This Day In Naval History: August 3

1804 - Commodore Edward Prebles Mediterranean Squadron launches the first of a series of bombardments on the harbor of Tripoli. Designed to destroy the defending batteries and sink enemy ships, the bombardments are part of the blockade that Preble established in 1803.

 

1861 - Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles calls for designers to submit plans for ironclad warships to the Navy Department. The design, by inventor John Ericsson, is chosen for USS Monitor, a revolutionary armored ship, carrying her guns in a rotating turret.

 

1942 - Mildred H. McAfee takes the oath of office to become the first female line officer. She is commissioned a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve and simultaneously undertakes the duties of being the first director of the newly-established WAVES ("Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service").

 

1943 - PBM aircraft (VP 205) sinks German submarine (U 572), north of Dutch Giuiana. Also on this date, USS Buck (DD 420) sinks Italian submarine, Argento, off Tunisia.

 

1958 - USS Nautilus (SSN 571) becomes the first ship to reach geographic North Pole submerged. Nautilus then proceeds from Greenland to Portland, England, where she receives the Presidential Unit Citation, the first ever issued in peace time, from American Ambassador J. H. Whitney.