JUNE 28
1719 Ãtienne François, Marquis de Stainville, Duc de Choiseul (28 June 1719 â 8 May 1785) was a French military officer, diplomat and statesman. From 1758 and 1761 and from 1766 and 1770, he was Foreign Minister of France and had a strong influence on France’s global strategy throughout the period. He is closely associated with France’s defeat in the Seven Years’ War and subsequent efforts to rebuild French prestige.
1787 Lieutenant-General Sir Henry George Wakelyn Smith, 1st Baronet, GCB (28 June 1787 â 12 October 1860) was a notable English soldier and military commander in the British Army of the early 19th century. A veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, he is also particularly remembered for his role in the Battle of Aliwal (India) in 1846, and as the husband of Lady Smith.
1816 Count Dmitry Alekseyevich Milyutin ( 28 June 1816, Moscow â 25 January 1912, Simeiz near Yalta) was Minister of War (1861â81) and the last Field Marshal of Imperial Russia (1898). He was responsible for sweeping military reforms that changed the face of the Russian army in the 1860s and 1870s. However, he was infamously involved in creating the framework for the genocide of Circassian Refugees from 1861 to 1865.
1876 Clara Louise Maass (June 28, 1876 â August 24, 1901) was an American nurse who died as a result of volunteering for medical experiments to study yellow fever. In April 1898, during the SpanishâAmerican War, Maass volunteered as a contract nurse for the United States Army (the Army Nurse Corps did not yet exist). She served with the Seventh U.S. Army Corps from October 1, 1898, to February 5, 1899, in Jacksonville, Florida, Savannah, Georgia, and Santiago, Cuba. She was discharged in 1899, but volunteered again to serve with the Eighth U.S. Army Corps in the Philippines from November 1899 to mid-1900.
1891 Carl Andrew Spaatz (born Spatz; June 28, 1891 â July 14, 1974), nicknamed “Tooey”, was an American World War II general. As commander of Strategic Air Forces in Europe in 1944, he successfully pressed for the bombing of the enemy’s oil production facilities as a priority over other targets. He became Chief of Staff of the newly formed United States Air Force in 1947.
1926 Mel Brooks (born Melvin Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is known as a creator of broad film farces and comedic parodies, was drafted into the US Army during World War II while he was attending Brooklyn College as a Psychology major. He served in the 1104 Engineer Combat Battalion, 78th Infantry Division as a Combat Engineer. He served from 1944-1946. One of Melâs duties during his service was to diffuse land mines.
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