United States Marine Corps Birthday

The official birthday of the United States Marine Corps is on November 10, 1775. That was the day when the Second Continental Congress established the Continental Marines with the following decree: Tun Tavern, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is regarded as the birthplace of the Corps as the location of the first Marines to enlist under Commandant Samuel Nicholas, though it is disputed if a recruiting drive may have occurred earlier at Nicholas's family tavern, the . When the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, the Continental Navy was disestablished, and with it, the Continental Marines. The Corps was re-established on 11 July 1798, when the act for establishing and organizing a Marine Corps was signed by President John Adams. ==Celebration==

Prior to 1921, Marines celebrated the recreation of the Corps on 11 July with little pomp or pageantry. On October 21, 1921, Major Edwin North McClellan, in charge of the Corps' fledgling historical section, sent a memorandum to Commandant John A. Lejeune, suggesting the Marines' original birthday of November 10 be declared a Marine Corps holiday to be celebrated throughout the Corps. Lejeune so ordered in Marine Corps Order 47: cuts the Marine Corps birthday cake in 1950, during a brief reprieve in battle during the Korean War. The first formal ball was celebrated in 1925, though no records exist that indicate the proceedings of that event. Another modern tradition includes a unit run on the 10th. Marines are reputed to celebrate the birthday, regardless of where they may be in the world, even in austere environments or combat. ==Gallery==

File:2008 Marine Corps Birthday Cake MNF-West-081110-M-8941H-001.jpg|John F. Kelly with Multi-National Forces West in Fallujah, 2008 File:Liversedge 1943 birthday.jpg|Harry B. Liversedge with the Marine Raiders in 1943 File:BirthdayPageant 29Palms 081104-M-6603L-046.jpg|Marine modelling a World War I-era uniform at the 2008 Birthday Pageant at MCAGCC Twentynine Palms File:HartFA USMC 1951 TBS.jpg|Franklin A. Hart cuts a cake for The Basic School while David M. Shoup looks on in 1951. Note that this cake has candles. File:Marine Corps Birthday 1969 - Lewis J. Fields and Wallace M. Greene.jpg|Marine Corps Birthday 1969, Marine Corps Development and Educational Center Quantico, Commanding general Lewis J. Fields cutting the cake and Commandant of the Marine Corps, Wallace M. Greene (on the left) looks on. File:20091110 USMC birthday CMC's run.jpg|James T. Conway leads a unit run of Marines in 2009. File:Marine Corps Birthday Celebration, Maui, 1944 (15532893148).jpg|Austin R. Brunelli cutting the cake with the members of the 24th Marine Regiment during the celebration of the Marine Corps Birthday in Maui, 1944. File:Thanksgiving Cake, Guadalcanal, 1942 (8161922801).jpg|William W. Stickney cuts a Thanksgiving cake with a Japanese officer's sword at Guadalcanal, as hungry Leathernecks look on File:Marine Corps Birthday Celebration, Parris Island, 1953 (15100214223).jpg|Merwin H. Silverthorn cuts the Marine Corps Birthday Cake in 1953 at MCRD Parris Island. ==See also==