Boston, city, United States: History

Established by the elder John Winthrop in 1630 as the main settlement of the Massachusetts Bay Company, Boston was an early center of American Puritanism, with a vigorous, if theocratic, intellectual life. The nation's oldest public school, Boston Latin, was opened in 1635; Harvard, the nation's oldest college, was founded at Cambridge in 1636; a public library was started in 1653; and the first newspaper in the colonies, the Newsletter, appeared in 1704. With its excellent port, Boston held commercial ascendancy in colonial Massachusetts. As the American Revolution approached, it became a center of opposition to the British. The Battle of Bunker Hill, fought in Charlestown on June 17, 1775, was one of the first battles of the Revolution, and Boston was occupied until the British withdrew in Mar., 1776.

After a short postwar depression, Boston entered a period of prosperity that lasted until the mid-19th cent. Its ships made Boston known around the world. Prominent families built substantial houses on Beacon Hill, later in the reclaimed Back Bay section, and patronized the arts and letters. Despite the generally conservative tone of their culture, they backed reformers, notably the abolitionists. The growth of industry in the mid-19th cent. brought many immigrants, and Boston changed from a commercial city of primarily British stock to a manufacturing center with an Irish majority, evolving gradually into the diverse, institutionally based city of today. In 1872, a huge fire swept the city causing an estimated $60 million in damages. The city opened the U.S.'s first subway system in 1897.

In January 1919, a large storage tank containing molasses burst, causing an immense flood that killed 21 and injured 150 more people in Boston's North End. Cleanup took over six months and the harbor waters were brown well into the summer months. That same year, the city's police force went on strike, leading to widespread rioting in the city. Then-Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge broke the strike by replacing almost the entire force. Nonetheless, the event was credited with launching the movement to unionize the police locally and across the country. In 1920, the trial of alleged anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti began in the city; the Sacco-Vanzetti Case ran for seven years, ultimately resulting in their conviction and execution. In the postwar years, a massive urban renewal project was undertaken, leading to the construction of many highways that disrupted the city's old ethnic neighborhoods. The city's overall economy slumped as its white population increasingly left town to live in the suburbs. The city garnered additonal unwanted notoreity from 1962-64, when the so-called Boston Strangler terrorized women, murdering a total of 13 victims. Boston was a largely segregated city through the mid-'70s, and several riots occurred as the city tried to integrate it public schools. Anti-busing demonstrations proliferated and racial tensions ran high.

From the mid-'70s on, Boston enjoyed an economic revival. A major new construction project, the so-called "Big Dig," which began in 1991 and was marked by several setbacks, was finally completed in 2007, creating over 70 acres of new park land. The city also suffered a tragedy during the running of the 2013 marathon, when two bombs were set off near the finish line, killing three people and injurying hundreds more. In 2021, Boston elected its first female and person of color, Michelle Wu, to be its mayor, breaking a nearly nine-decade run of white, Italian or Irish men holding the seat.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• History
• Points of Interest
• Economy

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