This Day in Navy History

October 4, 1821 - LT Robert F. Stockton sails from Boston for Africa to carry out his orders to help stop the international slave trade. 1944 - Aircraft from USS Ranger sink 5 German ships and damage 3 in Operation Leader, the only U.S. Navy carrier operation in northern European waters during World War II. 1952 - Task Force 77 aircraft encounter MIG-15 aircraft for the first time. 1976 - USS Jonas Ingram (DD-938) rescues 7 survivors of a Finnish motor craft that sank in the Baltic Sea. 1991 - USS Arkansas, USS Sioux, USS Aubrey Fitch and Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron SIX rescue personnel on merchant ships in three different rescue operations in the Arabian Sea. 1998 - U.S. and Algierian Navies conduct first bilateral exercise since Algerian independendence in 1962. It was a search and rescue operation involving USS Mitscher. [Source: www.history.navy.mil]