February 24 in U.S. military history

1813: The sloop-of-war USS Hornet (the third of eight so-named American warships) under the command of Capt. James Lawrence sinks the Royal Navy brig HMS Peacock in a swift action in which Peacock’s skipper, Capt. William Peake, is killed.

1836: Hopelessly outnumbered and surrounded, Lt. Col. William Travis dispatches couriers asking fellow Texans to help lift Santa Ana’s siege of the Alamo Mission at San Antonio. Travis signs his messages “Victory or Death.”

1949: After a captured German V-2 rocket blasts off from a launchpad in White Sands Missile Range, the WAC Corporal missile attached to its nose fires, traveling some 250 miles above the earth. This marks the first time a man-made object has reached space.

1951: A helicopter carrying Maj. Gen. Bryant crashes on the Korean peninsula, and the IX Corps commanding general perishes shortly afterward of a heart attack. Command is transferred to Maj. Gen. Oliver P. “O.P.” Smith who becomes the first Marine to command a major Army unit during the Korean War.

1991: At 4:00 a.m. the lead elements of the enormous coalition ground force surges forward into Iraq and Kuwait aimed at ousting Saddam Hussein’s army from Kuwait. President George H.W. Bush will order a ceasefire on the 28th. The 42-day “mother of all battles” (38 days for the initial air campaign and four days for the ground campaign) will end.