What is the significance of the Battle of the Coral Sea?

There are two major significances to this battle, which
was fought in the South Pacific in May of 1942.

First, this
was the first major military engagement in the war in the Pacific that the Americans and
their allies did not lose.  It was really a draw, but the
Allies had been losing everything else so it seemed like a
win.

Second, it slowed the Japanese in their attempt to cut
Australia off from Allied shipping.  If they had managed this, the US would not have had
a staging area from which to start to attack towards Japan.