Key Date Chronology

Key Date Chronology - Repatriation of Richard Somers and Men of the USS Intrepid

1693 Somers Point founded by English Quaker John Somers.

1693 3 June - Richard, Jr. born to John and Hannah Somers, their fourth child.

1761 Edward Preble born in Falmouth, Maine.

1764 23 February - William Eaton born in Woodstock, Connecticut.
1778 15 September - Richard Somers born in Somers Point, NJ.
1778 15 October - Battle of Chestnut Neck NJ includes Col. Richard Somers, son of John the founder of Somers Point and father of Master Commandant Richard Somers.
1783 March. Algierian Barbary coast pirates seize two American merchant ships. 

1784 7 May The Maria and Dauphin captured by Barbary pirates.
1784 11 October Morocco pirate corsair seize American brig Betsey.
1785 June Henry Wadsworth born in Falmouth, Mass., now Portland, Maine, next door neighbor to Captain Edward Preble. 

1785 5 October Thomas Barclay appointed to negotiate with emperor of Morocco.
1785 Feb News of Algerian pirates seizure of more U.S. vessels and demands for tribute reach USA; Pres. Jefferson deploys gunboats to the Mediterranean with battle cry of “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.”
1785 US opens diplomatic relations with Morocco, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli

1786 15 January. Thomas Baclay leaves for Paris, Spain Marrakech.

1786 23 June Barclay’s treaty worked out.

1787 8 July Barclay’s treaty ratified by Congress.

1787 17 September US Constitution ratified.
1789 30 April George Washington sworn in as President.
1793 16 December President Washington notifies Congress that Barbary pirates were again seizing ships, consults with John Barry and Philadelphia shipbuilder Joshua Humphreys about building a fleet of warships.
1793 15 year old Richard Somers, first mate on family schooner in West Indies, takes command upon the death of the captain and returns ship safely home.
1794 Navy Act of 1794.
1794 19 March John Barry requests command of the proposed fleet.
1794 27 March an act of Congress orders building six new frigates.
1794 14 June Washington orders John Barry “to form and train a class of midshipmen who would then be commissioned as Ensigns, and form the nucleus of a new American navy.” Barry commissioned first Captain, United States Navy.
1794 Richard Somers attends private Philadelphia Free Academy with schoolmates Charles Stewart, Steven Decatur, Jr., Richard Rush, and James Caldwell.
1794 September Captain John Barry supervises the construction of USS United States.
1794 22 October Richard Somers, Sr. dies.
1795 21 December US treaty with Morocco, Algiers “automatically under the clause in the Navy bill,” halts work on the six frigates.
1796 Jan. Sec of War McHenry reports that all six frigates could still be completed.
1796 April Congress approves the completion of three ships at Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore, the United States, the Constitution and the Constellation.
1796 19 September Estimate for outfitting the frigate United States with 305 officers and men, fifty-four marines, for one month $7, 285.
1796 Gheretti/Mastico, a French built Ketch launched (later to become USS Intrepid).
1797 3 February Richard’s mother Sophia dies.
1797 22 February Washington, on his birthday, issues Commission No. 1 in the American Navy to John Barry, backdated to 1794. .
1797 March 4 John Adams becomes president.
1797 June 7 Treaty of Tripoli Approved by Senate.
1797 June 10 Treaty of Tripoli Signed by President Adams
1797 June 17 Notice of Treaty of Tripoli published in Pennsylvania Gazette.
1797 June 23 President Adams message to Congress re: Algiers/Barbary States. 

1797 7 July President Adams appoints William Eaton US counsul to Tunis and James Leander Cathcart consul to Tripoli.
1797 July 10 the USS United States is launched, John Barry Captain.
1797 350 applications for 59 commissions in new U.S. Navy. 

1798 Merchant ship purchased and refitted as USS George Washington (24 guns)
1798 January 26 US counsel Richard O’Brian arrives in Algiers. 

1798 6 March Senate Rafifies Treaty of Amity and Commerce with Tunis, despite objections subject to revisions.
1798 March 9 Charles Stewart commissioned Lieutenant.
1798 April 30 Congress establishes Department of Navy, directed by secretary of cabinet rank, Maryland merchant Benjamin Stoddert.
1798 30 April Midshipman warrants issued to Richard Somers and Steven Decatur.
1798 7 May President John Adams appears in Philadelphia at rally.
1798 8 May Richard Somers takes oath of allegiance.
1798 May James R. Caldwell appointed Midshipman.
1798 30 May Richard Somers returns to Egg Harbor to get his affairs in order.
1798 8 June Sloop Delaware (20 guns) under Commodore Stephen Decatur, Sr., takes a French prize, Le Croyable off Egg Harbor.
1798 7 July USS Untied States gets underway under Capt. John Barry with Decatur, Jr., Charles Stewart and Somers as Midshipmen, head for the West Indies.
1798 4 Nov Congress agreed to pay a yearly tribute to Tripoli.

