1812 - USS Essex captures the British brig, HMS Leander, off Newfoundland. Engaging British vessels the following week, USS Essex burns the brig, HMS Hero, and captures the ship, Nancy, also off Newfoundland on August 2.
1852 - John P. Kennedy takes office as the 21st Secretary of the Navy, serving until 7 March 1853.
1912 - The first tests of an airborne wireless are conducted near Annapolis, Md. using the Wright (B 1) piloted by Lt. John Rodgers. On one flight, Ensign Charles H. Maddox, who is giving technical assistance to the aviators, sends messages to USS Stringham (TB 19) at a distance of about one and a half miles.
1943 - PBM (VP 32) sinks German submarine (U 759) off Haiti.
1946 - Joy Bright Hancock is promoted to Captain and is appointed Director of the WAVES, or Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. She guides WAVES in the later 1940s the early 1950s, a period that also witnesses the Navy's women achieve status as part of the Regular Navy. Capt. Hancock retires from active duty in June 1953 and dies on Aug. 20, 1986.
1948 - President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981, desegregating the Armed Services.
1954 - Two AD Skyraiders of Air Group 5 from USS Philippine Sea (CVA 47) are attacked by two Chinese (LA 7) aircraft while the Skyraiders are searching for survivors of Cathay Pacific airline, which was shot down three days prior off Hainan Island. Returning fire, the Skyraiders splash both attackers.
1997 - USNS Watson (T-ARK 310) is launched at San Diego, Calif. The large, medium-speed roll on/roll off ship is part of the Military Sealift Commands prepositioning program, serving as dry cargo surge sealift carriers. USNS Watson is the lead ship of vehicle cargo ships and named for Pvt. George Watson, one of seven African-Americans to receive the Medal of Honor for actions during World War II. After Watsons ship was hit by Japanese bombers, he remained in the water to help soldiers who could not swim get into life rafts. Weakened by his exertions, he was caught up in the current as the ship sank, drowning him. His body was never recovered.
2003 - USS Mustin (DDG 89) is commissioned at Naval Air Station North Island, Calif. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer is the second to be named Mustin, but the first to be named for the distinguished family of that name: Capt. Henry D. Mustin (1874-1923; Vice Adm. Lloyd M. Mustin (1911-1999), Vietnam War veteran Vice Adm. Henry C. Mustin II and Lt. Cmdr. Thomas M. Mustin. The first USS Mustin, DD-413 of World War II era, was named for the family patriarch: Capt. Henry D. Mustin (1874-1923), who piloted the first aircraft ever catapulted from a ship, and flew the first combat missions of American aircraft from Mississippi during the Mexican campaign in 1914.
