Today in History

July 21 in U.S. military history

Chris Carter

1823: U.S. Navy Midshipman and acting-lieutenant (future admiral) David Glasgow Farragut leads a raiding party of cutlass-armed sailors and Marines against a pirate base on Cape Cruz, Cuba. Farragut’s men attack and destroy the pirate stronghold.

1861: In what the Union hoped, and generally believed, would be an overwhelming Union victory that would end the rebellion before it got started, Confederate Army forces under the command of Brig. Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard defeat and rout Union Army forces under Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell during the First Battle of Bull Run, known to many Southerners as First Manassas. When the Confederates begin to waver under a heavy Union assault, the soon-to-be famous Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson arrives with reinforcements, and on this day will earn the legendary nickname, “Stonewall.”

1921: Army and Navy aircraft attack the former German battleship Ostfriesland, sinking the massive vessel and giving support to famed World War I aviator Brig. Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell’s theory that dreadnought battleships could be easily sunk by planes and are taking up too much of the military budget.

1944: The 3rd Marine Division, 1st Provisional Marine Brigade, and 77th Infantry Division storm the beaches of Guam, seeking to reclaim the American territory after its capture nearly three years ago. The Japanese defenders inflict heavy casualties, but the Marines secure the beachheads and are several thousand feet inland by nightfall.

1946: Lt. Cmdr. James J. Davidson, piloting the McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom aircraft, performs a series of takeoffs and landings on the deck of USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42) — the first carrier flight operations of a jet aircraft.

Lt. Cmdr. Davidson’s jet lifts off from the flattop on July 21, 1946

1961: Former Air Force pilot and Korean War veteran Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom (featured image) blasts off aboard his Redstone Rocket, becoming the second American in space. The astronaut’s “Liberty Bell 7” capsule soars to a height of 100 nautical miles and flies for 15 minutes before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.