Nathan Matthews Jr. is inaugurated.

In his address, Matthews declares, “The City of Boston is no longer a New England town on a large scale; it is a great commercial and industrial city, the metropolis of New England, with a population greater than that of the whole state of New Hampshire.” He pledges to appoint a commission “to consider the whole subject of rapid transit, including elevated roads, tunnels, routes, systems, companies, and in particular, the best means of protecting the financial interests of the city as a corporation.” By the time he leaves office, according to Doug Most, Matthews earns the title “father of the subway.”