This Day In United States Naval History

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This Day In United States Naval History - April 18th

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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 - U.S. Navy assists in relief operations during the San Francisco earthquake and fire. Sailors and Marines fight fires and ships carry the homeless and injured to Vallejo, where medical personnel established emergency facilities.

1942 - The Doolittle Raid begins with 16 Army Air Force B-25 bombers launching earlier than expected from USS Hornet (CV 8), approximately 650 miles off Japan, after being spotted by enemy ships. It is the first attack by the U.S. of the Japanese mainland since Pearl Harbor. Most of the 16 B-25s, each with a five-man crew, attack the Tokyo area, with a few hitting Nagoya. Embarrassed, the Japanese revise plans and six weeks later attack the American carrier group near Midway sooner than expected.

1943 - U.S. Army Air Force P-38s off Bougainville, using signals intelligence, shoot down plane carrying Imperial Japanese Navy Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander in Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet.

1945 - USS Heerman (DD 532), USS McCord (DD 534), USS Mertz (DD 691), and USS Collett (DD 730), with assistance from destroyer USS Uhlmann (DD 687) and TBM Avenger aircraft (VT 47) from USS Bataan (CVL 29), sink the Japanese submarine I 56, 150 miles east of Okinawa.

1958 - Lt. Cmdr. G.C. Watkins flying a Grumman F11F-1F Tiger at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for the second time in three days sets a world altitude record of 76,938 feet.

1988 - During Operation Praying Mantis, Navy ships and Navy and Marine aircraft strike Iranian oil platforms, sink the Iranian frigate Sahand and smaller boats, and damage the frigate Sabalan in retaliation for when USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) hit an Iranian mine four days earlier.

2009 - USS Stockdale (DDG 106) is commissioned at Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme, Calif. The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer is named after Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale.

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This Day In United States Naval History - April 19th

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1917 - The U.S. Naval Armed Guard crew on board SS Mongolia engages and damages a German U-boat, the first engagement against the enemy after declaration of war on April 6.

1920 - The first German submarine brought to the United States after World War I arrives at New York. During World War I, U 111 sank three Allied merchant vessels that included the British steamer Boscastle on April 7, 1918. The submarine surrendered later that year.

1945 - USS Buckley (DE 51) and USS Reuben James (DE 153) sink the German submarine U-879 southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1955 - USS Albany (CA 123) and USS William Wood (DD 715) begin providing disaster relief to citizens of Volos, Greece, following a catastrophic earthquake.

1960 - The Grumman A2F-1 Intruder makes its first flight. The Intruder receives the designation of A-6A in 1962, and upon entering service in 1963, becomes the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps principle all weather/night attack aircraft.

1997 - USS The Sullivans (DDG 68) is commissioned at Staten Island, N.Y. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer is the second Navy ship named after the five Sullivan brothers who died when USS Juneau (CL 52) was sunk shortly after the Battle of Guadalcanal Nov. 13, 1942.

2017 - The Cyclone-class patrol coastal ship USS Zephyr (PC 8), its embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) personnel and coalition forces pursue and board a small fishing vessel, called a panga, and interdict 750 kilograms of cocaine with a total street value of $22.5 million.

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This Day In United States Naval History - April 20th

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1861 - Union forces burn screw frigate Merrimack and Gosport Shipyard, Portsmouth, Va., to prevent Yard facilities and ships from falling into Confederate hands during the Civil War.

1914 - The first call-to-action of naval aviators is given, creating an aviation detachment of three pilots, 12 enlisted men, and three aircraft to join the Atlantic Fleet forces operating off Tampico during the Mexican crisis.

1942 - USS Wasp (CV 7) launches 47 British aircraft to reinforce Malta, repeating the exercise May 9.

1944 - USS Seahorse (SS 304) torpedoes and sinks Japanese submarine RO 45 off the Mariana Islands.

1947 - Navy Capt. L.O. Fox, backed by 80 Marines, accepts surrender of Japanese Lt. Ei 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 (BB 62) shells Wonsan, Korea, from inside the harbor during the Korean War.

1964 - USS Henry Clay (SSBN 625) launches a Polaris A-2 missile in the first demonstration to show that Polaris submarines could launch missiles from the surface as well as from beneath the ocean.

2007 - USS Saipan (LHA 2) is decommissioned at Norfolk, Va., after serving the Navy for 30 years, including operations Urgent Fury, Sharp Edge, Desert Storm, Deny Flight, and Iraqi Freedom.

