1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
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On Jan. 30, 1975, the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary was established at the wreckage site of the USS Monitor — the country’s first ironclad warship which had launched exactly 113 years earlier to the day. The Monitor was commissioned for the Union during the Civil War and revolutionized naval warfare, but its heavy design was ill-equipped for rough waters and was lost in the Atlantic Ocean within a year, along with 16 of the 62 crew aboard. In 1973, scientists from Duke University located the wreckage and in 1974, the U.S. Navy and the National Geographic Society launched a second expedition that produced detailed photographic documentation of the wreck site. One year later, in 1975, the site was designated as the nation’s first marine sanctuary. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986 and in 1998, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration developed a plan to recover significant “iconic” sections of the wreck for conservation and public display. Since then several artifacts, ship components and crew remains have been recovered.
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