The naming of United States Navy vessels after living people was common in early decades of American history, but by World War II, the Navy had firmly established a practice of naming ships for people only after they had died. In 1969, a Navy panel decreed that warships would no longer be named after living persons. That lasted until 1974, when President Richard Nixon announced the naming of an aircraft carrier after United States Representative Carl Vinson. Since then, ships such as the Arleigh Burke, Bob Hope, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Gabrielle Giffords have been named for people still alive at the time.