On this day 251 years ago: The Boston Massacre

On a snowy, bitter night in Boston 251 years ago, tensions between colonists and British troops erupted into bloody chaos on King Street – an event that paved the way for the American Revolution.

By early 1770, skirmishes between American colonists and British soldiers grew increasingly common as representatives of the crown tried to enforce taxes – including the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts -- that the colonists found repressive.