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Winthrop Buys Passage for Ironworkers
Winthrop Buys Passage for Ironworkers
On this day in 1643, John Winthrop, Jr. paid 50 pounds for the passage of skilled ironworkers from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Initially, the men worked at the iron works that Winthrop and...
Tornado Devastates Worcester
Tornado Devastates Worcester
On this day in 1953, Worcester County was devastated by the strongest tornado ever to hit New England. With winds close to 300 mph, the twister traveled 46 miles across the county, reaching its peak...
James Otis, Jr., Enrages Colonial Governor
James Otis, Jr., Enrages Colonial Governor
On this day in 1768, James Otis, Jr. gave a characteristically fiery speech to his fellow legislators in Boston. He referred to the British House of Commons as a gathering of "button-makers, horse jockey gamesters,...
Transcendentalists Publish The Dial
Transcendentalists Publish The Dial
On this day in 1840 the first issue of the Transcendentalist magazine "The Dial" was published in Boston. The moving force behind this "journal in a new spirit" was Ralph Waldo Emerson, the man who...
Architect H.H. Richardson Born
Architect H.H. Richardson Born
On this day in 1838, Henry Hobson Richardson, one of the true geniuses of American architecture, was born. A native of Louisiana, he received his architectural training in Paris. But the ties he formed during...
Utopians Purchase Brook Farm
Utopians Purchase Brook Farm
On this day in 1841, a group of Boston-area utopians purchased Brook Farm in West Roxbury. The writer Nathaniel Hawthorne spent six months there and later wrote about his experiences in his satirical novel Blithedale...
Crowd Gathers to Hear Writer Mary Antin
Crowd Gathers to Hear Writer Mary Antin
On this day in 1912, over 1,000 people gathered at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York to hear Boston writer Mary Antin. She had come to make a plea for more aid to support...
Boston's "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald Elected to Congress
Boston's "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald Elected to Congress
On this day in 1895, a colorful Irishman from Boston's North End, nicknamed "Honey Fitz" for his charming and loquacious ways, was elected to the U.S. Congress. Ten years later, John Francis Fitzgerald returned to...
Hawthorne and Melville Meet for the First Time
Hawthorne and Melville Meet for the First Time
On this day in 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville were among a small group who climbed to the top of Monument Mountain in the Berkshires for a picnic. Hawthorne had recently published The Scarlet...
Paper Publishes First Installment of Uncle Tom's Cabin
Paper Publishes First Installment of Uncle Tom's Cabin
On this day in 1851 an abolitionist newspaper published the first installment of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. The following March, a Boston publisher issued the work in book form. It sold 50,000 copies...