1942 – Patrol Wing (VP) 82 aircraft sinks German submarine, U-656. It is the Navy’s first submarine kill of World War II.
1954 – The first of six detonations takes place during Operation Castle nuclear test.
1980 – USS Vulcan (AR 5) completes first six-month deployment with women as part of its crew.
1859 – The first Navy ship built on the West Coast of the United States, Saginaw, is launched at Mare Island, Calif.
1867 – The Navy Civil Engineering Corps is established.
1899 – An act of Congress creates the rank “Admiral of the Navy” for George Dewey.
1973 – Women begin pilot training in the Navy.
1776 – The first amphibious landing operation takes place. A Continental naval squadron, under Commodore Esek Hopkins, lands Sailors and Marines, commanded by Capt. Samuel Nicholas, on New Providence Island in the Bahamas. They capture urgently-needed ordnance and gunpowder.
1871 – The Navy Medical Corps is established.
1883 – Congress authorizes four modern ships of steel, “A, B, C, D Ships”; three cruisers, Atlanta, Boston and Chicago, and dispatch boat Dolphin.
1915 – The Office of Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) is established.
1915 – Congress creates the Federal Naval Reserve. Under it, the Naval Reserve Force is built up.
1960 – USS Sargo (SSN 583) returns to Hawaii from an Arctic cruise of 11,000 miles – 6,003 miles under the polar ice.
1911 – The first Naval Appropriations Act that included funds for naval aviation is approved by Congress.
1925 – Congress authorizes restoration of USS Constitution.
1947 – Operation Highjump, air operations in Antarctica, ends.
1963 – A Navy Hercules aircraft completes a 12-day rescue operation of a critically-ill Danish seaman from a Danish freighter off the coast of Antarctica.
1942 – The name “Seabees” is officially authorized.
1943 – USS Bogue (CVE 9) begins the first anti-submarine operations by an escort carrier.
1960 – USS Newport News (CA 148) and personnel from Port Lyautey complete emergency relief operatons at Agadir, Morocco, after an earthquake Feb. 29.
1822 – USS Enterprise captures four pirate ships in the Gulf of Mexico.
1862 – USS Monitor departs New York for Hampton Roads, Va.
1942 – U.S. cruisers and destroyers bombard Vila and Munda, Solomon Islands, sinking two Japanese destroyers.
1778 – Continental Navy frigate Randolph (32 guns) engages HMS Yarmouth (64). Randolph explodes and sinks with the loss of all but four men.
1958 – Commissioning of USS Grayback (SS 574), first submarine built from keel up with guided-missile capability, to fire Regulus II missile.
1960 – USS Kearsarge (CVS 33) rescues four Russian soldiers from their landing craft 1,000 miles from Midway Island. The Soldiers were drifting several weeks after their engine failed off Kamchatka Peninsula.
1966 – The Department of the Navy is reorganized into its present structure under the Chief of Naval Operations.
1967 – River Patrol Boats assist Operation Overload II in Rung Sat Zone, Vietnam.
1968 – Operation Coronado XII begins in Mekong Delta, Vietnam.
1994 – The Navy issues its first orders to women assigned aboard a combat ship – USS Eisenhower (CVN 69).
1854 – Commodore Matthew Perry opens treaty negotiations with Japan.
1862 – Ironclad ram CSS Virginia destroys USS Cumberland and USS Congress.
1945 – Phyllis Daley, assigned to the Navy Nurse Corps, becomes the first African-American ensign.
1958 – Battleship USS Wisconsin (BB 64) is decommissioned, leaving the Navy without an active battleship for the first time since 1895.
1965 – The 7th Fleet lands the first major Marine Corps units in South Vietnam at Danang.
1798 – The first U.S. Navy surgeon, George Balfour, is appointed.
1847 – Commodore David Connor leads a successful amphibious assault near Vera Cruz, Mexico.
1862 – The first battle between ironclads – USS Monitor and CSS Virginia – takes place.
