1831-A contract was made to provide the Portland Harbor (Barcelona) Lighthouse, on the south shore of Lake Erie in New York, with natural gas "at all times and seasons" and to keep the apparatus and fixtures in repair at an annual cost of $213.00.
1850-The light in the Minots Ledge Lighthouse was first shown. This lighthouse was the first one built in the United States in a position directly exposed to the sweep of the open sea. It was destroyed and two keepers were killed in a great gale in April 1851.
1937-Effective this date, the dividing point between the 6th and 7th Lighthouse Districts on the east coast of Florida was moved northward from Hillsboro Inlet to St. Lucie Inlet. This change was made so that the trans-Florida waterway through Lake Okeechobee so that the entire waterway would be under one jurisdiction.
1946-The U.S. Coast Guard, which had operated as a service under the U.S. Navy since 1 November 1941, was returned to the U .S. Treasury Department, pursuant to Executive Order 9666, dated 28 December 1945.
1946-The International Load Lines Convention, which had been suspended since 9 August 1941, was restored to full effectiveness by a Presidential proclamation dated 21 December 1945. The U .S. Coast Guard resumed assumed the enforcement of the convention’s requirements in the interest of safe loading.
1954-The "Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1948" commonly known as the "Revised lnternational Rules of the Road" became law. These were a result of the International Conference on the Safety of Life at Sea, 1948.
1958-The U.S. Coast Guard ceased listening continuously for distress calls on 2670 kilocycles. Although the countries of the world had agreed at the Atlantic City Convention of the International Telecommunication Union in 1947 to use 2182 kilocycles for international maritime mobile radiotelephone calling and distress, the U.S. Coast Guard had continued listening on the old frequency until the public had had sufficient time to change to the new one.
1984-The CGC Westwind was heavily damaged by ice in Antarctic's Weddell Sea. About 120 feet of the port-side hull was gashed when brash ice forced the ship against a 100-foot sheer ice shelf. The gash was two to three feet wide and was six feet above the water line. The crew made temporary repairs. There were no injuries.
1985-The CGC Citrus was rammed by the M/V Pacific Star during a boarding incident. The Pacific Star then sank after being scuttled by her crew. There were no casualties. The seven crewmen were arrested on drug charges.
1999-The aviation machinist ratings merged with the aviation structural mechanic ratings to form the aviation maintenance technicians with the designator AMT. The aviation electronics technician rating became the avionics technicians with the designator AVT. The aviation survivalman rating was renamed aviation survival technician." entryDate[1] = " 01/02/" + year entryContent[1] = "
1892-The British schooner H. P. Kirkham wrecked on Rose and Crown Shoal. The crew of seven was rescued after 15 hours of exposure. The lifesaving crew that rescued them was at sea in an open boat without food for 23 hours.
1909-Cleveland, Ohio, Lake Erie, the gas launch Junk Boy was damaged in the ice and started a bad leak. It was drifting before the wind when discovered by the keeper. He went to the aid of the occupant who had kept the launch afloat by bailing. The keeper towed the launch to the dock, passed straps under the hull, and hoisted her out. He then patched the leaks with sheets of tin and the owner ran his boat up the river.
1956-Captain Chester Edward Dimick, retired professor, died of a heart attack at age 75 on 2 January 1956 at his home in Twin Gates, Tryon, North Carolina. As instructor and Head of the Mathematics Department of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy at New London, CT from 1906 to 1945, he contributed more to the education and development of Coast Guard officers than any other officer in the Service. He was affectionately known as the "Dean" to the cadets." entryDate[2] = " 01/03/" + year entryContent[2] = "
1882-The watch at Station No. 13, Second District, Massachusetts, reported at about 4 p.m., the collision of two schooners, two and a half miles east southeast of the station. Launching the surfboat, the crew proceeded to the vessels. The smaller vessel, the British schooner Dart, was boarded first. She was out from Saint John, NB and bound for New York with a cargo of lumber and a crew of four persons. The vessel was badly damaged, having her bowsprit, jib boom, and headgear carried away. The life-saving crew at once set to work. They cleared away the wreck and weighed her anchor, which had been let go in the collision. By this time, the steamer Hercules, of Philadelphia had come alongside and Dart’s master arranged for a tow to Vineyard Haven. The life-saving crew ran the hawser from the schooner to the steamer and sent them on their way. The other schooner, in the meantime, had sailed away.
1944-CDR Frank Erickson flew plasma in a Coast Guard HNS-1 helicopter from Brooklyn to a hospital in Sandy Hook, New Jersey in the first recorded lifesaving flight conducted by a rotary-winged aircraft.
2003-The CGC Boutwell departed Alameda in preparation for supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. She began operations in the Arabian Gulf on 14 February 2003. Prior to the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, her crew conducted maritime interception boardings to enforce U.N. sanctions against Iraq. At the outbreak of hostilities and throughout the conflict, she operated in the strategically critical and politically sensitive Khawr Abd Allah and Shaat Al Arab Waterways, providing force protection to the massive coalition fleet, securing Iraqi oil terminals, and preventing the movement of weapons, personnel or equipment by Saddam Hussein's regime or other guerilla or terrorist forces." entryDate[3] = " 01/04/" + year entryContent[3] = "
1897-Assistance to lost persons near Oak Island, New York. At 8:30 p.m. the keeper received word by telephone that a gentleman and two ladies, who had left the station at 4 p.m. In a small boat making for the mainland, they had not yet reached their home. As the weather was foggy and with the bay full of floating ice, it was feared they were lost. He at once set out to their assistance with one of his crew in a rowboat and carrying a shotgun. With frequent gunfire the bewildered party was located and assisted in reaching their destination.
1980-Coast Guard forces narrowly averted an environmental disaster when the 300-foot barge Michelle F, with more than 2.8 million gallons of No. Six industrial fuel aboard, grounded one-half mile offshore from the Brigantine Wildlife Refuge. Much of her cargo was offloaded before she was successfully refloated." entryDate[4] = " 01/05/" + year entryContent[4] = "
1883-At 1 o’clock in the afternoon, the crew of the Quoddy Head Station discovered a schooner at anchor. The weather was bitter cold, with a gale from the northwest. The men got the boat out and pulled to the vessel. She proved to be Clara Dinsmore from Boston. There were four men on board, one of them a passenger. With her sails iced up and splitting, she was in need of assistance. The keeper took charge and got the vessel under way with the sails she had left and beat her up the bay to her destination at 6 in the evening." entryDate[5] = " 01/06/" + year entryContent[5] = "
1934-The United States Line SS Washington came within inches of ramming the new Light Vessel No. 117 on the Nantucket Station. The liner scraped the lightship’s side, shearing off davits, a lifeboat, antennas, etc. Five months later the lightship was sunk by RMS Olympic with the loss of seven men.
1973-The U. S. Coast Guard Academy at New London, Connecticut, announced that its cadets were served "meals for the first time by female civilian employees." The Academy had "recently became the first of the nation’s service schools to contract their food services to a civilian company." Previously, CG personnel had done the serving." entryDate[6] = " 01/07/" + year entryContent[6] = "
1877-The French steamer Amerique grounded off Sea Bright, New Jersey. 189 persons were rescued by the USLSS crew, three died.
1947-During Operation HIGHJUMP, Coast Guard icebreaker Northwind successfully completed the first major rescue mission involving a submarine. The USS Sennet (SS-408) and supply ships Yance and Merrick were stuck in ice flow at the Antarctic Circle.
1982-LT Colleen A. Cain, the Coast Guard's first female helicopter pilot, died in the line of duty when the HH-52 CG-1420, on which she was co-pilot, crashed into a mountainside 50 miles east of Honolulu. The pilot, LCDR H. W. Johnson, and aircrewman AD2 D. L. Thompson, were also killed.
1994-The barge Morris J. Berman, carrying a cargo of 750,000 gallons of oil, struck a reef off Puerto Rico. Coast Guard units including the National Strike Force responded." entryDate[7] = " 01/08/" + year entryContent[7] = "
1958-The Coast Guard LORAN Station at Johnston Island began transmitting on a 24-hour basis, thus establishing a new LORAN rate in the Central Pacific. The new rate between Johnston Island and French Frigate Shoal gave a higher order of accuracy for fixing positions in the steamship lanes from Oahu, Hawaii, to Midway Island. In the past, this was impossible in some areas along this important shipping route." entryDate[8] = " 01/09/" + year entryContent[8] = "
1844-The first published and systematic report of the Revenue Marine Bureau was made on 9 January 1844. It reported 15 revenue schooners in the Revenue Marine varying in size from 60 to 170 tons and stationed at Eastport, Portland, Boston, Newport, New York, Delaware Bay, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Key West, Mobile, New Orleans and Lake Erie.
1945-Coast Guardsmen participated in the Invasion of Luzon in the Philippines.
1952-The SS Pennsylvania broadcasted that she had sustained a 14-foot crack in her port side. A tremendous sea was running, and the wind exceeded 55 miles per hour. The master advised that the vessel was foundering and that 45 men were abandoning ship in four lifeboats 665 miles west of Cape Flattery, WA. The Coast Guard used all the facilities at its command in the area, as well as coordinating the use of U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Royal Canadian Air Force facilities in an attempt to locate and rescue the survivors of the vessel. Fifty-one aircraft from all services and 18 surface vessels participated in the search. Some of the debris was located, including one over-turned lifeboat, but no survivors were found." entryDate[9] = " 01/10/" + year entryContent[9] = "
1844-First annual report of newly organized Revenue Marine Bureau was transmitted to Congress by Alexander Fraser." entryDate[10] = " 01/11/" + year entryContent[10] = "
1882-At 9 a.m during a thick snowstorm, the schooner A .F. Ames of Rockland, Maine, was bound from Perth Amboy to Boston with a crew of seven persons. She stranded during a thick snowstorm five hundred yards east of Race Point and one mile and three-quarters west of Station No. 6, Second District. The vessel was discovered by the patrol and the life-saving crew boarded her at 9:15 o’clock. She was leaking and pounding heavily. The pumps were manned to keep the water down. The vessel was floated on the rising tide and made sail. She was piloted into deep water. The leak, however, was gaining rapidly. After consulting with the captain, the vessel was put on the beach. The crew was sheltered at the station until the 13th when the keeper sent them to Boston.
1991-Coast Guard units responded after receiving a distress call from F/V Sea King, a 75-foot stern trawler with four persons on board that was taking on water and in danger of sinking off Peacock Spit near the mouth of the Columbia River. The Coast Guard units that responded included a prototype 47-foot MLB, two 44-foot MLBs, the 52-foot MLB CG-52314 Triumph II, and a Coast Guard helicopter. Despite valiant efforts to save the vessel, it capsized and sank. Three Coast Guardsmen who went aboard the vessel to assist were safely rescued from the water. Another, MK1 Charles Sexton, an emergency medical technician who went aboard the Sea King to assist an injured crewman, was pulled from the water but died 50 minutes after his arrival at a local hospital. The trawler's captain and another crewman were rescued from the water but the crewman did not respond to resuscitation efforts. The captain survived as did the crewman who was first hoisted aboard the helicopter. The fourth crewman remained missing and was believed to have gone down with the trawler. MK1 Sexton was posthumously awarded the Coast Guard Medal." entryDate[11] = " 01/12/" + year entryContent[11] = "
1850-The wreck of Ayrshire on Squan Beach N.J. 201 of 202 persons on board were saved by the life car. First use of the life car in the U.S.
1923-Title "Commandant" was authorized for the service head of the Coast Guard. This officer was to be selected from the active list of line officers not below grade of commander.
1943-Coast Guardsmen participated in the landings at Amchitka, Alaska
1961-Two Coast Guard craft from the Cape Disappointment Lifeboat Station [LBS], CG-40564 and CG-36454, answered a call for assistance from the 38-foot crab boat Mermaid, with two crew on board, which had lost its rudder near the breakers off Peacock Spit. CG-40564 located the Mermaid and took her in tow. Due to adverse sea conditions the crew of CG-40564 requested the assistance of CG-52301 "Triumph," stationed at Point Adams LBS, which took up the tow upon her arrival on scene. Heavy breakers capsized CG-40564 and battered the CG-36454 but the 36-foot motor lifeboat [MLB] stayed afloat. The crew of 36454 then located and rescued the crew of the 40564 and then made for the Columbia River Lightship. The crew of the 36454 managed to deposit safely all on board the lightship before it too foundered. Soon thereafter a heavy breaker hit the Triumph which parted the tow line, set the Mermaid adrift, and capsized the Triumph. The crew of the Mermaid then rescued one of the six crewman on board Triumph. CG-36554 and CG-36535, also from the Point Adams LBS, then arrived on scene and 36535 took the Mermaid in tow. Another large breaker hit, snapping the 36535's tow line and sinking the Mermaid. The cutter Yocona arrived on scene soon after CG aircraft UF 2G No. 1273 from Air Station Port Angeles and began searching for survivors. Other CG aircraft, including UF 2G 2131, UF 2G 1240 and HO 4S 1330, arrived and began dropping flares. Foot patrols from the life-boat stations searched the beaches as well and recovered one Coast Guard survivor. Ultimately five Coast Guard crewman, all from MLB CG-52301 Triumph, drowned, as did both of the Mermaid's crew." entryDate[12] = " 01/13/" + year entryContent[12] = "
1853-The ship Cornelius Grinnell grounded in a heavy surf off Squan Beach New Jersey. A surf car was used to rescue all 234 persons on board.
1925-Alaskan Game Law enforced by Coast Guard.
1918-Surfmen from the Humboldt Bay Lifesaving Station rescued the 430-man crew of the Navy cruiser USS Milwaukee after the cruiser ran aground.
1982-Air Florida Flight 90 crashed onto the 14th Street Bridge and then into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., during a heavy snow storm. Coast Guard units, including the cutters Capstan and Madrona, divers from the Atlantic Strike Team, a helicopter from AIRSTA Elizabeth City, personnel from Curtis Bay, and reservists from Station Washington, assisted in the rescue of the five surviving passengers and the recovery of the aircraft's wreckage. The plane crushed several cars and killed five people on the bridge. All told seventy-four persons lost their lives." entryDate[13] = " 01/14/" + year entryContent[13] = "
1942-Coast Guard plane, a Hall PH-3 No. V-177, dropped food to raft with 6 persons.
1985-Vice President George Bush made an official visit to Base Miami Beach to extend the thanks of the nation to those involved in Operation Hat Trick, an "all-out" effort to stop smugglers soon after they had left ports in Central and South America. The vice president decorated 15 Coast Guardsmen.
2004-The crew of the CGC Thetis rescued three shrimp fishermen from the fishing vessel Dona Nelly after they were in the water for 45 minutes after their vessel sank 15 miles off the coast of Brownsville, Texas." entryDate[14] = " 01/15/" + year entryContent[14] = "
1836-A General Order from the Secretary of the Treasury prescribed that "Blue cloth be substituted for the uniform dress of the officers of the Revenue Cutter Service, instead of grey. . ." thereby ending a controversy that had brewed for years regarding the uniforms of the Service.
1947-The first helicopter flight to the base "Little America" in Antarctica took place. The pilot was LT James A. Cornish, USCG and he carried Chief Photographer's Mate Everett Mashburn as his observer. They flew from the CGC Northwind.
1966-When winds of 30 to 50 knots hit the southern California coast, surface craft off the 11th Coast Guard District rendered assistance to six grounded vessels, three disabled sailboats, and three capsized vessels. They also responded to seven other distress cases. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter played a prominent role in one of the cases by evacuating the five-man crew of the vessel Trilogy that had gone aground and broken up on Santa Cruz Island.
1974-The first group of women ever enlisted as "regulars" in the U.S. Coast Guard began their 10-weeks of basic training at the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May. Thirty-two women were in the initial group and formed Recruit Company Sierra-89.
1983-An HC-130 from Air Station Barbers Point made the first aerial seizure in Coast Guard history when it ordered the Japanese fishing vessel Daian Maru #68 to sail to Midway Island to await a Coast Guard boarding team.
1993-In response to a massive increase in the number of Haitians fleeing their country by sea, beginning in October, 1991, President-elect William Clinton ordered the commencement of Operation Able Manner, the largest SAR operation ever undertaken by the Coast Guard to this time. Twenty-nine cutters were initially involved, as were aircraft from 10 air stations as well as five Navy vessels." entryDate[15] = " 01/16/" + year entryContent[15] = "
1920-Prohibition, later called the "noble experiment" by President Herbert Hoover, became the law of the land on 16 January 1920, one year after the 36th state ratified the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. Enforcement of the law fell to the Department of the Treasury and the Coast Guard was charged with interdicting the flow of "Demon Rum" at sea before it reached American shores.
1944-LT Stewart R. Graham became the first person to make a helicopter take-off and landing aboard a ship underway at sea when he piloted a Sikorsky HNS-1 off of and back on the SS Daghestan in the North Atlantic.
1948-The list of nominations for appointments and promotions of Coast Guard officers transmitted to Congress by the President on this date represented the first permanent advancements of U .S. Coast Guard regular officers since the summer of 1942.
1988-Coast Guard units responded to a report of a murder on board the container vessel Boxer Captain Cook. The ship's first officer reportedly murdered the captain and threw his body overboard. A boarding party from the cutter Northland, offloaded onto the cutter Cape York, boarded the vessel while it was underway on the high seas and captured the suspected murderer and collected evidence of the crime.
1990-The CGC Mellon fired a Harpoon missile in a test, becoming the first cutter to do so." entryDate[16] = " 01/17/" + year entryContent[16] = "
1832-Treasury Secretary Louis McLane discontinued the practice of hiring "unemployed" Navy officers as senior Revenue Cutter Service officers. All vacancies were to be filled by promotions within the service. This was a tremendous boost to morale among Revenue cuttermen as they had long complained about the slow line of promotion, as unemployed Navy officers grabbed up senior positions.
1994-Coast Guard units and family members assisted those in need after an earthquake hit Los Angeles, California." entryDate[17] = " 01/18/" + year entryContent[17] = "
1953-A Coast Guard PBM seaplane crashed during takeoff after having rescued 11 survivors from a ditched U .S. Navy aircraft shot down off the coast of mainland China. A total of nine servicemen lost their lives in this crash, including five Coast Guardsmen.
1974-Coast Guard units rescued 61 crewmembers from the 551-foot tanker Keytrader and the 657-foot Norwegian freighter Baune after the two vessels collided on the night of 18 January 1974 in dense fog. 16 other crewmembers did not survive. The Keytrader was carrying 18,000 tons of fuel oil. A 53-foot Coast Guard vessel assisted in fighting the ensuing fire.
2003-On 18 January the CGC Walnut departed from her homeport in Honolulu, Hawaii and began her 10,000 mile transit to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. This 45 day transit was completed as quickly as possible with brief stops for fuel and food along the way in Guam, Singapore, Kuwait. The cutter deployed with an oil spill recovery system in the event the regime of Saddam Hussein committed any acts of environmental terrorism. When those threats did not materialize, the cutter then conducted maritime interception operations enforcing U.N. Security Council resolutions, participated in the search for two downed United Kingdom helicopters, and patrolled and provided assistance to captured Iraqi offshore oil terminals being secured by Coast Guard port security personnel. The cutter’s crew completely replaced 30 buoys and repaired an additional five along the 41-mile Khawr Abd Allah Waterway. This ATON mission vastly improved the navigational safety of the waterway for humanitarian aid, commercial, and military vessels sailing to the port and was a critical step to economic recovery for the people of Iraq." entryDate[18] = " 01/19/" + year entryContent[18] = "
1935-CWO (GUN) and NAP Charles T. Thrun, Coast Guard Aviator Number 3, was killed when his Grumman JF-2 Duck (CGNR V136) crashed at Cape May. CWO Thrun was the first Coast Guard aviator to die in the line of duty.
1937-CG units began flood relief operations in the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys. These operations lasted until 11 March and resulted in the rescue of hundreds of victims and thousands of farm animals.
1946-Staged jointly by the Coast Guard and the Navy, the first public demonstration of LORAN was held at Floyd Bennett Field in New York.
1949-The tanker Gulfstream collided with icebreaker CGC Eastwind. The collision and resulting fire killed 13 of Eastwind's crew, nine of whom were chief petty officers.
1969-The CGC Absecon, while on ocean station duty, was directed to assist the sinking M/V Ocean Sprinter. The Absecon launched a small boat and rescued all of the merchant vessel's crew. The five Coast Guardsmen manning the small boat received the Coast Guard Medal for their actions.
1996-The tug Scandia and its barge, the North Cape, ran aground on the shore of Rhode Island, spilling 828,000 gallons of oil. This was the worst spill in that state's history. The Coast Guard rescued the entire crew, pumped off 1.5 million gallons of oil and conducted skimming operations." entryDate[19] = " 01/20/" + year entryContent[19] = "
1914-International Ice Patrol Convention signed.
1961-During his inaugural parade, President John F. Kennedy noticed that there were no African-Americans in the Coast Guard Academy cadet unit marching in the parade. He called Secretary of the Treasury Douglas Dillon that night and ordered him to admit African-Americans into the next Coast Guard Academy class.
1984-Coast Guard units respond to a six-alarm fire along Boston's waterfront. The fire began early on the morning of 20 January on the Boston and Maine Railroad Bridge directly behind Boston Garden and North Station. The Boston Fire Department requested Coast Guard assistance and MSO Boston coordinated the response. Small boats from Station Boston responded while personnel from ATON Team Boston, Support Center Boston, Point Allerton Station, and CGCs Pendant, Chase, White Heath, Nantucket I and Nantucket II also assisted." entryDate[20] = " 01/21/" + year entryContent[20] = "
1881-The light was first shown at Tillamook Lighthouse, located 19 miles south of the Columbia River entrance.
1897-Secretary of Treasury empowered to bestow life-saving medals.
1969-CGC Point Banks while on patrol south of Cam Rahn Bay received a call for help from a nine-man ARVN detachment trapped by two Vietcong platoons. Petty Officers Willis Goff and Larry Villareal took a 14-foot Boston whaler ashore to rescue the ARVN troops. In the face of heavy automatic weapons fire, all nine men were evacuated in two trips. For their actions Goff and Villareal were each awarded the Silver Star. The citation stated, "The nine men would have met almost certain death or capture without the assistance of the two Coast Guardsmen."
