This Day in US Military History

30 August

1780 – General Benedict Arnold betrayed the US when he promised secretly to surrender the fort at West Point to the British army. Arnold whose name has become synonymous with traitor fled to England after the botched conspiracy. His co-conspirator, British spy Major John Andre, was hanged.

1945 – A proclamation to the German people is signed today formally announcing the establishment of the Allied Control Council and its assumption of supreme authority in Germany.

1952 - As a pair of Northrop F-89 Scorpions of the 27th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, Griffiss AFB, New York, perform a flypast, Northrop F-89C-30-NO, 51-5781, disintegrates in flight during a display at the International Aviation Exposition at Detroit-Wayne Major Airport, Detroit, Michigan, killing the Scorpion pilot, Maj. Donald E. Adams, a Korean war jet ace (6.5 kills), radar operator Capt. Kelly, and one spectator. Cause was found to be from severe torsional aeroelastic problems that led to all F-89Cs being grounded and returned to the factory for wing structural redesign.

1955 – A Vought F7U-3 Cutlass, BuNo 129592, of VF-124, misses all the wires during a landing aboard USS Hancock (CVA-19), operating off of Hawaii, and hits the barrier. "Although reported to have suffered only slight damage, it was struck off charge and never flew again."

1966 – Test pilot Pete Knight flew the X-15 to 30,541 meters (100,200 feet) and Mach 5.21.

1984 - A United States Navy North American T-2C Buckeye crashes into the Chesapeake Bay shortly after take-off from NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, killing the student and seriously injuring the instructor.
 
31 August

1803 – Captain Meriwether Lewis left Pittsburgh to meet up with Captain William Clark and begin their trek to the Pacific Ocean.

1862 - PSS W. B. Terry was a Union stern-wheel transport steamer of 175 tons, used as an armed dispatch boat with two 6-pounder Parrotts. She was built in 1856 at Belle Vernon, Pa.

On August 21st, 1861 W. B. Terry was captured at Paducah, Ky. by the USS Lexington for trafficking with the Confederacy and flying a Confederate flag.

She was later captured by the Confederates and used to ferry troops across the Tennessee River.

On August 31st, 1862, W. B. Terry PSS ran aground 20 feet from shore at the foot of the Duck River Sucks while going up the Tennessee River. She was subsequently stripped of her furniture and burned.

1863 – Sumter was a Confederate troop transport of 212 tons, built in 1860 at New Albany, Ind.

In the night of August 31, 1863, while transporting over 600 troops to Charleston, Sumter was accidentally shelled and sunk by Confederate fire from Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg, mistaking her for a Union ship.

Sumter hit a shoal at the end of Fort Sumter and sank with at least forty killed, one wounded, and eight missing. More than 600 officers and men were saved by barges from Fort Sumter and nearby Confederate gunboats. Most of the Confederate equipment aboard was lost. The wreck was later used as a target practice.

1865 – The US Federal government estimated the American Civil War had cost about eight-billion dollars. Human costs have been estimated at more than one-million killed or wounded.

1921 - U.S. Navy airship D-6, A5972, with a C-type envelope built by Goodyear in 1920 and a special enclosed car built by the Naval Aircraft Factory, is destroyed in a Naval Air Station Rockaway hangar gasoline fire along with two small dirigibles, the C-10 and the Goodyear airship H-1, A5973, the sole H-model, a powered two-seat observation balloon built along the lines of the commercial Goodyear "Pony Blimp", and the kite balloon A-P.

1925 - U.S. Navy Naval Aircraft Factory PN-9, BuNo A-6878, '1', flying boat disappears on a flight from San Francisco to Hawaii with reported loss of crew. The PN-9 was not actually lost, it was just overdue. After staying in the air for 25 hours and covering 1,841 of the 2,400 miles to Pearl Harbor, it landed safely at sea, the crew under command of Commander John Rodgers, Naval Aviator No. 2, rigged sails from fabric from the lower wing and sailed the final 450 miles, reaching Kauai on 10 September. This stood as a seaplane distance flight record for several years. Aircraft is repaired and shipped to San Diego, California.

1939 – At noon, despite threats of British and French intervention, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler signs an order to attack Poland, and German forces move to the frontier.

1943 - Boeing B-17F-50-BO Flying Fortress, 42-5451, of the 582d Bomb Squadron, 393d Bomb Group, piloted by James A. McRaven,
crashes two miles NE of Kearney Army Air Field, Nebraska, during a routine training flight, killing all eight crew. The 393d was reassigned to Kearney AAF from Sioux City AAB, Iowa, this date.

1945 – General MacArthur establishes the supreme allied command at the main port of Tokyo, as the first foreigner to take charge of Japan in 1000 years.

1945 – The remaining Japanese troops in the Philippines formally surrender.

1945 – The Japanese garrison on Marcus Island surrenders to the American Admiral Whiting.

1949 – Six of the 16 surviving Union veterans of the Civil War attended the last-ever encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, held in Indianapolis, Indiana.

1951 – The former enemies of the world war reconvened in San Francisco to finalize negotiations on the peace treaty to formally end WW II.

1954 - Sole Cessna XL-19B Bird Dog, 52-1804, c/n 22780A, modified with Boeing XT-50-BO-1 210 shp turboprop engine, crashes 2 miles (3.2 km) W of Sedgwick, Kansas.

1954 – Under terms of the Geneva Agreement, a flow of almost one million refugees from North to South Vietnam begins.

1955 – Secretary of State John Foster Dulles supports South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem’s position regarding his refusal to hold “national and general elections” to reunify the two Vietnam states. Although these elections were called for by the Geneva Accords of July 1954, Diem and his supporters in the United States realized that if the elections were held, Ho Chi Minh and the more populous north would probably win, thereby reuniting Vietnam under the Communist banner. Accordingly, he refused to hold the elections and the separation of North and South soon became permanent.

1956 - Fourteenth Lockheed U-2A, 56-6687, Article 354, delivered to the Central Intelligence Agency 27 July 1956. Crashed at Groom Lake, Nevada this date during a night training flight, killing pilot Frank G. Grace, Jr. Pilot became disoriented by lights near the end of the runway and flew into a telephone pole.

1956 - Boeing WB-50D Superfortress, 49–315, c/n 16091, "The Golden Heart", (built as a B-50D-115-BO), of the 58th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, out of Eielson AFB, Alaska, crashed early in the morning this date on a sandy island in the Susitna River, 50 miles NW of Anchorage, Alaska, killing all 11 crew. The flight was last heard from at 0302 hrs., local time, when it was over Talkeetna, a check-in station 50 miles N of the ten-mile-long island. The wreckage was found about 5 1/2 hours later by a member of the 71st Air Rescue Squadron. "All that remained when helicopters landed at the crash scene was a smoking pile of rubble."

1957 – USAF Douglas C-124C Globemaster II, 52-1021, operated by the 1st Strategic Squadron, crashes while on an instrument approach to Biggs Air Force Base in El Paso, Texas, USA, in bad weather after a flight from Hunter AFB near Savannah, Georgia, USA. 5 aircrew are killed, 10 injured.

1961 – A concrete wall replaced the barbed wire fence that separated East and West Germany, it would be called the Berlin wall.

1962 – The last two ZPG-3W US Navy airships made a ceremonial last flight over Lakehurst — the base log noted, "This flight terminates operation of non-rigid airships at Lakehurst."

1963 - At a meeting of the National Security Council, Paul Kattenburg became the first known American official to propose withdrawal from Vietnam. He had traveled to South Vietnam many times on State Department business in the 1950s and early 1960s, and he became convinced that the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem would never survive and that the Vietcong would ultimately prevail. His recommendation was summarily rejected by Dean Rusk and Robert McNamara, and Kattenburg was promptly cut off from the advisory-decision-making process on Vietnam.

1990 – East & West Germany signed a treaty to reunite legally & politically.

1991 - A Tomahawk missile launched from a warship in the Gulf of Mexico to recover on a target on the test ranges at Eglin AFB, Florida, misses by ~100 miles, coming down eight miles E of Jackson, Alabama, ~60 miles N of Mobile. "Within minutes of the missile's falling near Jackson, a recovery team arrived by helicopter. Such teams are stationed along the missile's flight path during a test so they can get to a crash scene within 20 minutes no matter where the Tomahawk goes down."

Cause was found to be two incorrect screws used to assemble a tailfin, said Denny Kline, a Pentagon spokesman for the Navy Cruise Missile Project, on 13 December 1991. A screw, rubbing against an actuator coil disabled one of the missile's two fins. "Somebody during assembly put two screws in, which were moderately too long. Well, in fact, in this case extremely too long because it physically made contact with a coil. It was fine for the first one hour and 21 minutes, but over time it wore away the protective coating and got down to the wound part of the coil and shorted it out," said Kline. As a result, one fin worked properly but the other did not when the missile was to make a pre-planned turn causing it to crash in Alabama. The wrong screws were put in by General Dynamics Corp., said Susan Boyd, Pentagon spokeswoman for the missile program. Four Tomahawks have landed in civilian areas since the Navy began the gulf tests in 1985. There have been no injuries.
 
1 September

1781 – French fleet traps British fleet at Yorktown, VA.

1807 – Former U.S. vice president Aaron Burr is acquitted of plotting to annex parts of Louisiana and Spanish territory in Mexico to be used toward the establishment of an independent republic. He was acquitted on the grounds that, though he had conspired against the United States, he was not guilty of treason because he had not engaged in an “overt act,” a requirement of the law governing treason.

1821 – William Becknell led a group of traders from Independence, Mo., toward Santa Fe on what would become the Santa Fe Trail.

1849 – California Constitutional Convention was held in Monterey.

1864 - PSS William V. Gillum was a Union side wheel paddle steamer built in 1855 at New Albany, Indiana and was of 70 tons carrying a cargo of lumber from New Orleans to Matamoras, Mexico. She ran aground and was wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico on the 1st September 1864. Officers and crew were rescued by the Mexican schooner Cory.

1866 – Manuelito, the last Navaho chief, turned himself in at Fort Wingate, New Mexico.

1930 - Curtiss XF6C-6 racer, A-7147, crashes during the Thompson Trophy race in Chicago, Illinois, killing U.S. Marine Corps pilot Capt. Arthur H. Page. The only military entry, Page gained and increased an early lead but on the 17th of 20 laps, crashed to his death, a victim of carbon monoxide poisoning. The Marine flying field at Parris Island, South Carolina, is named Page Field in his honor.

1939 – At 0445 hours German forces invade Poland without a declaration of war.

1941 – U.S. assumes responsibility for trans-Atlantic convoys from Argentia, Canada to the meridian of Iceland. The US Atlantic Fleet announces the formation of the Denmark Strait Patrol. Two heavy cruisers and four destroyers are allocated for to the force. The US Navy is now permitted to escort convoys in the Atlantic containing American merchant vessels.

1942 – A federal judge in Sacramento, Calif., upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals.

1943 - "Great Falls, Mont., Sept. 2. (AP) - Ten crew members of a four-engined bomber from the Great Falls army air base, were killed early today when the ship crashed five miles east of Fort Benton, were identified tonight by Capt. John R. Lloyd, base public relations officer, as follows: Sergeant Robert H. Hall, Coldwater, Mich.; Sergeant John T. Huff, Cherokee, Kan.; Sergeant Carl E. Lower, Van Wert, Ohio; Sergeant Chester W. Peko, Throop, Pa.; Private First Class Paul Peterson, Colfax, Wis.; Sergeant Curio C. Thrementi, Vassar, Mich.; Lieutenant Harold L. Wonders, Waterloo, Iowa; Lieutenant Warren H. Maginn, Glendale, Los Angeles; Lieutenant Jack Y. Fisk, Los Angeles, and Lieutenant Arnold J. Gardiner, New York. The crash occurred during a routine training flight." Boeing B-17F-35-BO Flying Fortress, 42-5128, of the 612th Bomb Squadron, 401st Bomb Group, was flown by Lt. Maginn.

