Dates in American Naval History

[David]

Dates in American Naval History: January
January 1

1950 - Mary T. Sproul commissioned as first female doctor in Navy
1959 - U.S. Naval Observatory introduces system of uniform atomic time using cesium beam atomic oscillators. This measurement has been adopted as standard by the International Committee on Weights and Measures.
1962 - Navy SEAL teams established

January 2

1969 - Operation Barrier Reef began in Mekong Delta, Vietnam

January 3

1904 - Marines from USS Dixie arrive in Panama
1944 - Top Marine ace MAJ Boyington captured after shooting down 28 aircraft
1945 - Third Fleet carriers begin a 2 day attack against Formosa destroying 100 aircraft with loss of only 22 aircraft.

January 4

1910 - Commissioning of USS Michigan (BB-27), the first U.S. dreadnought battleship.
1863 - Blockading ship USS Quaker City captures sloop Mercury carrying despatches emphasizing desperate plight of the South.
1989 - Aircraft (VF-32) from USS John F. Kennedy shoot down 2 hostile Libyan Migs.

January 5

1855 - USS Plymouth crew skirmish with Chinese troops
1875 - CDR Edward Lull begins expedition to locate best ship canal route across Panama. Route followed 30 years later.
1943 - USS Helena (CL-50) fired first proximity fused projectile in combat and shot down Japanese divebomber in southwest Pacific.
1968 - First Male Nurse Corps officer in Regular Navy, LT Clarence W. Cote.

January 6

1916 - First enlisted flight training class at Pensacola, FL
1942 - Japanese capture 11 Navy Nurses in Manila, Philippines
1967- Operation Deckhouse V begins in Mekong Delta, Vietnam.
1996 - USS Hopper, named for RADM Grace Hopper, commissioned.

January 7

1960 - Launch of first fully-guided flight of Polaris missile at Cape Canaveral (flew 900 miles)
1967 - Mobile Riverine Force begins arriving at Vung Tau, Vietnam

January 8

1847 - Battle of San Gabriel (Navy, Marines, Army defeat Mexicans in CA)

January 9

1861 - Union steamer Star of the West fired on in Charleston Harbor
1918 - Establishment of Naval Overseas Transportation Service to carry cargo during WWI
1945 - Carrier aircraft begin 2-day attack on Japanese forces, Luzon, Philippines

January 10

1847 - American naval forces occupy Los Angeles.
1917 - Navy places first production order for aerial photographic equipment.
1934 - VP-10F flies first non-stop formation flight from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor, arriving 11 Jan.
1956 - Establishment of first Navy nuclear power school at Submarine Base, New London, CT

January 11

1863 - CSS Alabama sinks USS Hatteras off Galveston
1944 - Aircraft from USS Block Island make first aircraft rocket attack on German submarine

January 12

1813 - US Frigate Chesapeake captures British Volunteer
1848 - Attack on Sloop Lexington, San Blas, Mexico
1953 - Landings tested on board USS Antietam, first angled deck carrier

January 13

1865 - Amphibious attack on Fort Fisher, NC
1964 - USS Manley evacuates 54 American and 36 allied nationals after Zanzibar government is overthrown

January 14

1813 - US Frigate Chesapeake captures British brig Hero
1815 - HMS Endymion, Tenedos and Pomone capture USS President
1863 - Navy General Order 4, Emancipation Proclamation
1943 - In first submarine resupply mission, USS Gudgeon lands 6 men, 2,000 pounds of equipment and supplies on Negros Island.

January 15

1865 - In largest amphibious operation of war, Union forces capture Ft. Fisher, Wilmington, NC, by joint amphibious force.
1997 - Navy physician CAPT Jerry Lineger joined the crew of the MIR space station after being launched on Atlantis during space Shuttle Mission STS-81. Prior to the mission, he was trained at the Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia for over a year.

January 16

1930 - USS Lexington provides power to Tacoma, WA, when floods knocked out city power plants
1991 - Operation Desert Storm, liberation of Kuwait from Iraq, begins

January 17

1832- USS Peacock makes contact with Vietnamese court officials
1900 - US (CDR Taussig in USS Bennington) takes formal possession of Wake Island
1955 - USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the first nuclear-powered submarine, casts off lines at 1100 and sends message "underway on nuclear power"

January 18

1911 - First aircraft landing on board a ship, USS Pennsylvania by Eugene Ely.
1962 - After a flash fire in the Persian Gulf on Danish tanker, Prima Maersk, burned a crewman, USS Duxbury Bay transfers a Navy doctor to help the Danish crewman and USS Soley took him to the nearest hospital at Bahrain Island.
1968 - Operation Coronado X begins in Mekong Delta, Vietnam
1977 - The Trident (C-4) missile development flight test program commenced when C4X-1 was launched from a flight pad at Cape Canaveral, FL
1991 - USS Nicholas attacks and captures Iraqi oil platforms

January 19

1840 - LT Charles Wilkes, USN is first American to discover Antarctic coast

January 20

1783 - Hostilities cease between Great Britain and the United States
1903 - Theordore Roosevelt issues Executive Order placing Midway Islands under jurisdiction of the Navy Department.
1914 - School for naval air training opens in Pensacola, FL.
1948 - Establishment of U.S. Persian Gulf Area Command (later changed to Middle East Force in August 1948).

January 21

1954 - Launching of Nautilus, first nuclear submarine, at Groton, CT
1961 - USS George Washington completes first operational voyage of fleet ballistic missile submarine staying submerged 66 days

January 22

1800 - CAPT Thomas Tingey ordered to duty as first Superintendent of the Washington Navy Yard
1944 - Operation Shingle, Allied landing at Anzio, Italy

January 23

1960 - Bathyscaph Trieste descends to deepest part of the ocean, Marianas Trench
1968 - USS Pueblo seized by North Korean forces in Sea of Japan

January 24

1942 - Battle of Makassar Strait, destroyer attack on Japanese convoy in first surface action in the Pacific during World War II
1991 - Helos from USS Leftwich and USS Nicholas recapture first Kuwaiti territory from Iraqis

January 25

1963 - 1st Seabee Technical Assistance Team arrives in Vietnam
1968 - Operation Windsong I in Mekong Delta, Vietnam

January 26

1911 - 1st hydroaeroplane flight is witnessed by naval aviator
1913 - The body of John Paul Jones is laid in its final resting place in the Chapel of Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD
1949 - USS Norton Sound, first guided-missile ship, launches first guided missile, Loon.
1960 - USS John S. McCain rescues the entire 41-man crew of the sinking Japanese freighter, Shinwa Maru, in the East China Sea.

January 27

1942 - USS Gudgeon is first US sub to sink enemy submarine in action, Japanese I-173.
1945 - Commissioning of USS Higbee (DD-806), first U.S. Navy ship named after women member of U.S. Navy.
1967 - Fire in Command Module at Cape Kennedy during simulation countdown. Lunar Module Pilot LCDR Roger B. Chaffee and two other crew members died.
1973 - Paris Peace Accords signed, ending U.S. participation in the Vietnam War

January 28

1778 - Second New Providence Expedition raised the flag with thirteen stripes over Fort Nassau.
1960 - Navy demonstrates value of moon communication relay, used in fleet broadcasts.
1962 - USS Cook (APD-130) rescues 25 survivors from after section of Panamanian tanker, SS Stanvac Sumatra, which broke in two in the South China Sea
1986 - Space shuttle Challenger explodes killing CDR Michael Smith, USN, and 6 other astronauts

January 29

1914 - U.S. Marines land in Haiti to protect U.S. consulate
1943 - Beginning of 2 day battle of Rennell Island after which U.S. transports reached Guadalcanal

January 30

1862 - Launching of first turreted warship, USS Monitor
1968 - Tet Offensive begins in Vietnam

January 31

1944 - American amphibious landing on Kwajalein, Marshall Islands
1961 - Lieutenant Commander Samuel Lee Gravely, Jr. becomes first African-American to command a combat ship, USS Falgout
1981 - Era of Enlisted Naval Aviators ends when last pilot retired

Dates in American Naval History: February
February 1

1941 - United States Fleet reorganized, reviving Atlantic and Pacific Fleets
1942 - USS Enterprise and Yorktown make first WW II air strike, Japanese Marshall Islands
1955 - Operation Deep Freeze, a research task force, established in Antarctic

February 2

1800 - USS Constellation (CAPT Thomas Truxtun) defeats la Vengeance
1862 - USS Hartford, Capt David G. Farragut, departs Hampton Roads for Mississippi River campaign

February 3

1801 - Senate approves peace treaty with France ending undeclared naval war that began 1798
1917 - US severs diplomatic relations with Germany

February 4

1779 - John Paul Jones takes command of Bonhomme Richard
1959 - Keel laying of USS Enterprise, first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, Newport News, VA

February 5

1854 - Dedication of first chapel built on Navy property, Annapolis, MD
1941 - Chief Nurse Marion B. Olds and Nurse Leona Jackson, Navy, arrive on Guam.
1971 - Moonwalk by CAPT Alan B. Shepherd, Jr. USN, Commander of Apollo 14 and CDR Edgar D. Mitchell, USN Lunar Module Pilot. During the 9 day mission, 94 lbs of lunar material was collected and Shepard became the first person to hit a golf ball on the moon. Recovery was by helicopter from USS New Orleans (LPH-11).

February 6

1862 - Union gunboat squadron captures Fort Henry, Tennessee River
1922 - World powers sign the Washington Naval Treaty providing for limitation of naval armament
1973 - In accordance with the agreement at the Paris Peace Talks, Navy Task Force 78 begins Operation End Sweep, the mine clearance of North Vietnamese waters of mines laid in 1972.

February 7

1800 - USS Essex becomes first U.S. Navy vessel to cross the Equator.
1815 - The Board of Naval Commissioners, a group of senior officers, is established to oversee the operation and maintenance of the Navy, under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy.
1955 - Seventh Fleet ships begin evacuation of Chinese nationalists from Tachen Islands
1965 - In response to a Viet Cong attack on barracks area at Pleiku, South Vietnam, aircraft from carriers, USS Coral Sea, USS Hancock, and USS Ranger attack North Vietnamese area near Donghoi.

February 8

1862 - Joint amphibious force capture Roanoke Island, key to Albemarle Sound
1890 - USS Omaha sailors and marines assist Hodogary, Japan in subduing large fire

February 9

1799 - USS Constellation (CAPT Truxtun) captures French l'Insurgente
1943 - Organized Japanese resistance on Guadalcanal ends

February 10

1862 - Union gunboats destroy Confederate ships at Elizabeth City, NC
1900 - Appointment of first naval governor of Guam, Commodore Seaton Schroder
1960 - USS Sargo (SSN-583) surfaces at North Pole

February 11

1862 - SecNav directs formation of organization to evaluate new inventions and technical development which eventually led to National Academy of Science.
1971 - U.S. and USSR sign a treaty prohibiting the deployment of nuclear weapons on the ocean floor.

February 12

1945 - USS Batfish (SS-310) sinks second Japanese submarine within three days
1947 - First launching of guided missile (Loon) from a submarine, USS Cusk

February 13

1854 - Admiral Perry anchors off Yokosuka, Japan to receive Emperor's reply to treaty proposal
1913 - Naval Radio Station, Arlington, VA begins operations
1945 - First naval units enter Manila Bay since 1942
1968 - Operation Coronado XI begins in Mekong Delta

February 14

1778 - John Paul Jones in Ranger receives first official salute to U.S. Stars and Strips flag by European country, at Quiberon, France.
1813 - Essex becomes first U.S. warship to round Cape Horn and enter the Pacific Ocean
1814 - USS Constitution captures British Lovely Ann and Pictou
1840 - Officers from USS Vincennes make first landing in Antarctica on floating ice

February 15

1856 - USS Supply, commanded by LT David Dixon Porter, sails from Smyrna, Syria, bound for Indianola, Texas, with a load of 21 camels intended for experimental use in the American desert west of the Rockies.
1898 - U.S. battleship Maine blows up in Havana Harbor.

February 16

1804 - Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, with volunteers from frigate Constitution and schooner Enterprise, enters Tripoli harbor by night in the ketch Intrepid to burn the captured frigate Philadelphia. Decatur's raid succeeds without American losses. England's Lord Nelson calls this "the most daring act of the age."
1815 - USS Constitution captures British Susannah
1967 - Operation River Raider begins in Mekong Delta

February 17

1864 - Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley sinks USS Housatonic
1942 - First Construction Battalion (Seabees) arrive Bora Bora
1944 - Carrier aircraft strike Japanese fleet at Truk, sinking ships and destroying aircraft

February 18

1846 - General order on Port and Starboard
1944 - Amphibious Force under RADM Hill lands troops on Engebi Island, Eniwetok
1955 - 1st of 14 detonations, Operation Teapot nuclear test

February 19

1814 - USS Constitution captures British brig Catherine
1945 - Marines with naval gunfire support land on Iwo Jima; island secured 16 March.

February 20

1815 - USS Constitution, under Captain Charles Stewart, captures HMS Cyane and sloop-of-war Levant
1962 – Lt. Col. John Glenn, USMC becomes first American to orbit Earth. His flight in Friendship 7 (Mercury 6) consisted of 3 orbits in 88 minutes at a velocity of 17,544 mph with the highest altitude of 162.2 statute miles. Recovery was by USS Noa (DD-841).
1962 - USS Dixie (AD-14) rescues lone crewman aboard a sailing yawl adrift for four days.
1974 - S-3A Viking ASW aircraft (carrier jet) introduced officially, given to VS-41.

February 21

1944 - Marines with support of naval bombardment and carrier aircraft secure Eniwetok atoll
1945 - USS Bismark Sea (CVE-95) struck by a kamikaze off Iwo Jima and sunk in 90 minutes with loss of 318 men. USS Saratoga (CV-3) struck by 5 kamikazes but survived with loss of 123. Bismark Sea was last carrier lost in combat during World War II.

February 22

1865 - RADM Porter's gunboats' bombardment cause surrender of Wilmington, NC .
1870 - After arriving on USS Nipsic, and supported by USS Guard and USS Nyack, the Darien Expedition, commanded by CDR Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr., begins active operations ashore at Caldonia Bay to survery the Isthmus of Darien, Panama, for an interoceanic ship canal.
1909 - Great White Fleet returns from round the world cruise to Hampton Roads, VA
1943 - USS Iowa (BB-61), the lead ship of the last class of American fast battleships, is commissioned.
1974 - LTJG Barbara Ann Allen becomes first Navy designated female aviator

February 23

1795 - U.S. Navy Office of Purveyor of Supplies is established. This is the Navy Supply Corps Birthday.
1919 - Launching of Osmond Ingram (DD-255), first Navy ship named for an enlisted man
1944 - Carrier groups under Spruance attack Saipan, Tinian and Rota in the Marianas
1945 - Marines and a Navy hospital corpsman raise flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima

February 24

1813 - USS Hornet, Captain James Lawrence, captures HMS Peacock
1968 - Task Force Clearwater established in I Corps

February 25

1861 - Saratoga, member of U.S. African Squadron, captures slaver sloop Express
1933 - Commissioning of USS Ranger, first true aircraft carrier
1959 - USS Galveston fires first Talos surface-to-air missile

February 26

1811 - Congress authorizes first naval hospital
1913 - Approval of experimental wind tunnel for Navy
1944 - Sue Sophia Dauser, Superintendent of the Navy's Nurse Corps is first woman in Navy to receive rank of Captain.

February 27

1942 - Battle of the Java Sea, Allied Naval Force attacks Japanese invasion convoy
1973 - First airborne mine sweep in a live minefield took place in the Haiphong, Vietnam ship channel by helicopters from Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron Twelve on board USS New Orleans.

February 28

1844 - Explosion of Peacemaker, experimental 14 inch gun, on board USS Princeton.
1893 - Launching of USS Indiana (BB-1), first true battleship in U.S. Navy.
1959 - USS Strong rescues 13 Arab fishermen from Bahrain when their fishing boats floundered in a storm.
1980 - Blue crew of USS Francis Scott Key (SSBN-657) launches 4 Trident I (C-4) missiles in first C-4 Operational Test.

February 29

1944 - PB4Y-1s from squadrons VB-108, VB-109, and VD-3, conduct a low-level bombing raid on Japanese positions on Wake Island.
1968 - Four North Vietnamese trawlers attempting to simultaneously infiltrate supplies into South Vietnam were detected. Three of the trawlers were sunk in battle on the following day and one survived by turning back.

Dates in American Naval History: March
March 1

1942 - U-656 becomes the first German submarine of World War II to be sunk by Naval air (VP-82).
1954 - 1st of 6 detonations, Operation Castle nuclear test.

March 2

1859 - Launch of Saginaw at Mare Island, first Navy ship built on West Coast of U.S.
1867 - Birthday of Civil Engineer Corps.
1899 - Act of Congress creates the rank Admiral of the Navy for George Dewey.
1973 - Women begin pilot training to U.S. Navy.

March 3

1776 - First amphibious landing operation. Continental naval squadron under Commodore Esek Hopkins lands Sailors and Marines, commanded by Captain Samuel Nicholas, on New Providence Island in the Bahamas, capturing urgently-needed ordnance and gunpowder.
1871 - Navy Medical Corps established
1883 - Congress authorizes 4 modern ships of steel, "A,B,C, D Ships"; three cruisers, Atlanta, Boston and Chicago, and dispatch boat Dolphin
1915 - Office of Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) established
1915 - Congress creates Federal Naval Reserve. Under it Naval Reserve Force built up 1960 - USS Sargo return to Hawaii from arctic cruise of 11,000 miles, 6,003 miles under the polar ice

March 4

1911 - Appropriation of first funds for experiments in naval aviation.
1925 - Congress authorizes restoration of USS Constitution.
1947 - Operation Highjump, air operations in Antarctica, ends.
1963 - Navy Hercules aircraft completes 12-day rescue operation of critically ill Danish seaman from Danish freighter off the coast of Antarctic.

March 5

1942 - Name "Seabees" and insignia officially authorized
1943 - USS Bogue begins first anti-submarine operations by escort carrier.
1960 - USS Newport News (CA-148) and personnel from Port Lyautey complete emergency relief operatons at Agadir, Morocco after earthquake on 29 February.

