Latest news with #ThomasGage
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- General
- Boston Globe
Today in History: June 1, priceless recordings destroyed in Universal Studios fire
Advertisement In 1774, in response to the Boston Tea Party, General Thomas Gage, the newly appointed governor of the Massachusetts colony, closed Boston Harbor to all trade, following the orders of the British Parliament. In 1813, the mortally wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, Captain James Lawrence, gave the order, 'Don't give up the ship,' during a losing battle with the British frigate HMS Shannon inthe War of 1812. In 1916, the Senate voted 47-22 to confirm Louis Brandeis as an associate justice of the US Supreme Court, the first Jewish American to serve on the nation's highest bench. In 1943, a civilian flight from Portugal to England was shot down by German bombers during World War II, killing all 17 people aboard, including actor Leslie Howard. Advertisement In 1957, Don Bowden, a student at the University of California at Berkeley, became the first American to break the four-minute mile during a meet in Stockton, Calif., with a time of 3:58.7. In 1962, former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was executed after being found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his actions during World War II. In 1980, Cable News Network, the first 24-hour television news channel, made its debut. In 1990, US President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed an agreement to stop producing and reduce existing stockpiles of chemical weapons held by the two Cold War superpowers. In 2001, Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal shot and killed nine members of the Nepalese royal family, including his parents, King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya, before mortally wounding himself. In 2008, a fire at Universal Studios Hollywood destroyed 3 acres of the studio's property, including a vault that held as many as 175,000 irreplaceable master audio recordings from hundreds of musicians including Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, and Nirvana. In 2009, General Motors filed for Chapter 11 reorganization, becoming the largest US industrial company to enter bankruptcy protection. In 2020, police violently broke up a protest by thousands of people in Lafayette Park across from the White House, using chemical agents, clubs, and punches to send protesters fleeing. The protesters had gathered following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis a week earlier. Later that day, President Trump, after declaring himself 'the president of law and order' and threatening to deploy the US military in a speech, walked across the empty park to be photographed holding a Bible in front of St. John's Church, which had been damaged a night earlier. Advertisement
Boston Globe
20-05-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
The night in Eastie that changed the course of the Revolutionary War
Right around us in East Boston and Chelsea, at least two and as many as 30 British sailors and marines were killed. A few Americans were wounded, but none died, a startling fact that gave the Americans a feeling of righteous invincibility that did not always benefit them. 'Blessed be God for the interposition of his Provedence on our Side,' one American private wrote. 'Surely God fote the Battle and not we.' Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up It started over cattle and sheep. After the battles at Lexington and Concord, rebel militias surrounding Boston cut the British off from the provisions of the surrounding towns — Roxbury, Dorchester, Cambridge, Brookline, Charlestown, Medford. The harbor islands, including Noddle's and Hog islands, had the nearest remaining stores of livestock and hay, which General Thomas Gage, commander of the British forces, sent foraging parties to buy or seize. Advertisement Owners of hay and livestock could not win. Sell to the British and the patriots would take retribution. Refuse to sell and the British would seize their livestock. Advertisement Hearing that owners were selling Noddle's Island livestock to the British, the patriots planned to clear the island of sheep, cattle, horses, and hogs, 'for no reason,' British General Thomas Gage wrote to Admiral Samuel Graves, 'but because the owners having sold them for the King's use.' Graves ordered 50 marines ashore, but the tide was not right for them to land. Related : The next night, May 26, the patriots acted. Colonel John Nixon of Framingham led 300 men to Medford, where they joined Colonel John Stark and his 590 New Hampshire militiamen. Early the next morning they marched to the Rumney Marsh Meeting House (still standing in Revere). After breakfast with the Chelsea militia they marched to Belle Isle Marsh to cross to Hog and Noddle's islands. Nixon's and Stark's men secured hundreds of sheep, cows, and horses. Thirty men sent to Noddle's Island set fires to haystacks, which alerted Graves, who sent 170 marines ashore. He also dispatched his nephew, Lieutenant Thomas Graves, on the sloop Diana to intercept the rebels up Chelsea Creek. The 30 men setting fires on Noddle's Island did not know that the Royal Navy and marines were after them. Just as they crossed Crooked Creek, a tidal stream separating Noddle's and Hog Islands (now the area of Boardman Street), the British aboard the Diana saw them and opened fire. When the British marines arrived, the last of the Americans crossed the creek, took positions in a ditch, and fired at the marines so their compatriots could herd the livestock to safety. 