Boston

capital city of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and seat of Suffolk County

118 dated entries naming Boston, drawn from 83 separate years between 650 BCE and 2013 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as Boston, Massachusetts in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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7th century BC

650 BCEWine pitcher (oenochoe) from Rhodes is begun, finished in 625 BC. It is now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.source

5th century BC

470 BCEPan Painter makes a "bell krater" (an earthenware piece that is used to mix water and wine) which has a red-figure decoration of Artemis slaying Actaeon. It is now preserved at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (approximate date).source
450 BCEThe statue Woman and maid in the style of Achilles Painter, white-ground and black-figure decoration on a lekythos, with additional painting in tempera, starts being made (finished about ten years later). It is now kept at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (approximate date).source

17th century

1630July 30 – John Winthrop helps in founding a church in Massachusetts, which will later become known as First Church in Boston.source
1630September 7 – Governor John Winthrop passes a resolution declaring "that Trimontaine" on Shawmut peninsula shall be called Boston from now on.source
1630September 17 (September 7 Old Style) – The settlement of Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony is founded.source
1631February 5 – Puritan leader Roger Williams arrives in Boston.source
16315 February – Puritan minister and theologian Roger Williams emigrates to Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.source
1635First secondary school established in the North American colonies, the English High and Latin School at Boston.source
1635April 23 – Boston Latin School, the oldest school in what will become the United States of America, is founded in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1638April 3 – Preacher John Wheelwright is banished from Boston and founds Exeter, New Hampshire.source
1675June 26 – The Wampanoag warriors begin a three-day assault on English colonial towns in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in North America, with an assault on the villages of Rehoboth and Taunton. At the same time, Massachusetts troops march to Swansea, to join the Plymouth Colony troops. The warriors elude colonial troops and leave Mount Hope for Pocasset, Massachusetts. The Mohegan tribe travels to Boston, in order to assist the English colonists against the Wampanoags.source
1676The first coffeehouse in North America opens in Boston.source
1676February 14 – Metacomet and his Wampanoags attack Northampton, Massachusetts; meanwhile, the Massachusetts Council debates whether a wall should be erected around Boston.source
1676July 27 – Nearly 200 Nipmuc tribesmen surrender to the English colonists in Boston.source
1676August 28 – The Irish Donation of 1676 is shipped from Dublin, to relieve Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.source
1676August 28 – Irish Donation of 1676 is shipped from Dublin to relieve Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.source
1676November 27 – A fire in Boston, Massachusetts, is accidentally set by a careless and sleepy apprentice, who drops a lighted candle, or leaves it too near some combustible substance; this is the largest fire known at this time in the district. The Rev. Increase Mather’s church, dwelling and a portion of his personal library are destroyed.source
1677January 21 – The first medical publication in America (a pamphlet on smallpox) is produced in Boston.source
1678January 27 – The first fire engine company in North America goes into service in Boston.source
1679November 27 – A fire in Boston, Massachusetts, burns all of the warehouses, 80 houses, and all of the ships in the dockyards.source
1686December 20 – Edmund Andros arrives in Boston to become the British Governor of the newly created Dominion of New England, which includes most of the what are now the U.S. states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and much of the eastern portion of New York. The unpopular Andros, who reigns as a dictator after being appointed by King James II, is driven out of office in 1689 after the overthrow of James, and the Dominion of New England is broken up into its constituent colonies.source
1688November 16 – exiled Irish Catholic widow "Goody" Ann Glover becomes the last person hanged in Boston, Massachusetts, as a witch.source
1689Boston suffers a smallpox epidemic.source
1689April 18 – Boston revolt: Unpopular New England Governor Sir Edmund Andros and other officials are overthrown by a "mob" of Bostonians. Andros, an appointee of James II of England, is disliked for his support of the Church of England and revocation of various colonial charters.source
168918 April – Boston Revolt: Governor of the Dominion of New England Sir Edmund Andros and other officials are overthrown by a mob in Boston.source
1690September 25 – The only issue of Publick Occurrences is published in Boston, Massachusetts, before being suppressed by the colonial authorities.source
1699July 6 – Scottish-born pirate captain William Kidd is arrested and imprisoned in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, after being tricked by his former patron New York Governor Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont.source

