Concord, Lexington Celebrate 250th Anniversary of American Revolution’s ‘Shot Heard Round the World’

The neighboring towns are etched in history as sites of the first battles of the American Revolution, but debate remains over where the first shot was fired.

Reenactors depicting British Redcoats fire their weapons during the 250th reenactment of the Battle of Lexington and Concord in Lexington, Mass., on April 19, 2025. Sophie Park/Getty Images

CONCORD, Mass.—Daylight had yet to appear at about 5 a.m. on April 19 when bells rang out over Lexington Common. Hundreds of spectators were gathered to watch a reenactment of the skirmish that forever changed U.S. history 250 years ago.

The neighboring towns of Lexington and Concord are where the first battles occurred between British regulars and colonial militias. The colonists were known as minutemen—those who had pledged to take up arms at a minute’s notice.

“On this day 250 years ago, on the dawn of April 19, 1775, this common became the birthplace of American freedom,” Henry Liu, Lexington Minute Men reenactment committee chair, said on April 19.

Richard Howell, who portrayed Lexington minuteman Samuel Tidd in the battle, called the reenactment “momentous.”

“This is one of the most sacred pieces of ground in the country, if not the world, because of what it represents,” Howell said. “A small town of Lexington was a vortex of so much.”

The Battles of Lexington and Concord ignited a war that would last eight years before colonial troops commanded by Gen. George Washington prevailed in September 1783.

Historians agree that the battles, which happened 15 months before the Declaration of Independence was signed by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, marked the beginning of the American Revolution.

A dawn reenactment was also held on April 19 at Old North Bridge in Concord, located about seven miles east of Lexington. A monument marks the spot where it is believed that the first British soldier fell.

According to estimates, tens of thousands of people descended upon the towns to commemorate the historic day.

A few hundred protestors stood outside an area marked as a “free speech” zone across from the Lexington Battle Green. Some held signs bearing messages seemingly directed at President Donald Trump, such as “No King, No Tyranny.”

According to a White House proclamation, issued on April 17 and signed by Trump: “Two and a half centuries ago, a small band of minutemen answered the call of freedom in the legendary Battles of Lexington and Concord, an epic tale of American strength and the first major armed conflict of the Revolutionary War.

“We honor the memories, remember the sacrifices, and summon the courage of every hero of liberty who gallantly shed his blood for the cause of independence on April 19, 1775.

“After years of intensifying frictions and escalating hostility between the British Crown and the American Colonies, all avenues to peace and diplomacy had been exhausted, and it became clear to the patriots that war was inevitable. Following the Boston Massacre, the oppressive Intolerable Acts, and the lasting grievance of taxation without representation, the colonists began organizing militias as a final recourse in defense of their right to self-government.”

The Minuteman Statue is of Capt. John Parker, who led the Lexington militia during the Battle of Lexington. The statue is in Minute Man National Historical Park, Concord, Mass. Courtesy of Alan Wakim

Lexington and Concord are etched in history as the birthplace of the American Revolution. Where the first shot was fired remains a subject of debate.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1837 poem “Concord Hymn” references the first gunfire in the American Revolution.

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.

David Wood, curator of the Concord Museum, told NBC Boston on April 14: “If you take it very literally, you could say, ‘Oh, Emerson of course is talking about the firing at the North Bridge.’ Emerson isn’t that literal. It gets attached to the North Bridge because that’s where Emerson was in delivering the line.”

Steve Cole, Lexington Minute Men captain, told NBC, “Indeed, the first shots of the American Revolution were on the Lexington Battle Green on April 19, 1775.”

Author and historian Alex Cain noted that British troops marching toward Concord first encountered colonial militias in Lexington.

“A shot is fired,“ Cain told NBC. ”We don’t know who. We have no idea. The British insisted it was the Americans. The Americans insisted it was the British.”

In March, Concord250 distributed a press release inviting the media to Concord to commemorate “when the first shots of the American Revolution were fired at Concord’s Old North Bridge.”

In response, Suffolk University history professor and Colonial Society of Massachusetts President Robert Allison told the Boston Globe: “The first shots were fired in Lexington. For historians, this matter is not in dispute.”

Boston was the largest city in the 13 colonies. In 1773, colonists frustrated by the British Crown’s implementation of taxation without representation dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. The event is known as the Boston Tea Party.

Angered by the uprising, the British Crown instituted the Intolerable Acts, which closed the Port of Boston, limited the power of colonial governments, and permitted British troops to be quartered in private homes.

