June 25 in Military History

Virginia becomes the tenth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, providing crucial momentum for the new government and its provision for national defense.

Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and 268 men of the 7th Cavalry are annihilated by Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at the Little Bighorn River.

Major General Dwight D. Eisenhower is officially designated Commanding General of the European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA).

Delegates from 50 nations unanimously adopt the United Nations Charter in San Francisco, establishing the international body designed to prevent future world wars.

The U.S. Air Force, Royal Air Force, and French Air Force launched Operation Vittles, the Berlin Airlift, after the Soviet Union blockaded ground access to West Berlin. The 15-month operation delivered 2.3 million tons of supplies, demonstrated strategic airlift capability, and reshaped Cold War force posture in Europe.

North Korean forces cross the 38th Parallel in a surprise invasion of South Korea, beginning the Korean War, the first major armed conflict of the Cold War.

President Truman ordered the U.S. Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to prevent the Chinese Civil War from spreading to the Korean War. The deployment of Task Force 77 established a military presence between mainland China and Taiwan that has shaped Pacific security architecture for 75 years.

U.S. Navy Tomahawk cruise missiles destroyed the Iraqi Intelligence Service headquarters in Baghdad in retaliation for a plot to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush during his April 1993 visit to Kuwait. The strike was the first American use of force against Iraq after Desert Storm.

A truck bomb explodes outside the Khobar Towers military housing complex in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S. Air Force personnel and wounding 498, one of the deadliest terrorist attacks on American military personnel.

President Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Singapore's Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island, the first face-to-face meeting between sitting U.S. and DPRK leaders. The June 12 summit produced a joint declaration on denuclearization, though subsequent implementation remained limited and shaped U.S. Pacific Command deterrence posture through the following years.