18th century

1717October 18 – Trial begins in Boston for six pirates who had survived the April 26 wreck of Samuel Bellamy's ships Whydah and the Mary Anne. Five of them (John Brown, Hendrick Quintor, Thomas Baker, Peter Cornelius Hoof and John Shuan) are convicted on October 22 of piracy and robbery and hanged on November 15.source
1718July–August – the first ships carrying Scotch-Irish emigrants from Ulster to North America arrive in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1721April 21 – The deadliest outbreak of smallpox in the history of Boston begins when the British ship HMS Sea Horse arrives in Boston Harbor with a crew of sailors who had survived a smallpox epidemic. One of the Seahorse crew who had cleared quarantine develops symptoms the next day and infects other people in a lodging house. Over the next 10 months, 5,759 cases of smallpox are recorded in Boston and 844 people die of the disease.source
1737July 17 – The British ship Catherine founders in a storm off of Nova Scotia's Cape Sable Island during its voyage from Ireland to Boston, killing 98 of the 201 people on board.source
1743October 21 – Benjamin Franklin's view of a lunar eclipse from Philadelphia is spoiled by a rainstorm; several days later, he learns that residents of Boston received the same storm hours after the eclipse, demonstrating that weather moves from west to east.source
1745April 4 (March 24, old style) – Under the command of British Army General William Pepperrell, the first 4,300 American colonists in the New England Army depart Boston to liberate the French North American colony of Nova Scotia. The flotilla of 80 military transports and 18 armed escorts is scattered by a storm, but the first troops disembark at Canso, Nova Scotia, on April 15 and begin training while waiting for the arrival of the Royal Navy squadron commanded by Admiral Peter Warren.source
1746August 30: Duc d'Anville Expedition, led by a French aristocrat, arrives at Chebucto (now Halifax Harbour) with 13,000 men in 70 ships. His orders from the King of France: Expel the British from Nova Scotia, then burn Boston and sack New England. Disease and dissension within the command structure defeats d'Anville's force, which despite its formidable strength has no discernible effect on the course of events in North America.source
1747November 17–19 – The Knowles Riot breaks out in Boston, Massachusetts, protesting impressment into the British Royal Navy.source
1760March 20 – The Great Fire of Boston, Massachusetts, destroys 349 buildings and marks the biggest conflagration in the American colonies up to this time.source
1764August – protests begin in Boston, Massachusetts against Britain's colonial policies.source
1765August 14 – In protest of the Stamp Act, Bostonians attack the home of official Andrew Oliver.source
1765August 26 – In protest of the Stamp Act, Bostonians destroy the home of lieutenant governor Thomas Hutchinson.source
1767October 28 – A boycott, of 38 types of goods imported from England, is resolved by Boston merchants meeting at Faneuil Hall as a response to the taxes imposed by Great Britain, and one of the first "Buy American" campaigns is started in order to encourage the purchase of items manufactured and produced in the 13 colonies. Copies of the agreement, to be signed by participating merchants, are circulated beyond the Province of Massachusetts Bay to other colonial provinces in New England.source
176728 October – a boycott of 38 types of goods imported from England is resolved by merchants in Boston, Massachusetts, as a response to the taxes imposed by Britain.source
1768Citizens of Boston, Massachusetts, refuse to quarter British troops.source
176822–29 September – The Massachusetts Convention of Towns, assembling in Boston, resolves on a written objection to the impending arrival of British troops rather than more militant action but causes panic in London.source
1768September 22–29 – The Massachusetts Convention of Towns, assembling in Boston, resolves on a written objection to the impending arrival of British troops rather than more militant action but causes panic in London.source
1770February 22 – Christopher Seider, an 11-year-old boy in Boston in the British Province of Massachusetts Bay, is shot and killed by a colonial official, Ebenezer Richardson. The funeral sets off anti-British protests that lead to the massacre days later.source
1773November 10 – Four ships – the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, the Beaver and the William – depart Britain for America, carrying the first Indian tea to be subject to the newly enacted taxes. The William is lost in a storm; the Dartmouth is the first ship to reach Boston, docking on November 28.source
1774January 27 – An angry crowd in Boston, Massachusetts seizes, tars, and feathers British customs collector and Loyalist John Malcolm, for striking a boy and a shoemaker, George Hewes, with his cane.source
177431 March – American Revolutionary War: Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed in the Boston Port Act.source
1776March 4 – American Revolutionary War: American Patriots capture Dorchester Heights, dominating the port of Boston.source
1776March 17 – American Revolutionary War: Threatened by Patriot cannons on Dorchester Heights, the British evacuate Boston, ending the 11‑month Siege of Boston.source
1780March 11 – General Lafayette embarks on French frigate Hermione at Rochefort, arriving in Boston on April 28, carrying the news that he has secured French men and ships to reinforce the American side in the American Revolutionary War.source
1783March 5 – The last celebration of Massacre Day is held in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1783March 5 – Last celebration of Massacre Day in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1786March 1 – The Ohio Company of Associates is organized by five businessmen at a meeting at the Bunch-of-Grapes Tavern in Boston to purchase land from the United States government to form settlements in the modern-day U.S. state of Ohio.source
1789January 21 – The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts. The anonymous author is William Hill Brown.source
1789January 21 – William Hill Brown's anonymous sentimental epistolary novel The Power of Sympathy: or, The Triumph of Nature, usually considered the first American novel, is published in Boston.source
1791April 29–May 8 – The first American ships reach Japan, brigantine Lady Washington captained by John Kendrick of Boston, and the brig Grace.source
1792The State Street Corporation is founded, in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1792May 10 – Union Bank is founded in Boston. In 1925 it merges with State Street Trust Company, now known as the State Street Corporationsource

