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1 November

1841 – “Mosquito Fleet” commanded by Lieutenant Commander J. T. McLaughlin, USN, carries 750 Sailors and Marines into the Everglades to fight the Seminole Indians.

1941 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt places Coast Guard under jurisdiction of Department of the Navy for duration of national emergency.

1967 – Operation Coronado IX began in Mekong Delta

1979 – Beginning of retirement of Polaris A-3 program begins with removal of missiles from USS Abraham Lincoln (SSBN 602). Last Polaris missile removed in February 1982.

2 November

1943 – In Battle in Empress Augusta Bay, U.S. cruisers and destroyers turn back Japanese forces trying to attack transports off Bougainville, Solomons.

1968 – Operation Search Turn began in Mekong Delta.

3 November

1853 – USS Constitution seizes suspected slaver H. N. Gambrill.

1931 – Dirigible USS Los Angeles (ZR 3) makes 10-hour flight out of NAS Lakehurst, N.J., carrying 207 persons, establishing a new record for the number of passengers carried into the air by a single craft.

1943 – Battleship Oklahoma (BB 37), sunk at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, is refloated.

1956 – USS Cambria (APA 36) removes 24 members of United Nations Truce Commission team from the Gaza Strip.

1956 – USS Chilton (APA 38), USS Thuban (AKA 19), and USS Fort Snelling (LSD 30) evacuate more than 1,500 U.S. and foreign nationals from Egypt and Israel because of the fighting. 1961 – After Hurricane Hattie, helicopters from USS Antietam (CV 36) begin relief operations at British Honduras providing medical personnel, medical supplies, general supplies, and water.

4 November

1967 – Landing craft from USS Navarro (APA 215) rescue 43 men from British SS Habib Marikar aground on a reef at Lincoln Island in the Tonkin Gulf.

1971 – USS Nathanael Greene (SSBN 636) launches a Poseidon C-3 missile in first surface launch of Poseidon missile.

5 November

1775 – Commodore Esek Hopkins appointed as commander in chief of the Continental Navy.

1915 – In AB-2 flying boat, Lt. Cmdr. Henry C. Mustin makes first underway catapult launch from a ship, USS North Carolina, at Pensacola Bay, Fla.

1917 – German submarine torpedoes USS Alcedo off French coast.

1923 – Tests designed to prove the feasibility of launching a small seaplane from a submarine occur at Hampton Roads Naval Base. A Martin MS-1, stored disassembled in a tank on board USS S-1, was removed and assembled. Then the submarine submerged allowing the plane to float free and take off.

1944 – TF 38 (Vice Adm. John S. McCain) begins two days of carrier strikes on Luzon, Philippines.

1945 – Ensign Jake C. West (VF 41) makes first jet landing on board a carrier, USS Wake Island (CVE 65).

6 November

1851 – U.S. Navy expedition under command of Lieutenant William Lewis Herndon, on a mission to explore the valley of the Amazon and its tributaries, reaches Iquitos in the jungle region of the upper Amazon after their departure from Lima, Peru.

1941 – On Neutrality Patrol, USS Omaha (CL 4) and USS Somers (DD 381) intercept the German blockade runner Odenwald disguised as U.S. freighter, board her after the German crew abandoned the ship, and brought the ship to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the boarding party was awarded salvage shares.

1942 – First officer and enlisted women from training schools report for shore duty around the USA.

1951 – Soviet aircraft shoot at Neptune Patrol bomber (VP-6) on weather reconnaissance mission near Siberia. U.S. aircraft fails to return.

1967 – Helicopter from USS Coral Sea (CVA 43) rescues 37-man crew of Liberian freighter Royal Fortunes aground on reef in Tonkin Gulf.

7 November

1861 – Naval forces under Rear Adm. Samuel F. DuPont capture Port Royal Sound, S.C.

1881 – Naval Advisory Board submits report recommending the new ships in the U.S. Navy be constructed of steel instead of iron.

1973 – War Powers Resolution becomes law.

8 November

1861 – Capt. Charles Wilkes seizes two Confederate diplomats from the British steamer Trent, causing an international controversy with Great Britain (known as the Trent Affair).

1942 – Operation Torch (Allied landings in French Northwest Africa). American forces land at Casablanca. French naval forces attack U.S. Navy ships and 13 French ships are sunk without a loss to the U.S.

1956 – Navy Stratolab balloon (Lt. Cmdr. Malcolm D. Ross and 2Lt. Cmdr. M. Lee Lewis) better world height record soaring to 76,000 feet over Black Hills, S.D., on flight to gather meteorological, cosmic ray, and other scientific data.

1975 – More than 100 Sailors and Marines from USS Inchon (LPH 12) and USS Bagley (DE 1069) fight a fire aboard a Spanish merchant vessel at Palma.

9 November

1921 – USS Olympia arrives at the Washington Navy Yard from France carrying the body of the Unknown Soldier for internment at Arlington National Cemetery.

