Answer:
On April 19, 1775, the Battle of Lexington and Concord marked the first military
engagement of the American Revolution. Colonists had gathered in the early morning on
Lexington Green to prevent approaching British troops from destroying guns and ammunition
that were stored in nearby Concord. The gathered faction of colonists was ordered by the British
to disperse when “the shot heard ‘round the world” was fired and the American Revolution
began. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that immortal line in his 1837 Concord Hymn, but what is
perhaps most intriguing about that fateful shot is that no one knows for sure who fired it.
