Rev. George Whitefield first visits Boston.

The 26-year-old, English evangelist preaches at King’s Chapel and the Brattle Square Church. The next day, he preaches to a crowd of more than 10,000 on Boston Common, and the day after at the New North Church, (Old South-WPA), where the balcony collapses because the crowd is so large and several people are killed and others injured. Whitefield delivers his farewell sermon on Boston Common to some 30,000 people – twice the population of the town, including several diagnosed by physicians as “Rendered insane by listening to Rev. Whitefield.” Whitefield’s month-long crusade in Boston is later described as the high point of the Great Awakening. He returns to in 1744,* 1754,* 1764, and 1770.*