LTJG Kennedy (standing at far right) with his crew on PT-109 in 1943.
On this day in 1943, future President John F. Kennedy was serving as the commander of a torpedo boat in the Solomon Islands when his ship was fired upon by the Japanese navy.
As a young man, Kennedy had desperately wanted to go into the Navy but was originally rejected because of chronic health problems, particularly a back injury he had sustained playing football while attending Harvard University. In 1941, though, his politically connected father used his influence to get Jack, as he was called, into the Navy. In 1942, Kennedy volunteered for PT (motorized torpedo) boat duty in the Pacific.
A 1935 aerial photo shows Navy ships arriving at the Portland waterfront for the Rose Festival. (From Vintage Portland)
“Fleet Week” is the perfect time to thank the men and women who dedicate their lives to protecting our city, state, and country.
Taken during Portland’s first "Fleet Week", this picture shows the destroyer Reuben James and other Navy ships in front of the City’s downtown business district. A total of 18 Naval ships a attended for what has become a key part of the annual Rose Festival.
On this day in 1968, North Korea seized the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo, charging it had intruded into the nation’s territorial waters on a spying mission. The crew was released 11 months later.
The Pueblo’s mission began in early January, 1968, when the crew set off from the U.S. Navy base on Yokosuka, Japan with orders to conduct surveillance on Soviet Navy and North Korean signal and electronic intelligence activity.
The captured crew (above) were beaten and nearly starved in the incident that almost led to another war.
Pueblo on display in North Korea, 2012.
North Koreans raise their fists during a rally in 2010 in front of the U.S. Navy spy ship Pueblo.
On this day in 1977, the TV mini-series "Roots," began airing on ABC. The show was based on the Alex Haley novel. Roots received 37 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won nine. It also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented Nielsen ratings for the finale, which still holds a record as the third-highest-rated episode for any type of television series, and the second-most watched overall series finale in U.S. television history.
LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte, a warrior of the Mandinka people in Gambia who is captured by slavers and taken to Annapolis, Md.
John William Carson(October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005)
On this day in 1492, Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, sighted Watling Island in the Bahamas. He believed that he had found Asia while attempting to find a Western ocean route to India. The same day he claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain.
Explorer Christopher Columbus.
The USS Cole bombing was an attack against the United States Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Cole on 12 October 2000, while it was being refueled in Yemen’s Aden harbor. 17 American sailors were killed and 39 injured in the deadliest attack against a United States naval vessel since 1987.
Casualties of the USS Cole being Returned To The United States.
On this day in 1960, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev was reported to have pounded a shoe on his desk during a dispute at a U.N. General Assembly.