1945 – Americans received word of Japan’s formal surrender that ended World War II. Because of the time difference, it was Sept. 2 in Tokyo Bay, where the ceremony took place.

1950 – US Air Force Captain Iven C. Kincheloe, 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, claimed his fifth air-to-air victory in his F-86 Sabre “Ivan” to become the 10th ace of the Korean War. Kincheloe accounted for four MiGs in six days.

1951 – At the Presidio in San Francisco, the US, Australia, and New Zealand signed the ANZUS Pact, a joint security alliance to govern their relations.

1952 - Several tornados sweep across Carswell AFB, Texas destroying Convair B-36B Peacemaker, 44-92051, and damaging 82 others of the 11th Bomb Group, 7th Bomb Wing, including ten at the Convair plant on the other side of the Fort Worth base. Gen. Curtis LeMay is forced to remove the 19th Air Division from the war plan, and the base went on an 84-hour work week until repairs were made. 26 B-36s were returned to Convair for repairs, and the last aircraft deemed repairable was airborne again on 11 May 1953.

1961 – The Soviet Union ended a moratorium on atomic testing with an above-ground nuclear explosion in central Asia.

1970 - A Vought F-8J Crusader, BuNo 150329, of VF-24 suffers ramp strike on the USS Hancock (CVA-19) and explodes during night carrier qualifications, killing Lt. Darrell N. Eggert.

1974 – The SR-71 Blackbird sets (and holds) the record for flying from New York to London in the time of 1 hour, 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds at a speed of 1,435.587 miles per hour (2,310.353 km/h).

1974 - The Sikorsky S-67 Blackhawk company demonstrator N671SA crashed while attempting to recover from a roll at too low an altitude during its display at the Farnborough Air Show, United Kingdom, killing its two crew.

1982 – The United States Air Force Space Command is established.

1983 – A Korean Air Lines Boeing 747-230B (HL-7442, flight 007), was shot down over Sakhalin Island by AA-3 Anab missiles fired by a Soviet Su-15 Flagon piloted by Gennadi N. Osipovich. The aircraft was off-course, likely due to a navigation error and had already overflown the Kamchatka Pennisula. All 23 crew and 246 passengers (including US Congressman Lawrence McDonald from Georgia) were killed.

1985 - A U.S. Navy Boeing Vertol CH-46D Sea Knight, BuNo 151918, '72', crashed on takeoff due to an engine failure aboard the destroyer USS Fife (DD-991) in the Indian Ocean. The helicopter struck the Sea Sparrow launcher. Quick response of Fife´s damage control team extinguished the fires and secured the helicopter which was hanging from the side of the destroyer below the helicopter deck. All 16 crew and passengers aboard escaped without major injuries. The helicopter was assigned to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 11 (HC-11) Det. 6 aboard the combat stores ship USS Mars (AFS-1).

2012 - A USMC McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C Hornet crashed in a remote range area of the Fallon Range Training Complex. The pilot ejected from the aircraft safely.

2014 - A United States Marine Corps Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter crashed in the Gulf of Aden whilst attempting to land on USS Mesa Verde (LPD-19). All 25 people on board were rescued.
 
2 September

1789 – Although the United States Treasury Department was founded on September 2, 1789, its roots can be traced back to the American Revolution.

1859 – The solar storm of 1859 (also known as the Carrington Event) affects electrical telegraph service.

1862 - PSS Gypsy was a Union stern wheel paddle steamer of 113 tons. She ran aground and was wrecked in the Sacramento River, 20 miles south of Sacramento, California.

1863 - SS Rinaldo was a Confederate small steamer that was captured by the Union 17th Wis. Infantry Regiment under Col. A. G. Malloy and burned on September 2nd, 1863, at Trinity, Louisiana.

1864 - SS Scioto was a Union screw steamer of 389 tons, built in 1848 at Huron, Ohio that collided with the CSS Arctic on September 2nd, 1864 and sank at Dunkirk, New York.

1940 – Following the agreement made in July and later detailed negotiations, a deal is now ratified between Britain and the USA by which Britain gets 50 old destroyers, veterans of World War I, but desperately needed for escort work, in return for bases granted to the United States in the West Indies and Bermuda.

1943 - "Sioux City, Iowa, Sept. 3. (AP) - All 10 crew members of an army bomber from the Sioux City air base were killed when their plane crashed five miles from the base last night while on a routine training flight. The dead included Second Lieutenant Earl G. Adkinson, Portland, Ore., and Sergeant Robert Hunter, Eufaula, Okla." Consolidated B-24E-25-FO Liberator, 42-7237, c/n 261, of the 703d Bomb Squadron, 445th Bomb Group, flown by Lt. "Atkinson", according to the crash report, crashed one mile E of the base.

1943 - Boeing B-17F-40-VE Flying Fortress, 42-5977, of the 540th Bomb Squadron (Heavy), 383d Bomb Group (Heavy), Geiger Field, Washington, on a routine local flight with three aboard, piloted by Robert P. Ferguson, clips the tops of trees for several blocks, crashes into scrub pines two miles S of Geiger Field and burns. Only three were on the bomber, said a report by Lt. R. E. Reed, public relations officer at the field. Names were withheld pending notification of next of kin.

1944 – Navy pilot George Herbert Walker Bush was shot down by Japanese forces as he completed a bombing run over the Bonin Islands. Bush was rescued by the crew of USS Finback (SS-230); his two crew members, however, died.

1945 – Aboard the USS Missouri (BB-63) in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II.

1945 – Hours after Japan’s surrender, Ho Chi Minh declares the independence of Vietnam from France.

The proclamation paraphrased the U.S. Declaration of Independence in declaring, “All men are born equal: the Creator has given us inviolable rights, life, liberty, and happiness!” and was cheered by an enormous crowd gathered in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh Square. It would be 30 years, however, before Ho’s dream of a united Vietnam became reality.

1945 - "The Navy and the Marine Corps last night (7 September) disclosed that a Marine lieutenant flying a Hellcat pursuit plane has been missing in the Mojave Desert since Sunday. Daily searches by Army, Navy and Marine planes have yielded no trace of the missing ship or its pilot, First Lt. Herbert L. Libbey of Tomaston, [sic] Maine. Lieutenant Libbey left Las Vegas, Nev., at 4:15 p.m. Sunday en route to the Marine Corps air base at Mojave. He was last seen flying over Searles Lake, near Trona. -The country between Searles lake and Mojave is sparsely inhabited and includes large tracts not reached by roads or trails. Persons with any clues to the whereabouts of the plane or pilot have been asked to telephone Mojave 140 collect; or Franklin 7321 at San Diego. The military search for Lieutenant Libbey has been carried out over a constantly-widening territory, much of it far off of the supposed line of flight. The Navy public information office of the eleventh naval district at San Diego indicated that points as far distant as the Inyo and Colorado deserts and various desert mountain ranges were being searched. No ground hunt has been made." Lt. Libbey had flown F6Fs with VMF-124 from USS Essex (CV-9). F6F-5, BuNo 71033, of VMF-255, wreck found 13 June 1957. 1st Lt. Herbert Lee Libbey lost his life when he crashed 20 miles N of Wildrose Ranger Station in the Panamint mountains.

1958 - A US Air Force C-130A Hercules (60-528) of the 7406 CSS, flying from Adana Turkey, was shot down near Sasnashen, Soviet Armenia, about 55 kilometers northwest of the Armenian capital of Yerevan by Soviet MiG-17 Fresco pilots Gavrilov, Ivanov, Kucheryaev and Viktor Lopatkov. The C-130 was a Sun Valley SIGINT aircraft. The remains of John E. Simpson, Rudy J. Swiestra, Edward J. Jeruss and Ricardo M. Vallareal were returned to the US on September 24, 1958. The remains of the other crew members, Paul E. Duncan, George P. Petrochilos, Arthur L. Mello, Leroy Price, Robert J. Oshinskie, Archie T. Bourg Jr., James E. Fergueson, Joel H. Fields, Harold T. Kamps, Gerald C. Maggiacomo, Clement O. Mankins, Gerald H. Medeiros and Robert H. Moore were recovered in 1998.

1965 – Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 73,091 meters (239,812 feet) and Mach 5.16.

1966 - A U.S. Navy Grumman F-11A Tiger, BuNo 141764, of the Blue Angels aerobatic team, Blue Angel 5, crashes on the shore of Lake Ontario during the International Air Exhibition at Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The pilot, Lieutenant Commander Richard "Dick" Oliver, 31 years old, of Fort Mill, South Carolina, is killed. Coming out of a knife edge pass, followed by a roll, 5 contacts the lake surface at ~500 mph and literally skis across the surface, striking a six-foot high sheet steel piling retaining wall on the edge of Toronto Island Airport and disintegrating. Wreckage (turbine) is thrown as far as 3,483.6 feet from point of initial impact.

1987 - A Schweizer RG-8A, 85-0048, c/n 4, ex-civil registration N3623C, modified Schweizer SGS 2-32 motor glider for U.S. Army Grisly Hunter reconnaissance project. Crashed at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, killing the two-man crew.

1991 – President Bush formally recognized the independence of the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

1993 – The United States and Russia formally ended decades of competition in space by agreeing to a joint venture to build a space station.

1996 – The US launched cruise missiles at selected air defense targets in Iraq to discourage Sadam Hussein’s military moves against a Kurd faction.

2004 – Former YTLX-318 was a US Navy tug that was used as a target 750nm SE of Hilo, Hawaii.

2015 - A U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter from Fort Carson Army base crashes during a training mission in a wooded area of Douglas County, Colorado. All four people aboard are rescued and transported for medical treatment.
 
3 September

1609 – Henry Hudson discovered the island of Manhattan.

1752 – The Gregorian Adjustment to the calendar was put into effect in Great Britain and the American colonies followed. At this point in time 11 days needed to be accounted for and Sept. 2 was selected to be followed by Sept. 14. People rioted thinking the government stole 11 days of their lives.

1777 – The American flag is flown in battle for the first time, during a Revolutionary War skirmish at Cooch’s Bridge, Maryland.

1782 – As a token of gratitude for French aid during American Revolution, the U.S. gives 74-gun ship-of-the-line America (first ship-of-the-line built by U.S.) to France to replace a French ship lost in Boston.

1783 – The Treaty of Paris between the United States and Great Britain officially ended the Revolutionary War.

1864 - SS Gillum a Union cargo ship, was on a voyage from New Orleans to Matamoros, Mexico, when wrecked at Sabine Pass, Port Arthur, Texas. The crew was rescued by USS Circassian and schooner Cora.

1826 – Sloop-of-war USS Vincennes left NY to become the first US Navy warship to circumnavigate the globe.

1908 – Orville Wright began two weeks of flight trials that impressed onlookers with his complete control of his new Type A Military Flyer. In addition to setting an altitude record of 310 feet and an endurance record of more than one hour, he had carried aloft the first military observer, Lieutenant Frank Lahm.

1925 - U.S. Navy airship, USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), crashed after encountering thunderstorms near Ava, Ohio after an in-flight break up due to “cloud suck” about 0445 hrs. Fourteen of 43 aboard are killed. The ship's commanding officer, Lt. Cdr. Zachery Lansdowne is killed on what was to have been his final flight before reassignment to sea duty.