1982-"Streamlining" plans: the Commandant, ADM John B. Hayes, announced in ALCOAST 002/82 plans to consolidate some operations and streamline others to comply with President Ronald Reagan's goals of "greater efficiency in federal spending," and in accordance with Congressional appropriation levels. The service eliminated 35 units, including the West Coast Training Center at Alameda, and consolidated all recruit training to TRACEN Cape May.
1984-The tanker Cepheus ran aground near Anchorage, Alaska, on the morning of 21 January 1984, spilling 180,000 gallons of jet fuel into Cook Inlet. MSO Anchorage and the Pacific Strike Team responded to the incident and monitored the offloading of the damaged tanker and cleared its passage out of Alaska. The light jet fuel evaporated with little environmental impact." entryDate[21] = " 01/22/" + year entryContent[21] = "
1944-Coast Guardsmen participated in the landings at Anzio-Nettuno, Italy.
1987-The Coast Guard established the Air Interdiction Facility at Norfolk Naval Air Station. The aircrews flew two loaned Navy E-2C Hawkeye aircraft on narcotics interdiction patrols." entryDate[22] = " 01/23/" + year entryContent[22] = "
1909-The schooner Roderick Dhu was discovered in distress on the bar by a Life-Saving Service patrol from the Point Bonita, California station. The schooner had been in tow by a tug, but parted hawsers when 5 1/2 miles SW of a LSS station. She hoisted a signal, and the keeper reported her condition to the Merchant's Exchange. A tug was sent out and the schooner was towed to sea. The next day she was towed into port, leaking badly, and convoyed by the USRC McCulloch." entryDate[23] = " 01/24/" + year entryContent[23] = "
1968-Seifu Maru, a Japanese refrigerator vessel, reported a fire and requested clearance to enter Dutch Harbor, Alaska to combat it. They also reported that two crewmembers had been overcome by smoke and requested their evacuation for hospital treatment. Clearance was granted and CGC Citrus was ordered to proceed and assist in fighting the fire. The burning ship arrived in Dutch Harbor on Jan 24 and advised that the fire was raging between the decks. Fire fighting parties from Citrus began assisting the crew of the Japanese vessel. USCG aircraft evacuated three patients from Seifu Maru to Kodiak for hospitalization. The fire assistance rendered by Citrus in a four-day operation saved the Japanese vessel.
1984-MSO Memphis responded to what appeared to be a routine grounding when three barges being towed down river by the M/V Karman P. broke away 40 miles south of Memphis on 24 January 1984. Initial reports passed to MSO Memphis by way of Group Lower Mississippi River said the tank barge APEX-3506, with one million gallons of slurry-grade number six oil had grounded with "no damage and no pollution." After a boarding team arrived and found the barge sinking and having no means to lighter the cargo, they called in the Gulf Strike Team. Eventually, through the efforts of MSO Memphis, Gulf Strike Team, Atlantic Strike Team, National Strike Force Dive Team, and the Navy Superintendent of Salvage as well as a private salvage firm, the barge's cargo was lightered and the barge itself saved." entryDate[24] = " 01/25/" + year entryContent[24] = "
1799-Having existed essentially nameless for 8-1/2 years, Alexander Hamilton's "system of cutters" was referred to in legislation as "Revenue Cutters." Some decades later, the name evolved to Revenue Cutter Service and Revenue Marine.
1940-The ocean station program was formally established on 25 January 1940 under orders from President Franklin Roosevelt. The Coast Guard, in cooperation with the U. S. Weather Service, were given responsibility for its establishment and operation. The program was first known as the Atlantic Weather Observation Service and later known (and "beloved') by thousands of Coast Guardsmen who served after World War II as the "Ocean Station" program. Cutters were dispatched for 30-day patrols to transmit weather observations and serve as a SAR standby for transoceanic aircraft. The program ended in the 1970s.
2004-A helicopter crew from AIRSTA Detroit helped rescue 14 people stranded on an ice floe about one mile west of Catawba Island, Ohio." entryDate[25] = " 01/26/" + year entryContent[25] = "
1953-U .S. Coast Guard forces assisted civilian authorities in evacuating 191 persons from the Coxuille Valley flood area.
1963-The modern Canadian Coast Guard was founded on this date. A Mari usque ad Mare!
1991-Upon receiving a request from the Saudi government, the Bush Administration determined that the Coast Guard would head an interagency team that would assist the Saudi government in an oil spill assessment and plan for a clean-up operation after an intentional Iraqi oil spill.
1990-Coast Guard Air Station St. Augustine, home of CGAW-1, was formally commissioned on 26 January 1990. The Navy loaned E2Cs to the Coast Guard for use in the efforts by CGAW-1 to track drug shipments by radar. One E2C, #3501, crashed during a landing at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, on 24 August 1990 and all four crewmen on board were killed. CGAW-1 was disbanded soon thereafter and the remaining E2Cs were returned to the Navy." entryDate[26] = " 01/27/" + year entryContent[26] = "
1909-The schooner Nelson Y. McFarland issued a distress call after dropping anchor near the White Head, Maine, Life-Saving Service station. Although anchored against the tide, she was becalmed, yet her stern swung so close to the ledge that "a change of wind or tide would have thrown the vessel upon the rocks. A pulling boat and crew from the station responded to the call and the men rowed to the ship's aid. After a 3-hours' pull the surfmen succeeded in towing the schooner to a safe anchorage in Seal Harbor.
1993-Communications Station Guam received a mayday broadcast from the M/V East Wood. The ship's radio operator claimed that the vessel had been taken over by hijackers and that there were 400 people in the vessel's two main cargo holds. Another transmission claimed that 10 persons were going to be thrown overboard. The Coast Guard dispatched an HC-130 from AIRSTA Barbers Point and ordered the CGC Rush to intercept. A boarding team from the Rush seized the vessel and escorted it to an Army installation on the Marshall Islands. There were 527 Chinese nationals and 10 crewmembers aboard. The Chinese nationals were repatriated to China and nine of the crewmen were sent to Indonesia. The 10th crewman was taken to Honolulu to investigate whether prosecution was possible under U.S. law." entryDate[27] = " 01/28/" + year entryContent[27] = "
1885-Keeper Marcus Hanna of the Cape Elizabeth Light Station saved two men from the wrecked schooner Australia. For this rescue Hanna was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal. He was also awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Port Hudson in 1863. He is the only person to have ever received both awards.
1915-President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the "Act to Create the Coast Guard," an act passed by Congress on 20 January 1915 that combined the Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service to form the Coast Guard (38 Stat. L., 800). The Coast Guard, however, still considers the date of the founding of the Revenue Cutter Service, 4 August 1790, as its "official" birthday, even though the Lighthouse Service, absorbed in 1939, is even older than that, dating to 7 August 1789.
1980-The CGC Blackthorn sank in Tampa Bay after colliding with the tanker Capricorn. 23 Coast Guard personnel were killed in the tragedy.
1986-NASA's space shuttle Challenger exploded after lift-off, killing the entire crew. Coast Guard units, including the cutters Dallas, Dauntless, Harriet Lane, Bear, Tampa, Cherokee, Sweetgum, and Point Roberts conducted the initial search and rescue operations and later assisted in the recovery of much of the shuttle's wreckage. Other units included personnel from Station Port Canaveral, air stations Miami, Clearwater, and Savannah as well as Coast Guard reservists and Auxiliarists. The Dallas served as the on-scene commander for what was a joint Coast Guard, NASA, Navy and Air Force search and recovery operation.
2003-DoD submitted a request for Coast Guard forces in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The Commandant, ADM Thomas Collins, approved that request and ordered the deployment of eight 110-foot patrol boats, crews, and support units. The cutters were CGCs: Wrangell, Adak, Aquidneck, Baranof, Grand Isle, Bainbridge Island, Pea Island, and Knight Island." entryDate[28] = " 01/29/" + year entryContent[28] = "
1919-Ratification of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages. Its enforcement was authorized by the National Prohibition Enforcement Act, otherwise known as the Volstead Act on 28 October 1919. The Coast Guard was tasked with the prevention of the maritime importation of illegal alcohol. This led to the largest increase in the size and responsibilities of the service to date.
1945-The Coast Guard-manned attack cargo vessel USS Serpens exploded off Guadalcanal due to unknown causes. Only two men aboard survived. This was the single greatest Coast Guard loss of life in history.
1980-Local authorities in the Tijuana, Mexico area requested Coast Guard assistance in evacuating flood victims stranded by the rising waters of the San Miguel River. Two HH-3F helicopters from Air Station San Diego transported 180 persons to safety during the two-day operation." entryDate[29] = " 01/30/" + year entryContent[29] = "
1861-Secretary John A. Dix of Treasury ordered Lt. Caldwell "to arrest Capt. Breshwood (Confederate sympathizer) assume command of cutter (McClelland) and if anyone attempts to haul down the flag, shoot him on the spot." [emphasis added] The message was not delivered by the telegraph office. Breshwood turned McClelland over to the State of Louisiana. She ended up in Confederate service.
1942-The capsized hulk of the CGC Alexander Hamilton was sunk by the US Navy after she was torpedoed off the coast of Iceland by the U-132 the previous day. She was the first cutter sunk by enemy action during World War II. 26 of her crew perished.
1942-USS Wakefield, the former passenger liner SS Manhattan converted to a troop transport and manned by a Coast Guard crew, transported British troops to Singapore. Having disembarked all the troops, she was bombed by Japanese aircraft while still in port. Five of her Coast Guard crew were killed, the first Coast Guard casualties of World War II. After quick temporary repairs, she evacuated 500 women and children to Bombay before the port fell to the Japanese.
1979-On 30 January 1979 there was an explosion at the Coast Guard Marine Safety Detachment office at Ponce Playa, Port Ponce, Puerto Rico. The OVPR (Organizacion De Voluntarios Por La Revelucion Puerto Riquena) claimed responsibility. There were no casualties and little damage at the facility.
1982-Coast Guard 8th District units responded to the flooding of the Calcasieu River near Lake Charles, Louisiana. Up river Coast Guard boats searched daily for stranded people and domestic animals. Downriver COTP Port Arthur and Marine Safety Detachment Lake Charles wrestled with the problem of strong currents and four run-away barges that destroyed one bridge and threatened two others." entryDate[30] = " 01/31/" + year entryContent[30] = "
1942-HMS Culver (ex-CGC Mendota--she was one of the "Lake" Class cutters transferred to the Royal Navy in 1941 under the Lend-Lease program) was torpedoed and sunk with 13 survivors.
1948-Mrs. Fannie M. Salter, keeper of the Turkey Point Lighthouse in upper Chesapeake Bay since 1925 and the last woman keeper of a lighthouse in the United States, retired from active service. The first woman had been hired as a lighthouse keeper 150 years before. Salter's retirement temporarily closed the tradition of women serving as keepers at lighthouses.
1975-CGC Vigorous (WMEC-627) became the first cutter to make a seizure of a foreign-flag fishing vessel in the high seas when she seized the Italian fishing vessel Tontini Pesca Cuarto for illegally taking lobster. All of the other fishery seizures prior to this were of vessels that had violated territorial seas (TS) or Contiguous Fishing Zone (CFZ). At the time, Vigorous was under the command of CDR Paul Welling, USCG. The arresting officer was ENS S.T. Fuger, Jr., USCG.
2001-Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashed off the coast of California near the Channel Islands, killing all 88 on board. Coast Guard Channel Island Station crewmen responded to the tragedy.
2004-The crews of a 47-foot MLB from Station Chincoteague and a rescue helicopter from Air Station Elizabeth City combined to rescue five men after their vessel began taking on water 25 miles east of Chincoteague." entryDate[31] = " 02/01/" + year entryContent[31] = "
1871-Using his administrative authority, Secretary of the Treasury George S. Boutwell re-established a Revenue Marine Bureau and assigned Sumner I. Kimball as the civilian Chief with the duty of administering both the revenue cutters and the life-saving stations.
1938-The Lighthouse Service Radio Laboratory was moved from the shops of the lighthouse depot in Detroit, Michigan, "to the Lazaretto Lighthouse Depot in Baltimore, Md., where a building had been constructed providing more adequately for this Important branch of the work of the Service.
1942-Enlistees after this date were restricted to enlistment in the USCG Reserve. This was done to prevent having too many enlistees in the service at war’s end.
1944-Coast Guardsmen participated in the invasion of Namur Island, Kwajalein Atoll." entryDate[32] = " 02/02/" + year entryContent[32] = "
1944-Coast Guardsmen participated in the landings at Saldor, New Guinea." entryDate[33] = " 02/03/" + year entryContent[33] = "
1801-Treaty of peace with France was ratified on this date, thereby ending the "Quasi-War" with France, in which cutters of the Revenue Marine had rendered outstanding service.
1880-Date of a terrific gale on the New Jersey coast. Six vessels came ashore with 47 persons on board all but two survived. Nineteen USLSS crewmen won Gold Life-Saving Medals during the wreck of George Taulane.
1943-The torpedoing of the transport Dorchester off the coast of Greenland saw CGCs Comanche and Escanaba respond. The crew of Escanaba used a new rescue technique when pulling survivors from the water. This "retriever" technique used swimmers clad in wet suits to swim to victims in the water and secure a line to them so they could be hauled onto the ship. Although Escanaba saved 133 men (one died later) and Comanche saved 97, over 600 men were lost, including the famous "Four Chaplains" who gave up their lifejackets to those that did not have one and went down with the ship.
1997-The 660-foot freighter Contship Houston ran aground on a coral reef 12 miles southeast of Key West in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The vessel, under Coast Guard supervision, was safely floated off the reef some 144 hours later." entryDate[34] = " 02/04/" + year entryContent[34] = "
1859-U.S. signs "Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation" with Paraguay at Asuncion after the revenue cutter Harriet Lane, as part of a US Navy expedition, forced the opening of the Paraguay and Parana Rivers.
1863-Commissioned officers of the Revenue Cutter Service were to be appointed by the President by and with advice and consent of the Senate. This act contained the first statutory use of term "Revenue Cutter Service." Previous laws referred only to "revenue cutters".
1982-The Attorney General, William Smith, declared at a press conference that Operation Tiburon was "the most successful international marijuana interdiction effort to date." The operation began in November, 1980, and accounted for the seizure of 95 vessels. It was a combined operation that included elements of the Coast Guard, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Customs Service and various state and local law enforcement agencies.
1999-The 639-foot freighter New Carissa ran aground north of Coos Bay, Oregon. Coast Guard helicopter crews rescued 23 crewmembers but the vessel remained firmly aground and attempts to refloat her failed. A unified command made up of Coast Guard and Navy personnel as well as marine salvors attempted to prevent a catastrophic oil spill as the ship began breaking apart. The team decided to set the oil on board the New Carissa on fire so it would burn away before being spilled and fouling the shore. It was the largest "in situ" burn ever tried in U.S. waters and it consumed a significant amount of the oil aboard the New Carissa. The Coast Guard's annual report for that year noted: "While some oil did spill out of the vessel, the unified command's efforts greatly reduced the potential environmental damage to the Oregon coast." The ship eventually broke in two and her bow section was towed to sea and sunk by the Navy." entryDate[35] = " 02/05/" + year entryContent[35] = "
1882-The schooner Mary L. Vankirk, bound for Philadelphian from South Creek, Pamlico Sound, NC. carrying a crew of five men, encountered heavy weather. She lost sails and sprung a leak, so that before long she became water-logged and almost unmanageable. In this condition it was determined to run to leeward and seek refuge in Hatteras Inlet. Matters, however, became worse and it was decided to beach the vessel. She was discovered heading for the land by the crew of Station No. 18, Sixth District (Chicamicomico, NC. The surfboat was run out, but the life-saving crew returned to the station for the breeches-buoy apparatus. The latter arrived abreast of the schooner at 8:15, fifteen minutes after she struck the bar about half a mile north of the station. The schooner was so close that the keeper was able to wade out into the water and cast a heaving-line to those huddled in the rigging. As quickly as possible, the men in the rigging hauled off the whip-line. The breeches-buoy was soon rigged and went spinning out to the vessel. All five men were safely landed.
1946-Four Coast Guardsmen from Willapa Harbor Lifeboat Station perished while searching for two crab fishermen feared lost in Williapa Bay. The men were: BMC Joseph W. Miller, USCG; MM 1/c Geloyd J. Simmons, USCG; Coxswain James R. Graves, USCG; S 1/c Howard W. Hampton, USCG." entryDate[36] = " 02/06/" + year entryContent[36] = "
1893-Secretary of Treasury authorized to define and establish anchorage grounds for vessels in harbor of Chicago and adjacent waters of Lake Michigan.
1942-CGC Nike rescued 38 persons from China Arrow off Ocean City, Maryland.
1990-Two Coast Guard Air Station Houston crews were the first to receive the Igor I. Sikorsky Award for Humanitarian Service. The award was presented by the Helicopter Association International at their Dallas convention. The crews were honored for their rescue of seven fishermen during Hurricane Chantal last year. They flew through driving rain, winds in excess of 65 miles-per-hour, thunderstorms and squalls to rescue the men from their capsized boat.
1996-Alas Airlines Flight 301 crashed off the Dominican Republic and Coast Guard units conduct search and rescue operations.
1996-Coast Guard units responded to calls of assistance due to severe flooding throughout the Pacific Northwest." entryDate[37] = " 02/07/" + year entryContent[37] = "
1914-Pursuant to the Convention for Safety at Sea in London, President Woodrow Wilson directed that the Revenue Cutter Service undertake the task of manning the International Ice Patrol. Henceforth, the Revenue Cutter Service and the Coast Guard, with brief respites during both World Wars, served in this capacity.
1942-Presidential order created the War Shipping Administration which assumed control over all phases of merchant marine activities.
1943-During a fierce convoy battle near Greenland, the CGC Ingham rescued 33 survivors from the torpedoed troopship SS Henry Mallory while the Bibb rescued 202. Bibb then rescued 33 from the torpedoed Kalliopi.
1969-CGC Tern, commissioned on this date and stationed in New York, embodied an advanced concept in servicing aids to navigation. Her over-the-stern gantry system of handling buoys was unique. The automation and modernization of over-age, isolated lighthouses and light stations showed significant progress this year. A new, more effective version of the LAMP (Lighthouse Automation and Modernization Project) plan was promulgated in this year.
1980-The CGC Cape Horn saved all six crewmen of the F/V Hattie Rose in a dramatic night-time rescue. The Hattie Rose, a Gloucester-based 75-foot stern trawler, began taking on water in 25-foot seas and 45-knot winds, 15 miles east of Provincetown. Sea and wind conditions prevented a rescue by air and so the Cape Horn, under the command of LTJG William L. Ross, and 11 crewmen, diverted from one SAR case to go to the Hattie Rose's assistance. The F/V Paul and Dominic, standing nearby the stricken vessel, helped direct the cutter to the area. The Cape Horn's crew got a line to the men, now standing on the bow which was still afloat, and pulled four of the crew to safety aboard the cutter. The line parted, however, and the two remaining fishermen began drifting away, but two of the Cape Horn's crew, Duncan Grant and Thomas Jennings, leaped into the 35-degree water and secured a line around the two. They were all then hauled safely aboard.
2003-The CGC Matagorda, a 110-foot Island Class patrol boat, became the first cutter to begin the Integrated Deepwater System modernization and life extension overhaul when she was decommissioned on 7 February 2003 at the Bollinger Shipyard in Lockport, LA." entryDate[38] = " 02/08/" + year entryContent[38] = "
1958-A U.S. Navy P5M aircraft enroute from San Juan to Norfolk lost one engine and changed course to the island of San Salvador, British West Indies, to attempt a night ditching. AIRSTA Miami sent up a Coast Guard UF amphibian plane, later reinforced by a second amphibian. After contacting the disabled US Navy plane, the pilot of the first amphibian talked the Navy pilot out of attempting to ditch without benefit of illumination and alerted the commanding officer of the Coast Guard LORAN station on San Salvador for assistance after ditching. In true Coast Guard tradition, the LORAN station's CO borrowed a truck and an 18-foot boat to assist. The commanding officer managed to be on the scene 1 1/2 miles offshore, when the Navy P5M landed with two minutes of fuel remaining. While one of the amphibians provided additional illumination, the Navy plane was guided through a dangerous reef to a mooring, using her operative port engine. There were no casualties.
2007-The CGC Storis was decommissioned after 64 years of service. " entryDate[39] = " 02/09/" + year entryContent[39] = "
1965-A commercial CD-7 with 84 persons on board exploded in midair off Jones Beach, Long Island. Despite an extensive search by 7 Coast Guard cutters, 6 Coast Guard aircraft, and a US Navy tug, no survivors were located. Only 9 bodies and various pieces of debris were located and recovered.
1968-CG cutters Androscoggin, Minnetonka, and Winona, along with 82 footers and Navy assets, on patrol in Vietnamese waters, thwarted a Communist attempt to run four trawlers through the Market Time blockade off the coast of South Vietnam. The cutters sank three of the trawlers and forced the fourth to return to Hainan Island without landing her cargo. The defeat of this attempted re-supply was hailed as "the most significant naval victory of the Vietnam campaign."" entryDate[40] = " 02/10/" + year entryContent[40] = "
1840-A House resolution was introduced to inquire into transferring the Revenue Marine to the Navy.
1940-CGCs Bibb and Duane became the first vessels to make radio transmissions as "weather stations."
1992-Retired Coast Guard Chief Journalist Alex Haley, internationally noted author and the first person to ever hold that rate in the Coast Guard, died of a heart attack.
1995-The 689-foot tank ship Mormac Star, carrying more than 4.7 million gallons of Jet A fuel and nearly 5.7 million gallons of number 2 diesel fuel, ran aground in Sandy Hook Channel, two miles off the beaches of Sandy Hook, New Jersey, spilling 33,600 gallons. COTP New York responded. Other responding units included Stations New York and Sandy Hook, VTS New York, and the Atlantic Area Strike Team. The spill was successfully contained and the vessel salvaged." entryDate[41] = " 02/11/" + year entryContent[41] = "
1973-Due to "Vietnamization", the draw-down of U.S. forces in Vietnam, the post of Senior Coast Guard Officer, Vietnam was discontinued." entryDate[42] = " 02/12/" + year entryContent[42] = "
1802-Revenue Marine had a total of 38 commissioned officers in service: 9 captains, 10 first mates, 9 second mates and 10 third mates.
1983-The 605-foot collier Marine Electric capsized and sank off Virginia during a gale. Three of the 34 crewmen on board were rescued by Coast Guard and Navy assets. This sinking contributed to the establishment of a permanent rescue swimmer program for the Coast Guard.
