If you want to lay claim to it fine, but it was not the first one according to the link I sent you:
January 24, Binghamton New York - Trevor Leach organized a Tea Party protest, attended by almost two dozen people, in response to newly proposed obesity taxes on beverages in New York.[1]
So, I read the article you linked, 2/12/10, & I don’t see where it has Jan. 16? date in the article
Says: The Tea Party movement got its start on Feb. 27, 2009, when people in 15 U.S. cities, including Dallas, held protests against government intrusion. (The Dallas gathering was 300 people strong.) This Feb. 27 — the North Texas offshoot’s one-year anniversary — thousands of Texans concerned about the “unrestrained growth in the size and scope of government,” as a press release puts it, are expected to gather at Dallas City Hall.