Naval History and Heritage Command

The Naval School, now known as the Naval Academy, opens in Annapolis, Md. with 50 midshipmen and seven professors. The first superintendent, Cmdr. Franklin Buchanan, later becomes an admiral in the Confederate Navy and commands the Confederate forces at Mobile Bay, Ala.

USS San Jacinto, commanded by Capt. T.A. Dorwin, captures the slave ship Bonito in the South Atlantic with about 622 slaves onboard. Bonito is then taken into naval service.

The first American-built rigid airship USS Shenandoah (ZR 1), powered by helium gas instead of hydrogen, is christened at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, N.J. On Sept. 3, 1925, USS Shenandoah encounters violent weather over southern Ohio and breaks up. Fourteen of her crew lose their lives in this tragedy.

USS Bonefish (SS 223) sinks the Japanese army cargo ship Isuzugawa Maru and merchant transport Teibi Maru off Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina.

Following a week of disaster relief operations in the wake of Hurricane Hilda, USS Saipan (CVL 48), with HTU-1 embarked, sails from Tampico, Mexico. Helicopters flying from the ship     rescue 5,439 people and deliver 183,017 pounds of food and medical supplies.

Navy F-14's launch from USS Saratoga (CV 60), intercept an Egyptian 737 airliner over international waters, and direct it to Sigonella, Sicily. The airliner was carrying four Middle Eastern terrorists who hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro Oct. 7 and murdered a U.S. citizen. The hijackers are taken into custody.

A 7.6 magnitude earthquake near the Indo-Pakistani border kills more than 73,000 people and renders nearly three million homeless. USS Tarawa (LHA 1) Expeditionary Strike Group Commander, Rear Adm. Michael A. LeFever, coordinates the operations of the Disaster Assistance Center at Islamabad, Pakistan. Through 13 Feb., U.S. and allied aircraft fly more than 4,000 missions, deliver over 11,000 tons of supplies, and transport more than 18,000 people.