The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

The "shot heard 'round the world" is a phrase that has come to represent several historical incidents that mark the beginning of the American Revolutionary War in the battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.

Boston, April 18, 1775

(BOSTON) - Today is the anniversary of the famous midnight ride of Paul Revere, special thanks to Richard E. Nauman for submitting The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march

By land or sea from the town tonight,

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch

Of the North Church tower as a signal light,

One, if by land, and two, if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm,

For the country folk to be up and to arm."

It was on this day, April 19, 1775…

The "shot heard 'round the world" is a phrase that has come to represent several historical incidents that mark the beginning of the American Revolutionary War in the battles of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. This armed conflict started a chain of events which subsequently led to the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Thirteen Colonies achieving independence from Britain. 

Submitted by Richard E. Nauman