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USS Marblehead (1861)

USS Marblehead (1861)

The first USS Marblehead was a gunboat in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. Marblehead was launched by G. W. Jackman, Newburyport, Massachusetts, 16 October 1861; and commissioned 8 March 1862; Lieutenant Commander Somerville Nicholson in command. First assigned to the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Marblehead took part in operations along the York and Pamunkey Rivers in Virginia. On 1 May 1862, she participated in the shelling of Confederate positions at Yorktown, supporting General George McClellan’s drive up the Peninsula toward Richmond. Reassigned 3 months later, she joined the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and commenced patrols off the southern east coast in search of Confederate vessels. With monitor Passaic in early February 1863, she reconnoitered the Wilmington River, Georgia, in an unsuccessful attempt to locate the ironclad ram CSS Atlanta (ex-Fingal). Later in the month, on the 23d, she took possession of the prize Glide and her cargo of cotton which had been captured by the Coast Survey schooners Caswell and Arago at the entrance of Tybee Creek, Georgia, while en route to Nassau. During her patrols of the coastal rivers, Marblehead periodically engaged in operations on the Stono River, South Carolina, in support of the Union defenders of James Island. On 16 July 1863, during an assault by Confederate forces on that position, the gunboat came under fire from Southern batteries at Gimball’s Landing. Forced further down river, she continued to provide fire support and prevented Confederate reinforcements from reaching the main body of their attack force. She then joined in the bombardment of forts in Charleston, South Carolina harbor before heading north for repairs. Back on the Stono River with Pawnee by November, she provided cover for Army troops as they sank piles as obstructions in the river above Legareville, South Carolina, on the 24th. The next month, on Christmas day, Confederate batteries, in an attempt to remove the support provided by Marblehead and Pawnee, opened fire on the two gunboats. Marblehead suffered 20 hits, but was able to capture two of the enemy’s VIII-inch seacoast howitizers before returning north for repairs and reassignment. On 2 June 1864, she was ordered to serve as a practice ship for Naval Academy midshipmen at Newport, Rhode Island. A month later this service was interrupted as she resumed coastal patrol duties for 5 months. She then returned to Newport to serve as a practice ship. After completion of this duty, Marblehead arrived at the Washington Navy Yard where she decommissioned 19 September 1866. Recommissioned the following month and assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron, she operated in the Caribbean for the next 2 years. On 18 August 1868, she returned to the New York Navy Yard, decommissioned 4 September, and was sold 30 September. See USS Marblehead for other ships of this name. Marblehead

Gunboat

A gunboat is literally a boat carrying one or more guns. The term is rather broad, and the usual connotation has changed over the years. In the age of sail, a gunboat was usually a small undecked vessel carrying a single smoothbore cannon in the bow. A gunboat could carry one or two masts or be oar-powered only, but the single-masted version of about 50 ft length was most typical. Some types of gunboats carried two cannons, or else mounted a number of swivel guns on the railings. The advantages of this type of gunboat were that since it only carried a single cannon, that cannon could be quite heavy - for instance a 32-pounder, and that the boat could be maneuvered in shallow or restricted waters, where the sailing was quite difficult for larger ships. A single broadside from a frigate would demolish a gunboat, but a frigate facing a half-dozen gunboats in an estuary would likely be seriously damaged before it could manage to sink all of them. Gunboats were also easy and quick to build; the combatants in the 1776 Battle of Valcour Island on New York's Lake Champlain were mostly gunboats built on the spot. All navies of the sailing era kept a number of gunboats on hand. Gunboats were a key part of the French plans to invade Britain in 1804, and were heavily used by Denmark. Between 1803 and 1812, the US Navy had a policy of basing the naval forces on coastal gunboats, and experimented with a variety of designs, but they were nearly useless in the War of 1812, and went back to being special-purpose vessels. War of 1812 The term experienced a revival in the American Civil War, and was commonly used for armed sidewheel steamers, which frequently mounted a dozen guns or more, sometimes of rather large caliber. In the later 19th century and early 20th century, "gunboat" was the common name for smaller armed vessels, often called "patrol gunboats". In the US Navy, these boats had the hull classification symbol "PG"; they usually displaced under 2,000 tons, were about 200 ft long, drafted 10-15 feet and sometimes much less, and mounted several guns of caliber up to 5-6 inches. An important characteristic of these was the ability to operate in rivers, enabling them to reach inland targets in a way not otherwise possible before the development of aircraft. In this period, gunboats were used by the naval powers for police actions in colonies or weaker countries, for example in China. It is this category of gunboat that inspired the term "gunboat diplomacy". With the addition of torpedoes they became torpedo gunboats. During the Second World War the gunboat was for the Royal Navy a vessel identical to torpedo boats, but equipped with machine guns and larger weapons up to 57 mm in calibre for attacking enemy torpedo boats or small craft - the Motor Gun Boat (MGB). Post-World War II, the terms "motor gunboat" came to be used for smaller vessels, with displacements in the 500-ton range. US river gunboats in the Vietnam War became known as the "Brownwater Navy".

Reference


- Chapter 4, "The Gunboat Navy", of Howard Chapelle, The History of the American Sailing Navy (Norton, 1949) Category:Ship types ja:砲艦

American Civil War

The American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought in North America within the United States of America, between twenty-four mostly northern states of the Union and the Confederate States of America, a coalition of eleven southern states that declared their independence and claimed the right of secession from the Union in 1860–1861. The war produced over 970,000 casualties (3.09% of population), including approximately 560,300 deaths (1.78%), a loss of more American lives than any other conflict in history. The causes of the war, and even the name of the war itself, are still debated (see the article Naming the American Civil War).

The division of the country

Naming the American Civil War

The Deep South

Seven states seceded shortly after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 – even before he was inaugurated:
- South Carolina (December 21, 1860),
- Mississippi (January 9, 1861),
- Florida (January 10, 1861),
- Alabama (January 11, 1861),
- Georgia (January 19, 1861),
- Louisiana (January 26, 1861), and
- Texas (February 1, 1861). These States of the Deep South, where slavery and cotton plantation agriculture were most dominant, formed the Confederate States of America (February 4, 1861), with Jefferson Davis as President, and a governmental structure closely modeled on the U.S. Constitution (see also: Confederate States Constitution). After the Battle of Fort Sumter, South Carolina, Lincoln called for troops from all remaining states to recover the forts, resulting in the secession of four more states: Virginia (April 17, 1861), Arkansas (May 6, 1861), North Carolina (May 20, 1861), and Tennessee (June 8, 1861).

