U.S. Raid on USS Philadelphia

Date: February 16, 1804 • Location: Tripoli, Libya

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1801–1805.

First Barbary War: Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a U.S. Navy raid to destroy the captured USS Philadelphia in the harbor of Tripoli (depicted), denying her use to the Barbary States.

The First Barbary War (1801–1805), also known as the Tripolitan War and the Barbary Coast War, was a conflict during the 1801–1815 Barbary Wars, in which the United States fought against Ottoman Tripolitania. Tripolitania had declared war against the United States over disputes regarding tributary payments in exchange for a cessation of Tripolitanian commerce raiding at sea. United States president Thomas Jefferson refused to pay this tribute. The First Barbary War was the first major American war fought outside the New World, and in the Arab world, besides the American–Algerian War (1785–1795).