Navy Day
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Several nations observe or have observed a Navy Day to recognize their navy. The term is also used in Britain to mean an open day at a dockyard such as HMNB Portsmouth, when the public can visit military ships and see air displays, roughly along the lines of an American Fleet Week [1].
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[edit] Australia
The Royal Australian Navy celebrates Navy Day in March.
[edit] Chile
The Día de las Glorias Navales is public holiday in Chile on May 21. It commemorates the Iquique Naval Combat on May 21, 1879, in the War of the Pacific.
The date also marks the opening of ordinary Parliamentary season (through September 18, Independence Day) and is the traditional day for the President's State of the Nation address.
Principal civic acts are performed in Santiago de Chile, Iquique, and Valparaíso where National Congress is located since restablishment in 1990 after General Pinochet's military dictatorship.
[edit] India
4 December is celebrated as Navy Day in India. This was the day when the Indian Navy played a significant role in the bombing of Karachi harbor in the 1971 war. The name given to the attack was Operation Trident which was launched on December 4. Owing to its success, the day of the attack has been celebrated as Navy Day ever since.
[edit] Peru
In Peru, Navy Day is a national holiday celebrated on October 8 in commemoration of the Battle of Angamos in 1879 and the anniversary of Peruvian Navy creation in 1821.
[edit] Russia
In Russia, Navy Day is a national holiday that normally takes place on the last Sunday in July.
[edit] United States
In the United States, the Navy League of the United States organized the first Navy Day in 1922, holding it on October 27 because it was the birthday of the Navy-supporting President Theodore Roosevelt. Although meeting with mixed reviews the first year, in 1923 over 50 major cities participated, and the United States Navy sent a number of its ships to various port cities for the occasion. The 1945 Navy Day was an especially large celebration, with President Harry S. Truman reviewing the fleet in New York Harbor.
In 1949, Louis A. Johnson, secretary of the newly-created Department of Defense, directed that the US Navy's participation occur on Armed Forces Day in May, although as a civilian organization the Navy League was not affected by this directive, and continued to organize Navy Day celebrations as before. In the 1970s, the "birthday" of the Continental Navy was found to be October 13, 1775, and so CNO Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt worked with the Navy League to define that as the new date of Navy Day. Navy Day continues to be celebrated as of 2004.
