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On this night, a carefully prepared warning system in Massachusetts sprang into action as British regulars marched out of Boston toward Concord. Lanterns hung in a Boston church gave the first signal, and riders like Paul Revere and William Dawes carried the alarm through the countryside to local militia leaders. They were not lone heroes improvising on the spot but part of an organized network of patriot couriers, g
In the bitter winter of 1944, the Belgian town of Bastogne became a focal point of the last major German offensive in the West.
Just days after the call for volunteers, a respected career officer faced his own decision. On April 20th, 1861, Colonel Robert E. Lee resigned his commission in the United States Army rather than take command against his native Virginia. Lee had served for decades in the regular army, distinguishing himself as an engineer and commander during the war with Mexico. In the tense weeks after Fort Sumter, senior leaders
Just two days after the Star of the West was fired upon, delegates in Montgomery voted on Alabama’s future in the Union. On January 11th, 1861, the state convention adopted an ordinance of secession, aligning Alabama with the already departed South Carolina and Mississippi. The decision brought another of the Deep South states into the emerging Confederate camp, tightening the ring of seceded territory along the Gulf
In a remote stretch of New Mexico desert, the United States Army’s Manhattan Engineer District prepared to test a weapon unlike any used before. In the early hours of July 16th, 1945, scientists and soldiers watched as the “Gadget,” an experimental plutonium device, detonated atop a tower at the Trinity site. The explosion produced an intense flash, a rising fireball, and a towering mushroom cloud that confirmed the
In the wake of the September 11th attacks, defense planners reexamined how the United States organized its military commands to protect the homeland.
In the aftermath of global war, American leaders restructured their armed forces to meet emerging strategic realities.
An American mission seeking diplomatic contact became a punitive naval and amphibious operation. The capture of Korean forts in June demonstrated military power without securing the agreement the expedition sought.
As the European war neared its end, American units fought their way into cities that had symbolized the enemy regime. By April 20th, 1945, elements of the United States Seventh Army had battled through the outskirts and defensive belts around Nuremberg, a city deeply associated with party rallies and racial laws. The fighting involved street-by-street advances, clearance of fortified buildings, and close coordination
USS Monitor served for only ten months, but her rotating turret, battle with CSS Virginia, loss at sea, and continuing archaeological conservation made her one of the most consequential warships of the nineteenth century.
In the chilly waters off the Korean coast, the lightly armed intelligence-gathering ship USS Pueblo operated under orders to monitor North Korean communications. On January 23rd, 1968, North Korean patrol craft closed in, opening fire and boarding the ship after a tense confrontation in which one American sailor was killed and others wounded. The crew attempted to destroy classified material, but much was seized alon
On November 13th, 1982, after years of debate over how to remember a difficult war, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., was formally dedicated.
A twin-engine RAF bomber developed in the mid-1930s and used extensively in the opening phase of World War II.
A British carrier-capable torpedo and reconnaissance biplane of the mid-1930s that preceded later Fleet Air Arm strike aircraft.
A British carrier aircraft combining fighter and dive-bomber functions for the Fleet Air Arm before and during the opening years of World War II.
The first all-metal monoplane fighter to enter regular U.S. Army Air Corps service, while retaining fixed landing gear and an open cockpit.
A flown unmanned combat-air-vehicle demonstrator developed to explore autonomous strike, low-observable operations, and suppression-of-enemy-air-defenses concepts.
A two-seat British turret fighter later used effectively in the night-fighter role as its daylight limitations became clear.