On what date did the Boston Massacre occur in the Massachusetts colony?

The Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770, when British soldiers fired into a crowd in Boston.

The confrontation began amid hostility over Britain’s use of troops to enforce imperial policies. A group gathered near the Customs House and confronted soldiers from the 29th Regiment. The soldiers fired, killing five colonists, including Crispus Attucks, and wounding others.

The event quickly became powerful Patriot propaganda. Paul Revere published a widely circulated engraving based partly on an image by Henry Pelham, presenting the soldiers as firing in an orderly line into an innocent crowd. The engraving simplified a confusing confrontation, but it helped spread anti-British sentiment throughout the colonies.

John Adams, who later became president, defended the soldiers in court. Six were acquitted, while two were convicted of manslaughter and received reduced punishment. The incident did not start the Revolutionary War, which began five years later, but it deepened distrust and became an important memory in the movement toward independence.