'We had a hot fiar,' Private Amos Farnsworth wrote, 'until the Regulars retreated.' Though 'the bullets flew very thick' and the 'balls sung like bees around our heads,' no American was hit. 'Suerly,' he wrote, 'God has A faver towards us.' Advertisement The Diana continued upstream as Nixon's and Stark's men herded livestock across Belle Isle Marsh to Chelsea. Back on Noddle's Island, near today's Meridian Street Bridge, British marines brought cannons ashore to bombard the Chelsea Militia who were firing on British ships and marines across the creek. The cannon noise reached Israel Putnam, commander of the American operation, who remained at headquarters in far-off Cambridge. At about the same time, a messenger arrived from Nixon and Stark asking for reinforcements. Putnam set off immediately with two cannons, reaching the battle four hours later. He found Graves and the Diana in a cul de sac far up Chelsea Creek, a spot today commemorated by a marker near the Cronin Skating Rink. After setting up his cannon, Putnam, according to tradition, waded into the water, offering surrender terms to Graves. The Diana responded with an artillery blast. Time and tide were not with Graves. The unusually high spring tide had turned, and Graves needed his longboats to pull the Diana down Chelsea Creek, where they took fire from the shore. Two rowing sailors were killed. The longboats detached from the Diana , which struck a mud bank and heeled over. Graves ordered his men to abandon ship. He hoped to continue the fight — the tide would turn and the British had more ships — but the Americans stripped the Diana of cannons, swivel guns, ammunition, sails, rigging, clothing, and money before lighting fires, which reached the powder magazine. At 3 a.m. on May 28, the Diana exploded. Advertisement The Americans hauled the ship's 76-foot mainmast to Prospect Hill to use as a flagpole. From this pole on Jan. 1, 1776, they raised a new flag, representing the union of 13 provinces fighting together against the British. On Saturday, Cattle and sheep no longer graze on Eagle Hill, though its streets are named for Revolutionary battles and patriots. Hog Island is now Orient Heights. All who live here now, though, are in debt to those who fought here. The shores may be different, but they are still washed by the tides as Chelsea Creek follows its course.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
British General Gave Order 250 Years Ago that Sparked Revolution in What Became America
Under pressure from London, British Maj. Gen. Thomas Gage put quill to paper 250 years ago last Saturday in issuing the disastrous order for a raid on Concord in the Province of Massachusetts Bay that would ignite a revolution, lose Britain a colony, and bring forth a loosely united new nation called America. "Sir, you will march with the corps of grenadiers and light infantry put under your command with the utmost expedition and secrecy to Concord, and where you will seize and destroy all the artillery and ammunition, provisions, tents and all other military stores you can find," Gage wrote to Lt. Col. Francis Smith, commander of the 10th Regiment of Foot, who would lead the "Concord Expedition." Gage would later add to the initial draft of the order an admonition to "take care that the soldiers do not plunder the inhabitants or hurt private property." Read Next: New Army Fitness Test: No More Ball Yeet, Higher Standards for Combat Arms The anniversary of the outbreak of the Revolutionary War precedes a slew of planned celebrations when the United States marks its 250th year of independence in 2026. Then as now, those living in what would become the 13 states of the new nation were bitterly divided. But at the outset of the war, colonialists were split between those loyal to the crown and those who were ready to fight for independence. Gage thought the loyalists had given him excellent intelligence on where the colonial militias had stored arms and what types of arms, down to the names of the owners of houses who were hiding ball and powder. But the colonials also had great intel that sent Paul Revere, well-mounted on a fast horse, and two other riders to spread the alarm that Smith's force of about 700 had crossed the Charles River in long boats and was on the march toward Concord. Gage's plan to snuff out a budding revolution with a quick raid to seize and destroy arms on April 19, 1775, was about to fall apart. The Gage order is part of the Thomas Gage Papers collection of more than 23,000 items, including letters, documents, journals, financial records, and military orders now housed at the University of Michigan's William L. Clements Library. To mark the 250th anniversary of the first battles of what would become a revolution, the library has put on an exhibit focusing on the Gage papers called "Bloody Work: Lexington and Concord 1775." In a phone interview, Cheney Schopieray, curator of manuscripts at the Clements Library, said the collection shows that the British Parliament "was very unhappy with Gage" in his role as commander in chief of British forces in North America and governor of Massachusetts