Paul Revere’s Ride begins.

Revere begins his ride after being rowed across Boston Harbor to Charlestown. According to David Hackett Fischer, “[His] primary mission was not to alarm the countryside. His specific purpose was to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who were thought to be the objects of the expedition.” Meanwhile, Sexton Robert Newman and vestryman Capt. John Pulling Jr. hang two lamps in the tower of the Old North Church to signal some 40 other riders to spread the news that the British troops are being barged over to Cambridge to begin their march on Lexington and Concord. Revere succeeds in warning Adams and Hancock, but is detained in Lincoln, never reaches Lexington or Concord, and subsequently presents a bill for his services to the Committee of Safety.