Shays’ Rebellion begins in Springfield.

Four rebels killed and some 20 wounded as Pelham resident Daniel Shays leads some 1,200 farmers in an unsuccessful attempt to seize the federal armory there. The insurrectionists are protesting what they feel are unfair state taxes levied to pay for the cost of the Revolutionary War, and one of their their demands is to move the state capital from Boston, which they see as dominated by bankers and merchants. Gov. James Bowdoin subsequently sends a militia force of 3,000 men from Boston, led by Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, to suppress the revolt. Some of the protesters are captured and sent to Boston on January 28, 1787, while Shays flees to Vermont. Gov. John Hancock pardons all but two of the participants on February 16, 1787, and Shays is pardoned in June 1788.