March 6

1822 - USS Enterprise captures four pirate ships in Gulf of Mexico
1862 - USS Monitor departed New York for Hampton Roads, VA
1942 - U.S. Cruisers and destroyers bombard Vila and Munda, Solomon Islands, sinking 2 Japanese destroyers

March 7

1958 - Commissioning of USS Grayback, first submarine built from keel up with guided missile capability, to fire Regulus II missile.
1960 - USS Kearsarge (CVS-33) rescues 4 Russian soldiers from their landing craft 1,000 miles from Midway Island, which was drifting several weeks after their engine failed off Kamchatka Peninsula.
1966 - Department of Navy reorganized into present structure under CNO
1967 - PBRs assists Operation Overload II in Rung Sat Zone, Vietnam
1968 - Operation Coronado XII begins in Mekong Delta, Vietnam
1994 - Navy issues first orders to women assigned aboard combat ship, USS Eisenhower

March 8

1854 - Commodore Matthew Perry opens treaty negotiations with Japan
1862 - Ironclad ram CSS Virginia destroys USS Cumberland and Congress
1945 - Phyllis Daley becomes first African-American Ensign, Navy Nurse Corps
1958 - Battleship USS Wisconsin (BB-64) is decommissioned, leaving the Navy without an active battleship for the first time since 1895.
1965 - Seventh Fleet lands first major Marine units in South Vietnam at Danang

March 9

1798 - Appointment of first surgeon U.S. Navy, George Balfour
1847 - Commodore David Connor leads successful amphibious assault near Vera Cruz, Mexico
1862 - First battle between ironclads, USS Monitor and CSS Virginia
1914 - Test of wind tunnel at Washington Navy Yard

March 10

1783 - USS Alliance (CAPT John Barry) defeats HMS Sybil in final naval action of Revolution in West Indies waters
1933 - Pacific Fleet provides assistance after earthquake at Long Beach, CA
1945 - Navy and civilian nurses interned at Los Banos, Philippines flown back to U.S. Navy nurses awarded Bronze Star.
1948 - First use of jets assigned to operational squadron (VF-5A) on board a carrier (Boxer)

March 11

1935 - Birth of Naval Security Group when OP-20G became the Communications Security Group
1941 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Lend-Lease Act
1942 - In a PT boat, LCDR John Bulkeley leaves the Philippines to take General Douglas MacArthur to Australia
1945 - Use of first Navy landing craft to cross Rhine River at Bad Neuenahr
1965 - Market Time patrols begin off South Vietnam coast

March 12

1917 - All American merchant ships to be armed in war zones
1942 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt designates Admiral Ernest J. King to serve as the Chief of Naval Operations, as well as the Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet to which he was appointed on 30 December 1941.
1956 - In first overseas deployment of Navy missile squadron, VA-83 left on USS Intrepid

March 13

1895 - Award of first submarine building contract to John P. Holland Torpedo Boat Co.
1917 - Armed merchant ships authorized to take action against U-boats.
1959 - Naval Research Laboratory takes first ultraviolet pictures of sun.
1963 - USS Albany (CG-10) and aircraft from Navy Airborne Early Warning Squadron Four from Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico aid five ill crewmembers of Norwegian freighter Jotunfjell.

March 14

1863 - RADM Farragut's squadron of 7 ships forces way up Mississippi River to support Union troops at Vicksburg and Baton Rouge
1929 - NAS Pensacola aircraft make 113 flights for flood rescue and relief

March 15

1943 - Numbered fleet system established
1947 - Ensign John W. Lee becomes first African American officer commissioned in regular Navy. He was assigned to USS Kearsage.
1957 - Airship ZPG-2 lands NAS Key West after 11 day non-stop flight across the Atlantic
1966 - Establishment of River Squadron Five in Vietnam

March 16

1911 - Hulk of USS Maine sunk at sea in deep water with full military honors.
1945 - Iwo Jima declared secure.
1966 - Launch of Gemini 8. Former naval aviator Neil Armstrong flew on this mission which completed 7 orbits in 10 hours and 41 minutes at an altitude of 161.3 nautical miles. Recovery was by USS Leonard F. Mason (DD-852).

March 17

1898 - USS Holland, first practical submarine, launched
1942 - United States Naval Forces Europe established to plan joint operations with British
1958 - Navy Vanguard rocket launches 3.25 pound sphere from Cape Canaveral
1959 - USS Skate (SSN-578) surfaces at North Pole

March 18

1945 - Carriers begin 3 month Okinawa Campaign by destroying aircraft on Kyushu, Japan
1974 - Navy sent to sweep mines from Suez Canal

March 19

1898 - USS Oregon departs San Francisco for 14,000 mile trip around South America to join U.S. Squadron off Cuba
1917 - Navy Department authorizes enrollment of women in Naval Reserve with ratings of yeoman, radio electrician, or other essential ratings.
1942 - SecNav gave Civil Engineering Corps command of Seabees
2003 - Operation Iraqi Freedom begins with Tomahawk strikes from Navy ships and submarines.

March 20

1833 - CDR Geisinger of Peacock negotiates first commercial treaty with King of Siam
1922 -USS Jupiter recommissioned as Langley, Navy's first aircraft carrier
1939 - Naval Research Lab recommends financing research program to obtain power from uranium.
2003 - U.S. began Operation Iraqi Freedom by launching cruise missiles from Navy ships in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.

March 21

1917 - Loretta Walsh becomes first woman Navy petty officer when sworn in as Chief Yeoman.
1919 - Navy installs and tests Sperry gyrocompass, in first instance of test of aircraft gyrocompass
1945 - Bureau of Aeronautics initiates rocket-powered surface-to-air guided missile development by awarding contract to Fairchild

March 22

1820 - Commodore Stephen Decatur dies after duel with Capt. James Barron
1915 - "Naval Aviator" replaces former "Navy Air Pilot" for officers qualified as aviators
1929 - Navy ships protect Americans and their property during Mexican revolution
1946 - USS Missouri departs U.S. to return body of deceased Turkish ambassador to the U.S. back to Turkey for burial. Missouri arrived in Istanbul on 5 April.

March 23

1815 - USS Hornet captures HMS Penguin in battle lasting 22 minutes
1882 - SECNAV Hunt issues General Order No. 292 creating Office of Naval Intelligence.
1917 - Launching of USS New Mexico, first dreadnought with turboelectric drive
1945 - Carriers begin pre-assault strikes on Okinawa, kamikaze attacks follow
1958 - First launching of simulated Polaris missile from submerged tactical launcher facility off CA.
1965 - LCDR John W. Young, USN, Pilot of Gemini 3 completed 3 orbits in 4 hours., 53 minutes at an altitude of 224 km. Recovery was by helicopters from USS Intrepid (CVS-11).

March 24

1903 - George Dewey commissioned Admiral of the Navy with the date of rank, 2 March 1899. He was the only person to hold this rank.

March 25

1813 - USS Essex takes Neryeda, first capture by U.S. Navy in Pacific
1898 - Assist. SECNAV Theodore Roosevelt proposes Navy investigate military application of Samuel Langley's flying machine, beginning naval aviation

March 26

1942 - ADM King becomes both Chief of Naval Operations and Commander, U.S. Fleet
1943 - Battle of Komandorski Islands, prevents Japanese reinforcements from reaching Attu
1966 - Operation Jackstay in Navy's first amphibious assault in Vietnam's inland waters
1968 - Operation Bold Dragon III began in Mekong Delta

March 27

1794 - Congress authorizes construction of 6 frigates, including Constitution
1799 - USS Constitution recaptures American sloop Neutrality from France
1880 - USS Constellation departs New York with food for famine victims in Ireland

March 28

1800 - Essex becomes first U.S. Navy vessel to pass Cape of Good Hope
1814 - HMS Phoebe and Cherub capture USS Essex off Valparaiso, Chile. Before capture, Essex had captured 24 British prizes during the War of 1812.
1848 - USS Supply reaches the Bay of Acre, anchoring under Mount Carmel near the village of Haifa, during expedition to explore the Dead Sea and the River Jordan.

March 29

1954 - Carrier aircraft began reconnaissance near Dien Bien Phu, Indochina
1960 - Launch of first fully integrated Fleet Ballistic Missile from USS Observation Island
1973 - Naval Advisory Group and Naval forces, Vietnam disestablished and last U.S. prisoners of war left Vietnam.
1975 - Evacuation of Danang by sea began

March 30

1944 - First use of torpedo squadrons from carriers to drop aerial mines (Palau Harbor)
1972 - Easter Offensive began in Vietnam

March 31

1854 - Commodore Matthew Perry negotiates Treaty of Kanagawa to open trade between U.S. and Japan
1971 - Poseidon (C-3) missile becomes operational when USS James Madison began her 3rd patrol carrying 16 tactical Poseidon missiles.
1992 - USS Missouri (BB-63), the last active American battleship is decommissioned.

Dates in American Naval History: April
April 1

1893 - Navy General Order 409 of 25 February 1893 establishes the rate of Chief Petty Officer as of this date.
1917 - Boatswain's Mate 1/c John I. Eopolucci, a Naval Armed Guard on board the steamship Aztec, died when the vessel was sunk by a German U-boat. He was the first U.S. Navy sailor killed in action in World War I.
1942 - First Naval Air Transportation Service (NATS) squadron for Pacific operations commissioned
1945 - Over 1200 Navy ships and Army troops begin invasion of Okinawa
1966 - The command, US Naval Forces Vietnam established
1967 - Helicopter squadron HAL 3 activated at Vung Tau

April 2

1781 - Frigate Alliance captures 2 British privateers, Mars and Minerva
1827 - First Naval Hospital construction begun at Portsmouth, VA
1898 - Adoption of U.S. Naval Academy coat of arms
1947 - UN places former Japanese mandated islands under U.S. trusteeship
1951 - First Navy use of jet aircraft as a bomber, launched from a carrier, USS Princeton.
1960 - USS Glacier begins 12 days of relief operations, providing helicopter and boat transportation and emergency supplies to residents of Paramaribo, Suriname after floods.

April 3

1797 - CAPT Thomas Truxtun issued first known American signal book using numerary system
1942 - ADM Nimitz named Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, a joint command, and retained his other title, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet
1992 - First five coed recruit companies from Orlando, FL Naval Training Center granduate.

April 4

1776 - Continental Navy frigate Columbus captures HM Tender Hawke, first American capture of British armed vessel
1854 - Sailors and Marines from sailing sloop, Plymouth, protect U.S. citizens at Shanghai
1898 - Appointment of first Civil Engineering Corps officer, Mordecai Endicott, as Chief, Bureau of Yards and Docks
1949 - Establishment of NATO

April 5

1946 - USS Missouri arrives in Turkey to return the body of Turkish ambassador to the U.S. and to show U.S. support and willingness to defend Turkey.

April 6

1776 - Sloop-of-war Ranger, frigate Queen of France and frigate Warren capture British Hibernia and 7 other vessels
1862 - Naval Gunfire from Tyler and Lexington help save Union Troops at Battle of Shiloh
1909 - Commander Robert E. Peary reports reaching the North Pole
1917 - U.S. declares war on Germany
1945 - First heavy kamikaze attack on ships at Okinawa.
1961 - USS Lake Champlain brings oxygen to aid stricken passenger of British liner Queen of Bermuda.
1968 - USS New Jersey recommissioned for shore bombardment duty in Vietnam
1989 - President orders DOD to assist in Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup
1993 - Branch Navy Hospital Adak responds to crash of civilian Chinese airline providing lifesaving treatment and medical evacuation of 89 injured passengers. Only one passenger out of 265 passengers died.

April 7

1776 - Continental brig Lexington captures British Edward
1917 - Navy takes control of all wireless radio stations in the U.S.
1942 - Navy accepts African Americans for general service
1945 - First two Navy flight nurses land on an active battlefield (Iwo Jima): ENS Jane Kendeigh, USNR, and LTJG Ann Purvis, USN
1945 - Carrier aircraft defeat last Japanese Navy sortie (Battle of East China Sea); Yamato, world's largest battleship, and five other ships sunk
1979 - Launching of first Trident submarine, USS Ohio (SSBN-726) at Groton, CT

April 8

1925 - First planned night landings on a carrier, USS Langley, by VF-1
1950 - Unarmed Navy patrol aircraft shot down over Baltic Sea by USSR
1951 - 1st of 4 detonations, Operation Greenhouse nuclear test

April 9

1861 - Second relief convoy for Fort Sumter left New York
1941 - Commissioning of USS North Carolina, which carried 9 16-inch guns
1943 - Re-establishment of Commodore rank
1959 - Selection of first 7 Mercury astronauts, include 4 naval aviators

April 10

1941 - USS Niblack, while rescuing survivors of torpedoed ship, depth charged German submarine; first action of WW II between U.S. and German navies
1963 - During diving tests, USS Thresher lost with all hands (112 crew and 12 civilians) east of Cape Cod, MA
1966 - River Patrol Boats of River Patrol Force commenced operations on inland waters of South Vietnam

April 11

1783 - Congress declares end of war with Great Britain
1900 - Navy accepted its first submarine, USS Holland
1970 - Launch of Apollo 13, commanded by CAPT James A. Lovell, Jr., USN. Former naval aviator Fred W. Haise, Jr. was the Lunar Module Pilot. While 200,000 miles from Earth there was an explosion on board which forced Apollo 13 to circle the moon without landing. Mission duration was 5 days, 22 hours, and 54 minutes. Recovery was by HS-4 helicopters from USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2).
1991 - U.N. ceasefire ends Persian Gulf War

April 12

1861 - Civil War begins when Confederates fire on Fort Sumter, SC
1911 - LT Theodore Ellyson qualifies as first naval aviator
1962 - U.S. Navy demonstrates new landing craft with retractable hydrofoils, LCVP (H)
1975 - Operation Eagle Pull evacuation from Cambodia
1981 - First launching of re-useable Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-1) with all Navy crew. CAPT John W. Young, USN (Ret.) commanded, while LCDR Robert L. Crippen, USN was the pilot. Mission duration was 2 days, 6 hours, and 20 minutes. Sixteen of the shuttle's heat-shielding silicon tiles were lost and 148 damaged during reentry.
1993 - Aircraft from USS Theodore Roosevelt and NATO forces begin enforcing the no-fly zone over the Bosnia in Operation Deny Flight

April 13

1847 - Naval Forces begin 5 day battle to capture several towns in Mexico
1861 - Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederate forces
1960 - Navy's navigation satellite, Transit, placed into orbit from Cape Canaveral, FL and demonstrates ability to launch another satellite

April 14

1898 - Commissioning of first Post Civil War hospital ship, USS Solace
1969 - North Korean aircraft shoots down Navy EC-121 reconnaissance aircraft from VQ-1 over the Sea of Japan
1988 - USS Samuel B. Roberts struck Iranian mine off Qatar
1989 - First Navy ship arrives on scene to assist in Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup

April 15

1885 - Naval forces land at Panama to protect American interests during revolution
1912 - USS Chester and USS Salem sailed from MA to assist RMS Titanic survivors
1918 - First Marine Aviation Force formed at Marine Flying Field, Miami, FL
1961 - Launching of first nuclear-powered frigate, USS Bainbridge, at Quincy, MA
1962 - USS Princeton brought first Marine helicopters to Vietnam. This was first Marine advisory unit to arrive in South Vietnam.
1986 - Operation Eldorado Canyon, Navy aircraft from USS America (CV-66) and USS Coral Sea (CV-43) attack Libya in conjunction with USAF aircraft after Libya linked to terrorist bombing of West Berlin discotheque which killed 1 American and injured 78 people.

April 16

1863 - Union gunboats pass Confederate batteries at Vicksburg
1924 - Navy commences relief operations in Mississippi Valley floods, lasting until 16 June
1947 - Act of Congress gives Navy Nurse Corps members commissioned rank
1959 - Helicopters from USS Edisto begin rescue operations in Montevideo, Uruguay. By 26 April they had carried 277 flood victims to safety.

April 17

1778 - Sloop-in-war Ranger captures British brig

April 18

1848 - U.S. Navy expedition to explore the Dead Sea and the River Jordan, commanded by LT William F. Lynch, reaches the Dead Sea.
1906 - Navy assists in relief operations during San Francisco earthquake and fire
1942 - USS Hornet launches Doolittle's Army bombers for first attack on Japan
1988 - Navy destroys 2 Iranian surveillance platforms, sinks one frigate and one patrol ships, and severely damages a second frigate in retaliation for attack on USS Samuel B. Roberts

April 19

1783 - George Washington proclaims end of hostilities
1861 - President Lincoln orders blockade of Southern ports from SC to Texas
1955 - USS Albany and USS William Wood begin to provide disaster relief to citizens of Volos, Greece, ending 21 April

April 20

1796 - Congress authorizes completion of 3 frigates
1861 - Norfolk Navy Yard abandoned and burned by Union forces.
1914 - In first call to action of naval aviators, detachment on USS Birmingham sailed to Tampico, Mexico.
1915 - First Navy contract for lighter-than-air craft awarded.
1942 - USS Wasp (CV-7) launches 47 British aircraft to reinforce Malta
1947 - CAPT L.O. Fox, USN, supported by 80 Marines, accepted the surrender of LT Yamaguchi and 26 Japanese soldiers and sailors, two and one half years after the occupation of Peleliu and nearly 20 months after the surrender of Japan.
1953 - USS New Jersey shells Wonsan, Korea from inside the harbor.
1964 - USS Henry Clay (SSBN-625) launches a Polaris A-2 missile from the surface in first demonstration that Polaris submarines could launch missiles from the surface as well as from beneath the ocean. 30 minutes later the submarine launched another Polaris missile while submerged.

April 21

1861 - USS Saratoga captures slaver, Nightingale.
1898 - U.S. at war against Spain.
1906 - Commander Robert Peary discovered supposed Arctic Continent did not exist.
1972 - Moonwalk in the Descartes Highlands by CAPT John W. Young, USN Commander of Apollo 16. He was the ninth man to walk on the moon. LCDR Thomas K. Mattingly II, USN was the Command Module Pilot. During the 11 day, 1 hour and 51 minute mission, 213 lbs. of lunar material was collected. Recovery by HC-1 helicopters from USS Ticonderoga (CVS-14)

April 22

1778 - Captain John Paul Jones of Ranger led landing party raid on Whitehaven, England
1898 - U.S. warships begin blockade of Cuba
1987 - U.S. Navy ordered to provide assistance to neutral vessels under Iranian attack outside the exclusion zone and that requested help

April 23

1918 - USS Stewart destroys German submarine off France
1945 - In only U.S. use of guided missiles in WW II, 2 BAT missiles release at Balikiapan, Borneo
1956 - Project Vanguard, earth satellite launching program, assigned to DCNO (Air)

April 24

1778 - Continental Navy sloop Ranger captures HMS Drake
1862 - Battle of New Orleans; Union Navy under David Farragut runs past forts into Mississippi River
1884 - USS Thetis, Bear, and Alert sailed from New York to search for Greeley expedition lost in Arctic
1906- Ceremonies at Naval Academy commemorate John Paul Jones; President Theodore Roosevelt delivers speech
1917 - Destroyer squadron departs Boston for European service
1959 - Organization of American States asks U.S. to establish naval patrols off east coast of Panama to prevent invasion of Cuban forces
1974 - Naval forces begin minesweeping operations in the Suez Canal Zone
1981 - RCA delivers to the Navy, NOVA I, the 1st production unit of the improved navigational satellite.

April 25

1862 - Union naval forces occupy New Orleans, LA
1898 - Congress declares war existed with Spain since 21 April
1914 - First combat observation mission by Navy plane, at Veracruz, Mexico.
1917 - Naval Armed Guard crew on board SS Mongolia engage and damage a German U-boat. This was the first engagement of U.S. naval personnel against the enemy in World War I.
1959 - USS Eversole rescues 14 Chinese Nationalist fishermen from their sinking fishing trawler in the Formosa Strait.

April 26

1921 - U.S. Naval Detachment left Yugoslavia after administering area around Spalato for 2 years to guarantee transfer of area from Austria to new country
1952 - USS Hobson sinks after colliding with USS Wasp; 176 lives lost

April 27

1805 - Naval forces capture Derne, Tripoli; raise U.S. flag over foreign soil
1813 - U.S. Navy and Army forces capture York (now Toronto), Canada
1861 - President Lincoln extended blockade of Confederacy to VA and NC ports
1865 - Body of John Wilkes Booth brought to Washington Navy Yard.

April 28

1962 - Naval forces capture Forts Jackson and St. Philip, LA
1965 - Dominican Republic intervention began
1944 - U.S. LSTs attacked during Operation Tiger
1993 - SECDEF memo orders Armed Forces to train and assign women on combat aircraft and most combat ships, but not to ground combat positions.

