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Naval History and Heritage Command
Today in Naval History
July 26
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Year at a Glance
1948 - President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981, desegregating the Armed Services.
On This Day

1812

USS Essex captures the British brig, HMS Leander, off Newfoundland. Engaging British vessels the following week, USS Essex burns the brig, HMS Hero, and captures the ship, Nancy, also off Newfoundland on August 2.

1852

John P. Kennedy takes office as the 21st Secretary of the Navy, serving until 7 March 1853.

1912

The first tests of an airborne wireless are conducted near Annapolis, Md. using the Wright (B 1) piloted by Lt. John Rodgers. On one flight, Ensign Charles H. Maddox, who is giving technical assistance to the aviators, sends messages to USS Stringham (TB 19) at a distance of about one and a half miles.

1946

Joy Bright Hancock is promoted to Captain and is appointed Director of the WAVES, or Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. She guides WAVES in the later 1940s the early 1950s, a period that also witnesses the Navy's women achieve status as part of the Regular Navy. Capt. Hancock retires from active duty in June 1953 and dies on Aug. 20, 1986.

1948

President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981, desegregating the Armed Services.

1954

Two AD Skyraiders of Air Group 5 from USS Philippine Sea (CVA 47) are attacked by two Chinese (LA 7) aircraft while the Skyraiders are searching for survivors of Cathay Pacific airline, which was shot down three days prior off Hainan Island. Returning fire, the Skyraiders splash both attackers.

2003

USS Mustin (DDG 89) is commissioned at Naval Air Station North Island, Calif. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer is the second to be named Mustin, but the first to be named for the distinguished family of that name: Capt. Henry D. Mustin (1874-1923; Vice Adm. Lloyd M. Mustin (1911-1999), Vietnam War veteran Vice Adm. Henry C. Mustin II and Lt. Cmdr. Thomas M. Mustin. The first USS Mustin, DD-413 of World War II era, was named for the family patriarch: Capt. Henry D. Mustin (1874-1923), who piloted the first aircraft ever catapulted from a ship, and flew the first combat missions of American aircraft from Mississippi during the Mexican campaign in 1914.