1798 18 December - Wm. Eaton, Richard O’Brien and James Cathcart tasked with renegotiating March 6, 1778 treaty.
1799 20 January - Richard Somers commissioned Lieutenant. 

1799 9 February - William Eaton arrives in Algiers
1799 2 June Richard Somers writes will.
1799 22 June Richard’s brother Constant dies in Russia in boating accident.
1799 Schooner Nautilus built as merchant vessel on Maryland’s East Shore.

1800 17 Sept. - USS George Washington arrives in Algiers, Wm Bainbridge Captain.
1800 Nov. James Caldwell promoted to lieutenant, serves on USS United States.
1801 Somers first lieutenant USS Boston (28 gun, 250 man) sloop sent to Mediterranean.
1801 James Caldwell assigned to the USS Constellation.
1801 Treaty of Tripoli violated by Yousuf Karamanli, pasha of Tripoli.
1801 21 January Boston off Tripoli. Somers gets first view of Tripoli Harbor. 

1801 19 April USS George Washington puts in to Philadelphia.
1801 14 May, After learning that Pres. Jefferson refused to pay a renewed tribute of $225,000 the Pasha of Tripoli declared war on the US by cutting down the US flagstaff in front of the US Consulate.
1801 22 May Captain Richard Dale takes command of Med. Squadron. 

1801 2 June Dale’s squadron disembarks from Hampton Roads, Va.
1801 June – US Consul William Eaton contacts Hamad Karamanli, deposed pasha of Tripoli, and older brother of Yousuf and encourages him to return to Tripoli.
1801 July USS Enterprise under Lt. Andrew Sterrett defeats pirate ship Tripoli. 

1801 24 July USS President and USS Enterprise off Tripoli.

1802 6 February - Congress passes “act for protection of commerce,” giving Presient power to wage war against the Barbary pirates.
1802 Congress orders the construction of four schooners, the Siren, the Argus, Nautilus and Vixen with Somers given command of the Nautilus.
1802 6 February Congress recognizes Tripoli has declared war against USA. 

1802 9 March Commodore Richard Dale leaves Mediterranean for Hampton Roads.
1803 April 11 Richard Somers launches schooner Goard Blossom at Mays Landing.
1803 13 May Richard Somers ordered to oversee the refurbishing of schooner Nautilus.
1803 21 May Captain Edward Preble given command of the Mediterranean squadron, with flagship frigate USS Constitution (44 guns).
1803 24 June Somers’s schooner Nautilus ordered to join the Mediterranean squadron under command of Captain Edward Preble.
1803 13 September Commodore John Barry dies.
1803 14 September Somers and Nautilus reach Gibraltar.

1803 7 October USS Philadelphia and USS Vixen off Tripoli.

1803 15 October Commodore Preble in Gibraltar.
1803 Preble obtains understanding in Tangier from the emperor of Morocco.
1803 31 Oct. USS Philadelphia, Captain Bainbridge in command, runs aground off Tripoli, surrenders with full compliment of crew, 300 men.
1803 7 Nov the Argus, with Stephen Decatur, joins Nautilus and Constitution.
1803 23 Dec, Lt. Stephen Decatur, commanding the schooner Enterprise, captures a Barbary pirate ketch, which is entered into the US Navy logs as the USS Intrepid.
1804 16 February Decatur leads mission aboard Intrepid into Tripoli Harbor and successfully scuttles the captured frigate USS Philadelphia.
1804 2 June USS Constitution, Enterprise, and Intrepid, a floating hospital, anchor off Syracuse. Siren, Agrus, Vixen and Scourage (also a pirate prize) blockade Tripoli.
1804 July Mediterranean squadron heads for Tripoli, lead by Preble’s flagship, the Constitution, four brigs, the Argus, Siran, Vixen and Scourge, two schooners, Nautilus (Somers) and Enterprise (Decatur) and eight gunboats (156 guns in all).
1804 25 July Battle of Tripoli begins.
1804 3 August Somers and Decatur lead flotillas of gunboats against Tripoli fleet, win decisively, though Decatur’s younger brother James Decatur is killed; Caldwell distinguishes himself in boat action; three enemy gunboats captured.
1804 7 August, Attack made against Tripoli fleet; Caldwell killed in Gunboat #9.
1804 3 Sept Attack made against Tripoli fleet.
1804 4 Sept  Intrepid explodes in Tripoli harbor killing Somers, Wadsworth and ten volunteer sailors, whose remains wash ashore and are recovered.
1804 5 Sept Intrepid crew buried in two nearby graves, by Dr. Cowdery and other American prisoners, “one cable’s length” (720 feet) from the walls of the old castle fort.

