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Governor Honors Activist Melnea Cass

June 19, 1968
June 19, 1968

Governor Honors Activist Melnea Cass

On this day in 1968, Governor John Volpe dedicated the Melnea Cass Swimming and Skating Rink in Roxbury. The new facility was intended to improve life in Boston's urban neighborhoods. It was named for a...

Newbury Offers Wolf Bounty

March 9, 1704
March 9, 1704

Newbury Offers Wolf Bounty

On this day in 1704, the town of Newbury voted to pay a bounty to men who had killed two wolves on Plum Island. Wolves were a threat to the cattle, sheep, and pigs grazing...

Worcester Becomes a City

February 29, 1848
February 29, 1848

Worcester Becomes a City

On this day in 1848, the Governor of Massachusetts signed a charter giving the once-sleepy village of Worcester the legal status of a city. For over a century, Worcester's isolated location in the hilly center...

Newburyport Fire Leads to Execution for Arson

May 18, 1820
May 18, 1820

Newburyport Fire Leads to Execution for Arson

On this day in 1820, a barn filled with hay burned to the ground in Newburyport. Just three days later, cries of "fire" alarmed the town again. Terrified residents were convinced they had an arsonist...

Otis House Moved

June 27, 1925
June 27, 1925

Otis House Moved

On this day in 1925, workmen finished moving an historic Beacon Hill residence back from the brink of destruction. Cambridge Street was slated to be turned from a crooked cobblestone street into a wide thoroughfare,...

Hemingway Room Dedicated at JFK Library

July 18, 1980
July 18, 1980

Hemingway Room Dedicated at JFK Library

On this day in 1980, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Ernest Hemingway's son Patrick dedicated the Hemingway Room at the recently opened John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston. The Nobel-prize winning author and the...

Oliver Wendell Holmes Born in Cambridge

August 29, 1809
August 29, 1809

Oliver Wendell Holmes Born in Cambridge

On this day in 1809, Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge. The man who coined the phrase "Boston Brahmin," he was a true member of that class, and he entertained the nation with poems,...

Henrietta Leavitt Buried in Cambridge

December 14, 1921
December 14, 1921

Henrietta Leavitt Buried in Cambridge

On this day in 1921, Henrietta Leavitt, a scientist at the Harvard Observatory, was buried in Cambridge. Her premature death cut short a brilliant career as an astronomer. In the late nineteenth century, observatory director...

Erastus Bigelow Dies

December 6, 1879
December 6, 1879

Erastus Bigelow Dies

On this day in 1879, Erastus Bigelow, the father of the modern carpet industry, died in Boston. Born in West Boylston, Bigelow and his brother followed their father into the textile business. After several inventions...

Red Sox Win World Series

October 27, 2004
October 27, 2004

Red Sox Win World Series

On this day in 2004, the Boston Red Sox ended an 86-year drought and buried the "Curse of the Bambino." They won the World Series! Their sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals was almost —...

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