Naval History and Heritage Command

Commodore Edward Preble's Mediterranean Squadron launches the first of a series of bombardments on the harbor of Tripoli. Designed to destroy the defending batteries and sink enemy ships, the bombardments are part of the blockade that Preble established in 1803.

Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles calls for designers to submit plans for ironclad warships to the Navy Department. The design, by inventor John Ericsson, is chosen for USS Monitor, a revolutionary armored ship, carrying her guns in a rotating turret.

Mildred H. McAfee takes the oath of office to become the first female line officer. She is commissioned a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve and simultaneously undertakes the duties of being the first director of the newly-established WAVES ("Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service").

PBM aircraft (VP 205) sinks German submarine (U 572), north of Dutch Giuiana. Also on this date, USS Buck (DD 420) sinks Italian submarine, Argento, off Tunisia.

Marine Fighter Squadron Two Hundred Fourteen (VMF 214) operating from USS Sicily (CVE 118) attacks Chinju with rockets and incendiary bombs, in the first Marine Corps aviation mission against North Korea.

USS Nautilus (SSN 571) becomes the first submarine to cross the "top" of the world during Operation Sunshine when the boat passes under an arctic ice cap at the North Pole. "For the world, our country, and the Navy - the North Pole," declared the boat's commanding officer, Cmdr. William R. Anderson. The mission had been personally authorized by President Eisenhower as a response to the USSR's Sputnik program.  

Richard V. Spencer is sworn in as the 76th secretary of the Navy. Spencer, a Connecticut native, graduated from Rollins College in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. Upon graduation he joined the United States Marine Corps and served as an H-46 pilot until 1981.