Feb 18
1268 Battle of Rakvere
1797 English capture Trinidad
1814 Battle of Montereau

Feb 19
197 Battle of Lugdunum Bloodiest battle between Roman Armys.
1674 Treaty of Westminster ends 3rd Anglo-Dutch War & seedes New Amsterdam to England.
1942 Japanese air raid on Darwin Australia kills almost 250 people
FDR signs Internment Order for Japanese-Americans
1943 Battle of Kasserine Pass, Tunisia

Feb 20
1862 Confederates evacuate Columbus, Ky as a result of the fall of Ft. Donaldson
1864 Battle of Olustee Biggest battle in Fla, CS victory
1942 Butch O'Hare becomes 1st US Ace of WWII
1944 "Big Week" of air strikes on Germany begins
1959 AVRO Canada Arrow cancelled

February 20

1815 - USS Constitution, under Captain Charles Stewart, captures HMS Cyane and sloop-of-war Levant
1962 – Lt. Col. John Glenn, USMC becomes first American to orbit Earth. His flight in Friendship 7 (Mercury 6) consisted of 3 orbits in 88 minutes at a velocity of 17,544 mph with the highest altitude of 162.2 statute miles. Recovery was by USS Noa (DD-841).
1962 - USS Dixie (AD-14) rescues lone crewman aboard a sailing yawl adrift for four days.
1974 - S-3A Viking ASW aircraft (carrier jet) introduced officially, given to VS-41.

Feb 21
1543 Battle of Wayna Daga Portugese/Ethiopian Army defeats Muslims
1862 Battle of Valverde, New Mexico
1916 Battle of Verdun begins
1945 Kamakazes sink Aircraft Carrier USS Bismarck Sea & damages USS Saratoga
1974 Israel evacuates west bank of the Suez Canal

This Day in US Naval History - Feb. 21

1861 - Steven R. Mallory, a former chairman of the U.S. House Naval Affairs Committee, is appointed Secretary of the Navy of the Confederate States.
1943 - American forces land unopposed on the Russell Islands, 30 miles northwest of Guadalcanal, beginning the advance through the central Solomons.
1944 - U.S. Marines, with support of naval bombardment and carrier aircraft, secure Eniwetok Atoll.
1991 - Marine AV-8Bs conduct bombing runs off the flight deck of USS Nassau (LHA 4). This is the first time in history that Marine AV-8B jump jets have conducted combat missions from a helicopter assault ship.

Feb 22
1744 Battle of Toulon
1865 Union troops enter Wilmington, N.C.
1915 Germany begins unrestricted submarine warfare
1942 Gen. Douglas McArthur ordered out of the Phillipines.

This Day in Naval History - Feb. 22


1865 - A Union squadron under the command of Rear Adm. David Dixon Porter bombards and captures Wilmington, N.C.
1870 - After arriving on USS Nipsic, the Darien Expedition, commanded by Cmdr. Thomas O. Selfridge Jr., begins active operations ashore at Caldonia Bay. The exhibition then surveys the Isthmus of Darien, Panama, for an interoceanic ship canal.
1909 - The "Great White Fleet" returns to Hampton Roads, Va., from its historic around-the-world cruise.
1943 - USS Iowa (BB 61), the lead ship of the last class of American fast battleships, is commissioned.
1974 - Lt. j.g. Barbara Ann Allen becomes the first Navy officer designated as a female aviator.

February 23

1795 - U.S. Navy Office of Purveyor of Supplies is established. This is the Navy Supply Corps Birthday.
1919 - Launching of Osmond Ingram (DD-255), first Navy ship named for an enlisted man
1944 - Carrier groups under Spruance attack Saipan, Tinian and Rota in the Marianas
1945 - Marines and a Navy hospital corpsman raise flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima

Feb 23
1778 Baron Von Steuben arrives in Valley Forge to assist in training the Continental Army
1836 Siege of the Alamo begins
1847 Battle of Buena Vista, Mexico
1900 Battle of Hart's Hill, South Africa(Boer War)
1991 Allied Forces enter Iraq

February 24

1813 - USS Hornet, Captain James Lawrence, captures HMS Peacock
1968 - Task Force Clearwater established in I Corps