But then came the Easter Rising, Sinn Fein's victories in the 1918 election, the formation of the First Dail and the War of Irish Independence.

BBC: Home Rule and the Ulster Covenant

The first skirmishes in America's war of independence were at Concord and Lexington in 1775 and the decisive battle was fought at Yorktown in 1781, six years later (though the articles of peace were not signed until 1783).

ECONOMIST: Past and present dangers

Within months, Nigeria was engulfed in independent Africa's first humanitarian catastrophe: a war for the independence of Mr. Achebe's Igbo homeland that left one million people dead, most of them children who starved.

WSJ: Chinua Achebe, Famed Nigerian Writer, Dies

Dr. Benjamin Rush, a Pennsylvanian who signed the Declaration of Independence, wrote that the war was only the first step in the Revolution's destiny to transform America and the world.

WSJ: What Life Was Like in 1776

Eritrea emerged from its long war of independence in 1993 only to plunge once again into military conflict, first with Yemen and then with Ethiopia.

BBC: Holocaust Memorial Day in Leeds marked by teenagers' play

The photojournalist, the country's first woman to rise to prominence in her field, chronicled India's tumultuous midcentury of liberation, war and independence.

WSJ: Photos of India to Go on View in New York

Having read every eyewitness account of what happened there in 1775 that I could find when writing a book about America's war of independence, I would argue that there is pretty good evidence that the locals fired first - albeit when the British redcoats were running towards them, intent upon assault.

BBC: Boston's past lessons on the truths people believe