Which 1773 protest saw colonists dump tea from ships into Boston Harbor?

The 1773 protest in which colonists dumped tea from ships into Boston Harbor was the Boston Tea Party.

The action took place on December 16, 1773, in Boston, Massachusetts, then part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Protesters opposed the Tea Act, which gave the British East India Company advantages in selling tea while retaining a tax that many colonists rejected.

That evening, men associated with the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships: Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver. Over roughly three hours, they threw hundreds of chests of tea into the harbor. Historical sources differ between 340 and 342 chests, although 342 is the most commonly reported figure.

The British government responded with the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by many colonists. These measures restricted Massachusetts self-government and helped intensify resistance across the Thirteen Colonies. The Boston Tea Party was not the Boston Massacre, which occurred in 1770, three years earlier.