Boston Massacre

On March 5, 1770, a confrontation on King Street in Boston turned deadly when nine British soldiers fired into a hostile crowd outside the Custom House. Tensions had been rising for months under the British military occupation and enforcement of unpopular measures such as the Townshend Acts. The shooting killed five colonists, including Crispus Attucks, and injured others, becoming a major prelude to the American Revolution. Its aftermath also proved crucial: soldiers were tried for murder with John Adams as defense counsel, most were acquitted, and the episode was widely publicized by Patriots as a symbol of British oppression that deepened colonial resistance.

Cambridge, Massachusetts · United States