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John Howe Spies on Concord, or Not

April 11, 1775
April 11, 1775

John Howe Spies on Concord, or Not

On this day in 1775, John Howe arrived in Concord to spy for British General Gage. He quickly gained the trust of the town's leading patriots. They took him to a storehouse, showed him the...

Abbie Hoffman Dies

April 12, 1989
April 12, 1989

Abbie Hoffman Dies

On this day in 1989, Worcester native Abbie Hoffman died from a drug overdose. A hero of the 1960s counter culture, Hoffman once told a reporter, "I never left Worcester." He was 30 when he...

First CCC Enrollees Arrive at Ft. Devens

April 13, 1933
April 13, 1933

First CCC Enrollees Arrive at Ft. Devens

On this day in 1933, the first enrollees of the Massachusetts Civilian Conservation Corps arrived at Fort Devens in Ayer. They were soldiers in a peacetime army that, in the words of the men who...

Massachusetts Passes First Education Law

April 14, 1642
April 14, 1642

Massachusetts Passes First Education Law

On this day in 1642, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed the first law in the New World requiring that children be taught to read and write. The English Puritans who founded Massachusetts believed that the well-being...

First Whale Watch Departs

April 15, 1975
April 15, 1975

First Whale Watch Departs

On this day in 1975 charter boat captain Al Avellar left Provincetown Harbor with a boatload of school children. They were going to look, not fish. This was the first whale-watching trip on the eastern...

Tip O’Neill Announces Run for Congress

April 16, 1952
April 16, 1952

Tip O’Neill Announces Run for Congress

On this day in 1952, Thomas P. ("Tip") O'Neill of Cambridge announced that he would run for the Congressional seat being vacated by John F. Kennedy as Kennedy began a campaign for the Senate. O'Neill...

"Mill Girl" Writer Lucy Larcom Dies

April 17, 1893
April 17, 1893

"Mill Girl" Writer Lucy Larcom Dies

On this day in 1893, Lucy Larcom died. A popular poet during her lifetime, she would be forgotten today except for a work of prose that she wrote in 1889. Her autobiography, A New England...

G.E. Engineers Test Jet Engine

April 18, 1942
April 18, 1942

G.E. Engineers Test Jet Engine

On this day in 1942, after months of highly secret work, GE engineers in Lynn successfully tested the engine they called by the innocuous name "I-A." It was the first jet engine built in the...

Battle Begins on Lexington Common

April 19, 1775
April 19, 1775

Battle Begins on Lexington Common

On this day in 1775, the first shots were fired in the cause of American independence. In Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous poem, "the shot heard 'round the world" came from the musket of a Concord...

Telephone Operators Strike

April 20, 1919
April 20, 1919

Telephone Operators Strike

On this day in 1919, striking telephone operators in Massachusetts won the right to negotiate with the New England Telephone Company. The young, single women who had flooded into the industry in the early 1900s...

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