April 29

1814 - USS Peacock captures HMS Epervier
1898 - U.S. warships engage Spanish gunboats and shore batteries at Cienfuegos, Cuba
1944 - Fast carrier task force (12 carriers) commence 2 day bombing of Truk
1975 - Operation Frequent Wind evacuation from Vietnam begins

April 30

1798 - Congress establishes Department of the Navy
1975 - Saigon falls to North Vietnamese forces

Dates in American Naval History: May
May 1

1898 - Battle of Manila Bay, Adm Dewey defeats Spanish at Manila, Philippines
1934 - LT Akers demonstrates blind landing system at College Park, MD in OJ-2 aircraft
1945 - VADM Barbey lands Australian troops on Tarakan Island, Borneo, supported by naval gunfire
1951 - USS Princeton aircraft attack Hwachon Dam using aerial torpedoes, only use of this weapon in Korean War
1980 - 11 Navy ships begin operations assisting Coast Guard in rescuing Cuban refugees fleeing Cuba in overcrowded boats

May 2

1975 - US Navy departs Vietnamese waters at end of evacuation.

May 3

1861 - USS Surprise captures Confederate privateer Savannah
1898 - Marines land at Cavite, Philippines, and raise U.S. flag
1949 - First Navy firing of a high altitude Viking rocket at White Sands, NM

May 4

1917 - First Navy ships, Destroyer Division 8, arrive at Queenstown, Ireland, to provide convoy escorts against German U-boats
1942 - Battle of Coral Sea, first carrier vs. carrier battle, begins
1945 - Japanese attempt to land on Okinawa repulsed; kamikaze attacks damage 6 U.S. Navy ships
1961 - Pilot CDR Malcolm D. Ross, USNR, and medical observer LCDR Victor A. Prather, Jr., ascended in two hours to over 110,00 feet in Strato-Lab 5, a 411-foot hydrogen filled balloon launched from from the deck of USS Antietam. This was the highest altitude attained by man in an open gondola. Tragically, Prather drowned during the recovery.


May 5

1944 - USS Comfort is commissioned in San Pedro, CA; first ship to be manned jointly by Army and Navy personnel
1948 - VF-17A becomes first carrier qualified jet squadron (USS Saipan)
1961 - CDR Alan Shepard Jr. makes first U.S. manned space flight. Flight of Freedom 7 (Mercury 3) which lasted 15 minutes and 28 seconds reached the altitude of 116.5 statute miles with a velocity of 5,134 mph. Recovery was by HUS1 helicopter of HMR(L)-262 from USS Lake Champlain(CVS-39).
1980 - USS Robert E. Peary rescues 440 Vietnamese refugees from disabled craft south of Thailand

May 6

1909 - Great White Fleet anchors in San Francisco
1916 - First ship-to-shore radio telephone voice conversation from USS New Hampshire off Virginia Capes to SECNAV Josephus Daniels in Washington, DC
1942 - CAPT Milton Miles arrives in Chungking, China, to begin building an intelligence and guerilla training organization, Naval Group China
1945 - Naval landing force evacuates 500 Marshallese from Jaluit Atoll, Marshall Islands

May 7

1779 - Continental Navy sloop Providence captures British brig Diligent off Cape Charles
1934 - USS Constitution completes tour of principal U.S. ports
1940 - FDR orders Pacific Fleet to remain in Hawaiian waters indefinitely
1942 - Carrier aircraft sink Japanese carrier Shoho during Battle of Coral Sea

May 8

1911 - Navy ordered its first airplane, Curtiss A-1, Birthday of Naval Aviation
1942 - Battle of the Coral Sea ends with Japanese retiring from area
1945 - VE - Day, Germany's unconditional surrender to the Allies
1963 - Navy ships evacuate 2,279 civilians from Haiti during crisis.
1972 - U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aircraft mine Haiphong Harbor in North Vietnam.

May 9

1926 - LCDR Richard Byrd and Chief Machinist Mate Floyd Bennett make first flight over North Pole; both receive Congressional Medal of Honor.
1942 - USS Wasp in Mediterranean launches 47 Spitfire aircraft to help defend Malta

May 10

1775 - Force under Ethan Allan and Benedict Arnold cross Lake Champlain and capture British fort at Ticonderoga, New York.
1800 - USS Constitution captures Letter of Marque Sandwich.
1862 - Confederates destroy Norfolk and Pensacola Navy Yards.
1949 - First shipboard launching of LARK, guided missile by USS Norton Sound.
1960 - USS Triton (SSRN-586) completes submerged circumnavigation of world in 84 days following many of the routes taken by Magellan and cruising 46,000 miles.

May 11

1862 - CSS Virginia blown up by Confederates to prevent capture.
1898 - Sailors and Marines from USS Marblehead cut trans-oceanic cable near Cienfuegos, Cuba, isolating Cuba from Spain.
1943 - Naval task force lands Army troops on Attu, Aleutians.
1965 - U.S. destroyers deliver first shore bombardment of Vietnam War.

May 12

1780 - Fall of Charleston, SC; three Continental Navy frigates (Boston, Providence, and Ranger) captured; and one American frigate (Queen of France) sunk to prevent capture
1846 - U.S. declares war against Mexico
1975 - SS Mayaguez seized by Khmer Rouge and escorted to Koh Tang Island.
1986 - Destroyer USS David R. Ray deters an Iranian Navy attempt to board a U.S. merchant ship.

May 13

1908 - Navy Nurse Corps established.
1908 - Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, later called Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, was officially established in the Territory of Hawaii as a coaling station for U.S. Navy ships transiting the Pacific Ocean.
1943 - Bureau of Navigation renamed Bureau of Naval Personnel
1945 - Aircraft from fast carrier task force begin 2-day attack on Kyushu airfields, Japan
1964 - Organization and deployment of world's first all nuclear-powered task group, USS Enterprise, USS Long Beach, and USS Bainbridge, to Sixth Fleet

May 14

1801 - Tripoli declares war against the United States
1836 - U.S. Exploring Expedition authorized to conduct exploration of Pacific Ocean and South Seas, first major scientific expedition overseas. LT Charles Wilkes USN, would lead the expedition in surveying South America, Antarctica, Far East, and North Pacific.
1845 - First U.S. warship visits Vietnam. While anchored in Danang for reprovisioning, CAPT John Percival commanding USS Constitution, conducts a show of force against Vietnamese authorities in an effort to obtain the release of a French priest held prisoner by Emperor of Annam at Hue.
1975 - Marines recapture Mayaguez, go ashore on Koh Tang Island and release the crew.

May 15

1800 - CAPT Preble in Essex arrives in Batavia, Java, to escort U.S. merchant ships
1942 - First Naval Air Transport Service flight across Pacific
1969 - Sinking of USS Guitarro (SSN-665)
1991 - Amphibious Task Force arrives at Chittagong, Bangladesh, for relief operations after Cyclone Marian

May 16

1820 - Congress becomes first U.S. warship to visit China
1919 - Three Navy flying boats begin 1st trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland
1965 - First US gunfire support in Vietnam by USS Tucker

May 17

1940 - FDR announces plans to recommission 35 more destroyers
1942 - USS Tautog (SS-199) sinks Japanese sub, I-28; while USS Triton (SS-201) sinks I-164
1951 - Aircraft from carriers attack bridges between Wonsan and Hamhung, Korea
1962 - Naval amphibious ready group lands Marines to guard Thailand's borders from Communist probes
1966 - Naval Support Activity Saigon established
1973 - First woman to hold a major Navy command, Captain Robin Lindsay Quigley assumes command of Navy Service School, San Diego, CA.
1987 - USS Stark (FFG-31) struck by Iraqi Exocet missile in Persian Gulf, killing 37 Sailors. 21 were wounded.
1990 - USS Roark rescues 42 refugees from unseaworthy craft in South China Sea

May 18

1775 - Benedict Arnold captures British sloop and renames her Enterprise, first of many famous ships with that name
1798 - Appointment of Benjamin Stoddert as first Secretary of the Navy
1969 - Launch of Apollo 10, dress rehearsal for first lunar landing mission. CDR John W. Young, USN, was the Command Module Pilot and CDR Eugene A. Cernan, USN, was the Lunar Module Pilot. During the 8 Day mission, the craft made 31 lunar orbits in 61.6 hours. Recovery was by HS-4 helicopters from USS Princeton (LPH-5).

May 19

1882 - Commodore Shufeldt (USS Swatara) lands in Korea to negotiate first treaty between Korea and Western power
1912 - Navy establishes North Atlantic Ice Patrol following RMS Titanic disaster
1965 - 30th Naval Construction Regiment activated at Danang, Vietnam

May 20

1801 - Four warships sent to Mediterranean to protect American commerce
1815 - Commodore Stephen Decatur ( Frigate Guerriere) sails with 10 ships to suppress Mediterranean pirates' raids on U.S. shipping
1844 - USS Constitution sails from New York on round the world cruise
1943 - Establishment of Tenth Fleet in Washington, DC, under command of ADM King to coordinate U.S. antisubmarine operations in Atlantic

May 21

1850 - Washington Navy Yard begins work on first castings for the Dahlgren guns
1917 - USS Ericsson fires first torpedo of war
1944 - During preparations for the invasion of Saipan an accidental ordnance blast on LST 353 sets off cataclysmic ammunition explosions at West Loch, Pearl Harbor, killing 163 and injuring 396. Six tank landing ships (LST-39, LST-43, LST-69, LST-179, LST-353, LST-480), three tank landing craft (LCT-961, LCT-963, LCT-983), and 17 track landing vehicles (LVTs) are destroyed in explosions and fires.
1964 - The initiation of the standing carrier presence at Yankee Station in the South China Sea.

May 22

1882 - Commodore Shufeldt signs commerce treaty opening Korea to U.S. trade
1958 - Naval aircraft F4D-1 Sky Ray sets five world speed-to-climb records, 22-23 May
1967 - New York City reaches agreement to purchase Brooklyn Navy Yard, ending 166 years of construction and repair of naval vessels.
1968 - USS Scorpion (SSN-589) lost with all hands

May 23

1850 - Navy sends USS Advance and USS Rescue to attempt rescue of Sir John Franklin's expedition, lost in Arctic.
1939 - USS Squalus (SS-92) sinks off Postsmouth, NH, with loss of 26 lives.
1962 - Launch of Aurora 7 (Mercury 7), piloted by LCDR Malcolm Scott Carpenter, USN, who completed 3 orbits in 4 hours, 56 minutes at an altitude up to 166.8 statute miles at 17,549 mph. He was picked up by HSS-2 helicopters from USS Intrepid (CVS-11). The capsule was recovered by USS John R. Pierce (DD-753).
1962 - USS Valcour (AVP-55) provides medical care to a merchant seaman from tanker SS Manhattan in the Persian Gulf.

May 24

1917 - First U.S. convoy to cross North Atlantic during World War I leaves Hampton Roads, VA
1918 - USS Olympia anchors at Kola Inlet, Murmansk, Russia, to protect refugees during Russian Revolution
1939 - First and only use of VADM Allan McCann's Rescue Chamber to rescue 33 men from sunken USS Squalus (SS-192)
1941 - Authorization of construction or acquisition of 550,000 tons of auxiliary shipping for Navy
1945 - Fast carrier task force aircraft attack airfields in southern Kyushu, Japan
1945 - 9 US ships damaged by concentrated kamikaze attack off Okinawa
1961 - USS Gurke notices signals from 12 men from Truk who were caught in a storm, drifted at sea for 2 months before being stranded on a island for 1 month. USS Southerland investigated, notified Truk, and provided provisions and supplies to repair their outrigger canoe. The men would be picked up on 7 June by the motor launch Kaselehlia.

May 25

1952 - USS Iowa bombards Chongjin, Korea.
1973 - Launch of Skylab 2 mission, which was first U.S. manned orbiting space station. It had an all Navy crew of CAPT Charles Conrad, Jr., USN. (commanding), CDR Joseph P. Kerwin, USN and CDR Paul J. Weitz, USN. During the 28 day mission of 404 orbits, the craft rendezvoused with Skylab to make repairs and conduct science experiments. Recovery by USS Ticonderoga (CVS-14)

May 26

1944 - USS England sinks fifth Japanese submarine in one week
1952 - Tests from 26-29 May demonstrate feasibility of the angled-deck concept conducted on simulated angled deck on USS Midway
1990 - USS Beaufort rescues 24 Vietnamese refugees in South China Sea

May 27

1813 - American joint operations against Fort George, Canada
1919 - Navy NC-4 completes trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Lisbon, Portugal

May 28

1813 - Frigate Essex and prize capture five British whalers
1917 - First underway fueling in U.S. Navy, USS Maumee fuels 6 destroyers in North Atlantic. LCDR Chester W. Nimitz served as Maumee's executive officer and chief engineer.
1957 - 1st of 24 detonations, Operation Plumbbob nuclear test
1980 - 55 women become first women graduates from the U.S. Naval Academy.

May 29

1781 - Frigate Alliance captures HMS Atalanta and Trepassy off Nova Scotia
1991 - Amphibious Task Force in Bangladesh for cyclone relief redeployed

May 30

1814 - Navy gunboats capture three British boats on Lake Ontario near Sandy Creek, NY

May 31

1900 - Sailors and Marines from USS Newark and USS Oregon arrive at Peking, China with other Sailors and Marines from Britain, France, Russia, Italy and Japan to protect U.S. and foreign diplomatic legations from the Boxers
1919 - NC-4's transatlantic mission ends at Plymouth, England
1944 - USS England sank a record 6th Japanese submarine in 13 days.

Dates in American Naval History: June
June 1

1813 - HMS Shannon captures USS Chesapeake, Capt. James Lawrence. As the mortally wounded Captain Lawrence was carried below, he ordered "Tell the men to fire faster! Don't give up the ship!" These words would live on in naval history. Oliver Hazard Perry honored his dead friend Lawrence when he had the motto sewn onto the private battle flag flown during the Battle of Lake Erie, 10 September 1813.
1871 - RADM Rodgers lands in Korea with a party of Sailors and Marines and captures 5 forts to secure protection for U.S. citizens after Americans were fired upon and murdered.
1914 - General Order 99 prohibits alcohol on board naval vessels, or at navy yards or stations
1915 - First contract for lighter-than-air craft for Navy
1939 - Director of the Naval Research Laboratory, Captain Hollis M. Cooley, proposes research in atomic energy for future use in nuclear powered submarine
1944 - ZP-14 Airships complete first crossing of Atlantic by non-rigid lighter-than-air aircraft
1954 - First test of steam catapult from USS Hancock

June 2

1941 - First aircraft escort vessel, USS Long Island (ACG-1), commissioned, then reclassified as an auxiliary aircraft carrier (AVC-1) on 20 August and finally reclassified as an escort carrier (CVE-1) in July 1943.

June 3

1785 - Order to sell last ship remaining in Continental Navy, frigate Alliance . No other Navy were ships authorized until 1794.
1898 - Collier Merrimac sunk in channel leading to Santiago, Cuba in unsuccessful attempt to trap Spanish fleet. The crew was captured and later received the Medal of Honor.
1949 - Wesley A. Brown becomes the first African-American to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy.
1966 - Launch of Gemini 9, piloted by LCDR Eugene A. Cernan, USN. The mission included 45 orbits over 3 days. Recovery was by USS Wasp (CVS-18).

June 4

1934 - USS Ranger, first ship designed from the keel up as a carrier, is commissioned at Norfolk, VA
1942 - Battle of Midway (4-6 June) begins; during battle, the 4 Japanese carriers which attacked Pearl Harbor are sunk; this decisive U.S. victory is a turning point in the Pacific war
1944 - Hunter-killer group USS Guadalcanal captures German submarine, U-505

June 5

1794 - First officers of the U.S. Navy under the Constitution are appointed. The first 6 captains appointed to superintend the construction of new ships were John Barry, Samuel Nicholson, Silas Talbot, Joshua Barney, Richard Dale, and Thomas Truxtun
1917 - First military unit sent to France, First Naval Aeronautical Detachment, reaches France on board USS Jupiter
1945 - Typhoon off Okinawa damages many U.S. Navy ships

June 6

1944 - In Operation Overlord, Allied invasion fleet (over 2700 ships and craft) land troops on Normandy beaches, the largest amphibious landing in history

June 7

1819- LT John White on merchant ship Franklin, anchored off Vung Tau is first U.S. naval officer to visit Vietnam
1917 - U.S. subchasers arrive at Corfu for anti-submarine patrols
1942 - Battle of Midway ends with loss of USS Yorktown
1944 - Construction of artificial harbors and sheltered anchorages begins off Normandy coast
1991 - Joint Task Force Sea Angel ends relief operations in Bangladesh after Cyclone Marian

June 8

1830 - Sloop-of-war Vincennes becomes first U.S. warship to circle the globe
1853 - Commodore Matthew Perry arrives at Uraga, Japan to begin negotiations for a treaty with Japan
1880 - Congress authorizes the Office of Judge Advocate General
1937 - Observation of total eclipse of the sun by U.S. Navy detachment commanded by CAPT J. F. Hellweg, USN, participating in the National Geographic Society - United States Navy Eclipse Expedition at Canton Island in the Phoenix Islands, Pacific Ocean. USS Avocet was assigned to this expediton.
1958 - Navy and Post Office deliver first official missile mail when USS Barbero (SS-317) fired Regulus II missile with 3000 letters 100 miles east of Jacksonville, FL to Mayport, FL.
1960 - Helicopters from USS Yorktown (CVS-10) rescue 54 crewmen of British SS Shunlee, grounded on Pratus Reef in South China Sea.
1962 - Medical team from Naval Hospital, Bethesda, MD; Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, MD; and Naval Preventative Medicine Unit No. 2 Norfolk, VA sent to San Pedro Sula, Honduras to fight epidemic of infectious gastroenteritis.
1967 - USS Liberty (AGTR-5) attacked by Israeli forces in Mediterranean
1990 - CDR Rosemary Mariner becomes first Navy women to command fleet jet aircraft squadron.

June 9

1882 - Establishment of Office of Naval Records of the War of the Rebellion (became part of Naval Historical Center)
1942 - First Navy photograhic interpretation unit set up in the Atlanic.
1959 - Launching of USS George Washington (SSBN-598), first nuclear powered fleet ballistic missile submarine, at Groton, CT

June 10

1854 - U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD, holds first formal graduation exercises. Previous classes graduated without ceremony.
1896 - Authorization of first experimental ship model tank

June 11

1853 - Five Navy ships leave Norfolk, VA on 3 year exploring expedition to survey the far Pacific
1927 - USS Memphis arrives at Washington, DC, with Charles Lindbergh and his plane, Spirit of St. Louis, after his non-stop flight across the Atlantic
1944 - U.S. battleships off Normandy provide gunfire support.
1953 - Navy ships evacuate 20,000 Koreans from West Coast Islands to safety south of 17th parallel

June 12

1944 - Four U.S. Carrier Groups (15 carriers) begin attack on Japanese positions in the Marianas.
1948 - The Women's Armed Forces Integration Act provides for enlistment and appointment of women in the Naval Reserve.
1970 - After earthquake in Peru, USS Guam begins 11 days of relief flights to transport medical teams and supplies, as well as rescue victims

June 13

1881 - USS Jeannette crushed in Arctic ice pack
1967 - Operation Great Bend in Rung Sat Zone, Vietnam

June 14

1777 - John Paul Jones takes command of Ranger
1777 - Continental Congress adopts design of present U.S. Flag
1847 - Commodore Matthew Perry launches amphibious river operations by Sailors and Marines on Tabasco River, Mexico
1940 - Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Naval Expansion Act to construct ships to increase Navy's tonnage by 11 %
1985 - Steelworker Second Class Robert D. Stethem, USN of Underwater Construction Team ONE was killed by terrorist hijackers of TWA Flight 847. He later received a Bronze Star for his heroism.

