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.

CIA reference photograph of a Soviet medium-range ballistic missile in Red Square, Moscow.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a 13-day confrontation between
the United States and the Soviet Union, when American
deployments of nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey were
matched by Soviet deployments of nuclear missiles in Cuba.

The crisis lasted from October 16 to October 28, 1962. The
confrontation is widely considered the closest the
the Cold War came to escalating into full-scale nuclear
war.

Cuban Missile Crisis, map of immediate-threat areas.

On August 3, 1958, the U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus
accomplished the first undersea voyage to the geographic
North Pole. The world’s first nuclear submarine dived at
Point Barrow, Alaska, and traveled nearly 1,000 miles under
the Arctic ice cap to reach the top of the world. It then went 
on to Iceland, pioneering a new and shorter route from the 
Pacific to the Atlantic and Europe.

COMILLE BOHANNON

Teddy Roosevelt on horse leads the charge up San Juan Hill
in 1898.

Gatling guns hauled by mules arrive to turn the tide at San
Juan Hill.

10th Cavalry USCT advances on San Juan Hill.

TIM MAGUIRE

GREASE officially opened on Broadway at the
Broadhurst on June 7th, 1972. The show starred
Barry Bostwick as Danny and Carole Demas as
Sandy.