23 AUGUST 1819 DREADED YELLOW JACK On this date, 34-year-old Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of the War of 1812, died aboard the schooner USS NONSUCH, 14, in Trinidad. He and many of his crew had contracted yellow fever on a Read More
17-18 AUGUST 1942 MAKIN RAID As a diversion to the 10-day-old invasion of Guadalcanal, 222 men of the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion embarked on two submarines, USS NAUTILUS (SS-168) and USS ARGONAUT (SM-1), for a raid behind enemy lines. Commanding the Read More
7 AUGUST 1782 THE PURPLE HEART The oldest decoration ever awarded to a United States serviceman was the Fidelity Medallion. This award was created by the Continental Congress specifically to recognize the actions of three New York Volunteer militiamen of the Read More
4 AUGUST 1947 MEDICAL SERVICE CORPS BIRTHDAY The number and variety of casualties Navy Medicine faced in the early years demonstrated the need for a cadre of competent medical professionals such as pharmacists, therapists, medical researchers, and the like. By WWII Read More
28 JULY 1861 CONFEDERATE PRIVATEER PETREL When South Carolina seceded from the Union on 20 December 1860, the State’s officials seized Federal property including the US Revenue Cutter Service schooner WILLIAM AIKEN, 2, who had operated out of Charleston since 1855. Read More
22-25 JULY 1797 NELSON’S ARM The Treaty of Lldefonso on 19 August 1796 allied Spain with France in Napoleon’s war against England. Now the combined French/Spanish navies of 38 ships-of-the-line threatened England’s Royal Navy’s control of the seas. A February 1797 Read More
18 JULY 1947 TRUST TERRITORIES OF THE PACIFIC Ferdinand Magellan made the first European contact with South Pacific Micronesia in 1521. Though Magellan didn’t survive this contact, Spain’s subsequent colonization of the Philippines and their trans-Pacific galleon traffic cemented Iberian control Read More
12 JULY 1794 NELSON’S EYE The French Revolution in 1789 shocked the rest of Europe as existing monarchies feared the spread of republicanism. Dread intensified as the “Reign of Terror” unfolded, and French King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, prisoners in Read More
1992-PRESENT THE TROUBLE IN BOSNIA Bosnia-Herzegovina, the central-most state in the former Yugoslav nation, is a melting pot of all the diverse Yugoslavian cultures. Serbians, Croatians and Balkan Muslims each control their respective regions of Bosnia–a close association that has bred Read More