This Day in Naval History - May

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This Day in Naval History - May 01
1898 - Battle of Manila Bay, Adm Dewey defeats Spanish at Manila, Philippines
1934 - LT Akers demonstrates blind landing system at College Park, MD in OJ-2 aircraft
1945 - VADM Barbey lands Australian troops on Tarakan Island, Borneo, supported by naval gunfire
1951 - USS Princeton aircraft attack Hwachon Dam using aerial torpedoes, only use of this weapon in Korean War
1980 - 11 Navy ships begin operations assisting Coast Guard in rescuing Cuban refugees fleeing Cuba in overcrowded boats

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This Day in Naval History - May 02
1975 - US Navy departs Vietnamese waters at end of evacuation.

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This Day in Naval History - May 03
1861 - USS Surprise captures Confederate privateer Savannah.
1898 - Marines land at Cavite, Philippines, and raise U.S. flag.
1949 - First Navy firing of a high altitude Viking rocket at White Sands, NM.

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This Day in Naval History - May 04


1917 - First Navy ships, Destroyer Division 8, arrive at Queenstown, Ireland, to provide convoy escorts against German U-boats.
1942 - Battle of Coral Sea, first carrier vs. carrier battle, begins.
1945 - Japanese attempt to land on Okinawa repulsed; kamikaze attacks damage 6 U.S. Navy ships.
1961 - Cdmr. Malcolm D. Ross, USNR, and medical observer Lt Cmdr. Victor A. Prather, Jr., ascended in two hours to over 110,00 feet in Strato-Lab 5, a 411-foot hydrogen filled balloon launched from from the deck of USS Antietam. This was the highest altitude attained by man in an open gondola. Tragically, Prather drowned during the recovery.
1994 - Operation Restore Hope begins in Somalia.

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This Day in Naval History - May 05

1944 - USS Comfort is commissioned in San Pedro, CA; first ship to be manned jointly by Army and Navy personnel.
1948 - VF-17A becomes first carrier qualified jet squadron.
1961 - CDR Alan Shepard Jr. makes first U.S. manned space flight. Flight of Freedom 7 (Mercury 3) which lasted 15 minutes and 28 seconds reached the altitude of 116.5 statute miles with a velocity of 5,134 mph.
1980 - USS Robert E. Peary (FF 1073) rescues 440 Vietnamese refugees from disabled craft south of Thailand.

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This Day in Naval History - May 07

1779 - Continental Navy sloop Providence captures British brig Diligent off Cape Charles.
1934 - USS Constitution completes tour of principal U.S. ports
1940 - FDR orders Pacific Fleet to remain in Hawaiian waters indefinitely.
1942 - Carrier aircraft sink Japanese carrier Shoho during Battle of Coral Sea.

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This Day in Naval History - May 08
1911 - Navy ordered its first airplane, Curtiss A-1, Birthday of Naval Aviation.
1942 - Battle of the Coral Sea ends with Japanese retiring from area.
1945 - VE - Day, Germany's unconditional surrender to the Allies.
1963 - Navy ships evacuate 2,279 civilians from Haiti during crisis.
1972 - U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aircraft mine Haiphong Harbor in North Vietnam

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This Day in Naval History - May 09
1926 - LCDR Richard Byrd and Chief Machinist Mate Floyd Bennett make first flight over North Pole; both receive the Medal of Honor.
1942 - USS Wasp in Mediterranean launches 47 Spitfire aircraft to help defend Malta.

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This Day in Naval History - May 10

1775 - Force under Ethan Allan and Benedict Arnold cross Lake Champlain and capture British fort at Ticonderoga, New York.
1800 - USS Constitution captures Letter of Marque Sandwich.
1862 - Confederates destroy Norfolk and Pensacola Navy Yards.
1949 - First shipboard launching of LARK, guided missile by USS Norton Sound.
1960 - USS Triton (SSRN 586) completes submerged circumnavigation of world in 84 days following many of the routes taken by Magellan and cruising 46,000 miles.

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This Day in Naval History - May 11
1862 - CSS Virginia blown up by Confederates to prevent capture.
1898 - Sailors and Marines from USS Marblehead cut trans-oceanic cable near Cienfuegos, Cuba, isolating Cuba from Spain.
1943 - Naval task force lands Army troops on Attu, Aleutians.
1965 - U.S. destroyers deliver first shore bombardment of Vietnam War.

This Day in Naval History - May 12
1780 - Fall of Charleston, SC; three Continental Navy frigates (Boston, Providence, and Ranger) captured; and one American frigate (Queen of France) sunk to prevent capture.
1846 - U.S. declares war against Mexico.
1975 - SS Mayaguez seized by Khmer Rouge and escorted to Koh Tang Island.
1986 - Destroyer USS David R. Ray (DD 971) deters an Iranian Navy attempt to board a U.S. merchant ship.

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This Day in Naval History - May 13
Story Number: NNS020131-14
Release Date: 1/31/2002 10:48:00 AM

By Navy News Service
1908 - Navy Nurse Corps established.
1943 - Bureau of Navigation renamed Bureau of Naval Personnel.
1945 - Aircraft from fast carrier task force begin 2-day attack on Kyushu airfields, Japan.
1964 - Organization and deployment of world's first all nuclear-powered task group, USS Enterprise (CVN 65), USS Long Beach (CGN 9), and USS Bainbridge (CGN 25), to Sixth Fleet.