19th century

1809December 30 – Wearing masks at balls is forbidden in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1812January – The New England Journal of Medicine is first published in Boston by Dr John Collins Warren as the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery and the Collateral Branches of Medical Science.source
1813June 1 – The English frigate "Shannon" takes the "Chesapeake," in 15 minutes, off Boston.source
1815December 25 – The Handel and Haydn Society, the oldest continuously performing arts organization in the United States, gives its first performance, in Boston.source
1815December 25 – The Handel and Haydn Society, the oldest continuously performing arts organization in the U.S., gives its first performance, at the King's Chapel in Boston.source
1822March 19 – Boston, Massachusetts, is incorporated as a city following a vote.source
1831January 1 – William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing The Liberator, an anti-slavery newspaper, in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1831January 1 – Abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing The Liberator, an antislavery newspaper, in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1834August 11–12 – Ursuline Convent riots: A convent of Ursuline nuns is burned near Boston.source
1837The Little, Brown and Company publishing house opens its doors in Boston.source
1837June 11 – The Broad Street Riot occurs in Boston, Massachusetts, fueled by ethnic tensions between the Irish and the Yankees.source
1839November 27 – The American Statistical Association is founded in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1841John Augustus develops the concept of probation in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1843Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" is published in The Pioneer, a Boston magazine.source
1845Halifax native Samuel Cunard chooses Boston as the western terminus for his steamships.source
1845May – Frederick Douglass's autobiographical Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is published by the Boston Anti-Slavery Society.source
1847March 28 – The Massachusetts Donation of 1847 for Ireland sails from Boston on USS Jamestown.source
1848November 1 – In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, the Boston Female Medical School (which later merges with Boston University School of Medicine), opens.source
1848November 1 – The first medical school for women, The Boston Female Medical School (which later merges with Boston University School of Medicine), opens in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1850March 16 – Nathaniel Hawthorne's historical novel The Scarlet Letter is published in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1851January 23 – The flip of a coin, subsequently named the Portland Penny, determines whether a new city in the Oregon Territory will be named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning.source
1851February 15 – In Boston, Massachusetts, members of the anti-slavery Boston Vigilance Committee rescue fugitive slave Shadrach Minkins from a courtroom, following his arrest by U.S. marshals.source
1852End of the Great Famine. In the period it has lasted since 1845, one million people have emigrated from Ireland. The Irish now make up a quarter of the population of Liverpool, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore; and a half of Toronto.source
1852March 20 – Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published in book form in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1861November 8 – The Trent Affair: British packet steamer Trent stopped by United States warship in international waters. Two Confederate diplomats taken off and imprisoned in Boston.source
1863May 28 – American Civil War: The 54th Massachusetts, the first African-American regiment, leaves Boston to fight for the Union.source
1867July 17 – In Boston, Massachusetts, the Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established as the first dental school in the United States.source
1869July 20 – Children's Hospital Boston is founded by Dr. Francis Henry Brown and other Harvard Medical School graduates, as a 20-bed facility in the South End of Boston, Massachusetts.source
1872March 4 – The Boston Globe is founded in Boston, Massachusetts, as the largest newspaper of the New England region.source
1872November 9 – Great Boston Fire of 1872: In Boston, Massachusetts, a large fire begins to burn on Lincoln Street (the 2-day disaster destroys about 65 acres of the city, 776 buildings, much of the financial district and causes US$60 million in damage).source
1872November 9 – Great Boston Fire of 1872: In Boston, Massachusetts, a large fire begins to burn on Lincoln Street. The two-day event destroys about 65 acres (260,000 m 2 ) of city, 776 buildings, much of the financial district and causes US$60 million in damage.source
1875October 25 – The first performance of the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is given in Boston, Massachusetts, with Hans von Bülow as soloist.source
1877April 15 – First telephone line installed between Boston and Somerville, Massachusetts.source
1878Albert Augustus Pope's Pope Manufacturing Company begins producing the Columbia high-wheel bicycle outside Boston, signalling the beginning of a bicycle craze in the U.S.source
1879April 12 – Mary Baker Eddy founds the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1879April 12 – Mary Baker Eddy founds the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston.source
1883February 28 – The first vaudeville theater is opened, in Boston, Massachusetts.source
18861-30 June - Numerous Norwegian emigrants arrived in North American ports aboard transatlantic steamships, including New York, Quebec, Boston, Philadelphia, and Halifax.source
1898October 6 – The Sinfonia Club, later to become the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity, is founded at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston by Ossian Everett Mills.source
1898November 26 – A two-day blizzard known as the Portland Gale piles snow in Boston, severely impacting the Massachusetts fishing industry and several coastal New England towns.source
1898November 26 – A 2-day blizzard known as the Portland Gale piles snow in Boston, Massachusetts, and severely impacts the Massachusetts fishing industry and several coastal New England towns.source

