On this day in 1954 the USS Nautilus was commissioned in Groton, Connecticut. he Nautilus‘ keel was laid by President Harry S. Truman in 1952, and on January 21, 1954, first lady Mamie Eisenhower broke a bottle of champagne across its bow as it was launched into the Thames River in Groton. Nautilus was 319 feet long and displaced 3,180 tons. Nautilus served the Navy for 25 years and was decommissioned on March 3, 1980. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982, the world’s first nuclear submarine was place on exhibit in 1986 as the Historic Ship Nautilus at the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut.