On what date did the Boston Tea Party take place, a key event leading to American independence?

The Boston Tea Party took place on December 16, 1773, when protestors destroyed tea in Boston Harbor.

The protest was organized by the Sons of Liberty in opposition to the Tea Act, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea directly to the American colonies. Colonists objected to the tax and to Parliament imposing it without colonial representation.

That night, members of the protest boarded three ships—the Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver—and threw hundreds of chests of tea into the harbor. The event was not the start of the Revolutionary War; fighting began later, at Lexington and Concord, in April 1775.

The British government responded with the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by many colonists. These measures intensified resistance and helped encourage colonial cooperation. The Boston Tea Party is also sometimes confused with the earlier Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770, a separate confrontation between civilians and British soldiers.