1 April
1893 – Navy General Order 409 of Feb. 25, 1893, establishes the rate of “chief petty officer”.
1942 – The first Naval Air Transportation Service (NATS) squadron for Pacific operations is commissioned.
1945 – More than 1,200 Navy ships and Army troops begin invasion of Okinawa.
1966 – U.S. Naval Forces Vietnam established as a command.
1967 – Helicopter Attack (Light) Squadron 3 is activated at Vung Tau.
2 April
1781 – Navy frigate Alliance captures two British privateers, Mars and Minerva.
1827 – Construction of the first naval hospital begins at Portsmouth, Va.
1898 – U.S. Naval Academy coat-of-arms is adopted.
1947 – The United Nations places former Japanese-mandated islands under U.S. trusteeship.
1951 – The first Navy use of a jet aircraft as a bomber; it is launched from the carrier USS Princeton (CV 37).
1960 – USS Glacier (AGB 4) begins 12 days of relief operations, providing helicopter and boat transportation, and emergency supplies to residents of Paramaribo, Brazil, after floods.
3 April
1797 – Capt. Thomas Truxtun issues the first known American signal book using numerary system.
1942 – Adm. Chester Nimitz is named commander-in-chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, a joint command, and retained his other title, commander-in-chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet.
1992 – The first five coed recruit companies from Naval Training Center Orlando, Fla., graduate.
4 April
1776 – The Continental Navy frigate Columbus captures HM Tender Hawke; this is the first American capture of a British armed vessel.
1854 – Sailors and Marines from sailing sloop Plymouth, protect U.S. citizens at Shanghai.
1898 – Appointment of the first Civil Engineering Corps officer, Rear Adm. Mordecai Endicott, as chief of Bureau of Yards and Docks.
1949 – NATO is established.
5 April
1946 – USS Missouri (BB 63) arrives in Turkey to return the body of Turkish ambassador to the U.S. and to show U.S. support and willingness to defend Turkey.
6 April
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.
7 April
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8 April
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9 April
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10 April
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11 April
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12 April
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13 April
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14 April
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15 April
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16 April
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17 April
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18 April
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19 April
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20 April
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21 April
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22 April
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23 April
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24 April
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25 April
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26 April
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27 April
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28 April
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29 April
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30 April
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31 April
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