Boston has been a war horse.
Boston . Alternately , as a Combined Statistical Area ( CSA ) , this wider commuting region is home to some 8.1 million people , making it the sixth-largest as such in the United States . One of the oldest cities in the United States , Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England . It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution , such as the Boston Massacre , the Boston Tea Party , the Battle of Bunker Hill , and the Siege of Boston .