The December 1773 protest against British taxation remembered by America250 was the Boston Tea Party.
On December 16, 1773, Massachusetts colonists boarded ships in Boston Harbor and threw chests of East India Company tea into the water. They were protesting the Tea Act, which gave the company advantages in selling tea while colonial resistance focused on taxation without representation.
The protest was organized partly by the Sons of Liberty and followed months of debate over whether consignees should accept the tea. Participants took care to destroy the tea but generally avoided damaging the ships or stealing other cargo.
Britain responded with the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by many colonists. These measures restricted Massachusetts self-government and helped accelerate the crisis that led to the Continental Congress and armed conflict. The Boston Tea Party is sometimes confused with the earlier Boston Massacre of 1770, but the two events had different causes and outcomes.