Dates in American Naval History: June
June 1
1813 - HMS Shannon captures USS Chesapeake, Capt. James Lawrence. As the mortally wounded Captain Lawrence was carried below, he ordered "Tell the men to fire faster! Don't give up the ship!" These words would live on in naval history. Oliver Hazard Perry honored his dead friend Lawrence when he had the motto sewn onto the private battle flag flown during the Battle of Lake Erie, 10 September 1813.
1871 - RADM Rodgers lands in Korea with a party of Sailors and Marines and captures 5 forts to secure protection for U.S. citizens after Americans were fired upon and murdered.
1914 - General Order 99 prohibits alcohol on board naval vessels, or at navy yards or stations
1915 - First contract for lighter-than-air craft for Navy
1939 - Director of the Naval Research Laboratory, Captain Hollis M. Cooley, proposes research in atomic energy for future use in nuclear powered submarine
1944 - ZP-14 Airships complete first crossing of Atlantic by non-rigid lighter-than-air aircraft
1954 - First test of steam catapult from USS Hancock
June 2
1941 - First aircraft escort vessel, USS Long Island (ACG-1), commissioned, then reclassified as an auxiliary aircraft carrier (AVC-1) on 20 August and finally reclassified as an escort carrier (CVE-1) in July 1943.
June 3
1785 - Order to sell last ship remaining in Continental Navy, frigate Alliance . No other Navy were ships authorized until 1794.
1898 - Collier Merrimac sunk in channel leading to Santiago, Cuba in unsuccessful attempt to trap Spanish fleet. The crew was captured and later received the Medal of Honor.
1949 - Wesley A. Brown becomes the first African-American to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy.
1966 - Launch of Gemini 9, piloted by LCDR Eugene A. Cernan, USN. The mission included 45 orbits over 3 days. Recovery was by USS Wasp (CVS-18).
June 4
1934 - USS Ranger, first ship designed from the keel up as a carrier, is commissioned at Norfolk, VA
1942 - Battle of Midway (4-6 June) begins; during battle, the 4 Japanese carriers which attacked Pearl Harbor are sunk; this decisive U.S. victory is a turning point in the Pacific war
1944 - Hunter-killer group USS Guadalcanal captures German submarine, U-505
June 5
1794 - First officers of the U.S. Navy under the Constitution are appointed. The first 6 captains appointed to superintend the construction of new ships were John Barry, Samuel Nicholson, Silas Talbot, Joshua Barney, Richard Dale, and Thomas Truxtun
1917 - First military unit sent to France, First Naval Aeronautical Detachment, reaches France on board USS Jupiter
1945 - Typhoon off Okinawa damages many U.S. Navy ships
June 6
1944 - In Operation Overlord, Allied invasion fleet (over 2700 ships and craft) land troops on Normandy beaches, the largest amphibious landing in history
June 7
1819- LT John White on merchant ship Franklin, anchored off Vung Tau is first U.S. naval officer to visit Vietnam
1917 - U.S. subchasers arrive at Corfu for anti-submarine patrols
1942 - Battle of Midway ends with loss of USS Yorktown
1944 - Construction of artificial harbors and sheltered anchorages begins off Normandy coast
1991 - Joint Task Force Sea Angel ends relief operations in Bangladesh after Cyclone Marian
June 8
1830 - Sloop-of-war Vincennes becomes first U.S. warship to circle the globe
1853 - Commodore Matthew Perry arrives at Uraga, Japan to begin negotiations for a treaty with Japan
1880 - Congress authorizes the Office of Judge Advocate General
1937 - Observation of total eclipse of the sun by U.S. Navy detachment commanded by CAPT J. F. Hellweg, USN, participating in the National Geographic Society - United States Navy Eclipse Expedition at Canton Island in the Phoenix Islands, Pacific Ocean. USS Avocet was assigned to this expediton.
