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"Storm Warriors" Rescue 29 Sailors off Hull
"Storm Warriors" Rescue 29 Sailors off Hull
On this day in 1888, one of the most ferocious storms of the nineteenth century battered the New England coast. In the seas off Hull, "Storm Warriors," as the men of the United States Life-Saving...
Revenue Cutter Service School Established in New Bedford
Revenue Cutter Service School Established in New Bedford
On this day in 1876, Congress established at New Bedford the first School of Instruction to train officers for the Revenue Service. The Service traced its history back to 1790 when Congress decided it needed...
Boston Doctors Appeal for Mental Hospital
Boston Doctors Appeal for Mental Hospital
On August 20, 1810, two Boston doctors circulated an appeal for "a hospital for the reception of lunatics and other sick persons." (Some sources, including, until recently, Mass Moments, erroneously date the letter to August...
Legislature Allows Establishment of Mount Auburn Cemetery
Legislature Allows Establishment of Mount Auburn Cemetery
On this day in 1831, the legislature granted the Massachusetts Horticultural Society permission to purchase land for use as an experimental garden and a rural cemetery. Located on the border of Cambridge and Watertown, the...
Harvard Awards Bowditch Honorary Degree
Harvard Awards Bowditch Honorary Degree
On this day in 1802, Harvard College awarded Nathaniel Bowditch an honorary Master's Degree. The Salem-born astronomer, mathematician, and navigator was almost entirely self-educated. His formal schooling ended when he was ten. While apprenticed to...
First Esperanto Society Formed
First Esperanto Society Formed
On this day in 1905, the first Esperanto Society in the United States was established in Boston. Invented by a Polish doctor in the 1880s, Esperanto was an entirely new language created to promote international...
Eric Carle Museum Opens in Amherst
Eric Carle Museum Opens in Amherst
On this day in 2002, the nation's first museum of picture book art opened in Amherst. A decade earlier, children's book author and illustrator Eric Carle had visited a picture book museum in Tokyo and...
Ted Shawn Theater Opens at Jacob's Pillow
Ted Shawn Theater Opens at Jacob's Pillow
On this day in 1942, the first theater in the nation dedicated exclusively to dance opened at Jacob's Pillow in Becket, a small town in the Berkshire Hills. The building was named for Ted Shawn,...
Northfield Couple Launches U.S. Youth Hostel Movement
Northfield Couple Launches U.S. Youth Hostel Movement
On this day in 1934, Isabel and Monroe Smith opened the first U.S. youth hostel in Northfield. The young couple had discovered hosteling during a trip to Europe and had become devoted disciples of the...
Indian Rights Activist Born in Amherst
Indian Rights Activist Born in Amherst
On this day in 1830, an Amherst College professor and his wife rejoiced at the safe delivery of their second child, Helen Maria Fiske. A lifelong friend of Emily Dickinson and a talented poet in...