On January 17, 1917 –The Virgin Islands are bought from Denmark for $25,000,000. The islands are an important strategic base guarding the Panama Canal. 1942 – The convoy PQ-8 is
On January 17, 1917 –The Virgin Islands are bought from Denmark for $25,000,000. The islands are an important strategic base guarding the Panama Canal.
1942 – The convoy PQ-8 is attacked by U-Boats. This is the first such attack on an Arctic convoy. One destroyer and one merchantman are sunk by U-454.
1951 – Eighth Army re-entered Suwon. This was the most favorable entry in Eighth Army’s journal since the Chinese intervention in the war in late November 1950.
1951 – A 4th FIG detachment began operating from Taegu, restoring F-86 operations in Korea. For the first time, the Sabres flew in the air-to-ground role as fighter-bombers, conducting armed reconnaissance and close air support missions. Far East Air Forces temporarily suspended Tarzon bombing missions because of a shortage of the radio-guided bombs. Only three, earmarked for emergencies, remained in the theater.
1953 – The 98th BW attacked the Pyongyang radio installation, which was forty-two feet underground and only a thousand feet from a possible POW camp. The eleven B-29s scored eight to ten hits with 2,000-pound general-purpose bombs, but these did not penetrate deeply enough to destroy the radio station.
1955 – USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the first nuclear-powered submarine, is commissioned and sends message “underway on nuclear power”
1971 – Led by South Vietnamese Lt. Gen. Do Cao Tri, and with U.S. air support and advisers, some 300 paratroopers raid a communist prisoner of war camp near the town of Mimot in Cambodia on information that 20 U.S. prisoners were being held there. They found the camp empty, but captured 30 enemy soldiers and sustained no casualties.
1990 – A federal judge in Miami set March 1990 for the trial of ex-Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega on drug trafficking charges. After initial delays, Noriega was tried and convicted of racketeering and conspiracy to distribute cocaine, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison, later cut to 30 years.
1998 – US military began to clear away over 50,000 land mines around Guantanamo Naval base.
