1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
The First Barbary War began in 1801 when President Thomas Jefferson ordered Navy vessels to the Mediterranean Sea in protest of continuing raids against US ships by pirates from the Barbary states – Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripolitania. American sailors were often abducted and ransomed back to the U.S. and after two years of minor confrontations, sustained action began in June 1803, when a small U.S. expeditionary force attacked Tripoli harbor in present-day Libya. On April 27, 1805, the Derna campaign, which was undertaken by U.S. land forces in North Africa and supported by two Navy ships, Marines and Arab mercenaries under William Eaton, captured the city and deposed the Pasha Yusuf Karamanli. Lt. Presley O’ Bannon’s performance earned him a decorated sword from Hamet Karamanli – the previously deposed brother of Yusuf – which today is the pattern for the swords carried by Marine officers. The phrase “to the shores of Tripoli,”in the official song of the U.S. Marine Corps, was inspired by the Derna campaign.
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