This Day in Naval History - April 20

From the Navy News Service

1796 - Congress authorizes the completion of three frigates.

1861 - Norfolk Navy Yard in Virginia is abandoned and burned by Union forces.

1914 - In the first call to action of naval aviators, a detachment on USS Birmingham sailed to Tampico, Mexico.

1915 - The first Navy contract for lighter-than-air craft is awarded.

1942 - USS Wasp (CV 7) launches 47 British aircraft to reinforce Malta.

1947 - Navy Capt. L.O. Fox, supported by 80 Marines, accepted the surrender of Lt. Yamaguchi and 26 Japanese soldiers and sailors, two-and-a-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.

1964 - USS Henry Clay (SSBN 625) launches a Polaris A-2 missile from the surface in the first demonstration that Polaris submarines could launch missiles from the surface as well as from beneath the ocean. Thirty minutes later, the submarine launched another Polaris missile while submerged.

This Day in Naval History - April 06

From the Navy News Service

1776 - Sloop-of-war Ranger, the frigate Queen of France and the frigate Warren capture the British vessel Hibernia and seven other vessels.

1862 - Naval gunfire from the warships Tyler and Lexington help save Union Troops at the Battle of Shiloh.

1909 - Cmdr. Robert E. Peary reports reaching the North Pole.

1917 - The United States declares war on Germany.

1945 - The first heavy kamikaze attack occurs on ships at Okinawa.

1961 - USS Lake Champlain (CVS 39) brings oxygen to aid stricken passenger of British liner Queen of Bermuda.

1968 - USS New Jersey (BB 62) is recommissioned for shore bombardment duty in Vietnam.

1989 - The President orders Department of Defense to assist in the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup.

1993 - Branch Navy Hospital Adak, Alaska, responds to crash of civilian Chinese airliner by providing lifesaving treatment and medical evacuation of 89 injured passengers. Only one passenger out of 265 passengers died.

This Day in Naval History - Dec. 28

By Navy News Service

1867 - U.S. claims Midway Island, first territory annexed outside Continental limits.

1905 - Drydock Dewey left Solomon's Island, MD, enroute through the Suez Canal to the Philippines to serve as repair base. This, the longest towing job ever accomplished, was completed by Brutus, Caesar, and Glacier on 10 July 1906.

1941 - Chief of Bureau of Yards and Docks requests that construction battalions be recruited.

1982 - Recommissioning of USS New Jersey (BB-62), the first of four Iowa-class battleships that were returned to service in 1980s.

1990 - LCDR Darlene M. Iskra becomes commander of USS Opportune, a salvage vessel.

1998 - USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) and USS America (CV-66) Carrier Battle Groups deploy from Norfolk, VA, for Middle East to join Operation Desert Shield.