March 31 1774:
"On 31, March 1774, The King provided his Royal assent and the Boston Port Act ( a.k.a one of the Coercive Acts or "the Intolerable Acts" to later generations) became law. The law closed the port of Boston to punish Massachusetts for the destruction of the tea. Boston was one of the two largest ports in America and almost the exclusive source of income, food and goods for the people of that town. Shutting it down in order to extract payment for the damages of the tea party would be like the Government shutting down your place of business, utilities service and grocery markets until you paid a fine. This in spite of the fact that the majority of Boston citizens were not involved in the destruction of the tea."