April 19
1783 - George Washington proclaims end of hostilities
1861 - President Lincoln orders blockade of Southern ports from SC to Texas
1917 - Naval Armed Guard crew on board SS Mongolia engage and damage a German U-boat. This was the first engagement of U.S. naval personnel against the enemy in World War I.
1955 - USS Albany and USS William Wood begin to provide disaster relief to citizens of Volos, Greece, ending 21 April
April 20
1796 - Congress authorizes completion of 3 frigates
1861 - Norfolk Navy Yard abandoned and burned by Union forces.
1914 - In first call to action of naval aviators, detachment on USS Birmingham sailed to Tampico, Mexico.
1915 - First Navy contract for lighter-than-air craft awarded.
1942 - USS Wasp (CV-7) launches 47 British aircraft to reinforce Malta
1947 - CAPT L.O. Fox, USN, supported by 80 Marines, accepted the surrender of LT Yamaguchi and 26 Japanese soldiers and sailors, two and one half years after the occupation of Peleliu and nearly 20 months after the surrender of Japan.
1953 - USS New Jersey shells Wonsan, Korea from inside the harbor.
1964 - USS Henry Clay (SSBN-625) launches a Polaris A-2 missile from the surface in first demonstration that Polaris submarines could launch missiles from the surface as well as from beneath the ocean. 30 minutes later the submarine launched another Polaris missile while submerged.
April 21
1861 - USS Saratoga captures slaver, Nightingale.
1898 - U.S. at war against Spain.
1906 - Commander Robert Peary discovered supposed Arctic Continent did not exist.
1972 - Moonwalk in the Descartes Highlands by CAPT John W. Young, USN Commander of Apollo 16. He was the ninth man to walk on the moon. LCDR Thomas K. Mattingly II, USN was the Command Module Pilot. During the 11 day, 1 hour and 51 minute mission, 213 lbs. of lunar material was collected. Recovery by HC-1 helicopters from USS Ticonderoga (CVS-14)
April 22
1778 - Captain John Paul Jones of Ranger led landing party raid on Whitehaven, England
1898 - U.S. warships begin blockade of Cuba
1987 - U.S. Navy ordered to provide assistance to neutral vessels under Iranian attack outside the exclusion zone and that requested help
April 23
1917 - Launching of USS New Mexico, first dreadnought with turboelectric drive
1918 - USS Stewart destroys German submarine off France
1945 - In only U.S. use of guided missiles in WW II, 2 BAT missiles release at Balikiapan, Borneo
1956 - Project Vanguard, earth satellite launching program, assigned to DCNO (Air)
April 24
1778 - Continental Navy sloop Ranger captures HMS Drake
1862 - Battle of New Orleans; Union Navy under David Farragut runs past forts into Mississippi River
1884 - USS Bear left the New York Naval Shipyard as part of the Greely Relief Expedition. USS Thetis would join the mission a week later, with USS Alert also joining on this mission. The Greely Expedition was marooned in the Arctic. Greely and six other survivors were found at Cape Sabine, 23 June 1884.
1906- Ceremonies at Naval Academy commemorate John Paul Jones; President Theodore Roosevelt delivers speech
1917 - Destroyer squadron departs Boston for European service
1959 - Organization of American States asks U.S. to establish naval patrols off east coast of Panama to prevent invasion of Cuban forces
1974 - Naval forces begin minesweeping operations in the Suez Canal Zone
1981 - RCA delivers to the Navy, NOVA I, the 1st production unit of the improved navigational satellite.
April 25
1862 - Union naval forces occupy New Orleans, LA
1898 - Congress declares war existed with Spain since 21 April
1914 - First combat observation mission by Navy plane, at Veracruz, Mexico.
1959 - USS Eversole rescues 14 Chinese Nationalist fishermen from their sinking fishing trawler in the Formosa Strait.