1783 – USS Alliance, commanded by Capt. John Barry, defeats HMS Sybil in the final naval action of the American Revolution in West Indies waters.
1933 – The Pacific Fleet provides assistance after an earthquake at Long Beach, Calif.
1945 – Navy and civilian nurses interned at Los Banos, Philippines, are flown back to the United States. The Navy nurses are each awarded a Bronze Star.
1948 – First use of jets assigned to operational squadron (VF-5A) aboard a carrier – USS Boxer (CV 21).
1935 – The Naval Security Group is born when OP-20G becomes the Communications Security Group.
1941 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act.
1942 – In a Motor Patrol (PT) boat, Lt. Cmdr. John Bulkeley leaves the Philippines to take Gen. Douglas MacArthur to Australia.
1945 – The first Navy landing craft crosses the Rhine River at Bad Neuenahr.
1965 – Market Time patrols begin off the South Vietnam coast.
1917 – All American merchant ships to be armed in war zones.
1942 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt designates Adm. Ernest J. King to serve as the Chief of Naval Operations, and commander in chief, U.S. Fleet, to which he was appointed Dec. 30, 1941.
1956 – In the first overseas deployment of a Navy missile squadron, Attack Squadron 83 left aboard USS Intrepid (CVS 11).
1895 – The first submarine building contract is awarded to John P. Holland Torpedo Boat Co.
1917 – Armed merchant ships are authorized to take action against U-boats.
1959 – The Naval Research Laboratory takes the first ultraviolet pictures of the sun.
1963 – USS Albany (CG 10) and aircraft from Navy Airborne Early Warning Squadron 4 from Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, aid five ill crew members of Norwegian freighter Jotunfjell.
1863 Rear Adm. Farragut’s squadron of seven ships forces its way up the Mississippi River to support Union troops at Vicksburg, Miss., and Baton Rouge, La.
1929 Naval Air Station Pensacola aircraft make 113 flights for flood rescue and relief.
1970 Navy hospital ship USS Repose (AH 16) leaves South Vietnam after four years of service there.
1865 – In the largest amphibious operation of the war, Union forces capture Fort Fisher, N.C.
1943 – The Numbered fleet system is established.
1957 – Airship ZPG-2 lands at Naval Air Station Key West, Fla., after an 11-day non-stop flight across the Atlantic.
1966 – River Squadron 5 is established in Vietnam.
1911 – The hulk of battleship USS Maine is sunk at sea with full military honors.
1945 – The island of Iwo Jima is declared secure.
1966 – Gemini 8 is launched. Former naval aviator Neil Armstrong flew on this mission, which completed seven orbits in 10 hours, 41 minutes at an altitude of 161.3 nautical miles. Recovery was by USS Leonard F. Mason (DD 852).
1898 – USS Holland, the first practical submarine, is launched.
1942 – U.S. Naval Forces Europe is established to plan joint operations with the British.
1958 – A Navy Vanguard rocket launches a 3.25 pound sphere from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
1959 – USS Skate (SSN 578) surfaces at the North Pole.
1781 – Continental sloop ship Saratoga goes down will all hands in a sudden gale, three days after sailing from Cap Francais, Haiti.
1945 – Carriers begin a three-month Okinawa campaign by destroying aircraft on Kyushu, Japan.
1974 – The Navy is sent to sweep mines from the Suez Canal.
1898 – USS Oregon departs San Francisco for a 14,000-mile trip around South America to join the U.S. Squadron off Cuba.
1917 – The Navy Department authorizes enrollment of women in the Naval Reserve with ratings of yeoman, radio electrician or other essential ratings.
1942 – The Secretary of the Navy gives the Civil Engineering Corps command of the Seabees.
1833 – Capt. David Geisinger of the sloop Peacock negotiates the first commercial treaty with the King of Siam.
1922 – USS Jupiter is recommissioned as Langley (CV 1), the Navy’s first aircraft carrier.
