Abner Kneeland publishes a controversial letter in the Boston Investigator.

In the letter, the former Universalist minister and editor of the paper declares, “Universalists believe in a god . . . that . . . is nothing more than a chimera of their own imagination.” He is found guilty of being a free-thinker and is sentenced to serve 60 days in jail on June 13, 1834. Kneeland is reputed to be the last person in the U.S. jailed for “blasphemy.”