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march 22,1765:The stamp act
The stamp act was imposed to provide increased revenues to meet the cost of defending the enlarged British Empire.it was the first British parliamentary attempt to raise revenue through direct taxation on a wide variety of colonial transactions,including legal writs, newspaper advertisements,and ships' bills of lading. enraged colonists nullified the Stamp act through outright refusal to use stamps as well as by riots,stamp burning, and intimidation of colonial stamp distributors. -
march 5,1770:Boston massacre
In Boston ,a small British army detachment that was threatened by mob harassment opened fire and killed five people,an incident soon known as the Boston Massacre .The soldiers were charged with murder and were given a civilian trial, in which John Adams conducted a successful defense. -
December 16,1773:Boston tea party
protesting both a tax on tea (taxation without representation) and the perceived monopoly of the East india Company, a party of bostonians thinly disguised as mohawk people boarded ships at anchor and dumped some E10,000 worth of tea into the harbor,an event popularly known as the Boston tea party. -
September 5,1774:Continental congress convenes
Called by the Committees of Correspondence in response to the intolerable Acts,the first continental Congress convened in Philadelphia .Fifty-six delegates represented all the colonies except Georgia. -
March 23, 1775: Patrick's Henry "give me liberty or give me death" speech
Convinced that war with Great Britain was inevitable, Virginian Patrick Henry deafened strong resolutions for equipping the Virginia militia to fight against the British in a fiery speech in a Richmond church with the famous words,"i know not what course may take,but as for me give me liberty or give me death"!