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Chronology of Army History

Select Chronology of Army History for the Army’s 240th Birthday

This chronology includes a selection of significant events in U.S. Army history compiled for the Army’s 240th birthday on 14 June 2015. It should not be considered all-inclusive or comprehensive.
 

14 June 1775   The Continental Congress votes to raise ten companies of riflemen in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. This was the effective birth of the United States Army.
 
15 June 1775   George Washington appointed Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.
 
June 1776   Congress sets up a Board of War and Ordnance, the lineal ancestor of the War Department.
 
22 August 1776   Battle of New York (Brooklyn Heights).
 
26 December 1776   Washington and his army cross the Delaware and defeat the Hessian garrison at Trenton.
 
11 September 1777   Battle of Brandywine.
 
17 October 1777   British forces under Burgoyne surrender at Saratoga.
 
Winter 1777-1778   The Army receives its first real military training at Valley Forge from Prussian officer Baron von Steuben.
 
27 July 1778   Battle of Monmouth.
 
17 January 1781   Battle of Cowpens.
 
19 October 1781   Lord Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown.
 
September 1787   The US Constitution, which specifically provided that the President should be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, is adopted and signed.
 
7 August 1789   Congress establishes the Department of War.
 
16 March 1802   Congress authorizes the creation of a Corps of Engineers and a military academy under its control at West Point, New York.
 
1803-1806   The Lewis and Clark Expedition.
 
18 June 1812-24 December 1814   War of 1812.
 
25 July 1814   Battle of Lundy’s Lane.
 
13-14 September 1814   British fail to capture Baltimore when Fort McHenry withstands naval bombardment.
 
8 January 1815   Battle of New Orleans. British forces repulsed at Chalmette Plantation by American troops under the command of Andrew Jackson.
 
1817-1818   First Seminole War.
 
1835-1842   Second Seminole War.
 
13 May 1846-2 February 1848   War with Mexico.
 
8 May 1846   Battle of Palo Alto.
 
9 March 1847   American forces land at Vera Cruz.
 
20 August-13 September 1847   Battles around Mexico City result in defeat of the Mexican Army and capture of the capital.
 
12-3 April 1861   Confederate batteries bombard Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor.
 
15 April 1861   President Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers to augment the reduced Regular Army.
 
21 July 1861   First battle of Bull Run.
 
April-July 1862   The Peninsula Campaign ends outside Richmond with the U.S. forces under McClellan defeated by Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee.
 
6-7 April 1862   Battle of Shiloh.
 
17 September 1862   Battle of Antietam.
 
12-14 December 1862   Battle of Fredericksburg.
 
3 March 1863   Congress passes the Enrollment Act, which establishes national conscription.
 
1-3 July 1863   Battle of Gettysburg.
 
4 July 1863   Vicksburg surrenders.
 
18 July 1863   The 54th Massachusetts, an African-American regiment, leads the assault on Battery Wagner near Charleston, SC.
 
18-20 September 1863   Battle of Chickamauga.
 
9 March 1864   Grant is promoted to lieutenant general and appointed as General in Chief of all Union armies.
 
May-June 1864   Grant’s Overland Campaign in Virginia.
 
May-September 1864   Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign culminates in the capture of Atlanta on 2 September.
 
July 1864-April 1865   Siege of Petersburg.
 
12 November-21 December 1864   Sherman’s “March to the Sea” ends with the capture of Savannah.
 
30 November 1864   Battle of Franklin, Tennessee.
 
15 December 1864   Battle of Nashville.
 
January- April 1865   Sherman’s Carolina’s Campaign.
 
9 April 1865   Robert E. Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House.
 
1862-1890   The Army engages in an almost continuous series of campaigns and battles with Native American tribes on the western frontier.
 
25 June 1876   Battle of Little Bighorn.
 
29 December 1890   Battle of Wounded Knee.
 
25 April-12 August 1898   Spanish-American War.
 
1899-1902   Philippine Insurrection.
 
November 1901   Secretary of War Elihu Root directs that the Army War College be established.
 
6 April 1917   Congress declares war on Germany.
 
18 May 1917   Selective Service Act passed, initiating the first draft since the Civil War.
 
July-August 1918   American forces participate in Second Battle of the Marne.
 
September 1918   St. Mihiel Campaign, the American Expeditionary Force’s first independent action in World War I.
 
