Page 58: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2006)

58 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

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Circle 287 on Reader Service Card Circle 253 on Reader Service Card

April 1 1893 - Navy General Order 409 of 25 February 1893 establishes the rate of Chief Petty Officer as of this date. 1942 - First Naval Air Transportation Service (NATS) squadron for Pacific operations commissioned 1945 - Over 1200 Navy ships and Army troops begin invasion of Okinawa

April 2 1781 - Frigate Alliance captures 2 British priva- teers, Mars and Minerva 1827 - First Naval Hospital construction begun at

Portsmouth, VA 1951 - First Navy use of jet aircraft as a bomber, launched from a carrier, USS Princeton.

April 3 1797 - CAPT Thomas Truxtun issued first known

American signal book using numerary system 1942 - ADM Nimitz named Commander-in-Chief,

Pacific Ocean Areas, a joint command, and retained his other title, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet

April 4 1776 - Continental Navy frigate Columbus captures

HM Tender Hawke, first American capture of British armed vessel 1898 - Appointment of first Civil Engineering Corps officer, Mordecai Endicott, as Chief, Bureau of

Yards and Docks 1949 - Establishment of NATO

April 6 1776 - Sloop-of-war Ranger, frigate Queen of

France and frigate Warren capture British Hibernia and 7 other vessels 1862 - Naval Gunfire from Tyler and Lexington help save Union Troops at Battle of Shiloh 1909 - Commander Robert E. Peary reports reach- ing the North Pole 1917 - U.S. declares war on Germany 1945 - First heavy kamikaze attack on ships at

Okinawa. 1968 - USS New Jersey recommissioned for shore bombardment duty in Vietnam 1989 - President orders DOD to assist in Exxon

Valdez oil spill cleanup

April 7 1776 - Continental brig Lexington captures British

Edward 1917 - Navy takes control of all wireless radio sta- tions in the U.S. 1945 - Carrier aircraft defeat last Japanese Navy sortie (Battle of East China Sea); Yamato, world's largest battleship, and five other ships sunk 1979 - Launching of first Trident submarine, USS

Ohio (SSBN-726) at Groton, CT

April 8 1925 - First planned night landings on a carrier,

USS Langley, by VF-1

April 9 1941 - Commissioning of USS North Carolina, which carried 9 16-inch guns

April 10 1941 - USS Niblack, while rescuing survivors of tor- pedoed ship, depth charged German submarine; first action of WW II between U.S. and German navies 1963 - During diving tests, USS Thresher lost with all hands (112 crew and 12 civilians) east of Cape

Cod, MA 1966 - River Patrol Boats of River Patrol Force com- menced operations on inland waters of South

Vietnam

April 11 1783 - Congress declares end of war with Great

Britain 1900 - Navy accepted its first submarine, USS

Holland 1970 - Launch of Apollo 13, commanded by CAPT

James A. Lovell, Jr., USN. Former naval aviator Fred

W. Haise, Jr. was the Lunar Module Pilot. While 200,000 miles from Earth there was an explosion on board which forced Apollo 13 to circle the moon without landing. Mission duration was 5 days, 22 hours, and 54 minutes.

April 12 1861 - Civil War begins when Confederates fire on

Fort Sumter, SC 1911 - LT Theodore Ellyson qualifies as first naval aviator 1962 - U.S. Navy demonstrates new landing craft with retractable hydrofoils, LCVP (H) 1993 - Aircraft from USS Theodore Roosevelt and

NATO forces begin enforcing the no-fly zone over the Bosnia in Operation Deny Flight

April 13 1847 - Naval Forces begin 5 day battle to capture several towns in Mexico 1960 - Navy's navigation satellite, Transit, placed into orbit from Cape Canaveral, FL and demon- strates ability to launch another satellite

April 14 1898 - Commissioning of first Post Civil War hospi- tal ship, USS Solace 1969 - North Korean aircraft shoots down Navy EC- 121 reconnaissance aircraft from VQ-1 over the

Sea of Japan 1989 - First Navy ship arrives on scene to assist in

Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup

April 15 1885 - Naval forces land at Panama to protect

American interests during revolution 1912 - USS Chester and USS Salem sailed from MA to assist RMS Titanic survivors 1918 - First Marine Aviation Force formed at Marine

Flying Field, Miami, FL 1961 - Launching of first nuclear-powered frigate,

USS Bainbridge, at Quincy, MA

April 18 1848 - U.S. Navy expedition to explore the Dead

Sea and the River Jordan, commanded by LT William

F. Lynch, reaches the Dead Sea. 1942 - USS Hornet launches Doolittle's Army bombers for first attack on Japan 1988 - Navy destroys 2 Iranian surveillance plat- forms, sinks one frigate and one patrol ships, and severely damages a second frigate in retaliation for attack on USS Samuel B. Roberts

April 19 1783 - George Washington proclaims end of hostili- ties 1861 - President Lincoln orders blockade of

Southern ports from SC to Texas

April 20 1796 - Congress authorizes completion of 3 frigates 1861 - Norfolk Navy Yard abandoned and burned by

Union forces. 1964 - USS Henry Clay (SSBN-625) launches a

Polaris A-2 missile from the surface in first demon- stration that Polaris submarines could launch mis- siles from the surface as well as from beneath the ocean. 30 minutes later the submarine launched another Polaris missile while submerged.

April 21 1861 - USS Saratoga captures slaver, Nightingale. 1898 - U.S. at war against Spain. 1906 - Commander Robert Peary discovered sup- posed Arctic Continent did not exist.

April 22 1778 - Captain John Paul Jones of Ranger led land- ing party raid on Whitehaven, England

April 23 1918 - USS Stewart destroys German submarine off France 1934 - In first Navy movement through Panama

Canal over 100 ships transitted 1945 - In only U.S. use of guided missiles in WW II, 2 BAT missiles release at Balikiapan, Borneo 1956 - Project Vanguard, earth satellite launching program, assigned to DCNO (Air)

April 24 1778 - Continental Navy sloop Ranger captures

HMS Drake 1862 - Battle of New Orleans; Union Navy under

David Farragut runs past forts into Mississippi River 1884 - USS Thetis, Bear, and Alert sailed from New

York to search for Greeley expedition lost in Arctic 1906- Ceremonies at Naval Academy commemo- rate John Paul Jones; President Theodore Roosevelt delivers speech 1981 - RCA delivers to the Navy, NOVA I, the 1st production unit of the improved navigational satel- lite.

April 25 1862 - Union naval forces occupy New Orleans, LA

April 26 1952 - USS Hobson sinks after colliding with USS

Wasp; 176 lives lost

April 28 1944 - U.S. LSTs attacked during Operation Tiger

April 29 1814 - USS Peacock captures HMS Epervier 1898 - U.S. warships engage Spanish gunboats and shore batteries at Cienfuegos, Cuba

April 30 1798 - Congress establishes Department of the

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This Month in U.S. Navy History

The Trident ballistic missile submarine USS Ohio (Blue) (SSBN 726) manuevers through Hood

Canal Bridge as she returns to her homeport in Bangor, Wash. Ohio was the first Trident subma- rine ever launched, on April 7, 1979. (U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Shawn

Handley)

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