- 23 March 1882 – General Order No. 292 created an “Office of Intelligence.”
- 27 July 1916 SECNAV approval of plan to establish information service offices in the naval districts. These offices eventually became the NIS field elements.
- 26 June 1939 – President FDR Memo re Handling of Espionage Counter-espionage and Sabotage Cases 26 June 1939-compressed
- 01 November 1945 – Secretary of the Navy Forrestal authorized ONI personnel to investigate areas of naval concern in addition to espionage, sabotage and subversion
- 31 July 1958 – Public Law 85-577 Authorized DoD Civilians to Carry Firearms
- 27 May 1965 – SECDEF McNamara approves recommendations of the DoD Personnel Security Survey 1965 (Skallerup Report)
- President Johnson directs review of personnel investigations and security practices Feb 24 1965
- SECDEF tasks ASD Manpower to review DoD Personnel Security Program Nov 7 1964
- Navy Comments on the Recommendations of the Personnel Security Survey Feb 24 1965
- ASD Recommendations to SECDEF with Service Comments Mar 13 1965
- CAPT Johnson Letter Jun 15 1965
- 04 February 1966 – Secretary of the Navy established the Naval Investigative Service (NIS).
- 24 September 1992 – Acting SECNAV responds to investigation of Tailhook 91 and renames NIS as the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and replaces the one star flag officer director with a civilian member of the senior executive service.
- Above actions taken in response to this report DoDIG Report of Investigation – Tailhook 91 – Review of the Navy Investigations