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 capitol. | |
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. | |
6-7April 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 | 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 strikers in Iraq and Kuwait. | |
24-28 February 1993 | 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 3d 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 |