Today in military history: July 3, 2014

Military history timeline 

324 - Battle of Adrianople (Wars of Constantine I)

 Circa 1650 - Tapestry depicting the Labarum from The History of Constantine the Great series, with Constantine before two soldiers raising the labarum with the monogram of Christ.  Used during the Battle of Adrianople to encourage faltering troops.

1754 – Battle of Fort Necessity (French and Indian War) 

1775 – George Washington officially takes command of Continental Army (American Revolutionary War) 

1778 – Battle of Wyoming Valley (American Revolutionary War) 

1779 – Tryon’s raids begin (American Revolutionary War) (partly Naval) 

1814 – Capture of Fort Erie; Niagara Peninsula Campaign begins (War of 1812) 

1862 – Battle of Elvington Heights (US Civil War) 

1863 – Battle of Gettysburg ends (US Civil War)

 Painting from between 1865 and 1895 - View from 

the summit of Little Round Top at 7:30 P.M. July 3rd, 1863

 A Union soldier killed by a shell in "the Wheatfield" at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. 

His arm is torn off and the shell completely disemboweled him.

  

1864 – Battle of Fort Johnson; Battle of Marietta ends (US Civil War) 

1898 – Battle of Santiago de Cuba (Naval); Siege of Santiago begins (Spanish-American War) 

1940 –Battle of Mers-el-Kebir (WWII) (Naval) 

1941 – Southern Abyssinia surrendered to Allies; Allies take Deir el Zor and the Vichy fort at Palmyra; Battle of Bialystok-Minsk ends (WWII) 

1942 – Battle of Alam Nayil (WWII) 

1944 – Allies take Siena and Cortona, Italy; Russians capture Minsk (WWII) 

1950 – Action off Chumunjin (Korean War) (Naval)

1949 - Two members of the signal gang aboard the U.S. Navy light cruiser USS Juneau (CLAA-119), QMSN James H. Wall (left) and QMSN Alfred H. Roepke, send a visual to a destroyer during operations of the U.S. Second Task Fleet in Arctic waters.  USS Juneau participated in the Action off Chumunjin. 

1988 - USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down an Iranian airliner (Iran-Iraq War)