The "shot heard round the world" was the first shot fired by an American in 1775, in the war that became known as the American Revolution. The Americans had a store of arms and ammunition at Lexington ( Massachusetts ) and another at Concord. They had been training as a militia, and were supposed to be able to turn out in one minute--hence the name "minute men". The British found out about the American store of weapons, and their army marched out to seize the American's guns and ammunition. The "minute men" were informed of the movements of the British, by the famous "midnight ride of Paul Revere" . When the British army got to Lexington and Concord, the Americans were waiting for them. The British retreated to Boston, and the Americans kept their arms.
Two poems tell this story--"Concord Hymn", by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
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