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Boston Police Vote to Unionize, Precipitating Riots
Boston Police Vote to Unionize, Precipitating Riots
On this day in 1919, Boston policemen seeking better wages and working conditions voted to form a union. The Commissioner of Police forbade them to unionize. Tensions escalated until, three weeks later, 19 officers were...
Jury Decides in Favor of Elizabeth "Mum Bett" Freeman
Jury Decides in Favor of Elizabeth "Mum Bett" Freeman
On this day in 1781, a jury in Great Barrington found in favor of "Mum Bett," a black woman who had been a slave in the home of Colonel John Ashley for at least 30...
Massachusetts Executes Sacco and Vanzetti
Massachusetts Executes Sacco and Vanzetti
On this day in 1927, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were put to death in the state prison in Charlestown. A jury convicted them of murder and robbery in 1921, but a long struggle was...
John Greenleaf Whittier Dies
John Greenleaf Whittier Dies
On this day in 1892, the poet John Greenleaf Whittier died at the age of 85. He had come a long way from his Quaker boyhood on a struggling farm in Haverhill. He began writing...
First Newspaper Published in the Colonies
First Newspaper Published in the Colonies
On this day in 1690, Boston printer Benjamin Harris produced the first issue of Publick Occurrences, the first newspaper published in Britain's North American colonies. Readers were enthusiastic, but the governor was not. Under British...
Massachusetts Soldiers Threaten Mutiny
Massachusetts Soldiers Threaten Mutiny
On this day in 1759, a regiment of Massachusetts men serving in the French and Indian War began to talk of mutiny against their British commander. The colonel had decided not to release the volunteers...
Samuel Adams Dies
Samuel Adams Dies
On this day in 1803, the fiery patriot Samuel Adams died at the age of 81. A complete failure as a businessman, he was a brilliant political organizer, a talented writer, and a passionate public...
Northampton Dedicates Sojourner Truth Statue
Northampton Dedicates Sojourner Truth Statue
On this day in 2002, a statue was installed in Florence, a village of Northampton, to honor Sojourner Truth, the former enslaved woman best known for the "Ain't I a Woman" speech she delivered in 1851....
New Bedford Strikers Cast Vote
New Bedford Strikers Cast Vote
On this day in 1928, after a bitter six-month strike, the members of New Bedford's Textile Council voted to accept a compromise offer. Faced with overproduction and falling profits, the mill owners had imposed a...
Roger Williams Banished
Roger Williams Banished
On this day in 1635, Puritan minister Roger Williams was found guilty of spreading "newe & dangerous opinions" and banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Before leaving England in 1630, Williams had seen heretics whipped,...