20th century

1901October 29 – In Amherst, New York, nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine; she will confess to at least 31 killings.source
1908September 28 – Classes begin at Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts, established under the terms of Franklin's will.source
1912April 20 – Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts opens.source
1919January 15 – Great Molasses Flood: A wave of molasses released from an exploding storage tank sweeps through Boston, Massachusetts, killing 21 people and injuring 150.source
1928October 12 – An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children's Hospital, Boston.source
1928November 17 – Boston Garden opens in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1942November 28 – Cocoanut Grove fire: A fire in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, Massachusetts, kills 491.source
1954December 23 – J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray perform the world's first successful kidney transplantation, in Boston, Massachusetts.source
1954December 23 – The first successful kidney transplant is performed by Joseph E. Murray, MD in Boston from one identical twin to his brother. Murray will later share the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his "[discovery] concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease".source
1961July 31 – At Fenway Park in Boston, the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game tie occurs, when the game is stopped in the 9th inning due to rain (the only tie until 2002).source
1961July 31 – At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurs, when the game is stopped in the 9th inning due to rain (the only tie until 2002 in MLB All-Star Game history).source
1973November 3 – Pan Am flight 160, a Boeing 707-321C, crashes at Logan International Airport, Boston, killing three people.source
1979October 1–7 – Pope John Paul II makes a six-city visit to the United States, starting in Boston.source
1987January 4 – 1987 Maryland train collision: An Amtrak train en route from Washington, D.C. to Boston collides with Conrail engines at Chase, Maryland, United States, killing 16 people.source
1990March 18 – Twelve paintings and a Shang dynasty vase, collectively worth $100 to $300 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts by two thieves posing as police officers.source

21st century

2007January 31 – Boston, Massachusetts, United States faces a hoax bomb scare, as a result of LED placards of Ignignokt and Err from Aqua Teen Hunger Force being mistaken as an improvised explosive device.source
2013April 15 – Boston Marathon bombing: Two Chechnya-born Islamist brothers (one a United States citizen) detonate 2 bombs at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States, killing 3 people and injuring 264 others.source