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Explorer Gosnold Names "Cape Cod"

May 15, 1602
May 15, 1602

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

July 13, 1846
July 13, 1846

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...

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...

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...

The Stockholm Rams the Andrea Doria

July 25, 1956
July 25, 1956

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...

Sarah Remond Ejected from Boston Theater

May 4, 1853
May 4, 1853

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...

Boston Abolitionists Await Emancipation Proclamation

December 31, 1862
December 31, 1862

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...

Harvard Students Occupy University Hall

April 9, 1969
April 9, 1969

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...

Bostonians Lay Cornerstone for Bunker Hill Monument

June 17, 1825
June 17, 1825

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...

Fire Rages at Myles Standish State Forest

May 25, 1964
May 25, 1964

Fire Rages at Myles Standish State Forest

On this day in 1964, a raging wildfire crossed the boundaries of Myles Standish State Forest, and into the town of Plymouth. Two days earlier flames had consumed 800 acres of the forest, but firefighters...

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