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…
1904-An Executive Order extended the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service to the noncontiguous territory of the Midway Islands.1941-Coast Guardsmen seized all nine Finnish vessels that were currently in U.S. ports and placed them in 'protective…
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…
1793-The first Revenue Cutter Service court martial occurred on this date aboard the cutter Massachusetts. The offender, Third Mate Sylvanus Coleman of Nantucket, was summarily dismissed from the service for 'speaking disrespectfully of his superior officers in public company…
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…
1989: The cutter Mesquite ran aground near Keweenaw Point in Lake Superior. She was deemed damaged beyond repair and was sunk as an artificial reef. There was no loss of life.(Source: USCG Historian’s Office)
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…
1852-Georgia grounded in a gale off Bonds, New Jersey with 290 persons on board. The life car was used to save them and all survived.1883-The schooner Pallas with a crew of three men encountered strong head winds and heavy seas off Cape Cod…
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…
1883-The schooner Champion with a crew of two men stranded on Dick’s Flat, Plymouth Harbor, near Duxbury Pier lighthouse, at about 6 am. The shoal where she struck was about three miles west-southwest of the Gurnet Point Station (Second District)…
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…
1844-Captain Alexander Fraser of Revenue Marine Bureau reported to Congress on the failure of the service's first steam cutters Spencer and Legare.1944-Office of Air-Sea Rescue set up in the Coast Guard. The Secretary of the Navy at the…
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…
1837-Two early complainants on the efficiency of the American lighthouses, E. and G.W. Blunt, publishers of Blunt’s 'Coast Pilot,' submitted a statement to the Secretary of the Treasury. They argued that 'the whole lighthouse system needs revision…
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.(Source: Navy News Service)
