1 January
1950 – Mary T. Sproul is commissioned as the first female doctor in the Navy.
1959 – The U.S. Naval Observatory introduces the system of uniform atomic time using cesium beam atomic oscillators. This measurement has since been adopted as standard by the International Committee on Weights and Measures.
1962 – Navy SEAL (Sea, Air and Land) teams established.
2 January
1813 – Congress authorizes construction of two 74-gun ships and six 44-gun frigates.
1937 – Adm. William Leahy becomes the seventh chief of naval operations.
1969 – Operation Barrier Reef began in Mekong Delta, Vietnam.
3 January
1904 – The cruiser USS Detroit (C 10) lands a Marine detachment at Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, to protect American interests during an insurrection.
1944 – Top Marine ace Maj. Gregory Boyington captured after shooting down 28 aircraft. Boyington went on to receive the Medal of Honor for his actions.
1945 – Third Fleet carriers begin a two-day attack against Formosa, Taiwan, destroying 100 aircraft while losing only 22.
4 January
1836 – Blockading ship USS Quaker City captures sloop Mercury carrying dispatches, emphasizing the desperate plight of the South.
1910 – Commissioning of USS Michigan (BB 27), the first U.S. dreadnought battleship.
1989 – F-14 Tomcats from Fighter Squadron 32 embarked aboard USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) shoot down two hostile Libyan MiGs.
5 January
1855 – USS Plymouth crew has skirmish with Chinese troops.
1875 – Cmdr. Edward Lull begins expedition to locate the best ship canal route across Panama.
1943 – In the Southwest Pacific, USS Helena (CL 50) fired first proximity-fused projectile in combat, shooting down a Japanese divebomber in the process.
1968 – Lt. Clarence W. Cote becomes the first male Nurse Corps officer in the regular Navy.
6 January
1916 – The first enlisted flight training class is held at Pensacola, Fla.
1942 – Japanese troops capture 11 Navy nurses in Manila, Philippines.
1967 – Operation Deckhouse V begins in Mekong Delta, Vietnam.
1996 – USS Hopper (DDG 70), named for Rear Adm. Grace Hopper, is commissioned.
7 January
1960 – The first fully-guided Polaris missile is launched at Cape Canaveral, Fla. It flew 900 miles.
1967 – The Mobile Riverine Force begins arriving at Vung Tau, Vietnam.
1991 – Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney gives the coup de grace to the Navy’s behind-schedule, over-budget A-12 Avenger stealth aircraft. At more than $52 billion, it’s the largest defense contract ever canceled.
8 January
1847 – The Battle of San Gabriel takes place in California. The Navy, Marines and Army defeat the Mexicans in the battle.
1916 – The BA permanent Marine base (later named Camp Pendleton) is established in San Diego.
1945 – Task Group 77.2 delivers intensive shore bombardment of landing beaches on Lingayen Gulf. The destroyer/minesweeper, Palmer (DMS) is sunk by conventional Japanese air attack.
9 January
1861 – Union steamer Star of the West is fired on by the Confederates in Charleston Harbor.
1918 – The Naval Overseas Transportation Service is established to carry cargo during World War I.
1945 – Carrier aircraft begin a two-day attack on Japanese forces at Luzon, Philippines.
10 January
1847 – U.S. Naval forces occupy Los Angeles during the Mexican-American War for the first time.
1917 – The Navy places the first production order for aerial photographic equipment.
1934 – Patrol Squadron 10F flies the first non-stop formation flight from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, arriving Jan. 11.
1946 – The first Navy nuclear power school is established at Submarine Base New London, Conn.
11 January
1863 – CSS Alabama sinks USS Hatteras off Galveston.
1900 – The gunboat Princeton takes possession of the Batan Islands in the northern Philippines.
1944 – Aircraft from USS Block Island (CVE 21) lead the first aircraft rocket attack on a German submarine.
12 January
1813 – U.S. frigate Chesapeake captures the British warship Volunteer.
1848 – Sloop Lexington attacked in San Blas, Mexico.
1953 – Aircraft landings are tested aboard USS Antietam (CVS 36), the first angled-deck carrier.
13 January
1865 – Amphibious attack on Fort Fisher, N.C.
1917 – The cruiser Milwaukee (CL 21) strands off Eureka, Calif., while attempting to refloat the submarine H-3 (SS 30).
1964 – USS Manley (DD 940) evacuates 54 American and 36 allied nationals after Zanzibar government is overthrown.
14 January
1813 – U.S. Frigate Chesapeake captures British brig Hero.
1815 – HMS Endymion, Tenedos and Pomone capture USS President.
1863 – Navy General Order 4, Emancipation Proclamation issued.
1943 – In the first submarine resupply mission, USS Gudgeon lands 6 men, 2,000 pounds of equipment and supplies on Negros Island, the Philippines.
15 January
1865 – Capture of Fort Fisher, Wilmington, N.C., by joint amphibious force.
1973 – President Nixon suspends all offensive operations against North Vietnam.
1997 – Navy physician Capt. Jerry Lineger joined the crew of the MIR space station after being launched aboard the space shuttle Atlantis during space Shuttle Mission STS-81. Prior to the mission, he was trained at the Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, for more than a year.
16 January
1815 – Crowninshield becomes fifth Secretary of the Navy.
1930 – USS Lexington (CV 2) provides power to Tacoma, Wash., when floods knocked out city power plants.
1991 – Operation Desert Storm, the liberation of Kuwait from Iraq, begins.
17 January
1832 – The frigate USS Peacock makes contact with Vietnamese court officials.
1900 – Cmdr. Edward D. Taussig, commanding officer of the gunboat USS Bennington (PG 4), takes formal possession of Wake Island.
