Water Festival is held.

The event, which celebrates the opening of Boston’s municipal water system, attracts some 100,000 to people Boston Common. It begins with the ringing of church bells and firing of canons, and continues with Mayor Josiah Quincy asking the crowd, “Do you want water?” to which it answers “Yes!” Quincy then opens a sluice that results in a plume of water rising 80 feet into the air from the Frog Pond. The event also includes a parade, featuring 14 tablets describing the history of bringing water to Boston, that passes through a Moorish arch opposite the Boston Museum on Tremont Street, as well as speeches and fireworks and the illumination of houses.