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First shot
On the night of April 18, 1775, hundreds of British troops marched from Boston to nearby Concord in order to seize an arms cache. Paul Revere and other riders sounded the alarm, and colonial militiamen began mobilizing to intercept the Redcoat column. A confrontation on the Lexington town green started off the fighting, and soon the British were hastily retreating under intense fire. -
Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense
Thomas Paine has a claim to the title The Father of the American Revolution because of Common Sense, the pro-independence monograph pamphlet he anonymously published on January 10, 1776; signed "Written by an Englishman", the pamphlet became an immediate success -
The Declaration of Independence was signed
On this day in 1776, members of Congress affix their signatures to an enlarged copy of the Declaration of Independence. -
The British burn New York City
George Washington and other officers in the Revolutionary army had decided that the city would be difficult to defend against the overwhelming British force. Some of Washington�s advisors suggested burning New York City so that the British would gain little from its capture. -
Battle of Trenton
General George Washington’s army crossed the icy Delaware on Christmas Day 1776 and, over the course of the next 10 days, won two crucial battles of the American Revolution. In the Battle of Trenton (December 26), Washington defeated a formidable garrison of Hessian mercenaries before withdrawing. A week later he returned to Trenton to lure British forces south, then executed a daring night march to capture Princeton on January 3. The victories reasserted American control of much of New Jersey a -
Flag Resolution
On this day in 1777, during the American Revolution, the Continental Congress adopts a resolution stating that "the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate stripes red and white" and that "the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation." -
Paoli Massacre, PA
General Charles Grey and nearly 5,000 British soldiers launch a surprise attack on a small regiment of Patriot troops commanded by General Anthony Wayne in what becomes known as the Paoli Massacre. Not wanting to lose the element of surprise, Grey ordered his troops to empty their muskets and to use only bayonets or swords to attack the sleeping Americans under the cover of darkness. -
The terrible winter at Valley Forge
In December, Washington marched his tired, beaten, hungry and sick army to VALLEY FORGE, a location about 20 miles northwest of British-occupied Philadelphia. -
Battle of Saratoga
The Battles of Saratoga was marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War. -
Battle of Monmouth
Visitors to the Monmouth Battlefield State Park in Freehold, New Jersey, can witness a battle re-enactment that recalls the hot summer day of June 28, 1778, when the American and British forces clashed under the direction of Continental Army General George Washington and British General Sir Henry Clinton. -
Battle of Vincennes
George Rogers Clark [American] won this battle over British Forces. George Clark was not a soldier, or even in the army. He was a frontiersman sent by Virginia to obtain land northwest of the Ohio River. Vincennes took place in what is today Vincennes, Indiana, south of Kokomo. -
Bonhomme Richard v Serapis
American naval victory, won off the east coast of England by Captain John Paul Jones. Challenged by a large combined French and Spanish fleet, the British Navy was too preoccupied to prevent American interference with its merchant marine in the Atlantic. Operating from French bases, Jones led a small fleet around the British Isles -
Battle of Yorktown
On this day in 1781, General George Washington, commanding a force of 17,000 French and Continental troops, begins the siege known as the Battle of Yorktown against British General Lord Charles Cornwallis and a contingent of 9,000 British troops at Yorktown, Virginia, in the most important battle of the Revolutionary War. -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris of 1783, negotiated between the United States and Great Britain, ended the revolutionary war and recognized American independence. The Continental Congress named a five-member commission to negotiate a treaty–John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, and Henry Laurens. -
Washington resigns as Commander in Chief
George Washington willingly resigns from his duty as Commander and Cheif on December 23, 1783
