On April 11th, honors the day the United States Navy acquired its first modern commissioned submarine. On April 11, 1900, the Holland VI became the Navy's first modern submarine. Designed by Irish-American inventor John Phillip Holland in 1896, he launched the Holland VI on May 17, 1897, at Navy Lt. Lewis Nixon's Crescent Shipyard in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The United States Navy later purchased the Holland VI on April 11, 1900. As the military's first commissioned submarine, the Navy renamed it the USS Holland (SS-1).