26 September-11 November 1918   Meuse-Argonne campaign.
 
11 November 1918   Armistice ending fighting on the Western Front.
 
16 September 1940   President Roosevelt signs the first peacetime Selective Service and Training Law.
 
8 December 1941   U.S. declares war on Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
 
8 May 1942   U.S. forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
 
8 November 1942   Operation Torch. Allied forces land in Morocco and Algeria.
 
19-24 February 1943   Battle of Kasserine Pass, Tunisia.
 
7 August 1942-9 February 1943   Guadalcanal Campaign.
 
December 1942- February 1943   Buna, New Guinea Campaign.
 
February 1943- September 1944   New Guinea Campaign. In a series of landings and operations aimed at bypassing major Japanese resistance, forces under MacArthur leapfrog along the northern New Guinea coast.
 
10 July 1943   American and British forces land on Sicily.
 
9 September 1943   American and British forces land at Salerno, Italy.
 
22 January 1944   U.S. and British forces land at Anzio, Italy.
 
January-May 1944   Battle of Monte Cassino, Italy.
 
6 June 1944   D-Day landings in Normandy.
 
15 June 1944   Marianas Campaign begins with landings on Saipan.
 
20 October 1944   Landings at Leyte signal the U.S. return to the Philippines.
 
16 December 1944-25 January 1945   Battle of the Bulge, Belgium.
 
9 January 1945   U.S. Sixth Army lands at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, Philippines.
 
1 April 1945   American forces land on Okinawa.
 
8 May 1945   Victory in Europe. Germany surrenders.
 
2 September 1945   Victory over Japan. Japanese surrender ceremony occurs aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
 
26 July 1947   President Truman signs the National Security Act into law. The act creates a “National Military Establishment” consisting of three military departments (Army, Navy, and Air Force), with a Secretary of Defense.
 
25 June 1950-27 July 1953   Korean War.
 
15 September 1950   Amphibious landing at Inchon, Korea.
 
October 1950   Chinese forces intervene against United Nations forces in Korea.
 
May-July 1951   U.N. forces counterattack and drive Chinese and North Korean forces north across 38th Parallel.
 
July 1951-July 1953   Stalemate along the 38th parallel in Korea.
 
1961-1964   American advisors in South Vietnam increase from 900 to 16,000.
 
March 1965-January 1973   Major combat operations in Vietnam.
 
March 1965   First large-scale deployment of U.S. forces to Vietnam.
 
28 April 1965   Operation POWER PACK, intervention in Dominican Republic begins.
 
14-18 November 1965   First major action between American and North Vietnamese forces in the Ia Drang Valley.
 
November 1967   Battle of Dak To, Vietnam.
 
30 January-March 1968   1968 Tet Offensive by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces.
 
8 April 1968   1st Cavalry Division links up with U.S. Marines at Khe Sanh, opening a land corridor to the base.
 
May-June 1970   Incursion into Cambodia.
 
27 January 1973   Paris Peace Accords signed, effectively ending American involvement in Vietnam.
 
25 October 1983   Operation URGENT FURY, intervention in Grenada begins.
 
20 December 1989   Operation JUST CAUSE, intervention in Panama, begins.
 
2 August 1990   Iraqi forces invade Kuwait. Operation DESERT SHIELD begins.
 
17 January 1991   Operation DESERT STORM begins with air strikes in Iraq and Kuwait.
 
24-28 February 1991   Coalition ground forces liberate Kuwait and defeat Iraqi forces in southern Iraq.
 
December 1992-March 1995   Operation RESTORE HOPE, intervention in Somalia.
 
September 1994-March 1995   Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY, intervention in Haiti.
 
14 December 1995   The 1st Armored Division deploys in Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of Operation JOINT ENDEAVOR.
 
7 October 2001   Operation ENDURING FREEDOM begins in Afghanistan.
 
19 March 2003   Operation IRAQI FREEDOM begins.
 
9 April 2003   Baghdad liberated by elements of the 3rd Infantry Division and the 1st Marine Division.
 
13 December 2003   Saddam Hussein captured by soldiers from the 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division.
 
November-December 2004   Second Battle of Fallujah, Iraq.
 
January 2007-November 2008   “The Surge” in Iraq during which U.S. forces were reinforced in order to stabilize the military situation.
 
18 December 2011   Last American combat troops leave Iraq.
 
26 October 2014   The United States officially ends combat operations in Afghanistan after thirteen years.

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