| Date | Event |
| 1629 | Puritans obtain a charter for settlement of the area from King Charles I |
| 1630 | Puritans settle on the peninsula the Indians call Shawmut |
| 1631 | Cambridge is settled as the “new town” in the region |
| 1634 | Boston settlers pool their funds and buy out Reverend William Blackstone |
| 1637 | Trial and banishment of Anne Hutchinson |
| 1641 | First Harvard Class graduates |
| 1642 | English Civil War begins |
| 1649 | Civil War ends with execution of King Charles I |
| 1660 | King Charles II restored to English throne |
| 1661 | Three regicides—men who signed King Charles I’s death warrant—take shelter in Puritan New England |
| | Samuel Sewall arrives in Boston; his diary commences in 1672 |
| 1663 | Reverend John Eliot publishes the Bible in the Algonquian language |
| 1675 | King Philip’s War begins |
| | John Josselyn’s account of Boston and New England published in London |
| 1676 | Metacom, also known as King Philip, is killed |
| 1684 | King Charles II revokes the Massachusetts Bay charter |
| 1686 | Sir Edmund Andros arrives as the first governor under the new royal regime |
| 1688 | William and Mary overthrow King James II |
| 1689 | Boston overthrows Sir Edmund Andros in bloodless coup |
| 1690 | Boston conquers Port Royal, Nova Scotia; fails to conquer Québec City |
| | Boston sees publication of first newspaper in North America |
| 1691 | Massachusetts receives a new provincial charter from William and Mary |
| | Sir William Phips is the first governor under the new charter |
| 1692 | Witch trials in Salem |
| 1695 | Recalled to England, Sir William Phips dies in London |
| 1697 | Hannah Dustin kills and scalps her Indian captors |
| | King William’s War ends |
| | Generally believed to be the coldest winter of the seventeenth century |
| 1700 | Boston’s population reaches roughly 7,000; that of Massachusetts is 60,000 |
| 1702 | 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 | The Boston Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory are both formed |
| 1869 | Charles W. Eliot, son of Mayor Samuel A. Eliot, becomes president of Harvard |
| 1870 | The Peace Jubilee is held in Boston |
| 1872 | Boston experiences the worst of all its “Great Fires” with sixty-four acres of buildings destroyed |
| 1874 | Gazetteer of the State of Massachusetts lauds Boston’s many accomplishments |
| 1875 | Report of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor presents a very different picture of life in Boston |
| 1881 | Boston Symphony Orchestra is formed |
| 1885 | The Boston Pops delivers its first performance |
| 1886 | Henry James novel The Bostonians is published in book form (it was previously a serial) |
| 1897 | The Boston Marathon is run for the first time |
| 1900 | Population of Boston is 560,892; population of United States is 76,212,168 |
| 1903 | Boston Americans win the first World Series |
| 1910 | Charles W. Eliot steps down from Harvard presidency |
| 1912 | Fenway Park opens in April |
| 1914 | James Michael Curley is elected Mayor of Boston for the first time |
| 1916 | M.I.T. moves from quarters in Copley Square to the north bank of the Charles River |
| 1917 | John F. Kennedy born in Brookline |
| | World War I begins. 37,000 Bostonians serve during the conflict |
| 1918 | Red Sox win the World Series for the fifth time |
| 1919 | The Terrible Molasses Flood hits East Boston |
| | The Boston police strike makes news nationwide, bringing condemnation to the strikers and applause to Governor Calvin Coolidge |
| 1920 | The Red Sox trade Babe Ruth to the Yankees |
| 1923 | Massachusetts boy Calvin Coolidge becomes president of the United States |
| 1924 | The Boston Bruins are organized |
| 1925 | A non-Irishman is elected Mayor of Boston, the only such occurrence in the twentieth century |
| 1928 | The Boston Garden—home to the Bruins and later the Celtics—is completed |
| 1930 | Boston celebrates its tercentenary |
| | James Michael Curley becomes Mayor of Boston for the third time |
| 1933 | Numerous soup kitchens in operation in Boston |
| 1944 | Eldest of the four Kennedy boys dies in World War II |
| 1945 | John “The Elder” Kelley wins the Boston Marathon for the second time |
| 1946 | John F. Kennedy elected to the U.S. Congress |
| | Red Sox win pennant but lose World Series |
| | Boston Celtics are formed as part of the American Basketball Association |
| 1950 | Population of Boston is 790,863; population of United States is 151,325,798 |
| | Arnold “Red” Auerbach comes to Boston to manage the Boston Celtics |
| 1956 | Bill Russell comes to Boston to enter the Celtics organization |
| 1957 | John “The Younger” Kelly wins the Boston Marathon, becoming the first American to do so since 1945 |