1986-Rains began in northern California that lasted for a week, causing severe flooding. Coast Guard units participated in rescue and relief operations.
1997-Three of four crewmembers of MLB-44363 out of the Quillayute River Motor Lifeboat Station were lost when responding to a distress call from the sailing vessel Gale Runner" entryDate[43] = " 02/13/" + year entryContent[43] = "
1960-A Coast Guard R5D aircraft from Honolulu dropped a pump to the Japanese training vessel Toyama Maru, which had radioed that it was taking on water and was in danger of sinking off Palmyra Island. The pump controlled flooding until the arrival of CGC Bering Strait, whose crew made repairs to the Japanese vessel, using 2,500 pounds of sand and cement parachuted by a Honolulu-based SC-130B plane.
1969-The National Transportation Safety Board issued its "Study of Recreational Boat Accidents, Boating Safety Programs, and Preventive Recommendations".
1991-Two HU-25A Falcon jets from Air Station Cape Cod, equipped with AIREYE technology depart for Saudi Arabia for the Inter-agency oil spill assessment team use. They were accompanied in flight by two C-130 aircraft from Air Station Clearwater carrying parts and deployment packages." entryDate[44] = " 02/14/" + year entryContent[44] = "
1903-An Act of Congress (31 Stat. L., 826, 827) that created the Department of Commerce and Labor provided for the transfer of the Lighthouse Service from the Treasury Department. This allowed the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to succeed to the authority vested in the Secretary of the Treasury under the existing legislation." entryDate[45] = " 02/15/" + year entryContent[45] = "
1911-Congress transferred Fort Trumbull, New London, Connecticut from the War Department to the Treasury Department for the use of the Revenue Cutter Service as its cadet training school.
1943-CGC Calypso removed 42 persons from lifeboat of SS Buarque (Brazil) east of Cape Henry.
1980-The 70-foot fishing vessel Donna Catalina sank 40 miles south of Nantucket Island. After pumps lowered to the four-man crew failed to keep up with the flooding, a Coast Guard helicopter lifted the crew to safety." entryDate[46] = " 02/16/" + year entryContent[46] = "
1926-Congress authorized the Secretary of Treasury to acquire a site at New London, Connecticut, without cost to United States, and construct thereon buildings for the United States Coast Guard Academy at a total cost not to exceed $1,750,000.
1944-Justo Gonzalez became the first Hispanic-American to make the rank of chief petty officer when the Coast Guard promoted him to Chief Machinist's Mate (acting) on 16 February 1944. The promotion was made permanent on 16 October 1948.
1993-The Haitian passenger ferry Neptune sank, sending 1,215 Haitians to their deaths. Coast Guard units participated in the search and rescue operation but found no survivors. They then assisted in recovering the bodies of those killed." entryDate[47] = " 02/17/" + year entryContent[47] = "
1944-Coast Guardsmen participated in the invasions of Eniwetok and Engebi, Marshall Island.
1956-The CGC Casco saved 21 persons from a US Navy seaplane that was forced to ditch 100 miles south of Bermuda and delivered both the survivors and the disabled aircraft to the Naval Air Station at St. Georgia Harbor, Bermuda" entryDate[48] = " 02/18/" + year entryContent[48] = "
1842-The House of Representatives passed a resolution requesting the Committee on Commerce to make an inquiry into the expenditures of the Lighthouse Establishment since 1816. This was to explore the possibility of cutting down on expenses, to examine the question of reorganizing the establishment and administration, and also to ascertain whether the establishment should be placed under the Topographical Bureau of the War Department.
1952-During a severe "nor’easter" off the New England coast, the T-2 tankers SS Fort Mercer and SS Pendleton broke in half. U .S. Coast Guard vessels, aircraft, and lifeboat stations, working under severe winter conditions, rescued and removed 62 persons from the foundering ships or from the water with a loss of only five lives. Five Coast Guardsmen earned the Gold Lifesaving Medal, four earned the Silver Lifesaving Medal, and 15 earned the Coast Guard Commendation Medal.
1968-Engineman First Class Robert J. Yered was awarded the Silver Star for action on 18 February 1968 while attached to Explosive Loading Detachment #1, Cat Lai, Republic of Vietnam. EN1 Yered was supervising the loading of explosives on board an ammunition ship when an enemy rocket struck a barge loaded with several tons of mortar ammunition moored alongside. His citation noted that "without regard for his personal safety, [he] exposed himself to the enemy fusillade as he helped extinguish the fire on the burning barge. . .His courageous act averted destruction of the ammunition ship, and the Army Terminal." EN1 Yered also received the Purple Heart for injuries suffered during the incident.
1979-Coast Guard HH-3F helicopter CG-1432 crashed 180 miles southeast of Cape Cod, killing four of its five occupants. The helicopter was preparing to airlift a 47 year old crewman from the Japanese fishing vessel Kaisei Maru #18." entryDate[49] = " 02/19/" + year entryContent[49] = "
1845-Lighthouse establishment transferred to Revenue Marine Bureau. Metal buoys were first put into service. They were riveted iron barrels that replaced the older wooden stave construction.
1862-Congress authorized cutters to enforce law forbidding importation of Chinese "coolie" labor.
1941-Coast Guard Reserve established. Auxiliary created from former Reserve.
1945-The invasion of Iwo Jima commenced. Coast Guard units that participated in this bloody campaign included the Coast Guard-manned USS Bayfield, Callaway, 14 LSTs and the PC-469. Three of the LSTs were struck by enemy shore fire: LST-792, LST-758, and LST-760.
1988-The CGC Mallow made the largest drug bust in Hawaiian waters to date. The Mallow, the Navy fast frigate USS Ouellet with a Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment from the CGC Jarvis, and an AIRSTA Barbers Point HC-130 tracked the 160-foot Panamanian-flagged freighter Christina M 800 miles southeast of Hawaii. A boarding team from Mallow discovered 454 55-pound bales of marijuana aboard. The freighter was seized and her crew of eight arrested." entryDate[50] = " 02/20/" + year entryContent[50] = "
1845-President Tyler vetoed a bill providing that no cutter be built nor purchased unless an appropriation was first made by law, on grounds that sanctity of contract of those already contracted for should not be overridden by Congress. Congress overrode his veto on 3 March 1845.
1964-The CGC Coos Bay rescued 11 of the crew of the foundering British freighter Ambassador in heavy seas, 1,000 miles east of Boston. Coast Guard aircraft from Air Station Argentia, Newfoundland, were first on the scene after the freighter issued an SOS on 18 February. The Coos Bay, on Ocean Station patrol 350 miles distant, steamed to the area and arrived there 24 hours later. In concert with the Norwegian freighter Fruen, they managed to get lines aboard the wallowing Ambassador in what was called one of the most dramatic rescues of the year. Demonstrating outstanding seamanship during the rescue, the cutter's commanding officer, Commander Claude W. Bailey, was awarded the Legion of Merit. Many of his crew had volunteered to enter the frigid water to assist in the rescue as well. Two were awarded the Coast Guard Medal while seven others received the Coast Guard Commendation Medal.
1967-The 378-foot high endurance cutter Hamilton, first in her class, was commissioned. This was the first class of major vessels in the U.S. government's inventory that were powered by jet turbines." entryDate[51] = " 02/21/" + year entryContent[51] = "
1943-The USS Spencer, CG, received credit from the U.S. Navy for attacking and sinking the U-225 in the North Atlantic. The British have since recorded that the U-225 was actually destroyed by B-24 Liberator "S" of RAF No. 120 Squadron on 15 February 1943 and they have revised the official British records to reflect this change. The renowned German naval historian, Professor-Dr. Jurgen Rohwer, stated that the Spencer "probably" attacked and sank the U-529 instead, although the Spencer has not received official credit for that sinking." entryDate[52] = " 02/22/" + year entryContent[52] = "
1943-The USS Campbell, CG, under the command of CDR James A. Hirshfield and assigned to the international escort group A-3 that was escorting Convoy ON-166 through the North Atlantic, engaged numerous submarine contacts during a running battle across the sea. Campbell's attacks damaged at least two U-boats. The cutter also rescued 50 survivors from a torpedoed Norwegian freighter. Then, on 22 February 1943, as the Campbell returned to the convoy after rescuing the Norwegians, it detected a radar contact closing the convoy. The Campbell raced toward the target and soon made visual contact. It was the surfaced U-606, earlier disabled by a depth charge attack delivered by the Free Polish destroyer Burza. The Campbell closed to ram while its gunners opened fire. The big cutter struck the U-boat with a glancing blow and one of the submarine's hydroplanes sliced open the Campbell's hull, flooding the engine room. The crew dropped two depth charges as the submarine slid past, and the explosions lifted the U-boat nearly five feet. Hirshfield later noted, "I felt sure he was ours." The Campbell illuminated the U-boat with a spotlight and the gunners continued to fire into the submarine's conning tower and hull. Hirshfield was hit by shell fragments but remained at his station. When he realized the Germans had given up, he ordered his men to cease firing. The Campbell then rescued five of the U-606's crew. Due to the collision, Campbell was towed to safety, repaired, and returned to service. CDR Hirshfield was awarded the Navy Cross for this action.
1944-Coast Guardsmen participate in the invasion of Parry Island (in the Marshall Islands)." entryDate[53] = " 02/23/" + year entryContent[53] = "
1822-Congress authorized the Revenue Cutter Service to protect the natural environment by preventing "scoundrels" from cutting live oak, needed for cutters and Navy vessels, on Florida public lands.
1837-Congress called for an inspection of the coast from Chesapeake Bay to the Sabine River "with regard to the location of additional light-houses, beacons, and buoys." Captain Napoleon L. Coste, commanding the Revenue cutter Campbell, was dispatched. He reported that the first addition to aids to navigation on this entire coast should be at Egmont Key, Tampa Bay. A lighthouse was authorized immediately and built the next year.
1877-First Lieutenant Dorr F. Tozier, USRCS, assisted in saving the French bark Peabody, which had gone aground on 23 February 1877 off Horn Island in the Mississippi Sound. Tozier was awarded a Gold Medal by the President of the French Republic "for gallant, courageous, and efficient services" in saving the French bark.
2003-The Honolulu-based Coast Guard cutter Walnut was ordered to the Middle East in preparation for Operation Iraqi Freedom. " entryDate[54] = " 02/24/" + year entryContent[54] = "
1964-A U.S. Coast Guard ice skiff rescued 25 persons from an ice flow that had broken loose from the shore near Camp Perry, Ohio. A similar rescue took place almost simultaneously at St. Clair Shores, Michigan when another Coast Guard ice skiff and a police helicopter removed five more from an ice flow.
1987-Coast Guard attorney LCDR Robert W. Bruce, Jr., became the first member of the armed forces to argue a case before the Supreme Court in uniform when he represented the Coast Guard in Solorio vs. United States on 24 February 1987.
1989-Coast Guard units searched for survivors of United Airlines Flight 811 after it crashed off the coast of Hawaii. The units included a HC-130, two helicopters, and the CGCs Cape Corwin, Mallow and Sassafras. No survivors were found and the units then assisted in the retrieval of debris." entryDate[55] = " 02/25/" + year entryContent[55] = "
1799-President Adams authorized by Congress to place revenue cutters in the naval establishment.
1825-Congress empowered the Revenue Marine to enforce state quarantine laws.
1942-Wartime port security delegated to Coast Guard by Executive Order 9074.
2001-The tugboat Swift sank after colliding with the freighter A.V. Kastner on the Elk River in the upper Chesapeake Bay. Coast Guard units from New Jersey and Philadelphia worked with state police and local rescue agencies to rescue three survivors. Two crewmen perished. The Coast Guard also conducted the marine casualty investigation." entryDate[56] = " 02/26/" + year entryContent[56] = "
1793-Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury, submitted to the Senate the first list of cutters with stations, officers names, rank and dates of commission.
1984-Five people died, three were injured, and 22 people rescued when the tanker American Eagle exploded 180 miles southeast of New Orleans. An AIRSTA New Orleans HH-3 took the three injured crewmen ashore while a British tanker watched over the crippled ship until a commercial tug could arrive. The new day the American Eagle started to break up and sink. The 24 remaining crewmen abandoned ship. Oil rig supply boats and a Coast Guard helicopter recovered 22. The other two became the subject of an HU-25 search but the SAR case was suspended after three days." entryDate[57] = " 02/27/" + year entryContent[57] = "
1925-An Act of Congress authorized the purchase of rubber boots, oilskins, etc., for the use of personnel while engaged in lighthouse work requiring such equipment. Actually, this legislation simply confirmed an existing practice.
1925-An Act of Congress repealed the law providing a ration allowance for keepers of lighthouses and increased their salaries correspondingly. This change was not only advantageous to the light keepers, but also simplified office work.
1949-Aerial ice observation flights by long-range aircraft operated from Argentia, Newfoundland. An International Ice Patrol by vessels was neither required nor established during the 1949 season, and it was the first time that aircraft alone conducted the ice observation service.
1953-The CGC Coos Bay, on Ocean Station Echo, about half-way between Bermuda and the Azores, rescued the entire crew of 10 from the US Navy patrol plane that was forced to ditch in the Atlantic Ocean.
2003-The CGC Dallas was ordered to deploy overseas to support Operation Enduring Freedom and to prepare for future contingencies. She was underway on patrol when she received the order from the Atlantic Area commander to sail overseas to the Mediterranean. Dallas deployed with an HH-65B Dolphin helicopter and 7-member aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City, New Jersey.
2004-The Coast Guard repatriated 531 Haitian migrants to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after they were rescued in the Windward Pass. The migrants were from 13 boats stopped since 21 February 2004. The repatriations were completed by three cutters. The crew of the CGC Valiant transported 290 migrants, the crew of the CGC Vigilant delivered another 241, and the CGC Nantucket escorted the cutters for safety and security. The migrants were turned over to the Haitian coast guard." entryDate[58] = " 02/28/" + year entryContent[58] = "
1867-As ordered by the Treasury Department, each officer of Revenue Cutter Service, while on duty, was entitled to one Navy ration per day.
1942-Certain duties of former Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation transferred to Coast Guard temporarily by Executive Order 9083. The transfer was made permanent on July 16, 1946. Also, the U.S. Maritime Service was transferred to the Coast Guard from the War Shipping Administration on this date.
1942-U S. Maritime Service transferred to Coast Guard from War Shipping Administration.
2004-Coast Guard units responded to an explosion aboard the 570-foot Singapore-flagged tanker Bow Mariner off the coast of Chincoteague, Virginia. The Bow Mariner was carrying 6.5 million gallons of industrial ethanol when it exploded and sank. The Coast Guard rescued six survivors." entryDate[59] = " 02/29/" + year entryContent[59] = "
1944-Coast Guardsmen participated in the invasion of Los Negros, Admiralty Islands. " entryDate[60] = " 03/01/" + year entryContent[60] = "
1876-Nuova Ottavia, an Italian vessel, grounded near the Jones Hill North Carolina Life-Saving Station. The rescue attempt by the crew of that station resulted in the loss of seven surfmen, the first deaths in the line of duty since the service began using paid crews in 1870. Among the dead was African-American Surfman Lewis White.
1902-The first regular light stations in Alaska were established at Southeast Five Finger Island and at Sentinel Island. Both were on the main inside passage between Wrangell Strait and Skagway.
1927-The U.S. Lighthouse Service put into effect a system of broadcasting radio weather reports by four lightships stationed along the Pacific Coast.
1933-In the interest of administrative economy and efficiency, the 13th and 14th Lighthouse Districts were consolidated with the 15th Lighthouse District. Also, the aids to navigation on the entire Mississippi River system were placed in charge of a civilian lighthouse engineer as superintendent. This relieved the Army engineers detailed for that duty. The offices at Rock Island, Illinois and Cincinnati, Ohio were discontinued and all the river work was placed under a single office at St. Louis, Missouri.
2003-Administrative control of the Coast Guard transferred to the newly created Department of Homeland Security from the Department of Transportation, where it had served since 1 April 1967." entryDate[61] = " 03/02/" + year entryContent[61] = "
1792-Congress authorized the revenue cutters to fire on merchant ships that refused to "bring to."
1799-Congress authorized that "Revenue Cutters shall, whenever the President of the United States shall so direct, cooperate with the Navy of the United States during which time they shall be under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, and the expenses thereof shall be defrayed by the agents of the Navy Department."
1799-Congress authorized revenue cutter officers to board all ships of the United States within four leagues of the U.S., if bound for the U.S. and then search and examine them, certifying manifest, sealing hatches and remaining on board until they arrived in port. They were also authorized to search ships of other nations in United States' waters and "perform such other duties for the collection and security of the Revenue" as directed by the Secretary of the Treasury.
1799-Congress authorized cutters and boats to be "distinguished from other vessels by an ensign and pendant" with the marks thereon prescribed by the President of the United States, to fire on vessels who refused to bring to after the pendant and ensign had been hoisted and a gun fired as a signal, masters to be indemnified from any penalties or actions for damages for so doing, and be admitted to bail if any one is killed or wounded by such firing. On August 1, 1799, Secretary Oliver Wolcott, Jr., prescribed that the " ensign and pennant’’ should consist of "Sixteen perpendicular stripes, alternate red and white, the union of the ensign to be the arms of the United States in dark blue on a white field." There were sixteen states in the Union at that time.
1799-Congress authorized the President to sell cutters unfit for service and the Secretary of Treasury to apply an unexpended balance of proceeds in the purchase and construction of revenue cutters. (This authority was revoked March 3, 1845).
1807-Congress outlawed the importation of slaves into the United States.
1868-By Act of Congress (15 Stat. L., 249), the Lighthouse Board was "authorized, when in their judgment, it is deemed necessary, to place a light-vessel, or other suitable warning of danger, on or over any wreck or temporary obstruction to the entrance of any harbor, or in the channel or fairway of any bay or sound."
1889-Congress authorized the Secretary of Treasury to keep rivers clear to afford marine species access to their spawning grounds." entryDate[62] = " 03/03/" + year entryContent[62] = "
1819-Congress authorized the revenue cutters to protect merchant vessels of United States against piracy and to seize vessels engaged in slave trade. The cutters Louisiana and Alabama were built shortly thereafter to assist in the government's efforts against piracy.
1837-An Act of Congress (5 Stat. L., 181, 185) laid down certain restrictions, by providing that the construction of the large number of new lighthouses, lightships, etc., for which this law was appropriating the necessary funds, would not be begun until examined by Board of Navy Commissioners. They reported to Congress those cases where the "navigation is so inconsiderable as not to justify the proposed works." The Navy detailed 22 officers to this duty and, before the end of the year, their recommendations resulted in the deferment of the construction of 31 lighthouses already appropriated for.
1839-Congress directed that Revenue Captain Ezekial Jones, commanding the revenue cutter Washington in the Seminole War, be allowed the same pay as a lieutenant in the Navy would receive for like services.
1845-Congress authorized the President to appoint six engineers (later amplified by Act of February 4, 1863) and six assistant engineers, one of each to be assigned to each revenue steamer then in the service. Engineers were to receive the same pay as first lieutenants and assistant engineers the same pay as third lieutenants.
1845-Congress directed no person be appointed as a revenue cutter officer "who does not adduce competent proof of proficiency and skill in navigation and seamanship." This was the first official underway qualifications established for the service.
1845-The duties of the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury as Superintendent of Lights was first put on a statutory basis by an Act of Congress (5 Stat. L., 752. 762), which prescribed that "the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury, shall continue to superintend the several matters and things connected with the light-houses, beacons, buoys, and public piers, as heretofore, of the United States, and to perform all the duties connected therewith, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, until otherwise ordered by law."
1847-Congress appropriated $5000 "for furnishing lighthouses on the Atlantic Coast with means of rendering assistance to shipwrecked mariners." This was the first federal appropriation for rendering assistance to the shipwrecked from shore.
1849-Office of Commissioner of Customs was created. Collectors took over control of the revenue cutters.
1859-An Act of Congress (11 Stat. L., 423, 424) authorized the Lighthouse Board to use its own discretion in the discontinuance as necessary of such lighthouses as might become useless by reason of changes in commerce, alteration in channels, or other causes.
1873-Signal Corps of Army established a storm signal service for benefit of seafaring men, at several life-saving stations and constructed telegraph lines as a means of communication between the stations.
1875-Secretary of the Treasury was authorized by Congress to acquire by donation or purchase, right to use and acquire sites for life saving and life boat stations.
1885-Congress authorized Secretary of the Treasury to detail officers and men of Revenue Marine Service to duty under the commissioner of Fish and Fisheries Division of the Bureau of Fisheries when they could be spared for such duty.
1899-An Act of Congress (30 Stat. L., 1121, 1152) required that, whenever a vessel, raft, or other craft was wrecked and sunk in a navigable channel, it became the duty of the owner to immediately mark the sunken craft with a suitable buoy or beacon during the day and a lighted lantern at night. Previously, the Lighthouse Establishment had been authorized by Congress to place, when considered necessary, a lightship or other suitable warning of danger on any wreck or temporary obstruction to the entrance of any harbor or in the channel of any bay or sound.
1905-Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to acquire a suitable site in the state of Maryland upon which to establish a depot for the Revenue Cutter Service; this station eventually became the Coast Guard Yard.
1915-An Act of Congress (38 Stat. L., 926, 928) provided for cooperation between the Lighthouse Service and the Forest Service in the management of the forest land on lighthouse reservations.
1918-By Act of Congress (38 Stat. L., 928), the protection afforded the aids to navigation maintained by the United States government was extended to those established and operated by private individuals.
1947-The SS Oakey S. Alexander reported being in distress 22 miles east of Portland, Maine, with a hatch stove in and shipping water. The Coast Guard cutter Cowslip immediately proceeded on orders from Portland to assist. When she began breaking up, the ship's commanding officer decided to beach at Cape Elizabeth. The cutter Cowslip arrived on the scene, but was unable to approach the beached vessel because of heavy seas. All 32 crewmembers, however, were removed safely from the ship by Coast Guardsmen from the Cape Elizabeth Light and Lifeboat Station using a breeches buoy." entryDate[63] = " 03/04/" + year entryContent[63] = "
1907-Congress appropriated $30,000 for installing wireless telegraph on not more than 12 revenue cutters.
1915-Secretary of the Treasury was authorized by Congress to detail cutters to enforce anchorage regulations in all harbors, rivers, bays and other navigable waters of United States.
1925-An Act of Congress (43 Stat. L., 1261), for the first time, provided for disability retirement within the Lighthouse Service.
