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First Esperanto Society Formed

February 16, 1905
February 16, 1905

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...

Boston Celebrates Opening of Aqueduct

October 25, 1848
October 25, 1848

Boston Celebrates Opening of Aqueduct

On this day in 1848, 300,000 people from all over New England gathered on Boston Common. They came to celebrate the completion of the city's first municipal water system. With the construction of an aqueduct...

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...

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 —...

Elizabeth Porter Phelps Born

November 24, 1747
November 24, 1747

Elizabeth Porter Phelps Born

On this day in 1747, Elizabeth Porter was born in the Connecticut River Valley village of Hadley. Five years later, her father built the first house outside the town center. He called it "Forty Acres."...

Fall River Church Locks Out Priest

December 16, 1884
December 16, 1884

Fall River Church Locks Out Priest

On this day in 1884, a Fall River newspaper reported that French Canadian Roman Catholic parishioners had locked their newly-appointed priest out of their church. When the priest finally gained entry to the building, he...

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...

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,...

"Storm Warriors" Rescue 29 Sailors off Hull

November 25, 1888
November 25, 1888

"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...

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...

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