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| 1775–83 |
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| WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. | 1 |
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| 1775, April 19 |
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| Battles of Lexington and Concord. British troops detailed to destroy stores at Concord became embroiled with provincials at Lexington. Proceeding to Concord, the troops destroyed stores but after the fight at the bridge were forced to retreat, first to Lexington, then to Boston. | 2 |
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| May 10–12 |
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| Ticonderoga captured by Ethan Allen and Crown Point captured by Seth Warner. | 3 |
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| May 10 |
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| The Second Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia. | 4 |
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| May 31 |
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| Troops in the vicinity of Boston were adopted as the Continental Army. | 5 |
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| June 15 |
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| George Washington (1732–99) appointed commander in chief of the forces. The Continental Army recruited most of its members from the ranks of young poor, working-class white men; slaves; free blacks; and some women, who served as cooks, nurses, laundresses, and sometimes as gravediggers. For their part, Native Americans feared the expansion of American colonists deeper into their lands and sided with the British, although the Oneidas and Tuscaroras did aid the revolutionaries. | 6 |
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| June 17 |
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| Battle of Bunker Hill, opposite Boston. Americans driven from entrenchments but only after inflicting great losses on the British. | 7 |
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