1929-Congress appropriated $144,000 for seaplanes and equipment for Coast Guard.
1952-An air detachment consisting of three helicopters and necessary personnel, established as the first unit of its type on a test basis at the air station, Brooklyn, New York, began operating in support of port security operations.
1977-ENS Janna Lambine, USCG, the Coast Guard's first female pilot, graduated from naval aviation training at NAS Whiting Field, Milton, Florida." entryDate[64] = " 03/05/" + year entryContent[64] = "
1881-The crew of Life-Saving Station No. 10, Ninth District (Louisville), won acclaim with a dangerous rescue at the wreck of James D. Parker, a well-known river boat lost in the Indiana chute of the Ohio Falls. She was a stern-wheel steamer of over 500 tons owned by the Cincinnati and Memphis Packet Company and bound from Cincinnati to Memphis. Her crew numbered 50, including the captain, and she had 55 passengers on board, a number of whom were women and children." entryDate[65] = " 03/06/" + year entryContent[65] = "
1896-Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to detail cutters to enforce anchorage regulations on the St. Mary’s River." entryDate[66] = " 03/07/" + year entryContent[66] = "
1883-A dramatic rescue was performed by the crew of Assateague Life-Saving Station in Virginia using a surfboat through a howling storm to save the ten persons stranded on the sinking barkentine Wolverine." entryDate[67] = " 03/08/" + year entryContent[67] = "
1942-Coast Guard plane located the lifeboats of SS Arubutan, which had been sunk by a Nazi submarine off the North Carolina coast, and directed CGC Calypso to them.
1973-The first "Coast Guard-controlled drug seizure" took place when the cutter Dauntless seized the sport fishing vessel Big L which was carrying an illicit cargo of one ton of marijuana." entryDate[68] = " 03/09/" + year entryContent[68] = "
1944-The Coast Guard-manned destroyer escort USS Leopold (DE-319) was torpedoed off Iceland by the U-255. The attack was one of the first times the Germans used a newly developed acoustic torpedo successfully. All 13 officers and 148 (out of 186) enlisted men on board were killed. The 28 survivors were rescued by the USS Joyce (DE-317), another Coast Guard-manned destroyer escort.
1946-The Coast Guard-manned LST-767 was damaged in a hurricane near Okinawa. She was later declared a total loss and was decommissioned.
1966-CGC Point White, on duty with Coast Guard Squadron One, Division 13, in Vietnam, captured a Vietcong junk after a running firefight. Point White was in Vietnam only a month when she started conducting patrols on a VC-controlled area of the Soi Rap River. Point White used a plan of steaming out of the patrol area and covertly returning. On 9 March she spotted a junk crossing the river and attempted to stop it. The junk opened fire with small arms, including automatic weapons. Point White returned the fire and rammed the junk, throwing the occupants into the water. The cutter’s commanding officer, LTJG Eugene J. Hickey, rescued a survivor who turned out to be a key VC leader of the Rung Sat Secret Zone. During March, three WPBs of Division 13 killed twenty-seven VC in action, captured seven more, and confiscated considerable contraband. Click here for a photo.
1996-The first "all-Coast Guard" Ceremonial Honor Guard carried out a wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery." entryDate[69] = " 03/10/" + year entryContent[69] = "
1909-The British barkentine Ladysmith, during a thick fog, stranded three miles WSW of the Fisher's Island Life-Saving Station. The keeper was notified by telephone and the life-savers, in surfboat, proceeded to the scene. They safely rescued the Ladysmith's master, his wife, and 9 seamen.
1983-The Coast Guard retired the last operational HU-16E Albatross, ending the "era of seaplanes" for the service." entryDate[70] = " 03/11/" + year entryContent[70] = "
1941-The Lend-Lease Program was inaugurated. All 10 Lake-class cutters were transferred to the Royal Navy under the program. Two were lost in action against German forces. These 250-foot cutters had been designed by the Coast Guard and featured a slightly raked stem and a cruiser stern. Their innovative turbine-electric drive power plant was developed by Coast Guard Captain Quincy B. Newman. These were the first ships to have alternating current, synchronous motor for propulsion-the whole ship ran off the main turbine. The auxiliary generators were tied into the main generator electrically, after sufficient speed was attained. At that point, no steam was required to drive the turbines on the auxiliary generators. The propulsion plant achieved remarkable efficiency." entryDate[71] = " 03/12/" + year entryContent[71] = "
1955-Effective this date, all foreign and domestic ships were required to give 24-hour advance notice to the local U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port before entering U.S. ports. This order was designed to improve the U.S. Coast Guard's port security program without "material inconvenience" to shipping.
1965-The beginning of the US Navy’s Operation Market Time to interdict resupply of Communist forces in South Vietnam by river and coastal routes. The initiation of this campaign led to the Navy’s request for Coast Guard vessels and crews to participate in riverine and coastal patrols during the Vietnam War." entryDate[72] = " 03/13/" + year entryContent[72] = "
1882-At 7 P.M. the schooner Annie L. Palmer bound for New York from Baracoa, Cuba, with a cargo of fruit, and a crew of six persons, stranded about two hundred yards off-shore, one mile north of Station No. 16, Fourth District, New Jersey. The patrolman reported it to the keeper. The life-saving crew boarded the vessel by 8 o’clock and found that she had grounded at low water and could not be moved until the tide rose. They ran an anchor to keep the vessel from working farther on, and waited for the flood tide. At half past 2 the next morning the tide rose and they succeeded in heaving the vessel off. They then took her to a safe anchorage.
1974-A 200-foot fishing vessel requested evacuation of a crewman, who had severe headaches from a earlier head injury. The vessel was directed to proceed to the vicinity of Boston Light Vessel where upon arrival a motor lifeboat from Coast Guard Station Point Allerton evacuated the patient to Coast Guard Base Boston. A waiting ambulance transported the patient to Brighton Hospital.
2000-The Coast Guard announced the successful completion of Operation New Frontier. The operation was an evaluation of the use of armed helicopters and high-speed small boats to stop small, high-speed smuggling vessels, also known as "go-fasts," that smuggled narcotics to the U.S. Of the six go-fasts detected, all six were captured. CGCs Gallatin and Seneca took part in the evaluations." entryDate[73] = " 03/14/" + year entryContent[73] = "
1819-The 23 March 1819 edition of the New York Evening Post reported: "The Artegan Privateer GENERAL ARTIGAS was yesterday brought into this port. The ARTIGAS sailed from Baltimore about 5 months ago, commanded by Captain Ford, with a complement of 60 men and 10 guns. They took no prizes, though they boarded a number of Portuguese vessels but permitted them to proceed unmolested. She touched at St. Domingo, there parted her cable in a gale, then proceeded on her cruise. She sprung a leak and then put into the Chesapeake, the crew then mutinied and nearly the whole of them left the vessel and went on shore. She was taken possession of by the Cutter MONROE, March 14, 1819."
1909-Gloucester, Massachusetts: a launch became disabled 3/4 mile southeast of the station. Surfmen manned the power lifeboat and started to assist. On the trip out a schooner was discovered anchored in a dangerous berth 1-3/4 miles southeast of the station. Surfmen put a towline on the schooner, and, with her sails drawing, she was towed into a safe anchorage.
1987-Coast Guard helicopters rescued the crew of the sinking Soviet freighter Komsomolets Kirgizii 220 miles off the coast of New Jersey during a gale. A HC-130 was first on the scene and stood by the listing freighter until HH-3's from Air Station Cape Cod arrived and saved the freighter's entire 37-person crew." entryDate[74] = " 03/15/" + year entryContent[74] = "
1942-The 172-foot tender CGC Acacia was en route from Curacao, Netherlands West Indies to Antigua, British West Indies, when she was sunk by shellfire from the German submarine U-161. The entire crew of Acacia was rescued. She was the only Coast Guard buoy tender sunk by enemy action during the war.
1944-Coast Guardsmen participated in the invasions of Manus (Admiralties) and Emirau (St. Mathias Islands).
1946-For the first time, U.S. Coast Guard aircraft supplemented the work of the Coast Guard patrol vessels of the International Ice Patrol, scouting for ice and determining the limits of the ice fields from the air.
1983-The Coast Guard retired its last HC-131A Samaritan.
1991-The F/V Alaskan Monarch became trapped in the ice-encrusted Bering Sea near St. Paul, Alaska and was in danger of being swept onto the breakwater rocks outside St. Paul Harbor. The CGC Storis and an HH-3 from AIRSTA Kodiak, under the command of LT Laura H. Guth, responded. After a flight of 600 miles, including a winter crossing of the Alaska Peninsula and 400 miles of open water, Guth and her crew rescued four of the six-man crew before waves crashed over the vessel and swept the two remaining crewmen into the frigid water. They both were quickly pulled from the water safely.
1997-Operation Gulf Shield began. This operation is a counterpart to the counter narcotics operation Frontier Shield." entryDate[75] = " 03/16/" + year entryContent[75] = "
1909-Assateague Beach, Virginia: the schooner Charley C. Weaver; one of the crew notified the keeper that the schooner was leaking. The surfboat proceeded to the scene, 1-5/8 miles south of the station. The schooner’s crew was nearly exhausted from a long spell at the pump. Surfmen shifted her cargo of oysters. They also tried to locate the leak, but were unsuccessful. They then went ashore and returned with the power lifeboat which towed the schooner safely over the bar." entryDate[76] = " 03/17/" + year entryContent[76] = "
1863-USRC Agassiz defended the Union-held Fort Anderson at New Bern, North Carolina, from a Confederate attack.
1902-All but one of the members of the crew of the Monomoy (Massachusetts) Life-Saving Station perished during the attempted rescue of the crew of the wrecked coal barge Wadena during a terrible winter gale. The dead included the keeper of the station, Marshall N. Eldridge, and six of his surfmen. Eldridge told his crew before they departed on the rescue that: "We must go, there is a distress flag in the rigging." The crew of five from the barge also perished. The sole survivor, Seth L. Ellis, was the number one surfman of the Monomoy station. He was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal as was the man who rescued him, Captain Elmer Mayo of the barge Fitzpatrick.
1915-It was just before dawn March 17, 1915, when the three-masted schooner Silvia C. Hall was wrecked on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and earned herself a permanent place in Coast Guard history. Only 48 days had passed since the U.S. Life Saving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service had merged January 28 to form the U.S. Coast Guard. The rescue of the survivors of the ill-fated Silvia C. Hall by the crew of the Coast Guard Station Cape Lookout crew, under the command of Keeper Fred Gillikin, was the new service’s first major rescue.
1941-CGC Cayuga left Boston with the South Greenland Survey Expedition on board to locate airfields, seaplane bases, radio and meteorological stations, and aids to navigation in Greenland. This was the beginning of the Coast Guard's preeminent role in Greenland during World War II.
1962-After requesting the evacuation of a seriously injured crewman, the Russian merchant vessel Dbitelny transferred the patient to the Coast Guard LORAN station on St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea. Meanwhile, a Coast Guard aircraft flew a US Navy doctor and a hospital corpsman there to perform an emergency operation. Afterwards, the injured man was flown to Elmendorf Air Force Base, where he was admitted to the U.S. Air Force hospital.
1982-Navy Secretary John Lehman testified before Congress on behalf of the Coast Guard. He characterized the relationship between the Navy and the Coast Guard as being "close and warm." He also praised the new NAVGARD Board, created in November 1980, to formalize the relationship between the two services.
1986-Paramount Pictures began filming the movie "Critical Condition" on Governors Island. The film starred Richard Pryor. Filming continued on the Island until 21 March 1986." entryDate[77] = " 03/18/" + year entryContent[77] = "
1909-Stations Holly Beach, and Hereford Inlet, New Jersey: the schooner C.B. parted its chain while weighing anchor. She set a distress signal which was discovered by the lookouts at both stations. The surfboats proceeded to the scene and surfmen swept for the chain and assisted in securing it on board.
1943-CGC Ingham rescued all hands from the torpedoed SS Matthew Luckenbach.
1991-CGC Cape Hatteras (WPB 95305) was decommissioned on 18 March 1991. She was the last 95-foot patrol boat in the Coast Guard. She was then transferred to Uruguay.
1996-The single-hulled barge San Gabriel buckled and split open in rough seas, rupturing two tanks and spilling 210,000 gallons of oil in the Houston Ship Channel near Galveston, Texas. Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Galveston established a joint command structure with local agencies and private contractors to isolate and then clean up the spill. Personnel from the Gulf Strike Team, MSO Houston, MSO New Orleans, Aviation Training Center Mobile, and the 8th District supplemented MSU Galveston. The majority of the spill was cleaned up in three days.
2001-CGC Thetis seized the F/V Viviana II which was grossly overloaded with 234 Ecuadorean migrants. The vessel and the migrants were turned over to the Ecuadorean Navy.
2007-The Coast Guard made the largest cocaine seizure in its history (to date) when CGCs Hamilton and Sherman seized 42,845 pound of cocaine aboard the Panamanian-flagged M/V Gatun off the coast of Panama. The Gatun was first located by a HC-130 on 17 March." entryDate[78] = " 03/19/" + year entryContent[78] = "
1943-British Steamer Svend Foyne was a victim of an iceberg collision off the southern tip of Greenland. One hundred forty-five persons were rescued by the Coast Guard and others. International Ice Patrol was suspended during this period (1942-1945).
1945-The first all-Coast Guard hunter-killer group ever established during the war, made up of four units of Escort Division 46, searched for a reported German U-boat near Sable Island. The hunter-killer group was made up of the Coast Guard-manned destroyer escorts USS Lowe, Menges, Mosley, and Pride, and was under the overall command of CDR R. H. French, USCG. He flew his pennant from the Pride. Off Sable Island the warships located, attacked and sank the U-866 with the loss of all hands. Interestingly, the Menges had been a victim of a German acoustic torpedo during escort of convoy operations in the Mediterranean in 1944. The torpedo had detonated directly under her stern, causing major damage and casualties, but she remained afloat. She was later towed to port and the stern of another destroyer escort, one that had been damaged well forward, was welded onto the Menges. She then returned to action.
1989-The Aoyagi Maru slammed into a reef in Lost Harbor, Alaska. She was declared a total loss after being gutted by fire when 1,200 pounds of explosives were ignited to burn off the 100,000 gallons of fuel left aboard and her cargo of 74,000 pounds of rotting cod." entryDate[79] = " 03/20/" + year entryContent[79] = "
1929-The most notable incident from which international complications resulted during the Prohibition era was that of the schooner I’m Alone of Nova Scotia, a vessel built for the rum trade. She had successfully plied this trade for over four years when she appeared off the Texas coast and was picketed by the cutter Wolcott in the spring of 1929. Boatswain Frank Paul marked her at 10.8 miles from shore and signaled her to heave to. Several blanks were fired and this brought the vessel to a stop. Captain Randall of the schooner allowed the Boatswain on board, there was a discussion, but when he returned, I’m Alone continued on her way. The chase resumed and shots were fired into her rigging. On the second morning, some two hundred miles south of the U.S., the cutter Dexter came up to assist and proceeded to fire into the runner, sinking the vessel. One of her crew was drowned. Repercussions were heard immediately from Canada, Britain, and France, as the drowned seaman was French. The initial complaint was that of the position of the schooner at the point of contact. Her captain maintained she was only a 7-knot vessel and she was anchored about 15 miles out in safe waters. The second infraction was that the pursuit was not a continuous one, the intervention of Dexter muddied this question. Since the speed of the suspect vessel is a consideration in determining how far out it might be seized, it should be noted that I’m Alone managed to stay ahead of Wolcott, a nearly new cutter capable of at least 11 knots, for over 24 hours. As I’m Alone was sunk, the captain’s statement that her engines were in need of repair also could not be proven. In any case, the international round of diplomatic niceties did not cease until 1935 when the United States backed off and compensation was paid to the crew of the schooner.
1941-Sabotage was discovered on an Italian vessel at Wilmington, North Carolina. The Coast Guard investigated all Italian and German vessels in American ports and took into "protective custody" 28 Italian vessels, two German and 35 Danish vessels. Coast Guard boarding teams discovered that their crews had damaged 27 of the Italian ships and one of the German ships. The Coast Guard also took into custody a total of 850 Italian and 63 German officers and crew. Two months later these vessels were requisitioned for service with the United States by order of Congress for the Latin American trade." entryDate[80] = " 03/21/" + year entryContent[80] = "
1791-Hopley Yeaton of New Hampshire was commissioned as "Master of a Cutter in the Service of the United States for the Protection of the Revenue." This first commission of a seagoing officer of the United States was signed by George Washington and attested to by Thomas Jefferson. Twelve other commissions of officers of revenue cutters were signed on the same date. Yeaton was subsequently assigned to command the Revenue cutter Scammel, stationed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
1916-On this date Third Lieutenant Elmer Stone, USCG became the first Coast Guard officer ordered to flight training. He reported to Pensacola Naval Aviation Training School." entryDate[81] = " 03/22/" + year entryContent[81] = "
1917-The first Coast Guard aviators graduated from Pensacola Naval Aviation Training School. Third Lieutenant Elmer Stone, USCG, became Naval Aviator #38 (and later Coast Guard Aviator #1).
1919-The Acting Secretary of the Treasury advised that light keepers and the officers and crews of vessels were not entitled to the benefits of the Public Health Service free of charge after retirement.
2003-Three Iraqi sailors were captured in the northern Persian Gulf, the first Enemy Prisoners of War (EPOWs) taken by Coast Guard forces deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The 24-member crew of the CGC Adak plucked the Iraqi sailors from the sea. The Iraqis had jumped overboard as their patrol boat was destroyed by coalition forces operating in the Gulf. The POWs were taken aboard the Adak and later transferred to an undisclosed location." entryDate[82] = " 03/23/" + year entryContent[82] = "
1974-The 40-foot sailing vessel Lorisel II reported she was aground one mile southeast of North Rock, Bahamas, off the eastern shore of Bimini. An HU-16 aircraft and the CGC Cape Shoalwater were dispatched to assist. The aircraft located the vessel and a local island boat, which was diverted to remove two women and a child from Lorisel II. Cape Shoalwater re-floated the vessel, returned the passengers, and the Lorisel II got underway with no apparent damage." entryDate[83] = " 03/24/" + year entryContent[83] = "
1909-Muskeget, Massachusetts: the schooner Vigilant parted moorings, and stranded one mile south of the station. The owner applied to the keeper at 10:30 p.m. for assistance. Surfmen proceeded to the scene, carried out an anchor and line, and hove the schooner into deep water. During the storm the owner was sheltered and supplied with meals at the station for two days. But for the security afforded by an additional anchor and cable loaned by the crew, Vigilant would have stranded a second time.
1920-The first Coast Guard air station was established at Morehead City, North Carolina. The station was closed on 1 July 1921 due to a lack of funding.
1989-The tanker Exxon Valdez grounded on a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 10.1 million gallons of crude oil. This was the worst oil spill in U.S. history to date. Coast Guard units responded and prevented the entire cargo from spilling, cleaned up the oil which did spill, and conducted an investigation into the causes of the accident. The spill provided the impetus for the passage of the Oil Protection Act of 1990, which greatly increased the Coast Guard's role in protecting the nation against spills." entryDate[84] = " 03/25/" + year entryContent[84] = "
1911-The Treasury Department directed the keepers of life-saving stations to keep a lookout through the beach patrol for stray buoys washed ashore, to secure such buoys when it could be done, and to report their discovery or action to the nearest representative of the Lighthouse Service." entryDate[85] = " 03/26/" + year entryContent[85] = "
1938-On 26 March 1938 the US Coast Guard motor lifeboat Triumph departed from the Point Adams Station, located near Hammond, Oregon at the mouth of the Columbia River. It proceeded out to the bar and stood by while several crab boats crossed in. The tug Tyee with a barge load of logs in tow was attempting to cross out. Tyee passed too close to the life buoy and the barge drifted into the outer break on Clatsop Spit. Triumph, while attempting to assist Tyee, lost Surfman Richard O. Bracken overboard in the breakers of Clatsop Spit. Bracken would have been drowned had it not been for the skill of BN (L) John F. McCormick, Officer-in-Charge of Triumph, and the cooperation of the crew, namely CMOMM (L) Albert L. Olsen and Surfman Harold W. Lawrence. In making the rescue, Triumph was carried broadside on the face of a wave a distance of approximately 50 yards. The masts had been completely submerged, then the boat righted itself. Bracken had been washed overboard by the force of the sea. McCormick acting with exceptional skill maneuvered Triumph against the strong current, into the breakers and picked up the drowning man. Olsen remained in the engine room during all these maneuvers, stayed at the controls under perilous conditions, and rendered commendable service. McCormick was awarded a Gold Life-Saving Medal for this rescue. Olsen and Lawrence were awarded Silver Lifesaving Medals for their actions during this rescue.
1945-Coast Guardsmen participated in the landings at Geruma Shima, Hokaji Shima, and Takashiki in the Ryukyu Islands.
1946-International Ice Patrol resumed after being suspended during World War II." entryDate[86] = " 03/27/" + year entryContent[86] = "
1943-CG-85006 (ex-Catamount) exploded off Ambrose Light. Nine crewmen were lost.
1964-An earthquake (which hit 9.2 on the Richter scale) and an ensuing tsunami struck Alaska, killing 125 people and causing $311 million in property damage. Coast Guard units responded in what was called "Operation Helping Hand." Within two hours of the earthquake, which began at 1732 local time, the cutters Storis, Minnetonka, and Sorrel were ordered to Prince William Sound; the Bittersweet to Seward; and the Sedge to Valdez. "The following morning, three fixed-wing aircraft from Air Detachment Kodiak surveyed the damage while helicopters evacuated those in need. By March 31, most of the direct assistance had been rendered and the task of repair and clean up began. Approximately 360 civilians were evacuated from villages and isolated areas in Kodiak Island and Prince William Sound. The Storis was diverted to Cook Inlet for icebreaking duties in the Port of Anchorage until 18 April." [Arbogast, et al, The U.S. Coast Guard in Kodiak, Alaska, p. 15.] A number of the Coast Guard stations in the area sustained damage, some of it severe. The only Coast Guard fatality occurred when the tsunami struck the light station at Cape St. Elias and one crewman, EN3 Frank O. Reed, was swept out to sea and perished.