June 15

1944 - Fifth Fleet lands Marines on Saipan, under the cover of naval gunfire, in conquest of Marianas
1963 - Launching of combat store ship, Mars (AFS-1), first of new class of underway replenishment ships
1991 - 2 battle groups and amphibious ships evacuate dependents and Air Force personnel from Clark Air Force Base after Mount Pinatubo erupts in Philippines

June 16

1898 - U.S. squadron bombards Santiago, Cuba
1965 - Navy Department schedules reactivation of hospital ship Repose (AH-16), first hospital ship activated for Vietnam Conflict

June 17

1833 - USS Delaware enters drydock at Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, VA, the first warship to enter a public drydock in the United States
1870 - USS Mohican burns Mexican pirate ship Forward
1898 - Navy Hospital Corps established
1940 - Chief of Naval Operations asks Congress for money to build two-ocean Navy

June 18

1812 - U.S. declares war on Great Britain for impressment of Sailors and interference with commerce
1942 - First African-American officer, Bernard W. Robinson, commissioned in Naval Reserve
1957 - CNO approves ship characteristics of the Fleet Ballistic Missile sumbarine

June 19

1864 - USS Kearsarge sinks Confederate raider Alabama off France
1944 - Battle of the Philippine Sea begins ("The Marianas Turkey Shoot")
1948 - Chief of Naval Operations assigns 3 destroyers to U.N. mediator for the Palestine truce.

June 20

1813 - Fifteen U.S. gunboats engage 3 British ships in Hampton Roads, VA
1815 - Trials of Fulton I, built by Robert Fulton, are completed in New York. This ship would become the Navy's first steam-driven warship.
1898 - U.S. forces occupied Guam, which became first colony of U.S. in the Pacific.
1913 - First fatal accident in Naval Aviation, ENS W. D. Billingsley killed at Annapolis, MD
1934 - Commander in Chief, Asiatic Fleet Admiral Frank Upham reports to CNO that based on analyses of Japanese radio traffic, "any attack by (Japan) would be made without previous declaration of war or intentional warning."
1944 - Battle of Philippine Sea ends with Japanese losing 2 aircraft carriers and hundreds of aircraft.

June 21

1898 - USS Charleston captures island of Guam from Spain
1945 - Okinawa declared secure after most costly naval campaign in history. U.S. had 30 ships sunk and 223 damaged, mostly from kamikaze attacks, with 5000 dead and 5000 wounded, while the Japanese lost 100,000 dead

June 22

1807 - HMS Leopard attacks USS Chesapeake
1865 - Confederate raider Shenandoah fires last shot of Civil War in Bering Strait
1884 - Navy relief expedition under CDR Winfield S. Schley rescues LT A.W. Greely, USA, and 6 others from Ellesmere Island, where they were marooned for 3 years on Arctic island.
1898 - ADM Sampson begins amphibious landing near Santiago, Cuba

June 23

1933 - Commissioning of USS Macon, Navy's last dirigible
1961 - Navy's first major low frequency radio station commissioned at Cutler, ME
1972 - Navy helicopter squadron aids flood-stricken residents in Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, and Pittstown area of PA

June 24

1833 - USS Constitution enters drydock at Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, MA, for overhaul. The ship was saved from scrapping after public support rallied to save the ship following publication of Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem, "Old Ironsides."
1926 - Office of Assistant SecNav set up to foster naval aeronautics; aircraft building increased
1948 - Berlin airlift initiated to offset the Soviet Union's blockade access of U.S., France, and Great Britain to their sectors of Berlin.

June 25

1917 - Navy convoy of troopships carrying American Expeditionary Forces arrives in France
1950 - North Korea invades South Korea beginning Korean Conflict

June 26

1884 - Congress authorizes commissioning of Naval Academy graduates as ensigns
1918 - Marine brigade captures Belleau Wood
1959 - Twenty-eight Naval vessels sail from Atlantic to Great Lakes, marking the formal opening of Saint Lawrence Seaway to seagoing ships.
1962 - NAVFAC Cape Hatteras makes first Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) detection of a Soviet diesel submarine.
1973 - Navy Task Force 78 completes minesweeping of North Vietnamese ports.

June 27

1813 - USS President anchors in Bergen, Norway
1950 - To support U.N. call to assist South Korea, Truman authorizes U.S. naval and air operations south of 38th Parallel, Korea

June 28

1794 - Joshua Humphreys appointed master builder to build Navy ships at an annual salary of $2,000.
1814 - USS Wasp captures HMS Reindeer
1865 - CSS Shenandoah captures 11 American whalers in one day
1970 - USS James Madison (SSBN-627) completes conversion to Poseidon missile capability

June 29

1925 - Ships and men from 11th and 12th Naval Districts assist in relief after earthquake at Santa Barbara , CA
1950 - Truman authorizes sea blockade of the Korean coast
1950 - USS Juneau fires first naval shore bombardment of Korean Conflict

June 30

1815 - USS Peacock takes HMS Nautilus, last action of the War of 1812
1943 - Third Fleet Amphibious Force lands troops on Rendova Island while naval gunfire silences Japanese artillery
1951 - Naval Administration of Marianas ends

Dates in American Naval History: July
July 1

1797 - Naval Regulations passed by Congress
1800 - First convoy duty; USS Essex escorts convoy of merchant ships from East Indies to U.S.
1801 - U.S. squadron under Commodore Dale enters Mediterranean to strike Barbary Pirates
1850 - Naval School at Annapolis renamed Naval Academy
1851 - Naval Academy adopts four year course of study
1911 - Trial of first Navy aircraft, Curtiss A-1. The designer, Glenn Curtiss, makes first flight in Navy's first aircraft, A-1, at Lake Keuka, NY, then prepares LT Theodore G. Ellyson, the first naval aviator, for his two solo flights in A-1.
1914 - Prohibition of alcohol begins in the Navy
1916 - Establishment of informal school for officers assigned to submarines at New London, CT
1918 - USS Covington hit without warning by two torpedoes from German Submarine U-86 and sank the next day
1933 - USS Constitution commences tour of principal U.S. seaports.
1946 - 1st of 2 detonations, Operation Crossroads nuclear test
1951 - Responsibility for the Government of Trust Territories transferred from Navy to Department of Interior.
1972 - Date of rank of Rear Admiral Samuel Lee Gravely, Jr., who was first U.S. Navy Admiral of African-American descent.

July 2

1923 - Commissioning of Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC.
1926 - Distinguished Flying Cross authorized by Congress.
1937 - Amelia Earhart disappears in Pacific. Navy conducts extensive unsuccessful search
1945 - USS Barb (SS-220) bombards Japanese installations on Kaihyo Island, Japan; first successful use of rockets against shore positions.
1946 - Establishment of VX-3 to evaluate adaptability of helicopters to naval purposes.
1950 - USS Juneau and 2 British ships sink 5 of 6 attacking North Korean torpedo boats and gunboats.
1967 - During Operation Bear Claw, Seventh Fleet Amphibious Force conducts helicopter assault 12 miles inland at Con Thien.

July 3

1898 - At Battle of Santiago, Cuba, RADM Sampson's squadron destroys Spanish fleet
1950 - USS Valley Forge and HMS Triumph participate in first carrier action of Korean Conflict. VF-51 aircraft (Valley Forge) shoot down 2 North Korean aircraft. The action is first combat test of F9F Panther and AD Skyraider.

July 4

1776 - American colonies declare their independence from Great Britain
1777 - John Paul Jones hoists first Stars and Stripes flag on Ranger at Portsmouth, NH.
1801 - First Presidential Review of U.S. Marine Band and Marines at the White House.
1831 - U.S. concludes indemnity treaty with France.
1842 - First test of electrically operated underwater torpedo sinks gunboat Boxer
1863 - Confederates surrender of Vicksburg, MS, gives Union control of Mississippi River.

July 5

1814 - Sloop-of-war Peacock captures British Stranger, Venus, Adiona, and Fortitude.
1815 - Commodore Stephen Decatur's squadron arrives at Tripoli to collect reparations for seizure of American merchant ships in violation of Treaty of 1805.

July 6

1747 - Birth of John Paul Jones at Arbigland, Scotland.
1898 - Armed Auxiliary Dixie captures Spanish Three Bells, Pilgrim, and Greeman Castle
1908 - CDR Robert Peary sails in Roosevelt from New York to explore Arctic.
1911 - First naval aviation base established at Annapolis, MD.
1920 - Test and first use of radio compass in aircraft off Norfolk, VA
1943 - Night Battle of Kula Gulf results in loss of 2 Japanese destroyers and USS Helena.
1976 - 1st women enter Naval Academy.

July 7

1798 - Congress rescinds treaties with France; Quasi War begins with Frigate Delaware capturing French privateer, Croyable.
1846 - Commodore John D. Sloat lands at Monterey and claims California for U.S.
1916 - Thomas A. Edison becomes head of Naval Consulting Board which screens inventions for use by the Navy
1948 - First six enlisted women sworn into Regular Navy. The Navy WAVES in Naval Reserve, who were the first to transfer to the Regular Navy, were Kay Louise Langdon, Aviation Storekeeper First Class; Wilma Juanita Marchal, Chief Yeoman; Frances Teresa Dovaney, Storekeeper, Second Class; Edna Earle Young, Yeoman, Second Class; Doris Roberta Robertson, Teleman, Second Class; and Ruth Flora, Hospital Corpsman, First Class.

July 8

1778 - Allied French fleet under Comte d'Estaing arrives in America.
1853 - Commodore Matthew C. Perry sails his squadron into Tokyo Bay.
1879 - USS Jeannette departs San Francisco to explore Arctic.
1944 - Naval bombardment of Guam begins.

July 9

1846 - Sailors and Marines from USS Portsmouth occupy and raise flag over San Francisco.
1918 - Henry Ford launches first of 100 Eagle boats.
1944 - Organized Japanese resistence ceases on Saipan, Marianas.
1960 - USS Wasp departs Guantanamo Bay to support United Nations effort to calm the newly independent Congo.

July 10

1934 - USS Houston takes Franklin Delano Roosevelt on first visit of U.S. President to South America.
1943 - Naval gunfire help Allied troops land on Sicily. It was first extensive use of LST's and smaller landing craft to deliver heavy equipment over the beach.
1945 - 14 carriers from Third Fleet carriers begin air strikes on Japanese Home Islands which end 15 August.

July 11

1798 - Reestablishment of Marine Corps under the Constitution
1919 - Pay Corps renamed Supply Corps
1943 - Gunfire from U.S. cruisers and destroyers stop German and Italian tank attack against Army beachhead at Gela, Sicily.

July 12

1836 - Commissioning of Charles H. Haswell as first regularly appointed Engineer Officer.
1916 - North Carolina is first Navy ship to carry and operate aircraft
1921 - Congress creates Bureau of Aeronautics to be in charge of all matter pertaining to naval aeronautics.
1951 - Ninth Naval District forces assist in flood relief work in Kansas City through 20 July
1953 - United Nations Fleet launches heavy air and sea attack on Wonsan; Major John Bolt, USMC becomes first jet ace in Marine Corps.
1988 - SECDEF approves opening Navy's Underwater Construction Teams, fleet oiler, ammunition ships, and combat stores ships to women.
1990 - Commander Rosemary B. Mariner becomes first woman to command an operational aviation squadron (VAQ-34).

July 13

1863 - USS Wyoming battled Japanese warlord's forces.
1939 - Appointment of RADM Richard Byrd as commanding officer of 1939-1941 Antarctic Expedition.
1943 - During Battle of Kolombangara in Solomon Islands, U.S. lost USS Gwin. (DD-433) while Japanese lost light cruiser Jintsu.

July 14

1813 - LT John M. Gamble, the first marine to command a ship in battle (prize vessel Greenwich in capture of British whaler Seringapatam)
1853 - Commodore Matthew Perry lands and holds first meeting with Japanese at Uraga, Japan
1882 - Sailors and Marines from 4 U.S. ships land to help restore order at Alexandria, Egypt.
1945 - U.S. warships bombard Kamaishi, Japan; first naval gunfire bombardment of Japanese Home Islands.
1950 - U.S. Marines sail from San Diego for Korean Conflict.
1952 - Laying of keel of USS Forrestal, the first 59,900 ton aircraft carrier.

July 15

1870 - Act of Congress establishes Pay Corps, which later becomes the Supply Corps.
1942 - First photographic interpretation unit set up in the Pacific.
1958 - In response to request by President of Lebanon, Sixth Fleet lands 1,800 Marines at Beruit to support Lebanese government against Communist rebels.

July 16

1862 - Congress creates rank of Rear Admiral. David G. Farragut is named the first Rear Admiral
1912 - Rear Admiral Bradley Fiske receives patent for torpedo plane or airborne torpedo.
1915 - First Navy ships, battleships Ohio, Missouri, and Wisconsin transit Panama Canal.
1945 - First atomic bomb test at Alamogordo, NM.

July 17

1858 - U.S. sloop Niagara departs Queenstown, Ireland, to assist in laying first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable.
1898 - Santiago, Cuba surrenders to U.S. Naval forces.
1927 - First organized dive bombing attack in combat by Marine Corps pilots against Nicaraguan bandits who were surrounding U.S. Marine garrison at Ocotal, Nicaraguan.
1944 - Ammunition explosion at Naval Magazine, Port Chicago, CA.
1975 - Docking in spaceof the U.S. Apollo (Apollo 18) and Soviet Soyuz (Soyuz 19) space craft. This was the first manned space flight conducted jointly by the 2 nations. Former naval aviator Vance D. Brand was the Apollo Command Module Pilot. The Apollo craft was in space for 9 days and 7.5 hours. Recovery was by USS New Orleans (LPH-11).

July 18

1775 - Continental Congress resolves that each colony provide armed vessels
1779 - Commodore Abraham Whipple's squadron captures 11 prizes in largest prize value of Revolutionary War.
1792 - John Paul Jones dies in Paris, France
1813 - U.S. Frigate President captures British Daphne, Eliza Swan, Alert and Lion.
1920 - Naval aircraft sink ex-German cruiser Frankfurt in target practice.
1943 - German submarine shoots down K-47, the first and only U.S. airship lost during WW II.
1947 - President Harry S. Truman delegates responsibility for the civil administration of former Japanese mandated island to the Secretary of the Navy.
1966 - Launch of Gemini 10 with LCDR John W. Young, USN as Command Pilot. Mission involved 43 orbits at an altitude of 412.2 nautical miles and lasted 2 days, 22 hours, and 46 minutes. Recovery was by HS-3 helicopter from USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7).
1973 - Task Force 78, Mine Countermeasures Force, departs waters of North Vietnam after completing their minesweeping operations of 1,992 tow hours for the cost of $20,394,000.

July 19

1812 - USS Constitution escapes from British squadron after 3 day chase off New Jersey
1886 - Atlanta, the first steel-hulled American cruiser armed with breechloading rifled guns, is commissioned.
1897 - LT Robert E. Peary departs on year long Arctic Expedition which makes many important discoveries, including one of largest meteorites, Cape York.
1918 - Armored cruiser USS San Diego sunk off Fire Island, NY by a mine laid by U-156.
1940 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs second Naval Expansion Act.

July 20

1846 - First visit of U.S. warships (USS Columbus and USS Vincennes) to Japan is unsuccessful in negotiating a treaty.
1960 - In first launch of Polaris missile, USS George Washington (SSBN 598) successfully fires 2 operational Polaris missiles while submerged off Florida.
1964 - Four Navy divers enter Project SEALAB I capsule moored 192 feet on the ocean floor off Bermuda for 11 day experiment.
1969 - Former Navy pilot Neil Armstrong is first man to set foot on the moon. While taking the first step, he said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong was Commander of Apollo 11 which during its 8 day mission landed on the Sea of Tranquility. Recovery was by HS-4 helicopters from USS Hornet (CVS-12).

July 21

1823 - After pirate attack, LT David G. Farragut leads landing party to destroy pirate stronghold in Cuba.
1944 - Invasion and recapture of Guam begins.
1946 - In first U.S. test of adaptability of jet aircraft to shipboard operations, XFD-1 Phantom makes landings and takeoffs without catapults from Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1987 - Navy escorts first Earnest Will Convoy in the Persian Gulf.

July 22

1802 - Frigate Constellation defeats 9 Corsair gunboats off Tripoli.
1905 - Body of John Paul Jones moved to Annapolis, MD for reburial.
1953 - U.S. ships laid down heavy barrage to support UN troops in Korea
1964 - Four Navy Divers (LCDR Robert Thompson, MC; Gunners Mate First Class Lester Anderson, Chief Quartermaster Robert A. Barth, and Chief Hospital Corpsman Sanders Manning) submerge in Sealab I for 10 days at a depth of 192 feet, 39 miles off Hamilton, Bermuda. They surfaced on 31 July 1964.
1974 - Evacuees from the coup on Cyprus arrive on board Navy vessels in the Mediterranean. Operation ended on 24 July.

July 23

1947 - First Navy all jet squadron (VF-17A) receives its first aircraft (FH).
1948 - USS Putnum (DD-757) evacuates U.N. team from Haifa, Israel and becomes first U.S. Navy ship to fly the U.N. flag.
1950 - USS Boxer sets record crossing of Pacific to bring aircraft, troops, and supplies to Korea at start of the Conflict
1958 - USS Nautilus (SSN-571) departs Pearl Harbor for first submerged transit of North Pole.
1993 - Sarah Deal becomes first women Marine selected for naval aviation training.

July 24

1813- Sailing Master Elijah Mix attempts to blow up British warship Plantagenet with a torpedo near Cape Henry, Virginia.
1944 - Following 43 days of naval gunfire and air bombardment, Naval Task Force lands Marines on Tinian.

July 25

1779 - Amphibious expedition against British in Penobscot Bay, ME
1863 - U.S. Squadron bombards Fort Wagner, NC
1866 - Rank of Admiral created. David G. Farragut is appointed the first Admiral in the U.S. Navy
1898 - Landing party from armed yacht Gloucester occupies Guanica, Puerto Rico.
1912 - First specifications for naval aircraft published.
1934 - First President to visit Hawaii, Franklin D. Roosevelt, reaches Hilo on board USS Houston
1941 - Bureau of Ordnance issues first Navy "E"certificates (for excellence) for industry.
1943 - Launching of USS Harmon (DE-72), first ship named for African-American.
1990 - USS Cimarron rescues 25 refugees adrift southeast of Subic Bay, Philippines.

July 26

1812 - Frigate Essex captures British brig Leander
1912 - First airborne radio communications from naval aircraft to ship (LT John Rodgers to USS Stringham)
1942 - CAPT Joy Bright Hancock appointed Director, Women's Naval Reserve.
1948 - President Harry S. Truman orders desegregation of the Armed Services.
1954 - 3 aircraft from USS Philippine Sea (CVA-47) shoot down 2 Chinese fighters that fired on them while they were providing air cover for rescue operations for a U.K. airliner shot down by a Chinese aircraft.

July 27

1953 - Koean War armistice signed at Panmunjon, Korea and Korean cease-fire went into effect at 10:00 PM.

July 28

1915 - Sailors and Marines land in Haiti to restore order
1916 - Navy establishes a Code and Signal Section which initially worked against German ciphers and tested the security of communications during U.S. naval training maneuvers.
1926 - Team of scientists from Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and Carnegie Institution determine height of the Ionosphere through use of radio pulse transmitter developed by NRL
1945 - USS Callaghan (DD-792) is last ship sunk by a Japanese kamikaze attack, off Okinawa.
1973 - Launch of Skylab 3, the second manned mission to the first U.S. manned space station, was piloted by MAJ Jack R. Lousma, USMC with CAPT Alan L. Bean, USN as the Commander of the mission and former Navy electronics officer, Owen K. Garriott as Science Pilot. The mission lasted 59 days, 11 hours and included 858 Earth orbits. Recovery by USS New Orleans (LPH-11).

July 29

1846 - Sailors and Marines from U.S. sloop Cyane capture San Diego, CA
1918 - Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt visits Queenstown, Ireland
1945 - U.S. warships bombard Hamamatsu, Japan.
1967 - Fire on board USS Forrestal killed 134 members of the crew.