1804 26 November - Wm. Eaton and Lt. Presley Neville O’Bannon reach Alexandra.
1805 Lt. David Porter takes up collection for Tripoli Monument, which includes the names of all the officers killed in the first Barbary War.

1805 5 March General Wm. Eagon and Hamad Karamanli begin march to Derna.

1805 25 April Eaton’s army arrives outskirts of Derna.

1805 26 April USS Nautilus arrives off Derna.

1805 27 April USS Argus and USS Hornet arrive off Derna.

1805 28 April 2 pm Attack on Derna commences.

1805 28 April 4 pm City of Derna in hands of Eaton’s army.

1805 21 April Yousef Karamanli offers peace terms rejected by Tobias Lear and Commodore Samuel Barron.

1805 13 May Eaton’s army repulses counterattack by Karamanli loyalists.

1805 18 May Tobias Lear leaves for Tripoli on USS Essex

1805 22 May Commodore Barron resigns his command.

1805 3 June Treaty with Karamanli settled.

1805 11 June USS Constellation off Derna.

1805 12 June USS Constellation leaves Derna in dead of night with Eaton, Presley, et al.

1806 17 May Treaty with Tripoli ratified by Congress.
1807 Feb Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is born and named after Lt. Henry Wadsworth, who was left buried on Tripoli beach with the men of the Intrepid.
1812 British take Washington. The Tripoli monument is damaged, repaired and relocated to the grounds of the US Capitol. 

1816 Stephen Decatur returns to Tripoli.
1830 Wife of British Counsel to Tripoli dies and is buried near existing graves, believed to be American sailors, and a wall is built around the cemetery.
1842 Alleged mutiny aboard USS Somers II, a training vessel, results in hanging of Midshipmen, and the end of training officers at sea.
1845 US Naval Academy established by Navy Secretary George Bancroft and the Tripoli Monument is relocated there.
1850 James F. Cooper writes biography of Richard Somers and suggests that someday the captain of an American cruiser should return with his remains so that he can be reburied in his native land among his friends and loved ones.
1905 President Theodore Roosevelt orders the repatriation of the remains of Captain John Paul Jones from a Paris crypt and reburied in the chapel at the Naval Academy.
1911 Italians begin occupation of Libya. Take over port and create the Plaza/Square.
1930 Italian Army road work crew uncovers the remains of five men from the original grave site and they are reburied at Old Protestant Cemetery.
1938 President Franklin Roosevelt orders a search for the location of the graves of the men of the Intrepid in Tripoli. Mustafa Burchis, a Libyan working for the Italians at the port of Tripoli investigates and learns some of the men of the Intrepid are buried at Old Protestant Cemetery.
1940-45 World War II. Burgis’ report is lost at the American Embassy in Rome.
1948–49 Muastafa Burchis informs the new US Consul Orray Taft, Jr. of his research and the members of the State Dept, US Navy, British embassy and local Libyans hold memorial ceremony and place historic markers at the Old Protestant Cemetery in 1949.
1950-1956 Two reports are published in the US Naval Proceedings journal.
1955 USMC study determines that no Marines are among the Intrepid victims.
1950-1969 The Officer Wife’s Club of Wheelus Air Force base maintain the cemetery.
1977 Two women tourists from New Jersey discover the displaced graves at the cemetery, overgrown with weeds, and write about it in American Legion Magazine.
1980 Rep. William Hughes (D. 2NJ) introduces legislation in Congress to reserve graves for the 13 men of the Intrepid at Arlington in anticipation of their repatriation.
1988 Pres. Ronald Reagan orders the US military to bomb Tripoli in retaliation for terrorist attacks. Two US Navy pilots are shot down, and the remains of one recovered.
2002 Members of the Somers family and Somers Point, N.J. civic leaders petition US government and the Gadhafi Charities Foundation for repatriation. US State Dept. says there is no diplomatic relations with Libya.
2004 Gadhafi renounces terrorism, gives up Weapons of Mass Destruction and the US reestablishes formal diplomatic relations with Libya. 