1950 – Task Force 77 makes first attack on the Yalu River bridges. In first engagement between MIG-15 and F9F jets (USS Philippine Sea, CV 47), Lt. Cmdr. William T. Amen (VF-111) shoots down a MIG and becomes first Navy pilot to shoot down a jet aircraft.

1956 – Secretary of the Navy proposes the Polaris missile program to the Secretary of Defense.

10 November

1775 – Congress votes to raise two battalions of Continental Marines, establishing the Marine Corps.

1941 – U.S.-escorted convoy WS-12, carrying 20,000 British troops to Singapore, sails from Halifax.

11 November

1870 – Navy expedition to explore the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, southern Mexico, commanded by Capt. Robert W. Shufeldt, enters the Coatzacoalcos River to begin a survey for possible interoceanic canal. Support provided by USS Kansas and USS Mayflower.

1918 – Armistice ends World War I.

1920 – Lenah S. Higbee becomes the first woman to be awarded the Navy Cross. It was awarded for her World War I service.

1921 – Washington Naval Conference begins.

1943 – Two Carrier Task Forces strike Japanese shipping at Rabaul, sinking one carrier and damaging other ships. Raid was first use of SB2C Curtiss Helldivers in combat.

1954 – November 11 designated as Veterans Day to honor veterans of all U.S. wars.

1966 – Launch of Gemini 12, with Cmdr. James A. Lovell, Jr., as the command Pilot. Mission lasted 3 days, 22 hours and 34 minutes and included 59 orbits at an altitude of 162.7 nautical miles. Recovery by HS-11 helicopter from USS Wasp (CVS-18).

1981 – Commissioning of first Trident-class Nuclear Powered Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine, USS Ohio (SSBN-726).

12 November

1912 – Lt. Theodore Ellyson makes first successful launching of an airplane (A-3) by catapult at the Washington Navy Yard.

1940 – Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Harold R. Stark submits memorandum to Secretary of the Navy on four plans if U.S. enters war. He favors the fourth one, Plan Dog, calling for strong offensive in the Atlantic and defense in the Pacific.

1942 – First day of the three days of fighting in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.

1943 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt embarks on USS Iowa (BB 61) to go to the Allied conferences at Teheran, Iran, and Cairo, Egypt.

13 November

1776 – Captain John Paul Jones in Alfred with brig Providence captures British transport Mellish, carrying winter uniforms later used by Washington’s troops.

1942 – Loss of USS Juneau (CL 52) during Battle of Guadalcanal results in loss of the five Sullivan Brothers.

1943 – 5th Fleet carriers begin long range night bombing attacks on Japanese positions in Gilberts and Marshalls in preparation for landings.

1957 – First firing of Regulus II bombardment missile.

14 November

1846 – Naval forces capture Tampico, Mexico.

1910 – Civilian Eugene Ely pilots first aircraft to take off from a ship, USS Birmingham (CL 2) at Hampton Roads, Va. He lands safely on Willoughby Spit, Norfolk, Va.

1941 – Order to withdraw Marines at Shanghai, Peiping, and Tientsin, China.

1944 – Carrier aircraft attack Japanese shipping in Philippines sinking five ships and damaging one.

15 November

1882 – Lt. Cmdr. French Chadwick reports to American Legation in London as first naval attache.

1942 – Although U.S. lost several ships in the naval battle of Guadalcanal, Naval Force under Rear Adm. Willlis Lee, USS Washington (BB 56), turns back Japanese transports trying to reinforce Guadalcanal. The Japanese never again try to send large naval forces to Guadalcanal.

1960 – First Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine, USS George Washington (SSBN 598), leaves Charleston, S.C., on initial fleet ballistic missile patrol.

16 November

1776 – First salute to an American flag (Grand Union flag) flying from Continental Navy ship Andrew Doria, by Dutch fort at St. Eustatius, West Indies.

1856 – Barrier Forts reduction began at Canton China.

1942 – Navy’s first Night Fighter squadron (VMF(N)-531) established at Cherry Point, N.C.

1963 – President John F. Kennedy on USS Observation Island (AG 154) witnesses launch of Polaris A-2 missile by USS Andrew Jackson (SSBN-619).

1968 – Operation Tran Hung Dao began in Mekong Delta.

1973 – Launch of Skylab 4 under command of Lt. Col. Gerald P. Carr, USMC. The mission lasted 84 days and included 1,214 Earth orbits. Recovery by USS New Orleans (LPH-11).

17 November

1917 – USS Fanning (DD 37) and USS Nicholson (DD-52) sink first enemy submarine, U-58, off Milford Haven, Wales.

1924 – USS Langley (CV 1), first aircraft carrier, reports for duty.

1941 – Congress amends Neutrality Act to allow U.S. merchant ships to be armed. Navy’s Bureau of Navigation directs Navy personnel with Armed Guard training to be assigned for further training before going to Armed Guard Centers for assignment to merchant ships.

