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Marconi Transmits Radio Message

January 18, 1903
January 18, 1903

Marconi Transmits Radio Message

On this day in 1903, Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian inventor of wireless telegraphy, arrived on Cape Cod hoping to make history. The night was cold but perfectly clear, and the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission, a...

UMass Researchers Clone Calves

January 20, 1998
January 20, 1998

UMass Researchers Clone Calves

On this day in 1998, two researchers affiliated with the University of Massachusetts drew worldwide attention when they went public with a birth announcement. The new arrivals, named Charlie and George, were genetically-identical Holstein calves....

Lewis Latimer Awarded First Patent

February 10, 1874
February 10, 1874

Lewis Latimer Awarded First Patent

On this day in 1874, inventor Lewis Latimer received his first patent. The son of a Virginia couple who had escaped from slavery, he was born and raised in Chelsea. After a stint in the...

Northampton Bank Receives Ransom Note

February 28, 1876
February 28, 1876

Northampton Bank Receives Ransom Note

On this day in 1876, a ransom note was sent to the Northampton National Bank. Just a month earlier, a notorious gang of New York thieves had managed to break through the bank's new security...

Clarence Birdseye Tests Frozen Food

March 6, 1930
March 6, 1930

Clarence Birdseye Tests Frozen Food

On this day in 1930, shoppers in Springfield became the first Americans to find frozen food in their grocery stores. A test marketing program was designed to see if people would buy frozen food. And...

Alexander Graham Bell Receives First Patent

March 7, 1876
March 7, 1876

Alexander Graham Bell Receives First Patent

On this day in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone. Born in Scotland, Bell settled in Boston when he was in his early 20s. He made his living as a teacher...

Eli Whitney Patents the Cotton Gin

March 14, 1794
March 14, 1794

Eli Whitney Patents the Cotton Gin

On this day in 1794, Westborough native Eli Whitney applied for a patent on the cotton gin. Raised on a farm in Massachusetts, he invented a machine that made growing cotton so profitable that the...

Robert Goddard Launches Space Age

March 16, 1926
March 16, 1926

Robert Goddard Launches Space Age

On this day in 1926, Clark University physics professor Robert Goddard launched the world's first liquid fuel rocket — and with it the space age. Standing in a snow-covered field in Auburn, Massachusetts, he watched...

Boston Burns

March 20, 1760
March 20, 1760

Boston Burns

On this day in 1760, the dreaded cry of "Fire!" roused sleeping Bostonians. Over the next ten hours, the worst fire to strike a colonial American city ravaged the capital of Massachusetts. Beginning in a...

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...

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