1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
James Vincent Forrestal, the last Cabinet-level secretary of the Navy and first secretary of Defense, was sworn into his latter post on this day in 1947, having been appointed by President Harry Truman. He was previously undersecretary of the Navy in 1940, where he led the national effort for industrial mobilization for the war effort during World War II, and then was named secretary of the Navy in May 1944. When the Defense Department was created in 1947 he was named to lead the organization, although he often clashed with Roosevelt’s successor Truman over national policy. In 1949 it was revealed that Forrestal had met and negotiated for a cabinet position with Truman’s opponent Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 presidential election. He was forced to resign as Defense secretary and later underwent medical care for depression. He died at the age of 57 after falling from a 16th-floor window of the hospital where he was being treated.
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