James Michael Curley returns to Boston from federal prison.

He is welcomed by a crowd of 5,000 at South Station. A day earlier, President Harry Truman had commuted Curley’s sentence, after receiving a petition signed by 100,000 people and 100 members of Congress, including the entire Massachusetts Congressional delegation except for John F. Kennedy. When Curley returns to City Hall on December 1, 1927, he boasts, “I have accomplished more in one day than has been done in the five months of my absence.” The remark reputedly infuriates acting Mayor John Hynes and prompts him to run against Curley in the mayoral election in 1949.*