March 16th...This Day in History (Now with links to other events)

U.S. Military Academy established 1802

 

The United States Military Academy–the first military school in the United States–is founded by Congress for the purpose of educating and training young men in the theory and practice of military science. Located at West Point, New York, the U.S. Military Academy is often simply known as West Point.

Located on the high west bank of New York’s Hudson River, West Point was the site of a Revolutionary-era fort built to protect the Hudson River Valley from British attack. In 1780, Patriot General Benedict Arnold, the commander of the fort, agreed to surrender West Point to the British in exchange for 6,000 pounds. However, the plot was uncovered before it fell into British hands, and Arnold fled to the British for protection.

Ten years after the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy in 1802, the growing threat of another war with Great Britain resulted in congressional action to expand the academy’s facilities and increase the West Point corps. Beginning in 1817, the U.S. Military Academy was reorganized by superintendent Sylvanus Thayer–later known as the “father of West Point”–and the school became one of the nation’s finest sources of civil engineers. During the Mexican-American War, West Point graduates filled the leading ranks of the victorious U.S. forces, and with the outbreak of the Civil War former West Point classmates regretfully lined up against one another in the defense of their native states.

In 1870, the first African-American cadet was admitted into the U.S. Military Academy, and in 1976, the first female cadets. The academy is now under the general direction and supervision of the department of the U.S. Army and has an enrollment of more than 4,000 students.

 (More Events on This Day in History)

• American Revolution
• 1751 “Father of the Constitution” is born

• Automotive

• 2003 Craven edges out Busch in closest NASCAR finish

• Civil War

• 1865 Battle of Averasboro, North Carolina

• Cold War

• 1988 Reagan orders troops into Honduras

• Crime

• 1881 A virtuous woman turns murderous

• Disaster

• 1978 Supertanker wrecks off French coast

• General Interest

• 1926 First liquid-fueled rocket
• 1968 My Lai massacre takes place in Vietnam
• 1985 Terry Anderson kidnapped

• Hollywood

• 2005 Robert Blake acquitted of wife’s murder

• Literary

• 1850 The Scarlet Letter is published

• Music

• 1970 Motown soul singer Tammi Terrell dies

• Old West

• 1903 Judge Roy Bean dies

• Presidential

• 1751 James Madison is born

• Sports

• 1953 Baseball owners give Veeck cold shoulder

• Vietnam War

• 1968 U.S. troops massacre South Vietnamese
• 1975 South Vietnamese flee Pleiku and Kontum

• World War I

• 1916 German Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz resigns

• World War II

• 1945 Fighting on Iwo Jima ends