1863 - Navy General Order 4, signed by Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, announces the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln, which is signed on Jan. 1, 1863.
1911 - Battleship Arkansas (BB 33) is launched. After service in two world wars, she is target ship for Bikini Atoll Atomic bomb tests.
1943 - USS Gudgeon (SS 211) lands six men, 2,000 pounds of equipment and supplies on Negros Island for first resupply mission for a submarine.
1944 - Five U.S. Navy submarines sink five different Japanese vessels in and around the Pacific Ocean. USS Albacore (SS 218) sinks Japanese destroyer Sazanami 300 miles off Yap; USS Scamp (SS 277) sinks the tanker Nippon Maru off Sorol Island; USS Guardfish (SS 217) sinks tanker Kenyo Maru southeast of Palau; USS Seawolf (SS 197) sinks tanker Yamazuru Maru off Okinawa, and USS Swordfish (SS 193) sinks transport Yamakuni Maru off Hachijo Jima.
1945 - USS Cobia (SS 245) sinks the Japanese minelayer Yurijima off the east coast of Malaya.
2006 - Amphibious Transport Dock USS San Antonio (LPD 17) is commissioned.