1934 – A Fokker Y1O-27, 31-599, of the 12th Observation Squadron, Brooks Field, Texas, crashes 5 miles W of Danville, Louisiana, which community is four miles W of Hodge, after starboard engine loses power. Pilot Cadet Neil M. Caldwell and passenger Pvt. Betz Baker die in crash and fire, passenger Pvt. Virgil K. Martin, riding in rear cockpit, survives with minor injuries. This aircraft has previously ditched in San Diego Bay, California on 16 December 1932.

1939 – In response to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation declare war on Germany.

1943 – Italy surrendered. The Allied invasion of Italy begins on the same day that U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio sign the Armistice of Cassibile aboard the Royal Navy battleship HMS Nelson off Malta.

1944 – First combat employment of a missile guided by radio and television takes place when a Navy drone Liberator, controlled by Ensign James M. Simpson in a PV, flew to attack German submarine pens on Helgoland Island.

1945 – General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the Japanese commander of the Philippines, surrendered to Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright at Baguio.

1945 – Japanese surrender Wake Island in ceremony on board USS Levy (DE-162).

1948 - The only Silverplate Boeing B-29 Superfortress to be part of the strike package on both atomic missions over Japan, Boeing B-29-40-MO Superfortress, 44-27353, "The Great Artiste", of the 509th Composite Group, deployed to Goose Bay Air Base, Labrador for polar navigation training, aborts routine training flight due to an engine problem, makes downwind landing, touches down halfway down runway, overruns onto unfinished extension, ground loops to avoid tractor. Structural damage at wing joint so severe that Superfortress never flies again. Despite historic significance, airframe is scrapped at Goose Bay in September 1949.

1954 – U-505 begins its move from a specially constructed dock to its final site at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.

1954 – The US Espionage & Sabotage Act of 1954 signed.

1964 – Test pilot Milton Thompson flew the X-15 to 23,957 meters (78,600 feet) and Mach 5.35.

1975 - A USAF Boeing B-52G Stratofortress, 57-6493, of the 68th Bomb Wing, Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, crashed near Aiken, South Carolina, when the aircraft suffered major structural failure due to a major fuel leak with the right wing separating between the third and fourth engine nacelles, the wing then shearing off the horizontal stabilizer. The bomber rolled inverted and broke apart.

Witnesses described it as a "ball of fire" which then plunged into a wooded area. Wreckage was spread over a 10-mile area. Four crewmembers successfully ejected, three KWF. The aircraft was on a routine training mission and was carrying no weapons. The Federal Aviation Administration, which was monitoring the flight, said the bomber was last reported flying at an altitude of 28,000 feet. Killed were 1st Lt. Grady E. Rudolph, 26, of Lafayette, Indiana; 1st Lt. Melvin E. Bewley, Jr., 25, of Birmingham, Alabama; and Sgt. Ricky K. Griffith, 21, of Cedarville, New Jersey. Survivors were Capt. James A. Perry, 29, of Princeton, West Virginia; Capt. Donnell Exum, 27, Smithfield, North Carolina; Capt. Gregory A. Watts, 27, Morganton, North Carolina; and 2d Lt. Hector M. Marquez, 24, Brownsville, Texas. The four survivors were reported in good condition at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Fort Gordon, Georgia. The Department of Defense said that 67 B-52s have crashed, including 17 in the Vietnam War.

1979 - Two Convair F-106 Delta Darts of the 186th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 120th Fighter-Interceptor Group, Montana Air National Guard, out of Great Falls Airport, perform a pair of a flyovers in Dillon, Montana in conjunction with the town's Labor Day parade.

One Delta Dart, F-106A-70-CO, 57-2458, c/n 8-24-41, piloted by Capt. Joel Rude, clips a grain elevator with its port wing. The pilot unsuccessfully attempts to eject and is killed. Forty others are injured by debris and fire but Capt. Rude is the only fatality. On 7 September 2009, a commemorative plaque is dedicated in Dillon in the pilot's memory.
 
4 September

1781 – Mexican Provincial Governor, Felipe de Neve, founded Los Angeles.

1807 – Robert Fulton began operating his steamboat.

1861 - SV Colonel Long was a Confederate fishing schooner of 14 tons with a crew of eight. She was carrying a cargo of one barrel of whiskey and a few bags of arrowroot and a bag of sponges. She was captured by the USS Jamestown and scuttled off the Georgia coast.

1882 – Thomas Edison displayed the first practical electrical lighting system. He successfully turned on the lights in a one square mile area of New York City with the world’s 1st electricity generating plant.

1886 – Geronimo, the wiliest and most dangerous Apache warrior of his time, finally surrenders to General Nelson A. Miles in Skeleton Canyon, Arizona.

1888 – George Eastman received patent #388,850 for his roll-film camera and registered his trademark: “Kodak.” George Eastman introduced the box camera.

1913 - U.S. Army 11th Cavalry 1st Lt. Moss Lee Love becomes the 10th fatality in U.S. army aviation history when his Wright Model C biplane crashes near San Diego, California during practice for his Military Aviator Test. On 19 October 1917, the newly-opened Dallas Love Field in Dallas, Texas is named in his honor. Joe Baugher lists the fatal aircraft accident for this date as being Burgess Model J, Signal Corps 18, which dove into the ground killing its pilot.

1923 - Maiden flight of the first U.S. airship, the USS Shenandoah (ZR-1).

1941 - USS Greer (DD-145) is the first United States Navy ship fired on in World War 2.
USS Greer (DD-145) - Wikipedia
Some sources date the event in 1940.

1943 - All eight crew of Consolidated B-24E-25-CF Liberator, 41-29071, of the 701st Bomb Squadron, 445th Bomb Group, Sioux City Army Air Base, Iowa, piloted by Jack D. Hodges, are killed when the bomber crashes in a corn field four miles SW of Moville, Iowa.

1945 – Some 2,200 Japanese soldiers finally lay down their arms-on Wake Island.

1945 – The Coast Guard Cutter USCG 83434 became the first and only cutter to host an official surrender ceremony when Imperial Japanese Army Second Lieutenant Kinichi Yamada surrendered the garrison of Aguijan Island on board this Coast Guard 83-footer. Rear Admiral Marshall R. Greer, USN, accepted the surrender for the United States.

1946 - First prototype Bell XP-83, 44-84990, bailed back to Bell Aircraft Company by the USAAF as a ramjet testbed, and modified with an engineer's station in the fuselage in lieu of the rear fuel tank and pylon for test ramjet under starboard wing, suffers fire in ramjet on flight out of Niagara Falls Airport, New York. Flames spread to wing, forcing Bell test pilot "Slick" Goodlin and engineer Charles Fay to bail out, twin-jet fighter impacting at ~1020 hrs. on farm in Amhurst, New York, ~13 miles from Niagara Airport, creating ~25 foot crater.

1946 - USAT David Caldwell was a liberty ship owned at the time of loss by the US War Shipping Administration. Passing through Hampton Roads, Virginia, she went aground during a storm and broke in two.

1947 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the XS-1 on a telemetry test flight to Mach 0.89. There was a telemetry failure and the flight had to be repeated.

1948 - A U.S. Navy Vought F4U Corsair fighter from Naval Air Station New York crashes into a four-family home at 39–29 212th Street, Queens, New York, killing the pilot, 1st Lt. Roger Olsen, USMCR, 25, of New Rochelle, New York, and three civilian women, Mrs. Helen Raynor, Mrs Alice Cressmer, and Miss Louise Paul. The pilot, a 1943 Pensacola graduate, was on the first day of a two-week reserve training course.

1950 – The 1st helicopter rescue of American pilot behind enemy lines.
First Helicopter Rescue ‹ HistoricWings.com :: A Magazine for Aviators, Pilots and Adventurers

1950 - A US Navy F4U-4B Corsair of VF-53, piloted by Ensign Edward V. Laney, shot down a Soviet Naval Aviation Douglas A-20 Box over the Yellow Sea, southeast of the Soviet occupied Port Arthur Naval Base in China and west of the North Korean coast. Laney was one of a four-ship Combat Air Patrol from USS Valley Forge (CV-45), part of Task Force 77, which was protecting US Navy air activity against North Korea not long before the Inchon landings. The A-20 was one of two belonging to the Port Arthur-based 36th Mine-Torpedo Aviation Regiment of the Red Banner Pacific Fleet, apparently sent out on an armed reconnaissance mission.

A-20s had been supplied in quantity to the Soviets on Lend-Lease during World War 2, and this unit had had extensive experience during the war as torpedo bombers. The Corsairs encountered the two A-20s about 40 nautical miles from the Chinese coast. One A-20 turned back, but the other pressed on.

As the Corsairs descended, the top turret gunner on the A-20 was observed to open fire. Richard E. Downs led Laney on a firing pass, and Laney hit the A-20 with his 20mm cannon. The Soviet aircraft then crashed into the sea. The US recovered the body of one Soviet crewman, lateridentified as that of Genaddiy Mishin, the copilot. The other two bodies, those of Senior Lt. Karpol, the aircraft commander, and Sgt. A. Makaganov, the gunner, were never found. Mishin's body was returned to the Soviets in 1956.

1954 -A US Navy P2V-5 of VP-19, operating from NAS Atsugi Japan was attacked 40 miles off the coast of Siberia by two Soviet MiG-15 Fagots. The aircraft ditched and one crew member, Roger H. Reid was lost. The other crew members, John B. Wayne, John C. Fischer, William A. Bedard, Frank E. Petty, Anthony P. Granera, Texas R. Stone, Paul R. Mulmollem, Ernest L. Pinkevich and David A. Atwell were rescued by a US Air Force SA-16 Albatross.

1954 – Icebreakers, USS Burton Island (AGB-1) and USCG Northwind (WAGB-282), complete first transit of Northwest passage through McClure Strait. They are accompanied by Canadian HMCS Labrador (AW 50).

1957 - Douglas C-124A Globemaster II, 51-5173, c/n 43583, en route from Larson AFB, Washington, crashed while attempting a landing at Binghamton Airport, Binghamton, New York. On final approach, just before touchdown, the airplane struck an embankment and crashed on the runway. The plane was delivering 20 tons of equipment for Link Aviation. The crew of 9 survived.

1958 - USS Makassar Strait (CVE-91) was sunk as a target off San Nicholas Island, California.

1969 – Radio Hanoi announces the death of Ho Chi Minh, proclaiming that the National Liberation Front will halt military operations in the South for three days, September 8-11, in mourning for Ho.
 
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5 September

1664 – After days of negotiation, the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam surrendered to the British, who would rename it New York. The citizens of New Amsterdam petitioned Peter Stuyvesant to surrender to the English.

1774 – In response to the British Parliament’s enactment of the Coercive Acts in the American colonies, the first session of the Continental Congress convenes at Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia.

1781 – The Battle of the Chesapeake; a British fleet arrived off the Virginia Capes and found 26 French warships in three straggling lines.

1804 – In a daring night raid, American sailors under Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, boarded the captured USS Philadelphia and burned the ship to keep it out of the hands of the Barbary pirates who captured her.

1813 – Schooner USS Enterprise captures HM brig Boxer off Portland, ME.

1836 – Sam Houston was elected president of the Republic of Texas.

1850 - USS Yorktown was a 16-gun sloop laid down in 1838 in the Norfolk Navy Yard. And commission in 1840. While on anti-slaving duties, she struck an uncharted reef off Maio, Cape Verde. Although the ship broke up in a very short time, not a life was lost in the wreck.

