Today in 1954, on the Thames River in Connecticut

USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine, was christened by Mamie Eisenhower and launched.

 

Commissioned on September 30, 1954 under the command of Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson, USN, the vessel was the first submarine to complete a submerged transit to the North Pole on August 3, 1958. Sharing names with the submarine in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and named after another USS Nautilus (SS-168) that served with distinction in World War II, Nautilus was authorized in 1951 and launched in 1954. Because her nuclear propulsion allowed her to remain submerged far longer than diesel-electric submarines, she broke many records in her first years of operation, and traveled to locations previously beyond the limits of submarines. In operation, she revealed a number of limitations in her design and construction. This information was used to improve subsequent submarines.

Nautilus was decommissioned in 1980 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982. The submarine has been preserved as a museum of submarine history in Groton, Connecticut, where the vessel receives some 250,000 visitors a year.

[January 21, 1954]