Border States

Main article: Border states (Civil War) Along with the northwestern counties of Virginia (whose residents did not wish to secede and eventually entered the Union in 1863 as West Virginia), four of the five northernmost "slave states," (Maryland, Delaware, Missouri, and Kentucky) did not secede, and became known as the Border States. Delaware, which in the 1860 election had voted for Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, had few slaves and never considered secession. Maryland also voted for Breckinridge, and after rioting in Baltimore and other events had prompted a Federal declaration of martial law, its legislature rejected secession (April 27, 1861). Both Missouri and Kentucky remained in the Union, but factions within each state organized "secessions" that were recognized by the CSA. In Missouri, the State government under Governor Claiborne F. Jackson, a southern sympathizer, evacuated the state capital of Jefferson City and met in-exile at the town of Neosho, Missouri, adopting a secession ordinance that was recognized by the Confederacy on October 30, 1861, while the Union organized a competing State government by calling a constitutional convention that had originally been convened to vote on secession. (See also: Missouri secession). Missouri secession Although Kentucky did not secede, for a time it declared itself neutral. During a brief occupation by the Confederate Army, Southern sympathizers organized a secession convention, inaugurated a Confederate Governor, and gained recognition from the Confederacy. Residents of the northwestern counties of Virginia organized a secession from Virginia, with a plan for gradual emancipation, and entered the Union in 1863 as West Virginia. Similar secessions were supported in some other areas of the Confederacy (such as eastern Tennessee), but were suppressed by declarations of martial law by the Confederacy. Conversely, the southern half of the Federal Territory of New Mexico voted to secede, and was accepted into the Confederacy as the Territory of Arizona (see map below), with its capital in Mesilla (now part of New Mexico). Although the northern half of New Mexico never voted to secede, the Confederacy did lay claim to this territory and briefly occupied the territorial capital of Santa Fe between March 13 and April 8, 1862, but never organized a territorial government.

Origins of the conflict

:Main articles: Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events Timeline of events. In their agitation against the South, abolitionists cited the slave codes as an example of the barbarism of Southern society. Above, a woodcut from the abolitionist Anti-Slavery Almanac (1839) depicts the capture of a fugitive slave by a slave patrol.]] There had been a continuing contest between the states and the national government over the power of the latter, and over the loyalty of the citizenry, almost since the founding of the republic. The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, for example, had defied the Alien and Sedition Acts, and at the Hartford Convention, New England voiced its opposition to President Madison and the War of 1812. In 1828 and 1832 the Congress passed protective tariffs to benefit trade in the northern states. It was deemed a "Tariff of Abominations" and its provisions would have imposed a significant economic penalty on South Carolina and other southern states if left in force. South Carolina dealt with the tariffs by adopting the Ordinance of Nullification, which declared both the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 null and void within state borders. The legislature also passed laws to enforce the ordinance, including authorization for raising a military force and appropriations for arms. In response to South Carolina's threat, Congress passed a "Force Bill" and President Andrew Jackson sent seven small naval vessels and a man-of-war to Charleston in November 1832. On December 10, he issued a resounding proclamation against the nullifiers. On the eve of the Civil War, the United States was a nation composed of four quite distinct regions: the Northeast, with a growing industrial and commercial economy and an increasing density of population; the Northwest, now known as the Midwest, a rapidly expanding region of free farmers where slavery had been forever prohibited under the Northwest Ordinance; the Upper South, with a settled plantation system and (in some areas) declining economic fortunes; and the Southwest, a booming frontier-like region with an expanding cotton economy. With two fundamentally different labor systems at their base, the economic and social changes across the nation's geographical regions – based on wage labor in the North and on slavery in the South – underlay distinct visions of society that had emerged by the mid-nineteenth century in the North and in the South. Before the Civil War, the Constitution provided a basis for peaceful debate over the future of government, and had been able to regulate conflicts of interest and conflicting visions for the new, rapidly expanding nation. For many years, compromises had been made to balance the number of "free states" and "slave states" so that there would be a balance in the Senate. The last slave state admitted was Texas in 1845, with five free states admitted between 1846 and 1859. The admission of Kansas as a slave state had recently been blocked, and it was due to enter as a free state instead in 1861. The rise of mass democracy in the industrializing North, the breakdown of the old two-party system, and increasingly virulent and hostile sectional ideologies in the mid-nineteenth century made it highly unlikely, if not impossible, to bring about the gentlemanly compromises of the past (such as the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850) necessary to avoid crisis. Also the existence of slave labor in the South made the Northern States the preferred destination for new immigrants from Europe resulting in an increasing dominance of the North in Congress and in Presidential elections, due to population size. Sectional tensions changed in their nature and intensity rapidly during the 1850s. The United States Republican Party was established in 1854. The new party opposed the expansion of slavery in the Western territories. Although only a small share of Northerners favored measures to abolish slavery in the South, the Republicans were able to mobilize popular support among Northerners and Westerners who did not want to compete against slave labor if the system were expanded beyond the South. The Republicans won the support of many ex-Whigs and Northern ex-Democrats concerned about the South's disproportionate influence in the Senate, the Buchanan administration, and the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the profitability of cotton, or "King Cotton," as it was touted, solidified the South's dependence on the plantation system and its foundation: slave labor. A small class of slave barons, especially cotton planters, dominated the politics and society of the South. King Cotton Southern secession was triggered by the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was a moderate in his opposition to slavery. He pledged to do all he could to oppose the expansion of slavery into the territories (thus also preventing the admission of any additional slave states to the Union); but he also said the federal government did not have the power to abolish slavery in the states in which it already existed, and that he would enforce Fugitive Slave Laws. The southern states expected increasing hostility to their "peculiar institution"; not trusting Lincoln, and mindful that many other Republicans were intent on complete abolition of slavery. Lincoln had even encouraged abolitionists with his 1858 "House divided" speech[http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/house.htm], though that speech was also consistent with an eventual end of slavery achieved gradually and voluntarily with compensation to slave-owners and resettlement of former slaves. In addition to Lincoln's presidential victory, the slave states had lost the balance of power in the Senate and were facing a future as a perpetual minority after decades of nearly continuous control of the presidency and the Congress. Southerners also felt they could no longer prevent protectionist tariffs such as the Morrill Tariff. The Southern justification for a unilateral right to secede cited the doctrine of states' rights, which had been debated before with the 1798 Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, and the 1832 Nullification Crisis with regard to tariffs. Before Lincoln took office, seven states seceded from the union, and attempted to establish an independent southern government, the Confederate States of America on February 9, 1861. They took control of federal forts and property within their boundaries, with little resistance from President Buchanan. Ironically, by seceding, the rebel states weakened any claim to the territories that were in dispute, canceled any obligation for the North to return fugitive slaves, and assured easy passage of many bills and amendments they had long opposed. The Civil War began when Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina on April 12, 1861. There were no casualties from enemy fire in this battle.

