Today, October 13, carries special meaning for the U.S. Navy: it marks its 250th birthday. On this date in 1775, the Continental Congress authorized the creation of a naval force, setting sail the long and often turbulent history of America’s sea power.
Though the road from that first commission to a modern global force was uneven, the Navy officially embraced October 13 in 1972, when Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt designated it as the Navy’s birthday.
As the Navy celebrates, one of its most visible memorials stands in Mobile, Alabama: Battleship Memorial Park, anchored by the WWII-era USS Alabama (BB-60)…