This Month in New Bern History – August 2020 By Claudia Houston, New Bern Historical Society   New Bern is well known for its many significant “firsts” – North Carolina’s first capital, first printing press, first newspaper, first published book, and first postal service, among others.  But one “famous first” in August of 1774 had a tremendous impact upon the future formation of the state of North Carolina as well as the United States of America.  What was this historic event? To set the stage, the colonial resistance movement against the British government culminated with the Boston Tea Party in December of 1773, which greatly angered Great Britain.  By June of 1774, Parliament passed a series of punitive laws in retaliation that became known ...