2003-Coast Guard cutter Wrangell, homeported in Portland, Maine, along with a Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Air Station Honolulu, escorted the first waterborne humanitarian aid shipment into the port of Umm Qasr without incident, while members of Coast Guard Port Security Unit 311, from San Pedro, Calif., assisted other coalition forces protecting the harbor. The shipment, consisting of vital aid donated by numerous countries, was carried aboard the British ship RFA Sir Galahad." entryDate[87] = " 03/28/" + year entryContent[87] = "
1968-The Secretary of Transportation released his Report on Recreational Boat Safety. The report contained a detailed explanation of the proposed legislation and the programs the department intended to undertake if the proposal was adopted.
1993-A Colonial Pipeline Company pipe ruptured, spilling 400,000 gallons of diesel fuel into the Sugarland Run creek in Herndon, Virginia. The EPA requested the assistance from the National Strike Force. Other units mobilized for the clean-up operation included a helicopter from AIRSTA Cape May, an air-eye HU-25 from AIRSTA Cape Cod, personnel from MSO Baltimore, the CGC Capstan, and reservists from the region. The strike team used the new DESMI 250 skimmer and pump to control the spill. Coast Guardsmen assisted with the cleanup and safety operations as well as provided technical assistance. By 2 April, Colonial Pipeline, who claimed responsibility for the spill, had more than 250 contract personnel handling cleanup operations. The strike teams stayed on site to monitor the cleanup. The last strike team member left the spill site on 10 April." entryDate[88] = " 03/29/" + year entryContent[88] = "
1867-The lighthouse at Timbalier Bay was destroyed in a hurricane. The brick tower "was leveled to the ground and covered with from three to six feet of water." The Lighthouse Board commended the keepers, "who faithfully performed their duty, barely escaping with their lives, and living for some days in an iron can buoy . . ."
1898-Lieutenants David Jarvis and Ellsworth P. Bertholf and Surgeon Dr. Samuel J. Call of the USRC Bear reached Point Barrow, Alaska, after a 2,000 mile "mush" from Nunivak Island that first started on 17 December 1897, driving reindeer as food for 97 starving whalers caught in the Arctic ice. This Overland Rescue was heralded by the press and at the request of President William McKinley, Congress issued special gold medals in their honor.
1938-By an Executive Order of this date, President Franklin Roosevelt enlarged substantially the number of "personnel in the Lighthouse Service who are subject to the principle of the civil service," which allowed advancement in the Service solely on individual merit.
1984-Coast Guard AIRSTA Cape May and Group Cape May responded to severe flooding in southern New Jersey and Delaware after a late winter storm struck the area on 29 March 1984. Coast Guardsmen evacuated 149 civilians from Cape May and Atlantic City.
1985-The last lightship in service with the Coast Guard, the USCGC Nantucket I was decommissioned. This ended 164 years of continuous lightship service by the Government. Nantucket I was the last of the U.S. lightships and the last of the Nantucket Shoals lightships that watched over that specific area since June of 1854. Launched as WLV-612 in 1950 at Baltimore, the ship also stood watch as the light vessel for San Francisco and Blunts Reef in California, at Portland, Oregon, and finally at Nantucket Shoals. The CGC Nantucket I also served as a "less-than-speedy" law enforcement vessel off Florida for a time." entryDate[89] = " 03/30/" + year entryContent[89] = "
1867-Alaska purchase treaty signed with Russia.
1942-By Presidential proclamation, the Coast Guard was designated as a service of the Navy to be administered by the Commandant of Coast Guard under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, similar to the administration of the Marine Corps." entryDate[90] = " 03/31/" + year entryContent[90] = "
1932-United States signed Whaling Convention at Geneva with 21 other countries.
1995-Coast Guard Communication Area Master Station Atlantic sent a final message by Morse Code and then signed off, officially ending more than 100 years of telegraph communication." entryDate[91] = " 04/01/" + year entryContent[91] = "
1897-Federal Civil Service rules were applied to Life-Saving Service (under Executive Order May 6, 1896).
1945-Invasion of Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands commenced. In all, seven Coast Guard-manned transports, 29 LSTs, the cutters Bibb and Woodbine, and 12 Coast Guard-manned LCI(L)s participated in the bloodiest invasion ever undertaken by the U.S. Over 13,000 Americans were killed and another 36,000 were wounded during the conquest of this Japanese possession.
1946-A tsunami swept away the light station at Scotch Cap, Alaska, killing the station's entire five-man crew. They were: BMC Anthony L. Petit, MoMM 2/c Leonard Pickering, F 1/c Jack Colvin, SN 1/c Dewey Dykstra, and SN 1/c Paul James Ness.
1967-On April 1, 1967, the Coast Guard ended its 177-year association in the Treasury Department to enter the newly-created Department of Transportation when President Lyndon Johnson signed Executive Order 167-81. The Coast Guard was the largest agency in the new department.
1984-The CGC Gallatin made the largest maritime cocaine seizure to date when it boarded and seized the 33-foot sailboat Chinook and her crew of two. A boarding team had discovered 1,800 pounds of cocaine stashed aboard the sailboat." entryDate[92] = " 04/02/" + year entryContent[92] = "
1924-Congress appropriated $13,000,000 for ten air stations and equipment. Congress first authorized the stations on 29 August 1916 but did not provide for sufficient funding until this date.
1982-The first aircraft of the newest addition to the Coast Guard's air fleet, the HU-25A Guardian, was dedicated and christened at Aviation Training Center Mobile.
1983-The State Department forwarded a request for assistance from the United Arab Emirates to help prepare for an oil spill cleanup in the Persian Gulf. The spill occurred after combat operations during the Iran/Iraq war had left many oil wells burning and leaking oil. Four Coast Guard pollution experts responded to the request." entryDate[93] = " 04/03/" + year entryContent[93] = "
1882-The schooner Morris was unable to enter Muskegon, Michigan, between the piers and was aided by the lookout of Station No. 8, Eleventh District. He used a heaving-stick and throwing a line to get a hawser to the vessel. The same service was rendered later in the day by two of the station men to the schooner Willis Smith of South Haven." entryDate[94] = " 04/04/" + year entryContent[94] = "
1912-President Taft recommended abolishing Revenue Cutter Service. His actions led to the creation of the Coast Guard by merging the Revenue Cutter Service and the Life-Saving Service on 28 January 1915.
1933-Navy airship USS Akron crashed off the Barnegat Lightship. The search employed over 20 Coast Guard vessels under Navy supervision.
1972-On 4 April 1972 BMC (later BMCM) Thomas D. McAdams became the first Coast Guardsmen to receive the new Coxswain insignia. Then-Commandant ADM Chester Bender presented the insignia to Chief McAdams at a ceremony at the Coast Guard's Small Boat School in Ilwaco, WA, where McAdams was the OIC.
1977-The Coast Guard designated its first female Coast Guard aviator, Janna Lambine. She was Coast Guard Aviator #1812." entryDate[95] = " 04/05/" + year entryContent[95] = "
1950-The Coast Guard announced that former enlisted women of the Coast Guard Reserve could apply for enlistment in the Women’s Volunteer Reserve (SPARS). Enlistments were to be for a three-year period with written agreement to serve on active duty in time of war or national emergency." entryDate[96] = " 04/06/" + year entryContent[96] = "
1894-President authorized the Revenue Cutter Service to enforce the Paris Award, which was concerned with the preservation of fur seals in Alaska.
1917-The United States declared war on Germany and joined the Allied Powers in World War I. The Coast Guard, which at that time consisted of 15 cruising cutters, 200 commissioned officers, and 5,000 warrant officers and enlisted men, became part of the U. S. Navy by Executive Order. The cutters immediately reported to their assigned naval districts for duty. Cutters provided armed parties to seize German ships that had been interned in U.S. ports. Coast Guard aviators were assigned to naval air stations in this country and abroad. One Coast Guardsman, First Lieutenant (Eng.) Charles E. Sugden, USCG, commanded the Naval Air Station at Ile Tudy, France, and was later awarded the French Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. Another officer, Second Lieutenant (Eng.) Philip B. Eaton, USCG, commanded Chatham Naval Air Station and he piloted one of two HS-1 seaplanes that attempted to bomb and machine gun a surfaced U-boat off the coast of New England after the U-boat had shelled a tug and barges four miles off Cape Cod. Eaton's bombs failed to explode, however, and the U-boat escaped. One cutter, CGC Tampa, was lost in action with all hands while on convoy duty in British waters.
1949-A US Coast Guard H03S-1 helicopter completed the longest unescorted helicopter ferry flight on record. The trip from Elizabeth City, NC to Port Angeles, WA via San Diego, a distance of 3,750 miles, took 10-1/2 days to complete and involved a total flight time of 57.6 hours." entryDate[97] = " 04/07/" + year entryContent[97] = "
1938-Congress passed HR 8982, an amendment to the Alien Fishing Act (50 Stat. 639). The amendment clarified the earlier laws on salmon fishing in Alaskan waters by limiting commercial salmon fishing in the vicinity of Bristol Bay, Alaska, to U.S. citizens only. The act was enforced by the Coast Guard.
1942-A Coast Guard aircraft directed a Royal Navy trawler to a life boat with 24 survivors off the coast of North Carolina.
1952-The breakup of ice in the Mississippi River and its tributaries at Bismarck, North Dakota, and above, and on the Big Sioux, created the worst flood conditions in that area in thirty years. U.S. Coast Guard personnel rendered assistance in that major disaster, utilizing small boat equipment, mobile radio stations, automotive equipment, helicopters, and fixed wing aircraft. The Coast Guard evacuated stranded persons, transported critical relief supplies, evacuated livestock from low ground, transported personnel engaged in levee construction, and generally assisted the Red Cross, local, state, civil, and military authorities." entryDate[98] = " 04/08/" + year entryContent[98] = "
1938-Congress passed HR 8982, an amendment to the Alien Fishing Act (50 Stat. 639). The amendment clarified the earlier laws on salmon fishing in Alaskan waters by limiting commercial salmon fishing in the vicinity of Bristol Bay, Alaska, to U.S. citizens only. The act was enforced by the Coast Guard.
1942-A Coast Guard aircraft directed a Royal Navy trawler to a life boat with 24 survivors off the coast of North Carolina.
1952-The breakup of ice in the Mississippi River and its tributaries at Bismarck, North Dakota, and above, and on the Big Sioux, created the worst flood conditions in that area in thirty years. U.S. Coast Guard personnel rendered assistance in that major disaster, utilizing small boat equipment, mobile radio stations, automotive equipment, helicopters, and fixed wing aircraft. The Coast Guard evacuated stranded persons, transported critical relief supplies, evacuated livestock from low ground, transported personnel engaged in levee construction, and generally assisted the Red Cross, local, state, civil, and military authorities." entryDate[99] = " 04/09/" + year entryContent[99] = "
1859-Samuel Clemens, who later gained fame under the pseudonym Mark Twain, was issued a steamboat pilot's certificate.
1867-The Senate ratified a treaty to purchase Alaska from Russia. The cutter Lincoln was dispatched at once with LT George W. Moore, USRM, as the first U.S. agent in the territory.
1941-The U.S. and Denmark signed an "agreement relating to the defense of Greenland." The Coast Guard, because of its experience in the Arctic environment, was the principal service to carry out the agreement. The first action seen by U.S. forces in World War II was the seizure of a Nazi weather station and the seizure of a Nazi vessel by the cutter Northland just before the United States officially entered the war." entryDate[100] = " 04/10/" + year entryContent[100] = "
1941-The President transferred ten Coast Guard cutters to England, stating that he found the defense of the United Kingdom vital to the defense of the United States. The cutters were of the 250-foot Lake class, consisting of Cayuga, Itasca, Saranac, Sebago, Shoshone, Champlain, Mendota, Chelan, Pontchartrain, and Tahoe. Coast Guardsmen trained British crews in Long Island Sound to operate the cutters. Two were eventually lost in action." entryDate[101] = " 04/11/" + year entryContent[101] = "
1862-The Revenue steamer E. A. Stevens, laying close aboard the USS Monitor, fired four or five rounds at the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia when the latter approached the Union fleet in Hampton Roads. The Virginia had fired a single round at the Stevens. After a historic battle between the Monitor and the Virginia, the first ever between two ironclads, the Virginia retreated.
1917-With the outbreak of World War I, the President issued an executive order transferring 30 lighthouse tenders to the War Department. All were subsequently assigned to the Navy Department and 15 lighthouse tenders, four lightships, and 21 light stations also were transferred to the Navy Department. One more tender was transferred on 31 January 1918 making a total of 50 vessels and 1,132 persons. The War Department used those assigned in laying submarine defense nets during and in removing these defenses after the war. Other duties performed by these vessels were placing practice targets, buoys to mark wrecks of torpedoed vessels and other marks for military purposes, as well as being employed on patrols and special duty assignments.
1952-Immediately following the crash of a commercial overseas transport aircraft off the San Juan Harbor, Coast Guard forces coordinated with those of the US Air Force and US Navy to rescue 17 of the 69 persons on board.
2003-The Coast Guard Cutter Wrangell and the USS Firebolt, with embarked Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment 406, escorted the first commercially transported humanitarian aid shipment into the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. The Motor Vessel Manar, owned by Manar Marine Services of the United Arab Emirates, delivered almost 700 tons of humanitarian aid including food, water, first aid and transport vehicles. This aid shipment was supplied and coordinated by the UAE Red Crescent Society. This was the fourth aid shipment to arrive in Umm Qasr after the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom." entryDate[102] = " 04/12/" + year entryContent[102] = "
1808-Subsistence for Army officers fixed at 20 cents per ration, later that year applied to all officers of the revenue cutters.
1843-Captain Alexander V. Fraser, Revenue Cutter Service, appointed Chief of newly-created Revenue Marine Bureau of Treasury (he was, in effect, the service's first "Commandant").
1861-The Revenue cutter Harriet Lane fired the first shot from a naval vessel in the Civil War. The cutter fired across the bow of the merchant vessel Nashville when the latter attempted to enter Charleston Harbor without displaying the national flag.
1900-An Act of Congress (31 Stat. L., 77, 80) extended the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service to the noncontiguous territory, of Puerto Rico and adjacent American waters.
1902-Congress authorized the retirement of officers at 3/4 pay for incapacity. Congress also made all promotions subject to examinations (mental and physical). Additionally, commissioned officers of the Revenue Cutter Service were granted the same pay and allowances "except forage" as officers of corresponding rank in the Army, including longevity pay.
1979-LTJG Beverly Kelley assumed command of the CGC Cape Newagen, thereby becoming the first woman to command a U.S. warship." entryDate[103] = " 04/13/" + year entryContent[103] = "
1909-Cleveland, Ohio, Lake Erie. Two boys were unable to pull against the wind, were in danger of drifting on the breakwater. Life-saving crew at Cleveland went out, took the 2 boys in their power lifeboat, and towed their boat to East Ninth Street pier." entryDate[104] = " 04/14/" + year entryContent[104] = "
1876-An Act of Congress (19 Stat. L., 132, 139) provided that any person "who shall willfully and unlawfully injure any pier, break-water, or other work of the United States for the improvement of rivers or harbors, on navigation in the United States, shall, on conviction thereof, be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars."
1912-At around 11:40 p.m. on the night of 14 April, RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg off Newfoundland while sailing on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. She sank a little over two hours later. There were 1,517 lost including 103 women and 53 children out of total passenger and crew of 2,207. Subsequently, certification and life saving devices were improved and an International Ice Patrol was created to patrol the sea lanes off Newfoundland and Greenland during the winter months. The Revenue Cutter Service took over the operation of the Patrol the following year.
1943-On 14 April 1943 Joseph C. Jenkins graduated as ensign in the Coast Guard Reserve, becoming the first officially recognized commissioned African-American officer in the Coast Guard." entryDate[105] = " 04/15/" + year entryContent[105] = "
1909-Point Judith, Rhode Island: The schooner G.A. Hayden grounded northeast of the station. The sea being too rough for surfboat, life-saving crew took the beach apparatus to the wreck and succeeded in reaching her with the second shot. The first of her crew was landed in the breeches buoy at 12: 10 am. After 4 trips the last one came ashore at 12: 45. The vessel was a total loss.
1986-The Libyan military, on orders from dictator Moammar Gadhafi, fired a missile at the Coast Guard LORAN Station Lampedusa, off the coast of Italy. The missile fell harmlessly in the Mediterranean and there were no casualties." entryDate[106] = " 04/16/" + year entryContent[106] = "
1820-Landing parties from the cutters Louisiana and Alabama destroyed a pirate base on Breton Island.
1908-Congress authorized the creation of the Office of Captain-Commandant and Engineer in Chief. Additionally, commanding officers of vessels were authorized to administer oaths of allegiance and other oaths for service requirements in Alaska.
1944-The Coast Guard-manned destroyer escort USS Joyce, along with her sister ship USS Peterson and a Navy DE sank the German submarine U-550 off New York after the U-boat torpedoed a tanker that was part of a convoy the warships were escorting to England.
1947-The French-owned Liberty ship Grandcamp exploded while loading ammonium nitrate at Texas City, Texas in one of the worst peace-time accidents ever to occur in a U.S. port. Over 500 died and thousands were injured." entryDate[107] = " 04/17/" + year entryContent[107] = "
1805-The cutter Louisiana engaged two pirate vessels that had been fitted out at New Orleans. Twenty shots were exchanged but the pirate vessels escaped.
1851-The Minots Ledge Lighthouse, the first one built in the United States that was exposed to the full force of the ocean, was swept away by a storm with the loss of the two men manning it.
1943-Lieutenant Ross P. Bullard and Boatswain's Mate First Class C. S. "Mike" Hall boarded the U-175 at sea after their cutter, the USS Spencer, CG blasted the U-boat to the surface with depth charges when the U-boat attempted to attack the convoy the Spencer was escorting. These Coast Guardsmen were part of a specially trained boarding party sent to board the submarine and seize any code-related documents and equipment aboard the U-boat before the Nazi crew could scuttle it. The damage to the U-boat was severe, however, and it sank after both had boarded it and climbed the conning tower. Both men ended up in the water as the U-boat slipped beneath the waves but both were pulled from the water unharmed. Nevertheless, they carry the distinction of being the first American servicemen to board an enemy warship underway at sea since the War of 1812. The Navy credited the Spencer with the U-boat kill. The cutter rescued 19 of the U-boat's crew and a sister cutter, Duane, rescued 22. One Spencer crewman was killed by friendly fire during the battle.
1987-LT Tom McClay received a direct commission as a flight officer for duty with the Coast Guard's E2C Hawkeyes. LT McClay was the first Coast Guard flight officer." entryDate[108] = " 04/18/" + year entryContent[108] = "
1805-The cutter Louisiana recaptured the merchant brig Felicity from privateers off the mouth of the Mississippi River.
1945-Airship training for U.S. Coast Guard personnel (nine officers & 30 enlisted men) began at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey." entryDate[109] = " 04/19/" + year entryContent[109] = "
1909-Pamet River, MA-The sloop Stranger was anchored 3/4 mile SE of station. The Life-Saving crew boarded her from a surfboat. The two men on board wished to be taken ashore, as their sails were poor and they had no provisions. They made the sloop more secure by running out second anchor and landed the men. In the morning they helped get sloop underway.
1995-A rental truck filled with explosives blew up half of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Coast Guardsmen from the Coast Guard Institute and a Coast Guard reservist responded soon after the explosion and helped set up security zones, directed traffic, searched for survivors, and whatever else was needed. They also took over a church kitchen and opened what later became nicknamed "Cafe Coast Guard." A rotating 9-person team worked around the clock to provide meals for the volunteer workers." entryDate[110] = " 04/20/" + year entryContent[110] = "
1871-Secretary of Treasury was authorized by Congress to employ crews of experienced surfmen at lifeboat stations at maximum rate of $40 per month, marking the end of the volunteer system. This was the beginning of direct Federal control over life-saving activities.
1997-Dikes along the Red River in North Dakota gave way causing dangerous floods. The Coast Guard responded to calls for assistance and rescued more than 200 people from danger." entryDate[111] = " 04/21/" + year entryContent[111] = "
1910-U.S. Government took over the sealing operation of Pribiloff Islands from private lessees.
1924-In an effort to increase the number of cutters available for Prohibition enforcement, Navy destroyers were transferred to the Coast Guard for law enforcement purposes. The Coast Guard was also authorized to commission temporary officers.
1980-Boats with Cuban migrants on board began departing Mariel, Cuba. The first two boats arrived in Miami the same day, marking the beginning of the largest Cuban migration to the US to date. Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared the port of Mariel "open", increasing the number of boats involved in the exodus and giving the exodus its name. This became the largest Coast Guard operation ever undertaken to date since World War II. The Coast Guard coordinated a three-wave operation. Coast Guard high endurance cutters operated closest to Cuba. U.S. Navy ships operated in the inner-wave and Coast Guard small cutters, 95 and 82-footers, served the waters closest to Florida. Over 660 Coast Guard Reservists were called to replace boat crews, and maintenance and repair teams. The Coast Guard Auxiliary lent support in many areas, including radio communications. Over 117,000 people in more than 5,000 boats were assisted by the Coast Guard and Navy forces during the Mariel Boatlift." entryDate[112] = " 04/22/" + year entryContent[112] = "
1790-Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, submitted a bill to Congress to create a "system of cutters" to enforce tariff and customs laws along the nation's coastline. Congress passed his bill on 4 August of the same year.
1944-Coast Guardsmen participated in the invasions of Aitape and Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea.
1965-USCG and US Navy agree on the deployment of 82-foot patrol and 40-foot utility boats to support Operation Market Time in Vietnam." entryDate[113] = " 04/23/" + year entryContent[113] = "
1919-The USS Marietta, under the command of future commandant Harry Hamlet, rescued 47 men from the USS James which was sinking in a gale off the coast of France.
1924-A tube transmitter for radio fog-signal stations, developed to take the place of the spark transmitters in use, was placed in service on the Ambrose Channel Lightship and proved successful.
2007-The Intelligence Specialist (IS) rating was launched with a special ceremony at Coast Guard Headquarters. ADM Thad Allen, USCG Commandant, and Mr. James Sloan, Assistant Commandant for Intelligence and Criminal Investigations, presided over the ceremony. " entryDate[114] = " 04/24/" + year entryContent[114] = "
1909-White Head, Maine-The schooner Eliza Levensaler anchored in a dangerous position near Clam Ledge, three miles east of station. The life-saving crew responded in a surfboat, but before reaching her the anchor dragged and she went ashore. Surfmen remained aboard until the gale abated and at 2 am high water ran out an anchor, hove her afloat, hoisted sails, and worked her out through the channel.
