Who Fired the Shot Heard ‘Round the World?

The world was permanently changed on April 19, 1775. The Revolutionary War was officially declared to have begun on the day of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first military clashes between the British and Americans. Thanks to a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the initial barrage of gunfire that signaled the start of the conflict is today known as the "shot heard round the world," but who actually fired it?

Unfortunately, there was so much confusion and commotion during the opening conflict that nobody really knows who or even which side fired the first shot. Around five in the morning that day, a force of 800 British regulars under the command of General Thomas Gage marched into Lexington with orders to capture all the firearms and gunpowder kept at Concord.

When the British forces stormed the town square, a militia company of around 70 men scattered. The fatal shot was then fired by someone, somewhere. The regulars opened fire on the colonists because they believed they were under attack, killing eight militiamen before moving on to Concord. And thus the conflict started.