Tensions escalated when British warships and troops, known as regulars, arrived.

Future Founding Fathers John Hancock and Samuel Adams were forced to flee from Boston to the Massachusetts countryside. In early 1775, the area around Boston was controlled by the British. The rest of Massachusetts was in rebellion.

Gen. Thomas Gage served as royal governor of Massachusetts and led the British troops stationed in the colony.

Moved by information from British spies, Gage ordered 700 soldiers to march to Concord on April 18, 1775, and destroy a stockpile of military supplies.

Joseph Warren, a Boston physician, discovered the plan and dispatched Paul Revere and William Dawes to ride on horseback and alert the Massachusetts countryside.

Paul Revere stopped by Rev. Jonas Clarke’s home to alert John Hancock and Samuel Adams that the British were on their way. He urged them to flee immediately. Courtesy of Alan Wakim

In Lexington, Revere and Dawes met Dr. Samuel Prescott, who volunteered to join them. Prescott was the only one among the three midnight riders to reach Concord.

Three miles west of Lexington, halfway to Concord, the three midnight riders were surprised by a British patrol. Revere was detained while Dawes and Prescott escaped.

Revere told his captors that the towns knew about their mission and had assembled their militias. Distant bells and musket fire confirmed his warning.

Dawes’ trip ended when he fell off his horse. Prescott broke free and ventured to Concord, where he arrived at about 1:30 a.m. and notified a sentry, who rang the Concord First Parish church bell, notifying the town.

Revere returned to Lexington on foot and urged Hancock and Adams to flee.

Back in Lexington, Capt. John Parker of the Lexington militia assembled his company on the town green. The men—who wore no uniforms and received no pay—were a collection of blacksmiths, farmers, shopkeepers, and schoolteachers.

Wet British troops crossed the Charles River and started their 16-mile march to Concord.

British forces confronted the Lexington militia on the Lexington Battle Green at about 5 a.m. The exact details of that morning remain a mystery. Outnumbered, Parker’s men withdrew. A gunshot from an unknown source was fired. British troops unleashed a volley of shots.

The fighting in Lexington killed eight colonists and injured 10 others. Unscathed, the British troops resumed their march and headed for Concord.

Separately, Prescott and Reuben Brown, an alarm rider stationed in Lexington, raced to Concord to let the town know of the shots fired in Lexington. Concord’s militia and minutemen awaited the arrival of the British soldiers.

The alarm reached farms, fields, and villages. Minutemen flocked to Concord.

Once again outnumbered, the colonial militia retreated across the North Bridge, away from the town’s center. Seven companies of British regulars crossed the bridge to search a house for arms and military supplies.

From their vantage point on a hill, colonial soldiers could see smoke rising from Concord as the British burned the supplies they had found. The colonial militia thought that the town was being torched, and 400 colonial soldiers marched to the North Bridge. They outnumbered the three British companies left to guard the crossing.

Shots rang out from the British side and then Concord’s Maj. John Buttrick ordered the militiamen to return fire. That marked the first time the colonial soldiers were commanded to fire upon British troops.

Three British soldiers and nine others were wounded in a volley that became known as “the shot heard around the world.”

British soldiers retreated back to Boston. Concord marked the first colonial victory in the newly sparked American Revolution.

During the British withdrawal, swarms of colonists lined up behind the rock walls, trees, and buildings that lined what became known as Battle Road and fired upon them, creating a deadly gauntlet for the 700 British regulars.

In Lexington, Parker and his men gained revenge when they fired upon British regulars. For much of the journey back to Boston, British regulars were ambushed by minutemen on both sides of the road.

By the time they returned to Boston, the British had reportedly lost more than a third of their force.

Although debate remains about where the first shot was fired, what happened in Lexington and Concord generated support for the colonial militia.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Stacy Schiff has written biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Adams.

“[Lexington and Concord] galvanized opinion precisely as the Massachusetts men hoped it would, though still it would be a long road to a vote for independence, which Adams felt should have been declared on 20 April 1775,” Schiff wrote.

“Once shots were fired in Lexington, Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren did all in their power to collect statements from witnesses and to circulate them quickly; it was essential that the colonies, and the world, understand who had fired first.

“Adams was convinced that the Lexington skirmish would be ‘famed in the history of this country.’ He knocked himself out to make clear who the aggressors had been.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.