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HMS Ark Royal (91), the lead ship of her class of aircraft carrier, was the third ship of the Royal Navy to be named in honor of the flagship of the English fleet that defeated the Spanish Armada. She was designed in 1934Events January-April January 1 Alcatraz becomes a federal prison. January 7 First Flash Gordon comic strip is published. January 10 Execution of Marinus van der Lubbe January 24 Einstein visits White House January 26 The Apollo Theater opens in Harlem, Ne to meet the limits of the Washington Naval TreatyThe Washington Naval Treaty limited the naval armaments of its five signatories. It was signed by the United States of America, the British Empire, France, Italy, and Japan at Washington, DC, on February 6 1922. The US Senate advised ratification on March, and was built by Cammell LairdCammell Laird one of the most famous names in British ship-building during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, came about following the merger of Laird, Son & Co. of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co. of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth centur at Birkenhead, England . Construction was completed in November 1938.

In December 1939Events January-June January 2 End of term for Frank Finley Merriam, 28th Governor of California. He is succeeded by Culbert Levy Olson. January 24 Earthquake kills 30. 000 in Chile about 50. 000 sq mi razed January 26 Falangists take Barcelona January 26 she was sent to the South Atlantic to help in the search for the German pocket battleshipPocket battleship is the English nickname for a class of warships built by Germany in accordance with restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. They were classified as Panzerschiff "armoured ship") in German; they were also known as the Deutschlan Admiral Graf Spee. In the spring of 1940Events January-February January 5 FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time. January 6 World War II: Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the Poznan, Warthegau. January 12 World War II: Russia bombs cities in Finland. February 2 F she participated in the Norwegian campaign, and in July she joined the attack on the French Navy's base at Mers El Kébir, Algeria. The following September, Ark Royal took part in a second assault on the French Navy, this time at Dakar. While covering a Mediterranean convoy in late November, her planes attacked Italian battleships, though without making any hits. In return, she was bombed, and missed, by enemy aircraft.

During March 1941, Ark Royal pursued the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau during the last phase of their Atlantic sortie. On 26 May of that year, her torpedo planes hit Bismarck, making the enemy battleship virtually unmaneuverable and allowing other British warships to close and sink her.

Ark Royal was also very active in the Mediterranean Sea during 1941. She struck the port of Genoa in early February, during a British Naval raid deep into Italian-controlled waters. On several occasions, she ferried planes to the beleaguered base at Malta and covered Malta-bound convoys. While returning to Gibraltar from one such mission, Ark Royal was torpedoed on 13 November 1941 by the German submarine U-81. After a difficult struggle against progressive flooding, the carrier capsized and sank on 14 November 1941.¹ Her exact location remained unknown until mid-December 2002 when the BBC announced that a film crew had located the wreck in 900 metres of water some 30 miles (50 km) off Gibraltar.