The US Marine Corps turned 242 years old on November 10.
"At places like Trenton, Tripoli, Chapultepec, Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Chosin, Khe Sanh, Fallujah, Sangin, and so many others, Marines have fought with an inner spirit — a spirit that bonds us, binds us together as a cohesive team. It's that intangible spirit that has formed the foundation of our warfighting reputation for the past 242 years," Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller said in a message this year.
Below, you can see some of the best photos from the Marine Corps' storied history, pulled from its archives.
Amanda Macias composed an earlier version of this post.
SEE ALSO: Step aboard the USS Kearsarge, the US Navy workhorse that takes Marines to war
Created in 1798, the Marine Corps band was called "The President's Own" by President Thomas Jefferson during his inaugural ball. Since then, it has played at every presidential inauguration. Here's the band in 1893.
In the early 1900s, Marines were active in China and in the Philippines. This photo, from 1907, shows Marines in front of the Sphinx in Egypt.
These Marines are posing with a German trench mortar captured in France in 1918. Mortars were especially useful because a mortar round could be aimed to fall directly into the trenches that criss-crossed World War I battlefields.
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