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Central Artery Project Announced

August 8, 1954
August 8, 1954

Central Artery Project Announced

On this day in 1954, The Boston Globe announced the opening of the first elevated expressway in the United States. Hailed as an engineering marvel and a model of urban planning, the Central Artery incorporated...

Boston Doctors Appeal for Mental Hospital

August 10, 1810
August 10, 1810

Boston Doctors Appeal for Mental Hospital

On August 20, 1810, two Boston doctors circulated an appeal for "a hospital for the reception of lunatics and other sick persons." (Some sources, including, until recently, Mass Moments, erroneously date the letter to August...

Woman's Rights Pioneer Lucy Stone Born

August 13, 1818
August 13, 1818

Woman's Rights Pioneer Lucy Stone Born

On this day in 1818, woman's rights pioneer Lucy Stone was born on a farm in West Brookfield. Her mother greeted the news that her sixth child was a girl by exclaiming, "Oh Dear! I...

Pilgrim Monument Completed in Provincetown

August 21, 1909
August 21, 1909

Pilgrim Monument Completed in Provincetown

On this day in 1909, two young girls, using ropes and a pulley, helped haul the last stone into place to complete the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown. The town's Yankee residents had long been seeking...

Route 128 Opens Boston's High Tech Age

August 24, 1951
August 24, 1951

Route 128 Opens Boston's High Tech Age

On this day in 1951, the first segment of Route 128 was opened. By 1956, the expressway stretched 65 miles from Gloucester to Braintree. While officials were confident the road would relieve traffic in Boston...

Harvard Awards Bowditch Honorary Degree

August 25, 1802
August 25, 1802

Harvard Awards Bowditch Honorary Degree

On this day in 1802, Harvard College awarded Nathaniel Bowditch an honorary Master's Degree. The Salem-born astronomer, mathematician, and navigator was almost entirely self-educated. His formal schooling ended when he was ten. While apprenticed to...

Flu Epidemic Begins in Boston

August 27, 1918
August 27, 1918

Flu Epidemic Begins in Boston

On this day in 1918, two sailors housed at Boston's Commonwealth Pier reported to sickbay. The men were the first Americans stricken with a strain of influenza that would prove far more dangerous than the...

Lucy Terry Prince Composes Poem

August 28, 1748
August 28, 1748

Lucy Terry Prince Composes Poem

On this day in 1746, Lucy Terry Prince was among the residents of Deerfield present during an Abenaki raid on the village. Lucy, an enslaved woman, described the horrific event in "The Bars Fight," the earliest...

Watertown-built Car Climbs Mt. Washington

August 31, 1899
August 31, 1899

Watertown-built Car Climbs Mt. Washington

On this day in 1899, Newton inventor F.O. Stanley took his wife Flora for a drive — into the record books. Leaving home in a steam-powered Locomobile, built in the Stanley brothers' Watertown shop, the...

Nation's First Subway Opens in Boston

September 1, 1897
September 1, 1897

Nation's First Subway Opens in Boston

On this day in 1897, at 6 am, over 100 people crowded onto the first train to travel through a tunnel under downtown Boston. More than 100,000 people would take the three-and-a-half minute trip that...

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