ROAD TO A REVOLUTION
250 years after America’s founding war, a look at key historic sites
Mixed doubles partners Jane Albert and Arthur Ashe beat Mexico's team to capture a gold medal for the United States.
AP Photo
Pan American Games
Canada
1967
Arthur Ashe defeated Richard Crealy (Australia) in three sets to cop the Australian National Men's Singles Championship.
Australian Open
Australia
1970
AP Photo
Arthur Ashe holds the cup he won in the $50,000 World Championship Winter Finals in Rome.
World Championship Winter Finals
Italy
1972
AP Photo/Gianni Foggia
Arthur Ashe beat Tom Okker, (Netherlands) 6-2, 6-2 in the men's singles finals. Ashe picked up $12,000 in prize money and Okker cashed $6,000.
Stockholm Open Tennis Tournament
Sweden
1974
AP Photo/Reportagebild
Arthur Ashe defeated Björn Borg (Sweden) 6–4, 7–6 in men's singles finals.
Munich World Cup Tennis Tournament
Germany
1975
AP Photo
Arthur Ashe demonstrated against the Bush administration's policy on Haiti. He was later arrested during the protest.
Protest in support of Haitian refugees
Washington D.C.
1992
AP Photo
Arthur Ashe talks with Chairman Charles C. Diggs, D-Michigan, of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa. In 1973 Ashe was granted an entry visa to compete in the South African Open.
Ashe denied a visa by South Africa
Washington D.C.
1970
AP Photo/Bob Daugherty
It started 250 years ago this spring.
At 5:30 a.m. on April 19, 1775, the first gunfire of the American Revolution rang out at 5:30 a.m. near Boston. It was, to use a phrase coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “the shot heard round the world.”
The Battle of Lexington and Concord would be the first in a series of brutal confrontations spread across the continent by insurrectionist colonists fighting for independence from King George III, culminating in the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
The March to Valley Forge, December 19, 1777. Painted by William B.T. Trego
About this project
This story was written with contributions from journalists for the Dothan Eagle and Opelika-Auburn News in Alabama; Press of Atlantic City in New Jersey; Auburn Citizen and Glens Falls Post Star in New York; Winston-Salem Journal, the News & Record, Hickory Daily Record and Statesville Record & Landmark in North Carolina; Carlisle Sentinel in Pennsylvania; Florence Morning News in South Carolina; and Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.
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Today, the landscape is dotted with reminders of that pivotal era — places where Paul Revere, John Paul Jones and Rochambeau once walked and the story of Molly Pitcher was born.
These are the blood-soaked battlefields upon which Alexander Hamilton and Lafayette emerged as iconic figures. It’s the Delaware River that Gen. George Washington crossed to pursue a surprise attack in New Jersey; the shores of Lake Champlain in New York, site of the siege of Fort Ticonderoga; and the land of Yorktown, Virginia, where British Gen. Charles Cornwallis finally surrendered in 1781.
It would be impossible to list them all, but on this 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War, we look at noteworthy sites that played a role in America’s complex history — and shaped what the country is today.
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1837
Concord Hymn
YOUR TURN
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