On This Day in U.S. Navy Service - March 8th

From the Navy News Service:

 

• 1854 - Commodore Matthew Perry opens treaty negotiations with Japan.
  
• 1862 - Ironclad ram CSS Virginia destroys USS Cumberland and USS Congress.
  
• 1945 - Phyllis Daley, assigned to the Navy Nurse Corps, becomes the first African-American ensign.
  
• 1958 - Battleship USS Wisconsin (BB 64) is decommissioned, leaving the Navy without an active battleship for the first time since 1895.
  
• 1965 - The 7th Fleet lands the first major Marine Corps units in South Vietnam at Danang.

 

For more information about naval history, visit the Naval Historical Center Web site at www.history.navy.mil.