1747

John Paul is born on 6 July in the gardener's cottage of the Arbigland Estate, Kirkbean, Scotland.

1760

John Paul is apprenticed to a merchant at age 13 and goes to sea on the brig Friendship, voyaging between Whitehaven, England, Barbados, and Virginia with cargoes of rum, sugar, and tobacco.  While in Virginia, he stays with his older brother, William in Fredericksburg.

1768

He assumes his first command on the brig John after the master and first mate die onboard of fever.

1770

He is admitted into the St. Bernard Lodge of the Master, Wardens and Brethren of Free and Accepted Masons in Kirkcudbright, Scotland, on 27 November.

1773

On the Caribbean island of Tobago, where his ship Betsy ended her outward voyage, John Paul decided to invest money in return cargo rather than pay his crew for their shore leave.  One sailor attempted to go ashore without leave.  John Paul drew his sword on the man to enforce his orders, but the man set on his captain with a bludgeon.  In response to the attack John Paul ran him through with his sword.  John Paul immediately went ashore to give himself up, but the death of the ringleader had so stirred up local sentiment that John Paul's friends prevailed upon him to escape to Virginia.  He changes his surname to Jones.

1775

In December Jones received his lieutenant's commission from the Continental Congress for its navy. On 3 December, as first lieutenant of Alfred, he hoisted the Grand Union flag for the first time on a Continental warship.  The flag's Union Jack in the upper left canton and thirteen red and white stripes represented a united resistance to tyranny but loyalty to the English king, George III.

1776

In February John Paul Jones participates in the attack on Nassau, New Providence Island.  Jones is appointed to command Providence on 10 May; his commission as Captain in the Continental Navy is dated 8 August 1776.   The 12- gun sloop departed for the Delaware Capes on 21 August.  Within a week she had captured the whaling brigantine Britannia. Near Bermuda, she fell in with a convoy escorted by the 28-gun frigate Solebay.   In a thrilling chase lasting ten hours, Jones saved Providence from the larger warship by an act of superior seamanship.  By 22 September he had captured three British merchant vessels.  While anchored he burnt an English fishing schooner, sank another, and made prize of a third.  Jones would later declare that his best crew had been on board Providence; he had received sound financial rewards from the prizes, making this venture the most enjoyable of his career.

1777

In November, John Paul Jones sails for France in Ranger, carrying word of Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga.  Admiral La Motte-Picquet returned Jones' salute at Quiberon Bay on 14 February, the first time the Stars and Stripes were recognized by a foreign power.  Ranger later captured the British sloop of war, Drake, off the coast of Ireland on 24 April and pillaged the British coast.

1778

Incidently, this day was the anniversary of the battle between the Jones's Ranger and HMS Drake, fought in the Irish Sea in 1778.  It had been the first major naval battle fought under the newly adopted quot;starred and stripes" flag and had resulted in Jones' capture of an important warship in Great Britain's home waters.

1779

The French king, Louis XVI, loans Jones Le Duras, which he renames Bonhomme Richard (after Poor Richard's Almanac) in honor of Benjamin Franklin, America's ambassador to France.  On 14 August, in command of four other ships and two French privateers, Jones continues his raids on English shipping. In his most famous engagement, 23 September 1779, Jones engaged the British frigate Serapis off Flamborough Head, Yorkshire. Serapis was a superior ship compared to Richard.  She was faster, more nimble and carried a far greater number of eighteen pounders.  The two ships fired simultaneously.  At the first or second salvo, two of Jones' eighteen-pounders burst, killing many gunners and ruining the entire battery as well as blowing up the deck above. After exchanging two or three broadsides, and attempting to rake the Serapis' bow and stern, the commodore estimated that he must board and grapple, a gun-to-gun duel seeming futile.  Serapis' Captain Pearson repulsed the boarders, and attempted to cross Richard's bow to rake her.  During this stage of the bloody and desperate battle, Pearson, seeing the shambles on board Bonhomme Richard, asked if the American ship had struck.  Jones' immortal reply, "I have not yet begun to fight," served as a rallying cry to the crew.  The two ships grappled and Jones relied on his marines to clear the enemy's deck of men.  To Jones' disgust, Alliance, under the Frenchman Pierre Landais, fired three broadsides into Richard.  Landais later stated that he wanted to help Serapis sink Richard, then capture the British frigate.   Even though his ship had begun to sink, Jones determined he would not strike his colors.  He used his remaining guns to weaken Serapis' main mast.  It began to tremble, Pearson lost his nerve and decided to strike his colors.  When the battered Bonhomme Richard sank on 25 September, Jones was forced to transfer to Serapis.  For his victory, Congress passed a resolution thanking Jones, and Louis XVI presented him with a sword.

One of Jones' midshipman on board the Bonhomme Richard was Beaumont Groube.  He acquired fame as the "Lieutenant Grub" of chapbooks (comics), supposedly shot by Jones for striking the colors during battle, an action which would have signified the Richard's surrender.

1780

Jones seeks approval of Congress before accepting the Ordre du Mérite Militaire from Louis XVI.

1783-1790

After the Revolutionary War, Commodore John Paul Jones was active in negotiating prize money claims in Paris.

1788

Jones enters the service of the Empress Catherine the Great of Russia as a rear admiral.  He hoped that command of a battle fleet in Russia would qualify him for higher command if and when the United States built a permanent Navy.  Although he successfully commanded the Black Sea Squadron in the Dnieper River, court intrigues forced Jones to leave Russia.

1790

Jones returns to Paris.

1792

John Paul Jones dies on 18 July.

1905

Following an impressive parade, a religious service in Paris and a special train arranged by the French government to the port of Cherbourg, the remains of John Paul Jones were transferred to the USS Brooklyn, flagship of a special naval squadron sent by President Theodore Roosevelt to bring Jones home to his "country of fond election" and to the nation for which he immeasurably helped gain independence.  On July 24, 1905, the naval tug Standish carried the casket ashore at Annapolis, Md., for placement in a temporary vault across the street from the new U.S. Naval Academy Chapel, which was under construction.

1906

On April 24, elaborate and impressive ceremonies in commemoration of John Paul Jones are held in Dahlgren Hall, the new Naval Academy armory.  President Roosevelt, Ambassador Porter, Admiral George Dewey, and many other dignitaries attend the ceremonies.  France sends an entire naval fleet up the Chesapeake Bay to mark the occasion.  Afterwards the casket of John Paul Jones is placed in the Academy's Bancroft Hall to await completion of his permanent tomb, in the new Naval Academy Chapel.

1913

Jones is laid to rest on 26 January in Annapolis in the Naval Academy Chapel crypt.   Set in brass in the marble floor at the head of the sarcophagus is the inscription: " JOHN PAUL JONES, 1747-1792, U.S. NAVY, 1775-1783.  HE GAVE OUR NAVY ITS EARLIEST TRADITIONS OF HEROISM AND VICTORY. ERECTED BY THE CONGRESS, A.D. 1912"