1958 - Navy and Post Office deliver first official missile mail when USS Barbero (SS-317) fired Regulus II missile with 3000 letters 100 miles east of Jacksonville, FL to Mayport, FL.
1960 - Helicopters from USS Yorktown (CVS-10) rescue 54 crewmen of British SS Shunlee, grounded on Pratus Reef in South China Sea.
1962 - Medical team from Naval Hospital, Bethesda, MD; Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, MD; and Naval Preventative Medicine Unit No. 2 Norfolk, VA sent to San Pedro Sula, Honduras to fight epidemic of infectious gastroenteritis.
1967 - USS Liberty (AGTR-5) attacked by Israeli forces in Mediterranean.
June 9
1882 - Establishment of Office of Naval Records
of the War of the Rebellion (became part of Naval Historical Center)
1942 - First Navy photograhic interpretation unit set up in the Atlanic.
1959 - Launching of USS George Washington (SSBN-598), first nuclear
powered fleet ballistic missile submarine, at Groton, CT
June 10
1854 - U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD, holds first formal graduation exercises. Previous classes graduated without ceremony.
1896 - Authorization of first experimental ship model tank
June 11
1853 - Five Navy ships leave Norfolk, VA on 3 year exploring expedition to survey the far Pacific
1927 - USS Memphis arrives at Washington, DC, with Charles Lindbergh and his plane, Spirit of St. Louis, after his non-stop flight across the Atlantic
1944 - U.S. battleships off Normandy provide gunfire support.
1953 - Navy ships evacuate 20,000 Koreans from West Coast Islands to safety south of 17th parallel
June 12
1944 - Four U.S. Carrier Groups (15 carriers) begin attack on Japanese positions in the Marianas.
1948 - The Women's Armed Forces Integration Act provides for enlistment and appointment of women in the Naval Reserve.
1970 - After earthquake in Peru, USS Guam begins 11 days of relief flights to transport medical teams and supplies, as well as rescue victims.
1990 - CDR Rosemary Mariner becomes first Navy woman to command fleet jet aircraft squadron.
June 13
1881 - USS Jeannette crushed in Arctic ice pack
1967 - Operation Great Bend in Rung Sat Zone, Vietnam
June 14
1777 - John Paul Jones takes command of Ranger
1777 - Continental Congress adopts design of present U.S. Flag
1847 - Commodore Matthew Perry launches amphibious river operations by Sailors and Marines on Tabasco River, Mexico
1940 - Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Naval Expansion Act to construct ships to increase Navy's tonnage by 11 %
1985 - Steelworker Second Class Robert D. Stethem, USN of Underwater Construction Team ONE was killed by terrorist hijackers of TWA Flight 847. He later received a Bronze Star for his heroism.
June 15
1944 - Fifth Fleet lands Marines on Saipan, under the cover of naval gunfire, in conquest of Marianas
1963 - Launching of combat store ship, Mars (AFS-1), first of new class of underway replenishment ships
1991 - 2 battle groups and amphibious ships evacuate dependents and Air Force personnel from Clark Air Force Base after Mount Pinatubo erupts in Philippines
June 16
1898 - U.S. squadron bombards Santiago, Cuba
1965 - Navy Department schedules reactivation of hospital ship Repose (AH-16), first hospital ship activated for Vietnam Conflict
June 17
1833 - USS Delaware enters drydock at Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, VA, the first warship to enter a public drydock in the United States
1870 - USS Mohican burns Mexican pirate ship Forward
1898 - Navy Hospital Corps established
1940 - Chief of Naval Operations asks Congress for money to build two-ocean Navy
June 18
1812 - U.S. declares war on Great Britain for impressment of Sailors and interference with commerce
1942 - First African-American officer, Bernard W. Robinson, commissioned in Naval Reserve
1957 - CNO approves ship characteristics of the Fleet Ballistic Missile sumbarine
June 19
1864 - USS Kearsarge sinks Confederate raider Alabama off France
1944 - Battle of the Philippine Sea begins ("The Marianas Turkey Shoot")
1948 - Chief of Naval Operations assigns 3 destroyers to U.N. mediator for the Palestine truce.