1943-While loading a cargo of ammunition at a Bayonne, New Jersey pier, the freighter El Estero caught fire, threatening downtown Manhattan with devastation should the ship's cargo explode. Coast Guardsmen under the command of LCDR John T. Stanley responded immediately and were soon reinforced by local firefighters. Two Coast Guard fireboats along with commercial and New York City firefighting tugs headed to the area. LCDR Stanley boarded the freighter which was now burning out of control and he was joined by LCDR Arthur F. Pfister who was in charge of the Coast Guard vessels. Upon consultation with the Captain of the Port of New York, Third District commander RADM Stanley V. Parker, they decided to scuttle the ship. However, the sea cocks were not accessible and so they decided to fill the vessel with water. While firefighting teams fought the blaze aboard the El Estero, the tugs arrived and took the freighter under tow, heading to deeper water away from New York City. The tugs and firefighting vessels began spraying their water cannons on the freighter, filling her holds with water. The residents of the city were warned to expect an imminent explosion. Fortunately, the vessel began listing to starboard and soon thereafter sank northwest of the Robbins Reef Light, extinguishing the fires. All of the men aboard the vessel escaped harm. The fire was later ruled as accidental.
2004-Damage Controlman Third Class Nathan Bruckenthal, USCG, from Smithtown, New York, and two U. S. Navy sailors were killed in the line of duty while conducting maritime intercept operations in the North Arabian Gulf. He and six other coalition sailors attempted to board a small boat near the Iraqi Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal. As they boarded the boat it exploded. Petty Officer Bruckenthal died later from injuries sustained in the explosion. Petty Officer Bruckenthal was the first Coast Guardsman killed in action since the Vietnam War. He was assigned to Tactical Law Enforcement South in Miami, Florida and deployed with Coast Guard Patrol Forces Southwest Asia aboard the USS Firebolt. This was his second deployment to the Arabian Gulf for Operation Iraqi Freedom." entryDate[115] = " 04/25/" + year entryContent[115] = "
1819-The cutter Active captured the pirate vessel Irresistible in the Chesapeake Bay.
1956-The U.S. Coast Guard issued new regulations for security screening of merchant seamen. Changes in the screening program were made for the purpose of conforming with a recent U .S. Court of Appeals ruling (Parker V. Lester) which, held that procedures used by the Coast Guard did not meet the minimum requirements of due process of law. The legal background for the Coast Guard security program stems from the Magnuson Act, which authorized the President to issue rules safeguarding vessels and waterfront facilities when he found security endangered by a subversive activity. The President made such a finding in 1950 by Executive Order No. 10173 and directed the Coast Guard to set up and conduct the program." entryDate[116] = " 04/26/" + year entryContent[116] = "
1898-During the Spanish-American War, Morrill, Hudson, and Hamilton, formerly Revenue Cutters and recently armed for service in the so-called "Mosquito Fleet," passed through Hampton Roads and after asking formal permission of the Commodore, proceeded to Key West. From that point they joint the Navy ship's of the Cuban blockading fleet.
1909-Quoddy Head, Maine-The schooner General Scott dragged her anchors during the night and drifted into a dangerous position three miles NE of station. At 7: 00 am the life-saving crew went to her assistance in the surfboat. Nothing could be done until flood tide when surfmen piloted a towboat in to her. She was towed out to safety." entryDate[117] = " 04/27/" + year entryContent[117] = "
1865-The boilers on the steamship Sultana exploded. The accident resulted in over 1,500 deaths and ranks as the worst commercial maritime disaster in U.S. history.
1949-When a C-47 of the Military Air Transport Service developed engine trouble and ditched near CGC Sebago on Weather Station "Dog," some 380 miles from Newfoundland, a motor self-bailing boat from the cutter immediately picked up the plane's crew of four. Although the C-47 sank within 12 minutes, there were no injuries or casualties.
1966-After a U.S. Air Force B-57 was reported overdue, the U.S. Coast Guard Eastern Area Commander commenced an intensive air search. The two-day, large-scale, over water search for the missing aircraft, all of which was coordinated by the Coast Guard, unfortunately, yielded negative results.
1989-President George W. Bush dedicated the Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence Center East, otherwise known as C3I, in south Florida. The facility, manned by Coast Guard and Customs personnel, was designed to give law enforcement agencies instant access to air and marine smuggling information." entryDate[118] = " 04/28/" + year entryContent[118] = "
1908-Secretary of Commerce and Labor was authorized to patrol regattas and transfer that authority to another Department if need be. Thus the Revenue Cutter Service became the primary federal agency that patrolled regattas.
1918-CGC Seneca saved 81 survivors from the torpedoed British naval sloop Cowslip while on convoy route to Gibraltar. Cowslip was attacked by three German U-boats.
1993-Coast Guard PACAREA LEDETs, operating from the USS Valley Forge and USS Cleveland, boarded the St. Vincent-flagged 225-foot freighter Sea Chariot about 300 miles southwest of Panama. The boarding team discovered bales of cocaine in some of the containers aboard and then seized the vessel. The vessel was escorted through the Panama Canal to Station Miami Beach where a search of the vessel's containers turned up 11,233 pounds of cocaine.
2001-A LEDET assigned to the USS Rodney M. Davis, with later assistance from the CGC Active made the largest cocaine seizure in maritime history when they boarded and seized the Belizean F/V Svesda Maru 1,500 miles south of San Diego. The fishing vessel was carrying 26,931 pounds of cocaine." entryDate[119] = " 04/29/" + year entryContent[119] = "
1909-Burnt Island, Maine: The schooner Regina stranded five miles north of the station. The Life-Saving crew, in a small power boat, arrived at the same time as the tug Bismarck. After the tug had pulled her afloat, the keeper piloted them out into clear water.
1992-The CGC Storis' 3-inch/.50 caliber main battery was removed from the cutter. It was the last 3-inch/.50 caliber gun in service aboard any US warship. The 3-inch/.50 was a dual-purpose weapon (surface and anti-aircraft) that had been in U.S. service since the 1930s. It was shipped to Curtis Bay where is was made inoperable and was then loaned to a VFW club." entryDate[120] = " 04/30/" + year entryContent[120] = "
1789-President George Washington was inaugurated and the U.S. Constitutional government began.
1798-Congress established the Department of the Navy on this date in 1798. Nevertheless, the United States Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which the Continental Congress established on 13 October 1775 by authorizing the procurement, fitting out, manning, and dispatch of two armed vessels to cruise in search of munitions ships supplying the British Army in America. In 1972 Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt authorized recognition of the 13 October 1775 date as the Navy’s "official" birthday.
1818-Congress authorized use of "land and naval forces of the United States to compel any foreign ship to depart United States in all cases in which, by the laws of nations or the treaties of the United States, they ought not to remain within the United States." This was the basis of neutrality enforcement.
1832-All commissions of naval officers in Revenue Cutter Service revoked. Vacancies were filled by promotion for the first time.
1875-The first Gold Life Saving Medal ever awarded was presented to Captain Lucien M. Clemens of the US Life-Saving Service in Marblehead, Ohio. He was captain of one of the first life saving stations on the Great Lakes. Medals were also given to his brothers, Al and Hubbard. They rescued six crew and a female cook from the sinking schooner Consuelo in an open rowboat." entryDate[121] = " 05/01/" + year entryContent[121] = "
1898-USRC McCulloch fought as part of the fleet under the overall command of Commodore George Dewey, USN, at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. President John McKinley later recommended that her commanding officer, Revenue Captain Daniel B. Hodgson, be retired at full pay as reward of merit for "efficient and meritorious services." A joint resolution of Congress was so approved on 3 May 1900.
1900-The Lighthouse Board took charge of all Puerto Rican lighthouses.
1921-The first radio fog signals in the United States were placed in commission on Ambrose Lightship, Fire Island Lightship, and Sea Girt Light Station, New Jersey.
1935-By Department of Commerce authority, a readjustment of the boundary between the 3rd and 4th Lighthouse Districts was made, by which certain aids to navigation in the approaches to Delaware Bay, including Overfalls Lightship, were placed under the jurisdiction of the 4th Lighthouse District.
1936-Congress passed the Whaling Treaty Act, which made it unlawful to take right whales or calves of any whale. The act was enforced by the Coast Guard.
1942-Two Coast Guard planes located a lifeboat with 13 survivors landed in open sea and took injured men ashore as others rescued by lifeboat station boat.
1992-CGC Venturous served as the patrol commander's on-scene command platform for most of the International America's Cup Class World Championship sailing races that took place off San Diego from 1 to 11 May 1992. The CGC Sherman took over that duty for 10 to 11 May. Coast Guard active duty, reserve, and auxiliary personnel also assisted in perimeter patrols along the race course.
1999-A amphibious tourist boat (a DUKW) sank in Lake Hamilton, near Hot Springs, Arkansas, killing 13 persons. The Coast Guard investigated the accident." entryDate[122] = " 05/02/" + year entryContent[122] = "
1882-An Act of Congress (22 Stat. L., 55, 58), in an attempt to protect the Lifesaving Service from the evils of the "spoils System." declared that "the appointments of District superintendents, inspectors, and keepers and crews of life-saving stations shall be made solely with reference to their fitness and without reference to their political or party affiliations."
1932-Northern Pacific Halibut Act re-enacted Act of 7 June 1924, after Convention with Canada and made it unlawful to catch halibut between 1st November and 15th February each year in territorial waters of United States and Canada and on high seas, extending westerly from them, including the Bering Sea. Coast Guard enforced this Act.
1942-Coast Guard plane V-167 rescued two from a torpedoed freighter.
1942-Coast Guard prewar search and rescue procedure discontinued for security reasons.
1943-CG-58012 exploded and sank off Manomet Point, Massachusetts. No lives lost.
1995-Part of the Upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers rose above the flood stage, flooding areas in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky. Coast Guard Disaster Response Units conducted SAR duties and assisted local authorities. On 16 May MSO St. Louis closed all 366 miles of the Missouri River to all traffic. The Secretary of Transportation authorized the involuntary recall of 300 reservists. However, only 143 were called to duty. Coast Guard Forces Paducah was at the epicenter of flood-relief operations with five DRUs working in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and the Olive Branch, Illinois, area. Coast Guard aircraft, including an HH-60 Jayhawk from AIRSTA Clearwater (the 2nd District had no air station) provided daily overflight and SAR missions. CGC Sangamon was used as a staging platform for those working near Meridosa, Illinois. Two DRU teams aided Meridosa and surrounding communities with emergency evacuations, ferrying emergency supplies and reinforcing threatened levees. Coast Guardsmen were also called in to Slidell, Louisiana, where the evacuated 285 flood victims to safety." entryDate[123] = " 05/03/" + year entryContent[123] = "
1882-The Treasury Department reported that the crew of the cutter Oliver Wolcott deserted their ship. No reason was given for the mass desertion.
1885-The Navy transferred the USS Bear to the Revenue Cutter Service. The Bear became one of the most famous cutters to sail under the Revenue Cutter & Coast Guard ensigns.
1944-An acoustic torpedo fired by the U-371 hit and destroyed the stern of the Coast Guard-manned destroyer escort USS Menges while she was escorting a convoy in the Mediterranean, killing thirty-one of her crew. [see 4 May 1944 entry] The Menges was later repaired and returned to service. She assisted in the sinking of the U-866 on 19 March 1945." entryDate[124] = " 05/04/" + year entryContent[124] = "
1882-The Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to discontinue any lifesaving station, transfer apparatus, appoint keepers, etc.
1910-Congress required every passenger ship or other ship carrying 50 persons or more, leaving any port of United States, to be equipped with a radio (powerful enough to transmit to a 100-mile radius) and a qualified operator.
1942-The Chief of Naval Operations, ADM Ernest J. King, ordered the Coast Guard Auxiliary to organize into a anti-submarine patrol force, which becomes known as the "Corsair Fleet" for service along the east coast. The Corsair Fleet was made up primarily of private yachts, crewed by their owners, and converted for ASW use.
1944-The Coast Guard-manned destroyer escort USS Pride (DE-323), with three other escorts, sank U-371 in the Mediterranean." entryDate[125] = " 05/05/" + year entryContent[125] = "
1947-The first meeting of the permanent International Civil Aviation Organization was held in Montreal, Canada with the Coast Guard being represented by LT John M. Waters, USCG.
1950-Congress approved the Uniform Code of Military Justice for the "government of the armed forces of the United States."
2004-On 5 May 2004 the Coast Guard presented the Purple Heart to BM3 Joseph Ruggiero in Miami for injuries sustained in action against the enemy while defending the Khawr Al Amaya Oil Terminal in Iraq on 24 April 2004. Ruggiero's shipmate, DC3 Nathan Bruckenthal, was killed in this same bombing and was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. They were the first Coast Guard recipients of the Purple Heart since the Vietnam War." entryDate[126] = " 05/06/" + year entryContent[126] = "
1796-Congress increased the monthly compensation of Revenue Marine officers: masters $50; first mates $35; second mates $30; third mates $25 and mariners $20.
1896-President Grover Cleveland placed the US Lighthouse Service within the classified federal civil service.
1898-The cutter Morrill participated in the engagement at Havana, Cuba on 6 and 7 May 1898 during the Spanish-American War. Her officers were awarded Bronze Medals by the authority of a joint resolution of Congress that was approved on 3 March 1901.
1945-The Coast Guard-manned frigate USS Moberly (PF-63), in concert with USS Atherton, sank the U-853 in the Atlantic off Block Island. There were no survivors.
1958-During her 50 plus year career, the Huron Lightship WAL-526 at Port Huron, Michigan, survived many a Great Lakes storm without the loss of a single crewmember until that date in 1958 when Seaman (Boatswain Mate Striker) Robert G. Gullickson lost his life while attempting to swim for assistance to save another shipmate, CS1 Vincent Disch, after their small boat was swamped by a freighter's wake and sank. Disch was rescued but Gullickson was lost at sea and his remains were never recovered. Gullickson was posthumously promoted to BM3 for his rescue attempt and for sacrificing his life for his shipmate.
1994-The last HH-3F Pelican helicopter in Coast Guard service was retired. This ended the Coast Guard's "amphibious era," as no aviation asset left in service was capable of making water landings.
2003-Cutter Walnut completed its 20-day humanitarian mission in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom of marking the navigational channel of the Khawr Abd Allah waterway leading from the North Arabian Gulf to Iraq’s critical port of Umm Qasr. The Walnut completely replaced 30 buoys and repaired an additional five along the 41-mile waterway, vastly improving the navigational safety of the waterway for humanitarian aid sailing to the port and providing a critical step towards the economic recovery of the people of Iraq. The majority of the equipment used in the navigational improvements was located in a warehouse in Umm Qasr and was inspected and upgraded to ensure that the buoys matched as closely as possible to the charted channel. The Walnut was originally deployed to the North Arabian Gulf with an oil spill recovery system in the event the regime of Saddam Hussein committed any acts of environmental terrorism. When those threats did not materialize the cutter conducted maritime interdiction operations enforcing U.N. Security Council resolutions, participated in the search for two downed United Kingdom helicopters, and patrolled and provided assistance to captured Iraqi offshore oil terminals." entryDate[127] = " 05/07/" + year entryContent[127] = "
1969: HC-130H CGNR 1453, stationed at Air Station Kodiak, flew over the geographic North Pole, becoming the first Coast Guard aircraft to do so. The aircraft commander was LCDR Melvin J. Hartman and the copilot was LT Larry Minor. The purpose of the flight was ice reconnaissance of a potential route for super tankers from the North Slope of Alaska to the east coast of the U.S. According to a summary of the flight published in the Commandant's Bulletin: "COAST GUARD AIRCRAFT FLIES AROUND THE WORLD NONSTOP. . .During the course of this flight, the aircraft circled the north pole, crossing all meridians in eighty seconds."
1979-During a city-wide strike by tugboat operators and longshoremen in New York City that began on 1 April 1979, Mayor Ed Koch of New York asked for federal assistance. The Secretary of Transportation, Brock Adams, at the behest of President Jimmy Carter, ordered the Commandant, ADM John B. Hayes, to direct the commanding officer of the Third Coast Guard District, VADM Robert I. Price, "to cooperate with Mayor Koch in the movement of sanitation barges within the harbor." Beginning on 7 May 1979, the cutters Sauk, Manitou and Red Beech began moving 16 garbage scows from a Staten Island landfill site to refuse pick-up points in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. Although the Group received an anonymous bomb threat that proved to be a hoax, the towing effort was carried out without incident. These three cutters were relieved of "garbage duty" in June by the cutters Snohomish and Chinook.
1992-Astronaut and Coast Guard CDR Bruce Melnick made his second space flight when he served as a Mission Specialist aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on her maiden flight, Space Shuttle Mission STS-49, which flew from 7 to 16 May 1992. During this mission, astronauts rescued and repaired the Intelsat VI satellite. Melnick, by this point, had logged more than 300 hours in space.
2004-The CGC James Rankin set the historic "Francis Scott Key" buoy off of Fort McHenry, Maryland, near the Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland. The buoy marks the spot where the British warship on which Francis Scott Key, the author of the Star Spangled Banner, was held aboard during the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the Royal Navy during the War of 1812. Each year the buoy is set in the spring, marking the historic location of the event, and is then removed in the fall." entryDate[128] = " 05/08/" + year entryContent[128] = "
1919-First Lieutenant Elmer F. Stone, USCG, piloting the Navy's flying boat NC-4 in the first successful trans-Atlantic flight, took off from the Naval Air Station at Rockaway, New York, at 1000 hours on 8 May, 1919, together with the NC-1 and NC-3. Although the NC-1 and NC-3 did not complete the journey, the NC-4 successfully crossed the Atlantic and landed in Lisbon, Portugal on 27 May 1919. Stone was decorated that same day by the Portuguese government with the Order of the Tower and Sword.
1926-Retired pay of Coast Guard officers was standardized with that of all other armed services.
1985-The CGC Chase was crippled by an engine room fire that put the cutter out of service for almost six months. One crewman, MK3 Nicholas V. Barei III, was killed during the incident.
1985-The largest cocaine seizure by the Coast Guard (to date) was made when Coast Guard units seized the Goza Now with 1,909 pounds of cocaine. The unlit speedboat, or "go-fast," named Goza Now, was first located by the CGC Cape Shoalwater as the go-fast raced towards Miami. An AIRSTA Miami helicopter was dispatched to investigate and then began chasing her as she neared Miami Beach. As they approached the shoreline, the three-man crew of the go-fast jumped overboard and escaped but a TACLET seized the abandoned Goza Now and her illicit cargo. District 7 got a "Bravo Zulu" from Attorney General Edwin Meese.
1987-Coast Guard units, including the CGC Ocracoke, make the largest seizure of cocaine by the Coast Guard (to date). They discovered 3,771 pounds (1.9 tons) aboard the La Toto off the northwest coast of St. Croix." entryDate[129] = " 05/09/" + year entryContent[129] = "
1862-USRC Miami landed President Abraham Lincoln on Confederate-held soil the day before the fall of Norfolk. The President had decided "to ascertain by personal observation whether some further vigilance and vigor might not be infused into the operations of the Army and Navy" during General George McClellan's Peninsula campaign. The President, Secretary of State Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, and Brigadier General Egbert Ludovickus Viele departed Washington, D.C., on board the cutter on 5 May.
1939-President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced Reorganization Plan II that transferred the Bureau of Lighthouses to the Treasury Department for consolidation with the Coast Guard. The plan took effect on 1 July 1939.
1942-USS Icarus, CG, sank the U-352 off Charleston and took 33 prisoners, the first German prisoners taken in combat by any U.S. force in World War II." entryDate[130] = " 05/10/" + year entryContent[130] = "
1800-Congress forbade citizens to own an interest in vessels engaged in the slave trade or to serve on such vessels.
1956-The President signed Public Law 519, which brought all previously uninspected vessels on navigable waters carrying more than six passengers for hire under inspection laws. These were chiefly party-fishing motorboats, excursion sailboats, and ferry barges. Public attention had been focused on the inadequacy of existing inspection laws by the hundreds of lives lost on uninspected vessels.
1966-CGC Point Grey was on patrol near the Ca Mau peninsula when she sighted a 110-foot trawler heading on various courses and speeds. Suspicions aroused, Point Grey commenced shadowing the trawler. After observing what appeared to be signal fires on the beach, she hailed the vessel, but received no response. The trawler ran aground and Point Grey personnel attempted to board it. Heavy automatic weapons fire from the beach prevented the boarding and two crew and one Army passenger were wounded aboard Point Grey. CGC Point Cypress, and U.S. Navy units came to assist. During the encounter the trawler exploded. U.S. Navy salvage teams recovered a substantial amount of war material from the sunken vessel. This incident was the largest, single known infiltration attempt since the Vung Ro Bay incident of February 1965 and was the first "suspicious trawler interdicted by a Market Time unit."" entryDate[131] = " 05/11/" + year entryContent[131] = "
1898-Cutter Hudson towed the crippled USS Winslow from certain destruction under the Spanish forts at Cardenas, Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Congress later conferred a Gold Medal of Honor on her commanding officer, Revenue First Lieutenant F. H. Newcomb. His officers and crew were awarded Silver and Bronze Medals.
1908-The Revenue Cutter Service was authorized to enforce Alaska game laws.
1945-On the morning of 11 May 1945, four days after Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, the Coast Guard-manned destroyer escorts USS Vance and USS Durant, underway off the Azores escorting their last convoy to the Mediterranean, sighted a light ahead of the convoy. They closed to investigate. The Durant illuminated the target, which was the surfaced German submarine U-873, which had been at sea for 50 days. Vance, while screened by Durant, hailed the "erstwhile enemy" over her public address system, established her identity, and then ordered her to heave to. On board were seven officers and 52 enlisted men. Vance placed a 21-man prize crew on board the captured U-boat and delivered their prize at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 16 May 1945." entryDate[132] = " 05/12/" + year entryContent[132] = "
1906-In part due to the lobbying efforts of the Maritime Association of the Port of New York, Congress authorized the construction of a cutter "equipped to cruise for and destroy derelicts and obstructions to navigation" for the Revenue Cutter Service. The Service contracted with the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company to build this "derelict destroyer," which was christened USRC Seneca. She was commissioned in 1908.
1938-Lieutenant C. B. Olsen became the first Coast Guardsman to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He earned the award for "heroism in removing Lieutenant Colonel Gullion, U.S. Army, who was stricken with acute appendicitis, from the Army transport 'Republic.'"
