Publication of 'The American Crisis'

Date: December 19, 1776 • Location: London, United Kingdom

Thomas Paine published the first in a series of pamphlets entitled The American Crisis, opening with the line: "These are the times that try men's souls."

Thomas Paine was an English-born American Founding Father, inventor, political philosopher, and statesman. He authored Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783), two of the most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution, and he helped to inspire the colonial era patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Great Britain. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era ideals of human rights.