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This Day in Naval History - May 14
Story Number: NNS020131-15
Release Date: 1/31/2002 10:49:00 AM

By Navy News Service
1801 - Tripoli declares war against the United States.
1836 - U.S. Exploring Expedition authorized to conduct exploration of Pacific Ocean and South Seas, first major
scientific expedition overseas.
1845 - First U.S. warship visits Vietnam.
1975 - Marines recapture Mayaguez, go ashore on Koh Tang Island and release the crew.

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This Day in Naval History - May 15
1800 - CAPT Preble in Essex arrives in Batavia, Java, to escort U.S. merchant ships.
1942 - First Naval Air Transport Service flight across Pacific.
1991 - Amphibious Task Force arrives at Chittagong, Bangladesh, for relief operations after Cyclone Marian.

This Day in Naval History - May 16
1820 - Congress becomes first U.S. warship to visit China.
1919 - Three Navy flying boats begin 1st trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland.
1965 - First U.S. gunfire support in Vietnam by USS Tucker.

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This Day in Naval History - May 17
1940 - FDR announces plans to recommission 35 more destroyers.
1942 - USS Tautog (SS 199) sinks Japanese sub, I-28; while USS Triton (SS 201) sinks I-164.
1951 - Aircraft from carriers attack bridges between Wonsan and Hamhung, Korea.
1962 - Naval amphibious ready group lands Marines to guard Thailand's borders from Communist probes.
1966 - Naval Support Activity Saigon established.
1973 - First woman to hold a major Navy command, Capt. Robin Lindsay Quigley assumes command of Navy Service School, San Diego.
1987 - USS Stark (FFG 31) struck by Iraqi Exocet missile in Persian Gulf, killing 37 Sailors; 21 were wounded.
1990 - USS Roark (FF 1053) rescues 42 refugees from unseaworthy craft in South China Sea.

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This Day in Naval History - May 18
1775 - Benedict Arnold captures British sloop and renames her Enterprise, first of many famous ships with that name.
1798 - Appointment of Benjamin Stoddert as first Secretary of the Navy.
1969 - Launch of Apollo 10, dress rehearsal for first lunar landing mission. Navy Cmdr. John W. Young was the command module pilot and Navy Cmdr. Eugene A. Cernan was the lunar module pilot.

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This Day in Naval History - May 18
1775 - Benedict Arnold captures British sloop and renames her Enterprise, first of many famous ships with that name.
1798 - Appointment of Benjamin Stoddert as first Secretary of the Navy.
1969 - Launch of Apollo 10, dress rehearsal for first lunar landing mission. Navy Cmdr. John W. Young was the command module pilot and Navy Cmdr. Eugene A. Cernan was the lunar module pilot.

This Day in Naval History - May 19
1882 - Commodore Shufeldt (USS Swatara) lands in Korea to negotiate first treaty between Korea and Western power.
1912 - Navy establishes North Atlantic Ice Patrol following RMS Titanic disaster.
1965 - 30th Naval Construction Regiment activated at Danang, Vietnam.

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This Day in Naval History - May 20
1801 - Four warships sent to Mediterranean to protect American commerce.
1815 - Commodore Stephen Decatur (Frigate Guerriere) sails with 10 ships to suppress Mediterranean pirate raids on U.S. shipping.
1844 - USS Constitution sails from New York on 'round-the-world cruise.
1943 - Establishment of 10th Fleet in Washington, D.C., under command of Adm. King, to coordinate U.S. antisubmarine operations in Atlantic.

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This Day in Naval History - May 21
1850 - Washington Navy Yard begins work on first castings for the Dahlgren guns.
1917 - USS Ericsson fires first torpedo of war.
1944 - Accidental explosion on board an LST unloading ammunition in West Loch, Pearl Harbor, and the resulting fire and other explosions sink five LSTs.
1964 - The initiation of the standing carrier presence at Yankee Station in the South China Sea.

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This Day in Naval History - May 23
1850 - Navy sends USS Advance and USS Rescue to attempt rescue of Sir John Franklin's expedition, lost in Arctic.
1939 - USS Squalus (SS 92) sinks off Postsmouth, N.H., with loss of 26 lives.
1962 - Launch of Aurora 7 (Mercury 7), piloted by Lt. Cmdr. Malcolm Scott Carpenter who completed three orbits in four hours, 56 minutes, at an altitude up to 166.8 statute miles at 17,549 mph.
1962 - USS Valcour (AVP 55) provides medical care to a merchant seaman from tanker SS Manhattan in the Persian Gulf.

This Day in Naval History - May 24
1917 - First U.S. convoy to cross North Atlantic during World War I leaves Hampton Roads, Va.
1918 - USS Olympia anchors at Kola Inlet, Murmansk, Russia, to protect refugees during Russian Revolution.
1939 - First and only use of Vice Adm. Allan McCann's Rescue Chamber to rescue 33 men from sunken USS Squalus (SS 192).
1941 - Authorization of construction or acquisition of 550,000 tons of auxiliary shipping for Navy.
1945 - Fast carrier task force aircraft attack airfields in southern Kyushu, Japan.
1945 - Nine U.S. ships damaged by concentrated kamikaze attack off Okinawa.

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This Day in Naval History - May 26
1944 - USS England (DE 635) sinks fifth Japanese submarine in one week.
1952 - Tests from 26-29 May demonstrate feasibility of the angled-deck concept conducted on simulated angled deck on USS Midway.
1990 - USS Beaufort rescues 24 Vietnamese refugees in South China Sea.