This Day in History: <br />The Boston Massacre March 5, 1770 A skirmish in front of the Boston Custom house <br />between British soldiers and angry colonists <br />ends in bloody violence after the troops <br />open fire on the crowd. Three Americans were <br />killed instantly and several other <br />men eventually died from their injuries. The incident followed <br />several years of tensions and <br />violence in colonial Massachusetts, partly due to revenue duties <br />imposed on the colonists by <br />the British Parliament <br />passed Townshed Acts. The violence turned colonial sentiment <br />against the British and King George in <br />the years leading up to the American Revolution. John Adams wrote that the <br />"foundation of American <br />independence was laid" <br />by the massacre.
