REMEMBERING NON-REVISED HISTORY: APRIL 27, 2013

Thomas Jefferson

Third President of the United States (1801-1809)
2nd Vice President of the United States (1797-1801)
An American Founding Father
Principal Author of the Declaration of Independence

Biography
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the third President of the United States (1801–1809). At the beginning of the American Revolution, he served in the Continental Congress, representing Virginia and then served as a wartime Governor of Virginia (1779–1781). Just after the war ended, from mid-1784 Jefferson served as a diplomat, stationed in Paris. In May 1785, he became the United States Minister to France. » Full Bio

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This Day In History 208 Years Ago

April 27, 1805

To The Shores Of Tripoli

U.S. Marines Fight Muslim Terrorism

After marching 500 miles from Egypt, U.S. agent William Eaton leads a small force of U.S. Marines and Berber mercenaries against the Tripolitan port city of Derna. The Marines and Berbers were on a mission to depose Yusuf Karamanli, the ruling pasha of Tripoli, who had seized power from his brother, Hamet Karamanli, a pasha who was sympathetic to the United States.

The First Barbary War had begun four years earlier, when U.S. President Thomas Jefferson ordered U.S. Navy vessels to the Mediterranean Sea in protest of continuing raids against U.S. ships by pirates from the Barbary states--Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripolitania. American sailors were often abducted along with the captured booty and ransomed back to the United States at an exorbitant price. 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.
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» Thomas Jefferson And The First Barbary War

Significant Events This Day In History

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The First Barbary War (1801–1805), AKA 'Tripolitan War' or 'Barbary Coast War'

The first of two wars fought between the United States and the Northwest African Berber Muslim states known collectively as the Barbary States. These were Tripoli and Algiers, which were quasi-independent entities nominally belonging to the Ottoman Empire, and the independent Sultanate of Morocco.

Barbary corsairs and crews from the North African Ottoman provinces of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and the independent Sultanate of Morocco under the Alaouite Dynasty (the Barbary Coast) were the scourge of the Mediterranean. Capturing merchant ships and enslaving or ransoming their crews provided the Muslim rulers of these nations with wealth and naval power.

The Battle of Derne was the decisive victory of a mercenary army led by a detachment of United States Marines and soldiers against the Muslim forces of Tripoli during the First Barbary War. It was the first recorded land battle of the United States fought overseas. » First Barbary War

Marines' Hymn

From the Halls of Montezuma,
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land, and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean:
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.

The line "To the shores of Tripoli" refers to the First Barbary War, and specifically the Battle of Derna in 1805.