American Academy of Arts and Sciences is established in Cambridge.

Founded by John Adams, John Hancock, and others, it is located initially in the Philosophy Chamber at Harvard College. Incorporated on May 4, 1780, it is the second oldest scientific society in the U.S. after the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia (est. 1743). James Bowdoin is the first president. Later described as “Essentially a Boston institution,” it subsequently moves to the Boston Athenaeum, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and other locations, before moving to a new building on Newbury Street in 1912.* The organization moves to the former Faulkner Farm in Jamaica Plain in 1957 (1955), then to its current headquarters in Cambridge in 1981.