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1764 | April - Sugar Act passed by Parliament to offset expenses of the French and Indian War |
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1764 | May - James Otis raises the issue of taxation without representation in a Boston town meeting. |
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1764 | July - James Otis publishes The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved |
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1764 | August - Boston merchants begin to boycott British luxury goods |
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1765 | 22 March - Parliament passes The Stamp Act as a means to pay for British troops on the American frontier |
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1765 | 22 May - Virginia's Resolutions |
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1765 | 6 June - The Massachusetts House of Representatives resolves to propose an intercolonial meeting to resist the Stamp Act |
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1765 | 19 October - The Stamp Act Congress meets in New York |
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1766 | 18 March - Stamp Act repealed, but the Declaratory Act is passed (asserting Britain's right to make laws binding on the colonies) |
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1767 | The Townshend Duties go into effect |
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1767 | The colonists protest the Townshend Duties with a Non-Importation Agreement |
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1768 | February - Massachusetts Assembly sends a circular letter to other colonies explaining the common plight |
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1768 | June - In Boston, the Sloop "Liberty" (owned by John Hancock) is seized by customs officials for Revenue Law violations |
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1768 | October - British troops arrive in Boston to enforce customs laws |
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1770 | Townshend Acts repealed except the tax on tea, end to Non-Importation Agreement |
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1770 | 05 March - "The Boston Massacre" |
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1771 | Battle of Alamance |
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1772 | Attack on the "Gaspee" |
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1772 | Sam Adams urges the Boston Town Meeting to set up the "Committee of Correspondence" |
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1773 | 5 November - Boston Town Meeting Resolutions against the Tea Act |
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1773 | 16 December - Boston Tea Party |
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1774 | January - Privy Council reprimands Benjamin Franklin in London for leaking letters damaging to the Royal Governor of Mass. |
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1774 | May/June - Coercive Acts are passed by Parliament |
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1774 | Boston Port closed by Parliament until the destroyed tea was paid for by those responsible |
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1774 | 2 June - Parliament passes the Quartering Act |
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1774 | September - First Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia |
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1774 | September - Siege of Boston |
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1774 | October - General Gage dissolves the Massachusetts General Court |
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1774 | Massachusetts Provincial Congress votes to recruit 12,000 men for a militia, and purchases muskets and bayonets |
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1775 | March/April General Gage orders his troops on a practice march around Boston, Massachusetts Provincial Congress at Concord adopts fifty-three articles of war against the British army |
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1775 | 19 April - Shots fired at Lexington and Concord, "Minute Men" force British troops back to Boston, Paul Revere's famous Midnight Ride |
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1775 | 5 May - The Second Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia |
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1775 | 10 May - Fort Ticonaroga captured by Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen |
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1775 | 15 May - Congress votes to go to war with Britain |
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1775 | 15 June - George Washington takes command of the Continental Army |
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1775 | 17 June - British victory at Battle of Bunker Hill |
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1775 | 17 June - Charlestown, Massachusetts is burned down by the British, Battle of Bunker Hill |
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1775 | Olive Branch Petition
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1775 | Congress Creates a Navy |
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1775 | August - American invasion of Canada begins |
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1775 | 23 August - King George III issues the Proclamation of Rebellion |
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1775 | November - Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, offers freedom to all slaves who would fight for the British |
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1775 | 7 November - Lord Dunmore declares Martial Law |
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1775 | Virginians defeat British at Great Bridge; British bombard Norfolk |
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1776 | January - Thomas Paine's Common Sense published |
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1776 | 27 February - Patriots defeated the Loyalists at Moore's Creek Bridge |
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1776 | 7 March - British evacuate Boston after John Thomas and troops occupy the city during the night of March 4-5 |
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1776 | March/May France and Spain secretly provide support to American colonists through fictitious companies |
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1776 | 12 June - Virginia Declaration of Rights adopted by the Virginia Convention |
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1776 | 4 July - Declaration of Independence ratified by the Congress |
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1776 | July - Large British force arrives in New York harbour bent on crushing the rebellion |
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1776 | 27 August - Continental Army routed at Long Island, New York. |
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1776 | 11 September - William and Richard Howe meet with Congressional representatives to no effect
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1776 | 15 September - British occupy New York City (The Battles of New York and Harlem Heights) |
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1776 | 22 September - American spy Nathan Hale is executed in New York City |
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1776 | 11-13 October - The Battle of Valcour Island |
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1776 | 28 October - The Battle of White Plains |
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1776 | 14 December - Geary's Dragoons ambushed between the small villages of Flemings-Town (Flemington) and Ringoes |
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1776 | 26 December - Battle of Trenton, New Jersey |
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1776 | December - Benjamin Franklin is sent by Congress to France to seek French aid |
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1777 | 3 January - Washington's troops gain a victory at The Battle of Princeton |
