A look at how American sailors have defended the nation for two and a half centuries.
By the time the Continental Navy was formally established on Oct. 13, 1775, Rhode Island colonists were already fighting on the seas, thus beginning a long and storied voyage of service and defense. This year, as the Navy celebrates its 250th birthday, The American Legion salutes the proud history of the men and women who have sailed, flown, marched and fought with distinction throughout U.S. history.
Here is a snapshot of the Navy’s history:
June 12, 1775: Rhode Island’s General Assembly passes a resolution to establish the first colonial navy and three days later sees action – a battle between the Katy of Rhode Island and the Diana, a tender to the 24-gun HMS Rose, which had been harassing colonial shipping and seizing goods.
Oct. 13, 1775: The Continental Congress authorizes the Continental Navy and later approves construction of 13 frigates; the Continental Navy is disbanded a decade later, after the Revolutionary War. The congressional resolution reads:
Resolved, That a swift sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage guns, and a proportionable number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted, with all possible dispatch, for a cruise of three months, and that the commander be instructed to cruise eastward, for intercepting such transports as may be laden with warlike stores and other supplies for our enemies, and for such other purposes as the Congress shall direct.
That a committee of three be appointed to prepare an estimate of the expense, and lay the same before the Congress, and to contract with proper persons to fit out the vessel.
Resolved, that another vessel be fitted out for the same purposes, and that the said committee report their opinion of a proper vessel, and also an estimate of the expense.
March 3-4, 1776: The Continental Navy lands 300 sailors and Marines at the British port in the Bahamas, storming Forts Nassau and Montagu, capturing 73 cannons mortars and munitions to be used by the Continental Army. Foreshadowing amphibious landings in the decades ahead, it is the Navy’s first international deployment.
March 27, 1794: President George Washington signs the Naval Act of 1794 authorizing construction of six new frigates, thus launching the U.S. Navy.
May 10, 1797: The 44-gun United States, first official U.S. Navy ship, sets sail, followed later that year by Constellation and Constitution.
April 30, 1798: President John Adams signs the act creating the Department of the Navy.
March 1801: President Thomas Jefferson deploys the Navy to fight the Barbary pirates off the coast of North Africa.
Dec. 6, 1830: The Depot of Charts and Instruments, later renamed the National Naval Observatory, is established in Washington, D.C., to collect scientific and military data – oceanography to astronomy – including care for the Navy’s chronometers, charts and other navigational equipment.
June 30, 1834: The U.S. Marine Corps is officially attached to the U.S. Navy.
Dec. 21, 1861: President Abraham Lincoln establishes the Navy Medal of Honor, the nation’s oldest continuously awarded citation for military valor. At the time, it is only bestowed on enlisted personnel.
June 17, 1898: The U.S. Navy Hospital Corps is authorized by Congress, thus formalizing a legacy of dedicated Navy medical personnel that dates back to the late 18th century, establishing such personnel as “corpsmen” who serve in every U.S. war theater, typically in support of Marines, numbering some 30,000 today, the largest of any Navy grade.
Oct. 12, 1900: The USS Holland (SS-1) is commissioned, first U.S. Navy submarine.
Dec. 1, 1901: The U.S. Naval Academy’s fight song, “Anchors Aweigh,” is performed for the first time, before a crowd of about 30,000 in attendance for the Army-Navy football game. Navy wins the game 10-0, and the song ultimately becomes the entire branch’s unofficial march song.
Dec. 16, 1907: President Theodore Roosevelt sends 16 U.S. Navy battleships and escort vessels on a 14-month world tour – the “Great White Fleet” – to spread goodwill and demonstrate America’s growing naval power.
May 1911: Following tests, observations and the 1910 first takeoff of a Curtiss Model D aircraft from the USS Birmingham, U.S. Navy aviation units begin forming, leading to the Bureau of Aeronautics in 1921.
