11 JANUARY 1820 USS LYNX In modern times, the unexplained disappearance of a vessel at sea would raise much interest, concern, news coverage, and even sensationalist speculation. Witness the loss of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in 2014. In the 19th century, Read More
7 JANUARY 1945 THEODORE EDSON CHANDLER Theodore Edson Chandler was born at Annapolis on 26 December 1894 into a distinguished Navy family. His father, the future RADM Lloyd H. Chandler, attended the Naval Academy at the time. Young Chandler followed in Read More
3 JANUARY 1908 CROSSING THE LINE On 29 December 1907, after their first coaling stop in Trinidad, the Atlantic Battleship Fleet, nicknamed “the Great White Fleet,” weighed anchor and headed south on their epic world cruise. Five days later off Macapa, Read More
27 DECEMBER 1917 USS SANTEE Even before the United States entered WWI, our Navy was assisting the British in combating Kaiser Wilhelm II’s U-boats. This effort intensified after US entry in June 1917. At the time, targets for the U-boats were Read More
18-20 DECEMBER 1944 MONAGHAN vs. THE TEMPEST The Pacific war was a long one for USS MONAGHAN (DD-354). She was the ready destroyer at Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941 and was just getting underway to investigate a Read More
13 DECEMBER 1975 USS ALBANY COLLISION The catastrophic collision of the container ship Dali with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge on 26 March 2024 is by no means the only time such an event has occurred. Indeed, on this date 50 years Read More
7-8 DECEMBER 1941 WHERE WERE THE CARRIERS? Most everyone will recall that one significant shortcoming of the Pearl Harbor raid from the Japanese perspective was its failure to destroy the American Navy’s aircraft carriers. Yamamoto had targeted them in particular, appreciating Read More
7 DECEMBER 1941 DETERMINATION vs. COMPLACENCY Japan emerged from the First World War as a bona fide naval power, a rival to US primacy in the Pacific. And as early as 1918, Imperial Defense Policy identified the United States as her Read More
1 DECEMBER 1778 “COME AND TAKE IT!” The colony of Georgia was a late arrival to our Revolutionary War, her citizens needing British protection from hostile Creeks and Cherokees to their west. Nevertheless, the Continental Congress authorized the construction of forts Read More
24 NOVEMBER 1992 US DEPARTS THE PHILIPPINES The presence of American military bases in the Philippines was a consequence of our acquisition of that archipelago in 1898 after the Spanish-American war. When independence was granted to the Republic of the Philippines Read More