February 16 - Ginger Rogers had nothing to do with The Barbary Pirates.

"Sure he was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did ... backwards and in high heels!" - Bob Thaves, cartoonist of "Frank and Earnest"

It turns out that the U.S. has had trouble with Muslim nations practically since it's inception. In it's earliest days, this country paid vast amounts of tribute, aka protection money, to the Barbary Coast nations of Algiers, Morocco, Tripoli and Tunis. This led to two wars with a brief intermission for the war of 1812. After both wars the Barbary states broke their peace agreements and resumed piracy of American (and other nation's) vessels. It was during this time that Thomas Jefferson uttered the phrase "Millions for defense, not a penny for tribute." He also established U.S. doctrine that defined ransom and tribute as different things and as president did, in fact, pay ransom to secure the return of American servicemen from Tripoli.

The reason the Barbary Pirates felt free to do their thing was because in 1789 Napoleon, the stupid git, decided to seize Malta from the Knights of Malta. The Knights of Malta, originally the Knights Hospitaller, on later authority from Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, had been keeping the pirates in check since the 1300's, but Napoleon needed a vacation island in the Med or something. Napoleon had other goals in life than ensuring safe trade for all of Europe and so the position of Protector of the Mediterranean went unfilled.

Anyway, after the U.S. pounded the Barbary States again in the Second Barbary War and secured another peace agreement, The Barbary states broke the agreement again, this time drawing the ire of Britain and Holland who took their turn at thumping mainly the Algerians, destroying most of their pirate fleet. They secured yet another peace treaty. It wasn't all that long after that these states became European and Turkish colonies which finally made the Mediterranean a more peaceful place for commerce.

It is interesting to note that the justification provided by the Barbary states for their actions was as follows:

The ambassador answered us that [the right] was founded on the Laws of the Prophet (Mohammed), that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to heaven. - Thomas Jefferson reporting to Congress

Still to come in the history of American interaction with Muslim states, the Spanish American war and the Moro Rebellion.

There was no mention of Ginger Rogers in any of the material I read regarding the Barbary Wars, I just really like the quote.

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A brief note - the "Millions for defense..." quote is also attributed to Robert Goodloe Harper and is also apparently often mis-attributed to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.