This Year in History:
1774
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
On March 31, 1774, British Parliament passes the Boston Port Act, closing the port of Boston and demanding that the city’s residents pay for the nearly $1 million worth (in today’s money) of tea dumped into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773. The Boston Port Act was the first and […]
On April 5, 1774, Benjamin Franklin writes an open letter to Great Britain’s prime minister, Frederick, Lord North, from the Smyrna Coffee House in London. It was published in The Public Advertiser, a British newspaper, on April 15, 1774. Franklin’s tongue-in-cheek letter suggested that the British impose martial law upon the colonies and appoint a […]
Upset by the Boston Tea Party and other blatant acts of destruction of British property by American colonists, King George III of England gives his royal consent to three out of four of the Coercive Acts—to the outrage of American Patriots—on May 20, 1774. The Coercive Acts (also known as the Intolerable Acts) were a […]
On June 2, 1774, the British Parliament renews the Quartering Act. The Quartering Act, in conjunction with the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act and the Boston Port Act, were known as the Coercive Acts. News of 342 chests of tea dumped into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773, in what was dubbed […]
Elizabeth Ann Bayley is born in New York City on August 28, 1774. She went on to found the first Catholic school and the first female apostolic community in the United States. She was also the first American-born saint beatified by the Roman Catholic Church. Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born to an eminent physician, Richard […]
In response to the British Parliament’s enactment of the Coercive Acts in the American colonies, the first session of the Continental Congress convenes at Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia. Fifty-six delegates from all the colonies except Georgia drafted a declaration of rights and grievances and elected Virginian Peyton Randolph as the first president of Congress. Patrick […]
On October 20, 1774, the First Continental Congress creates the Continental Association, which calls for a complete ban on all trade between America and Great Britain of all goods, wares or merchandise. The creation of the association was in response to the Coercive Acts—or “Intolerable Acts” as they were known to the colonists—which were established […]
On October 25, 1774, the First Continental Congress sends a respectful petition to King George III to inform his majesty that if it had not been for the acts of oppression forced upon the colonies by the British Parliament, the American people would be standing behind British rule. Despite the anger that the American public […]
