From http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/Chronology_May.html DAILY CHRONOLOGY OF COAST GUARD HISTORY: MAY Daily Chronology of Coast Guard History MAY 1 May 1898-USRC McCulloch fights under Commodore George Dewey at the Battle of Manila Bay. Captain Hodgson recommended retired at full pay as reward of merit. 1900-The Lighthouse Board took charge of the Puerto Rican lighthouses. 1921-The first radio fog signals in the United States were placed in commission on Ambrose Lightship, Fire Island Lightship, and Sea Girt Light Station, NJ 1935-By Department of Commerce authority, a readjustment of the boundary between the 3rd and 4th Lighthouse Districts was made, by which certain aids to navigation in the approaches to Delaware Bay, including Overfalls Lightship, were placed under the jurisdiction of the 4th Lighthouse District. 1936-Whaling Treaty Act made it unlawful to take right whales or calves of any whale. Enforced by the Coast Guard. 1942-Two Coast Guard planes located lifeboat with 13 survivors landed in open sea and took injured men ashore as others rescued by lifeboat station boat. 2 May 1882-An Act of Congress (22 Stat. L., 55, 58), in an attempt to protect the Lifesaving Service from the evils of the "spoils System." declared that "the appointments of District superintendents, inspectors, and keepers and crews of life-saving stations shall be made solely with reference to their fitness and without reference to their political or party affiliations 1932- Northern Pacific Halibut Act re-enacted Act of 7 June 1924, after Convention with Canada and made it unlawful to catch halibut between 1st November and 15th February each year in territorial waters of United States and Canada and on high seas, extending westerly from them, including Bering Sea. Coast Guard enforced. 1942-Coast Guard plane V-167 rescued two from torpedoed freighter. 1942-Coast Guard prewar search and rescue procedure discontinued for security reasons. 1943-CG-58012 exploded and sank off Manomet Point, MA. No lives lost. 3 May 1944- An acoustic torpedo fired by the U-371 hit and destroyed the stern of the Coast Guard manned destroyer escort USS Menges while she was escorting a convoy in the Mediterranean, killing thirty-one of her crew. [see 4 May 1944 entry] 4 May 1882-Secretary of Treasury authorized to discontinue any lifesaving station, transfer apparatus, appoint keepers, etc. 1910-Congress required every passenger ship or other ship carrying 50 persons or more, leaving any port of United States to be equipped with radio (100 mile radius) and a qualified operator. 1942- Chief of Naval Operations ADM Ernest J. King orders the USCG Auxiliary to organize into a anti-submarine patrol force, which becomes known as the "Corsair Fleet." 1944-USS Pride (DE-323) (Coast Guard-manned) with three other escorts sank U-371 in Mediterranean. 5 May 1947-The first meeting of the permanent International Civil Aviation Organization was held in Montreal, Canada with the Coast Guard being represented by LT J .M. Waters. 6 May 1796-Congress increased monthly compensation of Revenue Marine officers, masters $50; first mates $35; second mates $30; third mates $25 and mariners $20. PIM 1896-President Cleveland placed the U.S. Lighthouse Service within the classified federal civil service. 1945-USS Moberly (PF-63) with USS Atherton sank U-853 in Atlantic. 1994: The last HH-3F Pelican helicopter in Coast Guard service is retired. This ended the Coast Guard's "amphibious era," as no aviation asset left in service was capable of making water landings. 8 May 1926-Retired pay of Coast Guard officers standardized with that of all other services. 1985- The cutter Chase was crippled by an engine room fire which puts the cutter out of service for almost six months. One crewman was killed during the incident. 1987- Coast Guard units, including the cutter Ocracoke, make the largest seizure of cocaine by the Coast Guard to date, 1.9 tons. 9 May 1862-USRC Miami landed President Abraham Lincoln on Confederate-held soil day before the fall of Norfolk for reconnaissance. 1939- President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced Reorganization Plan II transferring the Bureau of Lighthouses to the Treasury Department for consolidation with the Coast Guard. The plan took effect on 1 July 1939. 