MIKE GRACIA

SANDY KOZEL

In 1876: __Alexander Graham Bell makes the first telephone call
in his Boston laboratory, summoning his assistant, Thomas A.
Watson, from the next room.

On this day in 1942, the U.S. 1st Marine Division begins Operation Watchtower, the first U.S. offensive of the war, by landing on Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands.

During the Spanish-American War, U.S. forces launch their invasion of Puerto
Rico, the 108-mile-long, 40-mile-wide island that was one of Spain’s two
principal possessions in the Caribbean. With little resistance and only seven deaths, U.S. troops under General Nelson A. Miles were able to secure the
island by mid-August. After the signing of an armistice with Spain, American
troops raised the U.S. flag over the island, formalizing U.S. authority over its
one million inhabitants. Puerto Rico remains a U.S. commonwealth today.

An American flag flies on Omaha Beach in Normandy on Thursday,
the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.