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The United States Marine Corps: A History

From two battalions raised by the Continental Congress in 1775 to the Corps of today: the wars and battles the Marines fought, the leaders who shaped them, and the traditions they carry. **How to read it.** Wars and campaigns are durations, with a picture behind the timeline while they last; battles, milestones and people are moments with their picture. Chapter headings mark the eras. Hover over a cluster of moments to fan it out, and open any moment for its full notes and sources. Related events (a leader and their battle, a battle and its war) are linked. **Sources and images.** Each event links the Wikipedia article it draws on. Images are linked, not copied, from Wikimedia Commons, where most are US government works in the public domain; open an image's original for its author and license. Dates are given in UTC; where only the month or year is known, the notes say so.

94 moments · 1775-04-19T00:00:00Z CE – 2022-08-06T00:00:00Z CE · by @athan · @athan

Moments

  1. Birth of the Corps (1775–1815)
  2. The Continental Congress raises two battalions of Marines
  3. Samuel Nicholas commissioned Captain of Marines
  4. Battle of Nassau: the first amphibious landing
  5. Marines fight at Princeton
  6. Treaty of Paris ends the Revolutionary War
  7. President John Adams signs the act establishing the Marine Corps
  8. William Ward Burrows becomes Commandant
  9. Marine Barracks Washington: "8th & I"
  10. Battle of Derna: "to the shores of Tripoli"
  11. Presley O'Bannon and the Mameluke sword
  12. Battle of Bladensburg
  13. Battle of New Orleans
  14. The Old Corps (1815–1898)
  15. Battle of Hatchee-Lustee
  16. Storming of Chapultepec: "the Halls of Montezuma"
  17. Marines capture John Brown at Harpers Ferry
  18. First Battle of Bull Run
  19. Second Battle of Fort Fisher
  20. The Eagle, Globe and Anchor is adopted
  21. United States expedition to Korea
  22. John Philip Sousa leads the Marine Band
  23. Semper Fidelis becomes the Corps motto
  24. Empire, Banana Wars and the Great War (1898–1939)
  25. Marines land at Guantánamo Bay
  26. Birth of Marine Corps aviation
  27. The Banana Wars
  28. Battle of Fort Rivière
  29. Smedley Butler at Fort Rivière
  30. The Great War
  31. Dan Daly: "Do you want to live forever?"
  32. Opha May Johnson becomes the first woman Marine
  33. Battle of Saint-Mihiel
  34. Armistice: the guns fall silent
  35. John A. Lejeune becomes Commandant
  36. Pete Ellis: "Advanced Base Operations in Micronesia"
  37. Lejeune's birthday message (Marine Corps Order No. 47)
  38. Battle of Ocotal: early dive bombing in support of troops
  39. The Fleet Marine Force is established
  40. World War II in the Pacific (1941–1945)
  41. Attack on Pearl Harbor
  42. The 4th Marines at Corregidor
  43. Battle of Midway
  44. Guadalcanal and the Solomons
  45. Evans Carlson and "Gung Ho"
  46. Carlson's Raiders at Makin Island
  47. Battle of the Tenaru
  48. The first Black recruits arrive at Montford Point
  49. Merritt "Red Mike" Edson holds the ridge
  50. John Basilone at Henderson Field