Aug. 29. 1916: President Woodrow Wilson signs into law the “Big Navy Act” to significantly expand the U.S. fleet for U.S. defense as hostilities grow in Europe.
March 20, 1922: The USS Jupiter is converted into the USS Langley (CV-1), America’s first aircraft carrier.
July 2, 1923: Spurred by an idea conceived during World War I from inventor Thomas Edison, the Naval Research Laboratory is established, predecessor to the Office of Naval Research in 1946, charged with a mission to "plan, foster and encourage scientific research in recognition of its paramount importance as related to the maintenance of future naval power, and the preservation of national security."
Sept. 9, 1927: The American Legion elects Edward E. Spafford of Lexington Post 108 in New York as its first U.S. Navy veteran national commander. Spafford was a lieutenant commander in World War I and was appointed to receive the November 1918 surrender of the Austro-Hungarian fleet in the Adriatic Sea.
June 1935: The first U.S. Navy Fleet Week coincides with the California Pacific International Exposition in San Diego, with 114 warships and 400 aircraft, launching what becomes a multi-city demonstration of U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard strength.
August 1941: The U.S. Coast Guard is for the first time officially attached to the U.S. Navy, for wartime training and duty.
March 5, 1942: The Navy Seabees (Construction Battalions) are established.
July 21, 1942: The Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) Program is established for wartime service.
August 1942: The Amphibious Training Base, Little Creek, Norfolk, Va., begins training elite units for specific missions in World War II, giving birth to what would become the U.S. Navy SEALS.
July 30, 1945: A Japanese submarine sinks the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) enroute to the Philippines from Guam; only 316 of the 1,195 crew survive. The ship’s secret mission: deliver to the U.S. air base at Tinian parts for the atomic bomb, which would end World War II.
April 24, 1946: Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Chester Nimitz authorizes the flight exhibition team later known as the Blue Angels, who today perform upwards of 60 shows a year.
September 1954: Navy Task Force 43, led by Seabees, sets out to launch “Deep Freeze 1” to build and establish research stations in Antarctica.
Jan. 17, 1955: In Groton, Conn., USS Nautilus signals “Underway on nuclear power” the first submarine in the world so propelled.
Sept. 24, 1960: The USS Enterprise, longest naval vessel ever built, is launched. She is the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the world.
Dec. 18, 1965: The U.S. Navy formalizes its first “brown-water navy” since the Civil War to patrol inland waterways, deploying sailors on critical and successful riverine missions in PBRs (Patrol Boat River) and Swift Boats.
July 16, 1969: Naval aviator-turned-astronaut Neil A. Armstrong becomes the first person to set foot on the moon.
July 24, 1971: Carrier Anti-Submarine Group Reserve 80 begins antisubmarine operations from Ticonderoga, the first Naval Air Reserve demonstration of fully manned carrier operations with fleet-sized wings.
April 28, 1986: The USS Enterprise becomes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to pass through the Suez Canal.
Aug. 2, 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait, and American carriers move in; Independence (CV-62) sails in the Indian Ocean and the Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) the Mediterranean Sea, supporting eight other U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf.
Aug. 30, 1995: Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) launches initial NATO strikes against the Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina that begins Operation Deliberate Force — aerial attacks on Serbian military targets that sends waves of Navy warplanes to the region, 492 sorties in five days.
Oct. 7, 2001: Enterprise (CVN-65) and Carl Vinson (CVN-70) lead initial coalition strikes against al-Qaeda terrorists and the Taliban in Afghanistan in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
May 2, 2011: Navy SEAL Team Six conducts Operation Neptune Spear and kills 9/11 mastermind and Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Oct. 13, 2020: Plans are announced to build a new National Museum of the U.S. Navy.
March 18, 2024: The Navy submits a plan to grow the number of battle force ships from 295 to 390 by 2054.
Oct. 13, 2025: The Navy celebrates its 250th birthday.
- Honor & Remembrance