1944 - Launched by Margaret Truman, daughter of Senator (later President) Harry S. Truman, on January 29.  Officially Commissioned on June 11.

1945 - Under way as part of Task Group 58.2, which included her sister battleship Wisconsin, aircraft carriers Lexington, Hancock, and San Jacinto, along with the cruisers Boston and San Francisco, and a destroyer screen, February 10.  The task group conducted air strikes against Tokyo, supported the invasion of Iwo Jima and conducted air strikes on Okinawa.

1945 - Under way with other Naval units conducting air strikes on Kyushu, joined in the shore bombardment of Okinawa, supported the invasion of Okinawa, March 15-May 5.

1945 - Under way with other Naval units to join in the bombardment of Hokkaido on July 15, and a bombardment of Honshu July 17-18.

1945 - Provided the site for the surrender of Japan to the Allies, ending World War II.

1945 - Under way on various training exercises and fleet maneuvers, visiting Cuba, Gibralter, Turkey, Greece, Italy, and Algeria before returning to the U.S. in May.

1950 - Ran aground near Old Point Comfort, near Thimble Shoal Channel, at Hampton Roads Virginia, January 17, going some twenty-five hundred feet onto a mud flat.  The ship was relocated on February 1.  In Inchon, Korea, firing bombardment missions, September 19.  Visited by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur on September 21.  Conducted shore bombardments on Korea, including Wonsan and Chonjin in company with other Navy units, October - December.

1951 - Operations in Korean waters, including significant bombardment of enemy positions in Korea, January - March.

1952 - Cruises to Cuba, Haiti, Norway, and England, January - April.  Second assignment in Korean waters, October - December, in which the ship bombarded Wonsan and Tanchon.

1953 - Training cruises to Brazil, Panama, and Cuba, June - August.

1954 - Midshipman cruises by all four Iowa-class battleships to Portugal, France, and Cuba, June - August.

1955 - The Missouri decommissioned and placed in mothballs at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Febrary 26.

1984 - Towed to drydock and moored at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, May - December.

1986 - The ship is reactivated and given sea trials.  The Missouri was commissioned again on May 10 by then Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger.  Later in the year, the battleship made cruises to Hawaii, Australia, Diego Garcia, Egypt, Turkey, Italy, Spain, and Portugal; then transited the Panama Station on December 19.  It was an around-the-world shakedown cruise and the first battleship to circumnavigate the world since President Theodore Roosevelt's "Great White Fleet" of 1907.

1987 - Operating in the North Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman, the ship and other Naval units supported the Allied convoy escort of tankers, September - November.

1991 - Operated in Middle East waters in support of Operation Desert Storm, January 3 - March 21.  During this assignment the ship fired twenty-eight cruise missiles and 759 sixteen-inch shells.

1992 - The Missouri is decommissioned for the second time; it happened March 31, and the ship subsequently was towed to her mothball fleet berth in Bremerton, Washington.

1995 - The ship was removed from the Navy's registry, clearing the way for the battleship to be donated by the Navy for preservation as a memorial museum.  The following year the caretaker for the historic ship was selected - the USS Missouri Memorial Association in Hawaii.

1998 - The ship is towed from Bremerton by the tug Sea Victory, stopping at Astoria, Oregon, for a brief visit, then arriving at Pearl Harbor on June 22, to serve as a battleship memorial and museum.