream. The aircraft returned safely to the UK and he was awarded the Victoria Cross. Ward was killed on operations in September 1941.
1944: In the Marianas, carrier based aircraft from Task Group 53.7 (five escort aircraft carriers) and Task Force 58, began the first of daily systematic attacks against Japanese installations on Guam.
1958: President Eisenhower signed the Alaska statehood bill
1978: The Solomon Islands gained their independence from the United Kingdom.