On this day the predecessor of the Brattle Square Congregational Church, which today sits in the Back Bay on Commonwealth Avenue, was dedicated as the Manifesto Congregational Church in the North End.

Just before their church was dedicated, the original members put forth a document declaring their aims and purposes. Among these was the the congregation would guide the church's affairs rather than responding to guidance from a central authority.

This freedom of religious governance, guided by articulated principles was an early early example of colonial independence evident long before America's political revolution. The church attracted colonial leaders including: governors John Hancock and James Bowdoin, John and Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, Harrison Gray Otis, and the young Charles Bulfinch.