1939-On 12 May 1939, Boatswain's Mate First Class Clarence Samuels was appointed as a Chief Photographer's Mate (Acting), becoming the first African-American chief petty officer, the first African-American photographer in the Coast Guard and only the second Coast Guardsman to serve in that rating up to that point.
1957-The CGC Wachusett, on Ocean Station NOVEMBER, halfway between Honolulu and San Francisco, rescued the two-man crew who had bailed out of a U.S. Air Force B-57 because of a fuel shortage.
1984-The Coast Guard was a primary participant in the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition in New Orleans. The Coast Guard Barque Eagle was opened to the public and the fair's organizers also chose the Coast Guard as the official honor guard for the exposition. The service was also responsible for the exposition's waterfront security." entryDate[133] = " 05/13/" + year entryContent[133] = "
1905-An Executive Order extended the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service to the noncontiguous territory of Guam Island.
1952-The Coast Guard announced the establishment of an Organized Reserve Training Program, the first in U.S. Coast Guard history. Morton G. Lessans was sworn in as the first member of the Organized Air Reserve on 12 December 1951.
1986-CGC Manitou stopped the 125-foot Sun Bird in 7th District waters and her boarding team discovered 40,000 pounds of marijuana hidden aboard. The boarding team then located the vessel's builder's plate and learned that the Sun Bird was the decommissioned "buck-and-a-quarter" cutter Crawford. The former cutter and her 14-man crew were taken into custody. A newspaper article describing the incident noted: "If Crawford was a person, Miami would have probably seen it blush . . . The ex-Coast Guard cutter received more publicity for smuggling the drugs than for its 20-year Coast Guard career."" entryDate[134] = " 05/14/" + year entryContent[134] = "
1908-An Act of Congress (35 Stat. L., 160, 162) delegated to the Lighthouse Board the duty of caring for and maintaining the anchorage buoys previously placed by the United States in the harbors of New York and Philadelphia.
1951-USS Valcour was rammed by the collier Thomas Tracy. CGC Cherokee responded and assisted in extinguishing the resulting fires and towed the Valcour to Norfolk. Thirty-seven Navy sailors perished.
1997-The 757-foot containership Ever Grade collided with CGC Cowslip 10 miles upriver from the mouth of the Columbia River near Astoria, Oregon. The buoy tender suffered significant damage from a glancing blow along her port side. Visibility at the time was less than 20 yards due to thick fog in the area. The Cowslip was repaired and returned to service." entryDate[135] = " 05/15/" + year entryContent[135] = "
1862-Revenue Cutter Naugatuck participated in bombardment of Drewry's Bluff (James River) after accompanying USS Monitor in its engagement with CSS Virginia and engaging in an attack on Sewell’s Point.
1934-The lightship LV-117, on the Nantucket Shoals station, in a dense fog, was rammed and sunk by the White Star Line passenger vessel RMS Olympic. The Olympic, which had been homing in on the lightship's radio beacon very accurately, failed to steer clear in time. Seven of the lightship's 11 crewmen were killed. The White Star Line agreed to fund a new lightship.
1945-On 12 May the Coast Guard-manned frigate USS Forsyth (PF-102) was called off her weather station to search through haze and fog for a German submarine that was attempting to surrender. Three days later Forsyth joined Sutton (DE-771) in accepting the surrender of U-234 at 46º 39' N. x 45º 39' W. This submarine was carrying a German technical mission and supplies, including a cargo of uranium, to Tokyo. Earlier, two Japanese passengers on board committed suicide rather than surrender.
1975-The CGC Modoc seized the Polish fishing vessel Kalmar 10 miles off Monterey, California, for fishing inside the 12-mile limit and escorted her to San Francisco.
1996-The Coast Guard formally closed Governors Island. The Army left the base in the early 1960s and the Coast Guard took it over on 3 June 1966 as a way to consolidate its operations in the New York Area. At the height of Coast Guard involvement on the island over 4,600 people lived and worked there." entryDate[136] = " 05/16/" + year entryContent[136] = "
1846-Eleven cutters were assigned to cooperate with Army and Navy in the Mexican War. Cutters McLane, Legare, Woodbury, Ewing, Forward, and Van Buren were assigned to the Army. Cutters Wolcott, Bibb, Morris, and Polk were assigned to the Navy.
1888-Secretary of Treasury was authorized to establish anchorage grounds New York Harbor, adopt suitable rules and "take all necessary measures" for their enforcement." entryDate[137] = " 05/17/" + year entryContent[137] = "
1999-The Coast Guard "kept the peace" when the Makah Indian tribe hunted and killed a gray whale in Neah Bay, Washington. The Makah were guaranteed the right to hunt whales in their 1855 treaty with the U.S." entryDate[138] = " 05/18/" + year entryContent[138] = "
1920-Coast Guard officers and enlisted personnel were granted the same pay, allowances and increases as the Navy." entryDate[139] = " 05/19/" + year entryContent[139] = "
1846-Secretary of Treasury Walker assigned Revenue Captain John A. Webster to control movements of vessels assigned to Army and to cooperate with the Navy in the War with Mexico.
1896-Congress authorized the Secretary of Treasury to patrol regattas." entryDate[140] = " 05/20/" + year entryContent[140] = "
1882-The lookout of Station No. 10 (Louisville, Kentucky), 9th District, spotted two men and a skiff being swept toward the dam and falls of the Ohio River. He sounded the alarm and "a boat at once shot out from the station, and reached the men in time to save them. They were quite ignorant of rowing . . . and were at the mercy of the flood sweeping towards the dam. They were terribly frightened and profuse in their thanks to their rescuers."
1999-The CGC Bear arrived in Rota, Spain. She was deployed to the Adriatic Sea in support of “Operation Allied Force” and “Operation Noble Anvil”, NATO's military campaign against the forces of the former Republic of Yugoslavia. Bear served in the USS Theodore Roosevelt Battle Group providing surface surveillance and SAR response for the Sea Combat Commander, and force protection for the Amphibious Ready Group operating near Albania. Bear provided combat escort for U.S. Army vessel's transporting military cargo between Italy and Albania. This escort operation took Bear up to the Albanian coastline, well within enemy surface-to-surface missile range." entryDate[141] = " 05/21/" + year entryContent[141] = "
1849-Revenue Captain Douglas Ottinger reported completing the construction and furnishing of eight life-saving stations on the New Jersey coast between Sandy Hook and Little Egg Inlet, marking the beginning of Federal life-saving efforts.
1944-The Coast Guard-manned USS LST-69 exploded at Pearl Harbor. None of her crew were killed but 13 were seriously injured.
1951-The Coast Guard announced the formation, within the Washington, DC area, of a new Organized Reserve Training Unit (Vessel Augmentation). The mission of this new unit was to develop a force of experienced personnel, well-trained in all shipboard billets, with particular emphasis on anti-submarine warfare, and the use of radar, radio, and other branches of electronics. Training was to be directed towards readying personnel of the unit for immediate assignment to ships of the Coast Guard and Navy in the event of mobilization.
1986-Japan's Maritime Safety Agency vessel Settsu arrived in Juneau for three days of meetings with 17th District staff members, SAR talks, softball games (against the crew of the CGC Morgenthau--the MSA crew won one game out of three), and comparing operational notes. The 348-foot Japanese vessel was homeported in Kobi, Japan." entryDate[142] = " 05/22/" + year entryContent[142] = "
1920-An Act of Congress, which provided a system of general retirement for the civil employees of the US Government effective 21 August 1920, benefited those employees of the Lighthouse Service who were not covered by the retirement law of 20 June 1918, which provided retirement for certain classes of employees in the Lighthouse Service.
1926-An Act of Congress extended the benefits of the Public Health Service to apply to light keepers located at isolated points, who previously had been unable to avail themselves of such benefits, and made provisions for medical supplies and hospital services for the crews of the vessels of the Lighthouse Service, including the detail of medical officers.
1959-Two US Air Force jets collided near Ocean Station ECHO, patrolled at that time by the CGC Mendota. A U.S. Air Force weather plane spotted both pilots in the water and, within two hours of collision, the Mendota rescued them.
1967-CGC Barataria conducted the first fire-support mission for the newly created Coast Guard Squadron Three in Vietnam. This force initially consisted of five 311-footers used to support Market Time operations." entryDate[143] = " 05/23/" + year entryContent[143] = "
1928-The CGC Haida and the USLHT Cedar rescued 312 passengers and crew from the sailing vessel Star of Falkland near Unimak Pass, Alaska after the Star of Falkland had run aground in the fog during the previous evening. Both the cutter and the tender managed to save all but eight from the sailing vessel. This rescue was one of the most successful in Coast Guard history and was also one of the few instances where the Coast Guard and one of its future integrated agencies worked together to perform a major rescue.
1930-Lieutenant Commander Elmer F. Stone received a medal from Congress for extraordinary achievement in making the first successful trans-Atlantic flight in 1919. Stone was the pilot of the Navy's NC-4.
1946-Commodore Edward M. Webster, USCG, headed the US Delegation to the International Meeting on Radio Aids to Marine Navigation, which was held in London, England. As a result of this meeting, the principal maritime nations of the world agreed to make an intensive study of the World War II-developed devices of radar, LORAN, radar beacons, and other navigational aids with a view to adapt them to peacetime use. This was the first time that the wartime technical secrets of radar and LORAN were generally disclosed to the public. [ USCG Public Information Division News Release, 7 June 1946. ]" entryDate[144] = " 05/24/" + year entryContent[144] = "
1830-Navy officers, under furlough from the Navy until April 1832, were given commissions in the Revenue Service.
1941-CGC Modoc sighted the German battleship Bismarck while the cutter searched for survivors of a convoy southeast of Cape Farewell, Greenland. British Swordfish torpedo planes from the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Victorious circled Modoc as they flew towards the German battleship's position. The Modoc's crew then spotted the flashes caused by anti-aircraft fire from the Bismarck and then sighted British warships on the opposite horizon. The cutter then maneuvered to avoid contact with any of the warships and managed to steam out of the area unscathed." entryDate[145] = " 05/25/" + year entryContent[145] = "
1877-Training of first class of Revenue Cutter cadets began on the school-ship Dobbin at Curtis Bay, Maryland, with nine cadets, three officers, one surgeon, six warrant officers and 17 crew members." entryDate[146] = " 05/26/" + year entryContent[146] = "
1906-Act to regulate enlistments and punishments in Revenue Cutter Service passed.
1988-Admiral Paul Yost, Commandant, explained the new "Zero Tolerance" initiative to Congress's Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Navigation. Yost noted: "The Coast Guard Zero Tolerance policy is that, subject to statutory and jurisdictional limitations, individuals possessing measurable quantities of controlled substances aboard vessels will be subject to the full extent of available criminal and civil sanctions. . .Zero Tolerance means that the Coast Guard, in the course of its regular patrols, boardings and inspections, will now, within the limits of the law, seize vessels and arrest individuals when 'personal use' quantities of illegal drugs are discovered."
1995-The Secretary of Transportation authorized the involuntary recall of 300 reservists to assist in the relief efforts in the Midwest after the Missouri and Mississippi rivers flooded. However, only 143 were called to duty. (See the 2 May 1995 entry.)" entryDate[147] = " 05/27/" + year entryContent[147] = "
1919-First Lieutenant Elmer F. Stone, USCG, piloting the Navy's flying boat NC-4 in the first successful trans-Atlantic flight, landed in the Tagus River estuary near Lisbon, Portugal on 27 May 1919. Stone was decorated that same day by the Portuguese government with the Order of the Tower and Sword.
1936: Public Law 622 reorganized and changed the name of the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection Service to Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation (49 Stat. L., 1380). The Bureau remained under Commerce Department control.
1943-Douglas Munro's posthumous Medal of Honor was given to Douglas Munro's parents, Mr. and Mrs. James Munro of South Cle Elum, Washington, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a ceremony at the White House on Thursday, May 27, 1943. The citation read: "Awarded posthumously to DOUGLAS ALBERT MUNRO, SIGNALMAN FIRST CLASS, U.S. COAST GUARD 'For extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry in action above and beyond the call of duty as Office-in-Charge of a group of Higgins boats, engaged in the evacuation of a Battalion of Marines trapped by enemy Japanese forces at Point Cruz, Guadalcanal, on September 27, 1942. After making preliminary plans for the evacuation of nearly 500 beleaguered Marines, Munro, under constant risk of his life, daringly led five of his small craft toward the shore. As he closed the beach, he signalled [sic] the others to land, and then in order to draw the enemy's fire and protect the heavily loaded boats, he valiantly placed his craft with its two small guns as a shield between the beachhead and the Japanese. When the perilous task of evacuation was nearly completed, Munro was killed by enemy fire, but his crew, two of whom were wounded, carried on until the last boat had loaded and cleared the beach. By his outstanding leadership, expert planning, and dauntless devotion to duty, he and his courageous comrades undoubtedly saved the lives of many who otherwise would have perished. He gallantly gave up his life in defense of his country.'"
1954-The aircraft carrier USS Bennington (CV-20), with about 2,000 persons aboard, suffered an explosion and fire 35 miles south of Brenton Reef Lightship, injuring some 100 persons. U.S. Coast Guard aircraft from Salem Air Station and Quonset Point proceeded to the scene, assisted in transporting medical personnel to Bennington and provided air cover for all helicopter operations. One of the Coast Guard’s helicopters made 7 landings aboard the aircraft carrier and transported 18 injured to the hospital; another transported 14 injured." entryDate[148] = " 05/28/" + year entryContent[148] = "
1947-The Coast Guard announced the disestablishment of all U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Marine Details in foreign ports. During World War II, a total of 36 foreign Merchant Marine Details had been activated for the purpose of performing "on-the-spot" services in connection with the preventive aspects of safety of life and property of the US Merchant Marine. These functions reverted to the continental U.S. ports in which there were located U.S. Marine Inspection Offices. The Merchant Marine Details disestablished were located in the following ports: Antwerp, Belgium; Bremerhaven, Germany; London, England; Cardiff, Wales; Le Havre, France; Marseille, France; Naples, Italy; Piraeus, Greece; Shanghai, China; Manila, Philippine Islands; and Trieste, Venezia Giulia.
1984-The first Marine Safety Information System module was deployed Coast Guard-wide. The Port Safety Module replaced the Interim MSIS system, first established when the Port and Tanker Safety Act of 1978 was passed, to provide field units with vessel histories. The replacement module was vital in the day-to-day execution of Port Safety and Marine Violation functions." entryDate[149] = " 05/29/" + year entryContent[149] = "
1949-Lieutenant F. X. Riley, believed to be the first Coast Guardsman to earn an advanced degree under US Coast Guard sponsorship through night class attendance, received his MA degree in Public Administration from American University in Washington, D.C.
1995-A request from the Commander in Chief of Naval Forces Europe led to the deployment of the CGC Dallas, under the command of Captain Joseph Jones, USCG, to the Mediterranean. She departed Governors Island on 29 May 1995 and visited ports throughout the Mediterranean and Black Sea, including Istanbul and Samsun in Turkey; Durres, Albania; Varna, Bulgaria; Constanta, Romania; Koper, Slovenia; Taranto, Italy; and Bizerte, Tunisia. The crew trained with naval and coast guard forces in each country. She deployed for a few days with the Sixth Fleet and served as a plane guard for the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The crew was also able to coordinate schedules with six NATO and non-NATO nations to conduct boardings. She returned to the U.S. in August and arrived at Governors Island on 28 August 1995." entryDate[150] = " 05/30/" + year entryContent[150] = "
1767-The Charleston Lighthouse was built on Morris Island, South Carolina. The first stone of the tower was laid on this date.
1996-On 30 May 1996 the 8th and 2nd Coast Guard Districts were combined to form the new 8th Coast Guard District.
1996-The CGC Yocona was decommissioned in Kodiak, Alaska. She had been in Coast Guard service since 1946." entryDate[151] = " 05/31/" + year entryContent[151] = "
1947-Authority of the U.S. Coast Guard for the establishment and disestablishment of prohibited, restricted, and anchorage areas, conferred by the Espionage Act (50 U.S.C. 191) and Proclamation No. 2412 of 27 June 1940 was terminated by Proclamation No. 2732, signed by the President on this date.
1948-The Coast Guard assumed command of the former Navy base at Cape May, New Jersey, and formally established its east coast recruit training center there the next day.
1983-Former world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey passed away at the age of 87. He served in the Coast Guard during World War II and achieved the rank of commander.
1988-The first search and rescue agreement with the Soviet Union was signed at a summit in Moscow. The agreement set a general line, or boundary, separating SAR regions and provided for exchange visits to SAR coordination centers in both countries, joint SAR exercises, and regular communication checks.
1988-The CGC Fir became the oldest cutter in commission after the CGC Ingham was decommissioned this day." entryDate[152] = " 06/01/" + year entryContent[152] = "
1874-The light was first lit at Spectacle Reef Lighthouse, located on a limestone reef at the northern end of Lake Huron, near the Straits of Mackinac, ten miles from land. The structure of this lighthouse was similar to that of Minots Ledge, and its construction was "a notable engineering work."
1941-The Navy organized the "South Greenland Patrol" that consisted of 3 cutters and a Navy vessel.
1946-The Coast Guard returned to operation under the Treasury Department after the end of World War II.
1948-The US Coast Guard Training Center at Cape May, New Jersey, was established as a receiving center for the initial classification, outfitting, and indoctrination of recruits. The primary reason for this move from the training station at Mayport, Florida, which was then be decommissioned, was to locate more centrally the Service's facilities for handling recruits. " entryDate[153] = " 06/02/" + year entryContent[153] = "
CONTENT HERE" entryDate[154] = " 06/03/" + year entryContent[154] = "
1882-At 8 in the morning the three-masted schooner, J.P. Decamdres, bound for Milwaukee with a cargo of cord-wood and railroad ties, stranded about one mile north of the life-saving station at the entrance to Milwaukee Harbor (No. 15, Eleventh District) and became a total wreck. Her crew of six men and a passenger were rescued by the lifesaving crew.
1941-President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order making 2,100 US Coast Guard officers and men available to man four transports, USS Leonard Wood, Hunter Liggett, Joseph T. Dickman, and Wakefield along with 22 other ships manned by US Navy personnel.
1982-The USS Farragut towed two vessels seized by the Coast Guard to San Juan, Puerto Rico, marking the first time that a Navy ship took an active role in law enforcement and interdiction of drug smuggling in the Caribbean." entryDate[155] = " 06/04/" + year entryContent[155] = "
1954-USS Asterion and SS Kokoku Maru collided in a heavy fog 40 miles west of San Francisco, killing one crewman of the latter ship and injuring three others. The Coast Guard cutters Magnolia, Comanche, Avoyel, and patrol boat CG-95311, as well as two commercial tugs, converged on the scene. Comanche and Magnolia successfully removed all 43 survivors from the disabled Kokoku Maru, all of whom were subsequently delivered safely ashore. Although Asterion was able to proceed under its own power, the Japanese ship had to be towed by the commercial tugs to San Francisco. When the bilge pumps on one of the tugs failed, Coast Guard aircraft dropped emergency pumping equipment to control the flooding. The two tugs then successfully towed the Kokoku Maru into San Francisco harbor." entryDate[156] = " 06/05/" + year entryContent[156] = "
1794-The Third Congress authorized an additional 10 revenue cutters and gave the Treasury Department the responsibility for lighthouses, beacons, buoys, and piers.
1912-Senator Charles E. Townsent of Michigan introduced a bill to consolidate Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service to form Coast Guard. The bill became law on 28 January 1915." entryDate[157] = " 06/06/" + year entryContent[157] = "
1900-Secretary of Treasury authorized to establish anchorage grounds at Kennebec River, Maine.
1944-Ninety-nine Coast Guard cutters, Coast Guard-manned warships and landing craft participated in the landings at Normandy, France. CAPT Miles Imlay took command of one of the assault groups attacking Omaha Beach during the invasion. He directed the invasion from the flotilla's flagship USS LCI(L)-87. LCI(L)s 85, 91, 92, and 93 (Coast Guard-manned) were lost at the Omaha beachhead that day. Sixty cutters sailed in support of the invasion forces, acted as search and rescue craft for each of the landings. A Coast Guard manned assault transport, the USS Bayfield, served as the command and control vessel for the landings at Utah beach.
1945-Coast Guard-manned USS Sheepscot (AOG-24) went aground and was lost off Iwo Jima. No lives were lost.
1985-CGC Polar Sea departed Seattle for a voyage through the Northwest Passage by way of the Panama Canal, the east coast, and then Greenland, sparking an international incident with Canada. She completed the first solo circumnavigation of the North American continent by a U.S. vessel and the first trip by a Polar-Class icebreaker. She also captured the record for the fastest transit of the historic northern route. She arrived back in Seattle on 27 October 1985.
1993-The 150-foot tramp steamer Golden Venture ran aground on Rockaway beach in New York with some 300 illegal Chinese migrants on board. Ten drowned or died of hypothermia, six vanished and the rest were rescued by the Coast Guard and local agencies. " entryDate[158] = " 06/07/" + year entryContent[158] = "
1902-Alaskan Game Law passed to be enforced by Revenue Cutter Service "on request" of Secretary of Agriculture. It, however, was not effectively enforced by Coast Guard until 1925.
1924-Oil Pollution Act was passed. It was enforced by the Coast Guard.
" entryDate[159] = " 06/08/" + year entryContent[159] = "1882-The sloop-rigged yacht Circe, of Cleveland, was dismasted at 1 o’clock in the afternoon about a mile outside of Cleveland Harbor. The crew of Station No. 8, Ninth District (Cleveland), discovered the accident and towed her safely into the harbor." entryDate[160] = " 06/09/" + year entryContent[160] = "
1910-Congress passed the Motorboat Act. It was enforced by the Revenue Cutter Service.
1990-The 853-foot Norwegian tanker Mega Borg exploded near Galveston, Texas, killing two of her crew. Coast Guard units consisting of 500 Coast Guardsmen fought the fires and cleaned up the resulting oil spill. The units included CGCs Buttonwood, Point Spencer, Steadfast, Valiant and Cushing. The Steadfast became the on-scene commander and maintained communications between the operations center at MSO Galveston and personnel fighting the fire. CGC Salvia worked with Navy skimmers seven miles from shore in the Sabine Pass area. The Atlantic and Pacific Strike Teams brought people and equipment from across the country and MSOs in Houston, Mobile, Morgan City, New Orleans, and Port Arthur sent personnel to assist MSO Galveston.
