From the Navy News Service:

 

• 1941 - The U.S. fleet is reorganized, reviving the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets.
• 1942 - USS Enterprise (CV 6) and USS Yorktown (CV 5) make the first World War II air strike on the Japanese in the Marshall Islands.
• 1955 - Operation Deep Freeze, a research task force, is established in Antarctica.
• 2003 - Space shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry on mission STS-107. Cmdr. William C. McCool (Pilot), Capt. David M. Brown (Mission Specialist) and Cmdr. Laurel B. Clark (Mission Specialist) were killed in the incident, along with four other astronauts.

 

For more information about naval history, visit the Naval Historical Center Web site at www.history.navy.mil.