1954 – USS Nautilus (SSN 571), the first nuclear-powered submarine, is commissioned at Groton, Conn. After setting sail, it sends the message: “Underway on nuclear power.”
18 January
1911 – First aircraft landing aboard a ship, USS Pennsylvania (ACR 4) by Eugene Ely.
1962 – After a flash fire in the Persian Gulf burned a crewman on the Danish tanker Prima Maersk, USS Duxbury Bay (AVP 38) transfers a Navy doctor to help the crewman. USS Soley (DD 707) took him to the nearest hospital at Bahrain Island.
1968 – Operation Coronado X begins in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.
1977 – The Trident (C-4) missile development flight test program commenced when C4X-1 was launched from a flight pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
1991 – USS Nicholas (FFG 47) attacks and captures Iraqi oil platforms.
19 January
1840 – Lt. Charles Wilkes, aboard the sloop Vincennes, is the first American to discover the Antarctic coast.
1929 – The 3rd Marine Corps Brigade is disbanded at Tientsin, China, and all units, except the 4th Marines and the Peking legation guard, are withdrawn from the country.
1972 – A Navy F-4 Phantom from USS Constellation (CVA 64) downs a Vietnamese MiG-21. This is the first aerial victory since March 1970.
20 January
1783 – Hostilities cease between Great Britain and the United States.
1903 – Theodore Roosevelt issues Executive Order placing Midway Islands under jurisdiction
of the Navy Department.
1914 – School for naval air training opens in Pensacola, Fla.
1948 – Establishment of U.S. Persian Gulf Area Command.
21 January
1821 – The schooner, Lynx, sails from St. Mary’s, Ga. for the West Indes and disappears en route.
1954 – Launching of USS Nautilus (SSN 571), first nuclear submarine, at Groton, Conn.
1961 – USS George Washington completes first operational voyage of fleet ballistic missile submarine staying submerged 66 days.
22 January
1800 – Capt. Thomas Tingey is ordered to duty as the first superintendent of the Washington Navy Yard.
1870 – Cmdr. Thomas Selfridge sails the gunboat Nipsic on an expedition to ascertain the best location for an interoceaniccanal across the Isthmus of Darien.
1944 – During Operation Shingle, Amphibious Task Force 81, under the command of Rear Adm. F. J. Lowry, lands the Army’s VI Corps at Anzio, Italy.
23 January
1960 – The Bathyscaph Trieste descends to the deepest part of the ocean — the Marianas Trench.
1968 – USS Pueblo (AGER 2) is seized by North Korean forces in the Sea of Japan.
1991 – Navy A-6 Intruders sink an Iraqi tanker and accompanying hovercraft that were monitoring allied air activity over the northern Persian Gulf.
24 January
1942 – During the World War II Battle of Makassar Strait, U.S. destroyers attack a Japanese convoy in the first naval surface action in the Pacific.
1986 – The Coral Sea (CV 43) and Saratoga (CV 60) carrier battle groups conduct freedom of navigation exercises in and near the Gulf of Sidra, demonstrating the long-standing United States’ refusal to recognize Colonel Khadafi’s attampt to include the gulf in Libyan territorial waters.
1991 – Helicopters from USS Leftwich (DD 984) and USS Nicholas (FFG 47) recapture the first Kuwaiti territory from Iraqi forces.
25 January
1922 – Cruiser USS Galveston (CL 19) lands her Marine Corps detachment at Corinto, Nicaragua, to reinforce the Managua legation guard during a period of political tension.
1945 – Navy surface forces bombard Japanese positions at Iwo Jima.
1963 – The 1st Seabee Technical Assistance Team arrives in Vietnam.
26 January
1911 – The first hydroaeroplane flight is witnessed by a naval aviator.
1913 – The body of John Paul Jones is laid in its final resting place in the chapel of the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md.
1949 – USS Norton Sound (AV 11), the first guided-missile ship, launches first guided missile, Loon.
1960 – USS John S. McCain (DL 3/DDG 36) rescues the entire 41-man crew of the sinking Japanese freighter, Shinwa Maru, in the East China Sea.
27 January
1942 – USS Gudgeon is the first U.S. sub to sink an enemy submarine in action, Japanese I-173.
1945 – Commissioning of USS Higbee (DD 806), the first U.S. Navy ship named after a women member of the U.S. Navy.
1967 – Fire in a command module at Cape Kennedy during simulation countdown. Lunar module pilot Lt. Cmdr. Roger B. Chaffee and two other crew members died.
1973 – Paris Peace Accords signed, ending U.S. participation in the Vietnam War.
28 January
1960 – The Navy demonstrates the value of moon communication relay, which is used in fleet broadcasts.
1962 – USS Cook (APD 130) rescues 25 survivors after a section of the Panamanian tanker SS Stanvac Sumatra broke in two in the South China Sea.
1986 – The Space Shuttle Challenger explodes, killing Cmdr. Michael Smith and six other astronauts.
29 January
1986 – U.S. Marines land in Haiti to protect the U.S. consulate.
1986 – Beginning of two-day battle of Rennell Island in the South Pacific, after which U.S. transports reached Guadalcanal.
30 January
1862 – Launching of the first turreted warship, USS Monitor.
1863 – The gunboat Isaac Smith is captured by Confederate land forces while on reconnaissance up the Stono River.
1968 – The Tet Offensive begins in Vietnam.
31 January
1944 – A U.S. amphibious landing takes place on Kwajalein, Marshall Islands.
1961 – Lt. Cmdr. Samuel Lee Gravely Jr. becomes the first African-American to command a combat ship, USS Falgout (DER 324).
1981 – The era of enlisted naval aviators ends when the last pilot retires.