July 30

1918 - Units of First Marine Aviation Force arrive at Brest, France
1941 - Japanese aircraft bomb USS Tutuila (PR-4) at Chungking, China; First Navy ship damaged by Axis during World War II.
1942 - FDR signs act establishing WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). During World War II, over 80,000 officer and enlisted women served in the WAVES.
1944 - Naval Task Force lands Army troops near Cape Opmarai, New Guinea.
1945 - Japanese submarine, I-58, sinks USS Indianapolis (CA-35) in Philippine Sea; 316 out of 1199 crew survived.
1967 - Fire on board USS Forrestal off the coast of Vietnam results in death of 134 crew.

July 31

1815 - Commodore Stephen Decatur concludes agreement with Bey of Tunis to compensate U.S. for seizure of merchant ships during the War of 1812.
1865 - East India Squadron established to operate from Sunda Strait to Japan.
1874 - Commissioning of USS Intrepid, first U.S. warship equipped with torpedoes
1912 - First attempt to launch an airplane by catapult made at Annapolis.
1964 - All-nuclear task force with USS Long Beach, USS Enterprise, and USS Bainbridge leaves Norfolk, VA to begin voyage, Operation Sea Orbit, to circle the globe without refueling. They returned on 3 October.

Dates in American Naval History: August

August 1

1801 - U.S. schooner Enterprise captures Tripolitan ship Tripoli
1921 - Successful tests of gyroscopic high level bombsight (Norden Bombsight) at Torpedo Station, Yorktown, VA. Carl Norden developed the bombsight for the Bureau of Ordnance.
1946 - Office of Naval Research established
1950 - Control of Guam transferred to Department of Interior
1958 - USS Nautilus (SSN-571) submerges under Arctic ice cap near Point Barrow

August 2

1943 - PT-109, under command of LTJG John F. Kennedy, cut in half by Japanese destroyer Amagiri
1943 - Naval task groups bombard Japanese forces on Kiska, Alaska
1950 - Amphibious force ships land Marine First Provisional Brigade at Pusan, Korea helping to save this last area of South Korea from capture.
1964 - Three North Vietnamese PT boats attack USS Maddox (DD-731) in international waters in Gulf of Tonkin. Maddox sinks one.

August 3

1804 - American Squadron, including USS Constitution, attacks Tripoli
1812 - Frigate Essex capture British brig Brothers
1861 - Construction of USS Monitor authorized
1861 - First manned ascent in a balloon from a ship, gunboat USS Fanny, to observe Confederate artillery position at Hampton Roads, VA
1942 - Mildred McAffee (Horton) becomes the first woman officer commissioned into Naval Reserve.
1950 - First Marine Corps aviation mission against North Korea by VMF-214, from USS Sicily
1950 - First helicopter evacuation in Korea by VMO-6
1958 - USS Nautilus (SSN-571) is first ship to reach the geographic North Pole submerged.
1970 - USS James Madison (SSBN-627) conducts first submerged launching of Poseidon nuclear missile off Cape Kennedy

August 4

1846 - Sailors and Marines from USS Congress capture Santa Barbara
1858 - First trans-Atlantic cable completed by USS Niagara and British ship Agamemnon
1944 - Fifth Fleet carrier task forces begin air attack against Iwo Jima and the Bonin Islands
1947 - Birthdate of the Medical Service Corps
1964 - The Navy and national intelligence sources report a North Venamese PT boat attack on USS Turner Joy and USS Maddox in the Tokin Gulf prompting Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution on 7 August 1964. The attack was later disproven.

August 5

1832 - Frigate Potomac is first U.S. Navy ship to entertain royalty, King and Queen of Sandwich Islands, Honolulu
1864 - RADM David Farragut wins Battle of Mobile Bay, sealing off last Confederate port on Gulf Coast
1882 - Authorizing of first steel warships, beginning of the modern Navy.
1915 - First air spotting for shore batteries at Fort Monroe, VA
1921 - Yangtze River Patrol Force established as command under Asiatic Fleet.
1953 - Exchange of prisoners of war of Korean Conflict (Operation Big Switch) begins
1967 - Operation Coronado III begins in Rung Sat Zone, Vietnam
1990 - Navy and Marine Task Force (USS Saipan, USS Ponce, and USS Sumter) begin evacuation of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals from Liberia during civil war.

August 6

1862 - CSS Arkansas destroyed by her commanding officer to prevent capture by USS Essex.
1943 - Battle of Vella Gulf begins. US destroyers sink 3 of 4 Japanese destroyers.
1945 - Atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima, Japan. Navy weaponeer, Captain W.S. Parsons, USN, armed the atomic bomb on the B-29 bomber, Enola Gay.
1990 - President George Bush orders Operation Desert Shield, largest overseas deployment since Vietnam, to protect Saudi Arabia after Iraqi's invasion of Kuwait.
1997 - Naval Forces on Guam help rescue and begin providing medical care to survivors of Korean Airlines Flight 801 that crashed on Guam.

August 7

1782 - Badge of Military Merit (Purple Heart) established
1942 - Navy Amphibious Task Force lands Marines on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands in first U.S. land offensive of World War II
1964 - Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed by Congress

August 8

1813- US Schooners Hamilton and Scourge founder in storm on Lake Ontario
1959 - Announcement of Project Teepee, electronic system to monitor 95 percent of earth's atmosphere for missile launchings or nuclear explosions. System developed by William Thaler, Office of Naval Research physicist.
1972 - Women authorized for sea duty as regular ship's company

August 9

1815 - CAPT Stephen Decatur concludes treaty for U.S. with Tripoli
1842 - Signing of Webster-Ashburton Treaty under which U.S. and Great Britain agreed to cooperate in suppressing the slave trade.
1865 - Return of Naval Academy to Annapolis after 4 years at Newport, RI
1919 - Construction of rigid airship ZR-1 (Shenandoah) authorized
1941 - Atlantic Charter Conference is first meeting between President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill
1942 - Battle of Savo Island begins; First of many sea battles near Guadalcanal
1945 - Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Navy weaponeer arms the atomic bomb.
1949 - First use of pilot-ejection seat for emergency escape in U.S. made by LT Jack I. Fruin of VF-171 near Walterboro, SC

August 10

1916 - First Naval aircraft production contract, for N-9s
1921 - General Order establishes the Bureau of Aeronautics under RADM William Moffett
1944 - Guam secured by U.S. forces.
1964 - Signing of Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which is used as the starting point of the Vietnam Conflict

August 11

1812 - USS Constitution captures and destroys brig Lady Warren
1877 - Professor Asaph Hall of Naval Observatory discovers first of two satellites of Mars. He found the second one within a week.
1921 - Carrier arresting gear first tested at Hampton Roads.
1960 - USNS Longview, using Navy helicopters and frogmen, recovers a Discover satellite capsule after 17 orbits. This is first recovery of U.S. satellite from orbit.


August 12

1812 - USS Constitution captures and destroys brig Adeona
1918 - SECNAV approves acceptance of women as yeoman (F) in U.S. Navy
1942 - USS Cleveland (CL-55) demonstrates effectiveness of radio-proximity fuze (VT-fuze) against aircraft by successfully destroying 3 drones with proximity bursts fired by her five inch guns.
1944 - LT Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., USNR, the older brother of John F. Kennedy, was killed with his co-pilot in a mid-air explosion after taking off from England in a PB4Y from Special Attack Unit One (SAU-1). Following manual takeoff, they were supposed to parachute out over the English Channel while the radio-controlled explosive filled drone proceeded to attack a German V-2 missile-launching site. Possible causes include faulty wiring or FM signals from a nearby transmitter.
1957 - In first test of Automatic Carrier Landing System, LCDR Don Walker is landed on USS Antietam.
1958 - USS Nautilus (SSN-571) arrives Portland, England completing first submerged under ice cruise from Pacific to Atlantic Oceans.

August 13

1777 - American explosive device made by David Bushnell explodes near British vessel off New London, CT.
1846 - Joint expedition led by CDR Robert Stockton seizes Los Angeles, CA
1870 - Armed tug Palos becomes first U.S. Navy ship to transit Suez Canal

August 14

1813 - HMS Pelican captures USS Argus
1886 - SECNAV establishes Naval Gun Factory at Washington Navy Yard
1941 -
1945 - Japan agrees to surrender; last Japanese ships sunk during World War II (15 August in DC)

August 15

1845 - U.S. Naval Academy established at Annapolis, MD on former site of Fort Severn.
1895 - Commissioning of Texas, the first American steel-hulled battleship. Texas served off Cuba during the Spanish-American War and took part in the naval battle of Santiago. Under the name of San Marcos, she was sunk in weapon effects tests in Chesapeake Bay in 1911. Her hulk continued in use as a gunnery target through World War II.
1908 - First Navy post offices established in Navy ships
1944 - Operation Dragoon, Allied invasion of Southern France
1953 - First naval officer appointed Chairman, Joints Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William Radford. He served from 15 August 1953 until 15 August 1957.
1958 - USS Lexington (CVA-16) arrives in vicinity of Taiwan

August 16

1812 - USS Constitution recaptures American merchant brig Adeline
1954 - Beginning of Operation Passage to Freedom, transport of refugees from Haiphong to Saigon, Vietnam

August 17

1812 - Frigate President captures British schooner L'Adeline in North Atlantic
1942 - Submarines USS Nautilus and USS Argonaut land 222 Marines on Makin Island, first amphibious attack made from submarines
1959 - ADM Arleigh Burke reappointed CNO for 3rd 2 year term, serving longest term as CNO
1962 - Navy's first hydrofoil patrol craft, USS High Point (PCH-1) launched at Seattle, WA

August 18

1838 - Exploring Expedition under LT Charles Wilkes embarks on world cruise.
1911 - First Navy Nurse Corps superintendent, Esther Voorhees Hasson, appointed
1965 - First major amphibious assault in Vietnam, Operation Starlight captures 2,000 Viet Cong
1966 - First ship-to-shore satellite radio message sent from USS Annapolis in South China Sea to Pacific Fleet Headquarters at Pearl Harbor
1974 - After flooding in Philippines, Navy helicopters begin 6 days of operations to rescue people and bring supplies (244 flights)

August 19

1812 - USS Constitution captures HMS Guerriere.
1812- Devastating hurricane struck the Navy's New Orleans station, delaying military preparations in the War of 1812
1818 - CAPT James Biddle takes possession of Oregon Territory for U.S.
1967 - Operation Coronado IV begins in Mekong Delta
1981 - 2 VF-41 aircraft from USS Nimitz shoot down 2 Libyan aircraft which fired on them over international waters

August 20

1952 - In interservice air operation at Chang Pyong-ni, Korea, U.S. Navy, Marine and Air Force aircraft destroy 80 percent of assigned area.
1959 - USS Thetis Bay (LPH-6) completes 6-day humanitarian operation after floods in Taiwan.
1969 - Navy Seabees and sailors from Helicopter Training Squadron Eight (HT-8) evacuated 820 people from Pass Christian, MS after Hurricane Camille.

August 21

1800 - U.S. Marine Corps Band gave its first concert in Washington, D.C.
1883 - Installation of the first electric lighting on a US Navy Ship completed on USS Trenton.
1920 - Radio station built by U.S. Navy and French Government transmits first wireless message heard around the world. At time it was the most powerful radio station in the world.
1951 - First contract for nuclear-powered submarine awarded.
1965 - Launch of Gemini 5, piloted by LCDR Charles Conrad Jr., USN, who completed 120 orbits in almost 8 days at an altitude of 349.8 km. Recovery was by helicopter from USS Lake Champlain (CVS-39).
1980 - USS Truxtun rescues 42 Vietnamese refugees and USS Merrill rescues 62 Vietnamese refugees, over 200 miles southeast of Saigon

August 22

1912 - Birthday of Dental Corps
1945 - First surrender of Japanese garrison at end of World War II; USS Levy receives surrender of Mille Atoll in Marshall Islands
1980 - USS Passumpsic rescues 28 Vietnamese refugees

August 23

1864 - RADM David Farragut's squadron captures Fort Morgan at Mobile Bay winning control of Mobile Bay
1958 - Massive concentration of Pacific Fleet in Quemoy-Matsu area prevents invasion of islands by China.
1958 - In Taiwan Straits Crisis, Units of 7th Fleet move into Taiwan area to support Taiwan against Chinese Communists.
1963 - The first satellite communications ship, USNS Kingsport (T-AG-164) in Lagos, Nigeria, connected President John F. Kennedy with Nigerian Prime Minister Balewa who was aboard for the first satellite (Syncom II) relayed telephone conversation between heads of state.

August 24

1814 - British invasion of Maryland and Washington, D.C.; Washington Navy Yard and ships burned to prevent capture by the British
1912 - Launching of USS Jupiter, first electrically propelled Navy ship
1942 - U.S. carrier aircraft begin 2-day Battle of Eastern Solomons where Japanese task force defeated and one Japanese carrier sunk. Japanese recall expedition to recapture Guadalcanal.
1960 - USS Bexar (APA-237) deploys to Pangahan Province in response to emergency request for aid from the Province's governor.

August 25

1843 - Steam frigate Missouri arrives at Gibralter completing first Trans-Atlantic crossing by U.S. steam powered ship.
1942 - Five Navy nurses who became POWs on Guam repatriated .
1951 - 23 fighters from USS Essex (CV-9) escort Air Force heavy bombers attacking Najin, Korea since target was beyond range of land-based fighters.

August 26

1775 - Rhode Island Resolve: Rhode Island delegates to Continental Congress press for creation of Continental Navy to protect the colonies
1839 - Brig Washington seizes Spanish slaver, Amistad near Montauk Point, NY
1861 - Union amphibious force lands near Hatteras, NC
1865 - Civil War ends with Naval strength over 58,500 men and 600 ships

August 27

1917 - Squadron of minesweepers departs U.S. for service off France
1944 - USS Stingray (SS-186) lands men and supplies on Luzon, Philippines to support guerilla operations against the Japanese.
1945 - Pacific Fleet ships enter Sagami Bay, near Tokyo, Japan.
1959 - Off Cape Canaveral, FL, USS Observation Island (EAG-154) makes first shipboard launching of a Polaris missile.

August 28

1867 - Captain William Reynolds of Lackawanna raises U.S. flag over Midway Island and took formal possession of these islands for the U.S.
1942 - 120 women, commissioned directly as ENS or LTJG, reported to "USS Northampton," Smith College for training.
1952 - Units on USS Boxer (CV-21) launch explosive-filled drone which explodes against railroad bridge near Hungnam, Korea. First guided missile launched from ship during Korean Conflict.
1965 - CDR Scott Carpenter and 9 aquanauts enter SeaLab II, 205 ft. below Southern California's waters to conduct underwater living and working tests
1991 - A helicopter from USS America (CV-66) rescues 3 civilian sailors who spent 10 days in a lifeboat 80 miles off Capt May, NJ after their sailboat capsized.
1992 - Navy and Marine forces begin providing disaster relief after Typhoon Omar hit Guam
1992 - Marines and Army forces begin providing disaster relief in Florida after Hurricane Andrew.

August 29

1861 - U.S. squadron captures forts at Hatteras Inlet, NC
1862 - Union gunboat Pittsburgh support Army troops in landing at Eunice, Arkansas
1915 - Navy salvage divers raise F-4, first U.S. submarine sunk in accident
1916 - Congress passes act for expansion of Navy but most ships not completed until after World War I.
1964 - USS Boxer and 2 LSDs arrive off coast of Hispaniola to give medical aid to Haiti and Dominican Republic which were badly damaged by Hurricane Cleo.

August 30

1913 - Navy tests Sperry gyroscopic stabilizer (automatic pilot)
1929 - Near New London, CT, 26 officers and men test Momsen lung to exit submerged USS S-4
1961 - Two Cuban frigates fire on a Naval Reserve aircraft on a training mission over international waters

August 31

1842 - Congress replaces the Board of Navy Commissioners, a group of senior officer who oversaw naval technical affairs, with the five technical Bureaus, ancestors of the Systems Commands. One of the 1842 Bureau, the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, continues to serve under its original name.
1943 - Commissioning of USS Harmon (DE-678), first Navy ship named for an African American Sailor.
1944 - Carrier task group begins 3-day attack on Iwo Jima and Bonin Islands
1962 - Last flight of Navy airship made at NAS Lakehurst, NJ

Dates in American Naval History: September

September 1

1781 - French fleet traps British fleet at Yorktown, VA
1925 - CDR John Rodgers and crew of 4 in PN-9 run out of fuel on first San Francisco to Hawaii flight. Landing at sea, they rigged a sail and set sail for Hawaii.
1941 - U.S. assumes responsibility for trans-Atlantic convoys from Argentia, Canada to the meridian of Iceland
1942 - Establishment of Air Force, Pacific Fleet, VADM Aubrey W. Fitch, USN
1942 - First Seabee unit to serve in a combat area, 6th Naval Construction Battalion, arrives on Guadalcanal.
1945 - USS Benevolence (AH-13) evacuates civilian internees from 2 internment camps near Tokyo, Japan

September 2

1918 - Navy ships and crews assist earthquake victims of Yokohama and Tokyo, Japan
1940 - Destroyer-for-Bases agreement between U.S. and United Kingdom
1944 - USS Finback (SS-230) rescues Lieutenant (jg) George Bush, USNR (VT-51), shot down while attacking Chichi Jima
1945 - Japan signs surrender documents on board USS Missouri (BB-63) at anchor in Tokyo Bay. FADM Chester W. Nimitz, USN, signs for the U.S. In different ceremonies, Japanese forces on Palau Islands, Truk, and on Pagan Island and Rota in the Marianas surrender.

September 3

1782 - As a token of gratitude for French aid during American Revolution, the U.S. gives America (first ship-of-the-line built by U.S.) to France to replace a French ship lost in Boston.
1783 - Signing of Treaty of Paris ends American Revolution
1885 - First classes at U.S. Naval War College begin
1925 - Crash of rigid airship Shenandoah near Byesville, OH
1943 - American landings on Lae and Salamaua
1944 - First combat employment of a missile guided by radio and television takes place when Navy drone Liberator, controlled by Ensign James M. Simpson in a PV, flew to attack German submarine pens on Helgoland Island.
1945 - Japanese surrender Wake Island in ceremony on board USS Levy (DE-162)

September 4

1804 - USS Intrepid (LT Richard Somers) blew up in failed attack on Tripoli
1941 - German submarine, U-652, attacks USS Greer, which was tracking the submarine southeast of Iceland. Greer is not damaged, but drops depth charges, damaging U-652.
1954 - Icebreakers, USS Burton Island (AGB-1) and USCG Northwind, complete first transit of Northwest passage through McClure Strait.
1954 - P2V from VP-19 shot down by Soviet aircraft near Swatow, China
1960 - USS Bushnell and Penguin begin relief operations in Marathon, FL, after Hurricane Donna.

September 5

1776 - Adoption of first uniforms for Navy officers
1813- USS Enterprise captures HM brig Boxer off Portland, ME
1918 - USS Mount Vernon torpedoed by German submarine off France
1923 - U.S. Asiatic Fleet arrives at Yokohama, Japan, to provide medical assistance and supplies after Kondo Plain earthquake.
1939 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders Navy to form a Neutrality Patrol to report the presence of foreign warships within 300 miles of eastern United States.
1946 - USS Franklin Delano Roosevelt (CVB-42) and 4 escorts visit Greece to underscore U.S. support for the Greek Government which faced a Communist insurgency.
1990 - USS Acadia (AD-42) departs San Diego for first war-time deployment of male-female crew on combat vessel

September 6

1918 - Sailors fire first of the 5 railroad batteries at Tergnier, a German rail head in the Comeigne Forest. These 14"-50 caliber guns were originally designed for battleships.
1939 - Navy begins formation of Neutrality Patrol for Atlantic Ocean
1940 - First destroyers transferred to Great Britain at Halifax, Nova Scotia, under "Destroyers-for- Bases agreement.
1944 - USS Independence (CVL-22) begins use of specially trained air group for night work. First time that a fully equipped night carrier operates with fast carrier task force.
1945 - U.S. troops begin returning to U.S. when Task Force 11 left Tokyo Bay for U.S.
1953 - Exchange of prisoners of war from Korean War (Operations Big Switch) ends

September 7

1776 - David Bushnell attempts to destroy a British Ship of the Line, HMS Asia, in New York harbor with his submarine Turtle.
1814 - USS Wasp captures HMS Avon
1864 - USS Wachusett captures CSS Florida at Bahia, Brazil
1942 - First air evacuation of casualties to hospital ships off shore occurs at Guadalcanal.