Narrative summary

1861 Lincoln's victory in the presidential election of 1860 triggered South Carolina's secession from the Union. Lincoln was not even on the ballot in nine states in the South. Leaders in South Carolina had long been waiting for an event that might unite the South against the anti-slavery forces. Once the election returns were certain, a special South Carolina convention declared "that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states under the name of the 'United States of America' is hereby dissolved." By February 1, 1861, six more Southern states had seceded. On February 7, the seven states adopted a provisional constitution for the Confederate States of America and established their capital at Montgomery, Alabama. The pre-war peace conference of 1861 met at Washington, D.C. The remaining southern states as yet remained in the Union. Several seceding states seized federal forts within their boundaries; President Buchanan made no military response. Less than a month later, on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President of the United States. In his inaugural address, he argued that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, that it was a binding contract, and called the secession "legally void". He stated he had no intent to invade southern states, but would use force to maintain possession of federal property. His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union. The South did send delegations to Washington and offered to pay for the federal properties, but they were turned down. On April 12, the South fired upon the federal troops stationed at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina until the troops surrendered. Lincoln called for all of the states in the Union to send troops to recapture the forts and preserve the Union. Most Northerners hoped that a quick victory for the Union would crush the nascent rebellion, and so Lincoln only called for volunteers for 90 days. This resulted in four more states voting to secede. Once Virginia seceded, the Confederate capital was moved to Richmond, Virginia. Even though the Southern states had seceded, there was considerable anti-secessionist sentiment within several of the seceding states. Eastern Tennessee, in particular, was a hotbed for pro-Unionism. Winston County, Alabama issued a resolution of secession from the state of Alabama. The Red Strings were a prominent Southern anti-secession group. Winfield Scott created the Anaconda Plan as the Union's main plan of attack during the war.

Eastern Theater 1861–1863

Because of the fierce resistance of a few initial Confederate forces at Manassas, Virginia, in July 1861, a march by Union troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell on the Confederate forces there was halted in the First Battle of Bull Run, or First Manassas, whereupon they were forced back to Washington, D.C., by Confederate troops under the command of Generals Joseph E. Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard. It was in this battle that Confederate General Thomas Jackson received the name of "Stonewall" because he stood like a stone wall against Union troops. Alarmed at the loss, and in an attempt to prevent more slave states from leaving the Union, the U.S. Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution on July 25 of that year, which stated that the war was being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery. Major General George B. McClellan took command of the Union Army of the Potomac on July 26 (he was briefly general-in-chief of all the Union armies, but was subsequently relieved of that post in favor of Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck), and the war began in earnest in 1862. Upon the strong urging of President Lincoln to begin offensive operations, McClellan invaded Virginia in the spring of 1862 by way of the peninsula between the York River and James River, southeast of Richmond. Although McClellan's army reached the gates of Richmond in the Peninsula Campaign, Joseph E. Johnston halted his advance at the Battle of Seven Pines, then Robert E. Lee defeated him in the Seven Days Battles and forced his retreat. McClellan was stripped of many of his troops to reinforce John Pope's Union Army of Virginia. Pope was beaten spectacularly by Lee in the Northern Virginia Campaign and the Second Battle of Bull Run in August. Second Battle of Bull Run Emboldened by Second Bull Run, the Confederacy made its first invasion of the North, when General Lee led 55,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland on September 5. Lincoln then restored Pope's troops to McClellan. McClellan and Lee fought at the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862, the bloodiest single day in American history. Lee's army, checked at last, returned to Virginia before McClellan could destroy it. Antietam is considered a Union victory because it halted Lee's invasion of the North and provided justification for Lincoln to announce his Emancipation Proclamation. When the cautious McClellan failed to follow up on Antietam, he was replaced by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. Burnside suffered near-immediate defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, when over ten thousand Union soldiers were killed or wounded. After the battle, Burnside was replaced by Maj. Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker. Hooker, too, proved unable to defeat Lee's army; despite outnumbering the Confederates by more than two to one, he was humiliated in the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. He was replaced by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade during Lee's second invasion of the North, in June. Meade defeated Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), the largest battle in North American history, which is sometimes considered the war's turning point. Lee's army suffered 28,000 casualties (versus Meade's 23,000), again forcing it to retreat to Virginia, never to launch a full-scale invasion of the North again.

Western Theater 1861–1863

While the Confederate forces had numerous successes in the Eastern theater, they crucially failed in the West. They were driven from Missouri early in the war as result of the Battle of Pea Ridge. Leonidas Polk's invasion of Kentucky enraged the citizens who previously had declared neutrality in the war, turning that state against the Confederacy. Nashville, Tennessee, fell to the Union early in 1862. Most of the Mississippi was opened with the taking of Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Missouri, and then Memphis, Tennessee. New Orleans, Louisiana, was captured in May 1862, allowing the Union forces to begin moving up the Mississippi as well. Only the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, prevented unchallenged Union control of the entire river. Braxton Bragg's second Confederate invasion of Kentucky was repulsed by Don Carlos Buell at the confused and bloody Battle of Perryville and he was narrowly defeated by William S. Rosecrans at the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee. The one clear Confederate victory in the West was the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia, near the Tennessee border, where Bragg, reinforced by the corps of James Longstreet (from Lee's army in the east), defeated Rosecrans, despite the heroic defensive stand of George Henry Thomas, and forced him to retreat to Chattanooga, which Bragg then besieged. The Union's key strategist and tactician in the west was Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who won victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, which seized control of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers; Shiloh; Vicksburg, Mississippi, cementing Union control of the Mississippi and considered one of the turning points of the war; and Chattanooga, Tennessee, driving Confederate forces out of Tennessee and opening an invasion route to Atlanta and the heart of the Confederacy.

