Trending Moments
Brookline Amateur Wins U.S. Open
Brookline Amateur Wins U.S. Open
On this day in 1913, at The Country Club in Brookline, 20-year-old Francis Ouimet became the first amateur to win the U.S. Open Golf Tournament. Growing up in an immigrant family across the street from...
Site for Cambridge Selected
Site for Cambridge Selected
On this day in 1630, the Massachusetts Bay Colony proprietors chose a site along the northern bank of the Charles River for their capital. They named it Newtowne, and laid out an orderly grid of...
Horatio Alger Born
Horatio Alger Born
On this day in 1832, Horatio Alger was born in Revere. The author of the rags-to-riches stories that captured the imagination of generations of American boys, Alger was always more interested in literature than in...
Ponzi Scheme Begins to Unravel
Ponzi Scheme Begins to Unravel
On this day in 1920, the Boston Post ran a story that ultimately exposed one of the biggest financial swindles in history. In a series of articles that won the paper its first Pulitzer Prize,...
Maria Mitchell Discovers Comet
Maria Mitchell Discovers Comet
On this day in 1847, 29-year-old Maria Mitchell stood on the roof of her parent's Nantucket home, focusing her telescope on what she believed to be a faraway star. Suddenly she realized that the blurry...
State Acts to Protect Mt. Greylock
State Acts to Protect Mt. Greylock
On this day in 1898, the legislature established the first state park in Massachusetts on Mount Greylock. The tallest peak in the state, at almost 3500 feet, Greylock is like an island, different in geology,...
Boston Public Library Receives $1 Million Donation
Boston Public Library Receives $1 Million Donation
On this day in 1947, self-made millionaire John Deferrari donated over $1,000,000 to the Boston Public Library to express his gratitude to the institution he credited with his success. The son of poor Italian immigrants,...
Smithsonian Puts Julia Child's Kitchen on Display
Smithsonian Puts Julia Child's Kitchen on Display
On this day in 2002, a new exhibit opened in Washington, DC. The kitchen in Julia Child's Cambridge home of 32 years had been disassembled and moved to the Smithsonian. Designed by her husband Paul...
Ellen Swallow Marries Robert Richards
Ellen Swallow Marries Robert Richards
On this day in 1875, Ellen Swallow married M.I.T. Professor Robert Hallowell Richards. Three days later, they set off on a wedding trip to Nova Scotia — accompanied by Robert Richards's class in mining engineering....
First CCC Enrollees Arrive at Ft. Devens
First CCC Enrollees Arrive at Ft. Devens
On this day in 1933, the first enrollees of the Massachusetts Civilian Conservation Corps arrived at Fort Devens in Ayer. They were soldiers in a peacetime army that, in the words of the men who...