September 8

1923 - In disaster at Point Honda, California, 7 destroyers run aground through faulty navigation
1939 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims limited national emergency and increases enlisted strength in the Navy and Marine Corps; also authorizes the recall to active duty of officer, men and nurses on the retired lists of the Navy and Marine Corps
1954 - U.S. signs Manila Treaty forming SEATO
1958 - LT R. H. Tabor, wearing a Navy developed pressure suit, completes 72-hour simulated flight at altitudes as high a 139,000 feet. It was another step in the development of the Navy spacesuit, which NASA accepted in 1959 for use by Mercury astronauts.

September 9

1825 - USS Brandywine sails for France to carry the Marquis de Lafayette home after his year long visit to America.
1841 - First iron ship authorized by Congress
1940 - Navy awards contracts for 210 ships, including 12 carriers and 7 battleships
1943 - Operation Avalanche, Western Naval Task Force under VADM Hewitt, USN, lands Allied forces at Salerno, Italy
1944 - Fifth Fleet carrier aircraft begin air strikes on Japanese shipping and facilities at Mindanao, Philippines
1945 - A "computer bug" is first identified and named by LT Grace Murray Hopper while she was on Navy active duty in 1945. It was found in the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator at Harvard University. The operators affixed the moth to the computer log, where it still resides, with the entry: "First actual case of bug being found." They "debugged" the computer, first introducing the term.

September 10

1813 - In Battle of Lake Erie, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, flying his "Don't give up the ship" flag, defeats British squadron and says: "We have met the enemy and they are ours..."
1925 - Submarine R-4 rescues crew of PN-9 10 miles from their destination of Hawaii (See also September 1)

September 11

1814 - In Battle of Lake Champlain, Commodore Thomas Macdonough defeats a British Squadron.
1939 - Bear (AG-29) is commissioned by the U.S. Navy for Antarctic operations under command of RADM Richard Byrd, USN (Ret.).
1941 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces order to the Navy to "shoot on sight" vessels threatening U.S. shipping or ships under U.S. escort.
1942 - Pharmacist's Mate First Class Wheeler B. Lipes, USN, performs emergency appendectomy on Seaman First Class Darrell D. Rector, USNR, on board USS Seadragon on patrol in South China Sea.
1943 - Italian Navy surrenders to Allies
1945 - Operation Magic Carpet, the return of troops to the U.S., begins.
2001 - American Flight 77 hijacked by terrorists struck the Pentagon. Casualties include 33 sailors, 6 Department of the Navy civilians, and 3 Navy civilian contractors reported missing, Arlington, VA. Two commercial airliners also struck the World Trade Center in New York City, NY, destroying both towers.
2002 - The "Don't Tread on Me" First Navy Jack is flown by Navy ships marking the first anniversary of the terrorists attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center

September 12

1916 - First demonstration of automatic stabilization and direction gear in aircraft
1944 - 5th Fleet carrier aircraft begin 3-day attack on Japanese shipping and facilities in Visayas, Philippines
1952 - USS Coral Sea (CVB-43) took Marshall Josip Tito for a one-day cruise in the Adriatic Sea where he was shown flight operations.
1961 - Navy task force sails to aid the Galveston area after hurricane Carla hits Texas
1966 - Launch of Gemini 11, piloted by CDR Charles Conrad Jr., USN and LCDR Richard F. Gordon Jr., USN. Their mission lasted 2 days and 23 hours and included 44 orbits at an altitude of 1368.9 km.. Recovery was by HS-3 helicopter from USS Guam (LPH-9)
1967- Operation Coronado V began in Mekong Delta
1992 - Joint Task Force Hawaii activated to provide humanitarian aid after Typhoon Iniki struck Hawaiian Islands

September 13

1814 - British bombardment of Fort McHenry inspires the Star Spangled Banner.
1847 - Marine Brigade leads U.S. forces that storm Chapultepec Castle near Mexico City, inspiring one line of the Marine Hymn
1906 - Sailors and Marines from USS Denver land in Havana at the request of the Cuban government to preserve order during a revolution.
1939 - Navy suspends transfers to the Fleet Reserve after 20 years service and retains men on active duty.
1985 - Commander Middle East Force orders escort of Military Sealift Ships in Persian Gulf because of Iranian seizure of merchant vessels.

September 14

1899 - Gunboat Concord and monitor Monterey capture two insurgent schooners at Aparri, Philippine Islands
1939 - Atlantic Squadron Neutrality Patrol ships deploy

September 15

1944 - Invasion of Peleliu, Palau Islands, after several days of intensive carrier aircraft bombing and ship bombardment.
1950 - U.S. forces under VADM Arthur Struble achieve an amphibious landing at Inchon, Korea
1967 - Operation Crimson Tide in Mekong Delta

September 16

1854 - CDR David G. Farragut takes possession of Mare Island, the first U.S. Navy Yard on the Pacific.
1917 - Navy Department authorizes establishment of 16 Naval air stations abroad
1922 - Commander Halsey Powell in USS Edsall became the senior officer directing the evacuation of 250,000 Greek refugees from Turkey after war between Greece and Turkey.
1940 - President Roosevelt signs Selective Training and Service Act, the first peacetime draft.
1958 - USS Grayback fires first operational launch of Regulus II surface to surface guided missile off CA coast; Missile carries first U.S. mail sent by guided missile.
1966 - USS Oriskany helicopters rescue 44-men crew of British merchant ship August Moon near Hong Kong

September 17

1861 - Union landing party from USS Massachusetts takes possession of Ship Island south of New Orleans, LA. This was the headquarters for ADM David Farragut's Gulf Coast Blockading Squadron.
1944 - Navy Task Force lands Army troops on Angaur, Palau Islands supported by Navy carrier aircraft and shore bombardment

September 18

1926 - Navy brings relief aid to Miami, FL, after a severe hurricane.
1936 - Squadron 40-T, based in the Mediterranean, established to protect U.S. interests and citizens around Iberian peninsula throughout the Spanish Civil War.
1941 - U.S. Navy ships escort eastbound British trans-Atlantic convoy for first time (Convoy HX-150). Although the U.S. Navy ships joined HX-150, which left port escorted by British ships on 16th, on night of 17 September, the official escort duty began on 18th.
1947 - National Security Act becomes effective

September 19

1915 - SECNAV Josephus Daniels organizes the Naval Consulting Board to mobilize the scientific resources of U.S. for national defense.
1957 - Bathyscaph Trieste, in a dive sponsored by the Office of Naval Research in the Mediterranean, reaches record depth of 2 miles
1992 - Joint Task Force Marianas stands down after providing assistance to Guam after Typhoon Omar

September 20

1911 - Navigational instruments first requested for naval aircraft.
1951 - In Operation Summit, the first combat helicopter landing in history, U.S. Marines were landed in Korea.
1981 - USS Mount Hood and Navy helicopters rescue 18 crew members of Philippine Navy frigate, Datu Kalantiaw

September 21

1858 - Sloop Niagara departs Charleston, SC, for Liberia with African slaves rescued from slave ship.
1923 - Asiatic Fleet completes mission of aiding earthquake victims in Japan.
1939 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt asks Congress to repeal the arms embargo provision of the Neutrality Act.
1944 - Aircraft from 12 carriers commence 2-day attack against Japanese ships and airfields on Luzon, Philippine Islands.
1984 - Mid East Force begins escort of U.S. flagged vessels in Persian Gulf.

September 22

1776 - John Paul Jones in Providence sails into Canso Bay, Nova Scotia, and attacks British fishing fleet.
1943 - U.S. destroyers and landing craft land Australian troops at Finschhafen, New Guinea.
1989 - After Hurricane Hugo, Sailors and Marines provide assistance to Charleston, SC, through 10 October.

September 23

1779 - Captain John Paul Jones in Continental Navy frigate Bonhomme Richard captures HMS Serapis.
1931 - LT Alfred Pride pilots Navy's first rotary wing aircraft, XOP-1 autogiro, in landings and takeoffs on board USS Langley while underway.
1944 - Naval Task Group lands Army troops on Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands
1944 - USS West Virginia (BB-48) reaches Pearl Harbor and rejoins the Pacific Fleet, marking the end of the salvage and reconstruction of 18 ships damaged at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.
1947 - James Forrestal, former SECNAV, takes office as first Secretary of Defense
1990 - Two Hospital ships (USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort) steam together for first time in Arabian Gulf

September 24

1918 - Ensign David S. Ingalls, USNR, in a Sopwith Camel, shoots down his fifth enemy aircraft, becoming the first U.S. Navy ace while flying with the British Royal Air Force.
1944 - 5th Fleet carrier aircraft attack Japanese in Visayas, Philippines
1960 - First nuclear powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise (CVAN-65), launched at Newport News, VA

September 25

1941 - In first successful U.S. Navy escort of convoys during World War II, Navy escort turn over HX-150 to British escorts at the Mid-Ocean Meeting Point. All ships reach port safely.
1957 - In project Stratoscope, Office of Naval Research obtains sharp photographs of sun's corona from first balloon-borne telescope camera.

September 26

1781 - French fleet defeats British at Yorktown, VA
1910 - First recorded reference to provision for aviation in Navy Department organization
1918 - USS Tampa lost with 118 men, probably by German submarine
1931 - Keel laying at Newport News, VA of USS Ranger (CV-4), first ship designed and constructed as an aircraft carrier
1963 - First steam-eject launch of Polaris missile at sea off Cape Canaveral, FL (now Cape Kennedy) from USS Observation Island (EAG-154)

September 27

1922 - Report on observations of experiments with short wave radio at Anacostia, DC, starts Navy development of radar
1941 - Launch of first Liberty ship, SS Patrick Henry, in Baltimore, MD
1942 - Armed Guard on SS Stephen Hopkins engages German auxiliary cruiser Stier and supply ship Tannenfels. Stephen Hopkins and Stier both sink.
1944 - Special Air Task Force (STAG-1) commences operations with drones, controlled by TBM aircraft, against Japanese in Southwestern Pacific
1950 - First Marine Division captures Seoul, South Korea

September 28

1822 - Sloop-of-war Peacock captures 5 pirate vessels
1850 - Congress outlaws flogging on Navy ships
1923 - Navy aircraft take first and second places in international Schneider Cup Race
1944 - Marines occupy islands in Palaus under cover of naval aircraft and gunfire support.
1964 - First deployment of Polaris A-3 missile on USS Daniel Webster (SSBN 626) from Charleston, SC

September 29

1944 - USS Narwhal (SS-167) evacuates 81 Allied prisoners of war that survived sinking of Japanese Shinyo Maru from Sindangan Bay, Mindanao
1946 -Lockheed P2V Neptune, Truculent Turtle, leaves Perth, Australia on long distance non-stop, non-refueling flight that ends October 1.
1959 - USS Kearsarge (CVS-33) with Helicopter Squadron 6 and other 7th Fleet units begin 6 days of disaster relief to Nagoya, Japan, after Typhoon Vera.

September 30

1800 - U.S. concludes treaty of peace with France, ending Quasi War with France.
1944 - USS Nautilus (SS-168) lands supplies and evacuates some people from Panay, Philipppine Islands.
1946 - U.S. Government announces that U.S. Navy units would be permanently stationed in the Mediterranean to carry out American policy and diplomacy.
1954 - Commissioning at Groton, CT, of USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the world's first nuclear-powered ship
1958 - Marines leave Lebanon.
1959 - Last flight of airshps assigned to the Naval Air Reserve at Lakehurst, NJ takes place
1968 - Battleship New Jersey arrives off Vietnam

Dates in American Naval History: October
October 1

1800 - U.S. Schooner Experiment captures French Schooner Diana.
1844 - Naval Observatory headed by LT Matthew Fontaine Maury occupies first permanent quarters.
1874 - Supply Corps purser, LT J. Q. Barton, given leave to enter service of new Japanese Navy to organize a Pay Department and instruct Japanese about accounts. He served until 1 October 1877 when he again became a purser in the U.S. Navy. In 1878, the Emperor of Japan conferred on him the Fourth Class of Rising Sun for his service.
1880 - John Phillip Sousa becomes leader of Marine Corps Band
1928 - First class at school for enlisted Navy and Marine Corps Radio intercept operators (The "On the roof gang")
1937 - Patrol aviation transferred to Aircraft Scouting Force, a reestablished type command. With change five patrol wings were established as separate administrative command over their squadrons.
1946 - Truculent Turtle lands at Columbus, Ohio, breaking world's record for distance without refueling with flight of 11,235 miles.
1949 - Military Sea Transportation Service activated.
1955 - Commissioning of USS Forrestal (CVA-59), first of postwar supercarriers
1979 - President Jimmy Carter awards the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to former naval aviators Neil Armstrong, CAPT Charles Conrad, Jr., USN (Ret.), COL John Glenn, USMC (Ret.), and RADM Alan Shepard, Jr., USN (Ret.)
1980 - USS Cochrane (DDG-21) rescues 104 Vietnamese refugees 620 miles east of Saigon
1990 - USS Independence (CV-62) enters Persian Gulf (first carrier in Persian Gulf since 1974)

October 2

1799 - Establishment of Washington Navy Yard
1939 - Foreign ministers of countries of the Western Hemisphere agree to establish a neutrality zone around the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North and South America to be enforced by the U. S. Navy

October 3

1921 - USS Olympia sails for France to bring home the Unknown Soldier from World War I
1955 - USS Saipan (CVL-48) begins disaster relief at Tampico, Mexico rescuing people and delivering supplies. Operations ends 10 October.
1962 - Launch of Sigma 7 (Mercury 8) piloted by CDR Walter M. Schirra, Jr., USN. In a mission lasting 9 hours and 13 minutes, he made 6 orbits at an altitude up to 175.8 statute miles at 17,558 mph. Recovery by USS Kearsarge (CVS-33).

October 4

1821 - LT Robert F. Stockton sails from Boston for Africa to carry out his orders to help stop the international slave trade.
1944 - Aircraft from USS Ranger sink 5 German ships and damage 3 in Operation Leader, the only U.S. Navy carrier operation in northern European waters during World War II.
1952 - Task Force 77 aircraft encounter MIG-15 aircraft for the first time.
1976 - USS Jonas Ingram (DD-938) rescues 7 survivors of a Finnish motor craft that sank in the Baltic Sea.
1991 - USS Arkansas, USS Sioux, USS Aubrey Fitch and Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron SIX rescue personnel on merchant ships in three different rescue operations in the Arabian Sea.
1998 - U.S. and Algierian Navies conduct first bilateral exercise since Algerian independendence in 1962. It was a search and rescue operation involving USS Mitscher.

October 5

1863 - Confederate David seriously damages USS New Ironsides with a spar torpedo off Charleston, South Carolina.
1913 - Trial of OWL, Navy's first amphibian flying boat
1957 - Minitrack, a satellite tracking net developed by the Naval Research Laboratory, becomes operational. This network, with stations from Maine to Chile, tracked the Vangard satellite.

October 6

1884 - Department of the Navy establishes the Naval War College at Newport, RI (General Order 325).
1940 - Fourth group of 8 U.S. destroyers involved in Destroyers for Bases Deal are turned over to British authorities at Halifax, Canada.
1943 - In night Battle of Vella Lavella, 3 U.S. destroyers attack 9 Japanese destroyers to stop evacuation of Japanese troops from Vella Lavella., Solomon Islands
1958 - USS Seawolf (SSN-575) completes record submerged run of 60 days, logging over 13,700 nautical miles.
1962 - Commissioning of USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25), first nuclear-powered frigate
1987 - Destruction of 3 Iranian small boats
1997 - NASA Astronaut CDR Wendy B. Lawrence, USN returns from mission of STS-86: Shuttle -Mir 7 when Atlantis docked with Mir Space Station. The mission began on 25 September.

October 7

1864 - USS Washusett captures Confederate raider CSS Florida in harbor of Bahia, Brazil.
1924 - Rigid airship Shenandoah commences transcontinental flight.
1975 - President Gerald Ford signs law allowing admission of women into service academies (Public Law 94-106).
2001 - Operation Enduring Freedom begins with carrier air strikes, and ship and submarine Tomahamk strikes.

October 8

1812 - Boat party under Lt. Jesse D. Elliott captures HMS Detroit and Caledonia in Niagara River.
1842 - Commodore Lawrence Kearny in USS Constitution addresses a letter to the Viceroy of China, urging that American merchants in China be granted the same treaty privileges as the British. His negotiations are successful.
1950 - 1st Marine Division commences embarkion at Inchon for landings at Wonsan, Korea.
1961 - USS Tulare (AKA-112) and USS Princeton (CVS-7) rescue seamen from an American and a Lebanese merchant ship, which were aground on Kita Daita Jima.

October 9

1873 - LT Charles Belknap calls a meeting at the Naval Academy to establish the U.S. Naval Institute for the purpose of disseminating scientific and professional knowledge throughout the Navy.
1942 - First three schools for enlisted WAVES open at Stillwater, OK (Yeoman), Bloomington, IN (Storekeepers), and Madison, WI (Radiomen).
1945 - Parade in New York City honors FADM Chester W. Nimitz and 13 other Navy and Marine Corps Medal of Honor winners.
1961 - USS Princeton rescues 74 survivors of two shipwrecks (U.S. lines Pioneer Muse and SS Shiek) from the island of Kita Daito Shima.

October 10

1845 - Naval School, later the Naval Academy, opens in Annapolis, Maryland with 50 midshipmen and seven faculty.
1923 - First American-built rigid airship, Shenandoah, is christened. It used helium gas instead of hydrogen.
1944 - Opening of Leyte campaign begins with attack of four Carrier Task Groups of Task Force 38 on Okinawa and Ryukyus.
1960 - Navy assigned responsibility for program management and technial direction of Project SPASUR, the first U.S. universal satellite detection and tracking network.
1985 - Fighters from USS Saratoga (CV-60) force Egyptian airliner, with the hijackers of the cruise ship Achille Lauro aboard, to Italy, where the hijackers were taken into custody.

October 11

1776 - Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain, New York. Although defeated, the American flotilla delayed the British advance and caused it to fall back into winter quarters.
1824 - Marquis de Lafayette visits the Washington Navy Yard during his year long tour of America. He returned to the yard the next day, October 12, to continue his visit.
1942 - Battle of Cape Esperance begins: In two-day battle, American task force stops Japanese attack on Guadalcanal and sinks two Japanese ships while losing only USS Duncan (DD-485).
1945 - Typhoon hits Okinawa, damaging many Navy ships.
1950 - Task Force 77 Aircraft destroy North Korean vessels off Songjin and Wonsan and north of Hungham.
1963 - Navy medical team from Norfolk, VA begins massive inoculation program to safeguard against outbreak of typhoid in the wake of Hurricane Flora.
1967 - Operation Coronado VI began in Rung Sat Zone
1968 - Launch of Apollo 7, the first U.S. 3-man space mission, commanded by CDR Walter Schirra, JR. USN. MAJ Ronnie Cunningham, USMCR served as Lunar Module pilot. The mission lasted 10 days and 20 hours. Recovery was by HS-5 helicopters from USS Essex (CVS-9).