Trans-Mississippi Theater 1861–1865

Though geographically isolated from the battles to the east, a number of military actions took place in the Trans-Mississippi theater, a region encompassing states and territories to the west of the Mississippi River. In 1861 Confederates launched a successful campaign into the territory of present day Arizona and New Mexico. Residents in the southern portions of this territory adopted a secession ordinance of their own and requested that Confederate forces stationed in nearby Texas assist them in removing Union forces still stationed there. The Confederate territory of Arizona was proclaimed by Col. John Baylor after victories at Mesilla, New Mexico, and the capture of several Union forces. Confederate troops were unsuccessful in attempts to press northward in the territory and withdrew from Arizona completely in 1862 as Union reinforcements arrived from California. :The Battle of Glorieta Pass was a small skirmish in terms of both numbers involved and losses (140 Federal, 190 Confederate). Yet the issues were large, and the battle decisive in resolving them. The Confederates might well have taken Fort Union and Denver had they not been stopped at Glorieta. As one Texan put it, "if it had not been for those devils from Pike's Peak, this country would have been ours". :This small battle smashed any possibility of the Confederacy taking New Mexico and the far west territories. In April, Union volunteers from California pushed the remaining Confederates out of present-day Arizona at the Battle of Picacho Pass. In the eastern part of the United States, the fighting dragged on for three more years, but in the Southwest the war was over. [http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/117glorietaraton/117facts3.htm] The Union mounted several attempts to capture the trans-Mississippi regions of Texas and Louisiana from 1862 until the war's end. With ports to the east under blockade or capture, Texas in particular became a blockade-running haven. Referred to as the "back door" of the Confederacy, Texas and western Louisiana continued to provide cotton crops that were transferred overland to Matamoros, Mexico, and shipped to Europe in exchange for supplies. Determined to close this trade, the Union mounted several invasion attempts of Texas, each of them unsuccessful. Confederate victories at Galveston, Texas, and the Battle of Sabine Pass repulsed invasion forces. The Union's disastrous Red River Campaign in western Louisiana, including a defeat at the Battle of Mansfield, effectively ended the Union's final invasion attempt of the region until the final fall of the Confederacy. Isolated from events in the east, the Civil War continued in the Trans-Mississippi theater for several months after Robert E. Lee's surrender. The last battle of the war occurred at Palmito Ranch in southern Texas—ironically a Confederate victory.

The End of the War 1864–1865

Palmito Ranch At the beginning of 1864, Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of all Union armies. He chose to make his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, although Meade remained the actual commander of that army. He left Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in command of most of the western armies. Grant understood the concept of total war and believed, along with Lincoln and Sherman, that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base would bring an end to the war. Therefore, scorched earth tactics would be required in some important theaters. He devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the heart of Confederacy from multiple directions: Grant, Meade, and Benjamin Butler would move against Lee near Richmond; Franz Sigel would invade the Shenandoah Valley; Sherman would invade Georgia, defeat Joseph E. Johnston, and capture Atlanta; George Crook and William W. Averell would operate against railroad supply lines in West Virginia; and Nathaniel Banks would capture Mobile, Alabama. Union forces in the East attempted to maneuver past Lee and fought several battles during that phase ("Grant's Overland Campaign") of the Eastern campaign. An attempt to outflank Lee from the south failed under Butler, who was trapped inside the Bermuda Hundred river bend. Grant was tenacious and, despite astonishing losses (over 66,000 casualties in six weeks), kept pressing Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. He pinned down the Confederate army in the Siege of Petersburg, where the two armies engaged in trench warfare for over nine months. After two failed attempts (under Sigel and David Hunter) to seize key points in the Shenandoah Valley, Grant finally found a commander, Philip Sheridan, aggressive enough to prevail in the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Sheridan was sent in response to a raid by the aggressive Jubal Early, whose corps reached the outer defenses of Washington before withdrawing back to the Valley. Sheridan proved to be more than a match for Early, and defeated him in a series of battles, including a final decisive defeat at Cedar Creek, Sheridan then proceeded to destroy the agricultural and industrial base of the Valley, a strategy similar to the scorched-earth tactics Sherman would later employ in Georgia. Meanwhile, Sherman marched from Chattanooga to Atlanta, Georgia, defeating Generals Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Hood. The fall of Atlanta on September 2, 1864, was a significant factor in the re-election of Abraham Lincoln. Leaving Atlanta, and his base of supplies, Sherman's army marched with an unclear destination, laying waste to much of the rest of Georgia in his celebrated "March to the Sea", and reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah, Georgia in December 1864. Burning towns and plantations as they went, Sherman's armies hauled off crops and killed livestock to retaliate and to deny use of these economic assets to the Confederacy, a consequence of Grant's scorched earth doctrine. When Sherman turned north through South Carolina and North Carolina to approach the Virginia lines from the south, it was the end for Lee and his men, and for the Confederacy. Lee attempted to escape from the besieged Petersburg and link up with Johnston in North Carolina, but he was overtaken by Grant. He surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House. Johnston surrendered his troops to Sherman shortly thereafter at a local family's farmhouse in Durham, North Carolina. The Battle of Palmito Ranch, fought on May 13, 1865, in the far south of Texas, was the last land battle of the war and ended, ironically, with a Confederate victory. All Confederate land forces surrendered by June 1865. Confederate naval units surrendered as late as November 1865, with the last actions being attacks on private New England whaling ships by the CSS Shenandoah in the Bering Strait through June 28, 1865.

