Hello sailors! ​Today is National Maritime Day and here at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum we are committed to maritime history.  The word maritime is connect to anything dealing with the sea, especially dealing with seafaring commercial or military activity.  Patriots Point currently has 3 vessels that were once military and participated in sea activities.  These include the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, a destroyer the USS Laffey, and a submarine the USS Clamagore. 

​Today marks two very important events for us at the USS Yorktown.  Today is Armed Forced Day which is set aside to thank our military personal for their support of our country.  So today thank someone you know who is serving our country.  The second important date is the first ever solo transatlantic flight.  Charles Lindbergh made the journey from New York to Paris in just less than 34 hours in the now famous plane The Spirit of Saint Louis.  His journey helped push forth the age of commercial aviation.

Hey guys, today is Endangered Species Day! An endangered species is a plant or animal that has a really small population and without assistance might go extinct. Unfortunately humans are a major reason as to why so many species are endangered. Did you know that in South Carolina alone there are 38 endangered species of plants and animals? If you thought that was a lot the U.S. is home to over 1300 endangered species as a whole! Luckily there are many laws put in place to protect them but we must also do our part. Remember to respect the animals and habitat that make up the world around us.     

Hey everybody! Many of you have helped out with are citizen science program L.A.M.P.S. in which we are partnered with the Sotka lab at Grice Marine Laboratories. We just wanted to congratulate Dr. Stacy Krueger-Hadfield and Nicole Kollars on their recently published paper. For those of you have helped us out and are familiar with the red algae that dot our mud flats this paper helps explain how it made its journey over from Japan and became to be such a major part in our estuaries.  If you are interested in reading the paper here is a link:
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     http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.3001/abstract

Congratulations to the Sotka lab and everyone who played a part in writing this paper.  

​Today marks the final day of the WWII Battle of Coral Sea.  This battle was the first ever air sea battle.  Starting May 4, 1942 this 4 day battle lead role was played by aircrafts launched off aircraft carriers.  The USS Yorktown CV-5 (namesake of the Yorktown CV-10) was damaged in this battle.  The battle used exclusively aircraft carriers.  May 8th the main aircrafts from the United States and Japan found each other and was a defeat for the United States tactically.  Strategic, however it was a victory for the United States for it did not allow Japan to land at Port Moresby. 

​Today is National Astronaut Day!  It is the anniversary of Alan Shepard becoming the first American in space!  Since this historic day in 1961 records continued to be made.  On Monday Peggy Whitson broke the record for cumulative time spent in space by a US astronaut.  She was also the first female to command the space station.  We wish Peggy the very best on her mission #congratspeggy