May 4 » Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.
June 11 » The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence.
June 12 » The Virginia Declaration of Rights is adopted.
August 10 » American Revolutionary War: Word of the United States Declaration of Independence reaches London.
September 7 » According to American colonial reports, Ezra Lee makes the world's first submarine attack in the Turtle, attempting to attach a time bomb to the hull of HMS Eagle in New York Harbor (no British records of this attack exist).
December 19 » Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in The Pennsylvania Journal entitled "The American Crisis".
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: J. van Broekhoven, "Database Van Broekhoven", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/database-van-broekhoven/I89263.php : accessed January 20, 2026), "Gerardus van der Meijden".
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