Massachusetts

Crowds descend on Lexington for 250th anniversary of American Revolution

The Lex250 celebration includes a reenactment of the Battle of Lexington Saturday

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History takes center stage this weekend as the shot heard round the world is commemorated.

The British are coming, and so are the crowds.

Hundreds of people will be in Lexington, Massachusetts, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.

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The Battle of Lexington, the war's first major battle, will be reenacted with muskets and minutemen on Saturday.

"We've been planning this for over seven years, and to have it all come together once at once is just really phenomenal," Lexington Select Board Chair Doug Lucente said Friday.

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The minutemen and redcoats will face off once again on the Lexington Battle Green on Saturday, 250 years after their historic clash that opened the Revolutionary War. Here's what to expect from the festivities, in organizers' own words. Plus, get the forecast for Saturday.

The opening salvo of the war was fired a quarter of a millennium ago on the Lexington Battle Green, prompting British regulars to respond.

"Somebody fires a shot — we'll never know who it was," said Nancy Lynch of the Historic Buckman Tavern. "They shoot, without orders from their officers, and kill eight Lexington militia and wound 10."

People traveled from all over for the event. NBC10 Boston spoke with a group of kids from Yuma, Arizona, who have only read about the battle in books.

"I think it's really great to see what you've been learning about," one said. "All these places, you see them in the history books, but you don't really see them in Arizona."

Hundreds of people gathered in Boston Friday night to celebrate a quarter of a millennium since Paul Revere warned that the British were coming.

Modern technology will give everyone a chance to see Saturday's dramatic reenactment of what happened April 19, 1775.

Friday night, Boston had its own celebration to mark the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere's midnight ride. He took off to warn the minutemen in Lexington and Concord that the British troops were on their way.

NBC10 Boston will be carrying Lex250 events starting Saturday morning. If you're heading into town, you can see a list of road closures and parking restrictions here.

Click here to see a full list of events planned in Massachusetts.

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