Bay, "but he managed to keep the kettle from boiling over until 1775." In Massachusetts last Saturday, thousands turned out to view ceremonies and demonstrations by re-enactors to mark the 250th anniversary at Concord and Lexington, and also at Minute Men National Historical Park, run by the National Park Service. The Park Service also gave a running account of the battles that led to the British retreat back to Boston in a rout. At about 5 a.m., the British column encountered Capt. John Parker and his company of 77 Minutemen who had been ordered to "stand your ground and don't fire unless fired upon." Then "someone, somewhere fired a shot," which would become "the shot heard round the world," the Park Service said. The British infantry rushed onto the green and fired upon Parker's retreating troops. Eight militiamen were killed on the Lexington town common and 10 were wounded. The fight had been joined. There would be no turning back. By noon, the British had wrapped up their mostly unsuccessful search for arms and began the 18-mile march back to Boston, as colonial militiamen swarmed to the area to confront and harass the retreating British until they were met by a relief party just outside Boston. In total, the casualties for the British were 73 killed, 174 wounded, and 26 missing; the colonials suffered 49 killed, 41 wounded, and 5 missing, the Park Service said. Gage later gave an account of the battles to the Earl of Dartmouth, William Legge, who was secretary of state for the Colonies, to describe the unorthodox tactics of the colonials, and possibly save his job. Gage wrote that, "on the return of the troops, they were attacked from all quarters where any cover was to be found, from whence it was practicable to annoy them, and they were so fatigued with their march that it was with difficulty they could keep out their flanking parties to remove the enemy to a distance, so that they were at length a good deal pressed." He also noted that Boston itself was being threatened. "The whole country was assembled in arms with surprising expedition, and several thousand are now assembled about this town threatening an attack, and getting up artillery. And we are very busy in making preparations to oppose them," he wrote. The letter didn't work. Gage was recalled to London and replaced by Gen. William Howe. Related: Secret Recordings Show President Roosevelt Debating Military Desegregation with Civil Rights Leaders
Washington Post
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Was a woman the informant who helped launch the American Revolution?
Thomas Gage struck words and added notes in the margins, pressing his quill hard in some spots on the most consequential letter he would ever write. The British general finished his final draft and on April 18, 1775, dispatched the order launching the Concord Expedition. It shall be done 'with the utmost Expedition and secrecy,' Gage wrote, of his army's plans to hobble the patriot militia by seizing their munitions and supplies in Concord.
Boston Globe
22-02-2025
- Boston Globe
Today in History: February 22, US hockey team beats USSR in ‘Miracle on Ice'
Advertisement In 1770, a melee over a boycott in Boston of certain British goods led to a beleaguered customs agent shooting an 11-year-old, Christopher Seider, to death. The attack inflamed tensions among patriots and Tories. The death occurred less than two weeks before the Boston Massacre. In 1775, 250 years ago, British General Thomas Gage, military governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony, ordered two spies on a multiday journey into Framingham and Worcester to make maps of roads and landmarks in preparation for his raid on rebel ammunition, guns, and cannons. In 1784, a US merchant ship, the Empress of China, left New York for the first trade voyage of an American ship to China. In 1959, the inaugural Daytona 500 race was held; although Johnny Beauchamp was initially declared the winner, the victory was later awarded to Lee Petty. In 1967, more than 25,000 US and South Vietnamese troops launched Operation Junction City, aimed at smashing a Vietcong stronghold near the Cambodian border. In 1980, the 'Miracle on Ice' took place at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., as the United States Olympic hockey team upset the Soviet Union, 4-3. (The US team went on to win the gold medal two days later, with a 4-2 victory over Finland.) In 1997, scientists in Scotland announced they had successfully cloned an adult mammal for the first time, a sheep they named 'Dolly.' Advertisement In 2010, Najibullah Zazi, accused of buying products from beauty supply stores to make bombs for an attack on New York City subways, pleaded guilty to charges including conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. (Zazi faced up to life in prison but spent nearly a decade after his arrest helping the US identify and prosecute terrorists; he was given a 10-year sentence followed by supervised release.) In 2019, Patriots owner Robert Kraft was charged with soliciting a prostitute at a massage spa in Jupiter, Fla., the result of a human trafficking sweep by police in southern Florida. He made a public apology, and prosecutors dropped the charges after a court barred the release of a video as evidence. In 2021, the number of US deaths from COVID-19 topped 500,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.