1939 – The Naval Research Lab recommends financing a research program to learn to obtain power from uranium.
1917 – Loretta Walsh becomes the first woman Navy petty officer when she is sworn in as a chief yeoman.
1919 – The Navy installs and tests a Sperry gyrocompass, in the first test of an aircraft gyrocompass.
1945 – The Bureau of Aeronautics initiates rocket-powered surface-to-air guided-missile development by awarding a contract to Fairchild.
1820 – Commodore Stephen Decatur dies after a duel with Capt. James Barron.
1915 – “Naval aviator” replaces “Navy air pilot” for officers qualified as aviators.
1929 – Navy ships protect Americans and their property during a Mexican revolution.
1946 – USS Missouri (BB 63) departs the United States to return the body of a deceased Turkish ambassador to Turkey for burial. Missouri arrived in Istanbul April 5.
1815 – USS Hornet captures HMS Penguin in a battle lasting 22 minutes.
1882 – The Secretary of the Navy, William H. Hunt, issues General Order No. 292, creating the Office of Naval Intelligence.
1917 – USS New Mexico (BB 40) is launched as the first dreadnought with turboelectric drive.
1945 – Carriers begin pre-assault strikes on Okinawa; kamikaze attacks follow.
1958 – Simulated Polaris missile is launched from a submerged tactical launcher facility off California.
1965 – Lt. Cmdr. John W. Young, pilot of Gemini 3, completes three orbits in four hours, 53 minutes, at an altitude of 224 km. Recovery was by helicopters from USS Intrepid (CVS 11).
1783 – At the conclusion of the American Revolution, Congress orders all Continental naval vessels and privateers home.
1903 – George Dewey is commissioned Admiral of the Navy with the date of rank, March 2, 1899. He was the only person to hold this rank.
1918 – The battleship Idaho (BB 41) is commissioned.
1988 – William L. Ball III becomes the 67th secretary of the Navy.
1813 – USS Essex takes the Peruvian corsair ship Nereyda, marking the first capture by the Navy in the Pacific.
1898 – Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt proposes the Navy investigates the military application of Samuel Langley’s flying machine, beginning naval aviation.
1915 – F-4 (SS 23) becomes the first American submarine casualty, sinking off the coast of Honolulu.
1942 – Adm. Ernest King becomes both Chief of Naval Operations and Commander, U.S. Fleet.
1943 – The Battle of Komandorski Islands prevents Japanese reinforcements from reaching Attu.
1966 – Operation Jackstay is the Navy’s first amphibious assault in Vietnam’s inland waters.
1968 – Operation Bold Dragon III begins in the Mekong Delta.
1794 – Congress authorizes the construction of six 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.
1800 – Essex becomes the first U.S. Navy vessel to pass the 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 its expedition to explore the Dead Sea and the River Jordan.
1954 – Carrier aircraft began reconnaissance near Dien Bien Phu, Indochina.
1960 – The first fully-integrated fleet ballistic missile is launched from USS Observation Island (AGM 23).
1973 – Naval Advisory Group and Naval Forces, Vietnam, disestablished, and the last U.S. prisoners of war leave Vietnam.
1975 – The Evacuation of Danang began by sea.
1944 – Torpedo squadrons from carriers are used for the first time to drop aerial mines – Palau Harbor in the South Pacific.
1972 – The Easter Offensive began in Vietnam.
1942 – The Pacific theater is divided into two zones to clarify command relations. Adm. Chester W. Nimitz commands the Pacific Ocean Area and Gen. Douglas MacArthur is over the Southwest Pacific Area.
1854 – Commodore Matthew Perry negotiates the Treaty of Kanagawa, opening trade between the United States and Japan.
1971 – The Poseidon (C-3) missile becomes operational when USS James Madison (SSBN 627) begins her third patrol, carrying 16 tactical Poseidon missiles.
1992 – USS Missouri (BB 63), the last active American battleship, is decommissioned.