28 FEB--This Day in US Military History

MSG Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 11:46:47 -0500

1893 – Launching of USS Indiana (BB-1), first true battleship in U.S. Navy.

USS Indiana (Battleship No. 1) was authorized in 1890 and commissioned five years later, she was a small battleship, though with heavy armor and ordnance. The ship also pioneered the use of an intermediate battery. She was designed for coastal defense and as a result her decks were not safe from high waves on the open ocean.
Indiana served in the Spanish–American War (1898) as part of the North Atlantic Squadron. She took part in both the blockade of Santiago de Cuba and the battle of Santiago de Cuba, which occurred when the Spanish fleet attempted to break through the blockade. Although unable to join the chase of the escaping Spanish cruisers, she was partly responsible for the destruction of the Spanish destroyers Plutón and Furor.
After the war she quickly became obsolete—despite several modernizations—and spent most of her time in commission as a training ship or in the reserve fleet, with her last commission during World War I as a training ship for gun crews.
She was decommissioned for the third and final time in January 1919 and was shortly after reclassified Coast Battleship Number 1 so that the name Indiana could be reused. She was sunk in shallow water as a target in aerial bombing tests in 1920 and her hulk was sold for scrap in 1924.

https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/february-28/

February 28

28 February 1610 - The Virginia Company takes further steps to instituting absolutist rule when it appoints Thomas West, Lord Delaware, as the first lord-governor and captain-general of the Virgini...

Response by SGT Jim Z. made Feb 28 at 2015 11:48 AM

SGT Jim Z. — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 11:48:52 -0500

Many interesting tidbits of historical facts happened to day and again thank you for sharing MSG Private RallyPoint Member