Short answers, pulled from the story.
The French Navy launched Napoléon, the first true steam-powered battleship, in 1850. Henri Dupuy de Lôme designed this vessel to carry conventional armament while using steam engines to achieve speeds independent of wind direction.
Britain launched HMS Dreadnought in early 1906 as a revolutionary ship that discarded medium-caliber secondary batteries entirely. Admiral Sir John Fisher designed this vessel to carry ten 12-inch guns arranged in twin turrets along the centerline so all main armament could fire broadside simultaneously without interference from smaller weapons.
The largest clash of World War I occurred on the 31st of May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland where three British battlecruisers and one German vessel were destroyed. Despite heavy losses including old pre-dreadnought Pommern sunk by torpedo at Jutland, modern dreadnoughts proved remarkably resilient against underwater attacks.
The Washington Naval Treaty was signed in December 1922 and imposed limits on battleship construction numbers and sizes among major powers. A ten-year building holiday prevented new launches except for two British Nelson-class ships permitted to match American and Japanese capabilities while these treaty battleships carried 14-inch guns.
Yamato launched its final suicide mission against Okinawa beaches in April 1945 before being scored between nine and thirteen torpedo hits plus six bomb hits sinking her completely. Only Nagato survived the war ending with Japanese surrender aboard its deck in September 1945.
On the 22nd of December 2025 the United States Navy announced planned construction of new battleships. This announcement follows a period where Missouri and Wisconsin were decommissioned by December 1991 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 1995 marking no remaining active or reserve battleships worldwide.