The United States Naval Academy opened in Annapolis, Maryland,
with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors. Known as the
Naval School until 1850, the curriculum included mathematics and navigation, gunnery and steam, chemistry, English, French along
with natural philosophy.

The Naval School officially became the U.S. Naval Academy in 1850,
and a new curriculum went into effect, requiring midshipmen to
study at the academy for four years and to train aboard ships each
summer—the basic format that remains at the academy to this day.