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…
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…
1936-Ice breaking by the Coast Guard was authorized by Executive Order No. 7521.1960- The tanker Pine Ridge, with 37 crewmen on board, reported it was breaking in two about 120 miles off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Immediately, the Coast…
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 -…
1897-The Overland Expedition, consisting of three officers from the Revenue Cutter Service, departed from the cutter Bear off Nunivak Island to rescue 300 whalers trapped in the ice at Point Barrow, Alaska. The rescuers were First Lieutenant D…
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…
1831-Secretary of Treasury John McLane ordered Revenue cutters to conduct 'winter cruises.' The USRC Gallatin became the first cutter 'directly authorized by the government to assist mariners in distress.'1960- A United Airlines DC-8 with…
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…
1835-The superintendent of the lighthouse system wrote to Winslow Lewis, 'I perceive by a Mobile paper which I received this morning that the Mobile Point light has been fitted by you as a revolving light' similar to the nearby Pensacola lighthouse…
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…
1846-Revenue Captain Alexander Fraser protested in a report to Congress against 'unjust imputations' made against the Service for its involvement in the failure of the first steam cutters. He also requested the authority to employ medical aid…
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…
1881-Six men landed from a boat on Race Point, Cape Cod, and were soon after found, wet, chilled through, and much exhausted, by the patrolman from Station No. 6, Second District. He learned that they were the captain and crew of the Canadian schooner J…
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.(Source: Navy News Service)
1905-'To evaluate its use in lighthouse work, radio equipment was installed experimentally on Nantucket Lightship in August of 1901. On December 10, 1905, while riding out a severe gale, Lightship No. 58 on the Nantucket Shoals Station sprang a serious leak…