1942-USCGC Icarus sank German U-352 off Charleston and took 33 prisoners, the first German prisoners taken in combat by any U.S. forces in World War II. 10 May 1800-Congress forbade citizens to own an interest in vessels engaged in slave trade or serve on such vessels. 1956-The President signed Public Law 519, which brought all previously uninspected vessels on navigable waters carrying more than six passengers for hire under inspection laws. These were chiefly party-fishing motorboats, excursion sailboats, and ferry barges. Public attention had been focused on the inadequacy of existing inspection laws by the hundreds of lives lost in uninspected vessels. 11 May 1898-USRC Hudson towed USS Winslow from certain destruction under Spanish forts at Cardenas, Cuba. Gold Medal of Honor later conferred on Lt. Newcomb by Congress, and Silver and Bronze Medals on his officers and crew. The only medals bestowed by Congress during Spanish-American war. 1908-Alaska game laws made enforceable by revenue cutters. 12 May 1906-Congress authorized destruction of derelict cutters by Revenue Cutter Service. The USCGC Wachusett, on Ocean Station NOVEMBER, halfway between Honolulu and San Francisco, rescued the two-man crew who had bailed out of a U.S. Air Force B-57 because of a fuel shortage. 13 May 1905-An Executive Order extended the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service to the noncontiguous territory of Guam Island. 14 May 1908-An Act of Congress (35 Stat. L., 160, 162) delegated to the Lighthouse Board the duty of caring for and maintaining the anchorage buoys previously placed by the United States in the harbors of New York and Philadelphia. 1951- USS Valcour was rammed by the collier Thomas Tracy. CGC Cherokee responded and assisted in extinguishing the resulting fires and towed the Valcour to Norfolk. Thirty-seven sailors perished. 15 May 1862-USRC Naugatuck participated in bombardment of Drury’s Bluff (James River) after accompanying USS Monitor in its engagement with CSS Virginia and engaging in attack on Sewall’s Point. 1934-Lightship No. 117, occupying the Nantucket Shoals Station, in a dense fog, was struck by the RMS Olympic and sank on station with the loss of seven crewmembers. 16 May 1846-Eleven cutters assigned to cooperate with Army and Navy in the Mexican War. McLane, Legare, Woodbury, Ewing, Forward, and Van Buren assigned to Army. Wolcott, Bibb, Morris, and Polk assigned to the Navy. 1888-Secretary of Treasury authorized to establish anchorage grounds New York Harbor, etc., adopt suitable rules and "take all necessary measures" for their enforcement. 17 May 1919-LT Elmer F. Stone, USCG, piloted Navy NC-4 in first trans-Atlantic flight. 18 May 1920-Coast Guard officers and enlisted personnel granted same pay, allowances and increases as Navy. 19 May 1846-Secretary of Treasury Walker assigned Captain John A. Webster, Revenue Cutter Service, to control movements of vessels assigned to Army and cooperate with Navy in Mexican War. 1896-Secretary of Treasury authorized to patrol regattas. 21 May 1849-Captain Douglas Ottinger reported completing the construction and furnishing of eight Life-Saving stations on the New Jersey coast between Sandy Hook and Little Egg Inlet. 1944-LST-69 (Coast Guard-manned) exploded at Pearl Harbor. 1951-The Coast Guard announced the formation, within the Washington, DC area, of a new Organized Reserve Training Unit (Vessel Augmentation). The mission of this new unit would be to develop a force of experienced personnel, well-trained in all shipboard billets, with particular emphasis on anti-submarine warfare, radar radio, and other branches of electronics. Training would be directed towards readying personnel of the unit for immediate assignment to ships of the Coast Guard and Navy in the event of mobilization. 22 May 1920- An Act of Congress, which provided a system of general retirement for the civil employees of the U .S. Government effective 21 August 1920, benefited those employees of the Lighthouse Service who were not covered by the retirement law of 20 June 1918, which provided retirement for certain classes of employees in the Lighthouse Service. 1926- An Act of Congress extended the benefits of the Public Health Service to apply to light keepers located at isolated points, who previously had been unable to avail themselves of such benefits, and made provisions for medical supplies and hospital services for the crews of the vessels of the Lighthouse Service, including the detail of medical officers. 