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First American-Made Valentines Sold
First American-Made Valentines Sold
On this day in 1849, the first American-made valentines were sold in Worcester. They were designed and made by Esther Howland, the daughter of a local stationer. After graduating from Mt. Holyoke College, she returned...
Whaleship Essex Sinks
Whaleship Essex Sinks
On this day in 1820, an enormous sperm whale rammed and sank the Nantucket whaleship Essex in the heart of the Pacific Ocean. The first mate described the 85-foot whale's unprovoked attack as enraged and...
Free Love Supporters Protest at Faneuil Hall
Free Love Supporters Protest at Faneuil Hall
On this day in 1878, several thousand supporters of Ezra Heywood held an "Indignation Meeting" at Boston's Faneuil Hall. They were protesting his conviction and imprisonment on obscenity charges. Educated for the ministry, he had...
Benjamin Franklin Introduces "Silence Dogood"
Benjamin Franklin Introduces "Silence Dogood"
On this day in 1722, the Boston paper The Courant first published a letter from a widow with a keen wit and a gift for satire. Every few weeks, another letter from "Silence Dogood" appeared....
Margaret Marshall Appointed to Supreme Judicial Court
Margaret Marshall Appointed to Supreme Judicial Court
On this day in 1999, Margaret Marshall became the first woman appointed Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The oldest court in the Western Hemisphere, the SJC was established in 1693 in the...
Tenley Albright Wins Olympic Gold
Tenley Albright Wins Olympic Gold
On this day in 1956, figure skater Tenley Albright won the Gold Medal at the Olympic Games in Cortina, Italy. This should not have been a surprise, but it was. The 20-year-old from Newton was...
George McNeill Organizes Workers
George McNeill Organizes Workers
On this day in 1852, hundreds of mill workers at the Woolen Company in Amesbury walked out on strike. Fourteen-year-old George McNeill, who had worked in the carding room since he was ten, immediately organized...
Charlotte Forten Enters Salem Normal School
Charlotte Forten Enters Salem Normal School
On this day in 1855, Charlotte Forten passed the entrance examination for the Salem Normal School, one of four colleges recently established in Massachusetts to train teachers. She was the school's first black student. Eighteen...
Indian Boys Arrive in Longmeadow
Indian Boys Arrive in Longmeadow
On this day in 1800, Thomas Thorakwaneken Williams arrived in Longmeadow with his two young sons, Eleazer and John. Thomas was the grandson of Eunice Williams, captured as a child during the 1704 raid on...
"Johnny Appleseed" Dies
"Johnny Appleseed" Dies
On this day in 1845, John Chapman died having made a fortune planting apple saplings on the American frontier. Born and raised in Leominster, the man remembered as "Johnny Appleseed" left Massachusetts in the 1790s...