Canton Tea Party is held.

Chinese officials order more than 20,000 chests of opium worth more than 10 million dollars brought by British traders to be dumped in the harbor at Whampoa. The action prompts the British to threaten to boycott trade with the country. Boston traders refuse to participate in the boycott, however, with Robert Bennett Forbes declaring, “I had not come to China for health or pleasure, and that I should remain at my post as long as I could sell a yard of goods or buy a pound of tea.”