Analysis of the War

Why the Union prevailed (or why the Confederacy was defeated) in the Civil War has been a subject of extensive analysis and debate. Advantages widely believed to have contributed to the Union's success include:
- The more industrialized economy of the North, which aided in the production of arms and munitions.
- The Union significantly outnumbered the Confederacy, both in civilian and military population partly due to African Americans and Immigrants.
- Strong compatible railroad links between Union cities, which allowed for the relatively quick movement of troops. (It should be noted, however, that the Confederacy had more railroads per capita than any other country at the time.)
- The Union's possession of the U.S. merchant marine fleet and naval ships, which led to its successful blockade of Confederate ports.
- The Union's more established government, which may have resulted in less infighting and a more streamlined conduct of the war.
- The Confederacy's possible squandering of resources on early audacious conventional offensives and its [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HZY/is_1_14/ai_78397581 failure] to fully use its advantages in guerrilla warfare against Union communication and transportation infrastructure.
- The Confederacy's failure to win military support from any foreign powers, mostly due to the Battle of Antietam, and the well-timed release of the Emancipation Proclamation.
- Despite the Union's many tactical blunders like the Seven Days Battle, those commited by Confederate generals, such as the Lee's miscalculations at the Battle of Gettysburg and allowing the battle plans to fall into Union hands before the Battle of Antietam, were far more serious — if for no other reason than that the Confederates could so little afford the losses.
- The Confederacy vastly overestimated the dependence of Great Britain and France on Southern cotton and an early decision by the Confederate government to cut production may have only weakened their hand as it forced the British to seek new supplies in Egypt, ultimately making an alliance less attractive.

Major land battles

The ten costliest land battles, measured by casualties (killed, wounded, captured, and missing) were: Battle of Antietam Other major land battles included First Bull Run, The Seven Days, Perryville, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, the Siege of Petersburg, and the battles of Franklin and Nashville. There was also Jackson's Valley Campaign, the Atlanta Campaign, Red River Campaign, Missouri Campaign, Valley Campaigns of 1864, and many coastal and river battles.

Major naval battles

Major naval battles included Battle of Island Number Ten, Battle of Hampton Roads, Battle of Memphis, Battle of Drewry's Bluff, Battle of Fort Hindman, and Battle of Mobile Bay. In addition to this, a Union blockade of Confederate ports throughout the war managed to deny supplies to the CSA.

Civil War leaders and soldiers

Union blockade at Vicksburg National Military Park.]] One of the reasons that the US Civil War wore on as long as it did and the battles were so fierce was that most important generals on both sides had formerly served in the United States Army — some including Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, during the Mexican-American War between 1846 and 1848. Most were graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where Lee had been commandant for 3 years in the 1850s. Significant Southern leaders included Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, James Longstreet, P.G.T. Beauregard, John Mosby, Braxton Bragg, John Bell Hood, James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart, William Mahone, Judah P. Benjamin, Jubal Early, and Nathan Bedford Forrest. Northern leaders included Abraham Lincoln, William H. Seward, Edwin M. Stanton, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, George H. Thomas, George B. McClellan, Henry W. Halleck, Joseph Hooker, Ambrose Burnside, Irvin McDowell, Philip Sheridan, George Crook, George Armstrong Custer, Christopher "Kit" Carson, John E. Wool, George G. Meade, Winfield Hancock, Elihu Washburne, Abner Read, and Robert Gould Shaw. Five men who served as Union officers eventually became presidents of the United States: Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley. After the war, the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization open to Union war veterans, was founded in 1866. Confederate veterans formed the United Confederate Veterans in 1889. In 1905, a campaign medal was authorized for all Civil War veterans, known as the Civil War Campaign Medal. According to data from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the last surviving Union veteran of the conflict, Albert Woolson, died on August 2, 1956 at the age of 109, and the last Confederate veteran, John Salling, died on March 16, 1958, at the age of 112. However, William Marvel investigated the claims of both for a 1991 piece in the Civil War history magazine Blue & Gray. Using census information, he found that Salling was born in 1858, far too late to have served in the Civil War. In fact, he concluded, "Every one of the last dozen recognized Confederates was bogus." He found Woolson to be the last true veteran of the Civil War on either side; he had served as a drummer boy late in the war. Women were not allowed to fight — though some did fight in disguise. Clara Barton became a leader of the Union Nurses and was widely known as the "Angel of the Battlefield." She experienced the horror of 16 battles, helping behind the lines to heal the injured soldiers. Barton organized a relief program that helped to better distribute supplies to wounded soldiers of both the North and South. After 1980 scholarly attention turned to ordinary soldiers, and to women and African Americans.

The question of slavery

As slavery and constitutional questions concerning states' rights were widely viewed as the major causes of the war, the victorious Union government sought to end slavery and to guarantee a perpetual union that could never be broken. During the early part of the war, Lincoln, to hold together his war coalition of Republicans and War Democrats, emphasized preservation of the Union as the sole Union objective of the war, but with the Emancipation Proclamation, announced in September 1862 and put into effect four months later, Lincoln adopted the abolition of slavery as a second mission. The Emancipation Proclamation declared all slaves held in territory then under Confederate control to be "then, thenceforth, and forever free", but did not affect slaves in areas under Union control. It had little initial effect but served to commit the United States to the goal of ending slavery. The proclamation would be put into practical effect in Confederate territory captured over the remainder of the war.

Foreign diplomacy

Because of the Confederacy's attempt to create a new state, recognition and support from the European powers were critical to its prospects. The Union, under Secretary of State William Henry Seward attempted to block the Confederacy's efforts in this sphere. The Confederates hoped that the importance of the cotton trade to Europe (the idea of cotton diplomacy) and shortages caused by the war, along with early military victories, would enable them to gather increasing European support and force a turn away from neutrality. Lincoln's decision to announce a blockade of the Confederacy, a clear act of war, enabled Britain, followed by other European powers, to announce their neutrality in the dispute. This enabled the Confederacy to begin to attempt to gain support and funds in Europe. Jefferson Davis had picked Robert Toombs of Georgia as his first Secretary of State. Toombs, having little knowledge in foreign affairs, was replaced several months later by Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia, another choice with little suitability. Ultimately, on March 17, 1862, Jefferson selected Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana as Secretary of State, who although having more international knowledge and legal experience with international slavery disputes still failed in the end to create a dynamic foreign policy for the Confederacy. The first attempts to achieve European recognition of the Confederacy were dispatched on February 25, 1861 and led by William Lowndes Yancey, Pierre A. Rost, and Ambrose Dudley Mann. The British foreign minister Lord John Russell met with them, and the French foreign minister Edouard Thouvenel received the group unofficially. However, at this point the two countries had agreed to coordinate and cooperate and would not make any rash moves. Charles Francis Adams proved particularly adept as ambassador to Britain for the Union, and Britain was reluctant to boldly challenge the Union's blockade. The Confederacy also attempted to initiate propaganda in Europe through journalists Henry Hotze and Edwin De Leon in Paris and London. However, public opinion against slavery created a political liability for European politicians, especially in Britain. A significant challenge in Anglo-Union relations was also created by the Trent Affair, involving the Union boarding of a British mail steamer to seize James M. Mason and John Slidell, Confederate diplomats sent to Europe. However, the Union was able to smooth over the problem to some degree. As the war continued, in late 1862, the British considered initiating an attempt to mediate the conflict. However, the Union victory in the Battle of Antietam caused them to delay this decision. Additionally, the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation further reinforced the political liability of supporting the Confederacy. As the war continued, the Confederacy's chances with Britain grew more hopeless, and they focused increasingly on France. Napoléon III proposed to offer mediation in January 1863, but this was dismissed by Seward. Despite some sympathy for the Confederacy, ultimately, France's own concerns in Mexico deterred them from substantially antagonizing the Union. As the Confederacy's situation grew more and more tenuous and their pleas increasingly ignored, in November 1864 Davis sent Duncan F. Kenner to Europe to test whether a promised emancipation could lead to possible recognition. The proposal was strictly rejected by both Britain and France.