1863 – United States Foreign Minister to Great Britain, Charles Francis Adams, sends an angry letter to the British government warning that war between the two nations may erupt if it allows two powerful ironclad ships, designed to help the Confederates break the Union naval blockade, to set sail.

1877 – Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is fatally bayoneted by a U.S. soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson, Nebraska.

1905 – The Russo-Japanese War comes to an end as representatives of the two nations sign the Treaty of Portsmouth in New Hampshire.

1918 – USS Mount Vernon (ID-4508) was torpedoed by U-82 off France, but was able to make port.

1923 – U.S. Asiatic Fleet arrives at Yokohama, Japan, to provide medical assistance and supplies after Kondo Plain earthquake.

1923 – Former USS Virginia (BB-13) and USS New Jersey (BB-16) were towed to a point three miles off the Diamond Shoals lightship, off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, anchored there and sunk as targets by US Army horizontal bombers.

1939 – The United States proclaimed its neutrality in World War II.

1944 – Germany launched its first V-2 missile at Paris, France.

1945 – Iva Toguri D’Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist “Tokyo Rose,” was arrested in Yokohama.

1951 – Test pilot Scott Crossfield flew the X-1 to Mach 1.07 in fuselage pressure and stabilizer tests.

1953 – The 1st privately operated atomic reactor opened in Raleigh NC.

1953 - "TOKYO (AP) - Wild mountain country in Western Japan Saturday cloaked the fate of a U.S. jet pilot, one of six forced to crash or bail out when a sudden violent storm hid their bases until their jets ran out of fuel. The pilot unaccounted for was flying one of five F-86 Sabres Friday from Kisarazu maintenance base on the east side of Tokyo Bay to Tsuiki Air Base at Fukuoka, Kyushu's principal city.

Two crash-landed at or near Tsuiki. One pilot parachuted into the Pacific off Shikoku Island and was rescued by a fisherman. Another parachuted on a housetop. The fifth pilot disappeared in an area somewhat resembling America's mountainous Olympic Peninsula country. At the same time that tragedy beset the Sabres, an F-84 Thunderjet crash-landed near Itazuke Air Base near Fukuoka. The jet crashed into a barn, injuring the pilot. No names were released."

1963 - A North American AF-1E Fury, BuNo 143560, of VF-725, Naval Reserve, based at NAS Glenview, Illinois, suffers engine failure, pilot Lt. Don J. "Skip" Mellem ejects through canopy and survives.

1967 – Former USS Jack (SS-259) was loaned to the Greek Navy and renamed Amphitrite. Returned to the US Navy, she was sunk as a target.

1969 – Lt. William Calley is charged with six specifications of premeditated murder in the death of 109 Vietnamese civilians at My Lai in March 1968.

1975 – In Sacramento, California, an assassination attempt against President Gerald Ford is foiled when a Secret Service agent wrests a semi-automatic .45-caliber pistol from Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a follower of incarcerated cult leader Charles Manson.

1978 – US Pres. Carter, Menachem Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt met at Camp David, Md.

1990 – USS Acadia (AD-42) departs San Diego for first war-time deployment of male-female crew on combat vessel.
 
6 September

1492 – Columbus’ fleet sailed from Gomera, Canary islands, his final port of call before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.

1620 – The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America.

1628 – Puritans settle Salem, which will later become part of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1776 – The Turtle, the 1st submarine invented by David Bushnell, attempted to secure a cask of gunpowder to the HMS Eagle, flagship of the British fleet, in the Bay of NY but got entangled with the Eagle’s rudder bar, lost ballast and surfaced before the charge was planted.

1862 – USS Picket was a Union army screw steam gunboat, converted from an iron barge. She was hit by shells and exploded in the Tar River at Washington, N.C. Capt. Sylvester D. Nicoll and 19 men were killed. The ordnance and machinery were removed and the vessel was burned. The wreck was discovered by local divers in 1973. The iron hull is intact.

1901 – President William McKinley is shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley was greeting the crowd in the Temple of Music when Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, stepped forward and shot the president twice at point-blank range. McKinley lived for another week before finally succumbing to a gangrene infection on September 14.

1915 – The first tank prototype was completed and given its first test drive on this day, developed by William Foster & Company for the British army. Several European nations had been working on the development of a shielded, tracked vehicle that could cross the uneven terrain of World War I trenches, but Great Britain was the first to succeed.

1918 – Sailors fire the first of 5 14”-50 caliber railroad guns at Tergnier, a German rail head in the Comeigne Forest.

1944 - First prototype (and only one completed) McDonnell XP-67 “Moonbat,” 42-11677, suffers fire in starboard engine during functional test flight at 10,000 feet (3,000 m). Pilot E.E. Elliot manages to bring stricken airframe into Lambert Field, St. Louis, Missouri, flames gut the fuselage, engine nacelle and wheelwell before firefighters halt blaze. As jet engined project that will become the FD-1 Phantom is already on the horizon, project is cancelled.

1947 – “Operation Sandy,” the launching of a V-2 rocket from the flight deck of USS Midway (CVB-41). The rocket’s flight path was erratic right from launch and it exploded at about 12,000 feet. Three main pieces fell into the ocean some 5,000 yards from the ship.

1953 – The last American and Korean prisoners were exchanged in Operation Big Switch, the last official act of the Korean War.

1960 - A North American GAM-77 Hound Dog missile launched from a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress over the Eglin Air Force Base, Florida test range at ~2 p.m. goes astray, coming down on a farm near Samson, Alabama. The missile ignored repeated attempts by the range safety officer to self-destruct.

1963 – Former USS Balao (SS-285) was sunk as a target off Florida.

1966 – Former USS Foss (DE-59) was sunk as a target off California near San Diego by USS Sabalo (SS-302).

1976 – Soviet Air Force Lt. Viktor Belenko lands his MIG-25P Foxbat in Japan and asks for asylum in the United States.

1981 - A United States Air Force Northrop T-38A-75-NO Talon, 68-8182, '1', of the Thunderbirds display team crashed on take-off at Cleveland, Ohio, United States following a bird strike. The team leader, Lt. Col. David L. Smith, was killed and the team’s displays for the rest of the year are cancelled.
 
7 September

Poster’s note: I’m noticing more errors in my primary source

This Day in U.S. Military History

I’m cutting back on this thread.

1918 - "By Associated Press to THE SUN - MATHER FIELD, Sacramento, Cal., Sept. 7. - Flying Cadets William G. Wilson, of Berkeley, California, and a son of J. Stitt Wilson, at one time a candidate for the socialist party for governor of California, and James H. Wilson of Pueblo, Colorado, met death today when their airplanes collided in the air. The accident occurred at the south end of the field. The three were not related. Civilians who witnessed the collision said the airplanes came together head on. One of the airplanes tumbled downward and crashed to the earth, while the other seemed to be descending for a landing, witnesses said. William G. Wilson was killed instantly. He suffered a fractured skull and internal injuries. James E. Wilson was removed to the base hospital where he died about 25 minutes after the accident. He suffered internal injuries and his thigh was injured. The bodies of the two cadets were taken to an undertaking establishment in Sacramento where they will remain pending instructions from the relatives. They were draped with American flags. The cadets were flying at an altitude of about 3,500 feet when the airplanes came together. The accident occurred near Walsh station, a short distance from the southern end of the field. The wrecked airplanes fell to earth at points about a half mile apart." Curtiss JN-4Ds AS-3673 and AS-3995 written off in this accident.

1930 - Capt. John Owen Donaldson, World War I ace (eight victories), after winning two races at an American Legion air meet in Philadelphia, is killed when his plane crashes during a stunt flying performance. He had shared the MacKay Gold Medal for taking first place in the Army's transcontinental air race in October 1919. Greenville Army Air Field, South Carolina, is later renamed Donaldson Air Force Base for the Greenville native.

1945 - "SAN DIEGO, Sept. 7, (UP) - A stunting naval fighter plane today struck a power line, crashed through a garage and slashed off a corner of a house in the east San Diego district, police reported. The pilot was killed instantly."

1956 – Test pilot Iven Kincheloe flew the X-2 to 39,491 meters (129,570 feet) and Mach 1.7.

1966 - Second (of five) Ling-Temco-Vought XC-142As, 62-5922, suffers failure of idler gear in number three engine gearbox during a preflight run-up at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Entire gearbox has to be replaced. Investigation reveals problem with inadequately supported aluminum pin that serves as an axle for this gear, making misalignment and eventual failure inevitable, so a fix is designed and the starboard gearboxes of all XC-142s are modified.

2007 - A Sikorsky MH-53M Pave Low IV, 69-05794, of the 20th Special Operations Squadron, Hurlburt Field, crashes near Duke Field, Eglin Auxiliary Field 3, two are injured.
 
8 September

1923 – Honda Point Disaster involving:
USS Chauncey (DD-296)
USS Delphy (DD-261)
USS Fuller (DD-297)
USS Nicholas (DD-311)
USS S. P. Lee (DD-310)
USS Woodbury (DD-309)
USS Young (DD-312)
A Naval Tragedy's Chain of Errors | U.S. Naval Institute

1944 - 2d Lt. John T. McCarthy, in Republic P-47D-6-RE Thunderbolt, 42-74782, of the 262d FPTS, on a combined interception training mission out of Bruning Army Air Field, Nebraska, at ~1540 hrs. CWT, at 16,000 feet altitude, makes a pursuit curve mock attack from the high port side of Boeing B-17G-35-DL Flying Fortress, 42-107159, terminating his attack from about 250 to 300 yards away from the bomber, but "mushes" into the B-17 while breaking away, hitting the port wing near the number one (port outer) engine. "Both planes burst into flames immediately, the B-17 exploding, disintegrating into several pieces, and crashing to the ground. The P-47 hit the ground in a tight spiral, exploding when it hit the ground." The collision occurs ~5 miles NE of Bruning AAF. The fighter pilot is KWF.

The B-17, of the 224th AAF Base Unit, out of Sioux City Army Air Base, Iowa, was part of a formation of bombers on a camera-gunnery mission, en route to Bruning AAF, which was flying in several elements. The fighter struck the wing man of the second element of the low formation. Only four crew of ten aboard the B-17 manage to bail out. Killed are 2d Lts. William F. Washburn, and Bernard I. Hall, pilot and co-pilot, F/O George A. Budovsky, Cpl. John E. Tuchols, and Pvt. Henry C. Sedberry. Surviving are Cpls. LeNoir A. Greer (minor injuries), and Walter A. Divan (major injuries), Pvt. Albert L. Mikels (minor injuries), and Pfc. Reuben L. Larson (minor injuries). "It is the opinion of the Aircraft Accident Investigating Committee that responsibility for the accident is 100% pilot error on the part of the pilot of the P-47, in that poor judgement and poor technique was used in 'breaking off'." A Nebraska historical marker for the accident was erected in 2010 by the Milligan Memorial Committee for the World War II Fatal Air Crashes near Milligan, Nebraska.

1958 - Two Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers collide over the town of Airway Heights near Fairchild AFB, Washington. B-52D, 56–661 and 56–681, both crash. Thirteen crew members are killed, while three survive. There were no casualties on the ground.

1960 - USAF Boeing WB-50D Superfortress crashes and burns in mountains six miles E of Ishikawa, Japan, early Thursday, killing at least nine of eleven on board instantly. Townspeople who hear the weather plane crash are foiled at rescue attempts by searing heat. Nine charred bodies are pulled from the wreckage. The plane, on a routine weather mission, had been aloft from Yokota Air Base for about an hour. B-50D-105-BO, 48-122, converted to WB-50D. Crashed with 56th WRS.

