July 17, 201411 yr Author 17 July 1989 The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber (serial 82-1066) takes to the air in public for the first time, undertaking a delivery flight from Palmdale's Plant 42 to Edwards AFB, CA, in a flight that takes 2 hours 20 minutes.
July 18, 201411 yr Author 18 July 1942 The Messerschmitt Me 262 (in third prototype V3) is flown for the first time using its Jumo 004 turbojet engines, when Fritz Wendel takes to the air at Leipheim near Gunzburg.
July 28, 201411 yr Author 28 July 1914 Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, marking the start of World War I.
July 29, 201411 yr Author 29 July 1967 While conducting air strikes from a position known as Yankee Station, off the coast of North Vietnam, the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal (CVA-59) suffers a disastrous fire. An electrical fault causes a 5 inch Zuni rocket to fire from under the wing of an F-4B Phantom II and strike the underwing fuel tank of an A-4E Skyhawk awaiting launch. The rocket does not explode but its impact tears the fuel tank off the wing and ignites a spray of jet fuel, starting a conflagration. Two 1,000 lb M65 iron bombs are also dislodged and fall into the burning fuel. One cooks off (due to unstable Comp B explosive) and detonates within minutes, causing a chain reaction of eight more bomb explosions. 134 men are killed and 161 injured. Forrestal is put out of action for over 200 days.
July 30, 201411 yr Author 30 July 1945 Having delivered components for the Little Boy atomic bomb to the South Pacific island of Tinian, the Portland class heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35) is torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-58. 880 of the 1,196 men aboard survived the sinking, but only 321 men came out of the water alive, with 317 ultimately surviving what was to be the greatest single loss of life at sea in the history of the US Navy. The Legacy of USS Indianapolis (USNI News)
July 31, 201411 yr Author 31 July 1991 The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (later called START I) nuclear arms treaty is signed between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was the largest and most complex arms control treaty in history, and by late 2001 had resulted in the removal of about 80 percent of all strategic nuclear weapons then in existence.
August 1, 201411 yr Author 1 August 1957 The establishment of North American Air Defense (NORAD) by both the United States and Canada, is first announced.
August 4, 201411 yr Author 4 August 1964 The second of two confrontations in the Gulf of Tonkin, off the coast of Vietnam, between US Navy Allen M. Sumner class destroyer USS Maddox (DD-731) and Forrest Sherman class destroyer USS Turner Joy (DD-951) come under attack from North Vietnamese P-4 type torpedo boats. This second incident (which is claimed to have never actually happened) was an impetus for retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnam and, ultimately, the Vietnam War.
August 5, 201411 yr Author 5 August 1781 The Battle of Dogger Bank, fought between British and Dutch squadrons, takes place in the North Sea during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, as part of the American War of Independence. It is one of five 'Battles of Dogger Bank', including one previous (1696) and three subsequent (1904, 1915 and 1916).
August 6, 201411 yr Author 6 August 1945 A modified US Army Air Force B-29 Superfortress bomber, called Enola Gay, drops the first atomic bomb - codenamed Little Boy - over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It explodes at an altitude of roughly 2,000 feet over the city, with the force of about 16 kilotons.
August 7, 201411 yr Author 7 August 2008 Responding to attacks by Ossetian separatists, former Soviet republic and now independent nation Georgia launches a large scale military offensive against South Ossetia, sparking a heavy response by Russia and starting the short lived South Ossetia War.
August 8, 201411 yr Author 8 August 1946 The Convair B-36 Peacemaker strategic bomber, the largest mass produced piston engine aircraft ever built, takes to the air in its first flight.
August 11, 201411 yr Author 11 August 1984 While preparing for a weekly radio address, US President Ronald Reagan joked with technicians and offered the following as a sound check: My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.
August 12, 201411 yr Author 12 August 2000 The Project 949A Antey (NATO Oscar II) class nuclear powered cruise missile submarine Kursk (K-141) is lost with all 118 hands during a Russian Navy exercise off the coast of Severomorsk. The culprit is believed to have been a failure of one of its HTP fueled Type 65 torpedoes.
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