August 27, 1942 – The U.S.S. Iowa is launched from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

With the threat of war all around us, the U.S. Navy ordered six new state-of-the-art battleships in 1939. The BB-61 would be the most powerful warship ever to sail the seas, and the U.S.S. Iowa was the last lead ship of any class of United States battleships. She was the only ship of its class to have served in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans during World War II.

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