Naval History and Heritage Command

The schooner Enterprise, commanded by Lawrence Kearny, engages four pirate schooners and one pirate sloop off Cape Antonio, Cuba who are in the act of robbing two American vessels and one British ship. The pirate leader, Capt. Charles Gibbs, escapes to shore but his ship and two others were burned. The remaining ships are sent to Charleston, S.C. as prizes.

The Union screw steamer South Carolina captures the schooner Edward Barnard, with a cargo of turpentine on board, at Southwest Pass, Mississippi River.

Capt. Alfred Thayer Mahan becomes the superintendent of the Naval War College at Newport, R.I.

Two sailors from the cruiser Baltimore are killed and 17 are injured by a mob in Valparaiso, Chile. The incident shifts relations between the United States and Chile. In 1892 Chile pays $75,000 in gold for restitution and apologizes for the incident.

USS Thresher (SS 200) mines the approaches to Bangkok, Thailand, the first US Navy submarine mine plant during World War II.

The Navy accepts its first helicopter, a Sikorsky YR-4B (HNS-1) at Bridgeport, Ct., following a 60-minute test flight by U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Frank A. Erickson.

USS Lake Champlain (CVS 39) reaches Valencia, Spain to assist in flood rescue work at the request of the American ambassador to Spain, John Davis Lodge. The ship's Chickasaw helicopters undertake numerous rescue missions, and the ship's crew fight in the "mud battle" that follows the disaster.