Aftermath

Duncan F. Kenner depicts a Union and Confederate soldier shaking hands.]] The border States of Missouri and Maryland moved during the course of the war to end slavery, and in December 1864, the Congress proposed the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, barring slavery throughout the United States; the 13th Amendment was fully ratified by the end of 1865. The 14th Amendment, defining citizenship and giving the Federal government broad power to require the States to provide equal protection of the laws was adopted in 1868. The 15th Amendment guaranteeing black men (but not women) the right to vote was ratified in 1870. The 14th and 15th Amendments reversed the effects of the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision of 1857, but the 14th Amendment, in particular, had unanticipated and far-reaching effects. From the election of 1876 until the election of 1964, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas gave no electoral votes to the Republican Party, with South Carolina and Louisiana making an exception only once each. Most other states that had seceded voted overwhelmingly against Republican presidential nominees also, with the same trend predominantly applying in state elections too. This phenomenon was known as the

Newburyport, Massachusetts

 Newburyport is a small coastal city located in Essex County, Massachusetts, 38 miles (61 km) northeast of Boston, on the Merrimack River. It had been one of the county seats of Essex County. In 1900, 14,478 people lived in Newburyport, Massachusetts; in 1910, 14,949; in 1920, 15, 618;and in 1940, 13,916. Although it is officially a city, its population of about 17,189 (according to the 2000 census) is closer to that of a town. Like many cities and towns in the area, numerous old buildings have been historically preserved, and consequently Newburyport enjoys a vibrant tourism industry.

History

2000 Newburyport was first settled in 1635, and incorporated as a town in 1764, and as a city in 1851. Situated near the mouth of the Merrimack River, Newburyport is a historic seaport on the North Shore. Newburyport History Includes:
- First United States Coast Guard station
- First of many subsequent Clipper ships built here
- First "Tea Party" rebellion to oppose English Tea Tax
- The death and burial of the great 18th century evangelist George Whitefield.
- The childhood home of Francis C. Lowell, who introduced cotton manufacturing on a large scale into the United States.
- Major center for privateering in the War of 1812
- Mentioned in H. P. Lovecraft story, "Shadow over Innsmouth"
- Subject of the most ambitious community study ever undertaken, the Yankee City project conducted by anthropologist W. Lloyd Warner and his associates. Notable Inhabitants:
- "Lord" Timothy Dexter, eccentric
- William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist
- Francis C. Lowell
- John P. Marquand, author
- Donald McKay, shipbuilder
- Theophilus Parsons
- Benjamin Perley Poore, journalist

Geography

Newburyport is located at 42°48'45" North, 70°52'39" West (42.812391, -70.877440). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 27.4 km² (10.6 mi²). 21.7 km² (8.4 mi²) of it is land and 5.7 km² (2.2 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 20.77% water.

Demographics

mi² As of the census of 2000, there are 17,189 people, 7,519 households, and 4,428 families residing in the city. The population density is 792.0/km² (2,050.3/mi²). There are 7,897 housing units at an average density of 363.8/km² (942.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 98.11% White, 0.42% African American, 0.12% Native American, 0.61% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.16% from other races, and 0.56% from two or more races. 0.88% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 7,519 households out of which 25.9% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.7% are married couples living together, 8.5% have a female householder with no husband present, and 41.1% are non-families. 33.1% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.7% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.24 and the average family size is 2.90. married couples] In the city the population is spread out with 20.7% under the age of 18, 4.4% from 18 to 24, 32.7% from 25 to 44, 28.2% from 45 to 64, and 14.0% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 41 years. For every 100 females there are 86.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 82.9 males. The median income for a household in the city is $58,557, and the median income for a family is $73,306. Males have a median income of $51,831 versus $37,853 for females. The per capita income for the city is $34,187. 5.2% of the population and 2.8% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 6.3% of those under the age of 18 and 6.9% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Points of interest

High Street is a remarkable street of fine old houses, linking the Atkinson Common (1893-1894) with the Bartlet Mall, site of the Charles Bulfinch-designed Essex County Superior Courthouse (1805). Laid out in 1801, the Bartlet Mall was redesigned in the 1880s by noted Boston landscape architect Charles Eliot, with later improvements by Arthur Shurcliff.
- Cushing House Museum and Garden
- Joppa Flats Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary
- Maudslay State Park
- Parker River National Wildlife Refuge

Publications


- Smith, History of Newburyport, Mass., (Boston, 1854)
- D. H. Hurd, History of Essex County, Mass., (Philadelphia, 1888)
- J. J. Currier, History of Newburyport, (Newburyport, 1906)

External links


- [http://www.cityofnewburyport.com/ City of Newburyport]
- [http://www.newburyportchamber.org Newburyport Chamber]
- [http://yourtown.boston.com/town/newburyport/ Boston.com description] Category:Cities in Massachusetts Category:Essex County, Massachusetts

16 October

October 16 is the 289th day of the year (290th in Leap years). There are 76 days remaining.

