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Phillis Wheatley Arrives in Boston
Phillis Wheatley Arrives in Boston
On this day in 1761, a girl from West Africa arrived in Boston, enslaved with 74 other people on the ship Phillis. John Wheatley, a successful merchant, purchased her and named her Phillis, after the...
Perkins School for the Blind Incorporated
Perkins School for the Blind Incorporated
On this day in 1829, the New England Asylum for the Blind was incorporated in Boston. The institution opened with six students, but within six years, it had ten times that number. For the first time, blind...
Critic Declares Springsteen Future of Rock and Roll
Critic Declares Springsteen Future of Rock and Roll
On this day in 1974, 25-year-old Bruce Springsteen played at the Harvard Square Theater in Cambridge. Although popular with the college crowd in the Northeast, Springsteen was not yet a star. That night, he and...
Puritans Leave for Massachusetts
Puritans Leave for Massachusetts
On this day in 1630, the last well-wishers stepped off the ship Arbella and returned to shore. More than a week after the vessel first set out, the winds were finally favorable. The ship weighed...
Quakers Outlawed in Plymouth
Quakers Outlawed in Plymouth
On this day in 1658, Plymouth Court ordered that any boat carrying Quakers to Sandwich be seized to prevent the religious heretics from landing. A year earlier, Quakers in Sandwich had established the first Friends‘...
Shadrach Minkins Seized
Shadrach Minkins Seized
On this day in 1851, a group of outraged African American men burst into a courtroom in Boston and rescued Shadrach Minkins, the first escaped slave seized in New England under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law....
Fire Destroys Malden Mills
Fire Destroys Malden Mills
On this day in 1995, a massive, wind-whipped fire completely destroyed three buildings at Malden Mills in Lawrence, where the company's signature Polartec fabric was produced. Just two weeks before Christmas, thousands of workers faced...
King Philip's War Breaks Out
King Philip's War Breaks Out
On this day in 1675, Wampanoag warriors killed seven colonists in Swansea in retaliation for a series of injustices suffered at the hands of the English. This raid is generally considered the beginning of King...
Fugitive Slave Anthony Burns Arrested
Fugitive Slave Anthony Burns Arrested
On this day in 1854, Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave from Virginia, was arrested in Boston. His capture enraged black and white abolitionists. Two days after the arrest, a number of them attacked the federal...
Boston Masons Organize First Grand Lodge in America
Boston Masons Organize First Grand Lodge in America
On this day in 1733, 18 men gathered at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern on King Street in Boston and organized the first Masonic Lodge in North America. The fraternal society was based loosely on...