10/13/2026
Happy 251st Birthday U.S. Navy!
Since our Nation’s founding, the U.S. Navy has assumed an integral role in protecting America’s economic vitality, maintaining our nation’s global influence, standing ready to support and defend our Allies and partners, deterring conflict through strength, and always being ready to defend America’s freedoms through combat, if necessary.
On Aug. 26, 1775, delegates representing the colony of Rhode Island sent delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to request that “a fleet of sufficient force for the protection of these colonies” be established. It was a tall order.
At the time, England boasted one of the largest and most intimidating Navy’s in the world. Members of the Continental Congress had already urged their fellow colonies to mount their own naval defenses, but forward-thinking patriots like the delegates from Rhode Island understood that securing American waters would be a much larger task than any one colony could handle alone.
An Oct. 13, 1775 resolution of the Continental Congress established what is now the United States Navy, with “a swift sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage guns, and a proportionable number of swivels, with eighty men, be fitted, with all possible dispatch, for a cruise of three months …”
Our nation’s navy was born, and to this day, stands ready to defend our shores, maintain sea control, and protect our national security and economic interests.
In addition, Connecticut and Rhode Island would arm merchant vessels to patrol the near North Atlantic for British transports. The success of these ships would soon lead to the purchase of more ships and the expansion of the burgeoning Navy’s mission all the way down to the Southern shores of the Georgia colony.
After the American War of Independence, the U.S. Constitution empowered the new Congress “to provide and maintain a navy.” Acting on this authority, Congress established the Department of the Navy April 30, 1798.
Since its founding, the U.S. Navy has ensured American influence across the world, expanded economic opportunities for the American people, and guaranteed the rules-based order underpinning global security and prosperity.
America has always been a maritime nation. The seas are the lifeblood of our economy, our national security, and our way of life. PSNS & IMF’s long, proud tradition of maintain, repairing and modernizing ships of the world’s best Navy is an investment in the security and prosperity of the United States.
In 1972, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt authorized official recognition of October 13 as the birthday of the U.S. Navy. Since then, each CNO has encouraged a Navy-wide celebration of this occasion “to enhance a greater appreciation of our Navy heritage, and to provide a positive influence toward pride and professionalism in the naval service.”
To learn more about the early history of the U.S. Navy, visit https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/browse-by-topic/commemorations-toolkits/navy-birthday.html