Events


- 456 - Magister militum Ricimer defeats the Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the western Roman Empire
- 1775 - Portland, Maine burned by the British
- 1781 - George Washington captures Yorktown, Virginia
- 1793 - Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI is guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.
- 1793 - Battle of Wattignies
- 1813 - The Sixth Coalition attacks Napoleon Bonaparte in the Battle of Leipzig.
- 1834 - Much of the ancient structures of the Palace of Westminster in London is burnt down
- 1841 - Queen's University is founded in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
- 1843 - Sir William Rowan Hamilton invents the concept of quaternions.
- 1859 - John Brown leads raid on Harper's Ferry, West Virginia
- 1869 - Cardiff Giant, one of the most famous American hoaxes, discovered.
- 1869 - England's first residential college for women, Girton College, Cambridge, is founded.
- 1882 - The Nickel Plate Railroad opens for business.
- 1906 - The Captain of Köpenick fools the city hall of Köpenick and several soldiers by impersonating a Prussian officer.
- 1912 - Bulgarian pilots Radul Milkov and Prodan Toprakchiev perform the first bombing with an airplane in history.
- 1934 - Chinese Communists begin the Long March; it ended a year and four days later, by which time Mao Zedong had regained his title as party chairman.
- 1940 - Benjamin O. Davis Sr. named first African American general in the United States Army
- 1940 - Warsaw Ghetto established
- 1946 - Ten war criminals of the Second World War, condemned in the Nuremberg trials hanged.
- 1949 - Nikos Zakhiariadis, leader of the Communist Party of Greece, announces a "temporary cease-fire", effectively ending the Greek Civil War.
- 1951 - The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in Rawalpindi
- 1964 - People's Republic of China detonates its first nuclear weapon
- 1968 - United States athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos are kicked out of the USA's team for performing a Black Power salute during a medal ceremony.
- 1968 - Kingston, Jamaica is rocked by the Rodney Riots, inspired by the barring of Walter Rodney from the country.
- 1969 - United States - The "miracle" New York Mets win the World Series.
- 1970 - Anwar Sadat elected President of Egypt
- 1970 - Canada - In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act.
- 1972 - Rainbow, a British television programme for children, debuts.
- 1973 - Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1975 - The Balibo Five, a group of Australian television journalists based in the town of Balibo in the then Portuguese Timor (now East Timor), are killed by Indonesian troops.
- 1978 - Karol Józef Wojtyła becomes Pope John Paul II
- 1984 - Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1987 - Great Storm of 1987: hurricane force winds to hit much of the South of England killing 23 people.
- 1991 - George Hennard runs amok in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 19 in Luby's Cafeteria.
- 1991 - Jharkhand Chhatra Yuva Morcha is founded at a conference in Ranchi, India.
- 1992 - Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson files a 1.4 million USD lawsuit against French tabloids for running topless photos taken of her on the French Riviera, including some of Texas millionaire John Bryan suckling on her toes.
- 1995 - The Million Man March occurs in Washington, DC.
- 1996 - 84 are killed and more than 180 injured as 47,000 soccer fans attempt to squeeze into the 36,000-seat Mateo Flores Stadium in Guatemala City.
- 2000 - InuYasha debuts in Japan
- 2001 - U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: U.S. warplanes mistakenly bomb International Red Cross warehouse in Kabul, Afghanistan .
- 2002 - Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, is officially inaugurated.
- 2005 - The Millions More March occurs in Washington, DC.
- 2005 - Four millions of people participate to the Unione's primary election in Italy.

Births


- 1430 - King James II of Scotland (d. 1460)
- 1483 - Gasparo Contarini, Italian diplomat and cardinal (d. 1542)
- 1535 - Niwa Nagahide, Japanese warlord (d. 1585)
- 1663 - Eugene of Savoy, French-born Austrian general (d. 1736)
- 1710 - Andreas Hadik, Austro-Hungarian general (d. 1790)
- 1714 - Giovanni Arduino, Italian geologist (d. 1795)
- 1726 - Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish painter (d. 1801)
- 1758 - Noah Webster, American lexicographer (d. 1843)
- 1815 - Francis Lubbock, Governor of Texas (d. 1905)
- 1840 - Kuroda Kiyotaka, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1900)
- 1841 - Prince Hirobumi Ito, Japanese governor of Korea (d. 1909)
- 1854 - Oscar Wilde, Irish writer (d. 1900)
- 1861 - J. B. Bury, Irish historian (d. 1927)
- 1863 - Austen Chamberlain, English statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1937)
- 1878 - Maxey Long, American athlete (d. 1959)
- 1886 - David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1973)
- 1888 - Eugene O'Neill, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1953)
- 1888 - Paul Popenoe, American activist (d. 1979)
- 1890 - Michael Collins, Irish patriot (d. 1922)
- 1890 - Paul Strand, American photographer (d. 1975)
- 1898 - William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1980)
- 1900 - Primo Conti, Italian painter (d. 1988)
- 1903 - Cecile de Brunhoff, French storyteller (d. 2003)
- 1908 - Enver Hoxha, Albanian dictator (d.1985)
- 1914 - Zahir Shah, King of Afghanistan
- 1918 - Louis Althusser, French Marxist philosopher (d. 1990)
- 1919 - Kathleen Winsor, American writer (d. 2003)
- 1925 - Angela Lansbury, English-born actress
- 1927 - Günter Grass, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1928 - Mary Daly, feminist
- 1931 - Charles Colson, American Watergate conspirator
- 1936 - Andrei Chikatilo, Russian serial killer
- 1940 - Barry Corbin, American actor
- 1940 - Dave DeBusschere, American basketball player (d. 2003)
- 1941 - Tim McCarver, baseball player and terrible baseball commentator
- 1946 - Suzanne Somers, American actress
- 1947 - Terry Griffiths, Welsh snooker player
- 1947 - Bob Weir, American musician (Grateful Dead)
- 1952 - Boogie Mosson, American musician (P Funk)
- 1952 - Ron Taylor, American actor (d. 2002)
- 1953 - Paulo Roberto Falcão, Brazilian footballer
- 1958 - Tim Robbins, American actor, director, and writer
- 1959 - Gary Kemp, British musician and actor
- 1959 - Erkki-Sven Tüür, Estonian composer
- 1962 - Flea, Australian musician (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
- 1962 - Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Russian baritone
- 1965 - Steve Lamacq, British journalist and disc jockey
- 1972 - Tomas Lindberg, Swedish musician (At The Gates)
- 1974 - Paul Kariya, Canadian hockey player
- 1977 - John Mayer, American musician
- 1980 - Sue Bird, American basketball player
- 1987 - Simerjit Phagura, Indian Queen, "U No"

