22nd September 1776: Nathan Hale hanged by the British for spying for the Continental Army during the American Revolution

Hale volunteered to gather intelligence on British troop movements and strategies but was captured, swiftly subjected to a trial by British authorities, found guilty of spying, and condemned to death as an illegal combatant.

2nd June 1774: The British Parliament passes the Quartering Act, the fourth of the punitive laws passed in the wake of the Boston Tea Party

Just a few months later the First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia, uniting the colonies in the face of increasingly oppressive British rule.