On August 25th, 1971 the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade, among the first U.S. ground units sent to Vietnam, ceased combat operations and prepared to redeploy to the United States as part of Nixon’s troop withdrawal plan.

A buffer zone dividing North and South Vietnam was a zone of tension and conflict. On August 24, 1970, U.S. B-52 bombers were deployed for a series of bombing raids targeting locations within North Vietnam near the DMZ.

On August 23rd, 1942, the 1st US flights landed on Guadalcanal. This marked the beginning of a grueling and determined campaign that would test the mettle of American forces and reshape the trajectory of the war in the Pacific theater.

The Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Sea and the CCCS Louis S. Ste Laurent became the first “North American surface ships” to reach the North Pole.

gt. Clayton Lonetree, the first Marine ever court-martialed for spying, was convicted in Quantico, Va., of passing secrets to the KGB after becoming romantically involved with a Soviet woman while serving as a U.S. Embassy guard in Moscow. Lonetree ended up serving eight years in a military prison.