The American Revolution: A Timeline of Events—The Complete Idiot’s Quick Guide

The American Revolution: A Timeline of Events

In This Quick Guide:: 1764; 1765; 1766; 1767; 1768; 1769; 1770; 1772; 1773; 1774; 1775; 1776; 1777; 1778; 1779; 1780; 1781; 1783

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The events before, during, and after the American Revolution are some of the most important in our nation’s history. To understand how the Revolution came about, played out, and was resolved, here is a year-by-year timeline of the key events from 1764 to 1783.

1764

Sugar Act—First law aimed at raising colonial money for the Crown.
Currency Act—Prohibited colonies from issuing their own currency.
First protests against “Taxation without representation.”
Non-Importation boycott against British goods.

1765

Quartering Act—Required colonies to provide barracks and supplies for British troops.
Stamp Act—First direct tax on the American colonies.
Colonial protest becomes highly organized; Sons of Liberty created.
Intimidated by colonial activists, royal stamp agents resign.
The Stamp Act Congress is formed; passes a “Declaration of Rights and Grievances” to protest taxation without representation.
Non-Importation boycott intensifies.

1766

Repeal of the Stamp Act; colonies end the boycott.
Declaratory Act—Affirms Parliament’s right to make laws binding the American colonies.

1767

Townshend Acts—Taxes levied on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea.
Non-Importation boycott is resumed.
John Dickinson publishes Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies, asserting that Parliament has no right to tax the colonies.

1768

Massachusetts Circular Letter—Samuel Adams’s argument against taxation without representation is circulated, calling for unified resistance by all the colonies.
Royal governor of Massachusetts dissolves the colonial legislature.
British troops arrive in Boston.

1769

Virginia House of Burgesses passes resolutions condemning Britain’s actions against Massachusetts; asserts that only Virginia’s governor and legislature may tax its citizens.
Virginia legislature is ordered dissolved.

1770

Townshend taxes repealed, except for the tax on tea.
The colonies again stop the boycott.
“Battle” of Golden Hill—Clash between citizens and British troops in New York City.
March 5: Boston Massacre—Violence breaks out between soldiers and a Boston mob; three Americans die, and two are fatally wounded.

1772

The Gaspée Affair—Attack on a grounded British customs schooner near Providence, Rhode Island.
Samuel Adams calls for a Boston town meeting to create committees of correspondence to communicate Boston’s position to the other colonies; such committees spring up throughout the colonies.

1773

Tea Act—Reduces taxes on imported British tea only, thereby giving British merchants an effective monopoly on tea, to the detriment of American merchants.
December 16: Boston Tea Party—A group of Patriots disguised as Indians board tea ships in Boston harbor and dump the cargo.

1774

Coercive Acts—In response to the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passes laws to punish Massachusetts: the Boston Port Bill closes Boston to trade; the Administration of Justice Act effectively makes Crown officials immune from prosecution; the Massachusetts Government Act puts the election of most government officials under Crown control; the Quartering Act broadens the Quartering Act (1765), allowing for the quartering of troops in occupied private dwellings.
September 5: The First Continental Congress meets to organize resistance to British tyranny.
British troops begin to fortify Boston, and seize ammunition belonging to Massachusetts.
Massachusetts creates a Provincial Congress and a Committee of Safety.

1775

New England Restraining Act—Bans trade between the New England colonies and any other nation besides Great Britain.
April 19: Battles of Lexington and Concord
May 10: Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia—John Hancock elected President of the Congress.
June 10: Continental army is created.
June 15: George Washington is named to command the Continental army.
June 17: Battle of Bunker Hill
Olive Branch Petition—Congress attempts reconciliation with George III; the king rejects the petition and declares the colonies in rebellion.
Congress creates a navy and authorizes privateering.
Congress initiates a search for foreign aid.
Congress authorizes an attack on Canada, led by Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold. Montreal is briefly captured, and Quebec City is unsuccessfully besieged.

1776

Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense, an eloquent, persuasive justification for revolution.
March: The British evacuate Boston after an American siege.
July 4: Congress declares Independence.
August 27: Battle of Long Island
October: Washington withdraws from Manhattan.
Congress sends Silas Deane, Benjamin Franklin, and Arthur Lee to negotiate treaties of commerce and friendship with foreign nations.
October 28: Battle of White Plains
Washington retreats through New Jersey, crossing the Delaware River into Pennsylvania.
December 26: Battle of Trenton—Washington crosses the Delaware into New Jersey to defeat the Hessians.

1777

January 3: Battle of Princeton—Most of New Jersey is cleared of British forces.
June 14—Congress authorizes a national flag.
September 11: Battle of Brandywine—Washington is defeated.
September 26: British occupy Philadelphia.
October 4: Battle of Germantown—Washington counterattacks—and loses.
The Continental army encamps at Valley Forge, beginning a winter of near starvation.
Saratoga Campaign: Battle of Freeman’s Farm, September 19, and Bemis Heights, October 7; Burgoyne surrenders his army, October 17.
November 15: Articles of Confederation adopted by Congress (ratified by the states, March 1, 1781).

1778

May 4: Franco-American alliance ratified by Congress.
John Paul Jones’s victorious exploits at sea, April 1778-1780.
June 28: Battle of Monmouth—Tactically a draw but a moral victory for the Americans.
Joseph Brant leads Indian raids against the New York frontier, 1778-1781.