Video: 'The Revolution: Boston Bloody Boston' (first shot fired at 34:50)

(Wednesday, April 19, 1775, approximately 5:00 a.m. local time; during the American Revolutionary War, part of the American Revolution) — The first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War began today with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge, near Boston.

The battles marked the outbreak of open armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen of its colonies on the mainland of British America.