The Handy Boston Answer Book. Samuel Willard Crompton

Queen Anne’s War begins 1708 A list of Boston street names appears for the first time 1711 British fail to conquer Québec City 1713 Queen Anne’s War comes to an end 1721 Boston suffers a terrible epidemic of smallpox 1722 First map of Boston streets (the so-called Burgis Map) is printed 1723 Benjamin Franklin runs from home, settles in Philadelphia 1739 Reverend George Whitefield comes to Boston for the first time 1740 Generally believed to be the coldest winter of the eighteenth century 1744 King George’s War begins 1745 New Englanders capture Fortress Louisburg 1747 Knowles Riots in Boston 1748 Britain returns Louisburg to France 1754 George Washington starts the French and Indian War 1755 Boston suffers a powerful earthquake 1759 Québec City falls to the British 1760 Montréal falls to the British. King George II dies and is succeeded by his grandson 1763 French and Indian War ends with Peace of Paris 1765 George III and Parliament place the Stamp Act on American colonies 1766 Stamp Act revoked 1767 Townshend Acts places on American colonies 1768 First British troops arrive in Boston 1769 Tensions between troops and townspeople 1770 Boston Massacre takes place on March 5 British soldiers are tried in November 1772 HMS Gaspee taken and burned in Rhode Island 1773 Parliament passes the Tea Act Bostonians carry out the Tea Party 1774 Parliament passes the Coercive Acts; General Gage comes to Boston 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19 Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17 Washington takes command on July 3 Benedict Arnold leaves for Canada on September 10 1776 Henry Knox brings cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to Cambridge Washington seizes Dorchester Heights, on March 5 British evacuate Boston on March 17 1780 The Massachusetts state constitution is written and approved 1781 French fleet comes to Boston 1786 First bridge over the Charles River is completed 1789 John Adams of Quincy is elected the first vice president of the United States 1790 Population of Boston is 18,038 1796 John Adams is elected the second president of the United States 1798 USS Constitution is launched in Boston Harbor 1800 President John Adams fails of reelection and returns to Braintree 1806 First African American church founded on Joy Street near the State House 1812 Massachusetts Governor Caleb Strong opposes the War of 1812 USS Constitution meets and defeats HMS Guerriere 1815 Boston cheers the end of the War of 1812 Boston is attacked by the Gale of September 1815 1817 President James Monroe visits Boston, inaugurating the Era of Good Feelings 1821 Two dams are constructed, sectioning off much of what later became the “Back Bay” 1822 Boston incorporated as a city 1824 John Quincy Adams becomes the sixth president of the United States 1826 Lafayette comes to town for the dedication of the Bunker Hill Monument John Adams and his longtime rival, Thomas Jefferson, die on the same day, July 4 1828 John Quincy Adams fails to get reelected; he returns home to Braintree 1831 William Lloyd Garrison brings out the first issue of The Liberator 1834 The Ursuline convent in Charlestown is burned by a mob 1837 Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers “The American Scholar” speech at Harvard Commencement 1860 John Albion Andrews elected governor of Commonwealth of Massachusetts 1861 The Civil War finds John Albion Andrews as governor of Massachusetts Many Harvard men enlist in the Union Army M.I.T. receives its charter from the Massachusetts Great and General Court 1863 Two African American regiments are recruited in and around Boston The Massachusetts 54th Regiment makes a valiant attempt to capture Battery Wagner, South Carolina 1867