The name of the most famous general of the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States of America is not to be worn lightly: over the course of the country’s 250-year history only four ships of the Navy bore his name, each making a difference in their own right. Arguably none made a difference so large as the first ballistic missile nuclear submarine, launched at the height of the cold war.

On this day, June 9, in 1959 the USS George Washington, the first of her class, launched from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Armed with 16 Polaris ballistic missiles, and with the capacity to stay submerged as long as food supplies held out, it gave the U.S. considerable tactical advantage in the event of war.

The ship started out designated as an attack sub, and its hull already built when the Pentagon decided to reclassify it as a nuclear submarine. The hull was cut apart to add a 150-foot missile section nicknamed “Sherwood Forest”. The completed George Washington left on its first patrol in November of 1960, soon to be joined by other ships based on her design.