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Worcester Puts Fosters' Home Up For Auction

February 20, 1872
February 20, 1872

Worcester Puts Fosters' Home Up For Auction

On this day in 1872, Worcester city officials put up for auction the home of Stephen and Abby Kelley Foster. The veteran abolitionists were once again sacrificing their personal well-being to protest an injustice. Ninety-nine...

Charlotte Forten Enters Salem Normal School

March 13, 1855
March 13, 1855

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...

Margaret Marshall Appointed to Supreme Judicial Court

October 14, 1999
October 14, 1999

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...

Fugitive Slave Anthony Burns Arrested

May 24, 1854
May 24, 1854

Fugitive Slave Anthony Burns Arrested

On this day in 1854, Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave from Virginia, was arrested in Boston. His capture enraged black and white abolitionists. Two days after the arrest, a number of them attacked the federal...

Quabbin Reservoir Filled to the Brim

June 22, 1946
June 22, 1946

Quabbin Reservoir Filled to the Brim

On this day in 1946, water flowed over the spillway and officials declared Quabbin Reservoir full. Construction took more than 20 years and required the obliteration of four towns in the Swift River Valley. More...

Ku Klux Klan Rallies in Worcester

October 19, 1924
October 19, 1924

Ku Klux Klan Rallies in Worcester

On this day in 1924, the largest gathering of the Ku Klux Klan ever held in New England took place at the Agricultural Fairgrounds in Worcester. Klansmen in sheets and hoods, new Knights awaiting a...

Activist Florence Luscomb Born

February 6, 1887
February 6, 1887

Activist Florence Luscomb Born

On this day in 1887, lifelong political activist Florence Luscomb was born in Lowell. As a child, she heard the legendary Susan B. Anthony speak. In her 20s, she traveled the state campaigning for woman...

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...

Doug Flutie Throws "Hail Mary" Pass

November 23, 1984
November 23, 1984

Doug Flutie Throws "Hail Mary" Pass

On this day in 1984, Doug Flutie threw a last-second "Hail Mary" touchdown pass to Gerard Phelan in the end zone, giving Boston College a 47-45 win over the University of Miami. Considered too short...

Final Episode of "Cheers" Airs

May 20, 1993
May 20, 1993

Final Episode of "Cheers" Airs

On this day in 1993, the sitcom "Cheers" aired its 275th and final episode. One of the most popular shows in television history, "Cheers" was set in a bar modeled on the Bull and Finch...

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