1770 – The British government moved to mollify outraged colonists by repealing almost all of the Townshend Acts. Initially passed in the summer of 1767, the Townshend Acts were the British government’s fiscal and political play to maintain its power over the American colonies. The bills, named after their sponsor, Charles Townshend, not only suspended America’s uppity body of representatives, but also levied a controversial package of revenue taxes, including duties on paint, paper and tea. While English leaders viewed colonial control as a historically justified stance, Americans were of a far different mind: they believed the acts smacked of undue meddling. This sent the colonies into a heated, and sometimes violent, frenzy of protest. America’s outrage eventually prompted the British to roll back all of the acts and revenue duties, save for the now infamous tea tax.
1776 – With the Halifax Resolves, the North Carolina Provincial Congress authorizes its Congressional delegation to vote for independence from Britain. The adoption of the resolution was the first official action in the American Colonies calling for independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The Halifax Resolves helped pave the way for the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence less than three months later.
1782 – The British navy won its only naval engagement against the colonists in the American Revolution at the Battle of Les Saintes in the West Indies off Dominica. A British fleet beat the French.
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