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This Day In United States Naval History - April 21st

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1861 - Sloop-of-War Saratoga, commanded by Alfred Taylor, captures Nightingale, a clipper slaver, at the mouth of the Congo River at Cabinda, Angola, with 961 slaves on board.

1898 - President William McKinley orders the Navy to begin a blockade of Cuba and Spain, the beginning of the Spanish-American War. Congress responds with a formal declaration of war April 25, made retroactive to the start of the blockade.

1914 - President Woodrow Wilson orders intervention at Vera Cruz, Mexico, after the Tampico Affair where Sailors from USS Dolphin were detained. The U.S. Atlantic Fleet, under the command of Rear Adm. Frank F. Fletcher, land the first Marines and Sailors from USS Florida and USS Utah and engage in battle.

1944 - Task Force 58 begins the bombing of Japanese airfields and defensive positions at Hollandia, Wakde, Sawar, and Sarmi, New Guinea, in preparation for the U.S. Army landing operations Persecution and Reckless.

1972 - Navy Capt. John W. Young, commander of Apollo 16, is the ninth man to walk on the moon. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Thomas K. Mattingly II is the command module pilot for the 11-day, 1-hour and 51-minute mission where 213 pounds of lunar material is collected.

1990 - USNS John Ericcson (T-AO 194) is launched at Chester, Penn. The Henry J. Kaiser-class replenishment oiler is named for John Ericcson who designed USS Monitor.

2001 - USS Lassen (DDG 82) is commissioned at Tampa, Fla., prior to sailing for her homeport in San Diego as part of Destroyer Squadron 23. The Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer is named after Lt. Clyde Everett Lassen, a Medal of Honor recipient for rescuing two downed aviators while he was the commander of a search and rescue helicopter in Vietnam.

2018 - The amphibious transport dock USS Portland (LPD 27) was commissioned during a ceremony April 21, at the Port of Portland, Marine Terminal 2 in Portland, Oregon. USS Portland (LPD 27) is the second ship to honor Oregon's largest city and is the third U.S. Navy ship to bear the name Portland.

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This Day In United States Naval History - April 22nd

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1778 - During the American Revolution, two boats of volunteers from the sloop-of-war Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones, go ashore at Whitehaven, England, burning ships in the harbor and spiking the guns of the fort.

1898 - Rear Adm. William T. Sampson leaves Key West, Fla., with the North Atlantic Squadron to begin the blockade of the northern Cuban ports, the beginning of the Spanish-American War.

1945 - USS Carter (DE 112) and USS Neal A. Scott (DE 769) sink German submarine U 518 west by south of the Azores.

1945 - USS Hardhead (SS 365) sinks Japanese cargo vessel Mankei Maru off Chimpson and USS Cero (SS 225)sinks the Japanese guardboat Aji Maru west of Tori Jima and damaged the guardboat No.9 Takamiya Maru.

1989 - USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44) is commissioned at Avondale Shipyard, New Orleans, La. Gunston Hall is homeported at Joint Expeditionary Base, Little Creek-Fort Story, Va.

2004 - Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, who had been grievously wounded April 14 by an insurgents grenade in Iraq, dies at Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md. Cpl. Dunham is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the first for a Marine since the Vietnam War.

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This Day In United States Naval History - April 23rd

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1915 - Lt. Patrick N. L. Bellinger, in the Burgess-Dunne AH-10 seaplane, establishes a United States altitude record for seaplanes by ascending to 10,000 feet over Pensacola, Fla.

1918 - USS Stewart (DD 13) races to the spot where two seaplanes are dropping bombs on a submarine. Stewart drops two depth charges and the explosions bring oil to the surface and the sub is declared a kill at the time, but it survives to surrender at the end of World War I.

1943 - USS Seawolf (SS-197) sinks Japanese Patrol Boat #39 off east central coast of Formosa, while the enemy warship is screening the towing of the wrecked Nisshin Maru.

1945 - Navy Patrol Bomber PB4Y Liberators (VPB 109) employ Bat missiles against Japanese shipping off Balikpapan, Borneo in the first combat use of the only automatic homing missile to be used in World War II.

1945 - USS Besugo (SS 321) sinks the German submarine U 183 in the Java Sea.

1953 - After five UN personnel are wounded on the island of Tee-do, Korea, USS Henderson (DD 785) is sent to suppress gunfire and USS Owen (DD 536) evacuates the wounded to USS Manchester (CL 83).

