The Boston Tea Party
  
  In 1773, Parliament passed an act that allowed the British East India Company to ship tea to the colonies without paying any of the import duties collected in England. The company was close to bankruptcy and they had on hand an enormous supply of unsold tea. This tea could be sold more cheaply in the colonies than that sold by local merchants who had to pay high duties. The company was willing to pay the Townshend tax of threepence a pound when its tea was unloaded in America.
   In America, this was not well-received. The cheap tea was greeted as a bribe offered to the people for their consent to a British tax. The merchants became alarmed that a precedent had been set for the tea company to be able to secure other such  privileges.
  Therefore, in Boston, a group of citizens disguised as Indians tossed £15,000 worth of tea into the harbor, an incident which became known as the Boston Tea Party.

THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL

  On June 17, 1775, the first major battle of the American Revolution was fought at Bunker Hill in Boston, Massachusetts with General Howe in command. The Americans heard that Howe was planning to occupy some of the hills around Boston and stalled him by sending out Colonel Prescott to occupy Bunker Hill. Alas, Prescott occupied the adjoining Breed’s Hill instead.
  The British were amazed to see trenches crowning Breed’s Hill the next morning. Ships in the harbor began bombarding it, and soon after, the British troops attacked it, quickly outmaneuvering the American troops.
There were many lives lost, and today an obelisk which is 221 feet (67 meters) tall stands to mark the spot.