The U.S. Naval Academy opened at Annapolis
On this day · 10 October 1845
With no money from Congress, the Navy quietly stood up an officer school on a sleepy Army fort beside the Severn River.
On October 10, 1845, Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft opened the Naval School at Fort Severn, a 10-acre former Army post in Annapolis, Maryland. Bancroft pulled off the launch without any congressional funding, repurposing existing land and a modest faculty rather than waiting for an appropriation that might never come.
The first class numbered just 50 midshipmen taught by seven professors. The early curriculum spanned mathematics and navigation, gunnery and steam, chemistry, English, natural philosophy, and French, blending seamanship with a broader academic grounding.
A reform born partly of tragedy: the deadly Somers mutiny affair at sea hardened the case for training officers on land.
In 1850 the institution was reorganized and renamed the United States Naval Academy, adopting a four-year course with summers spent training aboard ships. Today it remains the second-oldest of the five U.S. service academies, commissioning officers for the Navy and Marine Corps.
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