J. L. Bell

This appears to raise the amount of money Trump had to pay back after frauds over the past five years to $91,000,000. I’m pretty sure he can make it past a hundred.

British General William Howe, having been driven from Boston by Patriot forces, arrives in Halifax. He brings with him 200 officers, 3,000 men, and 4,000 Loyalist civilians, and he demands housing and provisions for all - although his posse quintuples the population of the town.

Thomas Lynch Jr. was a South Carolina politician who rose to prominence during the American Revolution and signed the Declaration of Independence, making him a Founding Father. Lynch was lost at sea in 1779, which has made his autograph among the rarest of the Signers.

@AHC1776 @SalinaBBaker @CharliesWhiskey There’s no artillery connection in Marshfield that I can recall, so at most it was a passing reference. A bunch of blog posts trying to sort out different details of the story.

@Boston1775 @SalinaBBaker @CharliesWhiskey Is this mentioned in your book?

On 19 March 1734, Thomas McKean is born in Chester County Pennsylvania to Irish immigrants of Scottish decent. He would be one of the most politically active of the Founding Fathers, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, President of Delaware, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania and Governor of Pennsylvania. He became a lawyer in the 1750s. Delaware at that time was technically a part of Pennsylvania, but had its own General Assembly. McKean had homes in Philadelphia and in Delaware and was politically active in both. His first public office was Attorney General for Sussex County, Delaware. He became a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1765 and was sent to the Stamp Act Congress, the first meeting of delegates from nine colonies to coordinate resistance against the British policies. From 1762 to 1776, he was a member of the General Assembly in Delaware and served as its Speaker of the House in 1772. McKean was chosen as a member of Delaware’s delegation to both the First and Second Continental Congresses. He was a prominent advocate of independence from Great Britain and voted for the Declaration of Independence on 2 July 1776. McKean helped write the Articles of Confederation and served as the President of Congress for a few months in 1781, during which time Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered his army at Yorktown. During the war, McKean participated in the defense of New York City. He attended Delaware’s convention to write its own state constitution. As for that constitution, he wrote a good part of the entire text in one night and, when it was ratified on 20 September 1776, the document became the first state constitution to be adopted after the colonies declared their independence. McKean then served as President of Delaware for a short time when the then current president, John McKinly, was captured by the British. McKean was elected Pennsylvania’s Chief Justice from 1777 to 1799. In this position, he became one of the most prominent shapers of the American legal system, some scholars believe even more so than the long serving Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, John Marshall. McKean also served at the Pennsylvania Convention which ratified the US Constitution and the convention which adopted the State Constitution of Pennsylvania. Thomas McKean was then elected governor of Pennsylvania for total of three terms from 1799 to 1808. Four years after his final term, he led the way in preparing Philadelphia’s defenses during the War of 1812. He died on 24 June 1817 the age of 83. His grave is at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/thomas-mckean-… americanhistorycentral.com/entries/stamp-… phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communi…

@AHC1776 @SalinaBBaker @CharliesWhiskey Yes, Marshfield was an exceptional town that I’ve written about. Divided politically, with a coastline that allowed Gage to take back control of a bit of territory outside Boston after Sept 1774. Had its own (bloodless) military maneuvers in April 1775.

@SalinaBBaker @CharliesWhiskey Very true about the Patriots tracking Gage's every move. I have no idea where I first came across the Marshfield Association, but I am fairly certain that @Boston1775 has info on his site about it.

When the British evacuated Boston 250 years ago this week, they made a point of not leaving behind their friends. There is a lesson in the example they set. My latest for @TheFP. thefp.com/p/the-british-…

This story is HORRIFIC. This DACA recipient was brought here by his parents in 1999 when he was 8 years old. He is a laboratory scientist who's had DACA since 2012. Now he's languishing in an ICE detention center because the Trump admin failed to process his renewal in time!

Fort Stanwix in Rome, New York, is one of the older forts in American history, seeing action as early as the French & Indian War and into the American Revolution. Explore the fort with Dan Davis!

Kaine: Chris asked Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Senator Jim Risch: ‘When are we going to have a public hearing about this war? When?’ Senator Risch responded: ‘I have decided that we will not have public hearings because I do not believe the administration’s decision-makers should be subject to public questioning by senators.’ I mean, can you believe that? I give him credit—I’ll give him credit for candor—but they do not believe that civilian decision-makers should be subject to questions by United States senators. If they were secure in the justness of their cause or the adequacy of their plan, they would not be afraid to answer public questions about what they’re doing.

The Evacuation of Boston coins issued for the 125th in 1901, and the 250th issued this year in 2026. @REV250BOS #EvacuationDay #RevolutionaryWar

"'I look upon it a new acquisition of property,' Abigail Adams wrote, 'which one month ago I did not value at a single Shilling, and could with pleasure have seen in flames.'" Read more about the British withdrawal from Boston 250 years ago: americanheritage.com/drama-dorchest…

If you had been around in the 1770s, do you think you would have been a Patriot or a Loyalist? Take this fun quiz designed by our Education team to see where you might have fallen on the Patriot-to-Loyalist spectrum! oni-pi.vercel.app

18 MARCH 1776, PHILADELPHIA: The Continental Congress continues debating whether to issue letters of marque, authorizing private vessels to sail against British merchant ships. The measure proposed would exclude Irish ships, a provision New Jersey’s Richard Smith thinks “absurd”:

The live feed for tonight’s talk about what Gen. George Washington and the American colonies faced right after the evacuation of Boston: youtube.com/live/RBNmn7Emp… Starting at 6pm ET!

“Witkoff claimed that the Iranians bragged that they had enough enriched uranium for 11 nuclear bombs. People who were present during the negotiations said that never happened, that the Iranians never made that statement. And in fact, they said, we have enriched uranium because we started enriching uranium again after President Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal that President Obama negotiated.”

#OnThisDay in 1781, the Articles of Confederation were ratified. In a #ReadtheRevolution excerpt from @hwbrands' "The First American," we see Benjamin Franklin presenting the first draft of what would become America’s first constitution. 📚: bit.ly/3uIKr3m

Sweden lifts all restrictions on the cereal trade.

The fact that Oman, has spilled all the details of the negotiation is wild. But what’s worse is it seems that Iran had basically agreed to every US ask. And we bombed them anyway. Teaching another generation of extremists in the Middle East to not trust the US. A major political setback that will haunt us for decades!

Stumbled upon Admiral Boscawen looking out across the North Sea at Blyth #navalhistory

Veteran diplomat who served as member of Trump Iran negotiating team: “Trump fundamentally fails to grasp that Iranian weakness will not lead the country to capitulate at the negotiating table. …Nor does Trump understand that Iran faces entirely different conditions than it did in June 2025, when it chose to de-escalate”

War crime here? U.S. Kills 11 in Boat Strikes in Pacific and Caribbean nytimes.com/2026/02/17/us/… via @NYTimes