New England Courant is first published.

The weekly is published and printed by James Franklin, initially from a shop near today’s 65 Court Street (then Queen Street). The first independent newspaper in the British Colonies (not “licensed” or reviewed prior to publication), it is the first to report the results of legislative votes and subsequently campaigns against smallpox inoculation, paper money, Harvard College, and outmoded Puritan values. Franklin’s 12-year-old brother Benjamin serves as an apprentice in the shop and much more from 1718 to 1723.* The newspaper subsequently moves to the corner of today’s Court Street and Franklin Avenue near today’s 35 Court Street (then Dorsett’s Alley). It ceases publication in 1727.