 world the breaking of ties between the old colony and Britain. The Liberty Bell was cast to signal the Independence of the USA and was rung from the tower of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, calling citizens to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. The bell has cracked and is no longer rung but remains a tourist attraction. Firework displays on 4 July symbolise the Revolutionary war that began in 1776.
28/6/1776, The British were repulsed at Charleston.
15/5/1776, Virginia declared independence from the British Empire and adopted George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights, which was then included in a new constitution.
17/3/1776. George Washington forced British troops to withdraw from Boston, Massachusetts.
31/12/1775, An American attack on Quebec failed.
10/11/1775. The US Marine Corps was founded.
18/10/1775, The British bombarded Falmouth, now called Portland, Maine.
13/10/1775, The Continental Congress established an American Navy, ‘Two swift sailing vessels’.
23/8/1775. George III rejected an offer of peace, saying the Americans were in open rebellion against the Crown.
26/6/1775. George Washington of Virginia arrived at Boston to take command of the American Army.
17/6/1775. British troops under Lord Howe defeated the rebel American colonists at Bunker Hill, near Boston, but suffered heavy losses themselves. The battle was actually fought on nearby Breeds Hill.
14/6/1775, In the USA, the Second Continental Congress authorised the enlistment of ten companies of citizen soldiers; the beginning of the US Army.
12/6/1775. General Gage imposed martial law, declared all armed colonists traitors, and offered pardons to those who swore allegiance to the Crown.
20/5/1775. Charlotte in North Carolina was the first place to declare Independence from Britain, the Mecklenburg Declaration.
10/5/1775, Fort Ticonderooga was captured from the British by the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont.
19/4/1775, The Battle of Lexington, the opening engagement of the War of American Independence took place. The British were marching to destroy a colonist’s arms depot near Concorde, Boston but were intercepted at Lexington. The colonists avoided a set battle with the British but harried them, guerrilla-style, from the cover of hills and trees. The British were forced to retreat.
18/4/1775, Paul Revere and William Dawes rode through the night from Charlestown to Lexington to warn the Massachusetts colonists of the arrival of British forces at the start of the War of American Independence.
22/3/1775. Statesman Edmund Burke urged the House of Commons to adopt a policy of reconciliation with the Americans. However on 13/4/1775 Lord North extended the scope of the Restraining Act from New England to cover South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey. The Act forbade trade with any other country except Britain and Ireland and was bitterly resented by the Americans. On 14/4/1775 General Gage was ordered to implement the Coercive Acts and halt the colonial military build-up.
9/2/1775. The UK Parliament declared Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion. On 21/2/1775 Massachusetts voted to buy military equipment for 15,000 men.
26/10/1774. A meeting of colonial leaders at Philadelphia criticised British influence in America and affirmed the American’s right to ‘life, liberty, and property’. Colonists began to step up their boycott of British goods, tarred and feathered traders and burnt their homes, and began to raise militias for a war against Britain.
10/10/1774, The Battle of Point Pleasant. Shawnee Indians were defeated when they attacked frontiersmen on the Ohio River..
5/9/1774, America’s first Continental Congress was convened, at Philadelphia.
13/6/1774, Rhode Island became the first US State to ban the importation of slaves, and to free those already in the State.
2/6/1774. The UK Parliament reactivated the Quartering Act (passed 24/3/1765), requiring that all British colonialists provide housing for British troops.
27/5/1774, American community leaders met unofficially in a tavern and deci