The Naval War College is established on…

The Naval War College is established on October 6, 1884, and its first president, Commodore Stephen B. Luce, is given the old building of the Newport Asylum for the Poor to house it on Coaster's Harbor Island in Narragansett Bay.

Among the first four faculty members are Tasker H. Bliss, a future Army Chief of Staff, James R. Soley, the first civilian faculty member and a future Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and, most famously, Captain (later, Rear Admiral) Alfred Thayer Mahan, who will soon become rorienowned for the scope of his strategic thinking and influence on naval leaders worldwide.

Despite Mahan's prestige, the college will long be met with skepticism by navy officers accustomed to conducting all education aboard ship.

The College will engage in wargaming various scenarios from 1887 on, and in time will become a laboratory for the development of war plans.