On August 29, 1861, the first combined Union Army and Navy battle of the Civil War concluded at the Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries. A Union victory a month after the defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run, it boosted morale in the North.
On August 27, 1918, US and Mexican forces engaged in the Battle of Ambos Nogales, amid the tensions of the Mexican Revolution, World War I, and the Border War.
On August 25, 1944, Allied troops liberated Paris, France after four years of Nazi occupation.
On August 20, 1794, General “Mad Anthony” Wayne led American troops to victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The win enabled the Treaty of Greenville and the US acquisition of the Ohio Territory.
On August 19, 1812, the USS Constitution dueled with the British HMS Guerriere and reigned victorious. During the fighting, one sailor noted that the British cannonballs simply bounced off the Constitution’s oak hull, proclaiming it was “made of iron.” This earned the ship its famous nickname – “Old Ironsides.”
On August 18, 1846, Stephen W. Kearny declared himself military governor of the New Mexico Territory. He had captured Santa Fe without firing a shot, as part of the Kearny Expedition.
On July 27, 1909, Orville Wright flew a plane a record one hour and 12 minutes. Nearly six years after their first historic powered airplane flight, the Wright brothers put their flight technology to the test, playing a major role in getting America’s Army airborne.
On July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, calling for the end of racial discrimination in the US armed forces.
Bernardo Vicente de Gálvez y Madrid, Viscount of Galveston and Count of Gálvez, was born on July 25, 1746, in Macharaviaya, Málaga, Spain. A hero of the Revolutionary War, he later served as Spanish Governor of Louisiana and Viceroy of New Spain.