2004 US Dept. of State opens liaison office in Tripoli.
2004 Report - Libyans excavate the original grave site and discover “bones and buttons.”
2004 Libyan guards tell US regional security officer Dan Mehan about American graves at cemetery, overgrown with weeds and in disrepair.
2006 March LTC Robert “Kyle” Carnahan arrives in Tripoli as defense attaché and meets with Dr. Giuma Anag, director of Antiquities.
2006 May Memorial Day ceremonies held at cemetery graves.
2007 May Memorial Day ceremonies held at cemetery graves.
2008 “Secrets of the Old Protestant Cemetery” book is published in Arabic in Libya.
2009 Gadhaif celebrates the 40th anniversary of coup with a parade at Green Square.
2009 5 Sept Sec of State Condi Rice visits Gadhafi on the 105th anniversary of the burial of the men of the Intrepid.
2010 March Chief of Naval Operations Adml. Gary Roughead determines that the Old Protestant Cemetery is to be the final resting place for those men of the USS Intrepid, but does not mention the original unmarked mass grave site outside the old castle walls. 

2010 Libyans begin repairs and renovation of Old Protestant Cemtery.
2011- 17 February Revolution in Benghazi begins, Gadhafi violent suppresses.
2011 March UN & NATO prevents Gadhafi’s military from attacking Benghazi.

2011 5 April Chris Stevens arrives in Benghazi as American representative to rebels.
2011 15 April Delegation from Somers Point meets with Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R. NJ), Mike Rogers (R. Mich) and the American Legion in Washington DC.
2011 April Rep. Rogers introduces House Resolution 1497 to repatriate the remains of the men of the Intrepid from Tripoli, co-sponsored by LoBiondo.
2011 26 May Rep. Rogers attaches the Rogers/LoBiondo repatriation resolution to the Defense Authorization Act (DAA2012) as an amendment, which passes the House.
2011 August Tripoli is liberated and Green Square renamed Martyrs Square.
2011 Nov. Sen. Dean Heller (R. Nev.) introduces complimentary Senate bill.
2011 Dec. Sen. John McCain (R. Arizona), ranking Republican on the Sen. Armed Services Com. (SASC) removes Repatriation Amendment before DAA is approved.
2011 6 Dec. SASC and HASC Conference irons out differences in the DAA and ten US Senators sign letter requesting the Repatriation Amendment be reinserted in the DAA. 2011 17 Dec. Sec. Defense Leon Panetta in Tripoli and visits Intrepid graves at recently renovated cemetery.
2011 31 Dec. President Signs Defense Authorization Act that includes a provision requiring the Navy to evaluate the feasibility of repatriating the remains of the men of the Intrepid from Tripoli and report back with recommendations in September 2012. 

2012 Christopher Stevens appointed US Ambassador to Libya.
2012 4 Feb. Intrepid Project meets at Somers Point Historical Society to consider options.

2012 May Chris Stevens named US Ambasssador

2012 May - Memorial Day Stevens leads Embassy delegation for ceremony at Intrepid graves at Old Protestant Cemetery.

2012 10 September US Ambassador Stevens arrives in Benghazi.

2012 11 September US Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans killed in attack on US mission at Benghazi.

2012 12 Sept. Presient Obama makes Rose Garden speech on Benghazi.

2012 16 Sept. US UN Ambassador Susan Rice appears on TV talk shows.

2012 19 Sept. Congressional hearing held on Benghazi attack.

2012 10 October Congressional hearing held on Benghazi attack.

2012 October Navy/DOD Report recommends remains of Intrepid crew not be repatriated, but fails to mention the radical Islamic threat to graves.

2012 9 Oct. State Dept. briefing outlines chronology of Benghazi attack.

2012 Oct. - Nov. Benghazi becomes an election issue during debates.

2012 Nov. The day after the election CIA Director David Petraeus resigns.

2012 14 Nov. John McCain calls for Senate hearings to investigate Benghazi attack.

2012 Chipp Reid’s book on the men of the Intrepid is published.

2013 January Secretary of State Hilary Clinton testifies before Congress about Benghazi.

2013 Dr. Anne Stevens starts J. Chris Stevens Fund.

2013 John Kerry named Secretary of State

2013 13 March Deborah K. Jones appointed US Ambassador to Libya

2013 May - Memorial Day.