October 12

1914 - USS Jupiter (AC-3) is first Navy ship to complete transit of Panama Canal.
1944 - Aircraft from Carrier Task Force 38 attack Formosa.
1957 - RADM Dufek arrives at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica to command Operation Deep Freeze III during the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58.
1961 - Five men cholera treatment demonstration team from Naval Medican Research Unit, Taipei leaves to assist setting up of facilities to treat an epidemic in Manila.
1965 - End of Project Sealab II where teams of naval divers and scientists spent 15 days in Sealab moored 205 feet below surface near La Jolla, California.
1965 - First group of men commissioned into Navy Nurse Corps report for one month indoctrination to Naval Service; LTJG Jerry McClelland, ENS Charles Franklin, ENS Israel Miller, ENS Richard Gierman and ENS George Silver.
1980 - USS Guadalcanal and other ships of Amphibious Forces, Sixth Fleet begin assistance to earthquake victims in Al Asnam, Algeria.
2000 - Terrorists in a boat make suicide attack on USS Cole (DDG-67) while the ship refuels in the port of Aden, Yemen. Seventeen Sailors are killed.

October 13

1775 - Birthday of U.S. Navy. The Continental Congress establishes Continental Navy, later the U.S. Navy.
1954 - USS Saipan begins relief and humanitarian aid to Haitians who were victims of Hurricane Hazel. The operation ended 19 October.

October 14

1918 - Naval Aviators of Marine Day Squadron 9 make first raid-in-force for the Northern Bombing Group in World War I when they bombed German railroad at Thielt Rivy, Belgium.

October 15

1917 - USS Cassin (DD-43) torpedoed by German submarine U-61 off coast of Ireland. In trying to save the ship, Gunner's Mate Osmond Kelly Ingram becomes first American sailor killed in World War I and later is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism. He becomes the first enlisted man to have a ship named for him, in 1919.
1948 - First women officers on active duty sworn in as commissioned officers in regular Navy under Women's Service Integration Act of June 1948 by Secretary of the Navy John L. Sullivan: CAPT Joy B. Hancock, USN; LCDR Winifred R. Quick, USN; LCDR Anne King, USN; LCDR Frances L. Willoughby, MC, USN; LT Ellen Ford, SC, USN; LT Doris Cranmore, MSC, USN; LTJG Doris A. Defenderfer, USN; and LTJG Betty Rae Tennant, USN.
1957 - USS Lake Champlain reaches Valencia, Spain to assist in flood rescue work.
1960 - USS Patrick Henry (SSBN-599) begins successful firing of four Polaris test vehicles under operational rather than test conditions. Tests are completed on 18 October.
1965 - U.S. Naval Support Activity Danang Vietnam, established.

October 16

1885 - CAPT Alfred Thayer Mahan, USN, becomes Superintendent of the Naval War College
1891 - Baltimore Incident, Valparaiso, Chile.
1940 - 5th group of 10 destroyers from the Destroyers for Bases Deal turned over to British at Halifax, Canada.
1942 - Carrier aircraft from USS Hornet (CV-8) conduct attacks on Japanese troops on Guadalcanal.
1943 - Navy accepts its first helicopter, a Sikorsky YR-4B (HNS-1) at Bridgeport, Connecticut.

October 17

1922 - LCDR Virgil C. Griffin in Vought VE-7SF makes first takeoff from U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, USS Langley (CV-1) anchored in York River, Virginia.
1941 - U-568 torpedoes and damages USS Kearny (DD-432) near Iceland, resulting in 11 killed and 22 injured.
1944 - Naval Forces land Army rangers on islands at the entrance to Leyte Gulf in preparation for landings.
1989 - Following San Francisco earthquake, 24 Navy and Military Sealift Command ships rendered assistance.

October 18

1812 - U.S. sloop of war Wasp captures HM brig Frolic.
1859 - U.S. Marines reach Harper's Ferry, VA and assault the arsenal seized by John Brown and his followers.
1867 - USS Ossippee and USS Resaca participate in formal transfer of Alaska to U.S. authority at Sitka and remain to enforce law and order in new territory.
1944 - 3rd Fleet Carrier aircraft attack Japanese ships in harbor and land forces around Manila.
1968 - In Operation Sea Lords, the Navy's three major operating forces in Vietnam (TF 115, 116, and 117) are brought together for the first time to stop Vietcong infiltration deep into South Vietnam's Mekong Delta.

October 19

1843 - CAPT Robert Stockton in Princeton, the first screw propelled naval steamer, challenges British merchant ship Great Western to a race off New York, which Princeton won easily
1915 - Establishment of Submarine Base at New London, Connecticut.
1944 - Secretary of Navy orders African American women accepted into Naval Reserve.
1987 - Destruction of an Iranian oil-drilling platform used for military purposes.

October 20

1824 - U.S. Schooner Porpoise captures four pirate ships off Cuba.
1944 - Seventh Fleet lands over 60,000 Army troops on Leyte, Philippines while Japanese aircraft attack.
1952 - Task Force 77 establishes ECM Hunter/Killer Teams of 2 ECM equipped aircraft and an armed escort of 4 Skyraiders and 4 Corsairs.
1967 - Operation Coronado VII began in Mekong Delta, Vietnam.
1983 - Due to political strife, USS Independence (CV-59 ) ordered to Grenada.

October 21

1797 - Launching of USS Constitution at the Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, Massachusetts. The ship is now the oldest commissioned ship in the U.S. Navy.
1942 - British submarine lands CAPT Jerauld Wright, USN and four Army officers at Cherchel, French North Africa, to meet with a French military delegation to learn the French attitude toward future Allied landings.
1944 - Leyte Landings continue.

October 22

1846 - Miss Lavinia Fanning Watson of Philadelphia christens the sloop-of-war Germantown, the first U.S. Navy ship sponsored by a woman.
1951 - First of seven detonations, Operation Buster-Jangle nuclear test.
1962 - President John F. Kennedy orders surface blockade (quarantine) of Cuba to prevent Soviet offensive weapons from reaching Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

October 23

1944 - Battle of Leyte Gulf, a series of separate battles, begins with attacks on Japanese ships.
1983 - A suicide truck bomber attacks the Marine barracks at Beirut airport, Lebanon killing 241 (220 Marines, 18 Sailors, and 3 soldiers)
1983 - Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada, West Indies) begins.

October 24

1944 - In air-sea battle in the Sibuyan Sea, carrier aircraft attack Japanese Center Force.
1958 - USS Kleinsmith (APD-134) evacuates U.S. nationals from Nicaro, Cuba.
1962 - Atlantic Fleet begins quarantine operations to force Soviet Union to agree to remove ballistic missiles and long range bombers from Cuba.

October 25

1812 - USS United States (CAPT Stephen Decatur) captures HMS Macedonian.
1924 - Airship, USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), completes round trip transcontinental cruise that began on 7 October.
1944 - During Battle of Leyte Gulf in Battle of Surigao Straits, U.S. battleships execute the maneuver of "crossing the tee" of the Japanese forces. In Battle Off Samar, escort carriers, destroyers and destroyer escorts heroically resist attacks of Japanese Center Force. In Battle Off Cape Engano, 3rd Fleet carriers attack Japanese Northern Force sinking several small carriers.
1950 - Chinese Communist Forces launch first offensive in Korea.
1966 - Operation Sea Dragon logistics interdiction began.
1983 - U.S. Marines and U.S. Army troops land on Grenada to evacuate U.S. citizens threatened by the island's unstable political situation.

October 26

1921 - In first successful test, a compressed air, turntable catapult, launches an N-9 seaplane.
1922 - LCDR Godfrey deC. Chevalier makes first landing aboard a carrier (USS Langley) while underway off Cape Henry, Virginia.
1942 - Battle of the Santa Cruz Island. USS Hornet (CV-8) was lost and USS Enterprise (CV-6) was badly damaged during the battle.
1944 - Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with Navy carrier and USAAF aircraft attacks on the retreating Japanese ships. U.S. forces sink many Japanese ships including 4 carriers, 3 battleships, 10 cruisers, and 9 destroyers, for a total of 26 capital ships. Afterwards Japanese fleet ceases to exist as an organized fighting fleet.
1944 - Special Task Air Group One makes last attack in month long demonstration of TDR drone missile against Japanese shipping and islands in the Pacific. Of 46 missiles fired, 29 reached their target areas.
1950 - U.S. Amphibious Force Seventh Fleet lands 1st Marine Division at Wonsan, Korea
1963 - USS Andrew Jackson (SSBN-619) launches first Polaris A-3 missile from a submerged submarine, off Cape Canaveral, Florida.

October 27

1864 - LT William Cushing, USN, sinks Confederate ram Albemarle with a spar torpedo attached to the bow of his launch.
1922 - Navy League of U.S. sponsors first annual celebration of Navy Day to focus public attention on the importance of the U.S. Navy. That date was selected because it was Theodore Roosevelt's birthday.
1943 - First women Marines report for duty on West Coast, Camp Pendleton.
1944 - Fast Carrier Task Forces attack Japanese shipping and installations in Visayas and northern Luzon.
1967 - Operation Coronado VIII begins in Rung Sat Zone.

October 28

1864 - Steamer General Thomas and gunboat Stone River destroy Confederate batteries on Tennessee River near Decatur, Alabama.
1882 - Orders issued for first Naval Attache (LCDR French Chadwick sent to London, England).

October 29

1814 - Launching of Fulton I , first American steam powered warship, at New York City. The ship was designed by Robert Fulton.
1980 - USS Parsons (DDG-33) rescues 110 Vietnamese refugees 330 miles south of Saigon.

October 30

1775 - Congress authorizes four vessels for the defense of the United Colonies.
1799 - William Balch becomes Navy's first commissioned Chaplain.

October 31

1941 - German submarine U-552 sinks USS Reuben James (DD- 245), which was escorting Convoy HX 156, with loss of 115 lives. First U.S. ship lost to enemy action in World War II.
1943 - LT Hugh D. O'Neill of VF(N)-75 destroys a Japanese aircraft during night attack off Vella Lavella in first kill by a radar-equipped night fighter of the Pacific Fleet.
1956 - Navy men land in R4D Skytrain on the ice at the South Pole. RADM George Dufek, CAPT Douglas Cordiner, CAPT William Hawkes, LCDR Conrad Shinn, LT John Swadener, AD2 J. P. Strider and AD2 William Cumbie are the first men to stand on the South Pole since Captain Robert F. Scott in 1912.
1956 - USS Burdo (APD-133) and USS Harlan R. Dickson (DD-708) evacuate 166 persons from Haifa, Israel due to the fighting between Egypt and Israel.
1961 - End of Lighter than Air in U.S. Navy with disestablishment of Fleet Airship Wing One and ZP-1 and ZP-3, the last operating units in LTA branch of Naval Aviation, at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

Dates in American Naval History: November

November 1

1841 - "Mosquito Fleet" commanded by LCDR J. T. McLaughlin, USN, carries 750 Sailors and Marines into the Everglades to fight the Seminole Indians.
1941 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt places Coast Guard under jurisdiction of Department of the Navy for duration of national emergency.
1967 - Operation Coronado IX began in Mekong Delta
1979 - Beginning of retirement of Polaris A-3 program begins with removal of missiles from USS Abraham Lincoln. Last Polaris missile removed in February 1982.

November 2

1943 - In Battle in Empress Augusta Bay, U.S. cruisers and destroyers turn back Japanese forces trying to attack transports off Bougainville, Solomons.
1968 - Operation Search Turn began in Mekong Delta.

November 3

1853 - USS Constitution seizes suspected slaver H. N. Gambrill.
1931 - Dirigible USS Los Angeles makes 10 hour flight out of NAS Lakehurst, NJ, carrying 207 persons, establishing a new record for the number of passengers carried into the air by a single craft.
1943 - Battleship Oklahoma, sunk at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, is refloated.
1956 - USS Cambria (APA-36) removes 24 members of United Nations Truce Commission team from the Gaza Strip.
1956 - USS Chilton (APA-38), USS Thuban (AKA-19), and USS Fort Snelling (LSD-30) evacuate more than 1,500 U.S. and foreign nationals from Egypt and Israel because of the fighting.
1961 - After Hurricane Hattie, helicopters from USS Antietam begin relief operations at British Honduras providing medical personnel, medical supplies, general supplies, and water.

November 4

1967 - Landing craft from USS Navarro (APA-215) rescue 43 men from British SS Habib Marikar aground on a reef at Lincoln Island in the Tonkin Gulf.
1971 - USS Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636) launches a Poseidon C-3 missile in first surface launch of Poseidon missile.

November 5

1775 - Commodore Esek Hopkins appointed to Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy.
1915 - In AB-2 flying boat, LCDR Henry C. Mustin makes first underway catapult launch from a ship, USS North Carolina, at Pensacola Bay, FL.
1917 - German submarine torpedoes USS Alcedo off French coast.
1923 - Tests designed to prove the feasibility of launching a small seaplane from a submarine occur at Hampton Roads Naval Base. A Martin MS-1, stored disassembled in a tank on board USS S-1, was removed and assembled. Then the submarine submerged allowing the plane to float free and take off.
1944 - TF 38 (Vice Admiral John S. McCain) begins 2 days of carrier strikes on Luzon, Philippines.
1945 - Ensign Jake C. West (VF-41) makes first jet landing on board a carrier, USS Wake Island (CVE-65) .

November 6

1851 - U.S. Navy expedition under command of LT William Lewis Herndon, on a mission to explore the valley of the Amazon and its tributaries, reaches Iquitos in the jungle region of the upper Amazon after their departure from Lima, Peru.
1941 - On Neutrality Patrol, USS Omaha (CL-4) and USS Somers (DD-381) intercept the German blockade runner Odenwald disguised as U.S. freighter, board her after the German crew abandoned the ship, and brought the ship to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the boarding party was awarded salvage shares.
1942 - First officer and enlisted women from training schools report for shore duty around the USA.
1951 - Soviet aircraft shoot at Neptune Patrol bomber (VP-6) on weather reconnaissance mission near Siberia. U.S. aircraft fails to return.
1967 - Helicopter from USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) rescues 37-man crew of Liberian freighter Royal Fortunes aground on reef in Tonkin Gulf

November 7

1861 - Naval forces under Rear Admiral Samuel F. DuPont capture Port Royal Sound, SC.
1881 - Naval Advisory Board submits report recommending the new ships in U.S. Navy be constructed of steel instead of iron.
1973 - War Powers Resolution becomes law.

November 8

1861 - CAPT Charles Wilkes seizes two Confederate diplomats from the British steamer Trent, causing an international controversy with Great Britain (known as the Trent Affair).
1942 - Operation Torch (Allied landings in French Northwest Africa). American forces land at Casablanca. French naval forces attack U.S. Navy ships and 13 French ships are sunk without a loss to the U.S.
1956 - Navy Stratolab balloon (LCDRs Malcolm D. Ross and M. Lee Lewis) better world height record soaring to 76,000 feet over Black Hills, SD, on flight to gather meteorological, cosmic ray, and other scientific data.
1975 - Over 100 Sailors and Marines from USS Inchon (LPH-12) and USS Bagley (DE-1069) fight a fire aboard a Spanish merchant vessel at Palma.

November 9

1921 - USS Olympia arrives at the Washington Navy Yard from France carrying the body of the Unknown Soldier for internment at Arlington National Cemetery.
1950 - Task Force 77 makes first attack on the Yalu River bridges. In first engagement between MIG-15 and F9F jets (USS Philippine Sea), LCDR William T. Amen (VF-111) shoots down a MIG and becomes first Navy pilot to shoot down a jet aircraft.
1956 - Secretary of the Navy proposes the Polaris missile program to the Secretary of Defense.

November 10

1775 - Congress votes to raise two battalions of Continental Marines, establishing the Marine Corps.
1941 - U.S. escorted convoy WS 12, carrying 20,000 British troops to Singapore, sails from Halifax

November 11

1870 - Navy expedition to explore the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, southern Mexico, commanded by CAPT Robert W. Shufeldt, enters the Coatzacoalcos River to begin a survey for possible interoceanic canal. Support provided by USS Kansas and USS Mayflower.
1918 - Armistice ends World War I.
1920 - Lenah S. Higbee becomes the first woman to be awarded the Navy Cross. It was awarded for her World War I service.
1921 - Washington Naval Conference begins.
1943 - Two Carrier Task Forces strike Japanese shipping at Rabaul, sinking one carrier and damaging other ships. Raid was first use of SB2C Curtiss Helldivers in combat.
1954 - November 11 designated as Veterans Day to honor veterans of all U.S. wars
1966 - Launch of Gemini 12, with CDR James A. Lovell, Jr., USN the command Pilot. Mission lasted 3 days, 22 hours and 34 minutes and included 59 orbits at an altitude of 162.7 nautical miles. Recovery by HS-11 helicopter from USS Wasp (CVS-18).
1981 - Commissioning of first Trident-class Nuclear Powered Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine, USS Ohio (SSBN-726).

November 12

1912 - LT Theodore Ellyson makes first successful launching of an airplane (A-3) by catapult at the Washington Navy Yard.
1940 - CNO Admiral Stark submits memorandum to Secretary of the Navy on 4 plans if U.S. enters war. He favors the fourth one, Plan Dog, calling for strong offensive in the Atlantic and defense in the Pacific.
1942 - First day of the three days of fighting in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.
1943 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt embarks on USS Iowa (BB-61) to go to the Allied conferences at Teheran, Iran, and Cairo, Egypt.

November 13

1776 - Captain John Paul Jones in Alfred with brig Providence captures British transport Mellish, carrying winter uniforms later used by Washington's troops.
1942 - Loss of USS Juneau (CL-52) during Battle of Guadalcanal results in loss of Five Sullivan Brothers.
1943 - Fifth Fleet carriers begin long range night bombing attacks on Japanese positions in Gilberts and Marshalls in preparation for landings.
1957 - First firing of Regulus II bombardment missile.

November 14

1846 - Naval forces capture Tampico, Mexico.
1910 - Civilian Eugene Ely pilots first aircraft to take-off from a ship, USS Birmingham (CL-2) at Hampton Roads, VA. He lands safely on Willoughby Spit, Norfolk, VA.
1941 - Order to withdraw Marines at Shanghai, Peiping, and Tientsin, China.
1944 - Carrier aircraft attack Japanese shipping in Philippines sinking five ships and damaging one.

November 15

1882 - LCDR French Chadwick reports to American Legation in London as first Naval Attache.
1942 - Although U.S. lost several ships in Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, Naval Force under Rear Admiral Willlis Lee, USS Washington (BB-56), turns back Japanese transports trying to reinforce Guadalcanal. The Japanese never again try to send large naval forces to Guadalcanal.
1960 - First Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine, USS George Washington (SSBN-598), leaves Charleston, SC, on initial fleet ballistic missile patrol.

November 16

1776 - First salute to an American flag (Grand Union flag) flying from Continental Navy ship Andrew Doria, by Dutch fort at St. Eustatius, West Indies.
1856 - Barrier Forts reduction began at Canton China.
1942 - Navy's first Night Fighter squadron (VMF(N)-531) established at Cherry Point, NC.
1963 - President John F. Kennedy on USS Observation Island witnesses launch of Polaris A-2 missile by USS Andrew Jackson (SSBN-619).
1968 - Operation Tran Hung Dao began in Mekong Delta.
1973 - Launch of Skylab 4 under command of LTC Gerald P. Carr, USMC. The missions lasted 84 days and included 1,214 Earth orbits. Recovery by USS New Orleans (LPH-11).

