1841 - Congress authorizes the first iron-hulled warship. Designed by Samuel Hart, USS Michigan launches in December 1843 and serves to protect the Great Lakes.
1943 - Operation Avalanche, Task Force 80 (Western Naval Task Force) under Vice Adm. Henry K. Hewitt, lands the Allied Fifth Army on the assault beaches in the Gulf of Salerno, Italy. Naval gunfire delivers a great volume of counter-battery, interdiction, and neutralization fire m becoming one of the decisive factors in holding the Salerno beachhead.
1944 - USS Bang (SS 385) attacks a Japanese convoy 3905, en route from Tokyo Bay to Chichi Jima, and sinks transport Tokiwasan Maru, and freighter Shoryu Maru.
1945 - Japanese forces in the southern part of Korea surrender in ceremonies held in Seoul, marking the end of three and a half decades of Japanese rule in Korea.
1947 - Lt. Grace Hopper is part of a team that finds a moth that is bugging up the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator at Harvard. After debugging the system, the moth is affixed to the computer log, where Hopper notes: "First actual case of bug being found." Lt. Hopper later attains the rank of rear admiral.
1961 - USS Long Beach (CG (N) 9) is commissioned at Boston as the first nuclear-power surface warship in history and is assigned to the Atlantic Fleet and home ported at Norfolk, Va.
1989 - USS Pennsylvania (SSBN 735) is commissioned at New London, Conn. The fourth Navy vessel to be named after the Keystone State, the Ohio-class nuclear-powered submarine is homeported at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Ga.
2006 - USS Texas (SSN 775) is commissioned at Newport News, Va. The second Virginia-class attack submarine is the first named for the Lone Star State. Previous ships named Texas have included two battleships and a cruiser.
