This Day In Naval History - January 04

1910 - USS Michigan, the first U.S. dreadnought battleship, is commissioned.

1943 - USS Shad (SS 235) sinks German minesweeper M 4242 (ex-French trawler Odet II) in the Bay of Biscay.

1944 - USS Bluefish (SS 222) and USS Rasher (SS 269) attack a Japanese convoy off French Indochina; Bluefish sinks a merchant tanker while Rasher damages another tanker. Also on this date USS Cabrilla (SS 288) sinks a Japanese freighter off Cape Padran, French Indochina while USS Tautog (SS 109) sinks a Japanese freighter off southern Honshu.

1945 - During attacks against the U.S. Navy force bound for the Lingayen Gulf, a kamikaze crashes into escort carrier USS Ommaney Bay (CVE 79) in the Sulu Sea and damages her beyond repair. USS Burns (DD 588) scuttles the carrier escort.

1989 - VF-32 F-14 Tomcats from USS John F. Kennedy shoot down two hostile Libyan MiGs with AIM-7 [Sparrow] and AIM-9 [Sidewinder] missiles in the central Med north of Tobruk in international waters.


(Source: Naval History and Heritage Command, Communication and Outreach Division)