#history Today is Beer Can Day! During WWII, the Navy tried to have enough beer at all installations to give each sailor two cans a day. With rapid demobilization following V-J Day, the beer supply piled up to the point that there was enough to give each sailor 92 cans a day. The Navy instead sold the surplus to retailers for $1.80 a case. 20,000 cases of unsold beer from Bayonne, New Jersey were sent to Tennessee and buried in Oak Ridge.