In response to the Stamp Act, the Townshend Act, the Tea Act, and the Boston Massacre, Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty converged on Griffin’s Wharf disguised as Mohawk warriors and dumped 342 chests of tea (about 45 tons) from three ships into the harbor in a midnight raid now known as the Boston Tea Party, 247 years ago today — although, according to historian Alfred Young, the term “Boston Tea Party” did not enter the public lexicon until 60 years after the events of this night.

A second Tea Party occurred three months later, after the Coercive Acts were passed, when around 60 Bostonians boarded a ship and dumped another 30 chests into the harbor. The event didn’t earn as much notoriety as the first, but it did encourage other tea-dumping demonstrations in New York, Maryland, and South Carolina.

The First Continental Congress convened the following September. An eight-year war for independence began six months later. And we are forever indebted to these patriots as a direct result.