1966 – Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 22,311 meters (73,202 feet) and Mach 2.44.

1970 - US Marine Corps Capt. Patrick G. Carroll, 27, of El Toro, California, ejects safely Tuesday moments before his Douglas A-4E Skyhawk, BuNo 150089, crashes in a remote area 20 miles N of Big Bear, California in Lucerne Valley at 1528 hrs. The impact touches off a 30-acre brushfire in Lovelace Canyon, south and west of the Lucerne Valley, which was still burning the following day. Eight retardant-dropping fire bombers are diverted from another blaze near Devore, California in the Cajon Pass to help contain the burn. A total of 12 California Division of Forestry and other trucks are also dispatched to the site to fight the fire. The pilot, who was flying N over Big Bear Lake on a navigation training flight, suffered an undetermined malfunction, said a public information spokesman at MCAS El Toro, California. He was seen as he ejected by a gas company serviceman, James Kennedy, who picked him up and drove him to near-by Sky-High Ranch. Carroll, a Vietnam veteran, is picked up by a rescue helicopter from George Air Force Base, California, and was not injured. Firefighters were hindered by rough, rocky terrain and a truck that overturned on an access road, blocking the path for over an hour. Fire crew were lifted to the site by helicopter or had to walk in 1 1/2 miles from Highway 18 near the Lucerne Valley.
 
9 September

1862 – “Alert” was a Union barque carrying a cargo of 80 boxes of tobacco, clothes and other trade goods for sea elephant oil from New London, CT, for Navigators' Islands in the South Indian Ocean when she was captured by CSS Alabama between Corvo and Flores Islands in the Azores. Some of the cargo was removed and she was set on fire and sunk.

1862 – “Ocean Rover” was a Union whaling barque of 313 tons out of New Bedford, Mass. She was carrying 1,100 barrels of whale oil when captured by the CSS Alabama off Flores, Azores. She was burnt along with bargue “Alert” and the crews put in 6 boats and told to row for the Azores.

1864 – “Fawn” was a Union Steam mail boat from Norfolk. She was captured and burned by James B. Hopkins and 35 Confederate guerrillas and sailors from the ironclad CSS Albemarle at the Currituck Bridge in the Dismal Swamp Canal.

1928 - During events held during the National Air Races at Mines Field, Los Angeles, the program "was marred by the crash of Lieut. George E. Hasselman, U.S.Navy, of the VB-2B Squadron, who crashed 50 feet to the ground in a side slip and was seriously injured." VB-2B operated Boeing F2B-1s in 1928.

1945 - Consolidated B-32-20-CF Dominator, 42-108532, "Hobo Queen II", is damaged when the nose wheel accidentally retracts on the ground at Yontan Airfield, Okinawa. Two days later, a hoist lifting the B-32 drops it twice. Since the war has ended, it is not repaired but is disassembled at the airfield.

1950 - A Douglas R5D-3, BuNo 56496, c/n 10624, crashed shortly after take-off from Kwajalein atoll in the South Pacific Ocean en-route to Tokyo, Japan. A total of 26 U.S. Navy personnel, including 11 nurses were killed.

1953 - A USAF Lockheed T-33A Shooting Star attempting a landing at San Fernando Valley Airport comes down a half mile short, sweeps over an open lot and under powerlines, bounces on a street, and crashes into the front door of home in Van Nuys, California. The trainer tears through the center of the home, leaving a wing in the living room and a tank embedded in the kitchen wall, and comes to rest in the backyard. There is no fire. One victim in the house is killed.

The plane's crew, Capt. Samuel Fast, 34, of San Fernando, the pilot, and Capt. Howard Rhodes, 30, Santa Monica, step from the fuselage unaided with only minor cuts and bruises. "The plane was on a routine acceptance test flight when landing gear trouble was reported, the CAA said."

On Friday 11 September, nearly 200 women and children picket the Lockheed assembly plant at the Lockheed Air Terminal, to protest the testing of jet planes in the populous area.

1953 - A U.S. Navy Douglas AD-4 Skyraider crashes, explodes on impact, and burns on the middle of Owens Dry Lake near Olancha, ~60 miles N of Naval Ordnance Test Station Inyokern. The bodies of three crew were retrieved by afternoon. The bomber was on a routine training mission out of NAS North Island, California. Wreckage was strewn over a 200-yard radius. Occupants of a companion plane on the flight saw the plane crash and reported it to the Inyokern station, which dispatched a rescue team and security officers. The accident occurred at 11:38 a.m.

The Navy identified the dead the following day as: Ens. A. R. Stickney, North Hollywood; John C. Peckenpaugh, AOM 3-c, Hardinsburg, Kentucky; and Paul D. Pock, Altamont, Illinois.

1953 - "MERCED (AP) - A two-engine Navy plane from Monterey crashed near Castle Air Force Base Wednesday and was demolished by fire. Two of the four crewmen received major injuries, all four received second degree burns."

1955 – A Douglas B-66 Destroyer, from Hurlburt Field crashed near Alvin, Texas. Three crew members aboard the plane bailed out after their plane developed trouble at 37,000 feet. Capt. Arthur J. Manzo, radar observer-navigator, was critically injured and died of his injuries 11 September 1957. Other crew members included 1st Lt. David E. Moore, pilot, and S/Sgt. Robert J. Newland, gunner.

1965 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 29,627 meters (97,206 feet) and Mach 5.16.

1993 – Former USCG Cape Strait (WPB-95308) was sunk as an artificial reef off Cape May, New Jersey.
 
10 September

1846 - Schooner USS Shark ran aground on an uncharted shoal while trying to pass the Columbia River Bar and was subsequently washed ashore at the breakers and totally lost. There were no casualties.

1863 – “Arkansas” was a Confederate stern wheel paddle steamer of 233 tons built in 1860 at Pittsburgh, Pa. She was burned on the Arkansas River at Little Rock as General Frederick Steele's Union forces approached the city.

1863 – “Bracelet” was a Confederate cottonclad side wheel paddle steamer of 169 tons built at Louisville in 1857. She was burned by Confederate forces at Little Rock as General Frederick Steele's Union forces approached the city.

1863 – “Julia Roane” was a Confederate stern wheel paddle steamer built in 1859 at California, Pa. She was burned at Little Rock, AK.

1863 – “Little Rock” was a Confederate stern wheel paddle steamer of 183 tons built in 1858. She was burned by the Confederates at Little Rock on the Arkansas River as General Frederick Steele's Union army approached the capital.

1863 - CSS Pontchartrain was a 454-ton sidewheel paddleboat built at New Albany, Indiana, in 1859. She was set afire to avoid capture and sank at Little Rock, AK.

1863 – “St. Francis No.3” was a Confederate stern wheel cottonclad paddle steamer of 219 tons built at Jeffersonville, Indiana. She was burned on the Arkansas River at Little Rock as General Frederick Steele's Union army approached.

1863 – “Tahlequah” was a Confederate side wheel paddle steamer of 92 tons built at Brownsville, Pa. She was burnt by Confederate forces at Little Rock on the Arkansas River upon the approach of General Steele's Union Army.

1864 – “Florie” was a Confederate iron side-wheel steamer of 349 gross tons, built in 1863 at Glasgow, Scotland that was lost on the Cape Fear River Bar, NC, after running onto a wreck.

1928 - While performing aerobatics at the air races held at Mines Field, Los Angeles, Lt. John J. "Johnny" Williams, leader of the Three Musketeers Air Corps stunt trio, crashes in Boeing PW-9D, 28-29, c/n 1013, of the 95th Pursuit Squadron, out of Rockwell Field, California, and is killed "almost instantly. Despite their comrade's untimely death, Lieuts. Woodring and Cornelius carried on. Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh volunteered his services, and the show continued."

1947 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the X-1 to Mach 0.91 in a control and stability test.

1952 - A contractor-led team launches the first Boeing XF-99 Bomarc propulsion test vehicle from the Air Force Missile Test Center (AFMTC) Launch Complex 4 at Patrick AFB, Florida, on mission 621–1, but the test fails.

1952 - Six Grumman F9F-4 Panthers from VMF-115, part of a 21-plane flight returning from a mission and, diverting from K-3 to K-2, crash into Unman-san, a South Korean mountain, in foggy conditions, following lead aircraft navigational instrument failure. All six pilots killed. Lost are Maj. Raymond E. De Mers in BuNo 125168, 2d Lt. Richard L. Roth in BuNo 125170, 2d Lt. Carl R. La Fleur in BuNo 125173, Maj. Donald F. Givens in BuNo 125178, 1st Lt. Alvin R. Bourgeois in either BuNo 125181 or 125182, and 2d Lt. John W. Hill, Jr. in BuNo 125223. Another source cites crash date of 11 September 1952.

1956 - A US Air Force RB-50G Superfortress was lost over the Sea of Japan. The crew of 16, Lorin C. Disbrow, Raymond D. Johnson, Rodger A. Fees, Paul W. Swinehart, William J. McLauglin, Theodorus J. Trias, Pat P. Taylor, John E. Beisty, Peter J. Rahaniotes, William H. Ellis, Richard T. Kobayashi, Wayne J. Fair, Palmer D. Arrowood, Harry S. Maxwell Jr., Bobby R. Davis and Leo J. Sloan, were all presumed to be killed. It is suspected that the aircraft was lost due to a powerful storm, Typhoon Emma, which was in the area.

1956 - During first flight of North American F-107A at Edwards AFB, California, prototype 55-5118 experiences problem with engine gearbox differential pressure during a dive and North American test pilot Bob Baker lands on dry lakebed at just under 200 knots (370 km/h). After rolling about a mile, aircraft hits a depression in the lakebed and the nose gear collapses. Jet slides ~ three-tenths of a mile on its nose, but suffers limited damage, no fire. Total landing roll was 22,000 feet (6,700 m). Airframe repaired in under two weeks.

1960 – Test pilot Robert M. White flew the X-15 to 24,343 meters (79,869 feet) and Mach 3.23.

1962- A U.S. Air Force Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker, AF ser. No. 60-0352, assigned at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, crashes into a fog-shrouded ravine on 5,271-foot tall Mount Kit Carson, ~20 miles NE of Spokane, Washington, at ~1105 hrs. while on approach to Fairchild AFB, Washington, killing four crew and 40 passengers. Thirty-nine were members of the 28th Bomb Wing, being sent TDY to Fairchild while runways were being repaired at Ellsworth. One civilian was on board. The aircraft mowed through a 25 X 200 yard swath of evergreens before striking the terrain and exploding. Visibility was near zero. Col. Floyd R. Cressman, of Fairchild AFB, said that it appeared that the pilot tried to pull up at the last moment.

1975 - A U.S. Army Bell UH-1H Iroquois from Fort Rucker Army Base, Alabama, on a routine training flight crashes and burns three miles SE of Marianna Municipal Airport, Marianna, Florida, killing all three crew, an instructor pilot and two students, military officials said.
 
11 September

1862 – “Weather Gauge” was a Union whaler operating out of Providence Town, Mass when she was captured by CSS Alabama on the 9th September 1862 and burned two days later.

1936 - Sole Kellett YG-1 gyrocopter, 35-278, now assigned to the 16th Observation Squadron, is moderately damaged in a takeoff accident at Pope Army Airfield, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, its second at this field this year. Pilot was Hollingsworth F. Gregory.

1941 – As a result of public outrage over the Greer incident, the president announces that American warships will be able to “shoot on sight” to ensure the protection of waters “necessary for American defense.” This formalizes a situation which has been commonly occurring.