June 20
1813 - Fifteen U.S. gunboats engage 3 British ships in Hampton Roads, VA
1815 - Trials of Fulton I, built by Robert Fulton, are completed in New York. This ship would become the Navy's first steam-driven warship.
1898 - U.S. forces occupied Guam, which became first colony of U.S. in the Pacific.
1913 - First fatal accident in Naval Aviation, ENS W. D. Billingsley killed at Annapolis, MD
1934 - Commander in Chief, Asiatic Fleet Admiral Frank Upham reports to CNO that based on analyses of Japanese radio traffic, "any attack by (Japan) would be made without previous declaration of war or intentional warning."
1944 - Battle of Philippine Sea ends with Japanese losing 2 aircraft carriers and hundreds of aircraft.
June 21
1898 - USS Charleston captures island of Guam from Spain
1945 - Okinawa declared secure after most costly naval campaign in history. U.S. had 30 ships sunk and 223 damaged, mostly from kamikaze attacks, with 5000 dead and 5000 wounded, while the Japanese lost 100,000 dead
June 22
1807 - HMS Leopard attacks USS Chesapeake
1865 - Confederate raider Shenandoah fires last shot of Civil War in Bering Strait
1884 - Navy relief expedition under CDR Winfield S. Schley rescues LT A.W. Greely, USA, and 6 others from Ellesmere Island, where they were marooned for 3 years on Arctic island.
1898 - ADM Sampson begins amphibious landing near Santiago, Cuba
June 23
1933 - Commissioning of USS Macon, Navy's last dirigible
1961 - Navy's first major low frequency radio station commissioned at Cutler, ME
1972 - Navy helicopter squadron aids flood-stricken residents in Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, and Pittstown area of PA
June 24
1833 - USS Constitution enters drydock at Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, MA, for overhaul. The ship was saved from scrapping after public support rallied to save the ship following publication of Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem, "Old Ironsides."
1926 - Office of Assistant SecNav set up to foster naval aeronautics; aircraft building increased
1948 - Berlin airlift initiated to offset the Soviet Union's blockade access of U.S., France, and Great Britain to their sectors of Berlin.
June 25
1917 - Navy convoy of troopships carrying American Expeditionary Forces arrives in France
1950 - North Korea invades South Korea beginning Korean Conflict
June 26
1884 - Congress authorizes commissioning of Naval Academy graduates as ensigns
1918 - Marine brigade captures Belleau Wood
1959 - Twenty-eight Naval vessels sail from Atlantic to Great Lakes, marking the formal opening of Saint Lawrence Seaway to seagoing ships.
1962 - NAVFAC Cape Hatteras makes first Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) detection of a Soviet diesel submarine.
1973 - Navy Task Force 78 completes minesweeping of North Vietnamese ports.
June 27
1813 - USS President anchors in Bergen, Norway
1950 - To support U.N. call to assist South Korea, Truman authorizes U.S. naval and air operations south of 38th Parallel, Korea
June 28
1794 - Joshua Humphreys appointed master builder to build Navy ships at an annual salary of $2,000.
1814 - USS Wasp captures HMS Reindeer
1865 - CSS Shenandoah captures 11 American whalers in one day
1970 - USS James Madison (SSBN-627) completes conversion to Poseidon missile capability
June 29
1925 - Ships and men from 11th and 12th Naval Districts assist in relief after earthquake at Santa Barbara , CA
1950 - Truman authorizes sea blockade of the Korean coast
1950 - USS Juneau fires first naval shore bombardment of Korean Conflict
June 30
1815 - USS Peacock takes HMS Nautilus, last action of the War of 1812
1943 - Third Fleet Amphibious Force lands troops on Rendova Island while naval gunfire silences Japanese artillery
1951 - Naval Administration of Marianas ends
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