2001-Coast Guard Group Operations Center in Galveston, Texas, was inundated with calls for assistance after Tropical Storm Allison dumped over 36 inches of rain in a three-day period, causing massive flooding in and around Houston. Coast Guard flood punts and helicopters rescued over 220 persons." entryDate[161] = " 06/10/" + year entryContent[161] = "
1872-Life-Saving stations to be erected "under supervision of two captains of the revenue service." An Act of Congress authorized government life-saving stations on Cape Code and Block Island.
1922-Congress readjusted pay and allowances of Coast Guard commissioned and enlisted personnel on basis of equality with other services. Until this time a Coast Guard captain was equivalent to a Navy lieutenant commander." entryDate[162] = " 06/11/" + year entryContent[162] = "
1764-The Sandy Hook Lighthouse, at the south point of the entrance to New York Harbor, was first lighted. Today, its octagonal tower, built by Mr. Isaac Conro of New York City with money collected by a group of New York merchants, is the oldest original light tower still standing and in use in the United States.
1941-Amendment to act creating Coast Guard (January 28, 1915) provided "The Coast Guard shall be a military service and constitute a branch of the land and naval forces of the United States at all times."
1966-Finding itself disabled and adrift two miles from Cape Kubugakli, Alaska, the fishing vessel Katy C radioed for assistance. A Coast Guard helicopter, after ascertaining that the ship was unable to anchor by herself, took her in tow until she was out of danger." entryDate[163] = " 06/12/" + year entryContent[163] = "
1813-The Revenue cutter Surveyor, at anchor in the York River, Virginia, was surprised by a three-barge attack force launched from the British frigate HMS Narcissus. Outnumbered 50 to 15, the cuttermen wounded seven and killed three of the enemy before the cutter was captured. The British commanding officer of Narcissus was so impressed by "the determined way in which her deck was disputed, inch by inch," in hand-to-hand combat, he returned to Revenue Captain William Travis, the commanding officer of Surveyor, "the sword you had so nobly used."
1917-An Act of Congress appropriated $300,000 to enable the U .S. Coast Guard to extend its telephone system to include all Coast Guard stations not then connected as well as the most important light stations with no means of rapid communication.
1925-Lake Huron Lightship radio fog signal was placed in commission, being the first signal of this kind on the Great Lakes.
1999-The small cruise vessel Wilderness Adventurer ran aground in Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. All passengers and crew were safely evacuated from the stranded vessel. The responders from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Coast Guard, and Glacier Bay Tours and Cruises (which operated the vessel) then successfully refloated her and towed her to drydock. Oil containment booms contained the 300 gallons of fuel that leaked from the vessel. A Coast Guard spokesman later stated "This is the best-run multi-agency operation I've seen in my career. It went well. We still have a damaged vessel to take care of, but at least it's not at the bottom of the ocean in a national park." The Coast Guard also investigated the accident." entryDate[164] = " 06/13/" + year entryContent[164] = "
1929-Coast Guard Radio Technician A. G. Descoteaux became the first person to broadcast from an aircraft. In a Loening amphibian, he reported the takeoff of a French aircraft on a trans-Atlantic flight at Old Orchard Beach, Maine. The account was relayed by ground equipment to an extensive national hookup and was received by U.S. and foreign listeners.
1942-John C. Cullen, Seaman 2/c discovered Nazi saboteurs landing on beach at Amagansett, Long Island. He reported this to his superiors. The FBI later captured the Nazis and Cullen was awarded the Legion of Merit.
1942-CGC Thetis sank the German U-boat U-157 off the Florida Keys. There were no survivors.
1943-CGC Escanaba exploded and sank off Ivigtut, Greenland, with only two survivors. The cause for the loss has never been confirmed." entryDate[165] = " 06/14/" + year entryContent[165] = "
1775-The Continental Congress adopted "the American continental army." Happy Birthday, Army! The Army's motto is: "This We’ll Defend."
1906-First regulatory fishing law for Alaska passed. The new law was enforced by the Revenue Cutter Service.
1941-The CGC Duane rescued 46 survivors from the torpedoed SS Tresillian." entryDate[166] = " 06/15/" + year entryContent[166] = "
1904-Nearly 1,000 lives were lost when the steamboat General Slocum caught fire in the East River in New York. The disaster led to improved safety regulations and life-saving equipment.
1917-Congress passed and President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Espionage Act, authorizing the Treasury Secretary to assume control of U.S. ports, control ship movements, establish anchorages and supervise the loading and storage of explosive cargoes. The authority was immediately delegated to the Coast Guard and formed the basis for the formation of the Coast Guard's Captain of the Ports and the Port Security Program.
1944-Coast Guardsmen participated in the invasion of Saipan, Marianas. Coast Guard-manned transports that took part in the invasion included the USS Cambria, Arthur Middleton, Callaway, Leonard Wood, LST-19, LST-23, LST-166 and LST-169.
1949-Two hundred and forty-eight unidentified victims of the explosion of the U.S. Coast Guard-manned Serpens in 1945 at Guadalcanal were buried in Arlington National Cemetery in what was described as the largest recommittal on record.
1986-Commandant ADM Paul Yost banned the wearing of beards by Coast Guard personnel." entryDate[167] = " 06/16/" + year entryContent[167] = "
1880-An Act of Congress (21 Stat. L., 259, 263) provided that "masters of light-house tenders shall have police powers in matters pertaining to government property and smuggling."" entryDate[168] = " 06/17/" + year entryContent[168] = "
1832-The practice of utilizing "surplus" naval officers as officers of the Revenue Marine was discontinued. Revenue officer vacancies were henceforth filled by promotion from within the service.
1910-An Act of Congress (36 Stat. L., 534) abolished the Lighthouse Board and created the Bureau of Lighthouses to have complete charge of the Lighthouse Service. This law constituted the organic act under which the Lighthouse Service operated thereafter.
1942-Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet ordered the organization of coastal pickets to combat submarine menace of Atlantic Coast. This became known as the "Corsair Fleet."
1983-National Narcotics Border Interdiction System (NNBIS) began operations under the direction of Vice President George Bush and the executive board consisting of Secretaries of State, Transportation and Defense, the Attorney General, the Counselor to the President, the Director of Central Intelligence, and the Director of the White House Drug Abuse Policy Office. "U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps airborne and seaborne craft, intelligence, technology, surveillance, and manpower now are used to augment operations by the U.S. Coast Guard, Customs Service, the Drug Enforcement Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Border Patrol, and the U.S. Attorney's Office. The system provides a coordinated national and international interagency network for prioritizing interdiction targets, identifying resources, recommending the most effective action, and coordinating joint special actions."" entryDate[169] = " 06/18/" + year entryContent[169] = "
1812-War declared against Great Britain.
1878-On 18 June 1878 Congress established the U.S. Life-Saving Service as a separate agency under the control of the Treasury Department (20 Stat. L., 163).
1878-The 45th Congress enacted a rider on an Army appropriations bill that became known as the Posse Comitatus Act [Chapter 263, Section 15, U.S. Statutes, Vol. 20.] This act limited military involvement in civil law enforcement leaving the Revenue Cutter Service as the only military force consistently charged with federal law enforcement on the high seas and in U.S. waters. The rider prohibited the use of the Army in domestic civilian law enforcement without Constitutional or Congressional authority. The use of the Navy was prohibited by regulation and the rider was amended in 1976 outlawing the use of the Air Force. In 1981, however, new legislation allowed the Secretary of Defense to bring Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps support to civilian authorities in intelligence, equipment, base and research facilities, and related training.
1903-Alaska’s first coastal lighthouse, Scotch Cap Lighthouse, was first lit. It was located near the west end of Unimak Island on the Pacific side of Unimak Pass, the main passage through the Aleutian Islands into the Bering Sea.
1930-An Act of Congress provided "for the transfer of the old lighthouse at Cape Henry, Virginia, to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities."
1938-The first low power, unattended "secondary" radio aid to navigation was established at St. Ignace, Michigan.
1995-The 736-foot cruise ship Celebration suffered an engine-room fire and lost power while off the coast of San Salvador, Bahamas. CGC Forward responded and was designated as the on-scene commander. CGC Vigorous was also diverted to lend assistance. The cruise ship's Halon system put out the fire but she was drifting dangerously close to shore. The Forward then towed her throughout the night away from shore until the arrival of commercial tugs the next day. A Coast Guard helicopter medevaced one passenger. On 20 June the crew of the Forward and MSO Miami team members stood by while the 1,735 passengers still aboard were transferred from the Celebration to the cruise ship Ecstasy, which had arrived in the area. The Ecstasy then sailed for Miami and the Celebration, with one engine then on-line, sailed to Freeport for repairs.
1999-The CGC Midgett departed its homeport of Seattle for a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf. Midgett was attached to a Navy carrier battle group. The Midgett's crew brought the Coast Guard's expertise in boarding ships to the battle group. Once in the Gulf, the cutter's primary mission was to enforce United Nations' sanctions against illegal Iraq petroleum shipments and conduct SAR operations." entryDate[170] = " 06/19/" + year entryContent[170] = "
1845 The Secretary of the Treasury had Lieutenants Thornton A. Jenkins and Richard Bache detailed from the Navy and sent abroad to procure information that might tend to the improvement of the lighthouse system of the United States. Subsequently, when the Secretary submitted the report of these two naval officers and asked that a board be appointed to consider thoroughly the matter of lighthouse improvements. No legislative action resulted.
1992-In a joint operation with INS, the Coast Guard assisted in the seizure of the 167-foot Belize-registered freighter Lucky No. 1, her 15-man crew, and 117 Chinese migrants that were aboard. The seizure took place off Oahu." entryDate[171] = " 06/20/" + year entryContent[171] = "
1820-The Revenue cutter Diligence captured the Buenos Aires privateer-turned-pirate General Rondeau near Wilmington, North Carolina, after a seven-day chase.
1874-An Act of Congress provided for lifesaving stations on the coasts of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Florida, as well as on the Great Lakes and the Pacific Coast.
1874-Casualty reports of accidents at sea inaugurated. Volunteer crews for life saving stations and medals of honor were first authorized.
1874-The first Life Saving Medal enactment was passed, which was updated in 1878 and 1882. Ship masters were also required to report accidents and death in order to gather data to aid in evaluating sites for search and rescue stations.
1906-Congress passed the Sponge Fishing Act and directed that the Revenue Cutter Service to enforce it.
1918-An Act of Congress (40 Stat. L., 607, 608) changed the designation of Lighthouse Inspectors, who were in charge of the 19 lighthouse districts, to that of Superintendents of Lighthouses.
1964-CGC Reliance, the first of the Coast Guard's 210-foot medium endurance cutter class, was commissioned.
1966-CGC Point League attacked and crippled a North Vietnamese junk attempting to run the Navy’s Market Time blockade. The action continued into the next day as the junk stranded itself on the shore and its crew fired a demolition charge, destroying their ship." entryDate[172] = " 06/21/" + year entryContent[172] = "
1944-CGC's 83415 and 83477 wrecked off coast of Normandy, France during a storm-no lives were lost. This is the storm that wrecked the artificial harbor constructed by the Allies off the coast of Normandy.
1979-On 21 June 1979, SN Ina J. Toavs was awarded the Coast Guard Medal, the first woman to receive the award." entryDate[173] = " 06/22/" + year entryContent[173] = "
1818-Boarding parties from the Revenue cutter Dallas seized the privateer Young Spartan, her crew, and the privateer's prize, the Pastora, off Savannah, Georgia. The crew of the Pastora had been set adrift and their fate remained unknown. The New York Evening Post noted that the crew of the privateer had committed offenses "that can only be expiated by making their exits on the gallows." (July 3, 1818 issue).
1936-Congress passed an act to define jurisdiction of Coast Guard. In one of of the most sweeping grants of police authority ever written into U.S. law, Congress designated the Coast Guard as the federal agency for "enforcement of laws generally on the high seas and navigable waters of the United States."
1940-Port Security responsibilities were undertaken again for the first time since World War I when President Franklin Roosevelt invoked the Espionage Act of 1917. The Coast Guard was to govern anchorage and movement of all vessels in U.S. waters and to protect vessels, harbors, and inland or coastal waterways of the U.S. The Dangerous Cargo Act gave the Coast Guard jurisdiction over ships with high explosives and dangerous cargoes.
1948-Congress enacted Public Law 738, which authorized the operation of floating ocean stations for the purpose of providing search and rescue communication and air-navigation facilities, and meteorological services in such ocean areas as are regularly traversed by aircraft of the United States.
1965-Coast Guard forces in Vietnam fired their first shot of the war when LT John M. Cece, commanding CGC Point Orient, gave the order to "commence fire" while patrolling the 17th Parallel. The cutter was assigned to Coast Guard Squadron One.
1977- Secretary of Transportation Brock Adams introduced Ensign Beverly G. Kelley and Boatswain's Mate 3/c Debra Lee Wilson during a press conference as two of 12 women who had been assigned to sea duty. "This is the first time in Coast Guard history that women have been sent to sea." Both women had orders to report to the Morgenthau later that year.
1982-The first successful hostage rescue at sea occurred when a combined Coast Guard-FBI boarding party deployed from CGC Alert took control of the 890-foot Liberian-flagged motor tanker Ypapanti. The incident began on 16 May 1982 when the Ypapanti anchored off the entrance to Delaware Bay after it was denied entrance to U.S. waters by COTP Philadelphia, due to the lack of required safety equipment aboard. Initially the CGCs Hornbeam, Active and Point Franklin responded. After the situation stabilized, Active and Point Franklin departed while Hornbeam stood by the tanker to monitor the situation and to act as on scene commander; she was relieved on 29 May by Alert. During the next few days the tanker's crew mutinied and seized control of the tanker from the master in a wage dispute. After a prolonged period of unsuccessful negotiations and threats by the crew to kill various officers and to set fire to the vessel, the Alert went alongside the tanker on 22 June 1982. A senior Coast Guard negotiating team went aboard to present one last wage / repatriation offer to the crew. When this offer was rejected a combined Coast Guard / FBI boarding team went aboard from the Alert and took control of the Ypapanti without injury. The vessel was then returned to the control of the master and 12 loyal crewmen. Twenty-four mutineers were detained on board the Alert and were transferred to the custody of the INS in Cape May." entryDate[174] = " 06/23/" + year entryContent[174] = "
1716-Province of Massachusetts authorized the erection of the first lighthouse in America. It was built on Great Brewster Island in Boston Harbor.
1817-The RC Active forced a South American privateer posing as an armed merchantman to leave the Chesapeake Bay and American waters.
1939-Congress created the Coast Guard Reserve which later became what is today the Coast Guard Auxiliary." entryDate[175] = " 06/24/" + year entryContent[175] = "
1914-Congress authorized the Secretary of Treasury to "detail for duty on revenue cutters such surgeons and other persons of the Public Health Service as. . .necessary" and for cutters with such medical personnel aboard to extend medical and surgical aid to crews of American vessels engaged in deep sea fisheries. This Act of Congress (38 Stat. L., 387) regularized procurement and assignment procedures of Public Health Service personnel to revenue cutters, launching a partnership between the two services that survives to this day.
1930-An Act of Congress provided "that light keepers and vessel officers and crews, who during their active service were entitled to medical relief at hospitals and other stations of the Public Health Service, may be given such relief after retirement as is now applicable to retired officers and men in other branches of the Government service, under joint regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Commerce."
1938-Under an Executive Order of this date, "about 35 positions of steward on lighthouse tenders were brought under the classified civil service."
1995-The cutter CGC Juniper was launched, the first of the new 225-foot Juniper Class buoy tenders." entryDate[176] = " 06/25/" + year entryContent[176] = "
1936-"The act of June 25, 1936 was in reality an amendment to the Seamen’s Act of 1915, and had been called the Merchant Marine Act of 1936. This law provided for (1) "qualifications, examinations, and issuance of certificates of service or efficiency to unlicensed personnel; (2) the issuance of continuous discharge books to all seagoing personnel," a three-watch eight-hour day, and certain citizenship requirements. The act greatly increased the workload of the shipping commissioners, particularly in providing for the issuance of discharge books and various certificates. This had the effect of both increasing the efficiency of unlicensed personnel and raising the dignity of the profession."
2002-U.S. Deputy Secretary of Transportation Michael Jackson, joined by U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Thomas H. Collins, announced the award of the Integrated Deepwater System (IDS) contract. It was the largest acquisition project in the history of the Coast Guard." entryDate[177] = " 06/26/" + year entryContent[177] = "
1944-LCDR Quentin R. Walsh and his small commando/reconnaissance unit forced the surrender of Fort du Homet, a Nazi stronghold at Cherbourg, France, captured 300 German soldiers and liberated 50 U.S. paratroopers who had been captured on D-Day. For his heroic actions Walsh was awarded the Navy Cross.
1948-In order to implement the expanded postwar activities of the Coast Guard in the field of aids to navigation, Congress approved Public Law 786, which provided legislative authority for the Coast Guard to establish and operate maritime aids for the armed forces and LORAN stations essential for the armed forces and maritime and air commerce of the United States." entryDate[178] = " 06/27/" + year entryContent[178] = "
1851-The British bark Henry stranded off Bridgehampton Beach, Long Island with 204 persons on board. All were safely landed with government surf boat.
2003-The Coast Guard cutter Walnut, homeported in Honolulu, returned home after being deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. She deployed to the North Arabian Gulf in January with an oil spill recovery system in the event the regime of Saddam Hussein committed any acts of environmental terrorism. When those threats did not materialize, the cutter conducted maritime interception operations enforcing U.N. Security Council resolutions, participated in the search for two downed United Kingdom helicopters, and patrolled and provided assistance to captured Iraqi offshore oil terminals being secured by Coast Guard port security personnel. The cutter’s crew completely replaced 30 buoys and repaired an additional five along the 41-mile Khawr Abd Allah Waterway. This ATON mission vastly improved the navigational safety of the waterway for humanitarian aid, commercial, and military vessels sailing to the port and was a critical step to economic recovery for the people of Iraq." entryDate[179] = " 06/28/" + year entryContent[179] = "
1946-Peacetime cruises for the cadets of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy at New London Connecticut, were revived." entryDate[180] = " 06/29/" + year entryContent[180] = "
1820-On 29 June 1820 the Revenue cutter Dallas captured the 12-gun brig-of-war General Ramirez, which was loaded with 280 slaves, off St. Augustine. The 8 July 1820 issue of the Savannah Republican noted:
"On the 28th ultimo, while the Cutter DALLAS was lying in the St. Mary's River, Captain Jackson received information that the Brig of war GENERAL RAMIREZ, supposed to be a piratical vessel was hovering off St. Augustine. The Cutter forthwith got under way in pursuit of the Brig having first obtained 12 United States soldiers from Fernandina to strengthen the Cutter's force. At half past three the next day, she hailed the Brig and received for answer, "This is the Patriot Brig GENERAL RAMIREZ----." Captain Jackson finding a number of blacks on board took possession of the vessel and brought her into St. Mary's, arriving on the 1st instant. Captain Jackson found on the Brig about 280 African slaves. The Captain and crew, 28 in number, acknowledged themselves Americans."
1944-CDR Frank A. Erickson landed a helicopter on the flight deck of CGC Cobb. This was the first rotary-wing shipboard landing by Coast Guard personnel.
1950-The Coast Guard adopted a Navy directive relative to security measures, including precautions against possible sabotage at installations and aboard ships.
1982-The Soviet Union launched COSPAS I, the first search and rescue satellite ever launched. In combination with later SARSAT satellites, a new multi-agency, international, search and rescue service was made operational." entryDate[181] = " 06/30/" + year entryContent[181] = "
1932-Steamboat Inspection Service and Bureau of Navigation were combined to form the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection (47 Stat. L., 415). The new agency remained under the control of the Commerce Department.
1933-The airways division, which had been conducted as a division of the Lighthouse Service, but under the administrative supervision of the Assistant Secretary for Aeronautics, Department of Commerce, was separated from the Lighthouse Service. (USLHS AR 1933, p. 97).
1939-"The total personnel of the Service as of June 30, 1939, was 5,355, consisting of 4,119 full—time and 1,156 part—time employees, the former including 1, 170 light keepers and assistants; 56 light attendants; 1,995 officers and crews of lightships and tenders; 113 Bureau officers, engineers and draftsmen, and district superintendents and technical assistants; 226 clerks, messengers, janitors, and office laborers; 157 depot keepers and assistants, including watchmen and laborers; and 482 field-force employees engaged in construction and repair work."
1939-"At the end of the year, the total number of lighthouse tenders was 65, of which 64 were in commission and ‘.1 was out of commission and advertised for sale. Of the vessels in commission, 42 were steam-propelled, 18 had diesel engines, and 4 had diesel-electric drive. The average age of the fleet of tenders is 19.52 years. There are 10 tenders, aggregating 8,535 tons, 35 years of age and over. Thirty lighthouse tenders are equipped with radiotelegraph; 38 with radio direction finders; and 55 with radiotelephones."
1939-"Lightships were maintained on 30 stations during the year. At the close of the year, the total number of lightships was 43, which included 9 relief ships and 4 ships out of commission."
1939-"The total number of aids to navigation maintained by the Lighthouse Service at the close of the fiscal year was 29,606, a net increase of 849 over the previous year."
1942-Beach Patrol Division was established at Coast Guard Headquarters under the command of Captain Raymond J. Mauerman.
1946-The general World War II demobilization task was completed with all Separation Centers decommissioned, resulting in a reduced Coast Guard personnel to 23,000 officers and enlisted personnel from a wartime peak of about 171,000 on 30 June 1945.
1946-By this date, all lightships removed from their stations as a war measure had been restored, except Fire Island Lightship. which had been replaced by a large-type whistle buoy offshore and a radio-beacon on shore at Fire Island Light Station, New York.
1946-The U .S. Navy returned the Coast Guard’s eleven air stations to the operational control of the Coast Guard." entryDate[182] = " 07/01/" + year entryContent[182] = " " if (typeof display == "undefined") { var display = "date" } if (display == "random") { var randomNumber = Math.random() randomNumber *= varLength randomNumber = parseInt(randomNumber) if(isNaN(randomNumber)) randomNumber = 0 else randomNumber %= varLength selectedContent = entryContent[randomNumber] } else { for (x=0; x<(entryContent.length); x++) { tempDate = new Date(entryDate[x]) tempContent = entryContent[x] if ((tempDate <= today) && (tempDate > selectedDate)) { selectedContent = tempContent selectDate = tempDate } } } document.write (selectedContent)
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