President:
Pres: (Continental Congress) Henry Middleton
Pres: (Continental Congress) Peyton Randolph
Pres: (Continental Congress) John Hancock
General
- Abolition: "Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage" founded by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush
Blacks fighting in North offered freedom
- Americana: Patrick Henry's "Liberty or Death" written
Paul Revere's ride
- Medicine: Flu outbreak worldwide and unknown plague in North America
- Military: US declares war to 1783
Black minutemen fight
George Washington made commander of US troops
British victory at Bunker (Breeds) Hill
Benedict Arnold's attack on Quebec fails
- Politics: Second Continental Congress meets
Olive Branch Petition final petition for peace between Colonists and British - they refuse
Coxsackie declaration of independence signed,
East
- Massachusetts: Ride of Paul Revere
British defeat at Lexington - first violent clash
Brits and General Gage go to seize ammo at Concord
- New York: Americans take Fort Ticonderoga at Crown Point
- Pennsylvania: Quakers create abolition society
Second Continental Congress meets
South
- Kentucky: Daniel Boone leads trip through Cumberland Gap to KY
- North Carolina: Hurricane destroys corn crop, wipes out city
West and Pacific
- General: Bruno Heceta discovers Columbia River