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Explorer Gosnold Names "Cape Cod"
Explorer Gosnold Names "Cape Cod"
On this day in 1602, the English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold dropped anchor off the Massachusetts coast. While he and four others went ashore, the rest of the crew pulled in so many cod that they...
Fire Nearly Destroys Nantucket Town
Fire Nearly Destroys Nantucket Town
On this day in 1846, a fire began in a hat store on Nantucket's Main Street. In no time, it raced through town, consuming everything in its path. Barrels of whale oil were stored on...
The Stockholm Rams the Andrea Doria
The Stockholm Rams the Andrea Doria
On this day in 1956, two ocean liners collided in thick fog, approximately 50 miles south of Nantucket. The Stockholm had just left New York City bound for Sweden. The Andrea Doria was due to...
Woman's Rights Pioneer Lucy Stone Born
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...
Sarah Remond Ejected from Boston Theater
Sarah Remond Ejected from Boston Theater
On this day in 1853, Sarah Parker Remond and two other African Americans entered a Boston theater intending to enjoy a Mozart opera. When the manager discovered they were people of color, he directed them...
Polaroid Wins Patent Suit Against Kodak
Polaroid Wins Patent Suit Against Kodak
On this day in 1985, Polaroid won a huge victory in federal court. A judge ruled that Kodak had violated Polaroid's patents for instant photography. The decision ended a nine-year legal struggle between the two...
Bostonians Lay Cornerstone for Bunker Hill Monument
Bostonians Lay Cornerstone for Bunker Hill Monument
On this day in 1825, at the laying of the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument, Daniel Webster addressed a crowd of 100,000, including 190 veterans who had survived the first major battle of the...
Harvard Students Occupy University Hall
Harvard Students Occupy University Hall
On this day in 1969, Harvard students took over University Hall, one of the college's oldest buildings. Opposed to the escalating war in Vietnam, the protesters demanded Harvard end its Reserve Officers' Training Corps, or...
G.E. Engineers Test Jet Engine
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...
Boston Abolitionists Await Emancipation Proclamation
Boston Abolitionists Await Emancipation Proclamation
On this day, New Year's Eve 1862, William Lloyd Garrison, publisher of the abolitionist paper The Liberator, delayed printing the latest edition as he waited for news from Washington. At midnight, his son and daughter...