Learn Our History Today: On June 15, 1934, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was officially chartered by the Congress. It became the first national park that was funded in part by federal money; other parks were funded by the state or by private investors. Today the Smoky Mountains National Parks encompasses 522,419 acres, and welcomes more than 9 million visitors a year, making it the most visited national park in the United States. In addition, On June 15, 1944, following a massive bombardment in which more than 165,000 shells were fired, American troops began landing on the Japanese held island of Saipan. Beginning at 7:00 am, more than 8,000 Marines landed on the western coast of the island, running into carefully prepared Japanese defenses laden with barb wire, artillery, and machine gun emplacements, all placed to inflict maximum American casualties. At the end of the day the Americans had established a beach head and were able to hold off a large Japanese counter-attack, inflicting horrendous casualties on their Japanese foes. The Battle of Saipan lasted more than 3 weeks, and following a last ditch Japanese banzai charge the Island was taken by the Americans on July 9. The battle was, at that time, the costliest battle of the Pacific, costing the Americans 2,949 killed and 10,464 wounded out of the 71,000 Americans who landed at Saipan. The Japanese lost 30,000 killed, almost the entire defending force.
Posted on: Sun, 15 Jun 2014 22:48:03 +0000
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