Gen. Humphrey Atherton is killed on Boston Common.

On his way home from reviewing his troops, Atherton is killed when his horse collides with a cow on Boston Common. According to an account of the incident, “the cow also suffered.” Atherton, the senior military officer in New England, had led efforts control Native Americans and subdue heresy, and his Quaker critics believed his horrible death was an expression of God’s wrath. He is buried in the Dorchester North Burying Ground.