JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. –
June 19, 1864 - USS Kearsarge sank the Confederate raider Alabama off the coast of France.
June 20, 1913 - The first fatal accident in naval aviation occurred when Ensign W. D. Billingsley was killed at Annapolis, Md.
June 21, 1945 - Okinawa was declared secure after the most costly naval campaign in history. The U.S. lost 30 ships and had another 223 damaged, mostly from kamikaze attacks, leaving 5,000 dead and 5,000 wounded. The Japanese lost 100,000 troops.
June 22, 1884 - A Navy relief expedition under Cdr. Winfield Schley rescued Army Lt. A.W. Greely and six others from the Arctic where they were marooned for three years on Ellesmere Island.
June 23, 1972 - A Navy helicopter squadron aided flood-stricken residents in the Wilkes-Barre, Scranton and Pittstown area of Pa.
June 24, 1833 - The USS Constitution entered drydock at the Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, Mass., for overhaul. The ship was saved from scrapping after public support rallied to save the ship following publication of Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem, "Old Ironsides."
June 25, 1950 - North Korea invaded South Korea beginning the Korean Conflict.