The Union Navy’s Monitor and Confederate States Ship Virginia engage in the first battle between ironclad ships, March 9, 1862. The battle, at Hampton Roads, Va., was indecisive. Neither ship would fight again – Monitor would later be lost at sea in a storm, and Virginia scuttled to prevent capture.
March 4
1911 - The first Naval Appropriations Act that included funds for naval aviation is approved by Congress.
1925 - Congress authorizes restoration of Constitution.
1947 - Operation Highjump, air operations in Antarctica, ends.
1963 - A Navy Hercules aircraft completes a 12-day rescue operation of a critically-ill Danish seaman from a Danish freighter off the coast of Antarctica.
March 5
1942 - The name “Seabees“ is officially authorized.
1943 - USS Bogue (CVE 9) begins the first anti-submarine operations by an escort carrier.
1960 - USS Newport News (CA 148) and personnel from Port Lyautey complete emergency relief operations at Agadir, Morocco, after an earthquake Feb. 29.
March 6
1822 - Enterprise captures four pirate ships in the Gulf of Mexico.
1862 - Monitor departs New York for Hampton Roads, Va.
1942 - U.S. cruisers and destroyers bombard Vila and Munda, Solomon Islands, sinking two Japanese destroyers.
March 7
1778 - Continental Navy frigate Randolph (32 guns) engages HMS Yarmouth (64). Randolph explodes and sinks with the loss of all but four men.
1958 - Commissioning of USS Grayback (SS 574), first submarine built from keel up with guided-missile capability to fire Regulus II missile.
1960 - USS Kearsarge (CVS 33) rescues four Russian soldiers from their landing craft 1,000 miles from Midway Island. The Soldiers were drifting several weeks after their engine failed off Kamchatka Peninsula.
1966 - The Department of the Navy is reorganized into its present structure under the Chief of Naval Operations.
1967 - River Patrol Boats assist Operation Overload II in Rung Sat Zone, Vietnam.
1968 - Operation Coronado XII begins in Mekong Delta, Vietnam.
1994 - The Navy issues its first orders to women assigned aboard a combat ship - USS Eisenhower (CVN 69).
March 8
1854 - Commodore Matthew Perry opens treaty negotiations with Japan.
1862 - Ironclad ram CSS Virginia destroys U.S. Sloop-of-War Cumberland and Frigate Congress.
1945 - Phyllis Daley, assigned to the Navy Nurse Corps, becomes the first African-American ensign.
1958 - Battleship USS Wisconsin (BB 64) is decommissioned, leaving the Navy without an active battleship for the first time since 1895.
1965 - The 7th Fleet lands the first major Marine Corps units in South Vietnam at Danang.
March 9
1798 - The first U.S. Navy surgeon, George Balfour, is appointed.
1847 - Commodore David Connor leads a successful amphibious assault near Vera Cruz, Mexico.
1862 - The first battle between ironclads - Union Navy Monitor and CSS Virginia - takes place.
March 10
1783 - Continental Navy Frigate Alliance, commanded by Capt. John Barry, defeats HMS Sybi,l in the final naval action of the American Revolution, in West Indies waters.
1933 - The Pacific Fleet provides assistance after an earthquake at Long Beach, Calif.
1945 - Navy and civilian nurses interned at Los BaÒos, Philippines, are flown back to the United States. The Navy nurses are each awarded a Bronze Star.
1948 - First use of jets assigned to operational squadron (VF-5A) aboard a carrier - USS Boxer (CV 21).
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