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March 5. British troops open fire into a crowd in Boston, Massachusetts killing five citizens. Patriots label the killings the "Boston Massacre". Eight British soldiers and their commanding officer were tried for murder and were defended by Josiah Quincy and John Adams, later president of the United States. Two of the soldiers were declared guilty of manslaughter, and the others, including the officer, were acquitted. The incident was skillfully exploited by the American patriot Samuel Adams to create anti-British sentiment in the colonies. After the incident the patriots of Massachusetts Bay were more and more agitated by the soldiers. They weren't going to take much more.
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May 16. Governor Tryon, British-appointed Governor of [North] Carolina, and his colonial militia engage colonial Regulators — a militia group formed to prevent the collection of "illegal taxes and exhorbitant fees extorted by royal officials." The battle near the fork of the Alamance and Haw Rivers leaves nine Regulators and 27 royal militia dead on the field. Lack of leadership and discipline lead to the defeat of the Regulator militia and subsequent hangings of captured leaders. The event is proclaimed as "the first blood shed in the Revolution."
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June 9.
HMS Gaspee, an armed British navy schooner sent to Rhode Island to assist the tax collectors in stamping out smuggling and illicit trade, runs aground in pursuit of a colonial sloop who failed to "heave to" and be inspected. Later that night a group of colonial patriots boards the ship, removes the crew, and sets fire to Gaspee . In the melee the Gaspee's captain, Lt. Dudingston is shot and killed. Although the attackers included many prominent merchants, lawyers, and sea captains of Rhode Island, the people of Rhode Island successfully kept the identity of the attackers secret from the English until after the end of the Revolutionary War.
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December 16. In an event that became popularized as the "Boston Tea Party", Massachusetts patriots react to the Tea Tax of 1773 by dumping crates of tea into Boston Harbor.
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April 18. During the night British begin a march on Lexington and Concord to destroy military supplies being gathered and stored by American activists. Paul Revere and William Dawes execute their famous ride to spread the alarm prompting American patriots to rally in what turns out to be the first armed military confrontation of the war. At Lexington Green, American Minutemen confront British soldiers and suffer 8 killed and 10 wounded before the British move on to Concord.
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May 10. Colonel Benedict Arnold and Colonel Ethan Allen lead a force of 83 men in capturing Fort Ticonderoga.
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December 25. The American Revolutionary effort near extinction, George Washington turns the tide of the Revolution by leading his ill-equipped army of 2000 fledgling volunteers in a crossing of the Delaware River against 1200 well-trained, well-equipped German Mercenary Hessian troops in Trenton, New Jersey. Not one of the Revolutionary troops was injured in the attack, though the fear had been that they could be slaughtered if the Hessians knew they were coming.
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October 17. The defeat of General John Burgoyne's British army at the Battle of Saratoga proves to be the turning point in the Americans' War of Independence.
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February. General Friedrich von Steuben joins General George Washington's army at its winter camp at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Von Steuben begins the transformation of Washington's men from a sickness-plagued, ill-trained corps into a well-disciplined American Continental Army.
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September 23. American naval Captain John Paul Jones engages a British fleet off Famborough Head, England. In leading the aged and ill-equipped Bon Homme Richard to victory over one of the newer and more powerful ships in the British fleet, the HMS Serapis, Jones establishes himself as the American naval legend now acknowledged as the "Father of the U.S. Navy."
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August 16. Lord Charles Cornwalis, General of the British Southern Army soundly defeats his American counterpart, General Horatio Gates, at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina.
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September 25. In an act that has made his name synonymous with treason in American history, General Benedict Arnold consipired to turn his command of West Point, New York over to the British. His treason is discovered but not before he makes good his escape.
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January 17. Americans defeat British forces at the Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina. Cornwalis begins advance through North Carolina soonafter.
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March 15. Battle of Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. The Americans inflict heavy losses on Cornwalis' army. The British quit the Carolinas and head for Yorktown, Virginia to resupply.
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October 19. The surrender of the British at Yorktown, Virginia, virtually ends the Revolutionary War.
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March. A war-weary British House of Commons declares that it "would consider as enemies to his Majesty and the Country all those who should advise or… attempt the further prosecution of offensive war on the Continent of North America." Peace commissioners were appointed to both sides to begin negotiating an end to the conflict.
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September 3. England comes to terms with America, France, and Spain and a formal treaty of peace was signed on September 3, 1783. Eight long, bitter years after a ragged volley was fired on Lexington Green, the war is officially over.
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