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

July 3

1905  An Executive Order extended the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service to the noncontiguous territory of the American Samoan Island.

1918  Congress passed the Migratory Bird Act and the Coast Guard became responsible for the Act’s enforcement after the 1936 passage of the “Act to Define Jurisdiction of Coast Guard.”

1927  Ensign Charles L. Duke, in command of CG-2327, boarded the rumrunner Greypoint in New York harbor and single-handedly captured the vessel, its 22-man crew, and its cargo of illegal liquor.

1986  The Statue of Liberty Centennial Celebration took place in New York harbor.  The Coast Guard was in the “forefront” of the celebration due in part to the Coast Guard’s base on Governor’s Island.

A boat crew assigned to U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team Honolulu gets underway alongside an American Samoa Department of Homeland Security boat crew to conduct search and rescue training offshore Pago Pago, American Samoa, Feb. 24, 2025. MSST Honolulu and Coast Guard Sector Honolulu personnel deployed to American Samoa to train alongside agency partners, patrol the U.S. maritime border, and enforce U.S. laws and regulations. (U.S. Coast Guard photo, courtesy Maritime Safety and Security Team Honolulu)

2002  The first of the Coast Guard’s Maritime Safety and Security Teams (MSSTs), MSST-91101, was commissioned in Seattle, Washington.  MSSTs were created in response to the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.  A total of 12 MSST units were planned for deployment around the nation.

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

July 2

1836  Congress authorized pay increases for the officers in the Revenue Cutter Service.  Captain’s pay increased to $1200 per annum, First Lieutenant’s to $960, Second Lieutenant’s to $860, and Third Lieutenant’s to $790.

USCGC Itasca as HMS Gorlsston

1937  CGC Itasca, while conducting re-supply operations in the Central Pacific, made the last-known radio contact with the famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart and her co-pilot Fred Noonan.  Itasca later joined the Navy-directed search for the aircraft.  The search was finally called off on July 17 with no trace of the aircraft or its occupants having been found.

USCGC Bertholf and Russian Coast Guard ship Vorovski, May 2016

2005  The CGC Jarvis and the Russian Northeast Border Directorate vessel Vorovsky rendezvoused about 450 miles southwest of Alaska’s Aleutian Island chain and 250 miles east of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula to perform the first joint security exercise of the “North Pacific Heads of Coast Guard Agencies.”

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

July 1

1797  Congress passed “An Act providing a Naval Armament,” empowering the President to “cause the said revenue cutters to be employed to defend the seacoast and to repel any hostility to their vessels and commerce, within their jurisdiction, having due regard to the duty of said cutters in the protection of the revenue.”  The act also increased the complements of the cutters from ten men to a number “not exceeding 30 marines and seamen.”

1885  The Bureau of Navigation was permanently organized in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Congress of 3 March 1885.

1903  The Lighthouse Service, along with other activities having to do with navigation, was transferred from the Treasury Department to the newly created Department of Commerce and Labor.

1910  Under the Organic Act of 1910, Mr. George R. Putnam and Mr. John S. Conway took office as the first Commissioner of Lighthouses and first Deputy Commissioner of Lighthouses, respectively.

1910  The Lighthouse Board was terminated; its place being taken by the newly organized Bureau of Lighthouses.

1918  Congress directed that retired officer personnel may be recalled to active duty during war or national emergency.

1921  A system of longevity increase of pay, after six months service for the un-appointed members of the crews of Light-house Service vessels, was introduced for the first time as a means of maintaining “a more efficient personnel on these vessels.”

1921  The Coast Guard’s first air station, located at Morehead City, North Carolina, was closed due to a lack of funding.

1924  An adjustment of the compensation of vessel officers in the Lighthouse Service was made effective in order to bring the pay of these positions more nearly on a level with that of similar Positions in the U .S. Shipping Board, the Lake Carriers Association, and other shipping interests.