Deaths


- 1553 - Lucas Cranach the Elder, German painter (b. 1472)
- 1555 - Hugh Latimer, English protestant (martyred)
- 1591 - Pope Gregory XIV (b. 1535)
- 1594 - William Cardinal Allen, English Catholic cardinal (b. 1532)
- 1621 - Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Dutch composer (b. 1562)
- 1628 - François de Malherbe, French poet and critic (b. 1555)
- 1649 - Isaac van Ostade, Dutch painter (b. 1621)
- 1655 - Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Italian physician, mathematician, and music theorist (b. 1591)
- 1750 - Sylvius Leopold Weiss, German composer and lutenist (b. 1687)
- 1781 - Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, British naval officer (b. 1705)
- 1793 - Marie Antoinette, Queen of France (executed) (b. 1755)
- 1796 - Victor Amadeus III of Savoy (b. 1726)
- 1865 - Andrés Bello, Venezuelan poet, lawmaker, philosopher, and sociologist (b. 1781)
- 1877 - Theodore Barrière, French dramatist (b. 1823)
- 1888 - John Wentworth, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1815)
- 1893 - Patrice MacMahon, duc de Magenta, President of France (b. 1808)
- 1937 - Jean de Brunhoff, French writer (b. 1899)
- 1946 - Hans Frank, German war criminal (b. 1900)
- 1946 - Wilhelm Frick, German war criminal (b. 1877)
- 1946 - Alfred Jodl, German military officer (b. 1890)
- 1946 - Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian SS officer (b. 1903)
- 1946 - Wilhelm Keitel, German military officer (b. 1882)
- 1946 - Joachim von Ribbentrop, German politician (b. 1893)
- 1946 - Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi ideologist (b. 1893)
- 1946 - Fritz Sauckel, German war criminal (b. 1892)
- 1946 - Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian Nazi leader (b. 1894)
- 1946 - Julius Streicher, German propagandist (b. 1887)
- 1951 - Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1896)
- 1959 - George Marshall, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1880)
- 1962 - Gaston Bachelard, French philosopher and poet (b. 1884)
- 1966 - George O'Hara, American actor (b. 1899)
- 1972 - Hale Boggs, U.S. Congressman from Louisiana (b. 1914)
- 1972 - Leo G. Carroll, English actor (b. 1892)
- 1973 - Gene Krupa, American musician (b. 1909)
- 1978 - Dan Dailey, American actor (b. 1913)
- 1979 - Johan Borgen, Norwegian author (b. 1903)
- 1981 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli general (b. 1915)
- 1983 - Jakov Gotovac, Croatian composer (b. 1895)
- 1986 - Arthur Grumiaux, Belgian violinist (b. 1921)
- 1989 - Cornel Wilde, American actor (b. 1915)
- 1990 - Art Blakey, American jazz drummer (b. 1919)
- 1992 - Shirley Booth, American actress (b. 1898)
- 1994 - Raul Julia, American actor (b. 1940)
- 1996 - Eric Malpass, English novelist (b. 1910)
- 1996 - Jason Bernard, American actor (b. 1938)
- 1997 - James Michener, American writer
- 1998 - Jon Postel, American Internet pioneer (b. 1943)
- 1999 - Jean Shepherd, American writer and actor (b. 1921)
- 2000 - Mel Carnahan, American politician (b. 1934)
- 2002 - Angela Dawson, American activist
- 2003 - Avni Arbas, Turkish artist (b. 1919)
- 2003 - Stu Hart, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1915)
- 2003 - László Papp, Hungarian boxer (b. 1926)
- 2004 - Pierre Salinger, John F. Kennedy's White House Press Secretary (b. 1925)
- 2005 - Len Dresslar, American singer and voice actor (b. 1925)

Holidays and observances


- R.C. Saints - Saint Hedwig of Andechs; Saint Margaret Marie Alacoque; Saint Gall
- Also see October 16 (Easter Orthodox liturgics)
- Bahá'í Faith – Feast of 'Ilm (Knowledge) - First day of the 12th month of the Bahá'í Calendar
- United Nations - World Food Day
- United States - World Food Prize Day, apparently a.k.a. Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Day in Iowa and Minnesota; National Feral Cat Day; Boss's Day

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/16 BBC: On This Day] ---- October 15 - October 17 - September 16 - November 16 - more historical anniversaries ko:10월 16일 ms:16 Oktober ja:10月16日 simple:October 16 th:16 ตุลาคม

8 March

March 8 is the 67th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (68th in Leap years). There are 298 days remaining.

Events


- 1618 - Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion (he soon rejects the idea after some initial calculations were made but later on May 15 confirms the discovery).
- 1702 - Very unexpectedly, Anne Stuart, the sister of the childless Mary II, becomes Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland after the death of William III of Orange from injuries he suffered in a fall from his horse.
- 1782 - Gnadenhütten massacre: Almost 100 Native Americans in Gnadenhutten, Ohio had their skulls crushed with a mallet by Pennsylvanian militiamen in a mass murder.
- 1844 - King Oscar I ascends to the throne of Sweden-Norway
- 1862 - American Civil War: The iron-clad CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack) is launched at Hampton Roads, Virginia.
- 1884 - Susan B. Anthony testifies before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives arguing for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote.
- 1906 - Moro Crater Massacre: US troops occupying the Philippines massacre about 600 men, women and children taking refuge in a crater.
- 1911 - International Women's Day is celebrated for the first time.
- 1917 - The February Revolution breaks out in Russia (February 23 O.S.).
- 1917 - The United States Senate adopts the cloture rule in order to limit filibusters.
- 1918 - The first case of Spanish flu occurs, the start of a devastating pandemic.
- 1921 - Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato is assassinated while exiting the parliament building in Madrid.
- 1936 - The first stock car race is held in Daytona Beach, Florida.
- 1942 - World War II: The Dutch surrender to Japanese forces on Java.
- 1942 - World War II: Japan captures Rangoon, Burma.
- 1943 - World War II: Japanese troops counter-attack American forces on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that will last five days.
- 1948 - The United States Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools violated the Constitution.
- 1950 - The Soviet Union claims to have an atomic bomb.
- 1952 - Antoine Pinay becomes Prime Minister of France
- 1957 - Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal.
- 1959 - Last television appearance of The Marx Brothers, in The Incredible Jewel Robbery
- 1961 - Max Conrad circumnavigates the earth in eight days, 18 hours and 49 minutes setting a new world record.
- 1965 -