I SUPPOSE on the whole we in Worcestershire are a fairly tolerant lot, so we’d probably be prepared to take the rap for creating America - the land of Donald Trump, Mickey Mouse, George Custer and Kim Kardashian.

That doesn’t mean discovering but being responsible for the emergence of the country of Uncle Sam and mom’s apple pie.

Because on March 5, 1770 an event took place that changed history.

Private Hugh White, of the 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot, later to become the 1st Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment, was on guard at the Boston Customs House in Massachusetts when he got into an altercation with some locals.

Accounts differ as to what happened next but it was clear that White, fearing for his safety, called for help. Captain Thomas Preston responded with six other men and this led to an escalation of tensions which left five men dead and became known as the Boston Massacre. The incident is credited with being one of the main catalysts for the eventual American War of Independence.

Following the gunfire all seven soldiers, including Preston, stood trial for the deaths of five civilians. The soldiers were represented by future president of America John Adams. The five charged with murder were acquitted, while two convicted of manslaughter merely had their thumbs branded.

The date is recorded in Worcester’s History and Heritage Calendar and here are a few more interesting events in March over the centuries.

March 1, 1847: Thomas Brock was born. The Victorian age usually brings to mind images of steam, progress and Empire, but rarely art. However, the era brought about great movements in art and one of the great sculptors of the time came from Worcester. Thomas Brock attended the Government School of Design in Worcester before going on to apprentice at Worcester Royal Porcelain. His career took off when, following the death of his teacher John Foley, he finished the statue of Prince Albert that sits at London’s Albert Memorial. From there his reputation soared and completed notable commissions such as Queen Victoria's coin effigy, the statue of William Gladstone at Westminster Abbey, Queen Victoria's statue outside Worcester Shirehall and, most famously, the Victoria monument outside Buckingham Palace.

March 11, 1958: Buddy Holly and the Crickets played the Gaumont Theatre, Worcester. The tour, which spanned the entirety of March that year, had Holly and The Crickets play 25 back-to-back shows from the 1st to the 25th and showed the popularity of rock ‘n’ roll. Tickets to see the American idol would have set you back about 55p then (about £30 today) and there were two shows, one starting at 6.15pm and the other 8.30pm. It would be the only time Buddy Holly toured the UK before being killed in a plane crash less than a year later at the age of only 22.

March 14, 2005: Acorns Children’s Hospice in Bath Road, Worcester, opened its doors to children and families. Officially titled Acorns Children’s Hospice for the Three Counties, it was the third Acorns, the first being Acorns in Birmingham, Selly Oak, in 1988, and the second Acorns in the Black Country, Walsall, in 1999. Acorns provides lifeline care, love and laughter to around 230 local children and their families every year. Its dedicated teams supply specialist clinical care to babies, children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions across Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, as well as vital emotional and practical support for their whole family. The Worcester project owed much to June Sayce and her husband Willie, who donated land known as the Donkey Field in Bath Road for the site, and city businessman and benefactor Cecil Duckworth who gave £1m to get the appeal fund going. It eventually cost more than £4m to build and kit out the hospice.

March in 1889 was a very significant month in local business history for that was when Royal Worcester took over Grainger's Worcester Porcelain. Grainger's had been set up in 1801 by Thomas Grainger and quickly garnered a reputation for producing fine, elaborate, porcelain popular with a growing class of wealthy industrialists. After a fire in 1809 a new factory was built at St Martin's Gate where porcelain continued to be made until 1901. Royal Worcester, following the takeover after George Grainger's death in 1889, eventually moved all production to its Severn Street factory but continued to use many of Grainger's designs well into the 20th century.

In fact, March has proved an important month for Royal Worcester. In March 1946 Charles William Dyson Perrins established the Perrins Trust, a trust Worcester citizens benefit from today. If you have ever been to the Museum at Royal Worcester, it is thanks to CW Dyson Perrins. Of Lea & Perrins lineage, he was a remarkable man. Philanthropist, mayor, high sheriff, businessman and above all a collector, Dyson Perrins accumulated many things but chief among them was porcelain, specifically Worcester porcelain. As chairman of Royal Worcester from 1901, he guided the company through difficult years and in 1946 founded the Perrins Trust, merging his own private collection with that of the museum. Thereby preserving a great collection of Royal Worcester porcelain which is kept at the museum in Worcester today.

Then on March 1, 2001 Queen Elizabeth II visited the Royal Worcester factory to mark the company’s 250th anniversary. Accompanied by Prince Philip, she was greeted by the public and pupils of neighbouring King's School and unveiled a plaque commemorating the event before lunching at the Guildhall. However it wasn’t her first visit, for in 1951 and minus Philip, the then Princess Elizabeth had toured the factory and opened its museum.