On what date did the Boston Tea Party take place, an event remembered in America250 history?

The Boston Tea Party took place on December 16, 1773. In Boston Harbor, colonial protesters boarded ships carrying East India Company tea and dumped the cargo into the water.

The protest opposed the Tea Act of 1773 and Parliament’s authority to tax the colonies without elected colonial representation. The Tea Act actually lowered the price of legally imported tea, but colonists objected to the principle and to the East India Company’s special position.

The British government responded with the punitive laws commonly called the Intolerable Acts. Those measures helped prompt the First Continental Congress in 1774 and intensified the crisis that led to the American Revolutionary War. The Boston Tea Party is often confused with later tea protests in other ports.