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This Day In United States Naval History - April 24th

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1778 - During the American Revolution, the Continental Navy sloop-of-war Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones, captures the British sloop HMS Drake after an hours battle off Carrickfergus, Ireland.

1805 - During the First Barbary War, the frigate Congress, commanded by John Rodgers, captures a Tripolitan gunboat, along with two prizes taken earlier by pirate ships off Tripoli.

1884 - USS Bear leaves New York Naval Shipyard on its way to the Arctic as part of the Greely Relief Expedition. USS Thetis and USS Alert join USS Bear on the mission. On June 22, the relief ships rescue the remaining seven members of the 27-man Greely Expedition at Cape Sabine.

1906 - Reburial Commemoration Ceremony for Capt. John Paul Jones is held at the Naval Academy. At the ceremony, President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a speech in honor of the legendary Revolutionary War naval captain.

1945 - USS Frederick C. Davis (DE 136) is sunk by German submarine U 546, 570 miles east of Cape Race, Newfoundland. In a combined effort, USS Pillsbury (DE 133), USS Flaherty (DE 135), USS Chatelain (DE 19), USS Neunzer (DE 150), USS Hubbard (DE 211), USS Keith (DE 241), USS Janssen (DE 396) and USS Varian (DE 798) sink U 546.

1946 - CNO Adm. Chester W. Nimitz ordered the formation of a flight exhibition team that would showcase naval aviation. Officially known as the U.S. Naval Flight Demonstration Squadron, they formally adopted the nickname "Blue Angels" in 1949 when the squadron commander designed the Blue Angels insignia which is nearly identical to the one in use today.

1981 - USS San Francisco (SSN 711) is commissioned at Norfolk Naval Station, Va. A Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered submarine, she is homeported in San Diego, Calif., after leaving her first homeport of Pearl Harbor in 2009.

1999 - USS Higgins (DDG 76) is commissioned at Port Everglades, Fla. A Flight I Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, she is named after Marine Col. William R. Higgins. He was part of a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon when he was captured in Feb. 1988 by a pro-Iranian group, held hostage and eventually killed in captivity by July 1990. USS Higgins' home port is Naval Base San Diego.

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This Day In United States Naval History - April 25th

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1862 - Union Flag Officer David G. Farraguts fleet sails into New Orleans, La., after long preparation and fierce battles while passing through the Confederate defenses of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip the previous day.

1914 - In the first use of U.S. Navy aircraft in a combat situation, Lt. j.g. P.N.L. Bellinger made a flight from USS Mississippis aviation unit at Vera Cruz, Mexico, to observe the city and make preliminary search for mines in the harbor.

1944 - USS Crevalle (SS 291) sinks Japanese army cargo ship Kashiwa Maru, north of Borneo and USS Guvania (SS 362) sinks Japanese army cargo ship Tetsuyo Maru, northwest of Chichi Jima.

1957 - USS Forrestal (CVA 59) and USS Lake Champlain (CVS 39), with accompanying destroyers, enter the Eastern Mediterranean to support King Hussein of Jordans government from a possible coup conspiracy. The planned coup failed.

1959 - USS Eversole (DD 789) rescues 14 Chinese Nationalist fishermen from their sinking fishing trawler in the Formosa Strait.

1998 - The first-in-class Impeccable (T-AGOS 23), an ocean surveillance ship designed to gather acoustic data, detect and track submarines, is launched from Pascagoula, Miss. The ship is given to Military Sealift Command to be operated by both civilian and military crew members.

1998 - The destroyer USS McFaul (DDG 74) is commissioned at Garden City Terminal in Savannah, Ga., before departing for her homeport of Norfolk, Va. The 24th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer is named after Chief Petty Officer Donald L. McFaul, a Navy SEAL who posthumously received the Navy Cross for attempting to save a platoon mate on Dec. 20, 1989, while serving in Panama during Operation Just Cause.

2009 - Destroyer USS Truxtun (DDG 103) is commissioned at Naval Weapons Station Charleston, S.C., before cruising to her homeport at Naval Station Norfolk, Va.

2009 - Boeings new P8-A Poseidon test jet, a 737-based submarine hunter for the Navy that will replace the P3-C Orion, flies for first flight from Renton, Va., to Boeing Field, Seattle, Wash.

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This Day In United States Naval History - April 26th

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1860 - The screw steamship Mohawk captures the slaver Wildfire with 530 slaves on board in the Bahama Channel, taking them to a camp in Key West guarded by Mohawks Marines until returned home.

