William Dawes Dies
On this day in 1799, William Dawes died. The first man to be dispatched on the night of April 18, 1775, Dawes carried the same message as Paul Revere, but while Revere rowed across the harbor and mounted a horse in Charlestown, Dawes went overland, galloping through Roxbury and Watertown. Both men managed to deliver the warning to Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington. They set off together for Concord, but were stopped by a British army patrol. Revere was arrested. Dawes staged a ruse and escaped. The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later immortalized Paul Revere and his midnight ride. William Dawes, the other hero of that night, died unheralded.
Related Moments
Five Die in Boston Massacre
Five Die in Boston Massacre
On this day in 1770, Crispus Attucks, a black man from Framingham, and four other civilians were shot by British soldiers. Attucks worked on whaling ships and, between voyages, as a semi-skilled laborer around the...
Battle Begins on Lexington Common
Battle Begins on Lexington Common
On this day in 1775, the first shots were fired in the cause of American independence. In Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous poem, "the shot heard 'round the world" came from the musket of a Concord...
Boston Celebrates 250th Birthday
Boston Celebrates 250th Birthday
On this day in 1880 Boston celebrated its 250th birthday. For three and a half hours during the day, a column of 14,500 people marched four and a half miles though the city. The festivities...
