Naval History and Heritage Command

The schooner Enterprise captures four pirate ships in the Gulf of Mexico. During her time in the Gulf, Enterprise takes 13 vessels while suppressing pirates, smugglers, and slaves.

Task Force 68, commanded by Rear Adm. Aaron S. Merrill, bombards Vila and Munda, Solomons and sinks Japanese destroyers Minegumo and Murasame in the Kula Gulf. For his leadership, Adm. Merrill earned both the Legion of Merit and the Navy Cross.

USS Nautilus (SS 168) attacks a Japanese convoy approximately 240 miles north-north west of Saipan and sinks transport (ex-hospital ship) America Maru.

USS Kearsarge (CVS 33) rescues four Russian soldiers from their landing craft 1,000 miles from Midway Island, which had been drifting several weeks after their engine failed off Kamchatka Peninsula.

President George H. W. Bush addresses a joint session of Congress and states, "I can report to the nation: Aggression is defeated. The war is over."

USS Dewey (DDG 105) is commissioned at Seal Beach, Calif. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer is named after former Adm. of the Navy George Dewey, hero of the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War of 1899.