4 July
On this day in 1927 the Lockheed Vega had its first flight.
6 June
The Battle of Normandy begins when Operation Overlord, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history. Continue reading “1944 – World War II Operation Overlord”
27 May
Three days after sinking the British Battlecruiser Hood, the German Battleship Bismarck is pounded to a wreck by the British Battleships King George V and Rodney, forcing the crew of Bismarck to scuttle their ship.
24 May
A Second World War naval battle between the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood and the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, both of which were attempting to break out into the North Atlantic to attack Allied merchant shipping.
April
USS Thresher (SSN-593) was the lead boat of her class of nuclear-powered attack submarines in the United States Navy. She was lost with all hands during deep-diving tests on 10 April 1963.
Continue reading “1963 – Submarine USS Thresher lost at sea”
31 March
The name Titanic was derived from Greek mythology and meant gigantic. Built in Belfast, Ireland, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (as it was then known), the RMS Titanic was the second of the three Olympic-class ocean liners—the first was the RMS Olympic and the third was the HMHS Britannic. They were by far the largest vessels of the British shipping company White Star Line’s fleet, which comprised 29 steamers and tenders in 1912. The three ships had their genesis in a discussion in mid-1907 between the White Star Line’s chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, and the American financier J. P. Morgan, who controlled the White Star Line’s parent corporation, the International Mercantile Marine Co. (IMM). Continue reading “1909 – Construction of the ill fated RMS Titanic begins”
27 March
The Tenerife airport disaster was a fatal runway collision between two Boeing 747s on this day in 1977, at Los Rodeos Airport (now Tenerife North Airport) on the Spanish island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. The crash killed 583 people, making it the deadliest accident in aviation history. As a result of the complex interaction of organizational influences, environmental preconditions, and unsafe acts leading up to this aircraft mishap, the disaster at Tenerife has served as a textbook example for reviewing the processes and frameworks used in aviation mishap investigations and accident prevention. Continue reading “1977 – Tenerife airport disaster”
24 March
HMS Eurydice was a 26-gun Royal Navy corvette which was the victim of one of Britain’s worst peace-time naval disasters when she sank in 1878. Continue reading “1878 – The British frigate HMS Eurydice sinks, killing more than 300”
11 March
The Great Blizzard of 1888 or Great Blizzard of ’88 (11 March – 14 March, 1888) was one of the most severe recorded blizzards in the history of the United States of America. The storm, referred to as the Great White Hurricane, paralysed the East Coast from the Chesapeake Bay to Maine, as well as the Atlantic provinces of Canada. Continue reading “1888 – The Great Blizzard of 1888 begins”
11 March
USS Nevada (BB-36), the second United States Navy ship to be named after the 36th state, was the lead ship of the two Nevada-class battleships; her sister ship was Oklahoma. Launched in 1914, the Nevada was a leap forward in dreadnought technology; four of her new features would be included on almost every subsequent US battleship: triple gun turrets, oil in place of coal for fuel, geared steam turbines for greater range, and the “all or nothing” armour principle. These features made Nevada the first US Navy “super-dreadnought”. Continue reading “1916 – USS Nevada (BB-36) is commissioned into the US Navy”
28 February
USS Indiana (BB-1) was the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time. Authorized in 1890 and commissioned five years later, she was a small battleship, though with heavy armour and ordnance. The ship also pioneered the use of an intermediate battery. She was designed for coastal defence and as a result her decks were not safe from high waves on the open ocean. Continue reading “1893 – The USS Indiana is launched”
25 February
USS Ranger (CV-4) was the first ship of the United States Navy to be designed and built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier. Ranger was a relatively small ship, closer in size and displacement to the first US carrier—Langley—than later ships. An island superstructure was not included in the original design, but was added after completion. Deemed too slow for use with the Pacific Fleet’s carrier task forces, the ship spent most of the war in the Atlantic Ocean.
26 December
The Trent Affair was an international diplomatic incident that occurred during the American Civil War. Continue reading “1861 – American Civil War: The Trent Affair”
14 December
St. Lucia’s flood was a storm tide that affected the Netherlands and Northern Germany on this day in 1287 (the day after St. Lucia Day) when a dike broke during a storm, killing approximately 50,000 to 80,000 people in the sixth largest flood in recorded history. Continue reading “1287 – St. Lucia’s flood: The Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses”
