October 8th
On this day in 1862, the Confederate invasion of Kentucky stalls when Union General Don Carlos Buell stops General Braxton Bragg at the Battle of Perryville.
October 9th
On this day in 1864, Union cavalry in the Shenandoah Valley deal a humiliating defeat to their Confederate counterparts at Tom’s Brook, Virginia.
October 10th
On this day in 732AD, at the Battle of Tours near Poitiers, France, Frankish leader Charles Martel, a Christian, defeats a large army of Spanish Moors, halting the Muslim advance into Western Europe. Abd-ar-Rahman, the Muslim governor of Cordoba, was killed in the fighting, and the Moors retreated from Gaul, never to return in such force.
October 11th
On this day in 1942, the American Navy intercepts a Japanese fleet of ships on their way to reinforce troops at Guadalcanal. The Navy succeeded in its operation, sinking a majority of the ships.
October 12th
At 12:15 p.m. local time, a motorized rubber dinghy loaded with explosives blows a 40-by-40-foot hole in the port side of the USS Cole, a U.S. Navy destroyer that was refueling at Aden, Yemen. Seventeen sailors were killed and 38 wounded in the attack, which was carried out by two suicide terrorists alleged to be members of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network.
October 13th
On this day in 1775, the Continental Congress authorizes construction and administration of the first American naval force—the precursor to the United States Navy.
October 14th
U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.
Suggested Reading:
Give Me a Fast Ship: The Continental Navy and America’s Revolution at Sea By Tim McGrath
Yeager: An Autobiography By Chuck Yeager
Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle By Kenneth Noe
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