On January 14, 1784, the Continental Congress ratified the Treaty
of Paris (above), ending the War for Independence.

In the document, which was known as the Second Treaty of Paris because the Treaty of Paris was also the name of the agreement
that had ended the Seven Years’ War in 1763, Britain officially
agreed to recognize the independence of its 13 former colonies
as the new United States of America.

In addition, the treaty settled the boundaries between the United
States and what remained of British North America.

Hopelessly trapped at Yorktown, Virginia, British General
Lord Cornwallis surrendered 8,000 British soldiers and
seamen to a larger Franco-American force, effectively
bringing an end to the American Revolution.

The American Revolution officially came to an end when
representatives of the United States, Great Britain, Spain
and France sign the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783.

The signing signified America’s status as a free nation, as
Britain formally recognized the independence of its 13
former American colonies, and the boundaries of the new
republic were agreed upon: Florida north to the Great
Lakes and the Atlantic coast west to the Mississippi
River.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A warehouse along the Savannah River
is holding historical treasures that evidence suggests remained
lost for more than 240 years — a cache of 19 cannons that
researchers suspect came from British ships scuttled to the river
bottom during the American Revolution.

The mud- and rust-encrusted guns were discovered by accident
when a dredge scooping sediment from the riverbed last year as
part of a $973 million deepening of Savannah’s busy shipping
channel surfaced with one of the cannons clasped in its metal
jaws. The crew soon dug up two more.

Archaeologists guessed they were possibly leftover relics from
a sunken Confederate gunship excavated a few years earlier in
the same area, according to Andrea Farmer, an archaeologist
for the Army Corps of Engineers. But experts for the U.S. Navy
found they didn’t match any known cannons used in the Civil
War. Further research indicates they’re likely almost a century
older and sank during the  buildup to the Revolutionary War’s
bloody siege of Savannah in 1779.

Fort Jackson just outside Savannah, Ga.

Painting of The Siege of Savannah.

April 19, 1775: At about 5 a.m., 700 British troops, on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and seize a Patriot arsenal, march into
Lexington to find 77 armed minutemen under Captain John Parker waiting for them on the town’s common green. British Major John Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment’s hesitation the Americans began to drift off the green. Suddenly, a shot was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud
of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead or dying and 10 others
were wounded. Only one British soldier was injured, but the
American Revolution had begun.

John Parker
(July 13, 1729 – September 17, 1775)

Battle of Lexington State Historic Site today.