When Was The First Aerial Bombardment in the US? Your question is somewhat vague in that it doesnt ask whether the bombing was in anger, an act of war, or simply a military test. It is likely that the very first bomb dropped by an aircraft within the United States was done so by the military. The earliest reference weve found for such an act was a test flight by Lt. J. H. Towers of the US Navy who first attempted to bomb stationary targets from an airplane on 5 February 1913. The famous bombing demonstration flights conducted by Billy Mitchell, wherein he sank the captured German battleship Ostfriesland off the Virginia coast, occurred on 20-21 July 1921. Regardless, any military bombing would have been done purely for research or training purposes, and the mainland of the United States was not attacked from the air during wartime until World War II. However, there are two earlier non-military incidents that have been claimed to be the first aerial bombardments in anger on US soil. The first of these incidents occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921. In May of that year, racial tensions were on the rise after a number of provocations by both whites and blacks. The increasing violence eventually erupted into riots during which the black section of the city was stormed on 1 June 1921. Dozens were killed, mainly blacks, and many buildings owned by blacks were burned down. Some sources have claimed that these fires were actually started by police officers who had comandeered private planes and used them to drop dynamite upon the segregated black communities.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 00:35:46 +0000