November 25 in Military History

A British and colonial American expedition under Brigadier General John Forbes occupied the ruins of Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio River after French forces burned and abandoned the post. The capture secured the strategic gateway between the Ohio Valley and the Atlantic colonies and laid the foundation for what became the city of Pittsburgh.

The last British troops departed New York City after seven years of occupation, and General Washington led the Continental Army into Manhattan in triumph. Evacuation Day marked the true end of the Revolutionary War and was celebrated as a major American holiday for over a century.

In one of the Civil War's most dramatic moments, Union soldiers of the Army of the Cumberland charged up the steep face of Missionary Ridge without orders, shattering the Confederate Army of Tennessee and completing the three-day victory at Chattanooga. The spontaneous charge, which Grant had not ordered and Sherman could not believe, broke Braxton Bragg's line and opened the road to Atlanta.

Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact in Berlin, pledging cooperation against the Communist International and secretly binding each party to neutrality if the other became engaged in war with the Soviet Union. The pact laid the diplomatic foundation for the Axis alliance that would emerge fully with the Tripartite Pact of 1940.

The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito made its maiden flight at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, stunning observers with performance that would make it one of the most versatile aircraft of World War II. Built primarily of wood to conserve strategic metals, the "Wooden Wonder" served as a bomber, fighter, reconnaissance aircraft, and pathfinder. It was so fast that it could outrun most enemy fighters, and it became the backbone of RAF Bomber Command's precision strike force.

The Royal Navy battleship HMS Barham was struck by three torpedoes from the German submarine U-331 off the coast of Egypt and sank within four minutes, killing 862 sailors. The magazine explosion that destroyed her was filmed by a nearby newsreel cameraman, producing one of the most famous naval combat films of the Second World War.

Over 180,000 Chinese People's Volunteer Army soldiers launched a massive offensive against United Nations forces along the Ch'ongch'on River in North Korea, springing a devastating trap on the advancing Eighth Army. The attack shattered several South Korean and American units and began the longest retreat in U.S. Army history, driving UN forces back below the 38th parallel within weeks.

The USS Enterprise, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was commissioned at Newport News, Virginia. At 1,123 feet and over 90,000 tons, she was the largest warship ever built at the time. Enterprise served for 51 years, participating in the Cuban Missile Crisis blockade, Vietnam War operations, and the Global War on Terror before decommissioning in 2012, the longest naval service of any U.S. aircraft carrier.

Greek Military Police Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis overthrew the existing junta of Georgios Papadopoulos in Athens, consolidating control after the bloody suppression of the Athens Polytechnic uprising. The coup tightened military rule in Greece but set in motion the chain of events that led to the Cyprus crisis and the collapse of the dictatorship in 1974.

President George W. Bush signed the Homeland Security Act, creating the Department of Homeland Security, the largest reorganization of the federal government since the creation of the Department of Defense in 1947. The new department consolidated 22 existing agencies, including the Coast Guard, Customs, Immigration, the Secret Service, and FEMA, into a single cabinet-level department focused on preventing terrorist attacks on American soil.