1939  Lighthouse Service of Department of Commerce transferred to Coast Guard under President Franklin Roosevelt’s Reorganization Plan No. 11.  Under the President’s Reorganization Plan No. 11, made effective this date by Public Resolution No. 20, approved June 7, 1939, it was provided “that the Bureau of Lighthouses in the Department of Commerce and its functions be transferred to and consolidated with and administered as a part of the Coast Guard.  This consolidation made in the interest of efficiency and economy, will result in the transfer to and consolidation with the Coast Guard of the system of approximately 30,000 aids to navigation (including light vessels and lighthouses) maintained by the Lighthouse Service on the sea and lake coasts of the United States, on the rivers of the United States, and on the coasts of all other territory under the jurisdiction of the United States with the exception of the Philippine Island and Panama Canal proper.”  Plans were put into effect, “Providing for a complete integration with the Coast Guard of the personnel of the Lighthouse Service numbering about 5,200, together with the auxiliary organization of 64 buoy tenders, 30 depots, and 17 district offices.”

The wooden fishing trawler Belmont was acquired for service for a fee of $2,122 to serve under charter by the Navy “for Coast Guard use as a vessel of the Greenland Patrol.” After conversion, including the addition of two small depth charge tracks and minimal anti-aircraft armament, she was commissioned as a vessel of the Coast Guard on 19 June 1942 and renamed Natsek.

1941  The “Northeast Greenland Patrol” was organized in Boston.

1946  As a final step in the return of the Coast Guard to the Treasury Department from wartime operation under the Navy Department, the Navy’s direct control of the following Coast Guard functions was terminated: search and rescue, maintenance and operation of ocean weather stations, and air-sea navigational aids in the Atlantic, continental United States, Alaska, and Pacific east of Pearl Harbor.

1949  The Seventeenth Coast Guard District, eliminated in 1947, was reestablished with its headquarters in Juneau, Alaska.

USCGC Storis in July 1957, during the transit of the Northwest Passage, prepares to send a helicopter aloft on ice reconnaissance before proceeding eastward through Amundsen Gulf to Dolphin and Union Straits, Canadian Northwest Territory. The Storis, along with Coast Guard ships Spar and Bramble, on Sept. 6, 1957, became the first deep-draft vessels to complete transit of Ballot Strait from west to east. USCG photo

1957  CGC Storis, Bramble, and Spar departed Seattle for their traversal of the Northwest Passage.  The three arrived in Boston after the successful completion of the mission on September 19, 1957.

1958  The new Atlantic merchant vessel position reporting program (known by the acronym AMVER) was established.  It was aimed at encouraging domestic and foreign merchant vessels to send voluntary position reports and navigational data to U.S. Coast Guard shore based radio stations and ocean station vessels.  Relayed to a ships’ plot center in New York and processed by machine, these data provided updated position information for U.S. Coast Guard rescue coordination centers.  The centers could then direct only those vessels which would be of effective aid to craft or persons in distress.  This diversion of all merchant ships in a large area became unnecessary.

1968  The Coast Guard’s Merchant Marine Detachment-Saigon was formally established at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, Republic of Vietnam.

A port bow view of the Spruance Class destroyer USS Ingersoll (DD-990) underway.

1991  A 14^th Coast Guard District LEDET, all crewmen from CGC Rush, deployed on board the U.S. Navy’s USS Ingersoll, made history when they seized the St. Vincent-registered M/V Lucky Star for carrying 70 tons of hashish, the largest hashish bust in Coast Guard history to date.  The team, led by LTJG Mark Eyler, made the bust 600 miles west of Midway Island.

Admiral John William Kime, USCG

1991  A high personnel retention level led the Commandant, ADM J. William Kime, to begin implementing a high-year tenure program, otherwise known as an “up or out” policy to “improve personnel flow and opportunities for advancement.”  Two significant points of the program were that they limited enlisted careers to 30 years of active service and established “professional growth points” for paygrades E-4 through E-9, which had to be attained in order to remain on active duty.  Up until this time, enlisted members could remain on active duty until age 62 – the only U.S. military work force with that option.

