Based on the Coast Guard Historian’s timeline, https://www.history.uscg.mil/research/chronology/
With inspiration from Mike Kelso

July 15

1870  Congress directed that the revenue cutters on the northern and northwestern lakes, when commissioned, shall be specially charged with aiding vessels in distress on the lakes.

1870  An Act of Congress (l6 Stat. L., 291, 309) directed the Lighthouse Board to mark all pierheads belonging to the United States situated on the northern and northwestern lakes, as soon as it was notified that the construction or repair of pierheads had been completed.

USCGC Point Orient in Vietnam

1967  USCGC Point Orient (WPB 82319) of Coast Guard Squadron One captured a communist trawler in Vietnam.

“…15 July 1967 after three days of tracking by patrol aircraft and the radar picket, USS Wilhoite. After playing a cat-and-mouse game for three days with TF115 units the trawler headed for the mouth of the Sa Ky Riveron the Batangan Peninsula late on 14 July. The trawler was directed by Point Orient to heave to, but the hail was answered with gunfire. The cutter returned fire along with Wilhoite and USS Gallup, USS Walker, and swift boat PCF-79. At 0200 15 July, the trawler was boxed in and ran aground 200 yards (180 m) from shore and the trawler was ablaze. Republic of Korea Marines directed artillery fire from the shore and at 0600 with the trawler apparently abandoned, a Navy demolitions expert from Walker boarded the trawler and defused 2,000 pounds of TNT charges that were designed to scuttle the craft. Found on board were several thousand rounds of rifle and machine gun ammunition, mortar and rocket rounds, anti-personnel mines, grenades, and several thousand pounds of C-4 plastic explosive and TNT. Weapons found included several hundred machine guns, AK-47 rifles, AK-56 rifles, and B-40 rocket launchers.”

USCGC Absecon, Chincoteague, and McCulloch SquadronThree

1972  CGC Absecon was decommissioned and transferred to the South Vietnamese Navy. This was the last of the seven 311-foot Casco-class cutters to be transferred to the South Vietnamese.  She was commissioned as the Tham Ngu Lao (HQ-15) on July 15, 1972.  She was seized by the North Vietnamese when the South fell in 1975.  The North Vietnamese gave her the hull number HQ-1, but did not apparently name her.  She was refitted with two or possibly four SS-N-2 launchers.  Her current status remains unknown.

A port bow view of Kidd (DDG-993) crossing Thimble Shoals, 1 February 1984. (U.S. Navy Photo by PH2 K. Bates, DIMOC #DN-SC-88-09212)

1983 For the first time in history a U.S. Navy warship with a Coast Guard LEDET on board fired on a suspected drug-smuggling vessel to force it to heave to.  On 15 July 1983, U.S. Navy destroyer USS Kidd fired on the “stateless” vessel Ranger with warning shots at first and when the vessel refused compliance the destroyer fired disabling shots, stopping Ranger without causing casualties.  About 35 tons of marijuana were discovered on board and Ranger’s nine crew were arrested and the vessel seized. From “COUNTER-NARCOTERRORISM OPERATIONS IN THE EASTERN PACIFIC AND CARRIBEAN OPERATIONS AREAS FROM 1970 THROUGH 1990.”

“Some smugglers preferred to try their luck and run from the anti-narcotics forces. The smugglers knew that it would take time for the forces to get the necessary permissions to board their vessels, and even if permission was granted there were maneuvers that the smugglers could use in order to prevent the forces from boarding their ships. The only way for the forces to get the smugglers to stop was to disable their engines. The first time that the Navy used this method was in 1983 when the USS Kidd (DDG-993) used her .50 caliber machine guns to stop the M/V Ranger after receiving permission from the Coast Guard Headquarters.

Ranger had refused to stop and allow the search teams onboard after receiving an order to do so from Kidd. Once the Ranger was stopped the LEDET proceeded to search her and after finding over 57,000 pounds of marijuana onboard, they arrested her crew.”

Based on the Coast Guard Historian’s timeline, https://www.history.uscg.mil/research/chronology/
With inspiration from Mike Kelso

July 14

Cape Spencer Light, Alaska

1926  The first radio-beacon established in Alaska was placed in commission at Cape Spencer. Story of Cape Spencer light here.

Excursion steamer Nantasket grounding

1949  U.S. Coast Guardsmen from Point Allerton and Boston Lifeboat Stations figured prominently in one of the largest rescue operations in the history of Boston Harbor, Massachusetts when they helped in removing 690 persons from the excursion steamer Nantasket, which had gone aground in a thick fog off Peddock’s Island.

Northwest Orient DC-7C N284 in a March 1957 publicity photo shoot. From the James Borden Photography Collection.

1960  Following the loss of a propeller, which resulted in fuselage damage and an engine fire, a Northwest Airlines DC-7C airliner carrying 58 persons ditched in Philippine waters.  During the Coast Guard-coordinated air search in the vicinity of the Polillo Islands, a Coast Guard UF amphibian aircraft sighted four life rafts, landed, and rescued 23 survivors.  A U.S. Navy P5M seaplane, meanwhile, rescued 34 others and also recovered from the water the body of the only fatality, a woman killed when the engine no. 2 propeller slashed through the plane’s fuselage and struck her.