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1777 | 20 January - The Battle of Millstone, New Jersey |
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1777 | 27 February - Battle of Moores Creek Bridge |
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1777 | 25 April - Danbury, Connecticut destroyed by British forces led by General Tryon |
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1777 | 28 June - Battle of Fort Moultrie |
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1777 | 5 July - Burgoyne's invasion from Canada begins |
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1777 | The Marquis de Lafayette arrives in America |
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1777 | 7 July - Battle of Hubbardtown |
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1777 | August - Battles of Fort Stanwix and Oriskaney |
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1777 | 16 August - Battle of Bennington, Vermont |
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1777 | 11 September - Washington defeated at Brandywine |
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1777 | 16 September - The Paoli Massacre |
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1777 | 19 September - Battle of Freeman's Farm |
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1777 | 26 September - British Occupy Philadelphia |
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1777 | 4 October - Battle at Germantown |
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1777 | 7 October - Battle of Bemis Heights |
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1777 | 19 October - Battle of Saratoga, General Burgoyne surrenders to General Horatio Gates |
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1777 | October/November - Battles of Forts Mercer and Mifflin |
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1777 | 19 December - Washington's army retires to winter quarters at Valley Forge |
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1778 | February - France signs a treaty of alliance with the United States |
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1778 | 12 April - Earl of Carlisle leads an unsuccessful commission to make peace with the United States |
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1778 | 8 May - Sir Henry Clinton replaces William Howe as Commander-in-Chief of the British forces |
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1778 | 12 May - General Benjamin Lincoln surrenders Charlestown, South Carolina |
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1778 | 18 June - British evacuate Philadelphia and move across New Jersey towards New York |
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1778 | 28 June - Battle of Monmouth Courthouse |
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1778 | July/August - French and American troops mount a joint operation against the British garrison in Newport, Rhode Island |
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1778 | 31 August - Troops, under Sullivan and the Marquis de Lafayette, withdraw as Clinton sends men and ships to Rhode Island |
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1778 | 29 December - Clinton decided to attack the South, Howe captures Savannah |
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1779 | 3 March - British victors at Briar Creek, Virginia |
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1779 | 10 May - British capture and set fire to Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia |
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1779 | May - Clinton seizes American forts at Stony Point and Verplanek's Point |
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1779 | 21 June - Spain enters the American colonist's war against Great Britain |
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1779 | July - American forces recapture Stony Point |
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1779 | 14 August - Congress proposes terms of peace with the British, John Adams named negotiator |
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1779 | September/October - French fleet and American troops unsuccessfully try to capture Savannah, Georgia |
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1780 | February - British attack Charleston, South Carolina |
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1780 | 12 May - Charleston, South Carolina falls |
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1780 | 11 July - Rochambeau lands in Newport, Rhode Island with naval fleet and 5,000 French troops |
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1780 | July - Benedict Arnold writes coded letters to John André, in which he provides the British with key military information |
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1780 | 16 August - Gates defeated by Cornwallis at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina |
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1780 | 21 September - Benedict Arnold met with John André to inform the British about the weak points of West Point |
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1780 | 2 October - John André is hanged as a British spy |
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1780 | 7 October - Battle of Kings Mountain |
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1781 | 1 January - Pennsylvania Line mutiny |
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1781 | French Admiral deGrasse arrives with his powerful French fleet in American waters |
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1781 | 17 January - Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina |
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1781 | 1 March - Articles of the Confederation ratified |
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1781 | 15 March - Battle of Guilford Courthouse |
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1781 | 25 April - Battle of Hobkirk's Hill |
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1781 | 21 May - Washington and Comte de Rochambeau agreed to attack New York jointly |
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1781 | May/June - Siege of 96 |
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1781 | 5 July - Rochambeau's French troops join Washington's troops above New York |
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1781 | General Nathaniel Greene pacifies the interior of South Carolina and Georgia by driving out the British forces |
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1781 | 6 September - Benedict Arnold and his troops attack and destroy parts of New London, Connecticut |
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1781 | 8 September - Battle of Eutaw Springs |
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1781 | 28 September - Siege of Yorktown begins |
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1781 | 19 October -General Cornwallis signs the surrender papers, ending the last major battle of the Revolutionary War |
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1782 | 30 November - Americans and British sign a Provisional peace treaty in Paris |
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1783 | 20 January - Effective date of articles of peace between Britain and France and Britain and Spain |
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1783 | 4 February - Britain proclaimed a cessation of hostilities and a general armistice was finally made |
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1783 | 15 March - Newburgh Conspiracy |
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1783 | 20 March - Lord Rockingham replaces Lord North as prime minister of Great Britain and begins peace negotiations with America |
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1783 | 4 April - Carleton arrives in America to succeed Clinton as British commander |
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1783 | June - Most of the Continental Army disbands |
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1783 | 3 September - The Paris Peace Treaty officially ends the American Revolution |
