As a taunting mob threw hard-packed snowballs at British soldiers on duty near the customs house, soldiers fired their muskets into the crowd. Crispus Attucks, an African-American, was the first to fall dead. (Follow this link to view the top-middle picture.) Four others died and six people were injured. The captain of the soldiers, Thomas Preston, was arrested for murder as were eight of his men.

In an interesting twist of history, John Adams - an early proponent of American independence and the second President of the United States - successfully defended Preston and six men. Two others, found guilty of manslaughter, were branded before they were released.

Parliament - in another concession to the colonies - ended the Townshend tax for everything except a tax on tea. Failure by the British government to abolish the tea tax led to another famous event: the Boston Tea Party. On the 16th of December, 1773, colonials disguised as Mohawks boarded English ships in Boston Harbor and dumped all 342 containers of tea into the harbor.

Retaliating against ongoing colonial disturbances, Parliament passed a series of Coercive Acts in 1774 (called "Intolerable Acts" by the Americans). One of those Coercive Laws (the Boston Port Bill) effectively ended all commercial shipping in Boston until Massachusetts paid the tax (on the ruined tea) and reimbursed the East India Company (the tea's owner). The colonials, however, had no intention of either paying the taxes or reimbursing the company.

The situation in Boston worsened when a British General - Thomas Gage - took over as Royal Governor of Massachusetts. With four regiments of British troops moving into Boston, rebellion was close at hand.