USS Missouri, the battleship that hosted Japan’s surrender, had the hull designation BB-63.
The ship was the fourth and final Iowa-class battleship completed by the United States Navy. Its designation combined “BB,” the U.S. Navy classification for battleships, with its hull number, 63.
USS Missouri was commissioned in June 1944 and served in the Pacific during the final phase of World War II. On September 2, 1945, its deck became the setting for the Japanese Instrument of Surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay.
The ship is sometimes confused with USS Iowa, USS New Jersey, or USS Wisconsin because all were Iowa-class battleships and carried similar names and numbers. Missouri is distinctive because its deck hosted the formal surrender that ended World War II.