1869 - As a post-Civil War push for re-enlistments, the Good Conduct Medal, then called Good Conduct Badge, is authorized by Secretary of the Navy Adolphus E. Borie.

1918 - USS Stewart (DD 13) collides with an unidentified steamer near Brest, France. Just days earlier, Stewart crew members attacked a German submarine and saved the SS Florence H crew when she exploded internally.

1944 - USS Frost (DE 144), USS Huse (DE 145), USS Barber (DE 161) and USS Snowden (DE 246) sink the German submarine U 488 northwest of the Canary Islands.

1952 - While steaming at night in formation 700 miles west of the Azores, USS Hobson (DD 464) and USS Wasp (CV 18) collide as Hobson crossed the carriers bow from starboard to port and was struck amidships, breaking her in two. Hobson and 176 of her crew are lost, including her commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. W. J. Tierney.

1960 - USS George Washington (SSN 598) conducts a Polaris missile test firing in Long Island Sound in the Atlantic Ocean.

2002 - The Watson-class vehicle cargo ship USNS Soderman (T AKR 317) is launched at National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., San Diego, Calif.

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This Day In United States Naval History - April 27th

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1805 - With naval bombardment from USS Nautilus, USS Hornet, and USS Argus, Lt. Presley OBannon leads his Marines to attack Derne, Tripoli, and raises the first U.S. flag over foreign soil. The Battle of Derna was the Marines' first battle on foreign soil, and is notably recalled in the first verse of the Marines Hymn.

1813 - A U.S. naval squadron under the command of Commodore Isaac Chauncey supports an attack on York (now Toronto), Canada, of nearly 1,800 troops under Gen. Zebulon Pike during the War of 1812.

1944 - USS Bluegill (SS 242) torpedoes the Japanese light cruiser Yubari west of Sonsorol Island, while USS Halibut (SS 232) sinks Japanese minelayer off Okinawa.

1952 - During the Korean War, USS Samuel N. Moore (DD 747) conducts counter-battery fire against enemy shore batteries off Kosong, Korea. The enemy guns are silenced. Also on this date, USS Waxbill (AMS) is damaged by enemy shore battery off Wonsan, Korea.

1963 - USS Daniel Webster (SSBN 626) is launched at Groton, Conn. Commissioned a year later, she serves until decommissioned in August 1990.

2019 - The Navy christened its newest Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer, the future USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002), during a ceremony at General Dynamics-Bath Iron Works shipyard in Bath, Maine. In addition, the Navy christened the future USNS Guam (T-HST 1), its newest high-speed transport vessel, at a ceremony in Okinawa, Japan.

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This Day In United States Naval History - April 28th

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1907 - A U.S. Marine Corps detachment from the patrol gunboat Paducah serves ashore at Laguna, Honduras, to protect Americans during a war between Honduras and Nicaragua.

1942 - The U.S. Navys Task Force 99, which consists of USS Wasp, USS Tuscaloosa and USS Wichita, plus four destroyers, sail from the Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, as part of the mixed U.S.-British force Distaff, to provide cover for Russian convoy at Iceland.

1944 - German torpedo boats attack U.S. Navy LST convoy in Lyme Bay during Operation Tiger training for the Normandy Invasion. USS LST 507 and USS LST 531 are sunk at Portland Bill, England, and USS LST 289 is damaged, with 198 Sailors dead or missing and 551 Army dead or missing from later reports.

1944 - Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox dies. He expanded the Navy into a force capable of fighting in both the Atlantic and the Pacific during the early years of World War II.

1945 - USS Sennet (SS 408) sinks the Japanese cable layer Hatsushima off Kii Strait, south southeast of Miki Saki; USS Springer (SS 414) sinks the Japanese submarine chaser CH 17 west of Kyushu as she is escorting landing ship T.146, and USS Trepang (SS 412) sinks T.146 off Ose Saki, Japan.

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This Day In United States Naval History - April 29th

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1814 - American sloop USS Peacock and HMS Epervier engage in battle. Peacock takes two 32-pound shots in her fore-yard with the first exchange, but her return broadside smashes most of Eperviers rigging and guns. After 45 minutes, Epervier is captured. The battle is hailed as a tribute of American gunnery as Epervier has 45 shot holes in her port side.

1944 - Task Force 58 begins a two-day attack on Japanese shipping, oil and ammunition dumps, aircraft facilities, and other installations at Truk following the support of the Hollandia landings in the Pacific.

1944 - USS Pogy (SS 266) sinks the Japanese submarine I 183, 30 miles south of Ashizuri Saki, Japan.

