The USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear submarine, was commissioned by the U.S. Navy on this day in 1954.

The Nautilus was constructed under the direction of U.S.
Navy Captain Hyman G. Rickover, a brilliant Russian-born
engineer who joined the U.S. atomic program in 1946.

In 1952, the Nautilus‘ keel was laid by President Harry S. Truman,
and on January 21, 1954, first lady Mamie Eisenhower broke a
bottle of champagne across its bow as it was launched into the
Thames River at Groton, Connecticut.

Father of the nuclear Navy, Hyman G. Rickover
(1900 – 1986).

June 14: President Truman Dedicates the World’s First Nuclear Submarine.

First Lady Mamie Eisenhower christens the USS Nautilus.

On May 5, 1961, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. 
was launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule,
becoming the first American astronaut to travel into space.

Shepard and Freedom 7 on the deck of the aircraft carrier
USS Lake Champlain.

Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (1923 – 1998)

On May 3, 1942, during World War II, the first modern naval
engagement in history, the Battle of the Coral Sea, began. A
Japanese invasion force succeeds in occupying Tulagi of the
Solomon Islands in an expansion of Japan’s defensive perimeter.

The United States, having broken Japan’s secret war code and forewarned of an impending invasion of Tulagi and Port Moresby,
attempted to intercept the Japanese armada.

The American aircraft carrier USS Lexington explodes on 8
May 1942, several hours after being damaged by a Japanese carrier air attack.

February 23, 1945: During the bloody Battle for Iwo Jima, U.S.
Marines from the 3rd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th
Regiment of the 5th Division took the crest of Mount Suribachi,
the island’s highest peak and most strategic position, and raised
the U.S. flag.

Marine photographer Louis Lowery, who was with them, recorded
the event. Americans fighting for control of Suribachi’s slopes
cheered the raising of the flag.

Several hours later, more Marines headed up to the crest with a
larger flag. Joe Rosenthal, a photographer with the Associated
Press, met them along the way and recorded the raising of the
second flag along with a Marine still photographer and a motion-
picture cameraman.

By March 3, U.S. forces controlled all three airfields on the island,
and on March 26 the last Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima were
wiped out. Only 200 of the original 22,000 Japanese defenders
were captured alive. More than 6,000 Americans died taking Iwo
Jima, and some 17,000 were wounded.

The second Iwo Jima flag on display in the National Museum 
of the Marine Corps.

The first U.S. flag raised on Mount Suribachi. 

President Harry Truman, left, is presented with a bronze
statue by sculptor Felix de Weldon, center, and Associated
Press photographer Joe Rosenthal at the White House in Washington on June 4, 1945.

Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima as it looks today.

Lt. Edward Henry (“Butch”) O’Hare took off from the aircraft
carrier Lexington in a raid against the Japanese position at
Rabaul and minutes later became America’s first WWII flying
ace, shooting down five enemy bombers.

    
President Franklin D. Roosevelt congratulates Lieutenant
(j.g.) Edward H. O’Hare, United States Navy, on being
presented the Medal of Honor (below) at the White
House, Washington, D.C., 21 April 1942.         
       

Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry O’Hare
(March 13, 1914 – November 26, 1943

O’Hare went missing in action on November 26, 1943, and
was declared dead a year later. His widow Rita received
her husband’s posthumous decorations, a Purple Heart
and the Navy Cross on November 26, 1944.