PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) — The U.S. Navy is hosting a memorial on Friday for Russian sailors buried more than a century ago in a naval cemetery.

The Navy says the Russians were part of an official delegation that sailed to Hampton Roads in 1877. Six of the Russian ship’s sailors died of typhus.

They were buried in a naval cemetery in Portsmouth. January marks the 140th anniversary of the event.

Their graves are found among those of other sailors belonging to ships of other countries. For instance, three Spanish sailors who died during the Spanish-American War were buried there in 1898.