Chronology of Independence

1763 Feb. 10. After nine years of intermittent fighting along American borders, French and Indian War ends. France cedes all claims on Canada to Britain, as well as Louisiana territories east of the Mississippi. Victorious Britain nonetheless has added -L- 100 million to its national debt.

1765 March 22. British Parliament, hoping to raise -L-60,000 per year, passes Stamp Act requiring payment for revenue stamps on all newspapers, pamphlets, almanacs, legal documents, playing cards and dice. Sons of Liberty clubs formed in Boston and elsewhere to resist Stamp Act.

Cct 7-25. Delegates from nine colonies meet as Stamp Act Congress in New York City, protesting against taxation without representation, and resolve not to import any goods that require payment of duty.

1766 March 18. Stamp Act repealed.

1767 June 29. Townshend Revenue Act (named after Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend) requires colonists to pay import duties on tea, glass, paints, oil, lead and paper. Expected revenue: -L-40,000 per year.

1768 Feb. 11. Massachusetts legislature asks other colonies to join in resisting Townshend duties. British threaten to dissolve any legislature that answers call. On May 16, 1769, Virginia House of Burgesses issues resolutions rejecting Parliament's right to tax colonies. Virginia Governor dissolves Burgesses, but members meet privately to declare boycott on dutiable goods.

1770 March 5. Confrontation between Boston waterfront crowd and British soldiers. Five in crowd are killed. Samuel Adams, Paul Revere and other patriotic radicals denounce the troops for "Massacre."

April 12. Townshend Act repealed, except for tax on tea, symbolic of Parliament's insistence on right to impose taxes.

1773 May 10. King approves Tea Act to save the East India Company from bankruptcy. New law authorizes reimbursement of English duty paid on company's tea shipments to America, thus allowing company to undersell many American tea merchants.

Dec. 16. Boston radicals stage "Tea Party" by dressing up as Indians, boarding British ships and throwing 342 chests of tea overboard.

1774 March 31. King approves first of parliamentary reprisals known as "Intolerable Acts." To punish Boston for Tea Party, the port is to be closed until colonial authorities pay -L- 18,000 for destroyed tea. Later measures include ban on any public meetings without Governor's approval and a requirement that British troops be housed in private dwellings wherever necessary. May 17. Rhode Island issues first call for a colonial Congress, soon echoed by Pennsylvania and New York. Sept 5. First Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia for nearly two months and issues a declaration of ten "rights," including "life, liberty and property," and "a right peaceably to assemble ... and petition the King."

1775 March 23. Patrick Henry, Virginia's foremost orator, denounces British rule by declaring, "Give me liberty or give me death!"

April 18-19. British send force of 700 regulars out from Boston to seize arms cache in Concord. Clash with Minutemen on Lexington Green, then are turned back at Concord's North Bridge. Estimated casualties: American, 95; British, 272.

May 10. Colonel Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys attack Fort Ticonderoga and seize gateway to Lake Champlain and water route to Canada. May 10. Second Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia. May 18. Congress urges colonies to put their militia in state of preparedness. June 15. Congress appoints George Washington commander of Continental troops.

June 17. Colonial forces driven from Breed's hill, near Boston's Bunker hill, but inflict casualties of 1,150. Aug. 23. George III proclaims Americans have "proceeded to open and avowed Rebellion."

Oct 13. Congress authorizes acquisition of first Continental naval warships.

Dec. 31-Jan. 1. American General Richard Montgomery and Colonel Benedict Arnold join in attack on Quebec and are routed. Montgomery killed.

1776 Jan. 1. British forces burn Virginia port of Norfolk.

Jan. 10. Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense, first important demand for complete independence. March 17. British General Sir William Howe evacuates besieged Boston and sails for Halifax to await reinforcements.

March 26. South Carolina creates its own constitution, foreshadowing independent governments in colonies. May 15. Congress recommends that all colonies establish their own governments "sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs."

June 7. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia offers Congress a resolution that the Colonies "are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." Resolution is generally opposed, but Congress resolves to try again.

June 11. Thomas Jefferson elected to committee to produce a Declaration of Independence, and soon starts writing a draft.

July 1. "Preliminary" vote approves Lee's resolution by 9 to 2 with 1 abstention (and Delaware unable to break its tie).

July 2. Independence voted by 12 to 0 (New York still abstaining). July 4. Declaration of Independence approved "without one dissenting colony," signed by Congress President John Hancock and ordered "proclaimed in each of the united states."

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