January 14, 1969: The USS Enterprise Fire

The USS Enterprise, CVN-65

January 14, 1969: An explosion kills 28 people aboard the USS Enterprise. No, this wasn't an episode of Star Trek -- or an accident on the set of said show. This was a real fire, aboard the real-life aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, off the coast of Hawaii.

After a Zuni rocket detonated under a plane's wing, the ensuing fire touched off more munitions, blowing holes in the flight deck that allowed burning jet fuel to enter the ship. The blaze killed 28 sailors, injured 314, and destroyed 15 aircraft. Even graver damage was likely prevented by improvements made after the similar fire aboard the carrier USS Forrestal in 1967.

At 1,123 feet, Enterprise, service number CVN-65, known as the Big E, was the longest naval vessel ever built when it was commissioned on November 25, 1961, and still holds that distinction. She was based at Alameda Naval Air Station on San Francisco Bay, but was away at sea when Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Top Gun were filmed in 1986, so, both times, the carrier USS Ranger (CV-61) stood in for America's most famous "nuclear wessel."

Its predecessor, CV-6, was launched in 1936, and was key to the American victory in the Pacific Theater of Operations in World War II. After initially wanting to name it the Yorktown, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry named the show's starship the Enterprise after the World War II carrier. Having that ship's replacement in place by the time of the show's premiere in 1966 helped.

CV-6 was taken out of service in 1947, and scrapped in 1958. CVN-65 had a better fate: She was decommissioned in 2017 at her "birthplace," Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia, and some of her steel was recycled for the next aircraft carrier named Enterprise (CVN-80), scheduled for launch in 2025.

UPDATE: That idea was, itself, recycled in the TV series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in 2023: Every succeeding starship named Enterprise includes a piece of the NX-01, the 1st starship with the name, from the 2001-05 TV show Star Trek: Enterprise.

Construction delays, partly due to the COVID pandemic of 2020-21, have meant that CVN-80 is now scheduled to be commissioned in 2030.

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January 14, 1969 was a Tuesday. Actor Jason Bateman and rock drummer Dave Grohl were born on this day.

Baseball was out of season. Football season had ended 2 days earlier, with the New York Jets' stunning upset of the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. No games were played in the NBA, but there were 3 in the American Basketball Association:

* The Dallas Chaparrals beat the Minnesota Pipers, 102-101 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Connie Hawkins scored 43 points for the Pipers.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Houston Mavericks, 116-113 at the Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston.

* And the Oakland Oaks beat the Los Angeles Stars, 132-106 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

There was 1 game played in the NHL: The Los Angeles Kings beat the New York Rangers, 3-1 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.