| Year | Date | Historical Events |
| 1942 | Oct 20 | Keel laid down by the Electric Boat Co., Groton, CT. |
| 1943 | Jun 6 | Launched. |
| | Sep 7 | Commissioned with CDR. William Shirley "Gin" Stovall, Jr. in command.
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| | Oct 31 | Darter departed New London,CT. for Pearl Harbor,HI. |
| | Nov 26 | Darter arrived at Pearl Harbor, HI. |
| | Dec 21 | Darter departed Pearl Harbor, HI. on her 1st war patrol, bound for the heavily traveled shipping lanes South and West of Truk. |
| | Dec 21 | (Cont'd.) This patrol was twice interrupted for repairs, at Pearl Harbor from 29 December 1943 – 3 January 1944, and at Tulagi and Milne Bay from 30 January – 8 February. |
| 1944 | Jan 12 | Darter performed a reconnaissance of Eniwetok. |
| | Jan 13 | Darter scored a torpedo hit on a large ship, only to receive a severe depth-charging from her target’s escorts. |
| | Feb 29 | Darter commenced 2 week refit at Brisbane, Australia. |
| | Mar 17 | Darter departed Brisbane, Australia on her 2nd war patrol, North of Western New Guinea and South of Davao. |
| | Mar 21 | Darter topped off fuel at Milne Bay on 21 – 22 March. |
| | Mar 30 | Darter sank a Japanese cargo ship, then patrolled off New Guinea during Allied landings on it's coast. |
| | Apr 29 | Darter put in to Darwin, Australia to refuel on 29 – 30 April, then returned to her patrol area. |
| | May 23 | Darter arrived at Manus, New Guinea for refit. |
| | Jun 21 | Dartere departed Manus on her 3rd war patrol off Halmahera and Mindanao. |
| | Jun 29 | Darter sank the large minelayer "Tsugaru" off Morotai. |
| | Aug 8 | Darter returned to Brisbane, Australia. |
| | Aug 22 | Darter cleared on her fourth and last war patrol. She searched the Celebes Sea and South China Sea, returned to Darwin, Australia to fuel and make minor repairs 10 September, and put back to the Celebes Sea. |
| | Sep 27 | Darter put in to Mios Woendi on 27 September for additional fuel, and sailed on 1 October with Dace (SS-247) to patrol the South China Sea in coordination with the forthcoming invasion of Leyte. |
| | Oct 12 | Darter attacked a tanker convoy. |
| | Oct 21 | Darter headed with Dace for the Balabac Strait to watch for Japanese shipping moving to reinforce the Philippines or attack the landing forces.
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| | Oct 23 | Darter sank Admiral Takeo Kurita’s flagship Atago, then seriously damaged another cruiser, Takao |
| | Oct 24 | Darter grounded 24 Oct.1944. 31 Oct. 1944 she was destroyed by deck gun of USS Nautilus |
| | Nov 6 | Dace reached Fremantle, Australia safely with Darter’s crew. In order to retain their high esprit d'corps, the entire Darter crew was ordered to take over the submarine Menhaden (SS-377), then building at Manitowoc, WI. |