1942 – Wheeler Bryson Lipes (1921-2005), a US Navy pharmacist’s mate, saved the life of sailor Darrell Dean Rector (19) by operating, following a medical manual, in the officer’s mess aboard USS Seadragon (SS-194) below the surface of the South China Sea. George Weller (d.2002), war correspondent, won the Pulitzer in 1943 for his account of the operation.

1943 - North American B-25G Mitchell, misreported as 41-13240, a serial number belonging to a Curtiss P-40C, of the 472d Bomb Squadron, 334th Bomb Group, Greenville Army Air Base, South Carolina, piloted by Eugene E. Stocking, collides four miles NW of Spartanburg, South Carolina, with B-25G-5 42-65013, of the same units, flown by Solon E. Ellis. 65013 crashes, killing five crew, while the unidentified Mitchell lands safely.

1943 - The prototype Airborne and General MC-1, NX21757, prototype of the XCG-16 assault glider, begins tests at March Field, California, but on the second flight, inadequately secured ballast comes loose when the glider flies through the Lockheed C-60 glider tug's propwash, causing a catastrophic rearward shift in the center of gravity. The uncontrollable MC-1A releases from tow and enters a flat spin at 3,000 feet from which it does not recover, and crashes in a plowed field. Three of the crew and passengers bail out but only two survive the parachute jump. Paul G. Wells and Harry M. Pearl descend safely, but the parachute of Richard Chichester du Pont, 37, who won the national soaring championship five years in a row, serving as special assistant to Gen. Henry "Hap" Arnold, does not open in time and he is killed. Also killed in the wreck are Col. P. Ernest Gabel, another glider specialist, deputy director of the Army Air Forces glider program, on the staff of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Washington, D.C., C. C. Chandler, Tarzana, California, test pilot and thrice soaring champion, and test pilot Howard L. Morrison, San Fernando, California.

1945 – USS PC-815 was lost in a collision in dense fog with USS Laffey (DD-724) off San Diego.

1948 - USS Mahackemo (YTB-223) sank while under tow off Cape Hatteras, N.C., enroute to Newport, R.I. Naval Base.

1948 – Former USS Searaven (SS-196) was used as a target ship during the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946 and was lightly damaged. She was sunk as a target on this date.

1952 - Three Air Force crew and two civilians aboard a Beechcraft C-45F Expeditor on a routine flight from Bedford, Massachusetts, to Griffiss AFB, near Rome, New York, take to the silk and bail out at 2,500 feet at ~8:50 p.m. EST near Stittville after the aircraft's port engine loses power over central New York state ~50 miles from its destination. The lightened plane then flies onward on automatic pilot for more than an hour before crashing into Lake Ontario off of Oswego. A team of researchers from the Rochester area seeking historic shipwrecks in the lake's eastern end discover the "nearly intact" airframe in deep water on 27 June 2014 using side-scan sonar. The nose and twin fins are separated from the aircraft, but the rest is there.

The pilot was Lt. Col. Charles Callahan, 32, of Monticello, Mississippi. All on board were attached to the Air Development Center at Griffiss AFB. The others on board were 1st Lt. Sam Sharf, of New York City; Lt. Col. G. S. Lam, of Newport News, Virginia; William Bethke, a civilian technician who lives near Rome; and Joseph M. Eannario, who lives in Rome.

1953 - One North American F-86D Sabre crashes, and another is unaccounted for after a flight of four 62d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron fighters gets separated during a wind and rain storm over Northern Illinois on Friday night. Maj. Robert L. Thomas, at O'Hare Air Reserve Station, said that two aircraft apparently lost their bearings. One came down on a farm near the community of Wilton Center, ~35 miles SW of Chicago, the pilot safe after bailing out at 10,000 feet. "The second plane was reported to have crashed in Lake Michigan adjacent to Chicago, but Thomas said that report later was found incorrect."

1968 - Second prototype Grumman F-111B, BuNo 151971, c/n A2-02, crashes into the Pacific Ocean killing Hughes pilot Barton Warren and his RIO Anthony Byland.

1972 - General Dynamics F-111A, 65-5703, c/n A1-21, of the 6510th Test Wing, used in spin tests out of Edwards Air Force Base, California, crashes, impacting in the desert ~10 miles from the base in a near vertical dive at ~500 knots after the crew ejected in their escape capsule. The crew survives.

1982 - At an airshow in Mannheim, Germany, celebrating the 375th anniversary of that city, a United States Army Boeing-Vertol CH-47C Chinook, 74-22292, of the 295th Assault Support Helicopter Company—"Cyclones", located at Coleman Army Airfield, Coleman Barracks, near Mannheim, carrying parachutists crashed, killing 46 people. The crash was later found to be caused by an accumulation of ground walnut shells that had been used to clean the machinery.

2001 – “911”
September 11 attacks - Wikipedia

2003 - While landing aboard USS George Washington (CVN-73) operating off the Virginia Capes, a McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18D-32-MC Hornet (Lot 13), BuNo 164198, c/n 961/DO63, 'AD 432', of VFA-106, goes off the angle at ~1600 hrs. when the arresting cable parts, pilot ejects and is recovered. The broken cable, whipping back across the deck, injures eleven deck crew, the most serious of which are airlifted to shore medical facilities.

“Poster’s note: While described as a two seat F/A-18D here and in the list of BuNos:
US Navy and US Marine Corps BuNos--Third Series (164196 to ??)
The aircraft shown in the video was clearly a single seater.
“‘Tis a puzzlement.”

2012 – Islamic militants attacked the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith.
 
12 September

1926 - Curtiss XP-6, 25-423, the fourth Curtiss P-2 reengined with a Curtiss V-1570-1 Conqueror, suffers heavy damage in a landing that results in a ground loop at Selfridge Field, Mount Clemens, Michigan. Pilot was George C. Price. Repaired, the aircraft will finish second in the 1927 Pursuit Plane Race at the National Air Races, at 189.608 mph.

1943 - A U.S. Navy Grumman F4F Wildcat flown by Lieutenant John Lewis Morelle, USNR, 24, of Georgetown, Texas, strikes a suspension cable of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The wings and tail were sheared off and the plane fell burning into the bay 200 feet below. The pilot's body is not recovered. Portions of the wings and tail assembly rained down onto the roadway but no civilian was injured despite many vehicles on the span at the time. Six of seven strands of one suspension cable were snapped, but the safety of the bridge was not endangered. This was the first time a plane hit the span since its 12 November 1936 opening.

1945 - On first flight of Northrop XP-79B, 43-52437, out of Muroc Army Air Base, California, aircraft behaves normally for ~15 minutes, then at an altitude of ~7,000 feet begins a slow roll from which it fails to recover. Pilot Harry Crosby bails out at 2,000 feet but is struck by revolving aircraft and his chute does not deploy. Largely magnesium airframe is totally consumed by fire after impact on desert floor.

1945 - First Lt. Robert J. Anspach attempts to ferry captured Focke Wulf Fw 190F, FE-113, coded '10', from Newark Army Air Base, New Jersey, where it had been offloaded from HMS Reaper (D82) to Freeman Field, Indiana, for testing. While letting down for refueling stop at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a faulty electrical horizontal trim adjustment switch goes to full-up position and cannot be manually overridden. Pilot spots the small dirt strip, the Hollidaysburg Airport, S of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and makes an emergency landing. Upon applying brakes, right one fails immediately, the fighter pivots left, the landing gear collapses and the propeller rips away. Pilot uninjured, but the aircraft is hauled to Middletown Air Depot, Pennsylvania, and scrapped. Prop ends up on wall of local flying club.

1946 - USS YP-636 was groping about the barren cliffs south of the Golden Gate in a dense fog when she ran aground just south of Half Moon Bay. With the vessel badly holed the crew was forced to abandon ship. There was no attempt at salvage.

1947 – Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the X-1 to Mach 0.92 in a stabilizer and elevator buffet check.

1961 – Test pilot Joe Walker flew the X-15 to 34,839 meters (114,306 feet) and Mach 5.21.

1988 - A Grumman F-14A-95-GR Tomcat, BuNo 160409, of VF-143, (also reported as VF-124) suffers an all hydraulic system failure and crashes inverted into a hangar at Gillespie Field, a civil airport in El Cajon, California, San Diego County while attempting to return to NAS Miramar. The pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Jim Barnett, 36, a flight instructor with 10 years of experience flying F-14s, managed to point the crippled jet towards the landing strip to reduce civilian casualties, and both he and his backseater, Lt. (j.g.) Randy L. Furtado, 27, a radar intercept officer who was undergoing training, ejected, suffering injuries. The RIO landed in power lines and suffered a fatal broken neck. The crash injured 3 on the ground and destroyed or damaged 19 aircraft and 13 vehicles.

1994 – Frank Eugene Corder crashes a single-engine Cessna 150 into the White House’s south lawn, striking the West wing and killing himself.

2012 – Former USS Coronado (AGF-11) was sunk by a number of warships and now serves as an artificial reef for the Marianas region.

2013 – NASA announces the Voyager 1 space probe has left the solar system becoming the first man-made object to reach interstellar space.
Voyager - Mission Status
 
13 September

1946 - Major General Paul Bernard Wurtsmith (9 August 1906 – 13 September 1946), of Strategic Air Command, is killed when his North American TB-25J-27-NC Mitchell, 44-30227, of the 326th Base Unit, MacDill Field, Florida, crashes at ~1130 hrs. into Cold Mountain near Asheville, North Carolina. In February 1953, the United States Air Force named Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda Township, Michigan, in his honor.

1948 – Former LST-661 was heavily irradiated during the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests and considered not worth decontaminating. She was sunk as a target at Kwajalein.

1955 - Six people were killed when a North American B-25 suffered engine failure on takeoff from Mitchel AFB, New York, and crashed into Greenfield Cemetery, Hempstead, New York, five minutes after departure. Three of the victims were crew members, and three were passengers. The names of the dead were withheld pending notification of next of kin. B-25J-35/37-NC, 45-8822, modified to TB-25N, then to VB-25N, was piloted by James D. Judy.

1968 – Test pilot Pete Knight flew the X-15 to 77,450 meters (254,113 feet) and Mach 5.37.

1977 – Former USS Palawan (ARG-10) was sold to the State of California Ship Reef Program on 1 November 1976 and sunk off Redondo Beach, CA.

1999 – Former USCG Red Oak (WLM-689) was scuttled at the Cape May Artificial Reef, New Jersey.
 
14 September

1814 – Francis Scott Key composes the lyrics to “The Star-Spangled Banner” after witnessing the massive British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Maryland during the War of 1812.

1847 – During the Mexican-American War, U.S. forces under General Winfield Scott enter Mexico City and raise the American flag over the Hall of Montezuma, concluding a devastating advance that began with an amphibious landing at Vera Cruz six months earlier.

1872 – Britain paid US $15 million for damages during Civil War. The British government paid £3 million in damages to the United States in compensation for building the Confederate commerce-raider Alabama.

1901 – Twenty-fifth President of the United States William McKinley, Jr., dies today of an assassin’s bullet shot into him on September 6th.

1939 – In the 1930s Igor Sikorsky (d.1972) turned his attention again to helicopter design and on this day flew the VS-300 on its first tethered test flight.

1940 – Congress passed the Selective Service Act, providing for the first peacetime draft in U.S. history. It passed by one vote.

