This is a quick one - Francis Scott Key isn't the only songwriter inspired by U.S. Navy's brush with the Barbary pirates. And to be sure, it WAS a pretty big deal - it was our first real naval engagement outside of the Revolutionary War, and we won it decisively, calming fears that we would be kicked around on the world stage. So that's where the line in the Marines' Hymn comes in - "...to the shores of Tripoli..." That's where that battle took place. They namechecked the first big U.S. naval battle.
But wow, is our national anthem's backstory convoluted.
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