Editing 1774 (section)

=== January–March ===
* [[January 21]] – [[Mustafa III]], [[List of Ottoman Sultans|Sultan]] of the [[Ottoman Empire]], dies and is succeeded by his brother [[Abdul Hamid I]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyorb.com/events/date/1774 |title=Historical Events for Year 1774 &#124; OnThisDay.com |website=Historyorb.com |year=1774 |access-date=2017-04-05}}</ref> 
* [[January 27]]
** An angry crowd in [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]] seizes, tars, and feathers British customs collector and [[John Malcolm (Loyalist)|Loyalist John Malcolm]], for striking a boy and a shoemaker, [[George Robert Twelves Hewes|George Hewes]], with his cane.
** British industrialist [[John Wilkinson (industrialist)|John Wilkinson]] [[patent]]s a method for [[Boring (manufacturing)|boring]] [[cannon]] from the solid, subsequently utilised for accurate boring of [[steam engine]] cylinders.<ref>{{cite ODNB|first=J. R.|last=Harris|title=Wilkinson, John (1728–1808)|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/29428|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29428|access-date=2011-01-14}}</ref>
* [[February 3]] – The [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council of Great Britain]], as advisors to King George III, votes for the King's abolition of free land grants of North American lands.  Henceforward, land is to be sold at auction to the highest bidder.<ref>Woody Holton, ''Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia'' (University of North Carolina Press Books, 2011) p32</ref> 
* [[February 6]] – The [[Parlement of Paris]] votes a sentence of civil degradation, depriving [[Pierre Beaumarchais]] of all rights and duties of citizenship.<ref>"Beaumarchais", in ''The Cornhill Magazine'' (August 1884) p142</ref> 
* [[February 7]] –  The volunteer fire company of [[Trenton, New Jersey]], predecessor to the paid Trenton Fire Department created in 1892, is founded.  In 1905, at 131 years, it claims to be the oldest continuously serving department in the U.S.<ref>"Fire News of the Week", in ''Fire and Water Engineering'' (December 9, 1905) p337</ref>
* [[February 24]] –  The [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]] House of Representatives votes, 92 to 8, to impeach Superior Court Chief Justice [[Peter Oliver (loyalist)|Peter Oliver]], but Provincial Governor [[Thomas Hutchinson (governor)|Thomas Hutchinson]] refuses to allow the trial to proceed.<ref>Clifford Kenyon Shipton, ''New England Life in the Eighteenth Century: Representative Biographies from Sibley's Harvard Graduates'' (Harvard University Press, 1995) p324</ref> 
* [[March 10]] – The ''Boston Journal'' makes the first reference to the "[[Flag of the United States|Stars and Stripes]]" flag to symbolize the American colonies, reporting that "The American ensign now sparkles a door which shall shortly flame from the skies."<ref name="Carruth1774"/>
* [[March 31]] – [[Intolerable Acts]]: The [[British Parliament]] passes the [[Boston Port Act]], closing the port of Boston, Massachusetts, as punishment for the [[Boston Tea Party]].<ref name="Carruth1774">Gordon Carruth, ed., ''The Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates''  3rd Edition (Thomas Y. Crowell, 1962) pp80-82</ref>