USS Boston (CA-69/CAG-1), a Baltimore-class heavy cruiser and later a Boston-class guided missile cruiser, was the sixth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the U.S. city of Boston, Massachusetts. Boston was launched 26 August 1942 by Bethlehem Steel Company's Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts, sponsored by Mrs Helen Noonan Tobin, wife of the Mayor of Boston, Maurice J. Tobin, and commissioned 30 June 1943.

The Baltimore-class heavy cruisers were a class of heavy cruisers in the United States Navy commissioned during and shortly after World War II. Fourteen Baltimores were completed, more than any other class of heavy cruiser, along with another three ships of the Oregon City sub-class. The Baltimores also were the first cruisers in the US Navy to be designed without the limitations of the London Naval Treaty.