From the Navy News Service
1797 - Naval Regulations passed by Congress.
1800 - First convoy duty; USS Essex escorts convoy of merchant ships from East Indies to U.S.
1801 - U.S. squadron under Commodore Dale enters Mediterranean to strike Barbary Pirates.
1850 - Naval School at Annapolis renamed Naval Academy.
1851 - Naval Academy adopts four year course of study.
1911 - Trial of first Navy aircraft, Curtiss A-1. The designer, Glenn Curtiss, makes first flight in Navy's first aircraft, A-1, at Lake Keuka, N.Y., then prepares Lt. Theodore G. Ellyson, the first naval aviator, for his two solo flights in A-1.
1914 - Prohibition of alcohol begins in the Navy.
1916 - Establishment of informal school for officers assigned to submarines at New London, Conn.
1946 - First of two detonations, Operation Crossroads nuclear test.
1951 - Responsibility for the Government of Trust Territories transferred from Navy to Department of Interior.
1972 - Date of rank of Rear Admiral Samuel Lee Gravely Jr., who was first U.S. Navy admiral of African-American descent.