1955 – Navy sets up Special Projects Office under Rear Adm. William Raborn, USN, to develop a solid propellant ballistic missile for use in submarines.

18 November

1890 – USS Maine, the first American battleship, is launched.

1922 – Cdmr. Kenneth Whiting in a PT seaplane, makes first catapult launching from aircraft carrier, USS Langley (CV 1), at anchor in the York River.

1962 – USS Currituck (AV 7) rescues 13 Japanese fishermen from their disabled fishing boat Seiyu Maru, which was damaged in Typhoon Karen.

19 November

1813 – Capt. David Porter claims Marquesas Islands for the United States.

1943 – Carrier force attacks bases on Tarawa and Makin begun.

1943 – USS Nautilus (SS 168) enters Tarawa lagoon in first submarine photograph reconnaissance mission.

1961 – At the request of the president of the Dominican Republic, U.S. Naval Task Force sails to Dominican Republic to bolster the country’s government and to prevent a coup.

1969 – Navy astronauts Cmdr. Charles Conrad Jr. and Cmdr. Alan L. Bean are third and fourth men to walk on the moon. They were part of Apollo 12 mission. Cdmr. Richard F. Gordon Jr., the command module pilot, remained in lunar orbit. During the mission lasting 19 days, four hours and 36 minutes, the astronauts recovered 243 lbs. of lunar material. Recovery was by HS-4 helicopters from USS Hornet (CVS 12).

20 November

1856 – Cdmr. Andrew H. Foote lands at Canton, China, with 287 Sailors and Marines to stop attacks by Chinese on U.S. military and civilians.

1917 – USS Kanawha (AO 1), Noma and Wakiva sink German sub off France.

1933 – Navy crew (Lt. Cmdr. Thomas G. W. Settle and Maj. Chester I. Fordney, USMC) sets a world altitude record in a balloon (62,237 ft.) in flight into stratosphere.

1943 – Operation Galvanic, under command of Vice Adm. Raymond Spruance, lands Navy, Marine and Army forces on Tarawa and Makin.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy lifts the Blockade of Cuba.

21 November

1918 – U.S. battleships witness surrender of German High Seas fleet at Rosyth, Firth of Forth, Scotland, to U.S. and British fleets.

22 November

1914 – The title “Director of Naval Aeronautics” is established.

23 November

1940 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints Adm. William D. Leahy as U.S. Ambassador to Vichy, France, to try to prevent the French fleet and naval bases from falling into German hands.

24 November

1852 – Commodore Matthew Perry sails from Norfolk, Va., to negotiate a treaty with Japan for friendship and commerce.

1964 – USS Princeton (LPH 5) completes seven-day humanitarian relief mission to South Vietnam which suffered damage from typhoon and floods.

1969 – HS-4 from USS Hornet (CVS 12) recovers Apollo 12’s all-Navy crew of astronauts, Commanders Richard Gordon, Charles Conrad and Alan Bean, after moon landing by Conrad and Bean.

25 November

1775 – Continental Congress authorizes privateering.

1943 – In Battle of Cape St. George, five destroyers of Destroyer Squadron 23 (Capt. Arleigh Burke) intercept five Japanese destroyers and sink three and damage one without suffering any damage.

1961 – Commissioning of USS Enterprise [CVA(N)-65], the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, at Newport News, Va.

26 November

1847 – Lt. William Lynch aboard Supply sails from New York to Haifa for an expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea. His group charted the Jordan River from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea and compiled reports of the flora and fauna of the area.

1940 – Sixth and last group of ships involved in Destroyers-for-Bases Agreement transferred to British at Nova Scotia.

27 November

1941 – Chief of Naval Operations sends “war warning” to commanders of Pacific and Asiatic Fleets.

1961 – Navy reports first use of its cyclotron at Harvard University to treat a human brain tumor. After three treatments, the tumor of the 2-year-old patient shrank by 80 percent.

28 November

1775 – Congress adopts first rules for regulation of the “Navy of the United Colonies.”

1941 – USS Enterprise (CV 6) sails from Pearl Harbor for Wake Island to ferry Marine aircraft to island.

1942 – Ensigns George W. Carlson and Mac A. Cason organize rescue parties to help rescue people from the fire at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, Mass. They are credited, “the cause of saving more lives than any other single agency.”

29 November

1775 – Capt. John Manley in schooner Lee captures British ordnance ship Nancy with large quantity of munitions.

1890 – First Army-Navy football game (Navy won 24-0).

1929 – Cmdr. Richard Byrd makes first flight over South Pole.

1944 – USS Archerfish (SS 311) sinks Japanese carrier Shinano, world’s largest warship sunk by any submarine during World War II.

30 November

1842 – In Battle of Tassafaronga, last major naval action in Solomons, U.S. forces stop the Japanese attempt to reprovision the Japanese troops on Guadalcanal. Six U.S. ships are damaged in the action.