1944 - Douglas SBD-4 Dauntless, BuNo 10575, 'B-16', crashes off bow of USS Sable (IX-81) during flight operations on Lake Michigan at 1001 hrs. Pilot Ensign Albert Grey O'Dell, A-V(N), USNR, recovered by U.S. Coast Guard 83-foot Wooden Patrol Boat WPB-83476 at 1003, brought back aboard Sable at 1013. Pilot suffers minor contusion of right shoulder, "numerous jagged lacerations of the face, chin and forehead." Airframe rediscovered on 11 April 1989 by A&T Recovery of Chicago, Illinois, and recovered 26 August 1991 on behalf of the National Museum of Naval Aviation and brought initially to Crowley's Yacht Yard for disassembly and shipment for restoration. After restoration it is displayed for a time at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio, marked as a USAAF A-24 Banshee. It is now on display in Concourse C at Chicago Midway International Airport, marked as the SBD, 'B-3', flown by Ensign Frederick Thomas Weber (4 February 1916 – 4 June 1942) of VB-6, USS Enterprise, at the Battle of Midway. Credited with a bomb hit on the Japanese carrier Hiryū, he was killed in action, and awarded the Navy Cross.

1945 - Hurricane Nine of the 1945 season destroys three wooden blimp hangars at NAS Richmond, Florida, southwest of Miami, with 140 mph winds. Roofs collapse, ruptured fuel tanks are ignited by shorted electrical lines, fire consumes twenty-five blimps (eleven deflated), 31 non-Navy U.S. government aircraft, 125 privately owned aircraft, and 212 Navy aircraft. Thirty-eight Navy personnel injured, civilian fire chief killed. Air operations are reduced to a minimum following this storm and NAS Richmond is closed two months later.

1955 - USAF Douglas A-26B-45-DL Invader, 44-34126, loses starboard engine on take-off from 5,142-foot-long runway 12/30, Mitchel AFB, New York, runs through perimeter fence on southeast side of field, comes to rest on the Hempstead Turnpike. Port undercarriage leg collapses, port prop blades bent. No injuries. Another source identifies this airframe as A-26B-66-DL, 44-34626, and the pilot as John E. Mervyn.

1965 – Test pilot John McKay flew the X-15 to 72,847 meters (239,011 feet) and Mach 5.03.

1966 - Test pilot Bill Dana flew the X-15 to 77,480 meters (254,212 feet) and Mach 5.12.

1976 - While the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) is operating ~100 miles NW of Scapa Flow, Scotland, as part of a 100 ship NATO naval exercise, Teamwork 76, Press Day is marred by the loss of Grumman F-14A Tomcat, BuNo 159588, 'AB 221', of VF-32, over the side into the North Sea when its engines go inexplicably to full power while the fighter is being prepped for catapult 3. Steered to port away from other aircraft by the pilot as the locked brakes fail to keep the jet in place, the Tomcat's starboard wing strikes two other aircraft and as it tips off of the flight deck, pilot Lt. J. L. Kosich, and his radar intercept officer, Lt. (jg) L. E. Seymour, eject.

A Soviet cruiser shadowing the manoeuvers notes the loss of the Tomcat and its state-of-the-art Phoenix missile and AN/AWG-9 fire control radar, so the U.S. Navy is forced into an immediate recovery effort that takes eight weeks. The nuclear research submarine NR-1 eventually retrieves the missile from a depth of 1,650 feet, and two leased heavy trawlers snag and drag the Tomcat to shallower water where the heavily damaged airframe is salvaged and found to have all its sub-systems intact.

1977 - Boeing EC-135K, 62-3536, converted from KC-135A-BN Stratotanker, part of the 8th Tactical Deployment Control Squadron, based at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina, on a joint training mission, departs Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, after a refuelling stop, makes right turn, crashes into steep terrain in the Manzano Mountains, two miles S of the Four Hills housing development, killing all 20 on board.

1991 - A Sikorsky MH-53 Sea Dragon, 163071, crashes into the Persian Gulf at 2105 hrs., shortly after taking off from the USS Peleliu (LHA-5), 40 miles N of Bahrain. All 6 service members on board were killed. The aircraft was part of squadron HM-15 based out of Naval Air Station Alameda, near San Francisco.

1997 - A USAF Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, 81-793, of the 7th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Wing, at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, lost its port wing at 1500 hrs. during a pass over Martin State Airport, Middle River, Maryland during the Chesapeake Air Show and crashed into a residential area of Bowley's Quarters, Maryland damaging several homes. Four people on the ground received minor injuries and the pilot, Maj. Bryan "B.K." Knight, 36, escaped with minor injuries after ejecting from the aircraft. A month-long Air Force investigation found that four of 39 fasteners for the wing's structural support assembly were apparently left off when the wings were removed and reinstalled in January 1996, according to a report released 12 December 1997.

2003 - Opposing Solo Pilot, Capt. Chris R. Stricklin, in Thunderbirds Number 6, a Lockheed Martin F-16C Block 32J Fighting Falcon, 87-0327, misjudges his altitude before beginning a Split-S takeoff maneuver at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, ejects in ACES II seat 8/10ths of a second before the aircraft impacts the runway. Stricklin survived with no injuries.

2004 - A US Navy McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18C Hornet, 164904, of VMFA-212 (another source says VMFA-121) crashes at Manbulloo Station about 10 M SW of RAAF Tindal, Australia, during a day approach to landing. The pilot ejects and is injured.

2006 - A US Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16CJ/D Block 50B Fighting Falcon, 91-0337, of the 22d Fighter Squadron, 52d Fighter Wing, based out of Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, crashes in the nearby village of Oberkail after a landing gear failure prevents it from making a controlled landing. The pilot, 1st Lt. Trevor Merrell, ejects safely after aiming his aircraft towards a vacant cow pasture, where it crashes, causing no injuries.
 
15 September

1863 – “Arabian” was a Canadian side-wheel steamer of 263 tons, built in 1851 at Niagara, Ontario. While exiting the Cape Fear River, NC, at night with a cargo of cotton, Arabian was chased back by the USS Iron Age and USS Shenandoah and ran aground north of Corncake Inlet (now New Inlet) at the entrance of the Cape Fear River, one mile below Fort Fisher at Kure Beach.

1923 - Major Edward L. Napier, a native of Union Springs, Alabama, is killed in the crash of a Fokker D.VII, AS-5382, at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, He had been a Medical Corps Officer in the Great War and had transferred to the Army Air Corps. He was receiving training as a flight surgeon at the time of his death. The official report states that he was piloting the aircraft himself and there was a structural failure of a wing. In 1941, the U.S. Army Air Corps will open Napier Field at Dothan, Alabama, named in his honor.

1924 - A Curtiss N-9 seaplane, equipped with radio control and without a human pilot aboard, was flown on a 40-minute flight at the Naval Proving Grounds, Dahlgren, Virginia. Although the aircraft sank from damage sustained while landing, this test demonstrated the practicability of radio control of aircraft.

1942 - Vultee XA-31B-VU Vengeance, 42-35824, piloted by H. H. Sargent Jr., out of Rentschler Field, Connecticut, overturns in a tobacco field while making forced landing near Windsor Locks, Connecticut, after engine failure. Initially built as a non-flying XA-31A engine-test airframe but later upgraded for operation.

1944 - A U.S. Army Air Force Consolidated TB-24J Liberator, 42-50890, (built as a B-24J-5-FO, and converted), of the 3007th AAF Base Unit, Kirtland Field, piloted by Warren E. Crowther, en route from Bakersfield, California, to Kirtland Field, New Mexico, and off-course, crashed into a boulder field near the top of Humphreys Peak, 10 miles N of Flagstaff, Arizona, at approx. 0330 hrs. All eight crew members were killed. The location is nearly inaccessible and has been left mostly as-is.

1945 - USAAF Douglas C-47B-45-DK Skytrain, 45-1011, c/n 17014/34277, of the 561st Base Unit, Ft. Dix AAF, New Jersey, piloted by James E. Wuest, crashes on take-off one mile W of Kansas City, Missouri, killing 23 of 24 aboard. "KANSAS CITY, Sept. 15 (AP) - Only one of 21 homeward-bound European war veterans, passengers aboard a military air transport plane which crashed early today remained alive tonight - and his condition was critical. A crew of three died in the craft which crashed and burned only a few seconds after it took off from Fairfax airport. Three of the veterans were alive when rescue parties reached the charred wreckage on the north bank of the Missouri river. Of these, Sgt. Bernard C. Tucker, Etna, California, and Cpl. Fred Ebert, Pasadena, died later at a local hospital. Sgt. Ora DeLong, whose papers indicated he had relatives at Fort Scott, Kan., Winfield, Kan., and San Bernardino, California, remained alive this afternoon but his condition was described as critical. The big Douglas C-47 plane had just left the runway at the local airport after refueling to continue its flight westward from Newark, N. J. Witnesses said one engine sputtered as the craft left the field. The ship made it across the Missouri River, immediately north of the field lost altitude rapidly and topped a tree on the bank of the river. One wing caught the embankment of the Burlington railroad tracks and the ship caught fire, falling in flames north of the track."

1948 – Major Richard L. Johnson, USAF, flies an F-86A Sabre to set the world aircraft speed record at 670.84 miles per hour (1,079.6 km/h) at Muroc Dry Lake, California.

1949 - First Convair B-36 Peacemaker loss occurs when B-36B 44-92079, of the 9th Bomb Squadron, 7th Bomb Wing, crashes into Lake Worth during a night "maximum effort" mission takeoff from Carswell AFB, Texas, killing five of 13 crew. Cause attributed to two propellers going into reverse pitch. Wreckage removed from lake and scrapped.

1974 - On third day of Naval Preliminary Evaluation (NPE-1) testing, first prototype Sikorsky YCH-53E Sea Stallion, BuNo 159121, is destroyed at the Sikorsky plant at Stratford, Connecticut when it rolls onto its side and burns after one of the main rotor blades detaches during a ground run. It had first flown on 1 March 1974. Second prototype is grounded while accident is investigated, flight testing resuming on 24 January 1975.

1985 - A Texas Army National Guard AH-1G Cobra Tail number 67-15737 of D/1/124 CAV of 49th "Lone Star" Div. crashed shortly after take-off at 0820 hrs NW of Camp Merrill US Army Ranger TNG Camp AAF near Dahlonega, GA. Initial contact with team aircraft was made then contact was lost in a mountainous and heavily treed area. Post-crash investigation indicated N1 compressor section failure was the cause of the Class A Accident resulting in the loss of both pilots, 1LT Kevin M. Cardwell and co-pilot, 1LT Michael L. Pape Sr.
 
16 September

1620 – The Mayflower sails from Plymouth, England, bound for the New World with 102 passengers. The ship was headed for Virginia, where the colonists–half religious dissenters and half entrepreneurs–had been authorized to settle by the British crown.

1813 - USS Gun Boat no.164 sank in a squall at St. Mary´s, Georgia. 20 drowned.

1854 – CDR David G. Farragut takes possession of Mare Island, the first U.S. Navy Yard on the Pacific.

1862 – “Courser” was a Union whaling schooner burned off Flores Island in the Azores by CSS Alabama.

1893 – The largest land run in history begins with more than 100,000 people pouring into the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma to claim valuable land that had once belonged to Native Americans.

1918 – CGC Seneca’s crew attempted to bring the torpedoed British collier SS Wellington into Brest, France. The attempt failed. Five crewmen from Seneca and eleven from Wellington were killed.

1918 - USS Buenaventura was an American cargo steamer of 4,881grt that was requisitioned by the US Navy and assigned to Naval Overseas Transportation Services as No. 1335., in July 1918. She was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine UB-129 when about 200 miles off NW Spain when on route from Le Verdon for Philadelphia in ballast.

