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Stamp Act
Parliament passes the Stamp Act, a 25-page document that levies new taxes on court and customs documents, financial papers, playing cards, dice, pamphlets, newspapers, newspaper advertisements, almanacs, and more. -
Townshend Act
Townshend Acts, 1767, originated by Charles Townshend and passed by the English Parliament shortly after the repeal of the Stamp Act. They were designed to collect revenue from the colonists in America by putting customs duties on imports of glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea. -
Boston Massacre
A group of Bostonians—armed with snowballs—harass some British troops in the city. The altercation escalates until the troops shoot five of the men dead, including Crispus Attucks, a runaway slave of mixed African, Indian, and white ancestry who had been working as a sailor. The attack generates outrage among the colonists, who come to call it the Boston Massacre. -
Tea Act
Parliament passes the Tea Act, which will later spark a rebellion in Boston. This Act does not actually impose any new taxes, but seeks to save the East India Company by shipping its tea surplus to the colonies, where it will be sold at discounted prices. But the colonists think that it is a strategy to bolster support for the detested Townshend Duties, and they recognize that direct sale of tea by British agents will only hurt local merchants' business. -
Tea Act
Parliament passes the Tea Act, which will later spark a rebellion in Boston. This Act does not actually impose any new taxes, but seeks to save the East India Company by shipping its tea surplus to the colonies, where it will be sold at discounted prices. But the colonists think that it is a strategy to bolster support for the detested Townshend Duties, and they recognize that direct sale of tea by British agents will only hurt local merchants' business. -
Boston Tea Party
In a dramatic demonstration that the colonists will not submit to Parliament or British monopolies for the sake of cheap tea, a group of Patriots dressed as Mohawk Indians stage the Boston Tea Party after dark. They took all of the tea and dumped it into the Boston harbor. -
Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts were passed after the Boston Tea Party. They stripped Massachusetts of self-government and historic rights, which in return triggered resistance in all of the thirteen colonies. -
First Continental Congress
Fifty-five members representing every colony but Georgia assemble in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress. Peyton Randolph, a Virginian, is elected president. The Congress agrees to vote by colony, although Patrick Henry objects because he argues that members should vote not as New Yorkers or Virginians but as Americans. The Congress is not formed in order to revolt or to govern, but to act as a convention of ambassadors who will adopt resolutions and protests. -
Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. They were fought on April 19, 1775, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy, and Cambridge, near Boston. This ignited the fight between England and the colonies. -
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress convenes at Philadelphia. The British now control Boston and the Massachusetts militia are laying siege to the town. The Congress has no choice but to assume the role of a revolutionary government, though it has no resources. -
Publishing of "Common Sense"
Thirty-nine-year-old Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet, Common Sense, advocating independence for America and an immediate end to all ties with Britain. The pamphlet sells thousands of copies in its first days of publication, emerging just as colonists learn of King George III's speech declaring the American Colonies to be in rebellion against the Crown.