1995  The 750-foot Greek-flagged freighter Alexia collided with the 514-foot Singapore-flagged Enif near the mouth of the Mississippi River, 70 miles south of New Orleans.  The two ships were joined at the point of collision and drifted through the maze of oil and gas platforms scattered across the area, narrowly missing one by a mere 25 yards.  CGC Courageous served as the on-scene commander to coordinate the response.  AIRSTA New Orleans launched three helicopters to provide SAR coverage and to evaluate the damage suffered by the foundering vessels.  Personnel from MSO New Orleans and the Gulf Strike Team were sent on-scene to deal with the 80,000 gallon fuel-oil spill.  CGC White Holly and M/V Secore Osprey provided skimming resources.  The freighters were separated successfully, their remaining fuel was lightered off and they made it to Mobile escorted by CGC Point Lobos.

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

June 30

1932  The Steamboat Inspection Service and Bureau of Navigation were combined to form the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection (47 Stat. L., 415).  The new agency remained under the control of the Commerce Department.

1933  The airways division, which had been conducted as a division of the Lighthouse Service, but under the administrative supervision of the Assistant Secretary for Aeronautics, Department of Commerce, was separated from the Lighthouse Service. (USLHS AR 1933, p. 97).

1933  The Coast Guard reported that during its existence, from January 28, 1915 through the end of the Fiscal Year (June 30) of 1933 the service had either  “rescued from peril” or “saved” the lives of 60,982 persons and the value of vessels and cargoes the Coast Guard saved or assisted was $659,632,287 (CGM, April, 1934, p. 28).

1939  “The total personnel of the Service as of June 30, 1939, was 5,355, consisting of 4,119 full-time and 1,156 part-time employees, the former including 1, 170 light keepers and assistants; 56 light attendants; 1,995 officers and crews of lightships and tenders; 113 Bureau officers, engineers and draftsmen, and district superintendents and technical assistants; 226 clerks, messengers, janitors, and office laborers; 157 depot keepers and assistants, including watchmen and laborers; and 482 field-force employees engaged in construction and repair work.”

1939  “At the end of the year, the total number of lighthouse tenders was 65, of which 64 were in commission and 1 was out of commission and advertised for sale.  Of the vessels in commission, 42 were steam-propelled, 18 had diesel engines, and 4 had diesel-electric drive.  The average age of the fleet of tenders is 19.52 years.  There are 10 tenders, aggregating 8,535 tons, 35 years of age and over. Thirty lighthouse tenders are equipped with radiotelegraph; 38 with radio direction finders; and 55 with radiotelephones.”

1939  “Lightships were maintained on 30 stations during the year.  At the close of the year, the total number of lightships was 43, which included 9 relief ships and 4 ships out of commission.”

1939  “The total number of aids to navigation maintained by the Lighthouse Service at the close of the fiscal year was 29,606, a net increase of 849 over the previous year.”

Coast Guardsmen and war horses stand shoreside inspection. USCG Historian’s Office

1942  The Coast Guard’s Beach Patrol Division was established at Coast Guard Headquarters under the command of Captain Raymond J. Mauerman, USCG.

1946  The general World War II demobilization task was completed with all Separation Centers decommissioned, resulting in a reduced number of Coast Guard personnel to 23,000 officers and enlisted personnel from a wartime peak of about 171,000 on June 30, 1945.

1946  By this date, all lightships removed from their stations as a war measure had been restored, except Fire Island Lightship which had been replaced by a large-type whistle buoy offshore and a radio-beacon on shore at Fire Island Light Station, New York.

1946  The U .S. Navy returned the Coast Guard’s eleven air stations to the operational control of the Coast Guard.

1947  The Fourth Coast Guard District, which comprised parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware and was based out of Philadelphia, was abolished and the functions, responsibilities, and facilities in this area were transferred to the Third Coast Guard District, based at New York, New York.  Additionally the Seventeenth Coast Guard District was abolished, and the Territory of Alaska, which it comprised, was added to the Thirteenth Coast Guard District, which included Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.

1987  As part of a major reorganization and consolidation effort the Coast Guard disestablished the Third and Twelfth Coast Guard districts.