April 14 - American Revolutionary War: Massachusetts Governor Gage is secretly ordered by the British to enforce the Coercive Acts and suppress open rebellion by an iron hand.
April 18 - American Revolutionary War: General Gage orders 700 troops to Concord to destroy the rebels' weapons depot.
April 18 - American Revolutionary War: Paul Revere makes his famous midnight ride - "Listen my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere on the eighteenth of April, in seventy-five; hardly a man is now alive who remembers that famous day and year" (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).
April 19 - American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Lexington and Concord begins at dawn with a volley on 70 armed Massachusetts militiamen on Lexington Green by the British advance guard, which leaves 8 dead and 10 wounded - "the shot heard around the world".
May 10 - American Revolutionary War: The Continental Congress meets, elects John Hancock president, raises the Continental army under George Washington as commander and authorizes the colonies to adopt their own constitutions.
June 17 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Bunker Hill - The British forces take Bunker Hill outside of Boston. The patriots are ordered not to fire until they can see "the whites of their eyes".
July 3 - American Revolutionary War: George Washington takes command of the 17,000-man Continental Army at Cambridge.
August 23 - American Revolutionary War: Refusing to even look at the Olive Branch Petition, King George issues a Declaration of Rebellion against the American colonies.
November 10 - American Revolutionary War: The Continental Congress passes a resolution creating the Continental Marines (later renamed the United States Marine Corps) to serve as landing troops for the recently created Continental Navy (the Marines were disbanded at end of war in April of 1783 but were reformed on July 11, 1798).