1959- Two US Air Force jet planes collided near Ocean Station ECHO, occupied by the USCGC Mendota. A US Air Force weather plane spotted both pilots in the water and, within two hours of collision, the Mendota rescued them. 1967- USCGC Barataria conducted the first fire-support mission for the newly created Coast Guard Squadron Three. This force consisted of five 311-footers used to support Market Time operations. 23 May 1930-Former Coast Guardsman Elmer F. Stone received medal from Congress for extraordinary achievement in making the first successful trans-Atlantic flight. Commodore Edward M. Webster, USCG, headed the U.S. Delegation to the International Meeting on Radio Aids to Marine Navigation, which was held in London, England. As a result of this meeting, the principal maritime nations of the world would make an intensive study of the World War II-developed devices of radar, LORAN, radar beacons, and other navigational aids with a view to adapt them to peacetime use. This was the first time that the wartime technical secrets of radar and LORAN were generally disclosed to the public. [USCG Public Information Division News Release, 7 June 1946] 24 May 1830-Navy officers given commissions In Revenue Service, under furlough from Navy Department until April 1832. 1941-USCGC Modoc was, in several instances, mistaken for the German battleship Bismarck by aircraft and ships of the Royal Navy who were in pursuit of the latter after the sinking of HMS Hood in the Denmark Straits. The errors were realized and Modoc escaped unscathed in each instance. 25 May 1877-Training of first class of Revenue Cutter cadets begun on schoolship Dobbin at Curtis Bay with nine cadets, three officers, one surgeon, six warrant officers and 17 crew members. 26 May 1906-Act to regulate enlistments and punishments in Revenue Cutter Service. 27 May 1954-The aircraft carrier Bennington, with about 2,000 persons aboard, suffered an explosion and fire 35 miles south of Brenton Reef Lightship, injuring some 100 persons. U.S. Coast Guard aircraft from Salem Air Station and Quonset Point proceeded to the scene, assisted in transporting medical personnel to Bennington and provided air cover for all helicopter operations. One of the Coast Guard’s helicopters made 7 landings aboard the aircraft carrier and transported 18 injured to the hospital; another transported 14 injured. 28 May 1947-The Coast Guard announced the disestablishment of all U .S. Coast Guard Merchant Marine Details in foreign ports. During World War II, a total of 36 foreign Merchant Marine Details had been activated for the purpose of performing "on-the-spot" services in connection with the preventive aspects of safety of life and property of the US Merchant Marine. These functions reverted to continental US. ports in which there were located US Marine Inspection Offices. The Merchant Marine Details to be disestablished were located in the following ports: Antwerp, Belgium; Bremerhaven, Germany; London, England; Cardiff, Wales; Le Havre, France; Marseille, France; Naples, Italy; Piraeus, Greece; Shanghai, China; Manila, Philippine Islands; and Trieste, Venezia Giulia. 29 May 1949-Lieutenant F.X. Riley, believed to be the first Coast Guardsman to earn an advanced degree under US Coast Guard sponsorship through night class attendance, received his MA degree in Public Administration from American University in Washington, DC. 30 May 1767-The Charleston Lighthouse was built on Morris Island, SC. The first stone of the tower being laid this date. 31 May 1947-Authority of the US Coast Guard for the establishment and disestablishment of prohibited, restricted, and anchorage areas, conferred by the Espionage Act (50 U.S.C. 191) and Proclamation No. 2412 of 27 June 1940 was terminated by Proclamation No. 2732, signed by the President on this date. 1983- Jack Dempsey passed away at the age of 87. He served in the Coast Guard during World War II. 1988: The first search and rescue agreement with the Soviet Union is signed. 1988: The CGC Fir becomes the oldest cutter in commission after the CGC Ingham is decommissioned. [Daily Chronology] [Historians' Office] [USCG Home Page] Added: January 1998 Updated: June 2001