| 1957 | Boston Celtics win their first NBA championship |
| 1959 | Boston Patriots admitted as eighth and last team of the American Football League |
| | Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain face off for the first time |
| 1960 | John F. Kennedy wins Democratic nomination and defeats Richard M. Nixon in the general election |
| | Ted Williams takes his last at-bat in Fenway Park |
| 1962 | President Kennedy shows a firm hand during the Cuban Missile Crisis |
| 1963 | President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas |
| 1964 | The fifty-two-story Prudential Building is completed |
| | Celtics owner Walter Brown dies |
| 1967 | The “Impossible Dream” year of the Red Sox |
| | Amby Burfoot becomes first American to win Boston Marathon since |
| 1968 | New York Senator Robert Kennedy assassinated in Los Angeles |
| 1969 | Student protests at M.I.T. force the administration to close one of the most important laboratories for U.S. Armed Services research |
| 1970 | Love Story is released to wide screen |
| | Boston Bruins win the Stanley Cup |
| 1971 | Foxboro Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, is completed |
| 1974 | Federal Judge Arthur Garrity rules that Boston schools must integrate |
| 1975 | Red Sox win pennant but lose World Series to Cincinnati Reds |
| | Bill Rodgers wins the Boston Marathon with a time of 2:09:28 |
| 1976 | Boston and eastern Massachusetts experience tourist revival with Bicentennial Year |
| | Shocking photograph of racial anger appears in papers around the nation |
| | Rock group Boston has groundbreaking success with album of the same name |
| | The John Hancock Tower is completed |
| 1978 | Boston endures the Blizzard of ‘78 |
| | Red Sox lose heart-breaking, one-game playoff to Yankees |
| | Celtics great John Havlicek retires |
| | Federal Reserve Building in East Boston is completed |
| | The Paper Chase, a very popular television program, debuts on CBS |
| 1979 | John F. Kennedy Library is opened at Columbia Point |
| | Larry Bird comes to Boston for the first time to sign with the Celtics |
| 1980 | Ted Kennedy runs for Democratic nomination, losing to incumbent Jimmy Carter |
| | Bill Rodgers wins the Boston Marathon for the fourth time, tying Gerard Cote in second place of all-time winners |
| | Cheating scandal taints the Boston Marathon when Rosie Ruiz “wins” in record time |
| 1982 | Cheers appears on TV for first time |
| 1982–83 | Boston experiences frigid winter |
| 1985 | Spencer for Hire debuts on CBS |
| 1986 | New England Patriots reach the Super Bowl but are thrashed by Chicago Bears |
| | Red Sox come close to victory in World Series, but are foiled by New York Mets |
| | Boston Celtics have an outstanding year, culminating in another NBA championship |
| 1988 | Governor Michael Dukakis wins Democratic nomination but loses the general election to Republican George H.W. Bush |
| 1992 | Sail Boston brings the Tall Ships to Boston Harbor |
| | Construction of the new Boston Garden begins |
| 1993 | The last episode of Cheers airs in May |
| 1995 | The last games are played in the (old) Boston Garden |
| 1996 | Infinite Jest, a novel based on life in Brighton, is published |
| 1997 | New England Patriots reach Super Bowl but are bested by Green Bay Packers |
| | The old Boston Garden is demolished |
| | Good Will Hunting appears on the big screen to first-rate reviews |
| 1998 | USS Constitution celebrates her 200th birthday |
| 1999 | Bill Russell’s number is retired by the Boston Celtics |
| 2000 | Sail Boston brings back the Tall Ships |
| 2002 | New England Patriots win Super Bowl XXXVI |
| 2004 | New England Patriots win Super Bowl XXXVIII |
| | Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry wins Democratic nomination but loses the general election to Republican George W. Bush |
| 2005 | New England Patriots win Super Bowl XXXVIX |
| 2008 | Boston Celtics win their seventeenth NBA championship, the first since 1986 |
| 2012 | Former Governor Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination but loses the general election to Democrat Barrack Obama |
| 2013 | Boston Marathon is spoiled by the detonation of two bombs by terrorists |
| | Red Sox win the World Series, after having placed last in baseball in 2012 |
| 2014 | Boston Marathon sees 35,000 runners, and the new slogan, “Boston Strong” |
| | American wins Boston Marathon for first time since 1980s |
| 2015 | New England Patriots win Super Bowl XLI, making it a total of four for the dynasty |
| | Boston experiences its coldest winter, and greatest amount of snow, in decades |
| 2016 | Boston Magazine publishes list of 100 Greatest Bostonians of all Time |
