The date was April 19, 1775. The commander was Sir Thomas Gage, a Lieutenant General in the British Army and a veteran of Fontenoy, Culloden, Flanders, and Montreal (amongst other campaigns). The targeted town was Concord, Massachusetts. The ensuing war became popularly known as the American Revolution.
Several decades later, Ralph Waldo Emerson would write these words:
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;
Here once the embattled farmers stood;
And fired the shot heard round the world.
Nowadays, so-called "conservatives" claim the mantle of patriotism as their own, and denigrate "blue states" like Massachusetts as unpatriotic if not actually disloyal to America. How quickly, and conveniently, they forget the truth.