1945 - USS Comfort (AH-6) is hit by a kamikaze plane off Okinawa, which kills 28 persons (including six nurses), wounds 48 others, and causes considerable damage.

1945 - USS Bream (SS 243) sinks the German minesweeper depot ship Quito off Tanjong Putting, Borneo, N.E.I.

1961 - USS Kitty Hawk (CVA 63), an oil-fired aircraft carriers, is commissioned at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. She is homeported at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

1975 - Commander Task Force 76 receives the order to execute Operation Frequent Wind (initially Talon Vise), the evacuation of U.S. personnel and Vietnamese who might suffer as a result of their past service to the allied effort.

2009 - A destroyer formerly known as USS Conolly (DD 979) is sunk during the UNITAS Gold sinking exercise in the Atlantic Ocean.

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This Day In United States Naval History - April 30th

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1798 - Congress establishes the Department of the Navy as a separate cabinet department. Previously, naval matters were under the cognizance of the War Department. Benjamin Stoddert is named as the first Secretary of the Navy.

1822 - USS Alligator, commanded by Lt. W.W. McKean, captures the Colombian pirate schooner Ciehqua near the Windward Islands.

1945 - USS Thomas (DE 102), USS Bostwick (DE 103), USS Coffman (DE 191) and frigate Natchez (PF 2) sink German submarine U 548 off the Virginia Capes.

1945 - Navy patrol bombers PB4Y (VPB 103) and a PBY-5A Catalina aircraft flown by Lt. Fredrick G. Lake from VP 63 sink two German submarines off the coast of Brest, France.

2005 - USS Robert G. Bradley (FFG 49) conducts its second significant drug interdiction operation in the first month of its deployment to the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command area of responsibility, disrupting the smuggling of 4.6 metric tons of narcotics from the fishing vessel Salomon.

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This Day In United States Naval History - May 1st

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1811 - The American brig Spitfire is stopped by the British frigate Guerriere off Sandy Hook, N.Y., and the American seamen are taken aboard. On May 6, the frigate President, commanded by John Rodgers, was ordered to protect American shipping off Sandy Hook.

1822 - 60 men from USS Alligator, USS Grampus, and the chartered ship Jane, capture four pirate schooners near Sugar Key, West Indies.

1898 - The American squadron, commanded by Commodore George Dewey, defeats the Spanish squadron under the command of Rear Adm. Montojo at Manila Bay, Philippines.

1934 - Lt. Frank Akers makes a hooded landing in an OJ-2 at College Park, Maryland, in the first blind landing system intended for an aircraft carrier.

1943 - USS Pogy (SS 266), in attack on a Japanese convoy, torpedoes and sinks the Japanese gunboat Keishin Maru off Iwaki, Japan.

1945 - Patrol bomber aircraft from VPB 11 and FAW-1 sink Japanese cargo vessel Kyugkoku Maru off Mokpo, Korea.

1951 - During the Korean War, AD-4 Skyraiders from Squadron VA-195, USS Princeton (CV-37), attack Hwachon Dam using aerial torpedoes, the only use of these weapons during the Korean War.

2011 - President Barack Obama announces Navy SEALs raided Osama bin Ladens compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed America's most wanted terrorist during Operation Neptune Spear.

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This Day In United States Naval History - May 2nd

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1863 - During the Civil War, the steam screw sloop Sacramento, commanded by Captain Charles S. Boggs, seizes the British blockade-runner Wanderer off Murrells Inlet, N.C.

1896 - A landing party of 15 Marines and 19 Seaman from USS Alert arrive at Corinto, Nicaragua, to protect American lives and property during a period of political unrest.

1942 - USS Drum (SS 228) sinks Japanese seaplane carrier, and USS Trout (SS 202) sinks a Japanese freighter off the southeast coast of Honshu.

1945 - USS Springer (SS 414) torpedoes and sinks the Japanese frigate in the Yellow Sea and then sinks a Japanese coastal defense ship the next day.

1945 - Hospital Apprentice Robert E. Bush administers aid to a wounded Marine officer and fires back at the Japanese at the same time, earning the Medal of Honor.

1992 - USS Anzio (CG 68) is commissioned at her homeport of Norfolk, Va. The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser is named for the Italian allied amphibious assault in May 1944 during World War II.

2018 - Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer announced the Navy's newest San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship will be named in honor of Navy veteran and Medal of Honor recipient, Capt. Richard M. McCool Jr.