Naval History and Heritage Command

Honorable Edmund Roberts, transported by USS Peacock and accompanied by USS Boxer, signs the Treaty of Amity, with the King of Siam (now Thailand), which is the first treaty between the United States and an Asian power.

USS Jupiter (Fuel Ship #3) is recommissioned as USS Langley (CV 1), the Navy's first aircraft carrier.

USS Angler (SS-240) completes the evacuation of 58 U.S. citizens, including women and children, from the west coast of Panay, Philippine Islands. The sub had been told there were only 20 people, straining the boats supplies until it arrived at Fremantle April 9.

USS Blenny (SS-324) attacks a Japanese convoy off the coast of French Indochina and sinks the merchant tankers No. 21 Nanshin Maru and Hosten Maru, along with fishing boat Yamakuni Maru about 40 miles south of Cam Ranh Bay. 

During the Korean War, USS Wiltsie (DD-716) and USS Brinkley Bass (DD-887) engage shore batteries at Wonsan, Korea. Bass scores seven direct hits on one of the batteries located near the city of Wonsan.

USS Staten Island (AGB-5) delivers six tons of food and clothing to New Zealand territorial island south of Samoa after storm devastates the area.

USS Porter (DDG-78) is commissioned at Port Canaveral, Fla. The guided-missile destroyer is the 28th of the Arleigh Burke-class and the fifth U.S. Navy ship to be named after Commodore David Porter and his son, Adm. David Dixon Porter.

Operation Iraqi Freedom begins with preemptive airstrikes on Saddam Hussein’s presidential palace and military targets followed by approximately 67,700 “boots on the ground” with 15,000 Navy personnel on ships in the region (Belasco). OIF was authorized when Iraq was found to be in breach of U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 1441 which “prohibits stockpiling and importing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).”

USS Gettysburg (CG-64) apprehends six pirates in the Gulf of Aden after a distress call from two nearby merchant vessels.