It didn't take long Monday for speculation to ramp up online over the timing of the Boston Marathon bombings, which came on Patriots Day, a Masschusetts state holiday commemorating the opening battles of the American Revolutionary War.

The American uprising against the British in Lexington, Massachusetts, was on April 19, 1775, but Patriots Day is celebrated in Massachusetts and Maine on the third Monday in April, falling this year on April 15 [the hundredth anniversary of income taxation].

"It's a day that celebrates the free and fiercely independent spirit that this great American city of Boston has reflected from the earliest days of our nation," President Obama said Monday, a few hours after a pair of bombs rocked the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing at least three and injuring dozens more.