Ken Burns’s new documentary, The American Revolution, is a 6-part, 12-hour series premiering on PBS on November 16. It is coming out just a little over 250 years after the Revolution began at Lexington and Concord, Mass.
On April 19th, 1775, the first action of the war, commonly referred to as “the shot heard 'round the world”, was a brief skirmish at Lexington, followed by the full-scale Battles of Lexington and Concord. British troops suffered around 300 casualties before withdrawing to Boston, which was then besieged by the militia.
Evacuation Day is a state holiday in Massachusetts, and is on the same day as St. Patrick’s Day. The holiday marks the forced evacuation of British troops from Boston on March 17, 1776, George Washington’s first victory of the American Revolution. The fact that the Boston and the Bay State have so many Irish-American people is completely unrelated to the timing of the holiday.
St Patrick has been the patron saint of Nigeria since 1961.