Point Glass in her original early 1960s configuration without the racing stripe.

1963  Pier 7 at Tacoma, Washington was engulfed in flames. CG-82336 (later designated USCGC Point Glass (WPB-82336)), based at Tacoma, proceeded immediately to the scene to assist the first department in fighting the blaze.  The cutter towed the M/V Sanyo Maru away from the pier and was relieved of the tow by a tug.  CG-82336 returned to the pier and towed the M/V Kikulo Maru to safe anchorage.  The Tacoma fire department then requested CG-82336 to coordinate firefighting efforts on the bay side of the pier, as the fire department was unable to cover the entire area because of the intensity of the fire.  Unable to fight the fire under the pier, CG-82336 proceeded to a local boat mooring and acquired seven rental boats to assist.  These boats, manned by local firemen and Coast Guard personnel, fought the fire under the pier.  The fire was brought under control the next morning and Coast Guard units were secured.  A fire Battalion Chief died and seven firemen were injured, but there were no Coast Guard casualties.

July 14, 1963 — Pier 7 at Tacoma, Washington was engulfed in flames.

1977  Ten Coast Guard women were selected and ordered to CGC Gallatin to report aboard on October 26, 1977.  “This action was in keeping with the Commandant’s most recent program of placing women in afloat assignments” on CGCs Morgenthau and Gallatin.  Each of the women chosen were volunteers.  They were: ET2 L. D. Canatore; RM2 J.K. Shawdah; SK2 R.G. Burright; BM3 D.K. Skinner; HM3 D.K. Cummings; RM3 V.L. Robillard; YN3 M.F. Kelly; SA A. Clark; SA D.A. Collins, and SA D.A. Hughes.

First 12 Coast Guard women assigned to sea duty.

Based on the Coast Guard Historian’s timeline, https://www.history.uscg.mil/research/chronology/
With inspiration from Mike Kelso

July 13

Sri Lanka Navy Offshore Patrol Vessel SLNS Gajabahu, former USCGC Sherman

2001  CGC Sherman became the third cutter to circumnavigate the globe when she returned to the United States from a six-month deployment to the Arabian Gulf in support of U.N. operations.  During this cruise she conducted 219 queries, 115 boardings, and five diverts.  Her crew saved 38 lives, including 11 Iraqi smugglers when their vessel sank in a storm off UAE.  She towed a 33,000 ton carrier foundering in 50-foot seas off the Cape of Good Hope, saving 22 lives and keeping the ship from running aground at the entrance to Port Elizabeth, South Africa.  Her crew also saved 5 Costa Rican fishermen found after they were adrift for 21 days.  (CGC Eastwind was the first cutter to circumnavigate the globe on a cruise in 1960-1961 and Southwind followed in 1968-1969.)

Based on the Coast Guard Historian’s timeline, https://www.history.uscg.mil/research/chronology/
With inspiration from Mike Kelso

Portrait of Hamilton authoring the first draft of the U.S. Constitution in 1787

1804  Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded Alexander Hamilton in a duel in Weehawken, New Jersey.  Hamilton died the following day.  Hamilton had been the first Secretary of the Treasury and had founded the Revenue Marine.

Revenue Cutter Dallas 1815

1818  The Revenue Cutter Dallas seized and libeled the Venezuelan privateer Cerony off Savannah for having violated the nation’s neutrality laws.

US Coast Guard crew of cutter Spencer watched as a depth charge exploded near U-175, North Atlantic, 500 nautical miles WSW of Ireland, 17 Apr 1943. Photo by Jack January

1941  Congress reconfirmed the military “status” of the Coast Guard, stating: “The Coast Guard shall be a military service and constitute a branch of the land and naval forces of the United States at all times and shall operate under the Treasury Department in time of peace and operate as part of the Navy, subject to the orders of the Secretary of the Navy, in time of war or when the President shall so direct.” (14 U.S.C. 1)

1942  The U.S. Maritime Service was transferred back to the War Shipping Administration after being under Coast Guard administration since February 28, 1942.

Based on the Coast Guard Historian’s timeline, https://www.history.uscg.mil/research/chronology/
With inspiration from Mike Kelso

July 10

1820  The Revenue cutter Gallatin captured 19 men illegally recruited for the Columbian privateer Wilson and chased that vessel and her Spanish prize, Santiago, to sea from the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina.

1882  At 5 o’clock in the afternoon, during a violent storm of wind and rain, the steam-yacht John Bueg, of Rochester, New York, having on board a party of twelve excursionists, consisting of two men, two women, and eight children, was driven ashore one mile and a half east of the harbor piers at Charlotte, Lake Ontario, New York.  She was discovered by a surfman of Station No. 4, Ninth District, who waded out to her in the surf, carried the children in his arms, and then assisted the women to shore.  The yacht was towed off by a steamer, having sustained slight damage.

2021 CGC Healy (WAGB 20) departed Seattle on 10 July 2021, for a months-long Arctic deployment and circumnavigation of North America. Arctic domain.