Today in history: The first combat troops were ordered into Vietnam, under President Lyndon B. Johnson

By

Jon Guttman

and

HistoryNet

During Navy Week Austin, Defense Health Agency Director Vice Adm. Raquel Bono joined by Navy Vice Chief of Information Rear Adm. Robert Durand, the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard Drill Team, local area sailors, Texas Association of Vietnam Veterans and Texas state representatives, assembled at the Texas Capitol Vietnam Veterans Memorial Monument to lay wreaths. Entombed within the monument are the names of 3,417 Texans who gave their lives so that others might be free. (Burrell Parmer/U.S. Navy)

1965: The United States, under President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered its first combat troops into Vietnam.  To read Johnson’s bio, visit HistoryNet.com.

Also today in history, in the U.S. and elsewhere:

1862: Union land and sea forces attacked Island No.10 on the Mississippi River. 

1863: Rear Admiral David D. Porter’s seven ironclad gunboats dueled Confederate gun emplacements fruitlessly in the Battle of Grand Gulf in Mississippi.

1968: President Johnson announced he would not seek a second term.

1972: Final day of the rum ration in the Royal Canadian Navy.