On Friday, April 18^th, 2025 at 7pm, members of the 24^th Connecticut Militia re-enactment group will light two lanterns in the Nathan Denison House, 35 Denison Street, Forty-Fort, as part of the nationwide “Two Lights for Tomorrow” program, that celebrates the 250^th Anniversary of the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and William Dawes, as part of the ongoing celebration of America’s semiquincentennial. The lantern lighting ceremony is free and open to all.

Two Lights for Tomorrow is a nationwide initiative to commence the celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States of America. The famous ride of Revere and Dawes occurred overnight on April 18 – 19, 1775. Two Lights for Tomorrow originated out of multi-state collaboration at A Common Cause to All in Williamsburg and uses the imagery of that shining light 250 years ago as a uniting call to action today for our fellow citizens, no matter where they are, to commemorate and remind ourselves that our history is about working together for a better tomorrow.

On the evening of April 18, 1775, allies of Revere and Dawes climbed the Old North Church’s steeple and held high two lanterns as a signal that British forces were marching to Lexington and Concord “by sea” across the Charles River. Those two signal lanterns set a complex alarm system into motion, a system that included many messengers fanning out across Massachusetts to spread the warning that night. Ultimately, when the British arrived in Lexington the next morning, they were met by local militia members, and the shots fired that morning ignited the American Revolutionary War.