December 2

Only 24 years old at the time of the Battle of Tirad Pass, Gregorio del Pilar was known as "The Boy General of the Filipinos."

December 1

At the time of Fabvier's siege in 1826, Athens was almost entirely deserted. It did not become the capital of Greece, and its population did not return, until after the war in 1833.

November 30

Some of the foreigners who came to defend Finland included a group from the United States. The first Americans that died in Europe during World War II were killed by the Soviet Union, an eventual ally.

November 27

Despite the centuries of combat and death, the Crusades did reopen trade between Western Europe and the Middle East. Knowledge learned and traded from Islamic realms helped spark the Renaissance and end the Christian dominated Dark Ages.

November 26

The men who assaulted Hill 875 made the only American parachute jump during the Vietnam War earlier in 1967. By the time of the fighting around Dak To, all airborne forces had switched to using helicopters in combat.

November 25

One of the targets of the Confederate Army of Manhattan was P.T. Barnum's circus.

November 24

The Twentieth Air Force was the unit of "Enola Gay" and "Bock's Car", the B-29s that dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively.

November 23

When asked what it would take to successfully invade Tarawa, the Japanese commander of the island famously proclaimed "A million men and a hundred years." It took 35,000 Marines just three days.

November 20

The Royal Navy shipped its landship prototypes to France disguised as water tanks. The term "tank" was used when secretly referring to the new vehicles, and the nickname stuck.

November 19

The secret call-sign of the Dutch merchant ship the Kormoran was imitating was IIKP. When the Sydney signaled "IK", Detmers was supposed to properly identify himself by completing the quartet with the first and last letters, "IP".

November 18

Talk about adding insult to injury. On his way home after surrendering his command at Vertieres, French commander the Viscount of Rochambeau was captured by the British and imprisoned for nine years.

November 17

Krasnoi was not the last place in Russia where Michel Ney distinguished himself. As the Grand Armee neared safety, Ney was charged with holding a vital bridge near Kovno, in present day Lithuania. Still in command of the rear guard, legend has it that Ney was the last Frenchman to cross the bridge and escape to the west.

November 16

The Luftwaffe had a bomber capable of reaching New York City from bases in France, a distance no Allied plane of the war could have covered. High production costs and precious little fuel prevented a raid on the U.S. from ever being launched.

July 3

In 1771 George Washington purchased the mountain meadow on which Fort Necessity once stood. From then until his death, Washington owned the land where he fought the first battle of his career.

July 2

General Daniel Sickles, who exposed his Corps by moving it out in front of the Union line at Gettysburg, made U.S. Justice System history. He killed his wife's lover in a jealous rage, and beat the murder rap with the first ever temporary insanity plea. To his troops, his nickname was Crazy Dan.

July 1

On the German side of the lines during the Battle of the Somme was a young Austrian soldier named Adolf Hitler.

June 26

Following the Battle of Belleau Wood, U.S. Army General John Pershing, commander of all Americans in France, claimed "The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle." Nice to see that even the Army knows how great the Marines are.

June 25

George Armstrong Custer graduated dead last in his class of 34 men at West Point in 1861, yet was the first to be promoted to General.

June 24

Napoleon Bonaparte once considered emigrating to England to join the Royal Navy.

June 23

Stand Watie, Chief of his people and champion of Indian Rights, owned slaves.

June 22

Vladimir Illyich Lenin, founder of the Russian Bolshevism Hitler was attempting to destroy in 1941, was in exile before the Russian Revolution. Rightfully thinking a revolution would push Russia out of World War I, Lenin was snuck back into the country by, of all people, the German government.