January 29 in Military History

Queen Victoria signed the Royal Warrant creating the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration in the British honor system, awarded for extraordinary valor in the face of the enemy during the Crimean War.

Queen Victoria issued a Royal Warrant establishing the Victoria Cross, the highest award for military valor in the British and Commonwealth forces. Created to recognize extraordinary bravery during the Crimean War, the medal would become the most prestigious military decoration in the English-speaking world.

U.S. Army troops under Colonel Patrick Connor attacked a Northwestern Shoshone winter camp at Bear River, killing an estimated 250-400 men, women, and children in one of the deadliest massacres of Native Americans by the military.

Colonel Patrick Connor and approximately 200 California Volunteers attacked a Shoshone village on the Bear River in present-day Idaho, killing an estimated 250 to 400 men, women, and children. The massacre was one of the deadliest attacks on Native Americans in U.S. history.

German Zeppelin airships carried out their first bombing raid on Paris during World War I, killing 26 civilians and marking a new era of strategic aerial bombardment of cities.

The USS Missouri (BB-63), the last battleship ever built by the United States, was launched at the New York Navy Yard. She would later host the Japanese surrender ceremony ending World War II.

Iraqi forces launched a surprise attack on the Saudi Arabian town of Khafji in the first major ground engagement of the Gulf War. Saudi and Qatari forces, supported by U.S. Marines, recaptured the town within days.

President Jacques Chirac announced the permanent end of French live nuclear testing following the detonation of Xouthos at Fangataufa Atoll, the final shot in a 210-test program conducted in French Polynesia since 1966. The decision closed one of the last active underground nuclear test sites in the world and cleared the way for France to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

President George W. Bush used the phrase "Axis of Evil" in his State of the Union address to describe Iran, Iraq, and North Korea, establishing the rhetorical framework for the Global War on Terror's expansion.

President George W. Bush delivered his State of the Union address identifying Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as an "axis of evil" that threatened world peace with weapons of mass destruction. The speech laid the rhetorical groundwork for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.