November 17

1917 - USS Fanning (DD-37) and USS Nicholson (DD-52) sink first enemy submarine, U-58, off Milford Haven, Wales.
1924 - USS Langley, first aircraft carrier, reports for duty.
1941 - Congress amends Neutrality Act to allow U.S. merchant ships to be armed. Navy's Bureau of Navigation directs Navy personnel with Armed Guard training to be assigned for further training before going to Armed Guard Centers for assignment to merchant ships.
1955 - Navy sets up Special Projects Office under Rear Admiral William F. Raborn, USN, to develop a solid propellant ballistic missile for use in submarines.

November 18

1890 - USS Maine, first American battleship, is launched.
1922 - CDR Kenneth Whiting in a PT seaplane, makes first catapult launching from aircraft carrier, USS Langley, at anchor in the York River.
1962 - USS Currituck (AV-7) rescues 13 Japanese fishermen from their disabled fishing boat Seiyu Maru, which was damaged in Typhoon Karen.

November 19

1813- Capt. David Porter claims Marquesas Islands for the United States.
1943 - Carrier force attacks bases on Tarawa and Makin begun.
1943 - USS Nautilus (SS-168) enters Tarawa lagoon in first submarine photograph reconnaissance mission.
1961 - At the request of President of Dominican Republic, U.S. Naval Task Force sails to Dominican Republic to bolster the country's government and to prevent a coup.
1969 - Navy astronauts CDR Charles Conrad Jr. and CDR Alan L. Bean are 3rd and 4th men to walk on the moon. They were part of Apollo 12 mission. CDR Richard F. Gordon, Jr., the Command Module Pilot, remained in lunar orbit. During the mission lasting 19 days, 4 hours, and 36 minutes, the astronauts recovered 243 lbs of lunar material. Recovery by HS-4 helicopters from USS Hornet (CVS-12).

November 20

1856 - CDR Andrew H. Foote lands at Canton, China, with 287 Sailors and Marines to stop attacks by Chinese on U.S. military and civilians.
1917 - USS Kanawha, Noma and Wakiva sink German sub off France.
1933 - Navy crew (LCDR Thomas G. W. Settle, USN, and MAJ Chester I. Fordney, USMC) sets a world altitude record in balloon (62,237 ft.) in flight into stratosphere.
1943 - Operation Galvanic, under command of Vice Admiral Raymond Spruance, lands Navy, Marine, and Army forces on Tarawa and Makin.
1962 - President John F. Kennedy lifts the Blockade of Cuba.

November 21

1918 - U.S. battleships witness surrender of German High Seas fleet at Rosyth, Firth of Forth, Scotland, to U.S. and British fleets.

November 22

1914 - Title Director of Naval Aeronautics established.

November 23

1940 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints Admiral William D. Leahy as U.S. Ambassador to Vichy France to try to prevent the French fleet and naval bases from falling into German hands.

November 24

1852 - Commodore Matthew Perry sails from Norfolk, VA, to negotiate a treaty with Japan for friendship and commerce.
1964 - USS Princeton (LPH-5) completes 7-days of humanitarian relief to South Vietnam which suffered damage from typhoon and floods.
1969 - HS-4 from USS Hornet (CVS-12) recovers Apollo 12's all-Navy crew of astronauts, Commanders Richard Gordon, Charles Conrad, and Alan Bean, after moon landing by Conrad and Bean.

November 25

1775 - Continental Congress authorizes privateering.
1943 - In Battle of Cape St. George, 5 destroyers of Destroyer Squadron 23 (Captain Arleigh Burke) intercept 5 Japanese destroyers and sink 3 and damage one without suffering any damage.
1961 - Commissioning of USS Enterprise (CVA(N)-65), the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, at Newport News, VA.

November 26

1847 - LT William Lynch in Supply sails from New York to Haifa for an expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea. His group charted the Jordan River from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea and compiled reports of the flora and fauna of the area.
1940 - Sixth and last group of ships involved in Destroyers-for-Bases Agreement transferred to British at Nova Scotia.

November 27

1941 - Chief of Naval Operations sends "war warning" to commanders of Pacific and Asiatic Fleets.
1961 - Navy reports first use of its cyclotron at Harvard University to treat a human brain tumor. After three treatments, the tumor of the 2-year old patient shrank by eighty percent.

November 28

1775 - Congress adopts first rules for regulation of the "Navy of the United Colonies."
1941 - USS Enterprise (CV-6) sails from Pearl Harbor for Wake Island to ferry Marine aircraft to island.
1942 - Ensigns George W. Carlson and Mac A. Cason, SC, USNR organize rescue parties to help rescue people from the fire at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, MA . They are credited "the cause of saving more lives than any other single agency."

November 29

1775 - CAPT John Manley in schooner Lee captures British ordnance ship Nancy with large quantity of munitions.
1890 - First Army-Navy football game (Navy won 24 to 0).
1929 - CDR Richard Byrd makes first flight over South Pole.
1944 - USS Archerfish (SS-311) sinks Japanese carrier Shinano, world's largest warship sunk by any submarine during World War II .

November 30

1942 - In Battle of Tassafaronga, last major naval action in Solomons, U.S. force prevents Japanese attempt to reprovision the Japanese troops on Guadalcanal. Six U.S. ships are damaged in the action.

Dates in American Naval History: December
December 1

1842 - Execution of three crewmembers of USS Somers for mutiny; Midshipman Philip Spencer, Boatswain Samuel Cromwell and Seaman Elisha Small.
1921 - In first flight of airship filled with helium, Blimp C-7 piloted by LCDR Ralph F. Wood left Norfolk, VA, for Washington, DC.
1959 - Bureau of Ordnance (BUORD) merges with Bureau of Aeronautics (BUAER) to form the Bureau of Naval Weapons (BUWEPS).

December 2

1775 - Congress orders first officers commissions printed.
1908 - Rear Admiral William S. Cowles submits report, prepared by LT George C. Sweet, recommending purchase of aircraft suitable for operating from naval ships on scouting and observation mission to Secretary of the Navy.
1941 - First Naval Armed Guard detachment (7 men under a coxswain) of World War II reports to Liberty ship, SS Dunboyne,
1944 - Two-day destroyer Battle of Ormoc Bay begins.
1965 - USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) and USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25) become first nuclear-powered task unit used in combat operations with launch of air strikes near Bien Hoa, Vietnam

December 3

1775 - LT John Paul Jones raises the Grand Union flag on Alfred. First American flag raised over American naval vessel.
1940 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt embarks on USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37) to inspect bases acquired from Great Britain under Destroyer-for Bases agreement.
1983 - Two F-14s flying over Lebanon were fired upon.

December 4

1918 - President Woodrow Wilson sails in USS George Washington for Paris Peace Conference.
1943 - Aircraft from USS Lexington (CV-16) and USS Independence (CVL-22) attack Kwajalein Atoll, sinking four Japanese ships and damaging five others, while only three U.S. ships suffered damage.
1944 - USS Flasher (SS-249) sinks Japanese destroyer Kishinami and damages a merchant ship in South China Sea. Flasher is only U.S. submarine to sink over 100,000 tons of enemy shipping in World War II.
1965 - Launch of Gemini 7 piloted by CDR James A. Lovell, USN. This flight consisted of 206 orbits at an altitude of 327 km and lasted 13 days and 18 hours. Recovery by HS-11 helicopters from USS Wasp (CVS-18)
1983 - Aircraft from USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) and USS Independence (CV-62) launch strike against anti-aircraft positions in Lebanon that fired on U.S. aircraft. Two U.S. Navy planes shot down.

December 5

1843 - Launching of USS Michigan at Erie, Penn., America's first iron-hulled warship, as well as first prefabricated ship.
1941 - USS Lexington (CV-2) sails with Task Force 12 to ferry Marine aircraft to Midway, leaving no carriers at Pearl Harbor.

December 6

1830 - Naval Observatory, the first U.S. national observatory, established at Washington, DC, under commander of Lieutenant Louis Malesherbes.
1901 - First report of Ship Model Basin at Washington Navy Yard issued by Naval Constructor David W. Taylor who designed the basin. First facility of this type in U.S. to test hull shapes.
1917 - German submarine torpedoes sink USS Jacob Jones (DD-61) off England.
1968 - Operation Giant Slingshot began in Mekong Delta

December 7

1917 - Four U.S. battleships arrive at Scapa Flow taking on the role of the British Grand Fleet's Sixth Battle Squadron. Include USS Delaware (BB-28), USS Florida (BB-30), New York (BB-34), and USS Wyoming (BB-32).
1941 - Japanese carrier aircraft attack U.S. Pacific Fleet based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
1944 - Seventh Fleet forces land Army troops on shore of Ormoc Bay. Kamikazes attack Task Force, damaging several U.S. Navy ships.

December 8

1933 - Secretary of the Navy establishes Fleet Marine Force, integrating a ready-to-deploy Marine force with own aircraft into Fleet organization.
1941 - US declares war on Japan.
1941 - USS Wake (PR-3), a river gunboat moored at Shanghai, is only U.S. vessel to surrender during World War II.
1942 - Eight PT boats (PT 36, PT 37, PT 40, PT 43, PT 44, PT 48, PT 59, and PT 109) turn back 8 Japanese destroyers attempting to reinforce Japanese forces on Guadalcanal.

December 9

1938 - Prototype shipboard radar, designed and built by the Naval Research Laboratory, is installed on USS New York (BB-34).
1941 - USS Swordfish (SS-193) makes initial U.S. submarine attack on Japanese ship.
1952 - Strike by aircraft from Task Force 77 destroys munitions factory and rail facilities near Rashin, North Korea

December 10

1941 - Guam surrenders to Japanese.
1941 - Aircraft from USS Enterprise attack and sink Japanese Submarine I-70 north of Hawaiian Islands. A participant in the Pearl Harbor Attack, I-70 is the first Japanese combatant ship sunk during World War II.
1941 - PBY piloted by LT Utter of VP-101 shoots down Japanese ZERO in first Navy air-to-air kill during World War II.
1950 - Evacuation operations at Wonson, North Korea, completed.
1979 - First Poseidon submarine configured with Trident missiles, USS Francis Scott Key (SSBN-657) completes initial deterrent patrol.
1982 - USS Ohio (SSBN-726), first Trident-Class submarine, returns from first deterrent patrol.

December 11

1941 - Contract establishes the Naval Salvage Service.
1941 - Wake Island Garrison under Commander Winfield Cunningham repulses Japanese invasion force.
1954 - First supercarrier of 59,630 tons, USS Forrestal (CVA-59), launched at Newport News, VA.

December 12

1862 - Confederate torpedo (mine) sinks USS Cairo in Yazoo River.
1937 - Japanese aircraft sink USS Panay in Yangtze River near Nanking, China.
1941 - Naval Air Transport Service is established.
1951 - First flight of helicopter with gas-turbine engine at Windsor Locks, CT, demonstrates adaptability of this engine to helicopters.
1972- Captain Eugene A. Cernan, USN, commander of Apollo 17, walks on the Moon. Commander Ronald E. Evans, USN, was the Command Module Pilot. The mission lasted 12 days, 13 hours and 52 minutes. Recovery by HC-1 helicopters from USS Ticonderoga (CVS-14).

December 13

1775 - Continental Congress provides for the construction of 5 ships of 32 guns, 5 ships of 28 guns, and 3 ships of 24 guns
1941 - Commander William A. Sullivan designated the first Supervisor of Salvage with office in New York City.

December 14

1814 - British squadron captures U.S. gunboats in Battle of Lake Borgne, LA.
1944 - Rank of Fleet Admiral, U.S. Navy (five star admiral) is established.
1945 - Captain Sue S. Dauser receives the first Distinguished Service Medal awarded to a nurse.
1965 - Navy announces completion of 1,272 ft. radio tower at North West Cape, Australia, highest manmade structure in the Southern Hemisphere at that time, as a link in fleet communications.

December 15

1943 - Bureau of Naval Personnel Circular Letter on non-discrimination in Navy V-12 program.
1944 - Congress appoints first three of four Fleet Admirals.
1965 - Launch of Gemini 6 with Captain Walter M. Schirra, Jr., USN, as Command Pilot. The mission included 16 orbits in 25 hours and 51 minutes. Recovery was by HS-11 helicopters from USS Wasp (CVS-18)
1988 - End of Earnest Will convoy operations to escort reflagged tankers in the Persian Gulf.

December 16

1821 - LT Robert F. Stockton and Dr. Eli Ayers, a naval surgeon and member of American Colonizing Society, induce a local African king to sell territory for a colony which became the Republic of Liberia.
1907 - Great White Fleet departs Hampton Roads, VA to circumnavigate the world.
1922 - USS Bainbridge (DD-246) rescues 482 persons from burning French transport Vinh-Long.
1941 - USS Swordfish (SS-193) sinks Japanese cargo ship Atsutasan Maru.
1942 - Pharmacist's Mate First Class Harry B. Roby, USNR, performs an appendectomy on Torpedoman First Class W. R. Jones on board USS Grayback (SS-208). It is the second appendectomy performed on board a submarine.
1998 - In Operation Desert Fox, Navy cruise missiles attack Iraq.

December 17

1846 - Ships under Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry capture Laguna de Terminos during Mexican War.
1941 - Admiral Chester W. Nimitz named Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet, to relieve Admiral Husband Kimmel. Admiral William Pye becomes acting commander until Nimitz's arrival.

December 18

1902 - Admiral of the Navy George Dewey receives orders to send his battleship to Trinidad and then to Venezuela to make sure that Great Britain's and Germany's dispute with Venezuela was settled by peaceful arbitration not force.
1944 - Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet encounters typhoon northeast of Samar. Destroyers USS Hull, USS Monaghan and USS Spence sink, while 21 other ships are damaged.
1965 - River Patrol Force established in Vietnam.
1965 - Helicopters from HS-11 on USS Wasp (CVS-18) pick up crew and capsule of Gemini 7, after picking up the crew and capsule of Gemini 6 two days earlier.
1967 - Operation Preakness II begins in Mekong Delta.
1972 - Mining and bombing of North Vietnam resumes with Linebacker II Operation.

December 19

1870 - After a month at sea in a 22-foot boat, Coxswain William Halford, the lone survivor of 5, reaches Hawaii to seek help for crew of USS Saginaw, wrecked near Midway Island. Rescuers reach the 88 Saginaw survivors on 4 January 1871.

December 20

1822 - Congress authorizes the 14-ship West Indies Squadron to suppress piracy in the Caribbean.
1941 - Admiral Ernest J. King designated Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet in charge of all operating naval fleets and coastal frontier forces, reporting directly to the President.
1964 - USS Richard E. Kraus (DD-849) completes a successful emergency mission in aiding the disabled American Merchant Ship, SS Oceanic Spray in the Red Sea.
1974 - Clearance of Suez Canal for mines and unexploded ordnance completed by Joint Task Force.
1989 - Operation Just Cause begins in Panama.
1998 - Operation Desert Fox in Iraq ends.

December 21

1861 - Congress authorizes the Medal of Honor, the Nation's highest award, for Naval personnel.
1943 - USS Grayling (SS-208) sinks fourth Japanese ship since 18 December.
1951 - First helicopter landing aboard a hospital ship, USS Consolation.
1968 - Launch of Apollo 8 with Captain James A. Lovell, Jr. as Command Module Pilot. During the mission Lovell was one of the first two people to see the far side of the moon. The mission lasted 6 days and 3 hours, and included 10 moon orbits. Recovery was by HS-4 helicopters from USS Yorktown (CVS-10).

December 22

1775 - Congress commissions first naval officers: Esek Hopkins, Commander in Chief of the Fleet, Captains Dudley Saltonstall, Abraham Whipple, Nicolas Biddle, and John Hopkins. Lieutenants included John Paul Jones.
1841 - Commissioning of USS Mississippi, first U.S. ocean-going side-wheel steam warship, at Philadelphia.
1942 - Pharmacist's Mate First Class Thomas A. Moore performs appendectomy on Fireman Second Class George M. Platter on board USS Silversides (SS-236).
1942 - Sue Dauser takes oath of office as Superintendant of Navy Nurse Corps, becoming first woman with the relative rank of captain in U.S. Navy. She was promoted to the rank of captain on 26 February 1944.
1944 - Commissioning of first 2 African-American WAVES officers, Harriet Ida Pickens and Frances F. Wills.
1960 - HS-3 and HU-2 (USS Valley Forge) helicopters rescue 27 men from oiler SS Pine Ridge breaking up in heavy seas off Cape Hatteras.

December 23

1826 - Captain Thomas ap Catesby Jones of USS Peacock and King Kamehameha negotiate first treaty between Hawaii and a foreign power.
1910 - LT Theodore G. Ellyson becomes first naval officer sent to flight training.
1941 - Gallant defenders of Wake Island (Sailors, Marines, volunteer civilian contractors, and Army Air Force radio detachment) surrender.

December 24

1814 - Treaty of Ghent ends the War of 1812.
1864 - Naval Forces under Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter with Army forces under Major General Benjamin F. Butler begin unsuccessful two-day attack against Fort Fisher, NC.
1950 - Under cover of naval gunfire support, Task Force 90 completes a 14-day evacuation of 100,000 troops and equipment and 91,000 refugees from Hungnam, North Korea.

December 25

1941 - Admiral Chester W. Nimitz arrives at Pearl Harbor to assume command of U.S. Pacific Fleet.

December 26

1862 - Four nuns who were volunteer nurses on board Red Rover were the first female nurses on a U.S. Navy hospital ship.
1943 - Seventh Amphibious Force lands 1st Marine Division on Cape Gloucester, New Britain.

December 27

1777 - Floating mines intended for use against British Fleet found in Delaware River.
1814 - Destruction of schooner Carolina, the last of Commodore Daniel Patterson's make-shift fleet that fought a series of delaying actions that contributed to Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans. After loss of craft, the naval guns were mounted on shore to continue the fight.

December 28

1867 - U.S. claims Midway Island, first territory annexed outside Continental limits.
1905 - Drydock Dewey left Solomon's Island, MD, enroute through the Suez Canal to the Philippines to serve as repair base. This, the longest towing job ever accomplished, was completed by Brutus, Caesar, and Glacier on 10 July 1906.
1941 - Chief of Bureau of Yards and Docks requests that construction battalions be recruited.
1982 - Recommissioning of USS New Jersey (BB-62), the first of four Iowa-class battleships that were returned to service in 1980s.
1990 - LCDR Darlene M. Iskra becomes commander of USS Opportune, a salvage vessel.
1990 - USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) and USS America (CV-66) Carrier Battle Groups deploy from Norfolk, VA, for Middle East to join Operation Desert Shield.

December 29

1798 - First annual report by Secretary of the Navy, sent by Benjamin Stoddert.
1812 - USS Constitution (Captain William Bainbridge) captures HMS Java off Brazil after a three hour battle.
1943 - USS Silversides (SS-236) sinks three Japanese ships and damages a fourth off Palau.

December 30

1941 - Admiral Ernest J. King assumes duty as Commander in Chief, United States Fleet.
1959 - Commissioning of first fleet ballistic missile submarine, USS George Washington (SSB(N)-598), at Groton, CT.

December 31

1862 - USS Monitor founders in a storm off Cape Hatteras, NC.
1941 - Admiral Chester W. Nimitz assumes command of U.S. Pacific Fleet.
1942 - Commissioning of USS Essex (CV-9), first of new class of aircraft carriers, at Norfolk, VA
1948 - Last annual report by a Secretary of the Navy to Congress and the President filed by SECNAV John L. Sullivan. Thereafter the Secretary of Defense would report annually to Congress.

[82Rigger]

April 24, 1778 - Continental Navy sloop Ranger captures HMS Drake

I think Boats was aboard the Ranger.