Episode 1 of 2

Congressional Authorization

When: March 2, 1899
Where: United States Congress
Part of: Event of 1899: George Dewey is made Admiral of the U.S. Navy.

Congress approved the creation of the grade of Admiral of the Navy on March 2, 1899, authorizing the President to appoint an individual to this unique rank.

The act authorized the President to appoint an Admiral of the Navy by selection and promotion. It stipulated that the appointee would not be placed on the retired list except upon their own application. The office was designed to cease to exist if vacated by death or otherwise.

Sources

Admiral of the Navy Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-05

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.