1919 – The American Legion was incorporated by an act of Congress.

1940 – Under authority granted by Congress, President Franklin Roosevelt orders the Army to begin mobilizing the entire National Guard for one year’s training prompted by the worsening conditions in Europe.

1947 - Capt. Lawson L. Lipscomb, USAAF, of Houston, Texas, radioed that he was having difficulty with his P-80 Shooting Star and was returning to Eglin Field, Florida. Emergency preparations were in place on the runways, but the fighter came down just west of the airfield and Capt. Lipscomb was killed.

1948 – Former YOG-83 was heavily irradiated by the atomic explosions during Operation Crossroads, considered not worth to decontaminate and scuttled at Kwajalein.

1951 - A damaged McDonnell F2H-2 Banshee jet fighter, BuNo 124968, of VF-172, returning to USS Essex (CV-9), on its first Korean War cruise, misses the recovery net and crashes into several planes parked on the ship's deck, killing seven and destroying four aircraft, two F2H-2s, BuNos. 124966 and 124968, both of VF-172. and two F9F-2 Panthers, BuNos. 125128 and 125131, of VF-51.

1958 – USS Grayback (SSG-574) fires first operational launch of Regulus II surface to surface guided missile off CA coast; Missile carries first U.S. mail sent by guided missile.

1958 - A Boeing B-52D Stratofortress, 55-065, crashes in the August Kahl farmyard at Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, near St. Paul, after losing its tail section in flight. Only the co-pilot, Capt. Jack D. Craft, 29, of Sturgis, Massachusetts, survived of the eight-man crew. Air Force officials said that he was in shock and unable to answer questions. The jet tore a hole 300 feet long by 15 feet deep in the farmyard. The plane exploded as it hit, setting fire to the farm buildings. Eight members of the Kahl family were injured, and three remain hospitalized. They lost all their possessions in the explosion and fire.

1959 - A Convair YB-58A-10-CF Hustler, 58-1017, c/n 24, of the 43rd Bomb Wing, is totally destroyed by fire following an aborted take-off from Carswell Air Force Base, Fort Worth, Texas. Two crewmen killed. The loss was directly attributed to tire failure, followed by disintegration of the wheel. Sturdier tires and new wheels will be retrofitted to the type to address this problem.

1969 – Former USS Trepang (AGSS-412) was sunk as a target off southern California during exercise Strike Ex 4-69 by USS Henderson (DD-785) and USS Fechteler (DD-870).

1974 – President Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War deserters and draft-evaders. Limited amnesty was offered to Vietnam-era draft resisters who would now swear allegiance to the United States and perform two years of public service.

1980 - As many as 15 Libyan fighters intercepted US Air Force RC-135U Combat Sent (64-14847) of the 55 Strategic Reconnaissance Wing over the Gulf of Sidra. Accounts differ as to whether the Libyan fighters open fire on the aircraft before being chased away by US Navy fighters.
 
17 September

1630 – The city of Boston, Massachusetts is founded.

1787 – The Constitution of the United States of America is signed by 38 of 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.

1787 – The “College of Electors” (electoral college) was established at the Constitutional Convention with representatives to be chosen by the states. Pierce Butler of South Carolina first proposed the electoral college system.

1862 – The Allegheny Arsenal explosion results in the single largest civilian disaster during the Civil War.

1862 – “Virginia,” a Union whaler of 346 tons, was burned off Flores island, Azores, by CSS Alabama.

1864 – Gen. Grant approved Sheridan’s plan for Shenandoah Valley Campaign. “I want it so barren that a crow, flying down it, would need to pack rations.”

1908 – Army Signal Corps Wright Model A, Army Signal Corps serial number 1, piloted by Orville Wright, crashes at Fort Myer, Virginia, killing Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge. During the flight, which had begun soon after 5pm., a propeller broke and severed control wires. The trials continued the following year with a new smaller version of the Wright A which became the first military aircraft when purchased by the US Army. This aircraft served for two years and was retired on 4 May 1911. It is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C., after having been accepted for exhibition on 20 October 1911. Selfridge AFB, Michigan, was later named for the first U.S. military air crash victim. Wright was hospitalized until 31 October 1908 and spent several more weeks on crutches.

1917 - A kite balloon from USS Huntington (Armored Cruiser No. 5) was hit by a squall while being hauled down and struck the water so hard the observer, Lieutenant (jg) Henry W. Hoyt, was knocked out of the basket and caught underwater in the balloon rigging. As the balloon was pulled toward the ship, Patrick McGunigal, Ships Fitter First Class, (30 May 1876 – 19 January 1936) jumped overboard, cleared the tangle and put a line around Lieutenant Hoyt so that he could be hauled up on deck. For this act of heroism, McGunigal was later awarded the Medal of Honor, the first of the Great War. The Huntington was convoying six troopships across the Atlantic to France and the balloon observation was being made as it transited the war zone.

1942 – All atomic research is place under military control. General Leslie Groves is appointed head of the program. He has deep fears about security and a dislike of the British which leads to a policy of reluctant sharing of information concerning atomic weapon development with the British Allies.

1945 - "First Lt. Kenneth Robert Frost was killed early yesterday afternoon (17 September) when his P-38 Lightning crashed approximately 40 miles north of the Army Air field at Daggett, CA. Lt. Frost, attached to the 444th Army Air force bombardment unit, [sic] was the son of Percy O. and Louise Frost of Los Angeles. A qualified board of officers will be appointed to investigate the cause of the crash, Army officers said."

Lost was P-38L-1-LO, 44-24492, listed as of the 444th Combat Crew Training Squadron with crash site ~25 miles NE of Yermo, CA according to the Aviation Archeology database, or of the 444th AAF Base Unit with crash site at a range 30 miles NE of Daggett as listed by Joe Baugher.

1947 – James Forrestal (d.1949) was sworn in as first the U.S. Secretary of Defense as a new National Military Establishment unified America’s armed forces.

1950 – North Korean Air Force aircraft drop four bombs and slightly damaged USS Rochester (CA-124) at Inchon during the first enemy air attack of the war on a U.S. ship. Three bombs missed and one struck the ship’s crane but didn’t detonate. No casualties.

1956 - Boeing B-52B Stratofortress, 53–393, of the 93d Bombardment Wing (Heavy), crashes after an in-flight fire while returning to Castle AFB, California. Lost wing in subsequent dive, crashing near Highway 99, nine miles SE of Madera, California. Five crew killed, two bailed out safely.

1956 - Sixth Lockheed U-2A, Article 346, 56–6679, delivered to the CIA on 13 January 1956, crashes during climb-out from Wiesbaden Air Base, Germany, when the aircraft of Detachment A, stalls at 35,000 feet (11,000 m), killing Agency pilot Howard Carey. Cause of accident never satisfactorily determined.

1959 – Test pilot Scott Crossfield flew the X-15 on its first powered flight to 15,964 meters (52,378 feet) and Mach 2.11.

1961 – Former USS Dragonet (SS-293) was scuttled in explosive tests in Chesapeake Bay.

1976 – NASA publicly unveils its first space shuttle, the Enterprise, during a ceremony in Palmdale, California.

1978 – At the White House in Washington, D.C., Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin sign the Camp David Accords, laying the groundwork for a permanent peace agreement between Egypt and Israel after three decades of hostilities.

1981 - Near Sardinia, Italy, a USMC Sikorsky CH-53C Sea Stallion helicopter crashes while attempting to land aboard USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7) during training exercises, killing all five crewmen.

1981 – Strassberg, Germany; Mid-air collision with USAF Rockwell OV-10A Bronco (66-13553) and German Army Aviation Aérospatiale Alouette II Helicopter (75+29) during NATO exercise "Scharfe Klinge". Stuffz Andreas Heinze (25), Hptm Reinhard Ertl (31) and Capt. Donald Peter Keller (29) were killed.

1987 - McDonnell-Douglas KC-10A Extender, 82-0190, c/n 48212, written off in ramp fire after explosion while undergoing maintenance at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, killing crew chief.

1997 – Pres. Clinton announced that the US would not sign the int’l. treaty banning anti-personnel land mines after 89 nations rejected US demands to water down the accord. 89 nations endorsed the pact.

2003 – Former USS Richard L. James, a 134-foot long derelict LCU, was scuttled off Hawaii.
 
18 September

1793 – President George Washington laid the foundation stone for the U.S. Capitol on Jenkins Hill.

1861 – “Maid of the Mist” was a Union side-wheel steamer of 40 tons, built in 1859 at Evansville, Ind. She foundered there this date.

1862 – “Elisha Dunbar” was a Union Whaler of 257 tons out of New Bedford, Mass. carrying 1,100 barrels of whale oil. She was captured by CSS Alabama and burnt some 230 miles WNW of Flores Island in the Azores.

1931 – The Mukden Incident was initiated by the Japanese Kwangtung Army in Mukden.

1941 – U.S. Navy ships escort eastbound British trans-Atlantic convoy for first time (Convoy HX-150). Although the U.S. Navy ships joined HX-150, which left port escorted by British ships on 16th, on night of 17 September, the official escort duty began on 18th.

1945 - Consolidated TB-24J Liberator, built as B-24J-1-NT 42-78549, of the 425th AAF Base Unit, Gowen Field, Idaho, piloted by William P. Bordemer, suffers engine failure and crashes 38 miles N of Deeth, Nevada. "ELKO, Nev., Sept. 18 (AP) - One crewman and possibly three parachuted to safety from a Boise-based B-24 bomber which crashed today 30 miles north of Deeth, Nev., a search plane reported tonight. Lew Gourley, piloting a Piper cub, [sic] who first discovered the bomber's wreckage, said he saw one flier hanging unconscious in the harness of one 'chute and that two other 'chutes had been sighted. 'The man who was still in the 'chute harness in the morning has apparently come to,' Gourley said after a second flight to the scene. 'He was extricated from the 'chute and sat up and waved to us.'"

1947 – The U.S. Air Force was formed as a separate military service out of the old Army Air Corps.

1954 – The US, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, France, Thailand and the Philippines signed a treaty providing for the creation of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), a collective defense pact. The organization was created in response to events in Korea and Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos). The pack formally ended in 1977.

1969 - A U.S. Air Force twin engine Douglas C-47 Skytrain crashed just after takeoff from McChord AFB in Tacoma, Washington. It came down in a wooded area just south of the runway. Five men died and seven other men were injured. Killed were Army 1st Lt. Joseph R. Baxter, assigned to Madigan General Hospital at neighboring Ft. Lewis, who died six hours after the crash; Lt. Col. Robert E. Walker, pilot and commander of a detachment of the 15th Weather Squadron at McChord; the co-pilot, Capt. Peter Cunningham of Tacoma; Air Force TSgt. Donald G. Love, the flight engineer, also assigned to McChord and an Army man, who was not immediately identified. The injured Air Force personnel were MSgt. William B. Johnston of McChord; Lt. Col. Jack S. McKinley of Virginia; Sgt. William D. Wallace of West Virginia; TSgt. Billy D. Byrd of Tucson, Arizona; and Sgt. Charles L. Andrews of Florida. Injured Navy personnel were P02 Charles B. Nichols and PO3 Darrell E. Calentine, both of California. Also injured was a retired Air Force MSgt. Granville Hicks of Missouri.

1970 – Former USS Soley (DD-707) was sunk as a target some 75 miles NNE of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

1984 – Retired Air Force Col. Joseph Kittinger completes the first solo gas balloon crossing of the Atlantic.
 
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