The fledgling United States Marine Corps proved its dauntless
courage with a "miracle" victory in the Battle of Derna on the
shores of Tripoli in North Africa on this day in history, April 27,
1805.

The successful attack against overwhelming numbers on the
port city in present-day Libya, a stronghold of pirates who
spent years attacking United States ships at sea, was the
climactic battle of the First Barbary War (1801-05).

The victory is immortalized in a patriotic American anthem.

1st. Lt. Presley O’Bannon raised the American
flag during the Battle of Derna.

The Derna Plaque is part of "Defending the New Republic
1775-1865" display at the National Museum of the Marine
Corps in Virginia on May 25, 2010. This plaque was made
to honor a battle to take a fort from the Barbary pirates
off the northern coast of Africa. The Derna Plaque was discovered 175 years after the battle.

HONOLULU (AP) — Lou Conter, the last living survivor of the
USS Arizona battleship that exploded and sank during the
Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 102
years old.

His daughter, Louann Daley said Conter passed away at his
home Monday in Grass Valley, California following congestive
heart failure.

The ship sank with more than 80 percent of its 1,500-
man crew, including Rear Admiral Issac C. Kidd.

USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii.

On this day in 1968, the crew and captain of the U.S.
intelligence gathering ship Pueblo were released after
11 months imprisonment by the  government of North
Korea. The ship, and its 83-man crew, was seized by
North Korean warships on January 23, 1968 and
charged with intruding into North Korean waters.

Lt. Cmdr. Lloyd Bucher, commanding officer of the USS
Pueblo, confesses to espionage at a press conference in Pyongyang, North Korea, in 1968, with crew members
looking on.

USS Pueblo today is a Pyongyang, North Korea museum
piece. It was never decommissioned and is the only U.S.
naval vessel in captivity.

    
(September 1, 1927 – January 28, 2004)

Navy ships arrive on the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon
in 1939.

Since 1907, visiting ships have made their way to Portland’s waterfront.

On June 4, 1942, the Battle of Midway—one of the most decisive
U.S. victories against Japan during World War II—began. During
the four-day sea-and-air battle, the outnumbered U.S. Pacific
Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers
while losing only one of its own, the Yorktown, to the previously invincible Japanese navy.