[1] See _Battle of Lexington_, page 1. [2] See _Battle of Bunker Hill_, page 19. [3] See _Signing of American Declaration of Independence_, page 39. [4] See _Canada Remains Loyal to England_, page 30. [5] See _Defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga_, page 51. [6] See _First Victory of the American Navy_, page 68. [7] See _British Defence of Gibraltar_, page 116. [8] See _Siege and Surrender of Yorktown_, page 97. [9] See _Close of the American Revolution_, page 137. [10] See _Settlement of American Loyalists in Canada_, page 156. [11] See _Joseph II Attempts Reform in Hungary_, page 85. [12] See _French Revolution: Storming of the Bastille_, page 212. [13] See _Republican France Defies Europe: Battle of Valmy_, page 252. [14] See _Execution of Louis XVI: Murder of Marat: Civil War in France_, page 295. [15] See _The Reign of Terror_, page 311. [16] See _The Rise of Napoleon: The French Conquest of Italy_, page 339. [17] See _The Downfall of Poland_, page 330. [18] See _Negro Revolution in Haiti_, page 236. [19] See _First Balloon Ascension_, page 63. [20] See _Jenner Introduces Vaccination_, page 363. [21] See _Framing of the Constitution of the United States_, page 173. [22] See _Inauguration of Washington: His Farewell Address_, page 197. [23] See _Hamilton Establishes the United States Bank_, page 230. [24] See _Invention of the Cotton-gin_, page 271. [25] See _Overthrow of the Mamelukes: The Battle of the Nile_, page 353. BATTLE OF LEXINGTON A.D. 1775 RICHARD FROTHINGHAM April 19, 1775, is memorable in American history as the day on which occurred the first bloodshed of the Revolution. The two combats of the day--that at Lexington and that at Concord--really constituted one action, which ended in a long running fight. As a single action, it is usually called the Battle of Lexington. The engagement at Concord, separately considered, is called the Battle of Concord, or the Concord Fight. At both places, on that fateful day, "the embattled farmers" faced the troops of their own sovereign, to resist what was felt to be an unwarranted and menacing invasion of American liberties. While the soldiers of King George were doing their own loyal duty, the New England yeomen who "fired the shot heard round the world" obeyed a conviction still more compelling. Hence came the first physical struggle in what was already an "irrepressible conflict" of principle between Englishmen and their kinsmen on the American continent.