Today in military history: April 20, 2014

1657 – Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Anglo-Spanish War)

 Blake's flagship at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1657); Painted 1901 by Charles Dixon 

1741 – Battle of Milan (War of the Austrian Succession) 
1744 – Battle of Villafranca (War of the Austrian Succession) 
1752 – Konbaung-Hanthawaddy War begins 
1770 – Battle of Aspindza (Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774) 
1782 – Third Battle of Ushant begins (American Revolutionary War)

Published 1913 - French ship Vengeur du Peuple sinking at the Third Battle of Ushant

1792 - Republican France declares war on Austria Prussia & Piedmont initiating the War of the First Coalition 
1797 – Battle of Neuwied; Battle of Dierscheim (French Revolutionary Wars) 
1809 – Battle of Abensburg ends (War of the Fifth Coalition) 
1861 – Robert E Lee resigns his US Army commission (US Civil War) 
1863 – Opelousas, LA taken (US Civil War) 
1864 – Plymouth, NC captured (US Civil War) 
1865 – Wilson’s Raid ends (US Civil War) 
1876 – April Uprising (Ottoman Empire) 
1915 – Embermenil and Mandera taken; Battle at Kebus (WWI) 
1917 – Gonnelieu taken; Battle of Dover Strait begins (WWI) 
1947 – Japanese troops surrender at Peleliu (post-WWII) 

 

September 15, 2004 - US Navy Rear Admiral Johnson with Japanese soldier Kiyokazu Tsuchida.  Tsuchida, who was stationed on Peleliu, hid in the island's caves and jungles for nearly two years after the war and did not surrender to American forces until April of 1947

1972 – Battle of An Loc begins (Vietnam War) 
1975 – Battle of Xuan Loc ends (Vietnam War)