1775 The United States Continental Congress orders the establishment of the Continental Navy (later renamed the United States Navy).
1794 The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.
1797 In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate {{USS|Constitution}} is launched.
1862 American Civil War: David Farragut is promoted to rear admiral, becoming the first officer in United States Navy to hold an admiral rank.
1884 The Naval War College of the United States Navy is founded in Newport, Rhode Island.
1887 The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
1893 The USS ''Indiana'', the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time, is launched.
1893 The rank of Chief Petty Officer in the United States Navy is established.
1898 Spanish-American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports and the {{USS|Nashville|PG-7|6}} captures a Spanish merchant ship.
1922 The {{USS|Langley|CV-1}} is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.
1923 Honda Point Disaster: nine US Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast. Seven are lost, and twenty-three sailors killed.
1941 World War II: The destroyer USS ''Reuben James'' is torpedoed by a German U-boat near Iceland, killing more than 100 United States Navy sailors. It is the first U.S. Navy vessel sunk by enemy action in WWII.
1942 During the Battle of the Coral Sea, United States Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attack and sink the Japanese Imperial Navy light aircraft carrier Shōhō. The battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.
1942 World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end with Japanese Imperial Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier {{USS|Lexington|CV-2|6}}. The battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.
1942 World War II: U.S. Navy aircraft carrier {{USS|Wasp|CV-7|6}} is torpedoed at Guadalcanal.
1943 Alleged date of the first Philadelphia Experiment test on United States Navy ship {{USS|Eldridge|DE-173|6}}.
1943 The {{USS|Harmon|DE-678|6}}, the first U.S. Navy ship to be named after a black person, is commissioned.
1944 {{USS|Missouri|BB-63|6}} the last battleship commissioned by the United States Navy is launched.
1944 World War II: A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the German submarine erman submarine U-505|''U-505''
1944 World War II: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concludes with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”.
1945 The US Navy cruiser {{USS|Indianapolis|CA-35|6}} arrives at Tinian with parts of the warhead for the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
1972 A race riot occurs on the United States Navy aircraft carrier ''Kitty Hawk'' off the coast of Vietnam during Operation Linebacker.
1972 En route to the Gulf of Tonkin, a racial brawl involving more than 100 sailors breaks out aboard the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS ''Kitty Hawk''
1985 United States Navy F-14 fighter jets intercept an Egyptian plane carrying the ''Achille Lauro'' cruise ship hijackers and force it to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily where they are arrested.
1985 United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard is arrested for spying after being caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations. He is subsequently sentenced to life in prison.
1986 The United States Navy aircraft carrier {{USS|Enterprise|CVN-65|6}} becomes the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to transit the Suez Canal, navigating from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea to relieve the {{USS|Coral Sea|CV-43|6}}.
1986 United States Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth is sentenced to 365 years imprisonment for espionage for the Soviet Union.
1987 In retaliation for Iranian attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy disables three of Iran's offshore oil platforms.
1988 United States Navy warship {{USS|Vincennes|CG-49|6}} shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
1992 The {{USS|Missouri|BB-63|6}}, the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.
1992 United States Navy radioman Allen R. Schindler, Jr. is brutally murdered by shipmate Terry M. Helvey for being gay, precipitating first military, then national, debate about gays in the military that resulted in the United States "Don't ask, don't tell" military policy.
1995 The United States Navy disbands Fighter Squadron 84 (VF-84), nicknamed the "Jolly Rogers".
2001 An EP-3E United States Navy surveillance aircraft collides with a Chinese People's Liberation Army Shenyang J-8 fighter jet. The Navy crew makes an emergency landing in Hainan, People's Republic of China and is detained.
2005 The former {{USS|America|CV-66|6}}, a decommissioned supercarrier of the United States Navy, is deliberately sunk in the Atlantic Ocean after four weeks of live-fire exercises. She is the largest ship ever to be disposed of as a target in a military exercise.
2009 The United States Navy guided missile cruiser {{USS|Port Royal|CG-73|6}} runs aground off Oahu, Hawaii, damaging the ship as well as a coral reef.