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Vietnam Veterans Arrested on Lexington Green

May 30, 1971
May 30, 1971

Vietnam Veterans Arrested on Lexington Green

On this day in 1971, over 450 anti-war protesters occupied the historic Lexington Green and refused to leave. The Vietnam Veterans Against the War had organized a three-day march from Concord to Boston — Paul...

Bostonians Lay Cornerstone for Bunker Hill Monument

June 17, 1825
June 17, 1825

Bostonians Lay Cornerstone for Bunker Hill Monument

On this day in 1825, at the laying of the cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Monument, Daniel Webster addressed a crowd of 100,000, including 190 veterans who had survived the first major battle of the...

King Philip's War Breaks Out

June 24, 1675
June 24, 1675

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...

Anti-war Activists Sentenced to Prison

July 10, 1968
July 10, 1968

Anti-war Activists Sentenced to Prison

On this day in 1968, four men were sentenced to federal prison for counseling young men to refuse military service. Dubbed the Boston Five, the defendants included famed baby doctor Benjamin Spock and Yale Chaplain...

Quincy Shipyard Launches First Nuclear Powered Cruiser

July 14, 1959
July 14, 1959

Quincy Shipyard Launches First Nuclear Powered Cruiser

On this day in 1959, the nation's first nuclear-powered cruiser was launched from Fore River Shipyard in Quincy. With its deep and sheltered harbor, Quincy was an ideal site for shipbuilding. Men had been building...

German U-Boat Attacks Cape Cod

July 21, 1918
July 21, 1918

German U-Boat Attacks Cape Cod

On this day in 1918, people in the Cape Cod town of Orleans were astonished to see a German U-boat surface offshore and begin firing on an unarmed tugboat and the four barges it was...

Abenaki Warriors Attack Groton

July 27, 1694
July 27, 1694

Abenaki Warriors Attack Groton

On this day in 1694, Abenaki warriors raided the frontier town of Groton, on the western edge of Middlesex County. Striking at daybreak, they killed 20 people and took 12 captives, most of them children....

Revenue Cutter Service School Established in New Bedford

July 31, 1876
July 31, 1876

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...

Flu Epidemic Begins in Boston

August 27, 1918
August 27, 1918

Flu Epidemic Begins in Boston

On this day in 1918, two sailors housed at Boston's Commonwealth Pier reported to sickbay. The men were the first Americans stricken with a strain of influenza that would prove far more dangerous than the...

Lucy Terry Prince Composes Poem

August 28, 1748
August 28, 1748

Lucy Terry Prince Composes Poem

On this day in 1746, Lucy Terry Prince was among the residents of Deerfield present during an Abenaki raid on the village. Lucy, an enslaved woman, described the horrific event in "The Bars Fight," the earliest...

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