The USS Nautilus (above), the world’s first nuclear submarine,was commissioned by the U.S. Navy.

The Nautilus was constructed under the direction of U.S. Navy
Captain Hyman G. Rickover, a Russian-born engineer who
joined the U.S. atomic program in 1946. In 1947, he was put in
charge of the navy’s nuclear-propulsion program and began work
on an atomic submarine. 

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.

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, the Nautilus
dived at Point Barrow, Alaska, and traveled nearly 1,000 miles
under the Arctic ice cap to reach the top of the world.

CARLATA BRADLEY

On this day in 1972, the last U.S. combat troops depart Vietnam.