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On February 22nd, 1819, American and Spanish negotiators signed the Adams–Onís Treaty, transferring Spanish Florida to the United States and settling a long-troublesome frontier. For years, the border had been a patchwork where runaway enslaved people, Native communities, smugglers, and raiding parties moved in and out of reach of American authorities.
On August 4th, 1790, the young federal government took a practical step to secure both its finances and its coasts. Responding to proposals from Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Congress authorized the construction of a small fleet of revenue cutters to enforce customs laws and combat smuggling. These fast sailing vessels and their crews patrolled harbors and coastal routes, boarding ships, checking carg
The final events in this week’s window unfolded in the shifting landscape of the post–Cold War world. In the early hours of August 2nd, 1990, Iraqi armored and mechanized units crossed the border into Kuwait, quickly overwhelming the small country’s defenses and seizing its capital. The invasion stunned the region and set off a wave of diplomatic and military responses.
On the western coast of Italy, Allied planners launched Operation Shingle with the hope of breaking the stalemate along the Gustav Line and speeding the capture of Rome. In the early hours of January 22nd, 1944, American and British troops came ashore near the small port of Anzio under a protective naval and air umbrella. The initial landings met relatively light opposition, and beachheads were established quickly, r
That same summer, halfway around the world, a small wooden patrol boat was cutting through the darkness of the Solomon Islands. PT-109, commanded by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, was part of a group of motor torpedo boats tasked with intercepting Japanese shipping. In the early hours of August 2nd, a Japanese destroyer loomed out of the night and sliced through the slower patrol boat, killing two crewmen and flinging t
Undeterred by the first setback, Grant prepared a larger, more coordinated assault for May 22nd, 1863. Union artillery pounded the Confederate lines through the morning, and attacking columns moved out with specially chosen volunteers—the so-called “forlorn hope”—carrying ladders and planks to cross obstacles. Across the front, Union regiments advanced against steep slopes, dense abatis, and well-sited rifle pits, en
In the central Pacific, a small Marine garrison and civilian contractors turned Wake Island into a symbol of resistance in the opening days of the Pacific War.
Okinawa was a connected land, sea, and air campaign rather than a single beach landing. This overview follows the April assault, northern and southern fighting, offshore defense, civilian experience, and the collapse of organized resistance in June 1945.
A story of a winter surprise offensive and exhausted American units holding the line under crushing odds.
In the dark, humid hours before dawn on Okinawa, the American line around Kakazu Ridge was little more than a jagged string of foxholes and shattered stone. Technical Sergeant Beauford “Andy” Anderson and the men of his weapons platoon had spent the night listening to the island—distant artillery rumbled, mortars coughed, and now and then a Japanese flare turned the terraced fields silver for a heartbeat before dropp
The first explosions rolled across Pearl Harbor like distant thunder, then slammed into the harbor with terrifying clarity. On the repair ship USS Vestal, moored outboard of the battleship USS Arizona, Commander Cassin Young felt his ship shudder as bombs found their mark up and down the fleet. Men sprinted for their battle stations, the air already thick with smoke, the rising whine of diving aircraft cutting throug
The ridge ahead looked less like a battlefield and more like a shattered hillside of rock, clay, and smoke. It was early May 1945 on Okinawa, and the Marines of Company E had stalled below Hill 60. Japanese machine guns chattered from hidden bunkers. Mortar rounds crashed into the slope, showering the men with dirt and splinters of coral. Every attempt to move up the ridge drew a fresh burst of fire that pinned them
The ground in front of Sugar Loaf Hill is already chewed into mud and craters when Corporal James Lewis Day crawls forward to look for cover. It is May 1945 on Okinawa, and the Marines trying to cross this open killing ground are being shredded by Japanese mortar and artillery fire. The air is thick with pulverized coral dust. Fragments of shattered ammunition boxes and discarded packs lie where men dropped them runn
In the turbulence of the Mexican Revolution, the United States undertook a controversial intervention that highlighted both its naval reach and the risks of limited operations ashore. A diplomatic clash known as the Tampico Affair, combined with concerns over an incoming arms shipment to the regime of Victoriano Huerta, led Washington to order a seizure of the port of Veracruz.
A 22-year-old heavy machine gunner who held back a German attack in the Battle of the Bulge
A surviving Type VIIC/41 submarine with German wartime service, a second career as the Norwegian Kaura, and preservation at Laboe.
How a 22-year-old automatic rifleman kept firing after losing both legs, and saved his platoon in the Philippine mountains of 1945.