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Boston Lighthouse Lit for the First Time
Boston Lighthouse Lit for the First Time
On this day in 1716, Boston Light on Little Brewster Island was lit for the first time. The first lighthouse built in North America, the structure weathered 60 years of lightning strikes and hurricane-force winds...
Mabel Todd First Describes Emily Dickinson
Mabel Todd First Describes Emily Dickinson
On this day in 1882, Mabel Loomis Todd first recorded her impressions of her mysterious Amherst neighbor. Emily Dickinson always wore white and had her hair arranged "as was the fashion fifteen years ago." "She...
Vietnam Veterans Arrested on Lexington Green
Vietnam Veterans Arrested on Lexington Green
On this day in 1971, over 450 anti-war protesters occupied the historic Lexington Green and refused to leave. The Vietnam Veterans Against the War had organized a three-day march from Concord to Boston — Paul...
Birth Control Pioneer Born
Birth Control Pioneer Born
On this day in 1890, birth control pioneer John Rock was born in the small Massachusetts town of Marlborough. He was a deeply religious Catholic even as a child. After college and medical school at...
Boston Jews Petition for First Cemetery
Boston Jews Petition for First Cemetery
On this day in 1844, members of Boston's first Jewish congregation petitioned city officials to set aside a corner of an East Boston cemetery for their use. When the city refused, the 40 congregants of...
Berkshire-Hathaway Announces Mill Closing
Berkshire-Hathaway Announces Mill Closing
On this day in 1958, the North Adams Transcript reported that the owners of the Berkshire-Hathaway Company had passed a death sentence on their factory in Adams. The company announced that it was shutting down...
Native American Writer Born
Native American Writer Born
On this day in 1798, a member of the Pequot tribe named William Apess was born in Colrain, a village in western Massachusetts. Although his childhood was marked by poverty and abuse, he learned to...
Sculptor Edmonia Lewis Displays Work in Boston
Sculptor Edmonia Lewis Displays Work in Boston
On this day in 1864, sculptor Edmonia Lewis exhibited two of her early pieces at the Colored Soldiers' Fair in Boston. The daughter of a Native American woman and a black man, Lewis was the...
W.E.B. DuBois Returns to Harvard
W.E.B. DuBois Returns to Harvard
On this day in 1904, W.E.B. DuBois gave a lecture on "the race question" at Harvard, where nine years before he had been the first black person to receive a Ph.D. From his childhood in...
Hurricane Devastates New England
Hurricane Devastates New England
On this day in 1938, a hurricane of astonishing force ravaged New England. Having gone to bed the night before to radio forecasts of scattered rain and fresh southerly winds, New Englanders woke on the...