Founding of Boston (1630)
Puritan settlers under John Winthrop moved from Charlestown to the Shawmut Peninsula in September 1630, renaming it Boston.
Enter this moment →Founding of Harvard College (1636)
The Great and General Court voted £400 in 1636 to establish a college at Newtowne — the first institution of higher learning in English America.
Enter this moment →First American Newspaper (1704)
On April 24, 1704, postmaster John Campbell published the Boston News-Letter — the first continuously published newspaper in British America. Boston has not stopped printing since.
Enter this moment →The Inoculation Experiment (1721)
During the 1721 smallpox epidemic, Onesimus — an African man enslaved by Cotton Mather — described the inoculation practiced in West Africa. Dr. Zabdiel Boylston acted on it over violent opposition: the first inoculation campaign in the Western world, and it worked.
Enter this moment →Boston Massacre (1770)
On March 5, 1770, British soldiers fired into a crowd outside the Old State House, killing five — including Crispus Attucks, often called the first casualty of the Revolution.
Enter this moment →Boston Becomes a City (1822)
After 192 years of town meetings, Boston incorporated as a city on March 4, 1822 — about 43,000 people, soon to triple as the harbor filled with famine ships and the Back Bay with gravel.
Enter this moment →The Liberator First Published (1831)
On January 1, 1831, William Lloyd Garrison printed the first issue of The Liberator in Boston: "I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD." It ran until slavery died.
Enter this moment →Great Boston Fire (1872)
On November 9–10, 1872, fire destroyed 776 buildings across 65 downtown acres — still the costliest fire in Boston’s history, and the catalyst for the modern downtown.
Enter this moment →The First World Series (1903)
On October 1, 1903, the Boston Americans hosted Pittsburgh at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in the first modern World Series game — and won the Series, five games to three. The site is now Northeastern’s campus.
Enter this moment →Cocoanut Grove Fire (1942)
On November 28, 1942, fire swept the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, killing 492 people — the deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history. The reforms that followed — outward-opening doors, lit exits, occupancy limits, and burn medicine pioneered at Boston hospitals — have saved lives ever since.
Enter this moment →Operation Sail: The Tall Ships (1976)
On July 11, 1976, the great square-riggers of the world sailed into Boston Harbor for the Bicentennial, and Queen Elizabeth II landed at the waterfront days later — the biggest civic celebration in the city’s history. Sail Boston returns for the Semiquincentennial in July 2026.
Enter this moment →Marathon Bombing & One Boston (2013)
On April 15, 2013, two bombs at the Marathon finish line killed three people and wounded hundreds. The city’s response — runners who kept running to give blood, the next year’s defiant race — became its modern self-definition. One Boston Day marks it each April 15.
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