Smallpox epidemic breaks out in Boston.

Families infected by the disease are told to hang red flags outside their homes. Nearly 5,000 people, a third of the town’s population, are inoculated, and some 1,000 poor people who receive free or reduced-cost care at inoculation hospitals at Castle William and Point Shirley. The General Court moves to Cambridge, businesses are also forced to close, and many people flee the town.