This Day in Naval History - Sept. 09

From the Navy News Service

1825 - USS Brandywine sails for France to carry the Marquis de Lafayette home after his yearlong visit to America.

1841 - First iron ship authorized by Congress.

1940 - Navy awards contracts for 210 ships, including 12 carriers and seven battleships.

1943 - Operation Avalanche, Western Naval Task Force, under Vice Adm. Henry Hewitt, lands Allied forces at Salerno, Italy.

1944 - Fifth Fleet carrier aircraft begin air strikes on Japanese shipping and facilities at Mindanao, Philippines.

1945 - A "computer bug" is first identified and named by Lt. Grace Murray Hopper while she was on active duty. It was found in the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator at Harvard University. The operators affixed the moth to the computer log, where it still resides, with the entry: "First actual case of bug being found." They "debugged" the computer, first introducing the term.